(A/N- start)

Still looking for a job that doesn't make the five years of college seem like a waste of time. If any of you need a Financial Analyst (or data analyst), I am willing to send you my resume.

Also learning how to program with RPGMaker MV in my free time, and planning on hunting down the relatives of the maker of Starlite if I can find a solid lead. Oh, and working out with an Ex-marine who looks like a miniature Mexican Hulk.

So yeah- life is busily but not productive... But looking forward to No Man's Sky! Also interested in the logistical problems of setting up a rendezvous between players.

Enjoy the chapter!

I don't own Mass Effect, Planetary Annihilation, or any other source material. Yet. I may later, but not now.

(A/N- end)

"But the animal is inside out..."

"I heard that!.. It turned inside out?!"

*very disturbing organic noises, followed by a 'pop' of disconnecting gooey flesh*

"And it exploded."

- Galaxy Quest

Chapter 6: Contact Scale

Some levels of scale are fairly hard to grasp for intelligent life. Their brains evolve to deal with things smaller then them, and landscapes to walk across. Creatures to hunt and trees (or equivalent). But when civilization develops, it does so quickly enough that the people within it develop abstract concepts to allow them to apply the significant distances needed to travel and construct.

Other forms of scale, such as loss of life, are also conceptually difficult. After all, many species have a version of this quote: "One death is a tragedy. A thousand deaths is a statistic."

The lack of scale has been argued as a sort of defensive mechanism, as it also enforces a sense of proportion- which is something that every intelligent species in the Galaxy has to some degree. After all, understanding how absolutely insignificant you are in relation to the universe and being aware of how nothing you can ever do will make a difference that is noticeable from outside the galaxy- it can make people depressed.

Of course, grasping distances between cities, continents, and later, planets, requires a bit of mental tweaking, changing perceivable distances into numbers and times rather than understandable distances.

The Asari homeworld of Thessia is only 11,880 km in diameter. Palaven, the Turian homeworld, has a diameter of 17,780 km. Sur'Kesh, the Salarian homeworld is 13,418 km.

Just... Try to visualize that for a second.

Having trouble?

Try this then. A mass relay is fifteen kilometers long and three kilometers at its widest point, around the spinning (and glowing) power core, and if the power core is in standby mode, it is a kilometer thick. That is 15,000 meters by 3,000 meters by 1,000 meters of superconducting and space-twisting superstructure that controls and allows for a corridor of exceptionally twisted space.

Hopefully, that is easy to visualize in relative scale to yourself.

Try another one!

The Citadel, a space station that sits in the middle of a nebula, is 37.9 kilometers long when not in combat mode, and 45 kilometers long when sealed. When open, it has a diameter of 12.8 km, and is mostly empty. It rotates to provide internal gravity, and has the equivalent of a fairly large city on each of the five petals' inner side. 13.2 million sentient lifeforms (plus or minus a few hundred thousand depending on the day) live on this massive space station. Dozens of ships are constantly docking at various points within it, carrying hundreds of tons of cargo to and from the station.

It orbits in the middle of the nebula, with the Mass Relay orbiting it, and a near-constant stream of traffic going between the two.

A Delta Carrier Vessel is a beveled cylinder 80 kilometers long, with a diameter of 30 kilometers, and resembled a scale-armored coke can.

Now imagine four of them appearing out of nowhere.

The appearance of a swarm of fast-moving vessels bursting out of a purple discontinuity at a point equidistant from the center point between the Citadel and its attendant Mass Relay (but not intersecting with the local traffic stream) caused some significant concern. As the Destiny Ascension, the two-kilometer tall Asari Flagship and its small attendant of Dreadnoughts and Frigates whirled around to try to get a bead on the vessels, the swarm of Frigate-sized vessels blasted around their lines of movement, taking up positions all around the only major solid structures in this nebula. Citadel Control hailed the vessels, but they didn't receive a response that made any sense.

Since there was a lack of any sort of response, Citadel Control began ordering the various vessels to either dock with the station or exit through the relay, as they were unable to determine the intent of the ships that now surrounded their controlled space.

Around the other Homeworlds, similar events were happening simultaneously. The swarms appeared in a purple flash around Sur'Kesh, surrounding the planet and attendant moons in half an hour, the vessels blinking from position to position as investigative ships tried to get close.

Thessia grounded everything as they mobilized their military, and attempted to dock with the vessels- only to be discouraged as the entire formation would shift if any ship got too close.

Palaven opened fire, only for the ships to use their superluminal drive to flicker around the incoming shots, rather than utilize any form of shielding to interact with their attacks. After an hour, the guns fell silent as the generals and Primarch convened to discuss potential strategies.

Most of the other Citadel-race homeworlds behaved similarly, except Rannoch and Kahje. Mainly due to the fact that the Geth just waited, their ships waiting in orbit as the ships did nothing but wait, and the lack of any space-fairing ships around Kahje and a dying population meant that no-one was looking at them.

Within two hours, an uneasy equilibrium was in place, with the vessels not moving and not interfering in any activity regarding local traffic.

Another hour later, four Delta Carrier Vessels emerged from disks of purple light at the far edges of the drone sphere.

The gravitational shift was noticeable as the four ships that out-massed the Citadel by several orders of magnitude EACH positioned themselves around what had been thought of as the largest space-born structure in the galaxy.

Understandably, people began to panic. Ships fled through the relay as their pilots tried to get as far away as they could before anyone began firing weapons at each other. People walking on the Citadel would look up, and see at least one of the four massive ships hanging in space, regardless of which of the Wards they were on.

It was at this point that C-Sec began having some significant trouble.

Corporal Vakarian was not panicking. Experienced Turian soldiers did not panic. Rather, he contacted one of his old buddies over the extranet. His buddy had been one of the few people on his strike team that had been reassigned to Citadel C-Sec (and demoted, but for a Turian this position was as cushy as it could get).

He got a 'Busy' message.

Fighting down a pulse of fear, he forced himself to contact his wife. His head-fringe visibly relaxed as she answered the call on her omni-tool.

"Garen? What's going on?" She asked, the background blurring slightly as she ran.

"I don't know. Kyla, get Garrius, and get yourself to safety- as far away from here as you can." He ran as she tried to protest, heading towards the closest C-Sec security checkpoint. "I think it's a first contact event, but I am not sure, and don't want to risk you..."

She huffed, but nodded sadly. "I understand. I'm at the daycare now. Love you."

Garen Vakarian smiled tenderly. "I love you too Kyla. Be safe." With that, he closed the connection, and entered the C-Sec Checkpoint. Snapping a salute at his superior officer, Garen waited for his instructions.

Five minutes later, he, and eight other officers were decked out in full combat gear, and running to collect the Turian Councilor from his ship and get him to the 'safe house'- a bunker hidden deep within the Citadel. From his perspective, this made little sense- wouldn't it be better to get the council as far away from the new ships as possible? But, since he was a Corporal now, he didn't have the authority to question his superior's orders.

And it was only his obedience to orders that Corporal Vakarian was lucky enough to see the next bit.

The Safe House was more of a Safe Apartment built into a small spacecraft, complete with pod-like living quarters, high-bandwidth communication system, FTL drive for quick evacuation, and a comprehensive med-bay. It wasn't stocked for more than a few days of food, but that was alright as well- it could get them to any of the homeworlds before they ran out of provisions.

Once the doors sealed though, it was secure- a mobile bunker of a vessel, midway between a cruiser and a frigate in size, with oversized shield generators and a power core to match, and could take a direct hit from most cruisers and some of the lower-class dreadnoughts.

However, it's most advanced (and impressive) features were the heat sinks. Eight of them, each utilizing a property of the mass effect to create slightly higher mass concentrations that could absorb huge amounts of thermal radiation before needing to be vented, and therefore able to bypass a great deal of the currently-used detection systems that the fleets had. The ship was actually priceless- the first Asari who stumbled across it when they were exploring the tower only saw it as a bunker. It wasn't until the Rachni War that it was ever disconnected from the Presidium Ring, let alone actually turned on. The citadel keepers appeared to be constantly upgrading the vessel, and had been the ones to add the heat sinks and more efficient engine.

The Turians were currently trying to utilize a Heat-sink they removed a few months back, but reverse-engineering was going slowly due to the complex and layered structure of the sinks.

Of course, none of this mattered when the ship wouldn't uncouple from its dock.

"Come on, come on..." The asari pilot looked up as she was interrupted from her chanting as she tried to get the ship to work by a slender hand resting on her shoulder.

Councilor Tevos wasn't a pilot, but as the Asari Councilor, she was very good at negotiation- and by necessity, therapy. "Pilot, what is your name?"

"Lieutenant Fal D'Sor, Councilor." The pilot turned back to her controls, trying to override the various warnings, and being unable to bypass the safeties that kept this pod docked.

"Well, Lieutenant, what seems to be the problem?" Tevos asked gently, trying to get the pilot to relax a little. Few asari preformed well under stress.

The pilot rubbed her temples in frustration. "It seems like there is something in the system, overriding the commands to disconnect from the Citadel." She poked a few controls, and brought up some Mass Core read outs from their drive. "I can't even get the ME core to spool, or activate the escape pods- and, of course..." She added bitterly. "The hatch that would allow us back into the Citadel is sealed, as per protocol."

Sounds of banging followed by Turian swears were heard in the distance.

A small panel flashed into existence, constructed from the holographic interface as a voice activated over the ship comms. "Safe House, come in. This is the Destiny Ascension, requesting coordinates for rendezvous."

The pilot flipped open the channel. "Destiny Ascension, we are still docked to the Citadel."

"Status?"

"The cargo is safe, but we are unable to undock, or leave the vessel by any means." Fal pressed a few more buttons. "Sending telemetry and slaving system to yours. Hopefully you can find the problem."

"Stand by."

Both pilot and councilor waited in silence for a while, before Tevos leaned onto the pilot's chair, her breasts pressing up against the dark blue-green crests on the back of the pilots' head as her arms gently wrapped around her shoulders. It wasn't a sexual position, more of a motherly one- and one that lots of asari reacted too, instinctively calming down as it reminded them of their mother hugging them. "Is there-" She stopped talking as one of the panels that had been displaying bandwidth values briefly flared, showing extreme activity. "What was that?"

Fal flipped open the line to the Flagship. "Destiny Ascension, this isSafe House. We just saw a bandwidth spike. Is there something happening on your end?"

"Standby Safe House." There was a chaotic mix of voices for a minute, before the operator returned. "We are collecting reports right now. Be advised, this is not the only location where those huge cylinder ships have been spotted."

Tevo's face paled, and she lunged for the comm control. "Destiny Ascension, this is Councilor Tevos. I am calling for a cease-fire! Inform all armed forces not to attack the cylinder ships unless fired upon first!"

"... Understood Councilor. I will forward this information to the other military commanders." The comm clicked off.

That order saved lives.

Or, more accurately, lives, ammo, and ships. The Turian forces had fired another volley from extreme range, only for purple light to envelop and refract the shells off in multiple directions. Their second volley had seen the shells fly straight back at them, somehow slightly faster then before, and aimed to knock out engines rather than the main body of the craft. The Hold-Fire order had come through right after that, and the guns fell silent.

The asari had mobilized their naval forces, and were not firing at the moment, but only because a small cruiser carrying Matriarch Benazia was approaching the massive vessel. No-one had been able to dock with it yet, but that was mainly because there was nowhere to dock with on this thing.

The Salarians had mobilized their forces, and had their extremely-long-range fragmenting Mass Accelerators trained on the object, but as long as it didn't move, they were willing to let it stay there, and collect scans from a distance. Of course, the scans couldn't penetrate more than a dozen layers into the hull from this range, but the information it brought back was interesting enough to keep the Salarian Directorate busy. Also panicking slightly, but the difference between the two is very slight for Salarians.

Matriarch Benezia was both amused and annoyed. Amused because she had heard (through several of her contacts) that the Citadel Council needed to have their SafeHouse cut open in order for them to leave the ship at all, and annoyed because the massive vessel in front of her wasn't responding to her hails on any frequency.

Her biotics caused a slight glow as she clenched them in frustration, then sighed.

Well, at least Liara was probably safe. All she needed to do know was wait- maybe the aliens would choose to initiate the contact on their own?

Nothing happened for hours, and the Council called for a general broadcast statement to be issued to the public, attempting to coax the economic lifeblood of the galaxy to move again- after all, having giant ships suddenly, without any warning, appear in a solar system would discourage trade vessels.

No sooner had the first ships returned and begun docking again than one of the massive alien ships opened an unseen flange, and then closed it again. It happened all within a minute, but everyone in the small system was watching this, and they noticed.

The Citadel Council, however, was soon preoccupied with the fact that an asari was being invited onto one of the ships.

Benezia froze when she saw the Can moving. Well, moving is the wrong word- a more accurate phrase would be rearranging itself. The segment that she was currently looking at (somewhat rectangular when seen close up), had risen slightly off of the surrounding plating, and was now splitting into smaller panels, each larger than her ship, and curving out of the way to reveal... A rising hanger, door open, mounted on some form of strut. It delicately slid into place, and the metal plates re-arranged themselves around the spire in a way that made them look like pieces of intricate clockwork rather than armored haul fragments larger than her own ship. Silver fluid filled the various gaps, briefly flowing in ways that described complex internal mechanisms before solidifying into all the holes that the new structure left on this ship.

The asari flipped open her comm connection to the fleet. "Asari Home-Guard, this is Diplomat Benezia, on the Diplomatic Flight. I have seen activity at the local cylinder that indicates potentially peaceful overtures."

There was a pause as this information was considered.

"Standby."

Benezia tapped her fingers, watching as lights within the hanger activated, in a pulsing pattern that drew her eye in towards a circular platform, more than large enough for her ship to land on. Still, she mused over the different reasons for why they might be utilizing lights, rather than some other system of communication. Why they might be using this sort of hanger rather than one built into the vessel- and what that liquid silver stuff was.

Tevos's voice cut into her musing. "Benezia?"

"Yes Councilor, I am here." Benezia quickly responded. She had been... Very good friends with the Asari Council member once upon a time.

"Good. Explain what you are looking at." The gruff voice with its multiple layering of sub-tones could only be the voice of Turian Councilor Sparactus. No-one who heard him would be able to forget his asshole of a voice.

Benezia gave a concise summary, and waited.

Tevos came through. "On behalf of the Citadel Council, we have you permission to enter the vessel, as they have not made any aggressive overtures so far."

"No aggressive overtures?!" That was Sparactus, and Benezia tried to shut out the turian's annoying voice as she slowly, using cold-gas reaction thrusters, directed her ship into the hangar. "They have parked their massive vessels in orbit around EVERY SINGLE WORLD WE HAVE A COLONY ON- AND MANY WE DON'T!"

Benezia drifted into the hanger, and deployed her landing gear. No sooner had her ship touched down when she felt the internal gravity fluctuate. Turning quickly, she brought up the gravity sensors.

Apparently, outside the ship the gravity had increased.

"Outside my vessel has gone from microgravity to 0.9 standard." Benezia reported. "No mass-effect distortions detected other than from my own ship."

"Interesting..." Mused the Salarian Councilor, Jekarth. "Any sign of visible acceleration?"

The asari called up a camera-pod that has hidden in the artistic curves of her vessel, and pointed it at the still-open door. The stars outside were static, and she activated the astronavigational programs. A few seconds of work, and she got her result.

"No acceleration other than current perceived orbit." Benezia confirmed. Another panel lit up, displaying several facts about the atmosphere outside the vessel, including a rising pressure. Wait- atmosphere? "Council, I am reading atmosphere outside my vessel- pressure is rising, but proportions seem to fit the current atmosphere within my vessel."

"They were prepared then." Tevos mused.

Benezia stood, and grabbed her helmet, sealing it on her head. The atmosphere may be breathable, but it would still be cold for a while.

Hailey-Rallus waited, with near-infinite patience, as the asari in her tiny ship slowly walked into the airlock. She was over six thousand years old, having been part of the first wave of Transferred Human's, and had spent a great deal of time doing things.

Then more than four thousand years sleeping. It was a bit absurd,but her experiment hadn't even reached its target yet. Said experiment was a self-contained solar sail/telescope that was harnessed around a white dwarf which, in and of itself, was at the midpoint between Andromeda and the Milky Way, and was leaving the galaxy at a respectable 2/3rds lightspeed, meant that she had another twelve or so thousand years- but that meant nothing to them.

Time changes when your entire people are immortal machine-gods.

One of her friends, Vanessa-Alpha, pinged her.

"Hey Hailey- any suggestion on how to get the ship into a hangar?"

Hailey-Rallus blinked, her perception of the universe altering to fit the message's interaction speed. "You tried the flashing lights?"

"Yeah... They just fired on it." Vanessa sounded distraught.

Hailey tapped her chin, her body wreathed in silver lacework as she floated out of the physical interface of her Delta-Carrier before she replied. "What species are you luring?"

"Some asari pirate queen." Vanessa almost sounded annoyed. "She's not taking any of the normal patterns."

Something clicked the back of her mind, but Hailey couldn't place it. "Where are you?"

"Galactic-Core, Gate 4."

Hailey snapped her fingers. "That's the Pirate Queen! What was her name... Aria To'look? Something like that. I doubt she would be interested in just a first-contact. Perhaps a bribe then?"

"Gold, platinum, etc. then." Vanessa deadpanned.

"Who doesn't like shiny things?" Hailey smirked. "Try adding gems too."

"Got it. Thanks Hailey!"

"No problem." Hailey-Rallus went back to waiting. She had near-infinite patience after all-

"Just open the fucking door lady!"

Okay, maybe not infinite patience.

Trailing in the asteroid field that surrounded the space-station known as Omega, one of the Can vessels sat there, dreadnought-sized bay sitting on a pole, doors open, and filled with several piles of what (according to the spectrographic systems) was platinum, gold, silver, and dozens of different types of diamonds.

Aria T'Loak, the Pirate Queen of Omega, glared at the massive ship- if she could even call it a ship. It had just been flashing lights, then the hanger closed up, and now it had flashing lights and treasure! Who the fuck did whoever was in the ship think they were?!

The captain of her ship, the Endtimes, walked up to her. "How should we proceed?"

"Whoever is in that ship really wants us down there." She mused quietly. "So let's see what happens if we don't give them what they want." She looked at the attractive female Turian who ran her ship. "Send down a shuttle. Krogan and Commandos only. Instruct them to collect samples of the treasure, and bring them here- I want to see what the ship may do to them."

Planets are wondrous things. Some of them are naturally-occurring places of exceptional beauty, with huge life-forms that stride majestically across great planes, or seemingly-lifeless hell holes that are too close or far from their star for conventional life, yet beneath the surface some life may exist.

This planet may have once been one of those- but that was unlikely. It was about 1/3rd the size of Earth, 4,000 km in radius and made of effectively pure carbon. This, however, did not make it unique- there were many pure-carbon planets, and many of the ones nearest Sol and it's fortress were being actively converted into building material by the Terrans at this very moment. Some of them were the stripped cores of gas giants, others were effectively gigantic diamonds.

Most known planets like this were around Neutron stars, or dying small stars. Ones like this were hard to find, mostly because they were cold and small.

This was because there was no star for it to orbit around- and there hadn't been one for hundreds of thousands of years.

The small planet known to the Terrans as The Shelter, and had a full ten thousand of the Delta-Carriers orbiting around it, their swarms of construction drones digging various material out, while others built thrusters, reactionless engines, reactors, power storage areas, and Commander safekeeping structures over the entire surface- and under it.

It was becoming an ark- of a sort. The Terrans wanted to make sure they lived through whatever conflict would arise, and make sure there was sufficient space to keep the species that were willing in cryo-stasis until they could reach a peaceful time, place... Or, if that didn't work, reach Andromida/one of the other galaxies in the local cluster.

In the worst case scenario, every Human Mind could use their warp gates to reach the asteroid, and, here, at the very edge of the galaxy, the massive ships would dock, sliding into huge holes all over the moon, linking their drives together to preform a single massive warp jump out of the galactic cluster. It would be a blind jump (somewhat, as the simulations for galactic movement was fairly advanced by now), but it would allow them to get far enough away for some breathing room if some significant opponent appeared.

Plans were being drawn up for a fleet of these- a fleet of worlds, garden worlds even, which orbited around each other and were brought along by a titanic warp gate in the gravitation center of the system- but they needed to solve some logistical problems first.

Such as how to keep the planets from freezing without bringing a star along- or failing that, how to bring a star along. Perhaps manufacture their own equivalent to provide the necessary light and heat, or capture a few red dwarfs and build them into the main drive construct.

But hey- they were Machine-god-like-beings. What were they supposed to do with their spare time? Play videogames? Fight among themselves? That didn't work out well before, and it probably won't work out well now.

Best to be the 'good' pantheon until there was a reason to be 'bad'- especially considering that the two-hundred lightyear radius around Earth were bereft of any large planets because of when they were briefly 'bad'.

Benezia was nervous- and for extremely good reason.

The moment she had set a foot upon the deck of the strange hangar, a pillar six meters wide at the base, and nearly ten meters tall slid out of the floor, with a single massive glowing red lens watching her.

She didn't move for a minute, waiting to see if it reacted before taking another step. When nothing happened, she walked closer to it, knowing that her ships' cameras were recording everything she did, and that her helmet-cam would be relayed along with the ship-can feed directly to the council, along with every word she said.

She knew this because she could hear them- at first. Thankfully, they were being silent now, the Council waiting to see what sort of interaction they could expect before making future plans.

The 'pupil' of the eye moved, looking up and down her, then at the ship, before a small panel opened and project an image of a very asari-like female figure. It had no face, or more fine details, more like a cloudy imprint of an asari than a detailed one, with a single notable exception: there was sort of cowl or fold behind the head of the projection.

It pointedly faced Benezia, and a voice filtered into her helmet though the exterior microphone, in perfectly-spoken High Asari.

"Hello! Can I speak to your boss?"

Aria T'Loak was, not to put too fine a point on it, a badass. She had been a badass for so long that asari commandos, who spent decades becoming the sort of super soldier that everyone wanted to hire, wished to be like her when they grew up. Or at least as badass.

As such, she had a certain amount of composure. Being able to rattle Aria was a privilege few survived to tell about, and fewer attempts due to the sheer suicidal nature of doing such a thing.

People in the bridge ducked when she raised her eyebrow in confusion and surprise.

Several pissed themselves when she grinned. "Fine. They want to talk- we'll talk." Her grin seemed to have just too many teeth to be healthy. "Spool up shuttle two, but take us in."

The Turian captain paused in mid-step. "Ma'am?"

"Land us in there."

Benezia floored- but this was not the first first-contact scenario she had been present in. She had been present when the Hanar encountered the Drell, and she had been part of the Citadel Diplomatic party then.

And just the same as then, she followed the protocol. When in doubt, contact your boss.

She quickly locked her helmet pickups, directing her request to the Council. "Councilors, the entity is requesting meeting you." She didn't need to phrase it as a question.

There was silence on the line for several minutes, until Tevos spoke. "Inform them that we are not available here, and that you are willing to be our initial representative."

Benezia cleared her throat, and opened the helmet pickups- only to be preempted.

"Very well. You know we can hear you, right?"

Benezia actually heard someone in the council chambers fall over. She groaned slightly, and turned on her helmet pickups again. "Is there something you wanted to say to them at the moment?"

"Yes. We apologize for the inconvenience, and the delay in directly contacting your culture. However, we are currently waiting on the final part of the party to arrive, and we apologize for the slight delay in this case." The female's tone sounded cheerful, and somehow pre-recorded. "And, since it is usually rude to listen in, we will only talk with the representatives that are physically present."

Aria stood on the deck, her defensive mass-effect shield barely visible around her body, body language oozing regal impunity. "What do you want?"

The hologram didn't move. "We are currently contacting the major known galactic powers at this time." It nodded. "Thank you for responding so promptly- we will begin the conference soon."

Aria raised her hand. "What conference?"

"We intend to meet with the major powers of this current cultural division between the organic races- such as the Terminus, Omega, the Citadel Council, and therefore doing so at the same time should allow us to get the best idea of what we should do about them."

The 'about them' bit made Aria's brow wrinkle slightly, but she scoffed. "Yeah, good luck getting the Council off their backsides."

"We have a representative who speaks for the Citadel Council, and she is currently waiting for you to agree to participate."

Aria blinked. "I need to agree?"

The glowing figure nodded. "Yes. We have great respect for the concept of 'free choice' and all that such concepts implies."

"And you also have a great understanding of 'negotiating from a position of power' I see." Aria observed as she gestured at the piles of money and new hangar her ship was in.

"Of course. Now, would you like to participate?"

"Hang on-" She had to ask. "- how did you know I was the ruler of Omega?"

"Your extra-net is not well-secured, and there is a great deal we learned from the Quarians." The figure leaned forward, cowl-like fingers of light flowing over glowing shoulders. "Now. Do you want to participate?"

Aria rolled her eyes. "Yes, I want to participate!"

The figure clapped its hands once. "Good!"

Another figure appeared next to it, looking just different enough to be distinguishable, before an Asari appeared next to Aria.

The asari, who was not expecting it, jumped back. "Aria? How did you get here?"

Aria smirked. That voice was unmistakable. "Benezia- so nice to see you again. How's my niece?"

Benezia plucked the camera off her helmet, attached it to her shoulder, and then took off her helmet, revealing a pale blue face and some slight rings around her eyes. "Doing fine. Now, about how you got here-"

The glowing figures between them snapped into sharp relief, appearing as attractive twin asari wearing cowls and skintight suits that covered everything from the neck down.

The right one raised a hand. "Now, to introductions. I am Hailey-Rallus, the vessel that you, Benezia, are currently standing on, and my cohort there is Vanessa-Alpha, the vessel that Aria is currently on."

"Nice to meet you!" Vanessa-Alpha chirped.

A thought percolated through the minds of both asari, and Aria was the first to voice it.

"Geth?" Her question was a word, but everyone understood it.

"No." Hailey-Rallus shook her head. "Not even close. The Geth, by description, are only sapient in great numbers. That, and the fact that we were organic at one point in time, just highlight our differences."

"They haven't approached our messenger vessel yet." Vanessa-Alpha added. "And we respect that, as they are not a dominant Galactic power as we define them."

Another asari, this one with very angular markings on its face (but otherwise a twin of the first two), poked it's head out of the massive eye-lens-thing. "But we still plan to approach them." Then it retreated.

"Thanks Jack-Jack!" Vanessa-Alpha shot back towards the pillar.

"It's Jack-Jax!" The voice was heard, but no head displayed.

Vanessa-Alpha turned back to the two asari diplomats, who were looking a bit nonplussed. "Sorry about that. Anyway, we would like to formally introduce our species, and the location of our territory."

Benezia perked up quickly. "Please, we are anxious to hear of our people."

Aria rolled her eyes. "Yes. Please. I have nothing better to do."

"Like carry off the massive amount of precious metals we had use as a lure to get you down here?" Hailey-Rallus supplied.

The Pirate Queen just smirked.

"Basic information first then." Vanessa-Alpha flicked a finger, and a blank white surface appeared behind them, floating in the air. "Now, we , the Terrans, and introduced ourselves to the Turian military as The Oncoming Tide- in order to prevent them from destroying a good chunk of the Quarian fleet... And subsequently from committing genocide as the Quarians would then have died of starvation." She added after a moment's thought.

"The current status of the Quarians so far is good, but we are limited in our sample size, as several hundred thousand of them are currently being held on Batarian worlds, and Illium. This is mainly a heads-up: we will be bringing them back to their families- by any means necessary." Hailey-Rallus stated that in such a way that both Asari (and the council) got chills.

"We also formally request that you evacuate the Citadel-"

"What?" Benezia couldn't stop the outburst. "Our center of government exists there!"

"Oh, so you like living in the shielding of a massive Relay?" Vanessa-Alpha shot back. "I mean, imagine what would happen if it activated! All those perfectly happy people one second, then dead the next- if they are lucky. And if the AI on the station doesn't have any altering motives."

Benezia opened and shut her mouth like a fish for a few moments, as Aria burst out laughing.

"By the Goddess's dripping (word untranslatable), you are not asking for much, are you?" She chuckled.

Hailey-Rallus turned her attention on Aria. "Oh, and we intend to either destroy or remove the Omega Relay."

Aria looked at the hologram that identified itself as 'Hailey-Rallus'. "Why?"

"It links to a nexus point between multiple relay networks, and since we discovered the AI on the Citadel, we have determined that it is not worth keeping in its current position."

The pirate queen crossed her arms and tapped her forearm with a few fingers as she thought. "Well then, am I free to take all of the treasure you laid out?"

Vanessa-Alpha grinned. "Sure. Just don't spend it all in one place."

"An AI on the-" Benezia started, before Vanessa-Alpha cut her off.

"This is a courtesy detail." Vanessa-Alpha grinned. "We did not have to tell you anything. We are patient, and are willing to wait for ten revolutions of Omega around its current star. At that point, we will move the relay, and destroy the Citadel. During that time, the Citadel Council may negotiate for a replacement construct to be built in place of their current accommodations."

"Can I request a replacement structure that would take the place of the Omega relay?" Aria add, seeing as Benezia was still somewhat out of it.

"Certainly. Our economy is more than capable of that sort of expenditure. We will send a... Smaller part to your station for negotiations, if you prefer."

Benezia seemed to flinch, then controlled her expression. "The Citadel Council would appreciate a diplomatic party to arrive within a few days."

Hailey-Rallus nodded. "That is reasonable. Jack-Jax, Millie-Gamma, Thule-Osiris, and Su Li-Theta are around the Citadel, and are constructing scaled-down vessels to fit in your docking ports. We look forward to the continuing diplomatic relations." She smirked. "Or whatever."

"Before you stop talking with us, will you tell us what sort of beings you are?" Benezia asked.

Hailey-Rallus and Vanessa-Alpha looked at each other, then back at Benezia.

"Where would be the fun in that?"

The holograms vanished with an alarming suddenness.

Aria clapped her hands together, and activated her earpiece with a minute flick of biotics. "Alright, everyone on the ship is to load this treasure! I want it gone within five minutes!"

Benezia sighed as she watched the panel slide back into the floor. Now she had to go get debriefed by the Council... But first, she had to call in and check on her daughter.

End Chapter 6

I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! I wish it had taken less time to write, but I wanted to make sure the characters gave off the right vibe.

Please review- it really helps. Feel free to Pm me if you have any questions or recommendations.

For those who are interested, I plan to update Pitch Black on Sunday, so I need to get to work on that when I have some more free time.