Once everyone has filed out to the main atrium of the council floor, Garrus approaches Jane with a turian smile. "Young Hunter, it was an honour to see you brought back into your clan."
Jane ducks her head bashfully, "Thank you, though my human heritage shows through more than it sometimes should."
Garrus chuckles, "That is true for many who work with them. They are a singularly unbending species, at the same time they are highly adaptable."
Jane shakes her head, "The unbending aspect is a cultural aspect, not a species trait."
"Of course, one should not forget your own ancestry."
Jane nods as Anderson, Kaiden, and Ashley join the group.
Anderson notes, "Udina left in a huff."
Victoria chuckles, "That's because I didn't let him speak after he tried to co-opt my citizens while I was present. Then, when I did let him speak again, the council denied his application for a spectre and kicked him out."
Anderson nods philosophically, "It was a long shot anyway."
Oriana adds, "The next order of business was to appoint a Hierarchy citizen to the position of Spectre."
Ashley looks confused, "I know I'm new to the whole council space, but why would that involve all of you?"
To one side Wrex starts to chuckle, a deep rumbling sound, "You are confusing species with nationality. There are many turian citizens that are not turians. Their nation grants citizenship to anyone who does military service in the turian fleet. An opportunity normally only open to their client species."
Ashley spins to look at Jane, "Wait, you have those markings on your face."
Oriana chuckles, "Jane is the oldest turian youth on record. And yes, also the new spectre."
Victoria nods, "A position endorsed by the Systems Alliance. I will be petitioning the Systems Alliance Assembly that Jane be allowed to join the N8. I will also be proposing that we negotiate with the Citadel Council to allow this dual status. But that is a discussion that could take years."
Oriana chuckles again, "I don't think you will be negotiating with the council directly. Tevos seemed positively wary of you, whatever did you do to her?"
Victoria smiles, "She invited me to tea, well that's the closest English translation, and I just enjoyed the aroma of the tea while she collected her thoughts."
Oriana grimaces, "I remember doing something like that with the elders of the clan on Shaanxi. It has made dealing with asari infinitely easier."
Victoria laughs, "We could share tea at some time if you wish?"
Oriana shakes her head, "I already know your vantage point is so high I can't even see it. I have forms to fill in, and people to talk to, so I will visit later, socially."
As she leaves, Garrus mutters something about speakers and their incomprehensible ways.
Anderson looks at Victoria, "While you're here Ambassador, I tried to reach you earlier, but I left my sauerkraut pickling at home. I would like to review my Systems Alliance citizenship."
Victoria closes her eyes for a moment, "Lt Commander David Anderson, voluntary discharge and left Systems Alliance space 10 years ago."
Anderson nods, "That's me."
"You will need a blooded ID stone if you wish to re-enter Systems Alliance space as a visitor, and blood any equipment you remove from Systems Alliance space. Your citizenship hasn't been revoked, just your military rank."
Anderson nods, "Then as an Alliance citizen, I would like to recommend that command of the Normandy be granted to Commander Shepherd. She will need a ship to find Saren, and the Normandy is the most advanced ship in the IHA and turian navies."
Victoria nods, "I will discuss it with Oriana… on human time scales."
Kaiden looks up at Jane, "Congratulations Commander, what now?"
Jane sighs, "For now, Ashley at least has shore leave. Don't take off your suit though, as it could be cancelled without warning if I get a lead. If you could discretely let the crew know that a turian spectre will be taking command of the ship, that should get rid of the bigots."
Kaiden looks uncomfortable, "But you're not turian sir."
Jane looks at Kaiden sympathetically, "Kaiden, I am a citizen of the Hierarchy. That makes me a turian. The same as Garrus here could gain Alliance citizenship, and petition to become a sidhe. Being a turian is as much a culture as it is a species. It's the same with the asari, in theory you could become an asari citizen. In practice, you wouldn't live long enough to complete the application, as it's a hold over from their tribal days. I asked Aeuna once while we were waiting for rescue. In short, you would need to live on an asari planet and take on their culture for 80 of our years, then apply for citizenship with proof you've made a good faith attempt to join their culture. Those are the only two cultures I have any familiarity with other than my own, so I couldn't say what it would take to be recognized as a krogan."
The krogan chuckles, "You couldn't, as you need to show you're strong enough through unarmed combat with the tribes chief. If you do, you then have to survive the Rite of Passage."
Jane looks up at the krogan, "I'm sorry, we haven't been introduced."
Kaiden winces, "Sorry Commander, this is krogan battlemaster Wrex. He was instrumental in helping us track down the information we needed to find out who had evidence against Saren. We were on our way to rescue her when we got your call. I'd say you have the luck of the gods, but Ashley and I were attacked outside Chora's Den because they thought I was you. I think he would be helpful for chasing down Saren."
Jane shrugs, "More the merrier. I'll have to work out how to pay you."
Wrex chuckles, "You should also bring Garrus there."
Jane shakes her head, "I'm not poaching hunters from other duties. Even if they are good at tracking."
Garrus says, "Actually, I'm not with C-sec anymore. Executor Pailin is so high up he has lost sight of the ground."
Jane nods, "I take it the quarry hiding amongst the undergrowth is Saren? Welcome aboard, I'll figure out your pay too. Unless you're both willing to work for raw gold that is."
Victoria shakes her head, "I don't think I should be around to hear this. Tali, I'll see you at the Embassy to finalise your ID."
Anderson says, "Would you mind if I accompanied you to get my own ID sorted out."
Victoria just vanishes with Anderson rather than answer.
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Almost as soon as she's worked out how she's paying Garrus and Wrex, and given them their first months retainer, Jane's omni-tool starts to ping as it receives message after message containing forms she needs to fill out, or places she needs to go, as part of her spectre orientation and training.
Jane hangs her head dramatically, "Come on Ashley, Tali. Let's get to the embassy and sort out your ID stones and where you're going to be staying until I get a ship sorted out. Tali, I'll see if I can rope Sirius into helping teach you while I'm dealing with all this paperwork."
Ashley looks at Tali curiously, "Commander, what are you going to be teaching her?"
Jane shrugs, "Everything I can, as I offered one favour in front of an archmagi, making her my apprentice. You know, things like how travel through the aether sea works, the basics of quantum dynamics, runes. That sort of stuff."
Ashley nods, "I wouldn't mind learning about some of that, as the only lesson we got on Eden Prime was that the aether sea is like an onion with realm:2 at the centre."
Jane groans, "That sort of works for planets, but it stops working as soon as you leave the planet's maximum extent in the aether sea. Which can be calculated based on the distance from the local star, how much iron is in the core, and how large the planet is. Mars, for example only has 14 realms, and Europa has 9. Though, 16 is the most that has ever been observed to form."
Ashley shakes her head, "But what about the time dilation?"
Jane looks longingly at the mass transit terminal only a few paces away from them. "Fine, let's go down to the park and we can make paper boats."
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By the time Jane has finished teaching Tali and Ashley how to make simple paper boats, her endless pad of parchment is being put to the test by the crowd of diplomatic aids and other embassy staff that have crowded around the three of them, and are attempting to make their own boats. Though, she's sure she saw a few people discretely put a sheet of parchment in a pocket, or fold, in their garments.
Now armed with two boats a piece, Jane leads Tali and Ashley to the edge of the slow moving river.
"Ok, Tali, I want you to put your first boat right by the bank of the river, Ashley, try to place yours slightly further out, and I'll put mine the furthest out. When I say, go, let them go."
As Jane says go, Tali's boat doesn't move, and Ashley's starts to move down the river until it bumps into Tali's boat. Then it starts to turn slowly until it breaks free. Janes boat moves past the other two boats faster, and without bumping into the others.
Jane laughs as she shakes her head, "Well, that worked better in my head. What you were supposed to see is that the three boats moved at different speeds depending on how close to the bank they are. The same's true of the different realms in the aether sea. The further you get from the realms ruled by physics, the faster time flows until you get to the deepest and fastest part of the aether sea. The first four realms are so close together that they move in lockstep with each other. After that, the density of magic in each realm allows time to flow faster and faster. If you out to the sidhe clans, time runs around 1,300 times faster than it does on earth. However, because it's part of the same planet, it travels around the local star at the same speed as the planet in realm:2 does."
Tali does some calculations, "But that would mean 3 years pass there for every day that passes here."
Jane nods, "Using the Systems Alliance calendar, it's 3.6 years for every day that passes on earth. I've heard that at the edge of the aether sea, where matter is starting to evaporate, unless it's been held together by something, 57.6 years passes for every day."
Ashley laughs, "By heard, do you mean read in officer training?"
"You got me there. So, the other thing about the aether sea is that it has regions that Magi would say are qualitatively different. For our purposes, there are 5 that we worry about. Realms:2-4 have less than a 2% difference in magical saturation between them. However between Realm:4 and Realm:5 there's a 1.6% difference. That's almost the same as the first three realms together."
Someone in the crowd asks, "What about realm:1?"
Jane sighs, "We just don't know. We have anecdotal evidence it exists, and some scientists claimed to have proved it exists around 100 years ago. But it is impossible for us to travel there, as the magical density is so low that it cannot support magical life. Apart from those scientists, no-one that has ever tried has survived the attempt. Every decade or so they'll be a news story about a Magi that tried and either disappeared, or was found dead."
She shakes her head, "Anyway, back to the topic at hand, between realm:5 and realm:9, the magical density increases gradually just under 2% at a time. But between realm:9 and realm:10 there's another jump of just over 4%, and the difference keeps increasing until you hit the 16/17 boundary, where starts to slow down again."
Another person calls out, "So why don't we use those realms, assuming they exist."
Jane sighs, "Prothean Syndrome, it's on the extranet if you want to look it up. There's also articles about how magic impacts eezo and electronics, if any of you want to visit Systems Alliance space."
Tali starts to look those pages up, only to be interrupted by Jane, "Tali, Ashley, let's play pooh sticks, and then head back to the Embassy."
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That evening, after a side trip to the Normandy to remove her cabinet, Jane and Tali are both y at the embassy when a frustrated Ashley walks in.
"Jane, can you help me please. Sirius told me that my room was the last bedroom on the left, on the forth floor. I tried going up there, and it led me into the kitchen."
Jane taps her omni-tool to close the spectre document she's reading, "Did he give you any directions?"
Ashley tips her hand, "Maybe, I was up the stairs before he finished talking, as I'm beat."
Jane shakes her head, "I'm sorry, this is my first day here, I haven't had time to look around. But I can recommend using the comfort options in your suit and just finding a chair or wall to sleep against if you can't find Sirius or Victoria."
Ashley shakes her head, "It's not just that, I should really use the facilities first."
Tali looks up, "Why? Are your waste reservoirs full up already?"
Ashley looks wildly at Tali, "My what?"
"Waste reservoirs. Is it translating alright?"
Jane nods, "It's translating fine, Ashley just hasn't worn her suit a full day yet." She stands up and opens the door to her cabinet, "You can use the toilet upstairs. Just sit down and the suit will take care of everything else."
Ashley darts inside, and her booted feet can be heard on the spiral staircase.
Jane sighs, "Come on Tali, I need you to sign my ward book anyway, so you might as well do it now."
Tali looks at Jane weirdly, "What do you mean?"
"Come on, I'll show you. Then I'll give you the grand tour after Ashley's left."
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A few days later, Tali's head is on a swivel as Jane has finished her lace tablecloth and took her deeper into the cabinet to find a new project to start. All around the room they're in are finished, 'hand' crafted projects that would probably be worth a small fortune to anyone in the citadel.
Jane stands up from the barrel full of yarn holding a skein of purple thread, "Hey, Tali, do you think this colour would suit you?"
Tali takes her fingers away from a basket she was about to feel, and clears her faceplate to see the yarn properly, "It is a nice colour, but why would you waste it on me?"
Jane shakes her head, "I need a new project, otherwise I'll start getting antsy. So I might as well make nice things, and I thought I'd make you a lace cloak. Oh, and if you want that basket, take it."
Tali shakes her head, "I couldn't take this, it's far too fine. You could earn a fortune if you opened a stall in the emporium."
"That's useful, I need a way to pay everyone. Tell you what, everything here is made from aether spider silk, so it should be stable in Realm:2 for at least 1,000 years. Take the basket, my new table cloth, these six doilies, and… this stole." Jane picks up a lace stole that has a floral pattern, and woven into the pattern are coloured threads that form a large rose that covers the length of the stole. "This was a fun challenge when I did it, but mechanically no more difficult than just doing it in single colours."
Tali shakes her head, "How much time did you put into that?"
"Huh?" Jane looks up from the very fine thread she's holding, "Oh, probably about 70,000 hours or so. It was more fiddly because I had to remember to include the colours. The table cloth took me… 100,000 hours."
Tali does some calculations, "It took you 23 years to make?"
Jane shakes her head, "About half that, as I was making it whenever I wasn't asleep. I think I have a file on the lace making method I was taught… Right, here it is, Honiton Lace. I've sent it to you. Once you've done that, you and Ashley need to buy some day clothes for civilian use, rather than walking around in just your suit."
Tali looks down at her suit, and the decorative cloth wrap she's wearing, "What's wrong with my suit?"
"With the suits, we are basically naked. Which is fine when we're on a mission, as it's less things to get caught. But for every other time, social mores say we should wear clothing."
Tali shakes her head, "This isn't something we consider on the fleet."
Jane looks at Tali searchingly, "Tali, on the fleet do they have the resources for common luxuries?"
Tali shakes her head, "No, this is why we keep our memories on our omni-tools."
Jane nods, "That's what I expected you to say. Tali, you will never lack for resources again. Not while you are my apprentice, and not afterwards. It will take time to get used to the idea, there are many studies about the years after the Sleeper war that show how hard it was for people to transition to the idea that material scarcity was a thing of the past. As 20% of Earths population was suddenly magical enough to do magic. Prior to that, it was around 0.0008% of the population. Suddenly, your next door neighbour could make you a hammer that would last a couple of days, or they could repair the broken handle on your pans. If they had the right training. Now go and find Ashley and sell those… Victoria should be able to authenticate the fabric, otherwise they can get it identified on Shaanxi. I'm going to dig out some tea and go and see if the consort still wants to see me."
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A few hours later, Jane sits across from Sha'ira slowly winding purple thread onto a spool while occasionally smelling her cup of tea.
Sha'ira says, "Commander."
Jane smiles and puts the skein and spool in her bag politely, "Please, this is a social situation, call me Jane."
Another 30 minutes pass, as Jane smiles at Sha'ira pleasantly, before Sha'ira says, "Jane, I would like your help with a problem."
Jane nods, "I would need to hear the details before I agree to anything."
"I have a close friend who wished me to be something I cannot be. As a result he has started to spread rumours and falsehoods about me."
Jane nods, and waits patiently for Sha'ira to continue.
"He is a general in the turian navy, and I would like you to talk to him on my behalf as a soldier."
Jane nods and sips her tea. After 15 minutes she asks, "What are you hoping to achieve?"
"At the least I want the lies to stop. I also value his friendship."
Jane nods, "I will see what I can do. Who is the Hunter you would like me to talk to?"
Sha'ira minutely sags in relief, "His name is Septimus. He's been drinking in Chora's Den since."
Jane reaches out and touches the back of Sha'ira's hand, "I understand. I will inform the general that he is behaving like a fetita."
As Jane leans back and takes another sip of her tea, Sha'ira shakes her head slightly, "You surprise me Jane. You seem impulsive, yet you sit here like a matron on the edge of becoming a matriarch."
Jane gives a small smile, "My teachers are constantly telling me that I am too hasty and impulsive."
More time passes before Sha'ira touches her ear, "I am sorry, I have another client to see now."
Jane inclines her head, "Keep the box of tea, and maybe we can have a purely social visit next time."
As Jane leans forward to retrieve her facemask Sha'ira reaches out to touch Jane's face and join very shallowly. Jane brushes her hand away and replaces her mask, "That was rude. You are no longer a maiden Sha'ira, and you are not my family either."
As gracefully as possible, Jane glides from the room leaving a confused Sha'ira behind.
