Renegade Reinterpretations
Relations: Quarians
"It's strange, Shepard, how much our species don't see each other as most people do. You look at us and wonder why everyone else calls us thieves and vagabonds, and give the fairest treatment I've ever heard of. To us, the Humans aren't particularly violent or aggressive, but have been the first fair faces we've seen in too long. Isn't that strange?"
-Tali'Zorah
It is said that even the worst wars can bring about glimmers of happiness that would not exist otherwise. In the aftermath of the First Contact War, that unexpected light in the darkness is Human-Quarian relations. Though first contact was of a Quarian vessel captured by the legendary Captain Taylor, the immediate release of the vessel when Captain Taylor realized his error, followed by a later apology and compensation by Taylor Estate after the war, mitigated a poor start and turned a remarkable Pilgrimage story into the start of a remarkable political-economic success story.
The Alliance, with a plethora of obsolescent but space worthy ships left over from the First Contact War, has in abundance the single greatest commodity of the Quarian flotilla. Quarian engineering skills and its Fleet-logistics on the far side of Relay 314 had immediate potential to be invaluable in the Alliance's efforts to capitalize and develop its new galactic holdings. Relations between the Migrant Fleet and Alliance fleet were officially established in AC 115, a date much sooner than would otherwise have been warranted had the Alliance not been returning thousands of Quarians enslaved by the Batarian Hegemony, a gesture still remembered by many Quarians.
Since then, trade has blossomed between the two. While it would be easy to point out common feelings of persecution by the wider galaxy, grievous threats by other races, and perpetual near-crisis mentality to point towards good relations, the other reason is far more mercantile. Quarian engineers and services are of exceptional quality, cheap, and are both able and willing to develop and exploit the holdings in former Batarian space for the Alliance to profit from in the near term. In return, the Alliance is reliable in paying for the jobs it wants done, has a large number of jobs it wants done, and has an even larger stock of old but working ships that the Quarians can improve on their own, allowing for the Migrant Fleet to grow. Both sides are free from the unhelpful discriminatory history that haunt both… and neither side much cares about the environmental degradation of Batarian colonies or traditionally Batarian jobs being taken by the Quarian workers. As long as Quarian activities remain mostly on the far side of Relay 314, in occupied Batarian space and away from the Human-settled colonies, there is remarkably little conflict of interests.
To the optimistic, Human-Quarian ties are built on similar stories of victimization, mutual sympathy, and promising economic relations. To the Batarians and more cynical of observers, Human-Quarian ties are built on the exploitation of the human conquests of Batarian space, as Quarians do the jobs Humans don't trust most Batarians to do. Quarian strip-mining operations have ruined the environments and economies of dozens of minor former-Batarian worlds, to the dismay of galactic environmentalists and local Batarians alike but to the considerable profit of the Alliance. Regardless, Human-Quarian ties are exceptionally healthy on both sides, so long as the Migrant Fleet itself stays on the far side of Relay 314.
In both Xenonationalist and Assimilation paths, Human-Quarian relations continue to improve, most notably over the significant Quarian presence in the Traverse across Human territory. In particular, the Alliance claimed a dextro-amino acid world from the Hegemony during the First Contact War that, while useless to the Alliance for anything besides resource extraction, could serve as a possible colony world/nexus point for Quarians in the region. While negotiations continue, primary resistance is on internal Quarian politics.
In a Xenonationalist path, the Alliance's notable goals are a quid-pro-quo trade for a Quarian-Human alliance against the Geth. With the Xenonationalist decision to separate/expel Batarians from Human space, Quarian-Human economic ties expand further as the Quarians are encouraged to strip-mine Batarian colonies that will be largely abandoned once the Batarians are ejected. Even so, there is a strong undercurrent of Quarian politics that doesn't like even the Batarians being ejected from their homeworld no matter how well it works for the Quirans, or how the Batarian situation will be far better organized than the Quarians' own history.
In the Assimilation path, the Human Council aims further, and offers to invite the Quarians back into Council Space as Associate species in exchange for the Flotilla being made part of the (Human-controlled) Council Fleet once the Quarians settle. While the prize of Council inclusion is heady, many Quarians are wary about losing the Fleet. Also on the other hand, the Alliance's decision to assimilate Batarians in full leads to a slow-down of economic relations, as the Alliance puts more value on Batarian concerns and doesn't want to strip mine the colonies it intends to incorporate.
Author Notes:
Apologies for yesterdays absence. When you go to sleep at four and wake up at 3 (pm), the day has a way of slipping by.
So, yeah. Quarians. In Masshammer 4K, they'd be the largest pirate armada in the galaxy. In Reinterpretation, they're still refugees.
When I was outlining Reinterpretations, I wanted there to be at least one race that Humanity got along with better than in canon. In a messed up world, not everything should be worse: every storm brings in something worth salvaging, as they used to say on the coast. The race I picked was the Quarians: less about favoritism (they aren't my favorite) and more because it seemed appropriate. The traditional reasons people don't like Quarians don't apply (the Alliance has never had to deal with the Quarian refugees in its own territory), and the Quarians are not only far more sympathetic to the sort of struggle the Alliance had, but were to busy being away from threats like Hegemony slavers to get caught up as collateral by the Alliance. So... lucky Quarians.
Human-Quarian ties are built on good old-fashioned imperialism: Quarians help the Alliance exploit the occupied Batarian space, and the Alliance helps them in return. Since most 'pure human' space is on the Human-side of Relay 314, and the Migrant Fleet has been helpfully advised not to go through such a major choke-point, all the bad-things associated with the Quarians (strip mining, environmental degredation, loss of jobs) are borne mostly by the Batarians. And who cares about them?
One thing to note, however, is that Tali is something of an unreasonable human-phile when we encounter her. She's young, inexperienced, and a bit too heady for her own good when she talks about how good things are. Ties between the Alliance and Migrant Fleet are good, but they aren't as good as the more hopeful on either side would hope: the Alliance loves the Migrant Fleet from a good distance, and the Admiralty Board wouldn't want to put the Quarian race in the hands of the Humans any more than they would any other race. Plenty of Quarians feel uneasy about the potential expulsion of the Batarians (no one knows how two Migrant Fleets would work), and there's also mixed-feelings about Alliance AI research potentially succeeding where the Geth rebelled... though that issue makes Admiral Xen salivate at the potential to study Human AIs.