Judith System, unsettled UN space

April 3, 2089

Neph was sitting nervously in the human shuttle next to Talerra and Usit Minz, the salarian that the other salarians had chosen to represent them. Timothy'Li was watching the three of them intently, looking like he wanted to do something, but was unsure if he should. He seemed to come to a decision, and stood up. Gesturing to the three aliens to come stand by him, he moved over to a viewscreen-So primitive! Do they not have holographic screens yet, or are they just too expensive to mass produce?-and fiddled with it for a moment, before standing aside to allow the aliens to see. On the screen was an image of the alien's ship. Neph took it in, and couldn't help but think primitive again. Crude but efficient design, obviously they're new to mass effect technology...and are those radiators? Have they not discovered radiation venting yet? Her estimation of the humans' tech level went down another notch at that. It was then that she noticed the gaping hole in the top of the ship. Keelah! It survived that? It's a wonder they had enough crew left to board our ship with that kind of damage. Usit and Talerra retained neutral expressions as they absorbed the image of the human ship. Timothy'Li was studying the three of them intently. Neph wanted to say something, but it would just be gibberish to the human. So instead she just stood there awkwardly, trying to avoid his gaze.

As the shuttle approached the human ship, it performed a sudden turn. Why are we flipping like this? Do humans walk on their walls instead of their floors? She wracked her brain to think of an answer, and a video she had watched as a child about the history of quarian space travel came sprang forth from her memory. It must be vertically oriented! The ship's floor was perpendicular to the thrust, rather than parallel. From the perspective of the crew, it would be like living in a giant flying tower with a fusion torch at the base, with the ship constantly accelerating "upwards" towards its destination. This layout worked well for early fusion rockets, as the inertia generated by the engine meant that "down" was in the direction of the engines, so it was a more comfortable layout. However, once a species discovered the mass effect, things would change. The inertia is nullified by the ship's mass effect fields, and artificial gravity usually followed, so the orientation became unnecessary. The mass effect also made it possible for smaller ships to comfortably land on planets, where the vertical orientation became an inconvenience. The transition usually started with small freighters, passenger liners, and troopships making the change, and then eventually everything else followed. Either they're even younger than I thought or they're just unusual. Neph glanced at Tiimothy'Li.

Definitely unusual either way.


Colonel Bauer had instructed Tim to bring the three aliens straight to the CO's office, avoiding contact with the crew as much as possible. Once he was through the airlock Tim lead the way to the elevator, the three aliens in tow. After an awkward elevator ride, Tim headed for Bauer's office. Inside, Colonel Bauer and Major Udoh were waiting. Aside from planting a smile on his face, Bauer didn't bother with pleasantries. Tim watched as Bauer reached out and gave a data chip to the alien in the environment suit-Neph, that was her name-and Neph took it from him with what looked like a failed attempt at grace. The eyes of every human in the room widened as Neph activated some sort of holographic device that wrapped around her arm. She stood there tinkering with it, not looking up from her work.


Ancestors, this is a primitive storage unit. Configuring her omni tool for such an alien and primitive device on the fly wasn't exactly easy. Talerra seemed anxious. "You think you could maybe pick up the pace Neph?"

"Would you like to do it instead?" the quarian asked sweetly.

Talerra held her tongue at that. Suppressing a triumphant cheer, Neph looked on happily as the omni tool configured itself into a construct that could accept the alien data card. Slipping the card into the newly formed slot, the hard part began. The omni tool had to decipher whatever mathematical model the aliens used for the computing and data storage devices, and then figure out how to communicate with it. Omni tools sure are handy. She glanced at the humans, who looked on in wonder and curiosity. We take them for granted. We take a lot of things for granted. Finally, the omni tool beeped its success, and the human data card spat its stored data into the omni tool. It's a language module of some sort. She'd guessed that much from what Talerra had told her about the mind meld, but she hadn't thought they would have thrown it together this quickly. Perhaps it was premade, standard issue in anticipation of exactly this kind of situation.

Neph had to take an extra minute to reconfigure the omni tool to use speakers, as the humans had neither translation implants or omni tools of their own to use. She decided to test it out, turning to speak to the older human, the one who appeared to be the ship's captain. "Hello? Can you understand me?" The human grinned and nodded vigorously, speaking back. "Yes...understand...we." Well, that's about the best we can hope for using an over-modified quarian omnitool to integrate with completely new alien hardware. Neph sent a copy of the translation program over to the other two aliens, and looked meaningfully at them, which wasn't very meaningful given her helmet. Talerra managed to get the hint and began communicating with the alien commander.


Colonel Bauer looked at the strange purple alien standing in front of him, trying not to show his astonishment at how unsettling similar to a human woman she was. The woman spoke and brought Bauer out of his musings.

"Me...Talerra N'li...species...asari." the speakers on the woman's wonderous alien wristwatch spat out the words as she spoke in her own tongue. The strange woman, through her halting translator, told the humans of the tragic tale of the salarian colony. The woman was apparently a botanist (or whatever the purple alien woman equivalent of a botanist was) who had been hired to help set up an agricultural base, until the "batarians" had raided the colony and captured them to sell as slaves. A "salarian" was apparently what the third alien was. Bauer was equal parts amused and disturbed that one of the aliens humanity had encountered looked uncannily like one of the classic "greys" from early science fiction. The conversation continued, with the translator improving in leaps and bounds as they spoke. Talerra regaled the humans of the "council" and the many alien species that seemed to be a part of it. The batarians and their slaves-A species advanced enough for FTL travel practicing slavery? Insanity.-were also explained to the humans, with Bauer's concern growing the more he learned about them. The "asari" started slowing up, and Bauer watched her carefully. Alien or not, Bauer could tell the poor purple lady was exhausted, so he tried to graciously give her an out. He needed to contact his superiors anyway. Looking to Li, Bauer spoke in what he hoped was a polite manner for the alien. "You are all likely tired from your ordeal. Please, allow Lieutenant Li here to take you for some food and rest." Bauer could have kicked himself for saying that. They're aliens you idiot, they might not even be able to eat our food! The aliens didn't have any visible reaction to the remark, so either eating other species' food was not unknown to them, or they had simply elected to ignore his slip up. Bauer went over and put a hand on Li's shoulder, speaking in a low voice. "Take them to the mess. Let them rest, but don't give them food unless they have some way of testing if it will kill them or something. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Li didn't bat an eye at the prospect of taking three aliens that humanity had encountered less than ten hours ago out for dinner. Dependable man, Tim is. He made a mental note to remember recommend the man for a commendation, for his stellar performance in the boarding and mop-up operations. Bauer turned to Major Udoh and gave him a tired smile. "Well, Major, I think its time to call our superiors and start the biggest shitstorm in human history."


Thee three aliens followed Tim as he led them to the mess. He didn't have the faintest idea what to say to them, so he just kept his mouth shut. The four of them arrived in the mess, and Tim gestured for them to sit at a table. This shift's dinner wasn't going to be ready for a while yet, so he just went over and grabbed an armful of granola bars and four bottles of water. Walking over to the aliens, he asked the important question. "Do you have a way of determining if this is safe for you to eat?" The three aliens glanced at each other. Finally, the "quarian" took one of the ration bars and opened it, scanning it with that strange device on her forearm.


Neph suppressed a curse. It figured the aliens would be levos. Not for the first time, she cursed her people's infernal physiology. Were she a turian, she might be able to at least fill her belly, even if she wouldn't get any calories from the food. As a quarian that wasn't an option for her, she'd almost certainly have an allergic reaction, if not to the food itself then to whatever host of pathogens existed in it. She turned to Talerra, "They're a levo species. I've checked it, and there doesn't seem to be anything that would be toxic to other species in it." Talerra looked concerned. "When was the last time you ate? Maybe the batarians have some dextro food on their ship." Neph shook her head. "Not likely. The food they were giving me was mostly from my own rations. I'm pretty sure they ran out yesterday, that's probably why I didn't get fed today."

Timothy'Li looked puzzled. "Dextros? What's that?"

"It's the chirality of the amino acids my species uses. The majority of life in the galaxy has a levo chirality, including yours." Neph explained.

Timothy'Li turned red, what that meant, Neph could only guess. "It's been...a minute since I took a biology class. What does that mean?"

A woman's voice chimed in. "It means our food's worthless to her. She can't digest it." Timothy'Li looked over to the voice. Neph followed his gaze saw a short woman with brown hair and a stocky build approaching their table.

Timothy'Li seemed to know the woman. "Ah, Chief. I'm glad our resident dietitian has graced us with her presence."

Neph felt her eyes widen. "Human ships come with a dietitian?"

"Chief" smiled at her. "No, he's just being a smartass, sweety." Smart...ass? Sweety? Odd phrases. The woman stuck out a hand at Neph. "I'm Chief Astronaut Heather Tennison. I'm in charge of the mess and the nonessential maintenance department." Neph stared at her hand, unsure what to do. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the woman's hand. This seemed to be the correct response, as the other woman shook Neph's hand once and then let go. I'm having a weird day. And "Astronaut"? What a strange name. The word had translated as an archaic Kheelish word for "spacer". Then it clicked. Ah! It's not her name, it's her rank. Remembering her manners, Neph spoke next. "I'm Neph'Olis nar Rayya." The woman smiled again. "Pleased to meet you. Now, did I hear you say that your species has a dextro chirality in their amino acids?" Neph was a bit taken aback. "Y-yes."

The woman beamed at her. "Believe it or not, I have something for you." Leaving a bewildered Neph behind, Heather'Tennison vanished into the kitchen area. She reappeared a minute later carrying a box of something.

She spoke. "My sister fell for some bullshit pyramid scheme, bought up a bunch of "calorie-free food", the idea being that you can fill up without actually intaking any calories, the reason being that it's made of dextro amino acids. Lord knows why she thought I could sell weight-loss supplements to a bunch of people who eat rationed amounts of food and regularly excercise, never mind why she thought I would, but her stupidity sure came in handy. I don't know if this will work for you, but it might be worth a try."

Neph couldn't decipher many of the words and concepts the woman had just said, but she could gather that, for some absurd reason, the human had dextro food and was offering it to her. Heather handed her a plastic-wrapped hunk of...matter, and Neph scanned it with her omni-tool. It appeared to be sterile, more or less, and as far as she could tell there would be nothing toxic for her in it. She would get to eat. "Thank you so much, but I can't eat it like this, I need to turn it into a paste, so I can eat it through my mask." Neph said.

Timothy'Li spoke then. "Are you not able to take your helmet off?" Neph groaned internally. The question she had been expecting and dreading.

"No, I can't."

"Is it all right if I ask why?"

A small part of Neph was genuinely touched that this alien, who had not known other intelligent species even existed less than 12 hours ago, was considerate enough to ask her if she was comfortable answering the question. The rest of her was in a panic trying to find a way to avoid the question gracefully. Politeness or not, refusing to answer would still look very suspicious, but telling the truth might not go much better. 'Hey, there's this incredibly powerful machine intelligence that looms over the entire galaxy striking fear into everyone, and my people are the ones who built it!' Seems like a good way to have yet another alien species hating my people. Fortunately, Talerra bought her some time by answering the question for her. "Neph's people are nomads, they live in ships their entire lives. They've been doing it for so long that their immune systems have atrophied." Timothy'Li nodded. "Alright, understood. I'll make a note to tell let the ship's doctor know." He pulled out his primitive handheld computer to do just that. Neph doubted an alien doctor who had only just become aware of the existence of quarians would be able to do much for her medically, but she appreciated the gesture. She also appreciated that Timothy'Li hadn't asked the obvious follow-up question of "Why are your people nomadic?". She couldn't tell if he was being tactful, or if he just accepted the information at face value. I'm going to have to face the music about the geth eventually, but it's nice to have a little time to prepare.

Heather'Tennison emerged from the kitchen, carrying a cup filled with...something, and dressed in a long coat and gloves, with a mask on her face and some kind of covering on her head. She set the drink down in front of Neph. "I did my best to sterilize it, but I don't have the equipment I usually would for that. Still, it's about as sterile as it can be with the equipment on hand. We're lucky these bricks were designed to be able to be eaten solid or as a smoothie." She gave the mixture a dubious look, "That one's supposed to be strawberry flavored-it's a fruit that grows on our homeworld-" she interrupted herself, causing the incoming questions to die on the lips of the three aliens, "but I have no idea what that will taste like to an alien tongue. Assuming you have a tongue."

"Y-yes, I have a tongue." Neph replied, embarrassed. She was touched that the alien would go to all this trouble just because she'd mentioned her weak immune system. "And, thank you, truly." Neph opened up her masks food filter and took a sip. It was an entirely new, entirely alien flavor. She had no words for it, other than "sweet". Well, I've certainly tasted worse nutrient paste. "It's...not too bad." Heather'Tennison laughed at that. "You don't have to lie to me honey. I know it's underwhelming, I had a taste of it myself." Neph shook her head. "No, trust me. My standards for food are not very high." She tried to play it off as a joke, but Heather'Tennison seemed a little uncomfortable at its darker implications, even as she politely chuckled at Neph's attempt at humor. Looking for an out, Neph asked a question. "The way you spoke earlier implied that you had done this before."

Heather'Tennison seemed eager to jump ship from the awkward joke too. "Oh, yes I have. I used to work in the kitchens at a children's hospital. Some of the kids had stuff wrong with their immune system. They had to stay in special rooms, and we had to go through decon and suit up to make them dinner. I didn't do anything fancy with your food like I had to do with theirs, but I still remember the procedures." Usit Minz perked up at this. "You have medical experience?"

Heather'Tennison shook her head, "No, I was just a very well trained cook. Why? Are you in medicine?" Usit Minz unleashed a tide of questions at the woman, with Talerra taking a brief respite from shoveling granola bars into her starving biotic mouth to listen. As it turned out, he was a doctor himself, having run the clinic at the colony where he had been abducted. He fired off question after question about human physiology, medical technology, and a dozen other medical topics, while the poor woman did her best to answer despite her continued insistence that he'd be better off asking the ship's doctor. Neph tuned him out and sipped her "strawberry" drink, studying the two aliens. It occurred to her that she had been thinking of them as male and female, even though she had no basis for this other than the biases of her own physiology. Not thinking, she blurted out, "You two are of different sexes, yes?"

All conversation stopped and all eyes turned to Neph, who was mortified at how much she'd just embarrassed herself. "I'm sorry, Timothy'Li I-"

Timothy'Li smiled and held up his hands. "No, it's fine. It's a perfectly logical question. We're aliens, there's quite literally an infinite number of possible explanations for our physical differences." he said, gesturing at Heather'Tennison, "To answer your question, yes, we are of different sexes. I am a male and Heather is a female. And it's just 'Tim' you don't have to say the whole name out loud."

"Ah, I figured that, but I considered it might just be my biases showing."

Heather interrupted suddenly. "Do your people give live birth? No laying eggs, or something?"

Taken aback by the non sequitur, Neph answered awkwardly, "...no, we don't lay eggs."

The woman nodded sagely. "Makes sense. Convergent evolution. There's really only one practical way for a female biped to give live birth, and that's by having wider hips than her male counterpart."

While Neph and Talerra shifted uncomfortably, Usit nodded, his hand on his chin. "Interesting hypothesis. Circumstantial evidence supports it. Salarian females do not give live birth, and have proportionally identical wastes to males. Turian females also give live birth, also have proportionally wider hips. Will have to-" Neph was thoroughly convinced she was about to die from embarrassment. This is going to be a long trip.


Their meal finished, the three aliens followed Li back to the human captain's office. Colonel Bauer rose from his desk to greet them as they entered. "Excellent timing, I just finished my report to my superiors a few minutes ago. Let's just say that if I were you, I'd brace myself for about a million questions from our diplomats in the near future." He smiled at the aliens, gesturing for them to sit in three folding chairs that had been dug out of a storage closet. Tim leaned against the wall.

Bauer spoke, "I hope you all are a little refreshed. I have some more questions. I'd just like to know a little more about your people. For example, I know that Talerra and Usit's species are leaders on this Citadel Council of yours, but what of the quarians? I regret that I didn't learn more in our previous conversation."

Neph almost groaned audibly. She'd wracked her brain trying to find a good way to diplomatically bring up the hostile machine intelligence her people had unleashed upon the galaxy. She was a terrible liar, and even if she could lie it was only delaying the inevitable. The best course of action was to just tell the truth. "My people are...on poor terms with the council. We were not always a nomadic people. We had a home world and colonies of our own once, but then the machine laborers we invented, the geth, achieved sapience, and we fought a bloody war with them. Only a little less than one percent of us survived, managing to escape in a fotilla of ships. We wander the galaxy, scavenging and begging for the supplies to keep the fleet going. No one will let our fleet get close to one of their colonies, so we can't properly service our ships. That's why almost all of us have some kind of basic engineering training."

Tim spoke, "Wait. You're essentially a species made up almost entirely of talented engineers...and no one wants you?" There was an awkward silence. Neph tried to break it. "Well...we made the geth, unleashed them upon the galaxy so...the Council sees it as a kind of...penance, I suppose. They generally let our pilgrims in, but the fleet has to stay away."

"How long ago was your war with the geth?" Bauer asked.

"My math might be off, but I'd guess about two hundred of your years ago." Neph said.

More silence. "The council holds you responsible for a two hundred year old mistake? There couldn't be a single quarian left who was alive during the war! Assuming you have similar lifespans to our own."

"It appears that we do, as you are correct. The generation that fought the geth are long dead." Neph said, filing the information about human lifespans away.

"Well, Miss Olis, the 34th article of our United Nations' Declaration of Sapient rights forbids children from being held responsible for the crimes and debts incurred by their parents. You have nothing to fear from us with regards to that. And the Declaration would also make it illegal for us to deny you such basic aid." Bauer glanced at the other two aliens. "You'll forgive me if your Council doesn't sound especially appealing."

Talerra snorted. "You won't hear any arguments from me. I didn't leave for a colony in the ass end of the Terminus systems because I liked the Council." Usit nodded his agreement. "Well, I'll take your word for it." Bauer said. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a few more questions, and then Lieutenant Li can find you a bunk..." Neph stopped listening as the human interviewed the two aliens. She was still reeling from what the captain had said. Not only had the alien told her that his government wouldn't hold the geth against her people, and would even be willing to provide aid to the Migrant Fleet, he had said it would be illegal not to!

Neph looked at the alien again. We'll see if his government puts its money where his mouth is.


Earth, United Nations Lunar Headquarters, Cabinet meeting room

April 4, 2089

General Secretary Bathusi Molefe rubbed the bridge of his nose as his cabinet gathered together for the meeting. He had had a long night of intelligence briefings, barely getting any sleep as the cabinet had been summoned for the meeting. On a large viewscreen mounted on the wall, Lieutenant Colonel Bauer sat waiting patiently, having been requested to attend the meeting now that he was back within range of the comm buoy network. As the cabinet was seated, Molefe opened the meeting.

"Thank you for arriving on such short notice, ladies and gentlemen. As I'm sure you're no doubt aware, we face an unprecedented situation. At least four advanced alien civilizations have been discovered, one of them openly hostile, with at least four more also existing in the galaxy, most of which live under some sort of interstellar confederation. I would like options and discussion, please."

The Defense Minister spoke first, "I think I'll state the obvious, we need to start mobilizing, heading towards a full war footing, and we need to do it yesterday."

The Minister of State responded to that, "We shouldn't do something so drastic, not without more data. From what we know, these batarians are raiders, criminals, unlikely to commit to a total war."

The Defense Minister fired back, "We have zero guarantee of that. Zero. Our member governments might be able to take half measures when it comes to military matters, but we cannot. The entire human species is completely reliant on us for its defense. The Defense Force has to be our first priority, now more than ever."

"We're completely outmatched on both a technological and economical level. Our chances in a defensive war against just the batarians are not optimal, to put it lightly. There's no way we could even hope to face the might of this 'Council'. Diplomacy is our only option" said the Minister of State.

The Minister of Science and Technology spoke up. "These "quarians" might be able to help us with our technology gap, at least in the short term. From what I gather, they are diplomatic pariahs with this council. Given their apparently quite destitute state, and the apparent lack of competition from these other civilizations, we might be able to take advantage of their skilled personnel for a relatively low cost."

The Secretary General responded to that, "That's a good idea, but I think we should leave that for a later date, once we've made first contact with this council and have gathered more data. It wouldn't be good for our first impression with the council if the first people we intentionally contact in the galaxy are the nomad pariahs. As for our defense, I think the Defense Minister's advice is prudent, although I agree that we have no chance whatsoever in a war with this council. However, the batarians are not council members, and neither are we for that matter. I think we should move towards a war footing, but keep it on a slow burn for now, keep the focus on activating our reserves and building more ships. I'll also issue a class three Emergency Defense Directive for our constituent governments." Emergency Defense Directives were the prerogative of the Secretary General, to be used in times of great military threat. They operated on a scale from three to one, with three being "start activating your reserves" and one being "mobilize everything now". With this directive, the millions of soldiers serving the governments of Earth and her colonies would stand by to be activated as Peacekeepers by the Secretary General, swelling the ranks of the Peacekeepers, the ground combat branch of the Defense Force. Earth soldiers would train and prepare for the moment when they were summoned to fill out seats in a troop transport, while colonial soldiers would dig in and prepare for alien attack.

The Secretary General rubbed the bridge of his nose again. "We're going to need to send a diplomatic team, along with all those aliens we rescued. Repatriating them might win us some good will in negotiations. We'll need to put together a security detail, a ship, and someone to lead them."

"May I offer a suggestion, sir?" It was the Lieutenant Colonel, Bauer.

"By all means, Colonel."

"I'd suggest my third officer, Lieutenant Timothy Li. He's an excellent ranger, and no slouch in a command chair. He'll keep the diplomats safe, and he's already built something of a rapport with the three aliens we spoke with, which might come in handy. More importantly, he's cool headed. One of the most even-keeled men I've ever met, perfect for leading a mission of diplomacy. He's smart enough to know to keep his mouth shut, but also eloquent enough that he won't embarrass us if he has to speak."

Molefe pondered this. "He has never held his own command before, wouldn't it be preferable to have a more experienced ship commander?"

"We'll be wanting him to avoid combat entirely. Promote him to Major and put him in command of one of our new interceptors, and he'll get the team there safe. I'm not suggesting Li out of favoritism, hell I barely know the man outside of the job, but this is an officer who has first hand experience interacting with aliens, and this is also the man who led a boarding operation that captured an alien ship from a species who had been first encountered forty-five minutes ago. He has experience leading people into the complete unknown, which I'd argue is exactly what this mission needs."

"...Alright, I'll give the order." Molefe had served in several peacekeeping operations during his time in the Botswanan Defence Force. He'd always believed in trusting the man on the seen, the one who had seen the situation unfold with his own eyes. Some of that leadership style still existed in him as secretary general. "Now, onto our next topic..."


Thank you for reading this chapter! Updates are going to be less frequent for the near future, but in the long term I hope to rectify that by getting a buffer of chapters going, though that plan may change depending on how things go. Regardless, thank you again for reading, and please share your thoughts criticisms in the reviews.

One final note, I've slightly altered the lore on dextro-levo animo acids to be marginally more scientifically accurate, which some especially perceptive readers might have noted. Having done some reading on the subject, I discovered that, irl, dextro amino acids would at worst give you some indigestion, and of course provide no calories (and dextro species would logically be able to eat levo amino acids with minimal effects as well). It's still essentially useless to our bodies (hence the diet food in the story) but it would be largely harmless. It was a minor thing, but it was something that had always bugged me about mass effect lore. I hope I haven't rustled any feathers by making this change, but if I have, know that the lore implications of dextro/levo are still in place, as quarians and turians would still starve if they tried to live on levo food, so the practical implications of the differences are still there. They just won't keel over if they try to eat a pizza (well, quarians might, but that's just because they're made of tissue paper).

See you next time!