…
"For eternally and always there is only one now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing that has no end."
(Erwin Schrodinger)
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MFV Kavna, March 5th, 9:32 AM, 2185
…
Walking through the hallways of Soran's ship again, an odd, yet comforting atmosphere hung over us as we walked towards the ship's meeting room. We were going there to talk with Mal, Soran, and another third party that Mal had refused to name. I wasn't sure how I felt about that in particular, but this was still a fantastic situation we found ourselves in.
By the end of the exodus, 12,183 quarian ships in total, roughly equating to four and a half million quarians, had left the Migrant Fleet, taking a significant number of resources with them in the process. This wasn't the totality of our support, of course. Some ships loyal to our cause chose to stay behind, either because they couldn't leave or they had failed to gain the full support of their own crews.
I couldn't imagine how difficult that kind of choice would be. Either you stay and betray your own personal ideals, or you force your crew into a potential mutiny trying to leave. Not much choice, looking at it from an outsider's perspective. I was eternally thankful to the powers that be that I wasn't forced to make that kind of decision.
Since the Admiralty's ships fled the system last night, we hadn't heard or seen a thing from them. While it could be interpreted several different ways, I choose to see it as a moment of reflection on their side. Considering the sheer number of ships they had "lost", I'd imagine this had thrown a big wrench into their gears, delaying their plans for a while. That wasn't even taking into account that we were now allied with the Geth AND the Raloi.
There was no denying that if and when conflict arose between us, it wouldn't go so well for either side. The Admiralty and its supporters had this strange aura of moral superiority about them, the kind that you could hear in their voices when they spoke. I'm sure that came with a certain level of zeal. We had a technological edge, but not counting our new allies, we were few in number and much less willing to engage with the other side.
"Hey, you OK?" Mara asked as we walked, looking at me with a worried expression. "You've got that "processing" look on your face."
"I'm fine, actually." I reassured, giving her a full smile as I looked back at Lenlo, Richard, and Lydia. "Just thinking about everything that's happened is all."
"We've got plenty to think about, that much is certain." Lydia jumped in with her mildly snide tone, her artificial eyes shining through her quarian facepiece. "I haven't been able to pick up much on the comm frequencies, so this'll even be a surprise to me."
"It's good to know that even with your own body, you still barge your way into other people's private networks." I joked, getting narrowed eyes through that opaque piece of glass. "Some things never change."
"It's good to know you're still an asshole. That'll never change." She immediately replied, getting me to roll my eyes and hull in amusement.
"Knock it off, I'm trying to finish this." Richard remarked with annoyance clear in his voice, still tapping away on his omni-tool even as we walked.
"What's got you so transfixed back there?" I questioned, knowing he wouldn't be working on something at a time like this unless it were important.
"I'm trying to remember how to set up a proper interface between organics and Geth." He answered without looking at me, adjusting his glasses for a moment. "They told me they were working on a new interface before, so I wanted to make sure I was ready to help in case they still haven't figured it out yet."
"I don't think we're quite at that point yet, but you just keep doing you." I shook my head as we finally found the meeting room, seeing Soran standing outside waiting for us. "Hey, you're a sight for sore eyes."
"I've become very popular all of a sudden." She said in an uplifted voice, sounding quite pleased with herself. "All I did was follow your orders, after all."
"You followed them far better than I ever could have reasonably expected." I returned, adjusting one of the straps on my mask. "You really couldn't have arrived at a better time. What happened when you found them out there?"
"There honestly wasn't much to it, I explained the situation with the Raloi, and they agreed to send reinforcements." She answered, obviously trying to be humble about the whole ordeal.
"There is something I'm curious about." Mara spoke with crossed arms, a suspicious look on her face. "I thought the Geth didn't have access to the Gravity Drive. How'd they get here so quickly?"
"I'm not sure how or when they acquired it, but they were fully equipped with the system already by the time Mal and Koris got there." She replied, sounding just as confused as Mara. "My best guess is that someone either gave it to them, or they've managed to reproduce the technology from watching us use it."
"Either scenario is plausible, though I imagine someone likely coordinated with them." Lydia piped up, looking between us. "If I had to guess, it was the Admirals themselves."
"I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met." Soran immediately said, looking intently at Lydia before turning to me. "You didn't tell me you took on a new crew member."
"Uh… in a manner of speaking." I replied with some nerves, realizing we still hadn't set up any kind of identity for her yet.
"Hi, I'm Lydia." She immediately greeted seconds later, holding out her arm for a handshake. "I've actually been around here for a while, but it's good to meet you in person."
Soran stared at her outstretched hand for a few seconds, tilting her head slightly before slowly accepting the gesture, shaking her hand carefully.
"Nice to meet your acquaintance." She said with an unsure tone, looking back to me. "Admiral, if you don't mind me asking, who is this woman?"
"You know Powell, right?" I asked, preparing myself for the worst as she nodded in confirmation. "Well, back when there was all the controversy over him, I may have lied to the Admirals, just a little bit."
Soran whipped her head around, looking for anyone else in earshot before walking forward.
"Are you telling me she's an A.I.?" She whispered, her body posture suggesting she was quite surprised.
"She's not an A.I., she's a seamless transfer of an organic mind." Richard immediately jumped in, standing shoulder to shoulder with Lydia as he spoke. "She is Dr. Lydia Nemo, sister of Dan Nemo. She's as much a person as the rest of us, down to the electrical pathways in her new brain."
"Sorry, but I'm having a little trouble following this." Soran shook her head, obviously confused. "I thought Powell was an A.I., how is she different?"
"Powell was the product of an imperfect process. He was my first creation back on Aldrin Station when I first started experimenting with brain-computer transfers." He explained in further detail. "Lydia was the first and last successful example of this process before my work was destroyed."
"Ah, so… she's been around this whole time?" Soran correctly guessed, getting Lydia to quickly nod. "And she's a Geth under this suit?"
"Nope, this is actually a custom platform Richard built for me as a gift." Lydia shook her head, removing the mask she was wearing, revealing her artificial face. "It doesn't have an epidermis yet, so it's not very nice on the eyes."
Soran tilted her head, getting a better look at Lydia's face before straightening herself out again.
"I'm sorry for my original tone." Soran apologized, holding out her hand so she could offer Lydia a handshake instead.
"Apology accepted." Lydia smiled, accepting the gesture with enthusiasm before popping her mask back on. "Now then, I'm sure there's loads of bright, smiling people inside that room just clamoring to meet us."
"Heh, let's go then." Soran chuckled, opening the door to reveal what Mal had kept from me.
Shepard, Hackett, Greg, Pistis, Tali, Amisen, Iolin, Koris and Mal were all here, among several key ship Captains. The room was packed to the brim with familiar faces, bringing a smile to my masked face.
"Admiral, welcome!" Mal greeted with outstretched arms, before we shook each other's hands. "We've had quite the turnout here as you can see."
"I've never been happier to see so many faces in one place." I nodded, crossing my arms as Shepard made eye contact with me, smiling and raising his hand. I returned the gesture, feeling a sense of comradery and warmth.
"Come, let us be seated." He urged, getting the smaller of us to sit down for what I expected to be an important moment.
"May I begin this meeting by greeting our most esteemed guests, Aspet Amisen and Sarapet Iolin of the UTT, and Pistis of the Geth Collective. This is certainly a day of days." Koris began with a fair bit of gravitas in his voice, holding his hand out to each of them as he spoke. "I'd also like to thank Admiral Hackett and Commander Shepard of the Systems Alliance for accepting our invitation on such short notice, especially given recent events."
"We're happy to be here, Admiral Koris." Hackett reassured with his usual, gravelly voice.
Koris turned to Mal, who stood up alongside him, both looking surprisingly nervous despite the tones of their voices.
"We've brought all of you here today to make what we believe is a… daring proposal." Mal spoke, holding both hands behind his back as he looked at each person in the room. "With the threat of the Reapers fast approaching, we face an enemy that is unlike anything we've ever seen, one that's existed for countless millennia. We can't hope to face this threat alone."
"We propose a formal, joint partnership between our people, one that'll see all of us working together towards the goal of defeating the Reapers and protecting our worlds from harm." Koris popped in, further surprising me. "With a confederation to hold each of us together, we may be able to prepare for the dark days ahead."
Murmurs broke out around the room as I focused on Hackett, knowing he'd likely be the first to say something after what happened back on the Rayya.
"Not to sound contrarian, Admirals, but we tried that back on Reach, and it didn't end too well." Hackett spoke up like I had predicted, leaning against the large table.
"That was different, sir." I spoke up, focusing directly on him as he, Shepard, and Greg turned to me. "That was a purely information-based relationship with a few resources thrown in here and there. It sounds to me like my colleagues are proposing something a little bigger and… more permanent."
"Admiral Michaels is correct, we wish to take this to the highest levels possible without violating each other's sovereignty. We want to build something today that'll outlast all of us." Mal supported, taking the eyes off of me. "We need to work towards building a world that'll be capable of facing previously insurmountable odds, both now and in the future. If not for us, but for the sake of our children and loved ones."
"This is an interesting proposition." Amisen spoke up, looking to Iolin who nodded in agreement. "With further cooperation with other species, we can grow our influence and become a true power in the galaxy. Despite the initial misgivings of our House Nakharars, Admiral Michaels has secured their full support for the foreseeable future."
I slowly nodded to Amisen, who quietly returned it with closed eyes.
"Still, would be be able to ensure the full cooperation of the Geth after everything that's happened recently?" One of the captains spoke up, sounding a little frightened based on his tone.
"If Pistis here is any example of what a true Geth is, then I believe they tell the truth when they've said they'll give us their full support in our war efforts." Tali spoke up, sat directly next to Pistis himself.
"We know creators are still unsure as to our motivations." Pistis acknowledged immediately after Tali had finished speaking, looking at all the quarians in the room in short order. "We wish to mend synthetic relations with all organics, including creators. To prove our consensus, we've accepted Creator Ysin'Mal and Creator Zaal'Koris' offer of peace and wish to commit full diplomatic, economic, and military support to their proposed confederation."
I could tell that Pistis had struck a chord, because no one spoke a word after he had announced the Collective's decision. To be honest, after all the negative things I've heard about the Geth over the years, it surprised me too.
So at this point, we had the support of the Raloi and the Geth, it was just Hackett, Shepard, and Greg left.
"While this is a very interesting proposition, and one that I agree with, it's not as simple as saying that I agree to join." Hackett began, standing up with both hands on the table. "The only way to approve such a partnership with the rest of the Systems Alliance would be to put the offer to a vote in Parliament, but I'm not sure Amul Shastri would agree to such a drastic move. If this offer was accepted, it could lead to further political fallout with the Council."
"So, how do we tackle this then?" Mal questioned in a lower tone, crossing one of his arms and holding his free hand to the underside of his mask.
I looked to the side, seeing Shepard and Greg whispering to one another as I raised my eyebrow.
"Sir, if I may?" Shepard spoke to Hackett, getting a slow nod in response as Greg stood up alongside him. "I think we might know a way to do this properly… a way that'll show both Parliament and the Council we mean business."
"What do you propose, Commander?" Koris questioned with genuine curiosity in his voice.
"What if we put together a small fleet of ships of different races, but of a single, unified banner? We take this Fleet with us to Arcturus, the Citadel, perhaps even the homewords, and announce our "partnership" to the rest of the galaxy in person while carrying with us a warning of the Reapers?" Shepard laid out, jogging the problem-solving part of my brain. "If they see that we've unified in the face of this coming threat, it just might be enough to sway them to the realm of reality."
"A good proposition, but it has a few problems." I pointed out, leaning back in my seat as I stared into space. "First, the Raloi have no ships, and if we just gave them quarian vessels, it would make them look weak and the rest of us desperate. Second, we've got the Admiralty several systems away, itching for a fight. If we leave it undefended for this "tour" of ours, it could spell potential disaster for the Raloi and the Geth."
"If need be, we could provide resources for building ships." Pistis immediately offered, bringing a smile to my face. "They would not be as high in quality as those used in our frontline vessels, but more than sufficient for long-term organic usage."
"That'll work, Dr. Nemo recently finished designing two ships he thinks will be good for fighting the Reapers." Richard blurted out as he turned to me, putting me on the spot. "The Dradis-class cruiser and Caprica-class dreadnought, right?"
"Well, I doubt we'll have enough time to construct something as large as the Caprica-class, but the Dradis-class could actually work." I agreed, pinching my chin for a few seconds as I processed my thoughts. "Dan did design it with the Raloi in mind, too. Nice tall hallways and intuitive interfaces that, in theory, should be easily learned."
"Aspet Amisen, Sarapet Iolin, what are your thoughts on this proposal?" Koris asked, looking over at the two as they whispered back and forth for a few moments.
"We believe this is acceptable, though we still wish for all the stipulations of our original agreement to be met." He agreed, getting nods from Koris and Mal.
"They will be, and more. You'll have your ships." Mal replied, getting head bows from the two of them. "We'll have to figure out the details later, but it sounds like we might be coming close to a plan."
"Mal, what about defense?" I refocused, wanting to make sure all the major points were addressed before we moved on.
"Well, assuming our new Geth friends don't mind staying in this system, we should be able to count on them for our frontline defense should an unprovoked attack occur." Koris theorized, looking over at Pistis as his head flaps shot up.
"We believe this is a good course of action." He nodded, looking between me and the two Admirals. "Our arrival did manage to ward off the Admiralty's forces, we believe our continued presence could act as a powerful deterrent."
"We should keep the Flotilla here too, apparently Captain Daro'Xen and her team are working on a "countermeasure" of sorts to use against your people, Pistis." I warned, looking at him as his aperture narrowed on me.
"We thank you for the warning, Doctor Michaels, but we are already aware of the Admiralty's "flashbang" weapon." Pistis reassured, sending a twinge through my brain. "We've taken measures to limit possible Creator interference in our affairs."
I turned to Richard, narrowing my eyes as he cracked a weak smile.
"You told them about it already." I guessed, the smile on his face growing more uncomfortable.
"Well… what do you expect me to do?" He shrugged, furrowing his brow.
"Nevermind…" I shook my head, knowing I'd have to speak to him later about this.
"You do bring up a valid point, Admiral Michaels." Mal pointed out, leaning against the table. "Considering how well you organized the Exploratory Flotilla upon your arrival, I see no reason not to give you full, formal command of it."
"You're giving command of a whole flotilla to me?" I questioned, not sure how to take this "promotion". "Are you sure you want to do that?"
"Don't worry, you'll still have access to all the resources you need and your team will be we provided with the best equipment available for research and development." Koris reassured, sitting down and crossing his arms as he looked back over at Hackett. "I am curious, Admiral… have you officially informed your leadership that ties to Reach have been cut?"
"No, and I think I see where you're going with this." Hackett nodded, putting both elbows against the table as he held his hands together and leaned forward. "I'll see to it that the resources are "redirected" to this system, if I'm correct about your intentions."
"Until we're ready to announce our Confederation to the rest of the galaxy, we'll act like nothing has happened between our people." Mal nodded, looking around at everyone. "In the meantime, we should draft an official document outlining the basis for this… well, I suppose it is a confederation."
"Heh… the Articles of United Confederation." I said off-handedly, before discovering several people had turned to look at me. "Oh, uh… that was a joke. I was referring to an old document from the founding of the United States of America back on Earth. The Articles of Confederation were the original "constitution" of the United States before being replaced by the actual U.S. Constitution in 1789. I was just pointing out the similarities."
"That's actually not a bad name…" Koris mused, tapping the side of his helmet in thought as he looked at Mal. "The United Confederation has a nice… ring to it, don't you agree?"
"Let's put it to a vote." He nodded, looking around at everyone. "Who here is in favor of calling ourselves, collectively, the United Confederation? Show of hands, please."
The whole room, with exception to three of the quarian captains, all raised their hands, voting in favor of my impromptu "name".
"It is settled then. We are the United Confederation." Mal proclaimed, bringing a small smile to my face.
I never imagined I'd see the day where we'd reach this point.
…
(United Confederation Vessel) UCV Discovery, May 2nd, 8:41 AM, 2185
…
Sitting at the table in the center of the crew quarters, I happily listened to the Thompson Twins' "Hold Me Now" among other 80's songs while eating my breakfast, happy that I finally had the ship "to myself" for the first time in nearly two months. I was relatively lucky, everyone except Mara had been dispatched to various places to work on their respective assignments, leaving just us here with our daughter. Most of the team, including Dan, Dimitri, Sira, and others were below on Turviss working closely with the Raloi on their rapid industrialization. Richard, Powell, Lydia and Biss of all people were on Rannoch with Koris and Pistis, working on another "initiative" as Mal called it. Everyone else, including Lenlo, Kirva, and Dixon were either currently talking some brief R&R or working on their own small projects together.
All in all, we were in good shape, getting things done.
"Here you go, spud." I smiled, putting a small spoonful of baby food in Elle's mouth. "Man, you're a voracious little baby, aren't you?"
She cooed in excitement, spitting out some of her food as she banged her hands playfully on the feeding tray. I couldn't help but smile at her unbridled youth and enthusiasm, innocent to everything we struggled with every day.
"What do you think she'll be one day?" Mara asked, leaning against one of the support pillars in her seat. "I think she'll be an author, or maybe a scientist like us."
"I hope she's good at math at the very least." I joked, trying my best to talk and keep the food in her mouth at the same time. "I actually hated math for the longest time, believe it or not."
"That's surprising, considering you and Dan's original line of work." She pointed out, taking a sip of her coffee before going on. "What do you think would have been done with the original, had you gotten it fully operational?"
"Well, our original goal was faster-than-light travel, kinda like Stargate, but functionally different in more ways that one." I reasoned, taking a forkful of powdered eggs and shoving it in my mouth. "Besides, even with our calculations, I doubt the technology could have been used properly. If what Miranda told me months ago is to be believed, it's way too dangerous."
"Hm, it's still a shame." She lamented, putting both elbows against the table and holding her head up as she leaned forward. "We still going to Rannoch today?"
"Yep, we're going to check on the status of those ships." I nodded, thinking back to the whole program as its progressed.
Despite my original prediction that the Caprica-class "dreadnought" was infeasible, the Geth insisted that not only could it be built with the resources available to them, but Pistis believed they might even be able to finish building it within the three-month timeframe with round-the-clock work by the Geth, who had no need for air, sleep, or food, only the occasional recharge at a hub station. Obviously, this drove Dan absolutely bonkers with joy, lighting up his face in one of those rare moments of sheer happiness. It wasn't often I got to see him make that face, and it forced me to begrudgingly announce to the whole Flotilla that I had indeed lost our original bet.
Looking more closely at his design specifications, I really had to admit Dan was an engineering genius. Even without my help, he managed not only to mimic the flowing, clean hull of the Galactica, but redesign the interior of the ship to suit the needs of everyone who'd serve aboard it. While "on paper" it only featured the bare essentials, in reality it used only what it needed. Despite its size, it would be far more nimble than other ships of its tonnage, and would be able to take quite a beating in an all-out slugfest if need be with our latest MES, kinetic barriers, and three meters of solid titanium armor.
What I found funny is that the purple, bluish hue of Geth ships was actually caused by a unique combination of chemical and heat treatments, adding to the strength of their ships but making it toxic to organics exposed to it for long amounts of time. As it turns out, materials suitable for "long-term organic usage" was simply a Geth-style slang term for ships built without the treatments. While it would have been nice to have the same materials, the ones provided to us for the Caprica and Dradis-class cruisers were more than sufficient for our construction projects.
The Caprica's lack of a spinal MAC didn't mean much, considering the number of weapon systems coating the vessel. It had forty dual 508mm Mass Accelerator turrets, sixty GARDAN anti-ship arrays, seven PLS projectors, twenty Disruptor missile pods, and possibly six of another "little invention" Dan and Dimitri had cooked up in private called the Sprint. It was a three-stage nuclear delivery system based off of old, Sprint ABM designs created by the United States Army. Their goal was to create a sort of "kinetic penetrator" capable of bypassing missile defense systems and launching their payloads into the interiors of targets, namely Reapers.
The idea is to get as much of the nuclear blast focused on the target as possible, instead of just damaging the exteriors of said targets. Due to the Reapers being synthetic in nature, we didn't believe the neutron radiation that would normally fry a ship crew would really damage a Reaper too much, therefore Dan and Dimitri concluded we needed to look at the problem from a different angle. For once, I agreed with them. Though I had my personal feelings regarding nuclear weapons, I'd put all my morals on the subject behind me if it meant saving people in the end.
This wasn't even mentioning the massive number of smaller craft the Caprica would carry into battle, along with a large enough ground complement to completely garrison a small world.
Alongside the Caprica, two of the Dradis-class ships were being built as the Caprica's support vessels, both technically classified as "heavy cruisers" due to their unusual size. Due to the far more refined Eezo the Raloi produced, we were able to "up-scale" the design a bit to take advantage of the improved power and weight limitations. They were armed with one reverse-engineered turian Thanix cannon, twelve dual 406mm Mass Accelerator turrets, eight GARDAN anti-ship arrays, two PLS projectors, and six Disruptor missile pods. They'd all be formidable ships once they were finished, that much was certain.
The Raloi were progressing quickly, with select groups of volunteers being taken off-world to be trained in the rigors of their chosen jobs. While I didn't believe the Raloi industrial base would be fully functional before the Reapers arrived, I took some solace in the fact that it would take the Reapers a very long time to reach these systems. We had boosted their capacity by setting up small mining stations on some of the other planets my team and I had discovered, thought we had to take caution doing so considering the threat the Admiralty's forces posed to us.
According to heavily-encrypted reports coming out of the Klenot Nebula from certain Captains, our exodus had, predictably, taken a large toll on the war-waging capacity of the Admiralty, forcing them to halt their plans and restructure before taking any further action against the Geth. No one was quite sure what their plans were now, considering that, in the wake of our actions, the Admiralty has apparently suspended the Conclave and re-declared martial law across the system. Even though I knew the Migrant Fleet was technically always in a state of perpetual martial law, this was at levels of control approaching that of the original Quarians who fled Rannoch all those years ago.
If the Admiralty was consolidating power at the expense of every other Captain in the Fleet, then they were truly far more authoritarian than I originally thought. I couldn't imagine what may have happened if we stayed.
My thoughts were interrupted as my omni-tool rang, showing a new caller ID I hadn't received before. Mara must have noticed my expression, because she gave me a cocked eyebrow as I slowly answered the call.
"Hello?" I spoke, mentally preparing myself for whoever or whatever this was.
"Sean? It's Dan. The other Dan." The voice spoke, jumping my heartbeat up. "Hey, I've been out of the loop the last few weeks. Do you mind explaining what exactly the fuck is going on? I spend some time in the Attican Traverse, and I come back here to see the Geth and Quarians mingling with one another."
"That's a long story, Dan." I said, not sure about getting into the major details.
"In that case, I'll let you spare me the details." He dismissed, sounding slightly short of breath. "Listen, we need to talk in person. There's something I came across that could possibly be important to defeating the Reapers."
Mara and I gave each other worried glances, both of us weary of our last interaction with Old Dan.
"Alright then, where do you want to meet up?" I reluctantly agreed, no idea of where this could be going.
"There's an isolated sector near here I passed through. I'll give you the coords." He replied as my omni-tool beeped, receiving said coordinates. "Hey, thanks again. I know this must still feel like something out of crazy town, but I promise it's worth it."
"I'll take your word for it. Be there soon." I finished as he cut the line, causing my chest to rise again as I looked at Mara. "This never ends, does it?"
"I suppose it doesn't." She shook her head, downing the rest of her coffee as I quickly consumed the rest of my eggs.
I guess we had another item on the agenda today.
…
A/N: Well, we're just moving along now, aren't we? Here we are again at the end of another chapter, with even further development than before. When I said things would start moving quickly before, I wasn't joking in the slightest. Hope you'll all leave reviews and let me know what you think so far, because things will start heating up soon.
I know last time I said I'd be 24 by the time this chapter came out, but it looks like I was wrong again. I need to stop making predictions like this.
As always, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Please leave a review telling me what you think of the story so far, and stay tuned!