A Krogan misplaced: Chapter 7
"Camp Enterprise" - former Bicentennial Park - Sydney - 8 days after landing
The quarters the humans had set up for him were surprisingly spacious. Far moreso than he'd had anytime in the last standard decade. They were hardly ideal of course, the bed was far too soft, the chair was almost as uncomfortable as the one in that tent, nothing to properly rest his hump on. But they'd taken the time to place his things there. Perhaps more importantly, the humans had left a collection of their literature.
The books ranged from tomes on the natural species of the planet, to their history, such as it was. Though Wrex noted that the histories only extended up to 1912, most curious. Some were stories of fiction, and clearly labelled as such on the covers, and it was those that Wrex was most interested in. The stories were curious, some could be roughly compared to his knowledge of his own peoples works. Titles such as Dracula, the Tale of Genji and Gullivers travels. But others...others he couldn't make heads or tails of. The purpose behind "One thousand and one nights" was completely lost on him. Why hadn't the girl killed the Sultan and stole his throne? Eh, humans were strange.
The music he'd had shown to him on the other hand was something fascinating. Wrex had always enjoyed music, it was something that allowed his mind to wander from past failures and regrets. The humans had created some interesting classical pieces that made getting to sleep simple enough despite the poor quality of the bed, songs such as "Twilight of the thunder god" and "War Pigs", which would probably make decent nursery rhymes. Nothing that was particularly blood pumping, nor anything he'd want for himself aside from what they called "Tuvan Throat singing" which was a work of art if he'd ever heard one.
But human literature and music aside, his talks with the group of humans known as the "Security Council" had gone particularly well. The group had listened to his recounting of krogan history quite attentively, and hadn't seemed as shocked as Wrex had expected when he'd gone over the wars of blood. That was...disquieting. It suggested that the humans knew of, or worse, possibly had even used nuclear weapons. If nothing else was going to be accomplished, then Wrex would ensure that the humans never got the idea into their small heads that nuclear warfare was a bright idea. That at least, was his duty.
But the grim smile which had been etched into the face of Urdnot Wrex for the best part of two days was for an entirely different reason. After he had gotten to the "uplift" and the rachni war, the humans had been understanding, impressed even when he described the rachni. But to them it had been just another war, if an important one in the scheme of things. Of course then he had explained to them the lead to the krogan Rebellions. The security council had been quite surprised at his honesty behind the reasons for the beginning of the conflict. Krogan desire to become a truly equal member of the Council, the salarian spurring krogan into taking asari colonies, and then realising their mistake when salarian colonies were also seized. The death of most calmer krogan leaders fighting the rachni, leaving nobody to politically oppose his greatsire, whose desire for power had become a thing of horror. But most importantly of all, foolishness. Foolish goals, foolish leaders in the wrong places, and the stupidity of a foolhardy krogan, had lead to the krogan rebellions.
Elaborating what he could with the help of his omni-tool, Wrex explained the horror of the krogan Rebellions in the fashion only one who had lived through them could. Atrocities such as asteroids being dropped on colonies, the utter disregard of both sides for civilian collateral damage, the waves upon waves of bitter assaults and defences that characterised the Rebellions. The actions of Warlord Okeer, and the slaying of all but one of the Urdnot Tharx's sons.
Then he told them about the ending phases. Of the turian entry into the war, of the tens of millions who died on both sides in the pointless bloodbath that was Elothai. Of course, then the subject of the genophage had been brought up. Wrex understood why the turians had used it, and certainly why Okeer had chosen it over a plague which would simply kill. It had done its job, the moral of the krogan forces disintegrated, the last few holdouts still took almost another hundred years of war to root out, ending with a simultaneous strike on the Kelphic clans by a War Priestess, and the last Warlord, Shiagur, falling to the turians at Canrum. Though Wrex hated to admit it, and he said as much to the humans, the genophage was initially a good, if horrifying idea, it had worked, where almost nothing else would have made the krogan surrender, the genophage had, and spared tens of millions of lives on the Citadel's side.
But after he explained what the genophage had caused, he revealed what it actually was. One in a thousand children would survive to adulthood, most would die in the womb, others to numerous issues which killed them less than a day after leaving their mother. Wrex showed them pictures of the pile of bones that dominated the old temple of Kalros, hundreds of thousands of young krogan skeletons piled up so high the roof was no longer visible.
Wrex had far to many of his own children in that pile. And for that he would remember. It was truthfully, the reason he hated the Citadel. Near two thousand human years, and they had done nothing, no altering of the genetic sequences to merely make the vast majority of krogan females infertile as the Council had initially claimed. They hadn't wanted the krogan to ever be capable of recovering, despite their 'promises' that it was only a temporary measure. Then they just left the krogan to rot. Not even caring to fix the damage to Tuchanka, only periodically stepping in and stamp down on any krogan leader who amassed too much power.
And for that? Wrex would have recompense. It wouldn't bring back his children, it wouldn't bring him closure, nor would it help the krogan. Not really. But... it was something, and Wrex would never become what his father had when he lost that sense of purpose, he was better than that. Or so he hoped.
The humans had been silent after he told them about the genophage, eventually they thanked him and said they needed to "discuss" the ramifications. Wrex would let them do that, he had to think through what he intended to accomplish on the, honestly rather nice, planet he had landed on. He'd have to give the humans his technology, as well as understandings of the concepts behind it. But something of much greater concern was on his mind.
The human government, what should he do about that? Should he attempt to spur it into unifying, so as to avoid the fractious mistakes the krogan had undergone? Leaving aside the fact that it was uncomfortably close to what the salarians might have done, Wrex just didn't know if he was the right one to do it. If, the humans listened to him, and if, the strangely asari-esque creatures didnt blow themselves up in the process, would it be right? Could he in good conscience allow a race that might be unready for it off their homeworld? Questions to pray to the ancestors everliving for, and things to think of in the long term. And he did have time, of that he was sure.
The only thing he knew for certain he had to do, was give them warnings of the council. It didn't matter if the two groups never met, nor if the humans joined the Citadel for some reason. They would be wary, an the Citadel would have a harder time than it expected, influencing a government which knew already some of their tricks. The chance to raise his crest in defiance at the council to that degree? That was a chance no krogan had been given since the rebellions, and Urdnot Wrex would take it.
Wrex had been sitting, thinking, for almost six hours before a knock on the prefab buildings door let him know one of the humans wanted to speak with him. They'd been very thorough when informing him of the customs of this part of their planet, so as to avoid any "mistakes" as they called them. If he was on Tuchanka, mistakes would have been part of the negotiation process. And so would fighting. Come to think of it in krogan "negotiations" there was very little actual negotiation.
Wrex pressed the button which opened the door to the sight of one of their "Peacekeeper" squads, he gave them a light nod as he stepped out of the prefab unit, walking to what his translator told him was their version of a sergeant, a fairly bulky being by human standards, and with an impressive amount of facial "hair" as the humans called their fur.
As Wrex allowed them to guide him to whatever talk they wished him to attend, he observed carefully their equipment. The armour they wore looked surprisingly hardy, even if it wasn't protecting he correct areas, nothing around the neck just to start with. Their weapons were different to the ones used by Ruth's group, instead of pistols they possessed what looked like extremely primitive assault rifles, and while Wrex didn't know if those could do any meaningful damage to his armour, enough of them could hit something valuable.
Moments like this were what made Wrex like the humans, they knew how to make an impression before negotiations.
Wrex entered the same tent as the previous meeting, but instead of there being multiple humans seated at the table, there was just one. As the "peacekeepers" filed around the edges of the room, Wrex took in the humans appearance as he walked over to the seat sitting opposite their table.
It was a female, the lack of facial "hair" and small body size left little room for it to be anything else. Older too, it's hair almost entirely white and the face covered in soft looking wrinkled skin. But the eyes were what gave Wrex the real insight into the human. They were staring right at him, no doubt attempting to glean what information they could before the talks began.
And a little less than ten seconds after Wrex had lowered his bulk into the chair, the hard eyed human did indeed begin to talk.
"Do your people have any particular ceremony or titles for greetings Urdnot Wrex?"
Wrex could recognise a leader when he saw one. It could be how they spoke, how they acted, even how they fought. The human in front of him was defiantly the first, a diplomat, how quaint. Still, it might pay to be polite. He needed to be liked by the humans if he was to guide them in any sort of fashion after all.
So Wrex gave what the humans called a "shrug" and spoke.
"Depends on the krogan. If I still led my clan you'd be expected to wait until I chose to speak to you. But I haven't led much of anything for almost three hundred years, call me whatever you'd call one of your people. It's your planet."
Leaning forwards Wrex met the humans gaze with his own.
"What should I address you as?"
The human female straightened, seemingly accustomed to this sort of talk. Perhaps she would be interesting after all.
"I am Secretary General Madina Niyazov of the United Nations. Madam Secretary is typically how my office is addressed."
Secretary General? That implied...many things. Maybe the humans governed themselves in a manner that was similar to the Court of Dekunna? Wrex sure hoped not, the elcor life masters were awkward as pit below to speak to. And that was when they weren't high as kites. Fortunately the human didnt appear to be on any substances, though given the fact that this was only eight days after he'd seen his first perhaps he should reserve judgement.
"Urdnot Wrex, I shall be honest, when you addressed the Security Council a few days ago, your words scared many people. The tale of your history has many suggesting we should void any attempts at space travel all together. What I would like to know, is what you think would happen to us if we were to meet any of those powers tomorrow, before I make a judgement on such."
Wrex actually stared at the female human for a few seconds before let out a low chuckle. If this was how all humans acted then he might actually like this planet. After he finishing, he placed his hands upon the table, after three hundred years it was time to do what he'd done best. Convince people to see things his way.
"Madam Secretary, unless my observations of your technology are incorrect, then your species not getting off this planet in significant numbers for fifty of your years, at least. Even if you do, then you're going to need to be lucky enough to have element zero in this system. Which you might, I don't know. By the time anything I say is going to be relevant, then the galaxy outside this planet is going to be completely changed, except maybe, the asari and hanar."
The Secretary General gave the human equivalent of a frown at his words, before abruptly stopping as she considered his words. Speaking slowly, she responded.
"You've mentioned this "element zero" before, during the first meeting, is it necessary for space travel?"
If literally any being in the wider galaxy had asked Wrex that question, he would have stood up and walked away. The mere concept of a sapient being so ignorant as to a basic force of the galaxy was inconceivable. Yet if he wanted his end goal to succeed, then he would know doubt have to deal with thousands of such questions. This was probably going to be a long couple of centuries.
Struggling to remember the days when he'd sat at the feet of his father, listening to the tutors of science, mathematics and rhetoric, Wrex furrowed his brow to find the appropriate words to describe the concept.
"Element Zero is what all modern technology in the galaxy relies upon. It powers our weapons, our technology, our starships and personal communicators. I don't know much about how it works, something about an electric current which causes the stuff to exhibit no mass while keeping its volume. Pit below it'd probably be easier for me to tell you what doesn't run on the stuff than what does."
The Secretary Generals frown at this point was dominating her face entirely, the female pressed her fist against the side of her head as she contemplated what Wrex had said.
"Is there any way you could...show me an example of such a technology?"
Wrex's grin was the kind of thing which sent hardened commandos and baby thresher maws crying to for their mothers. Given the slight look of shock upon the Secretary Generals face, it hadn't lost its luster. With a single thought, he commanded his will to throw one of the small boxes on the tents side. And as such was perfectly placed to be the first alien to get a view of a stupefied human face.
AUTHORS NOTES
The pile of bones is inspired directly from Abberons Living and indoctrinated dream, found at Living an Indoctrinated Dream Chapter 1: Fugue:Waking Dream, a mass effect fanfic | FanFiction .
WOOOO TWO WEEK SCHOOL BREAK...but I have four different assignments