It was strange, really, the scale on which galaxy-shaping events happened. As he leant against the wall beside the door to the War Room, Garrus was fully aware that the four individuals inside were discussing things that could change galactic politics irrevocably. Part of him wanted to sneak in an eavesdrop, but his more dutiful side told him to wait, and so he waited, patiently guarding the door for at least an hour. He was quite alone – Tali was helping the crew in Engineering, Shepard and Liara were in the med bay, attended by Chakwas and Kaidan, and Joker was at the helm, taking casualty reports from the other ships...
After what seemed like an interminable period of solitude, however, the doors opened with a mechanical whir, and the leaders began to filter out. Wrex came first, lumbering and still bloody.
"Garrus," the krogan nodded. "Where is he?"
Garrus knew who he was.
"In the med bay," he sighed. "You might want to clean the blood off, Chakwas'll have a fit..."
Wrex laughed dryly, and stomped off towards the elevator, closely followed by Shala'Raan, who seemed deep in thought, even behind the mask. Primarch Victus emerged a moment later, and paused as he saw Garrus.
"The Admiral guessed you'd be waiting..." he smiled. "He wants to speak with you, Garrus."
"Great..." Garrus muttered, distractedly. There was an almost guilty feeling in the back of his mind that he just had to voice. "Primarch, I should be helping you... Shepard's important, we both know that, but it feels wrong, abandoning the fleets right now..."
"Let me handle the fleets, Garrus," Victus murmured, with a pitying smile. "You've done more than enough for them already. See to your commander."
With that, the Primarch departed, pacing away across the CIC. Wearily, Garrus rounded the corner, stepped once more through the abandoned security checkpoint, and paced into the now-familiar surroundings of the War Room, still bathed in shallow, crimson light. Hackett was leaning against the central table, staring limply at the now-extinguished display where the Crucible had once hung.
"Admiral," Garrus called, as he paced into the room.
"Vakarian," the Admiral muttered back. He sounded tired... defeated, even. How bad could the talks have been?
"You look rough, sir... How bad was it?"
"The talks? Not bad at all... Krogan and quarian both responded to the offer of a seat well, but even Wrex wasn't forceful about it."
"Any idea who the new councillors will be?"
"Well, as far as Alliance candidates go, it's me or Shepard, and that's a daunting prospect in itself... Asari and salarians, I have no idea... As for your turian councillor, the Primarch mentioned one of your generals... Corinthus?"
"Corinthus is alive?"
"Yeah... wounded, but alive. That's why the Primarch suggested him – he's not fit to fight any more, which means the military isn't losing anyone if he goes to be a diplomat..."
"He's a good man," Garrus nodded. "What about the quarians and krogan?"
"Admiral Raan said the admiralty wants her to take the job, but she suggested Zaal'Koris... It might be tough to make either of them leave, they're too committed to Rannoch to leave and live on the Citadel..."
"I might have a suggestion there," the turian added, as a certain energetic little quarian popped into his head. "But it can wait... the krogan?"
"I expected Wrex to volunteer himself, I must admit," Hackett murmured. "But apparently he wants to stay, keep the other clans under control. After all, he's a hero figure now, the best thing he can do is keep the krogan united... He suggested Urdnot Bakara?"
"Eve... makes sense."
"At any rate, the seats look like a sure thing, even without the asari and salarians being involved. No-one has any real reason to oppose the quarians getting a seat, not now the Migrant Fleet has found a home, and once they're aboard, the humans, turians and quarians will all advocate giving the krogan a seat, however much the others might object."
"So you're cutting the asari and the salarians out?"
"The asari, not so much, but they've got no leadership at present to discuss it with. Once the matriarchs have decided who's in charge, we'll include them in the discussion. The salarians... well, yes, I don't want to rely on them backing the krogan. The opposition they put up to the genophage cure shows they haven't given up on their grudges as quickly as you turians have."
"We're good at forgiveness," Garrus chuckled, sardonically.
"I know," Hackett replied, with a weak smile. "Thirty years ago we were fighting you in the skies over Shanxi. Now we're celebrating a victory together."
"It is a victory, Admiral. Might not feel like it, but it is... Once the smoke clears, and we're rebuilding, we'll look back on this as the day the future began..."