A/N: There's an issue with the R on my laptop so there might be a word or two that are misspelled due to a missing R, which I'm sure some of you have noticed. I proofread everything before submitting the story but a word or two do slip by.

Chapter 11

The SSV Leo Tolstoy was a fresh out of the yard, combat Corvette that had the extra centimeters of titanium armor, the new kinetic barriers, a prototype anti-proton engine, a handful of 50mm point defense cannons hidden behind retractable plates of metal, a spinal mount main gun that packed 1/5th the power of a frigate, and half a dozen Saturn-class anti-warship torpedoes. What it did not have was the standard Systems Alliance paint job or the SA insignia anywhere on it, and anyone who checked would see it was registered under the name, "MSV Johnny Walker," a grain merchant vessel.

Staff Lieutenant Mohammed Farran sat at the helm of the corvette, the only non-combatant aboard the ship. He was tall and wiry, with black hair that was pushing regulation maximum length, and a thick beard he claimed he couldn't shave for religious reasons but no one had ever seen him praying to any god. He steered the Corvette near the gigantic mined out asteroid turned space station that had many names, but the humans they had met, and convinced to provide information, called Omega.

In the past two months they had tracked down and met with six different groups of humans who had, for one reason or another, run to the Terminus Systems. Some had been found easy enough, a little pressure here and there on loved ones who remained in Systems Alliance controlled space provided enough information to piece together locations. Others took a bit more investigative work; checking flight logs, tracking FTL trails, talking with those who might have seen a stray ship flying off into the unknown, etc.

When they found the groups some had greeted them with hostilities and others with reluctant niceties. The hostile ones were met with an appropiate amount of force, though they did their best to avoid killing anyone with one particular group it couldn't be helped. Information between the goups had been sporadic, as each group had explored different parts of the Terminus System. The one common place between the six groups was Omega, the exact coordinates provided and verified by each of the groups, and the one piece of information that had gotten from all of them about Omega was, "Don't fuck with Aria."

"How are we looking?" Lieutenant Commander Alec Ryder asked, coming to a stop behind where Farran sat.

"So far so good, sir. We have clearance to dock on Omega but there's docking fees. And I wouldn't be surprised if there's security forces to greet us."

"If everything we heard about this Aria person is true, I wouldn't be surprised either. Just keep her steady. I don't think they'll blow us out of the sky just yet. Any input Kirill?"

The image of a typical Eastern European man with the broad face and deep set eyes you'd see in those of Slavic descent popped up in the holo-tank, bathed in red light. The AI for the Corvette was technically a fragment of a much larger AI datacore that had been assigned to the Jaeger Teams, with each team getting their own fragment.

"I detect multiple point defense systems that look like they fire lasers, similar to the turian warships. Several of them are pointed at us with their systems active. However, this appears to be standard security measures for ships approaching the station."

"See, nothing to worry about."

Alec patted the helmsman on the shoulder and moved back to where the rest of his team stood.

"Well that's reassuring," Farran muttered.

Corvette's weren't the biggest ships, and combat corvettes had most of their space taken up by the weapons systems. The SSV Leo Tolstoy had a two floor layout. The top floor, called the Command Deck, had the bridge, the CIC, the mess, the CO's quarters, and the pilot's quarters. The second deck contained the cargo hold, the quarters for the rest of the crew, the head, and the engine room.

The CIC on a corvette was barely big enough to hold the entire crew. There was an operations console in the middle of the room that connected to a holo-projector that hung from the ceiling.

"What are we looking at LC?" Master Sergeant Raul da Silva asked. Raul was stocky with a bald head and a bushy mustache he kept trimmed so not a single hair stuck out past the corner of his lips.

"As we all know, this is Omega." Alec pulled up a holographic image of the station they were currently on their way to. "Based on everything we heard you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. The leader of Omega is an asari by the name of Aria. She apparently knows everything that happens on Omega so I think trying to do things without her knowledge is stupid. Best to approach her directly."

"Do you think she'll be able to tell us where these slaver bases are?" Sergeant Mira Benedetto asked. Mira was a hair shy of six feet, and kept her dark brown hair short.

"She likely can but Aria apparently works in favors. The bigger the ask, the bigger the favor you would have to do for her first. What we can ask, and shouldn't require too big of a favor, is for her to direct us to someone else who would know that information."

"You mean that Shadow Broker bloke?" Raul asked. "How do we even know if he's real?"

Alec shrugged. "We got four separate sources confirming the existence of a galaxy wide information broker, who will sell information straight up for cash, and who has agents everywhere, including Omega. And I'd rather trade cash than favors."

"So what's the plan sir?"

"When we dock I imagine we'll be approached by security of some kind. I'll ask them to take me to Aria. If they do, I'll tell her what we want and see what favor she wants in return. I'm taking Tof with me." Henrik Tofvesson was a six and a half feet tall, two hundred and thirty pound man whose scarred visage made him look like a Viking warrior. He kept his dirty blond hair cut in a military style with a somehow permanent five o'clock shadow. "The rest of you stay here."

"And what if they don't take us to see Aria?" Tofvesson asked in his heavy accent.

"Then we improvise."

"Things never go well when we improvise," the final member of the team, Sergeant Josh Schultz muttered. Schultz ran his hands over his shaved head and grimaced, as if recalling a painful memory.

"That's the spirit," Alec said with a smile.

The ship shifted around them and they could all feel its speed decrease.

"LC, we're being guided in by tractor beams," Farran shouted over his shoulder. "Time to dock, five minutes. You should make sure you have your credit card ready and that you have the available balance. Don't want to embarrass us by having your card decline."

Alec double checked his omni-tool, another brand new feature his team had thanks to the quarians. He checked to make sure the mission's stipend account was connected to the omni-tool for payment. The account, and its considerable funds, were indeed connected.

"Money's good. Do you guys think Tof looks more intimidating with or without the helmet?" Alec asked.

Raul, Mira, and Josh all looked at Tof. Like all the others he wore the dark green and black medium armor supplied to Jaeger teams. The helmet was similar to the standard Alliance marine gear with full face protection, a rebreather, and a Beta-Generation-Three HUD interface visual window.

"Without," they answered in unison.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too. Make sure to give the aliens your best mean mug Tof, I don't want anyone thinking they can get the drop on us."

Alec patted the M-2H Predator pistol on his outer thigh out of habit. His Lancer rifle was slung on his back, and his trusty combat knife was on the opposite thigh of his pistol. Tof had a similar loadout but also had a Storm combat shotgun resting against the small of his back.

"I'm going to see what I can get on the Shadow Broker, try not to start any intergalactic incidents while I'm gone."

"No promises," Josh responded.

Alec rolled his eyes and moved toward the airlock door, Tof behind him. The corvette shifted as docking clamps locked onto the hull to secure it in place.

"A boarding platform has been extended LC, you're good to go."

"Cycling airlock doors."

Alec stepped into a small space between two sliding metal doors, an open inner one and a closed out one. After making sure Tof wasn't in the doorway, Alec pressed a button and the inner door closed, with the outer door opening a few seconds later.

They were greeted by the site of a grungy looking metallic platform that extended to a heavy metal door. Given it was the only way to go, Alec and Tof made their way to the heavy door. As they approached it, it slid open and revealed the security forces they had been expecting. Although he had only ever seen turians in person, Alec knew that the lead figure, with the four eyes and ridged face was a batarian, and the two hulking forms behind it in heavy combat armor were krogans. He looked the batarian over, noticing, at least when it came to the basic form of its body, that there were a lot of similarities with humans.

"Welcome to Omega. Docking fees for a ship this size is a flat fee of 3000 credits a day."

Alec pulled up the banking account information on his omni-tool and allowed the batarian to take the money from his account. He was thankful the translation software his team had been provided with didn't have any issues.

"You humans are new to the galaxy. I take it you've never been to Omega before, so let me state it plainly. Just because we are outside the jurisdiction of the Council, and whatever your little government is called, doesn't mean you can do whatever you want here. There are still rules to follow, and anyone seen breaking those rules will suffer the consequences. Are we clear?"

"Crystal." The batarian gave him a weird look and Alec realized it probably didn't understand what he meant. "Yes, you're clear."

The batarian nodded and turned to leave.

"Wait," Alec said. "I was looking to speak with Aria."

The batarian and his krogan shadows laughed, a deep bass sound coming from all three of them. Alec wondered if their deeper pitch was common in every one of their species, or just specific to the ones who stood in front of him.

"You don't speak with Aria. If Aria deems you worthy enough, she'll speak to you."

Alec inwardly grimaced. "I need to speak with the Shadow Broker, or at least one of his agents. I was told Aria could direct me to the right person."

The batarian eyed him and Tof. "I will let Aria know. If she decides to help, you'll know."

The krogans let the batarian leave first before falling into step behind him. Alec frowned at their backs before turning to Tof.

"Let's go see what this place has to offer. If we don't hear anything in a few hours, we'll head back to the ship and decide on a new course of action."

"Do you think they have a souvenir shop?" Tof asked. "I promised my kid I'd get her something."

"I don't think this is the type of place you get gifts for small children."

Three hours later Alec wondered if the SAIS would be upset with him for using the money they gave him for the mission to buy things for his own study. There was so much technology available to him that the Alliance was still being introduced to by the quarians. Even then the Alliance was interested in things that would be useful to them, which Alec could understand but how could one not want to know about what looked like alien tv shows and movies? One of them looked like some kind of soap opera about a turian and a quarian.

"Humans."

Given they hadn't seen any other humans on the station, Alec and Tof turned to see a batarian standing in front of them. It might have been the same one from earlier but it was hard to tell. The alien held no weapons in his hand, though there was an SMG hanging from a holster at its hip.

"Aria can get you in contact with one of the Shadow Broker's agents but she wants something in return."

"Of course," Alec said. "Can't give something without expecting something in return. What does she want?"

The Batarian held out a deactivated omni-tool. It looked a little more advanced than the ones Alec and Tof currently had on their wrists. Alec took it carefully, and looked it over.

"What are we supposed to do with this?" Alec asked.

"It was lifted off a salarian who we found snooping around in restricted areas. Unfortunately, the salarian died during the interrogation and we can't hack it to see what information the salarian was gathering."

"So you want us to find out?" Alec asked, ignoring the mention that the salarian had likely died by toture.

"Even out here we've heard of your artificial intelligence. Aria thinks if anyone can hack it it's either you or the quarians, and unfortunately we haven't had a quarian here in a couple of months."

"We'll give it a shot."

"Oh, and we'll know if you copy the data." With those words the Batarian walked away without a backwards glance.

"Why would we copy the data?" Tof asked, his brows scrunched in confusion.

Alec could only shrug. Obviously Aria thought the information this salarian had gotten was extremely valuable. He and Tof gave up their browsing and made their way back to the corvette. The entire team was in the CIC waiting for them.

"How did it go, LC?" Raul asked.

Alec held up the omni-tool. "They want us to hack into this."

"Ah, so they're just using us for our AI. For once I would like someone to want me for me," Josh said.

"You might be waiting a while on that," Mira stated in a flat voice.

"Kirill, can you get into this thing?"

The AI appeared in the middle of the CIC. "With the new quarian hacking upgrades I feel up to the task."

"That's what I like to hear."

Alec tossed the omni-tool to Mira. She connected it to the holo-tank, allowing Kirill access to it. The omni-tool was activated, giving off an orange glow.

"Confirming, can you hack it?" Alec asked.

Kirill's image flashed purple and the omni-tool turned a muted green. "Yes Lieutenant Commander, I can but it is going to take a while."

Admiral Yaf'Hemin could hardly believe what he was hearing. "Can you repeat yourself Nila?"

The other Admirals were holographic images, arrayed in front of him in a semi-circle inside the Rupa's communication room. While they normally held weekly meetings between the five of them, this meeting had been organized based on urgent news.

"The Council would like to meet with representatives of the Migrant Fleet," Nila'Camis vas Jazzor repeated, "to discuss the potential lifting of restrictions on us."

"They must have heard about our partnership with the humans," Yela'Vofal vas Ronil said.

"Aye, and are trying to put a wedge between the two of us," Yaf said. "They let us wander the stars for three hundred years without so much as even the barest of offers of help, but now suddenly the humans give us everything we've been needing and more in the space of a year and the Council wants to lift some of the restrictions?"

"Let's look at this logically," Kaer'Weeme vas Shonbay started. "The humans have done a lot for us, but they don't have the economic power or military strength of any of the individual Council races, let alone the entire Citadel community."

"You have never been happy about this partnership with the humans," Yela accused, her holographic image looking at Kaer. "For the first time in centuries our population is increasing, our ships are in the best conditions they've been in since any of us have been alive, and we have some semblance of an economy. I will not let us throw it away because the Council might toss us a bone."

"The Council doesn't consort with AIs!" Kaer fired back.

"I agree with Kaer," Rof'Waafor vas Fowan.

"No surprise there," Yela muttered.

Rof held up his hands to placate his angry comrade. "I agree with Kaer to an extent. Though I am wary of their AI, I can not deny that this partnership with the humans has been extremely beneficial to the Migrant Fleet and our people so far; more than I could have possibly imagined. Still, it would be stupid of us to not at least hear what the Council has to say. Even you can not deny that Yela."

"Maybe. This entire thing smells like politics, and I hate politics."

"My original point stands, this is likely nothing more than the Council trying to drive a wedge between us and the Systems Alliance," Yaf said. "The peace from the conflict between the turians and humans has done nothing to ease tensions. No one on the Council likes the humans, and none of the higher up humans I have spoken with like the Citadel."

"The best course of action would be letting the Alliance know that the Council has reached out to us, and that we plan on accepting the offer to meet," Nila said. "They can't drive a wedge between us if we're open with the Alliance about what is happening."

"Agreed," Yela said. "Yaf, given your closeness with the humans, maybe it would be best if you were the one to let them know."

Yaf had developed a bit of a rapport with Captain Capaldi, which had led to him building a rapport with Fleet Admiral Grissom, who was in charge of the fleet Capaldi was assigned to. It had been Fleet Admiral Grissom who had approached Yaf and had asked if the Migrant Fleet could provide ships to watch over Eden Prime and the entire Utopia System. The Systems Alliance was on high alert dealing with batarian slavers, and wanted to free up as many of their ships as possible. The Admiralty Board had agreed, and sixty of their ships, fifty from the Heavy Fleet and ten from the Patrol Fleet, now floated in the system.

"I will reach out to Fleet Admiral Grissom," Yaf said.

"Now that that is settled, how goes things in Nath Azhana?"

The question was directed at Nila, since she was one of two Admirals from the Civilian Fleet, she had been the one tasked with making sure their new colony flourished.

"We've finally got the right soil mixture to grow dextro based crops, and the first few fields have been planted. Hopefully, searches for potential livestock outside of the Perseus Veil go well and we can really ramp up food production.

"As more residential buildings go up, more civilians have requested transfers to the colony. We already have several hundred new births, and the humans believe it's the start of what they call a 'baby boom.' The population of the planet is already climbing past ten thousand, and estimates put it topping twenty thousand a year after initial settlements."

"What about defenses?" Yaf asked.

"We're in the middle of putting up a wall around the entire border of the land the Alliance gave to us. Once it is complete we'll set up VI powered turrets and AA guns, plus guard towers. We likely don't have enough marines to man every guard tower, and we're looking into potentially creating a Civilian Defense Force of part-timers to assist."

"Anything else we should know?"

"There has been talk amongst those who live in the colony about their representation not just in the Conclave, but also in the Admiralty Board."

"In the Admiralty Board?" Rof asked, confusion in his voice.

"They want an Admiral?" Kaer guessed.

"Yes they want their own Admiral, selected from the ranks of those who call Nath Azhana home."

"Can you have an admiral who doesn't serve on a ship?"

"This is a new situation that we should have realized would come up. I understand wanting their own representation but..." Yela trailed off.

"But the colony already has more people than one of the liveships and will have more than all three of them combined within the year," Rof reasoned. "In five years, the colony will have a higher population than the Special Projects ships, and in fifteen years it will probably have a higher population than the entire Patrol Fleet."

"Let's discuss it during the next meeting of the Conclave," Nila said. "It is a decision to effect the entire Migrant Fleet after all."