Chapter 8: 8
It took an hour to get to the base. I was driving a Mako, the very same ill-fated Mako from the first Mass Effect, which could be driven at an angle of 75-85 degrees and was impossible to flip upside down so that it could no longer be driven. Fortunately, the turrets didn't start shooting at me. I pulled up as close to the entrance as possible, then got out and immediately opened the door with the key card I'd taken from their commander. First, I went down the stairs and found myself in a room 7 meters high, 10 meters wide, and 15 meters long. There were only crates in there, and I didn't know what was inside them. Probably contraband. There were also two entrances here. One led to the hangar, judging by the sign above the entrance, and the other led somewhere unknown. I decided to go left, meaning, to the unknown. When I pressed the button, the door immediately opened, and I saw a corridor with many doors. The first three, which were open, were empty, but the fourth one was locked. I tried to pick the code myself, but it just wouldn't work. 1234 — doesn't work. 0000 — doesn't work. Hm, maybe try the old proven movie way — hit the buttons and the door will open itself? Nah, that's unlikely. And then it dawned on me. What if I hack it with myself? Or something like that. I'm a Geth, after all, right? Just need to figure out how to hack doors…
To my surprise, a small bolt of lightning crawled out of my palm directly into the key card slot. I immediately saw some incomprehensible stuff in front of my eyes. Most likely, it was showing me how the door was being hacked. But there were no numbers or letters here, just figures flying around and doing something. The only number in front of me was the hacking percentage. The door was being hacked quite slowly — 3% per second. Either there was something valuable here, making the lock so strong, or I was such a noob at hacking. And for some reason, I think the second option is correct. Suddenly, I heard footsteps. There was only 28% left. The steps were getting closer and closer, and I anxiously watched the numbers. 75%, 78%, 81%… Come on, faster. 93%, 96%… A shadow appeared around the corner. 100%. The door opens, and I immediately rush into the room and close it right away. Luckily, the door closes quietly. Quietly exhaling, mentally of course, I turned around and… I think in real life I would have screamed, but right now the voice module was disabled by me personally so that I wouldn't blurt out anything unnecessary and give myself away. This room was long, 15 meters, and only 4 meters wide.
And on the walls… On the walls lay Azari. Naked, covered with some rags, chained to the walls, and dead. The floor and walls were smeared with blue liquid. There were bloody smears and five-fingered palm prints on the walls. Some of the corpses had holes in their ribs or around their hearts, and blue blood had once flowed from these holes. Some Asari still had their eyes open. Blue, sky-blue eyes, which had already become glassy, in which all the horror and fear they had experienced had frozen, in which only pain could be read. God, what on earth happened here?! Could it be…
I didn't have time to think further because I saw some movement at the end of the room out of the corner of my eye. I looked in that direction and saw that someone was lying there, and most importantly — they were ALIVE! And immediately after that, confirming my thoughts, I heard the same figure moaning, whimpering, and groaning in pain. I rushed over there and saw… a Quarian.
Yes, it was definitely a Quarian. Legs, arms, plus glowing eyes spoke in favor of this, and her obvious resemblance to human girls also gave me confidence in my hypothesis. But the most important and apparently the scariest thing was that the Quarian was without her suit. She was without anything at all. Bruised, scratched, scuffed… Damn, what did they do to her?! A second later, I saw that she was also chained to the wall by her hands with metal handcuffs and chains. I immediately started trying to open them, just by tearing them apart. After all, I am much stronger than ordinary organics. As soon as I freed her hands, she muttered something and then opened her eyes. She immediately tried to crawl away from me, but as soon as she made the first attempt — she screamed, grabbed her stomach, and bent like the letter "Z". But a moment later, she put her hands forward, leaning against the two walls in the corner, as if trying to protect herself. I watched this for a few seconds but then tried to calm her down anyway.
"Hey…" I started as softly as possible, touching her palm with mine. "Calm down. I won't hurt you. "She looked at me like I was a demon. Or a ghost. Or some other monster.
"You… You're a Geth… " she said in a quiet, slightly tearful voice.
"So what? If I'm a Geth, does that mean I'll kill you? "Damn, because of my synthetic voice, even my attempts to make my voice calm didn't work.
"But youkh-kh-kh-kh… Akh-kh-kh-kh… Aaay… Keelah… Aaa "suddenly she started coughing out of nowhere, fell on her side, and began to whine and whimper pitifully.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong with you? What did they do to you? "I started asking her questions, even though I already had an idea of what they had done to her and what was happening to her. I needed to find out how long she had been lying here without her suit.
"I… I was… Captured a week ago… Brought… here… Aaah… They… They killed everyone… And meeee-aah… Kik-kh-kh… They killed everyone… Thought I'd… kh-kh-kh… die on my own… akh-kh-kh… Keelah…
"God, these… bastards. Listen, just hang in there, I… I can help. "I just couldn't leave her here. She looked about 19-20 years old. I just couldn't leave this poor creature here, who needed someone's help. These bastards… Batarian… They're not just smugglers. They're slavers, that's who they are. And the cargo on that ship… Damn, damn, DAMN! The cargo was alive! And I even know what they meant by "spoiled goods"! Lord, what bastards they are! Bitches! That's who they are! They deserve only death!
"No... listen..." the quarian girl interrupted my thoughts. "No... don't try... k-kh-kh..." She couldn't finish, as she was suddenly overcome with a coughing fit. After she caught her breath, she found the strength to continue. "It's too late... I've been here... k-kh-kh... without my suit for three days... and they..." She then burst into tears, completely inconsolable.
"Listen, I will get you out of here. I will save you, you hear me? You will live..."
"I don't want to live like this!" she cried out, and immediately clutched her stomach in pain. "I... I can't be saved... I'm infected, do you understand? K-kh-kh... Even the Fleet can't save me... And... What kind of life is this..."
"Don't talk like that. Whatever happens, you have to keep going..."
"But how can I live with this? K-KH-kh-kh... AAAKH-kh-kh... I... I don't want to live like this... Please, just kill me... I can't live with this... It's too... k-kh-kh... Painful... You just don't know... k-kh-kh... how it feels... How it... Hurts... Don't try to save me... I can't live like this... Please. Do it... Quickly... I don't want anything else... k-kh-kh-kh..."
"I..." I didn't know how to respond. I just didn't. On one hand, I couldn't kill her; she was innocent. But on the other... She had suffered too much. And the fact is, she really couldn't be saved. Three days without a suit, especially here... It was a miracle or perhaps a curse that she was still alive. Maybe... Maybe I could just... Free her from this... She was in so much pain... And there was no other way to relieve it... "I don't know."
"Please... Do it... I don't need anything else... Please."
I didn't know what to say. But one thing I did know. She didn't deserve to die like this. Such a slow and consuming death, being eaten alive by bacteria and viruses, and you can't do anything about it because your body has nothing to fight them with. So I stood up, looked at her, and took my rifle off my back.
"I'm sorry it had to end like this. I didn't want it to turn out this way."
"Me neither... Goodbye..."
"Goodbye," I couldn't find the strength within me to do it. She was so young, but I understood. If I tried to save her, I would only make things worse. This feeling fought with the second feeling, which told me to help her. To take her to the Fleet, or help her myself. But the first feeling won out. After a couple of seconds of struggling with myself, I aimed the rifle at the quarian girl. I turned away, catching a glimpse of her closed eyes with my optical sensor, and after a few more moments of hesitation, I pulled the trigger.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone