And so, 2742 years after the Prothean Message was discovered, Transcendent Humanity went out into the galaxy. Reactions from the galactic races were mixed, to say the least. Over the next few decades, many conflicts arose, both major and minor. Many events occurred that influenced and shaped the galaxy, and humanity.

A new era had arisen. An era, many hoped, of peace and mutual growth. Transcendent Humanity, always looking forwards, reset their calendar.

It is year 1, After Contact. And there are problems.

X

1 AC to 14AC: The Citadel

Although Transcendent Humanity agreed to join the Council, they refused to do so without a thorough review of Citadel laws. For their part, The Council would not allow Humanity to dictate terms to them, ruining tradition and inviting chaos. Thousands of years of laws on both sides were re-examined, re-evaluated, and revised; each laboriously argued over. Negotiations took years.

The Treaty of Farixen was a particular sticking point. Turians were the only race allowed to construct dreadnoughts freely. The Salarians and Asari could only have three for every five of the Turians', and non-Council races could only have one for every five. Technically, humanity was already in violation, and their insistence on building more to prepare for the coming of the Destroyers was not greatly received by the Council. After months of negotiations and not always civil arguments, it was proposed by the Council that if humanity so desperately wanted to construct more dreadnoughts to 'prepare', then they could, provided that they paid the appropriate value to match them to each of the Council races. With a human dreadnought now effectively costing four times as much to make, the Council considered it an easy way to limit the human fleet, and to collect additional revenue. The human ambassador, gracefully and humbly accepting, requested only that in the event that humanity could not match the funds, goods of equal value could be traded. The Council, eager to see both their proposal accepted and an end to months of debating, agreed.

Two months later, the Arcturus Shell reached its second stage of development, and its shipyards opened. The Council races were surprised to receive, as goods of equal value to a dreadnought, dreadnoughts of their own.

The fact that the dreadnoughts delivered to each race exactly matched currently employed designs and models was of concern. This prompted another round of debates focussed on what, precisely, constituted espionage, and no, "You weren't hiding it that well" was not a valid excuse. The Turian Councillor demanded reparations. Humanity contritely acceded, and paid them with one dreadnought, six cruisers, fifteen frigates and five flights of fighters.

X

The AI problem was also a major concern. After striving fruitlessly for weeks to legally define and separate AI's and Uploaded to a sufficient degree, Humanity proposed that the law be modified in two ways. First, Transcendent Humanity as it existed would be given amnesty for their 'violation', and second, that they would investigate and validate any new AI's themselves. Uploaded born after this point would be 'vetted' by the existing Uploaded, and in the case of a rogue AI, Humanity's finest would contain the creature and then, as the premier experts in the field, determine whether it could be safely rehabilitated and released.

This proposal was not greatly received by the Citadel Council. After another series of incredibly polite discussions, it was agreed that while Humanity was the best species for the job, some oversight would be desirable. That oversight eventually ballooned into a surprisingly well-equipped and multi-species task-force. Although Uploaded comprised the majority, a particularly staid Turian General was given final say, except in cases of documented human Upload. This, the Council hoped, would stop Humanity loosing dangerous AI's upon them all out of some misguided sense of kinship.

The amnesty, as an obvious legal loophole to prevent the current population of Sol being arrested, was passed without much fuss.

A week later, Humanity revealed that not only had their first diplomatic contact been with the geth, but that the geth had happily joined Transcendent Humanity, for a period starting a day before the amnesty was passed, and ending a day after. Although Humanity had bid their short-term subjects a tearful fair-well, they were still in active contact and indeed considered the geth to be their closest allies.

The Council was not happy. Humanity, as a placating gesture, gave them several new cruisers. The Council, bewildered by Humanity's willingness to arm a group they were currently having a heated disagreement with, relented. It was heavily suggested, however, that in light of their previous actions, the geth should perhaps pay reparations of their own.

The geth ambassador Envoy, to her regret temporarily housed in a Human-made mock-up of a geth mobile platform, agreed, and announced that the geth would be forwarding a substantial payment of resources, funds, and the planet Rannoch to the quarians as soon as they could find them.

The Council politely informed her they meant pay the Council reparations. Envoy's response was that the geth saw no reason to pay the Council, given that they'd never wronged them, and that the scheme that had resulted in the geth's new legal standing was all the doing of Transcendent Humanity, who had already paid.

With actual physical violence in the form of Councillor Sparatus threatening to ensue, Councillor Valern requested that, as Humanity had devalued the worth of dreadnoughts as a medium of exchange, perhaps they would care to release their bio-reactor technology to the galaxy.

After a brief recess and discussion, Humanity agreed. Standing your ground was all very well and good, but they had got what they wanted. The next step in their plan to prepare the galaxy required good relations with the other races, something they were already going to have to work at.

X

1 AC: Sol System, Deep Datacloud

The data stream began to get more dense the lower down she got. That was the way of things of course. Back when the network was being built, they hadn't know just how much space would be needed, so they packed the stuff in as tightly as they could. The large low-grade open field simulations at the top layer turned into smaller, partitioned suburban areas lower down, then into tight city streets, and finally becoming something alien, a bit off to the eye, where the simulation faded into cyberspace.

The woman, who dressed in Military style, stepped through the cracks in the world that had become humanity's home, into the twilight beyond. Here, the Ghosts played, the oldest of them a mere whisper on the streams, so at home that they were practically part of this place. It would have been extremely uncomfortable for her, but there was a path through the chaotic haze, a ribbon of reality shielding her from harm, and detection. Not a single probe of code touched her as she strode towards her destination.

Inside a room, an odd room to be sure, but still a room, three sets of eyes turned to a door. They could sense something on the other side, and each took their seats around a small conference table as the low beeps echoed about them. Outside, Military felt the odd sensation of cold running through her veins, which then turned into ice itself as the compression took full hold, before everything returned to apparent normalcy

"Tartarus entry confirmed. Sync enabled, Councillor," said the automated voice of Tartarus Control. It was not an Uploaded, but rather the closest they had come to AI.

"Time dilation of Tartarus is at a magnitude of four," it said helpfully, as she walked towards the table and took the last empty seat.

"We are pleased to see you, Councillor," said one of the three, a female, though one could only tell that via her voice, as the three were ghostly in appearance, impressions of forms and bodies, rather than detailed ones. Not that that was unexpected. They had been operating in Tartarus, experiencing life many times faster than normal, for a very long time.

"We will dispense with pleasantries. I want opinions and analysis, now," said Military's harsh voice.

The three said nothing, but the table between them lit up, the top of it folding and reshaping itself, soon becoming a map of the galaxy.

"As requested in your last communique, we have been going over the data the Ghosts have been acquiring for us in this 'extranet' the aliens have set up," said the second figure, whose voice was so monotone it was difficult to tell if it was male or female. It was possible that the operative themselves didn't know any more either.

"The structure of it is as haphazard and sloppy as one might expect of a network that comes from fusing a dozen races' separate systems together," said the voice.

"As stated by Tango in his report, the vast majority of data on this network is of an explicit nature, entertainment for the masses, which tells us much about this society that we are coming into contact with," he continued.

"The fact that they have porn tells us something?" said Military, raising an eyebrow in bemusement. It was a legitimate question, not one asked simply out of shock or disgust.

"Indeed, it means that this network, a vast array of computing power, is used primarily to entertain. In point of fact, such a network would dwarf our own in terms of raw processing power. This lack of focus tells us that the society it is a part of has no set goals. This indicates that they have little to fear from enemies," said the second voice, before the third interrupted.

"What Second means is that these are all the hallmarks of a stagnant society. They don't innovate much at all. In fact, if I were to guess right now, our own understanding will quickly match their own. Within a century, we'll be beating them at their own game. We could rule this galaxy without much effort," said Third.

"I disagree. To do such a thing would be unspeakable. We must not try technological or military domination at this time," retorted Second in that computer like voice, which spoke of the speaker's age.

"Why?" asked Military, and Second motioned towards the table. Assorted graphs and tables bloomed from its surface.

"At present data levels, we can both guess at the size of the fleets we would face, as well as the defences on ground level that would need to be overcome to conquer the galaxy by raw force. The projections are not good, giving us only a seventy percent chance of victory, and even then, we would see rebellions and insurgency in less than a decade."

As Second spoke, scenes of Asari fighting human war bodies played out, and even of a few turian cruisers managing to take down a super carrier using concentrated fire.

"Counterpoint to that, technological domination would be costly. Our understanding of Eezo-based tech is nascent, and while our production facilities are more advanced, we could only spare a small percentage of them to this task. A successful merger of technologies would take almost as long, and with as much resistance, as a military solution. The damage would merely not be paid in lives."

"Worse, there are further complications to this," Second said, and then paused.

"The Asari Conspiracy," continued First. She gestured, and several more graphs appeared on the table, these in the form of timelines rather than data analysis.

"I have been observing their history files for the last few days or so, and have discovered a rather alarming pattern. Whereas human society has experienced both renaissance and low points of our development, these aliens seem to maintain themselves at a steady rise," she said, and suddenly ships appeared, both Transcendent and alien.

"For instance, in the last one hundred years our assault and defence capabilities at the ship to ship level have increased by around twenty-three percent."

As First spoke, the model of an old human destroyer blew up a small asteroid, while a similar model, but of a newer stock, vaporised the same.

"In that timeframe, the galactic community has only increased it's ability to make war by one-point-five percent," the same thing played out, with the turian dreadnought blowing away the same asteroid. It's descendant however looked almost the exactly the same, and did a similar amount of damage.

"What's your theory for this?" asked Military as the image faded.

"As I said, the Asari seem to be controlling technology in this galaxy. Any innovation by any race, including the Salarians, is quickly countered by something even better coming from the Asari," and as she spoke, several lists flitted through the table, showing off dates of new technologies and techniques being introduced into the galaxy, with the Asari always coming out ahead.

"This has three potential explanations. One, the Asari are savants, and thus can understand a tech once it has been developed to a certain point. Invalidated easily by seeing where tech development happens. Two, they are the puppets of a far greater power in this galaxy, something massive and advanced. Invalidated almost as easily by simply observing their network. The leaves us with Third's idea," she said, turning to Third.

"They have a cache of technology, either Prothean or Destroyer, and have been slowly disseminating it to maintain an edge on every other race. The data indicates Prothean rather than Destroyer, but that second possibility must be considered," said Third.

"Indeed. As such, if we were to try and technological domination of the galaxy, we risk angering the Asari, and sparking a war with them using technology far more advanced than what we have seen. Our best analysis is that we would have at most a fifty percent chance of victory in that scenario," said First.

"Then what options remain. It is obvious that this galaxy needs us at it's helm to guide it as the Destroyers return," said Military, and The Three nodded.

"We must dominate them Culturally," supplied Second, its voice having a slight quiver to it.

"Exactly. We must find cultures in this Galaxy that would be amicable to alliances or mergers with our own. If we play our cards right, this path could lead to a unified galaxy within two hundred years, with at most a five percent chance of major uprisings in the first millennium," said Third helpfully, and the charts altered to show data backing up his claim. As neither of the other two supplied more information, Military nodded to Third to continue.

"The geth are already within our sphere. Careful manipulation would see them as our strongest allies," said Three, the graph changing back to a galaxy map, with geth ships moving to join human ones in Sol and the surrounding systems.

"With them on our side, we would gain a significant bargaining chip to persuade the Quarians to join us. Their homeworld, Rannoch. I do not foresee any particular issue there," Third said with a smug assured tone, but First quickly squashed that as she altered his projections.

"Several quarians in high positions would need to be eliminated to make this a reality. I believe at least sixteen deaths would be required, all of them can be carried out subtly enough that it would not be noticed, still, it is casualties," she added, and Third nodded, but seemed to stand his ground, as those sixteen faces, size based off the priority of their deaths, appeared on the table.

"Acceptable, but I want you to try and shift their opinions first. We don't want to lose any more minds than we have to," said Military, and the images shifted a bit, with two, labelled Daro'Xen and Han'Gerrel taking forefront, while another, Rael'Zorah vanished entirely, likely meaning he could more easily accept their offer with the right pushes.

"Next are the Krogan. Their current leadership is a joke, with their clans divided far and wide, but we are identifying agents that could be useful," said Second, and several faces came up again, all heavily scarred and rather angry-looking.

"We are currently looking for a Krogan strong enough to lead them, but smart enough to know that things need to change. The search may take a while. Personally, I believe the krogan have amazing potential, but the galactic community suppressed them before it could be fully realised," finished the monotone voice.

"If we can gain their support, many mercenary factions will fall in line. We believe this could even include the Batarians. However, I wish to bring up a matter of grave import before we continue," said First. Pictures of the Keep, a gate, and an odd insect-like race that stood on four feet, with two arms appeared.

"The race displayed here are called Keepers. They maintain the Keep's systems, but they also work with network nodes that do not intersect with normal access points," began First.

"While I went over their makeup, gleaned from both galactic community data points, and our Diplomacy Team's interactions on the Presidium, I discovered something...unsettling," the image before them added in two bars beside the Keep and the Gate.

"Scans of the Keep confirm that it is made of the same material as the Gates. This was theorised, as the Gates are nigh indestructible, with the needed kinetic energy far outclassing even our largest mass-driver weapons,"

An image of a dreadnought appeared and began bombarding a Gate, causing minimal damage, even with the main gun.

"I'd rather not have to resort to antimatter to crack those things if needed. Very disconcerting. The Citadel Council could use this base of operations to attack us with impunity," said Military, and quickly got a shake of the head from First and Third.

"It's far worse than that. Analysis of data from Ghosts Whiskey and Tango show something severely concerning. The Keep is a control nexus for the Gate system. If you dig deep enough into the network, you can actually control which Gates are active remotely. Luckily, it would appear that the Citadel Council are unaware of this function," said Second.

"That means we must take control of this station as soon as possible," supplied Military, only to get all Three shaking their ghostly heads at her.

"No, this is far worse than even that. Our analysis is only preliminary, but we believe that the Keep does not just resemble a Gate, but is in fact a Gate on a massive scale," said Three, and instantly the centre of the Keep blazed with a mass effect bubble, out of which several models of Nazara, the Destroyer the geth had informed them about, poured.

"This is..." Military's voice faded, as she considered the implications of this. The Keep needed to be destroyed somehow, or at least stuck in a sun or something.

"It is not good. However, the situation is complicated. Originally, we were going to lead with this bit of information, but Second convinced us to wait until we were discussing Cultural Conquest," began Third, and several projections popped up on the view, with probabilities.

"This is the projection for the Council Races believing us, and more, their probabilities of actually leaving their precious Citadel. It is...less than optimal," said Second, a touch of sorrow entering that voice, as the numbers were never very high, approaching zero for the Three Races that made up the Council itself.

"They would believe this was some sort of power grab by us. They would not trust our analysis. We've barely begun negotiations with them. And we have serious doubts that they would be pleased with the level of access we have into their systems. It might even be enough to trigger another conflict, which we would want to avoid if we are to have any hope at lasting peace," said Second, with several projections for that popping into existence.

"Indeed. We think it best to keep this in Tartarus for now. Not even the Voice will know of this," said First, and Military, after stroking her chin for a moment, nodded agreement.

"We will keep this to ourselves for now then. I shall have my memory scrubbed. As such, this meeting is adjourned. I want you to focus your efforts on alliances for now. We need to be prepared for when Nazara makes its move," said Military, rising, and the Three rose with her, turning to their own stations, back to their never-ending work.

Barely a second had passed since Military entered Tartarus, and not a single byte had passed between the closed data points of the network. Military didn't remember what had passed behind the doors of Tartarus, she never did. But her authority was required, and her opinion valued. She just hoped her decisions weren't why she felt such concern for the future of humanity.

Author's Note

So, it has been a while. Thank you for everyone who waited patiently, and also to those who waited not-so-patiently.

The usual excuses apply. Life seems to possess a pair of hobnail boots for giving our plans a good stomping.

While updates will not be regular, they will occur. Hopefully without such a large hiatus as this one.

Special thanks also to Star Sage, who helped write a large portion of this chapter. Tartarus is his creation, and I hope to make good use of it.

To anyone else who has ideas on where to go from here, feel free to submit them. I like reading them, and will often borrow, with permission, some ideas.

With the exception of crediting those who deserve it, I won't post many Author's Notes. You're here for the story, after all.

New chapter tomorrow, honest.