Gifts, Alliances and Faith
Tali walked nervously next to her father as they boarded the Qwib Qwib in preparation to meet the humans. The humans were doing them a great service even now, their engineer and medical ships have moved in to help the ailing Migrant Fleet. The medicine they were using to help them was going to save a lot of lives.
Raan for one would have most likely died from an infection but the humans had some extremely effective antibiotics. Now Raan stood at the table with her left arm in a sling and a runny nose. With the kind of wounds she suffered she should have been laid low by an infection ravaging her body.
"I can't believe we're alive…" Koris said into the quiet.
"Yes, ancestors preserve us, our people live another day." Raan said.
"Good job Tali, your idea just saved us… all of us…" Rael said as he placed a proud hand on her head.
Tali looked around the room to see approving looks and nods from the admirals, a new found respect in their eyes.
"Th… thanks…" Tali said nervously.
"Be proud Tali, you kept your nerve when all of us were struck with hopelessness. I see your father in you." Gerrel said with a light chuckle as Tali looked away embarrassed.
At the sight of the bashful Tali the admirals all let out small chuckles. Well the worst has passed, at least now the Quarians had a chance. What the Humans just did was more than any of the other races have ever done for them.
"So what do you all think of the Humans?" Koris asked thoughtfully.
"Militarily capable, daring, bold, fearless." Gerrel said.
"Agreed." Rael said.
"They also show more compassion than I expected. From what we have heard the Humans were cold and brutal." Raan said.
"They are brutal Raan, the Batarian Fleet is gone, their fleet is now slag. That wasn't war, that was slaughter. The Turians must have met a similar fate all those years ago." Gerrel said.
"And the Batarian's aren't? The Salarians with their genophage, the Turians with their expansion as the grasp for the stars and the Asari hiding behind their false smiles. Don't even get me started on the Krogan. The only races that seem amicable are the Hanar and the Elcor." Raan replied.
"The Hanar are just big stupid jellyfishes and the Elcor are too slow to understand what is going on half the time." Xen said with a scoff.
"Xen…" Koris chided.
"What? Have you ever tried speaking with an Elcor? They talk at a glacial pace, a conversation with them is like pulling teeth." Xen replied.
"Yes, they gain nothing from helping us. With a fleet like that what can we offer? That was charity." Rael said with a nod.
"Charity… never thought we would ever receive it from another race." Raan muttered.
"What do you think Tali?" Rael asked and Tali jumped. They wanted her opinion? She hasn't even finished her pilgrimage! Part of her was still wondering why she was even here…
"Erm…" Tali said stiffly, without the threat of imminent extinction, Tali felt the courage she had a few days ago fade away.
"Don't worry Tali, you helped get us here, maybe you picked up something we didn't. You weren't commanding a fleet afterall, you had more room to observe." Raan said kindly.
"Well… they didn't seem proud…" Tali began nervously.
"Hmm… yes now that you mention it… the dripping disdain was noticeably absent from the Humans." Xen said as she cupped the bottom of her face mask.
"Yes, any other race would be arrogant, we are at their mercy after all." Koris added.
"Another good sign I suppose." Rael admitted with a nod.
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of heavy footfalls. By heavy foot falls, Tali meant really heavy foot falls. It sounded like a mini mech was walking down the hall.
"You are too soft brother, protocol dictates that we wait for the Batarians to arrive first before informing the Quarians. You know the policy of non interference." a female voice said.
"This isn't just a simple fleet sister, this is a home of a species. Every ship lost is another precious piece lost to the void. The rules were made to ensure we don't unnecessarily antagonise the aliens if they should ever return to Sol." that familiar voice said, Tali recognised that voice as belonging to John Shepard.
"The Batarians were hostile from the start, if anything we just saved a friendly species." John finished as the pair turned a corner into the sight of the admirals.
Tali did double take as she took in the heavy and ornate armor that they wore. They looked like they were wearing exo suits, standing just over two meters tall. Their heavy foot falls clunking against the steel floor of the ship. Tali then noticed they each carried a sword at their waists, melee weapons were rare nowadays. Ranged weapons beat melee everytime, perhaps they were ceremonial?
Another interesting feature of their armor was the great flowing red cape that flowed from their backs. The cape was pulled down over their shoulders and tucked into the belt. Around their collars were white furs and the capes reached down to their ankles. Their suits were obviously heavily armoured, with stout chests designed to take some heavy hits. Their helms had an ominous design with two slits like glowing blue eyes. Their armor was painted a dark navy blue with gold accents and ornaments. Overall it looked like a master crafted piece of armor.
"Ah Admirals, good to finally meet you in person." John said as he entered the room, having to duck his head slightly as he entered the door.
"Hello Lord Commander. I would like to thank you once again for your aid, the Quarian people owe you a great debt." Koris said as the other admirals inclined their heads slightly in thanks.
"There is no need for thanks, this is my sister, Lady Commander Jane Shepard, she commands Battlefleet Defiance from her flagship the ISV Calais. I am Lord Commander John Shepard, I lead Battlefleet Herald from my flagship of the ISV Normandy." John said.
The admirals proceeded to introduce themselves one after the other. John and Jane nodded respectfully for each introduction.
"And this is my daughter Tali' Zorah nar Raya. She was the one that gave us the idea to come here." Rael said and Tali nodded nervously at the pair.
"Is that so, a daring choice. But as they say fortune favors the bold." Jane said with a smile in her voice.
"So it would seem." John replied with a chuckle.
"Now then on to business, what is the status of your fleet?" John asked.
"We took heavy damage, the estimates are still coming in but we think we lost a third of our population. We expect about 11 to 12 million of us still remain." Raan said, the pain evident in her voice.
"We will repair what we can and… and…" Koris said as he faltered.
"We will leave… as agreed." Gerrel said.
"Where will you go? This was a last resort, no?" John asked.
"We… we will discuss as our repairs progress…" Raan replied.
"My sympathies admiral." John said with a nod.
"Thank you Lord Commander. We will try to be out of your space as soon as possible." Raan said.
"Admiral, I have a confession to make. The first correspondence was from me, and I lied on one part. We truly do not need your credits, or your resources, or your technology nor your trade… but you do not have to leave… and we are willing to help you with your reconstruction efforts." John said and Tali's eyes widened at those words. The other admirals as well visibly balked and the marines standing guard all twitched.
"I… but why?" Raan asked breathlessly.
"I am sure you are aware by now we are very technologically advanced. Our technological strength does not only include making big ships and mounting big guns on them. We also are tapped into every communication system in the Galaxy.
We know much about the Galaxy from which we decided to isolate ourselves from. We know about the Geth, all of the Asari's dirty little secrets, the Turian fleet composition and state of the Salarian's precious genophage. Also I would add that their sterility plague is looking a little worse for wear." John said calmly.
"We isolated ourselves because we knew what would happen if the other races caught wind of our strength. They would distrust us especially since we have no inclination to conform to their naval treaties. This may inevitably lead to conflict, thus we chose to isolate.
But we also understood we would one day need to join the larger galaxy. So we were preparing for that eventuality. We waited until we were powerful enough that our fates could be decided by us and us alone. Far preferable than being at the mercy of someone else wouldn't you agree…" John said and the admirals gave each other looks. The Quarians knew all about living at the mercy of others…
"We knew fear would be a significant barrier to galactic diplomacy, so we needed allies. One of the simplest ways to get good will is simple… gifts." John said as he scanned the room.
"We have been preparing to help you for years. You will find we have food and medicine suitable for your dextro biology. So you do not need to worry about starvation and further death due to lack of supplies. What we have, we have to share…" John said.
"I… I don't know what to say…" Koris said, his voice shaking, he sounded like he was on the verge of tears.
"There is more, we know you have been scavenging for ships for many years. Some of your ships date back to the morning war. We… have some old vessels that are quite modern by the standards of the wider galaxy, perhaps even advanced to the standards of the wider galaxy." John said as he reached into a compartment on his armor and took out a small data pad.
"You don't mean… you want to give us ships?" Raan asked.
"Yes… we have this particular type of vessel, we built it to one day travel to the Andromeda Galaxy but we scrapped the project. Due to the nature of the journey, the ship was designed with one thing in mind. Resilience against the ravages of time…
We shelved the Andromeda project about twenty years ago, so you could say that ship is brand new, relatively speaking…" John said as he placed the data pad on the table and a holographic display appeared showing the ship.
Tali knew he was right, a journey to another galaxy would take at least a few hundred years. That ship would need to be reasonably functional when the colonists eventually woke up from their cryo sleep. So twenty years is nothing for a ship like that. It might as well be fresh off the dry dock…
"This is an Ark, it was supposed to house about 500 000 colonists but that was including all the equipment for a journey that is no longer required. We have retrofitted it to fit your needs, so it can comfortably fit about a million and half of your people if you want to push it to perhaps 1.8 million? The cryosleep zones and the automated maintenance zones were rather space intensive. If you decide to retrofit it further… perhaps two and half million?" John said as the Admirals looked down in awe at what in their minds was a state of the art of the ship. A ship like this would make even the Asari green with envy. Destiny Ascension eat your heart out…
"It comes with gardens and beaches that we have converted to the likeness of Rannoch to make living more comfortable along with other amenities. A hospital, a hydroponics area for growing your food, I noticed one of your three liveships where you grow your food was lost so that should take some of the load off. These hydroponics bays can feed the entirety of the ship very comfortably, we also have an area for livestock and fish hatcheries so meat and fish is on the table again.
There is also a small carrier bay for storing fighters and shuttles, a cargo hold with the tonnage of your average large terminus freighter. In addition there is a mining facility in the event you need to do any mining operations. I think the rooms might be a little… large… as compared to what you are used to but I think you'll manage." John said with slight mirth in his voice.
"This is… I don't know what to say. You are just… giving this to us?" Raan asked as she leaned on the table for support.
"Yes, also there are weapons mounted on it as well, the kind we mount on our ships so that should make your fleet easier to defend. The Turians will be green in the eyes when they see your new guns." John said as he calmly moved on.
"I… thank you… truly…" Rael said as he grasped John's armoured hand.
"Yes… this will help greatly… immeasurably… but we will need to…" Koris said.
"Yes we will need to decide who gets to move into this… splendid vessel…" Xen said.
"Those that don't will not be happy… this is too much of an upgrade… it will be like living in hell while others live in heaven…" Raan muttered.
"Admirals, please calm yourselves. We weren't going to colonise another galaxy with just one ship…" John said with a chuckle.
"You mean…" Tali muttered as she turned to look at John.
"We have six of these arks, they were going to be scrapped or used as vacation resorts but my forebears decided you could probably use it better. So that's six arks, capacity about 2 million each so that's everyone I think… you said about 11 to 12 million remained? So this should be more than sufficient." John said.
Tali was a step away from fainting, this changed everything. They would have empty rooms! EMPTY ROOMS! ROOMS! EMPTY! EMPTY ROOMS! Living space was like gold in the flotilla…
"Of course for such a prized set of vessels, there are many who would covet them… so may I suggest you focus on retrofitting and getting your warships back up to full strength." John said.
"Yes of course, this is amazing…" Raan said eagerly.
"Excellent, now then I have one last thing to offer. This is a… deal if you will. You see we have a lot of materials and a lot of ships but we don't have enough manpower to crew them. We have some warships idle and empty. We could give them to you as well but we want something for them." John said.
"That is?" Rael asked.
"A mutual defence treaty. You will not be dragged into our wars of aggression and we will not be dragged into your wars of aggression. But if either of our peoples are attacked we will come to each other's aid. There is also one other condition…" John said as he cast his gaze over the admirals.
In truth this was ruse, John knew his forebears were shrewd. With such prized ships on the table the Quarians would never turn down this gift. But once they have moved into the ships it will slowly begin to sink in that everyone will want these ships. That realisation will make them move towards accepting the deal he was proposing.
"What is the last condition?" Koris asked, his voice up a pitch. Tali guessed all these ships were making him excited.
"We have a plan for the Geth and Rannoch. Just as we had a plan for you. You will not attempt to retake Rannoch until we have at least attempted our plan. If our plan succeeds you will have your homeworld back and not a drop of blood will be spilt. If it fails, you may do as you wish." John said as he leaned on the desk, his armor causing the able to creak.
"That plan is?" Gerrel asked and John laughed lightly.
"Admiral we have only met, all in due time. We give you these gifts as a show of trust, we give you your futures, your lives, your continued existence. Now will you trust us with your homeworld? I promise you will walk your homeworld again if you allow us to carry out our plan…" John said as he gazed at each of the Admirals in the room.
"Will you trust us? As we have trusted you?" John said.
"Can we be allowed to confer before we make this decision?" Koris said.
"Of course, for now let us go to your new ships. We should get your people settled in." John said amicably as he stood back up and straightened his back.
Tali somehow knew he was smiling under that metal helm…
