Author's Note: "Guess who's back / back again / Doobies' back / Tell a friend..."
Interlude - My Generation
Citadel Evacuation Fleet
July 4, 2035
Councilor Nelyana stared at the motley assembly of Citadel refugees crammed into the evacuation ship. Though her mind was preoccupied with the invasion, she couldn't help but marvel at how the ship's evacuees reflected the changes in galactic society over the last few decades.
Geth, Quarians, and two new species, all in less time than it takes for a newborn asari to grow into a young maiden.
She found herself sitting next to a group of friends - an asari, a human, and a quarian. She thought that was a good sign. Since the arrival of the Link, she had done a lot of self-reflection, and concluded that the Asari Republics had abysmally failed at governing the galaxy. They were arrogant, cruel, and unjust.
And if they were going to win this war, they needed to do better.
She needed to do better.
"This is pretty hard, isn't it?" She asked as an opener. She wanted to be as polite as possible.
"That's one way of putting it," the quarian remarked sarcastically.
The Councilor took a deep breath. She didn't want to say this, but she felt like she had to.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?" The asari asked.
"Not to you. To them. We were unfair to both of your species, and we need to do better if we want to defeat the Reapers."
They stared. It was clear they were shocked by what she was saying.
"Better late than never, I suppose," the quarian muttered. "Thanks."
"So...what were you doing?"
"Smoking weed in the Presidium Gardens," the male human answered. "Me and Teyi here -" he gestured to the asari - "were stoned out of our minds. Nutra can't smoke weed, so I'm pretty sure she saved our asses."
Nelyana laughed. She needed to, and these people seemed nice.
"I was in a Council meeting. When I realized the Link, the Geth and all the rest were right all along..." she shuddered.
"We failed. Terribly. I will make sure we do better."
"Damn, I'm impressed," the human remarked. "Fair enough. The past is the past, and we all need to work together if we're going to defeat these monsters."
"Agreed." Her diplomatic training coming back to her, she held out her hand to the human as if for him to shake it.
"Let's beat them together."
The human grinned, and shook her hand. "Damn right!"