Rebirth The Mass Effect is old. part 13

Chapter 13: Take a look for yourself, Counselor

A mass repeater named Citadel greeted us with a long queue and a glowing urn of the "Path of Destiny" floating majestically nearby. The swearing of Jeff and the unidentified dispatcher was stopped by the phrase: "We have Spectr on board!" and we were finally given a flight corridor and a parking space.

"Nihlus, you're a comfortable passenger!" Jeff grinned, steering the ship to the indicated mooring platform.

The Turian chuckled.

"The Spectr has its own privileges. Just like his ship."

The Normandy shuddered all over as the grapples went off, locking the ship at the mooring area.

"We have arrived." Jeff ran his fingers over the touchscreen keyboard, turning off the ship's engines. "Will I finish the tests, Rene?"

"Do."

"Are we staying at the Citadel for a long time?"

"If there is no emergency, then for three days."

"If it happens... You know that."

Jeff nodded and plunged into his work. He loves this ship. Probably more than anyone else on board.

Before I left for the Citadel, I talked to Pressley and we discussed the needs of the ship and its crew. The XO will make up a schedule for the departure of people himself, as well as a list of what we need to take on board before a long flight. While we are standing on the Citadel, the Norma will have time to undergo scheduled maintenance and minor repairs, load supplies, replenish arsenals, and generally purchase things that are so necessary for autonomous life in space. And Karin puzzled me with the lists of medicines that she would like to have, but she couldn't order without a lot of hassle. The list was especially long for dextroorganisms, for which medicines were almost completely absent in the infirmary, with the exception of the most popular ones. I promised to get what I needed, and at the same time I puzzled the XO by finding a normal cook and buying groceries, honestly warning him that if I found only rations in the canteen after the start from the Citadel, we would turn around and fly back, and Pressley would buy all the missing items from his pocket. I hope he's smart enough to buy supplies, considering we have a Quarian and two Turians on board. So far, these expenses are being paid by the Council and the obscure office to which the Normandy is assigned.

Nihlus was waiting for me near the airlock, clad up to his neck in heavy black armor. However, without a helmet. The captures include full ammunition: sniper and assault rifles, a powerful pistol. Spektr didn't carry a shotgun. On his hip is a cassette of grenades. Next to the tall Turian, Liara, in a simple black suit, looked surprisingly fragile and small, barely reaching the top of her head to Nihlus shoulder. I was also wearing armor, but medium armor, and I was also armed up to my nostrils. My paranoia, lovingly nurtured over long and bloody lives, woke up, and I didn't want to leave the ship without weapons and armor, fortunately, the status of the Spectr allowed me to indulge in minor weaknesses.

"I contacted consul Sparatus. He's waiting for us."

"Already?"

Nihlus shrugged his shoulders.

"Yes."

"I guess he'd rather see you alive and make sure I didn't lie to him."

"Maybe." Nihlus grinned as he opened the airlock. "In any case, he'll listen to us."

The massive slab of the lock shuddered, releasing us into the noise and din of the port part of the Citadel. Some kind of pot-bellied ship was unloading nearby, reasonable people were swearing and brawling, someone was in a hurry somewhere, and someone was suffering from boredom. The usual noise of mooring platforms. The C-sec staff approached us, seeing the sentients in full armor and with weapons, but Nihlus showed our identification cards, and the Turians intelligently left, allowing them to go to the elevator.

"As I understand it, we are not going to the Council Chamber."

"Sparatus will meet us in his private quarters. I warned him that there was important and not particularly pleasant information."

"Have you prepared yourself mentally?" I smiled.

Nihlus nodded, wincing slightly.

The stupid music in the elevators after the silence of the ship was even more annoying than when I first visited the station. Or is it just nerves? Liara watched our conversation with interest... Perplexity. Nihlus behaved politely, coldly, and indifferently with other human, making an exception only for the Joker and me, and Liara still couldn't understand why the Council's Spectr was spending so much personal time communicating with the captain of the Alliance ship. The pretty asari was still in the dark about my Spectr status, and the fighters did not consider it necessary to enlighten the blue young lady.

"By the way, where did Garrus go when the Norma slowed down?" I asked.

"According to their informants." Nihlus replied. "He warned me that he would contact me in about four hours, no earlier."

"I hope he remains available for communication?" The Turian nodded. Well, Garrus! The habits of the C-sec investigator seem to have been firmly ingrained in him.

"On the other hand, he's doing great." He is looking for possible leads without reminders and kicks and, most importantly, is ready to share ALL available information. The elevator was crawling at the speed of a pre-infarction snail, freezing out with electronic boring music of shoddy quality. I could have muted my sensitivity, but Nihlus, with his keen hearing, was slowly going berserk, which made his green eyes even glow, in my opinion!

"You know, I'll kill the Reapers just because of that music. I muttered, waving my hand vaguely towards the ceiling. And the speed of elevators." the Turian added, wincing painfully at the high note.

Finally, the elevator crawled up and released us in the customs section of the C-sec. Nihlus immediately perked up and dragged us through the maze of corridors somewhere along the route he knew only. I didn't mind: my navigation skills at this station remained at the level of topographic cretinism, and Liara was in no hurry to object to the Spectr.

They looked at Nihlus as if he had come from the other world, which made the usually calm man slowly turn venomous and angry. When one of the security guards said, "You're dead!", I couldn't stand it and laughed. The man who was typing in information about our arrival at the Citadel hunched his head at the angry low growl of the enraged Turian and tapped on the keyboard even harder. And now, finally:

"Spectr Nihlus, Spectr Irene, Dr. Liara, welcome to the Citadel." The cards were returned to us and we were released. Naylus grabbed our identification cards, and a few minutes later we were sitting in the comfortable seats of an automatic taxi. The flyer was rushing somewhere under the strict guidance of a relaxed Turian, and Liara finally woke up from her stupor.

"Irene's spectr?"

"Yes."

"But... Why didn't you tell me?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"But why? Well, you found out that I am a Spectr. And what has it changed?"

"This... It changes everything!" Liara, our tasks have not changed in any way.

"Only you found out that you contacted not one Spectr, but two."

"But..." Liara sighed. "Why did you take me with you to a meeting with Councilor Sparatus?"

"Because you're an expert on proteans."

"But there are others! Older, more experienced! I am..."

"You're already here, and they're out there somewhere." Nihlus chuckled and nodded, and Liara fell silent in confusion, unable to find any arguments.

We didn't fly for long, and soon the taxi landed smoothly on the dock somewhere in the elite part of the residential area. On the way, we were stopped several times by C-sec patrols, but as soon as we saw our status stamped on the identification card, they immediately let us through with apologies.

Councilor Sparatus lived in a low-rise complex on the edge of a park area and a reservoir lake. They let us through quickly at the entrance to the building, and literally a couple of minutes later we were already sitting in upholstered chairs opposite Sparatus.

Nihlus started the conversation, giving the nervous Liara a chance to come to her senses and gather her thoughts. While the Spectrum was introducing us to the unflappable advisor, I studied the man sitting in front of me.

Sparatus was literally bubbling with emotions, although outwardly there was not a single sign of his condition: his body was relaxed, his gestures precise and confident, his eyes looked calm and dispassionate, and his face was a mask of polite attention. A true ruler and politician. Not the incredulous stubborn ram shown in the canon. So let's see if the real Sparatus can believe in the threat and take our warnings seriously.

"Spectr Irene, Spectr Nihlus informs me that you have been able to systematize and understand the information from the Prothean beacon."

"Yes, it is. Dr. Liara T"Sony explained that such "visions" after a collision with a functioning lighthouse are quite natural. Doctor?"

"When in contact with an intelligent being, the Protean beacon transmits information directly to his brain." Liara's voice was trembling a little with excitement. But since the beacons are designed to interact with the physiology of the protheans, the visions are mostly haphazard and scattered. And for creatures with weak will and insufficient organization of consciousness, a lighthouse can burn out the brain. "The fact that Ayrin's Spectrum was able to systematize information and even gain knowledge of the Prothean language and writing is unique!"

"Can you read the Prothean script?" Sparatus straightened up, a dangerous gleam of interest appearing in his eyes.

"I can, but some symbols and phrases are meaningless. I suppose there are simply no analogues of these terms in our languages."

Sparatus turned on his drone and displayed a short inscription made up of the already familiar funny symbols.

"Can you read it?"

I came closer and sat on the edge of the couch. She removed the block from her mental abilities and opened her Prothean memory, as she had done in the ruins on Terum. Report... The date is here: 16. 23. 34123, about conducting a technical study... perhaps there is no technical verification... the propulsion array of the ship "Radiance of Dawn", class... "I stumbled, peering at the symbols and trying to find a suitable definition, "The closest synonym is a destroyer cruiser or a liquidator. The owner is an Avatar of Justice or Retribution... Something like that. Both terms have this squiggle." I touched the stripe with the dash. "This is something like the designation of a capital letter in our language or a proper name. Everything."

I returned to my seat, and Sparatus removed the inscription, staring at me intently.

"Really. The translation is quite accurate. We need to involve you in decoding the recordings from the beacons. Tell us what else you learned from the lighthouse."

"Before I tell you this, I would like you to watch the footage from my camera taken on Eden Prime. And they answered two questions."

Sparatus nodded in agreement, gesturing for them to continue.

"Did you know that Saren found a ship belonging to an unknown race?"

"Yes."

"Have you seen him?"

"Personally, no. Only the image."

"Good." I turned on the recording from the instrumenter. "Is that him?"

On the small screen, the Lord of Nazara took off into the sunset sky over and over again. Every time a single shot was fired, Nihlus flinched.

"Yes. It's him. But I had no idea that it was so huge!" Sparatus's gaze caught on Nihlus, who was startled by the shot. "What kind of shot is that?"

"It was Saren who shot Niallus at point-blank range."

Nihlus nodded silently. I stopped the video, showing Nazara in all his glory.

"Why these questions?"

"Did you ask me what I saw in the lighthouse? I saw the demise of the Prothean Empire, as I've already told you. A chronicle of almost a century of agony of a powerful civilization. I wish I could show it to you. But I can poison Councilor Tevos's sleep with nightmares if she wants to look at them.

"I guess she won't refuse." Sparatus said slowly. "Go ahead."

"The information from the buoy confirms Dr. Liara's research: our Galaxy exists in Cycles of destruction, the so-called Harvest. As soon as the organic civilization reaches a certain level of development, it is suddenly destroyed. That's what happened to the Protheans. The same fate awaits us."

Sparatus shuddered.

"Are you sure?"

"I've seen Reapers land on burning planets. I've seen these creatures destroy fleets far more powerful than ours. I've seen the Citadel taken over and the repeater network shut down. And I'm absolutely sure that the same thing awaits us soon.

"Soon?" Sparatus tilted his head questioningly. "What led you to this decision?"

A Dominator-class reaper taking off from Eden Prime.

"And I started recording again." I never even expected to see such amazement on Sparatus' face!

"are YOU SURE?"

"Get Councilor Tevos. Let him look at what the lighthouse showed in my memory. I'm sure she'll recognize this ship."

"Nihlus?"

"Counselor, this ship was on Eden Prime." Nihlus replied calmly. "Before Saren's shot, I felt a terrifying blow to my consciousness. That's why I couldn't dodge the shot. I couldn't control my body at all at that moment."

"They can subjugate the mind. The chronicles of the Protheans confirm this. I believe Saren was affected by the Reaper when he first came aboard. Over time, the Sovereing finally subjugated the Spectr, and Saren completely lost his freedom of thought."

Sparatus thought about it. We were silent, patiently waiting for the advisor's decision. I wonder what conclusions he will come to? Will he dismiss our words or not? The adviser touched the call button on the instrument panel, and we heard:

"Councilor Tevos, could you come to my chambers? Spectr's Nihlus and Irene returned and brought information. I'd like you to check it out." pause. "Yes, she agrees. I'm waiting for you."

We waited in silence for Advisor Azari's arrival. Sparatus was looking at Nazara's image, Nihlus was thinking hard about something, and Liara even seemed to be breathing every other time. Finally, Tevos arrived. The counselor entered the hall, nodding to her colleague and us, glancing attentively at the quite lively Nihlus, smiled at the terrified Liara.

"Tevos, Irene's Spectr wants to show you the information from the lighthouse."

Azari gracefully sat down on the couch next to Sparatus. Spektr, are you ready to go for a "merger"? I nodded silently.

"Please sit closer." Sparatus stood up and moved aside, making room for me next to Tevos. I sat down, looking questioningly into the bright azure eyes.