Outside the Colorado Jump Gate
New York System
After all this time, and hearing the many… things the other Houses had to say about Liberty, she was finally here, in the beating heart of Liberty. It's capital system, New York.
"It's strangely… underwhelming." she said. True, she could make out a few scrap fields, likely due to centuries of industrialization, but so hadn't managed to impress her.
"That's because we're just at the border between Colorado and New York. The only interesting thing you're likely to see here is, well… some traffic. The real sight is when we get to Manhattan. Though we are passing Baltimore…" Perkins said as he nudged the ship into the Trade Lane.
"What's at Baltimore?" she asked.
"You'll see in a few moments," he said, a little smirk on his face.
Soon enough they exited the Trade Lane and a single massive facility lay before her. It didn't take long for her to recognize the station as a shipyard, but one on a scale she had rarely seen.
Inside one of the ribcage-like cavities of the facility was a massive ship under construction. From the sheer size of it, Aela guessed that it was probably going to be a brand new Dreadnought. The hundreds of workers on that skeletal frame were positively tiny compared it.
"That there is going to be Liberty's latest Battleship," Perkins said. "From what they have disclosed to the public, that thing is supposed to be able to take direct hits from a Liberty cruiser!"
"While it looks impressive, I don't see what's so special about a ship of greater tonnage being able to outlast a cruiser," Aela said a little skeptically.
"The thing is that Liberty cruisers are all gun. In Bretonnia, we call them "Flying Cannon". Those things pack a lot of firepower in a surprisingly fast frame. They can definitely destroy any other Battleship I know of in seconds."
That… certainly brought things into perspective. For a ship to survive that kind of power… just what was it made of?
"That is one of the reasons why Liberty continues to be the most influential House in Sirius, because they have the best guns." Perkins said, as they entered the Trade Lane to Planet Manhattan.
Aela shuddered at the thought. These Humans had weapons technology that utterly dwarfed Citadel counterparts. If one of those Cruisers came up against any Citadel Ship, even the Destiny Ascension, she was very sure that the Liberty cruiser would win. A directed energy weapon of that scale would be terrifying to see in action.
She was however shaken out of her train of thought when they exited the Trade Lane. Before her lay a blue and green little orb. A couple of massive space stations orbited it, and she could also make out quite a few docking rings and minor orbital habitats around the planet as well. Hundreds of ships, from the great insect-like transports to small, almost tiny ships, flowed into the Docking rings and orbiting stations. For both it's size and age, Aela figured that Manhattan was one of the busier planets she's ever encountered
"Welcome to Manhattan," Perkins said.
As Aela and Perkins started to descend into the planet proper, Aela couldn't help but start to draw parallels to Illium, the… darker side of Asari space. Both were highly urbanized planets and were Trade Hubs as well. She'd need to take a closer look at Manhattan to really see if the comparison held, but something told her that she wouldn't find many differences.
Soon enough, they touched down to a rather deserted landing pad. Save for a few other parked ships, hardly anyone was around.
"I thought you'd rather like some… anonymity for a while," Perkins said, his usual smirk still on his face. "At least before we go on to meet the President tomorrow. Meanwhile… are you up for visiting a bar?"
"As long as it's not as active as the one on New Berlin, sure." Aela said.
Perkins just laughed at that. "Follow me then. Friend of mine who worked for Bowex told me of this nice quiet bar nearby," he said as he walked toward one of the many skyscrapers that seemed to dot Manhattan.
Soon enough, Aela found herself in a relatively empty bar. It was dimly lit, and she could hear smooth, relaxing music being played from a speaker somewhere. Overall, it was a bar that she could definitely like.
Following Perkins' lead, Aela found herself meeting the bartender, a portly man with a rather thick moustache. "What'll you have my friends? And please, drinks are on the house for the first Alien here."
"Whatever you recommend friend." Perkins said, a smile on his face.
"A round of Liberty Ales then." the bartender replied. "Say, I figure that I'm going to be getting quite a few more customers like you," he said to Aela. "I figure just calling them Aliens would be impolite ma'am, so… may I learn both your name and er…" he stumbled a bit
"Aela," she replied, " And I'm an Asari."
"Asari. Right, noted... Always good to be respectful to customers ma'am," he said as he laid down their drinks in small glasses.
Perkins merely took one look at the glass and downed the drink in one gulp. Aela followed his motions and was immediately rewarded with an incredible burning sensation. She ended up coughing out while both the bartender and Perkins chuckled at her predicament.
"What was that?" she asked, having finally stopped coughing.
"Liberty Ale," the Bartender said. " It's a real spacer's drink. Take the residue of your ship's fuel tank, process it, make sure to get rid of all those nastier byproducts, then add your alcohol of choice for some grade-A Liberty Ale, the genuine Liberty spacer experience. " he chuckled.
"I'm sure the Krogan would love it," maybe even add it to the current ingredient list for Ryncol.Goddess, how did that thing not trigger any of her omni-tools toxicity sensors?
"Who?" both Perkins and the bartender inquired.
"Think big bipedal lizards with a tendency to get angry with more brawn than brains." she said.
"What like a Rogue then?" laughed the bartender.
"Who?" Aela asked.
"Liberty Rogues," the bartender explained. "Punks who hide out in the Badlands. Decent enough pilots to fly the Badlands, but more often than not, quite stupid. Hell of a problem we have here in Liberty too. They keep hitting shipping and smuggle in Cardamine too."
"So Liberty has it's fair share of crime problems then?" she asked.
"You bet." the bartender replied. " You know about the Rogues, there are the Xenos, bunch of ex-factory workers who blame everyone for taking their jobs. Then there are the Outcasts and their drug smuggling. Just because Liberty's got the best fleet, doesn't mean it's got no crime problems. I hear LPI has its hands full up in Planet Denver, and rumor has it that a new group of pirates is starting to hit shipping out near the California system."
So Liberty wasn't infallible then. And it looks like quite a few people fell through the cracks of Liberty society too. This system was starting to look more and more like Ilium.
"Well, I'm sure that in time, the criminals will be brought to justice." Aela replied neutrally.
"We best be going now," Perkins interrupted. "Got to go to our hotel. Get all our beauty sleep for tomorrow's meeting."
"Alright," Aela replied. "Thanks for the drinks." she said to the bartender.
"No problem" he said smiling. "To your good fortune!" he said as he downed a glass of that Liberty Ale.
Outside the Liberty, Manhattan
New York system
When Aela was told that they would be heading toward the place the very first Humans landed in the Sirius sector, she was expecting, at most, a statue of sorts and a small museum of sorts showing early colonial life and the like. She didn't expect to find herself in the middle of the city, staring at a skyscraper, quite different from the others. The building itself was unusually wide, and unlike the other buildings seemed to curve more as well, in contrast to the thin and angular buildings she's seen so far. Asides from the differences however, the most distinguishing feature of the building was that it was proudly hanging the flag of Liberty on its front.
"This is what they use to commemorate the first Humans in the Sirius sector?" she asked, a little incredulously.
"Well, it is the original Liberty sleeper ship," Perkin replied, his smirk practically audible to Aela. "It's also (incidentally) where the President of Liberty resides and where all the important government offices are," he continued, as they both walked toward the building.
"That was what your ancestors came in on?" she exclaimed. The thing was massive, easily a kilometer tall at the very least. The fact that ship was still structurally sound after who knows how long in space meant that the Humans certainly knew a thing or two about engineering. If the Protheans knew as much, maybe she could have recovered a few more intact specimens. Build a better picture of their lives.
"Yeah. Thousands of people held in cryogenic suspension for years. Liberty was the first to arrive, and as I'm sure you can see, picked the best planets and areas for themselves. Though these days, Liberty is dependent on having most of it's raw resources imported. They've managed to deplete most of the economically viable sources already."
That… was a feat in itself. It takes a long time to deplete a system of resources, and even with an Asari's lifespan, it was very rare for one to encounter such a thing happening. Though with how much they were limited to a few systems, it would make sense for them to go through what economically feasible deposits there were quickly.
"Not like they need much of it these days anyway," Perkins continued, laughing as he did. "They've basically turned most of their economy into services and tech. Biggest Pharmaceutical company is Liberty, and the future of agriculture I'm convinced is SynthPaste. Not to mention the Big Three Liberty companies. Loads of people work for one of those service companies one way or another."
So, lacking raw materials, how was Liberty managing to influence the other Houses? It looked like that Liberty had taken the most habitable systems, and had the best technology. They did seem to have a lot of companies in important sectors though, transportation, financing, tech, medicine and agriculture. Maybe building a strategic balance of dependence? Liberty to the other Houses in terms of raw materials, and Liberty's products to the others? And when that failed, they would resort to their vaunted Navy?
"Right, I think we've spent enough time gawking at the building," Perkins said. "Let's go in and get you to meet the President."
Aela promptly followed him into the building, and was pleasantly surprised with what she found inside. It was, for an ancient ship turned building, not only clean and well-maintained, but also rather tastefully decorated. Along the walls were a few paintings, their meaning completely foreign to her, they were too abstract for a relative newcomer like her to figure out, but she was sure he could figure it out with time. In addition, statues stood in each corner of the room, of unfamiliar humans wearing some sort of headdress. Strangely enough, she'd never seen any human wear that kind of headdress before, so she wondered what its significance could be. Maybe the President would be wearing it too?
And for better or worse, none of the tasteful decor suitably distracted from the security measures all over the room. The blatant security was fairly light, comprised only of two guards wearing some sort of hardsuit and carrying some nasty looking rifles over by the elevator, but she had the very distinct impression they were only the tip of the iceberg. She didn't even want to think about the other security measures she was sure were there, lurking out of sight.
Even as they approached, the men never broke their professional looking stance, reminiscent of C-SEC at some high profile scene. "Where to, ma'am?" one of them said.
"We're off to see, the President, sir," Perkins said, using his 'I'm piloting now' voice.
"I'd normally ask for identification, but seeing as you're the only…" the guard said, struggling to find the proper term.
"Asari," Aela helpfully supplied him. Not that she couldn't fault him much for it, with her being the first of her kind here.
"Asari, for light years ma'am," the man said looking at Aela, "I'm just going to let you both in. And thank you ma'am."
"Bobby," the man said after pressing something near his ear, likely a communicator. "Two foreign VIPs to see the Chief. Do the standards, but give a nice welcoming to the madam here."
A few seconds later and they were in an elevator, with a great view to the rest of the city. Skyscrapers towering over the landscape as far as the eye could see, hundred of ships, from strictly civilian models to police cruisers flew in designated lanes, from one point of the city to another.
It reminded her of home honestly. This scene wouldn't have been out of place anywhere on Ilium or even the Citadel. The Humans didn't seem too alien now that she thought about it. They just had a tendency to disagree.
Maybe a little violently, and more often than others, but still. Not too bad.
"You know," Perkins said as he looked out of the glass window. "I've always wondered what an alien city would look like. I guess I'll soon have a chance to see one huh?"
"It's not too different really," Aela replied. "Different architecture and car styles, but from here, this looks like a scene straight from Ilium."
"Ilium. First alien planet I've ever heard of." Perkins said a little quietly. "What's it like there?"
"Lots of corporations, home to plenty of mega rich individuals and a hub of trade in its area of space. Incidentally not too far away from here actually. Oh, and nearly everything I can think of is legal there too."
"Huh. Sounds like Liberty." Perkins said, light-heartedly. "I'm sure lots of Libertonians would love it there."
"Then I'm sure they'd get along perfectly well with the Volus."
"Who?"
"Methane breathing aliens. Short, rotund, and have a knack for trade. Consider it to be their highest calling. They even designed the Galactic currency as we know it. As I understand it, the Citadel credit is very similar to the Liberty one."
"A floating currency that has a constantly updated value in relation to several other currencies?" to which Aela nodded. "Definitely like Liberty."
"They don't have that much say in Galactic politics though." she replied.
"I'd say building your banking system would be a big say in politics," Perkins noted.
"But they don't have a seat on the Council."
"I don't see how a neutral party Council is supposed to be important."
"Well… it kind of works like this…" Aela explained. "The Council is made of the most influential races in the Galaxy. They have had to earn the position as a Council member. The Asari and Salarians were the founding members, and the Turians earned theirs after helping us win a war against the Krogan in the Krogan Rebellion. Since then, the Turians have been the primary peacekeepers of Citadel space."
"See, you have to be able to contribute when you become a Council member. Show you are capable of helping and contributing part of your resources to the joint peacekeeping fleets. The Turians have the greatest contributions, the Salarians are great at information gathering while the Asari contribute some of the latest in technology and expertise in small unit operations. The Volus, while certainly important for their place in society for the work they've done with the credit, aren't what I'd call the most… physically capable race."
"So the Council is essentially a… judge of sorts," Perkins replied back.
"Kind of. They are a neutral party between all the races of the Galaxy, and have a huge say in major decisions like agreements between all races, the settling of disputes and so on."
"Huh." Perkins said, as he stroked his chin. "I'm telling you this already, from the sound of it, each of the races are unified and have their own individual embassies right?"
"Yes."
"Then each of the Houses are going to want their own embassies. No way around that." Perkins said confidently.
Aela sighed at that. "There was once a time I would've been surprised at what you said. Though after meeting the other Houses... well, I think you're right. I just don't know how to explain it to whoever I'm reporting to…"
"Best start thinking then, because I have no idea how I'd do it either." Perkins replied back with a shrug.
Aela could only sigh at that. Perkins was right in that regard, it was only a matter of time before she would have to give her increasingly complicated report.
When Aela first saw president Richard Wallace, she immediately thought that he would fit the idea of politician to a T. He wore a smart suit, and a smile that, framed with his greying hair, seemed all too… fabricated. Like what mother told her to look for when Matriarchs were talking to each other.
The fact that the office they were in had a great view over most of the city, with nearly all of one side all glass, merely amplified the effect. This was what she imagined a Councillor's office would be like.
"Doctor D'Avo," the man said as he approached her, a wide smile on his face. "A pleasure to finally meet you."
Aela put on her own smile and approached the man who directed what many thought was the most powerful of the Houses. "I'm glad to finally be here myself, President Wallace." she replied. " It's nice to see Liberty myself, especially after hearing so much about it from the other Houses."
"I'm sure they've all told you many things but it pales in comparison to actually seeing it yourself," he said, turning around and looking out the window and over the city. "What do you think about it?"
"I think it's rather a lot like home." she replied in all honesty. A well developed society that valued freedom, enjoyed itself as the premier power and as the most economically powerful player as well. The only discernible difference she could find was the more prolific crime problem she heard of and the better military. "I think your people would get along with mine."
"Just Liberty or all of Humanity?" Wallace asked.
"I'm rather sure of Liberty and Bretonnia. The other Houses though…" she trailed off.
"Are complicated," Wallace finished for her. "As they always have been. But really, from here on out Aela, we only need to worry about the future of the Galaxy. I'm sure that as time goes by, both Liberty and the Citadel will be able to… come to agreements to help facilitate better arrangements for our people."
"I'm sure we'll get to that soon but I'm not the person to talk to for that." Aela continued.
"I understand. I'm here to help your people get a better understanding of Liberty. In turn, I get to know about your own people, so that when I get to Curacao myself, we don't misunderstand each other."
"Yes, but… I've heard all sorts of things about Liberty already." Aela said.
"Rich, powerful, best technology and biggest companies right?" President Wallace answered.
"That, and your people have a reputation for being friendly, hardworking yet fun loving as well. Decent folks all in all."
"Well then, I guess you don't have any questions?"
"Actually," Aela replied hesitantly, "I do have one. I hear that Liberty is starting to develop a crime problem of sorts."
"Ah, the Rogues and Xenos." President Wallace replied a little sagely. "A nuisance yes, but certainly a growing problem. With our transition to a more… information based economy, many of the former factory workers have felt it easier to turn to crime than to try and find a new job."
"How are you dealing with the problem though?" Aela asked.
"We've discussed the nature of the problem with Liberty Police Inc., and have decided to change our contract detail. A larger payment to help offset expenses for training new officers and ships along with the full cooperation of the Liberty Security Forces should swiftly bring this problem to heel soon."
"Hold on," Aela said after she realized what she just heard. "Did you privatize your Police force?"
"Yes we have, and I must say that it has been beneficial for all," Wallace replied. "Higher capture rates, no drain on government funds and all in all faster system means that everyone is happier in the end."
That brought it's own implications, though if the system worked, she really couldn't argue against it. A nation that believed in corporations might lead to complications, but she expected the Matriarchs would have a better idea of what they would be dealing with.
"But those criminals won't be a problem for much longer, as my experts in the LSF have assured me, so please. Let's instead talk about your people. Tell me about the Asari."
Here it was, time to give the spiel again, Aela thought as she brought herself into a more comfortable position.