56

Migrating Fleet, Nim's ship

Location: unknown.

- Tali," Rael began calmly, too calmly, and Tali realised he was angry. Very angry with her. - Do you have any idea how crazy this is?

- Dad, you've seen the video from my helmet cam. Everything I wrote was true," Tali explained, even though she could see her father was heartbroken. What can I say? He's furious.

- Yes. Yes, I saw it. Я... I'll skip the part where you talk about me being crazy, about you in general and you, in particular, sabotaging my orders...

- Papa, do you know what you're talking about? - Tali couldn't stand it anymore. - You wanted us to attack fifty goths...

- I want you to follow orders! - Rael shouted, slamming his fist on the table, silencing Tali. - This isn't the first time you've sabotaged my direct orders! Last time you ordered us to retreat without completing a directive," Rael reminded her, but Tali was determined not to give in.

- We had three men left in our warband, all wounded. I tried to save them, which, by the way, I managed to do.

- I don't care about your excuses. I need you to follow orders! The order was, "Locate and attack the Goths, then deliver their wreckage to Starfleet." Last time you didn't get the wreckage and parts. Instead, you ran off with three soldiers, one of whom died yesterday!

- WHAT!? - Tali was surprised, clearly not expecting such news. - W-who?

- Some Tradin. Keep the subject the same! - Rael said in an enraged tone. - This is your fourth failure. Fourth! You're not fit as a landing party leader.

- Wha-what? - Tali said in a stuttering voice, unable to believe what her father had said. - Is it my fault the Goths have rays and plasma weapons?

- Exactly! - Rael blurted out, almost as if Tali had said something he'd been waiting to hear her say. - You didn't even bother to bring their weapons to study!

- You have to kill the Goths first. But they're entirely rearmed! They're not overpowered, they can't be hacked, their shields only penetrate heavy weapons and not even at the first blast, and their ray weapons completely ignore our shields and suits. They burn through us...

- That's enough! - Rael snarled again, louder and harder this time than the last. - I'm sick of your excuses! I've had enough of your excuses! You are now under Captain Shihlo'Herky's command. And don't even argue with that! And get ready to leave. Tomorrow you leave...

- Tomorrow! I just got back today. You can give me some rest. I just can't keep flying back and forth like this...

- Here we go. Tali, stop being so selfish and thinking only of yourself.

- I'm not selfish, but I'm alive too, and I need my rest and... A private life," the quarian tried to get through to her father, but he was as adamant as ever.

- So rest until the next landing. You have precisely fourteen hours. That's it. Dismissed.

- But I...

- Dismissed! - Rael said as if he'd cut it off, and Tali had no choice but to leave his office.

****

Dreadnought Light of Kila. The Red October facility

In general, Shepherd's recovery was well underway. There was just one problem we couldn't solve. The brain. Even after growing brain cells, which didn't take much, 95% of the captain's brain was still intact. Figuratively. The main problem was how to get it running. And that's what Tory helped us with. Thanks to his study of the wildlife on Heshtok, he created what saved our project.

It was basically a virus. It was injected into the captain's brain, after which every virus virion settled in every brain cell. The virus ate everything there, leaving only the shell and transforming it into what it ate. All memory and personality were retained, and the virus did not die but simply transformed. Then, when the virus completely took over the brain, each cell joined with its neighbours, making the brain a single system, although each virus cell existed separately. However, the brain could not start up just like that; it needed a spark, so to speak, to set things in motion. And that's what we had to use the neuro-implant for. It consisted of two parts - the Serpent and the Tentacles. "The serpent was placed the whole brain length between the hemispheres, at the very top. It consisted of 15 small segments, which had the main function of processing all the data in the brain. It was through it that Shepherd could think, dream, and so on. The "tentacles", on the other hand, provided the virus with the energy it fed on. There were several thousand of these tentacles, and they penetrated the entire brain as they were skinny. There was also a third part, a dorsal part, that replaced the spinal cord. Thanks to a colony of bacteria in her stomach and intestines that released energy from chemical reactions and sent it to her brain, this virus was constantly supplied with food;. However, Shepard now had to eat as fatty food as possible. She would not get fat. There was a virus living all over her body that should be eating excess fat, converting it into energy and again feeding it to her brain.

And so I read the report of the scientists, who could not be happy with what they had achieved.

The first independent signs of the subject's brain activity were recorded after the simultaneous activation of the artificial heart muscle, the ventilator and the brain implant. Within an hour, the subject's brain activity increased exponentially to 1,700 times its initial rate, after which we can confidently say that the issue is in the active dreaming stage. We are now connecting the device you sent us called Morpheus to the neuro implant. Our understanding from your instructions is that with this device, we will be able to see the subject's dreams.

P.S. Everyone here stands on their ears because we have succeeded, but you also want to read the Object's dreams. Although, honestly, no one here is surprised by your requests any more, the technology still leaves their mouths open.

...

We decided to put him into an artificial coma. The body is still too weak to function on its own. As far as we have understood, the awakening is caused by dreams the subject has been having for seventy-three standard hours. In the plans themselves, the issue, ninety per cent of the time, sees some sort of azari, which was most likely the subject's romantic interest before he died. It is not possible to identify the azari. She is a so-called "purebred" because she has no individual pigment patterns on her face by which to recognise the identity of the Azari in question.

In other cases, the subject sees four humans, one Kwarian, one Krogan and one Turian. The latter appears to be identifiable due to colonial tattoos. It is also possible to identify the Quarian, as each race member has a unique and distinctive costume. It is also possible to identify the identities of all four humans, as the Object's dreams indicate that they are all members of the Alliance of Systems.

The Object's own awakening is caused by a bad dream in which he saw Azari die due to some sort of red ray, the appearance of which was accompanied by the arrival of a giant black squid-like ship and a loud noise, more akin to a synthetic animal roar. (Note: I apologise in advance for the absurdity of what I said above in the third paragraph, as I am only describing what the subject saw.) According to the Psychologist, the very occurrence of such a dream is due to a solid attachment to Azari and a fear of losing her. If possible, I strongly recommend bringing this Azari to the "Alpha" object for the Object to better adapt to reality immediately upon awakening to regulate the Object's mental state, as he has not lost his romantic interest in this Azari.

...

A complete analysis of the subject's body has been carried out. Several significant anomalies are identified.

1. Increased muscular strength of the subject while maintaining the muscular volume typical of a 25-28-year-old female. Muscle strength is calculated to be 3 times increased.

2. Bone strength is calculated to be 5 times greater.

3. due to mutations in energy viruses, the subject has immunity to all known viral, bacterial and fungal diseases, both right- and left-amino acids.

4. phenomenal cell regeneration has been detected.

4.1 In the quiescent state, cells regenerate at a rate similar to azari cells. As far as we have understood, and if our calculations are to be believed, the subject can live as long as an Azari - approximately 1000 years.

4.2 In the case of a release of adrenaline, cell regeneration reaches the level of Vork cell regeneration.

4.3. In radiation exposure, the cells die but regenerate within 0.25 seconds. However, cell regeneration in case of radiation exposure comes at the expense of bone marrow cells.

4.3.1 As far as we understand, the bone marrow is completely replaced by a similar substance of similar consistency and precisely the same function. However, in the event of radiation exposure, this substance decomposes and supplies the material for cellular repair. The substance's place in the bones is replaced by a fluid of an incomprehensible nature, but the abnormal strength of the Object's bones allows them to remain intact in the absence of bone marrow.

4.3.2 Blood cells have good adaptability and resistance to radiation, so they do not die in the event of radiation contamination but function usually.

4.3.3 Brain cells and the so-called "stem virus" are not affected by radiation.

4.3.4 Radiation contamination in the subject will be accompanied by gag reflexes.

4.3.5 It has been calculated that the time of possible radiation exposure is directly proportional to the strength of the radiation exposure. For example, at a radiation exposure rate of 100 X-rays/hour, the subject will remain viable while maintaining a capacity for about one standard hour.

4.3.6 The pigment substance that replaces melanin in the hair after radiation exposure is also recycled to create new cells.

4.3.6.1 In the event of radiation contamination, the subject's hair will turn grey.

4.3.6.1.1. the pigment substance is replenished after the radiation contamination has disappeared.

4.3.6.2 We hypothesise that the colour of the pigment substance can be changed by an electrical current.

4.3.6.2.1 Experiments are in progress to control the colour change of the pigment substance.

5. the elasticity of the tendons is calculated to be increased by a factor of 3.

6. Changes in the sensory system detected.

6.1 the subject's eyes have a tapetum layer due to an unknown virus mutation. Also, inside the retina, the central fossa on the yellow spot is missing and is replaced by a disc containing the cones. There are 20 times more rods than cones in the retina. Because of the above in this paragraph, the subject has night vision or, as our Human Psychologist puts it, "cat" vision.

6.1.1. Unknown to science, organelles have been discovered in the Object's retina. As far as we understand, they allow the subject to retain the ability to distinguish colours like a human with night vision.

6.2. The auditory sensitivity of the subject is enhanced.

6.2.1 The auditory range of the subject is now 0.5-30,000 Hz.

7. Unfortunately, we could not restore the Object's reproductive system.

7.1. The Subject can bear a fetus.

7.2 The Subject's ovaries cannot recreate eggs, which accounts for the subject's infertility.

7.2.1 The virus sent to us, which you assured should have restored the ability to reproduce eggs, died 17 standard hours after introduction. Further investigations showed that the subject's antibodies killed the virus as a malignant and dangerous organism.

7.2.1.1. I strongly recommend not experimenting with this virus again. This time it managed to necrosis of the left ovary, but we suspect it may be transmitted to other organs.

Referring to the above changes, the subject is superior in all respects to any human being. I consider the project a success, and your investment of 5,000,000,000 credits is justified. In a week, we will perform the operation to replace the artificial heart with an organic one, which you promised to send. After that, it will take another week to fully start the lungs and bring them to an autonomous state. After that, the subject will be carried out of the induced coma by us, and the project will be considered successfully completed.

****

That's the pie. We meant well, but it turned out... Even better! Well, all that's left now is to find a crew for the Normandy and assemble the old crew for Shepherd. And then we can start bending over the Collectors. They've already begun a lot of activity in Terminus. Three colonies in a month is a bit much. Yeah, I could go to the Collectors right now and use the Nargul and the Vork and Geth armies to take them all down, but... I couldn't do that. I couldn't do all of Shepard's work for her. That said, I couldn't miss out and not collect those personalities from the second part of the game. Mordin, Kasumi, Zaid, Thane, Samara, Grunt, Legion... No, I won't take Miranda and Jacob, but those personalities I couldn't skip and leave to fend for themselves. I should have cured the Drells of that Kepral syndrome. We were still thinking and mumbling over the genophage too. We also had to fix the Ardat-Yaksha syndrome, so Samara could still get daughters. In general, there was a lot of work to be done, so I had to submit to the flow of the canon a bit, or else I would stop navigating it altogether.

Suddenly I got a call from a group I didn't want to hear. It was the Alpha facility's cover team, and if they were calling me, it must be pretty bad.

- Legate speaking," I said hello.

- Comrade Legatus, we have a... a problem... - a little hesitantly started with the Get. He seemed to be afraid of my wrath. Well, this is too bad.

- Speak.

- So, anyway... Shepherd... She's been kidnapped.