[Book Three] Chapter 42: The catalyst

Chapter 42: The catalyst

Waking up with a gorgeous woman in your arms was an indescribably good feeling. Waking up with a gorgeous naked woman in your arms even more so. Especially when there was a second gorgeous naked woman on the other side of the first.

Opening his eyes, Rick took a moment to admire the two ladies with him in bed. After leaving Horizon on board Kai Leng’s ship, they made their way to the Citadel. Miranda, however, needed help to let go. The death of her father had been cathartic but she needed, in her own words, ‘guidance’ and so asked Rick for help. That was nothing new for the two of them and after a day and night of their particular brand of passion, Miranda was almost alright. She couldn’t find the words to explain what was missing to change from almost alright to simply alright. It was a feeling that she didn’t recognize and was perplexed about it.

Fortunately for her, Rick had an inkling and left their room, buck naked to visit Jennifer. Taking advantage of the shock of seeing him in his birthday suit with her gaze focused on what was between his legs, he embraced her and gave her a very passionate kiss. The moment Jennifer’s brain rebooted, instead of kneeing him in the balls she answered the kiss with as much aggression that she could muster. A hot guy she liked was swapping spit with her, she wasn’t about to say no to what he was doing. Furthermore, she was horny as hell after hearing her two creammates going at it for so long.

He picked her up from the ground and went back to Miranda. The ravenette eyes were as wide as saucer with a bit of panic in them. When Rick broke the kiss this time, Jennifer noticed where they were and at the sight of a very naked and clearly well fucked Miranda, said ‘Fuck it!’, jumped off Rick and jumped on her most recent friend. From there the trio spent their days having a threesome until they reached their destination. Both ladies said nothing about the sudden change of their relationship or at least not in front of Rick but Miranda thanked him, confessing that now she was good for good.

Once they docked safely on the space station, after contacting Tevos to say that yes, it was him ‘aboard a stolen Cerberus ship and they better not shoot him down’, the trio separated. The girls went their own way and Rick to the presidium. He had a few people to visit and the first one on his list was his mom.

“What’s this?” Aria asked, looking at the cooler Rick had put down on the table in front of her.
“A present.” he simply replied, putting an arm around her shoulder and kissing her cheek. Intrigued but not wanting to move from her son’s embrace she used her foot to open the box’s lid. Looking inside, she was very pleased to see Kai Leng’s head and showed it by kissing him back on his own cheek. “You better tell me how that fight went.” she asked eagerly.
“What fight?” he snorted, amused by the notion. “I used a new biotic skill on him and cut him in half with my sword. It lasted less than three seconds.”
“A new one?”

Using his freed hand Rick sent his biotic thread right to Kai Leng’s head and pulled it, making it fly toward him.

“Oh, I definitely need to know that one.” Aria commented in a very interesting tone. That was a dead right useful skill to know and have.
“When I have the time. Now, if you excuse me, I have some important shit to do and  very little time.”
“Like finding the Big Asshole.” she questioned referring to TIM.
“No. I’ll find him when the time is right. Now, I have to win this war.”

He kissed her a second time and left the purgatory to go visit Aethyta and Benezia, the latter having been on the citadel for half a day already. He found them both at their usual table.

“‘Morning.” he greeted, bending down to kiss Benezia on the lips.
“Good morning to you too, Rick.” the matriarch replied with a smirk when Aethyta grabbed him by his collar and pulled him down for one big smooch.
“You still owe me.” Liara’s father reminded him.
“I know but It will have to wait. I need to go see the council, I just came to see if Beni was alright.”
“I am.”
“What did you find there exactly?”
“That, Thyta… is better if nobody knows in too much detail. Let’s just say that Cerberus is indoctrinated and was using the refugees to make reaper troops.”
“Goddess, that bad?”
“You have no idea. At least it’s over now. Both Cerberus and the Reapers won’t have a single soldier coming from that place. What about your side, ladies?”
“Now that I’ve been more useful than most matriarchs during the war, I can properly help Aethyta and I got back some trust from our people.”
“Hmm. For my part, I got the support from… discident asari that weren’t very happy for me to be in charge. Not all of them because there are always some old dry cunt that wants to stay in power just because but a good number. Negotiation with the rest of the species is a lot smoother, now. It’s still rocky but not quite as bad as before.”
“Good.”

They discussed a bit more and Rick learned that the Normandy had made a stop a week back for a few days before leaving again in a hurry. Jane had not been happy to learn that he had left the Citadel on his own for a top secret mission. The number of messages she had sent him and their content were irrefutable proof of that. He read none of them and never wrote. Too busy with his behind the scene work. The only message he sent her was the coordinates of Cerberus Main headquarters in the Horse nebula and that was it.

The conversation reached an end when Dorothea showed up, greeted the matriarch and dragged him away.

“I’m in lots of trouble, I bet.”
“Yes. Jane had a screaming match with her mother about you for not knowing where you went. She wasn’t happy with me either for not noticing you leaving and not knowing where either.” she said the last part with reproach.
“I’m sorry, it was a spur of the moment hunch. I needed to act fast, in fact I left a few hours after I got the idea about the lead on Cerberus. I didn’t even think about anything else.”
“I’m not happy about it but I understand. Was it worth it?”
“Yes. We stopped…”
“We?”
“Mirand and Jennifer were with me when I got my epiphany during a walk.”
“I see.” she replied with a frown.
“Jealous?” he asked with an eyebrow raised.
“...Yes. Continue.”
“We stopped Cerberus trying to find a way to control the Reaper. They found a way but the reapers attacked and I deleted all the research. If TIM got it before that, I don’t know but the facility is done for.”
“Let’s hope he didn’t get the data. Controlling the Reapers… No one should have such power at their disposal.”
“My thoughts exactly. On another note Miranda killed her father; he was in charge of the butchery going on there. I killed Kai Leng.”
“You took his head as a trophy, I assume?”
“Delivered to mom less than an hour ago. More importantly, I stole his ship with the coordinates to Cerberus headquarters. They’re fucked and with a bit of luck TIM is there. I sent them to Jane when I found them, which was a day ago. I’m still pissed at myself that I didn’t think of checking the computer logs.”
“What matters is that we know where they are.”
“True, but in two weeks, lots of things can happen. Anyway, the last thing is… well you’ll see when we get there.”
“Where?”
“The council hall. Though a secure room with all the council present would be better and no one else.”
“... I sent a message to each councilor for an emergency reunion in fifteen minutes in a secure room in the tower.”
“Let’s hurry up, then.”

__________________________________________________________________

Fifteen minutes later the four councilors were gathered inside a secure room with no windows. Tevos and Hannah had come together, having received the message when they were talking about the events of horizons in the former’s office. Then came Quintius then Valern.

“Any idea what this is about?” the Salarian asked.
“No idea but looking at the precaution taken for this meeting I’d rather not talk about it just yet.” replied Quintius.

Hannah was about to speak up when the door opened and a hurrying Rick entered with Dorothea right behind him.

“We need to evacuate the Citadel!” he announced out of the blue, shocking the other members present in the room. Only one of them, Tevos, recovered immediately and answered to that announcement.
“Okay.”

Rick picked his gun with his hand and aimed at Hannah but as he was about to shoot he paused.

“Okay?” he asked, confused.
“Okay.” confirmed the asari. “Most of us have known you for years, you’ve been instrumental to the whole war effort and you’ve almost never been wrong in your predictions or information.”
“At this point, if you say that the Citadel needs to be evacuated, then it has to be evacuated.” Valern added.
“You mean… I don’t have to shoot one of you to get you moving?” he replied putting his gun down still a bit confused.
“No.” answered Quintius. “We do want to know why though.”
“Oh! Well… The Citadel is the catalyst.”
“““““WHAT?!””””
“You found the answer in the Protheans’ archives? Are you sure?” Hannah inquired.
“No, I didn’t find the answer in the archives, I found it by another means.”

He walked forward and connected his omni-tool  to the holographic table in the middle of the room. After a few seconds of fiddling with it a 3D representation of the crucible was displayed.

“We attacked the problem of finding what and where the catalyst is the wrong way. We’ve been trying to find mentions of it in the Protheans Archives but it’s not efficient, it’s taking too long and I’m well placed to know about that since I can read the archives. So I tried to review everything we know about the crucible and the catalyst to find a better and more importantly faster way to do it. The first thing we know is that the crucible is a secret project that started way before the protheans. hundred perhaps thousands of cycles before them. Each dominant species in a cycle adds their own technology and knowledge in it. Now the catalyst. There are two definitions of the word. First, it’s a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself any permanent chemical change. Second, a person or thing that an event. So on one hand we have the crucible which is constantly evolving, cycle after cycle on the other we have the catalyst which never changes and that is the start of something. In our context, it’s probably the end of the reapers.”
“You’re thinking that the Catalyst is something that has always been present in the galaxy and that each species built their own version of the crucible to mix it with it.” Dorothea explained in simple terms what he understood of his thoughts.
“Yes. Now what do we know, for sure, that has been present in the galaxy for eons?”
“The Citadel, but I don’t quite understand how...” began Valern but Quintius interjected.
“It belongs to the Reapers and is a gigantic Mass Relay. The biggest in the galaxy in fact. From what I was told of the crucible and what I understood, it is supposed to have an effect on the whole galaxy at large.”
“Why the Citadel? Why not a simple Mass Relay? How can you be sure it’s the station?” inquired Hannah.
“Mass Relay can get lost or destroyed. The Mu Relay is proof of that. Furthermore a single Mass Relay doesn’t have enough power to reach all the others spread all over the galaxy. Finally…”

At that point he modified the 3D model of the crucible and deployed it.

“You see, those pincers? They are very singular. Like they are made to grab a ring or something circle shaped. Now, if we put the Citadel right next to it…

A 3D model of the Citadel appeared next to the one of the crucible and both models slotted perfectly together. The crucible fitting itself with the ring of the Presidium.

“I checked the measurement. Three times. It’s a perfect fit. Nothing else known in the galaxy does so.”
“Goddess, it was under our nose the whole time.”
“Now as to why we need to evacuate… Nobody knows what will happen exactly when we connect the two together. We know that a huge amount of energy will be produced but the consequences on the people living on the station?”
“It’s a sound idea to evacuate.” Commented Valern.
“I'll send a message to Admiral Hackett about…”
“No.” interjected Rick, cutting Hannah off. “We don’t know if Cerberus knows about the Citadel being the catalyst or not yet, meaning we don’t know if the Reapers know or not. We also don’t know if there are still sleeper agents on the station working directly for either of them. Communication is not a risk we can’t take, not when they could be monitored. If the Reapers take the Citadel now and on their terms then everything is over. Someone needs to meet with Steven in person and warn him.”
“We could close it.” proposed the Salarian but Rick shook his head in disagreement.
“If the Reapers can’t take it, they will just destroy it. They have fifty thousand years to make another and will not take the risk. It would be illogical from their point of view.” Dorothea explained.
“We’re pressed by time. Cerberus has the archived from Thessia but with the VI too. It’s almost been two months and they are already experienced with cracking Protheans encryption.”
“What do you suggest? If we’re pressed by time, we won’t be able to evacuate everyone, we don’t have enough ships for that.” inquired Tevos.
“And where? No world is safe.” Quintius added.
“Illos. It’s in the Terminus system and Reapers' presence is not yet prevalent there. The planet is habitable and deserted.”
“Good idea but that doesn’t answer the problem of …”
“The conduit.” exclaimed Dorothea, understanding once again where Rick was leading everyone. “That’s brilliant! You’re brilliant!”
“Thank you.” he replied with a smile.
“The conduit doesn’t work anymore. Either from our side or from Ilos. The team of experts we sent there two years ago couldn’t even boot up the Vigil VI the commander reported having talked too.”
“No offense, Gorgeous but none of your experts were me. Give me three days and I’ll get the conduit running. In the meantime…”
“We start the evacuation. 11 Millions of people won’t get displaced in a day. This will be a nightmare.” commented Valern while he opened his omni-tool and began working.
“Are you sure you can do it in three days?” inquired Quintius.
“No but I don’t have much of a choice. It’s that or most people on this station will be killed by the Reapers when they take it over. I just need to know where the conduit is being stored then bring it out in the open.”
“It’s in the archive, I’ll send you the access code and its location.”

Rick nodded and left the room before going back in, gun drawn again pointing at Hannah.

“Are you sure I don’t need to…”
““““YES!!””””

Before he could protest, Dorothea grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him out.

“He seems to have a profound dislike for you, Hannah.” Quintius noted aloud.
“I have a reputation and he’s dating my daughter.” she replied with a shrug.
“Oh, so he was the tall blond the tabloid caught her with. Lucky girl, your daughter.” Tevos commented.
“Can we get back to work? I can’t do everything alone.” grumbled Valern, not interested one bit about the drama.
“I’m taking care of c-sec. Quintius, the defense fleet? You can lead them to the alliance fleet where you will be able to tell Admiral Hackett what the catalyst is in person and reinforce the fleet for the final assault.”
“Good idea. I’m contacting them now and will leave as soon as I can. Send me the Alliance’s fleets coordinates?”
“On it.” the redhead replied and flared her omni-tool as the Turian left the room.
“I’ll draft every available ship on the station to transport people to Illos.” Tevos forwarded.
“I’m almost done regarding the transport of food. I will need help to organize the evacuation in an orderly manner. My team will not be enough.”
“I’ll send you mine, c-sec is not that difficult to organize and Jane recommended to me a commander that knows his job well.” Hannah announced and left the room to have a word with Bailey.
“I hope Wald will succeed or we will be in big trouble.” the salarian whispered loud enough for Tevos to hear him.
“Just like the commander, he always pulled through. There is no reason he won’t this time. Let’s have faith.”