Author's Note: Welcome back! Didn't get the chapter out when I wanted but in my defense, holidays, Fallout 76, and the new update of Elite kept me busy. Mostly the holidays though, why do they seem like more of a chore the older you get? Now Fallout 76, the less said the better. The new update to Elite? Loving the scanning and mining. Making bank cracking asteroids and I actually feel like I'm mining in space. FDev is stepping it up a bit.
Now, without further ado? adoo? stalling, the chapter!
Palin Institute, Maia system - Large Hangar
Marcus walked into the room like he owned it, one of Palin's assistants following shortly behind him. He glanced around at the various consoles before his gaze settled on the view outside the only window. Facing the large landing pad, he could see Lucy in all he glory.
"I see you touched up the paint job, all the little repairs done?" He looked over at the assistant for a moment, seeing him nod.
The assistant motioned to the chair in front of one of the consoles, "You can schedule your ship to be transferred there. Also, I've added a few modules and additions to an Orca class ship to help with the trip."
Marcus just nodded and grunted a bit at the assistant as he navigated through the menus, ordering his Orca-class ship, 'Brick' to be transported to Palin's base. When he noticed the transfer fee was 0 Cr he smirked.
'Looks like they'll foot the bill for all this.'
With that out of the way, he opened the list of his stored modules to pick the ones that he would need when his eyes stopped on one.
"I'm guessing this...Guardian FSD Booster? Is one of those modules? Where in the hell did Palin get anything Guardian?"
The assistant squinted at the list, noticing the module before glancing at something on his own mindcom, looking off into empty space for a few seconds.
"After some study, some researchers found a way to use what was found at some Guardian sites to rig up that module. Boosts an extra 10.3 light years a jump on any ship it's fitted on."
"Really? A little over 10 extra light years…..cool." The assistant just nodded and Marcus turned around to finish transferring modules.
He was interrupted after his third time looking over the list, having selected a few of his more highly engineered modules for 'Brick'
"If you're looking for the advanced scanner, they're not in use anymore. The one on your ship has actually been unfitted and recycled already. There's still the discovery scanner but it just picks up the stars in a system."
"Well what the hell-"
"If you want to scan the planets, there's this." With a thought, the assistant opened the file on the console in front of Marcus, cutting off his complaints as a video started to play.
"What the...Full Spectrum System Scanner...oh, that looks interesting…" He quickly forgot the assistant and started going through the options. In the back of his mind he didn't expect to do any major scanning but since he had to wait for his ship and modules to arrive anyway, he was engrossed.
The assistant noticed this and sent a file to Marcus' mindcom, half-muttering as he left, "Here are the orders for the trip from the diplomats. No neutron jumps, keep things smooth, et cetera, et cetera..."
He stepped out with that, not seeing Marcus' half turn and absent-minded nod.
Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Luxury Cabin
Benezia listened politely to Daniel Calf as he described his schooling and the schooling system of his Empire after Denton Fields had mentioned off handedly the same in the Federation. While interesting hearing how they educated and the differences it had compared to the Federation's she found herself having a bit of difficulty giving the three human diplomats her full attention. That they had all agreed to keep the topic of discussion to harmless subjects, day to day happenings for their peoples and other such public information. Not particularly taxing for a professional diplomat.
Every time she saw the discrete notice of another FSD jump, followed by the minuscule shudder of the ship finishing the jump she felt a twinge of...something. She wouldn't admit to herself that she was annoyed but there was a small part of her that would have much rather been on the bridge as they did these jumps, watching the strangeness of hyperspace and the sudden blossoming of the star in front of them.
She mentally admonished herself and brought her attention back to the humans, she was there to foster relations during first contact with this race. Not stare out the window.
The ship shuddered slightly and she went on to describe the Asari universities on Thessia.
Council Chambers
The three of them looked at each other one last time to make sure they were all on board. Hours ago, they had come to the conclusion that the contact with Humanity would be announced. Even before they had a definite answer on whether Matriarch T'Soni would return in the time frame they had laid out.
Preparations had been made, speeches wrote, and information carefully screened and worded that was now published to an Extranet site that would be made public momentarily.
With no reservations from the three of them, they all rose and signaled they were ready. They moved out to the Council chambers and took their places. The film crews took their places and made a few last minute adjustments.
Tevos looked over to the other two Councilors, nodding to each of them before straightening and nodding to the camera operator.
After a short countdown, the lights came on and the three Councilors were addressing the galaxy.
She began, "Hello and thank you for joining us, " a bit of a lie as she knew that the Council broadcast would show up as an emergency prompt that everyone had to open to dismiss the notification.
"We have historic news for everyone in the galaxy. Just a short time ago, the Citadel Council has made contact with a new race in the Galaxy. In a system on the border of the terminus systems, a ship commanded by a member of the new race was contacted."
She paused there and smiled, building up the weight of the moment as Sparatus continued, "The new race is called Humanity, one of their explorers made contact a few days ago. At which time, we sent our most experienced diplomat, Matriarch T'Soni, to the system."
Tevos took over again, "First contact with Humanity was made by one of their explorers and as such, Matriarch T'Soni, accompanied by two of her crew as well as a Spectre, have agreed to travel to Human space to meet with and invite their leaders to the Citadel. They are expected to arrive in approximately four days."
Councilor Bursik waited a moment after Tevos had spoken, "Invitations for prominent members of all species have been sent and we have put up an Extranet site with the registration for the event here on the Citadel of their arrival."
"All access to the Presidium and Council chambers will require registration through that site. We have also included all information about this new species there and a forum is open for the discussion. We hope to make it open to the Humans after they arrive to showcase our excitement during this momentous event."
After a moment he added, "Please conduct yourselves accordingly."
Tevos smiled in her best politician's way, "We all look forward to meeting this new race and hope you join us here on over the Extranet. Thank you."
All across Citadel space, Extranet traffic spiked as calls were made, meetings rescheduled or cancelled, tickets booked, and a server cluster On Sur'Kesh began drawing prodigious amounts of power to accommodate the hardware needed for the billions of connection requests.
Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Terminus System
With a final shudder, the star came into view. The very average yellow-orange color of the star made Marcus laugh to himself. This system was anything but average for him anymore. He smiled to himself as he ran the discovery scanner, noting that there were no new astrological items found.
The fuel scooping only took a moment and he angled away and out of the proximity of the star. He opened the navigation panel and noted there were only three of the in-system signals that he'd scanned, the rest were coming up as unknown.
Throttling down, he opened the channel with the luxury cabin, "This is your Commander speaking, we have arrived at our destination system. According to our itinerary, we will rendezvous with the Asari ship 'Soft Wind' and proceed to the Citadel in the….Serpent Nebula via the Mass Effect Relay system. Thank you for flying Brick space liners, literally the only human space liner to bring you here in style."
Marcus took his finger off the cabin intercom and looked over at his co-pilot with a smile. Which was not returned as they were paging through menus either doing actual work or just to ignore his antics.
With a shake of his head, Marcus looked at the message that had returned from the cabin, in text only.
"Thank you for the riveting announcement. I've been asked to relay that you should proceed to the orbit of the second rocky planet in the system where the 'Soft Wind' is waiting. We will all be up shortly. The communications frequency has been uploaded to the computer."
'No sense of humor with these people.'
Selecting the planet from the system map, he changed direction. As he approached the planet within 15 light-seconds and he throttled down to 75% speed, the door to the bridge opened and the diplomats filed in. Keeping the navigation window open, Marcus kept his attention on flying the ship as he heard the background noise of the diplomats speaking among each other. He did make note to himself that Benezia had moved to the chair next to his quietly, seeming to just enjoy the view.
As he made it to the other side of the planet, a signal popped up. He selected that and adjusted speed. Everyone on the bridge quieted down then, watching the distance readout dwindle until the destination lock came up.
With a practiced motion, Marcus dropped out of supercruise a mere eight kilometers from the 'Soft Wind'. He dropped to 0m/s and turned his chair to face everyone.
"We're here everyone, now the real work begins!" That comment seemed to break the tension in the air as the human diplomats chuckled, joined by Benezia.
Benezia smiled for a moment before her Omni-tool chimed and she opened it with a subdued beep.
Suddenly Thessian came over the channel, "This is the Asari ship 'Soft Wind' to the approaching vessel. Hailing the approaching vessel."
Marcus listened as he looked at the faces of the human diplomats, polite confusion on their faces as Benezia answered.
"'Soft Wind', this is Matrarch T'Soni, I have returned with the Human Ambassadors."
Marcus took it upon himself to translate quietly for the sake of everyone that didn't know the alien language and everyone smiled as they heard the cheering over the channel at Benezia's statement.
As Benezia spoke to her ship, Marcus continued to translate. "It is good to be back T'Vani. Please send a notice to the Council of my success and inform them that we will be arriving by Relay soon. Keep them updated."
The Asari ship acknowledged them and with that first bit of business done, Benezia spoke to them all.
"Ambassadors, Commander, now I invite you to experience the traditional interstellar our races use. The relay is between this second planet in the system and the third. I am unsure if it will register on your sensors. If it does not, I will have the Soft Wind send over a heading and distance for you to find it."
Marcus opened the Navigation page and saw the next signal closest to them listed as unknown.
"If you give me a minute, I'll scan around and see if the signal I think it is is it."
The Federation and Imperial ambassadors shifted a bit at that, Daniel Calf speaking up, "Perhaps we can go down to the cabin again, this scanning can take a little while given that it is a new-"
He was interrupted by the space suddenly seeming to shift and the scanning interface filling their vision. They all watched, a few of the humans annoyed at the casual display of their technology, as Marcus adjusted the scanning, highlighting the planet they were currently near. After a few moments it's composition filled in and the scan completed.
They all noted that the scanner listed seven Human(?) sites and two Geological on the planet. Spectre Odoln made special note of this given the status of this system as being on the Terminus side of the relay and this planet being closest to the relay. He decided he or one of his colleagues would be visiting that planet soon.
Zooming out, Marcus selected the next signal. The view shifted again and it zoomed in on a pixelated silver-blue oval.
Benezia spoke up, "That does appear to be the position of the Relay, Marcus." He just nodded as the image slowly resolved.
They all watched, the humans in anticipation of what these alien transportation devices actually looked like, the aliens watched as the human technology resolved the image of the Relay.
After nearly twenty seconds the image finally finished and the data about the Relay was listed next to the image. They all watched as the composition attempted to fill out, a few elements showing up for a moment before changing. The readings continued to fluctuate as they all watched. Only the size - 15Km on the longest axis stayed the same. The mass, composition, and short description kept changing before stopping, displaying an error.
Marcus frowned a second at that, "Well, looks like whatever those things are built of don't play well with our sensors."
Everyone sat for a moment, looking at the information in front of them before Marcus clapped his hands suddenly and the FSS display dissolved again.
"Well, nothing for it, I'll take us to the relay now. Benezia, er, Matriarch T'Soni, can you inform the Soft Wind that I can proceed. I assume they'll accompany us?"
She nodded as she sat further into the seat, "Yes. I've also been told there will be a Turian patrol following at a distance as a measure of security until we make it to the last Relay into the Serpent Nebula. For each jump you'll need to be within twenty kilometers of the relay and transmit your unaltered mass."
"How do I transmit to the Relay?"
"They will pick up nearly any organized transmission, the first time transmitting the actual mass though, you will need to establish a baseline number system. Transmitting PI simple mathematics should work."
Marcus just looked back at the others on the bridge as they spoke to each other quickly. They all seemed to decide and they nodded to him. He looked over to the Federation aide that had been running the scanner, "Can you setup the numbers thing for me to send to the Relay?" He nodded to Marcus.
Turning his chair forward again, "If that's the case then, everyone hold on for a moment while I accelerate back to supercruise and we all get going."
He selected the Relay signal on the navigation panel. Benezia was still seated next to him and the others had moved to the back wall and were holding on. By some agreement they had, they seemed to have decided to be on the bridge while they approached and made the Relay jump.
He throttled up slowly and engaged the FSD. He was careful asAs the noise built as it charged there was a flash as they noticed the Soft Wind go FTL as well, disappearing from the local sensors. The drive charged and the short countdown ended with a bang and a sharp shudder in the ship as it entered supercruise. The sound of the ship wound up as the distance and the time to the relay dropped.
Marcus fidgeted a bit as he felt all of the eyes on him and the readouts. Keeping a nervous eye on the destination, making a lot of small adjustments as he noticed the destination lock distance at 8.5Mm.
As they approached closer and closer, the destination lock was made and Marcus dropped them out and Benezia and the others smiled as she heard the gasps and appreciative muttering as the humans all laid eyes on a Mass Effect Relay for the first time. Marcus quickly dropped the speed to zero. Having dropped out at just over eight kilometers away, the Relay filled their view. The bright and active eezo shimmering with waves of power, surrounded by the gyroscopic core brought on a stretch of silence on the bridge.
Velictus broke the spell, he chirped something quietly to Uolon next to him who spoke for him, "We usually come out farther from the Relays on an approach vector. Rarely do we get a chance to admire them from this close."
Holly Bastogne was the next to speak, "They're beautiful. I can't imagine the power it must take to keep them running."
Benezia cut in, not wanting to get into a conversation about the Relays yet, "Marcus, you can transmit your initial number sequence now. Odoln, do you have the information on what they should receive?"
With a nod, he moved next to Marcus as he brought something up on his Omni-tool, "You'll receive a confirmation once the Relay has your numbering system down, it will just be a count from zero to ten million. After you receive that, you'll need to transmit your mass in kilograms."
Marcus just nodded and sent the signal, after a minute or two he got the confirmation.
Looking over the bridge at everyone, "Alright everyone, ready to make history as the first humans to use a fourth method of FTL?"
They all smiled and voiced their encouragement. With a deep breath Marcus sent his ship's mass and held his breath. Tension built for a moment as nothing happened before a blue line of energy shot out to engulf the ship. Benezia and the others smirked when all but Marcus let out a short surprised sound.
An odd sensation like static electricity built on their skin and suddenly there was an intense sensation of being flung an extraordinary distance. The view had changed from the Relay to a rapidly shifting blue tunnel for a brief moment that was very quickly replaced with a star field slamming into place.
They drifted for a moment, the Relay off to the right of the ship, the ship facing nearly parallel with the direction the arms on the Relay were pointing.
Marcus laughed suddenly and sat back, slapped the arm of his chair, "That was awesome! How far was that?"
Benezia laughed to herself, amused, "That was the longest Relay jump, 12,700 light years as that was a primary Relay. The other two jumps we will take are under four thousand light years each."
Marcus was impressed, "Not bad, not bad at all. The next Relay in this system?"
Whatever Benezia was going to answer was cut off with a sharp expletive as Marcus opened the navigation panel.
With a quick apology, Marcus looked around the bridge to see everyone taking notice of what Marcus cursed at.
The navigation panel had no systems adjacent to them. Only one signal for the Relay they were next to and "SEARCHING….." blinking under that with a loading symbol rotating in the center of the page.
Marcus ran the discovery scanner, the deep thrumming sound echoing out of the ship for a moment and the list changed, a page of unknown signals popped in. The page flickered between the list of unknowns and "SEARCHING…"
Marcus got an error when trying the system map and then selected the galaxy map. Everyone watched, Marcus' chair turned in while the loading symbol spun in air. Marcus frowned as it seemed to spin, stop, spin, stop. Suddenly it exploded out and the galaxy map dominated the view.
It was obvious there was something wrong, the view centered on the system they had been in before abruptly changing, showing the whole galaxy and then changing to the last system they were in for a moment before it all disappeared again, the loading symbol spun for a moment. Finally the map came back, zoomed out to show the entire galaxy.
Marcus stared at the map as if it personally offended him, the words "Location Unknown - Re-calibrate" hanging over the map.
With a deep sigh, Marcus shook his head, "I think everyone should get back to your cabin for now. I've got to see what I've got to do to "re-calibrate" my navigation computer."
The Imperial ambassador spoke up at that, "Can't we just go back to the previous system?"
"We could but that doesn't get us any closer to where we're going. As the Commander of this ship, let's get everyone back to the cabin and I'll work this out."
The ambassador stared at him for a moment before looking at the other two human ambassadors and then to Benezia, "Matriarch T'Soni, we'd best leave him to it then. All else fails I'm sure we can work out alternate transport to your Citadel."
Benezia seemed to accept that, "We've trusted human technology this far Ambassador, as you say, I'm sure we can work something out."
With a last glance to Marcus, she, Uolon and Velictus followed the Imperial ambassador out, followed by the Alliance and Federation ambassadors.
Spectre Odoln moved up next to Marcus, "I may be able to assist, I've pulled up the list of pulsars in relation to this system. That is the method used to find the location when Salarian exploration teams need to do so."
Marcus thought for a moment, "That might help but I've got to see if there's anything in the manual about this."
Odoln became confused when Marcus reached into a compartment under the console in front of his seat and pulled a large book out.
"A...printed book?" Marcus opened it, glancing up at Odoln for a moment and nodding before leafing through.
"Yep, standard practice on all Pilot's Federation ships. If you lose power somewhere and can't access a computer system, you've still got something."
"Seems archaic."
"That too but I've not ever even heard of an error with the navigation systems like I'm having now. Since there's an error and not just a generic error code, that leads me to believe there's something about this in this." he tapped on the back of the book, a dull thud could be heard, "might have something on 'recalibrating' the nav system."
After a moment, Marcus looked up at the Federation aide that was still sitting at his station, waiting quietly.
"Or if you have something to add to this?" The aide just shook his head
"Nope, if I was on a Farragut I'd be able to help but then again, we'd not be in this situation on one of those."
Marcus just made a hmph sound and went back to looking for anything that would help them get to where they were going.
Palin Institute, Maia System - Private Hangar
The hangar bay was cleared of all personnel, a single small ship sat in the center, the focus of a myriad of sensors. The shuttle that Commander Rein had quietly transferred to him had been prepared for testing and now his assistant, Daniel, sat behind the controls of the small ship. Having gotten the Asari language from the Matriarch that had accompanied Rein, they found that his assistant could now read the same language as well.
With the controls deciphered, he now had one of his more trusted staff getting ready to activate the shuttle and begin the testing to figure out the new tech.
Palin leaned forward behind the observation window, his eyes the only thing betraying how eager he was to see the shuttle in action.
"Begin the power up sequence. Once we have readings on the power system we will test the 'barriers'."
He looked down at the readouts for the instruments. Most of them didn't read anything, those were the ones not connected to the ship. He hadn't expected to see anything on those when they were just powering the ship on. The sensors attached to what they had decided was the power plant were showing readings. Lower powered than he would have expected for a ship that was supposed to be capable of interstellar travel but it was alien technology.
"I'm getting readings, hold for a minute…"
"Next step, activate the barrier system." This one had him watching very closely. Different shielding technology, even if it didn't seem to stop laser weaponry and only kinetic rounds, would be very interesting.
They all watched as a thin veil of blue light coalesced in a dome shape around the shuttle with a muffled pop and then faded from view.
"Barrier is up and reading at 100%. Ready for kinetic testing." Palin keyed in the control and a single high-powered round from a class 3 multi-cannon was fired at the barrier.
The loud bang of the gun was immediately complimented by a sharp pop, whizzing sound and a flash of blue light as the round was deflected and ricochet up, slamming into the ceiling with a metallic bang.
"Barriers show a twelve percent drop in power and are charging slowly." Palin just nodded as he went to the recordings, replaying the round hitting the barrier in progressively slower motion.
Muttering to himself, "Twelve percent for a single round, not as good as a Class 2 shield but for a fraction of the power…."
His mind started racing as he contemplated the possibilities that would open if they could secure a supply of this "element zero".
Clearing his throat and moving back to the main console, "Proceed with the next test."
He was looking forward to finding everything he could about the shuttle.
Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Terminus System
"Holy crap! Found it, finally!" Marcus slapped the page he had the manual open to. The method for re-calibrating the navigation position had been in the middle of a section of the manual dedicated to outdated, legacy systems. It just hadn't occurred to the authors that any one would need to re-calibrate the nav system after the type-3 FSD's were introduced decades ago.
Odoln looked up from his Omni-tool, having been updating his contacts and the Council on the trip so far. Giving Marcus his attention as he began to explain.
"I've got to do a reboot of all the systems, if that doesn't work I'll have to manually target the nearest star, jump and scan it, then jump back to this system."
He turned to the next page, "Then just keep doing that until the nav system can pinpoint where we are. Huh."
Putting the manual back, sat back in his seat, feeling the suit and seat tighten around him in preparation of flying.
"Get strapped in, I'll let everyone know what's going on and we'll get to jumping." Odoln sat back in his chair and Marcus keyed the cabin intercom and let them know.
He ran the system reboot, waiting as the progress bars went through the motions while he tapped his finger on the throttle. Finally everything had rebooted he shot off a discovery pulse to make sure he had all the information he needed about the star in the system he was about to leave. After that he opened the nav panel and saw a list of fourteen nearby systems, all marked with UNKNOWN STAR.
Selecting the first one, he angled the ship and keyed the FSD and pushed the throttle to 100% as the countdown started.
"And we're off."
Marcus scowled at the nav panel as he finished the FSS scan of the system he was in. Just finishing the eleventh system, the computer still stubbornly refused to pinpoint where they were. With practiced ease, he swung the ship back around and jumped back to the system the Relay had jumped them to.
Angling around the star and finishing the brief fuel scooping, he was about to throttle down and get the manual again before the computer beeped.
POSITION ESTABLISHED
"Alright, back in business!" He opened the galaxy map and was relieved to see it centered on the system he was in, the usual string of letters and numbers for a system so far outside the bubble.
Zooming out, he saw the "previous travel" grey, dashed line pointing off to a star quite a distance away. Spectre Odoln looked over the map as well, noticing the lines branching out from the current system to the eleven different systems near them.
Marcus looked between the first Relay system and their current one, "I can see the advantages to that sort of travel. I imagine you all don't have nearly as much trouble pinpointing where you are after you jump though."
"We use relational maps instead of precise galactic positioning. With the Relays being our main long-distance interstellar travel, we really only ever care where we are in reference to those."
Bringing up a map quick on his Omni-tool, Marcus could see what Odoln was talking about, a few clusters were shown as directly adjacent to each other, connected by the Relays even if the actual distance was thousands or even tens of thousands of light-years.
"Huh, don't know how to feel about that." With a shrug he turned the seat to face front again let the diplomats in the cabin know what was going on.
"Alright, so what system is next on our journey?"
"The next Relay is in a system 12.75 light-years away. I we did not go there yet." Marcus just nodded and looked over the nav panel.
"Alright, I see a system that far away. Now we can get going again although I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do those re-calibration jumps each Relay jump. Dammit."
He shook his head as he got into position for the next jump.
Citadel Space
A short burst of light and there was suddenly a ship in a close orbit of the star again. It could be seen immediately circling the star for a few moments, pulling in the hydrogen from the corona of the average yellow-orange star before pulling away and heading in the direction of an artificial construct that had been orbiting that star for untold eons of time.
Before the small ship came within a hundred thousand kilometers of the construct, it veered off towards a small rocky planet further out from the star. Dropping out of the pocket of space-time it was using to hurtle itself through the not-quite-actual vacuum of space in orbit. Another ship slipped into existence a mere ten kilometers from the first, both of them orbiting the dead rocky world together as a discussion took place.
Benezia looked up from the 'table' she was sitting at, or more accurately, floating near. The lack of artificial gravity was a little odd for her. Even more so since the cabins her and the other passengers had available were tastefully opulent. The luxury offset for her by the lack of gravity, a situation that would only ever really happen on Council ships if there were major issues.
As she saw Marcus make his way into the cabin with Odoln close behind him she greeted him, "Marcus, I trust there were no more issues?"
He shook his head, "No, it takes a few jumps out and back after the Relay jumps but I've been able to get the system to find our position each time. I'm actually down here because Odoln here said we should coordinate with your ship before we go through the last relay."
"Yes, so the Council can have everything ready at the Citadel."
"Everything ready? What are we looking at once we get there?"
"Well, I've received word that the contact was announced to the public so there will be a crowd no doubt, to witness this event."
"Crowds huh? Not sure if I'm looking forward to that." Just then, the human diplomats made their way into the room.
Denton Fields spoke up as he moved past Marcus, "You won't have to worry about the crowds Commander, I thought it would be fairly obvious we'll have you stay with your ship while docked."
Marcus frowned a bit, "That would make sense but this whole thing has been kind of a scramble...and I kind of want to see this Citadel, the center of a galactic civilization."
"You're the only one registered to pilot the…'Brick' Commander, which is why we'd like you to stay on board and make sure our ride back home is still available." He turned to Benezia, "just as a precaution of course. Having you out of the ship just isn't something anyone wants to chance. No offense is intended."
"None taken, you're arriving at a strange place surrounded by alien races. We won't begrudge you your precautions."
With that settled, Benezia looked to the other ambassadors, "Now that we are almost to the Citadel, I'd like to go over what to expect, as I said, there will be crowds as first contact with a new race is always an auspicious event."
Citadel - Presidium Diplomatic Dock
Screens across Citadel space flicker for a moment before an Emergency Broadcast comes on, the image "FIRST CONTACT" appears before being replaced with a very professional Asari maiden standing in front of a crowd on the Citadel.
"Welcome back to the Citadel News Network, where just moments ago, the Council announced the pending arrival of the newest race to be contacted, the Humans."
The scene changes to show the Citadel in space with the light-red backdrop of the Serpent Nebula before panning over and zooming in on the Relay thousands of kilometers distant.
"Momentarily the Human ship 'Brick', carrying not only the human diplomats - from no less than three sovereign human nations - but they are being guided by none other than Matriarch Benezia T'Soni."
There is a small flash of light on the screen and the camera zooms in even more, centering on a sleek ship. White accentuated by broad dark sections tapering down to a rounded nose. A silver strip is seen near the back of the ship that begins to glow a dull orange-red color.
"There they are now! As you can see the Humans seem to have a sense of style! Sleek curves although the colors leave something to be desired."
The camera pans out and another ship comes into view, the form of an Asari ship comes into view.
"Joining them is Matriarch T'Soni's personal ship, the 'Soft Wind'. Reports indicate that her and her crew were instrumental in the first contact efforts."
A faint glow can be seen behind the ship as it begins to move, the camera following it's progress after a moment. A small window expands in the top right of the broadcast showing the Asari in front of the crowd again.
"I've just received word that the human ship has received authorization to approach and dock. I'm so excited! As we all know, images of the race have not yet been released so we are all eagerly awaiting the first view of these newcomers!"
As the camera follows the ship, a small distortion can be seen building off the front of the ship for a moment before it suddenly seems to snap out of view with a streak of blue-white light.
"Oh! They've gone FTL for the final approach to the Citadel, understandable given the near six hundred thousand kilometer distance."
The camera pans to an area of open space flanked on both sides by two halves of the Citadel defense fleet. The Destiny Ascension can be seen on the left side, relatively higher than the other ships.
"Now we've been informed that their flight path will see them come out here. As you can all see, the Citadel defense fleet has been positioned as an honor guard to welcome them - there they are now!"
A small flash of light far off to the right and top of the frame is seen, a glow seen and the camera pans and zooms in on the ship. Small flashes of light are seen as the ship reorients itself.
"Not precisely where they should be but close! Our understanding at CNN is that this new race uses a different drive and navigation systems than we in Citadel space are familiar with. I believe that explains the lack of precision here."
The ship is seen moving directly sideways and downward towards the center of the space available.
"Now they're re-positioning for a straight shot through the honor guard to the docks and they're approaching!"
The small window with the Asari expands, switching places with the view of the spaceship. The Asari turns to look behind her over the crowd and a small dot can be seen as it approaches.
"We have visual here at the dock! Oh my, that ship is bigger than it looked from a distance…"
The ship can be clearly seen now, coming in silently, suddenly bright thrusters flare, cancelling the forward momentum of the ship. The thrusters slowly dim as the ship slows and the thrust is dialed back.
"Ah! ….I apologize, I wasn't ready for that. The Human's ships do not make use of Mass Effect fields to maneuver and as such, require the use of opposing thrust to maneuver."
The ship is clearly visible now, the positioning of the camera and Asari becomes evident, at an angle from where the front of the ship is approaching. The camera moves with the ship, a barrier comes into view that the crowd is standing behind, a line of at-attention C-Sec officers is standing facing the crowd. The large, flat area of the landing pad visible and clear for the ship.
The Asari steps into the view from the left side, looking at the ship as it moves in. As the ship comes up to the dock it comes to the Mass Effect field holding the atmosphere in. The shields of the ship become visible where the ME field intersects it, a blue-white line that passes a few meters off the hull of the ship. Once in the pressurized dock, the shields were faintly visible, just barely glowing in the air. The ship's thrusters fire in short bursts, stopping the ship a few meters above the landing pad.
"As you can see, the ship is roughly the size of an average frigate but somewhere between Asari and Salarian design philosophy. It's setting down now. The lines of the ship-ah!"
The crowd was startled as there was a loud 'WHUMP-BANG' as the shields of the ship shut down and the Citadel atmosphere rushed into the space, slamming into the hull of the ship and rebounding. The crowd that could be seen in the view all flinched back at the sound, the C-Sec guards almost all went to duck and turned suddenly to make sure nothing happened.
After a moment and nothing bad had happened, the Asari straightened up, running a hand over her head before continuing.
"It would seem that their shielding disengaging caused quite the disruption. No doubt an unexpected complication during this first contact."
She smiled, "No harm done." She turned to the ship as a soft mechanical sound could be heard and something began to lower from below the nose.
"Here they come! The ramp seems to be lowering...and yes! Here with Citadel News Network first, the first view of the Humans!"
The Asari is looking excitedly between the ship and the camera as the ramp is lowered and the first Humans begin making their way down. The slate grey and immaculate uniform of the Federation ambassador followed by two of his aides is first, waving as he steps off the last step. A roaring cheer erupts as the crowd waves in greeting.
"With a body shape very close to the Batarians males, their lighter skin color and..fur certainly makes an impression."
The Asari looks back at the camera and begins to move closer to the barrier, the camera following. The ambassador walked forward until he was just out from underneath the nose of the ship.
"Now, this is the ambassador from one of the three governments of Humanity, the Federation, the oldest human government with their capital being their home system of Sol!"
The crowd's cheering dies down as feet are seen moving down the steps again, dazzlingly white attire with vibrant gold trim comes into view as the next ambassador comes into view with his two aides.
"This is the ambassador from the second-oldest government that arose from their first successful colony, the Empire of Acheron!"
The ambassador came forward to stand next to the Federation ambassador and waved, again the crowd cheered and waved back before growing quieter again, another person being seen descending the ramp.
"Now the ambassador from the newest Human government, the Alliance! They are - oh Goddess she's beautiful…"
The Asari trailed off as the Alliance ambassador came into view. The very Asari-like shape of the ambassador was accentuated by the dark green dress that would go on to make it's way into Asari fashion circles for years to come. What really drew the attention was the ambassador's long, red hair that bounced in step with her as she stepped forward to stand next the Imperial ambassador.
With a wave from all three of them, the crowd erupted again, the Asari voices conspicuously louder now.
"Ahem, well, the Alliance ambassador and Human females are sure to make waves in Asari society. Speaking of which, Matriarch T'Soni is coming down from the Human ship now!"
The crowd cheered again as Benezia made her way down the ramp, appearing to glide with a grace that was the envy of not a small amount of the Asari viewers. Velictus and Spectre Odoln following behind her. She moved around to stand in front of the three ambassadors with Velictus and Odoln standing behind and to each side of her.
The crowd went silent as Benezia bowed slightly to them, "It is my great honor and privilege to welcome Humanity, on behalf of myself and all the species of the Council, the the Citadel!"
The crowd cheered for a moment before quieting again as Benezia moved to speak again.
"The Council is waiting, please follow me." With that she turned and walked between Velictus and Odoln who fell into step behind her, the ambassadors following. C-Sec saluting with a fist to the chest as they passed.
The view changed again, returning to the Asari with the crowd and the human ship in the background.
"There you have it, the historic arrival of the Human ambassadors to the Citadel! We will have more coverage of the traditional tour of the Citadel and later with our correspondent in the Council chambers later, thank you and good bye!"
Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Docked, Bridge
Marcus leaned against the console, looking down the nose of his ship while he watched as the ambassadors left his ship, the external feeds on so he could hear the cheering and speeches.
As the ambassadors made their way away from the landing pad he stood and crossed his arms in front of them for a moment before shaking his head and looking around the dock his ship was in, lingering on the crowd, his eyes following a small, drone that made its way back in front of an Asari.
"Alright, I'm glad I'm not part of that now. Even if they're aliens, I never did like crowds." He turned to the aide that had stayed on his bridge.
"What do you make of all this?"
The aide just shrugged, "It's certainly a spectacle although I think you nearly got your ship shot when you dropped the shields. Don't think they were expecting that."
"Yeah, neither was I though. I'm almost never in atmosphere. Never had air pressure on the shields. Pretty sure it shook the ambassadors up too, hit hard."
Before the conversation could continue, Marcus noticed an incoming communication connection flashing on the comm panel on Citadel frequencies. Seeing it came from the Soft Wind that was pulling into a docking berth near him, he accepted it.
A face popped into his vision as the connection established, at first in a series of disjointed images and static sounds. Figuring out how to get audio and video signals between the technology bases had been difficult. It worked but it was definitely a first-generation attempt.
After a moment, Shiala's face became visible and Marcus smiled, "Shiala! Glad you could make it, I'm surprised you're not going with Benezia."
Shiala smiled back, "Thank you Marcus but she suggested I contact you. She mentioned you would be in your ship for the duration and I wanted to know if you'd like company and the chance to be introduced to some new faces."
"Beats sitting in here staring at the dock." At that Marcus got up to go down to the landing ramp before the aide stepped in his way.
"You shouldn't leave the bridge." Marcus frowned.
"I'm not leaving, I'm going to let an Asari I know on board, one of the three I met at first."
He shook his head, "I'd advise against that, we know very little about these aliens right now."
"I know less about you than I do her."
"With only one gender can you really say it's a 'her'? Besides, it doesn't matter if you don't know me, I'm human."
Marcus barked a laugh, "Yeah but you're an asshole too. Besides, I've had more humans try to kill me."
The aide frowned at that as Marcus stepped around him, as he stepped through the door, Marcus sent a lockout command and all the consoles flashed red and shut down.
"My ship my rules buddy, stay here, I'm going to invite them onboard." With the the door slid shut and locked.
Citadel - Presidium
Benezia led the ambassadors up the steps, the grandeur of the Council chambers on full display. The light fragrance of the Thessian trees lining the path to the chamber with the tamer examples of Salarian botany surrounding the trunks. Those plots were the largest and drew the eye first, inter-spaced with those two races contributions everyone could see smaller examples of plant life from the other races.
As they reached the top of the largest set of stairs they could see a small island the walking path split around. A large Turian tree stood proudly in the center, it's small needles shimmering a deep purple with veins of silver. A small, hardy plant from the Drell homeworld before it became uninhabitable surrounded the base of the tree. Although attention was pulled by the Hanar displays of their rare land-based mossy plants that climbed part of the trunk of the tree. A short-squat Elcore bush could be spied among the foliage across the plot from the reddish-grey of the Batarian grasses.
The other race's flora were not featured either because they were too different (Volus) or the races weren't part of the Council (Quarian and Krogan)
As Benezia explained the plant life they made their way around the small island to the door to the Council chambers.
"I hope you have all enjoyed the tour of the Citadel. Now, through these doors is the Council chambers."
With that, the doors slowly began to swing open, the height of the doors accentuating the view the chamber provided. The human ambassador's eyes were drawn up as they opened to reveal the view of the Serpent nebula that framed the Councilors.
"They are ready to receive you now." With a bow she stepped to the side, gesturing for them to proceed into the chamber.
As they walked, they went up a last set of stairs, the Council having decided that given the length of time Humanity had been in space, the platform those coming to see the Council was raised to be almost but noticeably not level with the Councilors.
The three ambassadors stepped up, their aides waiting at the base of the stairs with a variety of recording implements going discreetly.
After a moment of regarding each other, Councilor Tevos began, "Honored ambassadors, I cannot express how excited we all are to meet you."
The ambassadors inclined their heads to her before she continued, "I am Councilor Tevos."
The Salarian councilor spoke next, "I am Councilor Bursik."
The Turian next, "And I am Councilor Sparatus."
Before Tevos could prompt them, the ambassadors introduced themselves.
"I am Ambassador Denton Fields."
"I am Ambassador Daniel Calf."
"I am Holly Bastogne, the Ambassador for the Alliance and independent humans."
The other two shot a glance at her that she ignored."
Secretly, Tevos smirked, glad to see political guile in the human that most closely resembled an Asari.
The lights in the chamber dimmed, "As Humanity has been gracious enough to give a history to our ambassador, Matriarch T'Soni, we wish to explain the history of this Council."
With a flourish of her arm, the space between the two groups was suddenly filled with the translucent blue hologram of a planet as a voice echoed through the room.
"Thessia, homeworld of the oldest member race of the Council, the Asari."
They all watched as history was laid out for them.
Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Docked, Bridge
Marcus watched Shiala's face as he let the video play, he could feel the tension build in the air as he heard his voice countdown.
"(One) One - I'm a Pilot!" He paused the video just as Benezia screamed as the ship rushed forward into hyperspace and Shiala and the Quarian she had brought with - Han Tolan vas Greedor, from the Soft Wind, broke down into a laughing fit.
Even Uolon chuckled as he looked at their faces. Seeing an Asari Matriarch showing that much emotion was rare but his amusement was tempered by his memory of that first jump and being worried he was about to die.
Marcus ended up having to close the video there since Shiala had a tough time seeing Benezia without the image of her screaming frozen in a new perfect hologram on the bridge of the ship. Once she had gotten a hold of herself she wiped a tear from her eye and Marcus briefly found it weird how similar the Asari were to Humans.
"Ok, Marcus, you've got me beat. I don't have anything like that on the Matriarch. That's prime blackmail material there."
"Nah, I just think it's funny. Although seeing her here with the ambassadors makes me kind of cringe thinking about how I've joked around with her. She's someone really important here isn't she?"
Han Tolan cut in at that, "Very much so, so much so that she can openly employ a Quarian and no one thinks twice about it."
Marcus stopped for a moment before answering that, "That's right, because of the whole stigma your race seems to have because they created a race of AI."
Han deflated a bit at that, "Unfortunately, yes. I can only imagine how you Humans are going to react to us. How does humanity see AI? Considering how automated your systems must be to pilot the ships you do without a crew….has your race had issues with AI?"
"Well, I'm not sure how we'll react. I personally don't care much, our computers are complex but like our other tech, a lot of time and effort has gone into making it as efficient as possible. As for AI?"
He got up and shrugged, turning to look out the viewport at the dock, the crowd having thinned out to C-Sec guards and the die-hard curious.
"I'm not sure it's translating correctly because we use artificial intelligence a lot." He saw Han, Shiala, and Uolon tense at that.
"I think it's just a different term we use because we have smart systems, 'intelligent' systems. No, what I think you're talking about is machine sentience."
Uolon tilted his head in thought, "I think you're right, we still have narrowly-defined artificial intelligence, we call them Virtual Intelligence."
Marcus nodded, "It's not actually well known in human space but after the first a few problems with machine sentience came to light that it's one of the few, " he turned back to look Han in the...faceplate, "few things that will get all three governments working together without any hassle."
Han was taken aback at that, "Really?"
"Yeah, I've found some things about it in my travels and creating a machine sentience has been stamped out ruthlessly." he thought for a moment, "oddly enough though, there's no actual laws about it."
"It's not outlawed?" The Quarian seemed agitated at that.
"No, not sure why not though." The conversation was then derailed by Shiala.
"Marcus, speaking of laws, I wanted to ask you about something from where I first met you."
Marcus looked at Shiala with a look she couldn't quite identify but after a moment nodded, "Ok, what about it?"
She paused for a brief second before bringing up her Omni-tool, an image of a wreck of a ship.
"Do you remember this ship?"
His face went blank as he stared at the image, his eyes darting around the image before focusing on the dull glow of melted metal in the center of the image.
Shiala waited for a few seconds before adding, "This pirate cruiser was found in that same system with this damage and a chunk of the ship spinning off. It looks like you-"
He cut her off, "Burned the hull of the ship out and then slagged the bridge. Yeah. I did. I was pretty sure they were slavers and they were going to get away."
He looked down and his shoulders dropped, "I kind of hate having done that, I didn't know if they had slaves on the ship and if I could have done anything to save them, aliens or no."
Silence hung in the room for a moment, "After I did that I sat there staring at the wreck for a good ten minutes."
He shook his head as he crossed his arms and leaned against the back of his seat, his voice became quieter, "If I'd have left right away or not even have gone after that ship I might have been able to…."
Marcus felt his eyes go unfocused as his attention dove inwards, running through the events of that freighter again before he felt a hand on his shoulder. He twitched and his eyes shot up to see Shiala looking at him concerned.
Looking at the other two that had different measures of concern on their faces as well he shook himself.
"Yeah, I caught up with the ship and did that. With everything that you all-" he gestures to Uolon, "saw when we were going through the Council systems, it's probably not going to be a secret that we have sensors that work at FTL speeds."
Han almost fell over at that, scrambling onto his feet, "What?!"
Citadel - Presidium, Council Chambers
As the presentation wound down with the explanation of the Geth uprising and the statement that last few centuries of Council history being peaceful, the holograms dissolved and the lights in the Council chambers returned to their normal levels.
Tevos lead again after the presentation, "Ambassadors of Humanity, it is in the spirit of our history and the promise of a future built on cooperation that we, The Citadel Council, now want to extend the invitation of joining us as members of the Citadel races."
The three of them subtly exchanged glances, not giving much more away as they kept their faces neutral. Later logs would show low-powered but complex radio signals were passed rapidly between the human ambassadors at this time. Finally after a moment, Denton Fields stepped forward.
"Councilors, on behalf of the five point three trillion humans I would like to first say that we look forward to learning more about you. We hope to spend the next few months here among your races to learn about you all."
The Councilors hid their shock well at that, each of them secretly thankful of the distance between them and Human space as memories of a destroyed pirate cruiser coming to mind. The fact that Commander Rein's personal ship was capable of doing so and there being over five trillion humans caused no small amount of anxiety.
Tevos recovered first, "Ambassadors, we will prepare a space on the Presidium for the duration of your stay if you would like. Let us adjourn to a more comfortable location for now to continue our discussion."
With that, the Councilors made their way out of the chambers, the casual dismissal of their invitation and the human's desire to stay on the Citadel for a time was a setup for complications.
Outwardly, the three human ambassadors stepped out of the chambers and followed Benezia out. Those not included in the text communications via their mindcoms would assume they were of one mind. Those who knew better were preparing for the vitrol.
Citadel - Presidium, Spectre Quarters
"Welcome back Spectre Odoln", his rapid steps down the hallway in the Spectre section of the Presidium echoed down the hallway. He made sure his footfalls were noisy as a courtesy to any other Spectre that may be in at the same time.
The Spectre offices were secure but given the amount of time spent in some of the most dangerous areas of the galaxy…
'Known galaxy now.' he thought to himself, remembering the series of jumps in the human starship.
Given the danger most Spectres were routinely in, it was sometime difficult to not shoot on reflex, even in the Spectre offices.
He came to the main room to see two of his colleagues, Tela Vasir and a newer Turian member, Caeus Verillin if he remembered correctly.
Vasir smirked at him as he went directly to the secure terminal, "Odoln, finally back from human space? What did you find out about them?"
While his fingers flew over his Omni-tool to transfer the information that he'd deemed too sensitive to transmit, he answered.
"Humans could be a viable threat to Citadel security if they decide to involve themselves. Long-standing fractured governments in place don't suggest they'll join the Council. Distance from Relay-connected space affords them the luxury of never speaking to us again if they decide not to."
Not looking up from the Omni-tool or terminal, he didn't see Vasir's frown, "Expanding on my initial report I must add that should they become hostile, Council may need to sacrifice much to sue for peace."
At that Vasir stood and rushed over to Odoln, "You can't be serious, let me see what the hell data made you come up with that."
Odoln stepped back and finished transferring his data before looking at Vasir as she stood close to him, attempting to intimidate on reflex.
"Hmmm...look over the data, I'm sure you'll see the same patterns as I."
He stepped away to sit, noticing the new Turian Spectre had the good sense to simply observe for the time being.
"Pay close attention to the cross reference of traffic in the Council systems Commander Rein travelled and the sensor readings observed while in "Supercruise", I'd suggest you attempt to do so objectively. If you think the Asari are the most advanced, I've included the data from the Soft Wind on the escort mission to the Citadel."
At that she simply half snarled at her as she angrily paged through the data, now ignoring him.
Odoln brought up a list of tasks put forth to the Spectres as a whole to see if there were any he would complete. He had made it part the way down the list when he had seen a dossier for a Krogan Battlemaster turned mercenary that had been becoming more active around labs that specialized in genetic engineering when Vasir moved back from the terminal, sitting heavily in the seat across from him.
He marked the Krogan's file and closed his Omni-tool to see Vasir staring at him with a grimace on her face as she hit a command on her Omni-tool and one of the walls faded into a video. The human ship visible as a camera on the Soft Wind focused on it.
Readings scrolled by on each side as the video played, the ship suddenly disappearing after a brief flash of distortion. Shortly after that the feed cuts out as the Soft Wind goes FTL.
Odoln glanced over the readings again before speaking, "Short distances our ships seem to have the advantage in FTL. Human ships accelerate in FTL slower but is offset by the Human's FTL-capable sensors."
Vasir nodded before bringing up an overview of a system, "This is the first-contact system."
A spot was highlighted and then a line connected the spot in space with the relay.
"Here's where the freighter was intercepted and the Human made contact, here's the distance to the Relay."
She hit another command and a dot left the freighter site moving at a constant speed.
"The pirate cruiser left the site…" She hit another key and a new dot left the freighter site, slowly at first before accelerating and stopping when it came to the pirate cruiser.
Odoln looked at the image, "Pirate cruiser?" Vasir just raised her hand and continued.
"According to the acceleration curve data you pulled, it would have taken exactly this long for the human ship, the first one you left in, to reach the same speed as the pirate cruiser."
The images changed to the scene of the pirate cruiser, the melted sections on the ship, the slagged engines, finally the large chunk of the ship having been melted out and the bridge slagged.
"Somehow the human managed to 'find' the pirate cruiser at earliest possible point he could have intercepted it, dropped out of FTL and then proceeded to dismantle the ship -"
The image switched, showing the large piece that had been cut out, "Cut INTO the cruiser with what had to be directed energy weapons before turning the bridge of the ship into a metal-organic slag that was still glowing hours later when we found it."
Odoln leaned forward and leafed through the information, "You're suggesting Commander Rein's ship had FTL interception capabilities?"
"Interdiction, they have FTL sensors, the evidence suggests at the very least, interdiction ability at FTL speeds."
Silence stretched for a moment before Vasir sighed, "We should take another look over the Spectre candidates. I don't want us to be caught unprepared."
Odoln simply nodded and brought the list up.
Author's Note: They've made it! Now things will speed up a bit. Since the focus of this story is mainly on Commander Rein and those in his immediate vicinity, the story will veer a little further from what fan fictions normally do.
Anyway, next chapter will have more human viewpoints, some reactions, and just what in the hell Marcus is going to do besides wait around as a taxi for some diplomats.