Standard disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, nor any other content that you recognise. Some characters and systems are original creations. I am receiving no money for my work.
My thanks to HTM for sorting through my spelling and grammar.
This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Paddy Ashdown, 27.02.1941 – 22.12.2018. A great man who I had the honour to meet.
XNAV: 534.746 / 893.782 / 12.29 – Attican Traverse
2113.03.27
Shala'Raan vas Tesleya crept cautiously across the vegetation-filled dome closest to the bow of the derelict. As the Tesleya didn't have a compliment of Migrant Fleet marines, the Captain had ordered the crew with the most 'ground' experience to the airlock and split them into two teams.
One was under Ensign Rael'Zorah's command. He headed towards what the heat distribution and density scans predicted was the derelict's engine room. The other was hers, and as the Tesleya's XO, she had overall command of the boarding party.
Lieutenant Raan called out over the private commlink between the two of them, so that she could get a true idea of what was going on without worrying about affecting the morale and trigger happiness of the boarding teams.
"Rael, report."
"You were right about the new hull construction. It's weeks old at most," Rael'Zorah replied distractedly. Shala was certain he was still expecting an ambush at any moment.
"This place is massive. We could vastly expand our light manufacturing industry in here, finally we wouldn't have to beg, borrow, and steal guns for the marines."
Shala'Raan allowed herself a small smile at her friend's constant militaristic focus. Undoubtedly the Conclave and the Admiralty Board would expand the flotilla's manufacturing capacity in that space, but it wouldn't be producing guns. Those and starship weapon components were some of the few resources that the Migrant Fleet could always source from somewhere else.
"What's going on in the domes? Is like we suspected? Vegetation?" the junior officer questioned.
"Yes," Shala'Raan replied curtly to her friend, looking up at the turian fruit tree in front of her. "And it's all dextro. I don't like this."
The quarian Lieutenant continued to look around, amazed at the variety of vegetation. It had been arranged in a beautiful yet efficient pattern, with small paths cutting deep into the vegetation. Whoever walked on those paths wouldn't even notice that they were on a spaceship, that's simply how thick the vegetation was. It left them with nothing but plants around them and the stars above, allowing them to completely forget that they were on a ship, if only for a moment.
"It's too perfect. It has to be a trap."
One of the crewmembers on Lieutenant Raan's team spat, looking at their omni-tool. "It's not just dextro. Even though it's mostly turian vegetation, it's all edible for quarians, and I do mean all of it. Even the moss used as ground cover is digestible, and a source of nutrients, though I doubt it would be pleasant."
Shala'Raan signalled her team to continue to skirt the perimeter of the dome. She had no intention of falling into an ambush in the thick vegetation.
"We're closing in on the bridge. Rael, anything?"
"We just entered engineering, the doors were wide open. My tech specialists are doing their thing, but at first glance I'd say it's a remarkably primitive setup. It's so inefficient I think a couple of my team are going to start crying from despair."
The humour infecting his voice annoyed the senior officer.
"Stay sharp! They might be about to ambush you at any moment!"
"Who, Lieutenant?" Rael'Zorah replied pragmatically. "You know I'm suspicious and always up for a fight, but whatever this is, I don't think it's a trap for us boarders. Not anymore. Engineering is the most vital area of any ship, more important than even the bridge, and we've been allowed to just walk in here, even when there were literally dozens of places to ambush us en-route from the docking bay."
Shala'Raan frowned behind her mask as Ensign Zorah continued.
"My team is telling me that everything is in standby mode, nothing's locked down. It might still be a trap that's set to explode if we bring it back to the fleet, but it's not a trap for us, and I'd stake my life on our engineers being able to track down any sabotage before we let it anywhere near the flotilla. At the moment, I'd say we need answers as to who left this potential gift for us, rather than who's trying to trap and kill us."
Hearing even the terminally cynical, shoot-any-problem-in-sight, can't-trust-any-aliens, Rael'Zorah openly state that this ship might just be a gift sent Shala'Raan's paranoia into overdrive.
"I'm at the bridge, the door is open and there's light coming from inside."
"There was nothing active in engineering, maybe you'll finally get some answers."
"Do you still have the charges, Ensign Zorah?" Lieutenant Raan snapped out, her paranoia and irritation peaking.
"Ready and primed, ma'am."
"6 minutes, standard pass phrase. If you haven't heard from me, blow the ship and retreat to the Tesleya if possible. Take no chances with the safety of the Migrant Fleet."
"Never would, ma'am," Rael'Zorah replied resolute.
Shala'Raan entered the bridge of the derelict alien vessel.
A massive glass viewport dominated an entire wall, giving the bridge crew an unparalleled view of the cosmos. It reinforced her conclusion that this ship was some sort of luxury liner.
But the viewport wasn't the source of the light.
At the centre of the viewport, outlined against the stars that were a quarian's constant companion, a blue hologram was looking out into the galaxy.
Shala signalled to her team, and they spread out around the bridge as she cautiously approached the hologram. 2 minutes had passed by the time her omin-tool issued a shrill warning.
There was a motion detector sensor just ahead.
Shala'Raan took a deep breath, raised her shotgun, reinforced her kinetic barriers, and deliberately triggered the motion sensor.
The hologram turned around. It showed an alien that seemed to be a mix of quarian and asari, combining a quarian's hair and ears with an asari's body structure and normal eyes.
Shala'Raan and her boarding team only had a moment to study the alien hologram before it began speaking to them in perfect turian.
"Greetings. I am a recording of the human Anita Goyle, ambassador of the Systems Alliance. This ship, the SV Gaia, is a gift from the humans to the quarians, and is given without condition. However, we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with you and establish diplomatic relations. I will be at the following co-ordinates for seven 24 hour periods. My ship is unarmed, and I will be escorted by a single squadron of warships. I shall await your arrival."
As the hologram delivered a set of galactic co-ordinates and then began to loop, Lieutenant Shala'Raan vas Tesleya was left speechless for the first time in her career.
Thankfully she overcame it before the 6 minutes were up.
Serpent Nebula – The Citadel
2113.04.01
Matriarch Tevos Calis, Citadel Councillor and one of the most powerful asari in existence, was enjoying a perverse, childish, pleasure from letting the comms incoming call chime last far longer than necessary before answering.
Reluctantly deciding that she had let the caller wait long enough, the asari Councillor finally answered the comms.
"At last, I was beginning to wonder if I would have to come in person like a matron chasing down a child that wouldn't tidy their room," Matriarch Aethyta T'Soni roughly remarked.
"I have many duties to attend to Matriarch, I cannot simply drop everything at a time of your choosing," Councillor Tevos replied serenely, the very picture of detached grace.
Inwardly she burned with hatred at her fellow asari. Even when she tried to insult Aethyta by making her wait, the dammed woman still managed to turn it back on her.
"I'm sure," Aethyta deadpanned. "Thankfully for you, you will be allowed to continue those duties for at least a while longer."
"Your ex-wife was never going to get the votes for her no-confidence motion to succeed, I don't know why she even bothered to table it," Tevos sniffed disdainfully, hitting Aethyta in one of the few areas she was vulnerable.
"The amount of favours you called in over the last week tells a different story, Matriarch Calis," Aethyta smirked as she dug the knife in, showing no reaction to Tevos's jab at her divorce.
With her fellow matriarch's insult and seeming immunity to her own barbs, a little of the anger she felt finally slipped through Tevos Calis' mask.
"Don't take this little victory of Benezia's as an endorsement of your family's insane rejection of our cultural domination programme. The Council of Matriarchs has only censored me because my actions towards the humans have been deemed to be too blatant. They haven't censored me for manipulating the younger races, just for getting caught."
"I'll take what I can get," Matriarch Aethyta stated through a giant grin. With a few button presses, Aethyta sent a formal document with barely repressed glee.
"The official writ of censure, Councillor Tevos, noting how your recent actions have the subtlety of a maiden in a school debating society, or a krogan. The council couldn't decide which description to choose so they went with both. Regardless, your actions have fallen well below the standard that the Council of Matriarchs expects from our Councillor. They suggest you improve your handling of the situation, dramatically, if you want to remain as Councillor."
The official document appeared in Tevos' inbox as the Councillor resisted the urge to throw a warp at her own desk.
"Stay away from the humans, Councillor, or at the very least, don't get caught. You wouldn't want to become any more of an embarrassment than you already are." Aethyta really twisted the knife, enjoying every minute of the humiliation of her long-time rival.
"I will follow all orders that the Council of Matriarchs gives me," Matriarch Tevos replied serenely, her mask firmly back in place.
"Of cour-"
Tevos probably took more pleasure than she should have done in shutting down the comms while Aethyta was mid word.
XNAV: 534.814 / 893.693 / 12.57 – Attican Traverse
2113.04.02
Shala'Raan and Rael'Zorah stood before the observation window of the Tesleya with their passenger.
When Lieutenant Raan had relayed the hologram's invitation back to Captain Hilo'Vael, a vicious argument had erupted between the Captain and the Commodore aboard the Tonbay.
Thankfully, after 6 days of all of the scouting group's engineers stripping the systems of the SV Gaia, they had found precisely nothing.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. They had found designs and components that hadn't been seen on the galactic stage in centuries, and more than one of them had broken down in screams of frustration as yet another function that should have been handled by a simple set of equipment was instead spread across three systems and four decks, taking up huge amounts of room.
But they were all absolutely certain that there was no way to force the superliner to explode and take out any nearby ships, short of the normal catastrophic accidents or sabotage all ships were vulnerable to, of course.
The remaining crew hadn't been idle while the engineers had been checking the Gaia's systems, they had scoured the ship. Every room, every crawlspace, every centimetre of the hull, they had spent hundreds of crew hours crawling all over Gaia, with their omni-tools set to deep scan and producing drones by the dozen to check everywhere they couldn't reach. There was nothing.
The SV Gaia was exactly what she claimed to be; a welcome gift from the humans to the quarians.
Even given the primitive nature of it, most of the crew were awed to finally be aboard a super class ship. Apart from their voluntary rotations aboard the 3 liveships, no quarians had stood aboard a super or capital class ship since their exile.
The mass effect technology of the galaxy had a sweet spot limit of approximately 1km. Building a ship longer than that was easy; but the larger the mass effect field, the smaller 'bang for your buck' you got. It was the law of diminishing returns.
It was generally cheaper, especially for civilians, to build three 400m ships than it was to build one 1,200m one. The more efficient mass effect fields of the smaller ships required far less element zero to operate, keeping the one resource more expensive than the crew at a much lower level for the same amount of cargo moved by one superfrieghter.
That was why there were so few vessels, galaxy wide, larger than 1km. The only reasons military vessels were longer was to increase the length, and thus firepower, of their main gun. The fact that prestige also played a part with that went unsaid.
Unlike their military counterparts, there was no primary reason to build civilian ships that large. The only superfrieghters and superliners to exist were built purely because their owners found the prestige that they gave them more valuable than economic efficiency.
As such, the Migrant Fleet had never been able to get their hands on a super class civilian ship, not for a price that they were actually capable of paying anyway.
Yet here it was. A superliner. Not traded, not sold, not discounted. Given.
Given unconditionally.
Even the eternally cynical Rael'Zorah had been moved.
Faced with near unanimity that the humans at least deserved to be heard out in return for such a gift, the Commodore had finally given in to Captain Vael's requests to go to the rendezvous coordinates.
Tesleya had approached and met with the humans while Tonbay stayed back, within communications range but, the Commodore hoped, safe from ambush.
The argument had been fierce.
At first the humans had wanted to bring their escort squadron to the Migrant Fleet. The simple request had nearly made the crew of the Tesleya depart in disgust, but the speed with which the humans backed down had left Shala'Raan and Rael'Zorah in agreement that they had never seriously expected that request to be accepted. They simply wanted to make it to make the point that although they were sympathetic to the quarians, they were not pushovers.
To make sure that the quarians understood that the velvet glove hid a duranium fist was how Rael had described it to Shala later.
The true argument had been between Captain Hilo'Vael and the human Commodore.
The human Commodore was adamant that the ambassador would not travel without her ship.
Captain Vael was adamant that no ship, even an unarmed one, was going to be allowed to not just approach, but actually enter the Migrant Fleet's formation. After all, if there was just a single nuclear shrapnel bomb present aboard, it could conceivably wipe out thousands of quarians depending on how many ships were in its blast radius. Millions if it damaged or destroyed a liveship.
Accusation and counter accusation raged until the human ambassador herself shut down her protective detail's arguments.
She was to meet with the quarian leadership, and if that meant going with only a small number of guards on a quarian ship, then that was what she would do. The human ships remained in position while Tesleya and Tonbay returned to the Migrant Fleet with the human ambassador.
Shala'Raan stopped her mind wandering over memories of the last few days and focused on her surroundings in the Tesleya's observation room.
The human ambassador was talking to Ensign Zorah in front of the viewing port as they began their final approach to the flotilla. Her four human marine guards stood by the door, watching over their charge.
Lieutenant Raan had kept Rael'Zorah with her due to his excellent combat skills. Combined with her tech skills, she was confident that they could take out the 4 human marines accompanying Ambassador Goyle if they needed to. Though she hoped that this new species would provide at least some relief to the Migrant Fleet's ever-growing list of problems, she was still wary of this being some form of trap.
Rael'Zorah's laugh filled the room as Anita Goyle told him of the liberation of Shanxi and Zapala.
"I still can't believe Admiral Drescher dragged a third of her fleet backwards through the relay! That's insane! And brilliant! Oh, I'd have loved to see the expression on those arrogant turians's faces!"
"Indeed, it was something that they would never have expected," Shala stated, inserting herself into the conversation. "Speaking of expectations, what are yours of us, ambassador?"
Having allowed her junior colleague to establish a rapport with the human, Shala'Raan felt comfortable enough to begin some digging. Like most species, the visors of human's spacesuits left their faces fully visible, so Shala'Raan was able to see the human's eyes harden.
"I'm not sure I should discuss that with you, Lieutenant Raan. It is a discussion for the Admiralty Board and the Conclave," Ambassador Goyle replied.
"I am Tesleya's representative on the Conclave, perhaps I might be able to let you know what you might encounter?" Lieutenant Raan replied calmly.
"Trade, mainly, we wish permission to establish relations with quarian companies and buy quarian products," Ambassador Goyle responded with an answer that was no answer at all. She held her cards close to her chest.
The answer was very evasive, but it still left alarm bells ringing in Lieutenant Raan's head.
"Ambassador, you are aware that there are no quarian corporations, aren't you?"
"I'm sorry?"
The genuinely questioning tone of the human ambassador shocked both quarians.
"We understood that you were a representative democracy, each ship sending a delegate to the Conclave. Though you are still under martial law and thus the Conclave can be overridden by the Admiralty Board, just as a ship captain's word is final on their own vessel, no matter what the ship's council decides," Ambassador Goyle explained in confusion.
Both quarians noted that the ambassador had not mentioned economic systems, only the Migrant Fleet's political one.
Shala'Raan explained gently, hoping that this would not ruin relations with the humans, but understanding that the ambassador needed to know before she went before the Conclave.
"We are. But we don't have the industrial base to be like the rest of the galaxy, we have no economy in the Migrant Fleet as the rest of the galaxy would understand it."
It was easy to see how the humans had made the mistake that they had. There was precious little information available on the Migrant Fleet on the extranet, those facts that her people were willing to share almost no one was interested in, so beyond the very basics the flotilla was a black hole of information.
The humans had gathered information on their governmental system and given the lack of data to work from, assigned them several economic systems that they thought were most likely to work with that governmental system.
Their differing cultures had obviously led to the human's economic guesses being wildly off the mark.
Shala allowed herself a few moments of introspection before trying to explain. Everyone knew the quarian's entire 17 million strong race was housed in the Migrant Fleet, but few stopped to think about what that actually meant.
Having gathered her thoughts, Lieutenant Raan began speaking to the patiently waiting human ambassador.
"When the galaxy thinks of us, most people simply imagine ships stuffed to the airlocks with people and that's it. Only the most intelligent think about food, and food security. The liveships have to provide all of our food, as we can never allow ourselves to be blackmailed by being dependent on anyone else for our food supply."
Ambassador Goyle nodded along, a human gesture she had explained before as showing prior knowledge or agreement, which left Lieutenant Raan curious about where the cultural misunderstanding was going to occur.
"But almost no one takes that one step further and thinks of the difficulty in buying the high volumes of low value goods required for daily life, and the blackmail that that would give people as well. Due to the general opinion of the galaxy about us, the fact that we cannot allow non-quarian ships to trade with the flotilla itself for security reasons, that most trading station owners refuse to let quarian ships even dock unless we are trading highly valuable material they have punishing taxes on, that merchants refuse to even consider deep space transfers for fear of pirates or being ripped off, and that the Migrant Fleet can only ever be in one place, giving local traders an effective monopoly, we just can't source enough basic goods to survive on the open market."
"It's not things we can live without either," Rael'Zorah jumped in. "It's the replacement parts for our suits, the general ship parts for the flotilla, the simple data slates, the bubbles for the children, chemicals, materials, the plumbing, everything."
Ambassador Goyle was still nodding in dawning comprehension.
"And you need every credit you have to pay for ships and heavy industrial products, and the 'taxes' that the trading stations charge you just to take delivery of them. There's nothing left for light industrial products that you can produce yourselves."
The human woman made a funny movement with her hands, raising them to head height and bending the first 2 digits on each hand while holding the other 3 down when she said the word taxes. But the two quarians decided to inquire about that another time.
"Exactly," Shala'Raan replied, glad that Ambassador Goyle understood. "So, you see how much industry we have to fit onto our ships along with food production and living space. We cannot afford to have any wasted space. Anywhere."
"Corporations competing with each other would just duplicate products and services. Even if one eventually drives the less efficient one out of business, it's still taken up a lot of space and crew to produce the same products while they compete. So, in the Migrant Fleet, we each use our abilities to contribute to the flotilla. Be that as traditional ship crew, or in the internal economy. Then we take what we need. Food, suit parts, or any of the other necessitates of life, if we need it, we get it."
"From each according to their ability, to each according to their need," Ambassador Goyle muttered in shock. "You're a communist economy!"
"Is that a problem?" Rael'Zorah growled out, his earlier good mood swiftly evaporating.
"No!" The flustered human responded quickly. "It's just surprising. Very surprising to be honest. Humans have tried communism several times, it's never worked properly for us, at least anything above village level."
Anita Goyle gathered her thoughts and returned to her professional detached tone. "To be quite frank, most of us don't think that it is possible to make communism work properly above a small community. Just like how you can't make capitalism work properly AT a small community, such as a village, level."
The two quarians breathed a sigh of relief as they looked at each other. Obviously, there was some cultural baggage for the human to work through. Perhaps their experiments with communism hadn't gone well, but they could still salvage a relationship with them. A race that was willing to gift them a superliner was one that they didn't want to lose.
"I assume the cause of failure for capitalism at village level is well known? That the population is to small to sustain it, the wealth concentrates and suddenly one or two people own more than the whole rest of the village combined?" Lieutenant Raan asked.
"Effectively removing the money from the economy as it sits in property or a bank leaving people with no opportunity to earn it. The effect of which is to cause the economy to collapse when most of the population cannot earn enough to pay for the basic necessities of life, no matter how hard they work, because a critical mass of money is sitting unused in the bank accounts of the top 0.1%," Anita confirmed. "It's the same problem that occurs on a larger, national, scale if proper taxes and anti-monopoly rules aren't enforced on the free market, but no number of rules can prevent it from occurring at a village scale. The available resource base is just too small to start with."
Rael'Zorah responded, his friendly tone returning. "What you have to understand Ambassador, is that the flotilla is merely a collection of villages, we would fall prey to exactly that."
"Flotilla wide it would happen too, with the larger ships and crews draining the smaller ones that just don't have the population or resources to produce enough valuable commodities to pay for what they need to keep themselves running. Especially as more and more of those resources concentrated on the larger ships over time. It would of course on an individual level be a fairly earned reward for hard work. But on a flotilla wide level it would destroy the Migrant Fleet."
"I take it your communism experiments collapsed from lack of trust?" Shala'Raan asked kindly.
"We called it human nature," Anita Goyle replied, smiling grimly before elaborating.
"From each according to their ability, to each according to their need. That only works when the whole community can see and agree what those abilities and needs are. At a village level the population can do that so it's fine. Above a village level it's impossible for the whole population to be involved. So, someone, be it an individual or a political party, always has to decide what people's abilities are and what their needs are. Even if they start out with good and pure intentions, eventually the decision makers become... corrupt."
The ambassador cleared her throat. "More is asked of some people than they can fairly produce, and more is given to some people than they fairly deserve. In human experience the whole system then rots from the inside out and eventually collapses. But not before those doing the choosing have created a river of blood, trying to eliminate anyone who notices the ability/need calculation has become distorted until they're overwhelmed by a critical mass of the population turning rebellious."
Shala'Raan replied sadly, trying not to focus on what had obviously been a difficult time in human history. "We thought the same. But the total extermination of your species has a way of fostering trust. Each ship's crew can see what they are all capable of contributing, and what they and their ship need. They provide all they can to the flotilla and take only what they need, trusting that – despite whatever corrupt and greedy individuals might be present among them – a ship's entire crew would not jeopardise the flotilla and the survival of the entire quarian race by taking more than their fair share."
"In a collection of flying villages, the fear of being left the last quarian village in the universe would certainly be a powerful motivator against greed," Ambassador Goyle muttered.
"Indeed!" Rael'Zorah replied, energetically as he gestured towards the viewport. "But enough of this depressing topic, we are in visual range of the flotilla. It's always a wonderful sight to come home to."
Ambassador Goyle stood at the viewport and silently fumed at how badly the foreign office had fucked up. A large weapon in her arsenal was now useless and she was totally reliant on the big-ticket items. It meant she couldn't push too hard.
If the quarians didn't accept her proposals, there was no way to slowly draw them into the Alliance's economic sphere via trade and apply pressure through their corporations, because they simply didn't have any. Her mission just became all or nothing.
There were a myriad of governmental systems and economies throughout Citadel space. Among the associate races the elcor had a liberal tribal government and feudal economy, the batarians had a stratified caste government and slave economy, the hanar had theocratic government and socialist economy, and the volus had a clan plutocratic government and corporate economy.
Among the Council races the salarians had a dynastic aristocratic government and libertarian economy, the turians had an elected autocratic government and privately owned but planned - by the volus – economy, and the asari had a gerontocratic direct democracy and libertarian economy. Then there was the human liberal representative democracy and social democratic economy to consider as well.
After running through the list in her head Ambassador Goyle reluctantly realised that the foreign office analysts had a point. With so many different economic systems, and the only two even coming close to a truly communist economy – the turians and the hanar – stopping well short, who would have expected to find it here among the quarians? Especially as they didn't have the autocratic government that was always thought essential to make it work?
Ruefully, the Ambassador mused that the Marxists at home would at least concede that eliminating 99.7% of the human population and living aboard a flotilla of ships was probably not a price worth paying to bring about the paradise they were sure communism would bring.
She was jarred out of her thoughts by the spectacle few ever got to see.
Ships were everywhere, all kinds, all classes, as the Tesleya danced between them, heading for the centre of the flotilla. They burst through the last protective ring and there, at the centre of it all, were the three 2.8 kilometre liveships, the largest ships by mass in the galaxy, even if the Destiny Ascension was taller.
The centres of the massive liveships rotated to provide gravity and microgravity for the food production and industry housed within, freeing up eezo for the badly straining drive core to use to keep the ship moving, rather than providing artificial gravity.
As Tesleya approached the liveship Rayya, the meeting place of the Conclave, the wonder Ambassador Goyle felt changed to sadness.
The liveships weren't colony ships, they were never designed to land and be deconstructed. They were refugee ships, the last desperate effort of a people to escape genocide.
Anita shuddered, imagining she could feel the desperation and despair of the quarians who had franticly built them as the geth closed in from all sides, massacring the entire quarian population as the last tattered remnants of the navy tried to hold them off long enough for these 3 ships to be completed. The liveships were a sheer desperate scream given physical form, a frantic prayer to the galaxy to please, please, please just let the last survivors of a broken people live.
Tesleya was given clearance to dock with one of Rayya's outer airlocks and the two quarians gestured to the door. Anita Goyle squared her shoulders and walked confidently to the airlock, giving away nothing of what she was feeling.
It was show-time.
Sur'Kesh – Annos Basin
2113.04.02
Dalatrass Solus, Tsarina of the Salarian Union, watched the human shuttles touch down with amusement.
Intense study of human history had led the Union's best researchers to conclude that the period of human history when their governance was closest to that of the Salarian Union was that of medieval Europe.
Salarian government consisted of clans who acted approximately like human aristocratic families. They were controlled by the elected head of the family (a female salarian known as a dalatrass) who then use the family's power and influence to arrange breeding strategies, intent on climbing the political ladder through alliances sealed through marriage.
Also like medieval Europe, these clans controlled various territories which increased in size and value as the power and prestige of the controlling family increased. Amusingly to Dalatrass Solus, the human's diplomatic packet had given these ranks the equivalent human aristocratic titles, as the actual salarian designation was unpronounceable to them.
According to these human ranks, Dames controlled towns and the surrounding countryside, Baronesses controlled cities, and Countesses controlled planetary regions. Duchesses controlled planets and Grand Duchesses controlled clusters.
Together the Grand Duchesses formed the Cabinet of the Salarian Union which was its primary governing body. However, the 12 most powerful among them manoeuvred themselves into the Inner Cabinet, the only salarians to see all of the intelligence available to the Union, and more importantly the only ones who could act on it. From their number they elected one to serve as the leader of the Salarian Union, the Tsarina.
The Tsarina was the one charged with authorising and overseeing the black projects of the STG, the projects that even the Inner Cabinet were not permitted to know about.
Smiling fondly at the memory of her election to Tsarina, Dalatrass Solus looked over at her companion, Dalatrass Bau, Grand Duchess of the Annos basin.
"Am highly amused by human choice of ambassadors. Thoughts?"
"Hoping to curry favour? Sending representatives familiar to salarian governmental system. Hoping for recognition of achievement of human dynasties, perhaps respect of fellow dalatrasses?" Dalatrass Bau replied.
"Agreed. Naive," Dalatrass Solus stated with disappointment, shaking her head slightly. The Salarian Union would always negotiate on hard facts. Emotion had no place in the game of thrones, and even less in the game of nations.
The salarian port master, specifically chosen for this occasion and trained not to insult their guests, announced their arrival to the delegation waiting behind the two dalatrasses.
"Tsarina Solus and Grand Duchess Bau welcome you to Sur'Kesh, your majesties."
He turned to face the two salarian leaders before continuing. "Dalatrasses, may I present Anne the Second, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Queen of her other realms. May I also present Noriyoshi, Heavenly Sovereign of the Chrysanthemum Throne."
"It is a pleasure to welcome you to Sur'Kesh in person, cousins," Dalatrass Solus stated warmly, using the human tradition of fellow monarchs addressing each other as 'cousin' whether or not they were actually related.
Among humans it was used to prevent every meeting between monarchs descending into a battle over order of preference based on the power of the monarch's kingdoms. Dalatrass Solus used it to attempt to build the bond that the humans so obviously intended to create with their choice of ambassadors.
If that bond would exist only in the humans's minds, and be exploited for all it was worth by the salarian Tsarina, well, that was the game of nations, and the humans should have been more careful.
"It is an honour, cousin," Queen Anne II replied, smiling and waving regally to the crowd as Emperor Noriyoshi projected calm dignity, his eyes searching for the salarian most encumbered by data slates and noting them as a person to watch.
"We have much to discuss."
Codex Entry: The Government of the Systems Alliance – The Lower Legislative House (Grand Assembly)
(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)
The Systems Alliance leaves as much government as possible in the hands of its member nations and colonies.
However, there are two additional levels of government to provide services that are just not practical to be done on a small scale, the single chamber Custer Assemblies and the dual chamber Systems Alliance Parliament.
The lower house of the Systems Alliance Parliament is known as the Grand Assembly. While it contains 600 voting members, it actually contains 640 members total as of 2183. The additional 40 non-voting members are:
x1 Speaker (Elected by the 604 MPs from among themselves by secret STV ballot. This MP forfeits their vote upon election to maintain impartiality.)
x3 Deputy Speakers (Elected by the 604 MPs from among themselves by secret STV ballot. These MPs forfeit their votes upon election to maintain impartiality.)
x4 Expert Cabinet Ministers (Non-MPs appointed by the Prime Minister and confirmed by the Grand Assembly, they sit in the Grand Assembly without voting power so that they can be held to account by the MPs during debates.)
x32 Tribunes. (Please see codex entry below)
Each cluster of the Systems Alliance is granted a number of representatives based on its population. Due to the sheer numbers present, Earth is counted as its own entity for this purpose.
This presents a problem for the Systems Alliance in that it leaves sparsely populated areas, such as asteroid, moon and dome colonies, at the mercy of the tyranny of the majority. Living on shirt sleeve worlds, these voters vastly outnumber their dome and station colony counterparts, but have little understanding of the unique challenges that these worlds provide.
Some old Earth nations attempted to solve this problem with their governments by having the second chamber be composed of the same number of representatives from each region regardless of size. While this did protect the population of the more sparsely populated areas, it also gave them a disproportionate amount of political power.
One of the most extreme examples comes from the United States Senate. The smallest 21 states have a population less than that of California, yet the regional representation strategy gives the population of those states 42 senators whereas the population of California only gets 2.
This would be less of a problem if the US Constitution did not make several important government functions, such as appointment conformations, exclusively the preserve of the Senate and not the House AND Senate. This leaves the population of large states severely underrepresented in several important areas of government such as confirming foreign treaties and confirming cabinet, judicial, and supreme court nominees.
Rather than solve the democratic deficit problem, the method of fixed number regional representatives reversed it, leaving the population of larger areas at the mercy of the tyranny of the minority. As such the Alliance looked for other methods to solve the problem and decided on the Tribune system, explained below.
A General Election to elect MPs to the Grand Assembly is held every 6 years by Single Transferable Vote (STV).
If an election is called early due to the government losing the confidence of the Grand Assembly, then the new government will serve only until the next scheduled election date UNLESS that date is less than 24 months away. In which case the next election will be held in 7-8 years instead of 1-2
There is a strict spending limit imposed on each political party for national campaigning and each candidate for local campaigning. If the courts find this has been breached, the affected candidates are removed as MPs and the election is rerun for their seats. The convicted MPs may also be banned from running for any elected position ever again and can be jailed for up to 5 years based on the severity of the breach.
Codex Entry: The Government of the Systems Alliance – The Lower Legislative House (Grand Assembly - Tribunes)
(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)
To avoid the tyranny of the majority without creating the tyranny of the minority the Systems Alliance looked even further back, to the Roman Republic and the Tribunes of Plebs.
Updating them to the modern day, the Systems Alliance created the elected position of Tribune. All of the station colonies in a cluster will elect one tribune via STV, all of the dome colonies in a cluster will also elect one Tribune via STV. The shirt sleve worlds and Earth contain the vast majority of the Alliance population and so do not require protection from the tyranny of the majority as they ARE the majority. As of 2183, the Systems Alliance controls 16 clusters and so 32 tribunes sit in the Grand Assembly.
Once the 600 voting MPs of the Grand Assembly pass an act, the 32 Tribunes of the Grand Assembly then vote on it.
If a majority of the Tribunes vote against the act, then the act is put up for amendment and vote by the MPs again. It requires a supermajority (2/3rds) to override a Tribune's veto. As such if the MPs do not have the numbers to override, they must amend the act to gain the Tribunes support so that they allow it to pass when they vote on the amended act.
If the Tribunes unanimously veto the act then it is dead. A unanimous Tribune veto is absolute, there is no way for the MPs or for the government to override it.
Tribunes are elected in the same General Election as MPs. They are forbidden from being members of political parties, as such each candidate that is successfully nominated for Tribune in the election receives 4 free leaflet drops and 2 televised debates provided by the cluster government.
To prevent rich supporters buying the election for their favourite candidate, requiring the development of Tribune political parties to counter them, these six events are the only election activities Tribune candidates and their campaigns are permitted to spend money on.
Rallies, personal comms calls, and door knocking are all unlimited provided the venues/canvassers/organisers are unpaid volunteers.
Codex Entry: The Government of the Systems Alliance – The Cluster Assemblies
(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)
The Cluster Assemblies are single chamber regional governments that are a carbon copy of the lower house of the federal Parliament (Grand Assembly). The only differences are that their leaders are known as First Minister instead of Prime Minister and that the Secretary of State for Sapient Rights and Cluster Government performs the duties that the head of state performs for the federal Parliament. Their responsibilities are modelled on the state governments of the United States and they generally contain 60 – 200 voting members, at the discretion of each individual cluster.
Timeline Changes So Far
First colony on mars: 27 years earlier than canon
Discovery of Prothean ruins: 64 years earlier than canon
Founding of the Systems Alliance (council of nations version): 63 years earlier than canon
First Contact War: 45 years earlier than canon
Founding of the Systems Alliance (parliamentary super state version): 44 years earlier than canon
Citadel Ascension Process: 52 years longer than canon (humans become an Associate Race 7 years later than canon)