"I am sorry," said Eleanor, "but I must refuse your offer. The Empire will remain soveriegn. We will not subjugate ourselves to a government which does not support its own laws, and which condemns its member races to extinction."
Tevos looked at Eleanor in shock. She had a feeling things were going to take a lot longer than she'd expected.
Sparatus's thoughts clearly moved in a completely different direction.
"You arrogant barbarians!" he burst out. "Do not speak of things beyond your comprehension! You do not understand what you have just been offered! Despite your primitive society, you have been offered a great honor, and a tremendous advantage! Without joining the Citadel, you will have no trade rights, no military allies, no negotiation rights, and no say in the laws of the galaxy! In effect, you will give up any place in the greater galaxy! And how DARE you insult the Council! We protect the stability of the galaxy! We work for the greater good of all!"
"Including the Quarians and Krogan?" Eleanor asked sharply before Sparatus could continue his rant.
"The Quarians created AIs! They unleashed a horror upon the galaxy which cannot be understated! They deserve their punishment! And the Krogan are nothing more than barbarians! They know nothing beyond killing and fighting!"
"The Krogan are the result of your own creation- you uplifted them to fight a war, while their planet was in turmoil, and then abandoned them to their own devices! Of course they went back to their old ways- they knew no better! As for the Quarians, the creation of the Geth was an accident, and took place three centuries ago! They deserved no punishment in the first place, and any Quarian who did deserve punishment is long dead!"
"They are nothing but vagrants and thieves! They deserve no place in the Citadel!"
"If they are truly nothing but 'vagrants and thieves,' it is because they lack the means to survive otherwise- again, through your actions! When the Quarians needed you most, did your precious 'Council' come to their protection, as promised to any member race? NO! You banished them to extinction! Should we join your government when you allow your own people to be oppresssed, and the two races that needed you most were condemned?! NO! The Solian Empire will remain independent."
Before Sparatus could open his mouth again, Tevos spoke. "We understand, and will not press the matter farther. Perhaps we can come to some agreement that would allow limited trade between our peoples, even though you will not be a Citadel race."
"That would be reasonable. I will leave the details of such an agreement to Fyunch(click), as he is my primary economic advisor. I give him full negotiating rights, and will approve any deal he agrees with," Eleanor said, gesturing towards the three-armed creature.
"What is that creature? I thought you said that you had no other races in your empire." Tevos asked as a terrifying thought occurred to her.
"We haven't. Fyunch(click) is an AI. He has been an Imperial Aid since his creation nearly a century ago, and is one of our most esteemed citizens." Eleanor said no more, but the implications of her words were clear- Fyunch(click) was a trusted Solian citizen, and refusing to work with him on the grounds of his being an AI would be construed as a grave insult.
"Understood. Suggest Fyunch(click) meet with Nadar Valton, the Council's economic advisor to settle details. Council will go over whatever deal they come up with and make any changes necessary before approval," Valern said.
"Very well," said Tevos. "In that case, the only matter left is for you to sign the Treaty of Farixen and the Spectre Accords."
At this, Eleanor actually laughed. "I'm sorry, but we will be doing no such thing. As Councilor Sparatus pointed out, as a non-Citadel race, we will be without any military allies. In such a situation, reducing our military capabilities by such a large percent would be crippling, and would leave the Empire open to piracy, raids, and invasion. As for the Spectre Accords, the idea is nothing short of ridiculous. I will not have unrestricted foreign agents operating in my territory. In fact, the Imperial Council has already discussed the matter of Spectres, and decreed that any Spectre found in Imperial space would be tried for espionage."
Sparatus looked like he was going to open his mouth again, so Tevos began speaking before he could do so. "That is a problem. We cannot allow a foreign government to operate unrestricted. Even the Krogan and Quarians, though they are not Council Races, are required to follow Council regulations on dreadnoughts and Spectres."
"And what right do you have to 'regulate foreign governments?'" Eleanor argued. "They are, as you stated, foreign. They should be able to operate under their own regulations and no others. If the Quarians and Krogans are foolish enough to give up this right, then that is their own fault. The Solian Empire will not make the same mistake, however. We will not allow the Citadel to interfere in matters not its own, just as we will not interfere in matters of the Citadel."
At this point, Sparatus began yelling again.
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"Welcome to Citadel News Review, where we discuss the major news events of the week. Today we'll be discussing the humans' 'Solian Empire' and their negotiations with the Citadel Council. For those of you who have been living under a rock, we just came to a close with day four of the negotiations, and we finally seem to be making headway. The Council has agreed to allow the humans to remain independent from the Council, and has even allowed exemption from the Treaty of Farixen. After that, though, things got sticky. The humans' refusal to sign onto the Spectre Accords provided a great deal of contention between the Councilors and the human empress, but a compromise was finally met. The humans have agreed to allow two Spectres to operate within Imperial territory, so long as they are registered with the human government. In return, the humans will be allowed to have three agents operating in Citadel space, who's authority will exactly reflect that granted to the Spectres operating in human space. In other words, if the Spectres agree to act within the limits of human law, the human agents will act within Spectre law. If the Spectres insist that they are above the law, the human agents will be as well. Again, these agents must be registered with the Council. Other issues include the humans' refusal to cease their use of dangerous technologies such as Artificial Intelligences, nanites, and genetic manipulation. And now that the review of what we all know is over, let's get to the good stuff. Today's specialists are Sabolia Linus, a Turian military strategist; Pheulsa Drior, the famed Asari political specialist; Hotarr, the well known Elcor psychologist; and Bortun Yotz, the Volus economist. Let's see what they think of the situation. Sabolia, let's start with you. Could you give us your view of the threat the humans may pose to galactic society?"
The screen shifted to show a room with four aliens sitting (or standing, in the case of Hotarr) around a small table in a neatly furnished room.
"Well, Teveez, there's a great deal of debate in the Hierarchy on exactly that," answered the Turian. "There are two main camps. The first is of the opinion that humans are dangerous, and need to be brought under the Citadel's wing, whether they like it or not. The second group argues that such an action would be too dangerous, and would provoke a war that would be far too costly for both sides. Personally, I'm inclined to agree that the humans should be subjugated. Their actions during the Relay 287 Conflict show that they have little regard for sentient life. Furthermore, their refusal to share their technology, especially this 'wormhole' tech, combined with their refusal to sign the Treaty of Farixen and their initial objections to the Spectre Accords, seems to show clear hostile intent. Their wormholes offer a direct path into any point in Citadel space, which poses a major threat to us which we have no way of combating without major military buildup, and their refusal to sign the Treaty of Farixen when there is no need for them to have such a large fleet indicates an obvious intent to invade."
"With objection: The humans have already fought three interstellar wars, and suffered massive casualties in all of them. This provides ample reason for them to desire a sufficient military to defend themselves," said Hotarr.
"Yes, but if they were a Citadel race, they wouldn't have any reason to fear- the Turians would protect them," argued Pheulsa.
"Pointedly: They have provided their reasons for refusing to join the Citadel, and I am unable to argue with them. In addition, joining the Citadel would require them to, from their perspecitve, commit genocide. Remember, the Council would require them to shut down their AIs, which the humans value as trusted friends and allies."
"Which is obviously a foolish mistake!" claimed Sabolia. "Everybody knows AIs hate organics. Look at the Geth! The humans' AIs are obviously going to turn on them someday, and when they do, the humans will be begging the Council to save them."
"You forget... hssst... the humans have been using... hsst... AIs for centuries now. I expect...hsss... that they would have betrayed them... hssst... by now if they so intended...hssst. Also, the AIs helped the Earth-Clan...hssst... during their wars against the...hssst... aliens, as well as...hssst... the Relay 287 Conflict. This...hssst... indicates that the AIs will protect...hssst... the humans."
"Agreeably: Indeed. Argumentatively: It would seem that 'everybody' is wrong about AIs. The Geth may be hostile, but that does not mean that all AIs would be."
"Don't be ridiculous!" said the Asari. "Of course AIs are hostile. They are likely simply biding their time for some reason- who can understand the mind of a synthetic?"
"Who indeed?" said Teveez, the host. "But I'm afraid we don't have time for an extended discussion on AI psychology. What do you all think of the Spectre compromise the humans came up with?"
"Actually," said Pheulsa, "I think that's the most reasonable part of this whole situation. The humans made a valid arguement in their claim that they don't want foreign spies in their territory. I think they were quite accomodating to allow any Spectres in their space at all."
"Challengingly: And what of the fact that they only allow two Spectres in their territory, while they have three of their own agents in Citadel space?"
"What you have to keep in mind," argued Pheulsa, "is that Citadel Space is much larger than the Empire's territory is. The humans have only thirteen colonies, whereas we have dozens. This means that their three agents each have to cover much more territory than our Spectres do."
"Hsss... Indeed. The Earth-clans have a much higher ratio of...hssst... planets to agents than we do. The...hssst... agreement is heavily in favor of the...hssst... Council."
"And what of the Empire's statement that any unregistered Spectre found operating in Imperial Space will be shot? Is that fair as well?" challenged Sabolia.
"Considering the fact that they would be considered a spy, it is not unreasonable. Personally, I do find the punishment somewhat extreme, especially in light of the fact that the death penalty is outlawed in Council Space, which means that we cannot respond in kind, but, to be honest, I'm surprised the Empress didn't say that it would be considered an act of war."
"Psht," Sabolia scoffed. "Only because they know they would lose such a war."
"Thoughtfully: Personally, I am not so sure of that. Their military has proven itself to be quite a force to be reckoned with. And we only know a small amount about the humans' powers, which would prove dangerous during war."
"Ah, yes. Their 'magic powers.' Tell me, do you honestly believe that these humans have magic?"
"Bluntly: I doubt it, but am unable to explain many of the things I have seen the humans do. For example..."
Tevos sighed as she turned off the vidscreen. She wasn't particularly interested in hearing what a group of TV pundits believed, and she definitely didn't want to revisit the grueling debates with Empress Eleanor. The human woman had proved to be a shrewd negotiator, and had managed to present many issues in such a way that the Council couldn't make demands of the Empire without seeming unreasonable or, worse, totalitarian. The council members had been backed into corner after corner, and Tevos had quickly come to regret her decision to make the negotiations public as they lost more and more ground. Fortunately, most of the major issues had been covered, and as she looked over the proposed trade agreement, she was relatively satisfied with the work of the volus economist who had been working with the AI with the bizarre name. Sparatus would doubtless object, as he had to every point so far, but it was actually quite reasonable.
The humans would pay heavy tariffs on any "magical" goods (which basically meant everything they produced) imported into Citadel space, and the Citadel would pay comparatively reasonable taxes on element zero technology imported into Imperial territory. Immigration between the two nations would be barred for a five year period, and tourism would be heavily regulated, limited to certain worlds, while business travelers would be permitted to visit extra planets if they could prove that they had legitimate business there. After the five years were up, the ban on immigration would be lifted and tourism control would be loosened. Both during and after the five year period, all humans in Citadel territory would be required to register the specifics of their powers with a soon-to-be-created agency which monitered the"supernatural" abilities of any human in Citadel space. Any biotics in human territory would be registered with the Supernatural Registration Agency, who would have a special department devoted to biotics. The humans would be permitted to expand into certain areas of the Attican Traverse, and be given mining rights in any systems in that region of space which did not contain significant amounts of element zero or a garden world (not including the ones which had been granted to the humans for expansion). In return, they would grant the right to mine eezo in Imperial space to Citadel mining companies. Any Prothean beacons discovered in Imperial space would be shared with the Citadel races after the humans had had one year to study it independently, and the humans would be granted the right to study previously discovered Prothean beacons based on the amount of technology they shared with the Citadel (the humans had warned that much of their technology would be impossible to reproduce without "enchanters," but it was agreed between the Councilors that the ability to reproduce the tech did not matter for the purposes of this agreement, it was the amount of information shared that was significant, given the Salarians' inevitable ability to find the source of the humans' "magic").
All in all, Valton had done considerably better at the negotiating table than the Council had (which was to be expected, given the fact that Sparatus had been absent for those debates), and Tevos was looking forward to closing the discussions tomorrow.
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Eleanor frowned as she looked over the agreement Fyunch(click) had come to with the Citadel economist. It was... fair. She didn't like fair. Not when her people were involved. The Citadel definitely had an advantage as far as imports and exports went, but that was balanced out by the technology trade agreement. It was, after all, hideously in the Empire's favor. Sure, Prothean tech was limited compared to arcaneotechnology, but the Empire could combine the two easily enough, and they wouldn't have to give anything up. In exchange, the Citadel would be given blueprints, schematics, formulaes, whatever they liked- and would be completely unable to use them. Of course, she doubted that she'd be able to get away with more than a few trades like that- eventually, the Council would claim that the Empire was giving false information to steal Prothean secrets, and would renege the technology agreement. But that simply meant that she would have to be careful what she traded, so as to make sure she got as much as she could on the few deals she could make. The colonization rights were acceptable, as the empire expanded slowly, and the mining agreement was quite fair. The Empire gained exclusive mining rights to any system in the Attican Traverse not containing eezo or garden worlds outside of the ones already added to her territory, and the Citadel races would be permitted to harvest a material for which the Empire had no use.
All in all, it was a fair agreement, and Eleanor was looking forward to closing the discussions tomorrow.
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By the way, fantasynamegenerators .com doesn't have Hanar, Elcor, or Volus names, so any suggestions you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I really struggle with naming characters, especially aliens.
Oh, also, there was a typo in chapter 4(?) that involved several lines being deleted from the text entirely. This is because I'm writing on a laptop, and my hand tends to move across the mousepad as I type, thus highlighting text, which then gets deleted as I continue to type. I normally catch it, but not always. In the future, please point that out to me. I hate waiting for a beta to finish proofreading my work so that I can post, so I generally do my own betaing, with the obvious effect that I miss stuff.
Lastly, I need suggestions for the story from here on out. What should I do next? Should I skip straight to the Skyllian Blitz and its consequences? Should I do something different? If you want something before the Skyllian Blitz, I'll need ideas. I'll need further ideas after that, too. And lastly, who wants me to retcon this and bring back the Reapers? I originally wasn't going to do that, because I hate them so much, but since I'm short on ideas, I'm considering it.