Chapter 20 – Nothing to Do

Saleon sighed as Vurlon continued prattling on about this and that. Whatever he was speaking of was a bore he could scarcely take. He only half listened to the fool prattle on for a job well done as he looked upon everyone with disdain.

"The success of the Program has shown that while useful, a larger work force is needed. As such, each scientist here will be assigned an assistant."

Assistant or Watcher? Saleon wondered which was true, he did not wonder long.

"And Dr. Saleon, your assistant will be Sil Trells. She is the brightest of her class, and as the researcher with the most progress on this station, you will be assigned her as your assistant. Are there any objections."

Saleon looked to Sil Trells, a Salarian female of a curious pinkish hue with expressive eyes and features he was sure others would pine for, but he only saw the seriousness in her face. She was no assistant, that was the look of a watcher. Same as the cameras, only this one could breathe.

"Good, I expect more from this project before we move to secondary testing. Good day, I have much business to attend to.", said Vurlon before he left without another word.

With that Saleon stood to return to his lab. He watched as the young girl followed him.

"It is an honor to work with you sir.", said Sil.

"Is it now? I never would have thought. I have always been told I am rather poor company, mostly by my patients. Tell me Miss Trells, do you think me a fool?", asked Saleon as he continued to walk.

She flinched as if struck.

"No sir. I wouldn't think such a thing."

Saleon nodded.

"Good, because I am well aware you are here to watch me, and it turns out I must put up with being watched. As if the cameras weren't bad enough. I will continue my work, you will do as told as the 'assistant' you are, and report back whatever it is you see. You would do so anyway, and I tire of the games of cloaks and daggers, when the game of life is a much better game to play. Understand."

Sil tilted her head before she gave off a shrug.

"Works well enough for me. I heard a lot about you 'Doctor', none of it was any good."

"Yes yes, I am sure you were greatly entertained by the stories of my cruel experiments and those who suffered. I do not care what you think of me, just don't get in the way of my games.", said Saleon.

"I never heard anyone refer to life as a game.", said Sil.

"That is because it is a game we all eventually lose, and no one likes losing. I personally don't care. That said, the game of life I mentioned has more to do about literal life, specimens if you will. You know what kind of man I am, so I will be honest. This world is a toy box for me to play with like any petulant brat of a child, and one day a bigger and stronger brat of a child will stomp my face in the dirt and ruin my fun. Only this child will not beat me with brawn, rather he will beat me with politics, a pen, and a slip of paper titled expendable. The same is true of you and every one else on this station, and that's if we are lucky and our own creations don't get to us first. We all play the game and we all lose. All one can do is play it well."

"Has anyone ever told you you are a cynical man?"

"Not really, but then again, I grew up in the slums, a place where everyone is as cynical as can be. It comes with life shitting on you all the time. That being said, I happen to think of myself a realist. Cynics and realists are often cut from the same cloth, the only difference being the names, and names mean nothing to me Miss Trells. Word of advice, those with a stars in their eyes often find themselves blinded by them before that shine grows dull. Cynics and realists however find themselves either proven right, or pleasantly surprised. The galaxy is funny like that.", said Saleon as he walked into his lab.

Saleon smiled as he watched a Varren vomit corrosive acids on his meat before its jaws opened and spat out its own stomach that slowly enveloped his meal.

"That's more like it, a beast that can't talk. Never thought I would miss it. Wouldn't you agree Miss Trells."

"For a sociopath, you aren't very good at hiding it.", said Sil.

"Why would I hide it? Everyone here knows what I am."

"It's professional."

"So is wearing a suit, and I don't see you in one."

"This is a lab, therefore I wear a lab coat."

"Exactly, professionalism has its place. This isn't the place. Here they care of results not presentation, and we will get the results they asked for. Even if we die in the process. Not because we are patriots, not because we are the smartest of one of the most intelligent races to ever live, but because we can. We need no other reason than that."

Sil watched the mutant Varren as it sucked its now full stomach back up from its own tendril like esophagus. She said nothing as Saleon got back to work.

Shepard watched as Ashley was nearing the end of her latest project, while she herself had just finished her own. Kaiden sat back as he watched with little interest as Shepard looked over her work.

"Its a Banjo, congrats on spending three days inventing a Banjo.", said Kaiden.

Ashley smiled as she looked over her own instrument.

"Finished, now the universes only Banjo and Guitar exist, so lets get the show on the road. You ready Shep?"

"You know it.", said Shepard as she strummed her Banjo.

Ashley strummed her guitar a few times before Shepard mimicked the notes. Kaiden only sighed.

"I hate Dueling Banjos.", said Kaiden to himself as he sealed his ears shut.

"If you hate that song, then you hate the movie Deliverance, and if you hate that movie you must hate Burt Reynolds, who may I remind you is apart of you and us, meaning you hate yourself. Why do you hate yourself Kaiden?", asked Shepard as she continued the song.

"That is insane troll logic and you know it.", said Kaiden.

Ashley stopped strumming before nodding.

"Yeah Shep, kinda hard to be funny for us when everyone already knows what you are going to say.", said Ashley.

Shepard smiled.

"But you see, that's the beauty Ash, the world is like a TV show for us. Since we know what other Blacklight Individuals are going to say, we have time to come out with a witty or funny remark that has already been analyzed by our whole species. Its like for us we are TV characters with the best lines in a show, but all of us get the best lines. It's great.", said Shepard.

"We knew you were going to say that. Well, not exactly that, but we knew it would be something along those lines. We get it, everyone can be witty. It loses its punch when we already know the punchline.", said Ashley.

"Was that a pun?", asked Shepard.

"No, why ask that? You already knew."

Kaiden nodded.

"No wonder we are so jaded. We literally went in search of alien life to have something to do. Not because we wanted their knowledge, or technology, or even their input. We just wanted something new.", said Kaiden.

Shepard shrugged.

"True, but towards the end before Alex even showed up humans were getting pretty jaded as well. Violence in movies had become mundane, we all knew what to expect from an action movie, horror movie, romantic comedy.", said Shepard.

"How do you go from action and horror and jump the shark to romantic comedy?", asked Kaiden.

"I don't know, but it's probably unimportant. The point is we always craved the new, that's why when movies did anything new, we were so excited, because it shattered mundanity. Then everyone else copied it until it became mundane again. Face it, we would have eventually reached a cultural stagnation one way or the other. Aliens are the cure to that, the spice of life if you will. How do you fix cultural stagnation? Easy, you find a new culture, that's what.", said Shepard.

"How did we go from dueling banjos to cultural stagnation?", asked Kaiden.

"You already know the answer.", said Ash.

Kaiden raised his hands in the air.

"You got me there."

Shepard nodded.

"You see, that's why I want to share human culture with the aliens here. We take a bit of theirs, and I give them a bit of ours. To keep the memory of humanity alive and have our own culture evolve in the process by looking at what the aliens are doing and applying traits of that to ourselves.", said Shepard.

"So basically, the same thing we do with biology, only with alien cultures... Yeah, I can dig it.", said Kaiden.

"What. Who even says 'I can dig it' anymore?", asked Shepard.

"I would once again like to point out you already know the answer to that question.", said Ashley."

"Ash has a point.", said Kaiden.

Shepard sighed as she put her banjo aside.

"Every individual always has a point, Kaiden. Hmph. Fine, we'll do something else. Oh, I know! Lets talk about how Ash here has almost the exact same name, minus an initial, as Bruce 'The Chin' Campbell's character in Evil Dead, and therefore must have a chainsaw for an arm."

Ash grabbed her Guitar and strummed it.

"Dueling Banjos it is."

"That's what I thought.", said Shepard right before she and her group froze.

A series of memories entered all of them. One of the Evolved on this station had found something. The complete set of Asari genes that they were looking for was found within a relatively young Asari who only just came here. Blacklight had found what it was looking for.

Shisk leapt through the barren wasteland going from vine to vine as his clan followed behind. Their armor of biomass shifted colors as they moved to keep some form of stealth on their side. Shisk found he liked the new powers this suit allowed him, even the personality that came with it proved helpful.

Shisk stopped as he looked over a relatively large Vorcha clan made up of over a dozen individuals. The group of three following him looked to him as he leapt down. Before he even touched the ground the outer shell of his Blacklight armor shifted to resemble himself. The Vorcha of this other clan hissed and snarled at him. They smelt the scent of death on him, or rather the scent coming from his armor.

"Who lead dis clan?"

Shisk watched as a heavily armed Vorcha wielding a huge set of omni-claws stepped forward. This one was big, very big. Standing a full head over Shisk himself. His posture was stiff and rigid as he looked down on Shisk. To this leaders surprise, the Vorcha before him did not show submission.

"Wat you wan' wit dis clan."

"Not wit dis clan, I wan' all dis clan to join me."

The larger Vorcha roared in Shisk's face as he flicked his arms to reveal the already large omni-claws to be even larger than Shisk initially thought.

"You wan', den you try take!", said the leader as he swung his claws.

Shisk fell onto all fours as he made an impossible leap to the side. Before the arc even finished Shisk leapt for the larger Vorcha and tackled him to the ground. He relentlessly clawed at the downed leader, each slash making blood fly, but this leader proved stronger as he threw Shisk off of him.

Shisk landed on his feet as his armor reveled itself. The leader paused as he hissed confused at the sudden change.

"Wat dat?"

Shisk said nothing. The leader snarled as he brought his claws outward with a flow of amber-colored electricity.

"When you die, I take."

The leader charged forward, swinging wildly at Shisk, who found it was very easy to dodge the attacks. He shifted his arm into a long tendril that lashed out and wrapped around the omni-claws. Even as the tendril was electrocuted by the energy running through it, it held strong. The Leaders eyes widened as he felt himself being lifted into the air by his arm. Then the electricity came. The leader cried as the lightning coming from Shisk destroyed his omni-claws. Shisk held the lightning for a moment longer before it stopped, then looked at the leader before sniffing and throwing him down like trash.

"Weak.", said Shisk.

The leader said nothing. Shisk turned around to the others.

"Vorcha fight for all. Water, food, and land. No more. We unite, we fight for us. Show galaxy dat dey wrong about us. We not vermin, we proud. Join me and prove to galaxy dis truth."

The others hissed for only a moment before Shisk's clan mates fell to the ground in a crouch before raising up straight. The other Vorcha looked on as they looked at the same armor on these new ones. They began to roar, a loud roar of acceptance. As it fell silent, the once leader stood up and moved to Shisk.

"Who you be?"

"I Shisk, and I will unite the Vorcha."

The once leader nodded before he lowered his posture. Shisk sniffed as he turned to the others.

"Vorcha are cursed. We hated by all. People of the stars look at us like dirt and trash, we ignored or taken and turned into slaves to fight. Universe make us hard to kill, but give us short life so we know pain like it family. We cut and we live, we burn and we live, we shot and we live, smashed, crushed, beaten, and hit but we live. The galaxy want us to suffer, that make us strong. Heshtok is world of fire and thorns, and we bastard children of Heshtok and Heshtok hates us all. "

Shisk watched as the others around hissed and snapped their teeth at him, but none stepped forward.

"We born of hate and we die young. Galaxy hate Vorcha all it want, but we still here, dis because Vorcha strong, Vorcha powerful, and Vorcha dangerous. No more. We no fight each other, we children of Heshtok, biggest bitch of planet known, and unlike Krogan planet, ours always like dat. War did not make Heshtok bitch, it always was. Vorcha have become strong, but we weak as all. Shisk unite Vorcha, no fight each other, fight with each other. Citadel think Krogan's strong, they not see Vorcha. Join Shisk, let show universe why Vorcha still here. Heshtok tried to kill us, you know why. Heshtok fear us, it know we strong. It try to kill us, but it only make us stronger. Fight with me not as a clan, but as Vorcha. Will you follow Shisk?"

Shisk watched as the Vorcha looked around t each other before they turned to their downed leader, then they looked back to Shisk.

"Shisk. Shisk! Shisk! Shisk!", cried one of the other Vorcha into a chant that the others soon began to join.

They roared to the heavens as they bowed before the now leader of the largest Vorcha clan to ever exist, and it would only grow. Chakwas spoke to Shisk in his ear.

"How does it feel to bring a revolution to your people?"

Shisk looked down at the others as they pledged themselves to him.

"It not Vorcha way, but it may be Shisk way."

"You will adapt. Your species always does."

Shisk sniffed as he listened to the chanting of his name. Despite everything that had happened he still was not entirely sure how to feel about all this, though he supposed it would come with time.

Morinth walked calmly through the halls and open spaces of Omega. She could get used to this. The only real issue was the new species that showed itself among the galaxy. Every time her eyes fell on one of the Blacklight Evolved her mind screamed 'Not Prey' at her, but there was that other part, that part of her that always got her into trouble that was very intrigued by this new species. The only issue she could see was how little she or anyone really knew about Blacklight. She heard tales from other Asari she came across, many of them painted Blacklight as a creature to be feared.

And why did they have to be so damn creepy? That face that looked a bit too much like an Asari, but not quite. The shade of their skin, especially on the pale ones looked like the color of an Asari corpse. The masculine ones were the worst to look at. The strange fur that grew on the face was so unsettling.

The absolute worst thing however were the movements that weren't quite right. There was this predatory edge to it that Morinth found eerily similar to her own movements, only Blacklight's were more refined and had a level of poise and precision that she didn't.

That aside there was an otherworldly allure to them. Like some proud Varren, to be admired as a superior predator. Morinth always saw herself as a predator, now she saw the Apex predator that now lived among the stars. She found it simultaneously frightening and exhilarating.

With that conclusion drawn, now Morinth had only one thought on her mind. Why was it that so many of them seemed to take an interest in her. She knew it wasn't her imagination, after a quick bite to eat there was a moment where all of them just stopped for a fraction of a second, and a lot of them looked her way. It only was for a second, but it was long enough for Morinth to notice

She moved to new areas as she went on her way, but each time Blacklight would be there, or just walking in. They didn't look at her, but she could swear they were following her. She ignored it for the moment, pushing it to the back of her mind as just some strange occurrence. They couldn't know the truth about her, she had only just arrived.

Morinth moved to a hall that looked relatively free of Blacklight, and calmed down afterward. She felt a bit at peace, at least until she saw a Turian walk by her, a Turian whose gait was much too similar to Blacklight's. Now that she looked at it, there were no more Blacklight individuals in this area, but a lot of species moved a little bit wrong. She heard Blacklight could alter their appearance and be nearly undetectable, and she did not survive for as long as she did by being unobservant.

Her mind began to run through a series of arguments, saying that it was just her over analyzing everything, or her mind saw what it expected to see. That didn't change the fact that she went from seeing a lot of Blacklight, to none at all, yet somehow seeing aliens that moved like Blacklight.

Paranoia crept up her spine as she noticed that a Krogan that was looking right at her didn't seem to breathe. Makes sense for a Krogan to be so bold, not so much for it not to breathe. She kept a small eye out for anything else that looked unusual. Like that Elcor she was sure was not there before that moved wrong. The posture was much to predatory for an Elcor.

Her heart began to beat faster, and when it did that was when something else strange happened. As if they knew they were making her uncomfortable, everything she thought was Blacklight left the area. Not at the same time, but enough for her to notice. It was almost as if they could see her heartbeat and recognized she was growing afraid. Could they even do that?

Before Morinth could do anything else, she heard a series of musical notes. She looked to see a Blacklight Evolved holding a curious instrument. Then she heard the Exact same notes that sounded different. She looked to see another Evolved holding a more rounded version of the instrument the other one was holding.

"Gotta respect the classics. I think the Banjo is underrated."

"Are you following me?", asked Morinth with an edge to her voice.

"We were, but you noticed so we decided to be up front. Should we take this conversation somewhere else?"

Morinth crossed her arms.

"And why would I want to do that?"

"Because your genes intrigue us."

Morinth felt her heartbeat speed up even more.

"Don't be afraid. We are not going to hurt you."

"How do you know I am afraid right now?", asked Morinth.

"Pheromones are apart of it. The rest, we can see in multiple spectrums, including electromagnetic and infrared, and so we can see your heart. It's something we got from a few underwater species, but we improved it for land use. Then, there's the obvious stuff like dilation of the pupils and subcutaneous blood vessels, slight change in breathing pattern... Right. Point is you know what we are talking about, and your genetics interest us. Quite a lot."

"Who are you?", asked Morinth.

"Me specifically, or the whole Hive mind I speak for? Because if it's the latter, we may be here for a while."

"You specifically.", said Morinth with a hint of agitation.

"Call me Shepard. My friend over there is Ashley Williams. Who might you be Miss?", asked Shepard with a strange accent Morinth could not name.

"I am Morinth."

"Well Morinth, would you like somewhere to talk privately? The choice of location is yours."

Morinth looked to Shepard, then to Ashley.

"Fine."