AU One-shot :) An asteroid brought humanity to the brink of extinction, but instead of destroying the young race, the catastrophe strengthened it.

HOMEWORK

by CreatorZorah

Centuries ago few people would work in the darkness of night. It was another matter now, in the age of Faster-than-light travel, when even the term "night" lost a half of its meaning. It wasn't an universal time to rest any more.

Cyanea was one of those who lived by the Standard Calendar rather than the native one. She was born on a starship and lived the most of her life in space. It was one of the rare moments in her life, when her mother had a prolonged stay on Earth. It wasn't worth to adjust her rhythm for three months of life on the Homeworld.

The girl was using the traditional meditation posture. She was seven years young, a student of the Academy and she was working on her homework. To develop and evaluate creativity in children teachers assigned the students to write short stories about evolution and history of various races including their own. They had to imagine that the reader had no knowledge of their race. She would rather improve her hand-to-hand combat skills though, but she writing was an acceptable assignment.

...It was undoubtedly the darkest day in the human history. Humans were unable to protect themselves, we were young and clueless about the immensity of the universe and its dangers. It's been two thousand five hundred years since the day that changed everything, the day the humanity will always remember. The Day of the Great Impact.

A very large asteroid extremely rich of the Element Zero entered the Earth's atmosphere and exploded, causing destruction and death. Human population decreased to mere three hundred thousand. The world changed and the survivors were forced to adapt. Under the mutagenic effects of Element Zero the species of Earth began to evolve. Only the strongest and those who could learn fast had a chance to survive on the planet that suddenly became so hostile...

"Mother, is it any good?" she asked telepathically sharing the story with her.

"Pompous," her mother answered.

Cyanea pouted at the short answer, but decided to continue the story anyway.

Over the next two centuries, a prolonged exposure to the Element Zero produced a few different branches of our race that carried useful mutations. The half of them died, the others gave a birth to the new human race. I believe that the most important mutation was the one that gave us ability to share our thoughts, memories and emotions through the Dark Energy.

The girl wondered how the other species were existing without the connection. She couldn't imagine to be cut off from her friends, family, the Elders. They had to be so lonely, isolated. Cyanea shuddered. But even more horrible was the fact that their knowledge, memories, personality would disappear upon their death. Cyanea knew that she would continue her life as an Elder after death. Or, maybe, she would be willing to use an artificial body for a second life...

Our ancestors were considerably smaller. Archaeological findings tell us that they were thirty centimetres shorter at an average, their bodies weren't enhanced by the innate unconscious biotic abilities, like ours. The maturation process of our ancestors' children was at least two times slower, comparable to various lesser races like turians and quarians.

Cyanea sighed when she thought about the lesser races. It had to be difficult to learn for them. Humans didn't need to learn, they could receive the knowledge of the whole race directly through their connection. However, they had to train their minds to be able to use the knowledge.

At the moment Cyanea's mind was rated as M4, high for her age, but quite low in comparison to her mother, who was rated as M17. Her mother could solve numerous integral equations at the same time in a matter of seconds using nothing but her mind. Cyanea had difficulties with solving even one without additional instruments.

Another important moment in the history of humanity is the year 871 After the Great Impact. Dorian became the first Elder and we learned the secret of not dying, at first sharing our consciousness among those who are alive and later using the Dark Energy itself as the host...

...By that time the consequences of the Great Impact were long overcome, our civilization began to thrive again. With the last enemy, the Death defeated, we started looking for a way to our immortality. The moment when we began to use the Dark Energy was still centuries away, therefore we had to find another way to ensure the existence of the Elders. Mostly because we learned what had happened on the Day of the Great Impact.

It took us only two centuries to get our first satellite into the space. In the year 1093 we became a space-faring race. Though the lesser races were space-faring for centuries at that point of time, when they were going through the Krogan Rebellions, no race progressed as fast as humanity. We went all the way from the stone age to the age of starships in only three hundred years...

...Unlike the lesser races, we didn't gain technologies from Protheans, an extinct race of old. By the time we found their ruins on Mars in 1361 our technologies were just as advanced. We didn't need help from the dead race and we didn't use the Mass Relay located in our home system. We dismantled it to harvest rare materials including the Element Zero, because the existence of the Relay was deemed dangerous, while any modification of it - detrimental to our own development for we don't accept help from lesser races...

Cyanea smiled when she thought about the Geth. Ironically the synthetics were the only race, humans didn't consider to be a lesser one. Humans and Geth had lots in common. Like humans all Geth were connected. Furthermore the synthetics were immortal. But at the same time even young Cyanea found them limited. They didn't have individuality. The Geth weren't a lesser race, but neither were they an elder race like humans.

...The year 1448 gifted us with artificial bodies. We learned to transfer our consciousness to other bodies. Those Elders who wished to live once again, could do it, though the most of the Elders, obviously, decided to exist without a container...

Personally, Cyanea didn't see any reason to get a second body. As an Elder she would be able to see and hear everything, her knowledge and capabilities of her mind would be limitless. She would be perfect, a being without a body, a being of pure energy, the Dark Energy. It was the path of ascension, the road to perfection.

…In the year 2237, we met the lesser races that call themselves the Council races. We decided to not interfere, but to observe and to protect them from themselves in the hope that they would grow up and join us, the elder race. Unfortunately we were thirty years too late to prevent the meaningless Geth War and centuries too late to protect krogan and rachni...

Cyanea opened her eyes and glanced at the night sky through the window, wondering if it was the way her ancestors had felt. Was that how the loneliness felt? She wasn't alone, but they, humans were alone in the galaxy, the only race that overcome the limits of the fragile mortal bodies. She hoped that at least asari would join them soon, they were the closest to the path of ascension. Cyanea shook her head and shared the story with her teacher.