AN: So, I have a new update schedule now. First of every month, and no later than the third if I am unable to post on the first. If I miss after that, feel free to let me know however you want. On that note, still technically 01/10/2017.

Chapter 5

James Mortland was having a bad day.

He had tried to explain to the other leading members of the ship's crew that, as the captain, he was entitled to make decisions on behalf of the people with other civilisations. The fact that such decision-making skills hadn't been needed for decades, and that by now the position of Captain was largely ornamental with so little happening, was the major sticking point.

"So, instead of going out there and actually interacting with all these new people, teaching them and learning from them, we just wait in here? Wait for their bureaucracies to finally decide that we are safe, and then fight through enough red tape to wrap the ship up to get stuff done?"

This message, delivered by the head of the Department of Education, seemed to be indicative of the general mood of the Civil Council, if the muttering and nodding was any indication. For safety reasons, the identities of the department heads were always kept hidden, even from the Captain, even from each other. What he did know was that each of the twelve classes were represented on the Council, though how they were distributed was beyond him.

He coughed to gather their attention. "While it is true that we are confined to the Imperator for the foreseeable future, that is different from saying we must merely wait. Already, I have begun talks for some of our people, probably no more than a hundred, to leave and explore their population centres with them, as well as learn about their history and culture. Do any of you object to this, or can I continue with my job?"

Slight murmurs of assent, and one by one the various video channels winked off of his screen. Sighing, he leaned back in his chair, took a small drink of water, and considered the list of things he needed to do. Some piping in the lower decks was acting up, one of the maintenance tunnels had collapsed the night before, and many of the Precogs were reporting an inability to see past the next few weeks. And now he was getting a priority message from the Citadel Council. He settled in for a long day, and started drafting a response.

He had been lying, of course. No plans to let any of his people leave had been discussed, but sometimes the Civil Council could get worked up over nothing. It was good to pacify them, every once in a while

The Citadel Council, on the one hand, were taking the whole thing rather well.

The Salarian government, on the other hand, not so much.

"Dalatrass, as much as you may wish to intervene, there is not much that we can do to forcibly remove Valern, who wants to be there, from a giant warship the size of the Citadel." Tevos, Sparatus assumed, was having similar difficulties with her own people, and he was not looking forward to trying to explain it to his own government. But, the two had amicably agreed that Sparatus' views more closely aligned with Dalatrass Escheel's own, and it would thus be easier for him to talk to her.

"Calling it a warship might be a bit of an exaggeration, from what you've said it's a colony ship like those the Quarians use. Taking it should simply be a matter of boarding it and overwhelming it, same as you would any upstart colony. That is the Turian way, is it not?"

Sparatus sighed. "Madam Dalatrass, we cannot ignore the fact that they claim to have a support fleet of a hundred and fifty ships."

"Probably lies, did you see any of them?"

"They have a population of thirty million, with demonstrated extraordinary capabilities."

"Assuming they told the truth."

"Escheel, they turned a Batarian carrier inside out!"

This gave her pause. "You saw it happen?"

"With my own two eyes. The sad truth is, we only barely hold any authority in this matter." He sighed, and put his head down. "They have the strength to wipe us out, they are parked a stone's throw from the centre of Galactic society, and they are, by all their accounts, entirely self-sufficient."

The Dalatrass held up a datapad, what he assumed to be one of the many reports made of the events. "And these… Endbringers, strange name, that they mention? How legitimate do you think they are?"

He grimaced. "One of them, a man they call Lung was terrifying. He survived a bullet to the head, and reportedly grows stronger and more beastlike the longer a fight progresses. From what we've gathered, he ends up in some form similar to that of the 'dragons' found in Human mythology. "

"Your point, Councillor?"

"They say he has no upper limit to how great he can become. He was unable to defeat a small Endbringer, only hold it off for a while. And, in the end, he failed at that. In the timeline they originated in, the Japanese island of Kyushu on Earth was sunken by the same Endbringer he was fighting."

Escheel blinked. "It sunk an island? How large an island are we talking about?"

"About (1213) square kilometres. Currently, our main advantage seems to be that they were meant for destruction at a much more limited scale than we fear, and are likely incapable of interstellar travel on their own."

"And they say they have twenty of these? I can only hope that Valern is doing as he was trained." Then, with a frankly unprofessional display of interest, she said "Did you see him, by the way? How is he?"

Sparatus smiled. "Better than I've seen him in years. He looked years younger, and displayed an ability to reverse aging, heal, and pacify people in a certain area. He is fine, Dalatrass. They seemed well acquainted with what he is going through, and are more than willing to help."

She nodded slowly, then paused. "Perhaps there is a way for both of our societies to benefit."

Overall, Tevos thought that the Asari government was taking the whole thing rather well. With the ineffable wisdom that comes with long centuries of life, they had calmly accepted the news, and begun work on plans to turn it to their advantage. Privately, she wished they had done so after ending the conference call.

"Perhaps a joint military venture, to assess their capabilities, uses, and methods?"

"Indeed, it could even be used to find out what their pressure points are, and leverage them into working for us directly."

"What missions do we have planned that we could send some of them on, under the guise of co-operation?"

"Preferably nothing too important, if they end up being all talk and no tough we don't want to lose anything."

Tevos took a sip of her tea and coughed. "Esteemed Matriarchs, while I appreciate that no facets of government are being kept hidden from me, have you considered that the other governments are likely working on a similar approach? Their defence against the Batarian raid has not gone unnoticed, and many of the races without a Council seat are beginning to realize that getting this ship on their side could guarantee them a seat. Whatever your plan, we need to act soon."

With shocking co-ordination, all the Matriarchs turned to look at her. "Say, Tevos," One of them said, smiling smugly, "Aren't you dealing with a bit of a rogue Spectre problem?"

Tevos remained calm, though she wondered how they knew. "Nothing has been proven yet, but what of it?"

Another one chimed in: "Oh come on, be real. We all know Saren would crack eventually, it was just a matter of time. Benezia has fallen off the proverbial radar, although we suspect that that as well is connected to him. If you can, try and negotiate that some of their people are on that mission? If they succeed, no harm done. If they fail, we already have several different hit squads on speed-dial for this sort of thing."

She sighed, seeing as how she wouldn't be able to change their minds. "Very well then. I will do what I can."

End notes: Well, this was shorter than I thought, but its mostly setting up for the future. Expect maybe 1-2 more chapters of this, probably longer though, and then we get to the real action.

On a side note, this chapter was mostly written while listening to Sabaton. I highly recommend them.

Finally, I would like to thank my beta reader, GrowlingGiant, for his work in making sure that this story is grammatically correct. If you have any complaints, or we missed something, let us know.

Until next time.