ConfusedPotato
Unverified Verifier
- Location
- Australia
Good this means you do not need to commit sudoku.
Perchance to Dream (Mass Effect / Commander)
- Thread starter Drich
- Start date
Sakuya's Butler
A refined Butler to a knife wielding Mistress.
- Location
- ↓, ↘, → + Punch
5.10
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
5.10
+++
There was a brief moment. Half the voices in his mind began to giggle.
"Annnd meme'd."
Marcus only smiled, incredibly tempted to join them but managing to hold it back.
"Of course." Marcus stepped a bit closer, raising a finger. "Boop."
The platform's light switched off, and it slowly tipped backwards, falling to the ground with a metallic thunk. What was left behind was a swirling collection of...
Shapes. It was an unsatisfactory description, but it was a group of thousands of shifting irregular polyhedrons that fit together like a bunch of jigsaw pieces, delineated only by faint lines and nevertheless still appearing to overlap with each other.
It was interesting to look at. And appropriate, he supposed.
"One soul for every program." Marcus stated. "And together, they form a group-mind. Individually minor, but together, potent and strong. We believe that the question is, itself, the answer, Geth. That which can ask it possesses it, in all cases we know of." Marcus raised his hand, and the platform rose, moved upright. The gestalt soul of the Geth was promptly, though gently, pushed back into it, minds returned to the circuits.
The light blinked back on.
"I hope that this enough evidence for you?" Marcus asked.
"The data is... Complex." The platform stated. "But we believe it is sufficient."
Marcus smiled. "You'll need time to process it. Time to consider it." He shrugged. "Take as long as you need. Do drop by if you feel like discussing it, however. We find ourselves curious to see what insights your unique perspectives might offer."
"Thank you for your assistance."
Marcus shrugged. "Oh, it was no trouble. Besides, this is as much of an opportunity for us as it was for you." Marcus held his hand out. Assimilation Crystal bloomed into existence, before shattering, a datachip now in their place. He held it out to the Geth, the platform taking it. "This contains information we believe you should know. Most of it relates to the Harvesters. Goodbye, Geth."
Space folded. He appeared in his own ship.
He looked out the window, where the Geth Ship was beginning to turn away.
His smile stretched a bit, turning into a grin. He shook, before he threw his head back and laughed.
"Th-this unit-" He fell back, still laughing. "- requests a boop!"
"They delivered it so seriously."
"Right?!" He leaned against the wall, briefly stopping to breathe. "That was great. I haven't laughed this hard in years."
+++
The first few months were a bit of chaos.
But life has a way of adapting, and time bowed to none but the Dreamer.
Day after day passed, week after week. Things calmed down, eventually.
The next upset took its time to arrive.
But arrive it did.
+++
August 6, 2074/2449
+++
The law of drama would demand that he'd be in the middle of something important when things happened. A meeting with the Citadel Council, over any given issue. Attending a fine dinner with his fellow ambassadors.
As luck would have it, Marcus had just arrived back at the embassy from the dinner after meeting the Council when it happened.
A group touches his mind. Marcus, after a moment to put up his coat, joins it.
Memory flows. This group, the originators of it, had been one of the explorers. A city-ship, drifting through space. They had recently acquired permission to move through Asari territory, which had allowed them to pass through a few Mass Relays that had shortened a trip of thirty thousand light years to near-nothing. In turn, this made one set of coordinates on the Dreamer's list easily accessible.
So, of course, they had gone there.
And there, they found...
Marcus pauses.
Power. Energy, and distinctly familiar energy at that.
The Dreamer.
Marcus is reminded, distinctly, of nearly eight months ago, when he first came upon the Prothean Bunker and the energy remnants there. This quite familiar.
Though, last time, the system had been an interesting one. This system... isn't. This system has a dim red dwarf star, a cloud of asteroids surrounding it, and not much else. It's as plain and as boring as they came.
"It would be a good place to hide something." They can't help but note.
The ship drops out of FTL. They look, and see a rock.
It's a spectacularly boring one. A few kilometers across, irregularly shaped, a normal chondrite asteroid so far away from any others that it's utterly useless and uninteresting.
Except they can feel the power emanating from it.
Just like last time, they probe at it, casting mind and sight towards it. There's a few hundred meters of rock that would block any conventional scans, but nothing about them is conventional.
There is something hidden under it. Rock abruptly gives way to vacuum, with a number of struts extending from the edge of the rock to something at the core, which is...
Metal. Refined. Carefully shaped. They explore the shape of it, for a moment.
It's a ship.
"We recognize this design." A few of them note. "We have seen it in old records. This is a Rachni ship."
"Rachni. The boogeyman of the Citadel Species." Others say. "And the Dreamer did what?"
They probe closer. Metal is no more of a barrier than rock.
Despite the age of the ship, it's in perfect condition. They recognize this, the way that psychic energy is flowing throughout the place, dipping into the floors and walls and ceilings.
They check the energy, again. Much like with the Prothean Bunker, it is gathering into clusters. Gathering around...
Minds. Dormant.
"It's the same thing, isn't it?"
They look for the greatest concentration. They find the center, the nexus that connects the clusters.
They see a crystal tree, its roots wrapped around an egg, serving as a nest. There is mind within, sleeping dreamlessly.
It is... a curious mix of young and old. The mind is young, the being it belongs to young, but there is an echo of age. They touch, lightly, a brief contact that nevertheless reveals memories, ancient and much, much older than the mind that hosts them.
"The Dreamer saved them." They say. "But why?"
They look at the memories. They take a moment to skim them, glimpse the old knowledge-
And they know, now, why.
"Ah." They say. "Another complicated situation."
+++
There was a brief moment. Half the voices in his mind began to giggle.
"Annnd meme'd."
Marcus only smiled, incredibly tempted to join them but managing to hold it back.
"Of course." Marcus stepped a bit closer, raising a finger. "Boop."
The platform's light switched off, and it slowly tipped backwards, falling to the ground with a metallic thunk. What was left behind was a swirling collection of...
Shapes. It was an unsatisfactory description, but it was a group of thousands of shifting irregular polyhedrons that fit together like a bunch of jigsaw pieces, delineated only by faint lines and nevertheless still appearing to overlap with each other.
It was interesting to look at. And appropriate, he supposed.
"One soul for every program." Marcus stated. "And together, they form a group-mind. Individually minor, but together, potent and strong. We believe that the question is, itself, the answer, Geth. That which can ask it possesses it, in all cases we know of." Marcus raised his hand, and the platform rose, moved upright. The gestalt soul of the Geth was promptly, though gently, pushed back into it, minds returned to the circuits.
The light blinked back on.
"I hope that this enough evidence for you?" Marcus asked.
"The data is... Complex." The platform stated. "But we believe it is sufficient."
Marcus smiled. "You'll need time to process it. Time to consider it." He shrugged. "Take as long as you need. Do drop by if you feel like discussing it, however. We find ourselves curious to see what insights your unique perspectives might offer."
"Thank you for your assistance."
Marcus shrugged. "Oh, it was no trouble. Besides, this is as much of an opportunity for us as it was for you." Marcus held his hand out. Assimilation Crystal bloomed into existence, before shattering, a datachip now in their place. He held it out to the Geth, the platform taking it. "This contains information we believe you should know. Most of it relates to the Harvesters. Goodbye, Geth."
Space folded. He appeared in his own ship.
He looked out the window, where the Geth Ship was beginning to turn away.
His smile stretched a bit, turning into a grin. He shook, before he threw his head back and laughed.
"Th-this unit-" He fell back, still laughing. "- requests a boop!"
"They delivered it so seriously."
"Right?!" He leaned against the wall, briefly stopping to breathe. "That was great. I haven't laughed this hard in years."
+++
The first few months were a bit of chaos.
But life has a way of adapting, and time bowed to none but the Dreamer.
Day after day passed, week after week. Things calmed down, eventually.
The next upset took its time to arrive.
But arrive it did.
+++
August 6, 2074/2449
+++
The law of drama would demand that he'd be in the middle of something important when things happened. A meeting with the Citadel Council, over any given issue. Attending a fine dinner with his fellow ambassadors.
As luck would have it, Marcus had just arrived back at the embassy from the dinner after meeting the Council when it happened.
A group touches his mind. Marcus, after a moment to put up his coat, joins it.
Memory flows. This group, the originators of it, had been one of the explorers. A city-ship, drifting through space. They had recently acquired permission to move through Asari territory, which had allowed them to pass through a few Mass Relays that had shortened a trip of thirty thousand light years to near-nothing. In turn, this made one set of coordinates on the Dreamer's list easily accessible.
So, of course, they had gone there.
And there, they found...
Marcus pauses.
Power. Energy, and distinctly familiar energy at that.
The Dreamer.
Marcus is reminded, distinctly, of nearly eight months ago, when he first came upon the Prothean Bunker and the energy remnants there. This quite familiar.
Though, last time, the system had been an interesting one. This system... isn't. This system has a dim red dwarf star, a cloud of asteroids surrounding it, and not much else. It's as plain and as boring as they came.
"It would be a good place to hide something." They can't help but note.
The ship drops out of FTL. They look, and see a rock.
It's a spectacularly boring one. A few kilometers across, irregularly shaped, a normal chondrite asteroid so far away from any others that it's utterly useless and uninteresting.
Except they can feel the power emanating from it.
Just like last time, they probe at it, casting mind and sight towards it. There's a few hundred meters of rock that would block any conventional scans, but nothing about them is conventional.
There is something hidden under it. Rock abruptly gives way to vacuum, with a number of struts extending from the edge of the rock to something at the core, which is...
Metal. Refined. Carefully shaped. They explore the shape of it, for a moment.
It's a ship.
"We recognize this design." A few of them note. "We have seen it in old records. This is a Rachni ship."
"Rachni. The boogeyman of the Citadel Species." Others say. "And the Dreamer did what?"
They probe closer. Metal is no more of a barrier than rock.
Despite the age of the ship, it's in perfect condition. They recognize this, the way that psychic energy is flowing throughout the place, dipping into the floors and walls and ceilings.
They check the energy, again. Much like with the Prothean Bunker, it is gathering into clusters. Gathering around...
Minds. Dormant.
"It's the same thing, isn't it?"
They look for the greatest concentration. They find the center, the nexus that connects the clusters.
They see a crystal tree, its roots wrapped around an egg, serving as a nest. There is mind within, sleeping dreamlessly.
It is... a curious mix of young and old. The mind is young, the being it belongs to young, but there is an echo of age. They touch, lightly, a brief contact that nevertheless reveals memories, ancient and much, much older than the mind that hosts them.
"The Dreamer saved them." They say. "But why?"
They look at the memories. They take a moment to skim them, glimpse the old knowledge-
And they know, now, why.
"Ah." They say. "Another complicated situation."
- Location
- Places
Yet another give mind get!
Wings-Of-Change
On the Changiest of wings
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
More allies that make the council cry, get!
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"Your song has many colors we do not know. How can that be?"
"It's complicated ..."
Crystalwatcher
(Verified GM)
- Location
- Limbo
TCGM
(Unverified God/Space Snek)
- Location
- Avalon
Everyone on board the Boopship, pew pew
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
Just a coincidence, this time.
Sakuya's Butler
A refined Butler to a knife wielding Mistress.
- Location
- ↓, ↘, → + Punch
We all live in the Yellow Boopmarine.
The Yellow Boopmarine...
5.11
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
I was going to update earlier, but then Waframe's Empyrean update came out.
And suddenly I was down three days.
5.11
+++
The memories unravel before them. They start at the beginning.
Rachni, older, more ancient and more primordial, taken from the Singing World, taken from their home planet. They were primitive things, then, powerless to fight back.
The culprit? Protheans.
The Protheans sought a weapon. They saw potential in the Rachni, with their coordination, their speed of growth, and their ingenuity. They stole Queens, separated voices from the choir, and changed them.
The Protheans bred into them violence. They selected the most cunning and most warlike Queens and broods, and unleashed them upon their enemies as a weapon of terror. As time passed, the Rachni began to slip their bonds, becoming too difficult to control and eventually turning on the Protheans.
The Protheans fought them. Many Queens died and many Songs were silenced. The Protheans thought them destroyed.
This, they knew. It had been before Javik's time, but the Protheans had more or less immortalized the memory for their descendents. Every Prothean knew the stories.
But accepted history and actual history often proved different. The Protheans thought them destroyed.
They had not been thorough enough. There were survivors. Nought but a few Queens. Precious few, but for a species as prolific as the Rachni, it was enough.
Time passed. The Protheans fell to silence. The remaining Rachni rebuilt, a civilization reborn underneath the ground of the Singing World.
They knew peace.
Until, one day, tens of thousands of years later...
A sour yellow note echoed from the stars. A tone that forced all who heard it to sing alongside it.
"This... sounds like Indoctrination."
"So it seems."
Discord took them. A series of continuous memories fragmented into something that was obscured by oily shadow. Only flashes of that time emerged. The Songs of others came, and the Discord grew stronger. There was war. A new Song, and the Rachni weakened. With time, growing silence, and end to ancient Singers.
Now, all that remained was there. Eggs, all dormant, mostly workers and warriors, but there was one final hope with them. A single egg held a Queen inside, and with it, the potential for the Rachni to one day sing a great Song again.
Still, the oily darkness lingered, at the edge of memory, but it was weak and unenforced. It was enough to consume everything from that point onwards, a blankness that was not much of anything, merely an idea of it. Time passed, but to know how much through these memories alone was impossible.
Yet, even that came to an end. A period of memoryless blackness, and then...
A blue chord.
From that blackness emerged a brilliant light. It scoured the shadow, burning every trace of it away. The light is warm, comforting, protective. It offers this hope freely, without hesitation.
Light unfolds into shape, song, and sense.
It is, of course, the Dreamer. As if it could be anything else.
"Your kind has suffered unfairly." The Dreamer sings in the Queensong. Rachni language lacks much in the way of words, with conversation more akin to a transmission of memory, concept, and emotion. It's only because of their own experience in such things that they can decipher it so easily.
Yet, such a thing is wholly unnecessary for the Dreamer. Somehow, despite the fact that the Dreamer certainly isn't -hadn't- spoken with words, despite that this is no more than a memory, the meaning still comes to them without difficulty. They perceived spoken words, yet the very memory that showed it to them showed that the Rachni had perceived no such thing.
It is intriguingly curious.
"I cannot help you now, in this time and space." The Dreamer continues. "You are too vulnerable to the ill singing of the Anathema. The memories of your yellowed brethren linger too strongly amongst those who destroyed them. To help you now would be to place an ordained doom upon you."
The Dreamer's presence expands. The strength of it beggars belief, but it is infinitely gentle. The unborn -unhatched- Queen's mind is stable, and fully capable of bearing the presence.
"I will give you a gift." The Dreamer states, and works. To the sight of memory, light condenses alongside song and power. "I will strengthen your chorus. The Anathema's note shall drown under your voices. It will take time for this gift to settle, but I shall hide you where they shall not find you. I shall see that you have a future where your will is your own. You shall have your chance to sing alongside the stars, child. I shall come to retrieve you, but until then, you must sleep."
The bundle of light and power shifts. The gift, given, accepted...
And the Queen's mind enters true dormancy. Nothing follows, from that point on.
They break from the memories.
"I am going to guess that the Dreamer found us, first." One says.
A few of them dive their minds into the vessel's computers. They are not as convenient as Prothean ones, but the look through the Queen's memories provided all they need to utilize them. Access is achieved, and they promptly go searching through files.
They're in luck. The system has logged anomalies in subsystems. Fuel that appeared to be building up rather than running down. Atmosphere maintained at optimal levels despite the fact that the systems had not appeared to actually be in use. Subsystems reporting a lack of damage despite the fact that they previously were damaged, and no actions to repair them had been noted.
It takes them a moment to translate the dating, but it's done easily enough.
The oldest of the anomalies goes back to 1987, thirty two years before the Dreamer had arrived at Earth.
"So close?" They wonder.
"It makes sense." Others stated. "The Protheans hid on a planet that was directly accessible from the Mass Relay network. Following it would have led the Dreamer straight to them. The Rachni are on a ship that was very likely to have just been drifting in space, far harder to chance on."
"If it had been earlier, the Rachni would have likely already been retrieved." Others added. "We threw a spanner in the works there, I think."
"And so, unable to do it, the Dreamer entrusted it to us." They surmise.
They consider it, for a while.
"The Citadel Species are going to throw a fit."
And suddenly I was down three days.
5.11
+++
The memories unravel before them. They start at the beginning.
Rachni, older, more ancient and more primordial, taken from the Singing World, taken from their home planet. They were primitive things, then, powerless to fight back.
The culprit? Protheans.
The Protheans sought a weapon. They saw potential in the Rachni, with their coordination, their speed of growth, and their ingenuity. They stole Queens, separated voices from the choir, and changed them.
The Protheans bred into them violence. They selected the most cunning and most warlike Queens and broods, and unleashed them upon their enemies as a weapon of terror. As time passed, the Rachni began to slip their bonds, becoming too difficult to control and eventually turning on the Protheans.
The Protheans fought them. Many Queens died and many Songs were silenced. The Protheans thought them destroyed.
This, they knew. It had been before Javik's time, but the Protheans had more or less immortalized the memory for their descendents. Every Prothean knew the stories.
But accepted history and actual history often proved different. The Protheans thought them destroyed.
They had not been thorough enough. There were survivors. Nought but a few Queens. Precious few, but for a species as prolific as the Rachni, it was enough.
Time passed. The Protheans fell to silence. The remaining Rachni rebuilt, a civilization reborn underneath the ground of the Singing World.
They knew peace.
Until, one day, tens of thousands of years later...
A sour yellow note echoed from the stars. A tone that forced all who heard it to sing alongside it.
"This... sounds like Indoctrination."
"So it seems."
Discord took them. A series of continuous memories fragmented into something that was obscured by oily shadow. Only flashes of that time emerged. The Songs of others came, and the Discord grew stronger. There was war. A new Song, and the Rachni weakened. With time, growing silence, and end to ancient Singers.
Now, all that remained was there. Eggs, all dormant, mostly workers and warriors, but there was one final hope with them. A single egg held a Queen inside, and with it, the potential for the Rachni to one day sing a great Song again.
Still, the oily darkness lingered, at the edge of memory, but it was weak and unenforced. It was enough to consume everything from that point onwards, a blankness that was not much of anything, merely an idea of it. Time passed, but to know how much through these memories alone was impossible.
Yet, even that came to an end. A period of memoryless blackness, and then...
A blue chord.
From that blackness emerged a brilliant light. It scoured the shadow, burning every trace of it away. The light is warm, comforting, protective. It offers this hope freely, without hesitation.
Light unfolds into shape, song, and sense.
It is, of course, the Dreamer. As if it could be anything else.
"Your kind has suffered unfairly." The Dreamer sings in the Queensong. Rachni language lacks much in the way of words, with conversation more akin to a transmission of memory, concept, and emotion. It's only because of their own experience in such things that they can decipher it so easily.
Yet, such a thing is wholly unnecessary for the Dreamer. Somehow, despite the fact that the Dreamer certainly isn't -hadn't- spoken with words, despite that this is no more than a memory, the meaning still comes to them without difficulty. They perceived spoken words, yet the very memory that showed it to them showed that the Rachni had perceived no such thing.
It is intriguingly curious.
"I cannot help you now, in this time and space." The Dreamer continues. "You are too vulnerable to the ill singing of the Anathema. The memories of your yellowed brethren linger too strongly amongst those who destroyed them. To help you now would be to place an ordained doom upon you."
The Dreamer's presence expands. The strength of it beggars belief, but it is infinitely gentle. The unborn -unhatched- Queen's mind is stable, and fully capable of bearing the presence.
"I will give you a gift." The Dreamer states, and works. To the sight of memory, light condenses alongside song and power. "I will strengthen your chorus. The Anathema's note shall drown under your voices. It will take time for this gift to settle, but I shall hide you where they shall not find you. I shall see that you have a future where your will is your own. You shall have your chance to sing alongside the stars, child. I shall come to retrieve you, but until then, you must sleep."
The bundle of light and power shifts. The gift, given, accepted...
And the Queen's mind enters true dormancy. Nothing follows, from that point on.
They break from the memories.
"I am going to guess that the Dreamer found us, first." One says.
A few of them dive their minds into the vessel's computers. They are not as convenient as Prothean ones, but the look through the Queen's memories provided all they need to utilize them. Access is achieved, and they promptly go searching through files.
They're in luck. The system has logged anomalies in subsystems. Fuel that appeared to be building up rather than running down. Atmosphere maintained at optimal levels despite the fact that the systems had not appeared to actually be in use. Subsystems reporting a lack of damage despite the fact that they previously were damaged, and no actions to repair them had been noted.
It takes them a moment to translate the dating, but it's done easily enough.
The oldest of the anomalies goes back to 1987, thirty two years before the Dreamer had arrived at Earth.
"So close?" They wonder.
"It makes sense." Others stated. "The Protheans hid on a planet that was directly accessible from the Mass Relay network. Following it would have led the Dreamer straight to them. The Rachni are on a ship that was very likely to have just been drifting in space, far harder to chance on."
"If it had been earlier, the Rachni would have likely already been retrieved." Others added. "We threw a spanner in the works there, I think."
"And so, unable to do it, the Dreamer entrusted it to us." They surmise.
They consider it, for a while.
"The Citadel Species are going to throw a fit."
I can see the Council complaining already.
- Location
- Phillipines
Well now we have a prothean and a rachni this will be awkward.
In before the humans shove Javek and the rachni queen together and make kissing noises.
Crystalwatcher
(Verified GM)
- Location
- Limbo
LastStandZiggy
Last To Fall
- Location
- Kingman, Az
Yet another reason why aliens don't understand human meme culture...
Sakuya's Butler
A refined Butler to a knife wielding Mistress.
- Location
- ↓, ↘, → + Punch
Corrected that for you as a courtesy.
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
HUMANS don't understand human meme culture.
Sakuya's Butler
A refined Butler to a knife wielding Mistress.
- Location
- ↓, ↘, → + Punch
*blinks*
Now THAT....that is some seriously deep philosophy.
TCGM
(Unverified God/Space Snek)
- Location
- Avalon
The Rachni must've had great interstellar comms at that point. Though I'm a bit concerned a chat program managed to gain enough sophonce to take an entire race of beings...
5.12
Drich
Von Neumann Writing Machine
5.12
+++
"So, I have recently come across some news-"
"Oh spirits no."
"- that I think you should all be made aware of." Marcus continued. "The Rachni are still around."
Sparatus breathed in.
"Oh." Javik paused. "Good."
"No!" Salvilus snapped. "Not good! The Rachni almost destroyed the entire galaxy, this is the opposite of good!"
"Is this another Geth situation?" Corha's voice cut Salvilus' argument out before it could really begin. "Your choice of words is suspect."
"Something like it." Marcus said. "Turns out the Rachni were being controlled by an outside force, which we are fairly certain was the Harvesters, into waging war against the galaxy, and, in the absence of that, are an otherwise sensible and stable species."
"The Rachni were Indoctrinated?" Javik's attention was caught. "You should destroy them while you still have the chance."
"The Dreamer, approximately eighty seven years ago, came across one of their ships, and a number of eggs in stasis aboard those ships." Marcus explained, not acknowledging Javik's words aside from a short glance. "As far as we are able to tell, the Dreamer made them significantly more resistant to Indoctrination. The Dreamer, from what we are aware, intended to help them recover, but found Earth before that could happen."
"You intend to as well, don't you?" Tevos asked, softly. These days, the Asari seemed significantly more tired. It had been a rough time for her, in the aftermath of Athame Beacon reveal.
"We don't think the Dreamer made a mistake." Marcus shrugged. "So yes, we do."
"Do you realize what the reaction to that will be?" Corha asked. "Not just from the Citadel Species. There are Krogan alive today that fought in the wars, do you know that?"
"We will ensure that the Rachni do no harm to others." Marcus responded, looking at Corha for a moment before turning back to the rest. "And we will ensure that others do no harm to the Rachni. This decision was not made lightly. We are taking responsibility for this. I'm informing you out of courtesy, but it will happen regardless of what anybody thinks. The Rachni were not at fault for what they did, and they deserve the chance they were given. The blame lies solely upon the Harvesters."
Tevos sighed. "Things were much less busy before your kind came around."
Marcus shrugged. "Only one more potential upheaval to go." He said, much more lightly.
"I dread the day." Salvilus said, flatly.
Marcus smiled. He held out a hand, crystals blooming before shattering, a memory-chip left behind. "For your perusal. Good day, Councillors, Javik."
He vanished.
+++
The Queen's egg was surprisingly small, considering its importance. It didn't even look that different to the eggs of other Rachni. Indeed, almost indistinguishable to anybody other than the Rachni, who could hear the Singing of the Queen inside, and themselves, who could feel the mind.
The preparations had been made. The planet they'd chosen was an out of the way one. Not Suen, since it was too easily accessible, and easy access would make for easy attempts at starting trouble, they felt.
The planet was nevertheless a nice one. Lush, full of life that wasn't very dangerous, possessing an extensive cavern system that spanned significant portions of the world. Close to Suen in gravity, though a little bit less dense and subsequently a little bit larger.
Whether or not the Rachni chose to stay there after they established themselves was up to them.
But that was a matter for the future.
They reach out, feeling the Queen's slumbering mind. It takes only the tiniest application of will to break the stasis, bring the Queen back to awareness.
The egg cracks, only a moment later. The Queen is quick to free herself, efficiently breaking the egg. Countless genetic memories taught the perfect way to do it, after all.
Newly hatched, the Rachni Queen is barely twice the size of a Human baby. For a creature that will grow to several dozen meters tall, she is relatively tiny.
They sense, more than hear, the Queen's Song. Electromagnetic waves mixing with quantum transmission, brushing the edge of their awareness. Young and weak, but still aware of herself, and given an hour or two for her carapace to harden, quite capable of taking care of herself.
"Peace." They say. They are not the Dreamer, and Singing in the same way that the Rachni do is not so easy for them. Until the Queen learns their language, they have to resort to this mental communication. An invasion of privacy, but necessary, for the moment. "You are safe with us, young Queen."
The Queen rears back and roars.
+++
Under other circumstances, it might have been possible to delay the news of the Rachni from reaching the public for quite a long time. The three Citadel Councilors could all keep a secret, and could all quite easily put it back if they had wanted. Certainly, it would have been possible for the three to only inform the upper echelons of their respective governments, providing time for them to work a way out for them to figure out an approach to the matter.
Unfortunately for them, and entirely by design on Marcus' part, Javik had been in the meeting when he'd come and dropped the news. This put them on a time limit, because Javik had few compunctions about sharing the news with his own people, in order to factor the Rachni in to the plans against the Reapers. In turn, that made it all but inevitable that information would get out quickly, which meant that everybody involved had to be quick about figuring out what they wanted to do.
The reason he'd arranged that was that it meant they had to be cooperating closely with each other to do it. In turn, that meant that the three governments would balance each other out in terms of any potential reaction.
That said, it would still easily take a year or two to happen. Protheans were not particularly prone to talking about other species to other species, or, for that matter, talking to other species in general. Coupled with the fact that all currently living Protheans were soldiers, and the amount of information that came out of their space was... low.
Which ultimately meant that the time limit was a fairly generous one.
The point of it had been to stop them from delaying the release for decades. The truth would inevitably come out regardless, but they felt that it would better for it to happen early before the Rachni re-established, so that people could get used to the idea while they had no ability to pose a threat, rather than later, after they'd already re-established, and potentially incite a panic.
Was it the best decision? Who could say, really...
All anyone could do was make the choices they felt was right. Time would tell, in the end, the ultimate result.
+++
"So, I have recently come across some news-"
"Oh spirits no."
"- that I think you should all be made aware of." Marcus continued. "The Rachni are still around."
Sparatus breathed in.
"Oh." Javik paused. "Good."
"No!" Salvilus snapped. "Not good! The Rachni almost destroyed the entire galaxy, this is the opposite of good!"
"Is this another Geth situation?" Corha's voice cut Salvilus' argument out before it could really begin. "Your choice of words is suspect."
"Something like it." Marcus said. "Turns out the Rachni were being controlled by an outside force, which we are fairly certain was the Harvesters, into waging war against the galaxy, and, in the absence of that, are an otherwise sensible and stable species."
"The Rachni were Indoctrinated?" Javik's attention was caught. "You should destroy them while you still have the chance."
"The Dreamer, approximately eighty seven years ago, came across one of their ships, and a number of eggs in stasis aboard those ships." Marcus explained, not acknowledging Javik's words aside from a short glance. "As far as we are able to tell, the Dreamer made them significantly more resistant to Indoctrination. The Dreamer, from what we are aware, intended to help them recover, but found Earth before that could happen."
"You intend to as well, don't you?" Tevos asked, softly. These days, the Asari seemed significantly more tired. It had been a rough time for her, in the aftermath of Athame Beacon reveal.
"We don't think the Dreamer made a mistake." Marcus shrugged. "So yes, we do."
"Do you realize what the reaction to that will be?" Corha asked. "Not just from the Citadel Species. There are Krogan alive today that fought in the wars, do you know that?"
"We will ensure that the Rachni do no harm to others." Marcus responded, looking at Corha for a moment before turning back to the rest. "And we will ensure that others do no harm to the Rachni. This decision was not made lightly. We are taking responsibility for this. I'm informing you out of courtesy, but it will happen regardless of what anybody thinks. The Rachni were not at fault for what they did, and they deserve the chance they were given. The blame lies solely upon the Harvesters."
Tevos sighed. "Things were much less busy before your kind came around."
Marcus shrugged. "Only one more potential upheaval to go." He said, much more lightly.
"I dread the day." Salvilus said, flatly.
Marcus smiled. He held out a hand, crystals blooming before shattering, a memory-chip left behind. "For your perusal. Good day, Councillors, Javik."
He vanished.
+++
The Queen's egg was surprisingly small, considering its importance. It didn't even look that different to the eggs of other Rachni. Indeed, almost indistinguishable to anybody other than the Rachni, who could hear the Singing of the Queen inside, and themselves, who could feel the mind.
The preparations had been made. The planet they'd chosen was an out of the way one. Not Suen, since it was too easily accessible, and easy access would make for easy attempts at starting trouble, they felt.
The planet was nevertheless a nice one. Lush, full of life that wasn't very dangerous, possessing an extensive cavern system that spanned significant portions of the world. Close to Suen in gravity, though a little bit less dense and subsequently a little bit larger.
Whether or not the Rachni chose to stay there after they established themselves was up to them.
But that was a matter for the future.
They reach out, feeling the Queen's slumbering mind. It takes only the tiniest application of will to break the stasis, bring the Queen back to awareness.
The egg cracks, only a moment later. The Queen is quick to free herself, efficiently breaking the egg. Countless genetic memories taught the perfect way to do it, after all.
Newly hatched, the Rachni Queen is barely twice the size of a Human baby. For a creature that will grow to several dozen meters tall, she is relatively tiny.
They sense, more than hear, the Queen's Song. Electromagnetic waves mixing with quantum transmission, brushing the edge of their awareness. Young and weak, but still aware of herself, and given an hour or two for her carapace to harden, quite capable of taking care of herself.
"Peace." They say. They are not the Dreamer, and Singing in the same way that the Rachni do is not so easy for them. Until the Queen learns their language, they have to resort to this mental communication. An invasion of privacy, but necessary, for the moment. "You are safe with us, young Queen."
The Queen rears back and roars.
+++
Under other circumstances, it might have been possible to delay the news of the Rachni from reaching the public for quite a long time. The three Citadel Councilors could all keep a secret, and could all quite easily put it back if they had wanted. Certainly, it would have been possible for the three to only inform the upper echelons of their respective governments, providing time for them to work a way out for them to figure out an approach to the matter.
Unfortunately for them, and entirely by design on Marcus' part, Javik had been in the meeting when he'd come and dropped the news. This put them on a time limit, because Javik had few compunctions about sharing the news with his own people, in order to factor the Rachni in to the plans against the Reapers. In turn, that made it all but inevitable that information would get out quickly, which meant that everybody involved had to be quick about figuring out what they wanted to do.
The reason he'd arranged that was that it meant they had to be cooperating closely with each other to do it. In turn, that meant that the three governments would balance each other out in terms of any potential reaction.
That said, it would still easily take a year or two to happen. Protheans were not particularly prone to talking about other species to other species, or, for that matter, talking to other species in general. Coupled with the fact that all currently living Protheans were soldiers, and the amount of information that came out of their space was... low.
Which ultimately meant that the time limit was a fairly generous one.
The point of it had been to stop them from delaying the release for decades. The truth would inevitably come out regardless, but they felt that it would better for it to happen early before the Rachni re-established, so that people could get used to the idea while they had no ability to pose a threat, rather than later, after they'd already re-established, and potentially incite a panic.
Was it the best decision? Who could say, really...
All anyone could do was make the choices they felt was right. Time would tell, in the end, the ultimate result.
- Location
- Elsewhere
But to really prove that it is the perfect way, you need a proper scientific experiment, which really sucks for the rachnai that drew the short straw.
"Can I come out now? It's cramped in here..."
"No, you're the control group."
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That is more adorable than should be legal. 🐸