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"Here's what Elias Kelham told me about the Cerberus base on Chasca," Valeria said once everyone sat at the corner table in the mess hall. "There's a team of twenty-eight scientists working on various research projects--'research' meaning simply looking up information, crunching numbers, and so on. There are no experiments going on anywhere in the base, which is good because of so many of Cerberus's previous projects getting out of hand. I'd certainly prefer not to have to deal with any rampaging monsters created in their labs."

"So would I," Chula said. "Cerberus has a bit of a reputation among quarians, so I'm a little surprised that they're keeping a low profile, for once--but I'm not going to complain if we don't run into any super-biotic humans driven insane by their experiments or a pack of rabid, cyberneticized hideosities that used to be normal animals. Though I have to admit, the idea of Cerberus finally figuring out how to be discreet is troubling."

"Definitely. Still, from what Kelham told me, Cerberus is spread pretty thin these days. It was never a big operation to begin with, but they're starting to bite off more than they can chew. Building the new Normandy_and putting Commander Shepard back together after he was blown up with the original _Normandy two years ago, put a strain on their resources, and since then they've gone after the artifacts your clients found on Bekenstein, wormed their way into Kelham's organization with plans to gradually take over the Citadel, and a list of other things longer than Kelham's criminal record. So, when we arrive at Chasca, we'll find a team of mercs guarding Bailey's son. Cerberus simply doesn't have the manpower to spare for it."

"Do we know who the mercs are?"

"Blue Suns. Which means we'll probably be facing a team made up of humans, batarians, and turians. They operate primarily in the Skyllian Verge, but I've heard of them taking on gigs in the Terminus Systems as well, and now we've got a group in Citadel space."

"The Blue Suns are expensive," Magnum said. "If Cerberus sank most of their funds into the Lazarus Project, they must have popped off everything they had left on the Suns."

"Bringing Shepard back from the dead was a massive drain, but they still have some money left. Enough to hire a small team, anyway--we can expect a dozen or so, along with a few mech units for backup. And normally, that would be more than enough to babysit a single human teenager." Valeria sat on the edge of the table and placed her feet on the chair in front of her. "I won't tell you how to do your jobs, but I'd like a minimal body count, if at all possible. I mean, do what you feel is necessary, but I'm hoping I can avoid taking any lives unless they give me no other option."

"You're really worried about that whole 'slippery slope' thing, aren't you?" Chula cocked her head. Her hat started to slip off and she reached up to push it back into place.

"It's easy for a Spectre to cross lines that should never be crossed, often without even realizing it. I just don't want to go too far." Valeria shrugged. "Again, I'm not forbidding you from taking any action you think is necessary. I'm only speaking for myself." She activated her Omni-Tool and tapped a set of its hard-light controls. "Having said that, in addition to the armor I requisitioned, I also authorized several upgrades for your Omni-Tools. Once you install them, your Tools will be able to produce enhanced incendiary and cryo blasts, neural-shock charges, and so on. You'll also have the latest in hacking tools, medical applications, and tech armor to boost your shields."

Magnum smiled. "Nice. Thank you."

"Any time." Valeria held up a talon. "There's one more new function I think you'll like. It's only recently been developed. It's called the Omni-Blade."

"Oh." Quint leaned forward. "Consider my curiosity aroused."

"Once you install this upgrade, your Tool's mini-fabricator will be able to flash-forge a silicon-carbide blade suspended in a mass effect field to protect the user." Valeria held her hands roughly a meter apart. "It's about this long, diamond-hard and searing-hot. Cuts through armor like a hot knife through butter."

"That's the first one I'm installing." Chula laughed softly and tapped a command into her Tool. "I assume it would also be handy for cutting through locked doors and whatnot?"

"Yes. You can also format the weapon to your own preferences. For example, if you prefer a blunt instrument to bludgeon an opponent with."

Quint burst out laughing. "How much you wanna bet Dakka uses hers to forge a huge dildo to beat people's skulls in?"

"She wouldn't be the first person who made an Omni-dildo." Chula snickered. When everyone else turned to stare at her, she shrugged. "Quarians can't get out of these envirosuits unless we're in clean rooms, because of our barely-existent immune systems, and having sex can make us sick or kill us. And when we're on Pilgrimage, we're often alone for several years, not counting brief stops on planets or space stations. Therefore, quarians--speaking generally, that is--masturbate a lot."

"Well, as I recall, you had that asari hottie on Omega." Quint wiggled his eyebrows.

"Yeah, but I didn't take my suit off. It's why I keep my neuro-stim software up to date. You never know when you'll get lucky."

Valeria checked the time on her Omni-Tool and then tapped out a quick text message. "We should be reaching the mass relay any minute, and then it'll take a short while to arrive at Chasca. Enough time for breakfast or lunch or whatever. We kind of left in a hurry, so..."

"Yeah, I think I'll grab a bite to eat." Magnum stood and stretched. "Never go into combat with an empty stomach."

"Sounds good," Bailey said. He activated his Omni-Tool and downloaded the new upgrades. "I didn't think to eat anything before we left. As you might guess, I've got my mind on other things."

Magnum nodded and patted his shoulder before walking over to the kitchen.

"Guess I'll eat something, too." Quint finished installing his upgrades and pointed at the door. "But first I'm going to hit the comm room and record a message for Dakka."

"Tell her we hope she's back on her feet soon," Chula said.

Quint nodded and headed for the door. "She should be out of surgery by now."

"I do have one question," Bailey said. "A minute ago you said Commander Shepard was brought back from the dead." Bailey stared at her with one eyebrow raised. "You want to run that by me again?"

"A little over two years ago, the original SSV Normandy encountered an advanced, extremely powerful ship which belonged to a species known as the Collectors. I saw the flight recorder data that was sent automatically from the Normandy during the battle." Valeria shivered slightly. "The Collector ship took the _Normandy_out with only a few shots. Twenty crew members were killed in the attack, but the rest made it into the escape pods and launched. Shepard was blown through a rupture in the hull seconds before the ship exploded in orbit over Alchera. From what we've been able to piece together, his remains were recovered by the Collectors, who lost him to Cerberus. We're still not sure how that happened, but Cerberus got hold of his body and put him back together. From what we understand, there wasn't much of Shepard left--his armor must have prevented total incineration on entering the atmosphere, but there was so little of him left that it took Cerberus two years to rebuild him with technology they developed for specifically that purpose. If you ask me, it's just about the only good thing that organization has ever done."

"I'll be damned. When he showed up on the Citadel not too long ago, I thought the whole dead-for-two-years thing was a mistake. But he really _was_dead?"

"Extremely. I don't know how they did it, but from what Shepard was told, he's not a clone, or anything like that. They grew new arms and legs and organs, repaired what was left of his torso, added a whole lot of cybernetic implants, and somehow attached everything and got it to work. Restarted his heart and lungs, got his blood flowing again. No idea how he wasn't brain-dead by the time they got their hands on him, but maybe it was something the Collectors did to him. They were really interested in him, for some reason, and Cerberus wanted him brought back exactly as he was before he died."

Weyland spoke up for the first time, and everyone turned to look at him. "We have information relayed from the geth unit stationed on the Normandy. The Collectors were working for the Reapers. They wanted him because he led the offensive against Sovereign's attempted invasion two years ago, and was instrumental in Sovereign's destruction."

"Huh." Bailey rubbed a finger slowly over his chin. "He got their attention."

"That is the current theory. It is also the suspected reason the Collectors began abducting human colonies in the Terminus Systems and were planning to target Earth."

"Well, I'm never gonna sleep well again." Bailey sighed and rubbed his hands over his face.

"The reports Shepard sent to the Systems Alliance," Valeria said, "indicated that Cerberus brought him back and built a new, larger _Normandy_specifically so he could track the Collectors to their point of origin and stop them. Which he did. So that's one thing we don't have to worry about anymore, but the Reapers are still out there."

"I've heard rumors about them. The Council is denying they even exist, but..."

"Once I was reinstated in the Spectres, I had access to the relevant files, mainly the reports from Shepard and his crew, and the data from the scans they ran on the Collectors and their equipment. And everything Shepard and crew learned two years ago, up to the battle at the Citadel. The Reapers appear to be a legitimate threat."

"I wonder why the Council spent the last two years brushing it off as a hoax instead of doing something about it?" Chula shook her head slowly.

"They're politicians. I doubt any of them can see farther than their own personal agendas."

"Typical." Bailey sighed, heaved himself off his chair, and headed for the kitchen. "This is just fucking wonderful."

#

"Lia'Vael?"

Lia looked up from the holo-projection above her palm and found a young human approaching her table with a smile. Several seconds passed as her brain re-engaged with her surroundings.

"Oh--uh, yes, I'm Lia'Vael. What can I do for you?"

"I'm Trenton Lockwood--people usually just call me Trent. Sorry I'm so late for our appointment. I had to jump through a few hoops on the way here."

"Oh, it's quite alright." She nodded at the video hovering above her hand. "I've had this looping for...well, I'm not sure how long. I kind of lost track of time. Oh--please, sit. Sorry, I'm really not used to...um...'transactions' like this."

"No worries." He pulled back the vacant chair and sat across from her.

She picked up the cup of dextro hot cocoa and eyed him while keeping her visor aimed at the cup. She didn't know enough about humans to guess a particular individual's age, but their lifespans were similar to that of the average quarian, and this one was...young. At least, he _looked_young. Old enough to be sexually active, certainly, but possibly underage. She wasn't certain what the laws regarding such things were here on the Citadel, so she would need to be careful.

On the other hand, since she hadn't yet completed her Pilgrimage, she was legally underage, herself. If I'm wrong and he's an adult, I could get him into serious trouble.

She inserted the pre-sterilized straw into the tiny port in her helmet, pushed it through the membrane that kept the outside air from entering her suit, and sipped, while trying to think of a way to escape gracefully if this situation became too dicey.

Trent nodded at the vid as it looped back to the beginning again. "The scenery there is pretty. Looks a lot like the American Southwest. Where is it?"

"Rannoch."

"Your homeworld? Wow. Must be an old archive vid, then."

"Actually, this was recorded about two weeks ago. As far as I know, I'm the first quarian who's ever had the opportunity to see Rannoch as it is now."

"Wow, you've been there?" His smile broadened.

"I wish. There's a pair of geth mobile platforms on my ship; one of them gave me a copy of this vid to cheer me up." She shook her head and chuckled at the weirdness of the situation in which she'd found herself. "It worked."

"I only know the basics about the situation with the quarians and the geth, but I know enough to think it's a little odd that you're working with them."

"Not as odd as _I_find it." She laughed. "It's a long, screwed-up story."

"Well, now I'm curious." He brushed his fingers through his shoulder-length, brown hair, leaned forward and propped himself on his elbows, and smiled.

He's...kind of cute. For a human.

She pulled her gaze away from his brilliant smile and finished the last of her cocoa. She turned to the right and looked over the rail at the edge of the small, "outdoor" cafe. Her balcony table overlooked a large park. Beyond it, a narrow city stretched into the distance, and the five wards--the "arms" of the Citadel station--arched overhead.

"Actually..." Lia turned back to him, leaned closer, and lowered her voice. "Mind if we go for a walk and find someplace private to talk? There's something I need to ask you, but I don't want anyone overhearing the conversation."

"Sure. Anything you want." He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "Well, within reasonable parameters, that is."

_Uh...okay._She stood, stretched, and headed for the nearby stairs leading down into the park. Trent followed her, smiling slightly, as if he already had a good idea what she wanted to ask him.

"You're wondering about my age," he said after they'd spent a few minutes walking slowly among the trees.

"It crossed my mind. By quarian law, I'm not considered an adult yet, so if you are, then you'd be taking a risk."

"Well, don't worry. By human laws, I'm in the same boat. I'm almost legal, but not quite." He chuckled. "I admit, it's what you might call a niche market, but my clients tend to be females who are looking specifically for someone my age. They seem to gravitate toward me for whatever reason, so I went with the flow. I've noticed there are a lot of males who are looking for that as well, but I don't swing that way. I just refer them to a guy who does."

Uh...wow. What the hell? "I assume that kind of thing is illegal here?"

"Yep. My family lives on Illium, and the laws there have a lot more wiggle room. If I'm not misunderstanding them, basically, if you're not actually being harmed, nobody gets too worked up over it." He grinned. "And for me, at least, it's the exact opposite of being harmed, and I get paid for it." He chuckled and shrugged. "Anyway, my parents are here to visit family, so they brought me along."

"Ah, Illium." Lia paused at a tree to run her hand along its side. Her suit's neuro-stim system transferred the sensations into her brain and she smiled. "I was there for a while, before I ended up joining a merc crew."

"I haven't seen many quarians on Illium. Did your Pilgrimage take you there?"

She turned quickly and stared at him. "You know about that?"

"One of my regulars is a quarian. I can't say more than that because of client confidentiality." He smiled and shrugged. "She told me a little about her culture, and the Pilgrimage was one of the subjects that came up."

"Ah. Yes, this is actually part of the long, screwed-up story I mentioned in the cafe." She held one of the tree's leaves gently before letting go and walking on. "I ran out of money and ended up stuck on the Citadel for a long time, and no one was willing to hire me for anything. I became desperate and decided to travel to Illium so I could sell myself into indentured servitude. Figured that was the only way I'd ever have a chance to get back on track." She fired off a bitter chuckle. "Not to mention avoid starving to death."

"Pretty drastic step, but yeah, sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to survive." He glanced at her and raised an eyebrow. "You're still on the Citadel, but you mentioned a crew, so I'm guessing it worked out?"

"It's...still kind of in the process of working out, but I've taken a few steps in the right direction. Just in a really weird way." She took a deep breath. "I kept trying to get hired on as a ship's engineer, but couldn't find a crew who needed one and was willing to hire a quarian. Finally, I happened across a human who was willing to give me passage to Illium, but not by taking me on as an engineer or technician."

"Oh." Trent winced. "I think I see where this is going."

"Right. He wanted sex. Without my envirosuit. Skin-to-skin contact, actual penetration, the works. He either didn't know about quarians' weak immune systems or just didn't care. I'm leaning toward 'didn't care,' honestly."

"Not only that, but there's the chirality thing, too. Most species I know of are based on levo-amino acid proteins, but quarians and turians are dextro-based."

"Right. I took all the immuno-boosters and allergy medications I had left, and that's probably the only reason I survived the experience. It takes a certain level of sleaze to even demand something like that in exchange for a lift to another planet."

"What an asshole. You must've gotten horribly sick afterward."

"In the end, it was worth it. I survived, and I'm actually in a better position now than I've been during the last year or longer. My Pilgrimage will be on hold for the duration of my contract, but I feel like I can make a difference now. And I have to admit, I'm finding a perverse kind of amusement in how I ended up here."

"How so?"

"The people who picked up my contract from IndentuTech." She shook her head and laughed. "It was the geth. The geth purchased me. I'm their property."

Trent stopped and stared at her. "Well. Uh. I guess that's textbook irony."

"Pretty much. They own the ship I'm serving on, which makes them the captains. There's another quarian on the crew, and it was her idea to buy me. She wanted to help me out of my jam. It happened just in time, too. If it had taken a couple more days, I probably would've died. But they had the medications I needed, and now I'm back in good health. It still seems fucked-up for me to even think this, but I owe the geth my life. I owe Chula, too, but they chose to accept her suggestion and take me onboard."

"I'm glad things worked out, then."

She nodded. "I'm just now realizing how lucky I am. I'm surprised at how reasonable the geth are, and how well they've been treating me, given the history between our peoples. And as I said a moment ago, I might be able to make a real difference. I shouldn't mention any specifics, but there are things going on that I have a chance to help out with."

Trent grinned and put his arm around her for a brief moment. "See, if you hang in there long enough, there's a chance things will turn out okay."

"Yeah. At least, a chance is far more than I had a couple weeks ago." Lia took a slow look around to be sure no one else was near enough to overhear, then unleashed her curiosity. "So, what's your story?"

#

"How're you feeling, Ms. Forsan?"

"Huh?" Dakka looked over her shoulder at the asari doctor who'd just entered. They'd finished the surgery and brought her into another room. She'd been laying on her side and trying to find a position for her arm that wouldn't leave it sitting on top of her freshly-sealed incision. Not to mention her recently-reinflated lung.

The doctor walked around the bed to stand in front of Dakka, and frowned at her tablet. "Oh, maybe they gave me the wrong file. You're not Forsan Kalana?"

"Actually, yeah, but I haven't used that name in a long time. I dropped it when I had a falling-out with my entire species a couple of decades ago." She shrugged. "Long story. People call me Dakka now."

"Ah, okay. I'll note that in the file. So, how're you feeling?"

"A little sore. Feeling the surgeons reinflate my lung was interesting, but nothing I couldn't get over."

"You were awake for that?"

"The whole thing, yeah." She chuckled. "I guess the sedatives weren't strong enough."

"That's surprising. We've operated on krogan before, and it always worked. You must have a higher tolerance for sedatives. Not to mention pain." She skimmed the text on her tablet and raised a brow. "The notes here state that you sent a comm transmission and made several extranet transactions during your surgery, and then you played a video game on your Omni-Tool until the surgery was finished."

"Yeah, I left my Tool on when I got undressed." Dakka held her left arm up and pointed at the device around her wrist. "The first two things were to help cheer a friend up, and the video game was simply because I got bored."

"Ah." The doctor stared at her, completely at a loss for words. Dakka laughed.

"You should see the look on--"

Her Omni-Tool beeped. She activated the interface and tapped the flashing message icon. Quint's face appeared in the air above her hand. She squeed and bolted upright.

"Careful," the doctor blurted.

"It's my boyfriend!" She grinned and watched the message begin.

"Hey, babe. We're en route and should have just enough time for lunch before we arrive. Wish you were here; I think you'd get a kick out of this. I'll tell you all about it when we get back."_His face took on a slight red tint. _"Just wanted to call and say hi. Oh! And everyone else here hopes you're back in action soon. I'll see you when we get back."

She grinned again and saved the message. Yeah, I wish I could be there, too.

Her Tool beeped again, higher-pitched and more urgent, this time. A red message symbol flashed on the glowing interface around her left arm.

"Uh-oh." She tapped the icon and Yutani's flashlight-head appeared in the holofield. Beneath it a series of documents transferred in.

"If you are viewing this message, it is because Arana Nelvos's genetic signature has been detected passing through a secure area of the Citadel and is approaching Citadel Security headquarters. Dossiers on Arana Nelvos and Jorax Lanius are attached. Please view them as soon as possible."

Dakka paused the message, read the files, and shook her head.

"Oh, shit." She let the message continue.

"Elias Kelham is being detained for further questioning in the matter of Cerberus's infiltration of his organization."

Dakka stopped the playback. She didn't need to hear the rest.

_Great. Nelvos is here to whack Kelham, and C-Sec needs him alive. Fantastic._She hopped off the bed.

"Where's my armor?"

"Wait--you should stay in bed until you're healed."

"Krogan regenerate tissue quickly. Where's my armor?"

"It's been stored at C-Sec, along with your weapons."

"Oh, terrific. Got any civilian clothes I can borrow?"

"Well, nothing that would fit a krogan. But you really need to get back in--"

"It's an emergency." Dakka opened a comm channel to Yutani. "Hey, I got your message. I'm on my way to C-Sec."

"As are we. We need you to watch over our clients and their findings."

"To do that, I need my armor and guns. And guess where those are? Yep, C-Sec." She headed for the door, then stopped. If Nelvos and her crew see me in this hospital gown, they'll know I'm injured. "I have to go there anyway to pick up my gear. Please, stay with our clients. I'll deal with the situation in C-Sec."

"Acknowledged."

"Thanks, Boss." Dakka took the gown off and tossed it in the bed's general direction before storming through the door. Fuck it.

Everyone in the waiting area reacted predictably as she streaked from one end of the huge room to the other. Gasps, a few startled cries, and nervous murmuring. Dakka weaved between them, trying not to knock anyone out of her way.

"'Scuse me, pardon me, look out--naked krogan coming through!"

She squeezed into the elevator and tapped the control panel to select the C-Sec level. The doors closed and she glanced to the left and found a human and two salarians staring at her.

"What?"

The others exchanged a wide-eyed glance.

"Uh," the salarian on the right said.

"What? Seriously, what're you staring at?"

"Uh."

"Come on, spit it out." Dakka had to suppress a grin.

"Uh. Y--you're...um..." The salarian glanced at the other two again. "Naked."

"What?" Dakka looked down at herself and pretended to be horrified. "Fuck me! Why didn't someone tell me this sooner?"

After a long pause, the salarian finally said, "Uh."

Dakka snickered. "Sorry, I'm just fuckin' with ya. Sometimes I can't help myself."

The doors parted. Dakka glanced at the panel to be sure this was the floor she wanted, then bolted into the corridor.

"Even for a krogan," the human mumbled, "she's nuts."

#

"Back already?" Malcolm Takahashi chuckled as Yutani returned to the lab, still wearing that femme-Santa costume from the party on Bekenstein. She had left only a few seconds ago to take care of a crisis in the C-Sec office.

"Another crew member was already on her way to the location of the conflict. She is working to resolve it now."

"Good to hear." He slipped his hand into Benny's and turned back to the monitor. In the corner of his eye, Goresk leaned on the back of a vacant chair and stared at the screen with all four eyes practically popping out of his head. The science team stood or sat in front of Malcolm and Benny. They hadn't taken their eyes off the screen since the three of them arrived.

Yutani joined them and pointed her single optic at the current recording, which showed yet another armada of immense, cuttlefish-shaped ships massacring fleet after fleet of opposing vessels. The smaller ships threw everything they had at the Reapers, but were blown out of the sky so quickly, it was like watching popcorn cooking.

In the last half hour, Malcolm had seen too many records that ended the same way.

Yeah...gonna have nightmares for the rest of my life.

The current vid ended, and Goresk sank into the chair he'd been leaning on. "If those things really are gearing up for another invasion, we're all screwed."

"Maybe not," Dr. T'Lura muttered as she reached out to scroll through the list of files. "Before you guys got here, one of the vids we saw showed an enormous mass accelerator weapon that blasted clean through _eight_Reapers and carved the Great Rift Valley into the surface of Klendagon."

"You actually saw what did that?" Benny's eyes widened and he grinned. "Oh, that must've been amazing!"

"It was pretty impressive. If we can find that weapon, reverse-engineer it, and mass-produce it, we'll have a chance. The problem is, that battle happened thirty-seven million years ago. Kinda cuts down on the odds of anyone finding the thing." T'Lura sighed. "But maybe the plans for it are in one of these files. Or if not, then maybe something that'll point us toward other information depositories."

"I hope you find something useful. And soon." Goresk glanced at the monitor and looked away quickly.

"Advanced weapons have already been acquired," Yutani said. "After Sovereign's destruction, turian crews removing its debris from the Citadel found the Reaper's main cannon and power source intact. Their salvage of the weapon led to the development of the Thanix cannon."

Malcolm raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, I don't know a whole lot about guns."

"For ammunition, it uses a liquid alloy of iron, uranium, and tungsten suspended in an electromagnetic field. The liquid alloy is fired at a fraction of the speed of light, and solidifies as it is fired, and impacts on its target with enough kinetic energy to penetrate any known shields or armor hull plating. The SSV Normandy was upgraded with a pair of these cannons before its battle with the Collectors. Shepard-Commander and his contacts in the Systems Alliance are working to upgrade more of their ships."

T'Lura smiled. "I'm relieved that at least someone is trying to prepare for the Reapers. If the Council hadn't pissed around for two years...oh, well. Maybe we still have a chance."

One of her assistants, another asari named Dala Selyria, waved a hand at the screen. "It's possible the Reapers are extinct and Sovereign was the last one. These vids are, at minimum, fifty thousand years old, and we've only viewed a fraction of them."

"I certainly hope we're getting all cranked up about nothing, but I'd prefer to err on the side of caution."

"That is a wise choice," Yutani said. "The crew of the Normandy has evidence that the Reapers are a real and imminent threat."

"I read some of their reports, but too much of it was redacted for 'security reasons.' The Council and Alliance Command aren't letting anyone hear the full story."

"I will contact the geth unit onboard the Normandy and request full disclosure to your team. Though Shepard-Commander remains in contact with some of his former commanding officers in the Alliance, he is no longer a member and is not subject to their authority. There is a high probability that he will grant the request."

"That's excellent news. Thank you."

Goresk looked up at her and nodded at the screen. "He'll probably be interested in what you've found."

"I'm sure he will." T'Lura grinned. "We'll put together a small sample of what we've found so far and send it to him. Then we'll keep analyzing the rest of it while we wait to hear back from him."

Malcolm's Omni-Tool emitted a whistle and he stepped away from the group. "Oops, I'll just take this over there." He took a few more steps across the room and tapped the flashing incoming-call icon. Dr. Michel's face appeared on the Tool's hard-light surface and he grinned. "Hello."

"Good afternoon, Malcolm. I thought you'd like to know that I received an answer from Dr. Chakwas on the Normandy. They recently finished a mission in the Typhon system and are on their way to the Citadel. She's looking forward to meeting you and examining your batarian friend."

"I'm glad to hear that! I'll let Goresk know right away."

"The Normandy's ETA is tomorrow morning. Dr. Chakwas will meet us in my office. I'll let you know when I have a more precise time of arrival."

"We'll be there. Thanks, Doc!" He and Michel signed off, and he hurried back to the others. "Good news, guys--the Normandy is already on the way. Goresk, Dr. Chakwas will have a look at Kolos and see if she can figure out how to help him."

"That's good to hear." Goresk smiled. "After seeing these vids, I needed some good news."

"Whoa," one of the human scientists blurted.

_Uh-oh. Now what?_Malcolm turned to face the screen and found an image of a planet with boxes of alien text beside it.

"What is it, Geoff?" Dr. T'Lura turned around and froze at the sight of the screen. "That's Thessia."

Another asari, Belyna Nyxeria, pointed at the text. "I recognize that language. It's Prothean."

"Can you translate it?"

"I'm not an expert, but let me see what I can do." Dr. Nyxeria stared at the image, her eyes flicking back and forth as she scanned the words, and finally she slumped back in her chair and gaped at T'Lura. "If I'm reading it correctly, it says there are other information depositories like this one on Thessia and other planets."

T'Lura stared at her for a moment, then gaped at the image. Finally, she raised a hand to her forehead, as if suddenly dizzy. "Goddess. This...I...damn. It was under our noses for thousands of years."

Dr. Selyria turned slowly to meet her gaze. "We were among the first species in this fifty-thousand-year cycle to achieve interstellar travel. We've been at it for thousands of years. I doubt there's any part of Thessia that hasn't been explored thoroughly. Yet we're only now finding out about this?"

"That thought crossed my mind, too. If our governments back home knew about this, then Councilor Tevos probably does, as well. Maybe even the whole Council."

"Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Geoff Milson said, raising a hand.

T'Lura took a deep breath and rubbed her hands over her face, then ran her palms over her head crest. "Right. Of course. You're right, Geoff. We need more information."

Malcolm looked around from one of them to another and shivered.

Benny glanced at him and put his arm around Malcolm's shoulders. "Hey, it's getting late and things are getting too heavy in here. And I'm starting to get hungry. Whaddaya say we go somewhere for dinner and then find a hotel room?"

"Yeah, sounds good, babe."

"Good idea," Goresk muttered. "Think I'll do the same. But first I could use a stiff drink. Or ten. I'll see you guys later."

The scientists barely noticed the exchange. Dr. T'Lura pointed at the image of her homeworld.

"Let's copy what we've seen so far, and put that file on top of the stack. We'll give Shepard a copy when the Normandy arrives, and send another copy to the Council immediately." She scowled at the monitor and reached out for the console under it. "One way or another, this should light a fire under their asses."