The gentle hum of the stealth drive and muted roar of the engines were the only sounds present as the Blind Well descended towards Mercury's surface. With the stealth drive active since emerging from the relay, no one had picked up the Blind Well or halted its approach in any fashion.
"So did you set up a bunker on the surface?" Tela asked, her eyes panning across the planet's surface below them. "Did you cloak it with the same tech you used on the ship?"
Grinning, Rigel said, "You'll see in a bit."
Tela shot him a look but, understanding Rigel would say no more on the matter, settled into her chair to wait out the ship's descent.
You know what would be funny… Nova said, projecting an image across her connection to Rigel.
Oh, that looks fun.
Nudging the controls forward, Rigel sent the Blind Well into a sharp nose dive.
Tela sat upright in her seat, her lips flattening into a line. "Real funny, Rigel. Level out."
Turning his head to make eye contact with Tela, Rigel purposefully placed his hand on the throttle and opened the engines.
Rigel and a wide-eyed Tela were plastered against the backs of their seats as the G's took them.
"Rigel!" Tela screamed, muscles straining against the force pressing her into her seat, her body adopting an amethyst sheen as she called on her biotics.
You should probably let me take over now so we don't die. Nova said, sounding amused.
All yours.
Rigel released the controls, laughing when he saw the way Tela's eyes widened in panic. Before the Spectre could say anything, the Blind Well's nose snapped towards the sky, the ship rolling as Nova fired thrusters on the sides of the ship with the precision of a delicate painter.
Tela grit her teeth and growled through the violent motion, calling, "Ground!" as the Blind Well's nose spun back around, far too close to Mercury's surface. Moment's before the ship would have crashed into the planet's surface, the ground disappeared, leaving a dark void in its wake.
The ship's volatile maneuvers steady with one last stabilizing jolt, then gently lowered itself under an overhang that had obscured an underground cave system.
"Fuck you." Tela said after taking a deep breath, her biotics fading. "Fuck you both."
"Ladies and gentlemen," Nova said as she appeared in a white flash, looking and sounding incredibly pleased with herself. "Thank you for flying with us today. We recognize that you have many options when selecting near-death experiences, and we would like to assure you that your business is most–" Nova's tirade cut off as an empty, balled up MRE wrapper smashed into her. Nova allowed herself to be spun through the air with the blow, giggling happily before disappearing in a flash.
Tela tore her seat's straps off herself as she stooped to pick up the wrapper she'd thrown at Nova. "Glad you two got a kick out of that. Never do it again. Some of us don't come back to life when we die in a fiery crash."
"Sorry. Couldn't resist." Rigel said as he unfastened himself and stood up. "Hopefully this'll make up for everything." With a nod of his head towards the back of the ship, he left the cockpit.
Eyes narrowed in suspicion, Tela followed after him.
The ship rocked slightly as Nova landed it. A hiss of pressurized air heralded the whine of the loading ramp lowering.
Rigel smirked when he saw Tela sprint to the wall and smash a breather against her face. "Sorry. I should have given you a heads up. Give me a minute."
"I'm not immortal, you prick!" followed Rigel over his shoulder as he jogged down the loading ramp into the dark. His hand came to rest on a smooth, rounded machine. Grinning, he flipped a switch. Ethereal blue light streamed out of the machine, creating a plane of energy that rapidly expanded upward and to either side. Just a few seconds after Rigel activated the machine, a blue dome had risen to surround the entirety of the dark space, spreading a small amount of illumination and, more importantly, triggering other machines to power on.
Chords of clear bulbs strung around the surrounding rocks glowed a luminous white light, dispersing the darkness that had dominated the space only moments ago. A floor of polished red stone, made from the abundant rock of Mercury, sat beneath the entire area. Cut into the rock wall, which the blue dome terminated into, was a large bed and pile of blankets sat in front of a large monitor. On the opposite side of the trove was a work area. Several tables laden with tools and loose materials sat just inside the domed barrier. Two, roaring, whirring machines – set just outside the barrier – dug down into the stone, absorbing it and transforming it into shining, blue squares the size of a six-sided die.
Rigel turned at the sound of footsteps following him down the ramp. The Risen spun around, throwing his arms wide, a smile on his face. "Well? What do you think?"
Tela looked around the area dumbfounded. Wide eyes slowly looked over the haven Rigel and Nova had constructed. "I… I knew you were holding back, but this?" Tela stepped off the loading ramp and slowly spun in a circle, taking everything in, her eyes caught on three figures in the space with her and Rigel and she reflexively reached down to draw her pistol before freezing in shock.
"Ah, I knew I was forgetting something." Rigel said, stepping around Tela and walking up to the figures. He reached behind the necks of the figures whose heads hung limp and pushed a button on each of them. Whirs and beeps followed the sound as the figures seemed to jolt awake.
"Tela, allow me to introduce Tim, Tyler, and Trevor." Rigel said, indicating each frame in turn.
The frames robotically turned to face Tela and swung their right arms in greeting, much like a windshield wiper would remove debris from a windshield.
"You can make robots." Tela stated in a voice that sounded as if it had grown too tired of being amazed.
"Technically they're called frames, but you've got the right idea. You can take that off by the way." Rigel said, motioning to Tela's breather. "The atmosphere should be set by now."
Tela tilted her head at Rigel questingly, slowly reaching up to grasp her mask at his encouraging nod. Slowly, experimentally, she broke the seal before firmly pressing the mask back against her face. Her eyes darted around as if she was waiting for some negative effect to befall her.
Rigel just sat back and watched the display, amusement evident on his face.
When no ill effects befel her, Tela hesitantly pulled her mask off her face and experimentally inhaled through her nose. The Spectre's eyes narrowed before rapidly shooting around the area again. Her gaze stopped at the machine Rigel initially activated and she walked towards it. "This is creating the atmosphere?"
"Yes," Rigel said, stepping up next to her. "It was a bit of a rush job, so it isn't able to cover the entire cave, but it's sufficient for what I need it for."
Tela knelt down and began running a hand over the machine, inspecting it. "The amount of time and money this would save mining crews." Her head titled to the side and she stood up, having seen something else. "Speaking of mining…" Walking around the workbenches, she stopped at the edge of the barrier and studied the two machines. "Is that…?"
"Glimmer? Yes. Those are glimmer forges." Rigel said, stepping up next to her. "I left them out of the barrier so they wouldn't kick up dust into the air. They're also loud, and the barrier cuts down on noise."
Tela's eyes ran up and down the barrier separating her from the machines. "I've found a defect in your barrier here. If you have to depressurize everything to let people out, it's kind of pointless."
Rigel smirked, taking two steps forward, passing through the barrier with no resistance. He stepped back in and said, "You can move through it freely. If you need to vent the area, the same machine that creates the air shunts it out."
Tela had a complicated expression on her face as she studied Rigel. "You don't need to breathe, do you?"
Rigel raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"
"You walked down here without a helmet before the atmosphere was in place and you just stepped outside the barrier again. Do you need to breathe?"
Rigel nodded. "Yes, but I'm able to breathe a lot more than you can. So long as there is a semblance of an atmosphere, I can survive it."
Tela shook her head, turning to survey the area once more. "You're bullshit, Rigel. You keep proving that, and yet I keep getting surprised when you pull impossible shit out of your ass. So! Do I get to see how you make your gear?"
Rigel shrugged. "You pretty much already have. I print what materials I need with glimmer, then just put them together. The smaller stuff I can just form out of glimmer itself. The process is not nearly as complicated as I'm sure you're making it out to be, but you do get to see the process, lackluster as it is. You can actually help me decide what I'm making."
Tela followed Rigel over to the nearest workbench, intrigued. "What do you need my help with?"
Pressing his palms into the table, Rigel rested his weight against it. "Nova and I have made the decision to throw caution to the wind and give this universe whatever it needs to survive the Reapers. There are some things we have access to that I don't see you needing, and some we will not give anyone, but we're going to help. We've seen what a collapsed golden age looks like…"
"And we do not want to see that happen here." Nova said, appearing in a flash over Rigel's shoulder.
"The problem," Rigel continued. "Is that we can't come to an agreement on how much is too much and how much is too little to distribute right now. We lived through a dark age where people who should have been allies used tech they found to kill each other. We don't want to facilitate the same thing happening here. Take our stealth drive for instance. The Citadel's scanners and the Destiny Ascension's scanners couldn't pick us up when it was powered on. I'm assuming the Citadel and its flagship have some of the best scanners you can find in this universe. If our tech can obscure ourselves from them, then whoever we give stealth tech to would be able to operate with impunity until the Reapers get here."
"And trusting their good intentions is a good way for everyone to end up dead before the Reapers even show up." Tela said, leaning into the table with a sigh. "I see the problem. What kind of things were you debating?"
Floating to the side of the table, Nova projected a 3-D display of several images.
Tela blinked, leaning back to give herself some space. "I don't know what I'm looking at here."
"We'll start with the simplest. This…" Nova said, dispelling all but one of the images. It was obviously some form of gun. "Is a linear fusion rifle. A Tarantula to be specific. This is something we're practically guaranteed to give to Shepard's crew at the least. The shields in this universe are weak to energy weapons, so giving them something that can bypass that would be useful. Cerberus has people in the Alliance, so they already have the Omolon ammo we gave to Davon, but this–"
"Cerberus has the ammo that you said could replace thermal clips?" Tela cut in, her eyes hard.
Rigel met her eyes and nodded. "I didn't know it when I originally gave Davon the sample, but Cerberus has enough spies in the Alliance to receive practically anything I give them. That's actually why I stopped handing things over to them after the spinmetal. The Illusive Man reminds me of a warlord Nova and I crossed paths with around a decade after I woke up. The man slaughtered entire settlements in the name of protecting his people. I want to believe Cerberus wouldn't use what I gave them to solidify their position and power over the rest of the galaxy, but I don't trust them."
"Good. Cerberus is… Actually, Nova? Pull up what the Broker had on Cerberus's off-the-books research." Tela said.
Tilting her shell as she dispelled the image of the Tarantula, Nova said, "Alright. It's… Okay. It's not good."
His mind drifting to Clovis Bray's atrocities, Rigel said, "Hit me with it."
"First off, know the Broker definitely didn't know everything they were up to. He was actually allocating a surprising number of resources to figuring out what Cerberus was hiding. But what he did know… There's a lot of really screwed up stuff. Extortion, murder, blackmail, unethical experimentation, fr–"
"What kind of experimentation? Was it like what Eclipse was involved in?" Rigel cut in, eyes hard.
Nova shook her shell in the negative. "Not that I can tell. The Broker knew about a lot of projects that went to hell when some monster Cerberus was picking apart broke loose and trashed the facility where it was being studied. It's bad, really bad, but all of the creatures that were experimented on weren't sentient."
Tela shook her head. "The fact that the Broker couldn't find it doesn't mean it isn't there. The Illusive Man has evaded the combined attention of the Alliance, the Council, STG, and apparently the Shadow Broker for years." Tela fixed Rigel with a hard look. "I guarantee you, he's done worse than what we've found."
Rigel sighed, backing up to sit on the table behind him. "My gut is telling me the same thing, Tela, but what am I supposed to do here? I need to give them something or Shepherd's going to get herself killed trying to take out the Collectors. All the really nasty stuff? We're holding that back, but we need to give Shepard and her team a leg up over the Collectors, and you know that if she has access to it while working with Cerberus, Cerberus will find a way to copy or steal it."
"Then make sure Cerberus isn't the only group with access to whatever you give them."
"Tevos may be working with you, Tela, but I do not want Valern and Sparatus to have access to some of the weapons I was thinking of giving Shepard."
"Would you be comfortable with Cerberus having those weapons?"
"…No, but–"
"Then don't give them to Shepard." Tela said, eyes hard, as she stepped forward, holding Rigel's gaze. "Shepard needs help, and we will help her, but not if it gives Cerberus a leg up over the rest of us. If you think that the Illusive Man won't use the arrival of the Reapers as a distraction to allow him free reign to achieve his own ends, then you're a lot less intelligent than I think you are."
Rigel took a deep breath, reaching up to massage the bridge of his nose. "I know. Again, that's why I've stopped giving tech to the Alliance, but he's also the only one actively putting together a force to fight the Reapers. I feel like I'm making a mistake. Do you remember what I said to you when you first found out about the transmat beacon?"
Tela's eyes softened. "You think you're making the same mistake you said I'd make – thinking yourself the only person who can be trusted with your tech."
Rigel nodded. "We both know the Reapers are coming. It's getting really hard to justify keeping things close to the chest. And it's not like I don't know how to counter all of the tech I would distribute, it would just be a pain in the ass."
Tela pursed her lips, a considering expression on her face. "In simple language, what exactly are you thinking of giving Shepard?"
"The fusion rifles which are basically laser disintegration rays, better armor for the hull, better sensors, potentially better shields, medical cytomachines, and some more efficient engine designs." Rigel said, listing the items he and Nova had considered on the flight to Mercury.
Tela studied Rigel, not giving away what she thought. "Forget about Shepard for now. Think in these terms: Would you be willing to give everything you just listed to Cerberus? To STG? To the turians? To Thessia?"
Rigel looked over Tela's shoulder at Nova and thought, Thinking about it that way, I'd probably take the linear fusion rifles out of the mix, but everything else? What do you think?
Same. The Alliance will still have a leg up until everyone figures out how to use the ammo and everything else would just promote survival.
Turning back to Tela, Rigel said, "In that light, we'd take the linear fusion rifles out, but leave everything else in."
Tela nodded. "Good. Then do that. What you give to Cerberus, you give to everyone. Until Shepard separates from them, we can't be sure any tech you give them won't be turned around and used against the rest of Citadel space. From what you just told me, most of what you were going to give them is defensive anyway. That will go a long way to helping the galaxy prepare for the Reapers."
"Yes, but we run the risk of races with more advanced and sophisticated manufacturing making everything first and attacking everyone else to stop them from closing the gap."
"Then we don't let them know it's from us." Nova said as she floated over, her shell spinning around her as it did when she was thinking. "What if the Shadow Broker calls in a favor with every major government, telling he tried to research something personally but didn't have the funds and to keep it quiet? He gives everyone what we're planning to distribute without letting anyone else know that everyone got the same thing."
Tela crossed her arms over her chest. "That's actually not a bad idea. It'll lessen the likelihood of anyone trying something immediately because they'd be too focused on shoring up their advantage before making overt moves and giving away they had something up their sleeve."
"That will only buy us a handful of months, a year if we're lucky." Rigel said, thinking out loud.
Nova's shell expanded in a shrug. "Then we'd better hope the Reapers get here by then."
"There's another problem." Rigel said, gripping his chin in thought. "A lot of what we were going to give the Normandy needs materials that we'll need to print from glimmer. If we're going to just shoot schematics to all major governments, we'll need to alter our list."
Nova's shell spun around her as she said, "We've got some weaker analogs we can use in place of the substantial stuff. Once the Reapers get here and we don't need to worry about people blowing each other up, we can just print everything here and shunt it wherever it's needed with a transmat network."
Tela exhaled, dropping her arms back down to her sides. "Look, I'm not saying that you need to change what you're giving to the Normandy, but so long as everyone else has enough to contend with what Cerberus could field after your boost, I'll be content."
"We can't give them anything right now anyway." Rigel said, sliding off the table to his feet and walking past Tela to point at the glimmer forges. "The reason I wanted to stop here before going to Ilos was so I could get Tim, Trevor, and Tyler printing everything we'll need to upgrade the Normandy and the Blind Well. Another couple glimmer forges and a bunch more frames wouldn't hurt either."
"Is the Blind Well not already improved to your limit?" Tela said, throwing a scrutinizing glance towards the ship in question.
Nova chuckled. "Far from it. We prettied up the paint job and outfitted it with rudimentary jumpship armor, shields, and the like, but it's large enough we could make it into a substantial warship with some upgrades and elbow grease."
Looking at Nova, Tela said, "I'm guessing you were planning on giving the Normandy a similar makeover?"
Rigel nodded. "Not quite identical, but we were planning to beef it up enough to beat back anything the Collectors have been recorded to field. Not much is known about the ship that destroyed the Normandy SR1, but a lot of the warships back home could have taken out that ship with far less difficulty than the Collector vessel is reported to have."
Tela looked skeptical as she said. "If I recall correctly, the Normandy was taken out in one or two shots."
Rigel grinned. "Yes, but it wasn't unmade from existence before it could even power its shields."
Tela blinked, then shook her head. "Ignoring that statement for the sake of my sanity, how powerful would the Normandy be if you outfit it the way you plan? Would Cerberus be able to reverse engineer everything or would they need glimmer?"
Rigel shrugged. "The Normandy would likely become the strongest ship in this galaxy aside from the Blind Well – which Nova and I were planning to make stronger. Cerberus shouldn't be able to replicate the strongest upgrades without glimmer, but if they break everything down and study its physical makeup… I can't give you a definite answer either way."
Tela took in a breath, then sighed. "I don't like Cerberus having the upper hand, but I can't think of a good reason to hold back when the Normandy will likely be what we ride with Shepard in against the Collectors. So long as you follow through and give the Citadel races defensive upgrades, the damage will be mostly offset."
Nova buzzed through the air, coming to a stop in front of Tela's face. "I have a stipulation I would like to add about that. I'm not giving anything to the batarians. Everyone else? I'm alright with helping them out, but the batarians are conquesting slavers that would try to subsume everyone. It may sound shitty, but I don't really care if they'll be ready to fight the Reapers or not. They've made their bed, and I'm more than content to let them burn in it."
Tela actually chuckled. "You won't hear any complaints from me in that regard. The Hegemony technically isn't affiliated with the Citadel anymore anyway. They don't fall under the category of 'all Citadel races'."
Nova bobbed her shell up and down in a nod. "Good. So we're going ahead with the original plan of outfitting the Normandy and Blind Well for war and giving the Citadel races defensive and medical technology from back home?"
"We'll send some Omolon weapon designs to Davon and Shepard as well." Rigel added. "Given enough time, the Illusive Man would pick them up from his spies, but it would be better if we just cut out the middle man so Shepard doesn't have to wait to start outfitting her squad."
"Omolon weapons designs as well." Nova affirmed.
Tela pursed her lips, looking sidelong at Rigel. "How strong are Omolon weapons?"
Rigel shrugged. "They're better than anything you've got here, but they are not the best we can do. Miranda said Shepard's crew would need better weapons for themselves, and Omolon designs would be the easiest to implement with the most payoff. Energy rounds to combat Collector shields. Shared ammunition across platforms. Similar enough to what Shepard's team would be used to from the Citadel to allow them to swap over immediately. If you're concerned about Cerberus using them to go on a rampage, I'll make sure that doesn't happen. The Alliance will get everything as well, and they are actively antagonistic towards Cerberus. If Cerberus tries something anyway, we'll plaster blueprints all over the net to even the playing field. With how fast the Alliance cracked the ammunition, Cerberus wouldn't have an advantage for long."
Tela nodded. "So long as the guns are grounded in science and not unexplainable space magic they won't be insurmountable if Cerberus turns them against us."
Nova looked between Tela and Rigel questioningly. "Anything else?"
The three looked between each other, but no one had anything else to add.
"Well then!" Nova said, rising up into the air. "It looks like we've got some work to do. I'll think of what exactly would be the most beneficial to send to everyone and draw up some incomplete schematics that we can send to them all when we're ready to pull the trigger on this. I'll make each set of blueprints a touch different so the end results are all different, if similar. That'll make it even harder for the Reapers to fight back. Unknown tech that has been changed in a dozen different ways? They won't know what hit them."
"That reminds me…" Rigel said, turning to face Tela. "Did we tell you that mass effect technology is a trap?"
Tela blinked at him. "What?"
"Everyone says the protheans made the mass relays. Since the Reapers exist and have been perpetuating a 50,000 year cycle for dozens of cycles now–"
"Those bastards built the mass relays." Tela growled, eyes narrowed. "The Citadel too. It's blatantly obvious in hindsight. When they show up every cycle, everyone's so used to the shit they… Fuck!" Tela picked up a wrench off the table and threw it across the cave. The wrench arced through the air to clatter on the ground. Tela closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
Tim, who had watched the wrench arc through the air, shuffled forward, picked up the wrench, walked across the cavern, placed the wrench back exactly where it was, then shuffled back across the cavern to assume his position beside the two other frames.
"Sorry about that." Tela said, staring at the ground. "It's just…This already seemed impossible enough. An armada invading from the stars larger than all of our fleets combined, with each craft able to destroy a full fleet. Did they really need a stacked deck too?"
Rigel walked up behind her and rested a hand on her shoulder. When the Spectre turned to look at him, he said, "We're stacking the deck in our favor now too. The Reapers don't know what to expect, and this cycle has already been thrown out of their control by the actions of the Protheans and Shepard. I know this seems like a titanic task, but it's one we can pull off."
Smirking, Tela looked up and met Rigel's eyes. "You would know, wouldn't you? End of the world is your norm, isn't it?"
Rigel's own lip pulled up as he nodded. "Much as I wish it weren't necessary in the first place, I'm damn good at preventing people from going extinct."
Tela reached up and covered Rigel's hand with her own, giving him a determined nod before taking a step away from him and moving towards the glimmer forges. "With all this talk of upgrades and technology from a universe with mechanical gods, I'm eager for a little something of my own." She stopped at the barrier and threw a grin over her shoulder. "Think you can help me out with that?"
Nova flew around Rigel's shoulder to follow Tela, her shell expanding and condensing in excitement. "Rigel and I actually talked about that on the way over. We were thinking…"
Rigel grinned as Nova began reciting their telepathic dialogue to Tela. He beckoned the three frames over as he joined Tela next to the barrier.
They had a lot of work to do.
