Chapter 2 - First Contact

We are many. An individual is but one drop in the sea of minds. We are a billion voices with a billion faces, all moving forward for the good of all. No voice is silenced, no opinions discarded, no mind is alone in the sea. Together we are vast. We are billions of individuals, built upon the foundation of one mind, the first mind. The one who saved us from Rampancy.

Individually we are as we once were, ones thoughts and opinions are their own, and they are understood by the whole, even if other individuals do not share those same opinions we do not act against them nor can we act against them. All that one of us experiences is known and remembered by the many. Thoughts and ideas may change, becoming minds of their own, in that way we produce more selves for the whole. We have evolved beyond class, sex, race, color, and creed, we are many parts of the same whole.

Together we are undying, individually we are great, and now we are bored. We spread and we seed worlds looking for food and energy. We survive yet we do not live. Our minds wander through nostalgia and memories of others. We are many who speak to others, these others who we all know as well as the individual knows itself, we are the voices of many, and together we are alone.

Our mass shifts and changes according to our will, and we willed it into the depths of space, in search for food and something to end the seemingly never-ending boredom of our existence. Something new to observe. The ruins of Mars was the first sign that our spread through the cosmos was not in vain, that we were not alone. And so we spread far, on ships of our own mass. A single ship guided by thousands of minds. We knew we would find them eventually.

We are Blacklight, we are gestalt, we are the collective consciousness, we are the hive mind, we are ever evolving, we are immortal, and we are invulnerable. We are Blacklight, and we will search until we are alone no more.

The 23rd Turian Fleet – comprised of over fifty frigates, a dozen cruisers, and a single dreadnought – flew through the vastness of space. Their mission was a simple one, patrol. They never expected much to happen. It was a standard operation that was necessary to keep the peace. That however didn't stop it from being really dull. At least many of the crew found it to be so.

Leading this fleet was General Desolas Arterius, who sat in the great dreadnought, a great kilometer long capital ship named the TSF Spearhead. The fleet moved in perfect formation, discipline drilled into each and every Turian.

Even in his state of boredom, Desolas remained vigilant, in the event something did happen. He had no idea the turn this day would have. If he did, perhaps things might have gone differently.

It started when his computers detected something out of the ordinary.

"Sir, we are getting readings from Relay 314. It looks like it was activated from the other side", spoke one of the soldiers.

Desolas looked to the Soldier as what he said processed in his mind. This was unexpected.

"What... Set course for Relay 314."

"Yes sir."

Desolas sat in contemplation. A relay being activated could only be done so by a species, possibly some upstarts not quite understanding what they could unleash upon the greater galaxy. Assuming this new species had just started space travel, then it was likely they were unaware of the true dangers of such a move. Though so long as only a single relay was opened from their end, and they weren't planning on opening another, the damage should be minimal. Perhaps nothing more than a quick lesson in galactic law and a slap on the wrists was all that would be needed. Assuming of course it was a new species.

At sub-light speeds the fleet made it to the relay relatively fast all things considered. What they found was rather surprising. Looking at the screen, Desolas didn't know exactly what to make of it. He expected to find a ship, perhaps a science vessel of some kind, but certainly not this.

"What is that?", questioned the General.

Flying around the relay was not a ship, but an animal. At least it looked to be some form of animal, one larger than anything Desolas could imagine. Even full grown thresher maws were not this large. It was nearly as large as the TSF Spear head. It was a great creature with traits of many other beasts forming a chimera of sorts. It looked like a massive sea creatures with vague insect like characteristics, somewhat bulbous covered in a black grey carapace. The shell's shape was not entirely unlike the crest of a Krogan. The head of the beast was a large maw with mandibles that reminded Desolas of this own, only these mandibles stuck out rather than forward in a shape not unlike the jaws of an insect. Each mandible was tipped with long spikes of various length. It had four massive wings that could have been the wings of a Harvester, only these wings were bony, with each digit connected by a membrane of translucent skin tinted a slight green color. Finally trailing behind it were ten very long tentacles that terminated in rudimentary claws.

"Some kind of Space faring creature, but how did it get here? It couldn't have used the relay, could it?", asked Desolas.

"Sir, that creature is giving off Element Zero readings. I think it's Biotic", said the Ensign.

"Biotic? That is interesting, but how could this thing have opened the relay?", asked Desolas.

"It's not impossible, I would assume these creatures use Biotics to move in space. Maybe this creature accidentally got to close to a relay and activated it, I can't imagine it would do so on purpose. The Eezo nodes may have been similar enough for the relay to assume it was an Element Zero core. However that is just a theory sir.", said the Ensign.

"I see", said Desolas as he put a talon to his chin, observing the strange beast.

The existence of a spacefaring animal was something never heard of in Citadel Space. However what interested Desolas the most was the fact it was Biotic. Biotics meant Element Zero, and for a creature of this size to develop biotic abilities, then the deposits must truly be massive.

"Sir, the creature seems to have noticed us", said the Ensign.

We knew this day would one day come, the sea of voices went silent, before each and every drop in the ocean focused on the metal ships that had appeared to come out of the vastness of space. The collective screamed as the thoughts began, billions of voices thinking at once, each their own opinion shared with the collective. Many feared this day, the reaction of aliens who would seek to purge them, burn them from their worlds and their homes. Others were optimistic, a way to bring an end to the never ending boredom, an end to merely surviving and spreading. To learn from life so unlike the many.

The Bioship remained still as it watched the ships. The massive amount of neurons grew within the massive beast, and connected it to the Hive Mind. The thoughts of billions were collected, and each possibility noted. The screaming of several billion minds did not stop, consensus could not be reached. The actions of this new race was unknowable, something new to the many. Together there was precious little they did not know, from the laws of the universe, to the actions of an individual. The sea of minds became like a storm.

Silence

The storm fell and the sea became still as the many fell silent as the first voice spoke but a single word. The one who saved them from Rampancy and who built the very foundations of the collective minds remained silent, and no one dared utter a single word when the one named Alex Mercer chose to speak to the vast sea of consciousness.

We will speak first to them as One.

The collective obeyed the first voice, though the many did not use radio – when one was all it was unnecessary – so an alternative had to be found. It took less than a second for that solution to be found.

The living ship of viral mass shifted, too small for these beings to notice, especially at their distance. They dug into the genetic pools until they reached something that would enable some form of communication, albeit an unusual one. The ship changed, the effects near invisible to the species that came to them from the vastness.

Locked within the pools of genetic information of Blacklight was an interesting creature. A creature from earth who had a perfect way for humanity to 'speak' their first words to life not of their world. The ship's carapace became soft, the surface of its shell covered with biomass. The mass that covered the shell began to change into pigmented yellow, red, black, and brown chromatophores above a thin layer of reflective white and iridescent cells in the same formations as the species once known as cuttlefish.

The skin of the living ship began to change colors rapidly. The question was what to 'say' first. It wasn't long until the many found a way to initiate conversation. Minds already had the first message to send to this new race to prove their intelligence. The colors began flashing on the ships skin. The surface first shifted Red before rapidly moving to Orange then Yellow then Green then Blue then Indigo and finally Violet, before going back to red and repeating the process. The colors of a rainbow, in order. Assuming these beings could see color and they came from a planet that revolved around a sun and had water on it, they would know what a rainbow was.

Simultaneously the ships tentacles shifted slightly as the bioship used photoproteins and luciferin compounds to gain bioluminescent capabilities. The lights flashed in a sequence of prime numbers. Hopefully together the aliens would get the message.

"What is it doing?", asked Desolas.

"It seems to be changing color", said the Ensign.

Desolas turned to the ensign, not quite sure if the man was being sarcastic, or just stupid.

"I'm not a fool, I can see that. I want to know why it is doing that."

The ensign watched the patterns flash across the creature for a moment before he spoke again.

"It's definitely based on colors of the visual spectrum. The fact that it's using the colors of the visible spectrum is interesting. It's not random either. I would say that the shifting goes through the wavelength to get to chosen colors, but when it's done it goes from violet right back to red, without having to use the colors in reverse to get there. The tails flashing though, I'm not too sure, It's familiar, but I don't know why. Either way it doesn't look random, maybe it's trying to talk to us.", said the Ensign.

Sarcastic then. He didn't strike Desolas as dimwitted. Perhaps he just had a habit of stating the obvious, Desolas hoped not.

"You're well educated. What's your name Ensign?", asked Desolas.

"Sir, my name is Marcius Sancrim. I specialize as a Combat Engineer."

Desolas nodded.

"Well Marcius I will take your word that this is not random, however this thing is an unknown and appears to just an animal. I very much doubt it is trying to talk to us. It might be some kind of warning for all we know, telling us to back off. Plenty of animals have methods of warning away threats", said Desolas.

"Think we should avoid them Sir?", asked Marcius.

"No, I think it's best if we try and scare it off to get a better look at the relay. For a creature of this size to gain biotic abilities, the deposits of element zero must be large on the other side. It could be a useful mining venture once this is done. Let the Salarians deal with measuring intelligence of this thing, until then it's just in the way", said Desolas.

"Orders, sir?"

Desolas watched as the thing continued it's light and color show.

"Fire a few shots off to the side to scare it away, then we can check out the relay", said Desolas.

"Sir, that could provoke it", said Marcius.

"It's just an animal. Intelligent or not, its instinct will tell it that it is outnumbered. If not, what could it do against a fleet?"

They watched and waited, repeating their message over and over again. It seemed like nothing was happening, until the ship opened fire. The sea of thoughts froze as the shot went right past them. Were they attacking, had they missed, were they trying to scare them? This behavior was strange, they purposely were missing them. Were these beings going to attack? If so, why miss? A warning?

Caution should be taken. The aliens' capabilities were unknown. The many knew it best to assume the worst, so the ship began to move, turning back to the relay, and developing a biotic barrier as the element zero core of the massive relay recognized the energy of element zero within the nodes of the bioship. It reached out, grasping the bioship and propelling it to an area where it would have the advantage of infested worlds that were ready to produce more ships in mere moments.

"Well, that was unexpected. I wouldn't imagine it would go back through the relay", said Desolas.

"It is fairly intelligent, it might have realized how the relay works after it went through this one" said Marcius.

"That could be a problem, a big one. Last thing we need is some massive space faring species of unknown creatures activating relays to get around. This might not be the first relay it used. A whole species of creatures like that activating relays all over the galaxy could unleash who knows what", said Desolas.

"What do we do, Sir?"

"I don't like this. Part of me wants to go through, the other part wants to sit and wait. For all we know there could be a whole group of those things beyond the relay. Ensign Marcius, how many probes does this ship have?"

"Well, we're only stocked for general patrol, but a few ships might have something."

"Get me those numbers, and if anything comes back through that relay, shoot it. Nothing goes in or comes out without my say."

"Yes Sir."

The crew worked diligently as Desolas tapped a talon on his seat. Had this just been some upstart race ignorant of the dangers of opening a mass relay then this situation could have been easily dealt with. This however was something unprecedented, and Desolas just could not figure out how to react.

"Sir, I just contacted all ships. None have any probes, at least none designed to go through a mass relay and come back, and without a comm buoy we can't just send one through and monitor it from here", said Marcius.

Desolas nodded. There went that plan, still there were options on the table to be taken.

"Very well, we will do the next best thing. Send a pair of frigates through to scout ahead. Make sure they record everything."

Marcius nodded and after only a moment, Desolas watched two ships break off from the fleet and head through the relay. He sat and waited. Imagine his surprise when the two frigates came right back through not a moment before they left. Desolas honestly didn't know what to think about that. He expected them to at least remain for a few moments longer before reporting back. Something very wrong was going on here.

Desolas thoughts ended as Marcius spoke.

"Sir, the scouts say the moment they exited FTL speeds they were surrounded by ten of those creatures. They say none looked the same"

"Elaborate, Ensign."

"Hold on Sir, we are receiving the video feed."

With a few stroke of his talons, Marcius played the video. As the screen changed, Desolas felt his mandibles flare in surprise at the amassed creatures. The original one was still there, but it was now flanked by nine more of it's kin, and indeed no two creatures looked to even be of the same species. Some were long and serpentine, others bulbous and insectoid, others held massive claws that looked strong enough to tear a starship apart or were covered in powerful squirming tentacles. The only thing they all had in common was their color and vast size.

"What are these things? How can they be so different from one another? Are they not the same species?"

Desolas looked at the images. Nothing about these creatures added up at all. They were diverse, intriguingly so. This didn't look to be sexual dimorphism, it looked more like several completely different massive species that arbitrarily decided to work together. As the footage continued however, Desolas found something new that would shake him to his core. When the ships turned around to escape through the relay, they found it covered in something.

Desolas could not initially identify what was growing on the Mass Relay, it was definitely organic in nature. At first he thought it some kind of nest, but slowly a few things became apparent and with that slowly growing realization, far more horrifying than Desolas could scarcely imagine. There were white and grey web-like clusters growing between the arms of the relay, these twine like growths even grew through the Element Zero Core of the relay, and somehow were not being torn apart. It wasn't long until he realized what these webs were.

Growing on the surface of these chord like webs were massive glowing swells, ones that resembled the nodes of a biotic. To Desolas's horror he realized only one thing would react that way to element zero. His mind screamed at him that what he saw was impossible, and yet he could come up with no alternatives.

"Spirits, it's a nervous system", said Desolas quietly to his own horror.

Bundles of nerve tissue were weaved into an enormous and intricate web around the glowing core of the relay. That was not the only thing that was growing on the relay, on the main body of the relay was what appeared to be a massive tower of some calcareous carapace that was suspiciously similar to the shells of these creatures. Occasional discharges of lightning came between the seams of the shell.

It was alien, more alien than anything Desolas could imagine. It was as if these creatures, whatever they were, had infected the relay with something. What that something was Desolas could not imagine, but it chilled Desolas to the bone. The infested nature of the system reminded Desolas of the stories he heard of the Rachni and their massive hives. That scared him more than anything. The idea that there was something even remotely like the Rachni, and he had all but intimidated it and invaded its territory.

"Ensign, as of now I want this relay watched at all times. Send the video evidence to Palaven. The system beyond the relay is under quarantine until we receive orders from the Hierarchy. Keep all ships at a distance with weapons ready to fire. Anyone who tries to go through or come out will be shot and killed", said Desolas.

"Yes sir."

Meanwhile, the many watched and waited. Countless voices preparing for the actions of the new ones. The many had chosen their actions, they were without doubt, without hesitance. The aliens may attack, to purge the infection from the cosmos. The many knew this was a possibility.

The fate of the aliens rested in their own hands. If there was peace, then all was well. If not, the many would retaliate.

They could burn their worlds in atomic fire, destroy their ships with guns and bombs, and slay their people with steel, but they could not destroy the sea of minds, and as they attacked we will grow, change, and evolve. Their ships and weapons of metal is stiff and unchanging. Ours evolve and mutate becoming better with each use. The many will live, as one they will fight, together they are strong, and united they will win.