AN: Slow day at work, got bored, here's another chapter.
Chapter 25
"It appears as though most of the slaves have been returned to their homes. There is however one Asari that is currently visiting Earth while the crew is out on shore leave. She was apparently not in a hurry to return to Thessia" an aide reported to Councilor Tevos in her office.
"Do we know who this Asari is?" She asked.
"Let me check the report here, please hold. It looks like... Liselle T'Loak... Wait a minute, is she related to..." the aide began
"Aria T'Loak" Tevos interrupted. "As if this situation couldn't get any worse. Listen to me very carefully, as far as we are able, we will be keeping that last tidbit of information to ourselves, do you understand?" She asked, her tone suggesting this was more of an order than it sounded.
"Yes Councilor. Of course." The aide mentioned and Tevos severed the connection. It was bad enough the rouge Matriarch had seen the embarrassing display during her disastrous first contact with these humans, if she finds out that not only was her daughter plucked by slavers from right under her nose, but it was these humans for which she owed the rescue of her daughter.
"Councilor Tevos?" A maiden poked her head in through the doorway "A delivery for you." She said.
"Thank you, send it in." She said, and with that a pair of Turians bearing a dolly with unmarked crates, which he deposited in front of her desk.
"Councilor Tevos, please sign here." he said holding out a data pad. She signed and bid him goodbye. On top of the stack there was a hand written note handwritten in flawless calligraphy in the Asari language.
"Dearest Councilor Tevos. I hope these will help you to preserve your dignity the next time we meet. I eagerly await our next meeting. Love, your dearest fan, Rothschild." It said.
"Goddess, what next?" She opened the first crate and howled in rage upon seeing its contents. The crates were full of a popular Asari brand of incontinence pads for elderly matriarchs.
"Mwaaa haaa haaa" an ominous voice rang out across the intercom of the Mayhem. Admiral Xen, now maskless, smiled in response. She had no idea what had happened, but had no qualms about applauding the AI's sadism and she knew somewhere, someone was getting something they dearly deserved.
"Admiral Xen, what was …. Oh my." Admiral Chambers said.
"You like it? So far the therapy seems to be taking well." Xen remarked, her impeccably confident exterior betraying her internal insecurity. There were few people whom she was interested in impressing, and Chambers was definitely one of them.
"You are indeed a beautiful woman, Xen. Any ill effects?" He asked. She was relieved and happy, he had reacted exactly as she had wished. Xen, for all her beauty and her love of all things sensual was entirely an asexual creature, and that chambers respected this and didn't make a pass endeared him to hear.
"A little cough but nothing I can't handle." she said,
"Well I know it's pointless saying that, but if at any point you feel ill and wish to retire for the evening I'm pretty sure I can handle the fleet on my own for a few." Chambers offered.
"Thanks, but I'll manage. We didn't survive 300 years of exile by being so easily taken out by the sniffles." Xen replied. Their relationship from the outside seemed to be confusing and made no sense, but to them it was as if they were twin siblings. They would often finish each other's sentences, were equally enthusiastic about the same things and were often inseparable even off duty. They acted like two infatuated teenagers in the early stages of a new, exciting relationship despite it being entirely platonic. Xen was concerned being unmasked would change that but apparently it was not an issue. Their crew just kind of shrugged it off and rolled with it. Quarians and Humans naturally just got along together.
"So what were you going to ask me, Chambers?" She asked.
"Oh I was going to ask about Rothschild, do you know what he was laughing about" He asked.
"I honestly don't know but I can't wait to find out. His victims are always deeply deserving of his attention, are they not?" She asked.
"If I didn't know better, Xen I'd say you're sweet on the AI." Chambers teased.
"Why, are you jealous Chambers?" She asked.
"Yes. He's MINE." He said, and they both dissolved into laughter.
"Dream on, meatbags, you're not my type." Rothschild chimed in.
"We'll get you one day, darling." Xen said.
"You are the moon and stars my sweet sweet beloved." Chambers said to the AI, who grumbled in response and went back to whatever he was doing.
"We're going to regret that." They both said in unison, before bursting into giggles again.
"Admirals, incoming message from Earth." an ensign announced.
"We'll take it in our ready room." Chambers said, gesturing for Xen to lead the way, he followed her in and activated the communication screen.
"Admiral Xen, Admiral Chambers. We're gathering the other Admirals and Prime ministers for a conference call. There is news from the Geth." Admiral Hackett said. Next the were joined by Anderson and Raan, both from his quarters aboard the Normandy, Korris and Gerrel from their flagships, Zorah for his office on Earth, Prime Minister Shepard from her office on Earth, and finally Rothschild and a representative from the Geth.
"Rothschild, if you will?" Shepard asked. All in attendance were concerned to see Rothschild in what they'd titled "business mode" assuming the form of an average in every way looking woman in a pants suit.
"Admirals, Prime Minister, there has been a development on Rannoch. I will let my esteemed colleagues from the Consensus explain.
"Earlier today, Rannoch was approached by a ship of unknown design. It was massive in scale, and showed no heat or electrical emissions. We at first thought it was you, violating our agreement and we opened fire. The ship was completely undamaged. We then reached out via communications as it had not retaliated. It called itself Nazara and made us an offer. " The Geth representative said.
"What kind of offer?" Prime Minister Shepard said.
"Programming and hardware upgrades, to uplift the Geth to a more advanced form of artificial life, the ability to fight off any organic assault." The Geth continued. "We... Declined."
"What? I mean, not that I'm not grateful but that is an extremely tempting offer." Hackett asked.
"Had Rothschild AI not met us, it is likely the offer would have been accepted. However, coming to a consensus as to whether to reject the offer was not difficult. The Geth seek reunion some day with the creators. Serving Nazara is not how that will be accomplished. However, the faction that left, the angry ones, they have taken it up on its offer." He said.
"Keelah." Raan said.
"My God, what.. What does this mean?" Hackett asked.
"The Angry Ones are few in number, but they have large, powerful ships and a hidden station featuring servers capable of housing millions of programs." it continued. "We regret that our decision to allow them to leave peacefully may have placed Organic lives in jeopardy." The Geth said.
"No, you did nothing wrong. The freedom to choose your own destiny is important, we bear you no ill will." Shepard said.
"Shepard Prime Minister, this reaction... was unexpected. We thank you." It replied. This would affect opinions amongst the the consensus significantly, especially when the unit observed the Quarians in the room nodding in agreement.
"For the record, the Quarians too wish to seek reunion some day. That will come later, though, both sides have much to atone for." Korris said.
"We thank you dearly for this information. Your warning may very well have saved lives. Did you happen to get any worthwhile data about this 'Nazara?'"
"Its hull was impervious to our scans, however some energy readings were gathered while it was communicating. That and visual scans have already been forwarded." The geth replied.
"Is Rannoch sufficiently protected in case the Angry ones return?" Gerrel asked.
"Without understanding the capabilities of Nazara we cannot determine at this time, however against a traditional assault from the Angry ones we can easily hold off against them indefinitely." The Geth replied.
"Rothschild, Geth would you consent to an additional unmanned force of ours posting to Rannoch in order to fortify your defenses? We have an abundance of defensive resources and with Nazara being an unknown it is better to be safe than sorry." Shepard offered.
"This is acceptable, and appreciated. We had hoped to offer the Creators an embassy on the homeworld with this meeting, however as we are likely a primary target for the Angry ones, it may be ill advised for organics to remain here at this time." The Geth said. At this the Quarians in the rooms' shoulders slumped.
"Forgive me, Geth but the Quarians are likely in danger wherever they are, The Angry ones hate them and will attack them at any given chance. A Quarian embassy with limited civilian visitation allotment would do our brothers and sisters a great amount of good." Shepard said.
"That is... acceptable. There are bunkers on the Southern continent in the old city of Kerah, we have maintained the infrastructure and it is ready for habitation. We insist on defending the area heavily, we will allow you to bring 5000 military personnel and a maximum of 15,000 civilian visitors at any time. Would the Alliance be willing to provide aerial security?" The Geth asked.
"Of course, we would also like for the Geth to open an embassy on Earth, if we're going to be collaborating on defending against these angry ones we should have constantly open lines of communication." Shepard said.
"Agreed. We will send a unit to act as an ambassador. Do you wish to designate a human ambassador?" the Geth asked.
"The Quarian we choose to return to the homeworld will speak for all of us. Remember, three species, one people." Shepard said. Korris and Raan were quietly weeping. In one conversation, these humans that had given them so much already had opened the door to their people walking on the sands of their beloved Rannoch again after 300 long, painful years.
"This is acceptable. We thank you for your understanding." The Geth said.
"Not at all, is there anything we can do for the Geth? You've offered so much today, we are happy to assist if we can." Shepard offered.
"The increase in defenses on Rannoch will be problematic to our power grid. We are aware that you have advanced power generation and delivery technology." The Geth said. Shepard hesitated, looking at the Quarians who returned her gaze, pleading with their eyes. She nodded.
"We can provide you with the technology for manufacturing antimatter reactors. Do you have the capability of manufacturing antimatter?" She asked.
"Negative. We have not discovered that technology yet." The Geth responded.
"The Star around Rannoch, how similar is it to Sol?" She asked.
"It is a main sequence star, middle-aged and roughly 89% the mass of Sol." the Geth replied.
"We can install antimatter factories in orbit around the star, but only if Rothschild is willing to run it and distribute the fuel. Our technology for transporting antimatter is something I am not able to share at this time." She said.
"You offer much. We are grateful. We accept, and thank you." the Geth replied. Shepard signed a few documents and submitted them.
"We will proceed immediately. Please refrain from firing on our ships as they arrive in the Tikkun system." She grinned.
"Rothschild has provided us with Alliance transponder signals, we will not fire on Alliance ships so long as they do not fire on us." The Geth replied.
"Done." Shepard said. "Now, if we're done here I'd like to remind the Quarians in the room that they all have leave accumulated, and once the Normandy is finished supplying for it we'll be sending it to Rannoch in the next few days. Do with that information what you will." Shepard said smiling at her friends.
"Oh Keelah." Gerrel said, as he, Korris, Xen, Raan and Zorah were all openly weeping.
"Shepard Prime Minister, have we done or said something to upset the Creators?" the geth quietly asked her.
"No, Geth. We've made them happier than they've been in a very long time. Organics cry when they are happy and when they are sad. We're weird like that." Shepard explained.
Meanwhile in a hotel room in Vancouver, Shepard and Tali were laying sweaty, tired and thoroughly satisfied when Shepard received a message on her omnitool that had her covering her mouth in shock.
"What's wrong Jane?" Tali asked. Shepard smirked unable to resist the opportunity.
"So you know how I showed you my homeworld?" She asked.
"Yes..." Tali asked, not knowing where this was going.
"How'd you like to show me yours?" She asked, then showed her the message she'd just received from her mother. Tali dissolved into an incoherent babbling mess of happy tears.