CHAPTER 46: I Think We're Alone Now
2186 CE
As The Friendly Headbutt approached The Great Library of Krell I felt almost giddy; like a child unwrapping a present. I'd never actually been here after my initial work to set things up. Everything was planned millennia ago, during the Krogan rebellions; but construction and stocking was all automated. The Great Library of Krell was an absolute masterpiece of automation, everything you'd ever need to run a University, or a galaxy-spanning war. There were lecture halls, mass drivers, conference rooms, barracks, communications hubs, particle beams, Eezo drive cores, thanix cannons, cafeterias, tractor beams, classrooms, labs, gardens, obstacle and training courses, infirmaries, courtyards, and of course, libraries; among other things.
As I exited the airlock into the main hangar library I realized that I might have accidentally gone a bit overboard on the libraries, actually. I couldn't see the walls behind the books, and while you probably couldn't fit the Destiny Ascension in this hangar (honestly I'm not sure it was even designed to land, there was no landing surface on the damn thing), you could probably fit almost any other ship in the galaxy in it; so that was a lot of books.
'Grandfather. How did you manage to get this set up? Where did all these books come from?' Liara asked, greeting me with a hug.
'There's a publishing house in the bowels of the Library. The VIs and mechs manage it.' I explained.
'No, I mean, where did all the content come from? I didn't have time to do more than look at the index. You have every book I've ever heard of and many I have no idea what they are. All of the new ones are named strangely and they're incomprehensible. There's no story to them, just time stamps and random snippets of text.' Liara complained.
'Okay, so... You remember the Geth?' I asked, cautiously.
'You mean the mechanical sentients who trapped me in a forcefield on an exploding planet? Or the mechanical sentients you brokered a treaty with to end the Quarian exile?' Liara asked, archly.
'The latter. They basically decided to just passively listen in on all electronic broadcasts from Citadel space. And I thought, Hey! That's a fantastic way to make sure I have books for my library!' I explained.
'That explains how you have all the books I've ever read in your catalog, as well as all the books I've ever heard about, but what about the books with the procedural alphanumeric titles?' Liara asked.
'So, I'm an engineer, not a programmer. I can program a basic VI for excavation, and to do simple stuff like print and stock books, or make machine repairs, but I'm not actually all that good at programming. I couldn't figure out a way to get the VI to just record the books, so all those Alpha-numeric titles? They're the rest of the communications. Every single broadcasted electronic communication from Citadel Space since the Rebellions, in rough chronological order.' I explained.
Liara's eyes bugged out.
'What.'
'It's completely unsorted, save by timestamp. And even then there's some variance as to when the signals reached the monitoring stations and outposts I set up. You don't even get complete conversations in order unless they fit the timestamps. Honestly it would take millions of scholars the work of several lifetimes just to make sense of it all.' I admitted.
'Grandfather... You have a complete primary source of every single broadcast ever transmitted in the Galaxy since the Krogan Rebellions!?' Liara squeaked.
'I wanted to have the greatest research library in the Galaxy for my University. I just couldn't get the sorting algorithms to work with anything other than books, and honestly, even those are just 'Every transmission of over X amount of words that is commonly repeated by multiple persons across multiple separate weeks is a book.' It probably catches a lot of government reports and military presentations erroneously.' I admitted.
'Grandfather... You have a complete primary source of every single broadcast ever transmitted in the Galaxy since the Krogan Rebellions.' Liara explained to me slowly. As if I were some sort of idiot.
'Yeah, I'm actually running out of space for them. Might need to get started on a second library soon.' I admitted.
'Running out of space!? Grandfather, you hollowed out an entire planet and turned it into a spaceship! There are bookshelves built into almost every wall!' Liara shouted.
'Well, the labs are clear of books, as are the firing ranges and cafeterias. And other such rooms whose use is likely to damage books. I kept them around in the mass transit hubs though.' I countered.
'Grandfather. You own the greatest research library in existence. Your collection is more complete than even the library of Athame at the university of Thessia! A lot more complete! There's no comparison!'
'And you have no idea ho hard it was to keep my mouth shut every time one of the professors there called the library of Athame 'the greatest library in the galaxy'. It was so hard not to tell them, Liara. You have no idea how hard it was not to tell them.' I admitted.
'What are you going to do with it after the war?' Liara asked.
'Well, this is my biggest endowment to the University of Tuchanka. In terms of total mass, anyway. I guess starting the university is probably going to be the greatest in terms of total effort.' I admitted.
'And you want me to be the head of the Prothean research department?' Liara asked.
'Well, I can't do it myself and run the University at the same time. I'm horrible at multi-tasking.'
'Grandfather.' Liara replied as if I had said something supremely idiotic.
'Are you interested in the job?' I asked.
'I don't suppose I could be head Librarian instead? Some of the shine of the Protheans has... recently worn off for me.' Liara admitted.
'I could never hire someone who didn't have extensive experience with the Library for that position. The job is just too big.' I confessed.
'And the job as your Chief Underling in charge of Intelligence Operations for the Enkindler Empire would give me that experience?' Liara replied, arching a brow.
'Oh! Liara! I'm so proud of you! You got the subtext! I had almost given up hope!' I hugged her.
It was at that moment that Grunt emerged from The Friendly Headbutt.
'Huh. This is a great hangar. Got anymore?' Grunt asked as I lightly crushed my granddaughter in a Krogan bear hug.
I set Liara down, only for her to glare at me as she attempted to catch her breath.
'Sure! Let's get everyone out of the ship. I'll give you all a tour!'
'And this, is the command center to move the library.' I explain, opening the final door on our, extremely abbreviated, tour.
'Grandfather... This is a planet. At a certain point you just can't call it a library anymore.' Liara pointed out.
'Watch me! And technically, I think it's a moon? It was in orbit around a planet when I took it. Not, you know, a stable orbit, but an orbit nonetheless.' I admit.
'Moons aren't known for their capacity for self propulsion, Grandfather.' Liara pointed out.
She probably hadn't moved on from the library parts then.
'I guess that's technically correct... Which is why I had to install the engines.' I admitted.
'Engines?' Liara questioned.
'All over the library. It's got a lot of different potential thrust vectors and the gravitational pressures of the outer mass does incredible things for the eezo I had the VIs replace the prior core with. It should be surprisingly nimble for a moon.' I explained.
'Not hard. Moons aren't known for their nimbleness. What kind of weapons does this thing have?' Grunt asked.
'Nothing big enough to kill a Reaper by itself, except maybe ramming the damn thing, or the spinal cannons maybe, there are some plasma cannons too but I haven't exactly been able to test them. This isn't a ship designed to kill Reapers. It's a ship designed for triage, training, and command and control. It's just not maneuverable enough. If it goes into battle by itself we'll lose it. Luckily, it's not designed to go into battle alone.'
'It's a flagship. Made to coordinate among senior command.' Grunt realized.
'Exactly.' I agreed.
'Grandfather, You can't possibly be thinking of sending the greatest repository of knowledge in the universe into active combat with Reapers!' Liara protested.
'Look, could I send this off to dark space and leave this as a mausoleum for our successors to find after the Reapers wipe us out? Sure. But that really doesn't do us much good does it. And I can't exactly move the books. There's no space for them anywhere else!' I protested.
'You could have built a separate library and flagship.' Liara unhelpfully pointed out several centuries too late.
'Liara, haven't you ever heard? Knowledge is firepower.' I grinned.
'Grandfather! Tell me you didn't do this all for a pun!' Liara complained.
'Of course not! I only had enough moons to build one facility. And I chose a library. If I'd had more resources I'd have made a dedicated flagship.' I explained.
'Grandfather there's no difference between this and a flagship.' Liara insisted, wrongly.
'A dedicated flagship would have more guns, and be more maneuverable.' Grunt corrected. He really was my best student.
'Exactly!' I explained.
'If you knew that the Reapers were coming, why didn't you build a dedicated flagship?' Liara asked, reasonably.
'Well, because of the pun, obviously.'
Liara groaned and held her head in her hands for a few minutes. We all politely stared at her in silence as she did it.
'Right. Right. How could I have missed that? It's so obvious.' Liara finally admitted before taking an unusually deep breath.
'So then... What next?' Liara asked, finally.
'Next? We take the Library to Omega and introduce Javik to his new base. And you to Javik, I suppose. It's going to be a busy six months, setting up all the command infrastructure we need. Shepard and Kaidan are unavailable to help, so we're going to be doing as much as we can to shore up things prior to the outbreak of war. Don't worry, it's just a few errands, nothing too big.' I explained.
'Grandfather... What do you mean by... A few errands?' Liara asked.
'Well, no one is likely to dedicate military assets until they see the Reapers for themselves. So right now, the most important thing we can do is get everyone on the same page working together. That means we need diplomacy. If we want a peaceful post-Reaper galaxy we can't let Javik start setting foreign policy. We need to establish norms, allies, and polities. We need laws and a functioning government. Aria and the Humans have given me the perfect idea of just how to do that.'
'Right. A few errands then.' Liara nodded, looking oddly untroubled.
'Will it get me my navy faster?' Grunt asked.
'No idea. But it probably won't make things slower.' I admitted.
'Well, your plans have worked so far Grandfather. So, let's run a few errands.'
I grinned.
'Now, take a seat! I think it's high time that I taught you two scamps how to drive!'
'So, Charr, how are you enjoying your new workspace?' I asked, more out of courtesy than actual interest.
'It's certainly big. Are you sure it even needs a chief engineer? Everything's already automated.' Charr asked, confused.
'That works fine while everything goes to plan. But this is all run by VI, not AI. The systems can't really adapt to new circumstances or situations, and well, we're going to be flying into combat, so things going according to plan isn't at all likely.' I explained.
Charr stared at me as if I had just told him the sky was blue instead of the reddish orange that all Krogan viewed since birth.
'Krell, you apparently revived a dead empire with just a couple words and knowing where to dig.' Charr reminded me.
'Charr, there are two important elements of any plan. The first is setting up the situation so that no matter what the outcome you win, and the second is remembering to smile the exact same way no matter what the outcome. Having a chief engineer around in case something goes wrong is the first, and I've been practicing my smile for centuries.'
Charr nodded as if I had dispensed some great manner of wisdom.
'I didn't expect you to need me for my engineering when you told me to; come with you if I wanted to live, back on Tuchanka.' Charr admitted.
'What were you expecting me to do?' I asked, not certain why Charr was confused.
'I don't know? Coach me for a poetry death match?' Charr asked, uncertain.
'Is that a thing? No one told me that was a thing...' I grumbled.
'It could be?' Charr said.
'Look Charr, a Krogan needs to be open to learning new things all the time. You never know when some bit of arcane knowledge locked in your head will be the key to saving the galaxy.' I admitted.
'Does that happen... often?' Charr asked worried.
'Knowing where the last living Prothean life vault was was some pretty arcane knowledge.' I pointed out.
Charr blinked. 'Huh.'
'I saw in you something that I wanted for this job.'
Honestly it was true. Though what I saw in Charr had less to do with his skills at... anything, and more to do with his willingness to recite terrible poetry in public without an ounce of shame in order to achieve his goals. That was a useful mentality, after all.
Despite my best efforts the profession of poet wasn't exactly... popular among Krogan. I was thought of more as a warlord with a hobby rather than a master of words. Which... Well, I disagreed with that characterization. If anything I was a teacher first and foremost, and Krogan tended to never even think about that part of my resume!
Either way, poetry was considered a hobby at best, and something of a shameful one unless you were excellent at it. That immunity to shame was the important quality that Charr possessed. And as a teacher it was my duty to nurture such a gem!
'Really?' Charr asked like an eager puppy.
I nodded solemnly.
'What was it?' Charr asked.
'Your willingness to put your ego aside in pursuit of your goals. You stood on an Asari planet reading your own poetry in order to win your wife's love. That's a kind of bravery that far too few Krogan value. And it's especially useful in someone who is leading a team.' I explained. I hadn't actually given him a team yet, hadn't recruited them, but I'm sure that that would handle itself soon enough.
Charr blinked.
'You'll understand in time.' I smiled heading for the door.
Charr nodded.
Good kid. Hopefully he'd learn something.
Author's Note: So I got a new job in February. I'm finally settled in, so that means that posting is going to continue, but I do need to do some rereading and re-planning on this, and also my new job needs a bit more time than my old job of being self-employed and taking only cases that interested me did. That's all that I'm going to talk about my job here, because I don't really want to mix these two aspects of my life, but I did want you all to know that this story isn't dead, it'll just take a bit longer between chapter releases. I'm aiming for one a week, so I'll probably land at either one every couple of months or one every two days depending on how fast my backlog of chapters fills up. So far I have about 10k words in a mixture of outlines and finished chapters, so don't expect Chapter 47 any time this week.
Anyway, This chapter title is perhaps a more literal interpretation of the Tiffany hit, but I think it fits.
