Segment Four
Ellf
Apprentice Wizard
- Location
- Virginia
Shepard's heart pounded to the beat of a thousand drums as she shot into wakefulness. She gasped for air, never quite able to take enough in. She patted down her torso, where Liara… where that thing that had been Liara… had gutted her. No holes. Not one single one. It had been a dream. A surprisingly detailed and horrific dream, but it was a dream nonetheless. She forced herself to steady her breathing.
God. Even the forest dreams on the Normandy hadn't been that bad. They had her waking in cold sweats, sure, but never in an actual panic. Whatever it was, it had taken Liara's form, used Liara. The only person worse would have been Thane. She couldn't let it get to her.
Honestly, the last time she'd had a dream get to her this bad had been in boot camp, and she'd been a lot younger then. Of course… with the physical age Chakwas had said she was… maybe that had something to do with the current reaction.
Breathing steadied, Shepard surveyed her surroundings. It certainly was some sort of infirmary, and judging from the monitors and such attached to her, she was definitely the patient. The hospital gown added to that assumption. Of course, she was very happy to find out the only sort of life support item she had was an IV line. She couldn't tell what was in the bag beyond the typical saline, but she knew it had to be something good.
A table was next to her bed, and sitting atop it was her all too familiar book. The Tome of Eternal Darkness practically dared her to open it, to read it and to understand it. Curse or not, given the recent events, could she take the chance of not having the knowledge it provided? Besides, who actually believed in curses anyway?
On the other side of the bed was a metal chair, occupied by an older woman. Her hair, tied back into a bun, was red, identical to her natural color, and she wore an officer's uniform identifying her as Lieutenant Commander in the Alliance Navy. The woman's facial structure was familiar to Andrea; she saw those cheekbones whenever she looked in the mirror. Her eye color matched Andrea's as well. This woman… This woman… Shepard took a couple tries to stop that thought in its tracks. Andrea Shepard had grown up an orphan on Earth. She'd joined the Reds to survive the streets of Vancouver, and she'd joined the Alliance after only a little prodding from a certain captain. She never had a mother. She'd never needed one.
But you wanted one, a traitorous part of her heart stated.
"I was waiting for you to wake up." God, the woman even sounded similar to her. Sure, her voice was a half-octave lower than her and her inflection was different, but there were shared tones in the woman's voice as in Andrea's. "I don't know if you know who I am…"
"Lieutenant Commander Hannah Shepard, I suppose. I'm told we're related, ma'am," Andrea Shepard said, locking eyes with the woman. Sure, according to her own history, she was higher ranked than this woman, but that history hadn't transferred over with her. At this point in the timeline, she would have been Lieutenant at best, and there was no reason to be rude.
"Yes. I've been informed of that relation. You'd think that I'd remember giving birth to a daughter, especially one as reckless as you," Hannah Shepard said with a smirk. Andrea knew that smirk. Andrea had that smirk. The woman was teasing her.
"Well, you work with what you have," Shepard said with a shrug. "I was supposed to be shopping, but I couldn't really just sit by while terrorists or whatever they were did their thing when I could stop it."
"You took a dead soldier's gun, amp, and omni-tool, and then you proceeded to break your wheelchair using a strenuous biotic technique. I hear you also shorted out the amp using it," Hannah said.
"Now that's not my fault," Shepard said. "I thought amps were supposed to modulate the power going through them so that doesn't happen."
"They are, for L3 and below implants," Hannah said. "You don't have L3 implants, Miss Andrea, my… well, let's hold off on relationship defining for now."
Shepard paused for a second. "No, I don't. Still, I handled an issue."
"You also gave commands, as a civilian, to a group of marines. You very easily could have endangered their lives as well as your own." Hannah looked her in the eye. "However, due to extenuating circumstances regarding your origins, combined with how well you assumed command in that combat situation you were unwittingly thrust into, it has been decided that, pending passing the certification tests, you will be instated as an N operative at a rank based upon your age and how well you perform on the certification tests. The highest rank that you are likely to get is a Staff Lieutenant at an N7 rating."
Shepard boggled. She figured she'd have to argue her case for rejoining the Alliance here, and she'd do her best to get the N7 rating, but this was practically a foot in the door for it. Sure, she wasn't a Spectre here, but that didn't mean she didn't know codes and such.
"Of course, given your genetics and how you seem to have been trained, I expect such an advancement will be trivial for you." Hannah smiled at her, and she could feel the warmth.
"Uh… thank you?" Shepard still couldn't believe what had happened. It didn't really make much sense that she'd have this opportunity this quickly, and certainly not on a Lieutenant Commander's say-so. "If you don't mind me asking… how did this get pushed through? I don't even have any records."
"It helps when you have an Admiral to back you up," said a male voice, answering her. An older man dressed in Alliance blues walked into her area of the infirmary from outside. The bars on his hat confirmed what he'd just said; the man was an admiral, and his gray goatee was kept nice and trim. He had a scar on his right cheek that ran from just below his eye to his lip. Both women saluted the man upon his entry into the area. Andrea certainly recognized him right away. Admiral Steven Hackett still held her respect, and he always had.
"At ease, please." Andrea let herself go to at ease by laying back on the slightly raised bed she was in. She fidgeted a little, adjusting her covers to make sure she was unexposed in front of this man.
"Shepard… Andrea Shepard that is, your performance has been highly spoken of from those whom you commanded. Lance Corporal Jones was especially complimentary of your leadership. You appear to have an innate talent for it, and I would like to help you nurture it. Captain Anderson told me of how he and his crew found you and what you wore at the time. There's more to you than most would assume, given your age."
"Sir, you have no idea," Andrea said, ready to continue, but Hackett simply held up a hand.
"Right now, you need to focus on your recovery. When you've been cleared for duty by Doctor Chakwas, I will debrief you personally. Your report will be classified and deemed need to know only, but understand that I will want a full report, Shepard. I want to know how you came to where Anderson found you and what you can tell us about your origins," Hackett ordered.
Shepard knew he was serious about this, given his offer for the personal debrief. That said. "Speaking of origins… how are we going to explain mine here? Since… I don't really seem to exist. At all…"
Hannah spoke up then. "Officially, you're my niece who was born and raised on Mindoir, at least until it was attacked seven years ago. Your parents, my brother and sister-in-law, were killed in the attack. We thought you were too. Captain Anderson officially found you in the wreckage of a slaver's ship that he destroyed."
Andrea blinked. That… could work, if they didn't check the logs about where Anderson found her.
"So… I'm legally your niece?" That… was a different thing for Andrea. She'd never really had family outside her crew, and she definitely didn't have any of them around at the moment, despite what her dreams had shown her. Shepard didn't know how to handle that fully. "That's… very generous of you, thank you…"
"What, did you think I'd let my flesh and blood be alone?" Hannah asked as she came up and hugged her, as a mother would her child… as Andrea had always imagined getting hugged by her own mother. It didn't take long before she returned the hug. Of course… they were interrupted by the clearing of Hackett's throat.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your bonding moment, ladies, but I just wanted to clarify one last thing for Andrea. Given your introduction to both Chakwas and Anderson, I wanted to say that his invocation of the time travel protocols was appropriate. Assuming you are telling the truth, do recall the provisions of those."
"Yes sir, I understand," Andrea said.
"Time travel proto—oh, those." Hannah shook her head. "1955BTF1985-MJF. I always thought that code was a mouthful."
"Why do you think we call them time travel protocols?" Hackett asked. He smiled at the pair of women. "Good that you understand. I have some duties to attend to now. We'll arrange a time for your debrief when Chakwas clears you."
Hackett saluted both Shepards and left the room.
Hannah squeezed Andrea a little tighter before releasing her pseudo-daughter from the hug. "I look forward to hearing about what you're cleared to talk about. I did always want a daughter, but after Michael's father passed…"
"I understand." Andrea nodded. "More than you might know…" Thane. God, Thane's death still weighed on her and had for the past three months. Liara had been helpful to try and deal with the mourning, but the drell would always have a place in her heart.
Andrea moved to try and get out of bed, but Hannah simply held her down.
"You're not getting out of bed until the doctor says it's okay, missy," Hannah said. "You overworked yourself during the invasion. You were still in recovery from vacuum exposure among whatever else you had wrong with you. Plus, you hadn't been consuming nearly enough calories for any sort of combat optimization, given the amount of biotics you used. You're just lucky you didn't pass out when you broke your wheelchair. Karin will be in shortly after she deals with the other patients she has. I'm not going to let you hurt yourself further."
"Yes ma'am," Andrea said, unable to help complying. This woman was her… something… aunt… mother… something… and she was ordering her. There was so much she wanted to ask her. What was Michael's father like? What did he do? What did Hannah do?
Hannah glanced down at her omni-tool and winced. "I should go. I've got a meeting."
"I understand," Shepard said. "See you soon."
"You can count on it, Andrea," Hannah said as she walked out of the room, leaving Andrea alone with her thoughts and the book on the side table. Somehow, these days, the Tome of Eternal Darkness was always within reach.
***********************
During Andrea's recovery time, a number of marines had come in to check on her. Some had been grateful, some were acerbic, and others still just were a bit curious. All wanted to see the "little girl CO" for themselves. Some were a little disappointed that she wasn't pre-pubescent, and those were the ones she immediately sent anonymous reports about. Still, for the most part, the marines were respectful, and the ones that weren't were quickly escorted out of the infirmary entirely. Some brought her gifts, and others just wanted to talk. She couldn't really tell them much due to OpSec, but it was still heartening.
In between, Shepard had time to read the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Arcane writings and magickal secrets lurked within its pages, but something else caught her eye today.
Chapter 15 – Hiding in the Dark
When I was a child, my great-grandfather used to tell stories about his grandmother, about how she saved humanity, about how we should all stand up for what we believe in, to fight those who would destroy it. He told stories of Ancient horrors, Eldritch beings, and creatures that lurked beyond the veil of reality. My parents, of course, dismissed such notions as simply stories. Humanity was alone in the universe, they said. It was impossible for any such things to exist. Imagine how their surprise would have been had they lived to see what happened on Shanxi after we opened Relay 314. Imagine my own when I led a small team that found the artifact the turians searched for. I thought my eyes had been opened. I thought that I had found the horrors my grandfather had spoke of. I was once a fool.
After the memorial to my good friends Ben Hislop and Eva Coré, I returned to Earth to figure out how I should proceed. My ancestral home in Rhode Island always helped me think in my youth, and I knew that returning to Roivas manor would help me approach things such that I could find success in my venture. After the events of Shanxi and beyond, it was obvious to me that conflict with the aliens was inevitable, and as we were now, they would kill us all to the last man. I could use the manor to try and think of a solution to that.
I'd inherited the manor from my mother's side of the family; it was her maiden name that she changed to match my father's. She had been the only heir to the vast fortune of the Roivas family, and I knew that if I could find the appropriate documents within the manor, I could leverage them and the fortune to fund my new endeavor. Humanity needed a guard against its destruction, an army to face the threat of the extraterrestrial, and I knew just where to look.
My mother had hired a part time staff to keep the manor from falling into disrepair, as no full time managed to continue to live in the manor long. I'd kept them on, to honor my family, and entering the manor, I smiled at the original finish that they'd kept there. The foyer had two curved staircases that led to the second floor, and I could remember my parents yelling at me for playing on the rails as a child. They didn't want me to get hurt.
I tried the light switch on the wall, but the chandelier above didn't light. Damn. The staff must have turned the breakers off since the building wasn't going to be in use. If I remembered correctly, the box was in the basement. I'd just have to flip the switches. Turning my omni-tool's flashlight on, (I'd bought it off an asari on Illium), I walked down the hall to the right of the foyer toward the basement door.
Except the door wasn't there. Instead, there was a green triangle on the wall with a red rune in the middle.
"Strange, I know a door was here," I said to myself. I didn't want to just break down the wall to get through to the staircase I knew lurked behind. No, instead I walked out to the foyer and across the hall. On a whim, I glanced at the clock on the table. It was one of those old analogue ones, and its time was stuck at 3:30-something. I would have to fix it after I got back.
I walked down the other hall, and on a whim, I tried the door on the left. It led, of course, into the living room, where an ancient couch sat in front of an ancient fireplace. The fire remained unlit, and I had no desire to light it. Instead, I went through the door next to it. Honestly, I couldn't tell anyone why I went the way I did, but I made my way down a bookshelf-lined hallway. This seemed like the right direction to find a way into the basement. The books on the shelves were about varying subjects, ranging from literature to important nonfiction. At the end of the hall, there was a grandfather clock.
Oddly, the clock's hands were lying on the ground. Did the people responsible for my manor's upkeep just never come back here? I opened the clock's face and frowned. Someone had scrawled "3:33" onto the inside of the face. Placing the hands back in the clock, I turned them. I could have set them to the current time, but on a whim, I put them too at 3:33.
There was a click, and a rumbling as a bookshelf pushed itself inward and slid into the wall, revealing a doorway to another room. I entered. My great-grandfather always spoke of a secret study, but he never mentioned how to get in. Inside, I saw news clippings referencing odd happenings dating back to the 1800s. I saw a number of books on arcane subjects, pictures of ancient weaponry, and scrawled images of creatures that couldn't exist. I also saw a book lying on top of the desk at the center of the room.
The book my great-grandfather spoke of. The Tome of Eternal Darkness lay there, waiting for me to take it. So, I did, lifting it into my arms and putting it under the one not used. I knew the stories of the book, how it was used… I knew what I needed to do.
A note under the book spoke of seeing the unseen, and I smiled. "Perfect."
It didn't take me long to get back to where the basement door should have been. There were no bodies, no creatures lurking, nothing was there to impede me but me, and I had the Tome of Eternal Darkness.
Looking at the wall again, and the glowing marks, I knew exactly what to do. Assuming this worked, things would be very interesting for my new organization. I opened the book, somehow opening to the page I needed. Revealing the Sight Unseen, Reveal invisible. Chatturgha's alignment. I willed it done.
Three runes appeared around me, dimly lit. In a guttural unnatural voice, I heard the words, "Narokath, Redgormor, Chattur'gha."
There was a flare of red and it settled over my sight. I looked to the wall that I knew the basement door had been on, and there it was, revealed. I opened the door to the basement with a smile on my face. Once more illuminating my way with the omni-tool, I descended into the darkness of the basement. The breaker box wasn't far.
Just what was my family hiding here that it required me to use… magick to find the basement? I shone my light around the downstairs. A bookshelf covered the far wall, with dust gathering on all but three spots. The shelf was empty, but there were three perfect dust-free circles. I wondered what must have been there and how long it had been gone.
"Just what the hell is with this house?" I muttered as I approached the breaker box. It was still one of those old style turn of the century boxes, the twentieth century. It meant there was an analog switch on the side that needed to be thrown, and I pulled it upward.
Lights flickered on overhead, and I could hear the starting of the air conditioners outside. Then the overhead light flickered again, and a spark came from the wall behind the bookcase, somehow knocking it forward. It fell hard, cracking a spot of plaster on the floor that I hadn't noticed until now.
I brushed away some of the dust to reveal a wooden trap door. My curiosity piqued, I returned the bookcase to its upright position and started to pry more of the plaster off the trap door. It took me a good two minutes to get it completely uncovered. What the heck was a trap door doing in my basement?
The lights flickered on and off.
"Jaaack…" A gravelly voice creaked.
The house was old. Clearly, I was hearing things. I didn't survive First Contact with those damn skull-faced aliens to be scared by nothing. I pulled open the trap door and revealed a downwardly spiraling staircase.
Giving a glance to my omni-tool, I made sure the light was still on. I hadn't turned it off, and I shone it down the staircase. I couldn't tell exactly how far it descended; my light's beam disappeared before the bottom. Still, it was tempting. If I could explore this manor and find all of its secrets, maybe there would be something I could use.
I began my descent, turning on an altimeter app on my omni-tool in the process. After about two hundred feet, the walls surrounding me opened up into a vast cavern. The air here felt stale, old, like a tomb long forgotten. I smelled a little bit of mildew as I descended but nothing more as the stairs descended to a stone cliff that overlooked the deeper part of the cavern.
"Come to me… Jack… Harper…" Words carried on a lifeless wind as my feet touched down on the rock face of the cliff, and I noted that it followed along the edge of the cavern and into a carved staircase that hugged the walls and went down further.
I stepped along, and I winced as my omni-tool shone on the remains of what might have once been human. It was a full, almost mummified in how desiccated it was, body with dried muscle and skin on its bones. I put the Tome of Eternal Darkness in a satchel, and I reached for my sidearm. Whatever killed this thing likely wasn't still around, but I wasn't sure if something was going to happen.
More corpses lined the rest of the walkway as I made my way to the staircase, and I breathed a sigh of relief when nothing seemed to happen. The corpses were just that, corpses. They did nothing. At all.
I made my way down the staircase, downward and inward. I still wasn't sure what I'd find, but I knew the way back up wouldn't change. If it did, I had the power of magick on my side with the Tome, and I now knew that it worked.
"Jaaack…" the wind whispered once more as I came to a bridge that crossed over a ravine. I took a look over it and gasped. What I saw just couldn't be possible. There was a whole city down below me. I had no clue who could have molded its shape.
"Come to me…"
I crossed the bridge at the ravine and descended further. A massive gateway looked as if it would have blocked my way had it been shut, but it was wide open. I had no trouble passing through it into the ruins of this ancient city. As I felt the long-dead stares of a lost civilization watching me enter, I thought about my great-grandfather and the stories he told. Ehn'gha was the city's name. At one point, it had been a haven to some or another, but it fell to the Eldritch, or so he'd said.
The question was who built it? How old was it? Was this prothean? And even if it wasn't, did it have anything within it that I could use to help humanity secure its position in the stars?
"Jack… Harper…" My name once more held on the wind that I didn't feel on my skin. Perhaps it was the ruins creaking, but regardless, I pressed onward, following the main road. I counted nine towers around me, but the only door that I saw open was at the end of my path.
I entered the building, and I grimaced. The wall had a mural depicting some sort of ancient barbaric ritual. It showed the tossing of children to the creatures of old and it depicted some sort of giant being towering over the people. I couldn't tell if they were humanoid or not. They seemed to have more eyes than a human would, but that was just a painting. What really caught my eye was an altar surrounded by three pedestals. On each pedestal was a curved glass display case, each one coated in dust. Still, they were clearly deliberately placed, and I had no clue as to the reason why. I approached the nearest case to me, and the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up. I reached for the case, and an arc of purple electricity struck my hand, pushing me back. I stumbled over toward the altar, and then suddenly, I found myself elsewhere.
I let out a small curse before I began to look around. Somehow, I'm not entirely sure how, I'd ended up on a floating platform that extended about fifteen meters in any direction, allowing for corner length, and the décor was very ritualistic. It looked like a fusion between Roman and some sort of ancient civilizaition's preparations.
Lying in the corner of the platform was another corpse. This one was far better preserved than any I'd seen previously. It was dressed as a Roman Centurion, and it laid propped against the railing. Next to it, a staff made out of some sort of bone laid flat on the ground.
I reached down to pick up the staff, and I cut myself. I may have let out a small curse. Still, I'd picked up the staff and used it to walk over to the edge of the platform I stared out at the city below me, pondering how I could use its resources to best help humanity.
A hand laid itself upon my shoulder, and I glanced at it. Skeletal, bony fingers gripped my shoulder lightly. I glanced back at the corpse, only to find it had gone missing in the interim. My gaze went to the body the hand was attached to.
It was the same body that had lain on the ground.
"Jack Harper…" The corpse said. "I suppose I must thank you. Were it not for you, I would still be dead."
"You're welcome?" I said, questioning. "Are you a person? Do you have a name?"
"Pious Augustus," said the talking corpse. "And I would like to help you."
I stared out at the city and gave a nod. Augustus's smile widened as we began to ponder together.
My family has been the savior of humanity from the dawn of it. Together with the resources granted by Augustus, humanity will be able to take its rightful place as ruler among the stars. The army we will build will become the Cerberus of Charon, guarding against those who would dare pass through the river Styx. I will illuminate the threats against humanity and direct this army as necessary. Fear us, oh aliens, for we are humanity. Face us, and you shall surely perish!
God. Even the forest dreams on the Normandy hadn't been that bad. They had her waking in cold sweats, sure, but never in an actual panic. Whatever it was, it had taken Liara's form, used Liara. The only person worse would have been Thane. She couldn't let it get to her.
Honestly, the last time she'd had a dream get to her this bad had been in boot camp, and she'd been a lot younger then. Of course… with the physical age Chakwas had said she was… maybe that had something to do with the current reaction.
Breathing steadied, Shepard surveyed her surroundings. It certainly was some sort of infirmary, and judging from the monitors and such attached to her, she was definitely the patient. The hospital gown added to that assumption. Of course, she was very happy to find out the only sort of life support item she had was an IV line. She couldn't tell what was in the bag beyond the typical saline, but she knew it had to be something good.
A table was next to her bed, and sitting atop it was her all too familiar book. The Tome of Eternal Darkness practically dared her to open it, to read it and to understand it. Curse or not, given the recent events, could she take the chance of not having the knowledge it provided? Besides, who actually believed in curses anyway?
On the other side of the bed was a metal chair, occupied by an older woman. Her hair, tied back into a bun, was red, identical to her natural color, and she wore an officer's uniform identifying her as Lieutenant Commander in the Alliance Navy. The woman's facial structure was familiar to Andrea; she saw those cheekbones whenever she looked in the mirror. Her eye color matched Andrea's as well. This woman… This woman… Shepard took a couple tries to stop that thought in its tracks. Andrea Shepard had grown up an orphan on Earth. She'd joined the Reds to survive the streets of Vancouver, and she'd joined the Alliance after only a little prodding from a certain captain. She never had a mother. She'd never needed one.
But you wanted one, a traitorous part of her heart stated.
"I was waiting for you to wake up." God, the woman even sounded similar to her. Sure, her voice was a half-octave lower than her and her inflection was different, but there were shared tones in the woman's voice as in Andrea's. "I don't know if you know who I am…"
"Lieutenant Commander Hannah Shepard, I suppose. I'm told we're related, ma'am," Andrea Shepard said, locking eyes with the woman. Sure, according to her own history, she was higher ranked than this woman, but that history hadn't transferred over with her. At this point in the timeline, she would have been Lieutenant at best, and there was no reason to be rude.
"Yes. I've been informed of that relation. You'd think that I'd remember giving birth to a daughter, especially one as reckless as you," Hannah Shepard said with a smirk. Andrea knew that smirk. Andrea had that smirk. The woman was teasing her.
"Well, you work with what you have," Shepard said with a shrug. "I was supposed to be shopping, but I couldn't really just sit by while terrorists or whatever they were did their thing when I could stop it."
"You took a dead soldier's gun, amp, and omni-tool, and then you proceeded to break your wheelchair using a strenuous biotic technique. I hear you also shorted out the amp using it," Hannah said.
"Now that's not my fault," Shepard said. "I thought amps were supposed to modulate the power going through them so that doesn't happen."
"They are, for L3 and below implants," Hannah said. "You don't have L3 implants, Miss Andrea, my… well, let's hold off on relationship defining for now."
Shepard paused for a second. "No, I don't. Still, I handled an issue."
"You also gave commands, as a civilian, to a group of marines. You very easily could have endangered their lives as well as your own." Hannah looked her in the eye. "However, due to extenuating circumstances regarding your origins, combined with how well you assumed command in that combat situation you were unwittingly thrust into, it has been decided that, pending passing the certification tests, you will be instated as an N operative at a rank based upon your age and how well you perform on the certification tests. The highest rank that you are likely to get is a Staff Lieutenant at an N7 rating."
Shepard boggled. She figured she'd have to argue her case for rejoining the Alliance here, and she'd do her best to get the N7 rating, but this was practically a foot in the door for it. Sure, she wasn't a Spectre here, but that didn't mean she didn't know codes and such.
"Of course, given your genetics and how you seem to have been trained, I expect such an advancement will be trivial for you." Hannah smiled at her, and she could feel the warmth.
"Uh… thank you?" Shepard still couldn't believe what had happened. It didn't really make much sense that she'd have this opportunity this quickly, and certainly not on a Lieutenant Commander's say-so. "If you don't mind me asking… how did this get pushed through? I don't even have any records."
"It helps when you have an Admiral to back you up," said a male voice, answering her. An older man dressed in Alliance blues walked into her area of the infirmary from outside. The bars on his hat confirmed what he'd just said; the man was an admiral, and his gray goatee was kept nice and trim. He had a scar on his right cheek that ran from just below his eye to his lip. Both women saluted the man upon his entry into the area. Andrea certainly recognized him right away. Admiral Steven Hackett still held her respect, and he always had.
"At ease, please." Andrea let herself go to at ease by laying back on the slightly raised bed she was in. She fidgeted a little, adjusting her covers to make sure she was unexposed in front of this man.
"Shepard… Andrea Shepard that is, your performance has been highly spoken of from those whom you commanded. Lance Corporal Jones was especially complimentary of your leadership. You appear to have an innate talent for it, and I would like to help you nurture it. Captain Anderson told me of how he and his crew found you and what you wore at the time. There's more to you than most would assume, given your age."
"Sir, you have no idea," Andrea said, ready to continue, but Hackett simply held up a hand.
"Right now, you need to focus on your recovery. When you've been cleared for duty by Doctor Chakwas, I will debrief you personally. Your report will be classified and deemed need to know only, but understand that I will want a full report, Shepard. I want to know how you came to where Anderson found you and what you can tell us about your origins," Hackett ordered.
Shepard knew he was serious about this, given his offer for the personal debrief. That said. "Speaking of origins… how are we going to explain mine here? Since… I don't really seem to exist. At all…"
Hannah spoke up then. "Officially, you're my niece who was born and raised on Mindoir, at least until it was attacked seven years ago. Your parents, my brother and sister-in-law, were killed in the attack. We thought you were too. Captain Anderson officially found you in the wreckage of a slaver's ship that he destroyed."
Andrea blinked. That… could work, if they didn't check the logs about where Anderson found her.
"So… I'm legally your niece?" That… was a different thing for Andrea. She'd never really had family outside her crew, and she definitely didn't have any of them around at the moment, despite what her dreams had shown her. Shepard didn't know how to handle that fully. "That's… very generous of you, thank you…"
"What, did you think I'd let my flesh and blood be alone?" Hannah asked as she came up and hugged her, as a mother would her child… as Andrea had always imagined getting hugged by her own mother. It didn't take long before she returned the hug. Of course… they were interrupted by the clearing of Hackett's throat.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your bonding moment, ladies, but I just wanted to clarify one last thing for Andrea. Given your introduction to both Chakwas and Anderson, I wanted to say that his invocation of the time travel protocols was appropriate. Assuming you are telling the truth, do recall the provisions of those."
"Yes sir, I understand," Andrea said.
"Time travel proto—oh, those." Hannah shook her head. "1955BTF1985-MJF. I always thought that code was a mouthful."
"Why do you think we call them time travel protocols?" Hackett asked. He smiled at the pair of women. "Good that you understand. I have some duties to attend to now. We'll arrange a time for your debrief when Chakwas clears you."
Hackett saluted both Shepards and left the room.
Hannah squeezed Andrea a little tighter before releasing her pseudo-daughter from the hug. "I look forward to hearing about what you're cleared to talk about. I did always want a daughter, but after Michael's father passed…"
"I understand." Andrea nodded. "More than you might know…" Thane. God, Thane's death still weighed on her and had for the past three months. Liara had been helpful to try and deal with the mourning, but the drell would always have a place in her heart.
Andrea moved to try and get out of bed, but Hannah simply held her down.
"You're not getting out of bed until the doctor says it's okay, missy," Hannah said. "You overworked yourself during the invasion. You were still in recovery from vacuum exposure among whatever else you had wrong with you. Plus, you hadn't been consuming nearly enough calories for any sort of combat optimization, given the amount of biotics you used. You're just lucky you didn't pass out when you broke your wheelchair. Karin will be in shortly after she deals with the other patients she has. I'm not going to let you hurt yourself further."
"Yes ma'am," Andrea said, unable to help complying. This woman was her… something… aunt… mother… something… and she was ordering her. There was so much she wanted to ask her. What was Michael's father like? What did he do? What did Hannah do?
Hannah glanced down at her omni-tool and winced. "I should go. I've got a meeting."
"I understand," Shepard said. "See you soon."
"You can count on it, Andrea," Hannah said as she walked out of the room, leaving Andrea alone with her thoughts and the book on the side table. Somehow, these days, the Tome of Eternal Darkness was always within reach.
***********************
During Andrea's recovery time, a number of marines had come in to check on her. Some had been grateful, some were acerbic, and others still just were a bit curious. All wanted to see the "little girl CO" for themselves. Some were a little disappointed that she wasn't pre-pubescent, and those were the ones she immediately sent anonymous reports about. Still, for the most part, the marines were respectful, and the ones that weren't were quickly escorted out of the infirmary entirely. Some brought her gifts, and others just wanted to talk. She couldn't really tell them much due to OpSec, but it was still heartening.
In between, Shepard had time to read the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Arcane writings and magickal secrets lurked within its pages, but something else caught her eye today.
Chapter 15 – Hiding in the Dark
When I was a child, my great-grandfather used to tell stories about his grandmother, about how she saved humanity, about how we should all stand up for what we believe in, to fight those who would destroy it. He told stories of Ancient horrors, Eldritch beings, and creatures that lurked beyond the veil of reality. My parents, of course, dismissed such notions as simply stories. Humanity was alone in the universe, they said. It was impossible for any such things to exist. Imagine how their surprise would have been had they lived to see what happened on Shanxi after we opened Relay 314. Imagine my own when I led a small team that found the artifact the turians searched for. I thought my eyes had been opened. I thought that I had found the horrors my grandfather had spoke of. I was once a fool.
After the memorial to my good friends Ben Hislop and Eva Coré, I returned to Earth to figure out how I should proceed. My ancestral home in Rhode Island always helped me think in my youth, and I knew that returning to Roivas manor would help me approach things such that I could find success in my venture. After the events of Shanxi and beyond, it was obvious to me that conflict with the aliens was inevitable, and as we were now, they would kill us all to the last man. I could use the manor to try and think of a solution to that.
I'd inherited the manor from my mother's side of the family; it was her maiden name that she changed to match my father's. She had been the only heir to the vast fortune of the Roivas family, and I knew that if I could find the appropriate documents within the manor, I could leverage them and the fortune to fund my new endeavor. Humanity needed a guard against its destruction, an army to face the threat of the extraterrestrial, and I knew just where to look.
My mother had hired a part time staff to keep the manor from falling into disrepair, as no full time managed to continue to live in the manor long. I'd kept them on, to honor my family, and entering the manor, I smiled at the original finish that they'd kept there. The foyer had two curved staircases that led to the second floor, and I could remember my parents yelling at me for playing on the rails as a child. They didn't want me to get hurt.
I tried the light switch on the wall, but the chandelier above didn't light. Damn. The staff must have turned the breakers off since the building wasn't going to be in use. If I remembered correctly, the box was in the basement. I'd just have to flip the switches. Turning my omni-tool's flashlight on, (I'd bought it off an asari on Illium), I walked down the hall to the right of the foyer toward the basement door.
Except the door wasn't there. Instead, there was a green triangle on the wall with a red rune in the middle.
"Strange, I know a door was here," I said to myself. I didn't want to just break down the wall to get through to the staircase I knew lurked behind. No, instead I walked out to the foyer and across the hall. On a whim, I glanced at the clock on the table. It was one of those old analogue ones, and its time was stuck at 3:30-something. I would have to fix it after I got back.
I walked down the other hall, and on a whim, I tried the door on the left. It led, of course, into the living room, where an ancient couch sat in front of an ancient fireplace. The fire remained unlit, and I had no desire to light it. Instead, I went through the door next to it. Honestly, I couldn't tell anyone why I went the way I did, but I made my way down a bookshelf-lined hallway. This seemed like the right direction to find a way into the basement. The books on the shelves were about varying subjects, ranging from literature to important nonfiction. At the end of the hall, there was a grandfather clock.
Oddly, the clock's hands were lying on the ground. Did the people responsible for my manor's upkeep just never come back here? I opened the clock's face and frowned. Someone had scrawled "3:33" onto the inside of the face. Placing the hands back in the clock, I turned them. I could have set them to the current time, but on a whim, I put them too at 3:33.
There was a click, and a rumbling as a bookshelf pushed itself inward and slid into the wall, revealing a doorway to another room. I entered. My great-grandfather always spoke of a secret study, but he never mentioned how to get in. Inside, I saw news clippings referencing odd happenings dating back to the 1800s. I saw a number of books on arcane subjects, pictures of ancient weaponry, and scrawled images of creatures that couldn't exist. I also saw a book lying on top of the desk at the center of the room.
The book my great-grandfather spoke of. The Tome of Eternal Darkness lay there, waiting for me to take it. So, I did, lifting it into my arms and putting it under the one not used. I knew the stories of the book, how it was used… I knew what I needed to do.
A note under the book spoke of seeing the unseen, and I smiled. "Perfect."
It didn't take me long to get back to where the basement door should have been. There were no bodies, no creatures lurking, nothing was there to impede me but me, and I had the Tome of Eternal Darkness.
Looking at the wall again, and the glowing marks, I knew exactly what to do. Assuming this worked, things would be very interesting for my new organization. I opened the book, somehow opening to the page I needed. Revealing the Sight Unseen, Reveal invisible. Chatturgha's alignment. I willed it done.
Three runes appeared around me, dimly lit. In a guttural unnatural voice, I heard the words, "Narokath, Redgormor, Chattur'gha."
There was a flare of red and it settled over my sight. I looked to the wall that I knew the basement door had been on, and there it was, revealed. I opened the door to the basement with a smile on my face. Once more illuminating my way with the omni-tool, I descended into the darkness of the basement. The breaker box wasn't far.
Just what was my family hiding here that it required me to use… magick to find the basement? I shone my light around the downstairs. A bookshelf covered the far wall, with dust gathering on all but three spots. The shelf was empty, but there were three perfect dust-free circles. I wondered what must have been there and how long it had been gone.
"Just what the hell is with this house?" I muttered as I approached the breaker box. It was still one of those old style turn of the century boxes, the twentieth century. It meant there was an analog switch on the side that needed to be thrown, and I pulled it upward.
Lights flickered on overhead, and I could hear the starting of the air conditioners outside. Then the overhead light flickered again, and a spark came from the wall behind the bookcase, somehow knocking it forward. It fell hard, cracking a spot of plaster on the floor that I hadn't noticed until now.
I brushed away some of the dust to reveal a wooden trap door. My curiosity piqued, I returned the bookcase to its upright position and started to pry more of the plaster off the trap door. It took me a good two minutes to get it completely uncovered. What the heck was a trap door doing in my basement?
The lights flickered on and off.
"Jaaack…" A gravelly voice creaked.
The house was old. Clearly, I was hearing things. I didn't survive First Contact with those damn skull-faced aliens to be scared by nothing. I pulled open the trap door and revealed a downwardly spiraling staircase.
Giving a glance to my omni-tool, I made sure the light was still on. I hadn't turned it off, and I shone it down the staircase. I couldn't tell exactly how far it descended; my light's beam disappeared before the bottom. Still, it was tempting. If I could explore this manor and find all of its secrets, maybe there would be something I could use.
I began my descent, turning on an altimeter app on my omni-tool in the process. After about two hundred feet, the walls surrounding me opened up into a vast cavern. The air here felt stale, old, like a tomb long forgotten. I smelled a little bit of mildew as I descended but nothing more as the stairs descended to a stone cliff that overlooked the deeper part of the cavern.
"Come to me… Jack… Harper…" Words carried on a lifeless wind as my feet touched down on the rock face of the cliff, and I noted that it followed along the edge of the cavern and into a carved staircase that hugged the walls and went down further.
I stepped along, and I winced as my omni-tool shone on the remains of what might have once been human. It was a full, almost mummified in how desiccated it was, body with dried muscle and skin on its bones. I put the Tome of Eternal Darkness in a satchel, and I reached for my sidearm. Whatever killed this thing likely wasn't still around, but I wasn't sure if something was going to happen.
More corpses lined the rest of the walkway as I made my way to the staircase, and I breathed a sigh of relief when nothing seemed to happen. The corpses were just that, corpses. They did nothing. At all.
I made my way down the staircase, downward and inward. I still wasn't sure what I'd find, but I knew the way back up wouldn't change. If it did, I had the power of magick on my side with the Tome, and I now knew that it worked.
"Jaaack…" the wind whispered once more as I came to a bridge that crossed over a ravine. I took a look over it and gasped. What I saw just couldn't be possible. There was a whole city down below me. I had no clue who could have molded its shape.
"Come to me…"
I crossed the bridge at the ravine and descended further. A massive gateway looked as if it would have blocked my way had it been shut, but it was wide open. I had no trouble passing through it into the ruins of this ancient city. As I felt the long-dead stares of a lost civilization watching me enter, I thought about my great-grandfather and the stories he told. Ehn'gha was the city's name. At one point, it had been a haven to some or another, but it fell to the Eldritch, or so he'd said.
The question was who built it? How old was it? Was this prothean? And even if it wasn't, did it have anything within it that I could use to help humanity secure its position in the stars?
"Jack… Harper…" My name once more held on the wind that I didn't feel on my skin. Perhaps it was the ruins creaking, but regardless, I pressed onward, following the main road. I counted nine towers around me, but the only door that I saw open was at the end of my path.
I entered the building, and I grimaced. The wall had a mural depicting some sort of ancient barbaric ritual. It showed the tossing of children to the creatures of old and it depicted some sort of giant being towering over the people. I couldn't tell if they were humanoid or not. They seemed to have more eyes than a human would, but that was just a painting. What really caught my eye was an altar surrounded by three pedestals. On each pedestal was a curved glass display case, each one coated in dust. Still, they were clearly deliberately placed, and I had no clue as to the reason why. I approached the nearest case to me, and the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up. I reached for the case, and an arc of purple electricity struck my hand, pushing me back. I stumbled over toward the altar, and then suddenly, I found myself elsewhere.
I let out a small curse before I began to look around. Somehow, I'm not entirely sure how, I'd ended up on a floating platform that extended about fifteen meters in any direction, allowing for corner length, and the décor was very ritualistic. It looked like a fusion between Roman and some sort of ancient civilizaition's preparations.
Lying in the corner of the platform was another corpse. This one was far better preserved than any I'd seen previously. It was dressed as a Roman Centurion, and it laid propped against the railing. Next to it, a staff made out of some sort of bone laid flat on the ground.
I reached down to pick up the staff, and I cut myself. I may have let out a small curse. Still, I'd picked up the staff and used it to walk over to the edge of the platform I stared out at the city below me, pondering how I could use its resources to best help humanity.
A hand laid itself upon my shoulder, and I glanced at it. Skeletal, bony fingers gripped my shoulder lightly. I glanced back at the corpse, only to find it had gone missing in the interim. My gaze went to the body the hand was attached to.
It was the same body that had lain on the ground.
"Jack Harper…" The corpse said. "I suppose I must thank you. Were it not for you, I would still be dead."
"You're welcome?" I said, questioning. "Are you a person? Do you have a name?"
"Pious Augustus," said the talking corpse. "And I would like to help you."
I stared out at the city and gave a nod. Augustus's smile widened as we began to ponder together.
My family has been the savior of humanity from the dawn of it. Together with the resources granted by Augustus, humanity will be able to take its rightful place as ruler among the stars. The army we will build will become the Cerberus of Charon, guarding against those who would dare pass through the river Styx. I will illuminate the threats against humanity and direct this army as necessary. Fear us, oh aliens, for we are humanity. Face us, and you shall surely perish!
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