Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: I'm surprised at how quickly I was able to get this one done, even with some of the added research I had to do. I'm hoping to continue riding that wave. Enjoy!
Episode 63: The Revenant of Eden Prime [Part I]
The old Whistling Mountain mine yard was a warren of buildings and rail tracks. Their landing zone had once been a staging ground where a crane arm transferred ore onto vehicles, to be taken to the foundry and mill in town. The tangle of long-unused tracks that connected it to the mine was still in place, now little more than obstacles and a tripping hazards covered in a layer of oxidized ore dust giving the ground a patched, partly-rusted appearance.
The structures around the yard, the largest was the mine's life support station. It housed the mine's fusion power plant and the enormous blowing apparatus that could force breathable air underground. Two massive conduit pipes emerged from the building's roof and ran into the mine's main entrance. The bigger of the two carried the air, while the smaller protected the power lines. Aside from that there were the smaller buildings. One obviously sheltered the miniature mine trains, but Shepard could only guess at what the others were for.
The mine's main entrance was unmistakable. The main entryway was a tunnel at least ten meters in diameter. After the mine's closure the company closed it with a metal barrier that looked like it could withstand a nuclear blast. Its bottom half was practically all one set of large, heavy-looking doors held shut with chains as thick as Shepard's wrist and heavy tumbler padlocks equipped with anti-cutting guards. It was plastered with warning plaques in multiple languages to tell any would-be spelunker about the various deadly hazards within, as well as the heavy fines for trespassing and unauthorized access.
Carl surprised her by announcing that in the hours since their meeting on the beach a couple of his friends had dropped by the mine to set one of the mine train locomotives to charge. It was a bit of favor-pulling, as the power came from Blackrock via an emergency line. The mine's own fusion reactor was a no-go, as its fuel tanks were empty, and it was behind on maintenance, thus unsafe to power up. The management would never foot the maintenance and fuel bills. As a result they did not have enough power to run the blowers. Though even if they did, it would still take days for the sensors in the deepest sections to report adequate oxygen levels.
Setting up the mine train took time. The diminutive locomotive had a small enclosed cab for its driver, to transport crew it had to be coupled to a crew car, a claustrophobic sheet metal box with a cage top and two long benches mounted on train wheels. Behind it they added a flat cargo pallet car, to take their equipment with them. Yet Shepard could read between the lines there. The amount of equipment still on site hinted things about the company's plans. They had not discarded the thought of re-opening this part of the mine.
After the little train was ready to go, Carl, Denis, and Kaidan spent a good fifteen minutes shuttling gear from the equipment truck onto the cargo car. The miners brought everything from spare scrubber filters and masks to various types of hand-held digging gear and meters of rope. They also packed enough food and water to feed themselves for three days. The generator in the other truck was to be used for recharging equipment, if needed.
While they did that, Liara busied herself with her own equipment case. From what Shepard had seen, the archeologist had a rather fancy-looking terminal and quite the collection of various peripherals on top of the more standard tools of her trade. All of it was currently clean, but Liara's eagerness showed that she was not above getting her hands or bright white, blue-accented armor dirty in the name of her work.
In the end, Carl muscled the heavy mine doors open so that Denis could drive their train inside. The rest of them walked inside after it, but without going far, as Carl had to close and latch the door behind them. It gave Shepard a moment to look around. The main tunnel was indeed about ten meters in diameter, its ceiling was supported by regularly-spaced metal beams and debris netting. The two conduits from the life support building continued right into the mountain depths, but the larger of two now had regularly-spaced nozzles through which it could release breathable air. If the blowers had been operational that is. The smaller conduit supported regularly-spaced yellow-tinged lighting elements. These were not exactly powerful to begin with, and about a tenth had not even turned on. Still, they managed to banish the total darkness well enough.
With the doors closed, Carl climbed up on the cargo car, opened one of the cases, and pulled out a large portfolio of detailed and laminated tunnel maps with a flourish. Then he laid it across Liara's kit crate and turned to look over his shoulder, "Alright, Commander, what's your plan?" He asked eagerly.
Shepard climbed onto the pallet car after him. "Yesterday you mentioned three sections with an unusual quantity of lodestone. Where is that?" She asked, her eyes already locked onto the first page that covered the mine's topmost level. From what she could see the main tunnel ran into the mountain and then turned to descend underground. But between here and there it also spawned a number of other tunnels in every cardinal direction, each labeled by a Greek letter. Those in turn branched out into numbered chambers. Faced with this much ground to cover she could not help but wonder if they had bitten off more than they could chew.
"Ah yes. I figured you would be interested in those." Carl said as he flipped a folio sheet to show the mine's second level. "As you can see, the main tunnel we're in right now goes out west, branching into tunnels alpha, beta, and gamma, then it curves and descends into the mountain. The sections you want are in the delta section below us." He ran his finger down the tunnel that ran west. "Chambers five, six, and seven-" he poked each with his finger as he spoke, "had the highest concentrations. We could throw nails at the wall and they'd stick."
"Great. I think we'll stop by there first," Shepard looked up from the map. "Doctor T'Soni and I discussed the possibility of using the lodestones as an indicator. We'll collect some samples and analyze their magnetic field lines, to see whether they point with a single, more powerful magnetic field. It might tell us where to put in the shovels, so to speak."
"Sounds like a plan! But you are right about the shovels. All of this will have to be done manually. We don't have enough power to operate the cutting equipment," Carl said.
"It wouldn't be safe to power up the cutting wheels," Denis slipped in. "They're also behind on maintenance. And we can't test for rock integrity. We don't want to cause a cave-in."
"That too!" Carl flicked a hand in Denis' general direction.
"A little manual work never hurt anyone. Besides, there must be an actual entrance into that facility. The Protheans would have wanted to keep this installation well hidden, but not inaccessible." Shepard figured it would be best to continue referring to the ark in general terms. She did not want the miners to spook at the thought of digging under a Prothean cryogenic stasis colony that might have turned into a tomb.
Carl hummed thoughtfully, low in the back of his throat, but said nothing.
"Also if nails stick to those walls, the lodestone will be right in the face and we can pry some out. That's not a lot of digging," Liara offered cheerfully.
"That is good point," Carl beamed.
"The Commander made a very good point that you overlooked," Denis announced suddenly.
Shepard turned to face him, and she was not the only one to do so.
"You were right to think there should be an entrance into the place. I think I may even know where. And Carl…" Denis glanced at his friend meaningfully, "It's not down in the delta section. That was cut later. Do you remember the original layout? There was a giant cleft here that was widened to form this main tunnel. We started alpha and beta off natural gaps in the rock, but remember the weird chamber off alpha, I think it was number... three?"
Carl all but jumped as his eyes widened. "Denis, you're a genius. You know that? I forgot about alpha three! We never did clear it fully! It would be just the right sort of joke the universe would pull, wouldn't it?"
"Where is alpha three?" Shepard asked.
Carl did not say a word, he just turned the map portfolio back to the first page and pointed at a tunnel running west right off the curving section of the main passage. Then he ran his finger down its length as it turned southwest, and finally stabbed his finger at the chamber marked with the number three.
Shepard noted that alpha was narrower than the main tunnel, there was just one line of rail running down its length where-as the nearby north-running beta tunnel had two. Alpha also had just four chambers while the other sections had as many as eight. Alpha three was on the farthest end, in the very depths of the mountain, and drawn without a back end. This meant that the miners did not know how far it actually went.
"Alpha is the oldest section of the mine. It's actually this same natural cleft in the mountain, continuing deeper in. We did not widen it fully because every chamber off it produced very little ore. Instead of going west on this level, we curved and went underground. Section delta is immediately below alpha's even numbered chambers, and it had a lot more ore."
"This whole mine was cut into a natural cave system. That allowed us to set up our operation much faster than if we went blasting in," Denis added.
"Alpha three was as the very tip of that natural feature, and already caved in. We partly cleared it, just to check for ore, but there was none. Don't you think that's already weird? This is a long-extinct shield volcano, so all the iron here is intrusive. The formation should be almost homogeneous, yet alpha seemed to be just… empty!" Carl went on.
"So what are we going to do?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard stared at the chart in front of her. The chamber in question was never fully cleared, that would mean moving a lot of rock. It was a backbreaking task none of them signed up for. Did she want to commit to the task, only to end up wrong? The answer was a resounding no. She needed some indication that there was an ark inside this mountain before she could justify such an effort, and the resources it would take.
"I think we should test Doctor T'Soni's technique first," Kaidan broke his silence.
Shepard looked back at him and smiled. "Took the words right out of my mouth, Kaidan. It would be much easier to start with the tests. I don't know about you, but I don't feel like busting my back shifting rocks if there is nothing inside this mountain. This is a super likely location for the facility, but not a certainty." After all, Nabu had showed her Eden Prime as a location, essentially pointed at a hay stack and ordered her to search it. Then there was the fact that the Protheans had been discussing building the arks. There was a higher-than-zero chance that they never actually started or finished them. She would hate to be the cause for such a colossal waste of time for everyone involved, and it would be more than a little embarrassing on top.
"Alright," Carl closed the portfolio with a thud, and stuck it back into the supply crate. "Guess we go down to the tunnel delta."
"I'll drive, you give them the safety speech," Denis said, turned, and made his way toward the locomotive.
Carl clapped his hands hard, and though he wore gloves, the sound still echoed. "Alright, people. Let me run you down a not-so-brief safety lecture, straight from our manuals." He paused there, looking at each of them in turn. "First rule, helmets stay on at all times. Loose ore does drop from the ceiling. Second rule, mines are always a collapse hazard, we're not on an asteroid with weak gravity. This part of Eden Prime also gets quite a bit of rain, so any seeping can erode the rock and damage supports. Furthermore, the water can pick up sulfur from the rocks and turn caustic. Do not touch pools and puddles. Third rule, the air might become unbreathable as we descend. Mines can present a deadly hazard through a combination of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, or even radon. Yes, radon. If you hear any high-pitched beeping, that's either Denis' and-or my detector going off." He tapped at the small device attached to his overalls for emphasis. "If that happens we mask up immediately."
Shepard grimaced. Radon was radioactive, and exposure would mean a visit to the med bay and running decontamination on all their gear. It was more of a fuss than dangerous, but Shepard could do without it.
"Our suits have their own detectors too," Kaidan noted.
"Good. Even better!" Carl beamed. "Now I'm going to run you down the specifics of this mine. Up front, there are no fossil fuel deposits in this area of Eden Prime, so the risk of flammable methane is low. That said, this mountain is an extinct shield volcano. So if you smell rotten eggs, that's plain ol' volcanic sulfur. A collapse can release a pocket of trapped gas, and it will stick around. We'll have to mask up. Again, listen for our detectors."
"Don't forget to tell them about Code V!" Denis called from the locomotive.
Carl stuck his hands into his pockets. "Right. Who can forget Code V? Well, people… Code V is literally the worst case scenario. This mine only goes down one hundred meters. It was closed before we reached a depth where geothermal heating becomes a factor. But… this was a shield volcano. It probably hasn't erupted in many thousands of years even before the Protheans built in it… but… we can't be a hundred percent sure that the hotspot beneath us is truly extinguished. As such… if we come up on a space where the air is too warm, that means there's a lava up-well nearby, and that's super bad news. We leave right then and there."
"What are the odds of that?" Kaidan asked.
"Truthfully…" Carl shrugged, "Very slim. Our seismometers would pick up any stirrings long before lava gets up here… but Code V is in our manuals just in case. Volcanoes are rich mineral sources, but they come with additional hazards. We have protocols for everything! But I've just about covered the most important parts."
"Thanks for letting us know," Shepard said. When he said that it would not be a brief lecture, he meant it. Still, Shepard could appreciate the miners wanting to ensure no one got hurt. Even if one part of it had to be corporate pressure. Visitors injuring themselves on company property inevitably resulted in extra paperwork.
"Rotten eggs is not the description I would use for sulfur, but I suppose that is a species thing," Nihlus murmured.
"Oh, right!" Carl smiled sheepishly, "I forgot dextro folk perceive smells differently."
"The salient point is that we should be careful if the air smells strange," Liara murmured as she adjusted her helmet.
"I do apologize, Spectre. I should have phrased it like Doctor T'Soni."
"It is fine, I got the basics," Nihlus replied as he turned to make his way toward the crew car.
"Alright. Does anyone have any questions? Now's the time, folks," Carl announced.
Shepard glanced around, no one seemed particularly eager to ask anything. As far as she was concerned, the whole thing was rather straight-forward. Mine safety was kind of like general cave safety, and one part of her training had been about environmental hazards. ICT graduates could never be sure where a mission would take them. By necessity their survival and hazard mitigation training was extensive.
"Alright then… we can proceed!" Carl declared after the silence lingered.
About fifteen minutes later they were on their way. The train, already barely faster than jogging, had to slow down as it came around the bend, and it did not pick up speed even as it began to descend to the second level. On the slope connecting the levels there was less lighting elements, and a good half did not work. Fortunately the debris netting continued unbroken, along with the massive conduit pipes.
Shepard watched her HUD readings the entire way. She would rather avoid dancing with death by being slow to realize they the air was becoming toxic. Much to her surprise though, the air quality only took a slight dip. If they kept their breathing rates in check, it would not be a problem. Ultimately physics was on their side, as deadly gasses were heavier than oxygen and would settle into the mine's lowest reaches first. The second level was only about twenty meters below the first.
At the bottom of the ramp they encountered a mechanical issue. The track switch that should have opened to allow the train to continue into the Delta tunnel was stuck closed. It meant they had to stop while Denis and Carl cleared the debris that fouled the moving parts, preventing the switch from working as intended.
Once they entered the Delta tunnel, Shepard noted a further dip in the oxygen level. Carl tapped at his detector, but the device remained silent. When Denis said that his device was also not responding, they deemed it safe enough to continue as is. In a few more minutes Denis stopped the train in front of chamber six on their right, with Delta five behind them and seven in front, on the left.
The tunnel here was no brighter than the one above them, but the passage was still rather tidy and free of large debris. The supports so far had proved quite resilient despite two decades without maintenance. However, even before the locomotive stopped humming and its front light turned off, Liara rushed out of the crew car, turning on her helmet lights as she went toward the equipment car.
Shepard got up and followed. Whereas Liara was plainly eager to get to work, Shepard did not want to spend a lot of time on the train for another reason. The car was too narrow for her leg length. Now she understood why Legion had taken one look at it and opted to sit on the equipment car instead. The locomotive was hardly a bullet train, so their platform's mass was more than enough to keep them in place.
As Liara began to climb up onto the rear car, the geth rose to their feet. A moment later they reached down and offered their hand for her to take. Liara did not think twice about accepting the help. Shepard smiled, jumped down from the crew car, and started on her way toward them.
Carl caught up to her within seconds, seemingly no less eager. "Anything we can do to help, Doctor T'Soni?" He asked.
Liara opened her kit crate, but stopped. "Oh, sure. I'm not going to do anything all that complex. I just need to mark the bits of lodestone, to show me how they fit into the rock faces, before they are extracted. That's important if we want know whether their poles point in a single general direction."
"Easy enough," Carl replied as he climbed up onto the car and moved toward the large toolbox. He opened it and pulled out a rock hammer, a chisel, and slipped both into loops on his harness. A moment later her grabbed another set, slammed the box shut with his knee and jumped down from the car.
Liara took out her mobile terminal, tucked it under her arm, and went on to dig through the case for the correct sensor peripheral she needed. When she found it, she straightened and turned around. "This will probably be exceedingly boring for you, Commander."
Shepard shook her head, "I can do with boring after the last couple weeks."
Liara chuckled, jumped down from the car, and followed Carl toward chamber five.
Shepard turned her head, "Legion, think you can lend them a hand finding the lodestones?"
"We will assist Doctor-T'Soni." The geth announced as they moved toward the car's step-ladder.
Shepard found it somewhat amusing that the hardiest member of her crew was the one who used the steps rather than jump the meter difference between the car's flat bed and the ground. When Legion followed Liara, she turned to watch them go. By then the others had climbed down from the crew car, but only Denis made his way back. When Carl passed by, he handed him the spare hammer and chisel, and then both turned toward chamber five. Shepard was perfectly content to watch them until they vanished out of sight.
"What should we do?" Kaidan broke the silence after a good thirty seconds.
"Good question," Shepard murmured. She would leave the science work to Liara, as this was definitely out of her field of expertise. "I have to wonder… just how close did the miners get to the ark?" She glanced toward the tunnel's dead end. Could the facility be so close that the miners barely missed cutting right into it?
"As long as we do not touch, we should be fine looking around," Kaidan offered.
Shepard chuckled, as usual, he had read the general direction of her train of though. "You're right, and we have no reason to stand around doing nothing." With that said she started toward the tunnel's end.
It was not a long walk, only about a hundred meters, and with the locomotive no longer humming, the only sound was the echo of footsteps. Nihlus fell in step at her side, but like her, he seemed focused on not tripping or rolling an ankle on a railway tie or piece of debris instead of talking. This gave Shepard a moment to consider the inexplicable feeling that seemed to guide her. Whether it was it just an instinct, or something extra that Nabu had slipped her, it offered a definite certainty. As irrational as it was, she felt sure that the ark was in this mountain.
The tunnel here was as large as the one above them, and lined with more metal beams and debris netting. The rock face itself was a mix of material, covered with marks left by the teeth of the digging equipment that had chewed on it. And although she was not a geologist she knew that the wide dark bands and thinner lighter ones were different materials. Some bits even glimmered if the lights caught them just right. Shepard raised her wrist and passed it along the wall, and it was not long before she felt the lodestone tug at her exo-frame, which confirmed the presence of natural magnets.
"It is a wall," Nihlus stated.
"You don't say," Shepard replied, rolling her eyes, not that he would be able to see that. "I didn't expect it to magically open for me or anything. I'm not crazy. Just… curious."
"Are you convinced that the ark is there?" Nihlus went on.
"I'm not convinced of anything." That was a harmless lie, all considering. She did not want people to think she was crazy. "Eden Prime is a big planet, and there is no guarantee that the arks were ever built. That said… Nabu seemed convinced that they were to be built, and that Eden Prime was one of the planets chosen. This mountain? I'm mostly going off a hunch… but that's all it is. I'd hate to be wrong."
"Mistakes happen, Commander," Kaidan stepped in, calm as ever.
Shepard hummed and turned away from the wall, to face her team.
"Besides," Kaidan went on, smiling one of his warm lopsided smiles. "This isn't the worst sort of mistake someone can make."
"Is it crazy that I want the ark to exist… to be here?" Shepard asked as she started on her way back toward the train.
"Not at all," Nihlus replied. "It would mean that the Protheans are not truly extinct. Wishing for the best outcome is not a bad thing."
"Optimism is not a crime either," Kaidan finished.
Shepard stopped dead in her tracks as the words washed over her. It was like something clicked in that moment. That was the crux of it all. Bringing the Protheans back, if it was possible, was the right thing to do. She wanted to find a whole and functional colony. That was the stirring of her idealism, which was normally tamped down with cynicism. She was still trying to tamp it down. Her unease was caused by metronome-like swinging between the two opposites. The echoing sound of a rock hammer tapping on metal brought Shepard out of her thoughts and back to reality.
"Sounds like Liara found her sample," Kaidan stated.
"Yes," Shepard replied, turned and started toward the source of the noise.
It stopped before she could enter the chamber, but when she did, she spotted Liara already fast at work. Legion held the mobile terminal up and open, allowing the archeologist to pass the sensor peripheral over a pillbox-sized chunk of black-colored rock without tangling up in its cord or touching anything that could throw off the readings. Her gaze was on the terminal's monitor. Simultaneously Legion's own sensor suite was trained on the lodestone, and that told Shepard that the geth was also studying the rock. Carl and Denis stood nearby, silently watching the whole thing.
"What's the news?" Shepard asked.
"Oh the news are very interesting!" Liara replied as she briefly looked away from the monitor. "We found two pieces of lodestone right in the face. The magnetic axis of both so far seems aligned in the same direction. Right west! I want to find a few more samples from other chambers just to make sure, but this is beginning to look promising!"
Shepard nodded. She would not jump for joy yet, because a sample size of two did not make for much of a study, but a surge of hope rush through her all the same. She refused to let it show though. Liara and Carl were excited enough for the rest of them. "Legion, you're verifying everything?" She asked.
"Correct. We confirmed that the magnetic fields of the collected samples are indeed aligned. However, Doctor-T'Soni's statement regarding the direction of alignment is not imprecise."
"Oh? Can you refine the readings?" Liara asked as she set the sensor tool on the terminal's keyboard.
"Affirmative. We are Geth. Our sensory resolution is superior. You stated that the field lines point west. That is correct only on two of the three axes of space. The magnetic axis of your current sample is tilted eighty degrees. It is not parallel to the ground on which this platform stands."
Liara blinked, but then her eyes widened as realization dawned. "Oh, of course! The Z axis! It points above us?"
"Affirmative. The field lines of both samples point west and above our present position. All presently-available data suggests that the facility Shepard-Commander seeks is above our current position."
Carl hummed thoughtfully, "So what you're saying is… that there might be something in the general direction of the alpha tunnel?"
"Affirmative."
"Alpha three is looking more interesting by the minute," Carl added, tucking his hands into the pockets of his overalls.
"Alright, but we still need to verify everything," Liara said.
"We concur," Legion echoed, but then tilted their head a few degrees, "Addendum: Doctor-T'Soni, we did not intend to imply that your conclusion was incorrect. We merely clarified it to encapsulate all available data."
"Oh, don't worry about it! I can take constructive criticism," Liara replied with a broad smile, "And I'm still figuring things out as well. I could tell you an hour-long lecture on the civic organization of the Prothean Empire, but I admit… hard scientific analysis is not my forte."
"Acknowledged," Legion replied as their emotive plates twitched.
"Legion likes everything to be as precise as possible," Shepard offered. The miners did not need to know that the geth could also shoot an anti-caliber monster rifle precisely as well.
"Nothing wrong with that," Denis murmured.
Shepard figured it was time to steer the conversation back on topic. "Well, I guess we're doing more tests."
"Yes," Liara replied as she tucked the ore sample into a pouch on her armor belt, closed the terminal, and took it from Legion's hands. "Thank you, Legion."
"You are welcome, Doctor-T'Soni," Legion replied.
"Shall we move on to the next chamber?" Liara asked as she glanced at each of her three assistants in turn.
"Follow me, Doctor," Denis replied and started on his way toward the chamber entrance.
Liara followed without saying another word.
Legion lingered for a good second before they too followed her.
Carl stayed put, and once the three of them were out of immediate earshot, he turned to Shepard, "Is Legion really a Geth, Commander?"
"Yes. They're a hundred percent genuine Geth."
"I heard stories about the attack, and I was unsettled by its presence. At first. But now? It seems… I don't know… helpful."
Shepard hummed under her breath. Chalk another one down under the times she had to explain it, but she did not mind. "The Geth have factions, just like everyone else. The ones that attacked Eden Prime belonged to one. They chose to use force to get what they wanted. Legion comes from the majority of geth who stay within the Perseus Veil."
"And that's the truth?" Carl asked.
"Mister Fenton, I was the one who sent the violent ones packing," Shepard figured it had to be said, even if it was a smidgen more information than she needed to share.
Carl froze and his eyes widened, "No kidding? You are the Commander Shepard?"
"In the flesh," Shepard replied.
"Then I will apologize, ma'am. I didn't realize. Denis is going to want to know!"
Shepard chuckled, his reaction was, as Legion would say, within expected parameters.
"I suppose it makes sense that you would know a good geth from a bad one, and might have one around. You're a Spectre too."
Nihlus laughed, "Oh no, her being a Spectre has nothing to do with it. Most of us would shoot a geth on sight. Shepard is the only one who would talk to them first."
"Well if there are peaceful ones, why not?" Carl asked.
Shepard rolled her eyes. At least Nihlus had the decency not to mention her so-called 'mothering tendency'. "What can I say? I prefer achieving a peaceful resolution. The easy solution is almost never the right one. I guess that makes me a champion for lost souls and causes." She gave Nihlus a meaningful look. "We're friends, aren't we?" She added, affecting all due innocence. Let him figure out if he was a lost soul or a lost cause.
Carl turned away, but Shepard caught him smile.
Nihlus' mandibles began to tick against his jaw.
Shepard took the silence as him waving the white flag. "Let's not leave Doctor T'Soni waiting," She smiled, turned, and started on her way toward the chamber entrance.
"I do believe you walked right into that one, Spectre," Kaidan murmured behind her.
"I have a habit of doing that," Nihlus admitted.
"You said it, not me," Kaidan replied.
Shepard heard three sets of footsteps, each with a unique cadence, start behind her back. By the time she reached chamber six, Liara and Denis had already started their search of the walls. The miner used his chisel as a crude sensor, passing it over the wall until he felt a tug from a permanently magnetized lodestone. Liara adopted the same technique, though with a hexagonal nut she must have found somewhere.
Then, quite suddenly the nut slipped from Liara's grip and stuck to the rock wall. "Here's a good one!" The archeologist called quite giddily.
Denis was almost immediately at her side with his chisel and rock hammer. As Shepard watched, Denis scored an arrow mark into the lodestone with a nail, to tell Liara how the stone came out of the wall, and then carefully chipped it out. While he worked, Liara set up her terminal. Legion once again volunteered to hold it up.
When Shepard looked back, she found that Nihlus had wandered off and perched on the edge of the crew car's steps. Meanwhile Kaidan assumed position near the chamber entrance, diligent in his duties. Still, his gaze seemed to wander, it was patently obvious that he was bored. When the tapping stopped, Shepard turned back around. Liara had already begun her analysis, and Denis was back at the wall, looking for a second sample.
A minute later Liara reached over to tap a key on the terminal, and looked up at Legion, "It's the same, isn't it?"
"Affirmative. The magnetic axis of sample three points in the same direction as the axes of samples one and two."
"Excellent!" Liara slipped the sample into her pocket and then turned to the terminal to make some notes.
"Once is a chance, twice is a coincidence, but three times? That's beginning to look like a pattern," Denis stated. "And Doctor... I found and scored sample four." He tapped on it with his chisel. "Do want me to extract it now?"
"Yes, please!" Liara replied.
Denis turned back to the rock wall and commenced chipping out the nugget of rock.
"If sample four is consistent with the previous three… I think we should move on to see what's up in the alpha tunnel," Shepard stated. As far as she was concerned, this was a repeat of what had happened on Mars. The ark's power core had aligned the magnetic axes of the ferrous materials around it. Perhaps it had even magnetized some of the ore.
Before Liara could reply, Denis stepped up and held out a black-colored chunk of ore that was easily half the size of Shepard's fist. "This is a big one. Haven't seen one like it in a while," he said.
"Even better. That means its magnetic field will be stronger," Liara replied as she took the rock.
Behind her, Legion had already trained their sensory suite on the sample.
Liara picked up the sensor rod, tapped the key to start the scan with her pinky, stepped back, and started to move the rod over the rock.
Legion's emotive flaps rose at the back as the iris rotated to narrow the light beam. The smaller lights at their temples flickered as the sensor suite dimmed almost to nothing.
Shepard stood there and watched. A moment later she heard webbing D-rings clink ever so slightly against ceramics as Kaidan shift around behind her back.
It was probably a good two minutes before Liara's posture changed. She reached over and tapped a key on the terminal even as her hand closed around the rock. Then she turned to Denis, "Well, Mister Benoit, if three times is the beginning of a pattern… what would you say about four?"
"Definitely a pattern," Denis replied without a moment of hesitation.
"So that rock also points…" Shepard trailed off.
"Due west, above us," Liara replied as she set the sensor probe on the keyboard. "What about your results, Legion?"
"The results of our analysis, confirm your conclusion, Doctor-T'Soni," Legion stated as the iris of their sensor suite opened and the light brightened again.
"Excellent! Thank you," Liara smiled at the geth, but then went back to trying to find a pocket where to stash the large ore sample.
Shepard hummed. "Well, that just means our next destination is-"
"Alpha three here we come!" Carl cut in.
"As Mister Fenton so succinctly put it… yes, Alpha three," Shepard grinned, turned, and started on her way out of the chamber. She was not going to quibble at being cut off. Carl was looking at this as pure adventure, who was she to rain on his parade? In some ways that was a breath of fresh air she did not realize she needed. Too much in life had been deathly serious lately. Even Jenkins and Tali had begun to pick up on the heavy atmosphere.
Nihlus rose to his feet the instant he saw her emerge, "Are we done here?"
"Here, yes. Now comes the fun part… the ark seems to be off the alpha tunnel." Shepard replied as she turned to stare at the end of the tunnel. She could not help but wonder, what kind of sick twisted joke would it be if the miners missed the discovery of the millennium simply because they were a surprisingly superstitious lot?
Nihlus hummed, but said nothing.
Shepard heard multiple sets of approaching footsteps and turned, the others were coming their way. Carl looked even more excited now than he was a minute ago. She felt like she was looking at an older version of Jenkins, and that was not a bad thing.
The ride to back up the ramp took longer than the descent. The locomotive's motors lost power, so the train climbed the ramp at walking speed and with a positively deafening electric hum. However, once it pulled its two cars up over the crest the humming died down and the speed picked up. Fortunately the switch that diverted the trains into the alpha tunnel functioned properly, if a bit sluggishly.
The lighting in the alpha tunnel was sparse to say the least. Every other element was either flickering badly, or outright inoperable. The passage was also not very long, only about a hundred meters. Denis drove the train right up to the bumper bar on the end of the track.
When Shepard looked up, she could just about make out the remains of the rock cleft cave that had once been here. The digging machines had widened it into a circular passage, but there were still parts where that had not been high enough to destroy the tip of cleft, leaving a jagged scar running through the rock. The ducts here were also not bolted to the rock, but suspended from it.
"Shepard-Commander, magnetic navigation within this space has been rendered impossible."
Shepard glanced at the corner of her HUD. Her own direction indicator was spinning erratically. "My heads up display compass is oscillating wildly as well, so it's not a malfunction," she replied as she got up and moved toward the chain thrown across the crew cart's entryway. "It has been a bit erratic since the moment we stepped into this mine, but here it's far worse."
"Acknowledged."
"That's kind of normal for this place, Commander. Stay long enough, and you'll start seeing shadows flitting in the corner of your eye and feeling cold spots," Carl stated. "This place plays with your mind. While some of it is natural for a mine rich in magnetic ore… the activity here has always been above anything any of us have encountered before."
Shepard hummed as she jumped down from the crew car.
"I'll say this, the buzz over my implants has gotten worse too," Kaidan announced as he got to his feet.
"Yes, I can feel it too," Liara murmured.
"I can imagine that don't feel good, what with the tech biotics got," Carl said.
Shepard stepped back, to allow the rest of the team to step down from the car. "It's not painful, is it?" She asked. She would probably never understand what they meant by 'a buzz over the implants', but if it was even a little bit like the sensation she experienced whenever someone tried to use their abilities on her, then it was not pleasant.
"Oh no, it does not hurt," Liara replied as she climbed down from the car.
"It feels like I have ants crawling up and down my back and neck," Kaidan replied.
Shepard nodded, "If either of you need to step away, I won't hold it against you."
"I will be fine, Commander! You needn't worry!" Liara said hastily.
"Same," Kaidan smiled.
Shepard knew when to change the subject. "Well, back on topic… this magnetic field can be one of two things. Either there's an insane quantity of lodestone here, or we're close to the ruins."
Carl, who had been looking at his omni-tool looked up as the device turned off. "I don't remember the field being this strong. This has to be new."
"Indeed," Shepard replied. Did the ambient magnetic field really change this much in the two and a half decades since the mine's closure? She supposed it was possible. Which would mean that the ark's power core was in bad shape and still deteriorating. That did not bode well for the odds of finding survivors.
"Well, shall we get to work? Alpha three is the chamber on the left here," Denis stepped in.
"Thanks," Shepard replied as she looked up and then toward the chamber. The remnants of the cleft in the rock continued right inside. The tunnel's dead end wall curved toward it, but in an incomplete way, as if the machine that bored this space had stopped short and the rest of the cutting was done with smaller tools. The chamber's entrance was narrower than any other they had seen. There was also a marked difference in the geological striation and layering in the walls, with wider lighter bands and narrower darker ore-bearing bands. No wonder the miners had stopped digging in this direction.
As she stepped into the chamber, she glanced up. Here the ceiling rose higher and sharper, and the walls bore almost no tool marks, which suggested that the chamber was mostly left untouched. However its full dimensions were tricky to ascertain as the collapse debris started barely twenty meters past the entry.
Shepard stared at the pile and hummed. When the miners had said there had been a 'collapse' here, she imagined a pile of debris sloping toward the opening. But she was looking at something completely different. This so-called 'collapse' was made up of large stones piled up from the floor to the ceiling. The bottom of the pile was all large boulders that must have weighed over a ton each, but those piled on top of them got progressively smaller with each layer. Their fit was also too good, leaving only small, tight crevasses between them. She could be imagining things, but something about that pile did not look natural to her. The sound of footsteps brought her back to the moment and she glanced back. The rest of the team had gathered in the entryway.
"Something wrong, Commander?" Liara asked. She had her terminal under her arm and her helmet lights blazing.
"I don't know," Shepard began. How did one articulate this? "I'm no expert when it comes to this sort of thing, but there is something wrong with this picture," to emphasize the point she flicked her hand at the pile.
Liara hummed and stepped deeper into the room.
Shepard turned to Carl and Denis. "You said this chamber was partly cleared, yes? What material did you remove?"
"Mostly just the smaller, looser materials," Denis replied. "There was no point in moving the larger stones because… well, take a look at the exposed rock wall on your right. There is very little ore in here."
"I noticed that." Truly it was hard to miss something like that, even with an untrained eye. "Something really does not add up. Take a look at the ceiling. It is higher here than in the tunnel outside, as one would imagine with a collapse… but shouldn't it be more irregular? The cleft outside continues in here, and it runs right through where a keystone should be. Now if you ignore it and focus on the overall shape... I see a defined arch there. This chamber was centered on that cleft!"
Both miners turned to stare at the ceiling, squinting at it.
Shepard watched them without saying another word. They really should get a laser device to take measurements, but she very much doubted that her eyes were playing a nasty trick on her.
"It is a little hard to tell," Carl murmured.
"I could be wrong," Shepard conceded, in the interest of diplomacy.
"I will say one thing for this room," Kaidan stepped in as he slipped a hand to the back of his neck to rub at it. "If I did not have my helmet on, the hair on the back of my neck would be upright. The sensation on my amp is spreading across my shoulders now."
"Yes, I agree. It is... unpleasant at this point," Liara added.
Whatever Shepard would have wanted to say died on her tongue as Legion stepped around Liara, Kaidan, and then her, without so much as making a sound.
The geth stopped right in the center of the cleared space and looked up. The large emotive plates on the top of their head rose as their sensor iris turned and wound. Then they emitted a brief burst of geth chatter and their head turned to the right. A pin-prick of light hit the spot where the wall and roof met. A moment later the geth emitted another burst turned their head to opposite side.
"Is it… scanning?" Carl asked.
"I think so," Shepard replied, but truth be told she was not sure. A moment later she decided to just ask, "Legion, is something wrong?"
"Negative." They turned to face her and their emotive flaps reset into their neutral position. "Based on all available data, we concluded a high probability that Shepard-Commander suspects that there was no natural collapse in this chamber. We request confirmation."
Shepard should have known that Legion would figure her suspicions out. She merely hesitated to say anything because it would imply that she noticed something the miners had missed, based on a loose a hunch unsubstantiated by experience. Legion of course had no tact when it came to such things. But had they found anything? "You're right, Legion... I do think that this debris pile is not natural. I mean it is rock, but gravity was not the one responsible for its arrangement." That was the best way she could term it.
"Commander, you think someone arranged the debris?" Denis asked, suddenly deathly serious.
"Yes. My sources tell me that this facility was built in the final period of Prothean Empire. It is a… vault. Concealing its entrance would make sense." That was a bit an intentional misdirection on her part. She highly doubted that the Protheans did it themselves. But the other side would have done it in a heartbeat. The engineering of a deadly toxin spoke of their general certain intent, and the need for ark facilities confirmed it. It was reasonable to assume that if this ark had been discovered, blocking its entrance was was basically entombing the occupants. It was likely the only option available to them, because bombarding a dormant volcano on a garden planet from orbit was a stupid idea.
"If you're right…" Denis murmured as he turned to stare at the collapse pile.
Shepard chose to remain quiet. The realization of just how unlikely it was that the ark was functional hit her hard. Right then she could only stand there and grieve in silence.
"Do not lose hope. Not until we enter the facility itself!" Liara stepped in, adamant in her conviction. "First though, we need to confirm if the door is indeed on the other side of that pile, and I have just the thing!" With that said, the archeologist whirled and rushed off back toward the train.
"Doctor T'Soni is right, there are still things we can try and tests we can run," Denis added, turned and followed the asari out of the chamber.
Shepard blinked, opened her mouth to say something, but the words died on her tongue. Had Liara sensed the turn of her mood? When she glanced back, she saw Legion resumed doing whatever they were doing, and now it turned positively hands-on. The geth was passing their hands over the rocks, seemingly caressing them one moment and tapping at them the next. Their sensor suite was at full brightness, running over the rocks as if the geth was looking for something.
The sound of rushing footsteps snapped Shepard out of her reverie and caused her to turn her head. Liara was back, this time carrying a small device that had a long, thin hose attached. Denis was a few steps behind her, carrying a similar device, with an even longer hose.
"We have endoscope cameras!" Liara announced, brandishing her device for all to see.
"We borrowed one," Denis added, "but Doctor T'Soni having her own is a pleasant surprise."
"Well, it's not standard archeological kit, but I… happen to have more funds than most archeologists," Liara admitted, grinning sheepishly.
"Legion is doing… something," Shepard stated lamely.
"Shepard-Commander, we are performing rudimentary acoustic density tests."
Shepard turned, only to see that the geth had stopped with one hand resting on a large rock.
"We used visual data to calculate the dimensions the rocks, and we can ascertain material density by applying concussive force and analyzing the produced sound. Once complete, we will use the data to estimate the mass of the debris."
"Well, would you look at that," Carl laughed. "Where did you learn to do that?"
Legion's emotive flaps flicked as they turned to face the miner. "We are Geth. The Creators designed us to perform numerous tasks they deemed dangerous. We retained the necessary programming to complete those tasks."
"Guess mining was one of those tasks, huh?" Carl murmured.
"Correct," Legion replied bluntly, turned around, and went back to tapping away.
Right then and there Shepard understood exactly why Legion volunteered to come along on this search. They knew that their advanced sensory and nigh-bottomless well of collective experience would prove useful. It was also no great mystery why the Geth retained that sort of programming. It was practical. Their society would have to extract resources to build and manufacture their version of basic necessities. She should have even realized as much, because the Heretics had no problem digging in on Solcrum. Apparently the knowledge was quite common as well, because Legion, an isolated unit, still had it somewhere in their memory banks.
The conversation died and before long it was back to business. Liara and Denis joined Legion at the face. Flashlights in-hand, they started feeding the ends of the endoscope cameras into the various crevasses, probing for a spot where the cameras would reach deeper. Shepard stood back and waited.
It was a good half an hour before Denis suddenly tensed up. "Doctor T'Soni, I think I have… something," he announced.
"Can I see?" Liara asked as she set her camera down and flitted to his side, to peer over his shoulder at the device screen in his hands.
Shepard moved closer as well, but turned to Denis' other side to peer in as well.
"By the Goddess!" Liara breathed.
Shepard blinked once, and then a second time. She could not quite believe what she was seeing herself. The screen was mostly dominated by dark material, the surrounding rocks between which the hose end of the camera had passed. Yet there, in the middle of it all, dead center in the circle of light cast by the camera, was a sheet of light grey metal. It reflected the camera's lighting to such degree that there was no mistaking it for anything natural. "That has to be the door," Shepard stated.
"Or its frame. At the very least it's clearly an artificial something," Denis agreed. "It should be… right in front of us, at the camera's farthest reach."
"Can you capture that image? I would like to have it as proof that there is something in there," Liara said.
"Of course, Doctor," Denis smiled and tapped at the device's screen to bring up the menu. With a few more taps he flashed the captured image to every omni-tool in the chamber.
"Well, Commander, those are some damn impressive sources you got," Carl stated.
"Yes, it would seem so," Shepard replied as she took a few steps back. There was no point crowding Liara and Denis. Meanwhile she was suddenly abuzz with thoughts. What were the odds that the very first place she looked ended up panning out like this? Legion could probably calculate them if she asked, but she did not need to. She knew they would be astronomically slim. Which meant that her theories about Nabu's cipher might hold water. He might have encoded something more in there, a preternatural instinct, something like a radar for arks. She would be lying if she said that thought was not disturbing on its own.
"So what now?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard shifted, she could ponder what damage Nabu may have done to her head on her own time. "We need to clear the doorway." It should have gone without saying. It was not like any of them could phase through solid rock. "Unfortunately that is beyond our current capabilities. Even with two powerful biotics, those rocks look… massive. But obtaining additional resources will mean going to Miss Waters, and something tells me she will not be so generous as to give us what we need just because we ask nicely."
"No, she won't," Denis agreed. "She will want to know exactly why we need that stuff, and once she learns about this…" he motioned to the pile with a flick of his hand, "What's behind it will become company property. Even a Spectre will not see what's there for months."
"Denis, you forget that… technically we don't need Miss Waters helping us. And she will not be able to stop us," Carl stated, sticking up a hand. "Now think about it. Do we want the corporates taking the credit for our effort?"
"No... we don't," the Frenchman replied, sounding suddenly very cagey as he spared his compatriot a quizzing look.
Carl threw out his arms and grinned from ear to ear. "Denis… everyone who ever worked inside this mine will want to know they weren't imagining all the weird sensations they've felt! Being right is the best feeling in the world!" He turned to Shepard. "Commander, you need only ask and you'll get all the volunteers you could want. That I'll guarantee."
Shepard noticed the absolute conviction in his tone. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Mister Fenton, but you've already… asked around. Haven't you?" There was no other way to explain that certainty.
"I may have," Carl replied with a blinding smile. "I mean we had to pull some favors. By now I'd reckon everyone who worked in this mine should already know that something is happening in here. We're a small community… potlucks, play-dates, clubs, and the like."
Shepard had a horrible sinking feeling that she had given the miners a reason to stage a mutiny of sorts. They sought vindication all along, and would take whatever they could get, however they could get it. Even if it meant going behind the management's back to use company resources without authorization. In fact, that may just be half the fun for them. But she doubted they could keep it from the suits for very long.
Well, if they were unionized, then it would not matter. The company would find itself up against the union and Alliance Colonial Affairs. Miss Waters and whoever was above her would have to take whatever terms the union and the Alliance gave them. Because if they did not, they would have to deal with a Spectre. Shepard could go straight to the Council with this matter, and hate her as he might, Sparatus would enjoy putting an uppity company in its place for this. In fact, Shepard suspected that she would not have to play that card. The mere threat of Council involvement would probably ensure grudging cooperation from the company.
Denis sighed and shook his head. "If we are already going to do this, then we do it right. First, we can't dig with the blowers offline. This place has some oxygen, but the team we'll need will run it down quickly. We don't need people making mistakes while handling these rocks."
"This chamber's proximity to the entrance should help. You don't need to recirculate the entire mine," Kaidan stated.
"You are right," Denis replied. "With some of the baffles closed, this level will be good to go in a few hours."
"Problem is that Miss Waters will never approve any core maintenance and refueling. Without official approval, the power core is out. So the only other option is… Denis, your friend at the station already pretended he did not see draw on the emergency conduit while the locomotive charged. Tell him we will need to power up the blowers. The station can support them, so it's only a matter of ensuring that no one cuts the emergency line off."
"Figured you'd say that," Denis said. "Consider it done."
"We also need someone to get back up here to check on the blowers, make sure that they don't overload. We can cover up unauthorized use, but a fire is a bit harder to explain. We also need someone to check on the locomotive, we will need it to move the waste rock, but it almost seized up on the ramp. That isn't a good sign," Carl continued, complete with ticking items off on his fingers as he talked.
"I already thought of that," Denis replied.
"Good, but what about the gear?" Carl went on, "We will need to borrow heavy hand-tools and a bulldozer from the other mine. If we get one that's out for routine maintenance they shouldn't notice it gone for a day or two, that's our best bet." Then he turned to Shepard, "Don't worry, Commander. The lot of us have worked at this range so long that we know each other. We'll get it done. You have my word."
Shepard decided that the word 'mutiny' was somewhat inadequate as a descriptive for what she accidentally incited. Hearing Carl run down the list of things they would need showed premeditation. These workers had a system of getting around their employers, they had done it before, and they were not shy about doing again. This was an all-out rebellion years in the making.
Author Notes: Shepard stirs up all the corporate hornet nests, doesn't she? I really tried to speed this up along, but with the strong emphasis on realism in this work… any more cutting of corners and it would be blatant "video game logic". Let's be real the "From Ashes" DLC had Javik's pod laid out for us on a platform nicely. Served for our convenience, I wanted to avoid that.
General Notes:
Abandoned Mines – The hazards Carl mentions in his safety lecture are mostly real hazards found inside real abandoned mines. I felt some responsibility to do research into that. The only embellishment/extrapolation is in the parts about mining in a long-extinct volcano. Even then, I tried to reason out what hazards would be found inside one. Ultimately real abandoned mines are very dangerous. That is fact.
Chapter Notes:
Episode Title – A brief note to state the obvious. A "revenant" comes from the French verb revenir, translated as "to come back". Strictly speaking a revenant is an animated corpse that comes back to haunt the living. It felt apropos here.