Deep Space: An Epic Sci-Fi Romance

by Joan Jett

  The workstation remained active. “Liara, see what you can do with that.”

  “I’m not Tali, but I’ll do my best.”

  My best seemed good enough. Within a few minutes I had broken into the lab’s core encrypted archives.

  There I read a tale of atrocity.

  Chapter 33 : Human Resources

  10 May 2183, ExoGeni Headquarters/Feros

  “The Thorian is a plant species native to Feros,” I explained to Shepard and Ash. “ExoGeni Corporation designated it Species 37 . . . the one native species that truly caught their interest.”

  We clustered around a computer workstation, the body of a krogan warrior cooling slowly a few meters away. The krogan had failed to hack into ExoGeni secured archives. I had succeeded.

  “Most of the Thorian lives far below us, down on the surface of the planet. It’s a massive weave of tendrils, some of them kilometers long, forming a mat that covers most of the land surface of Feros. It is incredibly ancient. The ExoGeni researchers thought it might be millions of years old . . . and it may be intelligent, even sentient.”

  “A sentient plant?” whispered Ashley.

  “So it would seem.” I flipped through the encrypted files, speed-reading, doing research on the fly. “Some tendrils serve as sensory organs. Others bunch together into nerve bundles, neural nodes with incredible computational capacity. A loose, decentralized form of intelligence. Not like anything we’re familiar with. More like the geth, perhaps.”

  “So what does any of this have to do with Saren?” asked Shepard.

  “I’m getting to that.” I settled on one document, a cutaway view of one of the Prothean towers. “About six weeks ago, a survey team from Zhu’s Hope went down to explore the tunnels deep under the colony. They encountered the Thorian and became infected.”

  “How?”

  “The Thorian seems to broadcast spores which can be inhaled by animal life-forms. Once inhaled, the spores migrate into the animal’s brain and nervous system. They act as a link between the animal’s mind and the plant’s neural network. The Thorian can apply conditioning – pleasure-pain feedback, say – to force the animal to perform tasks on its behalf. It enslaves the infected animal.”

  “That would explain Newstead,” suggested Shepard.

  “Not only him,” I said grimly. “All of them, Shepard. Every one of the colonists at Zhu’s Hope became infected by the spores as the Thorian became aware of them. It seems to have moved up through the building to bring them within its reach.”

  “They’re all its slaves?” Ashley growled.

  Shepard immediately keyed his helmet radio. “Shepard to Normandy . . . Shepard to Normandy, please respond . . . damn it. The geth ship and that barrier curtain must be cutting us off.”

  “I hope that’s all it is,” said Ash.

  “We’re probably safe from the Thorian for the moment,” I told them. “The ExoGeni scientists estimated that it took six to ten days of constant exposure for each colonist to come under the Thorian’s control. None of us have been exposed for more than a few hours.”

  Shepard stared at me. “Are you saying the scientists here knew the Thorian was taking the colonists over?”

  I held his gaze. “Yes, Shepard. That’s exactly what I’m saying. They knew. They did nothing but study the situation.”

  His face set into such an expression of fierce anger that I still feel a chill at the memory. I was very glad his rage wasn’t directed at me. “That’s why Ethan Jeong refused to move his people across the skyway to Zhu’s Hope. He knew that would expose all of them to the Thorian.”

  “Very likely. For what it’s worth, not all of the scientists here were informed of the study on Species 37. Juliana Baynham was not on the need-to-know list. Her daughter was.”

  He nodded. I could tell he was anticipating his next talk with Lizbeth Baynham.

  “Okay, but what about Saren?” asked Ashley.

  I turned back to the workstation. “That’s not so clear. He must have learned about the existence of the Thorian. Perhaps he had spies in the ExoGeni workforce. He arrived nine days ago and met with corporate officials. Instead of treating him as an outlaw, they welcomed him and discussed their findings freely with him. Before he left, he descended into the tunnels beneath Zhu’s Hope and stayed down there for over twelve hours.”

  “Doing what?”

  “They didn’t know. Saren paid them well not to ask questions or interfere. The local Chief of Operations speculated that he was taking samples of the species for his own use. He . . . didn’t have a problem with that.”

  “Damn them. Damn them all to the hottest pits of Hell.” Shepard was standing very still, the only outward sign of his emotional state the paleness of his face and the tight clenching of his fists. “I can’t remember the last time I saw such selfish incompetence, such callous disregard for the safety and well-being of other people. I hope the geth got every last one of them.”

  “They didn’t get Jeong,” Ashley pointed out.

  Three months before I might have been shocked at Shepard’s reaction. Now I took it in stride, perhaps because I had a better appreciation for the depths to which evil might sink. By nature I was not a violent person, but I was learning to make exceptions.

  Still, there were degrees. “Shepard, if Jeong is the senior corporate official still surviving, he may already be in a hell of his own making. He was at the very bottom of the need-to-know list. He appears to be a mere functionary, who never had any policy-making or supervisory duties before this disaster occurred.”

  “Sure, he was just following orders.” Shepard shook himself, setting his emotions aside. “This changes our mission. I don’t think there’s any more we can learn here. We have to get back to Zhu’s Hope. All the answers are under that colony.”

  “What shall we do with this information?” I asked.

  “Make a secure copy of everything you think is relevant.” Shepard unlimbered his assault rifle, checking its status with the ease of long practice. “If we get out of here, I think some people at ExoGeni are in desperate need of having their hides nailed to the nearest wall.”

  * * *

  Getting out of the ExoGeni facility again took a great deal of work.

  We found two of the geth almost immediately, indulging in very strange behavior. They stood almost inactive before an arrangement of stone uprights, spaced around a very bright electric light. Their attitude was almost one of reverence, and they reacted very slowly to our violent arrival.

  Once they went down, I looked more closely at the way they had organized the room. “Shepard, this looks almost like an attempt to define sacred space. If I came across this in a dig site while investigating an ancient organic civilization, that would be my first interpretation. Do you think these geth were engaged in some kind of worship?”

  Shepard shrugged. “I have no idea. Do geth even have religion?”

  “Hey, if they want to see God, I’d be happy to expedite the trip,” said Ashley.

  We left the “altar” strictly alone and examined the space we had found it in. There was a large gap in the outer wall of the building there, through which we could see part of the geth dropship. The geth had attached their ship to the side of the Prothean tower, using grappling devices like enormous claws. Power cables snaked out from the side of the ship and disappeared down corridors in several directions.

  “I wonder if we could forcibly detach the ship from the side of the building,” said Shepard.

  “Kaidan’s the engineer,” said Ash, “but those claws look much too strong for what explosive charges we have here.”

  “Maybe we can cut off the power in some other way,” I suggested.

  We moved on.

  We met more geth as we moved through the wrecked ExoGeni facility, usually small fire-teams of two or three. Unlike the “worshippers” in the first room, these all stood ready for a fight. Several short, sharp engagements marked our progress. Shepard’s shields went d
own once, as did Ashley’s, but neither of them took more than a superficial injury. An application of medi-gel each time and we were ready to continue.

  Finally we reached the original ExoGeni lab facility, now wrecked, hollowed out, and turned into a geth command center. The geth knew we were coming. Worse, we couldn’t fight from the doorway as we often preferred. A sharp right-hand turn existed just inside, blocking our line of sight to most of the space. Shepard had only a moment to evaluate possible cover. Then he rushed in, with Ash and me on his heels. He laid down suppressing fire while we took cover behind a fallen pile of rubble. Then he joined us and we went to work.

  These geth put up such a fierce resistance that I knew a Prime was present long before it showed itself.

  We were nearly defeated in the first fifteen seconds of the fight, by a pair of hoppers that leaped up onto the walls to see down past our cover. A pair of assault drones supported them, hovering in the air just in front of us. While Ash and I fired at the drones, Shepard fired his sniper rifle twice from the hip, aiming by sheer instinct, picking off both geth hoppers in rapid succession.

  The rest of the geth remained ground-bound, unable to eliminate our cover unless they flanked us. They made a good attempt. While four troopers kept Shepard and Ashley busy in front, I saw a Juggernaut skulking across the room behind cover, trying for our left flank. Just as it was about to appear and fire, I called up a biotic surge and yanked a critical piece of rubble away from its place against that wall. Tons of stone and metal collapsed onto the Juggernaut, pinning it to the floor and knocking out its shields. A follow-up biotic warp shook it apart from within.

  Soon Shepard could vault over our cover and make a dash for a raised catwalk along the right-hand side of the room. He climbed up, produced his sniper rifle again, and began to lay down one accurate shot after another. Meanwhile Ashley and I moved forward cautiously, continuing to lay down gunfire and the occasional biotic assault. Caught between hammer and anvil, the geth position collapsed.

  The Prime fell last, charging Ashley and me but falling before our combined fire. It crashed to the ground and slid past us on the floor, fetching up against a piece of heavy equipment like an ungainly pile of spare parts. Ashley gave it one last burst of assault rifle fire just to be sure.

  We found another set of the dropship’s claws in this room. At first we still saw no way to attack the ship, but then Ashley noticed something unusual. Here the geth had wedged the ship’s claws into an existing piece of powered machinery. The ExoGeni researchers must have flown a small shuttle from this area, and had installed massive doors to turn part of the space into a vehicle bay. A few minutes with the controls, and I rigged the doors to slam shut with a great deal of mechanical force.

  With its claws dislodged, the geth ship lost its hold on the side of the tower. Caught by surprise, it lost attitude control and fell through the atmosphere of Feros. We heard a colossal crashing sound from outside, a series of concussions to shake the entire structure. The geth were gone.

  Suddenly our helmet radios came alive with a transmission from the Normandy.

  “. . . come on, Commander, you’ve got to be out there. Normandy calling Commander Shepard, come in please.”

  “Shepard here, go ahead, Normandy.”

  “Commander!” Even over the radio link, I could hear the relief in Joker’s voice. “Damn, am I ever glad to hear your voice. We’re under lockdown here. The colonists have gone wild. They’re trying to break into the ship.”

  “What happened? Is Kaidan there?”

  “I’m here, Commander,” said Kaidan. “Everyone’s fine, we all pulled back as per your orders the moment we saw the colonists starting to behave strangely. By the time they had gone into full attack mode we had already locked the ship down.”

  “Good job. Exactly when did this happen?”

  “Must have been a little under two hours ago. We’ve been trying to raise you ever since. Are you okay?”

  “We’re fine for now. Follow your orders. Do not under any circumstances let any of the colonists on board. While you’re at it, seal the life support systems and break the umbilical connection.”

  “Sir? Should we be ready to take off?”

  “Not yet. Just make sure you’re breathing canned air. Get the crew busy running decontamination drills on anything that’s been exposed to the Feros atmosphere. I’ll explain later. Right now we’re on our way back to you. I’ll call if I have any more news.”

  “Aye-aye. Normandy out.”

  “A little under two hours ago,” I said. “That would have been just about the time we learned about the Thorian from Lizbeth Baynham.”

  Shepard nodded grimly. “It knew.”

  * * *

  When we met her again, Lizbeth Baynham knew something as well. One glare from Shepard and she became all contrition, ready to tell us everything.

  “Yes, I knew what they were doing with the Thorian,” she admitted. “I was too frightened to object. If they could do that to the colonists, they could do it to me.”

  “I’m sure there was something you could have done,” Shepard growled.

  She looked down, ashamed. “There was. I was getting ready to call in Colonial Affairs, ask them to come and mount an investigation. When the alarms sounded I stayed behind to send the message, which is why I missed the evacuation. But I was too late. The power went out before I could transmit, and I got stuck here with the geth for over a week.”

  “All right,” said Shepard, visibly softening. “Come with us back to your mother. Help us figure out what to do next.”

  “I can do that. I want to do something to make up for what we did here.”

  The Mako felt crowded with four of us in the crew compartment. It helped that Lizbeth had a slender frame and wasn’t encased in armor. She huddled beside me in the back, quiet but alive with curiosity at the vehicle around her. Even the geth we had to fight on the way back didn’t dampen her spirits. She was finally moving, taking action, no longer a helpless victim. After Therum, I could understand her position.

  When we reached the midway point and left the Mako, at first she ran ahead of us to see where her mother had been hiding. Then she stopped short, suddenly ducking behind some crates as if afraid of what she was seeing. When we caught up with her, we could see why. The refugees milled about like insects stirred with a stick, and we heard raised voices.

  “Everybody be quiet,” shouted Ethan Jeong. “Just let me think!”

  Juliana Baynham stood close by, her stance belligerent. “You can’t get away with this, Jeong. These are human beings you’re talking about writing off!”

  “Somebody get her out of here!”

  A man in armor with security insignia moved forward and took hold of Juliana.

  This was too much for her daughter, who leaped out of cover. “Get your hands off her, you sons of bitches!”

  Jeong whirled and saw Lizbeth approaching at a run. “All right, all of you, come out where I can see you!”

  Shepard exchanged glances with us, shrugged, and walked out into the open.

  “Shepard. Damn it, I knew it was too much to hope that the geth would kill all of you. I found some interesting things about you in the ExoGeni database. I know what you did on Elysium, but your heroics aren’t needed here.”

  Shepard kept his voice and body language under control. “Jeong, we can still talk this out. Nobody else needs to get hurt.”

  “You don’t understand. It’s not that easy.” Jeong made a nervous gesture, as if he couldn’t decide what to do with his hands. “Communications are back up. I was able to report to ExoGeni corporate. They want this place purged.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Shepard warned. “These are human beings. Your corporation can’t just use them, throw them away, and expect to get away with it.”

  “There’s something here far more valuable than a few colonists!” said Jeong.

  “I know. The Thorian.”

  “Damn it,” s
wore Jeong. “How much do you know?”

  “The whole story, I’m afraid.”

  “Wait a minute,” interjected Juliana. “What’s the Thorian?”

  “It’s a telepathic life-form living under Zhu’s Hope,” explained Lizbeth. “It’s taking over the minds of the colonists. ExoGeni knew all along.”

  “You knew about it?” demanded Juliana.

  Lizbeth only hung her head in silent shame.

  Juliana turned on Jeong. “You won’t get away with this.”

  “So you keep saying, but nobody is going to miss a few colonists.”

  “Jeong, you’re missing the big picture,” said Shepard, his tone of voice completely changed.

  Jeong stared at him. I confess I did as well.

  “Okay, ExoGeni can’t carry through with its plans for the Thorian,” Shepard continued. He was actually smiling at the corporate representative. “But look at the other possibilities here. We’ve already done a lot to protect the Zhu’s Hope colony. Suppose we can get the colonists free of the Thorian. ExoGeni could get all kinds of good publicity out of helping them.”

  “Charity doesn’t support shareholder value,” Jeong scoffed.

  Shepard shrugged. “Who’s talking about charity? There are bound to be other resources of value here on Feros, and the colonists can still help you find them if they’re alive to do it. In the meantime, ExoGeni gets a reputation for supporting its colonial ventures, and that means the next time you want to explore a planet on the frontier, you’re more likely to get volunteers.”

  Jeong looked thoughtful.

  “Talk to your superiors. Get them to stand by while we resolve the situation here. Then you can take credit for rescuing ExoGeni’s investment in Feros.”

  “I suppose. It can’t hurt to try.”

  While Jeong went to confer with ExoGeni, I approached Shepard. “I find it hard to believe that you would be willing to forgive Jeong.”