Tau 30 system
Battleship Stirling
Conference Room

"So it's decided then," Captain T'Loni started, "we have ourselves a trade agreement, and each of our companies may trade basic goods and services, these include but not limited to, food, water, raw materials, and basic alloys." a good start for any sort of first contact really, "In exchange, The Kingdom of Bretonnia agrees to contact the other Houses of the Sirius systems regarding this first contact." better they give the message than we do, "At a later date, to be determined by the Sirius Houses, representatives of the four houses will meet and negotiate with Citadel representatives regarding the inclusion of the four Houses into the Citadel on the Planet Curacao in the Cortez system." and give us that beautiful technology of theirs "In the meantime, a representative of my ship, to be chosen by me, shall be granted leave to explore the Sirius systems with an escort to be chosen by the Bretonnian government. Do you agree to all these conditions?"

"I, Lord Edward Barstow, First Cousin to King Alexander I, Count of Ashtonbury, Official Ambassador to these talks, agree to these conditions." he said calmly, as he signed the documents, one in English and the other in Thessian.

"Excellent, we look forward to an especially bright future ahead of us, Lord Barstow." finished Dala confidently. With such a treaty, these humans were opening the doors to Citadel influence. Surely, with the doubtless millennia of experience we have, we can surely leverage a treaty that would favour the Citadel, especially with the fact that these Humans seemed to be rather fractured. It should be easy pickings for whatever Matriarch they send in to negotiate at this Curacao place.

"Capital. I look forward to meeting and promptly escorting your selected representative. We have just the man for her to be escorted by as well." replied Barstow jovially. It'd mean a job for Perkins, well enough out of sight, all while learning about these Asari. A win for the BAF, for picking up intel, and a win for Perkins for the credits we would be paying him. Everyone wins.

Tau 30 system
Battleship Stirling
Docking Bay

"Dr. D'Avo, I think you are the most qualified person from those among us here to explore these Sirius systems." she said, taking note to keep her voice calm and collected.

"What?" she replied disbelievingly, "How? I'm just an archaeologist. I'm not trained in diplomacy or any of those things that I imagine you need." babbled Aela. She was just a humble archaeologist in a mission she wasn't trained for at all!

"But you are trained in understanding other cultures and languages. You can pick up on the tiny cultural nuances that I imagine many of us here would completely miss." countered Captain T'Loni.
"Besides, you will be going in with an escort. Lord Barstow is personally picking one of his people to escort you as you explore these Sirius systems." she said, trying to reassure the panicking doctor.

"But-"

"No buts here Dr. D'Avo." she replied, putting that steely captain's voice to use, "This is something too important for us to miss. I cannot go because I have to brief the Council on the events that transpired here. You are the next best thing, having translated the human language and interacted with them on occasion." she finished.

Aela could only sigh. She didn't really expect to be caught up so heavily in this. She just wanted to study a new species that was most probably extinct. Right now, she would've settled for going back to her apartment on Thessia and snuggle up in her bed with a nice Illium red. "Yes ma'am." she replied dejectedly, "I'll do my best."

"Excellent," replied Captain T'Loni, sounding cool and confident, "pack what you need, and we'll see about upgrading that omni-tool of yours to handle the I expect rather large amounts of data you will be collecting. Follow me."

As Aela followed Captain T'Loni, she couldn't help but feel that the next few weeks would be a most… memorable time in her life. Probably something that would seriously make her consider settling down earlier.

Tau 30 system

Battleship Stirling
Briefing Room

"So this is it then?" Perkins coolly replied, "I've been honourably discharged, sir? Left to my own devices, roam the galaxy, make my own fortune and all that?"

"Yes indeed Perkins." jovially replied Captain Dunbar, "That isn't to say that we haven't done you any favours. Look, we've outfitted your Crusader with some of the finest weapons Bretonia has to offer, even loaded you up with a full armament of torpedoes, mind you!" he cheerily continued. "We've even gotten you your own Freelancer license all ready to go. You're all set for your brand new and exciting career! Furthermore, Lord Barstow has a job just waiting for you." he finished with a slight smirk on his face.

"Oh? Does it involve me taking on some Corsair base all alone with no backup for a ludicrous amount of pay, sir?" Perkins calmly replied, yet the snark was clear in his tone.

"Nothing of the sort! It involves a ludicrous amount of pay to babysit some representative of the aliens as she explores the space in the Sirius systems." he continued "Naturally that mean that she will be visiting New London, and despite how diplomatically important this is, we can't afford the Stirling to be too far away from Leeds for too long." he replied apologetically, "So, you'll be her… bodyguard, so to speak."

"Just how much is Lord Barstow offering for a job like this?" inquired Perkins.

"500,000 credits." Dunbar quickly replied.

Perkins just looked at Dunbar as if he just grew a second head or decided to retire to Leeds. You didn't just get fired then get handed a deal like this. "There has to be a catch here sir. 500,000 credits for a babysitting job? "Perkins replied disbelievingly.

"There is no catch here. We'll give you half up front for your personal use plus another 300,000 for any expenses she may incur while under your protection. Which I imagine she'll use up once she visits Manhattan." he continued, calmly outlying the details of the payment to Perkins.

Perkins just couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had effectively been fired from his old job, only to be offered a new one by the people who fired him to go do the easiest job he'd ever heard of while being offered what he would essentially make in a couple of years for a few weeks worth of babysitting.

He didn't like the situation one bit. His gut told him that this could lead only to interesting times, in the ancient Chinese sense. Still… it was a lot of credits, and it wasn't like he had many alternatives.

"I'll take the job, sir." he grudgingly replied.

"Excellent, I'll upload the credits into your neural net. We expect you'll keep her safe, Perkins. She'll ride co-pilot with you on your Crusader." replied Dunbar, keeping up that annoyingly cheeky tone of his.

At that, all Perkins wanted was to take advantage of the drinks his lads owed him in the bar. He most certainly could use them.

Tau 30 System
Battleship Stirling
Recreation Bay "The Old Shanty"

Dr. Aela D'Avo has had much better days. Most notably back on Thessia, working in her nice comfortable office, though she was now really starting to regret not taking up something more traditional like economics or software development. It was thanks to her stupid archaeology doctorate that she got assigned exploring this unknown area full of aliens. She grudgingly admitted were exotically beautiful in their own strangely familiar way, but that wasn't something that should so easily win her over. Especially considering her surroundings.

According to her current guide, one Ensign Smith, her escort would be found here with his flight mates celebrating. He was apparently one of the members of the flight that fended off the Mollies. She could most definitely hear the carousing that a large group were doing near what looked like a bar counter.

"To Commander Perkins! May you do well in that cakewalk of yours, then retire nice and comfy eh?" roared one of the men, a rather familiar one too… was that Thatch?

"Hear hear!" roared the rest of the flight, as they downed whatever alcoholic beverage they were drinking. She figured one of them, possibly even Thatch or Commander Perkins himself, would be escorting her throughout the systems, so she politely coughed loudly to grab their attention.

"Oi! It's one of 'em Asari ladies! What's she doing here?" one of them drunkenly shouted.

"Shut it Lincoln!" shouted the one man she was most familiar with, Commander Perkins, "Mind your manners here. We've ourselves the equivalent of a Lady here, so at your best manners gents." he commanded with that voice Aela guessed came naturally to leaders.

"Yes suh!" replied the men, having placed their drinks down to stand at attention. This was a man who knew how to make use of that voice.

"Hello... Commander," Aela hesitatingly spoke, "I'm here looking for the person who would escort me in my travels."

"Ah! That bit of business." said Perkins, clearly a little tipsy from the drinks he had. " Right lads and ladies!" he said turning back to his men, "It's been an honour leading you all through the valley of death, so on and so forth. Thatch you blighty bastard, you take care of the men you hear?" he jovially responded.

"Right O' sir!" Thatch replied, raising his own drink "To the Commander!"

"To the Commander!" roared the rest of the flight, then they all promptly downed the rest of their drink.

"Thank you lads and ladies. Good Flying!" he then turned his attention back to Aela.

"Sorry about that there," he said sincerely, "The lads were toasting my early retirement."

"Early retirement? I thought you would be escorting me throughout the Sirius systems?" she asked, her confusion rather evident in her face.

"No need to worry ma'am." he said reassuringly, "This simply means that I've retired from the military. They handed me a ship, a full load, and enough supplies to go where I want. I'm a Freelancer now!" he jovially replied.

"A what now?" she asked.

"Freelancer! I work whatever jobs I want, whenever I want." he jovially replied. "Anything from bounty hunting to trading, it's all open to me. The Galaxy is now my Oyster!" he replied, a little too happily for Aela's taste. "My first job is to infact be your assigned escort! Given by Lord Barstow himself in fact!"

"Oh." was all she could say in reply. At least it was someone she was somewhat familiar with. Though it make sense when Aela thought about it. One couldn't just have a military officer flying around outside his nation, that would spark a diplomatic incident. A mercenary on the other hand, wouldn't bat too many eyes. A minor technicality, but a practical one, Aela conceded.

"Oh indeed madam. Anyways, we'll be taking off in a moments when we go through the Leeds system via the Stirling here. From there, we'd be on our own." he replied as if it was the most natural thing to happen.

"Nothing too special I understand." he continued, "we'll take off when the Stirling hits orbit around Leeds, then we go take off and we should hit New London by brekkie, and we'll have you a nice Bretonian breakfast before you meet with the King. Meanwhile, take a seat and enjoy the view, we're going to enter the Jumpgate soon."

That got Aela's attention, she would soon be entering uncharted space, wIth such advanced technology, surely whatever was on the other side would be something she would never forget. She quickly took a seat by the window, hoping to get a really good look at both travelling through a wormhole and what the Human systems would look like.

As the Stirling approached the Jumpgate, Aela started to get this feeling of just how huge the thing was. As the arms extended, she could clearly see the arms easily enveloping the entire length of the Stirling. it may have been no Citadel, but the fact that these Humans built something like this… Truly they must be masters of engineering to accomplish such a feat.

Soon enough, the increasingly familiar wormhole appeared in the center of the gate. It's entrancing white glow as a pattern of lights danced before her, clearly in the center of the anomaly. Aela could have watched the lights dance there forever.

And then there were only lights. The entire ship was surrounded in it, and Goddess, she could see they were in a tunnel of light. They were traveling through a wormhole! The first Asari to do so, and just the lights! She could stare at the tunnel and it's entrancing white center forever.

"It never gets old." sighed Perkins contentedly beside her.

If even the Humans could never get tired of this, then surely there could only be more wonders for her to experience in Sirius space. She could just look at the entrancingly blue of the tunnel that seemed to converge on a ever growing white center that they were approaching.

Soon enough, they reached the literal light at the end of the tunnel, and Aela saw a sight she would never forget.