Chapter 10 Deal
Admiral Shiisus Nurarix sigh as she step on to the bridge of her flagship the ARS Anova. It had been one year now, since Councillor Tevos contacted her and Spectre Zenis about the newly discovered machine race. As well as the task that Tevos had given her, to make all of the ship under her command to be un-hackable and train the crew to fight back hacker-attacks. For one year, she had been doing everything that she could in secret as to not raise to many eyes within the Republic military and amongst the political. In the end she could only really train her crew to be as good as possible under such a short time. As for tech for the ships she was less successful, she could only really ou fit her own ship and the two that would be in second command if hers was destroyed.
"Morning admiral."
"Morning."
"You alright ma´am?"
"Not really, I have bad feeling about this task councillor Tevos gave us. We haven´t heard a word from Zenis in over a year. Either she died during a mission, is busy elsewhere, which I doubt, or she went to that system and died like the others that entered it." Nurarix said with a sigh as she sat down in her chair and ordered her fleet to advance towards the relay.
/
Earth
/
Inside his office Morson sat and looked over the latest reports; ranging from crop yield to birthing status to rebuilding efforts, as well as Yorha and the status in the sol system. So far things seemed to be good, the crops were growing fine and the harvest would be more than enough for everyone. The women that were pregnant were in good health and thus their children would be too, Yorha unit H6 had reported. She had also mention that she wanted them to stay in the newly finish Luna hospital for the last 4 months of their pregnancy, which seemed reasonable to him. 37% of the city was now rebuilt and 4% of it was used as factories and laboratories where most of mankind were now working alongside the remaining Yorha S-unit. Commander White had reported that the newest Yorha units were now combat ready. Around 300 had been made, meaning Yorha´s combat androids were now numbering 554. Half of them were classified as B,G & F units while the second half consisted of A,D & E units, with the D units taking up the majority of their half.
Morson just put that report aside, he didn´t like that White were constructing new Yorha units as he thought it was unnecessary, but she begged to differ. And in the end, she was the commander of Yorha and the defence of Mankind and Earth, so he let her be for now. Instead he focused more on the report regarding the Sol system. He was a bit disappointed that there had been no new sightings of any of this so call council races. Same as it had been for the last 5 months, there was a cluster of mixed feelings in Morson´s head as he put down the report. If the council were leaving them alone, then it was good as he could focus on rebuilding mankind. If the council were gathering up troops for an attack, then it would be bad, very bad. These thoughts had been occupying his mind ever since White told him about the council. He wished to speak with them and make peace with them. He knew that they did not like AI and that White were against speaking with them, but peace would be best for both parties.
He sighed and pick up a glass and a bottle of old wine, he poured half of it and drank it slowly. Things were so complicated, and he wished that they could be easier, but unless he had a direct FTL communication to them, he could only sit and wait until one of their ships entered the Sol system.
As Morson went back to work, the door to his office opened and Commander White walked in.
"Commander, to what do I owe the pleasure."
"We got contact sir." White said as she opened the communication link between Morson´s office and the BUNKER. Morson could now see through the link of the BUNKER´s satellite that there were several ships just next to Neptune, which meant that they were still in range for the ships weapon that White had dismantled and placed on the other side of Pluto.
"Well, have we tried to communicate with them, or have they?"
"Not yet sir, I waited to tell you first. Do you still want to speak with them? If so, you should get the translator first and foremost."
"Yes, I want to speak with them, open communication." Morson ordered as he took out the translator neckless and put it on, White said that it would work, but he hadn´t tried it until now.
/
Earlier on ARS Anova
/
Admiral Nurarix was trying her hardest not to panic as her ship along with the whole fleet had been hack and stop. She was just waiting for the air to be sucked out or the ship to self-destruct. But as seconds passed by, she started to calm down a little.
"Admiral, what are your orders?"
"We just wait, that´s all we can do." Nurarix said as the screen lit up and she saw a face. All the Asari on the ships were seeing the same thing. A pale face, that resemble an Asari, only this one seemed to be more masculine along with fur on top of its head and around their mouth.
*So this is the machine race, by the goddess they look like organics." Nurarix thought to herself.
"Hello, can you hear me? Can you understand me?"
Silence was on the bridge, as none of the Asari dared to speak. They were just shocked over what they were seeing. Eventually Nurarix got up from her seat and spoke." Yes, we can hear and understand you clearly."
"That´s good. You are probably wondering who I am, and what I want. Well let me tell you. My name is Kelvin Morson, I am a human and the leader of mankind. I know you by your race only, which would be Asari, if I am correct. And your species along with the other races of your council, has had some run in with the protector of mankind, Yorha. You call them machines, they are not, they are androids." Morson said.
Nuraix along with the rest of her crew were stunned and confused over what was happening. She was expecting to die and yet here she was having a conversation, with a human? Was he a machine as well or an organic, or did he think he was organic and actually just machine? Her head was spinning even as she stood.
"Sorry, this is just a bit too much right now for me to handle. How do you know all this about us, and the council?"
"Yorha has been collecting data through your ships after they killed the aggressors in self-defence. Look I don´t want to talk about this with you, I want to speak with your leader, the councillors. I want you to set up a link between your ship and this link that I am currently using. I want to make peace talk, and before you say anything thing else. This is the only way in whether or not you and your crew get to leave or not."
After hearing these words, Nuraix´s crew started to debate amongst themselves of what they would do. Some said that they should just do as the human said while other said that they should cut the communication and try to escape. But it all fell onto Nuraix´s decision, and she chose to link up communications. It took some time but finally they managed to link her ship´s communications along with Morson´s, and they sent a signal to the council back at the Citadel.
On board the Citadel, Tevos, Sparatus and Valern were about to start the public hearing from the various ambassador, when they noticed the message.
"Who could this be, secretary dismiss this call we are busy." Sparatus said and the secretary dismiss the call, only for it to come back the next second.
"What the,,,block it." Tevos order. The secretary did so, yet the message still got through, piping for them to accept the call.
"Sigh, seems that we need to take it after all. Secretary put all the meetings on hold for the moment, this should not take more then just a few second." Sparatus order and the secretary did so, before she let the message be answered.
The three councillors were met with an Asari first and were about to ask her what was so important, when a new image emerged next to her. And this one was someone that they did not recognize. It did look like an asari, a pale one and it look like that of the machines from that unknow system. Only it looked masculine rather than feminine and its eyes seems to be livelier.
"Hello, can you hear me and understand me?"
This brought the councillors back to reality.
"Yes, we can hear and understand you, and I think I speak for all of us when I ask, who you are and what do you want?" Sparatus said.
"A fair question, my name is Kelvin Morson, I am a human and the leader of mankind. I am here to discuss peace terms regarding your military clashing with Yorha, humanity's protector."
This made the whole chamber go quiet. The councillor ordered everyone out, the guards, the secretary, the spectators. Only them and the keepers were left in the chamber.
"So you are the race that build those machines, that have been an issue." Sparatus said while Tevos was holding back from screaming out in anger.
"Androids, not machines and yes, we did make them after our own image. But this is not why I wanted to speak with you, I wanted to discuss peace."
"Peace? YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT PEACE, YOUR MACHINES HAVE KILLED HUNDREDS OF COUNCIL SOLDIERS, YOU ARE A DANGER TO THE WHOLE GALAXY BY LETTING AI WALK AROUND FREELY AND YO-
"THAT´S ENOUGH Tevos. You stay quiet until we have heard everything this human has to say." Sparatus jumped in.
"You ca-"
"I CAN and I will, now. Human, how come haven´t contacted use earlier? why have you let your machines kill our troops? Why wait till now for all this talk about peace?"
"I will tell you councillor if you let me do so." Morson said. "10000 years ago humanity was attacked by an unknown alien race, they used machines to attack us in our weakened state. Humanity had been struck with an unknown virus wiping out most of us, just a few years before the alien attack. The 5000 that remained were sent into cryo sleep on our moon, but before we left, we created Yorha. A military version of our normal androids, Yorha was tasked with fighting for humanity´s safety and wake us up once the war was over. That war ended 6 years ago, around 1 year ago, you discovered us and we discovered you. Humanity was brought back out of cryo sleep only 5 months ago. As for the reason to why I haven´t contacted you, is due to lack of long range communications to the citadel, we had to hack one of your ships that entered into our system. And it so happens to be today, so in an odd way I guess I should say thank you for sending another fleet towards us."
Hearing this made Sparatus and Valern look at each other while Tevos tried to avoid eye contact.
"This might be odd to say but we haven´t order any fleets to attack you, in fact we just have a fleet on the other side of the relay, as a mean to make sure that other people don´t just fly through and enter your system. As well as to warn for us if you were attacking. We have seen a few of the recordings, in which one of your Yorha units told our troops that they just wanted to be left alone. And so we have done that for better part of the last 6 months." Sparatus said.
"Then why is there a fleet here?"
"Ehm, sorry but if I may say something." Nuraix said as an image of her appeared next to Morson´s image. Tevos started sweating nervously and tried to make herself appear smaller.
"Councillor Tevos ordered me and a Spectre named Zenis to attack the humans and Yorha 1 year ago, stating that it was too dangerous to have a race of AI so close to the council's space. That´s why my fleet is here, and I suspect that Zenis might have moved in here earlier and died. But I have no evidence beside her not being here."
"There was an asari in a ship that was coming here on the same day as we awoke humanity. We killed them as they were a threat to humanity." Commander White said as she stood next to Morson and her image was shown. When the councillor saw her face, they could feel a shiver go down their backs. That pale face, and those lifeless eyes that they had seen in the recordings would make anyone shake in terror.
"Yes, anyway council should we start talking about peace terms." Morson said.
"I still refu-
"Silent Tevos, you no longer have the right to speak on the council's behalf. Me and Valern out voted you in regards on what we would do with these new aliens and you went behind our back and ordered Spectres and your own people's military to invade instead of waiting. You have abused your powers as a council member and thus I am stripping you of the title and rank, this will be the last time you will get to have any impact on what happens between us and humanity. So choose your words wisely and for spirits sake shut up." Sparatus said.
Tevos just look at him in disbelief before she quietly looked down.
"So what is it you want in exchange for peace."
"I want the council to stop coming to our system, in exchange humanity and Yorha will leave you alone as well."
"That´s all?"
"Yes"
"Then we can acc-
"If I may say something." Tevos said.
"I thought I-
"I heard you Sparatus, and as you said this is the last time, I will hold any kind of power that can change things in the universe. Then so be it. Mister Morson, are you aware of a race called the Protheans?"
"Just what little from what I have read through the data tabs. What about them"
"They left this galaxy 50,000 years ago and all life within and out of the council has lived off their technology. I do not know whether humanity has been doing so or not, but if there is a chance that one of your planets could hold any kinds of Prothean technology, then I beg you to share it or let a council scientist team be part of documenting them.
"Absolutely not." Commander White said.
"Commander, this is not your decision, it is mine." Morson said.
"Sir with all due respect, it is my decision. We cannot let these aliens near humanity, there is too much risk that they can harm you. You along with all of humanity have been asleep for over 10,000 years. Your immune system is very weak at the moment; just a touch of these aliens could be harmful to you, even breathing next to them could be dangerous."
"Commander you are over reacting, they will not harm us, cause whether we do find any Prothean tech, Yorha will be the one running the facility."
There was silence as everyone looked at Morson´s image. "Pardon sir?"
"If we do find something, most likely it will be on another planet then earth. Then Yorha will be the once that set up and runs a station or facility in humanity shoes. Besides a few transports we don´t have that many space craft that can be used by humanity. Yorha on the other hand have more, and you are not in need for space suits or that much air in order to survive. Meaning that you can build a station faster and with less resources." Morson said.
"I see sir, in that case I guess I can accept."
"Mm, what about the council? Do you accept and want what Tevos is asking for?"
Sparatus and Valren were thinking about what Tevos had said, the council was always interested in discovering new sites for Prothean artifacts.
"We can agree, but only if we get to send a small security team."
"That´s understandable; will that be fine Commander?"
"That is,,,,acceptable."
"In that case, council, admiral, I think this will be all. I only ask the admiral to give us some blueprints over the long FTL communication, so that I can contact you if we were to find anything regarding the Protheans."
"That is fine."
"Well then, goodbye." Morson said as his and White´s images disappeared along with Admiral Nuraxia.
"Well I guess then it is time for us to finish things up here; wouldn´t you agree Valren?"
"You are right Sparatus, I have already called for the guards to come and get Tevos."
As on quote, two Sec guards walk into the room. Both councillors told them to arrest Tevos on charge for abuse of power and going against order from the council itself. The guard took her away as the two remaining councillors would need to address the public on what was going on.
The following days would be rough for both Primer Morson and Councillors Sparatus and Valren, in addressing the world about each other existence.
(A/N, hello everyone I am back after a long vacation and finishing up my uni work. Also I found a beta reader which is why this chapter took so long. For those that wonder what is wrong with the grammer it might be due to british english rather then american english. I grew up with british english and that is what my beta reader is from. So hopefully this should fix things, hope you are all doing well and enjoy these last day of summer.)
