She walked into the room, and found it empty again. This wasn't how it was supposed to be, of course. There should have been at least half a dozen of her colleagues on duty, monitoring the various holos, which contained a hundred minor reports that would need to be sorted through to find out what would need some personal attention, and what would sort itself out. Now those displays were running without a single eye to take in their information, or a mind to process it.
"I am going to kill those girls," said the woman to herself with a sigh, before walking forward and pressing a few buttons at each station, getting the information routed from them to her main console. Taking her seat there, she readied her mind with a few short breathing exercises, and then began to run her fingers along the controls like she were playing an instrument.
"This is Citadel Traffic Control, Mirga Loros reporting for duty," she said, and watched as a display compared her voice pattern to the one on file, before finally opening her station up to her. She was glad she'd come in early too, as there were apparently a few backups in the Wards traffic, which she sorted out with only a few button presses, guiding the people to their destinations. She smiled to herself as she began to settle into a routine, knowing that, despite what the politicians sometimes thought, it was really her hand that determined if business ever really got done.
Over the next hour or so, the others began to slowly filter in. Most looked ashamed of themselves, some even offered a heartfelt apology for abandoning their stations, which had been set to auto. Apparently there'd been a huge party on the Silversun Strip, and none of them had wanted to miss it. One night off, after four weeks of constant twelve hour plus shifts wasn't too much to ask, or so they rationalized, and Mirga tried to put on her best matriarch face for them, cowing each into their station as her fingers continued to dance.
In the back of her mind, she actually agreed with them. There was just not enough help in traffic control these days, and if it kept up, something was going to give. Either someone would slip up and push two ships into the same bay, or they'd kill a route guide during rush hour and literally back traffic up all the way to the Relay. She'd been telling the Council this for months now, but they, as usual, ignored her as she was only a matron, in charge of two dozen maidens. A middle aged woman leading a few young girls, none of them over a hundred.
Her mind was brought back into focus as something unusual happened. That in and of itself was rather shocking, as the Citadel ran on routine, with nothing off schedule usually happening for weeks at a time. This was more than just some batarian demanding priority in a traffic jam, or some turian general trying to get his personal ship in dock when there was no room. No, this was the arrival of a completely unknown ship, as large a dreadnaught, coming out of the relay.
"Get me Citadel Fleet Control, now!" she shouted, as another ship soon came into focus, a turian cruiser, which seemed to be flying with the strange ship. Mirga looked at that, and sighed again, looked like the girls wouldn't be getting another night off for a while.
OoOoO
"We have entered Citadel space, Commander," said the cadet, and Kryik nodded as he watched the display in front of him hum to life, soon showing a hologram of the Citadel. He tried to stare at it hard, to keep his stomach from doing flips again, while somewhere in the distance, he heard another crew member not quite being strong enough to keep it in, retching in a corner.
"Acknowledged. Bring us -urk- around, and open a -hurk- channel to Citadel Control," he ordered, looking over to find at least his crew wasn't the only ones having trouble. Mrs. Hayes was looking almost as green as some krogans he knew, though next to her stood that odd fellow, Exedore who was shorter than he would have expected of a giant, standing at less than five feet tall. He seemed perfectly fine, and kept staring at everything around him like a kid in a sweet shop.
"I'm going to assume that this Fold you preformed on us doesn't normally result in feeling like this," said the turian to his guest.
"Not normally, no. I've been through it hundreds of times now, and this is the first time it's caused this sort of problem for me," she told him, holding herself up against the railing of the observation deck. She was, to her credit, recovering more quickly than he was. Whether that was due to biology or her own fortitude was something to be sorted out later.
They'd Folded in a few kilometers away from the mass relay that led to the Citadel, with Kryik and his crew having been told this was the reason for the larger ship, as it's 'Fold Bubble' could be expanded out enough to encompass his entire ship. Even still sick to his stomach, Nihlus had to admit, it was impressive. At best speed, going through all the connections, the Citadel was a week away at best for a cruiser of the Talons' mass, and probably three weeks for something the size of the larger ship. The Terran's vessel Agamemnon had been able to get them here in only a few minutes.
Still thinking on that, he watched as several of his people slowly got to their stations, specifically the communications officers. It took a few minutes of sorting through the various signals coming in to find the one they actually wanted, as everyone was curious about this new ship. He even got an offer from a batarian to trade for the ship and crew on the side, as if he could have just given away the dreadnaught sized ship that was escorting his Talons.
"This is the Destiny Ascension to the turian ship in formation with the unknown vessel. You will respond immediately, or we will be forced to consider your hostile and open fire," came an asari voice over the comm, and the view of the Citadel was soon replaced with an old matriarch who was obviously in charge.
"Destiny Ascension, this is the turian Cruiser Talons, registry number PMV-86824 under my command, Nihlus Kryik. The vessel with us is a representative of a new species we made contact with out in Local Cluster. They are called Terrans," he said to the asari, who seemed a bit taken aback by his words, and turned from him to someone away from her holo. She spent several minutes chatting with whoever was just out of sight, before finally turning to Kryik again.
"Commander Nihlus, we have been informed that your formation was on a patrol mission in the Local Cluster. May we infer that Captain Arterius and the six frigates that should be with you were lost in battle?" asked the asari, and Kryik smiled at her while chuckling to himself.
"You could say that. The frigates are currently floating out near Relay 314, and the Captain is in the brig right now, pending a formal hearing," he said simply, and it had the desired effect of causing the asari to just stand there without saying anything as she processed that, before continuing.
"Sounds like you have quite the story to tell us. We have made arrangements for you to dock at Bachjert Ward. It's the only place with enough space for your friend on the Citadel," she explained, and the commander nodded at her, while wondering if there really was any place large enough for Terrans on the great station.
"My thanks then. We'll find our beacon and be on our way," he said, before the transmission cut out. They then had to spend about ten minutes getting the beacon's signal over to the Agamemnon, though once that was done, it took less than five before the two ships were sliding into the bays, the larger ship just a bit more gracefully, as it stopped even before the mass effect field would have forced it to.
Behind both ships, the Citadel Fleet closed ranks. Over a hundred ships of all shapes and sizes brought their weapons to bare on the unknown vessel, though no one did anything more aggressive than that, thankfully. Questions had to be asked before the shooting started, though Kryik knew there were probably quite a few captains waiting out there for him to claim his crew were captives of this new race, and they needed to be destroyed now. He wouldn't do that, obviously, but it amused him that so many people were hanging on his word.
Giving a few last minute orders, Commander Nihlus led his guests to the bridge's airlock, a small company of guards and Lieutenant Vakarian forming up with them. A few seconds later, and the entire group was exiting the Talons, and looking towards the dock before them. Normally, it would be a place of hundreds of works scurrying about to keep ships moving in and out. Right now, there were instead almost a hundred forms in armor, all with guns held beside them, though none were being pointed at them yet, as a single form stepped forward.
"General Ororian, it's a pleasure to see you today," said Kryik, his entire party, including the two Terrans, giving a salute to the general. The older turian seemed to find that odd, though he only eyed the two aliens for a moment, before turning in on the commander.
"I wished the same could be said for you, Kryik. Now, would you mind explaining to me why these aliens were on the bridge of one of the Hierarchy's frontline warships?" asked the general, and Kryik looked behind him, smiled once at the two, and then turned back towards the general with a more somber expression on his face.
"They're dignitaries of the Terran Federation, Prime Thinker Exedore and Representative Amanda Hayes. They're here to meet with the Citadel Council about relations with their people," he gestured to each in turn. Smooth skinned beings, one with pale white, and one with darker brown. The looked sort of like asari, but with fur on top of their heads. Interestingly, the pale skinned one had brown fur, and the brown skinned one red.
"I'm afraid we got off to a rocky enough start that they didn't exactly have a good reason to trust us, so I offered to transport them and their guard myself. Further details are in the report you should be receiving now, sir," and as if right on cue, the general's omnitool beeped once. Looking down at it, he pressed two buttons to dismiss the message, and then looked up at the commander.
"I'll read it later. For now, these Terrans are to be escorted to the Presidium, and you and your crew are to disembark, so I can have a full crew go over your vessel," he ordered, and turned away.
"General, do you mean all the Terrans are to go to the Presidium? Including their guards?" asked Kryik suddenly, and the general sighed, before turning back.
"How many guards do they have?" he asked, worried a bit due to the urgency in Nihlus' voice.
"Just one," said Kryik, and General Tersius Ororian just looked at him for a moment, thinking this was some kind of prank. The serious look in his eyes though, made the general wonder, and so he nodded.
"If it's just one guard, that shouldn't disrupt things too much," said the general simply, and then watching Kryik as he said a few words into this omnitool. The general had expected the door behind him to open wide to admit the guard, but then was surprised when instead, the cargo doors three decks down and well behind the bridge made the metallic grinding sounds. Walking over to clear his view, he wondered just what was going on, when suddenly, a shudder could be felt through the floor, just a slight one. Then a second. Then a foot appeared out of that cargo bay.
Well, calling it a foot was to undersell it. It was as huge thing, longer than he was tall, with a flat, ridged bottom designed to get a grip on even loose terrain, but be useable on the solid stuff. It was also green in coloring, metal by the look of it, and a solid kind of metal at that. Looking up, he could could see a seal above it, where it attached to a leg smoothly, so it was locked in place. That leg had the same armor as the boot, and so did the rest of it, a bipedal form with a smooth, bullet shaped head that had a single red eye.
"By the ancestors, what is that?!" he demanded. The thing was huge, at least sixty feet tall. The C-Sec guards behind him were looking at the thing, then at their weapons, and then back at it, as the thing's head began to turn, and finally find them. Walking forward it came to a halt just behind the party from the turian vessel, and stood there like a sentinel of old, powerful in every way one could be.
"That is my guard. Her name is Commander Hannah Shepard of the Federation Fleet. As the one who spent the most time among your people during the last few weeks, I believed she would be the perfect one to escort myself and Prime Thinker Exedore," said the pale skinned Terran, and Ororian turned to her, his face suddenly very calm as he heard an explanation that fit the facts.
"I'm afraid this vehicle she's riding in would not be permitted on the Presidium. If she'll exit it, however, she can accompany you," he told her in a flat voice, trying to suppress a very deep seated urge to run away from this giant thing. In the back of his mind, he kept trying to equate it with a ship, a small one really, as his primal fear instinct didn't work against them, his training having beaten that out of him, but this thing was something else entirely, and he was forced to deal with his mind's unhelpful suggestions at flight by gritting his mandibles and putting up with it.
"That would be difficult for her to do. Shepard, would you please remove your helmet for a moment?" said Representative Hayes, the last turning towards the huge vehicle. The thing shrugged in an all to personable manner, before reaching the two arms up and then twisting the helmet. There was a hiss of escaping pressurized air, before the thing was lifted, revealing a face not unlike the Terrans before him, smooth like an asari with a tuft of light blue fur on top. This face, however, was several stories above him, and looking down on him like he was a bug to be stepped on.
"This, General Ororian, is a Terran at our natural size. Exedore and myself used a process to come down to your level to more easily facilitate negotiations," Hayes informed him, and to his credit, Ororian was only flabbergasted for a moment, before turning to his omnitool. No one could see what he was looking at until he raised his eyes again.
"I see. This complicates matters, unfortunately. There are no lifts on this level capable of supporting Commander Shepard. The closest is three levels down from here. We'll have to get a transport to help her get," he was cut off by that giant holding out its hand at him.
"Is that it down there?" it asked him, in a voice that boomed only a little, pointing down at the lift he'd been talking about. There were still a few crews down there, he'd order them out of the way by the time the Terran had arrived though.
"Yes, now, if you'll just-" began the general, only to be cut off again, as the Terran reequipped its helmet, and then turned to Representative Hayes.
"I'll meet you on the Presidium then. Please be cautious while we're separated Mrs. Hayes," said the Terran, and then they leapt off the dock. The fall was almost half a mile, a long drop even for someone of a Terran's size, but as General Ororian watched, small jets came from the suit's hands and feet, burning with a blue light that slowed the armored form, just before it landed. It didn't fall to its knees or anything, though the impact of all that weight caused everything gathered at the dock to bounce once, and threw every single worker off their feet.
"I believe Mrs. Shepard may have caused a bit of a mess down there. We might want to remind her that we're guests, and should take precautions against breaking our host's things," said Exedore after a moment, watching as Shepard helped to pick up some of the things that had fallen, while everyone on the same dock was running away to hide behind anything they could. Commander Shepard then walked up to the lift, and said something that was lost as just so much noise to those by the Talons, before the lift went down towards the Presidium Ring far below.
"Commander Kryik!" shouted General Ororian as the lift below fell out of sight.
"Sir?" he asked, snapping another salute.
"I'm getting these two down to the Presidium, before that thing starts tearing the place apart waiting. You are to oversee the debarkation of your crew, and then all of you are to report to the turian garrison. No one is to leave until I have gotten a chance to interview you. Understood?" he ordered.
"Aye, general," said the commander simply, and then began to bark a few orders of his own, the crewmen aboard the Talons starting to come out, while Ororian and several C-Sec guards got into the nearby elevator with the two Terrans, and then shot downward towards a Presidium that was already a bustle of activity at the arrival of the unknown species, and was about to be even more busy as a member of that species stepped off the transport lift, with huge booming footsteps.