Chapter 76
Shepard was sitting in the Tyrannicide's captain's quarters, which resembled a posh penthouse suite in a luxury hotel. She didn't know what to do with all of the space, having grown to accustomed to the cramped accommodations on the Normandy, so she insisted on Tali setting up her workshop in this cabin as well. This worked out well since the two could spend hours simply working next to one another and saying nothing and still be in heaven.
Tali was soldering wires to a strange little device that Shepard didn't recognize when she heard tali shout "Bosh'tet!" as a puff of smoke erupted and and a bright flash erupted from it.
"Tali are you ok?" Shepard asked looking over, stifling a giggle at the Quarian's surprised expression made even more cartoonishly hilarious by the soot that had blackened her nose.
"Callish tuella norvuuna, Shepard." Tali said. Shepard raised an eyebrow.
"What was that?" She asked. Tali paused with a confused expression on her face.
"Shepard, donurra nili kaveetch?" Tali asked.
"Crap..." Shepard said
"Huunala.. Crap.. Kavoush." Tali said, and they both grinned. Shepard took Tali's hand and they both made their way to sickbay. Vil'Dinan had joined them while Chakwas had remained on the Normandy, the Alliance Navy required at least one doctor to be aboard any ship frigate-sized or larger that was underway even those reporting back for repair.
"Vil, can you understand me?" Shepard asked.
"Danna lual toona, Shepard." Vil said.
"Currana nevo lakata..." Tali said, causing Vil to cover her mouth with her hand to stifle a giggle. She then deactivated her translators with her omnitool and put a small box to one of her ears Shepard rolled her eyes.
"Great so it's just my translator that's on the fritz." Shepard said. Vil's eyes shot open.
"Tanna diureeno norala vana kevia Human." Vil said. Tali grinned, and reached up a hand to caress Shepard's face.
"Laaksh kuv lob noolan." Tali said smiling fondly at her. Shepard grinned and shrugged, aceepting the affection. Vil walked over and waved her omnitool at Shepard, looking at the readout. She grimaced.
"Taaanea nielaga fuuni souviala marko." Vil said. Tali nodded and waved her hands in front of Shepard's face. She looked over at her lover who took her arm in one hand and gently pinched it with the other.
"Ouch!" Shepard said. Tali nodded and then gently rubbed the skin next to Shepard's ears right over where the translators were. Shepard understood, they needed to replace the implant, and there would be a slight pinch. Shepard nodded and Vil gave her a quick injection of a numbing agent, which barely registered to Shepard as painful. Within a few moments the old devices were out and the new ones were in and working.
"Can you understand me now, love?" Tali asked.
"No, I can't understand you at all." Shepard said, grinning. Tali rolled her eyes but Vil looked concerned.
"I don't get it I tested that translator before we installed it, she should be... Oh, damnit Shepard!" Vil said lightly slapping her on the arm.
"Oww, you're mean. Karin would never hit me, like that, I'm telling Admiral Anderson." Shepard said in a petulant.
"Serves you right for taking advantage of your poor doctor." Vil said, grinning.
"Thanks, Doc, I appreciate it." Shepard said giving the woman another of her cherished hugs. Tali thanked her as well and they walked back towards the massive, conference-room sized CIC on the bridge.
"What was that you were working on?" Shepard asked.
"I'm trying to improve the power distribution on the nanoswarm components, I almost succeeded but looks like I overloaded the auxiliary relay. That EMP has some potentially interesting implications, might be useful in disabling enemy ship systems." Tali said.
"Good point, make sure to pass that along. ETA to Eden Prime?" Shepard asked the pilot, a Quarian named Flight Lieutenant Havvo Nagaan vas Tyrannicide.
"Ten minutes, Captain." he said.
"Excellent. Keep us posted." Shepard said.
"Will do, Captain." Nagaan said.
"So when I couldn't understand you, what was it that surprised Vil so much?" Shepard asked. Tali smiled fondly.
"She had disabled her own translator for a moment when testing your new one and was remarking at how pretty your voice sounds when she can hear you speaking in English." Tali said.
"Oh, ok. Glad she's never heard me singing in the shower I guess." Shepard said. Tali rolled her eyes. She happened to know that Shepard was actually quite a gifted singer, but she was convinced she wasn't and refused to sing when asked. Of course Shepard could probably yodel Krogan poetry and it would still be beautiful to Tali's ears.
Arrival at Eden Prime met with little fanfare, the local authorities had been alerted to the arrival and were thankful for the protection offered by the Alliance. The Tyrannicide entered into an orbit above the planet and Shepard and her ground teams made for the hangars. They brought their gear and armor in totes instead of wearing them since they were not expecting immediate action, and wanted to avoid frightening the locals.
When Shepard and Kurg's squad exited from one of the shuttles she was immediately greeted by an attractive older woman accompanied by an Asari in a flowing white sundress of clearly human make.
"Hello Commander... Captain Shepard?" Angela Suzuki said.
"Hello ma'am, yes, it's a new development, literally just before we left. How are you this afternoon?" Shepard said, smiling and offering her hand. Angela shook it.
"Very well and congratulations! This is Liara T'Soni from the University of Cario, she's been sent here temporarily to analyze the local Prothean ruins." Angela said, Shepard shook her hand as well.
"Liara this is Captain Urdnot Jane Shepard Vas Normandy, normally the captain of the frigate Normandy but for now the captain of the battlecruiser Tyrannicide." Angela said
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I've met your mother, she's good friends with my mother." Shepard said, her smile not wavering.
"Oh goddess she didn't try to flirt with you, did she?" Liara said. Shepard snickered.
"Only a little, but she was respectful. This is my crew, Lieutenant Urdnot Kurg Vas Normandy, the leader of my ground forces, along with Private Urdnot Grak vas Normandy, Private Tabitha Kowalski Vas Normandy, Private Abbie Jameson Vas and my girlfriend, and our chief engineer, Lieutenant Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy." She said, introducing her colleagues.
"I understand the Quarian ship names, but if I may ask, why do you have a Krogan name as well?" Liara asked Shepard.
"I went through the rite as Krantt with Grak and Kurg, as such I am considered by the Krogan to be one of them, so I joined clan Urdnot." Shepard explained.
"Captain Shepard is our battlemaster." Kurg explained helpfully.
"I see, I have much to learn I've been studying Prothean history so much I'm not up to date with current events." Liara said.
"Don't worry, we're a pretty open book. Besides, you've been living amongst the Alliance for a while now, I'm sure you have a greater understanding of us than you think." Shepard said.
"Let me show you around town, there are plenty of restaurants and recreation for your crew to enjoy, and I'm sure the local business owners will appreciate the influx of customers." Angela said, leading Shepard and her crew to an open-topped transport.
Atop a building across the street, a black-clad Quarian woman pulled down the sleeve of her shirt and spoke into a communications device attached to her wrist.
"Patch me through to the Illusive Man. We have a problem." She said.
Light years away on a station in orbit around a giant, energetic star, Jack Harper had just sat down in his comfortable chair in the command room of the nerve center from which he operated Cerberus. He had just lit a cigarette when an aide rushed towards him from another room.
"Sir, we have an urgent message from one of you operatives on Eden Prime." The man said.
"Patch it through." Harper said, and soon the wall in front of him which usually displayed a filtered view of the star was replaced by the image of a masked Quarian woman in Cerberus stealth armor.
"Report." Harper said.
"Sir, the Alliance have arrived on Eden Prime in force. There is a ground squad milling about town, but more concerning is the battlecruiser and its support ships which are holding in orbit above the planet." the operative reported. Jack's upper lip quirked slightly causing the operative to barely suppress a terrified shudder. To a man with Jack's emotional control, that amounted to a gutteral shriek of rage.
"That's... unfortunate. Keep eyes on them as well as you can, we'll brief you when I have come to a decision as to how to proceed." Harper said.
"Of course sir." She responded and Harper cut the connection. His frustration lately was building, between this and his inability to land operatives on Rannoch, keeping the three Lawson sisters out of his reach, as well as several of his spies within the Alliance military being compromised, one thing he had going for him was the ungodly sum of money he'd still managed to siphon out of the Alliance and Citadel economies.
Through a series of fronts Harper had created an underground trade empire, selling illicit goods in and outside of Alliance space racking up what was potentially the greatest fortune one person ever amassed. These funds he was using to build up a fleet to support the army he was building, hidden beyond the edges of Alliance space. Manpower was the only thing limiting him at this stage, however if his AI research teams were correct, their latest project, the Enhanced Defense Intelligence would be the first in a series of Ais designed to fully and autonomously operate the advanced ships Harper was building. While crewed with human and Quarian shock troopers, the operations of the ship would be performed exclusively by the Ais, and they'd be shackled to avoid disobedience.
Back on the Mayhem, Rothschild made an interesting discovery and decided to inform the Admirals.
"Oi, Meatbags, get a load of this shit." Rothschild bellowed aboard the Mayhem. Xen and Chambers looked up from their chess game and walked over.
"What you got for us, Daddy?" Chambers said, suggestively waggling his eyebrows. Rothschild grinned, he had finally come to terms with the fact that the two of them were going to play his game along with him.
"Big energy readings. Like almost antimatter-harvesting big, way in this unexplored chunk of galaxy. I'd have missed it if I wasn't actively scanning it and it seemed like it disappeared shortly after I started probing it. Not sure what it was but the energy signature didn't match anything we've found either in Citadel or old Prothean records." Rothschild asked. Xen walked up to the ai, her hips swaying obscenely.
"You got coordinates for us, stud?" She asked leaning forward so that the top of her cleavage was peeking out of her uniform.
"Not even if you were the last organic alive meatbag. Coordinates uploaded." Rothschild said before disappearing again. Chambers and Xen started laughing as they added a tally to a chalk board they'd installed near their chess setup. So far Rothschild had seventeen tallies and X+C had 5, but they were gaining steam.
"Care to take the Mayhem out on a joyride?" Chambers asked as Xen redid the top button on her uniform.
"Sure, we're not scheduled for retrofit for a few weeks. Helm, please lay in a course for the coordinates provided." Xen ordered
"Aye aye ma'am." One of the bridge staff said and they felt the sudden gravity dip that comes with going into FTL.
"Chambers, could you please get Prime Minister Shepard on QEC? We need to be ready if this turns out to be a new species or something." Xen asked.
"Sure thing, Xen." He said, and started punching in commands on his omnitool.
"Shepard here, oh Admiral Chambers, how are you?" Hannah asked.
"Very well Ma'am, and you?" Chambers said.
"Oh you know, living the dream." Hannah replied. Chambers grimaced, her forced cheer was becoming obvious, and he could swear she looked a decade older.
"Hannah, are you sleeping?" Chambers asked.
"Sometimes... Yeah... Shut up." Hannah said, crossing her arms petulantly.
"Hannah, please, not just as your employee but as your friend. You need rest. You know you don't bear this burden alone." Chambers said Hannah sighed, the false cheer evaporating into a mask of misery.
"Simon... This war... God." Hannah said, a sob escaping at that last.
"I know, Ma'am. You really need to listen to us and take a vacation. We worry about you." Chambers said
"Where would I go where this wouldn't follow me? Christ every time I close my eyes I see those pictures of dead Batarian kids." Hannah said. Chambers looked up as a shadow crossed over his outstretched arm with the omnitool to see Xen standing beside him.
"Hannah, there was a time, back on the fleet, when I sent out a survey ship to the borders of the Perseus Veil. They were tasked with conducting long-range scans of an old Quarian colony, at the time we didn't know why the Geth never interfered but now we understand that they would only defend if they thought we were attacking. Still we were prepared for a confrontation with the Geth, what we weren't prepared for was a Batarian slaver ship coming up alongside the surveyer and unloading a broadside." Xen said, as tears slowly made their way down her cheek.
"Seventeen souls aboard, not a single one made it off that ship. The Batarians weren't aware that the shields were down since the surveyer's old scanners required them to be down to get data back. I can't decide whether it was better that they died or whether it would have been better if they were captured, but in the end they met their fate on my orders. I felt guilt the likes of which I cannot even describe, in English or Kheelish. I offered myself to the families of the fallen, I handed a father of twin sons that were aboard a pistol and knelt before him, telling him to kill me, HOPING he'd kill me, but he dropped the pistol and told me something I'm going to tell you now." Xen said.
"Hannah, the universe moves as the universe wills. Our decisions can only influence so much, and we cannot carry a burden that we do not own. The only allied soldiers that have died during this war are ones that signed on knowing exactly what they were getting into. They not only followed their orders, they did so eagerly and with all of their hearts. We have recorded not one single instance of insubordination or desertion in this campaign. The slaves that died, did so because we were trying to save them. We were the only ones willing to try to save them." Xen continued.
"And think of the slaves you did save, Hannah. How many families have been reunited? How many mothers and fathers embraced children they had no hope of ever seeing again? You're freed countless slaves and furthermore you've opened the eyes of the Asari and Turians to the failings of the council, and they are striving to break the stranglehold it has on them." Chambers contributed.
"You have been at the forefront of bringing light where there was nothing but darkness. You reunited my people with the Geth, and then brought us into your family. I'm sorry if you don't hear this enough, Hannah but you are loved and appreciated by billions, ourselves included." Xen said.
"Daro, Simon, I... thank you. God I love you all too. I could never get through this without you and the others." Hannah said, openly crying now.
"It has been our absolute privilege to follow you, Hannah." Chambers said
"So, now that I've blubbered like a grandma seeing her grandkids off to school, what can I do for you today?" Hannah asked, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.
"Rothschild discovered an anomaly in unexplored space, we're going to investigate but given the nature of it it could be the result of a species we haven't encountered. We wanted to make you aware in case this turned into a first contact situation." Chambers said.
"Of course, I'll stand by, what's your ETA?" Hannah asked.
"Uh, right about now actually." Xen said as the Mayhem dropped out of FTL.
"Dear God..." Chambers said
"Keelah." Xen said
"What's up?" Hannah said, stunned at Xen's reaction more than Chambers. Chambers pressed a button on his omnitool and Shepard's screen showed what they were looking at. In the center of the system was a small, relatively dark star surrounded by what looked to be quadrillions of tiny machines all at the exact same radius from the surface of the star itself.
"That's a Dyson swarm!" Hannah said.
"A what?" Xen said
"One of our scientists a long time ago posited that a potential way of gathering energy would be a series of trillions if not more solar generators completely surrounding a star to gather as much energy as possible emanating from it. We'd never built one, the most we've done were the solar antimatter arrays near Earth, but this outstrips that by no small amount. Scanning the local terrestrial planets for life signs." Chambers said.
"Got it, I'm reading less than a million seemingly humanoid lifesigns on the planet. Hold up, there are thousands of space craft, going between the swarm and the planet. Uh-oh, we got incoming." Chambers said.
"Status?" Xen demanded.
"There are three cruiser-sized ships of unknown make, they look vaguely Salarian, but I've never seen designs like these. They're on an approach vector. Their weapons appear powered but on standby." Xen said
"Shields but keep weapons powered down." Chambers ordered and the helm staff complied.
"Sir, Ma'am, we're reading an incoming transmission. I think they're trying to reach out." The helmsman said
"Can we bring it up on the main screen?" Xen asked. The helmsman nodded and complied. On the main screen was the last thing they were expecting to see. Before them stood a Salarian covered in strange tattoos and what looked like ritualistic scars, the crewmates behind him were similarly adorned.
"SHAN, Tugeora you no Salarin? Who fuck you are?" The Salarian said
"I am Admiral Daro Xen Vas Mayhem of the Alliance Navy, this is my counterpart Admiral Simon Chambers Vas Mayhem. On a separate channel we have our leader Prime Minister Hannah Shepard. We come in peace, we are only here to investigate the energy readings." Xen said
"BAH! Damn should not have do. Give time, translator Grinf nooray." The Salarian said.
"We're having the same issue." Xen said.
"Can you understand me now?" the Salarian said.
"Yes! What did you do?" Xen asked
"I can speak Kheelish, I thought your translators would be able to understand that. It seems our language has changed a bit in the last thousand years." The Salarian said.
"Did you catch our names before?" Chambers asked.
"Yes, I believe it was Admirals Xen and Chambers as well as Prime Minister Shepard?" The Salarian said
"Yes, how may we address you?" Chambers asked.
"You may call me Shan, I am the captain of the Torvesh. You mentioned you come in peace, yet your ship is a colossal war machine, forgive me if I'm skeptical.." Shan said.
"Understandable. We are currently at war with the Batarian Hegemony, and this ship is scheduled for retrofit in a few weeks, and we were available we made the trip ourselves. Also Admiral Chambers and I are deeply involved in research and development for our people, so neither of us is able to resist a good mystery." Xen said.
"Curious.. you say 'your people' yet you're clearly Quarian, I have no idea what Admiral Chambers' species Is." Shan said
"I'm a human being, from the planet Earth. We have joined with the Quarians, Krogan and Geth to form the System Alliance, along with an AI named Rothschild." Chambers said, and as though summoned Rothschild appeared this time thankfully tastefully appearing as a rather unremarkable human male in a business suit.
"Greetings Captain Shan." Rothschild said, bowing.
"AI Eh? Glad to see there are some open-minded sentients out there. We coexist with a group of AI who would prefer to remain nameless at this time. Could I ask that you remain here while we report back to our superiors and see how they wish to proceed?" Shan asked.
"Of course Captain Shan. We will await your message." Xen said. Shan nodded and closed the connection.
"This is a welcome distraction. I have so many questions... let me gather the Admirals, the Battlemasters and Ambassadors Vakarian and T'Soni, and I'll call you right back." Hannah said
"Of course Prime Minister." Chambers said.