A/N I don't own the rights to this but I will take credit for this particular story.
Hi loyal readers! Well, I am back after exams. Thanks for your patience and a special thanks to those who wished me luck. I was actually really sick during the exams and as a result I have no idea how I did. All I can do is hope.
Well, 100 reviews now too. I never thought that the story would be this popular this early on Congratulations to Time Emperor for being review 100. You are my milestone review. But keep them coming everyone. More reviews usually means more motivation to keep writing regularly.
One thing I want to address is this: Dragon Ball Super is an ongoing series. That means that there will be things that will come up in the show that were not considered when I first wrote this story. Certain universes were erased in the show that I did not put in here. I am not going to change my story now to reflect this. Sorry if you don't like it, but I made the choice when I started writing to have the story background be particular way. That is why I said that it was slightly AU, because things were very likely to diverge from what I had started. I don't have the vision of the writers so I can't predict how they will do things but I hope that people will accept my story as good enough to keep reading. That being said, abilities that came up later in the show like 'ultra instinct' will be part of the story. I don't plan on depowering the characters if at all possible, just that the universes which got erased won't be the same as the show. I hope that makes sense and doesn't disappoint you. That said, the last episode... man that was an emotional ride. I won't spoil it but I will say get into it if you haven't been watching. It's awesome!
Comments:
Entertainment Champion, victor0606, ShortyMcCoy, Zero300x, LordXaero, 3697014, Geasszero, gaul1, Uberch01, Mobydicks, Rakaan, Guest 2, JensenDaniels32, Sorre, Marcelo Muniz, Fokusas – thank you all. Every review is appreciated.
Harley Quinn-PsychoticAntihero – Jiren is a beast. Universe 6 will make an appearance. They won't be crucial to the reaper story but I do have a few plans for a couple of the characters.
feral creature – this where said bricks start.
Mioismoe – well, at least I don't write like he is abridged… I hope
DragonBlade00, rythik78 – yes I am aware that I made a few errors there. I noticed them shortly after publishing. I didn't actually edit that one as thoroughly as I should have, clearly, and missed the typo. I don't have a beta for this so I don't really have anyone to double check my work so I do the best I can. But I am glad that despite this, you both are enjoying the story. That is the main thing I want: for people to enjoy it.
Natzo – I mentioned in another chapter that yes, the furries will exist but they will not be a major feature in the story. And yes, I imagine that Williams might make a few suggestions to the Alliance about ki training…
Guest 1 – I think it would fit in their personal styles to do so, wouldn't you agree?
Guest-Questioner – I have been very hesitant to actively bring things in from Dragon Ball GT. Mostly because nearly everything I read about it regarding the timelines and such say that with Super now in place, GT is no longer considered to be canonical to the current timeline. Not to mention I didn't really like it that much. Don't get me wrong, the transformations were insane but that was it for me. You are right though, linking the history together and making plausible excuses as to why certain things took place (i.e reapers) without being fought has been more challenging. So I am going to continue developing it according to my plan and hope that people think I did a good enough job.
Rydan fall, 3697014 – hmmm… krogan with ki powers… sounds interesting. I wonder if the writer will include it? Who knows! (I do).
On with the story!
…
CHAPTER 7 – GREETINGS
Gohan looked around the room he was in on the spaceship, wondering how this plan was going to help.
The ambassador, Anita Goyle, insisted that the approach they were taking was vague enough to create some mystery and feeling of confusion for the aliens, if not awe. She wanted the aliens to feel confused and unprepared as a way to make sure that they didn't try and dominate the conversation. The admiral, Fran Drescher, was adamant that it would leave the aliens feeling like they were out of their depth and that presenting a united front would be one way of showing that the Alliance, and not just the saiyans, were not a force to be trifled with. Which was a little ironic seeing as it hinged on a rather theatrical use of the saiyans and their power of instant transmission. Vegeta didn't say much either way, other than to grumble that he hoped that meeting with 'lackeys' finished quickly and only the meeting with their leaders would be of any actual use. His dad, Goku, was just hoping that he didn't say or do anything stupid; a hope that Gohan was privately concerned with. And Gohan himself, being neither the leader of the saiyans, or the Z Warriors, felt like this was a slightly unnecessary way for the aliens to be confused, especially as he knew they were going to be surprised enough at the little group learning the alien's language.
They had already agreed together that most of the truth would be too much in one go, so basics were how things were going to go. Still, Anita Goyle had decided it would be a good idea to give the saiyans official titles that would probably raise a few questions among the aliens. All of the titles were true but they were really only formalities for this meeting. Vegeta had grumbled a little bit and Gohan had felt a little out of his depth about it but even he couldn't deny that it would probably give the aliens a sense of who they were and what they were capable of.
To be honest, he was there mainly to help his dad out. It hopefully would not be necessary; he had taught his dad the best he could and Goku had learned a lot about becoming 'normal smart' and not just 'fighting smart'. Goku had come a long way but still could be a little clueless. Still, he was the strongest person in the universe so having him here just seemed natural to Vegeta so Gohan was willing to go with it. Something about respecting strength. Being a king had made Vegeta return a little bit to how the saiyans viewed things, which meant the stronger you were, the more respect you got.
Still, it also made things a little interesting in other ways. The stronger you were, the more saiyan women sought to mate with you so that they could have stronger children. It had led to enough awkward encounters for Goku, Gohan, Trunks, Gotel and even the braver women who aspired to have a crack at Vegeta. Even Pan had a few of the men seeking her hand, but only one of them had been successful enough to get her interest and he had died thirty years ago. After they celebrated their eightieth wedding anniversary.
"Admiral, Ambassador," one of the officers called out, breaking into Gohan's thoughts. "We just received another transmission in prothean from the alien corvette."
"Go ahead," Admiral Drescher ordered. "What do they say?"
"Well, the message is a little… basic, so I guess their knowledge of the prothean language is not as good as our translators," the officer said. "But they are asking how they want us to proceed."
The admiral and the ambassador shared a look with each other, then turned to the saiyans. Goku gave a grin, Vegeta grunted and Gohan couldn't help shrugging. "Might as well go ahead with it," he said.
The corner of the admiral's mouth twitched slightly into something that anyone could accidently have guessed was a tiny smile. "Send a reply," she said. "Prothean only. Tell them to send their representatives to their hangar and we will arrive momentarily."
"Aye, sir."
Immediately Gohan and Goku closed their eyes and focused their minds on the alien ship. Sensing such low power levels at this distance was no easy feat. Even with the decades of training and experience he had in doing it, it was still a challenge. Surprisingly, the power levels of the aliens seemed slightly higher than a standard untrained human, though only slightly. Yamcha would have been strong enough to beat them even before he went to train with King Kai.
After a few moments he felt something that seemed like a positive match. There was a mind out there that suddenly lit up with determination and had started to walk through the ship. He tracked the motion until it stopped after a few minutes. Then it stayed still, accompanied by a few other minds.
"I think I got it," he said out loud, opening his eyes. His dad was already looking at him.
"Determined mind in a group of five in the middle right of their ship?" his dad asked.
"That's the one I've got," Gohan confirmed.
"Alright." Goku looked at the two women that would be going with them. "You two just need to hang on to one of us and we will be ready to go."
Anita Goyle moved back over to Goku and linked her arm through his. Admiral Drescher, disgruntled expression still in place, moved over to place a hand on Gohan's shoulder. Gohan couldn't help sighing a little.
"Cheer up quick, Admiral," he admonished. "You don't want the aliens to think you're about to attack them, do you?"
She shot him a quick glare before forcing her face to return to neutral. Gohan ignored her and turned his mind back to the alien vessel. "Ready whenever you are," Goku called out.
"Bridge, Admiral Drescher," the lady called out. "Start the countdown signal that we will be arriving in thirty seconds on my mark. Mark."
"Message sent, live countdown started. Ping is acknowledged, sir. They know you're coming."
"They just don't know how," the admiral said with the first shadows of a smile that Gohan had yet seen on her face.
They fell silent as they waited, watching the display as it counted down to zero.
…
Irissa stood in the middle docking bay of her ambassadorial corvette, Moons of Dusk, waiting for the arrival of the aliens. Irissa had been initially surprised when she had seen the images she had been passed from the turian military via the Council. They had appeared so similar to the asari in appearance that it was uncanny. The odds of that had to be astronomically high, and yet here they were. Asari's with head fur. It was going to take a lot of serious research to determine how that was possible. No doubt the salarians would be willing to offer their assistance. They sure did love their scientific research.
Despite the calm assurance that she was projecting, she couldn't deny that she felt extremely concerned. These aliens had managed to completely destroy the equivalent of one and a half turian fleets, at the loss of thirty ships. Not only that, they were completely fluent in the prothean language. They were powerful and knowledgeable. It was a dangerous combination for a first time meeting. One that had never happened this way. She had still been a maiden when the elcor had made contact with the Citadel community. She had heard and read the reports and studies on the introductions of the hanar, quarians and batarians. In every single one of them, the Citadel species had the upper hand, both in economy and sheer military might. While it had not been a deciding factor, it had allowed each of the ambassadors in those situations to feel safe in the knowledge that any aggressive actions taken by the new species were able to be curbed by the might that the Citadel had at its command. Even the tragedy that was the First Contact with the yahg was able to be curbed by the turian military.
That was not the case here.
The aliens were powerful. They were a danger. And Irissa had no idea if the Council had the upper hand anymore.
"We've received a message, Ambassador," her comms officer reported through the intercom. "It's in prothean, meaning it's from the aliens. Running through translators now… it's a notice that they are coming with what looks like a countdown timer. Arrival in twenty seconds. Uh…" the officer broke off, her tone uncertain.
"What is it?" Irissa asked, clamping down her impatience. Maidens tended to get frazzled easily.
"Nothing Ambassador. It's just that the message is clear but the aliens have not sent a shuttle to dock here. Arrival in ten seconds but there is nothing making its way towards us."
Irissa frowned. That made no sense. "Are you sure that it doesn't say that the shuttle will be launched then?"
There was a short pause. "Uh, maybe? We still aren't yet fluent…"
Five aliens appeared on her ship.
Not decloaked, like an STG or SPECTRE, not arrived like from a shuttle through the shuttle bay. Just appeared.
The four guards, including the asari Spectre attaché to her office as ambassador, Takita, immediately started to respond with panicked alarm. Takita had her pistol out and aimed at the aliens before Irissa could respond. Linelle and Nestia were only a few seconds behind while from the corner of her eye Irissa could see that Molleti drop her pistol after fumbling with it and settled for charging her biotics.
The blue light from Molleti snapped Irissa out of her shock and she quickly raised her hands. "Stand down!" she yelped, wincing at the panic in her own voice. "Drop your weapons. It's just a transporter of some type!"
Linelle and Nestia slowly returned the pistols to their magnetic clamps and the blue haze around Molleti vanished as she powered down her biotics. Takita didn't budge.
"Ambassador, I don't think…" the Spectre started.
"Stand down and put your weapon away!" Irissa hissed, glaring at the matron Spectre. "I will not have a diplomatic incident come about because we were startled by a display of their technology!"
A long moment passed as the Spectre looked about to refuse the order before she, clearly reluctantly, lowered her weapon and placed it back in its spot on her thigh.
Only after all this happened did Irissa remember the aliens. With a deep internal curse at both them and the guards, she turned back to face the new arrivals. This was nearly the worst situation that she had imagined and no words had even been exchanged yet.
There were five of them. Going by her knowledge of the batarians and quarians, she assumed that there were three men and two women. The three men all had pitch black head fur and pale skin. Their head fur was, for lack of a better word, wild, but each in separate ways. Two of the men wore unusual clothing; orange in colour with black belts around their waists and visible dark blue undershirts. The third man wore some sort of white breastplate that was secured by a gold coloured strap over each shoulder. He wore dark blue skin tight pants and a long sleeved blue and white shirt, also form fitting. While she didn't know if they were typical of their species, if she were to judge by the similar asari physiology, they looked extremely well-muscled.
Standing slightly behind them were two beings that she assumed were their women. One of them, slightly taller than the other, wore what was clearly a military uniform, with a large display of ribbons on the left breast and gold insignia on the collar and the shoulder patches. Her skin was the palest colour of the group and her head fur was dark but flecked with grey.
The other woman was dressed in more refined clothing. Irissa would have bet her not-insignificant fortune that this was the ambassador. She had her head fur woven into what looked like an elaborate clinch, probably in what the aliens would consider a stylish manner. She had light brown skin, a few shades darker than the men. She was standing slightly behind one of the men dressed in orange with her arm linked through his, almost as if they were lovers. Somehow, Irissa doubted that. The way they were standing it was more likely that he was a body guard and placed himself like that to protect her. So, protection. She frowned ever so slightly. The men in orange weren't wearing any armour so protection didn't seem right. Then again, these people had just teleported over which defied her knowledge of physics, so the odds of them having personal barriers was quite high. She had no idea what to expect at this time.
Staring at the aliens, Irissa noticed something unusual. Despite the fact that weapons had been aimed at them only moments before, none of the aliens looked alarmed, or had even reacted. Either they were extremely slow, or they didn't think that trained asari commandoes and a Spectre were a threat. That was either ignorance or confidence. Having trained as a soldier in her maiden years, Irissa was hoping for ignorance.
And praying to the Goddess that it was not just confidence.
She took a breath and still her emotions. Now came the hard part: communication. They had not managed to jury rig a translator for prothean that could work in an omni-tool yet. That meant that she needed to meld so that she could learn their language. She just hoped that they would trust her that far. She took a step forward, drawing the attention of all five aliens towards her.
"Greetings," she said with a slight bow. "I hope to welcome you to our galactic community." She said very slowly. Irissa." She pointed to herself. "Asari." She waved her hands around the group, feeling a little silly. The aliens would have no idea what she was saying. "Irissa," she said, pointing to herself again.
The ambassador-looking one stepped forward in response to her words. "Anita," the presumed woman said, pointing to herself. "Human." She pointed at herself and the alien in the military uniform. "Saiyan." She pointed to the three dark-haired muscular individuals that Irissa had assumed were men.
Irissa frowned. Clearly there was some misunderstanding. "No," she said, shaking her head and hoping that the physical reaction translated the same. "Irissa." She pointed to herself. "Asari." She waved around her group collectively.
Something flashed through the alien ambassador's eyes. If Irissa didn't know better, she would have thought it was amusement. "Yes. Anita." She pointed to herself. "Human." She pointed to the other woman and herself. "Saiyan." She pointed to the men.
Irissa was starting to feel a little frustrated. The aliens didn't seem to understand that the species name was asari, not the gender. On the other side, all of the aliens seemed to be… amused? Irissa frowned in consternation.
"Oh, have mercy on the poor woman," the military lady said… in perfect High Thessian. "She clearly doesn't understand what's going on here."
Irissa stared in wide-eyed shock. These aliens, who had only fought against turians and, to her knowledge, never encountered the asari ever before, were completely fluent in a language they should never have even heard of.
"You understand us?" Nestia said, her voice filled with amazement. "How?"
The ambassador, Anita Irissa remembered, responded this time in similarly perfect High Thessian. "We visited the god who supervises this quarter of the universe when we heard you were coming and he gave us your languages."
Irissa blinked. "Could you… say that again?" she stammered.
"She spoke true," the man in the armour spoke up, his voice somewhat raspy. "When we heard you were coming we went and spoke with a kai who gave us all the languages in your alliance."
"Kais are gods," the ambassador piped up helpfully.
Irissa… froze. She had no idea what to make of that statement. Gods who looked over the universe? It sounded superstitious and possibly made up, even as a vague follower of Athame as she was. More likely it was something that they were using as a way to hide how their technology, or any spies that they had within Citadel space.
"I see," she said as a way of deflecting. "Well, allow me to introduce myself. I am Matriarch Irissa, member of the Asari Republics and Ambassador of the Citadel Council. With me are my guards Nestia, Linelle, Molleti and this is Takita, a member of the Citadel Special Tactics and Reconnaissance team." She pointed out each one in turn. Takita was still glaring at the aliens. Irissa sent her a warning look and the Spectre visibly relaxed, thought she didn't look happy.
"I am Anita Goyle," the darker skinned alien woman said. "Ambassador of the Human Systems Alliance. This is Admiral Kastanie Drescher, Alliance Navy." She pointed at the woman in the military uniform. "This is Vegeta, King of the Saiyan people and apprentice God of Destruction to the angel Whis." She pointed to man with the armour who looked like he was smirking at her. She felt the guards beside her tense again at this introduction. Irissa merely felt like these aliens were going for dramatic titles to make themselves sound more impressive. "This is Goku, also known as Kakarot, leader of the saiyan's elite warriors and defender of the universe and of time." What? Time? She pointed to the slightly taller of the two orange jumpsuit wearing aliens who gave a cheerful smile and a wave. Irissa gave a small wry smile in return. Muscles aside, he didn't look like he was overly impressive; not at all what she thought a warrior would look like. "And this is Gohan, son of Goku, defender of Shanxi and Earth, Chief Instructor of the Super Saiyan warriors and third strongest fighter in this universe." The last remaining alien did admittedly look very similar to the other orange wearing alien. He gave a polite nod which Irissa returned.
"A pleasure to meet you all," Irissa said, choosing to ignore the vainglorious titles for now. Some of the races out there had such dramatic ways of introducing themselves. "Forgive me, but you said that your race was called… 'saiyans'?"
The ambassador shook her head. "Not quite," she said calmly. "These three men are saiyans. We are humans. Two separate races that look nearly identical."
Irissa blinked, doing her best to hide her shock. Going by the sly smiles of the aliens in front of her, she had a feeling that she wasn't successful in the slightest. "How do two separate races look so similar?" she wondered aloud.
"No clue," the one called Goku spoke up. "But we have come across a lot of races across the universe that look like us. Some of them even had your blue colour or looked like us but with red skin. One of the races that we are friends with looks almost exactly like us except for their skin patterns and the fact that they are green and didn't have hair."
The simplicity that the alien, Goku, had said those words made Irissa speechless. More alien races? The Council were going to freak out about this.
Clearly, these aliens were not newcomers to space travel. That was concerning.
"But perhaps that is a talk for another time," the woman Anita said, giving a sidelong glance to the saiyan. "For now, how about you tell us why you have come to our system?"
"No," the alien known as King Vegeta said. "First, I want to know where are your leaders and why they are not here."
Irissa turned to him, trying her best not to feel unsettled at his glare. "Our leaders are currently on a space station called the Citadel, the capital our galactic community," she said. "I am the ambassador that was sent out for these negotiations."
The king gave an obviously unhappy grunt. "A king doesn't waste his time with lackeys," he said in a surprisingly kroganesque growl. "Gohan, you are now an ambassador for the purposes of this meeting. Kakarot, you're the escort for the humans. I have better things to do." With that the saiyan lifted his hand and placed two fingers to his forehead then… vanished.
Irissa's mouth dropped open with shock. She didn't notice the flash of a cloak or of a teleporter. He was simply there one second, gone the next.
"Where is he?" Takita demanded, looking around the room. "Where is he hiding?"
"He's not here, Spectre Takita," the alien Gohan spoke up. "By now he is already on our planet helping our people."
"You mean that your people teleported him to the surface of the planet?" Irissa asked.
Gohan frowned. "No, I mean he is now on the saiyan planet a long way away," he clarified. "As in, many light years away."
"Impossible," Takita spat, her hand going to her weapon. "That sort of technology doesn't exist!"
"Who said it was technology?" the human admiral spoke up for the first time, a smug glint in her eye. "It's within the powers of the saiyans to have that ability."
Things were happening so fast that Irissa's head was spinning and she was having a hard time trying to keep up. Takita was getting more agitated and that was not a good thing when they were trying to sue for peace. The Spectre had now taken her weapon and had it in her hand, though it was pointing at the ground. A subtle movement out the corner of her eye told her that Linelle or Molleti was doing the same. She had to do something.
"Alright, enough!" she barked at the Spectre. "We are guests in their space and their technology is unknown to us. I am ashamed that you have thoughtlessly drawn a weapon at a meeting of peace. Rest assured that Councillor Tevos will hear of this action today."
"And you are dismissed," she said, glaring at Molleti who turned out to be the other one with a drawn weapon. "You take orders from me and I told you to secure your weapon as soon as the humans and saiyans arrived." The maiden had the decency to looked ashamed as she turned around and left the hangar. The Spectre looked likewise shamefaced but returned her weapon to its place on her hip.
"Ambassadors, honoured warriors," Irissa said, looking back at the aliens, "I offer my deepest apologies for the actions of the soldiers with me. It is an unfortunately blight on our attempt at peaceful first contact and we would hate for this to prevent our people being opened to discourse on with another."
Ambassador Goyle gave a polite nod. "Apology accepted, on my behalf," the human woman said smoothly. The saiyan man merely nodded again. "Now, should we take this meeting elsewhere or do you do all of your discussions in a hangar?"
Irissa gave a small bitter smile, knowing that despite the gracious response the humans and saiyans had the upper hand in these negotiations, thanks to the members or her bodyguard detail. It was something that she hated, seeing as they were already at a disadvantage. Still, she would not let her councillor down. "Of course," she replied. "Please follow me, we have a room prepared."
…
So far, things were going well, Anita thought to herself.
The overall plan had been to only give half details to the aliens and let the confusion of it all put the blue women off balance. The fact that the aliens had gone so far as to draw weapons and have their ambassador yell at them in front of strangers meant that things were doing well. She didn't know when she would see King Vegeta again but whenever she did she would have to make sure to thank him. Leaving like he did would have been a master stroke of political manoeuvring if he had planned it out in advance. As it was, it had stirred the pot a little more and had put the aliens more offside than they had been before.
Exactly as she wanted.
They were now seated in the meeting room, a square room with a large round table that had enough seats for the two saiyans, two humans and two asari, though only the ambassador, Irissa, sat down. The two blue guards that had behaved themselves were standing along one wall. The other one, the Spectre, had been dismissed on arrival. She hadn't been happy, that much was obvious by her very human facial expression, but she hadn't complained.
"Now, shall we begin?" Irissa said, crashing into Anita's thoughts.
"Indeed," Anita responded. "You can tell us why soldiers and spaceships from your… Citadel alliance decided to murder our people. Why they decided to try and bomb our planet from orbit and why they shot first without any aggression shown towards them."
The blue woman visibly winced. "There is obviously a misunderstanding," she said, obviously trying to mitigate the situation. "The turians are not the representatives of the Council…" she paused at the uplifted hand of Admiral Drescher.
"Are you sure about that?" the admiral demanded. "Because according to our interrogations of the turian survivors, they seemed to be under the idea that they were operating in accordance with what they described as 'Citadel Law' when they destroyed our ships. They were also adamant in their claims that the turians were the military arm of Citadel's forces."
The blue woman's lips tightened and her jaw tensed beneath her flawless dark blue skin. "That is partially true," she conceded, obviously reluctant. "But there is further clarification needed. The turians are a separate race, and each member of the Citadel community is likewise an individual race. The action of one race does not represent the actions of all races. But yes, the Turian Hierarchy do provide military support in preserving and safeguarding the borders of Citadel space."
"A convenient scapegoat," Anita said, cutting back in. "A sacrificial lamb that you use when things don't go your way. When their actions pay off then you can claim the benefits but when they work against your favour you can claim that they were acting independently in your attempts to escape justice."
The asari woman looked a little alarmed. "No!" she exclaimed. "It is a complicated system that you are trying to oversimplify. While the turian patrol fleets do provide reports to the Citadel Council, their ultimate authority is the Turian Hierarchy. They are at liberty to not report things as they see fit. The actions that lead to the attack on your people wasn't reported to the Council until you had already defeated their fleets and the moment that the Council heard they had voted to withdraw all fleets to prevent any further aggressions between our peoples."
"And yet the 'oversimplification' as you called it is still likewise true," Drescher pointed out. "You have the ability to use this report system to claim as you do that you didn't know that we were attacked and so can claim that you are innocent of wrongdoing. The simple question to determine blame is this: were these fleets attempting to patrol the borders of turian space or Citadel space?"
A long moment passed around the room as the asari's face paled slightly, her silence saying more than her words.
"Just so," the admiral said, leaning back in her seat. Well, as far as Anita had ever seen the admiral lean back. "Patrolling Citadel boundaries puts the blame on the Citadel. Your lack of proper communication structure is not our problem, it is yours."
The asari swallowed, clearly uncomfortable. "I assure you that reparations will be paid for the loss of life your people have suffered," she said, clearly, to Anita's mind, trying to change the subject.
"Yes, you will," Anita replied darkly. "Considering the damage that we caused among your ships from the pitiful defence fleet of a small border colony, I doubt that you would enjoy a long war against the Human Systems Alliance."
"And while I doubt that us saiyans would contribute to offensive activities, you would do well to note that we are quite friendly with the humans and have been for centuries," the newly appointed Ambassador Son Gohan spoke up. "As such, we would be on standby for defensive action."
"Which your ships have already seen, by the way," Drescher spoke up again. "When Son Gohan here singlehandedly destroyed your invasion fleet."
The blue alien went even paler as she looked at Gohan. "I don't understand," she stammered.
"I offered the turian in charge of the fleet a chance to cease hostilities," Gohan said, his voice flinty. "He instead ordered every single one of his ships to shoot at the planet. I was forced to fly out there and destroy them in order to stop them."
"Your ship alone was strong enough to wipe out their entire fleet?" Irissa asked.
Gohan and Goku both frowned. "No, I went out there," Gohan said. "I transformed and flew out into space from the planet."
The look of stupefied confusion on the blue woman's face was so obvious that Anita was having a hard time stopping herself from laughing. Truthfully she didn't completely understand what Gohan was talking about but she wasn't going to let these aliens know.
"Transformed?" Irissa asked looking at the saiyans apprehensively.
"Yeah, it's a way of increasing our power level for battle," Son Goku said cheerfully. "We would give you a demonstration but I don't think doing it in your ship would be very good."
"Why is that?"
"Well, even though we have perfected the energy usage at those levels, there is always a small burst of ki released at the instant of the change," Goku explained. "Well, I say small. It would still be enough to be able to destroy this table easily if we weren't careful. Back when we were first starting, doing such a transformation would have completely destroyed your ship."
Ambassador Irissa looked alarmed. "Yes, please don't transform on my ship," she nearly yelped as she stared at the two saiyans. For the first time it looked like she was starting to comprehend at least a part of what was going on.
The blue woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath, obviously trying to compose herself. Only after she exhaled slowly did she open them again. "Unfortunately, this is only a pre-emptive meeting," she said, looking around at the human and saiyan representatives. "I am not authorised to make promises regarding amounts of reparations or anything binding. One of the true purposes of this meeting is usually to begin communications between our species, including learning each other's languages." She swallowed. "Seeing as you can speak mine, that part is no longer necessary."
"How would you normally learn an alien language?" Admiral Drescher spoke up.
"We asari have the ability to meld our minds with another being," Irissa explained. "When we meld, we each think of the words in our languages and we asari can then learn them in only a few moments. In a first contact scenario, that would normally happen, but we were able to avoid the necessity of that. The second reason would be to invite your representatives to meet in the Citadel with the representatives of each race where you would likely be invited to begin discussion with the Citadel community and possibly even join us."
There was a pause as Anita exchanged a look with Drescher. "And what would be the conditions of joining such a community?" Anita asked.
"These would be talked about at a later date in further detail," Irissa said, her voice becoming a lot smoother as she seemed to be on a topic that was more comfortable for her. "In general it would be more about sharing and trade with each other as well as talks of mutual defence and so on."
"Mutual defence, like attacking newly contacted species without provocation?" the admiral challenged.
This time the asari didn't flinch as she looked the military woman in the eye. "No, the leader of that fleet clearly exceeded the bounds of his mandate, which will be investigated and punishment will be discussed by the Council against the Hierarchy for their actions. I would have thought that our presence here for this meeting would show that we are not all that way inclined."
"Perhaps," Anita said. "But perhaps not. I wonder, if we had lost in the battle over this world, would this discussion have ever taken place? Or would we be left as slaves under your dominion?"
The expression on the asari's face froze for a moment. "Slavery is illegal in most of Citadel space, though there is one client race that practices it under their cultural heritage. We are pretty understanding on cultures and allowing them to retain their cultural identities."
Anita saw even the ever-cheerful Goku share a concerned look with Gohan. Good. That meant the saiyans would back her up on this.
"Then we have a problem," she said, looking the asari right in the eye. "It would be hard for the Alliance to be convinced to associate with those who are willing collaborators."
"We are not collaborators!" Irissa denied firmly. "The batarians alone practice slavery as a long-standing part of their culture. It has long been that way since before they joined the Citadel community. The Citadel Council is adamant that each race is entitled to maintain their cultural identity."
"Our people have a bad history with slavery," Anita said, just as firmly. "We are not lenient on the crimes of slavers."
"Knowing Vegeta as I do," Goku spoke up looking far more stern and serious than Anita had yet seen him, "he will not be happy for us to associate with slavery. Our people will not stand for it."
The rigid facial expression of the asari woman was extremely telling. "Well, I can assure you that slavery is not tolerated by my people of the asari, nor the turians, nor salarians…"
"What about Illium?" Gohan interrupted, to Anita's consternation. "I am certain that the so-called indentured servants would disagree on the topic of slavery."
"How…?" the asari was perplexed. Anita had no idea where Gohan was going with this but if it kept the asari woman off balance she was happy to let him keep going.
"I read your mind as you were talking," Gohan said, his eyes narrowed. "When you said that you asari don't practice slavery, you thought very briefly that you were glad we didn't know about the indentured servitude on Illium. Seeing as slavery is a concern to all of us here, I thought it necessary to learn if you were being honest."
The asari went visibly pale. "You could read my mind?" she whispered. "Without performing a meld?" Her bodyguards shifted noticeably and exchanged an uneasy look.
Gohan looked confused for a moment before his face went stern again. "I don't know what a meld is but my father and I both can," he confirmed. "Neither of us normally use it for anything other than communication but I needed to know if you were being honest about not supporting slavery."
The blue woman was extremely rigid in her seat. "Illium is an independent world outside the jurisdiction of the Asari Republics and the Citadel Council," she said stiffly, her jaw clearly clenched. "Everyone that you claim to be an indentured servant signed a contract of service of their own free will."
"Now, now Ambassador Irissa," Anita said smoothly, hiding the extremely smug feelings she had flooding through her at that moment. These saiyans may just be the best thing for foreign diplomacy in the history of mankind. Untrained as they were, they were still able to draw out far more information than the other side had been willing to give. "Let us move on from this topic for now. This is clearly a galactic community that we have not yet been introduced to other than this one meeting and the prior conflict. We of the Alliance, and I believe I can say the same for our saiyan friends, don't tend to hold too much weight from what happens in one meeting with a people we have never met before. I presume that the same would be true for you as a civilised society. As such, I believe that you would plan to have invited us for a further meeting where more information could be discussed with your… Citadel Council?... and all ambassadors of your member races. Would I be correct in these assumptions?"
Some of the stiffness left the asari woman but not much. "Yes," she said, nodding slightly. "On this storage device is information that would give the time and location of that meeting." She held up a small OCD with a pale blue light glowing on one side. "Also contained on here is a codex which contains basic information on the species that a new race would need to know when they contacted Citadel space, as well as any other basic information that is freely available at this early encounter, such as a short, summarised history of the Citadel Council. We hope that you will meet with us in one month from today, Citadel calendar time. We included a passive countdown clock in there to let you be able to determine a comparable time measurement."
Anita reached out and accepted the OCD. She pulled out a similar device, minus the glowing light. "Here is some basic information that I was approved to pass on to you, assuming that war was averted for the immediate future," she said, passing it to the foreign ambassador. "Likewise, some basic information and a summarised history of humanity. Though you will find that there is no information on the saiyans in there. We decided that we would let them tell their own stories." A complete lie. Most of the people in the Alliance didn't even know about the saiyans yet, nor the debt the humans owed to their unsung heroes. Anita was only recently informed of it herself. There was very little, if any, recorded data on the saiyans in any non-intelligence database.
"We don't have any such information to give to you," Gohan said. "We didn't know if you were coming to declare war so King Vegeta wanted to talk first and see if it was 'worth his time'."
The asari looked slightly insulted but didn't say anything. Not that she needed to, Anita supposed. If the saiyans wanted to they could just take the information from her mind again. A useful, if dangerous, skill.
She would give anything to be able to do that. Admittedly, she might possibly abuse it. Just a little. Or more.
"Well, I do believe that it will be beneficial for us to finish this meeting here and for us to meet again at the scheduled time on your… Citadel," Anita said, standing up. Everyone else stood as she did and the saiyans walked over to stand next to the humans.
"Indeed," Irissa agreed, for the first time looking a little relieved. Most likely at the prospect of the humans and saiyans leaving her ship. "Well, shall we head to the docking bay for your teleportation?"
"No need," Goku said, his voice cheerful again as he stepped up to Anita and offered that solid muscular arm that she secretly enjoyed just touching. She had never seen someone so chiselled in person as the saiyans were. Alien or not, she couldn't deny that they were nice to look at.
"We shall meet you again on the Citadel," Anita said, feeling smug as she saw the confusion on the blue alien's face. She grabbed onto Goku's arm as she saw the admiral grab hold of Gohan. "Until then, farewell Ambassador."
With the raising of two fingers to Goku's head, she teleported away.
…
Irissa stared numbly at the spot the aliens had left from. This was not good. Not at all.
"Ambassador?" Linelle asked into the shocked silence. "What do we do now?"
Irissa just continued to stare into the empty space for a few moments before looking at her guards with a dazed expression. "Councillor Tevos won't be pleased at all," she muttered. "I need to go write my report on this… somehow. Take us back to the Citadel. We are done here."
The maidens looked at each other warily before leaving the room together. Irissa sat back down in her chair.
Advanced technology, abilities to teleport, transformation, mind reading without a meld, getting information on slavery and indentured servitude, meetings with beings that were apparently gods… no. Tevos and the other councillors would definitely not be happy with what she had heard and said here today. She rubbed at the headache that had begun to for in her temples.
She now just had to pray that the blasted turians hadn't damned the galaxy by attacking these aliens
…
A/N Not gonna lie, that felt a little rougher than the previous chapters. I am gonna blame the fact that I haven't written for a little while. Hope you still enjoyed it.
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