Sparatus was not having a good day. It was, in fact, the worst day of his tenure as the Hierarchy's representative for the Council. It was the third time the Treaty of Farixen was up for review, and he had expected things to go the same as the other two times. The humans would complain about the limitations imposed on their fleets, they would demand more privileges, there would be some heated words, a reminder that they had just arrived to the galaxy... It was how most discussions with the humans went. The Relay 314 incident was still quite fresh in the Hierarchy's mind, and in the Alliance's too. He had seen the vid before.

Instead, Tevos had thrown three hundred nuclear bombs on him. And she had come up with a proposal that was almost as ambitious as the uplifting of the Hierarchy. It called for the Alliance to double their fleets. Double them! And they were taking the role of the internal protectors of the galaxy's order. It was outrageous. If someone had to do that, it was supposed to be them. As things stood, most species took care of their own space, with joint operations along the borders. He could see why the asari had thought of that, they wanted everyone to get along. They found a role for the humans, and put them up for it. But it wasn't right, such responsibility had to be earned, not merely granted.

"Sparatus, this is troubling," Primarch Verius said. The primarchs had been reviewing the treaty for the last three hours, and that was all they could come up with?

"Troubling? Three hundred nuclear bombs! From the time of the rebellions! How could this happen?!" Sparatus shouted.

"Calm down Sparatus, nobody here knew about them either."

"That doesn't help me!"

"That's all we can offer for now, we will discuss how to best defuse the situation soon. Regarding the treaty..."

"Yes?"

"The asari are planning something," Verius said. "This proposal is an expansionist one. They are many things, but not expansionists. Ever since the rebellions, their attitude has been to stand back and let others come to them."

"Of course they're planning something, asari never tell the whole truth," Sparatus grunted. "And as for the proposal, it is garbage!"

For a moment, Sparatus saw Verius hesitate, and he felt his face scrunching in surprise. And annoyance. They were considering it. Spirits help him, they were considering the proposal.

"The proposal has several advantages," Verius said. "For what you tell us, you could negotiate a larger fleet increase than what is detailed here. Get us more joint operations with the Systems Alliance, and better mining rights on newly discovered systems, and this could be a boon."

"Joint..." Sparatus trailed off, looking at the hologram of the Primarch. "Verius," he rumbled, his subharmonics low, "what haven't you told me?"

"Armax Arsenal. They have secured a contract with the Systems Alliance to provide a minimum of twenty percent of their small craft spinal weaponry for the next five years. Nothing larger than frigate sized. If the human fleets expand like this, it would be extremely lucrative for them."

Sparatus stopped short of shouting traitors at the Primarch. Armax Arsenal was a very large supplier for elite military units, how could they-

"They knew. They knew about this proposal."

"Maybe. Or maybe the proposal has been made around the contract. Who knows, it's not important."

"How can it not be important!"

"Armax Arsenal still pays taxes," Verius said, his voice loaded with sarcasm. "I have seen the contract. Five years only, no extension clause, and only for weapons within the specs. The specs are incredible, Sparatus. If Armax can deliver on that, they should be able to outfit our larger ships with firepower like we have never seen before."

Sparatus had to think about that. It racked against the grain of his plates, that one of the most turian companies was going to sell out to the Alliance like that. It also might mean the Hierarchy's fleet would be at a disadvantage unless they expanded faster than the proposed human expansion. And they couldn't do it with asari funds this time. He hated to admit it, but it might make sense for them to essentially let the Systems Alliance fund the development of those weapons.

"This could bankrupt us. For every carrier the humans will field, we will have to deploy a small fleet twice as big."

"Hence why you need to secure us more rights to new system resources. Make no mistake, Sparatus. The asari plan to expand."

"I'm well aware, Primarch. It is my job to know," Sparatus grumbled. "And they want to do so using the humans as their spear. Kept outside the council, they will have all the deniability they need."

"Don't let that happen without us. A bigger margin for expansion, joint operations to keep an eye on the humans, resource rights to fuel our own fleet expansion, and make sure the humans don't make a move without us."

"We are tasked with guarding our borders," Sparatus said. "If they expand, we need to watch them."

"Exactly. We look forward to hearing good news, councilor."

The transmission ended, and Sparatus sat back, taking the glass of palavea and finishing the drink in one gulp. The burning sensation brought a momentary distraction to his confused head, which was what he had wanted. The galaxy was turning upside down. He had always known that the asari were potentially a lot more dangerous than most turians believed. While everyone was distracted with the salarians and the STG, nobody paid attention to the millennia-old matriarchs. They were now threatening to rewrite galactic balance, and they had procured themselves a rather large set of sticks. The knowledge of the nukes would see an uprising of the krogan, and they were in no position to remove those bombs quickly. The yahg, on the other hand, would see the entire galaxy turn on the Salarian Union.

With a second helping of palavea, he stood up, clasping his armor in place. Turian formal wear was so similar to actual hardsuits that he had had an actual hardsuit fashioned into proper form. If he was going to be wearing something like that, he'd rather it be fully functional.

The door to his office opened without a chime, and he turned to see another turian standing at the threshold. Grey plates, no facial marks, and enough cybernetics to attest to a very long service as a Spectre.

"Sparatus," the turian rumbled.

"Saren," Sparatus replied. He wasn't surprised that the Spectre had managed to break his door's lock and come in unannounced. "What do you want? This isn't a good time."

"What do I want? An explanation, that's what I want," he said, stepping in and closing the door behind him. "Why am I under review?"

"What?" Sparatus said, his voice showing his surprise.

"Yes! Under review! I've done everything the Council has asked of me! And this is how I'm repaid, under review, kept under surveillance. Why?" he said, his voice getting progressively louder.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sparatus said, looking at Saren as he stepped closer.

"I'll get to the bottom of this, Sparatus. Pray to the spirits..."

"Are you trying to threaten me, Spectre?" Sparatus said, putting all the weight of his authority in his voice.

"No, I am warning you, councilor. I am sworn to protect the galaxy."

With that, Saren turned and left the room, leaving behind the turian councilor. A threat from the Council's top Spectre wasn't something to be taken lightly. He made a note in his omni-tool to look into Saren's latest deployments as he walked back to the meeting chambers, wondering if that was right. He paid little attention to Spectre business, except for the most critical missions. He truly had no idea whether Saren was being kept on watch like that or not. If he was, he would have to investigate. The implications were too complex for him to go through at the time, he had more important business at hand.

When the door to the chambers opened, he found that Tevos and Anita were already there. Not only that, but judging by their surroundings, they had been there the entire time. That was worrisome. Maybe the asari were truly throwing their lot with the humans after all. No, there was no need to jump to conclusions like that, it could be a simple ploy to keep him off-balance.

"Here for round two, councilor?" Anita said, her smile making him itch between his plates.

"This is unacceptable!" he snapped, raising the datapad before stepping into the room.

"I believe that means yes in turian," Tevos said, her own smile widening. "Please, councilor, do tell."

Hey Roy,

You're finally free? That's awesome! Are you feeling better? We should talk when you get back. Well, when we both get back, my assignments are a lot longer than yours. When we get breaks here, we rarely get to go to Arcturus.

Last week we caught the Blue Suns attacking one of the cargo convoys from Eden Prime. They won't tell us, but I have a feeling they were after something other than food and wine. The guys were so grateful they actually gave us a case to enjoy on our next shore leave. I saved you a bottle, you can share it with Shiala if you want.

Anyway, take care you. And remember that if you get in trouble, I'll come running too!

Lana.

Ye gods, I was finally leaving that place. I had been there for what, a month? More? I wasn't even sure. Too freaking long. And it had been a very unpleasant experience. Having my mind stripped bare by the rachi queen had been bad enough. Having had to rely on the queen in subsequent meld-like telepathic bridges to restore my memories had been absolute shit. I had essentially relived the lion's share of the worst years of my life over and over for weeks.

I seriously had had enough. There was something I couldn't remember. Certain memories failed to come forward, and whenever I tried to get to them, I instead ended up with this empty feeling, like I was trying to keep even myself away from them. It felt quite terrifying, in a way I hadn't felt in over a decade.

Our old family house had a small room by the kitchen that had been refitted as a pantry. It had a door with a latch outside, and it opened inwards. Also? It was small enough that I could get in there, close the door, and if I put my back to it and my legs against the opposite wall, it became impossible to open. Looking back, the funniest moment was the first time my siblings tried to lock the door and switch the light off as a way to scare me out of there. I never even noticed that the door had been locked until my father unlocked it and yelled for me to get out, hours later.

It became a rather fucked-up situation, when the only way I could actually feel safe was when I was in there with one of my siblings trying to take the door down. I preferred to keep that down, but when my mind started to unravel, I ended up right there at that spot. And now, the memory of that was muddled with the presence of Shepard guarding the door. It hadn't happened like that, but I remembered it exactly like that now, clear as day.

And the problem was, now every time I tried to bring up one of those missing memories, I ended right there instead. A dark room, a feeling of danger lurking outside, and the knowledge that I couldn't let anything in there with me. I knew it had to do with Shepard, but I hadn't managed to pierce together what it was I was missing. And I really didn't enjoy trying to figure it out.

There was a gap. I had all these memories from the... simulation, I think it was. A simulation with all the information I could possibly need about the future. In it, a soldier, an N7, led the galaxy against the reapers. The truly fucked-up thing was that I had never seen him before, but in my memories everyone referred to him as Shepard.

It couldn't be Shepard. It had to be the fact that she had gotten in my head when my memories had been all jumbled up. Did it mean there was a chance Shepard would end up taking the place of that man? Or did it have nothing to do with her? It was weird. Weird that I couldn't trust my own head. And worst of all, whatever it was that I was missing, I couldn't get to. It was locked deep inside my memories.

"Roy!" I looked up to see Shiala coming out of the newly arrived shuttle. I hadn't seen her since the day I woke up. "Ready to go?"

Ready to get the hell out of here, yeah.

I didn't answer, I just grabbed my bag and made my way to the shuttle. Once I stepped in, Shiala hopped in behind me, and the door closed. Damn, she was coming with me too? I really wasn't in the mood to chat with her, or much anyone else for the matter. I had moved on from the rather dubious start the two of us had had, but her bringing in Shepard had rubbed me the wrong way.

Once we got to our seats, I strapped myself in and closed my eyes, and leaned back with a deep breath. I hadn't been sleeping much. The shuttle shook and trembled as we rushed through the atmosphere, until a final jolt announced we were out of atmo and in space.

"How are you feeling?" Shiala said, once the shuttle had settled down. "Wait, wait, let me guess. Fine."

The last word had been spoken in a fake deep voice, which given the satisfied smile on her face, it had had the exact effect she had intended. No sleep for me.

"I've been better," I replied dryly.

"Wait, you're mad at me again? What for?"

"What the hell did you bring Shepard here for?" I said. Yeah, I was angry. "I've only asked for two things during this whole shit, and one of them was to keep Shepard out!"

Shiala had been waiting for it, obviously. She undid her restraints, crossed her arms, and spun on her seat, so she was sitting sideways and facing me.

"I'm not going to apologize for helping you, Roy. You were out, Shepard was the only relative I knew of."

"So you wanted her permission to get in my head," I said.

"To try and bring you back," Shiala said.

I winced internally at the way she had said that. Dammit, why couldn't she just shut up for five minutes? All I had asked was to keep Shepard out of it. Because... because... I couldn't fucking remember. There was something important there, but I couldn't get to it. I wanted Shepard away from this mess for the obvious reason that it was dangerous as hell. And the reapers? Yeah, that wasn't something she needed to know until we had an answer to it. But there was something else. I had this flash from a memory, the soldier from the simulation in an N7 armor suit just being thrown into space, clawing desperately at a suit breach.

When something grabbed my arm, I damn near jumped out of my skin, making a loud hissing noise as I breathed in through clenched teeth.

"Woah," Shala said. She let go of my arms, hands up. "It's just me. What's wrong? Are you feeling right?"

It took me a few seconds to reply, trying to get my thoughts together.

"I've spent the last fucking month... Was it a month? The last fucking month reliving the shittiest parts of my life over and over. So no, I'm not okay. There's shit in there I was glad I didn't remember, and shit I didn't even realize I had forgotten until now."

My left leg was bouncing up and down, so I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. I leaned forward, elbows on my knees and hands on my head. At that moment, I'd have given good money to get back to New Zealand. It was nice easy living there, I had met a few cool people, it all was looking up. And I doubt I'd have gotten my brain pulled through a strainer like that if I had stayed there. Then again, if I had, then Shepard...

There was that black box again.

"Can I help?" she said. She offered a hand, obviously wanting to meld, Show me something.

I just shook my head.

"Look, I know you just want to help but..." I tapped the side of my head. "I've had enough of people, or others, getting in here. I just need some time to clear my head, okay?"

She hesitated, then lowered her hand and nodded. I could tell she was forcing herself to smile, though I didn't comment on it.

"Of course," she said.

With that, she just started making small talk, and explaining everything I had been missing while I was in the hospital trying to pull myself together. Apparently, Liara and Aethyta had already gotten to Ilos using the information the queen had only been too happy to provide, and the galaxy was about to turn upside down. The news reports were quite entertaining, to say the least.

Hey Lana,

We may have to postpone the next FTL call, because Kim blew my ears out as soon as I got here. One would think I insulted her whole lineage of ancestors or something when I left the Vila Militar, I don't get what the big deal is. I think I did well enough to get past the N1. I might recover my hearing sometime next year.

Yeah, I'm doing okay. Some stuff is still pretty jumbled, but getting there. Yeah, we get to go to Arcturus quite often, but you get to see more interesting places. Seriously, if I judged the galaxy by the kinds of places we visit, I'd think the whole thing is a shithole. Anyway, speaking of things and remembering, there's something I wanted to tell you but for the life of me I can't remember. But the bits I've been able to put together... Basically, be careful out there. Yeah, I sound like a broken record, but what I mean is that with all this stuff, you might need to be extra careful. Do me a favour and don't ever leave the ship without carrying your gear. I have this feeling that some serious shit's going to go down, but I can't figure it out.

Thanks for saving me the bottle. I'm not so sure about sharing it with Shiala though, she's confusing the hell out of me and I'm not really in the right mind to deal with all this. I really just need a break.

Anyway, be careful out there.

Roy.-

The building was a good twelve hundred yards from me and the kinetic barriers around the top floor were thick enough that I could see the shimmer through the scope of my sniper rifle, even without the VI giving me a reading on their strength. It'd take an AA shot to get through that thing in one shot. Despite all that, I could see everyone with the thermal scope. The two assholes and the ten hostages. They weren't exactly hiding; one of them was pacing back and forth while the other was standing in the middle of the mob of hostages, with what I assumed was a large gun over his shoulder. Couldn't see it on the thermal scan, but I could see its shadow when he turned around.

It was supposed to be a simple assignment, but it turned out that the pricks were not just keeping a base there; they had basically enslaved a small and unsanctioned colony we didn't know was there. We got through the first lot easy enough, but the leader and his second were holed up in there. If only the shields went down for half a second, I could take them both. I had had all the time in the world to set up the mods in my sniper rifle, one shot would go just shy of overheating the gun, the second would ruin the heatsink. But the rifle was ready to punch through anything short of high grade Spectre gear.

They weren't wearing Spectre gear. They were wearing Terminus recycled crap. I expected the leader to be better geared than the rest, perhaps the second too, but it shouldn't be a problem. Still, I wasn't taking any chances.

"Greenhorn," Kim called over the radio. "How are those shields coming?"

"I'm trying to cut through, it isn't easy!"

I bit my lip sideways, stopping myself from giving him a piece of my mind. We didn't have time for this shit, there were ten people in there, and their captors were getting twitchy. Kim had made her way to the sealed entrance, backed up by the rest of the unit. The rest of our guys were dealing with the colony. We were pretty sure we had gotten the rest of the raiders, but there was no way to know what nasty surprises they had left behind. And the colonists really needed attention. No matter, Kim's unit was more than enough.

"Come out!" I heard Kim yell. "Nobody wants a massacre, much less you two!"

"Shut up!" the leader's voice replied. It was somewhat muffled, too many layers to go through before the comms picked it up. "You get the hell out of here, leave our ship, and when we see nobody in the system, then we'll consider letting our animals go."

Animals. I narrowed my eye as I zoomed in. Damn the shield, I could pierce through the prefab and the guy's head if they gave me the shot.

"You know we can't do that," Kim replied. "We can't agree to anything until the hostages' safety is guaranteed. Give us that, and we can talk."

I opened a private channel. "Greenhorn, we need that fucking shield down."

"I'm trying!"

"Well try fucking harder!"

"Want me to get some explosives here? That's the only way I can do it faster."

There was no need to reply. Freaking kid couldn't handle the pressure. I had no idea how he had made it through bootcamp, but I was hoping our gunny would straighten him up. His actual name was Terry, but nobody used it. Even the rest of his training regiment called him Greenhorn. He was one of those who didn't seem to ever make any headway into military life.

As far as nicknames went, I much preferred Jinx, connotations of future luck during missions aside.

"Don't do anything stupid," Kim was saying. "I'm your only chance of walking out of this alive."

"Shut up!" the leader yelled. "These are mine! I'll do whatever the fuck I want with them!"

I saw him swing around his arm, and a chorus of screams followed the gesture.

"Kim, he's swinging his gun around, this guy's going to lose it."

"I've got it," Kim muttered, and switched to her outdoors voice. "And what are you going to do when they're gone? Nothing's going to stop us from coming in there. Be smart."

"SHUT UP!"

The discharge of the gun was so clear I felt it like it had been shot at me. I desperately scanned the hostages, their cries were filling the comms but I couldn't see anyone wounded. Not that it was clear through the thermal view, but I didn't see a splatter of blood, and they were all moving. All ten of them. The second was forcing them down on their knees again, hands on their heads. The leader was pacing in an almost manic way, hands on his head as he did.

"Greenhorn, get those explosives ready," I said.

"I've got this," Kim replied.

"Just in case. Do it," I insisted.

"... chief?" the greenhorn said.

"Go ahead, but don't jump the gun." The sound of the comms became fuzzy as Kim switched away from the private channel. "You're only making things worse. If anyone in there gets hurt, there's nothing I'll be able to do to help you."

"Stop talking!" the man yelled again.

He was pacing, always pacing, almost maniacally, the steps fast and erratic as he kept switching directions every three or four. The rest of the hostages were near panic, too, mostly because every time he changed direction, he'd point his gun randomly around. At least that's what I figured, I couldn't see the gun itself through the thermal, but the gesture with the arm extended was simple enough to follow.

"Let it go, it's over," Kim insisted.

"Please just let us go!" someone shouted inside.

"YOU!" the leader snapped, his arm pointing at the man.

"Greenhorn, blow it!" I shouted, already lining up the target.

"But-"

"NOW!"

A moment later the entire place shook as the Greenhorn blew up the shield generators, and the instant the VI gave me the shields down sign, my bullet went through the leader's helmet. Then, chaos exploded. Everyone inside started yelling, a few of them running, all while I was desperately trying to find the other enemy inside.

The idiot shot at the ceiling to try and shut the chaos down, which gave me a clear shot as everyone else dropped to the ground. My rifle's heatsink hissed loudly as it started to melt, and the VI gave me an angry warning that the rifle had been damaged. Didn't matter.

"Targets down," I announced.

Shit, Kim wasn't happy at all. Once she stormed the room and made sure the hostages she turned to look in my direction, and even through the thermal scope I could feel the glare. Which was why an hour later we were in the comms room, just the two of us, and she was giving me a hell of a dressing down.

"I had it all under control! You think anything was happening in there that I wasn't seeing?"

"He was about to shoot-"

"He wasn't!" she snapped. "His gun was in his other hand!"

"But-"

"But you couldn't see it through the thermal scope!"

"I had the shot," I said, raising my hands helplessly.

"Goddammit Jinx, I'm your superior officer!" she yelled.

The last thing I had expected was to for her to pull rank on me like that. The response was more automatic than anything else, and I snapped straight up, face held high and hands behind my back.

"Yes sir, it won't happen again," I said.

"Really? That's what you give me?"

"Isn't it what you wanted, sir?"

"No, it's a reminder that I can't do my job if I can't be sure you've got my back. Do you have a problem with me giving the orders? Because if that-"

"Of course not!" I interrupted her. "How can you say that?"

"Then what the hell's going on? One week after you came back, you shot that guy who was trying to surrender."

"He came out with a gun in his hand!"

"Over his head, Jinx. And the week after, you beat the shit out of that junkie-"

"He attacked me!"

"He was high as a fucking kite, and unarmed! And a month later he's still in hospital."

"Wait, what? You checked?" I said, caught by surprise by that. "Why?"

"Because if he had died, you'd have been in a world of shit Jinx, no matter what my report said." She sighed deeply, and his eyes strayed down to the ground. "What the hell happened to you?" She looked up again, and have me a narrow-eyed stare. "Ever since you came back. Is it because of the Vila? Are you trying to screw yourself up or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous," I replied.

"Then what?"

"I..." In reality, there wasn't a lot I could say. Even if I wanted, even if I really trusted Kim, it was technically classified. And to tell the truth, I didn't want to talk about it anyway. "I can't talk about it."

"The hell you can't," she snapped. "I don't give a shit what Spectre business you've been in or not, but if it's screwing up with your combat readiness, I need to know. I can't keep covering up for you, Jinx. Hell, I'm not even sure if I should."

"Covering up? We have the best mission completion rate of the fleet. Our unit has hit every single primary and secondary objective we've been given so far."

"It's not about the results, Jinx. It's about how we get there."

We looked at each other for a few seconds, not saying a word, when the door to the comms room opened, and in came Elisa, followed by Captain Edwards. As one, we snapped to attention.

"Sir!"

"At ease," Edwards said wearily. He pulled a datapad out, and looked at the contents as the three of us lined up. "We have a lot to discuss."

Nobody stirred, but it took so long that Kim ended up prompting him.

"Sir?"

He lifted the datapad to show it to us, though the writing was so small we couldn't make a word. "I have just received your transfer orders," he said.

"Transfer, sir?" Kim said.

"To the Ninth Fleet."

To say it was a shock would be an understatement. The Systems Alliance was putting together a new fleet? That was unexpected. The composition of the different fleets varied, and even adding a whole bunch of them didn't mean making a new fleet, with the whole command structure it implied. That was confusing as hell, but my mind went straight to Benezia and Tevos. Was this part of their plan?

"Ninth fleet, sir?" Kim said.

"It's not official yet. A request was sent to several of us to recommend the brightest of the younger members of our crews, and I put both of your names forward," he said, and pointed at Kim and I. "The first four carriers won't become operational for at least six months, but you should be prepared. Chu, that means OCS for you, and I expect you will make N3 before you join your new post."

OCS. Officer Candidate School. Damn, the captain wasn't messing around. If she was making it to commissioned officer like that, I could guess they had a mind to give her some responsibilities there. The captain looked at me, but I didn't say anything. OCS for me? Nah, I doubted it.

"As for you, Service Chief," Edwards said, looking at me and getting a wide-eyed stare back. Damn! Promotion! "You're off to Arcturus to join a taskforce Admiral Drescher is putting together."

"Drescher?" I said. "As in Kastanie Drescher, the one who led the Second Fleet during the First Contact War?"

"Yes. Try not to go all starry-eyed on her, she hates that. Which means we are short one NCO on the ship now."

All of us turned to look at Elisa. She blinked a couple of times, looking at us, and then let out a sound somewhere between a squeal and a laugh, and snapped a salute at the captain. I chuckled at that, she was going to be a great NCO.

"Sir?" I said.

"Chief?" the captain replied, a small smile on his face. Damn, that sounded good.

"You said the youngest and brightest. Why the youngest?

"Those were the orders. I can guess, but it's not my place to do so. Any questions regarding your post will have to go through your new CO. I think you know her."

"Her?"

"Captain Aino Kishi."

My mouth opened in surprise, although I didn't manage a single word. Captain Kishi. Of the Einstein. Damn! Instead of speaking, a stupid smile went across my face. I suddenly was really looking forward to my new assignment.

"Does that mean the Einstein is in there, sir?" I said.

"In a manner of speaking," Captain Edwards said, though he didn't elaborate.

Hey Lana,

Serviceman Second Class, huh? Congratulations! That's faster than I made it to Private First Class, but then again, that was quite a stunt. I'd tell you not to take unnecessary risks, but I don't want to sound like a nag. Or a hypocrite, really, all things considered. But do be careful.

One of these days I'll actually get to deploy with my unit instead of going around doing weird shit. I'll let you know what happened this time, assuming I can even talk about it. And no, I really have no idea what they're on about this time. Other news will have to wait, it's all classified and stuff. You know how it is.

I'll call you once I get back.

Take care,

Roy.-

As far as weird orders went, this one was a doozy. I had gotten used to the orders filtering from Benezia, but this was a different one. The details were to report to Arcturus, where Admiral Kastanie Drescher was waiting to meet me. Something about a special taskforce, and she needed my input. I smelled Benezia there, but I didn't have a clue what it was this time.

I just hoped it wasn't going to be a third degree on the Alliance's operations in Hegemony space. And how in the hell I had found out about it, sold it to the asari, and screwed up the Systems Alliance.

"Roy?"

Last thing I had expected was to hear that voice again, and there of all places. I had been shown to a waiting room by the admiral's office, and there was one person there. Female, dark hair, thin and gaut.

"Marie?"

"Oh my good heavens!" she said, shooting to her feet and rushing to hug me.

Shit, I really didn't expect that. Last time we had seen each other, well, it had been intense to say the least. We had exchanged a few messages since then, but it hadn't prepared me for the way she was acting now. I tapped her back, and she let go, looking up at me with a big smile.

"Well look at you." She took a theatrical step back, and gave me a once over. "You've been working out, haven't you?"

"I guess you could say that," I replied, shifting uncomfortably.

"What's wrong?"

"No, nothing, just... surprised. I wasn't expecting you here, and I didn't think you'd want to see me."

She smiled and gestured at the chairs. Heh, I had to chuckle at that. It was like she was inviting me to her consult. Once we sat down, she dug in her pants' left pocket and pulled out a round chip.

"Two years, going on three," she said, and pocketed it again. "So yeah, I'm feeling quite good. And I'm glad to see you."

"Guess I'm glad to see you too," I replied, and felt a smile come to my face. "What have you been doing? I heard you left the service."

"I've been working with a civilian contractor," she said. "Private security and such. We work a lot with veterans, so I've been helping people get used to civilian life. It's been great, really."

"That's good," I said. "You know, after all that went down..."

She chuckled at that, and looked at me. "Roy, I said all manner of hurtful things at you, and still, we're here and you're still just thinking about what you did. You didn't do anything wrong, okay?"

"I guess. It's just..."

"What?"

"No, nothing." I looked at her, and she gave me this "really?" look that made me laugh. "We should talk later. I'm just wondering what we're doing here."

"Not a clue," Marie said. "But it's got to be exciting, right? I mean, Admiral Drescher!"

"I thought you had had enough excitement," I replied.

"I'm just a civilian," she replied airily, waving me down. "They won't give me anything dangerous."

The door on the other side of the room opened, and a young Lieutenant came out to greet us. The meeting room adjacent to our waiting area was not very big, but it sure was packed. With heavyweights. I saw the aged features of the Admiral looking at me with a gaze that could turn a stone into water. She had bright silver hair, a gaut, narrow face with penetrating green eyes, an aquiline nose, and a disturbingly penetrating look in her eyes. There were five other high ranking officers there too. Damn, but I felt out of place.

"Service Chief Morgan, reporting for duty, sir!" I said, snapping a salute.

"At ease," the admiral said, pointing at the two free seats. "Have a seat you two."

I saw a Major I didn't recognize give the admiral a look as the two of us sat, but the Admiral seemed unfazed.

"Let's get this out of the way. You know who I am, of course," she said, and both of us nodded. "These are Major Stevens and Major Martin." She pointed at the two officers to our left. "Captain Rogers, and Rear Admiral Stepanic." She pointed at the ones to our left. "Gentlemen, these are Service Chief Roy Morgan, N1 and newly assigned to the upcoming Ninth Fleet, and Marie Roux, former First Lieutenant, E5 in the psych corps."

A few murmurs were exchanged, and it looked like everyone was wondering what we were doing there. Me included.

"Everyone, I have been tasked with a new first contact situation. Apparently, the Alliance wants to send a message by giving me this task. We come in peace, but here's the Admiral that led the fleet against the turians during our first contact with the turians."

The way she said that, there was something there she didn't like. Either she didn't like what she had been asked to do, or she didn't much care for the reputation she had gathered as a result of her leadership during the war. Regardless, I knew better than to ask, or worse still, crack any jokes about it.

"Who are we contacting?" Stevens said.

"The Geth. We're tasked with brokering a peace between them and the quarians."

Well... shit.

Author's Notes: First thing first, our dear Pretend Fiction has drawn another piece of fanart for this story! Yeah, awesomeness:

goo. gl/rH7mWL

(You'll need to remove the space, FFnet sure is a pain with links).

Immortalized forever with a face full of BBQ ribs :D Thanks Pretend Fiction!

As for the chapter, well, there we go, things are about to turn interesting. I decided to stop the chapter here because the discussion about the quarians and the geth, together with the aftermath of the discussions, will require a bit of room, and the chapter would get really long if I put it in here. Timely updates and all that.

Other than that, not much to say about this chapter. I mean, Roy's lost some of his memories (you've probably spotted what the problem with that is going to be already), the Ninth Fleet will become operational in a matter of months, and cool stuff should follow. Maybe. And a hint that Shepard's been up to crazy stunts, some of which I will start portraying soon.

Oh yeah, and first look at Saren. I mean, nothing really important going down in this chapter, huh? :D

Reviews! The amount of reviews and support I'm getting continues to amaze me, thank you so much everyone!

Zeru'Xil: The geth are coming! The geth are coming! I sound like the Game of Thrones Southpark special :D

5 Coloured Walker: Fair enough! I have your continued support with reviews, which believe me, is plenty!

buccheri: Thanks! Believe me, rachni involvement will increase. Heh, hehehe. Gonna be so much fun.

Oyshik: All of the questions! Not N7, he's left the Vila, but he's got the gumption to make something else out of himself I think. With a bit of encouragement. Aliana does have red hair, yep, I was going for the default Shep look, with a scar on the eyebrow. Nihlus, well, I can give you a small spoiler: He'll be part of the fic when the time comes. And as far as the geth, we're about to find out :)

Serenarey Chiba: You weren't wrong about the mistakes, but not the origin. I was sick as a dog last week, which didn't really help with the fine detail writing, hehe. I've gone back and done some corrections, with the help of my awesome audience :)

BJ Hanssen: Thanks! You'll notice I had someone else who's not part of the Council (Benezia) kind of force them to get off their asses. Once that happened, though, they went for it. I still think in-game Council was just a trio of victims of poor writing.

Toothless is best: I can't help it, I'm a cruel bastard! As for the changes, it was mostly typos. Sorry to disappoint, but I hope this chapter makes up for it!

Hiei-Uchiha: Thanks! Yeah, I'm hoping I can pull the geth thing off well enough. As for TIM, well, I haven't revealed anything yet, but you bet he hasn't been idle.

eurodox59: It ain't easy being blue... Or, apparently, being a blue magnet :D

Guest: Hehe, thanks! Same as everything, practice. The more you write, the more you can write!

Lfan8: Thanks! I want to have more scenes with Liara and her parents. I'm starting to get an idea of how the convo between Liara and Benezia might go, but I still have to stew on it. And regarding Roy, yeah, you've given me some good food for thought. It would make sense, I've been saving one gene mod for Roy until I decided to go with it, and it sounds like the Reflex Pack might be the thing. It'll be very useful when the time comes (muahahaha! *cough*).

Uemei: Haha, nice! Benezia's plan is in that realm, though slightly different than your predictions :) Anyway, I decided to elaborate a bit more on the Council, hope that worked out!

Almost A Shadow: Haha, I cracked up laughing when you mentioned Marie! Are you reading my brain or something? You may be wondering what she's doing there, and the answer should be obvious (if not now, then on the next chapter for sure!).

TheRev28: Wow, thanks a lot, that's high praise! I'm still amazed at the popularity, I'll try to keep working hard on it.

WindBear47: Thanks for all those reviews! To answer the question, the sad chapters are there because I'm a bastard who likes to torture the characters in the little worlds I create. I'd make a terrible deity.

Skepsis Forever: Thanks for the thoughts (really!). I think our fundamental disagreement is the view of the asari. I didn't see them as the top dogs as much as you have explained, the way I saw it they were influential but they were coasting on their technological advantage, so to speak, and not really dominating that much. I saw them more stagnant than anything else (like, for example, how Aethyta says they laughed the blue out of her ass when she suggested they start doing things a little more seriously, instead of just wasting the maidens' youths shaking their assess across the galaxy).

Talking numbers, the asari may live a long time, but they don't seem to have a lot of kids (for what we've seen, they seem to have human-sized families), and they take centuries before they procreate. Having come off two wars that threatened their very existence (rachni and krogan), their numbers have suffered. By the numbers, and with the time that has passed since the Turians were uplifted, I see the latter being the ones with the most numbers (the Salarians potentially have more, but they're so secretive that I can see the dalatrasses controlling population tightly to ensure they don't outgrow what they can reliably defend/hide/protect). Turian generations are in the human range (30 years or so), whereas asari ones are in the 300s. That aside, salarians do have fleets. You can get two of them as a war asset in Mass Effect 3, and according to the description, salarian fleets are cutting-edge technologically and not to be trifled with.

Anyway, with all that in mind, the point of airing the dirty laundry is twofold. First, the beacon is to make sure the best the protheans had to offer is made available to the galaxy at large (because they'll need it). Everything else that follows is to ensure cooperation. Even if the asari dominated as you said, imposing something like these radical changes "just because" has a lot more potential for strife, instead of giving the other parties an objective reason to hang the changes to. Forcing change by lording status just because grows resentment (the famous "let them eat cake" comes to mind), specially after revealing how the asari had been hypocritically ignoring one of the more rigidly enforced rules in Citadel space. And I'm not sure the asari would do just that, I mean, in game they seem terrified of upsetting the Terminus systems, I doubt they'd readily upset the turians or the salarians.

Besides, this way once the turians deal with the explosives, and the salarians with the yahg uplifting, they won't feel they're under the heel of the asari. Don't corner people unless you have to.

Okay, that was long. That's about all the reasoning I put behind the chapter. Of course, there's other ways to write it, and I may be completely wrong (it's not like I'm perfect!), but I did put thought into it, and had reasons to develop the situation that way :)

Sci-Fifan95: Thanks! Seems like relying in autocorrect to capitalize the "I" has its drawbacks, heh. Yeah, there'll be custom ships to go with the new developments with Armax Arsenal, though that's just part of it. As Trina has said, once the Systems Alliance gets the small ones out there, they better start developing bigger and better because everyone will want one. The Mark II Thanix should do just that. And the jumbled memories are most definitely going to be a problem. Have you noticed where the gap is? :)

Alex Mcpherson: Hah, it's definitely going to cause a stir. All part of the plan. Or is it? Interesting choice of cast, too. I'm trying to imagine her as a redhead, and I can totally see it working!

Biorr the Old, Tergen, Anon, general-joseph-dickson, BrotherCaptainSheperd, FluxBlade, DarkChampion, Tactus501st, and the last Guest, thank you all for dropping a line or two! Really appreciate the support.

So, next chapter, we'll have some geth preparations. And a plot twist or two. Until then, be good, and thanks for reading! Ta-ta!