"Hm, the view from this place is even better than the view the Speaker must have," Udina said. "Again, I must thank you for your invitation."

He currently sat in a VIP guest lounge of the Alliance Parliament. It was very similar to a theatre box: A small room where he was in private together with his associates, located right beneath the ceiling and slightly looming over the parliament's backbenches. All sides facing the parliament hall were glass, so the view was indeed fantastic. One could see nearly every single MP.

"Oh, no need to thank us, Mr Udina," the other man at the table answered. "We're all allies here."

That much was true, but Udina still felt the need to show gratitude. He had no delusions about his current standing. After he had lost his position on the Citadel to that senile old woman Goyle, due to that treacherous dog Shepard, he could at most serve as a pawn in the political games of others. So it was quite an honour indeed to be invited personally by Rakesh Kaushik, the CEO of Hoshichiri Heavy Industries. The mining and manufacturing company was the second largest corporation in the colonies behind Eldfell-Ashland, and heavily involved in the ongoing tensions. Rumour had it they were currently troubled with a series of heavy problems in their data networks, but Udina was sure that was nothing they could not handle.

Besides Kaushik and him, there were two other people present: Sano Katone, the chairwoman of the Alliance Chamber of Colonial Commerce, and Marie Garot, the CEO of 'Future Development Visions', a lobbying firm in the EU. Europe was currently the politically most troublesome Earth nation for her clients and she had cleverly used that fact to gain quite a measure of influence. The ACCC, meanwhile, represented nearly all major companies with a presence in the colonies, including Hoshichiri, but also dozens of others.

"Look at them," Sano said with distaste. "Only blabbering all day long. All talk and no action."

As a successful cut throat businesswoman, she had to know that any public parliament sessions were just showmanship anyway, and that all real decisions were made in the various committees and subcommittees. Udina could understand her frustration, though, given the current situation.

"Three colonies now, which are in the hand of traitors," Sano went on heatedly. "Three of our four most important colonies, too."

It had taken some time, but finally Eden Prime had joined in with their political allies on Terra Nova and Elysium and had declared non-compliance, too. Of the three worlds, Eden Prime was still the most moderate and sensible one, the most careful one and the one which would ideally have liked to avoid any extreme measures. However, after the other two colonies had taken the lead, the planet had been forced to either side with them or return to the loyal fold, and given that choice they had decided on the former.

Sano continued: "And does the government send in the Navy? No, they talk."

A pipe dream. As much as it frustrated Udina himself, using military violence in the situation was virtually unthinkable. The electorate would not support it, and even most politicians outside the far right would not support it. Of course the Alliance government would try deescalation and negotiations first, like any civilized government. Contrary to what the dissident colonies thought, the Alliance was not the villain.

It was Garot who put Udina's thoughts into words and into a more pragmatic formulation: "We're all frustrated by this, but you know very well it isn't that easy. Elections are in three months[1], and all of our PR campaigns couldn't hold up the current government if they start a civil war."

Sano and Kaushik shifted uncomfortably at the mention of that term. It was somewhat of an exaggeration: A campaign in the colonies would not be an Alliance wide civil war. Most likely it would be over in a matter of a few weeks. It still was a complete impossibility, though. The mind boggled at the very prospect of Alliance marines trying to conquer Alliance colonies by force. No, that won't happen. The infuriating thing was how things had gotten so bad in the first place.

"So we're currently not even able to reign in secessionist colonies," Udina hence concluded. "And all that because of Shepard."

"Shepard, his creature Goyle and those sell-out quislings in Europe" Sano agreed. "And only one of them is dead so far."

"They hate their own race," Kaushik commented. There was no real rancor in his voice; instead he cultivated an aura of academic analysis. "That's why they do it. Their cult of individualism, which they want to force on everybody else, cannot stand any notions of racial greatness or human potential. They're fascists who want to impose their worldview on everybody else."

Sano shook her head. "They're just jealous, that's all there is to it. We're talking about those people here who've never been successful, whether in business or politics. They don't work hard enough; they don't have the right talents, whatever. They see that others have success and want to bring them down. If that also brings down the Alliance and humanity, well, they just don't care."

Garot smirked at those comments. It was a condescending smirk that clearly telegraphed that she did not agree with what had been said. However, she kept silent, and so did Udina. He did not really care about the motivations of those people. They were the enemy, and that was enough for him to know. An internal enemy potentially more dangerous than any external enemies the Alliance ever had.

"After the First Contact War, humanity stood united, free of petty internal squabbles, and ready to take on the galaxy," Kaushik said. "Since then, values have degraded. Be it by contact with the aliens, especially those decadent asari, liberal academia, or subversive elements in our media, fact is human society has been decaying ever since the end of the war. They don't remember the values anymore which have made humanity great. Values of self-reliance, sacrifice and freedom." He paused and grimaced. "And now it has come to this". He pointed to the plenary hall below him.

Udina recognized the man currently speaking. Claudius Schuhmann, the government's spokesman.

"For all those reasons, the Alliance Government stands by its de-escalation policy," Schuhmann was saying. "We do not wish conflict with our own colonies and not only do we believe a peaceful solution is possible, in fact we're working on it right now. Even a peaceful stand-off would still be better than any further escalation of the situation. The Alliance Government will restore human unity, but the only way to do that is to keep and maintain human peace."

"Pathetic!" Kaushik commented. "Politically understandable, but still pathetic."

"What next?" Sano asked rhetorically. "This weak government wants to apologize for the Alliance. Apologize!"

This time, Garot rolled her eyes, but still kept quiet.

Below him, Udina could see unrest in parliament about Steiner's words. Especially the benches to the right side of the Speaker got ever more agitated, while MPs on the far left began to shout back at them.

"There certainly is no order anymore in the Alliance," he commented. "Not even here."

Garot shrugged. "Really, I have to ask, what have you all expected? We've all known the Alliance government will be a lame duck until the elections. Of course they won't do anything, that isn't news. What's much more problematic is the European Union."

"True," Kaushik commented. His grimace betrayed that he did not really feel that way.

"They've sent a delegate to make some announcement," Garot continued, "and the problem is we have no idea what it will be. Normally the government would never do something apparently major without consulting one of the firms."

"So in your opinion, the EU government currently represents the most dangerous situation?" Udina asked.

"Well, not as much as the non-compliant colonial governments," Garot answered, "but here on Earth... the problem is the sudden popularity their government coalition has. Before Shepard's revelations it was as good as dead. Mostly because the economic development lagged behind the other Earth nations." She paused. Udina knew what she was just leaving out: That the large corporations, who had not been amicable to the centre-left government from the beginning, had not been entirely faultless at this. "So none of the parties wanted to risk recall elections under any circumstances. They'd have lost, badly. So when Shepard committed his betrayal, that made it easier for the two smallest, most extreme parties in the coalition to blackmail the rest. They would have gone into the opposition if need be. Idealist fools."

"I don't think one can call supporting treason idealistic," Kaushik commented.

Garot shrugged again. "Call it what you want. Fact is, surprisingly, that policy of supporting Shepard's revelations became widely popular in Europe. Who doesn't want to be on the side of justice, blah blah. And besides it was a good way for them to contrast themselves against the neighbouring Russians and Arabs, who both condemned Shepard. And seeing how popular the policy is, the European government now pushes it forward with all of its power."

Udina thought the explanation for the popularity of the government course was much simpler. Shepard's actions had a high level of support in all of the more developed Earth nations, including North America and China. It was only due to government opposition and different traditions of patriotism in those countries that they had ended up so divided on the issue. As far as he was concerned, the spoiled societies of the Big Three nations had descended into decadence.

Kaushik shook his head. "Can't they understand? How they hurt humanity? For a patriot the most important duty is always to think of humanity first."

Udina would not have formulated it so melodramatically, but the Hoshichiri CEO had a point. Whatever one's thoughts were on what had happened back on Gagarin Station, Shepard's revelations and all these protests had no other effect than hurting the Alliance. In fact, in his opinion, BAaT had been fully justified, even its more extreme measures. Getting working biotics had been an important part in establishing humanity on the galactic scene. Surely that consideration had to override anything else.

"They don't understand in fact," he answered. "What do they think we should have done in the 60s? How else do they think we should have harnessed biotic power without selling ourselves out to the Council?

Sano nodded. Then she turned to Garot and asked: "So they don't really believe in that stuff? The European government, I mean."

"Those two smaller parties sure do," Garot answered, "as for the rest - well, until some months ago they were happily taking our clients' money. Now they've probably figured that their populism will help them get more votes than that money ever could. The worst thing is they're probably right about that. It's just opportunism, nothing more."

"What about those two smaller parties?" Sano asked. "Surely it's common policy to spread party donations wide and far."

"Sure," Garot confirmed, "and they've gotten money from our clients, too. But not as much. Party donations are an investment; you'll spend the most on those parties where you can expect the highest returns. And that's not far left parties. You only want to make them consider it twice before going against you, you don't actually want them to win elections. Unfortunately, Shepard's revelations were so outrageous to them that they ended up not thinking twice about it."

"I see," Sano answered. "And speaking of the devil, the delegate from Europe has the podium."

The Earth nations were officially fully sovereign and independent, but on the other hand financed nearly the entirety of the Alliance budget with their contributions[2]. For that reason, their governments had the right to speak in the Alliance Parliament, either in personal addresses by their heads of state or government, or in the form of delegates.

The delegate the EU had sent was was a smallish, black-skinned woman, who now began to address the Alliance Parliament: "Mrs Speaker, esteemed Members of Parliament, honourable fellow guests. The government of the European Union is watching the current crisis with great sorrow and concern. Most of all, we fear a further escalation of the situation, and while we appreciate the Alliance's efforts to prevent that, we've decided to take own measures in this regard. We respect the Alliance government's commitment to peace, and we have no doubt about its genuineness, but we fear that not all humans share it. To be entirely frank, the European Union cannot exclude the possibility of the Alliance government changing its currents course under outside pressure, and this prospect is entirely unacceptable to us. We pay for a large part of the Alliance's budget[2], and we will not see this money going to, in the worst of all cases, war."

Mentioning this unthinkable word caused a flurry of excited or even angry chatter in the plenary hall. Unperturbed, the European delegate continued: "The government of the European Union has committed itself to do everything in its power to prevent this worst case scenario from happening, or at least decrease its likelihood as best we can. This includes some quite drastic measures, but we feel the threat of inner-human conflict looming above us all justifies that and more. What we need now is more than just words; we need rather active peacekeeping. Therefore, the European Union will do just that: Deploying peacekeepers. Starting today, with the agreement of the respective colonial governments, the 4th, 10th and 13th divisions of the European Union Armed Forces will be moved to Terra Nova, Eden Prime and Elysium, respectively."

The uproar from the parliament benches was deafening.

"What?" Kaushik shouted, while Sano muttered: "They can't be serious."

Speaking above the unrest in the plenary hall, the European delegate went on: "We're fully aware that this is an extraordinary step, and we also understand that any troop movements in these heated times might raise further fears. The European Union wants to stress that we have absolutely no aggressive intentions whatsoever, and that this step is purely for peacekeeping. Nonetheless, should any of those planets come under attack, by whatever forces, they will help to repel it."

A loud shout rang through the plenary hall: "Traitor!" A plastic cup was thrown and missed the delegate by some mere centimetres.

She winced in reaction but then resumed her speech undaunted: "However, we hope that it shall never come to that. The primary aim of those troops, their instrument of peacekeeping, shall be deterrence. This means..."

A further hail of plastic cups, pencils and other stuff began to hit her. Somebody on the far left side of the parliament shouted: "Leave her alone!" Several people from that side walked up to the podium and formed a barrier around the delegate.

The Speaker shouted: "Order, order!" but nobody seemed to listen to her. The European delegate simply went on speaking, but she seemed to finally have lost her composure. Now she shouted and sounded aggressive and threatening: "This mean we do not actually plan for them to fight, but... but listen to me! It does mean we'll see any strike against our forces as an act of war! We seriously hope that anybody in the Alliance thinking about attacking the colonies will think twice abou..."

MPs from the far-right benches came charging towards her. The Parliament members who had surrounded the podium were facing them. As soon as the two groups had reached each others, fists began to fly. A brawl began to form, which soon drew ever more MPs into it. Soon, boxing fights erupted even on the benches.

"We should best leave," Kaushik said coolly.

The others nodded and left the lounge. As they were outside, in a corridor, Garot lamented: "This is a disaster! How have they've been able to keep this hidden from us? I tell you, heads will roll!"

"It's a disaster for humanity!" Sano shouted. She sounded incredulous that Garot would think about her own firm first.

"Oh stop it," Garot shouted back. Distressed as she was, her suave façade cracked. "All your talk about humanity, you really mean that, don't you? What perfect self-delusion. Let me tell you how it really is: We need to defend our privileged positions. It's anarchists like Shepard who want to do away with that and throw us all into chaos."

Sano seemed to boil, but before she could answer, Kaushik intervened: "Please. You two make a false dichotomy anyway. We are humanity. It's been due to us that humanity has reached the place it currently has. Due to us, our parents or our ancestors. What you call privileged positions, Ms Garot, is just the fruit of our labour, including yours. So we're damn justified in defending that against Shepard and, as you so rightly call them, anarchists."

Garot seemed to have composed herself again. "A very elegant formulation. You're right, of course. And what are those secessions if not signs of disorder and anarchy. Those, and a brawl in the Alliance Parliament. A brawl in the Alliance Parliament! Everything's going to hell."

"True," Kaushik agreed. "Though we should acknowledge that some of the MPs only acted out of very understandable and even justified patriotic anger." He looked to Sano and said: "Maybe we should push the schedule ahead."

Udina had no idea what he was talking about. The two women seemed to be in the know, though. Sano looked surprised and asked: "With the Europeans now on those planets?"

"One more reason," Kaushik insisted. "Before they have fully established themselves. There are still patriots in the Alliance. The Navy especially remains a bastion of rightful patriotic sentiment. The Alliance Government would sell them out, would sell out everything the Navy has fought for, everything its brave soldiers have died for. Luckily, some of them realize that."

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The view from the bridge was fantastic. Tisiphone had never seen anything like it in her life. There were lights piercing through the blackness of space, lights everywhere as far as the eye could see, as if some god suddenly had installed thousands of new stars. And this was merely the backdrop; the lights of the ships further away. Close up Tisiphone could see them more clearly: Ships in all sizes, in all shapes, from all races and regions of the galaxy. A dazzling array of ship types, a mind boggling armada of vessels.

Tisiphone marvelled at how elegant most of them looked. She knew most of them were ridiculously old, that some of them had seen centuries pass by, and that all of them had been retrofitted several times. Yet, most of them looked oddly sleek, full of graceful curves or with shapes that seemed more aesthetically pleasing than useful. Beyond the surface, the Migrant Fleet was just a travelling nomad camp, but it looked like so much more.

That was where they had arrived: The Migrant Fleet. The ship she and her group - or rather the ship Tali had captured, had already reached the outskirts of it hours ago and was now finally approaching the bigger ships in the centre. Seeing them was almost enough compensation for the fights Tisiphone had had to endure to get there. Almost.

On reflection, the losses were still too grave. We got Gillian out, but... They had lost one group member in the firefight on Grissom Station. Marc Lee, a young L3 biotic. He had joined Kyle's groups and later Tisiphone's activities because his ultrareligious family had shunned him ever since his biotic potential had been discovered. They had sent him to Grissom Academy, of course, as good patriotic Alliance citizens. And then they had tried to keep him away from them as much as possible. Marc had felt all alone in the world, before picking up one of Kyle's calls on the extranet. He had felt enraged when he had seen his fate repeated over and over in other biotics, and even considerably worse in the BAaT survivors. That was why he had periodically joined in Tisiphone's activities. And now he was dead.

Two more group members had been heavily injured, but were gradually healing, with a good outlook. Not that anybody in the group had any serious medical training, but the ship's medical diagnostic electronics had proven to be quite good. Fortunately, the systems were optimistic about both cases. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about Tali. All medical electronics and programs aboard had been designed with human patients in mind, and hence had not worked on her. Worse, due to her different amino chirality, all medicine aboard was useless. She had her own reserve of medicine with her, but using it up had been all the medical help she had gotten. It had taken just a few days to reach the Flotilla, but in that time, she had developed a heavy fever and had drifted in and out of consciousness a few times. Things were not looking good.

Luckily, Tali had been awake and lucid enough to send a code to Fleet Command, verifying that it was indeed her returning and not some hostile ship. That 'code' had in fact been a very poetic phrase, but amidst Tali's coughs and groans it had lost all elegance. Tisiphone was really worried about her. It was quite possible her group had only won the battle on Grissom Station due to the quarian. She hence owed her life to Tali. Yet it seemed Tali's own life was dangling on a very thin string.

At the moment, Yong was initiating a docking manoeuvre with a larger ship. The biotic pilot had done a fantastic job with the captured ship, and he too was paying a price. He had rarely slept in recent days, and had in fact been sitting in the pilot's chair most of the time. He had truly become the Golden Dog's master. And what a name, too. Tali had not been able to realize it, being unfamiliar with human mythology and Earth biology, but the ship bore the reference to Cerberus already in its name.

The ship at her side dwarfed the Dog, though: The heavy cruiser Neema, Tali's home ship. She was not quite as big that the Dog could have fit into her docking bays, but there was no doubt she had several times the mass of the smaller vessel. Its facade, full of lights and mighty looking structures, began to fill out the view from the bridge. To Tisiphone, massive feats of engineering were nothing new. She had been imprisoned on a space station for several years after all. And yet, she still found the Neema's broadside to be an amazing view.

The docking manoeuvre came to a conclusion. The Golden Dog was now connected to the Neema, hanging on to the larger ship like a sloppy extension of it. Tisiphone watched the sensors. The Dog's sterilization chamber had been activated; the quarians must have entered the vessel. Good thing, too. I can hardly wait to give Tali and this ship to them, hand over responsibility and...

By instinct she swirled around. Quarians stormed onto the bridge, weapons drawn. They occupied tactical positions around them, and kept their guns up. Tisiphone knew the quarians were supposed on their side, that at the very least they were not an enemy. Nonetheless, when she saw them charging in, she drew her own weapon. She saw that some other biotics had also managed to do so before the quarians were properly positioned. Others had not, and now hesitated to do so with armed quarians all around.

"What's going on here?" Tisiphone shouted. She took aim at the quarian next to her, a man in a bright red envirosuit. "What's the meaning of this?"

The quarian returned the hostile gesture, but his answer was polite, if stiff: "Migrant Fleet Marines, ma'am. We've been ordered to secure this vessel. And that's what we're going to do."

"You can have this ship," Tisiphone replied aggressively. "There's no reason to threaten us!"

"We're sorry, ma'am," the quarian continued, "but we have to take you and the other humans into custody. Until we've completely cleared your background, we have to treat you as a potential security risk to the Migrant Fleet."

"Custody?" Tisiphone spat out. So much for the Flotilla being a safe haven for us. Tisiphone was sure Tali could have solved this problem with her people within seconds, but unfortunately the engineer was in the ship's small medbay again, and not in a good state. Damn, we're wasting our time here.

"That's how it starts," another biotic cut in. "They take you into custody. And then, what are you gonna do?" Farooq, another BAaT survivor, said. Where Tisiphone was vengeful, Farooq was paranoid. Which was equally understandable given their background, but it did not really help the situation.

The two sides kept their weapons raised and armed at each other. "Please, ma'am," the quarian in the red envirosuit began again. "I have to ask you to surrender your weapons and come with us. If you do not, then we'll be forced to shoot. Despite our standoff, your group could not win or survive such a confrontation."

"But we could take some of you with us," Tisiphone threatened. The answer came almost without thinking, so much had this attitude been ingrained into her. She hesitated. "So, let's find a better way?" Again she paused. "For Tali's sake at least. She needs medical help, from her own people, fast."

This seemed to make the quarian hesitate. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but we're under orders. Tali'Zorah is with you, but you're still an evident breach in standard fleet security procedures and we have to act accordingly."

Oh, for fuck's sake. An impatient rage ran through Tisiphone. Normally, she did not hold back her rage anymore. She had been forced down once in her life, and that was enough. Now she usually simply let her rage free reign and to hell with the consequences. It was not like she had anything worth living for, so as far as she was concerned, she could as well use the few positive consequences of that and not take shit from anybody.

But this time was different. It was not just her life on the line. It was not even just the lives of her group on the line. There was also Tali, and she owed Tali. The quarian needed help now.

Tisiphone snarled. Then she let her pistol fall down. Everybody else on the bridge was watching her in surprise or even shock. "All right. As long as you do it quick and finally get Tali to a proper hospital or whatever you have here."

"Will do, ma'am," Kal answered. "Thank you." He waved to some of his marines who left the bridge; hopefully in fact for the medbay. "However..." He looked around in the room. Some of Tisiphone's biotics were still armed.

She looked at every one of them. One let his pistol fall down, too, and another one slowly, hesitatingly lowered hers and then let it slide to the ground. Farooq did nothing of that sort, though. He held his weapon upward, undaunted by the several quarian rifles aimed at him. His hands were slightly shaking, yet the grip on his pistol seemed to tighten.

Slowly, Tisiphone lowered her hands again and walked to him.

"I won't give myself into anybody else's custody again," Farooq more whispered than said. It sounded strained. "Never again."

"I won't let them harm you," Tisiphone told him. "You have my word. I won't let any of us come to harm. You know I'd go down fighting first."

A single tear appeared on Farooq's face. In a slow but determined move, Tisiphone took a hold of his gun. He did not resist. She let it drop to the ground and hugged him. He needed comfort; she knew how that was. She needed it often enough herself. "It's okay. Nobody is going to hurt you again. It's okay. I won't let them."

She left her hand on his shoulder as she guided him outwards, into the Neema, surrounded by the Migrant Fleet Marines.

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[1] Seeing as how Saracino and Terra Firma are campaigning in ME 1, elections have to be not all that far off.

[2] There's little information in canon on how the Systems Alliance works, politically. We know it's responsible for everything outside Earth itself, with the colonies etc. as part of its jurisdiction, while the single Earth nations remain independent and sovereign. However we can assume that the Earth nations finance it. Maybe even nearly the entirety of its budget.

Think about it: The Alliance Navy is large enough to be considered a competitor of the Citadel powers' fleets. The Alliance could never build and maintain such a fleet with just a tiny fraction of humanity as its economical base. The largest colony is 4m people (as per explicitly stated ME 1 canon, and that's what I'm going by) and it goes down from there; going by CDN and planetary descriptions most colonies seem to have only a four or five digit population. I'd assume less than 100m humans live in space, maybe even considerably less people. Considering humanity has only been in space for about a generation at that point this makes a certain amount of sense. Hence, presumably still more than 99% of it lives on Earth (and hence if Earth were to be destroyed, one potential outcome of the Reaper invasion, humanity would be down to quarian levels. Earth is everything.).

Thus it stands to reason that the Earth nations pay for the Alliance, because so far only they have the necessary economical base to cover all the Alliance's expenses. This would even be in their own interest: Thus they ensure their economies get the precious raw materials from the colonies which have made the ongoing boom on Earth for the last two decades (as per the Earth codex entry and the planetary description of Therum) possible. This explanation also makes sense considering that the Alliance grew out of the joint space programs of the Earth nations, as per the Codex. Thus, while not territory of the Alliance, the Earth nations are probably members of the Alliance as a political organization akin to UN or (present day) EU. Which would mean the Alliance has an interesting political hybrid nature between an, err, alliance and a sovereign state in its own right (in the colonies), but I digress.

Point is, the Earth nations probably pay for the Alliance, and as three Great Powers on Earth as confirmed per canon, the European Union, the United North American States and the People's Federation of China most likely pay the largest amounts.

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And the irony is I'm rather a Eurosceptic...