The stories of what the Normandy, and more importantly, her Ground Team, had experienced were traded with surprising ease, until one remembered that of those present, all but the AIs were military. This meant little time was wasted on flowery language or speeches about how close this had all come to a total loss, rather than the devastating loss it was. Instead facts were laid out, the plans and procedures used by those who'd lived through the events were explained, and then everyone in the chamber fell silent.
"General, the interference field has vanished, we've got a dozen Nupeteit class ships folding in now, and I think the Conclave is really anxious to know just what the hell happened," said Joker into the silence, and a model of the planet popped up between them, showing the fleet filling the skies overhead, as the Normandy floated just over the surface. Twelve of the largest ships barring the SDFs hung there like great guardians, while their support ships whizzed about, obviously scanning all of the system for answers to their questions.
"Tell them we'll be a moment, Joker. And be diplomatic about it. Also, hand over the recordings and transmission logs. That should buy us some time to get our story in order," ordered the General, and Joker's holoself vanished from the room, EDI's quickly joining him, leaving only the ground team and Skarrde himself sitting there.
"What about the lab? You're certain it was secure?" Asked Skarred one last time, and Nirali nodded.
"I made certain of it myself. The contents of it are the very thing that caused all this death, and I was not going to risk losing it," she affirmed, and Skarrde, nodding grimly, began to go over everything with them one last time, making sure the order of events made sense to him, before finally, EDI, Joker, and then all nine members of the Conclave appeared on the meeting deck. Salutes were automatic, from all parties save the two civilian AIs, and then business was brought to the fore.
"Old friend, we've gone over what you sent. The whole colony is really a loss?" Asked Exedore, and sadly, Skarrde nodded in confirmation, the batarian, Groto Ib-Ba tisked in disgust, having hoped that the information was wrong.
"The only survivors are Chief Bhatia and an asari named Liara T'Soni. The colony itself is a total loss. The spaceport was blasted by our enemy, and it seems not one structure survived the assault," answered the General sadly, and everyone was silent for a moment.
"The data core has been dumped, and once the information is decrypted, I'll have it sent on to the Conclave," he continued, and that at least got a sigh of relief. The data core, the first thing a new colony was founded around, was literally that, a cache of computers that stored every byte of data in the colony. It was supposed to allow for information to be easily analysed, making the job of management and planning easier. Sometimes, like now, it was also a useful black box, with everything the colony's sensors saw backed up inside.
"The ship that did this, can it be tracked in some way? The interference field should be noticeable, shouldn't it?" asked a male quarian, Zaal'Koris.
"I've already sent vessels from the fleet to the 'down-stream' relays the Utopia Relay connects to. Unfortunately, either it was able to use the relay it leapt to again right away, or was able to somehow redirect the first without needing to," said Skarrde, and everyone looked nervous at that. It implied a control of relay technology that no one wanted to think about too hard.
"That is most disturbing. Still, it is heartening that you were able to damage this craft with the weapons you had on hand. Perhaps if one of our patrols stumbles upon it in their search it might stand a chance," offered Groto, but Exedore beside him quickly shook his head.
"No, I'm afraid that such a thing would be beyond any of the fleets we currently have searching for it. If the data they have is accurate, and I have little reason to believe it is, then the barrier of that ship was almost an order of magnitude stronger than…," Exedore trailed off on that last bit, his eyes trailed over to the soldiers, before coughing nervously. Said soldiers took a moment to look at each other, but no one dared question it. Whatever he'd been about to say was probably well above their paygrade.
"So you're saying that one ship matches the firepower of a fleet?" asked Groto, gesturing towards the Normandy crew.
"Indeed. The weapons aboard the Normandy are truly the pinnacle of current technology. Designed by not only myself, but the best of my research teams, working in conjunction with some of the best from Citadel Space, I don't think there's anything short of an SDF that could match it in a straight pound for pound shoot out," said Exedore, a bit of pride leaking into his voice.
"It should also be noted that, while this vessel was able to at least hurt our enemy, and would have destroyed it had it not dodged, the enemy themselves was more than capable of responding in kind. Every sensor scan I got of its weapons fire shows it being on par with that barrier," said EDI, waving her hand and bringing up a few screen captures of the battle in the air in front of her, with diagrams showing the enemy's shots outlined and measured, and the numbers were quite frankly disgusting in how large they were.
"So a ship, only two kilometers in length, is capable of matching an SDF in terms of firepower and defense. This is-," began Amanda Hayes, only to fall silent as a new figure entered her view. On the meeting deck with Tali, Charn, and Garrus, the door slid open, causing them to turn, while to the Terrans, she simply appeared as the sensors registered her and began to project her image to them.
"The pods are!-Er, I'm sorry, is this a bad time?" she asked, realizing as she came to a halt in the middle of the circle of people that every eye was on her, a fact which caused her blue skin to pale a bit, as she recognized at least a few faces, and knew just how much power was present in this room.
"Of course not, Ms. T'Soni, please, come in, we were just debriefing the Conclave, and whatever you have to say will obviously involve them," said Skarrde, and the asari looked towards him, a bit curious at how even when standing at a comparable height to her, the Terran...Zentradi rather, was still quite intimidating.
"Er, well," she said, stammering as she began to flick her fingers over her omnitool, trying to get a file to send, only to accidentally restart the thing, making her remember her first presentation to her grant review board back on Thessia.
"Hmm, perhaps she needs a moment, and we should of course, introduce ourselves to her. I'm correct in assuming you're Liara T'Soni, the Citadel's foremost expert on Protheans," said a short man with brown skin, and Liara nodded, grateful for a moment to clear her head as the omintool seemed to slowly boot back up.
"I am, Prime Thinker Exedore," she said, bowing her head slightly. He was, after all, a fellow scientist, one whom she would have given most of her head tendrils away for the chance to work with considering all the toys he had on that artificial planet of his.
"Ah, I see the young people still recognize me, how nice. Of course, I'm sure you also know Supreme Commander Breetai," he said, gesturing towards a blue man sitting almost have again as tall as him beside him.
"Is this really the time?" asked a batarian across the Conclave table, and Exedore just chuckled at him.
"Oh, but there's always time for the pleasant things. Ms. T'Soni, if you aren't aware, my four eyed colleague here is Groto Ib-Ba, the Batarian Chair, and leader of his people," said Exedore, and the batarian did nod his head towards her, a motion she mimed.
"I'm Representative Amanda Hayes, of the Federation Senate myself," said the woman beside him, whose brown hair was greying a bit as she approached her sixtieth year, but her green eyes showed the fires of youth still smouldered inside her.
"Amalgam, Collective of the Terran AIs, enchante mademoiselle," said a simplistic biped shape that showed his origins, but his voice was strong and distinctive despite the physical appearance being so plain.
"Solo, Hub of the geth," continued the rather busy AI next to him, the golden, angelic form bobbing a little in the air, as a set of three wings seemed to glow brighter, as if to make itself seem more important.
"Zaal'Koris, Conductor of the quarian people," said a quarian male beside the AI holo, his silver skin a sharp contrast to the golden glow of the geth. Liara nodded at that, remembering something about Koris having won an election a few years ago, before she'd gone to a dig site.
"And last, and also least, I'm Adminstrator Grant of Gloval Station," said the Terran who hadn't spoken to that point. Before anyone else could say anything, Liara's omintool dinged to tell her it was back online, and with a steadier hand, the introductions actually having asari-ized these leaders of the galaxy a bit, she was able to upload the file she wanted, which EDI quickly projected for everyone to see.
"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you all, and I have a bit of good news. While I'm not sure the cost of all those innocents was worth this, it's also a fact that they were not lost in vain. The prothean pods that were discovered in the bunker along with the beacon were recovered from my lab, and they're still intact," as she spoke, images of the pods appeared beside a deep scan of them, showing their contents as being alive but in stasis, while presently they were sitting on the hanger deck of the Normandy.
"Hmm, while a turn of good fortune, I must ask. Were the pods not supposed to be at the spaceport so that the Normandy could receive them?" asked Exedore after a moment, and Liara nodded.
"Yes, they were, but I made a case to the Governor to have them sent to my lab instead. He agreed that my findings warranted a change in plans," she explained.
"And what findings would those be, exactly?" asked Grant.
"This," she said, and pushed a button on her omnitool, sending a video file that EDI quickly displayed in the air for the crew. The video itself was simple static though, as the Normandy systems, some of the best computers built in the galaxy, found the data of the video impossible to decode.
"Hmm, I'm afraid I don't see how a static video helps your case much, Ms. T'Soni," said Breetai, wondering just what he was supposed to be looking at.
"What? Oh right, the filter," Liara seemed a bit flustered again, but this time easily searched through her files and sent another program to the Normandy. EDI combined the 'filter' with the video file, and instantly the static became images. Distorted ones, full of snow and interference, but still, images that could be seen.
"The Protheans locked much of their data behind biometric interpreters, essentially encoding it so that only another Prothean could read the data. However, over the last few years, with the help of some...acquired Federation technology, the Thessian Archeological Council has been able simulate the needed biometrics," as she spoke the images advanced, one at a time, showing scenes of carnage and death. Bipeds, probably the protheans, were running from some of their own that had been altered far less subtly than the people of Eden Prime.
"Now, normally I would simply have recorded all this down, and sent it along with the rest of my data, but one clip in particular caught my eye, encouraging me to investigate further," the images began to resolve, and soon enough, one could see the recording zoom in on one of the protheans, giving more details of his body. A chitinous hide covered his body, with his head having a mushroom like shape, while his face held four eyes rather than the standard two. Unlike batarians though, this races eyes were two sets horizontally, rather than vertically, giving them an even greater insectoid appearance.
"Watch what he does," she told them, as the prothean, saying something last in static, walked up to one of the pods that was sitting on the ground, and proceeded to type in something into a control panel, with the recording highlighting the buttons pressed, before the pod popped open. Out of it spilled a fog, some kind of chemical obviously, while revealing the prothean inside to have expired, probably from being shot by the altered protheans that the image hopped to a moment later, showing them being cut down by some kind of beam of light wielded by a regular prothean.
"Hmm, interesting. I'd been told there was a problem opening the pods," said Exedore, stroking his chin as the recording replayed the command sequence to open said pod, slower this time.
"Indeed. While our own stasis pods, like the one that housed SPECTRE Kryik, use simple mass effect fields to achieve a near total stoppage of time in the local area, the prothean version appears to use a combination of factors, including some kind of stabilizer agent that slows down the prothean biology. Of course, this is obvious when one remembers just how many pods we found, and how long they must have been operating for," as she spoke, the recording finally cut out.
"I had hoped to bring a Terran to the lab I was working out of and awaken one of the protheans, before we took them off world. There was, at the time, simply no telling how they would react to being ripped from what they likely thought of as their world, and might have made questioning them easier. Given events, I've since revised those feelings, but I would still like the chance to open one of the pods here, on the Normandy, before we make it to the Citadel," she said the last while looking past those present on the ship, and towards the political figures who were light-years away.
"You would prefer to have us take possession of a source of information on the protheans before your own people?" asked Groto.
"Not entirely. In truth, I merely ask this due to the prothean's biometrics. We know they locked much of their technology so only another prothean or someone with their unique thought patterns could unlock it. A Terran colony, and now vessel, would have no built in failsafes or manual overrides, should the protheans prove less than pleased with the state of the galaxy," she responded simply, and everyone took a moment to think about that.
"Ms. T'Soni, by your own writings, you believe the protheans to be a peaceful race, bringing the various peoples of the galaxy together in harmony rather than violence. Has your opinion on that shifted in some way?" asked Hayes, and Liara seemed stunned by the question, but then nodded.
"I wrote that dissertation at the beginning of my career, almost a decade ago. Since then, I've been involved in digs on Therum, Joab, and a half a dozen others. My findings at each locations speak of a culture of peace, but one prepared for war to the fullest. Each site seemed made to survive the end of the universe, with defenses that were at once non-lethal, but also overpowered to the extreme for what was there. I still hope the protheans themselves are a peaceful people, but I admit, with the foresight I've seen, I don't fully trust they'll accept a reduced place on the galactic stage," she admitted.
"Alright then. Skarrde, who's the Normandy's medical officer?" asked Exedore, and Skarrde quickly called up an image of a salarian.
"One Mordin Solus, a salarian, formally STG, now independent medical professional. His xenobiological skills are second to none, and when offered a berth on the Normandy, he jumped at the chance," said the General quickly.
"Excellent, his credentials are glowing. I want Ms. T'Soni there to help as a cultural liaison, and perhaps one for the Federation as well?" the last was a question as the redheaded Zentradi turned towards Jon and Tali.
"We would be honored, Prime Thinker," said the Terran as he leapt to his feet with a salute. Tali beside him mirrored.
"That issue is settled then. You should fold immediately to the Cit-," began Exedore, only to be cut off as Liara held up a hand to bring the attention to her.
"Um, I don't believe that would be a good idea, Prime Thinker. The prothean biology might be quite sensitive after their long stasis, and folding does tend to result in...unease in a biological sense to the subjects being so transported. I would suggest instead we travel via the Relays. It is the longer path, I'll admit, but with a find of this importance, a small delay would not be too prohibitive," said the asari, and Exedore smiled at her.
"Of course, I'm sorry I didn't think of that myself. Skarrde, set your course for the Citadel post haste. Due to certain events, until you arrive, I want you traveling dark. It must not be possible for the Council to in some way accuse the Conclave of interfering in the prothean's statements before they hear them," said Exedore, turning to his fellows who all nodded along.
"Good, then it is decided. Ms. T'Soni, select one of the pods and open it. Once you have done so, record everything. Nothing must be in question as to the authenticity of the words the subject speaks. This Conclave stands adjourned," and with that, the images vanished, without even a salute. That caused everyone left in the chamber to look at each other. Soon however, orders were given, and the Normandy began its long flight to the Citadel, while a small group gathered in the medical bay to reclaim a piece of the past long forgotten.