Kenn was near breathless after finishing his explanation. Fuchs had to admit that he did a good job of it, though. Any truncated version would just invite further questioning, which he quickly realized after the story was thrown off course no less than three times by tangents and side-stories that threatened to force negotiations to continue into the next day. Fortunately, after getting a handle on giving just enough information to sate curiosity and provide context but not enough to only raise further questions and require even more context again, things progressed swiftly.
"So, these humans come from another galaxy, they saved you from pirates, and in return you gave them a portion of the element zero from the freighter you've been working on for the past six years and installed a makeshift FTL drive in their dreadnought, now they're here to trade the eezo you gave them for a tailor made drive?" Rael surmised. The marines around him seemed lost, he seemed mostly lost, and over the course of the conversation even Fuchs had started to become a little confused.
"That's the long and short of it." Kenn wrung his hands. "Does… does any of that make sense?"
Rael stares off into the distance, wheels in his head turning. "It's enough to work with, for now at least." Looking back at the small crowd which had grown behind the marines, he sighs heavily. "We should discuss this somewhere more private. Come. I've been borrowing the captain's office." Inspecting the group, he bobs his head back and forth. "Should be enough space."
The marines part, forcing the crowds to either side of the corridor, though given the already cramped conditions that were now populated by more people than even the quarians intended the room to be able to handle, just as many if not more were forced out into the atriums, and in doing so gathered even more people. The effect meant that, as Fuchs was directed through the tight, winding confines of the quarian liveship in a way that would hopefully mean that he didn't end up with a concussion from slamming his head into an improperly stowed personal effect, he and his party were invariably met with a wake of curious quarians who were wondering what all the commotion was about.
In between bouts of being impressed with the engineering capabilities of the quarians, he was terrified with the potential for any information control to have just slipped through his fingers. Maybe he could've convinced this Admiral Rael'Zorah to keep a lockdown on the traffic controllers and sensor operators, but hiding their presence from this many people might be difficult. Whether the leadership kept mum or not, something was surely going to leak onto this 'extranet' of theirs. He could only hope that official silence from the quarians on the matter would curtail any official investigation from the Council, and that this little meeting would be just another strange occurrence that didn't merit significant investigation.
From where he was currently standing, that is shoulder to shoulder with quarian marines, and close enough to shake hands with at least half a dozen quarian civilians, that didn't seem likely. After moving past a large, open garden area, they dropped back into the confines of the ship's corridors, until arriving at another airlock door, indistinguishable from the others around it save for the fact that two more quarian marines flanked it. Fortunately, the crowd seemed to have abated, and the marines that had escorted them had shooed anyone curious enough to continue hanging around now that they no longer had a crowd to hide in. With the area a little clearer, Rael had enough room to raise his arm and open the airlock, beckoning the party inside.
It was certainly not a big room, which meant that Fuchs was completely at home. Bare metal walls held together by heavy rivets that had seemingly been installed after the fact, a thin metal desk that seemed awfully flimsy, and fold up chairs stacked around the sides of the room next to physical data storage cabinets that Fuchs assumed were part of a system of backups. A few computers using the same holographic technology as Kenn's arm computer gave the room a warm orange glow as they battled with the harsher white light of the strip lights in the ceiling.
"Sit." Rael commanded as he pushed past a filing cabinet so that he could get behind his own desk. The rest of the group stood numbly for a second, before the three people with any desire to sit reached for chairs and unfolded them. Meanwhile the Stormtroopers, who had split off into two groups, the smaller of which flanked the door on the inside just as the marines had on the outside while the others milled about outside, seemed content to hold their posts.
With everyone now seated, the discussion could open in earnest. "So, if the estimate that Kenn provided on the eezo that you have in your hold is reasonably close to accurate, I'm sure that the Admiralty would be happy to divert some manpower to retrofit your ship. At this stage, I can't promise how long it would take, nor how much it would cost, exactly. I'd have to take everything to the Admiralty first, maybe even the Conclave if we need to start drafting civilians to work on it, though I have no doubts that they'd agree to some sort of deal."
Fuchs almost recoiled at the speed with which the Admiral launched into the negotiations. Fuchs wasn't a trained nor natural diplomat. He rarely found himself in situations which pulling rank or shooting the offending party couldn't resolve, and so he was remarkably out of practice when it came to these sort of deals. Recovering, he began to run through a mental list of all the details he needed to confirm throughout this discussion.
Firstly, he had only a vague idea of the value of element zero or the amount of work that went into the construction of tailor made drive, so any deals cut would have to be taken on good faith unless he could figure out the true value on his own. He could go a way to doing that through indirect means. The fact that Rael was confident that he could get an agreement on the matter even if they had less element zero than they did, which meant that if he signed it all off, he'd probably be paying over the odds.
Secondly, he needed to figure out if the quarians would be amicable to keeping this quiet. He already knew there was only so far he could take that, but if they wouldn't mind lying to anyone who questioned them on the matter, he could perhaps buy them enough time to establish themselves… somehow.
Lastly, he needed to consider whether or not it might be a good idea to not push too hard on the above two points if it meant a better long term relationship. Like it or not, it seemed like they were going to be in this galaxy for a while, and they weren't delusional enough to believe that one dreadnought could take on the entire rest of the galaxy and win. They'd need allies if they wanted to survive, let alone flourish, and Brooks had flagged the quarians for closer scrutiny for a reason. Yes, they had a lot in common with Hyperion, in many ways, though the same could be said for a number of the aliens in the galaxy. What really set them apart was their isolation from the rest of the galaxy. Fewer conflicts of allegiances, and no doubt the quarians knew just as well as he did that no-one lasts long on their own. Even the Systems Alliance would doubtless try to absorb them, which would go down with the crew about as well as a hydrogen fire aboard the ship. The quarians, perhaps, might be more inclined to treat any partnership as an equitable one.
Fuchs ensured that he chose his words carefully. "I'm glad to hear that you're open to the possibility. Of course, it's entirely understandable that you're unable to rubber stamp any deal here and now, but the longer we linger here the higher the chance that someone might come to take a closer look." He leaned forwards with the last words, hoping for his body language to carry across the intent that inflection might be unable to carry past a translation barrier.
"It's likely already too late for that." He replied bluntly. "Your dreadnought will have attracted attention from anyone monitoring the relays. Normally patrols wouldn't drift outside of Citadel Space, but if a dreadnought doesn't get their attention, I don't know what would. They'll probably send someone to take a look from a distance, and when they see it docked with a quarian liveship, they'll come up with some excuse to investigate. They might even accuse us of violating the Treaty of Farixen."
"It's my understanding of the Treaty that it only applies to Council member races, which would mean that you're not bound by it, correct?" Rowley spoke with entirely too much authority for someone who'd only had access to the information in question for a few days at most.
"True, but that won't stop them." Rael replies, before turning back to Fuchs. "I gather that you might want to keep your presence here hidden, but that simply won't be possible. Too many people already know about the ship, and you, for us to have any reasonable chance of keeping it under wraps. That's only considering the people in the Fleet, and not any observers the Council might have on the edge of their space."
"If keeping all this hush hush is going to be impossible, then the next best thing would be to keep them off the trail. Simply put, I'm not asking you to hide any trace of us ever being here, only to keep any Council investigators out of our hair for the moment." Fuchs explained, trying to seem as casual as possible. "I'm not suggesting that you stonewall them, of course, only that you… Maybe give them some information that would suggest that they don't need to investigate further."
Fuchs could imagine that Rael was rolling his eyes at that. "I can't think of any way that we could do that. When they find out that a dreadnought of a strange design docked with a quarian liveship, they'll want to investigate and gather information first hand regardless of what I tell them."
"Wouldn't you have the authority to deny any investigators entry?"
He sighs. "The politics involved with denying the Council entry aside, they'd send STG or Specters. I'd be surprised if there wasn't one on the way as we speak. They won't ask for access, and they won't announce themselves, and then any work we could do to impede them would only make us look guilty."
"If anyone comes poking around our ship, we can deal with them, don't worry about that."
"If by 'deal with them' you mean shooting them dead, then you don't need me to tell you that won't get you what you need. A trail of corpses will only attract more attention, and if you start dragging the corpses of the Council's special forces through the Fleet, any deal we have is off. The eezo isn't worth the hassle of dealing with whatever investigation the Council would muster for the disappearance of their top agents." His tone was level, but it was clear that he was starting to get somewhat frustrated. Fuchs gathered that it was time to take a step in the other direction.
"Well, what if we concocted some story about it being an… oversized pirate ship, or some such. If we build a scaffold around it to hide it from sensors, all any outside observer would see is a ship being salvaged. We could bar entry to the site with guards, so we don't get any tourists, and if we keep the specifics tight we might be able to convince them that it's at least halfway to being true." He weighed the idea up as he spoke. Odds are that if the STG Rael'Zorah spoke of was the same STG he'd read about, they'd not have much trouble bribing someone for information. After all, all the marines that had accompanied the Admiral out to the dock had heard the whole story, and he couldn't expect all of them to hold their tongues when they came offering bribes, and that's without considering the workers that the quarians would need to have on the ship. The technical details they could glean just from observation would clearly indicate that it was no pirate ship.
"They'd know that was a lie immediately." He states just as Fuchs was coming to the same conclusion. "That being said… it might work. It being an unusually advanced pirate ship would be reason enough to salvage it alone, and though they'd certainly want to know more than that, they'd probably go snooping around Omega for details. By the time they realize they'd been duped, you could be on the opposite side of the galaxy. Hmm." He drummed his fingers on the desk as he thought. "It would be difficult, but doable. Certainly doable."
There was a pregnant pause, no doubt intended by the Admiral. Fuchs bit the bullet. "How difficult?"
"Difficult." He repeated. "The eezo is payment enough to get the work done, but if you want to keep what's really happening off the STG's radar, then I'll need to pull in some of the most trustworthy engineers and fasttrack a lot of the work orders. I'd have to draw the labour and materials from other projects. The eezo pays for the work, yes, but I can't buy time, no matter how much eezo you have."
"There's something you need us to do, then?" Fuchs leaned back. For the Admiral to open up on this without prompting meant that it was something he really needed done, which meant that it was an angle Fuchs could work. "You understand that it would be unwise for us to take sides so soon, right? If it was an attack on someone else, we'd need to be convinced."
"What makes you think it would be an attack?"
"What else do you ask a dreadnought to do?"
"Point taken. You're right, anyway, though I wouldn't worry about choosing sides. This is a fight where your side is already chosen." He turns his attention away from the group briefly, to bring up a file on his screen. "I take it that you've heard of the geth from Kenn here?"
"I mentioned it in passing, though you said you guys translated the codex entries, right?" Kenn spoke up, a little unsure. "They should know."
"We had read the dossiers, yes. Networked machine intelligence, rebelled against you almost 500 years ago. You've been roaming the stars ever since." Rowley once again rattled off the information that she'd somehow memorized.
"Closer to dot on 300, but that's mostly right." For the first time, the Admiral's voice seemed to crack, transforming from the calm, though impersonal tone it had taken to a strained, frustrated one. "The geth routed the quarians from our homeworld, Rannoch, and have defied any attempt at reconciliation or even dialogue since. Since then, they've almost never strayed from beyond the Perseus Veil, that was until only a few weeks ago, when the human colony of Eden Prime was attacked by a geth fleet, complete with a large dreadnought. We're not sure why they've chosen now to make their move, but we're certain that they're planning something. There are now geth throughout the Traverse, the Terminus, and even some in Council space, though it seems that they're focused on the Alliance."
"So what is it that you want us to do, exactly?"
"There's an old space station left behind when we first fled Rannoch, just outside the Veil. We have reason to believe that the geth have reactivated that station in secret, and have been operating it for some time. As of right now, we don't have the resources to launch a fleet large enough to potentially fight off the geth on a hunch. You could investigate with impunity, and if they try to fight you off, you have the firepower to make a fighting retreat." He explains, having calmed down somewhat. It seemed that talking about the geth made him somewhat unhappy, to say the least.
Fuchs nodded along with Rael's explanation. It made sense. If the geth were making moves, you'd want to know about it. An AI with hundreds of years to prepare for an all out war against the galaxy was an unpleasant prospect. "So, you'd just want us to investigate, and have a poke around, or blow the entire place up?"
"You guessed correctly the first time. Destroying the station from the outside would take too long, giving the geth more than enough time to bring in reinforcements. Engaging the station directly would likewise lead to a prolonged battle. Even assuming they don't have a standing guard, the station would call for reinforcements immediately, and they'd be there before you could demolish it." Rael turns the screen around for the rest of the party to see, and leans on the desk. On screen was a slightly blurry picture of the station in question, with old schematics no doubt dug up from very old archives next to it. "I've been working my entire life to try to retake Rannoch. To fight the geth. We've made progress. Not much, but some." His voice takes on a graver tone. "I have made a device that could replicate a geth IFF, and disrupt their sensors. It's nothing they couldn't work around in minutes in a fight. Though it's promising technology, I'm not telling you this because I'm trying to make conversation. If we mount some additional equipment onto your ship, you could fly right up to the station. They might not even notice that anything was wrong, until you board."
"Couldn't they just look outside and see the ship at that point?" Fuchs shakes his head. "That seems incredibly risky."
"They exclusively use external sensors to see outside their ships, so I've no doubt that one of their first changes to the station would've been to remove any windows and harden the hull. I won't deny that it's risky, but once you're that close the geth wouldn't risk firing on your ship. You could board the station. Plant charges. Disrupt their network. Whatever you liked. If you destroyed any communications equipment, you may be able to salvage their memory cores. They wouldn't risk wiping the whole station if they couldn't jump somewhere else. With that type of information, my research would jump forward decades." He started to become a little excited at the idea, though he hid it well, doing his best to maintain the air of focused professionalism he'd cultivated.
"That's a significantly more complicated and dangerous mission than what you first pitched. Probably more dangerous than leaving the ship out in the open and waiting for someone to come looking." Fuchs may not be a diplomat, but he knew when someone really wanted something. "I'd rather not put my ship into a fight that we might not even win unless we can avoid it. This isn't our fight."
The Admiral stared at Fuchs, letting the silence that had grown lay heavy on the room. Eventually, he relented. "We can cut the price of the work. Not by much, but by some. 10, 20% if I had to give numbers. If you're going to be working in the interests of the quarian people, the deal would be a much easier sell to the Admiralty Board. We could bring the timeline forward significantly, which would decrease the chance that you'd be investigated." He drummed his fingers on the table again as he thought. "I'm sure we could come to some sort of agreement that might tempt you."
It was Fuchs' time to do some careful thinking. Rael'Zorah had made a very convincing argument. If what he'd said about fast-tracking the improvements was true, and Fuchs had no reason to believe otherwise, then it actually worked out in their best interests to go along with this plan. On the other hand, he'd been skeptical about the geth since first learning of them, having only learnt about them from their creators, who'd been kicked off their home planet by them. Still, they hadn't expanded since, which seemed to indicate that there was more going on here than meets the eye. After all, if they were just compassionless murderbots, why not finish the job?
The inconsistencies didn't change the fact that the quarians, and the rest of the universe hated AI. He'd managed to hide the deep integration that AI had into the ship from Kenn, and it wouldn't be too difficult to convince the quarians that the AI onboard were just advanced VI. After all, Hyperion's AI didn't seem to quite line up with the local concept of how an AI was supposed to act. Still, he held out some small hope that perhaps some sort of contact could be established with the geth, if for no other reason than to eliminate the galaxies' premier cyberwarfare experts from their list of potential enemies. Brooks hadn't had a chance to properly stack their capabilities up against anyone capable of fighting back, but it stood to reason that they weren't going to be too far ahead of the actual AI.
Choosing to side against the geth might prove to be the wrong choice in hindsight, but if he were forced to choose, he'd pick the side of the living. Here he wasn't necessarily being forced to choose, but this was clearly a tipping point. Getting moving faster and retaining more of their limited reserves of material for barter was a good deal, but moving deep into enemy territory with nothing but experimental technology that wouldn't hold up for more than a few minutes by the admission of it's creator to protect them was just as risky as it sounded.
After thinking for what was already an uncomfortably long time, Fuchs realized that he wasn't a whole lot closer to an answer. Sensing the impatience from the Admiral, he stepped up his efforts to come to a solution. Boiling it down, the decision was between risking detection in exchange for not taking a side versus taking a side and putting themselves into a dangerous situation in exchange for a lower chance of detection and sundry other benefits.
He scratches the skin around his mask. Was it always that tight?
He really wasn't suited for these sorts of situations. Maybe he should've taken Rowley up on her offer.
"And… how far would you be willing to go to tempt me?" Fuchs asked quietly.
"That would depend on exactly what you found at the base. I'd happily waive a portion of the cost and expedite the upgrades in exchange for the peace of mind that I'd get from finding out that it was just a false positive, but you understand that in that circumstance we couldn't offer anything more. If, however, you found a functional geth base but were forced to retreat, we'd be able to consider a… shall we call it a finders fee? If you found a functional geth base and destroyed it? The quarian people would be indebted to you. I could assure you that you'd have a safe harbour for as long as I remain an Admiral, at least, though I can't guarantee anything beyond that."
"Those are some very nonspecific offers in exchange for me and my men risking very specific dangers."
"So far we haven't discussed any numbers at all. I don't know how much work or material your ship will take to upgrade. I don't know whether you'll find any geth. I don't know what the Conclave would approve, if they'd even need to be asked. There are too many unknowns for me to sit here and discuss specific numbers with a straight face. I can tell you that the quarians have been pushed around too long to even consider dealing unfairly."
Kenn's chest puffed up with pride. Fuchs ignored him.
"People have different definitions of what's fair, Admiral."
"They do." He steepled his fingers.
A plan passes through his mind. Obviously they'd only be able to operate so long without food. They were almost out of fuel already, and it wouldn't be much longer before they'd need to top up, though fortunately they could use the same fusion fuels as the locals, after a little more refining. They would need some way of bringing in supplies, spare parts, and all manor of other bits and pieces from across the galaxy. The quarians would make for perfect brokers.
"I would prefer to avoid merchants if possible, but we're going to need supplies at some point. You seem to be open to the idea of keeping our relationship under wraps, and I'm sure you could organize the occasional supply run for us."
"We don't have the funds to support an entire dreadnought on top of the rest of the Fleet. That's an unreasonable request." Rael replied, unamused.
"I never suggested that you'd be funding it out of pocket. At or around cost would work." Fuchs shrugged. "The truth is that you quarians seem like a technically capable sort, and I believe that… future endeavours could prove profitable for the both of us. It's important to me that I make the danger that I'm exposing my men to is worth it, but it's also important that we… cultivate a relationship."
"You're speaking like a volus, only with less hissing." Rael chides, to Kenn's amusement. "That sounds fair. It wouldn't be outside of our means to ferry supplies around, or deal with the merchants on your behalf." He pauses and shuffles in his chair. "I will admit that I'm curious. 'Future endeavours'. It was my understanding that you were limited to only that one ship. Future endeavours makes it sound like you have plans to expand on that."
"We can't expect the crew to be content living as glorified mercenaries." Rowley scoffed. "Every single one of them signed up to be more than petty pirates, and we have every intent of giving them something that they can be proud of."
"...What she said. We're not sure what we want to do. We've been here a little over a week." Fuchs admits. "Having somewhere to call home seems like a good start though, and there's no end of habitable planets lying around. So long as your definition of 'habitable' is reasonably flexible."
"Humans." Rael shakes his head. "Even when you come from another galaxy, you still can't sit still. I'm surprised you're considering staking out on your own. I would've thought that you'd gotten in contact with the Alliance."
"It's a long story. No-one on the ship is comfortable with that idea, least of all me."
"Very well. I won't pry." Rael stands, offering his hand across the desk. "No details, I know, but it's the best I can do for now. Do we have a deal?"
"On investigating the robots or upgrading our ship?" Fuchs stands, sensing that the discussion had come to an end one way or another. "Either way, if you're serious about dealing fairly, then yes, we have a deal." He reaches across, meeting the Admiral's hand halfway, shaking it vigorously. "I know it's in poor taste to threaten someone after making a deal, but I don't think I need to explain what our reaction would be if you try to screw us after this." He adds with a wide smile.
Rael chuckles. "I'd do the same. Now, I will have to ask you to leave. Normally I'd offer some hospitality in this situation, but the risk of contaminating a liveship is not one to be taken lightly. I hope that's not a problem."
"Not at all. We have… perfectly serviceable quarters on the ship." Fuchs supposed that was the most polite way of referring to them.
A/N:
Sorry for the delay, I took a short break from writing. Coincidentally, I've been playing the first game.
Thanks for the favourites, follows, comments, and all the rest. It's encouraging to know that people are enjoying it. Also, if you have any criticism to add, do feel free. Without criticism, improving takes longer, so I appreciate that just as much as I appreciate compliments (Though the latter is better for my ego).
Lastly, there's a chance that the rating for this fic may have to be bumped up to M. I'm pretty confident that it fits T best right now, but the Mass Effect universe isn't exactly the cleanest of places, and the people from Hyperion aren't the nicest. Things may get violent.
