Another chapter! I'm spoiling you guys! Although in fairness this one is significantly shorter, I need to move the story along a little bit!
Captain John Grissom. SSV Belgrade
His mind spun as the darkness receded, the dull plating of the hull coming back into focus and the neat contours of his ship instantly recognizable, he felt woozy and more than a little shocked and judging by the swaying of the blue-skinned humanoid she felt the same. Unconsciously he wondered if every first contact had felt like this. On the bright side, he had a new understanding now, his own tongue and mouth felt alien. And he grimly noted that his marine group were now weapons up, pointed majoritively at the Quarians and the... other one. The humans obviously had the advantage here, and were heavily closed in around the ensemble. He coughed, gaining enough traction to rise up. "STOP! Hold…"
He winced, a headache sending splinters through his brain. "Hold and return to non-threatening positions marines…."
Sergeant Elena Larson, the head of the Marine contingent, didn't budge. "Something wrong sir. You just got probed by some alien gal and now you look all woozy, she could be controlling you…"
He coughed, feeling something wet running down his nose and he touched it. Redness coated his finger and he noted with shock that Darsi (How did he even know her name, it had come to his thoughts as though she was a colleague?) looked similarly dazed, although she didn't seem to be bleeding. "Sir you're bleeding…. Are you-".
Darsi spoke, and the entire room felt like it was holding its breath as her words came out in untainted English!
"I… I apologize. I was never taught very well of the joining, so it may have been painful, but it was the only way I could gain enough understanding to communicate". Elena froze, "You can speak… English?"
She gulped, rising up more stoically this time. "I can… Captain Grissom can also now speak Armalian, the language of my people".
"What did you do?"
She steadied herself, one of the Quarian marines helping her gain footing. "Our homeworld Thessia is rich in element zero, for this reason, our nervous systems are incredibly sensitive and are capable of utilizing mass effect fields to link with other nervous systems. In that instant, two minds merged and became a collective, but our consciousness did not. As such, I used it to gain knowledge of your language, and impart my own into your mind. With your permission, I must now impart that same information into… Admiral Han'Gerrel here so you may communicate".
Grissom wiped away the blood with a handkerchief. "At ease marines, they have permission".
Pressing several buttons on his suit, his 2 glowing eyes disappeared, before Darsi grasped his hand. "Embrace Eternity!".
Her eyes went a deep void again. And within a few instances, the two individuals separated, Han'Gerrel nodding to the woman before gesturing for the marines to take her back to the shuttle. When he spoke again, it came out as pure. Uninterrupted English, and his accent almost pulled a laugh from the young captain, as this representative of an Alien species spoke with an almost Yorkshire accent.
"A pleasure to meet you, Captain John'Grissom vas Belgrade, I am Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema". He nodded, shaking Han's hand and smiling. "Well. Considering you already know my name, I'm the Captain of not just this ship, but this fleet group, and I'm considered the representative for the human race until either Rear Admiral Shepard finishes her sleep cycle, or the Diplomats arrive. Are you the highest ranking officer for your respective race in the system?"
Han'Gerrel nodded, "I am indeed. As Admiral of the Heavy fleet, I'm technically one of the heads of my species, and as such have the authority to conduct first contact on behalf of the conclave."
John Grissom gestured to the exit. "Perhaps we should move to somewhere more befitting of a diplomatic overture. Instead of a military hangar".
Another nod, "As you wish Captain, though I would ask if my crew may accompany me, we would not want to cause any issues with your people?"
Grissom said something to his soldiers, this time in a foreign language, before gesturing for the much older Admiral to walk alongside him. Leading them out of the hangar, Han found himself investigating every possible inch of the human vessel. Rightly impressed by its architecture. The hallways were about as large as quarian vessel passages, but a sleek gun-metal grey with a set of striplights on the floor, and much brighter lights in the ceiling. Doors were every few meters down, reinforced, and often with marines standing guard. As they reached deeper into the ship, they approached what looked like an elevator, but horizontally.
"I do apologize admiral. A ship of this size has two centrally mounted tram systems to carry passengers and cargo from the bow to the stern. I felt that we could meet in the atrium for comfort". The tram was fairly efficient looking, and the journey took a couple of minutes. In that time Han decided to try and get some answers. "Captain, may I ask how large this ship is?" He already knew, but he wanted to try and gauge exactly what that meant. Grissom looked him over carefully, before answering. "The Belgrade is 520 meters in length, and 80 – 90 meters in width and height. She's named for a city on my homeworld. Belgrade".
"Interesting, you know compared to our vessels she seems impressive, a powerful cruiser combatant". The risk was a calculated one, buttering up to the humans on one hand, making them feel powerful, while also subtly inferring that it wasn't entirely unexpected. He needed to ensure the humans understood their position. Grissom smiled, "Indeed? Well the Belgrade is a common choice for small patrol or exploratory. Not quite as powerful as some of our ships, but none-the-less they proved their worth many times over".
That was troublesome, the humans clearly had plenty of experience in war then. "Has she seen combat?"
"A little. During Operation: Mosquito Net the Belgrade was attached to the 12th Scout Flotilla as a command ship. Vessels of her type and class are popular stations, but cramped as well".
"Cramped? You could fit dozens of quarian families within the corridors of your tram system alone!".
Grissom frowned, his eyes hardening. "I suppose, but why would you want to?"
Han sighed, it was time to break the ice with the truth. "Captain, there is a reason why we place such high esteem on vessels, ships and their captains. We…. Have no homeworld…"
The silence was astounding, Grissom looked horrified at the thought. "You've lost your homeworld? Was it natural disaster? We very nearly lost ours to runaway global warming".
He shook his head. "Before I explain more, I assume you noticed Darsi?"
"Yes. I was planning to ask what species was she. Is she merely a female of your species?"
He gulped, "Not entirely. You see she is an Asari, they… along with the Salarians and Turians are part of an interstellar alliance known as the Citadel Council. They govern much of civilized space."
John took it all in. Just yesterday, man had made first contact with an alien race. One with who they could communicate with. Then they found out that not only were there more than one alien race, but that they had already become some sort of unified governing body, meaning that in all likelihood, they could communicate well and had centuries or even millennia more experience than humankind!
"Approximately 391 years ago, we had just joined the Council, and were eager to prove ourselves. To do this, we began developing a basic virtual intelligence system to take over mundane work. Farming and mining. As we moved on, these intelligence' were given creative machine-learning algorithms and became more integrated with society. Farming and Manufacturing, large portions of the administrative and bureaucratic agencies of government allowed us to focus on arts and sciences, and yet more work was done to automate the VI networks. Mobile platforms became more and more capable. Synthetic fibers, micro-servos, and synthetic fluids became commonplace".
The tram began to slow, and came to a slow stop before the doors shifted open. After passing through an airlock and decontamination, the doors opened to reveal a beautiful atrium. It was twice the size of the atrium in the Rayya, with an artificial horizon, and warmth coming from large heaters in the artificial star in the sky. Blue lights, clouds, and trees. The floor had gone from a dull metal to a gravel pathway, with grass and several wooden benches. The doorways along the flanks of the room were shut, but he could tell that this was clearly a public room.
They moved through it quickly, and the Captain slid an ID card across a pad on the wall, opening a room to reveal a warm-looking meeting room. Wood and synthetic fabrics with a warm arrangement, the two parties slid opposite one another. The table was uncomfortable, having been designed for humans, but Han was happy to sit down.
"You were saying, Admiral?"
He snapped his head around from the one-way windows. "Hmm? Ahh yes. Well, we continued developing these VI networks. Anything that could be automated was connected in, and then…. The VI network asked us a question…. 'Does this unit have a soul?'…."
A sickening feeling began to take root in John's gut as he listened.
"We reacted quickly. The order was given to shut down the Geth… That's the name we gave the VI network. Under the Citadel Council accords, the development of any synthetic intelligence is expressly forbidden. Completely and utterly. The Geth rebelled and killed billions. The war was bloody and short, and we refer to it as the Geth Rebellions. In the end, we doomed ourselves. The Geth were integrated in every level of society, and we were forced to flee on-board our navy and merchant ships".
The silence closed in from all sides as the Captain was utterly floored by the revelations. This species…. Had lost their homeworld to an AI rebellion. But one question remained… "What about the Council?" But they both already knew the answer, even if John hadn't heard it yet. He could deduce it by the bitterness in Han'Gerrel's voice.
"They revoked our membership, closed our embassy, kicked us from the Citadel, and forbade us from colonizing any planets…. The 17 Million men, women, and children on board the Migrant fleet are the only remnants…"
Codex Entry: Recreation in Space
A navy is a complex thing. It cannot be summarized by just ships, and its influence is widespread. As such, the navy is an intrinsically complex and immensely sophisticated machine that must work in complete unison and synchronization, lest it allow the pervasive forces of darkness to shatter stability and civilization into anarchy. The human navy is built around a professional and well-trained volunteer and national service force that arranges itself according to roles. For this entry, we will not be discussing not the Marine Corps, nor the Fleet Air Arm, but instead the formation of the bulk of Alliance fleets. The first thing to understand is that there are two kinds of vessels in the Alliance navy… Ships and Boats.
Ships are defined as any self-contained mobile vehicle longer than 240 meters in length, while boats are the opposite. There are of course some exceptions. For example, the Alliance Navy has a number of merchant ships under its control, and mobile platforms and troop transports make up a portion of the Alliance fleet as well, (however, the majority of these lie under the purview of either the Commissariat for Naval Development or the Fleet Auxiliary Logistics Corps). The navy also classifies any stealth-equipped warships up to 890 meters in length as boats, and the reason for this relates to morale and the role of Political Officers (Sometimes known as Alliance Commissars).
Given the sheer size of space, a well-studied phenomenon of early space travel was its impact on the human mind, and 99/100 studies came to the same conclusion. This was, that mental needs were just as important as physical needs. For that reason, any vessel in the Alliance navy classified as a 'Ship', must be equipped with a full-sized atrium directly proportional to the size of the crew. This atrium must be able to simulate being outside in a wide open space to a sufficient degree… and ALL vessels… no matter their class or size… must be equipped with fully functional virtual reality entertainment systems and sufficient recreational facilities. Boats will usually have a small recreation room for this purpose, mid-sized warships usually feature a centrally mounted Atrium built below the main battery, while larger warships have multiple atriums, and large VR builds with networked game and entertainment systems. Ships of cruiser variant or higher also carry large educational libraries to ensure that crewmembers can improve their own skills while at sea.
This is also reflected in Naval Law. Sparring has been allowed for almost 2 centuries by this point, provided a neutral third party or officer is present to judge the sparring session and is even encouraged to deal with personal disagreements. Fraternization rules were lifted 30 years after, and most naval staff on a ship-of-the-line are given a small private quarter. These quarters are sometimes affectionately referred to as 'Lunchboxes', thanks to their small size, and feature nothing more than a bed, desk, chair, and screen for private time.
On small warships like torpedo boats and corvettes, or on stealth ships. The laws regarding single rooms and entertainment are somewhat more restrictive, with these vessels being difficult stations, but generally, they receive increased benefits for serving on these ships, and they are popular assignments for those who wish for more free-time. Corvettes and frigates in a fleet group will consistently rotate their crew in six-month stationing to ensure all can service on a larger warship, and unless in times of war or rebellion, it is illegal for a fleet of small boats to be stationed away from either planetary environment or large warships for more than six months.