Chapter 2 - Joy
Half a year after the approval of his outreach project, Sastin had an important decision to make: the location of the transmitter, a task that was proving to be more difficult than they had initially thought. The location had to be perfect, as it had to not only be able to house the aliens but also, to impress them. The location would serve as the grounds for a formal embassy for whichever alien race they would encounter. However, despite what many have said, Sastin and his colleagues were not naive—well, not entirely, at least. He was fully aware that essentially broadcasting the location to just anyone in the cosmos was very dangerous, as there was no guarantee that the recipient of such a signal would be friendly; indeed, more likely than not, they would be hostile or at the very least wary, which would either prompt them to ignore their broadcasts or, worse, use it to plan a devestating preemptive strike. As such, all densely populated worlds and stations had been ruled out. Sastin, much to his dismay, found that he had to think like a cautious military planner instead of a scientist. The location had to be important and developed enough that it would impress the aliens, while at the same time, it couldn't be important enough that its loss would severely cripple the galaxy.
They considered choosing a location in Turian space, as they reasoned that any incursions made by a potentially hostile alien force would more than likely be repelled by the might of the Turian navy. Yet they quickly dismissed this plan as the Turians, as a people, had been the least receptive to the outreach project, and the headache of dealing with a disgruntled populace and even more politicians trying to derail their work was just not feasable.
They continued to throw around nonsensical ideas for a while; someone suggested that it could be done outside of Citadel space, on an asteroid, and someone else suggested a world in the terminus. Eventually, however, someone finally came up with an actually good suggestion.
His personal assistant, Shiala, was a brilliant and young Asari who honestly could've had her own project were it not for her indecisiveness. As such, she had been quiet during most of their brainstorming session, until now.
"Why not here?" she asked timidly.
"What here?" gestured another colleague jokingly, another Asari. "At the university?"
"No. Here on Maia Nir."
"We have already ruled out major colonies, Shiala," the same Asari said dismissively.
"We ruled out important worlds," Shiala frowned. "Besides our work, hardly anyone knows anything about Maia Nir except that it's an Asari colony."
"I doubt the locals would appreciate your words," snickered a Turian.
"We wouldn't force them," Shiala said, locking her determined eyes with Sastin and ignoring the Turian. "We would go to the governor's board and ask them."
"We can't risk Maia Nir; they are our most ardent supporters."
"Exactly. It's time to see if their support amounts to more than just words."
"The governors will be highly receptive to the proposition. They are already promoting this world as 'The Crossroads of Civilizations'," agreed another colleague, a Salarian.
"Convincing the governors will be easy, but Professor, the Republics will be less than eager to risk one of their worlds, especially one as culturally rich as Maia Nir!" countered the Asari researcher.
"Culturally rich?" asked Sastin, glancing towards Shiala questioningly.
"Yes. While Shiala is right in that Maia Nir holds no industrial importance, she failed to mention the planet's cultural importance," the Asari said accusingly.
"You've always been quick to critique, Nema; too quick." Shiala sneered. "Professor, it is true that Maia Nir has a high status within Asari history and culture; however, Nema has neglected to tell you why it holds such a status. Maia Nir was the world that had hosted the ratification of the council accords between the Salarians, the Asari, and the newly-encountered Volus. The reason why I neglected to highlight its cultural status was because I believed that its status would only work to our advantage rather than to our disadvantage."
"A world famed for welcoming an alien race to the galactic community has returned to its original purpose." Sastin mouthed.
She was right, of course. The planet's governors would agree, and its history would only work to their advantage. And besides, they couldn't delay the project any longer; the council had approved it, but there was no guarantee that they'd keep approving it, and failure at this stage would only give them the excuse they must certainly be looking for. So they all agreed that it had to be Maia Nir, and as Sastin was their leader, it was only natural that he'd be the one to present the proposition to the colonial council.
The meeting went as smoothly as they had all expected, except for one caveat: Matriarch Benezia. She had been there before him, and she somehow knew the exact purpose of the meeting and what they had discussed. The governors were overjoyed at the prospect of welcoming another race into the galactic community, and unlike most beings in the galaxy, the Asari governors would most likely live long enough to see the fruits of their decisions. One of the governors had been skeptical, though, and while she was convinced that the Republics would approve, the council would not be so easily convinced. This, however, was handled by the matriarch, who offered to personally present it to the council. With Benezias ressurances in hand, the governors agreed, and so the Satellite was launched and set up around the orbit of Maia Nir, home to a billion sapient beings and now the de facto home of the embassies to whichever races they would encounter in the great unknown.
Sastin knew that he should feel accomplished, happy, relieved, and even proud. After all, he had succeeded. He had accomplished his life goal; he had even managed to become somewhat famous.
Yet as he looked out at the satellite from his observation deck, He could only feel fear—it was a primordial fear, the kind of fear he imagined that his ancestors felt when they huddled together in the morass. The kind of fear that all races had in common.
The fear of the unknown.
A.N: Thanks for the initial feedback. I hope you will enjoy this chapter as well. It is a little bit shorter than the last one, but hopefully just as intriguing.
giblo126: I didn't mean that they were superstagnant, however what I meant was that they never developed any new systems independent of the already established systems developed by the Protheans. The idea is that they are reaching the point where their technology is equal to the Protheans.