Citadel Interspecies Anthropological Committee

First Contact, Home-world Scenario

Humankind, Earth

Log of Dr. Sona T'rom, Presidium

Our trip to Earth was very hectic. Barring the army of reporters from the Citadel wanting information about the newly discovered civilisation, a malfunction in the reactor of one of our ships forced us to dock near an Elcor colony until repairs could be made. Even though a small mass effect field was present, the conditions on that colony were far too much a strain on us. I believe the Salarian doctor was perturbed most of all. Not quite sure about Agus, however. I imagined Turians have a stronger tolerance for high-gravity environments. Though, this one particularly isn't too pleased about our mission, so I'm not sure whether that frown on his face stems from displeasure or physical pain. What had made this trip even more disturbing is that the Elcor in charge of our repairs, although a decent creature, was obviously trying to ask us about the Humans. I swear to God, the small gravity-plagued room coupled with a near hour-long back-and-forth conversation with that Elcor would've been the death of me had the malfunction not been fixed.

Thankfully, we then left to Arcturus. The famed space station was seen briefly as we passed by it to the relay. Agus made a comment on its inferiority to the Asari Athame Station orbiting Thessia. The Salarian, whose name I still had not learned to pronounce properly, was being treated for gravity sickness from the Elcor colony. In about an hour we had passed the relay and entered Sol. The first, and more obvious conclusion that can be made is that their system is large. Much larger than many others. According to the Alliance-supplied data, there are 4 giants and 4 terrestrial planets orbiting their Sun, alongside a belt of Astroids and countless moons. There are multiple colonies across many celestial bodies in Sol, most of whom have populations in the millions. Earth, however, is the main homeworld. Its population, according to the data provided, is unimaginably massive, up to 11 billion souls. That eclipses both Thessia and Palaven combined. It took a decent amount of time, but we finally arrived after passing the red arid planet Mars. The Alliance refused to comment for 'security reasons' on the nature of the planet's history. Whilst suspicious, our job isn't to provoke a galactic incident, it's to gain the information to prevent one.

In any case, Earth is blue. Very blue indeed. I had imagined that it would be much more arid for some reason. It's nearly 2/3rds water, apparently. Earth life would be fascinating to study, in this case. Unlike Thessia, Palaven, or Kahje, a single look at Earth shows great diversity. A large desert strip covers a very large northern portion of one continent, whilst rocky mountainous regions cover huge strips of another. Incredibly dense jungles seem to lie within several islands and one jungle strip across a southern continent stretches for hundreds of kilometers. I am told by the Alliance VI that this is known as the 'Amazon'. Other than that, the rest of Earth is mostly grasslands and forests with two large ice caps at the poles.

We were told by the VI that we were going to spend our first day in the city of Berlin in one of the nation states Earth is divided into. This one is called the 'European Union'.

"It's a spiralling city and the heart of Europe's economy" said the VI. Myths and histories of its founding were explained by the computer, noting most of the city's customs and traditions.

"The city is the centre of the European member state of Germany. As such, most of the population speaks German with some sizeable French and Polish minorities."

The VI continued an hour long explanation whilst Agus was basically falling asleep. An anthropologist who can't stand history? That's one for the books.

Though, there was something slightly off, the computer detailed much of the city's cultural, economic and political achievement, but the history sort of temporarily stopped at the end of the 19th century.

"After the unification of Germany under Otto Bismark, one of the greatest political and military minds of the era, Germany experienced great prosperity up until some disturbances occurred in the first half of the 20th century. By the start of the 21st century, Germany had fully been integrated into the European Union, and a long prosperous road was being built by this new membership-."

Agus, for whatever reason, interjected. Waking up from his daze, he jumped, accusingly eying the computer, and said:

"What disturbances?"

"Nothing of consequence that would interest you, Mr. Agus"

"We decide what's of consequence. What were the disturbances?"

"I'm sorry, but that information is classified." The VI finally admitted.

Agus scoffed and sat down, with a frown that seemed to grow exponentially.

"You're seriously upset at this? During first contact with the Turians you wouldn't even tell us what's the name of your home-planet." All men are children.

Agus refuses to talk to me, and remains silent throughout the entire trip. Though, I have to agree, a missing century from an otherwise extremely detailed report is suspicious. In any case, it's not worth another incident. The Salarian was furiously taking notes from the VI on his omnitool, despite his fatigue. His three-fingered hands were moving at unimaginable speeds, taking what seemed to be gigabytes of notes in seconds. Obviously, curiosity hastens recovery.

We later landed on Earth after some slight turbulence from artificial rings. The Turian began asking the VI about the rings, believing it to be some form of highly advanced defense system. The computer, surprisingly, replied that although some nuclear-capable satellite were built during the period of a Cold War in Earth's history in secrecy and still are technically operate, most of the orbiting material were bootstrap rocket developments and satellites from the past two centuries of space-travel.

Which is another thing that caught our attention.

"I'm sorry, but two centuries of space-travel?"

"Yes. Humanity became a spacefaring civilisation only two centuries ago."

I exchanged some concerned looks with the Salarian. There was something wrong with their level of technological advancements. Turian level spaceships from only two centuries of space-flight is too suspicious to ignore.

As we waited, the door to our ship opened. The Berlin International Spaceport announced something, which later lead to everyone turning their eyes on us.

"Achtung! Begrüßen die ersten aliens auf der Erde"

Embarrassingly enough, my universal translator malfunctioned for a minute or two, and I didn't exactly understand what they had said. I forgot to ask the Salarian or Agus later.

The spaceport was very different from any traditional port we've seen. The architecture didn't reflect the modernist designs all citadel races incorporated. Rather, the entire port was so carefully dressed with specially carved rocks that gave off a classical aura of sophistication. Columns of marble graced the entire port, which, in all honesty, was rather big compared to most non-Citadel race ports. Naturally, we were met with large stares by the local population. A young male, with a strange blonde hair colour, and unnaturally light eyes approached us.

"Guten tag, ich bin-ZZZSSSTTT-your guide for your visit to Earth's European Union. I am pleased to meet you."

After lazy introductions marked with me repeatedly hitting my omnitool to get it to start working properly, we existed the finely designed port carrying with us an army of stares from the local population. Frightened kids who clinger to their mothers, old-wrinkly women muttering something incomprehensible to each other, and genuinely curious youths were a natural response.

"Please don't be disturbed by the people here. We are a very open-minded race, but you have to understand that you're still the first alien life-forms most people have ever seen."

Berlin was beautiful. There were tall skyscrapers in the distance, but most of the buildings were relatively short and wide, decorated with an odd but highly refined style. Extremely carefully made windows and a tonne of alleyways gave the city an un-ignorable feel of culture which, sadly, many cities of citadel races are beginning to lose in my opinion. Even the streets and sidewalks were paved with a mosaic of patterns.

"What's that supposed to be?"

"It's the Brandenburg Gate, sir Agus."

"And?"

"It's one of Germany's most famous landmarks. The Brandenburg gate was built about six centuries ago, actually, to honour and represent peace in Europe. However, later wars and battles made it also embody victory, European unity, and the long spike-laden road that we had to cross to achieve it."

"Wait, stop. What's that?"

"The Reichstag. The main head of the German government in the EU." I noticed that the young man, whose name from what I can gather is Victor, had been unable to pronounce the Salarian's full name, so he just avoided it apparently. Smart, but still transparent. In any case, I was quite enjoying myself. All the monuments we passed and the century-old architecture of the cities here show us a pre-spaceflight city design that is just completely lost on so many civilisations. You could just feel the complexity behind ever slab of rock, behind every arch and column. It's quite obvious that architecture for humans bares great importance. On Thessia, barring the Temple of Athame, which, even then, was renovated so much that it lost its original design, very few pre-FTL monuments exist.

"I'd like to ask a question, Mr. Victor. What exactly was up with Berlin during the 20th century?"

Oh dear lord.

"Well, you see, Berlin was experiencing turmoil like the rest of Europe during the 20th century, it was an economic, political and social thing that the world took a while to recover from."

"What was that turmoil?"

"It's quite a long story, Sir. Nothing that would interest you, I guess."

Agus grunted and stayed quiet after that. It's obvious there's something they don't want us to know about, but there's no need to keep picking at wounds from Shanxi.

We later arrived at a musical institution known as a 'concert-house. There, we were going to listen to some of Earth's musical history. This event should help us evaluate the musical taste of the humans. Most species, particularly that of the Volus or the Hanar, have no evolutionary or societal need or interest in this form of artistic refinement.

The massive circular building, dressed with countless velvet-coloured chairs and a centre stage seems reminiscent of the Salarian music house designs. However, the humans incorporated their own 'classical' touch to it, as the guide referred to this architectural style.

"Please rise for the European anthem"

What we had expected to be a short restatement of the nations' ideals was instead a long extremely well constructed symphony which the Salarian noted as: "one of the most mathematically intriguing musical pieces I have ever encountered".

Several pieces followed. Brahms, Wagner, Von Weber, Chopin and countless others. A soft draft of music waved through the air, and we, at least, me and the Salarian, had our omni-tool covered arms held up to record to concertos and symphonies we heard.

"Mr. Victor, pardon me, but what exactly is the name of that first piece?"

"It's called Beethoven's Ode to Joy. It is part of his 9th Symphony."

"I see, it's quite beautiful."

"Pardon me for inquiring, but do you Salarians have any parallel to this type of music?"

"Surprisingly" the Salarian said, "Yes we do. Salarian music is almost entirely composed of something akin to those pieces we just heard. It's astonishing the similarities between human music"

Victor laughed quietly for a moment.

"Trust me, human music is very diverse. You'll soon find that out."

"Ladies and gentlemen, as tribute to the history of the Punk and Rock and Roll era, we will now move on from the veil of classism to Britain's own The Rolling Stones'."

What shrieks! Unimaginably horrid noises came from a piece about some youth's failed attainment of sexual gratification, otherwise known as 'satisfaction'. Rather disgusting if you ask me. The Salarian's enchantment with human music was completely shattered. He simply stared at the men playing the instruments with a wide-opened mouth. I must admit, after listening to what I had to, I placed a biotic barrier near my ears and simply recorded the song to listen and analyse it later at a much lower volume and a bottle of aspirin.

"That was amazing!" Yelled Agus. "It's almost as good as Minae's Frontier"

"Minae's Frontier?"

"It's a popular song back on Palaven, the Turian homeworld. Much of the whole 'harmonic' thing you humans have going on with the same-key chords in classical isn't particularly well-liked by most Turians. Forgive me saying so Siyath, but Salarian music make most Turians puke."

Siyath! Thank the Goddess Agus found a way to shorten that ungodly long Salarian name.

"Well, we have a saying here on Earth; to each his own." Interjected Victor. "In any case, there's still a lot more to human music. Oriental and non-European are also radically different from what you may hear here, so you'll encounter immense diversity in your trips to Earth."

"I see, so humans are comfortable with multiple styles of music?" I asked

"Well, most people typically have preferences, but generally humans have a very wide and diverse array of musical pleasure to offer. We aren't particularly comfortably only with one type or one genre."

To be fair, even in that regards, humans were musically similar to Asari. Siyath had a biological excuse to be disturbed. Salarian physiology made it difficult for them to appreciate that type of music. I, on the other hand, just find it unbearable. It's no better than the sounds of brute beasts.

As we left the music-house, having listened to several pieces by a 'Queen' and his contemporaries, we found a crowd had lined up.

"Never again! Don't deny our history!" The crowd yelled. Obviously, Victor looked flustered. A few minutes afterwards and a large police-force, similar to C-Sec but much more authoritative, took the few dozen people outside the concert hall into large vans and drove off despite their protests. No explanation, nothing. It happened to quick to truly process. Except, of course, for Siyath.

An unintelligible 'Hail' someone was shouted halfway through that semi-comedic event that made every human stare with an expression of absolute fear and dread, even the protestors. The Turian picked up on it, quickly placing his hand over his holster in case of any unseen hostilities that the humans picked up on.

The rogue element who shouted that was quickly identified and, almost immediately, he managed to get out his chant one more time before he was sedated and thrown into a separate van from the other protesters. This all took place in a time-span of less than a minute or two. Admittedly, that was impressive for any police-force. Authoritarian in some aspects, but impressive.

What was it that the man had said?

"Heil Hitler!"