by Joan Jett
“Which is rather impressive,” I pointed out. “He must believe you are ready to operate on a larger scale.”
He gestured at the map in front of us. “I can’t think of any larger scale than that.”
“I believe you are equal to the task, Shepard.”
He peered down at me. “Doctor, are you trying to improve my morale?”
“I’m beginning to suspect that is one of my functions as part of this crew.”
“You may be right.” He pressed a control, saving his work and returning the galaxy map to its default configuration. “Come on, let’s go downstairs and have some dinner. Me brooding won’t solve any of the galaxy’s problems.”
* * *
28 March 2183, Mare Crisium/Luna
Normandy swept in low over the lunar surface, popping up only at the last moment to fire on a set of rocket turrets defending the approach.
“Six targets up, six targets down,” said Joker over the intercom. “LZ is secure.”
The staging bay doors opened. The new Mako emerged. Aeons-old dust blew away from the thrusters as we came to a soft landing.
Shepard had mitigated his “tactical bottleneck.” We now had a new lander, an improved version of the Mako. Larger and more powerful, the M-35D was built with a longer wheel-base and a small passenger compartment, permitting it to carry a full squad of six. It still fit on the staging bay floor, although there wasn’t much space left over.
Shepard drove, Kaidan handled the weapons systems, and I managed the sensors. Behind us Ash, Garrus, and Tali waited to deploy onto the surface. Shepard had brought all of his technical experts along, leaving Wrex and the rest of the Marines behind. I wondered why we were about to assault a facility on Earth’s own moon.
“All right, here’s the deal,” said Shepard as he sent the Mako bouncing toward a low rise on the horizon. “The facility ahead of us is an Alliance training range. Soldiers come here to practice small-unit tactics under low-gee conditions. Normally an advanced VI manages the range, but now it appears to have malfunctioned. The drones went into live-fire mode in the middle of an exercise, slaughtering most of a platoon of soldiers before they could disengage and escape. Now the VI isn’t responding to shut-down commands. Admiral Hackett has asked us to go in and disable the system.”
“Is there any chance that the VI has crossed the threshold to become fully sentient AI?” asked Tali.
“The Admiral says that shouldn’t have been possible, but so far the technical experts are at a loss to explain its behavior otherwise. It doesn’t matter. It’s our job to shut the thing down, after which the experts can figure out what happened.”
“Roger that,” said Kaidan, putting an end to further discussion.
Of course, the Alliance can’t know what is and is not possible, I thought to myself.
Our ignorance of our opponent’s nature might seem very strange. We now understand much more about artificial intelligence, about synthetic life, than we did in those last few years before the Reapers. Centuries of study and careful research have given us much valuable insight. So have our partnerships with friendly synthetics such as the Enlightened Geth.
Today we understand how a synthetic mind can come into being. We have begun to comprehend the various templates to which it may conform, rather like the great orders of organic life found all across the galaxy. We know how to avoid constructing a new synthetic mind by accident. Most importantly, we know how to construct one without immediately condemning it to a hell of confusion and suffering.
It’s no wonder that in those days, synthetic life often seemed insanely hostile. All unaware, our organic civilizations stood as monstrously abusive parents to those children of our minds.
The training facility had three separate ranges, each with its own computer core. We would have to work our way through each range independently, shutting down all three computer cores, in order to disable the errant VI.
Our attack into the first range proceeded well enough. As we moved into the range’s free-fire zone, assault drones activated around us and began to fire on any organic target they could detect. They used clumsy tactics, advancing on us in straight lines and smooth arcs, failing to use cover. I wondered how such an artless attack could have overwhelmed Alliance soldiers. Possibly the sheer surprise of having the training equipment suddenly turn homicidal had sufficed.
Shepard, Ashley, and Garrus moved in and laid down heavy fire with assault rifles, watching to ensure no drones came in on our flanks. Meanwhile, Kaidan, Tali and I tried a new tactic we had been developing during our downtime. Tali directed electromagnetic pulse charges to overload enemy screens. Once a drone’s screens fell, Kaidan wrapped it in a biotic field, pinning it in place and hampering its attempts to fire back. Then, one or two seconds later, I threw a warp at the same target.
By itself, a gravitic warp does impressive damage to a foe, vibrating it apart. But when it strikes an existing telekinetic field, it detonates with immense force, usually destroying the target and damaging other targets in the neighborhood. After a little practice, the three of us destroyed several assault drones in rapid succession, boom – boom – boom until all targets were down.
“Damn!” remarked Ashley after the assault ended. “It’s like we brought along an artillery unit.”
Kaidan struck a pose. “Behold the power of teamwork!”
“Trying out for the recruitment posters, Lieutenant? Thought that was the Skipper’s job.”
Shepard snorted in amusement. “I’ll gladly concede the position to Kaidan. Let the paparazzi chase him every time he takes shore leave on an Alliance planet.”
We moved into the bunker and found the local computer core undefended. Tali connected to the core and began to run a series of diagnostics – and then frantically disconnected.
“Something wrong?” asked Shepard.
“This is no ordinary VI, that’s for sure.” The quarian tapped at her omni-tool, making sure it was still operating normally. “Tried to hack into my system the moment I made the connection.”
“All right, don’t take any chances. Let’s physically disconnect this core and be done with it.”
Shepard and Ashley placed small demolition charges on key power junctions and data routers, then we all backed out of the server room. Ashley triggered the explosives: one massive concussion followed by billowing smoke and greenish gas. “One down, two to go.”
As we moved into the second training range, the situation seemed very similar at first. Assault drones activated, dropping from the ceiling or emerging from concealed panels in the walls. They hesitated more this time, seeking cover rather than soaring across open spaces.
“They’re using better tactics,” said Tali worriedly. “I can’t hit them with an EM pulse if they don’t expose themselves for more than a second or two.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Kaidan. “Liara, there on the right!”
He threw a lift field at a drone which had taken a little too much fire from Shepard and Ashley. I followed up immediately with a warp. Boom.
“Do you think the VI is learning?” I asked.
I immediately got an unexpected and unmistakable answer. From far in the back of the room, two new drones suddenly rose out of cover.
“Rockets!” shouted Shepard.
Everyone dove for cover. Everyone except me, caught flat-footed and looking in the wrong direction.
I heard an enormous roar.
Blackness. Pain. Heartbeat in my ears, like the sound of surf.
Then the world came back. I lay on the floor behind a low barrier, Kaidan leaning over me. His lips moved, but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t make my eyes focus.
Kaidan opened his omni-tool, spreading a wash of orange light over his visored face, and did something to interface with my armor’s medical systems. I felt the sting of an injection, and the soothing sensation of medi-gel applied to the pain in my shoulders and upper back. Suddenly everything snapped into perfect clarity a
s stimulants rushed into my bloodstream.
“Liara! Stay down, we’re still under fire!”
I hissed out a stream of curses in an obscure asari dialect, and pushed myself to a half-crouch.
Kaidan looked confused. “What?”
“Never mind.” I looked around, saw that the situation had changed. I couldn’t see the rocket drones that had nearly killed me, but I saw a lot of assault drones, pressing forward in an attempt to overrun our position. Their attack exposed them to our fire. “Tali, the one on the left, take down its shields!”
Tali barely glanced at me, raised her omni-tool. The drone’s shields went down. Kaidan looked dubious, but he threw a lift field to envelop the naked drone. I called up a warp, my vision graying out again for a moment. Boom.
“Over here!”
Boom.
Shepard, Ash, and Garrus continued to pour out weapons fire.
Boom.
I collapsed, leaning hard on the waist-high steel partition I had used for cover. Somehow I couldn’t quite get enough air. The silence seemed to ring.
“Liara?” Shepard’s voice, sounding very distant.
“She’s hurt bad, Commander,” said Kaidan. “Rocket went off not a meter away from her, and I don’t think she got a barrier up in time.”
Shepard’s face appeared before me. Even through both of our helmet visors, I could tell: eyebrows low and meeting in the middle, eyes more gray than blue, jaw clenched. The picture of worry. “All right. Ash and I can get the charges placed for the computer core. You and Garrus get her back to the surface and call the Normandy for evac.”
“Shepard. I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute . . .”
“No arguments, Liara. I don’t know what’s normal for asari, but if a human was showing these readings she’d be in deep shock. You’re done for the day.”
I blinked, trying to keep shadows out of my field of vision. “All right, but you don’t need to call in the Normandy. Just leave me in the Mako and leave the comm open, in case you run into something unexpected and need me. I can hang on until you’ve finished the last range.”
He frowned, and then nodded. “Okay.”
Thus, to my shame, I rested in the AFV while Shepard hit the hardest resistance of all, a wave of rocket drones that would have killed them all had they repeated the same tactics. Luckily Shepard understood that the enemy learned from each encounter. Instead of charging into the range, he triggered the attack and then withdrew immediately, channeling the drones into a narrow passage where he and the others could concentrate their fire. Even so, none of them emerged from the silent facility unscathed. Ashley favored one arm, Garrus had a pronounced limp, and all five of them looked battered and roughed up.
They had won a tough fight. I never told them about the radio transmission I picked up on the sensor panel, just as they must have finally subdued the VI. A simple message, rendered in one of the oldest human digital codes:
HELP . . .
Chapter 19 : Abysses of Time
29 March 2183, Interstellar Space
Suddenly I remembered why I had never completed commando training.
“Now, what have we learned?”
“Always take cover first.”
“Before we look around to take in the situation . . .”
“Take cover.”
“Before we start shooting at the enemy . . .”
“Take cover.”
“Before we light up our admittedly very impressive biotic talents . . .”
“Take cover.”
“And why?”
I sighed and repeated the line sing-song. “Because otherwise we get our pretty little ass shot off.”
Shepard sighed and became serious. “Liara, you frightened me half to death down there. I thought for a moment that we . . . that I had lost you.”
I lay on a bed in the medical bay, sore all over, but alert and not feeling too badly. Concussion, wrenched muscles in my shoulders and back, bleeding from ruptured vessels in my aural cavities and nose, several small wounds from shrapnel that had gotten through my shields and armor, it added up to serious but not life-threatening damage. Dr. Chakwas had worked her usual miracles, and I had recovered enough to attend to a lesson from my personal drill instructor.
Of course, unlike most drill instructors, this one sat beside my bed, holding my hand and stroking my crest. It reduced the impact of his lecture.
“It was a stupid mistake,” I admitted. “Shepard, I’m not a soldier and I never will be. Maybe I should quit pretending that I am and putting the rest of you at risk in combat.”
“Don’t be a fool. You’re as effective as any of us in a fight. Especially with those biotic combinations you and Kaidan have been working on. Ash was right – it was like bringing an artillery unit along. Damnedest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”
I smiled, warmed by his praise.
“You just need to know your limitations,” he continued. “Liara, you’re a glass cannon. You can do a lot of damage to the enemy, but you’re not physically robust, and you can’t carry the heavy shields and armor that a front-line soldier would wear. Next time you go into a fight I’m going to make doubly sure that you’re well protected. You can do horrible things to the laws of nature just as well from behind the front line.”
“Aye-aye, Commander. And I will remember to take cover first next time.”
“Good. Meanwhile, I think I’ll have a word with Tali. She knows kinetic barriers better than anyone on board, and she has some awfully advanced programs running on her omni-tool to boost her shields. I’ll bet you can benefit from some of that quarian expertise.”
He rose and leaned close to kiss me tenderly on the forehead. I raised a hand, wanting to pull him closer, but contenting myself with a caress across his cheek, the bristly roughness of his stubble teasing my fingertips. For a moment I was floating in his scent, sharp and heavy and human. Then he turned to go.
Alone, I closed my eyes, listened to the low regular sound of the medical monitors, and tried not to think about how much I wanted to go and curl up in his bed.
The sensation was very strange to me. At that time in my life I had never engaged in a serious romantic relationship with anyone. I had certainly experienced erotic attraction, especially as a young maiden just coming into my sexual maturity . . . but by that time I had already heard the epithet pureblood far too often. The prospect of becoming involved with another asari was simply out of the question. Nor did the other possibilities appeal. Salarians were intellectually interesting but cold and repellent. Turians were far too fierce and militant. Krogan were barbarians, elcor were physically incompatible, volus didn’t even breathe the same air, and as for the hanar – eugh.
I am forced to admit that I was not a very broad-minded person in my youth.
By the time humans appeared and began swarming across the galaxy, I had shelved the thought of romance in favor of my scientific work. But the Goddess loves irony. Of course the very first human I spent any significant amount of time with would turn out to be such a strong personality that he immediately wedged himself into my mind.
Now I couldn’t get him back out. I tried reminding myself of our critical mission against a terrible opponent. I tried to convince myself that he would be more suited for his own kind. I tried to concentrate on recovering from serious injury instead.
None of it worked. I wanted to press the whole length of my body against him and feel his warmth sinking into my bones. I wanted to feel his hands on my skin, strong but gentle. I wanted to kiss him until I could drown in his scent and taste. I didn’t have a very clear notion of what might happen next, not knowing very much about human male anatomy at that time, but I was quite sure we would think of something.
If he was willing, the joining itself would work regardless of how well or how poorly our bodies fit.
If he was willing. It occurred to me that he might not be.
My eyes snapped open and I stared up at the ceiling of the medi
cal bay, thinking hard.
He still had the partial vision from the Prothean beacon in his memory. I had no idea how he had managed to integrate it into his mind and remain sane. He had a very strong will – it was one of the things that had first made him attractive to me – but the experience had to be affecting him.
He knew I could help him with it, if we joined our minds. He even knew that it would not require any kind of physical intimacy. Yet he had dismissed the idea almost on our first meeting, and had never raised the subject again.
He did seem reserved about many things. Perhaps he placed a high value on the privacy of his thoughts. Among asari that would have been a very unusual personality trait, but it seemed much more common among humans.
Slow down, Liara. He is tender and affectionate, but he may not be willing or able to commit himself beyond a certain point. Give him time. Give yourself time.
It was a frustrating thought, but at least it drove the unwelcome eros out of my mind. At last I was able to shift positions in the bed, close my eyes, and drift into a healing sleep.
* * *
4 April 2183, ExoGeni Research Station/Trebin
While I recovered, Normandy left human space entirely, patrolling out in the Attican Traverse and even the Terminus Systems. Shepard had decided to scout for geth activity and seek out useful intelligence for Admiral Hackett, so the Alliance could better plan its campaign against the synthetics. Meanwhile we all spent long hours reviewing intelligence from all across the Traverse, looking for news of any incident that might be related to Saren’s objectives. Even if no geth were known to be involved, we never knew what event might shed light on what the rogue Spectre was trying to accomplish.
One such report led us to Trebin.
A terrestrial world in the Hades Gamma cluster, Trebin had enough mass to hold a breathable atmosphere and provide comfortable gravity. It orbited at an appropriate distance from its primary star to have a pleasant climate. Unfortunately some quirk of the planet’s formation had left it almost entirely without water, resulting in a barren and lifeless world.