A/N: Second chapter, praise the Machine God. Thank you, my reader and reviewer, for reading and reviewing. As a note for visual, or in this case audible, characterization; the Empire speaks Imperial Standard as a common language, and not English. Shameless and flagrant SW inspiration (rip-off?). At least they don't use Aurebesh. In my head canon, it sounds like Latin/English/Russian, in short, it is a strong language, not harsh, but strong to the ear. Interlingua and Occidental, including Latin sin flexione, and similar common languages inspired me too. Regarding measurements, I usually only use Metric in my life, so I think in Metric; while I understand the Imperial System, it is infinitely easier for me to use it. For those unaware, a feet is approx. 30cm, 100cm is a meter, so yeah. 1K meters is a Kilometer, and a parsec is about 3 LY if I'm not mistaken. I use it because it is a bigger unit of distance than light-year. Speaking about measurements, today we learn what men talk when alone and with tasty burgers in hand. Yes I have a thing for gourmet fast food.
Many hours later, out of nowhere, several streaks of light made themselves existent and then took the form of ships as they exited the inferno of plasma behind, ripping the fabric of reality to the whims of their commanders. The glare of Sigma-Tau Centauri shone immediately upon them as they jumped around STC-III's low orbit, meeting the yacht waiting for them. A secret operation, of course, news of first contact weren't even made public yet; neither was there any consensus if it would be made public at all.
On the Vindicator, Aris tensely walked along the empty halls only with her aide accompanying her. Said halls had been previously evacuated of any personnel to avoid any undesired and unnecessary contact between the species. Mayrithia Er'tan on the other hand was sure of herself, including her biotic abilities. She was the designated guard of the scientist turned diplomat, a powerful Asari commando right off the training course; novice, yes, but in her prime of both physical and mental state.
Their path had nothing especially worth of note, a random painting here and there, a small statue occasionally, or shrine, she wasn't sure. But they did not have the time to spare with frivolities and art amongst the sterile grey halls, she was here to ensure her lady's safety and she would die rather than fail. She had disposed the grey commando armor, walking instead with the black thermal bodysuit, clinging to her fit form and contrasting with her pastel complexion. Surprisingly, she was allowed to carry a single firearm with her, firearm that now rested on her thigh holster, moving back and forward as her legs elegantly strode through the corridors. But her weaponry made little difference, when her very body and blood were weaponized.
In antithesis to herself, her superior was of negligible usefulness in any sort of situation that might involve violence; Aris early on knew that she wanted to explore every planet and catalogue every different lifeform to exist in the galaxy. Goal that led her to the command of the Star Crescent, a state-of-the-art research vessel, built for any atmosphere and made to resist the most adverse in-planet weather, complete with sub-light scanners that could give a detailed scan of a continent in a matter of minutes. Unarmed, but able to outrun the most agile of the Citadel ships, and with the highest quality kinetic barriers a civilian vessel could field.
A goal which also led her to lead the most dangerous mission an Asari captain would execute yet. Not only did this venture into uncharted space could cause another war on the levels of the Rachni assaults on Citadel worlds, but it also could leave the Asari in the worst diplomatic position since the Krogan Rebellions. The other council members couldn't know that another relay was activated without their consent; they could not know that the Asari were breaking the very laws they originally motioned to be put in place; at least not now. Aris was surprised that the humans actually took time to decorate their ship insides, only if minimally. She was having the same butterflies in her stomach as she felt when going to a college assignment; even the mock up diplomatic meetings, or the xeno-biology presentations always left that feeling. Her clothing wasn't much special or revealing; a simple long-sleeved white shirt not much different from those she used in her everyday assignments or at home, only that now she discarded the lab coat, two gold and black stripes running down across her upper body and arms, and the usual skinny black pants. If she had even the minimal notion that she would be handling first contact she would have taken a dress along, but now wasn't the time to muse on what could have been.
Once reaching the indicated door, at the end of a wider corridor, Mayrithia questioned her superior "My Lady, are you ready? We can wait here some more minutes if you wish." Adjusting her clothing for any imperfection, she answered "No, thank you, we either succeed or we fail. And failure is not an option. I know I'm not specifically qualified to comment, but if you adopted a less aggressive stance, it would help me ease. Would you do that for me?" She asked, nervousness oozing off her speech pattern.
"As you wish, however, I'm here to protect you, despite the precarious situation." The commando answered while relaxing her pose. "I thank you for that." Taking a deep breath, she finished "Here we go." She approached the door, which opened in the familiar 'swoosh' of starship entrances. She was greeted by a meeting room decorated in crimson and dark grey, a small bar with several bottles behind the stone counter and dark couches on the corners, soft yellow lighting replacing the sterile white of the corridors, a well-crafted wooden table for twelve with a Human sitting on the far end, and very elegant feminine being sitting on his left; completely ignoring their presence, staring at the human with analyzing eyes. On the opposite end of the room there was no wall, but rather a glass panel giving a marvelous view of the planet below. On the left wall, a black banner with what she assumed to be a two-headed golden bird; wings wide open across the tapestry.
Not much more than seconds after they appeared, the man stood up and walked with class in their direction, clad in masculine black clothing with a white shirt of a design not so alien to the Asari ones beneath the jacket, an angled piece of cloth tied on his neck coming down and disappearing beneath the jacket. An enigmatic and solid gaze leaving his chestnut eyes directly to their own blue irises, and form fitting clothing; they were quick to look at his own eyes, looks which engulfed the new hard face and features in eager curiosity. The clearly styled patch of fur on his head, and on the lady's too, puzzling and intriguing them even more.
His next action, seemed erratic, but they assumed to be a human custom; he pulled a chair at her end of the table and waited, silent, looking straight into Aris's eyes. Quickly thinking, she bowed her head and moved forward to sit in the chair, as he adjusted the chair's position, and proceeding to the same on the chair to her right for Mayrithia, she too complying with the gesture.
When the human sat back at his original place, he suddenly spoke in a deep voice, maybe characteristic to his species "My name is Flavius Carter Alvarez, the woman beside me is Ayda Ylsel Miroslava." At the mention of her name, the woman finally acknowledged their existence, with a glare that made them feel, if anything, inadequate. "I am the representative of the Interstellar Aryan Empire, and she represents the Elysian Commonwealth."
At his words, she bowed once again and activated her Omni-tool, the holographic projection causing the Human to raise the patches of fur above his eyes; an expression she assumed to be of amusement and curiosity. As she begun to speak in High Thessian, the translator began to do its function in real time. "I'm glad that you received us in your ship, I very much liked the interior. My name is Aris T'relis, I'm an Exobiologist and Diplomat, and I'm in command of the Star Crescent. My guard is Mayrithia Er'tan. In the name of the Asari Republics, I wish for a prosperous relationship between our nations. The Goddess smiles upon this day."
"Your voice is delightfully beautiful, but do not invoke foreign gods in my presence…" Ayda gave a satisfied smirk towards him "…or within Imperial territory. Which leads to one of my questions, what is your purpose here?"
Impressed by the rudeness, and flattery, so early on the conversation, she answered "We are on a scientific endeavor, seeking new worlds for colonization on the behalf of the Asari Republics." She told the half-truth.
"That won't be possible I'm afraid; the entirety of the Orion Spur belongs to the Empire." Leaning back on his chair, he continued "But, tell me about you, your race, your government; I might even concede answers to your own questions…"
"The Asari Republics is the coalition of all the original republics that ruled over Thessia, our home planet; it has jurisdiction over more than a thousand and a half worlds. It has no central government, neither leader. Instead we rely on a shared responsibility over the course of action regarding our species through the means of a direct digital democracy, with our revered Matriarchs and Councilor having opinions that are held in the highest of esteem in the discussion circles, vote on the policies is universal to all those who have citizenship on the Republics, be the individual Asari or not. We're also part of a Galactic community, the Citadel Council, the council intermediates inter-species relations on the controlled council space. The council offers free opportunities for all, several different species have embassies at the Citadel, a deep space station, approximately housing 10 million citizens from different species that inhabit Citadel Space."
"A multi-species galactic union, how lovely; we are a semi-autocracy, ruled by His Highness, the Emperor, and the Imperial Senate from Terra, our homeworld. Only humans detain power of vote." As he talked, Ayda interrupted him, rising and gently placing a hand on his shoulder as she stood behind him. "The Elysian Commonwealth is the name the humans christened our 'government'. In fact, we are not a government, we are the conglomerate of the most-excellent Elysian companies that survived to the present age. Our society and the human is impossible to distinguish, as would be our species to the untrained eye."
"Pardon me, but I thought that you were a female of the human species? Am I incorrect?" Asked the confused diplomat.
"Why yes. The Elysian species hail from our homeworld Elysia, only 10 light-years away from the Imperial home system, in the Elánir system. You assessments are both correct and incorrect, we are a distinct species from the billions of men who inhabit the Empire, however, every human has an Elysian mother and every Elysian is fathered by a human, generation after generation, it is that way. One can say we have achieved perfect symbiosis. 'For you, I have captured the stars and bejeweled your body with them; for you, I bled the blood I did not possess, lost the life I did not live, but gained everything again.'" She looked down onto Flavius's head, after reciting the excerpt, gently applying a rather possessive pressure to his shoulder, and tracing a finger through his round ear. Taking the cue, he continued "But do not mistake yourselves, for reasons I did not learn in college, the DNA exchange by the inter-breeding is minimal, and the gene-pool has long been stabilized. And you? Are you mono-gendered, viviparous? Or do you replicate like the bacteria?" Ayda couldn't help but give a small, cruel, laugh.
"We are indeed a mono-gendered species, however our reproduction method is different from the galactic norm. We synchronize our neural systems with that of our partner and use their own genetic input to randomize one of our own set of genes, while the other is passed down to our offspring in its original form. While we do not take any genes from the father, we are capable of mating with any and every species and gender in existence. In such way, the offspring is always an Asari. We indeed are viviparous and our gestation period does not exceed a year." She left out the part about the speculated possibility of purely sexual reproduction, however, no suitable species has been found yet.
"So, you basically snatch potential reproductive individuals from a plethora of species while boosting your own numbers? Demographic replacement at its finest…How many years do you live?" Asked the Elysian.
"It's not viewed in such a light, but I can comprehend your reasoning. Our metabolism allows the Asari to reach an average of 800 to 1000 years in lifespan, going through three life stages. If may I ask, your…reproductive arrangement…confused me. Are you mono-gendered as well?"
"No. But that is not something that concerns you now. A millennia seems like a long time to live, don't you think? The average Elysian and Human lifetimes are usually 110 years with the medical advancements of today. Despite that, once the first sexual relationship is made, an Elysian is taken and bound for life." Returning to her chair "Which is not the case for Men. They can do as they please, only being bound by their sense of honor and duty." She said with frustration on her voice, looking now directly into his eyes.
"Don't be so sour, we are bound to you as well, 'till death do us apart', don't you know?" He stared back; checking his watch, he noticed that much time had already elapsed since his 'guests' had arrived. "It has indeed been a great meeting, I'm with all honesty impressed to find an advanced society so far away, and so early in Galactic history. And, once again, so alike to us in appearance. I have received orders to arrange a meeting between your Councilor and our higher ups. Is such a thing possible?" He rose to his feet, buttoning his jacket while reaching for the bar.
"Perfect! I shall communicate it back to her as soon as I can!" She said while she rose together with Mayrithia to their feet. They saw as the man produced out of behind the counter two rectangular cases, apparently soft to the touch.
"Here, this is a humble gift I had quickly prepared as soon as I heard I was the one meeting such beautiful ladies." They took the cases in their hands, feeling the fabric akin to velvet in their fingertips. Moving close to them he said "Here, let me help you." He opened the cases for them, revealing inside small golden colored collars with a geometrical shape hanging and black books with indistinguishable words on their hard covers.
"This is the most precious thing we can give you, the greatest achievement yet, Verbum Dei." Picking up the collars and linking them behind their necks, the small shapes hanging above their chests. First Mayrithia then the diplomat, which was quick to thank him.
"We are grateful for your consideration, while I do not understand the cultural concept behind your gift, I'm delighted to be worthy of them. I'm afraid however, that I cannot reciprocate your gesture, for we have come unprepared, pardon me." She declared while bowing together with her bodyguard.
"Think nothing of it, being able to give these to you is a gift in itself." He said with a sincere smile, as far as she could tell. Something extremely rare in politics and statecraft.
With a last bow, they departed towards their ship, every action and word replaying over an over inside their minds as they strode through the corridors.
Back at the meeting room, behind the sealed durasteel door, an argument made itself present.
"You'll just make we all look like fools giving those religious trinkets to them! Why do you men have to be such zealots?! You started one of your so called Crusades or whatever with the Tzynn and now this, what are you trying to do, convert them?" She fumed.
"And what do you suggest I give them? Shares of a state owned bank? Please Ayda, don't be jealous. You see thorns where there are only blossoms, I mean no harm."
"Blossoms, Flavius? You mean seducing them, right? You think I did not see the way you nearly fucked them with your eyes alone? I hope you men don't forget the Pact, if your words even meant anything that day at all; lest you give it all up at the first sight of some alien slut." She was teeming with rage.
"How could we forget? I'm not deserving of such contempt, you know that." Taking her hands into his own, he kissed her knuckles and said "I said, we said, that besides God, you're the only thing we'll ever have. We said it twice, and those times were under the watch of the Living God, whether you believe in Him or not. But we do, and we honor the vows and pacts we make before Him. He set us towards you and you towards us. You have nothing to fear, you can assure the Commonwealth of that." He achieved his objective, her glare had softened.
"Their military will probably be of no concern to your own, decentralized as they are. If anything they only possess a unified Navy, but multiple republics organizing a unified ground front? Impossible. The only problem would be the other members of such galactic Council. But you are stronger, you always are." She said in a much meeker tone than the previous enraged one, folding her arms turning her back to him as she moved towards the wall sized viewport.
"Against the Empire, there can be no victory. I'll go talk to the Captain, would you monitor their conversation for me?" Flavius asked.
"Sure, I'll make a report of the meeting too, but I don't have the Naval codes, neither the authorization, to send them to your military." She said, looking back to him and sitting down and producing a data pad from under the table.
"Don't worry, I'll be the messenger once again." With that, he left, the door opening and closing with a 'swoosh' as she stared into her tablet, quickly beginning to type on the touchscreen.
"What are those things they gifted us milady?" Asked Mayrithia as they made their way back to the Star Crescent, thought the Vindicator's corridors and turbolifts.
"I do not know, but it seems to be of great importance to them. They even offered us a book! Books are not used in Citadel Space since hundreds of years ago. These necklaces are simple, I wonder if they are a cultural thing too, way different than the collar she used."
"Jealous woman, did you see the way she looked at us, even going so far as to touch the diplomat. Do you think they are engaged in some manner?" Commented the bodyguard with audible annoyance in her tone.
"I doubt it, but I can understand her reasoning, they are both representations of their races and governments as we are to the Republics. And considering their symbiotic relationship, it would make sense to be possessive of the other species, considering we are competition." She said to the laugh of her companion "It is startling to find species that have evolved separately from us and yet show such similarities in morphology. These humans are indeed fine specimen; strong musculature, no exo-skeleton thank the Goddess, captivating eyes like ours, and an apparently rich culture, despite being fanatics on the level of the Hanar. Did you feel the brush of that skin? No analogue besides ourselves, and maybe the Quarians! Five fingers even!"
"Indeed, it sent me shivers across my back, there was even the faint wind from his breath on my neck. And that language, the penetrating tone, it reached clear across the room as if he was speaking to our faces. Unlike the human Captain, the diplomat's eyes devoured our forms; I've never felt so desired in my whole life." She said smiling from ear to ear.
"How do you think they look under these clothes? They sure look strong and well built, but a detailed image would be much better than our imagination." Said the scientist entering the turbolift, earning a giggle from her bodyguard.
"I'm eager to know. One thing is for certain, if their objective was to leave us on edge, they sure succeeded." She said as she was greeted with the sight of the hangar and their chromed ship. Once inside, Aris quickly called her boss through the QEC on the bridge. "Captain, what was the outcome?" Irissa wasted no time in questioning her subordinate.
"Better than the most optimistic prediction. They brokered for a meeting between you and one of their own leaders as soon as possible. From what I could learn, they are in symbiotic association with another sentient species the Elysians, and government, much like themselves but apparently with major and minor biological differences; in short, one of the races is the mother and another is the father, and apparently they give birth to themselves. It is like nothing we have seen yet, biologically speaking in terms of interspecies relationships. The humans are organized in an authoritarian parliamentary autocratic empire, a system of government we have yet to find an example outside of speculative political theory, or in the distant past of Thessia, they apparently are ruled by both an Emperor and a Senatorial body. Here, look at this pictures my Omni-tool took while inside the room." As the lighting inside the bridge diminished and the pictures were broadcasted both to the ship crew and to Irissa, Aris explained:
"This one you're looking at is a human, he heighted at around 1.80m tall, with straight legs like our own, the fur on the top of his head was trimmed and styled in what apparently is a fashion trend or cultural aspect, as you can see his eye color is non-existent in any known species from Citadel Space, from what we could assess from both the video contact, and from paintings inside the ship and themselves, they possess 5 of them: chestnut, blue, grey, green, yellow, and red, with shade variations inside those colors. Fur colors range from yellow-golden to the lighter and darker chestnut to bright red and occasionally black. That's a staggering level of genetic diversity inside their genome. I suspect they possess fur on their faces too, for the high-res image shows small pores with what I think are growing strands on his jaw connecting to the fur on the head, chin and in the space below his nose and above and around his mouth, but apparently they cut this patch clean. Five fingers in each hand with opposing thumbs together with nails, their fur extends to the back to their hands and fingers too, but considerably sparser than that on the top of their heads and above their eyes, possibly they have similar concentrations on their arms and chests too, as is common with mammalians. However, from some paintings we found on the way there and back to the ship, the concentration of such fur varies accordingly to each individual. They have two ears protruding out of their heads, a feature we have yet to find on any sentient species, not even the Quarians possess them. From what we were told, their government has total control of the Aurora Expanse, which they call 'Orion Spur'. The Omni-tool also indicated that they were levo-amino based. The individual in question demonstrated intense sexual interest towards both myself and my body guard, his eyes couldn't leave our form fitting suits. If I may give my input…" She blushed, with a small red hue contrasting with her aquamarine skin "…I was deeply flattered by his attentions, he was rather handsome individual, and had a smile that I'm sure would make every maiden in both the Citadel and the Republics melt." Irissa smirked 'That can be useful, perhaps.' She thought.
Flipping to the next image she continued "This one is an Elysian, they are the symbiotic species associated to the Humans, apparently females with very refined features and stature similar to ours. Slender build, with high-res imaging denoting similar skin texture as the humans and ourselves, elongated ears different from the round human ones; another difference is that we could not detect presence of fur neither on her jawline, neither on her arms or hands. It only made itself present on the upper head an above the eyes. Apparently, the additional eye shades on the humans came from their genome; due to their biological relationship with the human species they have an acute, and understandable,sense of possessiveness towards them, fact that was observed during the diplomatic meeting. Her eyes nearly fulminated us alive, and I'm pretty sure she would have prosecuted her thoughts if given the chance."
Pointing to the collar on her chest she said "The humans are very religious from what I could sense, and they gifted us with this jewelry and a book, for my star's sake. We have not produced books in centuries! Thankfully, they have provided us the digital templates and structures of their language, so uploading them to the new linguistic implants will be of no consequence, I think that two or three hours from now I'll already be fluent on both writing speaking and reading it. They have a distinct imperialistic attitude diplomatically speaking, similar to the Turians, it was more like an interrogation in which he fancied to answer my own questions."
"Well, that is to be expected, we violated their territory after all. And Citadel's laws in the process too. So we are not free of guilt, at least no one was shot dead. I'm heading to Tuchanka as we speak, if we could rendezvous on Relay 314 it would be excellent, can you arrange that for me?" She gave the implicit order.
"Yes, my lady, at once."
Flavius sat beside Erwin as they both shared a meal in the officer's dining room, napkins on their laps protecting from any spill as they devoured their burgers and fries or drank their sodas, or in Flavius's case, a banana-strawberry smoothie.
With the mouth still a bit full, he begun to talk to Erwin "This meat is great, I love the Navy chefs. Say friend, what you thought of them?" And then gulped more drink.
Wiping his mouth with the piece of fabric, he answered "I tell you, this doesn't looks well at all. First they show up from God knows where, probably using that awful looking station as leverage. Then, they turn out to be a bunch of blue women, I mean, what the fuck? Meeting the Elysians, if I remember my history classes, already defied every mathematical prediction we had, we did not even know that there was a habitable world in the Centauri system. All the other contacts were fine and sort of normal, as normal as meeting aliens can be. But then we do it again, and this time is the same shit as last time, all smiles and pleasantries. And what do we do instead of shooting on sight? Accept them inside my ship to have a little meet and greet. Next thing we know we all die of xeno-virus or they invoke some demon or something inside my vessel and it rampages through the hangar. Who knows? They might even be actually doing some satanic ritual inside that science corvette of theirs." He sulked further into his seat.
"Ahahahahahahahaha, Jesus, man. Relax a bit, they're not some band of cultists or anything. They are quite hot tough, did you see that soldier?" Another bite.
"That's for sure! By the Lord above, I mean, both of them had C-cups! One in a thousand Elysians reach C-cups, they all fall into the B's we all know so well!" A handful of fries.
"Now, one thing we've got to hand to the Elysians, they can handle the full brunt. One may look at their forms and think that they would break, but oh boy."
"Oh hell yeah they can, my wife just had our third son some months ago, before we got deployed. I saw how the other representative reacted through the camera, she almost ripped you alive. I wonder how the Empress will react herself."
"Damn right, I'm not the only one to receive this treatment, that's certain. They actually believed I'm a diplomat…" At this point the both had finished their lunches and had lit cigarettes.
"For real? I thought they would get it, why have a diplomatic service when we can just send Imperial Intelligence officers? I mean that's obvious. You're from the Main Intelligence Directorate or Federal Security Bureau?" He asked to the undercover agent.
"MID, when in relation to foreign threats and nation-states we're the ones to go, we also supply both the Army and Navy with critical intelligence. The FSB only operates in domestic surveillance and counter intelligence. Did you know that the Royal Guard is subject to them? Sons of bitches actually have a higher budget than us…"
"I personally can't complain about our budget, the tachyon lances alone are 4 billion credits each."
"Speaking about budget. Can you believe her outfit cost more than 200 grand?"
"You're shitting me. No fucking way…" Captain Erwin would continue his line if he wasn't interrupted by his Communications Lieutenant's voice through the room speaker.
"Captain, Mr. Flavius, the aliens are inviting you two to visit their ship, their Councilor or whatever wants to speak with the you. I guess you two are in for a ride." Andrews warned them.
"Tell them we'll go, the whole operation is under my lead anyway, he doesn't need authorization from Command." Flavius said, as he got up.
"Another 20 pages to my weekly report, fuck me…" Erwin muttered as they left the dining room.
A/N: Thanks for reading! And thanks to all of you who fav/followed too.
