The Firefly (Mass Effect Andromeda)

Chapter 43

"Who are you?" The voice demanded again. "Drop your weapon. Now!" The voice was old, but strong and sharp, and male. Olivia let the gun drop to the ground. "Turn around."

She did as she was told, her movements jerky with fatigue. The Angaran man was just as old as the woman who had chased her earlier. "My name is Olivia Taylor. I'm looking for my friend." She said tiredly, "I'm lost."

"Searching for friends." He shook his head, "That's how this whole madness began." He gave her a long look, "You are the third of your kind to arrive, though the only one to arrive uninjured."

Scott! She thought in hope and...the other had to be Kendra.

"I see you know of whom I speak."

"Are they...are they alright?" She found her voice, emotion choking her.

"They are healing." He told her, "When Yoval turned up with them, I could hardly believe my eyes."

"Thank god." She sagged in relief.

"Surrender your weapons and I will take you to them." Without a word, she kicked the guns to him, watching him scoop them up. "Follow me."

He at least seemed to have his faculties intact, unlike the woman earlier. "I was attacked," Olivia told him.

"That'll be the Creepers."

"And the Angaran." She said irritably.

"Yoval." He sighed, "Did she hurt you?"

"I ran before she could."

"She'll turn up. It's been a long time since she was well."

They crossed into another room. It was massive and filled with empty pods, crystalline and hooked up to the power supply. There was only two of them filled. "Scott!" She called out, running past the Angaran and up to the one where he lay. She could see his chest rising and falling and it filled her with a profound sense of relief.

She turned and looked at the other. Kendra Croasdale lay there in a similar state, though her face was sticky with blood unlike Scott's. Loathing coursed through her veins, for the woman who had used and controlled her.

"My name is Evra." The Angaran watched her closely. "You are welcome here, Olivia Taylor. But I am curious, and it has been a long time since I spoke to anyone new. What are you?"

"I'm a human." She explained, "From another galaxy. My people travelled here only recently and have a good relationship with the Angara. Many of us have joined their fight against the Kett."

"Kett?"

"Of course, they arrived after you came here."

"I see that I have much to learn. Please, come with me. You should eat, and rest." Feeling without a choice, she followed again, stripping off her armour as he served a strange broth in another room.

"I'm grateful for your hospitality." She said, "But I need to get my friend back home." She took another bite.

Evra shook his head, "It will be another day at least before the male is well enough to travel. Until then, you can oblige me with information."

She sighed but acquiesced. She supplied him with as much Angaran history as she could muster and stories of the Kett. They spoke at length for hours about their respective cultures, though both skirted around the place they were. Evra had been a soldier, he told her, a warrior, keen to see new worlds.

"Why are you here, Olivia Taylor?"

"Oh, just Olivia, please." She forced a smile, "We were exploring on this planet and then I heard that Scott had vanished in the ruin. I came through after him."

"So you have the Ancestral gene, even being from another galaxy?" Evra looked perplexed. "That's what our scientists called it. It wasn't common this ability, to use the old machines, but more than a few of us had it."

"It's all but died out among your people. Mine is artificial. As is theirs. We have technology in our heads that lets us use it."

"Both of them were near death when Yoval dragged them in here." He leaned back in his chair. "We had no idea what they were, but we decided to put them in the healing chambers until their vitals stabilised so that we could question them. I notice you never speak of the female."

"She's my enemy." Olivia said softly, "A liar, and a very clever and ruthless person. About Yoval..."

"We've been alone for a very long time and it's hit her hard. There's only she and I left..." His voice trailed off, a deep sadness in his eyes.

"She thought I was someone named Gafro at first." Olivia said tentatively.

Pain crossed his expression, "Ah Gafro. His death was the beginning of the end for her." He rose, "Our story is a peculiar one. If you're interested to know about this place, it'd be easier to show you than tell you first."

She tagged along beside the old Angaran. He'd given her a pistol back as a gesture of good faith. In case of the Creepers, he had explained, though apparently they rarely came this deep into the complex. One corridor gave her a sense of the scale of the scale of the place, stretching out in both directions beyond her perception.

It went on for miles clearly, and she'd moved between at least ten floors, she was sure. It was a treasure trove, an intact Remnant building. "This gravity well will bring us out somewhere near the top." Evra told her, "And then you'll see."

As they floated up together, her limbs weightless, the temperature increased. "It's hot up here!" She exclaimed, and Evra barked a laugh but said nothing. As they stepped onto the platform, she saw the first signs of devastation. Gunfire had scarred the walls, an ancient unfamiliar weapons were strewn around as well as a number of broken Remnant machines, the first she had seen there. Evra said nothing, climbing over them.

The battle had obviously raged over several floors she noted, looking over the parapet to see countless more broken machines and damage. "This side of the complex took the worst of the damage." He said softly. "But all of the upper floors are fairly unusable."

Sweat was streaming down her face, and her skin felt as if it were being baked alive. It was getting hard to breathe in the heat and she gasped, craving a fresh wind. The Angaran, whose bodies were adapted to heat, seemed to be little affected.

"It took us an age to find this place." He sighed, "Only here did we fathom what this place was. There's an opening to the outside just around the corner. He gave her another searching look. "Prepare yourself, it's not pretty."

"I've seen rather a lot in my short life." Olivia said with a confidence she didn't feel. "I'm ready."

She stepped past him, committing herself as she rounded the corner. That was when she gasped, leaning against the wall for strength. The heat was more than she could bear.

There was a fire, frozen in time, an explosion of flame, vast and hovering, blocking the exit, currents of heat and air paused outside of the building. She could see where the metal was molten, bending and twisting. Within it, she could see body parts, trapped in the moment of their death, forever, bloody and burnt and twisted.

Hyperventilating, she staggered backwards, gagging and retching, trying to keep down the contents of her stomach. "What the hell is this place?"

"Come, Olivia." Evra laid a hand gently on her arm. "Let me tell you a story."