Shepard looked over the terminal banks of the bridge and there accompanying crew, "Update away, give me the status of the alien ship."

"First contact package away, both Standard and Prothean. Believe both to have been received, awaiting reply," answered Communication Specialist Udina.

Meanwhile aboard the Eal'xaub

"The ships just sent a data packet, looks like a first contact package. We've received and isolated the data. Orders captain?" Semu'Summa looked up from the terminal.

Cain'Zorah nodded, "Good, maintain a proof of life data signal and keep the fleet updated. Put their message on screen." While the first language was unknown the second looked familiar, "I want a text analysis done on that message, run it against all known languages."

"No matches for the first language, second is showing one hundred percent match to Prothean," was the reply.

Back on the H.C.S. Phoenix

Shepard drummed his fingers on the command chair, "What's command saying?"

Udina shrugged off the captain's impatience and checked his terminal, "Shanxi's defense force is mobilizing to come to our aid if they turn hostile, and a ship carrying some linguists to help with the language barrier is waiting on the green light to arrive. Other than that you have command." He frowned at the screen, "They're responding with the Prothean, but it feels more like they had the computer translate it. They are asking how we wish to proceed."

Shepard frowned, "See if they'd be willing to work on a translation from Standard to their language since they don't seem to have anyone that can understand Prothean. Also offer to exchange some cultural information, specifically standard etiquette so as not to offend each other if we have visual or physical talks. And warn them about the linguist ship."

Semu'Summa frowned at the message, "Sir, they're offering to collaborate on a translation program for our languages, an exchange of cultural data to prevent accidental insults, and are asking if we would allow another one of their ships carrying linguists to join them. This is odd though, in the offer for collaboration they specifically reference a desire for the meaning not to be lost in translation from Prothean to Quarian, well they didn't name it by name but that the gist of it."

Cain'Zorah frowned, "Is it possible that they've gotten a virus into our systems?"

"They couldn't have. The system receiving the messages is physically isolated from the rest of the ship, and even if it wasn't the likelihood that their hardware configurations were similar enough to ours to make one viable is small enough to be zero. In fact if they weren't using a variation on a Prothean data structure and we didn't have that special equipment installed we'd still be attempting to establish communication," replied a technician.

"Accept the offer and allow the linguist ship, but make sure not to pass on information that would reveal the existence of the migrant fleet. They're amicable now but that might change if they knew we lacked a home," with that Cain'Zorah leaned forward to look closer at the odd conical ship that somehow gave off the impression of being boxy and murmured, "Now what is your race's story?"

The next two Earth weeks consisted of the two groups working on a Quarian to Standard translation. Work proceeded slowly even with a small team of Quarian experts dispatched, the Admiralty Board refused to risk the Council discovering their find and taking over so were unable to send anything larger than a small corvette class ship, to aid in the work and having a translation to Prothean from each language. Still, both groups appreciate that they did not have to start from scratch and estimated that only having to match up translations reduced the time for a working translation software down from the possible months. This also had the side effect of reducing tensions for the eventual meeting between the two captains.

Shepard took a steadying breath and looked at Udina, "You ready?"

Udina nodded, "Yes, it'll be interesting to see what they look like, a shame that we couldn't get our video files to line up. Still the implications of restriction to suits, troubling."

Shepard grimaced, "True, you've seen what the analysts think are the cause of it. Anyway we're about to be able to ask them."

Udina snorted, "Yes, because that would go swimmingly I can see it now, 'hello, why do you insist on staying in those suits like a bunch of freaks?'." He smiled inwardly when he felt Shepard relax somewhat, on a whole they tended to get tense about making a mistake during an important event, especially after Mars and the first jump. Of course that this tended to make the likelihood of another mistake higher didn't help.

"I'll just be happy if we avoid a shooting war. Honestly I'm surprised they agreed for a four person max and to meet on the transport ship," Shepard said as they felt the jolt of the shuttle landing in the hanger.

Udina grinned, "We've only had a skeleton crew on since we met them and it's easier to keep two people out of the way instead of however many they crew their ships with. Besides after our linguists working together things'll have to go fubar for shots to be fired." Good, he's finally relaxing.

Shepard smirked at him, "Can you broadcast any louder you asshole?"

Udina's reply was cut off by Margaret's voice in their earpieces, "Quarian shuttle has landed. Doors opening in three, two, one, show time."

With that the doors of both shuttles opened to allow the guards to step out, scan the area, and signal for their wards that it was safe to step out.

For Shepard and Udina it was what they expected given the written descriptions that had been exchanged earlier. They were a humanoid race surprisingly similar in size and shape to humans save for their leg shape, and the number of digits on their hands and feet. Anything other than these differences was hidden by their environmental suits, a fact that had some analysts worried about the human's ability to understand their emotional tells.

For Cain'Zorah and Yaanna'Xen, the head of the Quarians dispatched from the Migrant Fleet, it was a different matter. From the information exchanged beforehand they were expecting a bipedal mammalian species that had a chance of resembling Asari, although anything more than a passing resemblance was deemed unlikely especially given changes in skin tone and the hairs that covered their body and clustered around their head. While they did have an uncanny resemblance what was more shocking was the blueish feathers growing from one of their scalps and the small clusters of scales visible on the other one.

"Yaanna'Xen, any ideas on the difference from what we expected?" Cain'Zorah asked over the Quarian's private communications.

She thought for a moment, "It's possible that when we were double checking the translation someone was confused and believed their words for 'baseline' and 'average' had grown similar enough to be interchangeable." She quickly called up the relevant data with internal commands, "Ah, it seems that would be the case, we might have to change that later. It's an understandable mistake, the words would be close enough for their meanings to align…" she trailed off when she noticed Cain'Zorah motioning that she wasn't using the channel.

Meanwhile the humans were chuckling before Shepard spoke, "It's okay, we figured that it might surprise you but since we'd already started communicating command thought that switching people would be detrimental. As to the differences, we were both caught in the affected area when a group of extremists released an advanced bio-weapon that destabilized people's DNA in an attempt to, ironically, turn public opinion away from the related sciences. Their plan failed and we were fortunate enough for aid to arrive before any permanent harm could be done, however the only thing that worked was an experimental method and it had some side effects due to the circumstances."

At this point Udina broke in, "What he's trying to say is that it was not our intention to deceive, but we were worried that you might react extremely adversely if we had informed you of our society's acceptance of genetic modifications before we met face to face since at that time our communications were restricted to the more impersonal text format."

Cain'Zorah nodded his head, "An understandable precaution. Even if level heads prevail amongst the leadership all it takes is one overly excited person to start an incident."

Shepard had a tight smile, "I know exactly what you mean. If you have data on your people, like a public encyclopedia, we could exchange that instead of boring each other and wasting time by taking turns to explain everything and then resume the meeting after going over it.

Cain'Zorah grimaced inside his suit, "We do have something that might work but those who produce it have not had a good view of my species for some time so it portrays us in a manner that gives them the moral high ground. I'd provide you with a more unbiased on but my species tends to keep mostly to itself and never expected a first contact. I'll highlight the data relevant to us"

"That is understandable we'll keep that in consideration. If it is acceptable to you, could we both remain present instead of returning to our ships and having to repeat the synchronized departure?" asked Udina.

"Probably so we don't start shooting if we discover something that we don't like," was Yaanna'Xen's private remark to this.

Cain'Zorah took her words into consideration, "That would be acceptable."

The two captains relayed the new information to their ships before beginning to read over the transferred information, a task that took enough time for them to put off continuing the meeting until after they had some sleep. This resulted in both groups being surprised by the Quarians use of nutrient paste and the human's rather opulent meal. Meanwhile the two crewmembers that remained on the ship discovered that they had left the cards in the occupied hanger, to their dismay and everyone else's enjoyment.

When they resumed the atmosphere was tense, but hopeful.

Shepard glanced at Udina who began to talk, "I'm sure the information has created questions for both of us. Do you have any that stand out in particular?"

Cain'Zorah grimaced at what he was about to ask, "The files said that you used AI despite having over a century of media in which they rose up against you. Why would you endanger yourselves like that?"

Shepard nodded, "That's a good question, and I suppose I should be thanking you for asking instead of leaving given your history with the Geth. You read the portion on the Connection I assume? Good, well like it says, it allows for the transmission of emotions and in some cases thoughts between people familiar with each other, such as close friends or family. Its emergence more or less led to the unification of our species. It has two side effects that we know of. One, groups working on something become more efficient. This is most notable when doing scientific research since it seems that mental ability is somehow pooled together, somewhat similar to the process behind your Geth, though not as extreme. The second side effect is that our population growth is declining despite resources no longer being an issue and is expected to level out at approximately twelve billion given current rates. We would simply be unable to control more than about four well developed worlds at once without spreading ourselves thin. To combat the threat, basic morality is ingrained while the AI develops and robotic military units are only controlled by an AI starting at squad level with each squad being treated as a unit. The individual units rely on the overseers and each other for targeting data and, enhanced, processing, power… shit! Udina contact command and warn them to code in the morality protocols into the dumb AIs.

Udina just continued typing, "Already on it. Can't believe we overlooked that. Margaret, can you give us estimates on how close we were to an accidental singularity?"

"Given current processing power it would most likely emerge between one to ten thousand more automatons being brought online," came the reply from their earpieces.

Shepard frowned at this, "Sorry, about that. I have to thank you, you just likely helped us avoid our own Geth. As I was saying, we just lack the numbers to not use AIs and have gone to significant lengths to avoid even a zeroth law rebellion."

Cain'Zorah nodded, "I may not like it, but I see the logic. Can I ask who Margaret is?"

"AI been with me most of my career ever since she decided I needed a minder after our first use of a relay." Shepard thought and frowned, "The information you provided mentioned a government called the Citadel Council, actually it seemed to be from their point of view, which portrays itself as the galactic peacekeepers. Why didn't they help you?"

Cain'Zorah snorted, "They immediately responded by closing our embassy and preparing for the Geth to attack. When nothing happened and everyone calmed down, they decided that as punishment we would not be given a world and effectively forced to wander until we could colonize one on our own. Problematic because every garden world is either claimed as their territory or in extremely dangerous areas, and we lack the ability to terraform a world. Overall they tend to be very helpful and amicable, as long as it either helps or doesn't interfere with their species."

Udina leaned over to Shepard and whispered, "Command's been informed that Nod's been confirmed and have given permission for the Enoch option at your discretion."

Shepard nodded his understanding before refocusing on the Quarians, "I understand what you mean, there are several similar instances in our own history where one group was forced to become nomadic, they don't perfectly line up but I believe that it's safe to say this won't end happily for everyone without some kind of intervention." He paused to think here, "That brings me to the next topic. I forwarded the data you gave me to my commanders and they think that we could come to a mutually beneficial agreement. It would be an alliance of mutual protection and pooled resources. You have knowledge of the wider galaxy that would be useful to us. Better, it's not the sugarcoated accepted face but the socially disliked face. You also apparently have some of the best low gravity miners, and probably some of the best experience in dealing with limited resources. We can provide a sizable industrial base, freedom from the threat of extinction should one of your live ships be destroyed, and enough genetic knowledge to repair your immune systems. We are also willing to grant you a planet we are in the process of terraforming, its atmosphere is almost viable though no life has been introduced yet, though you'd have to provide the genetic samples to seed the world since we lack any dextro-amino acid based planets."

Cain'Zorah frowned, "How do we know you wouldn't backstab us?"

Shepard shrugged, "We'd lose more than we'd gain. It would take an unreasonable amount of energy to forcibly control your species and would be less efficient than just continuing to use automated systems. Plus all you'd have to do was get one ship out to warn the Council about a new aggressive species that's intent on enslaving everyone to get them to react in a manner that's bad for us. As for the reasons why, there's the benefits I mentioned, plus humans tend not to do well when someone attempts to unilaterally declare themselves over us. It tends to result in wars, so we'll likely have strained relations with the Council and it never hurts to have another person in your corner. Also if your situation ever came out to the public they discovered we didn't even offer help, we most likely would lose a metaphorical head."

Cain'Zorah thought for a moment, "I'll pass your offer to the admiralty board. How should we contact you with our answer?"

"We'll likely put sensor buoys around the relay you arrived in. Just broadcast that your Quarian and a ship should arrive shortly," answered Udina.

With that both groups returned to their shuttles and began flying back to their ships.

"Well that went well, nobody started shooting," Shepard said when the shuttle touched down.

Udina shook his head and stepped out, "Eh, I'm pretty sure that when actual diplomats see the recording they'll be reduced to tears."

Meanwhile the two remaining crewmembers on the ship were busy searching the hanger for the card deck before everyone else arrived.

Intersystem Network Database:

Terrorist Attacks of 2098

In the wake of the debates over the ethics of the Collective's mass pushes for the elimination of genetic defects from the gene pool through use of genetic engineering to heal the damaged areas, a group of malcontents from the Pura Homo group, the group synonymous with anti-genetics hardliners, released an engineered bio-weapon in Times Square to drive the public away from the field in fear of the weapons that could be created from it. This was the first test of the recent mantra of "The first to resort to violence is the one that is wrong" that had been held up as a sign of humanities development and understanding. The mantra was followed in an unexpected fashion, as responding police discovered when they had to save the surviving terrorists from the crowd members that were outside of the affected area. Only five of the twelve survived the crowd, two of those later died from complications, and one of the dead had to be identified using DNA analysis. In the end the three surviving members were sentenced to be hanged until dead on the grounds that, "These deliberate act of terrorism that left people in such pain that it was felt for a ten mile radius they deserve nothing less, but so much more however as we cannot have you hang, drawn, and quartered without causing more pain than satisfaction, and the fact you'd never live until a gentler execution, this will have to do." The sentence was carried out a month later as the last of the affected left the hospital and between it, and the bloodthirsty crowd, all hopes of this this new face of humanity being more forgiving were dashed. Instead it became accepted that until certain lines were crossed it would be merciful, but once those lines were crossed the perpetrators would be better off dead.

Reactions to First Contact:

In the aftermath of First Contact with the Quarians waves of emotions swept through humanity. One was happiness and excitement that we were not alone, quickly followed by fear that it wasn't peaceful and our days were numbered, before finally settling into optimistic relief that we might have continued peace. This wave was quickly followed by curiosity where any information available about the aliens was devoured and the data they provided was released. This resulted in two events. One, an outpouring of sympathy for the Quarian's plight and near universal approval of the idea to both allow them to colonize Mars and to switch the planned ecosystem to one based on dextro-amino acids. The other was near universal damnation of the Council for their uncaring attitude which resulted in the Collective government having to step in and halt the creation of no less than six private fleets intending to raze Council space due to the unknown difference in military power.

Human Coalition Government:

The Coalition government is an unique mix of Republicanism and an almost literal court of public opinion. As one observer put it, "It's like the old Senate and People of Rome, only in this case the people are about as stable as the crowds of the French Revolution and the Senate is trying to keep everyone moving forward while avoiding the guillotine." This was indicated as early as the trials following the Terrorist Attacks of 2098 where public opinion resulted in the unilateral revision of laws to allow the accused to be hanged and most recently where only through the risk of possible species wide extinction was the government able to reign in the groups wishing to destroy the Council and burn the Citadel.

A/N: time to explain some things and my logic cause sometimes it's not always obvious. also if anyone knows how to do superscript I'd appreciate it so i could properly line the notes up

/Standard is the official human wide language and consists of an amalgamation of past and present languages, and pretty much i think that for the archives to of been any use Prothean must have been decoded since it's not like they used pictographs to point where the relay was

/Shanxi is a full blown colony with a notable first generation in their teens instead of, what can assumed to be, the relatively young colony from canon (twenty years of slow but relentless expansion where everything is pathologically defended vs. the only nine years of rapid expansion from canon [assuming expansion starts with discovery of the mass effect]). due to this it has a much better defense force than in canon though not as much as a core colony (its more or less in what would have been the human outer territories. still settled with a sizable population, but out of the way with most income being as a transport hub from outlying mining and research areas

/My opinion is that due to the difference in Prothean communication tools (i.e. the beacons) they used a different type of transfer medium than the current cycle. Humans built their sensors capable of detecting it (partly an unnoticed natural response to the emerging connection and partially because they were scanning for literally everything). Normally only attuned sensors would detect the emissions (the archive could be detected because they were practically on top of it) which the Quarians have because they were hoping to get lucky and find something useful for the fleet, such as a Prothean device (either to be studied or sold for money for ships and supplies)

also figure that it'd be a good idea to point out that my information on the ME universe comes from the games and the wiki (which has a surprising tendency to reveal a coincidental alignment of data between this and canon such as Gagarin Research Station and Gagarin Station/jump zero's names) didn't even know about the other stuff until after starting on this project and as such it will not be taken into account

As to the density of family names from canon despite it being half a century earlier: I'm a believer that family careers/history have a significant impact on what someone chooses. in this case the Shepard line would have led to a spacer backstory. Humanity no longer really has ambassadors to set an example (in canon it would've been possible his parents were ambassadors between separate countries before the First Contact War) for the eventual Donnel Udina and I could find literally no information on his family so I put one as a comm operator. Cain'Zorah (had a hell of a time finding a name that fit that would even sound halfway decent with Zorah) would be Tali's grandfather and like the rest of his family has a love for research and loyalty for the fleet, just not in as an obsessive way as Rael'Zorah. Yaanna'Xen has the same drive for research that her daughter does, just without the lack of morals.

As to the genetic stuff, it's stated in canon that there's significant genetic technology, a humanity that doesn't have the Council's bans on it (not that they listen to it all that much *cough* medigel *cough*), has a significant reason to do the research due to population constraints and is sitting on a literal gold mine of Prothean data, a decent amount of which refers to the work done on humanity which required significant genetic knowledge, leads to a humanity more advanced in that area

As to the relative ease of the meeting there's two reasons: One, They've had two weeks where their people have been working to hash out a direct translation which has lowered tensions as long as nobody did anything stupid (helps that Cain'Zorah is less fanatical than his later family). and Two, for the life of me I can't seem to get a good high tension talking scene down