"This is Ruby station 11, Dust freighter Dew do you copy?" Garnet, an average height amber haired young woman, called on video as she tried desperately to stop fidgeting. On the screen a man with horns on his head responded as the static flickered into form.

"This is the captain of the freighter Dew Baza here to confirm our arrival."

Garnet glanced at her near identical sister Amethyst next to her as she received a thumbs up before quickly looking at her control panel before stating "There is an open space in docking bay 3 I will have it highlighted for your approach."

Baza replied "Great, Baza out" as he shut off the link.

Garnet glanced over at her amber haired sister and asked tentatively "how did I do."

Amethyst looked at her and said "you did great sis, you really need to be more confident we are both the same rank you know."

Garnet looked at her chevrons denoting her lieutenant junior grade rank before saying "Yea but we don't get people at the station often, the last ship to arrive at the station was the one I was on, and that was 6 months ago."

"Cut the chatter." A sharp voice rang as Commander Earl, an imposing 6'5'' man with bulky musculature and long dark hair dropped into room "Also I notice that the lift is down again, is Rufus asleep or dead."

"Dead sir." Amethyst said immediately before they all started laughing.

"Immediately everyone assumes it is my fault" Ralph chimes in on the intercom. "I have requested engineers from remnant to help maintain this damn station for 8 months now and 4 months ago we get 'new personal' and it's just a carbon copy of our receptionist!"

Earl calmly stated back "Every part of this station is understaffed, cultivating and colonizing Aoria below has a higher priority, you know as well as I do until there is a stable population we are on skeleton crew."

"The station is supposed to have 106 technicians managing it. I have 9." Rufus stated in a matter of fact manner.

"They have just docked sir" Garnet informed her commander.

"Good meet me in docking bay one, we need to greet the new crewmembers." Earl shouted while going down the ladder.

The ARS Suell exploratory ship was waiting at an inactive primary relay. Several Asari/Turian warships were waiting as well for security when the relay was opened. The opening of new relays was rarely done by the citadel council due to the risk however this relay had been discovered near the heart of citadel territory and thus opening it was deemed necessary by the council. Matron Nylimia watched what she thought would probably be the only relay activation that she would ever see as she readied the crew of the Suell for the other side. Jesthissa a maiden and her helmswoman informed her that the preparations to start the relay had been completed. At this point Nylimia stood and said to the entire crew over coms "today is a historic day, this relay is on the precipice of new worlds, untold mysteries and discoveries, and if we are lucky new life and civilizations to share with and in our culture. Every person on this crew is trained and prepared for this task, and I know that we can be counted on." After she killed the com she told her first officer Ceetus "I think it was ok."

Ceetus replied snarkily "well it was no worse than usual. Shall I give the order to go through the relay?"

A nod from Nylimia was all she needed to see. "Jesthissa, take us through the relay."

The Suell moved forwards and just a few seconds later they came out on the other side. As they looked out the front window of the ship they saw a system with two stars. "Begin scans" Nylimia said. Then they all began their work.

A few minutes later Ceetus walked up to Nylimia and barely containing her enthusiasm said "The mass relay is encased in ice and will need to be activated from our side to go back." Her Enthusiasm rose as she continued "The star system does not have 2 stars it has three the third is a small star it is about .2 light years out. There is a planet in orbit" She was practically squealing now "the planet is a garden world and there is biomass on it."

Nylimia sighed before telling her "all right, let's investigate but keep your hopes contained. Sapient life is still unlikely. Jesthissa set a course for the garden world maximum distance for detailed scans."

A half hour later and the scans were in. Now Nylimia was excited as well although she kept it in better than the rest of the bridge did. "Commander we have the scans." A more composed Ceetus said before calmly waiting to be told to continue when motioned to do so she said "The planet has a single large settlement with several smaller ones around it and there is a station in orbit. Furthermore there was a small element zero signature during our approach and we scanned a small ship entering the station."

Nylimia got on the com again. "I cannot believe that I am announcing this, it seems fortuitous, insane in fact but we have found an early mass effect civilization. We will inform the council and then with their permission we will begin first contact procedures. Good work everyone." She looked at Ceetus and said, too quietly for the others to hear "let's tell them together old friend."

Ceetus smiled back "Gladly."

The Council came up on screen and Tevos asked serenely "How is the mission going? What is your status?"

Marnus the Turrian was more active than Tevos in his question "Are you under attack?"

"No we are fine." The two Asari said quick to calm the anxious leaders. "We have amazing news." The looked at each other before saying in sync "we found an early spacefaring civilization."

Urtoln the Salarian councilor chimed in. "How early are we talking about? Have you been spotted?"

Ceetus answered "We were not spotted based on the Ezo signature and the fact that they have not discovered the relay we can only assume that they have just reached interstellar flight at most a century ago.

Tevos looked at her associates before saying "We give you permission to make first contact at a time you think is best. I recommend you learn their language and some of their background before this though."

Nylimia smiled as she whispered "Thank you." Into the fading projection.

Iminae called up from the sensor sweep and asked "where do you want me to scan now?"

Nylmia entered into the com system and ordered Iminae to "Scan for information related to language, biology and culture. In that order." With a yes ma'am the process had begun.

At Ruby Station 11 Garnet was welcoming the new crewmembers. All of them were mechanics and it brought the department up to 29 leaving the entire station at 54 people. "There Rufus will you quit whining now" Garnet snarked.

"Oh, never." Rufus grinned a middle aged man of average height and a stocky but muscular build. As the crew's all went to their quarters over the intercom Amethyst called "Commander, sis you are going to want to see this." Garnet and Earl glanced at each other before running up to the CIC.

"What is it?" Earl asked his calm authoritative demeanor never breaking.

"So I was looking at the sensor logs when the Dew jumped in and I noticed something strange." She showed them the readings as she continued "This 'asteroid' exuded far more heat than normal before accelerating towards the planet it could have been a collision but then the heat dissipated and it began to decelerate to its current speed. It is currently orbiting the planet."