If It Meant Living: Mass Effect 1

14: Lessons

She gently brushed the giant frond away from her face and lined up a shot on the Geth sniper.   Sniper on sniper – she chuckled silently.  She closed an eye and aimed, started to pull the trigger – and the sniper collapsed.

“Garrus!  That was my sniper…”

“Oh...right.  Sorry, Commander.”  He didn’t sound sorry.

Kaidan came over the comm.  “If the competition is over, I believe that was the last one.”

“Fine.  Head for that…indentation…thingy…that looks vaguely like it could be an elevator.”

Ilos was strange, exotic, beautiful.  And wild.  Mostly wild.  Enormous plants and ivy had completely taken over every structure, every path, every wall.  Hidden behind the growth, though, were both artificial structures so vast, so high you couldn’t see the ceiling, and cramped, winding, labyrinthine tunnels. 

It was as if a magical spell was draped over everything – each step seemed to whisper 50,000 years’ worth of secrets, of stories, of lives. It was surreal.

She shook her head gently, trying to break the spell.  No time.  Got a galaxy to save.

She met them at the – oh awesome, it really was an elevator.  Garrus actually looked vaguely embarrassed.  She put her hand on his shoulder and looked sideways up at him.  “I was only kidding Garrus. Always take the shot.  Never wait for me.”

He chuckled.  “Understood ma’am.”

She hit her comm – “Joker, we are secure groundside.  Listen, I want you to head back to the Citadel – well, not all the way to the Citadel, you’ll be arrested – but close to the Citadel.  If we’re too late here, they are going to need all the help they can get, especially from the Alliance’s most advanced warship….No, we’ll be fine, we’ll just bunker down in a nice cozy corner somewhere and wait for you to come back and rescue us.”  After a moment she rolled her eyes.  “Joker, this is an order from your Commander.  Go.”

She let out a deep breath.  “Okay guys, we’re on our own.”

As they rode the elevator down – how the hell did this thing have power anyway? – she stole a glance over at Kaidan.  And was practically overwhelmed with the memory of – touches…kisses…raging passion…gentle caresses.  Woah, head rush. 

She mostly managed to stifle a giggle, but the little noise she made got his attention.  He looked over at her – winked – then returned to looking straight ahead.

Oh my god.  Did he really just wink at her?  Feeling rather more confident now that he had done….well, her, was he?  He would so pay for that later – after they saved the galaxy.  If they saved the galaxy.

She realized suddenly – she was going to sleep with him again.  The astonishing clarity of the thought disturbed her.  She really should need to think about it.  The whole thing was surely a dangerous, complicated minefield of regs and ranks and assignments and emotions – right?  Then why did it seem so simple?

The elevator doors opened to a barrage of Geth fire.  How in the hell did Saren manage to get so damn many Geth here in a day?  She grumbled aloud as she let the biotics fly.

Above the massive room was some sort of communication center.  At a touch a hologram flickered to life and a broken, garbled, chilling voice filled the room.

“…invading fleets… no escape… too late… seek refuge… inside the archives…… Reapers… Citadel… overwhelmed… only hope… act of desperation…  Conduit…… all is lost… cannot be stopped… cannot be stopped…”

She shivered in spite of herself.  Through the electronic filter and through the static bled sheer terror.  Desperation.

Kaidan walked up behind her.  “I think I got the gate open.  Ma’am.”

She looked over her shoulder, eyes narrowed in threat.  Don’t even…

He grinned.

***

They drove the Mako down a long, narrow, flooded pathway.  On each side the walls went straight up into infinity.  All along the walls, oval containers jutted out.  She stared at them, one after another after another.  They looked almost like…

“Stasis pods?”

Were there really Protheans in those?  Were they…alive?

Thoughts on the implications of such a possibility were interrupted by a shimmering wall blocking their path.  She was out of the Mako in an instant, gun raised, looking for – there was no cover, only sheer walls filled with dead, or possibly alive, Protheans.

But there was no threat.  Only an elevator.  An elevator that led to –

Vigil.

“You are safe here, for the moment.  But that is likely to change.  Soon, nowhere will be safe.”

She watched the flickering, flowing light dance.  “I know.  Why have you brought me here?”

The electronic voice echoed around the cavern.  “You must break a cycle that has continued for millions of years.  But to do so, you must understand.”

“Tell me.” 

And so Vigil recounted the tragic tale of the fall of the Protheans to the Reapers.  The vision from the beacons played along in her head, keeping tune with the tale, scenes finding their home at last.

Shepard sighed in desperate frustration.  “What can I do?  There must be a way!”  Find a way to survive.

“The Conduit is the key.  We were on the cusp of unlocking mass relay technology.  Ilos was a top secret research facility.  We created a prototype, a small version of a relay that linked to the Citadel.”

“But – what good does that do?  Before I exposed him, Saren could walk into the Citadel any time he wanted.”

“The keepers are controlled by the Citadel.  Before each Reaper invasion, a signal was sent, and the keepers opened the Citadel relay to dark space.  But our scientists used the Conduit to travel to the Citadel.  They altered the signal.  This time, when Sovereign sent the signal, the keepers ignored it.  For the moment, the Reapers are trapped in dark space.”

She nodded, the wheels starting to turn.  “Saren has a plan to undo everything you did.”

“He will use the Conduit to bypass the Citadel’s defenses, then bring Sovereign inside.  Sovereign will override the Citadel’s control systems and manually open the relay.”

“And the cycle of extinction will begin again.”

She turned to go.  “We have to catch him.”

“Wait.  I have information that will corrupt the security protocols and temporarily give you control over the Citadel’s defense systems.”

She nodded to Kaidan and his fingers flew over his omni-tool.

“Saren has not reached the Conduit.  No yet.  There is still hope – if you hurry.”

They ran.

***

The Mako flew over the ledge, water spraying wildly.  Dominating the skyline was the Conduit.

When using a mass relay, a ship never got closer than hundreds of kilometers to the relay and its massive, spinning arms.  The field extended out into space and sent a ship on its way long before one could get truly close to it.  This relay, however, was right there.

The arms spun impossibly fast, throwing shining azure light in all directions.  It hummed an insistent vibration she could feel in her bones, in her teeth.

Between her and the Conduit were approximately 8,247 Geth – she had counted.

“Oh, for fucks sake!”  She floored it.

They were going to run into it – she swore they were going to smash right into the damn thing – when it pulled the Mako – up – floating – flying – thrown at impossible speed to the stars beyond.