A/N I still don't own anything.

Merry Christmas and season's greetings everyone. I hope that you are all safe and sound. I managed to get this chapter done in time for Christmas as my present to you. Don't know how long the next one will take but it will be coming hopefully in the next couple weeks but by the end of January at the latest.

Comments:

ArchAngel319, DragonPony, frankieu, MagicznyGosc, Addlcove, XxZnkeixX, BJ Hanssen Sornosquinfallen, kossboss, Fruityloops87, RFL-3C, FireandIce4664 – thank you all for the reviews. They all mean a lot and help motivate me to keep writing.

Squadpunk 2.0, Awesomesauce – find out this chapter!

DahakStaz – thanks. Yeah it is possible but the biggest issue would be finding a way to build new tech from scratch. At least this way they already have a familiar tech base with technology they understand. As for Eden Prime, I don't want to give it away. Finding space tech is possible. Lots of story left to go, after all. And trust is an issue, but it won't always be. I don't want to go into detail now but hopefully it will be made clear later.

Flying Dragoon – Well, hopefully this fixes it for you.

ParkerThomas – thanks. I understand the difficulty of trying to remember all new OCs. It gets me from time to time when I try to read other stories. I am trying to limit the OCs that get mentioned to a reasonable number so people don't get lost but there still needs to be a few more.

Counter-Terrorist – thanks. I have actually been writing books for real that I want to get published. I have finished a couple and hope that one day someone will be happy to publish it but who knows? It's pretty hard getting published as an unsolicited writer.

Jotun – thanks. No I didn't take it from there. It is an adaptation of another idea I had about lightspeed weapons that I had ages ago but didn't have any story to put it in until now.

On with the story!

CHAPTER 16 – MEETINGS AND MINDS

Tevos unconsciously smoothed out a wrinkle in her impeccable red dress, patiently looking forward to the meeting ahead. The moment that the meeting had been set, she had made sure that Anthalees would be the one on duty to avoid any possible negative tones to begin with. She certainly didn't want a repeat of last time. That had been embarrassing enough for the reputation of her office. She didn't want to risk Maryssa causing another scene.

The door hissed open and Brock Neilson walked in, dressed in an expensive suit with a leather-looking bag held in one hand. At least he has been spending that money tastefully, Tevos thought to herself. Even if his purchases did include that elcor space dock.

She stood up as he entered, as she did for everyone that came into her office. "Mr Neilson," she said in greeting. "Welcome back. It's good to meet with you under more… pleasant circumstances." She couldn't help getting the shot in. It was good to try and unbalance to the other party before negotiations set in. The human had managed to do that to her last time, to her detriment. Goddess knew she had little to use against him as it was.

Predictably, sadly, it didn't work.

"Well, I for one thank you for being less confrontational," he said with a maddeningly easy smile as he made his way towards her and stood before her desk. "I also thank you for not having an assassin waiting in your escape hatch." He nodded towards the hidden doorway that Spectre Bau had been waiting in last time.

Tevos eyed him speculatively. "How do you know that I don't have anyone there?" she asked caustically.

He gave a roguish lopsided grin, highlighted by the scars on his face which gave him an endearing 'scoundrel' appearance, that would have made any maiden blush had he given it to them. But Tevos was no maiden. She would not blush.

Even if she liked the smile.

"My dear councillor," he said, his eyes lit up with amusement. "I would like to think that neither of us are unintelligent enough to have a repeat of that sort of devious behaviour. We would either think of other things to ensure our safety, such as the weapon that you have hidden in your desk draw there." He gestured to the hidden draw on the left side of Tevos' desk. "Though I don't believe you would need to resort to such a tactic when you can rely on your biotic abilities and I cannot."

Tevos blinked, feeling shocked. The existence of that draw was known only to the asari councillors and their seconds. Not even their guards knew about it. There is no way Irissa would have talked and Tevos certainly hadn't.

"How did you…?" she choked herself off and glared at his playful smile. "I don't know how you know about that," she continued in a soft growl, "but if you ever mention that draw to anyone, I will have you arrested for treason and espionage."

She felt her jaw clench as his face kept completely calm in light of her threats. Did he not take her seriously?

"Madam Councillor, you wound me!" he mock protested to her increasing frustration. "What reason would I ever have to mention it? As I told you before, I am working only for the benefit of the entire galaxy. The ability to protect yourself certainly is within the interests of those benefits. I like you sitting safe and sound in this chair and wish that you will do so for many years after my life is over."

She felt her anger slowly fading away as she realised that she had done it again. Fallen victim to his attempts to put her off guard. It was a masterful tactic that she had used herself time and again. She really couldn't help but respect the ability to do it as well as she could.

She just didn't like the fact that he was able to do it to her.

"I'm sure," she said, drily. "How else could you try and manipulate your way into wealth than through me?"

He raised an eyebrow in a show of polite surprise. "I think you are selling yourself short, Councillor Tevos," he said, his tone losing its levity. "I want you there because it means that the galaxy is doing pretty well. You do a fair job, as far as you see it, and in many cases you are right. More importantly, the galaxy remains… stable."

She caught the hesitancy in his words.

"Fair as far as I see it?" she asked. "You don't believe that I am really doing what is best for the whole galaxy?"

He gave a bittersweet smile. "Depends on the day," he replied, his voice tight. "It's either you or Councillor Valern. But some days it's none of you."

"You disagree with some of the Council's decisions? Why?" She had to admit she was genuinely curious, but still mainly unconcerned. All decisions made at least one party unhappy. It was part of the job.

He stared at her for a long moment. Tevos found herself feeling slightly unnerved at the intensity of his gaze. She found herself thinking of the pistol in the draw.

He finally broke off and leaned back in his chair giving a carefree grin that was completely at odds with his previous stare. "I do believe that that is a conversation for another time. For now, we have business to attend to."

She gave a conceding nod, thinking that she would be interested in hearing his thoughts on the matter. He had proven himself rather intelligent, for a human, and having such a conversation would no doubt be rather… interesting.

Mr Neilson brought up his omni-tool and transferred the file of his latest find. She opened it up on her terminal and took a look. Certainly doable. Slightly smaller than the last on but not much. Still within the ability of the Republics to pay without difficulty. The money would have to be shuffled first so that it didn't draw too much attention but that would only take an extra day at most to sort out. Yes, easily doable.

"Market rates are unchanged since our last visit to my office so that is what you shall expect," Tevos said looking up at him. He gave a casual nod of agreement.

"Good to know," she continued. "Is there anything else before we finalise the sale?"

He frowned. "Actually yes," he said, looking more serious than she had ever seen him look so far. "I do have the data for a third asteroid, however, there is a… complicated issue with it that I need your experience in handling,"

She fought the powerful instinct to give a triumphant smile. After the first meeting and the way that this one has gone so far, the fact that he was actually asking for help made her feel a little smug. Clearly he wasn't as infallible as he projected himself to be.

"Indeed?" she asked instead, leaning back slightly in her seat as she felt her personal satisfaction wash over her. "And how could someone such as myself possibly help?"

His expression turned from a frown to a completely unimpressed look that told her she overdid it. "Councillor, you must be out of practice because false modesty is completely lost on you," he said, his tone dry. "I have no problems asking for help when I need it." He raised an eyebrow in a slight challenge. "I also have no problems in admitting when I am wrong."

Tevos started to feel deflated as she started to feel her small victory falling through her fingers. "So what do you need my help with regarding this third asteroid sight?" she asked, bringing the conversation back on topic.

Instead of replying, he lifted up his omni-tool and transferred a file to her terminal. She looked over at it and her mouth fell open in surprise.

"Is this genuine?" she asked quietly, looking back at him in shock.

He nodded slowly, staring at her with that intense, unblinking gaze.

She turned back to the monitor and tapped open the file. The images came through clear but far away. Images taken from two separate planets from within the system.

Images of new races. One looked almost like a salarian, tall and spindly but with four arms instead of two. The other looked like an odd mix between a hanar and varren; top heavy with weird jaw features and tentacles instead of hands.

"How is this possible?" she asked, mystified.

The human gave a tiny shrug, his eyes never leaving her face. "I wasn't sure I believed it myself," he replied. "The odds of having a life-sustaining planet is always a very remote likelihood. Having two in the same system seems like it must be a one off even in a galaxy this large. Let alone them sharing the same orbital path around the sun."

She could help but shake her head in wonder. "Do they know about each other?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I highly doubt it. They are always on completely opposite side of their sun from each other. There is no point in their projected orbit where their planets would be visible to the other without that yellow dwarf being in the way. Not to mention that this one," he opened a specific file and pointed to it for her, it was the spindly race, "has no artificial satellites that we could detect so I don't think that they have achieved space flight. The other one only has two artificial satellites that we could detect so they must be very early into their space age. Obviously we didn't get too close to avoid risking detection so I don't know how advanced they might be. My best guess from the images we were able to detect would be that the tall skinny civilisation which I designated NR1, or New Race 1, would be similar to what humans were in the 1950s or 1960s, at least on their technological level; meaning that they have cars, electricity and so on but nothing too advanced. The other one, who I am calling NR2 seems to be the equivalent of what humans were at the beginning of their technological advancement; meaning that they have electricity but not much of it. I didn't see any cars on our scanners but that doesn't mean much without an in depth study."

Tevos sat back in her chair, still feeling amazed. "You know," she said, musing out loud, "even asari councillors never expect to meet more than one new race at a time while in office. I had thought that when humans came in contact with the Citadel that it would be the one that I got to see, and I was glad, despite the troubling First Contact, to have mine. Councillor Milema before me had her meeting with the elcor and the previous one before her was the hanar and drell. Now I have had three." She couldn't help chuckling to herself. "I believe I have set a new record for new races discovered."

"If I am not mistaken," Mr Neilson cut in with a small smile, "you were already tied because of the failed meeting with the yahg."

She couldn't help returning the smile, caught up in the moment as she was. "Yes, you're right. I guess it is easy to forget them, seeing as they are not part of the Citadel." She looked back to the terminal. "So why are you sharing this with just me? Why not share it with everyone?"

He leaned back in his chair and made himself comfortable. "A few reasons. First was the sale of the element zero asteroid. Now, I believe that you know that the eezo technically belongs to the races in the system, as per Council law. There is the issue that this eezo would technically belong to both of them, though seeing as they don't know about it, it wouldn't be hard for you to claim it, or at least part of it. The next is the aliens themselves. I know that the asari are by agreement the ones who would normally initiate a first contact due to your ability to meld and learn languages. This would mean that it naturally falls within your domain so you needed to be notified. The problem there is that neither of them are currently space exploring civilisations and I have no idea what Citadel policy is in this regard. The third deciding issue…" he hesitated and looked right at her again, "is because I happen to trust you."

She couldn't help but raise her brow ridges in surprise at that. "Really? And what I have I done to earn such trust?" She couldn't help but feel a little pleased.

"Well, maybe I should be more specific," he corrected himself with a small smile. "I trust you more than I trust the salarians or turians. After all, the last time the turians had the initial first contact, they don't know how to not think things through and like to start killing things. The salarians had a mixed bag of first contact history with the krogan and considering how they were caught experimenting on the rachni which led to the Rachni War, I don't trust them to be completely ethical."

Tevos blinked, feeling flat footed. "What?" she squawked. "They never did such a thing!"

The human gave her a rather pitying look. "Do you really think that they wouldn't?" he asked. "I have heard that they even took a few of the yahg corpses from that disastrous meeting to study after the planet was abandoned.

"And how would you be able to know such information?" she demanded.

"History isn't just written by the winners, Madam Councillor," he said evenly. "The bystanders write their observations and guilty minds seek to redeem their conscience by writing their admissions before they die. All people have to do is find the truth."

She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. "And what do you mean by that?" she ground out.

He gave that small little smile that said that he knew more than she wanted him to know. "Only that it is easy to absolve yourself of your own sins when the other side isn't around to contradict you, but even within their own ranks they might not have complete unity of thought. But back to the matter at hand, these new races; I would like your assurances that you wont uplift them and make them client races of the Republics before I give you the information. Then we can agree on price."

She raised a brow ridge. "I hardly think it reasonable to have to pay you to find out the location of these races when we won't own the asteroid in the system."

He raised an eyebrow of his own. "You say that, but there is no guarantee that you can give that won't say that you or someone else from the Republics won't just take it if I give you the location for free. No one else knows about it. It would be my word against yours and humans don't have the court of public opinion in their favour. So, I give you the information for free, you waltz in and take the asteroid without any complaint from the locals who don't know it's even there and you get a great deal of money from nothing along with two potential client races. You pay me for the location, that way if you do or you don't take the asteroid, at least you have the option to choose and I get something back too. That is the only way that this is going to happen."

She couldn't help frowning in annoyance. The problem was, as was often the case with the human she was finding, was that his points were very good and she couldn't think of a counter that he wouldn't be able to object to rather easily. She really wished he as based on the Citadel full time. She relished the kind of mental challenges he seemed to dish up. None of the political sycophants on the Citadel could bring the same challenge, except maybe Valern, and it grew tiring after a while. She just hated that she hadn't won a round against him yet.

"Very well," she finally conceded. "You shall be paid, regardless of whether or not the asteroid is mined by the Republics."

He gave a look of polite surprise. "I have to admit that I expected more of a fight for you," the human said smoothly.

She shrugged. "Even if we don't mine it, two new races are more important that one eezo asteroid," she said.

He gave a mild glare back. "Especially if those races become clients of the Republics," he countered. "Which reminds me, I want there to be contracted protection for these races. They are not to be uplifted at all. They were to follow their set technological course until they reach space before any contact is made."

Reasonable, in her eyes. It would be nearly impossible to enforce but she could at least put it in the contract. "Agreed."

He stared in her eyes for a long moment before finally nodding. "Good, now let's talk price."

Silarn Moduk walked in to the public viewing centre looking at the vid posters as he passed. The options for coming feature length vids had certainly increased over the last couple of decades, ever since the humans had become part of the Citadel community. Still, there were relatively few that made their way to the Citadel due to, if he were completely honest, an ongoing bias against humans from the galactic community. Though there was a distinct probability that the humans were only sending their best films, but even so they still didn't seem to send many out of their own space. Going by how many they seemed to make when he had visited their Universal Studios on Earth, he doubted that they were not making many vid films. In fact, there was the distinct possibility that humans made more films than three main races combined, on a yearly basis.

He still wasn't sure why some races would not be able to enjoy human vids. They certainly had talent. And as a vid critic, he had seen more than enough vids to be able to judge.

Walking into the theatre he looked around and saw many familiar faces already sitting in the seating area. All of them critics, as he was, and representing nearly every race in the galaxy. Shockingly, there were even a couple of krogan sitting at the back away from everyone else. They were not even wearing armour! That was possibly more surprising than the fact that there were krogan vid critics. Though on reflection it may not be all that surprising. If the human that had asked for Silarn's services had been the reason that they were in attendance, then the chances were that they were being well paid for their time.

Silarn thought about the invitation that he had received. It had been a message sent to his work-listed message address sent from a human calling himself 'Brock Neilson', seeking the services of honest and impartial vid critics. In return for a substantial amount of money, he would spend two weeks of his time watching what the human called 'popular human vids that had been widely loved from a time before the human race had contacted the Citadel.' Upon asking some questions of his own, he found that none of the vids that would be shown were under a hundred years old. Some of them would even be in black and white, which meant that they had likely been made not long after humans had actually started making vids, or movies, as the humans called them. An old throwback term to when it had been a breakdown of the words 'moving pictures', apparently.

The human had asked that the critics not only review the films but to say if they would recommend them to be shown to their own people and make note of whether or not they believed that audiences from their own races would watch them.

Still, as a lover of vids and a man that could appreciate their art, not matter what race made them, Silarn had willing accepted the human's invitation and had arrived to see the twenty other well known critics that even he could tell were more likely to be impartial milling around the theatre. There were even another eight others that Silarn would say were not as favourable towards humans that had responded to the invitation.

"Silarn Moduk," a flanged turian voice called out to him. He looked over and saw Cassias Messua, a female critic that was more measured in her approach to human vids. He had read some of her reviews himself and had not found anything that would have been considered unfair in her reviews. Many times she had been outright favourable, to the annoyance of some of her more turian-proud readers. She had told Silarn that she only ever responded to them by saying that she had to judge all vids fairly on the basis of 'if any other race made this vid, would I have reviewed it the same way?'. It was the way that she stayed impartial.

"Cassias,", he said with a nod. "I thought I might see you here."

"And I, you," she said, gesturing to the seat next to her. He sat down and made himself comfortable on the omni-gel cushion that moulded itself to his posture. "Though considering that you have been rather prolific in reviewing human vids, I don't find your attendance a surprise."

He shrugged. "The movies that they send to the Citadel are entertaining and well thought out," he responded. "Certainly better than that financial monstrosity Fleet and Flotilla. While it was a film designed to draw attention to the plight of the quarians to try and turn the public mind to the idea that the turians should be able to think of them as dextro partners in heart, it was too full of fluff and ideas that were nearly cringeworthy in their execution that made it difficult to…"

"Woah there, Silarn," Cassias interrupted. "You don't need to give me a review of the Fleet and Flotilla. I saw it with you, remember? I happened to agree with your review at the time. I was only noting that you seemed to enjoy human vids."

He blinked. "Ah, apologies. I find myself going into my critic mindset and we haven't even started watching the vids yet."

She waved off his apology. "I understand," she said placatingly. "I have been trying to prepare myself for this. Though if this Brock Neilson was seeking impartiality in the reviews, I don't know why he would have invited either Marticus or Traxis." She pointed off to two turian reviewers talking together three rows below them and thirteen seats to the lefts. "Those two have never given a positive review to a human vid yet."

Silarn nodded. "Neither has Helia and Klerea," he gestured to two asari that had just walked in together. "I guess that he is seeking to find out if they are able to put their bias aside for the sake of artistic creativity."

She grunted. "I doubt it, but I guess that if this human could find krogan vid critics then anything is possible."

He couldn't help nodding to that.

The lights dimmed halfway down in preparation for the first vid. Every took their seat and all the surrounding conversation ceased. Instead of the light completely fading, a human male walked in through the door and moved to stand at the front of the room, where he turned around and faced the audience.

"Greetings everyone," he called out, not raising his voice but still somehow projecting it to the whole room with ease. "I am Brock Neilson. Thank you all for accepting this invitation. As I explained in my message, this will be an intensive travel through human vid history. Over the next two weeks, you shall see many films that have been created more than a century ago, long before we came in contact with another race. Many of them have been remade and others have been lost in time. By the end of these two weeks, you may feel like you have a better understanding of humans through their history, their philosophy, their artistry, their creativity and their experiences. Alternatively, you may feel like you could go the rest of your lives without ever needing to see a human vid again."

A snort of amusement came from one of the turians that Cassias had indicated early. The human gave the crowd a small grin, barely visible in the low light.

"You will be seeing a wide variety of films, from action and war, to comedy and romance," the human continued. "After each film there will be a thirty minute until the next one starts where you will have time to make your notes so that you can write the reviews I asked you to send me. Before each film I shall give you a small introduction to the next feature so that you can have some context. It may be necessary as there are some things you will see or hear that you may not understand the reference to due to a lack of familiarity with human culture and history. If you do see something that you don't understand the reference to, please make note of it and you can ask me later so I can help you with the context.

"For now, we go into our first feature. This film is nearly two hundred. It led to several people questioning their own existence and even led to humans thinking beyond the fabric of reality."

Silarn sat up further in his chair, his interest definitely peaked.

"So, please now enjoy, The Matrix."

The last week had been an interesting experience for me. I had managed to sell two more asteroids to Tevos, which included two new alien races that would most likely join the Citadel once they were became spacefaring. She had even bought my little lie about the salarians testing things on the rachni! I didn't really come across any of that sort of information but seeing as she didn't question it after that first time, I guess she wouldn't put it past them to do it. Still, she bought the excuse as a way of me saying I trusted her, which would hopefully put more trust in me, though that remains to be seen. I had received the money for the asteroids, a cool eight hundred and ninety billion credits if you please, only to be joined once again by my blue shadow Malitae. The asari matriarch actually said a polite hello to me when we met up so I am pretty sure she is madly in love with me. Not really. The look on her face when I talk to her is similar to the image of a cat's anus. She did say hello, but she wasn't all that happy to see me again. Still, I only had to have her with me for two weeks and that was half over.

What I hadn't mentioned was that I had used my experience with Sel and had purchased some blasting explosives on Earth and I had used Hectar to plant on the eezo asteroid. I had actually blown off a few good-sized chunks that I had then towed to the moons over each planet and placed on their surfaces, before proceeding to drag the remaining part of the asteroid out of the system. That way if the asari tried to renege the deal then the new aliens would at least have something.

The orphanage was running full swing now. Klara had made me so proud with how she was progressing in her studies. She is the top human there; only the salarians actually do any better than her due mainly to their enhanced mental abilities. There was a teenage drell female that had recently moved in though and seeing as they had perfect memories and the ability to recall information at will, I have the feeling that Klara may have trouble keeping herself on top of the non-salarians. She would give it her best though; that little girl was very competitive apparently. I was seriously considering adopting her later on, at least when the reapers had been taken care of.

Malaea, my secretary, was based out of the orphanage because at this point there wasn't much work that she couldn't do for me that I couldn't handle directly at this stage. She was in her element running the place though and loved being around the children. I have the feeling that she is going to be clucky as anything and will be wanting a kid of her own the moment that she finds someone she can meld with. But she organised the tutors and all facilities for new children and made them feel safe and welcome. She didn't force them to be there and the duct rats were happy to move in and out as they pleased. There were nearly fifty full time kids now though and I was just happy that I had chosen a large former office space so that I had room. I would likely need to expand soon though. Legally there were only allowed to be eighty-three full time residents, according to the contract so I had asked one of the older kids, a salarian named Cress, to start looking for another building on the same Ward so that they could at lest be near each other.

Project: Hearts and Minds had started. I was probably overgenerous in calling it a project. It was mainly an attempt to open up aliens to human culture through the medium of films. Show a large range of films that would appeal to many different aliens for whatever reason and hope that the impact would filter through. I had no idea how successful it would be, if at all, but I thought it might be good to give it a go. After all, if I don't try then I have already failed. So far the response had been promising. The salarians had very much enjoyed The Matrix, the turians had been touched by Hacksaw Ridge and had been far more impressed when the realised it was basically a real story, only done by actors and changing the time line a little. The asari preferred romance and period dramas it would seem so there would be some there. The reviews seemed to vary depending on how anti-human the reviewer was but it was still only a couple of days into the project so that would hopefully bear fruit.

In the meantime, I had asked Aleria to take Hector and Ely to go out to the other coordinates to find the remaining five asteroids while I stayed on the Citadel. She hadn't been happy about leaving me alone while Jurt, Carlos, Chop and Misol stayed on the Citadel on shore leave. She would be gone for nearly a month while I conducted some business here on the Citadel and trained with Beau and Torrin in my spare time. The amount of shooting simulators that were here made it easier for Beau to be able to integrate combat training into our routine. Jurt had promised to help with that so it made us a four-man ground team once we were ready to go.

Nelathie and Horaxus would be staying on the Hidden Enterprise while they worked on more special projects that I had given them. Nelathie had already solved the orbital systems on our defence platform designs. Because it was a split system assembly, with one eezo core powering the weapon and a separate one keeping the thing in space, it had been easy to go with existing principles and they had only taken a few days to incorporate our designs. Now she was planning a dumbed down version that could be sold on the market without drawing too much attention to itself. The smaller ODP would only fire projectiles of about eighty-five kilograms but that was still double what the turian's best platforms would do. Another problem that I wanted her to solve in the meantime was finding a way to stop the projectile of the larger designs. After all, five hundred tons slamming into a planet at light speed was likely to be an apocalypse level event if it accidentally hit a planet and while I was trying to save the galaxy, I didn't feel like I would be doing that if I killed off a civilisation by mistake.

Horaxus was doing his best to finish modifying the three weapons I had according to the specifications we had discussed. I was already feeling how excited he was at the idea of producing 'ground breaking weapons', as he put it. He was close to finishing the modified Thumper but that is mostly because there were not too many things he wanted to do to it. The harder part was finding an adequate way to cool a fully automatic shotgun and a minigun. I made a suggestion that having recyclable thermal clips might be a way to do it and his face had just lit up like a kid in a candy store as he went back to work.

Chop was still on the Citadel but he was chasing down some experimental and not completely legal parts for the armour that I wanted for some of my first missions. Carefree the man may be in a normal setting, he was a perfectionist in his work.

Meanwhile, Misol would be helping me by going around and purchasing all the things a person would need to be able to run a space dock that could handle ship upgrades and ODP construction. There were hundreds of construction drones to be ordered, metals, cables and a whole list of other supplies that needed to be available so that construction could actually take place. She had set up a list of likely things and was chasing them down for me. She had also taken Carlos with her so that the young perv wouldn't be alone on the Citadel for too long at a time and she was strong enough to not take any of his staring without a fight. Many materials were available on the open market but some stuff had to be negotiated for in person and I was happy to let her do that on behalf of the company. I had higher level people to deal with.

Speaking of, I walked up the stairs, passed the human embassy in the hallway that looked exactly like the game. The distances were a little skewed but the design was the same. I had made this journey once before when meeting with elcor ambassador. Now it was time to meet with his office mate.

I hit the electronic buzzer at the entrance and waited for the door to open. Considering the attitude that Din Korlack had towards humans, I wasn't surprised that I waited for five minutes for the door to open.

I stepped into the office and walked over to the short volus sitting at his desk, leaving Malitae to wait outside. There was no chair out there so I had no idea what she was planning on doing but hey, good luck to her.

Honestly it was a little comical when I saw the diminutive alien; it looked like he was sitting in a high chair. Calyn wasn't there; apparently one of Din Korlack's biggest gripes was that it was nearly impossible for them to do business in their office because they were unable to make appointments at the same time. As the volus were responsible for much of the turian economy and their own, that meant that they needed to have lots of business meetings and conference calls. Confidentiality was nearly impossible and the ambassadors had lots of conflicting scheduling issues.

"Greetings, Earth-clan," the ambassador wheezed at me, his tone clearly unhappy. "About time you are hear. What do you want?" It wasn't said as a question, more like a sarcastic demand.

I raised an eyebrow in polite annoyance. "Indeed, Irune-clan," I replied coolly. "Though had you been paying better attention to something other than your wallet, I imagine that you would have realised that I waited politely outside your office for the last five minutes, and I am still in your office five minutes early. If you are going to be impolite, do not expect me to offer you a fair deal."

The little alien sat up in its chair and tilted its head at me. "Oh really? And what would a human know about fair deals?" His tone was dripping in sarcasm now.

I looked around the office. "Apparently more than you," I replied. "After all, I am fairly sure that the idiot representing the Alliance is in a larger office which he doesn't have to share with anyone."

The only sound for the next few moments was the hissing of the vol as he breathed.

"I don't like your attitude, Earth-clan," he spat, making it sound like an insult. "Tell me what you want and get out."

I gave him a sarcastic smile. "Listen here, little fart bubble," I said quietly as I leaned forward and stared straight into his faceplate. "You are going to behave yourself, or I will have to have a word with CSEC about your little dealings with Barla Von, who I happen to know is an agent for the Shadow Broker. How do you think CSEC and the turian councillor will respond to the public knowledge that the volus ambassador has dealings with the most wanted figure in Council space?"

That had been a beautiful piece of information that my dutiful quarians had stumbled upon during their background search on the ambassador. Of course, they hadn't known about the Broker connection until I told them.

The words had the desired effect though. The ambassador jerked in his seat and raised his arms in alarm. "I don't know what you are talking about, Earth-clan!" He no longer sounded condescending, but rather was scared. "All of my dealings with Barla Von are only related…"

"Yes I am sure that you are completely innocent," I said snidely. I was admittedly having more fun at his expense than I should have. It was also a dangerous risk. A person who willingly collaborated with the Shadow Broker was someone who quite possibly willing to hire the Broker's agent to remove someone by an assassin. Luckily, from what I remember, Din Korlack was also a coward if he thought his position was under threat, as shown in ME3 when Cerberus was blackmailing him. An easily susceptible person to blackmail was actually what I needed for today, if only to make him more agreeable.

"However, it's not what I believe that will be the issue if CSEC find out," I said mock sadly. "It's what the information shows, what doubts are cast and whether or not your reputation as an ambassador could weather such a storm of controversy. Oh," I paused and looked him directly in the face again, letting my features harden to show the threat, "and if any unfortunate accidents should happen to me, no matter how innocent they may appear, I guarantee you that the information, including images and recordings, will make its way to the Council, CSEC and the news agencies." I gave him a tight, bitter smile. "Just so you don't think that removing me before you think I have the chance to give the information away would prevent such a release. I wouldn't have told you about it if I wasn't ready to have to information ready to send."

The volus visibly deflated. "What do you want?" he asked in a defeated tone.

I let my smile turn from bitter to a more genuine one. "Honestly, just for you to treat me with the normal respect you would give anyone during the meeting."

He stared at me for a full minute. It was a little frustrating, not being able to see his face. At least with the quarians they were very expressive with their body language, this little guy was a stone.

"That's all?" he finally said in disbelief.

I nodded. "That's all," I confirmed. "I actually don't want you removed from your position and not because of any leverage that I have over you. In fact, while I do want to buy from you, I also want to help you and your people."

He sat a little more upright. "How?" he asked.

I waved my hand dismissively. "I will tell you in a moment," I said. "First, I want to talk about that space dock that you have for sale."

We spent the next twenty minutes talking about the dock that the Vol Protectorate had up for sale. Thankfully, due to the money that I had received from the latest asteroids from Tevos, I was able to convince him to sell it to me on the spot. He had been a little more resistant than Calyn, preferring to wait until the full tender had been completed. He gave in eventually, agreeing to take the sum of two hundred and fifty billion credits in exchange for the space dock and their promise to remove the volus standard atmosphere regulators and install asari standard ones, which would work for humans just fine. I was extremely happy. With the two space docks, I had the beginnings of my very own shipyards. I just had to check to see if there had been any responses to my job placements for new hires.

"Now, you said something about helping my people?" Korlack said expectantly.

"Yes," I confirmed slyly. "I want to help your people get what you have been wanting for the last hundred years or so. I want to help you make a plan to get a seat on the Council."

He completely froze for a moment. Good, I had shocked him. I couldn't help but find a small amount of perverse joy in getting him to respond the way that I wanted him to. The rotund little alien had such a chip on his shoulder towards humans that I had almost reconsidered. If it wasn't for the fact that the galaxy needed this to have the best chance to survive then I would have likely just left after I had bought the space dock.

"If we haven't been able to secure ourselves a seat on the Council, how does someone from a new race such as yourself believe that they are able to help us?" he asked, his tone suspicious.

I sat back in my chair and looked at him confidently. "By giving you perspective," I replied easily. "You see, the problem that you have right now is that you believe that since you helped to unify the galactic economy, that would be enough to earn your people the respect and position that would be required to gain that coveted spot in the Council chambers." I gestured casually around the office. "Clearly, that wasn't even enough to give you your own office."

An odd grunting came from Korlack. "And how do you think we would be able to alter that situation?" the question sounded sceptical but there was a definite tone of genuine curiosity there as well.

I had him.

"The problem that you are facing is despite everything the volus have done, you really are not actually an associate race of the Citadel," I said.

He tilted his head in what I assumed was a gesture of confusion. "What are you talking about?" he demanded. "Of course we are! We have been for centuries..."

"No," I cut in. "You have been a client race of the turians for centuries, while they have been an associate of the Citadel. You are hiding behind their defences as their subjugates and therefore have not even been able to see that you are more than two steps away from gaining a Council seat."

"Our association with the turians has been nothing but beneficial for the volus…"

"Has it?" I challenged, leaning forward towards him. "Oh sure, you haven't needed to worry about building up your own fleet and waste precious money on cruisers and dreadnoughts that could have been used on other investments, but that has left you in a position worse than the batarians. Effectively, it puts you in the same bracket as the hanar only without the drell to defend you. You have access to the Citadel and the benefits that it provides, but your achievements are overlooked because you're not even in charge of yourselves. The turians are your rulers. It's almost the political version of slavery."

He jerked in his seat and put his hands on the desk to steady himself. Even though he was wearing his suit, the increased wheezing from his filter told me that I was getting through to him.

"The prerequisites of getting a Council seat are actually not that hard to know once you take a look at the facts," I continued, staring his hard in the faceplate. "The first thing you need to do is make yourselves independent of the turians, not remain as a client race. This means that you have to start building up your naval forces. How many dreadnoughts do the volus have of their own?"

"… none."

I sighed. This was obviously going to take longer for them to do than I had hoped. And I had just bought a space dock from them so they effectively had less resources to call upon. Well, too bad. I wasn't giving it back.

"According to the Treaty of Farixen, you are able to build up to six, going by the current advertised numbers of the turians," I said. It was a good thing that the turians, in their arrogance, advertised their military might to the galaxy. It made it easy to know what to plan for if one was to oppose them. "With the two further dreadnoughts they have under construction it will mean that within two years you will be able to have a seventh. With the cruisers and frigates that would go along with those capital ships I estimate that you would need to build a couple of hundred warships. The reason for this is because not only does it show that you are willing to look after and protect yourselves, it means that you will be available to fulfil the next two requirements: having a sufficient armed force to be able to look after your own interests until a Council fleet can aid you and, most importantly, you would be able to show that you are willing to take responsibility to aid in the stability of the galaxy. By having the forces available to assist in time of a crisis, you would be showing that you are not just a race that would cry for help. You would be able to help those who are also crying for aid."

I leaned back in my chair again. "Look at the state of the galaxy," I continued. "The largest armed forces are without doubt the turians, asari and salarians in that order. After them it is the humans and the batarians. The Alliance has taken it upon themselves to clear out the pirate menaces in the Traverse. The batarians technically have more resources available to call upon than the humans because they have a large number of pirates that they call upon to aid their slave economy. Seeing as that is a violation of Council law, they won't be getting a Council seat any time soon. After them it is the quarians but only on account of their navy and purely because the gap between the humans and the next race, yours, is so massive that you are not likely to ever catch up without a massive amount of investment in military spending. You and your bombing fleet made up entirely of cruisers is what puts you above the hanar. The elcor don't have a navy and neither do the drell. In military might, you are vastly found wanting. You don't have soldiers anywhere near on par with the drell, or even the quarians. That means that a placement in the Spectres is highly unlikely as the Council agents need to be highly combat efficient. While you helped the galactic economy, you are certainly not the largest. The asari beat everyone by a large margin. You maintain the turian economy for them, then it is the salarians and then the humans. Sorry to tell you this, but you are not even likely to get a Council seat before the Alliance at this rate."

I cleared my throat a little which was starting to get sore after my long explanation. "So, to summarise: if you want to get your people a place on the Council, you need a massive military expansion and only once that has happened, remove yourselves from under the turians and strive for independence. All in all, I would say that if you put your minds and your money to it, you could be on the Council in about ten years. Maybe fifteen."

Honestly, I didn't care about them having a seat on the Council. The only thing that I needed from them was to boost their military and fast. I knew that they were desperate for a seat on the Council and I was willing to play on that if it helped me out. At least they had the money to build one.

"Your ideas… may have some merit," Din Korlack conceded reluctantly. "Perhaps we have been thinking about this the wrong way. We had hoped that our contributions would be enough but we have seen time and again that this wasn't the case and we have been repeatedly refused a place on the Council. Maybe your ideas will help us to remove any other possible objections that the Council is using to deny us a place. And as much as I hate to admit it, we will likely need to distance ourselves from our turian friends if we are to stand on our own feet." He gave a long sigh. "It just pains me to thin that a human of all people came up with this." He gave a very long pause. "Thank you." It was said very reluctantly.

I gave a small smile of amusement. "You're Welcome. And, if it helps, I want you to pretend that we never talked about this so that you can claim all the credit for it. That would let you go down in history as the man that promoted your people to a place on the Council, not a human interferer."

He gave a small chuckle. "Thank you. Though," he hesitated as he tilted his head towards me, "it seems now that selling you the space dock was counterproductive to helping us build up our defences."

I let my smile grow. "Maybe, but I am not letting you back out of the sale now," I said. "You have signed the contract and I intend to see it fulfilled."

He raised his hands and waved them placatingly. "Don't worry," he said, his tone now completely free from all of his earlier hostility. It almost seemed as if he thought of me as an equal now. "We volus hold our business deals in extremely high regard. The contract has been signed and so will be honoured in its entirety. You will get the space dock with its modifications."

"Good," I said. "But if it helps, I can assist you with your efforts. My company is actually in the process of building some orbital defence platforms that may interest you."

Thessian Suns Publication

Vid Review by Helia Mis'audis

Titanic

I recently received an invitation for what I had deemed to be the rather dubious honour of watching some classic (old) vids that were created by the humans long before they had reached the stars. It was not something I had looked forward to. Then my host gave me the unexpected pleasure of Titanic, a vid film that at one time had been the highest grossing vid produced. Based on real events of the maiden voyage of the largest ocean-faring pleasure cruise liner, Titanic, this vid blends tragedy and romance into a masterful display of class and beauty to a scale that I had not expected humans to be able to produce. The class distinction between citizens is something that all asari can view in their daily life, bringing the ability to associate and appreciate this vid on a cultural level that we have not seen in human media thus far, other than the benign 'evil corporation' stigma so many of their bland films seem to focus on. All in all, this vid was a glint of eezo in the rough and I have already recommended to the host that he allow it been shown in limited screenings on Thessia for those who love a good tragic romance.

Palaven Daily Call

Vid Review by Cassias Messua

Saving Private Ryan

This is an old human vid based during their second planet-wide war, or World War 2, as they call it. A tale of the brotherhood among soldiers, told with unapologetic action and violence to accurately reflect what conflict looks like. The film focuses on a squad of troops in their attempt to locate a single soldier in a cast combat zone. It is both inspiring and confronting for those of us who don't believe the humans are capable of fighting a real war and for those who believe that small skirmishers with pirates equates to the fury of the Krogan Rebellions. Anyone who watches this cannot help but respect the human spirit in war as soldiers try to make sense of the chaos of battle orders. A must see for any military personnel or former military personnel. Any turian would love this, even if it was made by humans. The opening sequences alone will keep you captivated.

Sur'kesh Leaf Script

Vid Reviewer Silarn Moduk

Comic Book Films

There are many things that require imagination to create success. Business ideology, military strategies, even basic technological advancement. What many of us salarians fail to do is apply that in other ways of entertainment. Humans have almost perfected and monopolised a medium that focuses nearly completely on the use of imagination: comic books. Ideas of beings in fiction who are capable to absurd levels of strength or have weird abilities that no ordinary being is capable of. These unique individuals are then given the chance to do something with their talents, something each of us strives to do in our daily lives. Due to their unique situations, many of these become superheroes. And along with superhero comic book characters, you have superhero movies.

The movies from the early 21st century by the human calendar, nearly two hundred years ago by Citadel standard, made by Marvel Studios, stand out in this category. The brilliance of Iron Man, the expansion of that 'universe' through Captain America and Thor, the amalgamation of the characters in the Avengers, the expansion of their characterisations and most importantly the scale of their villains, all of it culminates in some very impressive work of a like that we have not seen in the vid industry in enough detail. This is not the review of a single vid but of a vid series that must be seen together. If you want to have many hours of enjoyable vid viewing, see these vids as they become available, either through special screening organised by yours truly, or by purchasing the boxsets off the extranet through S-Star Releases. You won't be disappointed.

The Krogan Word

Ognut Grax

Citadel Weekly Factoral

Humans make good movies about killing stuff. Favourite options were The Expendables series, Terminator 1 and 2, Robocop, Inglorious Basterds, Fury, Gladiator and Kill Bill 1 and 2. Good action, lots of blood and guts. More impressive that some of them are based on real events. Means that humans probably realise scrap-fighting better than any other squishy race. Go see their action movies to watch things die in good ways.

Also, someone needs to find a way to make dinosaurs. Jurassic Park was great entertainment and now I wanna fight a T-Rex. Things look more intimidating than a thresher maw. Don't get me started on the V-raptors. I dunno how to spell it but I want one as a pet.

A/N Please Review and Follow/Favourite as you please!

So yeah, tried something a little different at the end. Hope you enjoyed it. If not… too late now!