Darcy's Starry Sky

by Theodore Daniels

  - Alix. - Almost reproachfully Shepard said as they left the cabin commander. - Like this...

  - John ... I understand that very few members of the Corps are now able to keep you company in the Archives of the Citadel. I also understand that one does not have to let go of one of the commanders - is excluded. And I understand that you ... need a place to think. No headquarters, do not board the ship Troop not the Citadel, with its endless introductory and objectives. It should be a place where you can safely look inward. Archives - just such a place. One of the few. - Alix stopped at the entrance to the stairwell. - Waiting for you at the shuttle, John.

  Shepard nodded, agreeing with the above kiborgessoy. There was nowhere to retreat - one of his back, in the archives of the Citadel, one would not let go, it was abundantly clear, especially after the event, he nearly suffocated in a cylindrical vault. So ... So, it is necessary to accept the fact that a few days in a row next to him will Alix. - The captain went to his cabin, sound reasoning that Alix spoke of "shuttle", and not the commander's shuttle. Schedule "reysovikov" Shepard knew by heart, and changes in it have been made and not even planned for several days.

  Having been in his cabin, Shepard went to the hangar and took a seat in the shuttle, which is a few minutes off to the Citadel. Besides the captain and the youngest kiborgessy the station flew several normandovtsev - two technicians and two nurses. For none of otryadovtsev relationship between Shepard and Alix were not secret, so their joint return to the Citadel all reacted calmly - and normandovtsy and volgovtsy knew Alix provides and the physical safety of members of the Corps of commands.

  Perez hired flyer, Shepard and Alix allowed to fly over the standard car the way prescribed by the dispatch service stations. There was nowhere to hurry - the protection of the Archives has been advised in advance of their arrival vahtsluzhboy "Normandy", everything you need, they took with them is based on a few days.

  - John Alix departed the station in Archives. - Said the logging in sickbay, "Volga" Alla. - Most likely, they will hold there for a few days.

  - Anderson? - Svetlana said, stretching and keeping his legs from his hospital bed.

  - No, Alix took the initiative itself. - Cruiser doctor said, looking at the state of the protocols screens. - However, David and myself would not let go of John. And Alix ...

  - Alix I trust completely. It is strange though ... I say such a thing, but she really loves John. And John ... loved her. His ability to love even Synthet I never doubted because ... - Svetlana got to her feet, clinging to the back of the bed and straightening. - Because I believe that here Alix law. They were two of us will be there ... well. They will work, and pomolchat and speak on various topics. Olivia is well brought up his daughter, long ago became her own, rather than receiving. Because John is under reliable protection. And the companion of Alix for this place - first class. Better and wish something hard.

  - So ... - Alla pulled up table, motioned Svetlana lunch - if even breakfast she shamelessly slept.

  - So, let spend these few days together and close. - Whether sighed with sadness, or dissatisfaction with, or with well its hidden joy Svetlana, sitting at a table in a comfortable chair and taking the hospital for food. - Thank you, Alla.

  - It's my pleasure. You tell me that's what ... - the doctor moved away from the screen to consoles medapparatury Chamber.

  - When I think of giving birth? Yes, even a week, even after a decade. - Svetlana said, finishing his herbal infusion and turning on the bed, where blissfully stretched out on his back, relaxing. - That John returns from the Archives, will be held a few days and if there will be nothing special ... Perhaps, yes. It is necessary to have time to start solving the problem rahniyskoy.

  - Do not bother, Light. - Alla frowned.

  - And how can we not score? - Streltsov smiled. - Reach Squad Squad has crash. Prepare necessary to everyone. That will prepare.

  - I told you ... - Alla cleaned up the dishes, folded table.

  - I remember, asked, really. But I was and still am the commander, so, Al, I'm sorry, but I'm going to work.

  - You do not convince. - The chief doctor sighed.

  - Unfortunately no. - Nodded Streltsov.

  Disembark at one of the entrances to the subtle Archives Citadel, Shepard and Alix have been parted in the gate and waited until the leaf closeness for them. Flashed dim light, the guards quickly carried out the identification procedure, saluted the captain, politely and happily greeted Alix, then opened the second gate.

  - Where little has changed. - Kiborgessa said looking around. - Just half dark. And as everything is running ... and abandoned. Perhaps we can say that little Archives visited since ...

  - But still we visited. - Shepard noted, in turn, looking around. - And do not attend for the purpose of idle sway.

  - Yes, there is idle and does not sway. - Alix went to the file cabinet, pulled out one of the drawers. - Information ... for eyebrows and above. Drowning can. - At this point it does not mean only organic matter, knowing full well that not everyone VI and AI will be able to cope with the flow of data. - What's the plan, Captain?

  - I'll go to the most famous moments of galactic history, Ali. - Shepard instrumentron included. - It should be a lot to think about, to try to understand ...

  - Good. - Kiborgessa included a strip-visor before your eyes in the display mode. - And I ... try to precisely find out who, when, why, and with what result to come here. And yet for all the little things. - Alix said, confident that the captain correctly understand it.

  They went in different directions.

  Shepard stopped in front of the "circle" video archive A1 - one of the oldest, earliest, ancient. He keeps the information on the first landing of the expedition Asari on the Citadel. The first document in his bowels was the so-called "discovery journal" - these were in ancient times on azariyskih expeditions and research ships.

  By activating the device, Shepard waited until the virtual environment will come into operation. Over the range of video archive broke the mark - 580 BC.

  The melodious voice of a young asari - virtual environment projected onto the circle averaged figure - trying to comply with the protocol, announced:

  - "We approached the mysterious space station without delay pray to the goddess to stay so we humbly continue to do this step for the sake of all our people asari Purpose forever changed...."

  Putting log fragment pause playback, Shepard paused. Key phrases fragment: "without delay", "for the sake of all the asari," "forever changed". They explained a lot Shepard. The captain had no doubt - pushed into the jungle catalog cabinets Alix does not issue the exec out of control and is writing on his drives everything that happens.

  If, - mused the captain - to believe in the sincerity of the asari who carried out this record, if you believe in the fact that they strictly followed the principle of "see - write, I do not see - do not write," then it turned out that the asari explore the galaxy simply conveying method. It is directly stated - without delay. People, and not only those - have tried to linger, would not be in a hurry.

  The captain remembered my own feelings when I first saw protruding from the haze Citadel. Well, could not Azari at cruising speed to fly up close to the station - where navigation is deadly if you do not know many details. So asari, who formed the record, were insincere and did not want to follow the principle of "see - I write." The front entry corrected recording, edited for the sake of further needs, followed moments.

  Yes, it was possible to believe that they are close to the station without delay. Can. Based on Protheans technology, the asari have discovered the ability to travel through space at superluminal velocity, find the first repeater in its own system and, following the pattern of behavior, begin to look for and activate other relays, going farther and farther away from the parent system. No doubt, the repeaters are very reduced terms overshooting between the clusters and nebulae, given the opportunity to save a lot of time.

  However, for the race, charged
into a thousand years of life, there has been no fundamental significance. Because asari, of course, sent several expeditions, trying to explore the many repeaters, gradually understand for themselves that they form a network. Some transponders have already been activated - the Reapers could well leave them to act after the harvest to program the order of study neonates races Space Galaxy polumashinam in a favorable direction.

  It has been as it is now becoming clear, a lot of time before the asari discover the huge space station. It is unlikely that they immediately called it Citadel. Reapers could well somehow make asari, albeit gently, imperceptibly, but forced to accept such a name for the station, which, no doubt, was the asari for one of the largest discoveries made this race in outer space, deep space.

  The second discovery, at least the largest, became the set of active and dormant relays surrounding the citadel. Each of them is meant for asari opportunity to now totally confident entering new regions of the galaxy Space, establish contact with other races.

  Altered, transformed Protheans Asari may well have a relatively seamlessly survive the invasion of the Reapers. Speaking easier, the Protheans done everything that Asari did not come close to that level, the achievement of which any of the organic races meant assured destruction during the planned harvest. How Protheans hoped that asari become better, stronger ... we hoped. And their expectations were not met in full.

  Turians say education of their civilization period of thirteen thousand years BC. Mark, of course, conditional, documents from that time, which could clearly witness that now is not enough to take this mark only correct and true. Well, the fact is that the asari Harvest still survived, but turians could really emerge as a fundamentally new, you might say - the newborn civilization. Thirteen thousand years ... This figure is called many turians, as rational being must have reference points to position themselves and their compatriots in the flow of the river of time.

  The captain looked at his instrumentrone become standard materials on the history of civilization turian. It is possible ptitseyaschery and could not boast initially comparable to asari longevity, but on the other hand, turians were incredibly active in power of heavy conditions of their native world. Colonization Activity Turian and today is of great interest for a variety of research, and this is not the most ancient, and the ancient period of development of this race.

  In one thousand nine hundred year history of modern civilization Shepard krogan home planet for which has always been and remained Tuchanka, he entered the nuclear age. Do not resist the lizards on the safety position, do not resist, we decided to try to pass the most dangerous way to the end, try on themselves the power of newly discovered weapons. Love to weapons summarized lizards to point beyond which was the extinction of the race, the guaranteed extinction.

  Krogan arranged on Tuchanka global conflict, in which, as was now clear, is actively used against each other weapons of mass destruction. Most likely - not only nuclear. Genophage, unfortunately, was not the first mass use of such weapons here. Krogan before faced such a weapon, using it against the tribesmen. It was a lot of evidence, but the ruling ideology - or rather, a model of understanding the details and relationships of the world demanded that special attention was given to extreme forms.

  Nuclear weapons under such extreme form here is ideal. Yes, nuclear winter came, the ensuing stop civilizational development krogan race, for which inevitably followed by a return to the stage of the existence of dinosaurs disparate tribes engaged in constant war with each other. Four thousand years of war ... Yes, now free of nuclear weapons.

  He hesitated, and with some effort distracted from thinking about the krogan, Shepard took a video archive A1 pause:

  - "Being who we met seem harmless, but contact with them, we have set nesmogli Preliminary observations have allowed them to assert with reasonable confidence that these creatures act as some keepers We are beginning to study..."

  The public part of the video archive, available to any visitor of the Citadel Archives to this end, but not in vain squad sat on the Citadel a few months and has paid plenty of attention gutting archives. Housed in one of the containers that hold the additional memory chips, Shepard including access to non-public parts of the video archive and for a few hours fell from reality.

  "For all the asari." "Forever changed." Yes, it is peculiar reasonable at such times to limit narrow circle devoted to the discovery. Too little and too much of the creators of those who use these achievements of creators and tries to usurp authorship. Because especially object to the phrase "for all Asari" Shepard did not. And against the Formula "forever changed" he, too, had no objections.

  Reapers once again beat the naive blue-skinned girls - they just drove this race in the Procrustean bed of repeaters, put asari going to have to follow, with severe strictly follow the program, defined by these relays. Before the meeting with the Citadel in Asari had at least some opportunity to build its development on the independent system repeaters grounds, after finding the asari stations have lost this opportunity. In a very large extent we lost.

  They started the study. How. Closed, non-public part of the A1 video archive with all certainty testified - asari initially did not want to strain. Even your Prothean sverhmayak Tess, they used very reluctantly. Protheans, leaving Tess, have done everything possible to get to the lighthouse huge amount of data, and the blue-skinned virgin ... They refused to assimilate this information. Yes, of course, even a small fraction of the information provided is guaranteed, provided asari really one of the leading status in the galaxy. But further improvement, further development was met with reluctance asari continue to learn this information. Yes, of course, this information is required correction livelihoods race sinekozhih virgins. Required. But Protheans dealt with a reasonable race, they believed in the mind, in the adaptive capacity of the former inmates Tessiyskogo ocean. And it turned out quite the opposite. Finding files Citadel asari firmly blocked to access. Almost none of the guests or the station residents did not know about the contents of this "space".

  No wonder. Archives dangerous. Any files dangerous. It is very dangerous, and such as the Citadel Archive - extremely dangerous for the asari. And not only for the asari, but also for all other races. Too contents can destructively transforming influence on the evolution of many races. On the life and work of a plurality of organic reasonable.

  Looking through the non-public part of the A1, Shepard found that more and more evidence has no doubt that these data have always been for the past forty thousand years are available are extremely limited number of reasonable. Any race, not necessarily just the triumvirate - asari salarians, turians. Here in this archive was full of references to other parts of the Archives of the Citadel, including leviafansky archive to archive Extinct races, of which the information is likely to continue to the maximum fullness only here ...

  For example on the race, which is shot from a mass accelerator have managed to immobilize Mnemosyne Reaper. Thirty-seven million years ago. A terrible figure, a huge figure, the deepest antiquity. And the situation - very modern. "Everything for victory.". And - nothing else. Resistance reapers harvest the resistance has always existed. Unfortunately, it was not always so very efficient and effective, but it has always been, and there has been exerted its influence. Yes, the Reapers have learned, improved, bought military and other practical, not just theoretical experience.

  Reasonable organic inhabiting the galaxy, always at war not only with the Reapers, but also among themselves. Millions of years of war. To use any means, methods, techniques, what they were at that time available, including mass drivers that convert the planet into drushlag. So modern exec race are not original. It is not original in their actions. All repeats. Just another lap. Cycle otherwise. Shadow milliardnoletnih Leviathan continued to envelop the galaxy. What will happen when there will be peace after the victory? What to do with the Leviathan? Are you ready to be the space race of the Galaxy on their own, without the Leviathans and without Reapers elect
their own independent path of development without losing taste and without losing the ability to negotiate?

  Huge cities have built dozens of extinct civilizations. Planet covered by settlements, which gradually merged into a giant metropolis. Planet-city long ago ceased to be a rarity. And today's race is also known about the planets-cities. Those most planets, killing and continued to kill millions reasonable.

  The universe continued to affect the galaxy - in the gravitational wells of planets delayed external celestial bodies, which disintegrate, forming a truly eternal mysterious rings. Sometimes it is not broke and crashed into the other celestial bodies. Somewhere, this led to the death of the planets, somewhere - to the formation of giant faults and craters. The Galaxy thus spreading the zero element, which has had such a strong influence on many aspects of life in modern Shepard reasonable organics. Many of the world continued to experience during his early childhood, often accompanied by massive and violent eruptions of volcanoes.

  In some cases, the material ejected by volcanoes contributed to the formation of planets around multiple satellites, which became separate worlds of business cards and entire star systems. Travel the galaxy reasonable - Synthetic Does whether organic - is now set it was extremely difficult, often left on these satellites traces of their stay, they have been known several cases where the satellites were transformed into huge sculptures, clearly established the existence of unknown races now.

  As viewed Shepard non-public information materials was here a few such races, sometimes even those which remained sufficiently complete and accurate information, not just a name. An example of such a race, now, of course, not without the intervention of an extinct Reapers, has Weingarten, maintain their presence on other planets, which had the opportunity to exercise a powerful orbital bombardment, and to extract and use the helium-third.

  Citadel Archives and hid information about ancestors Protheans - inusannon race. These wars with other races, data about the development of biotic abilities in survivors of armed clashes. Protheans not avoid stereotyped in their behavior and in their development - they founded and began to develop in the galaxy its imperial civilization, choosing as Citadel Capital. This was followed by a meeting with Protheans hostile race of artificial intelligence, which may be the first time endangered the very existence of Protheans as sentient race of organic.