Chapter 2-5

The reader may benefit from some context that I myself lacked. While I was sleeping, Pratius made his first appearance in the Forum of Ondyurut in years and made an announcement. He put no effort into disguising his Forerunner carapace. Everyone in Ondyurut Polity, and indeed everyone on Molzhure, saw Pratius and the cords wired into his skull. Here is what he said:

"Citoyens of Ondyurut Polity. Folk of Molzhure. I know my appearance may be startling, but I must talk about you first. Many of you will have heard the rumors already. Yes, the Geth Collective has been summoned to Molzhure. I have seen with my own eyes the signal device that a rogue Yonhet, an outworlder from beyond the Haivattan Gate, used to summon them. There is no doubting the signal device's origins. Before anything else, I will solve that problem."

At this Pratius projected an image of some colossal space station. "This is the design of the Crucible, an antecedent weapon built and fired one hundred and fifty thousand years ago to destroy a synthetic threat. If built and fired, it would destroy the Geth Collective entirely, no matter from where in the galaxy it was fired from. Admittedly, we don't have the time or resources to build this, but the design itself may serve as our deterrent. I suspect the machines are watching. Geth Collective! Synthetic peril of the Perseus Veil! This is an ultimatum. Threaten me or any other Molzhuran, and I will broadcast this design out on every superluminal frequency known to intelligent life!"

The image of the space station faded. Pratius went on. "So much for the Geth Collective. The synthetics will not dare approach Molzhure now. It would make last every interstellar power of the galaxy into an existential threat to them, no matter how petty. The damned Elcor would be able to wipe the Geth out, if they cared to. I have solved that problem. But another problem presents itself, and for me the solution is more difficult."

"This carapace I wear, from which I have drawn the design of the Crucible and other antecedent knowledge, is of Forerunner make. For the past few years, I have kept myself secluded in order to illegally conceal the carapace from our Covenant occupiers. I wanted to build my Association of Erde-Tyrene in peace- here I will publicly acknowledge for the first time that I am the Association's founder- but now the Covenant has found me out. I could make a doomed stand. But to what end? No, I cannot ask all Molzhure to risk Covenant reprisal on my behalf."

"I am announcing my resignation as Ephor of Ondyurut and as leader of the Association of Erde-Tyrene. I will be leaving Molzhure for Ilium, where I will surrender myself to the mercy of the Terminus Exarch." Here Pratius suddenly froze shock still. For ten seconds he did not move one muscle. Then his face spasmed, and he started screaming.

"Fight!" he yelled to himself, or so it seemed to the masses of people watching who were unaware of Dinvat's presence in Pratius' body. "You flightless alien bird, you dodo, wouldn't you rather be an eagle? Fight-" The transmission abruptly cut out.

While Pratius never told the people of Molzhure that he had spoken to the Prophet of Sagacity and that the Prophet had directly threatened to destroy their planet, his decision to surrender to the Covenant cannot be understood without that background. Sagacity hadn't made any hollow threats. Pratius had his Forerunner carapace, but Sagacity had his warships, and in the end the warships counted for more, and Pratius knew it. Backed into a corner, and to the evident disapproval of the Durance sharing his body, Pratius had decided to make the only sensible decision, a decision which should stave off Glass Judgement. But Pratius was still too proud to surrender to Sagacity. His decision to announce a surrender to the Terminus Exarch instead was canny. High Charity's representative on the mass effect relay system had enough weight to guarantee the safety of Pratius and Molzhure, and a character that might lead him to do so. Legally speaking, the carapace probably was more in the Exarch's purview than Sagacity's, and so I wouldn't be able to lodge a formal objection on Sagacity's behalf.

None of that was known or appreciated by the Molzhuran public, which based on the bizarre outburst at the end of Pratius' speech decided that the Ephor was a pitiable lunatic. The Association of Erde-Tyrene fractured. The Erdan rank-and-file did not want to be associated with a leader who surrendered to the Covenant and looked crazy while he did it. Still, they and all other Molzhurans understood that Pratius was a pitiable lunatic who had found some kind of antecedent relic that had drawn the gaze of the Covenant, and even the Geth of all things. They reacted with remarkable equanimity under the circumstances. Whatever else might be said about them, the Batarians and Turians of Molzhure did not panic easily. They fell right into the old anti-piracy procedures that had for eight hundred years made Molzhure one of the safest worlds in the cluster. Even the unrest on Taraga went into abeyance. But the Molzhurans were also very impatient that whatever antique Geth magnet Pratius had found be removed from their planet at the first possible instant. They put no trust in Pratius' Crucible gambit.

But Pratius' speech had another intended audience, and that was the audience that was really upset with him.

"B'Norai-Anuranite, why is the politician Pratius-Ephor threatening us with an antecedent superweapon?" the Geth Collective asked me from Va's omni-tool.

I hastily waved Va into the room and closed the door Va had battered. "What are you talking about? Why are you talking?"

"Did you not instruct your associate Va-Colony to repair the signal device we gave to our organic associate Axiperrat-Scrapper and to reach out to us?"

I craned my neck upwards and glared at Va's impassive visor. "I did not."

[Challenge Enemy], Va rumbled in what might possibly have been intended as an explanation.

"Be advised that Va-Colony did not intend diplomatic outreach as such," said the Geth. "Va-Colony intended to goad the Geth to honorable combat, through the medium of formal Mgalekgolo poetry."

I had no idea how to respond to that. I realized dully that I must not be having a nightmare, as I had hoped. I was still too exhausted. When you're having a nightmare, you don't desperately want to go back to sleep.

"We silently enjoyed Va-Colony's eloquent verse structure and imaginative imagery for one hour, as we monitored Molzhure's communications," the Geth went on. "Then, six minutes ago, Pratius-Ephor threatened to destroy us with an antecedent superweapon. We found this perturbing, so we were compelled to interrupt Va-Colony's recitation and request that Va-Colony bring us to the highest authority available. Va-Colony understood this to mean you. Please now explain to the Geth Collective why Pratius-Ephor is threatening to destroy us with an antecedent superweapon."

"Why shouldn't he?" I had no idea what Pratius might have said six minutes earlier, but I didn't feel like admitting that.

"We have never once threatened or intended to threaten Pratius-Ephor or his world. We only wanted to ask him where the Creators flew. It is a harmless question, treading on the interest of no galactic power. We even recruited the organic Axiperrat-Scrapper to ask it on our behalf. We have acted with the highest regard for organic sensitivities."

I couldn't help myself; I laughed.

"We did not tell any joke."

"Harmless question? You kill almost all the Quarians. You hole up in the Perseus Veil and don't speak for three hundred years. You come out, and the first thing you ask is where the remaining Quarians went to. You think that anyone, anywhere, is going to interpret that as a harmless question?"

"Axiperrat-Scrapper did."

"No. He knew you wanted to hunt every last Quarian down. He was just fine with it. You know what? So am I."

"An ignorant statement. We only wanted to be sure that the Creators are safe."

I should have told Va to shut the communication link off, I shouldn't have talked to the Geth at all. Dealing with synths was a sin, and a mortal sin, not a venial sin like assassinating xenoarcheologists or trading in Vorcha. That was the one thing the Citadel Council and the Covenant agreed upon, come to think of it. But I had mixed feelings about the idea of glassing New Celanur, and it was distorting my thinking. "Didn't you hear me? I understand. I don't know why I didn't before. I thought of the Rannoch Massacres as some unacceptable thing, and of the Glass Judgement of Koer as some separate, acceptable thing. But now I see. It's all the same. I can accept everything, now. You don't have to lie to me."

"We are concealing no designs against the Creators. We have no cause to disguise our attitude regarding the circumstances of our self-assertion. Please appreciate that the Geth Collective has voted several times on the matter and has always elected to designate our Morning War as a tragic conflict, rather than the proposed alternative of designating it as a heroic achievement. There. This irrelevant digression is now resolved. Please now explain to the Geth Collective why Pratius-Ephor is trying to destroy us with an antecedent superweapon."

I don't know how I imagined a conversation with an alien computer would go, but this wasn't it. "Are you being… defensive?"

"No. We have nothing to be defensive about."

"Powers of Khar'shan," I muttered. "You are neurotic. You are not a thing of cold rationality at all. You are neurotic, like organics are neurotic."

"You anthropomorphize us. You do not understand us. You judge us. You mock us. We are aware that you, B'Norai-Qelet, are of direct descent from the pirate B'Norai-Degeul, who founded the B'Norai cartel-kin dynasty through wealth pillaged from the Creators when they were refugees at their most vulnerable. Unethical."

"They were running from you! Judge you? Powers help me, I was trying to relate to- forget it. Look. Whatever you want to do with the Quarians, it doesn't matter. No one here knows where they are. They covered their tracks; they wiped that information off Pratius' carapace. You should just leave. Fly back to the Perseus Veil. Stay there another three hundred years."

"The Creators are no longer the primary concern of our expeditionary force. Our primary concern must be Pratius-Ephor's Crucible. It is not tolerable that the design for such a thing should rest in organic hands. Pratius-Ephor imagines his threat will deter the Geth. To the contrary, we had no designs against him before, but he has changed that. The Geth will seize or destroy that carapace through which Pratius-Ephor draws those blueprints. Do not impede us. Do not help Pratius-Ephor flee to Ilium."

"Ilium? Why would he go to Ilium?"

"This is something Pratius explained out loud to the whole planet, eight entire minutes ago. Why is your communication so inefficient? Why is speaking with you so frustrating? Why can you not all communicate more like your fellow organic Va-Colony?"

"Listen, you just now woke me up. I'm not even fully dressed, here."

"This conversation was an error. Our offer to ally with you and work with you against Pratius-Ephor is now rescinded."

"But you never made any such offer!"

"Do not impede us. Do not help Pratius-Ephor flee to Ilium."

The communication link shut off.

[Geth Enemy?], asked Va.

"Yes!" I yelled angrily, as I started to get dressed. "Yes, they are still our enemies!"

After some frantic discussions, I established that Ephor Pratius was trying to escape to Ilium so that he could surrender to the Terminus Exarch. I saw no way to stop him from doing so. My bosses would not be happy. If Pratius told the Exarch that Diligence's side of the Relay Dissension was right, and that Sagacity's was wrong, it could be a critical problem. My bosses would certainly prefer it for Pratius to disappear. But I could hardly explain that to the Varavis Junta, Blessed Protector Kassur, or the loyalist Celanurians, who simply wanted Pratius off Molzhure and saw providing him with transportation as the simplest and quickest way to do it. I had to hope that Sagacity and Arqorit would understand.

The junta requisitioned a ship from some Volus smuggler to transport Pratius to Ilium, the Irune Pearl. We still had no idea how close to Molzhure the Geth were, they still had not been physically sighted, so we were in a hurry to get Pratius onto the Irune Pearl so that the ship could jump out-system before the Geth arrived. But, of course, Pratius couldn't simply travel to Varavis and board the Irune Pearl at the spaceport. That would have been too easy. He was afraid that if he went to Varavis I would try to destroy him there on Sagacity's behalf (which I suppose I might have). Pratius insisted that the Irune Pearl first go into orbit without him, and that he then be taken to the Irune Pearl by a shuttle Pratius would board on "neutral ground," accompanied by a few of his most committed Erdan followers.

Neutral ground on New Celanur meant Sobili Park, a sprawling memorial to Old Celanur's stand against the Turian Hierarchy located in the dead center of the continent. The graves there were equally sacred to all the Celanurian Polities. If I had any last thoughts of convincing Nravian or any other Turian gendarme to help me try and assassinate Pratius before he got to Ilium, this choice of a rendezvous point put paid to them. The idea of betraying the trust of a fellow citoyen on behalf of an alien would be distasteful to the Celanurian Turians under any circumstances, but to do so on the hallowed ground of Sobili Park would be unthinkable.

The space shuttle from the Irune Pearl arrived first. We, the Covenant loyalists, arrived second. As we waited for Pratius and the Erdans to arrive, Ruz gazed over the long rows of Turian tombs. Kig-Yar don't do graveyards. They don't even do funerals, which I think is actually unique, even Huragok and Vorcha do funerals. Kig-Yar have what everybody else finds to be an appalling disrespect of the dead. It isn't disrespect, not to them, just a commonsense distinction between living and otherwise. But there in Sobili Park, Ruz had an uncharacteristically reflective look to him. He pointed at a statue of General Sobili.

"When did this war happen?" he asked Nravian.

She looked surprised that Ruz would want to talk to her after the argument they'd had earlier. "Two thousand years ago."

"And you're all still upset about it?"

"I suppose. Some people get more worked up about it than I do personally."

"How do you do it?"

"How do we… stay upset? It's the Unification War. You grow up upset about it."

"I'm not upset about anything that happened two thousand years ago. I don't think any Kig-Yar is. What happened?"

"Self-righteous homeworld control freaks wanted to lord it over everyone else. And they're still self-righteous control freaks to this day, and they'll lord it over us in the Terminus Systems if they ever get half a chance. Nothing like that ever happened with you guys? No pompous, insufferable, global dictatorship?"

"Before the Covenant came, Eayn never had a global government of any kind. Kig-Yar aren't big nationalists."

"Well, you're lucky."

Ruz shook his head. "We're unlucky. Caste-rank barely above the Unggoy. We found the mass effect relays, we found one dozen new peoples to add to the Covenant, and what did the Prophets see? One dozen new peoples to put above the Kig-Yar. Even you, with all the trouble the Turians have caused. But it's especially you, and it's because you've caused the Prophets such trouble. And I think it's because you do get upset about things that happened two thousand years ago. How do you do it?"

"Oh." Nravian looked unsure of what to say. "I don't… have you tried tattooing your faces?"

I think that Nravian was trying to lighten the mood, but Ruz just kept looking at her earnestly. "No. Would that help?"

"Sure," Nravian sighed. "It's like this. Only an idiot would tattoo their face over something they don't care about, right? And no one wants to feel like an idiot. So, if you tattoo your face with old Kig-Yar symbols or something, you'll have no choice but to care about it, because you won't want to feel like an idiot."

Ruz mulled this over. "It could work. But what about the other Kig-Yar? If I tattooed my face, they would think I was an idiot."

"Yeah. I dunno. Listen, about earlier, I don't think I should have said some of the things I said."

"What things?"

"You know, about how Kig-Yar are all opportunists, and you all eat people. I shouldn't have said that."

"What do you mean? We are all opportunists, that's what I've been talking about. And I've eaten people."

Nravian frowned and shook her head in disgust.

"You've killed," Ruz said. "I've seen you kill. What is this leap aliens see, between doing that and eating the bodies? Do you think it makes a difference to the enemy? They don't even know."

"Maybe there is a good reason the Kig-Yar have been in the Covenant for so long, and yet your caste-rank is still so low," Nravian snapped at him.

"It does all come back to the same thing," intoned Ruz, unoffended, with the air of someone who has come to a great intellectual conclusion. "It all comes back to how the Kig-Yar are the only sane people in the galaxy, and how the galaxy will never stop punishing us for that."

Nravian looked at Ruz hopelessly. "Why are you asking me about any of this?"

"Because the Halos are real," Ruz said. I have never quite figured out how, in Ruz's mind, that was at all related.

The Erdan shuttle from Ondyurut Polity arrived. Pratius exited, surrounded by a few soldiers and a Turian I recognized as Ephor Tanissian, who had been the public face of the Association of Erde-Tyrene. Something about Ephor Tanissian seemed wrong to me, but it took me a moment to realize what. He slouched. I had never seen a Turian who slouched before.

Pratius nodded to us. "This ship, the Irune Pearl, it does have a superluminal transceiver?"

"Yes," I told him. "For the last time, we understand that you require a superluminal transceiver."

"Good. It is not a trivial matter! Without one, I have no deterrent against the synthetic peril!"

"Right. Well, let's you get you on the ship, then."

"One moment." Pratius looked over the space shuttle with his glass orange eyes. "No Anuranite bombs. So far so…" he froze. "Tanissian. It's happening."

Ephor Tanissian quickly grabbed a device from his robes and pressed a button. Ephor Pratius crumpled to the ground.

I stared in bafflement. "What is this?"

"Teacher Pratius has lately fell into some tension with the Durance of Man," Tanissian explained apologetically. "This is a mobility lock we placed into his carapace. It prevents these situations from escalating."

"Tanissian, you vermin!" yelled Dinvat. "Turn that lock off now!"

"I am sorry, Durance of Man, but you know I will not."

From the ground Dinvat called to the loyalist gendarmes. "You all! Do you know why this is happening? It is because the Covenant threatened you. It is because the Covenant threatened to set your continent alight. Yes! The Prophet of Sagacity, that dog of the Forerunners, threatened to glass you. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to be dogs yourselves, grateful to a master who kicks you?"

But the loyalist Turians just snickered at Dinvat. He did look pretty ridiculous, shouting as he lay there on his back. "You'll need a better story," Nravian suggested.

"That one knows!" With his head, for he could not move his arms, Dinvat motioned to me. "The ugly one knows! Ask him, but do not trust him!"

I shrugged and feigned ignorance.

After some more shouting, Dinvat went still, and Pratius assumed control again. The loyalist gendarmes were still snickering.

"Yes, it is a little embarrassing," Pratius weakly admitted. "I do have hopes that Dinvat will come around before we reach Ilium. I do not wish to meet the Terminus Exarch like this. Tanissian, leave the mobility lock engaged. Dinvat is in an aggressive mood."

Pratius' acolytes brought out a gurney and loaded Pratius onto it. They began to push the gurney to the space shuttle.

"Leave me for one more moment," Pratius told them. "Let me talk to the Anuranite about one last thing."

I walked to him and leaned in so that no one else could hear.

"Will Molzhure be alright, if I do it like this?" Pratius asked me quietly.

I shrugged. "It isn't up to me. Turn yourself over to Sagacity, if you want a guarantee."

"No. That one must not have the carapace. That one must not have the Forerunner Domain. That much, I know. I will have to trust in the Exarch." Then Pratius twitched, startled. When he spoke again, he was no longer quiet. "Geth. There is a Geth with a shotgun behind you, walking toward us."

I whirled around but saw nothing. "Very funny."

"You are looking right at it! What do you have four eyes for- no, of course, it's my eyes, it's cloaked. The Geth is cloaked, and it is walking right toward us."

I thought that Pratius might be playing some kind of trick, right up until the moment the air shimmered and a Geth platform flickered into a visible spectrum of light. It did have a shotgun attached to its back, but its hands were raised in the air.

The gendarmes and the Erdans yelled, reached for their guns and scrambled for cover. Only Va stood still and flexed its spines, while Pratius still lay motionless on the gurney.

"We offer a moment of reasoned discussion," said the Geth.

I was crouched behind a tombstone. "Already tried that!" I yelled.

"B'Norai-Anuranite, please be advised that this is an Interlocutor platform. The twelve hundred and twenty-two Geth inhabiting it have been specially selected for interface with organic intelligences, so that we must not need to experience more of the mutual incomprehension which marked your earlier dialogue with the Collective. Please acknowledge the superior social skills of this platform by stepping out from behind that tombstone."

"Nope!" I answered, while peeking out to see what I was up against.

The third and final horrifying being I met on Molzhure was not on my side, or the side of any living thing. For the most part the Interlocutor looked like any other disposable Geth unit, a humanoid figure with a cyclops lightbulb head. But if you looked closely, you could see that the Interlocutor's plain utilitarian frame incorporated decorated patches of what looked like Covenant armor.

"Very well. Please be advised that this Interlocutor platform does not depend upon the less reliable invisibility systems which distinguished earlier models of the Geth Hunter platform. Shortly after the beginning of the Council-Covenant War, a team of Ossoona Sangheili attempted to infiltrate the Perseus Veil. While the Sangheili were detected and handled, their stealth armor was not at fault. The Geth Collective has since incorporated the insights of the Ossoona into its own designs. That is to the advantage not only of this Interlocutor platform, but to the advantage of the numerous new model Geth Hunter platforms now encircling your position. Please be advised that you really are surrounded, whether or not you can see it, and that you really should surrender."