"Admiral Nagato, good to see you made it. Shall we board?"
Henry had never heard a turian voice before. At least one that wasn't dying or growling. It's...weird, like they have two voices. His thoughts were interrupted by Lisa's voice,
"Of course General Severus, you and your men are always welcome aboard my ship."
"Thank you admiral."
The transmission ended and Henry watched as the ship came to a halt next to the Aurora. He looked out the bridge window and saw the other vessel attaching a walkway from their ship to the decontamination chamber.
"Henry." Lisa motioned him to follow her to the bridge where the turians could be greeted when they entered. "Remember these guys are friendly, not armed, and are my guests aboard this ship. There is no need to be hostile towards them."
"Of course, admiral!" he stood up straighter.
"Good I expect nothing but the finest from my crew," she said, her eyes on the decontamination chamber waiting for it to open.
Henry stood there anxious for the doors to unlock. Should I salute? Lisa called him general, that's the same rank as me. I will.
The decontamination chamber hissed opening up and revealed five fully armored turians. Henry suddenly felt very naked without his ownarmor on. As they walked out he saluted them; he noticed Lisa didn't and almost felt foolish for doing it but then he saw that she gave him a slight nod as she took a step forward to greet her guests.
"General Severus! Commander Thodosius! It's been too long!" Lisa hugged both turians and shook the hands of the three others.
Seeing a human and a turian hugging and shaking hands really is something to see.
Henry reached his hand out to the turian and introduced himself. "General Severus, I'm General Payne, second in command on the Aurora."
The turian general grabbed Henry's hand. It felt weird shaking onewith three fingers.
"Ah yes general. I'm glad Lisa recruited you; I've heard and read much about you. You're a good soldier and a better leader."
"How do you know about me? If you don't mind me asking," I have no idea how to talk to a turian, I don't want to be rude to the admiral's guests.
"The turian military tries to keep tabs on high ranking officers that go on ground. You know, to try and kill them at a disadvantage."
"I had no idea that your military kept tabs on officers."
"Yes. Well shall we continue this conversation later? I have much catching up to do with the admiral."
"Yes excuse me general; I'll be down on the crew deck if needed." Henry walked down to the crew deck to finally get some sleep.
XXXXX
Henry woke several hours later on a small cot in the crew quarters, feeling well rested. The room was small and kept dark so anyone on the night cycle could sleep during the day cycle. Staring at the ceiling, Henry needed a moment to recollect exactly where he was and what kind of mission he was on. He walked out of the room and into the mess hall to find four of the five turians sitting around the table. When he first saw them his heart rate jumped and his muscles tightened, ready to react. He quickly got his emotions under control, remembering who they were, he stood up taller as he walked past them to the fridge. He didn't know what to say to them or if he should say anything at all. After finding something halfway decent for ship rations he went to the table and sat down next to one of them and started to eat his dehydrated meal. The turians seemed to be completely at ease with his presence, which only made Henry more uncomfortable. He tried to make his body seem less rigid while he ate his food
Halfway through his meal he decided to be done with his powdered eggs and tried to make small talk.
"So, gentlemen what do we do on these missions? We're out here for a few months I guess, what about you guys?" Henry tried to seem as calm as he could be while talking. Two days ago he would have never thought he'd be trying to have a conversation with a turian. Finally the darkest turian with white markings on his face spoke up after a few awkward seconds.
"We are here for as long as we need to be. General Severus has not given us exact dates or any sort of debriefing. "
"Where is the general?"
"He is with the admiral, they wish to not be disturbed."
"Are they in the conference room?"
"No the general and admiral are in their quarters."
"Are they having a meeting?"
"No."
Every damn answer to a question I have only leads to more questions. I'm done asking.
With that he got up from the table disposed of his trash and walked up to the bridge to try and figure out what the hell was going on this damn ship.
XXXXX
After what felt like hours of doing nothing he was finally asked to meet the admiral in the conference room. He ran up the stairs from the crew deck to the back of the CIC and walked in on the admiral, general and the turian commander.
"General Payne, we need to debrief you on your mission," the admiral spoke to him with excitement in her voice.
"It's about time. I was starting to feel myself go crazy."
Severus chuckled at that and said, "Oh don't worry you'll have plenty of time to go crazy coming up."Despite the fact it was obviously a joke, Henry did not like the sound of that.
"What do you mean, sir?"
Rather than Severus answering him Lisa stepped in, "I need you to learn how to live with turians to see that they are not so different from us after all. If you can see it and prove me right, then I have no doubt that the Alliance will believe you."
"So that's why we're out here for a few months? So I can train my speech skills? Learn the way of turians and their culture? Military?"
"Exactly Henry, hopefully they will listen to you."
"If not, if this plan doesn't work," Severus added "and I'm sure it won't, at least not right away, someone in the Hierarchy wants the turian Councilor eliminated. He's very pro-war. He won't end this until humanity is crushed underneath the heels of the turians;and let's face it after 20 plus years of fighting no one is falling anytime soon"
"What happens if the Councilor is killed?" Henry wasn't exactly comfortable talking about high treason.
Is it still treason since we're not a council race?
"The next in line would step in of course. The turian Councilor is holding back the asari and salarian Councilors from stepping in and forcing a peace treaty. The one to be in line next is on our side. Whether or not this plan works in the time the Councilor is taken out doesn't matter."
Henry could hardly believe this guy. He was so sure that this plan would fail, hell even he had to admit it was quite long shot but he hadn't said no. And Henry loved a challenge.
"Well I'm doing this. This war needs to end soon. Learning all of this now could come into some use in the future after the war if we join the Council."
Severus' mandibles fluttered away from his mouth showing offhis teeth. "Of course it would come in handy general, you will help ease tensions between the two species. I'm glad to see you accept. Now that you have though, my boss, the one that provides me with all my resources and information to give to Lisa, he has a post-warplan. I personallythink it's brilliant and so do the other Hierarchy members."
"Your boss is really ahead of the game isn't he?" Henry joked.
"This is not a game to the Hierarchy, General Payne,Severusansweredin a stern tone of voice. These are lives of men and women of both species. One thing you should know about turians is that we put the good of the people before ourselves."
"That's admirable." Henry admitted.
"You have a lot to learn General," Severus stood and walked to stand in front of Lisa, "we should tell him the Hierarchy'splan."
Lisa looked to Henry. "I agree. General, you remember how I said I was giving human intel to the turians?"
"Of course admiral, it was only yesterday."
Severus spoke up, "The Hierarchy wants turian families to raise humans and for humans to raise turians."
What. The. Fuck?
That was all Henry could think. "No one's going to willingly give their child away to be raised by turians, and no one is going to want to raise a turian!"
"Henry is right about both of those. I know how to solve the human problem, we'll just use orphans," Lisa said. "But humans care too much about what others think to raise a turian. Not to mention with the whole colony mentality, no sane turian will let a child go off with humans"
Severus crossed his arms and seemed to think about what she had just said. "You're right about both humans not wanting turians and my people certainly wouldn't think it'd be better, but I don't want an orphan human."He looked Lisa in eyes as he continued, "We need someone to volunteer their child at a young age."
Lisa thought about who she knew who would put the betterment of humanity before themselves. She couldn't think of any human besides herself and her sister. "How young do you need the child?"
"Young enough to not remember their human life but old enough to already know the basics in life, sonot a newborn. I'm not sure what age that is but-" he was cut off by Lisa, "So about five or six years old. I know someone with a child, she's three now. A fellow Marine. She's already lost her husband and she is still on active duty. I don't know who looks after the child but I know she would give her daughter up for the good of humanity."
"That's perfect then. We have to get this planned out, I must go aboard my ship and send a message to my boss about this, and I'll be back."
As Severus walked out, Commander Thodosius followed behind. After they left, Henry asked Lisa, "How do you know this person is going to just willingly give up their child?"
"Because she is my sister. She's not the mothering type. She'd rather be off on some mission than be stuck with her own flesh and blood."
"You said she was active duty? What's their name?"
"Shepard."
When Henry heard the name his heart dropped.
Adam Shepard had been his friend and in his unit for an infiltration mission. He was one of the best damn engineers he knew and worked with. The mission was simple enough: go down ground side, plant some bombs around and inside a turian base. He had sent his two best soldiers inside the base to plant them: Adam and Steve Kenney. Steve was an infiltrator by trade so naturally he was to go. After the teams set the bombs on the outside, they sent a ping to the other two to let them know everything was good to go outside. As fast as he sent that message one came in response: Kenney is dead. Holding off. Get to the ships. I'm setting the bombs. GO!
He told the rest of the squad to get to the shuttles and take off in time to feel nothing butthe blast of the explosion.
"So first we take her husband from her and now her child?"
Henry couldn't help but feel guilty about Adam. Not only was he an exceptional solider and a good friend but it was Henry who delivered the news to his wife.
"She would be grateful." Lisa walked out of the room but before she got too far she stuck her head back in, "there are three turians on the crew deck! You better start your training!"
XXXXX
Lisa walked down to her quarters and sat at her terminal against the far wall thinking of what she could say to her sister. She didn't even know where or who had her niece. If this was going to happen she needed to make sure she went to a good military family. She and Severus didn't share the rest of the Hierarchy's plans with Henry, no reason to, they didn't affect him. If her sister agreed to the arrangement that meant her niece's future would be planned out for her, without her knowing. Granted it would be all for the best. Best for humanity. She would be raised by a turian family, join the turian military, and become the first human Spectre and she would gladly because of her turian upbringing. The more Lisa thought about it, the more sure she was of this plan. She was hopeful about Henry helping her but that was a plan from over a year ago. This plan was new and she wanted it cemented in.
It would be a wonderful life for her niece; sure she would have hardships and face discrimination and have to prove herself 10 times. A lot would be expected of her, from the Alliance and the turians. She wouldn't know about any of it though, to her she'd be a normal girl. Well as normal as a human could get being raised by turians.
Lisa was still sitting at her terminal when Severus returned to her quarters. She didn't know how long she had been staring at her screen. He walked a few steps into the small room and announced, "The Hierarchy wants to go through with the plan. By this time next year the turians will have a new Council representative. Hopefully the war will be over soon." She looked up at him to smile as he walked over to her. "What are you doing?"
"I was going to send a message to my sister. Ask her to meet me somewhere to talk once we are done here."
Lisa was no expert on turian facial expressions but the way Severus' mandibles twitched and his eye widened she took it as surprise. This was new information he hadn't known about her. "You have a sister? What do you need to talk about?"
She smiled at him, "Yeah I do, she's older by a couple years, she's a fleet admiral as well. Currently serving on the SSV Athens. If we want her to willingly give us her child, that's something that needs to be discussed in person."
Severus' mandibles went slack at this new data "You're going to ask your sister togive up her daughter, how are you going to explain that? How do you ask her for this?"
"I don't know how I would explain it. I guess just give her all the information she wanted to know, if she even would want to know. I don't think she would refuse, she would know it would better humanity; her daughter will be the first human Spectre. Sure she won't remember her mother but that's the price to pay. She knows that. She instilled that in me. We grew up alone, just us two. Sometimes sacrifices must be made to survive. We joined the military when I turned 18 and after basic we never really saw each other again." Lisa smiled at him and pulled his face down to put her forehead to his. "What else did the Hierarchy say?"
"Well, to continue the general's training in turian culture or whatever they are calling it over there; they are going to give you something to report back to the Alliance in a few weeks. Whenever we depart the system the Hierarchy will give the order to kill the Councilor. Once he's dead things will move much faster."
"How will we know when Payne's training is done? This isn't something you can test or hone like a skill. These are feelings and emotions."
"You will sit and talk to him. Ask him how he feels towards turians, humans killing turians, the war, anything. The Hierarchy is going to trust your judgment on that. When you're ready to set things in motion the Hierarchy is ready."
I would like to thank The Outlander for all the hard work beat-ing this chapter and Thanks for reading!
