AL-JILANI INTERVIEWS THE FIRST HUMAN SPECTRE: MAJOR SOPHIA VAKARIAN OF THE TURIAN HIERARCHY, UNABRIDGED.
The first Human Spectre caused waves in the last three years, first with being made into a Spectre, then dropping off-grid soon after taking Saren and his Geth, and then resurfacing with a Turian husband to allegedly investigate after the colonist's disappearance on the traverse. We catch up with her during her shore leave, after we get news of Thessia falling to the Reapers.
We meet at the bar on New Eden Hotel Lounge, it's hard to miss the Major when she enters accompanied by her husband, General Vakarian of the Turian Hierarchy, it's not the noise, it's the stillness that slowly spreads around them, it's in the way some patrons will lean forward for a better look other for a holo pic – all the guests have been warned that due to this event no flash lights would be allowed in the Lounge during the duration.
The Vakarians don't seem to notice as they separate, Sophia heading towards our table, while Garrus goes to the bar ("he's getting us drinks, just to take the edge off" she explains before I can ask), she's not in any glamorous get-up, neither of them are, just a simple hoodie ("N7, I love this gear!" she laughs it off) and a simple style tunic for Garrus ("don't fool yourself, anything short of full battle armour and an undersuit it's horribly complicated to get in and out of," Garrus fairly grumbles when Sophia points out his style) it strikes me suddenly while I watch her eyes fairly light up at the sight of the Turian that, what I thought was a publicity stunt between them, it's actually love.
As I talk to them about the hardships of command, of the war, of the Reapers and Cerberus I notice – and they make no effort to hide it – that they're holding hands, she's angled towards me as we talk, but his body language is focused on her. This is a fairly comprehensive interview with all the questions I've gathered over the years and some of her answers where a punch in the gut about the universe as I knew it to be. I'll let you decide on your views.
K: I was looking at your Alliance and Hierarchy files; could you tell me where Sophia Elethea Vakarian came from?
S: Name wise? Mum, she was a fairly old-minded person, fairly devoted, thus I got a religious name from the late 18th century, on human terms of course. Location wise? I was born and raised on Mindoir along with my older brother and both my parents. Mother was a farmer and botanist while Dad was an information broker.
K: And your Allegiance to the Turian Hierarchy?
S: It's only in the past year, galactic standard, that I turned into an honorary Turian (a snort from Garrus) is it! Though I've been dating this asshole since the whole Saren shit went down.
K: Can you elaborate? One moment we heard you were taking a tour to the traverse to hunt Geth, then we get reports of you being MIA.
S: It's not a happy subject (sigh) the SSV Normandy was attacked by Collectors and I was spaced, in a coma for two years. Cerberus had my body and I woke up in their care while they were under attack by mal-functioning machines.
K: Machines? Not Geth?
S: Not that time, thankfully. Just one of their employees with a grudge against Tim, hacked their security mechs and set them loose. The project director was forced to wake me up if they didn't want me to be killed, supposed I should be thankful for that.
K: Tim? Who is that?
S: The Illusive Man, Cerberus's brain of operations, real name Jack Harper, human mercenary leftover from the First Contact War.
K: How do you know so much? The Alliance never found out who The Illusive Man was.
S: I'm the daughter of an information broker, I know how they deal and how to dig information, so I went digging. Spectres files are passed from one to another after they're killed or gone rogue, and I found this out on Saren's files after his death, he had had dealings with Harper and Saren knew who he was, but he was sitting on that information.
K: Yes, a Turian keeping information from the Humans, would you say things have changed with your allegiance to the Hierarchy and not to the Alliance?
S: Maybe in the way you're implying yes it did, me dumping files on the whole Collector operation says I'm not keeping anything hidden from anyone. But also not really, thing is, and I don't think the Alliance realised this until well after my nomination, is that Spectres ranks within their own military are merely a formality I don't need them to agree with me, I don't need them to send me on token missions to further Human or Turian influence, they've got politicians to do that, I don't even need their resources.
G: Sophia…
S: No, G, (frustrated sigh) they need to understand, they need to know that from the moment I was made into a spectre my status of 'Human' went only as far as my species. My allegiance is to the Council, as in it's with the Galactic community as a whole, it's not bound any longer by species or whatever military rank I hold. My allegiance is to protect every single one of your sorry asses, not just Humanity's or Turian's hide. That's what Spectres do.
K: You feel very strongly about this, don't you?
S: I do, I've been warning everyone I could think of, anyone in a position to do something, about the very thing we're all facing now. All I received in return was mockery and taunts and a 'yeah, we heard about what you're doing, but it's irrelevant in the grand scheme of things' along with the odd 'you're brain addled and confused' along with other nice things. It should tell you something about the political climate in the galaxy that the only ones who believed me were two retired Turian Generals and a Human terrorist organization.
K: I remember those reports on your sanity, is that why you went to the Hierarchy?
S: Somewhat. I kinda roped Garrus into this whole marriage thing, I knew that everyone would demand that I turn myself in after the Collector Mission, especially after I told Harper to go fuck himself; that I turn my ship in, that I serve my time in prison with dignity because you can serve Humanity only if you're on the Alliance's side. I'm sorry, that's a touchy subject, needless to say I needed someplace safe to fall back in, and the retired general I told you about found a nice loophole about Turians and their mates. I couldn't trust the Alliance and the fact the Human Councillor, the late Udina, was one of the ones who joined in in questioning my sanity didn't help or further trust.
K: And the fact he's dead now has nothing to do with revenge?
S: It seems that way doesn't it? But no, I'm being a good girl and swallowing my pride during this whole shitstorm, we don't stand a chance without leaders at the forefront, we don't stand a change without people taking care of our civilians and supply chains. If I live to see this through I'll demand answers later, they owe me that much at least.
G: That and a whole lot more, love.
S: Yeah, but I'll leave the spot open for answers later on, we need a united front now or we don't stand a chance.
K: Can we? Do we stand a chance against this? At all? After what we've seen of Thessia.
S: We have a fighting change, but that's it. There are no words of comfort I can offer you, we stand together and we fight in any way we can if we want to survive. I was on Earth when the reapers attacked I saw millions get annihilates and turned into monsters, I saw my home burn on Palaven, I saw Cerberus and reapers forces scouting Sur'Kesh and trying to take down the shroud controlling Tuchanka's atmosphere. The oceans on Kahje are burning, the forests on Dekuuna were annihilated and those are our allies, they're fighting still, they're giving up their lives so we have a fighting chance. The Asari knew what was coming, their commandos knew what to expect. We're all facing extinction as we speak, and all we can do it fight, it's messy and if we win this we'll have the blood of trillions in our hands but our victory will be in their name.
K: That's not much to go on, Major, is there anything you can say about this? We've seen reports everywhere.
S: There's not much to say, what the reapers are doing, it's been planned for longer than the Asari Republics have been in power, it goes back to the time of the Protheans, goes long before that even. It's annihilation at its core, they'll kill us and harvest us and create monsters out of us. The only thing we can do is fight.
K: The recent Cerberus manifesto says otherwise, says they found a way to control the Reapers, is that true?
S: Not in the least as far as I'm aware. If Harper found a way to control the Reaper him and Cerberus would be a smidgen of dust in the universe, my bet is that they're indoctrinated.
K: One thing I've noticed Major is that you keep saying Jack Harper's name, instead of title, and the same pattern can be seen through our speech, why is that?
S: (snort) suppose you would notice that, wouldn't you? It goes back to late 20th Century literature, in which a wizard says "fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself," and fear paralyses you, fear keep you from doing what you must, keeps you from living, sometimes literally. And I'll help alleviate that fear in any way I can.
G: (sigh) the galaxy doesn't deserve you, Sophia, they really don't.
S: They don't have all of me, they couldn't handle all of me.
G: Thank the Spirits for small mercies.
K: Right, moving on from the war, do you mind if we go over some personal things? Some readers' questions?
S: By all means ask, but there are things, private things I won't be able to answer.
K: This is a question from Zaan'Kaddi, aged 10, from the Quarian Flotilla: Do you have any pets?
S: I've got a hamster, Boo. I wanted to have a Varren but Garrus said no.
G: A Varren on a ship is a bad idea, after everything's over and done we can have as many Varrens as you'd like.
K: This is from Elathiana, aged 15, from Illium: Do you have any hobbies? How do you deal with stress?
S: I like building model ships and playing online. I also like to shoot things in the practice ring, keep my skills sharp you know?
G: Is Dalatrass Lincoln picture's still there? I liked shooting her.
S: Nah, had to take it out after we got a complaint.
K: Shooting a dalatrass? What happened?
S: It's a long boring story, it involved the Krogan and the Salarian and us playing mediators.
K: Speaking of Salarians, the next question if from Sheok, aged 7, from Sur'Kesh: What are your worse habits?
S: Well… I forget to eat sometimes, to the point where my food's all cold and I have to reheat it, and then I get lost in a report and the circle happens again and again until Garrus takes the pad off my hands.
K: Worst fear?
S: (sigh) losing my husband in the war, I have no idea what I would do without him.
G: The feeling's mutual.
K: Favourite position?
S: Captain of a ship (laughter) I guess we're done with the kid-questions?
K: Pretty much, any plans for kids in future?
S: Not really? Unless you count a Varren pup, but that's it. Human-Turian babies don't exist, different biology and all that.
G: Practice doesn't hurt.
S: (more laughter) no it doesn't.
As we wrap it up and they leave, I notice patrons who haven't stopped staring and a Turian girl rans up to both of them, they were too far away to hear anything, but it was something apparently good if the way the kid was beaming up to them was any indication. The Major doesn't really like kids, but she's remarkably good with them.
The General leads her away with a hand on her waist, tugging just a little bit closer. As I watch them leave and share a kiss as they wait for their skycar, I wonder who are the Generals that believed in her, because I certainly didn't and I would like to thank them personally.
I've known the Major for a few years, have observed her longer between interviews, have watched as she interacted with civilians and her crew alike, treating them as people, yet I've never seen her be happy until this interview. The fall of Thessia was a blow to all of us, most of all to those who were there and weren't able to help, to those who have seen the ocean of destruction the Reapers leave in their wake and can do nothing but fall to the tide.
To the soldiers who have seen it, who continue to fight, thank you.
Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani & The Westerlund News