Williams watched Kayden go until the cabin door closed behind him and the boat lifted up and turned its stern to the Marine sergeant, lifting its nose and picking up speed. After following the shuttle's flight with her eyes, Williams stepped onto the path and, trying not to run, returned to the Marine camp. There were things waiting for her that could no longer be postponed. Some part of her mind was now firmly occupied with thoughts of Kayden. She... definitely liked him very, very much. She liked him much more than many other young people with whom she was brought together by her service or her stay in inhabited worlds.

By now, she was almost certain that she had fallen in love with Kayden Alenko, a biotic lieutenant. And she felt, understood, realized that he loved her... mutual love, mutual affection... are rare. So she, the younger Williams, is very lucky. There are new meetings with Kayden ahead. There are new conversations ahead. She will definitely find out more about Alenko, his colleagues, and the frigate. He will learn and try to understand a lot.

Chapter 16 Collectors and Protheans

"Yes, Commander. If I may, we'll talk about it in your cabin," Shepard said.

"Let's go," Anderson said shortly.

Entering the cabin, Shepard waited until Anderson, who came in after him, closed the front door and turned on the forbidding signal on the external lock interface. Without sitting down in an armchair, Shepard called up several diagrams, graphs, and tables with drawings on the wall screens.

"Do you think," Anderson asked, after reviewing the information provided, "that there were heavy battles here with such "cuttlefish" and their accomplices?"

"Commander," Shepard said quietly and calmly, "the planet is literally littered with remnants of infrastructure, which is much older than the sixty to seventy thousand years familiar to earthlings. This means that there were developed settlements of the strongest race of the previous cycle. The Imperial race. The titular race. Known as a Prothean," he clarified. "The lighthouse is much less important, Captain, than what I was able to sense. Feel it, to be more precise. Strange as it may sound, here on the planet there are the most valuable and complex monuments of the Prothean culture that have not yet been uncovered. While we were flying to this "cuttlefish", I got acquainted with the map of the official excavations. In my opinion, the venues are not always optimally chosen. This is indicated by the many pits that turned out to be empty. I know how difficult it is for archaeologists to even temporarily "remove" the local lands from agricultural circulation. Nevertheless, the administration of the planet is already insisting that the empty excavation sites be reclaimed and returned to agricultural production. And I am inclined to admit that the local administration — both planetary and regional — is absolutely right about this."

"Knowing you, Shepard, I cannot believe that you are ready to offer only an updated map of possible non-empty excavation sites. You have something more than just a map."

"There is. When I touched the chip's armored capsule, my brain-until I verbally define what happened that way, Commander-took in the information that millions of Protheans had been transformed. Recently, representatives of the race have appeared in the systems of the Terminus, calling themselves Collectors — they are called differently in different dialects. Few people have seen them in detail." Shepard clicked his omny-tool, pressing a few keys on the miniclaviation. The images on some of the wall screens have changed, "but in general they look something like this. This is an approximate image — only in the form of a drawing. It's good that the artist has a wonderful memory. Collectors usually don't like to be captured so accurately and completely."

"They keep the unknown..." said Anderson, reviewing the presented drawing. "An insect."

"A fossil insect. This "descendant", hardly distinguishable from the original, is fifty thousand years old. And this cuttlefish has more than twenty million. According to the most preliminary estimates."

"And you're suggesting..." said Anderson. "However, I know that you usually keep your assumptions to yourself for the time being, Shepard. You know something that means much more than this drawing."

"Yes, Commander. And I thank all the known and unknown gods for the fact that we managed to "overwhelm" this shrimp with its giant landing force before they got to what now belongs only to humanity. It belongs to us, the earthlings. And it costs hundreds of thousands of times more than this lighthouse, no matter what information it contains."

"Listening to you, I'm leaning towards only one option, Shepard," Anderson said thoughtfully.

"You're right, Commander. It is a living, original, normal male protean. It is in a state of cryostasis in a specially designed capsule. At a depth of thirty-six meters from ground level. I know the area. Accurate to the meter."

"Do you know what you're talking about, Shepard?" Anderson looked directly at his first mate. "I see and feel: You're smart. What is required of me?"

"Contact the archaeologists, Commander. Let them roll up and drive the machinery and equipment in the "three crosses" gait mode to the area that I will specify, and there they dig a mine in a place that I will also specify later. I'm sorry, but I can't say anything else right now. The risk of intelligence activities is too high. Both terrestrial and alien."

"I understand," Anderson replied. "Then let's do this. Since the lighthouse is already submerged, our mission is here...."

"It will be completed later. And it will not end with the loading of our guest from the distant past on board the frigate", Captain Shepard interrupted. "I'm afraid our mission will continue here."

"Good. I agree," Anderson said. "I will talk to the leadership of the archaeological party, and I think they will be happy to participate in such an important project. I would like to point out that the scan from orbit revealed a suspicious location, the characteristics of which are very similar to the Prothean artifact. You have instilled in me a love of digging in databases. I've already studied some information about the local artifacts. Will we move the frigate there?"

"We shouldn't scare our ancestor, Captain," Shepard replied. "Let the frigate wait here, next to the cuttlefish. Nevertheless, I believe that reliable protection of this ship is possible only by the forces of our frigate, no less. While we're digging a mine there and getting our ally out of oblivion."

"An ally? Are you so sure?" Anderson asked.

"We don't need to kill him. There will be fifty thousand years between us and him anyway. And we, the current ones, will become better and stronger if we can overcome this gigantic distance in time and space together," Shepard replied.

Commander, the omny-tool on Anderson's arm came to life. Lieutenant Alenko's voice came from the speakers of the bracelet.

"The lighthouse is loaded into a container. There is no damage, everything is fine. I do not observe activation. The leadership of the archaeological party asks you to indicate the approximate area where you should move to. They are finishing loading onto the transporters. Approximately twenty minutes later, they will be able to report on readiness for movement."

"I've accepted the report," Anderson replied. "Give me the contacts of the leadership of the archaeological party, Lieutenant," the commander paused, waiting for the drone to beep, signaling the receipt of the file. "Good. Tell them that we will contact them soon. Let them calmly prepare for the move."

"Yes, commander." Alenko disconnected the channel.

Most recently, Kayden arrived at the frigate by shuttle. He could certainly feel Ashley's eyes on him as he boarded the boat, as the heavy armored cabin door closed behind him. He felt that gaze much later, when the shuttle was already flying towards the frigate. At Normandy, he had to quickly put thoughts of Ashley far away in his mind and start fulfilling his duties. The driver of the shuttle that delivered the lighthouse to the ship said that the journey to the "site" took much longer than planned — and not only because there was such a valuable cargo on the suspension.

The ship's engineers and technicians expressed well-founded doubts that it would be so easy to put a lighthouse on the site next to the Reaper. Therefore, it was necessary to develop and implement a new plan: a container was removed from the frigate's hold, installed with the help of gravity pads on another platform located astern of the Normandy, where it was supposed to load the lighthouse into the container using two shuttles. While all this was being prepared, the driver of the shuttle transporting the artifact was ordered to go to the ship at the slowest speed. It took several tens of minutes to carefully and unhurriedly unpack the lighthouse from the "harness", install it on a gravity platform and "slide" it inside the container.

Lieutenant Alenko reported on the results of this process to the frigate commander. Now Kaidan watched as the container doors closed, hiding the most valuable artifact from prying eyes, as both Normandy shuttles rose from their platforms to take the container on suspensions and deliver it inside the frigate's hold. This procedure also took about half an hour: the engineers and technicians who supervised the transportation process unanimously demanded that drivers take maximum care and perform all maneuvers at the lowest possible speed.

"It's not exactly optimal," Engineer Adams said to Lieutenant Alenko, who came up. "We've lit up the lighthouse too much. I am of the opinion that it was necessary to drag the container to the camp, pack it there and then immediately push it into the hangar. As it is... half of the population of Eden Prime has seen this artifact. Rumors spread fast."

"I agree, Sir". Alenko nodded, watching as two shuttles carefully carried the container closer and closer to the mouth of the frigate's hangar. "But at least we're doing it all openly on a planet that belongs to humanity. If we were doing this on any other planet, then yes, you are absolutely right, and we would have to pack the lighthouse into a container back at the archaeologists' camp. And so... I don't think all the residents of Eden Prime should be considered complete idiots. They know something about Lighthouses, but after our frigate collided with the Reaper here and engaged in battle with it... it's unlikely that we could have kept the fact that we loaded the lighthouse onto the ship a secret."

"It's also good that we don't advertise our plans for this lighthouse", The engineer said quietly, "Many of the inhabitants of Eden may think that we are taking this lighthouse off the planet for a reason."

"They can," Alenko agreed. "And, I suppose, they have the right to do so. For now, our job is not to give them too much food for thought. And even more so for conclusions."

"Soon the lighthouse will be loaded on board the ship." The engineer consulted his omny-tool panel and gave several instructions on the speaker. "Are you planning to return to the archeologists' camp?"

"Whatever the commander says, that's what I'll do, sir." Alenko himself was thinking about how he could quickly and, most importantly, more easily return to Ashley, see her again, and be with her. He understood that he was drawn, with terrible force, to this girl. "There are no orders yet. And we still have enough work to do here. How about the Geth?"

"We study a little bit. Something that we can study without fully activating them. The networked mind. Dangerous," Adams said. "A ship dominated by the Geth, with their network organization based on advanced artificial intelligence and complete contempt for physical death.... It's... power."

Nodding to the engineer, Alenko sauntered over to another shuttle that was descending to its landing site — it was necessary to coordinate the issues of patrolling the vicinity of the site, which now housed the defeated Reaper, the Geth landing ships and the disabled Geth themselves, who made up the landing force of this giant ship. Kayden had to push thoughts about Ashley back into the background again, but now the lieutenant enjoyed the opportunity to think fully, clearly and a lot, without fear of losing almost completely out of action for several hours later due to a terrible headache.

"How little a man needs to be happy," said Shepard. "To get rid of his migraines, to give him the opportunity to participate in an unusual military operation, to prove himself. And the person is happy...."

"Isn't that wonderful, Shepard?" Anderson glanced sideways at the first mate, then back at his omny-tool. "Dr. Chakwas is on his way to us. I guess she has important news if she decided to come here herself." The commander unlocked the door and invited the female medic to sit in a chair. "Karin, we are listening to you carefully."

"I know, David," the doctor replied, sitting down in a chair next to the officers. "As a medic, I've done everything I can in this situation. I had to put them both into a medically induced sleep. It's easier with a Turian — he has more than eighty percent of implants, as was correctly noted earlier. That's why he got off easy. So, minor fractures and bruises. But the Azari... Fractures are by no means minor, there are many bruises and cuts. And other things. That's not the main thing. Colleagues, I am unable to restore the psychosphere of both. Her indicators are still "crushed", although I no longer see the terrible picture that was before. There are positive developments after the sixteenth decimal place, but this is happening extremely slowly. Comander," The doctor looked at Anderson. "I ask you to tell me what are your future plans for both of them? What should I prepare them for?"

"Karin," Anderson said after a short pause. "We're not going to kill them, and we're not going to torture them. Now we have a lot of work to do at Eden Prime related to archaeological excavations. I can't tell you more details right now, I don't know everything yet, and the work is actually only planned. So the frigate won't leave the planet. I think this work will take at least a few days, so both of your patients will have time to make progress in recovery."

"Okay, commander," the doctor nodded, agreeing with the statements of the head of the ship's crew. "If I may, I'd like Captain Shepard to take a look at both of them. I know... about his abilities. Monitoring the condition of Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins has yielded many interesting results for me as a medic. I've looked through the relevant archives and knowledge sources. I think we shouldn't go to the Alliance and Citadel medical centers right now, or use local medical facilities."