Chapter 30
Jane tried to convince Tali to stay behind and explore Rannoch, but she insisted on going to Tuchanka. She reiterated, her home was wherever She was. Jane was touched at the sentiment and within a few hours they were on their way to Tuchanka minus four admirals and one ambassador plus a small support staff. Once again between their now free use of the relays and their superior FTL technology the trip was a short one, and within a few hours they were orbiting Tuchanka awaiting landing clearance.
"Tuchanka to Normandy, this is Urdnot Wrex, do you copy?" A transmission request came in.
"Urdnot Wrex, forgive me I don't know your proper title. My name is Hannah Shepard, I am the Prime Minister of the Alliance." Hannah introduced herself.
"Prime Minister Shepard, Just call me Wrex, I'm not one for titles. I'm patching you through to flight control, please land at the indicated pad." He said, disconnecting the call.
"Flight Lieutenant, proceed when they give you the go-ahead." Anderson ordered.
"Aye Aye Sir." He said.
They descended through Tuchanka's turbulent atmosphere and were greeted at the airlock by a contingent of what looked like armored bipedal rhinoceroses.
"Please follow me." The lead Krogan said, Hannah Shepard along with Anderson, Jane, Tali, Baxter and Jameson. The marines were all equipped with their standard weapon loadout but all were holstered, which impressed the Krogans. They were used to the weaker races acting in fear around them. They led the humans and quarian down a ramp and through a passageway until they reached what looked like a throne room carved out of stone. In the middle atop a pile of rocks, seated upon a stone throne, was Wrex arguing with another Krogan.
"If we hitch our wagon to another group of aliens, it'll just be a matter of time before they do something that makes the genophage look like a skin rash." The Krogan argued
"If we hide down here we'll be extinct within three generations. Well never get anywhere if we're too afraid to take any risks, Uvenk." Wrex said.
"The stakes are too high, brother." Uvenk said. Wrex placed a hand upon the other Krogan's shoulder.
"So few of our young survive. Would you have them squander their lives hiding here, or doing mercernary work for the Council?" Wrex said.
"I trust your judgement, and will as always follow, Brother, but I don't like this." Uvenk replied.
"I promise, if things look suspicious I'll toss their asses right off Tuchanka." Wrex said. Uvenk nodded, and they both looked over as the Alliance delegation were announced.
"Prime Minister Shepard, thank you for arriving so promptly." Wrex said to the humans.
"It's our pleasure, Wrex, and please call me Hannah. I apologize for being abrupt, but may I ask why we moved this meeting up? I was under the impression that the Kelphic Valley's weather would not settle for a few more months." She said.
"Apologies, Hannah, but we cannot discuss this in public. I have a secure chamber available, if you'd be willing to join me, your Marines are also welcome to join." He said.
"Very well, please lead the way." She said, following he and Uvenk off to a private chamber. They were seated quickly, Uvenk, Wrex and the female shaman on one side, and Shepard and her marines on the other.
"Can offer you or your people anything to eat or drink?" Wrex asked.
"Water would be fine, but we're levo-protien like the Quarians and Turians." She said.
"I didn't know that. Interesting..." he said, sending someone off to get water for everyone.
"Now, as to why I asked you here early. We were hoping to have a big ceremony with lots of adequately Krogan saber-rattling, but we received a bit of intel that suggested we speed things up. We have people on the Citadel, and you'd be surprised what people will let slip in front of a Krogan guard. The Citadel is none too pleased with that little stunt you pulled." He said. Both Shepards adopted a rather savage smile on their faces.
"I promise you I am a fountain of limitless regret on the inside." Hannah said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Wrex burst out laughing at this, and even Uvenk was grinning.
"I really want to like you humans, but we have reasons to be... cautious." Wrex said, after regaining his composure.
"I've been made aware of some of it, though as I understand, the genophage was unleashed back before my kind discovered steam power." She said. Wrex nodded.
"The Salarians cooked it up, and the Council Spectres decided to pull the trigger, after we got a little too greedy with our "colonization" efforts." Uvenk contributed.
"Call it what it was, Uvenk, we tried to conquer Asari and Salarian planets." Wrex said. Shepard was pleased with this, it seems as though this Urdnot Wrex wasn't going to try to blow smoke up her ass.
"Be that as it may, we could have slaughtered ten planets full of their people and still not deserved what they did to us." Uvenk said.
"Agreed. But that's in the past, I just want these humans to know why we're not exactly rushing into bed with them." Wrex explained to Uvenk.
"Fair point. Continue." Uvenk said.
"So long story short, the last time we let our guard down the council gave us a disease that causes our children to die before they're born. It's... It's horrible, Hannah. I'm 700 years old, I don't know how many crying women I've witnessed clutching dead babies to their breast." He said, a far away look in his eyes. Shepard held a hand up to interrupt him.
"Forgive me, Wrex, but there is something I wish to say at this juncture." Hannah said. Wrex gestured for her to proceed.
"My species has a long and storied history of atrocious war crimes. As I understand after our intial conversations my people's history was made available to you?" She asked. He nodded.
"And you're already aware of the history of the Quarians." She said.
"Yes, another race the Council tossed to the wolves." Wrex said.
"So you know we nearly destroyed ourselves, we used nuclear weapons on our own cities, engaged in brutality that would make those Council pukes shudder." She said.
"Yes." He responded, wondering where this was going.
"The last 150 years we've devoted to trying to make up for it. It's been a hard, ugly fight but we've managed to drag ourselves out of that pit of despair that was our history and made something respectable of ourselves. As a result, we've developed a bit of a short fuse when it comes to the usage of weapons of mass destruction like the genophage." She said.
"I hope my people can some day learn that from yours." He said.
"Oh we have plenty farther to go. We're not perfect, even now we're still finding Humans and Quarians that want to go back to the old ways, but that's beside the point. After our initial correspondence, our medical scientists gathered everything the Quarians knew about the genophage, which sadly wasn't very much, so our cyberwarfare experts... let's say they "borrowed" data from the central databases on Thessia and Sur'Kesh." She said. Wrex's eyes widened, if she was saying what he thought she was going to say, the implications would be staggering.
"There are a few missing pieces, and testing needs to be done, but our understanding of bio-science was extremely complimentary to that of the Quarians. We filled in gaps in each other's understanding on a lot of things, including gene sequencing. My people are 80% through curing the genophage." She concluded. Wrex stared, his mouth agape at that declaration.
"What will you want in exchange?" Wrex said after a moment.
"Nothing. Regardless of the result of these talks, that cure is yours, free of charge, no strings attached provided you can help us test and eventually implement it." She said.
"Nothing is ever free of charge, Shepard." He said, the sudden surge of hope in him warring with 700 years of being utterly disappointed with everyone in the galaxy. At this, Shepard reached into her coat pocket and withdrew a data chip and three vials of a pink fluid, and slid them to Wrex.
"All of our data plus a sample. It's not ready yet, there are a few holes we need to plug and we were hoping to have some of your people provide gametes to finish our testing, but it is yours and we will finish it even if you tell me to fuck off and get off the planet right now." She said. When he said nothing she continued.
"The Genophage is the most disgusting piece of bioengineering I have ever seen, and this comes from a race that almost annihilated itself two hundred years ago. It is revolting, not only to push a sentient species nearly to extinction, but to do so by murdering otherwise viable babies. It goes against our law, let alone our ethics to stand by and allow it to continue.
"Prime Minister Shepard, I.. Forgive us. We are not accustomed to such generosity." the female shaman said, and was then confused when Hannah chuckled.
"Sorry, I'm not making fun. It's just that's the same reaction when we offered to help the Quarians get out of their suits." She said, gesturing at Tali.
"That's a Quarian? I thought she was a small human." Uvenk said.
"No I remember before the Geth, they were always good looking people." Wrex said. Tali blushed.
"So, like I said, win lose or draw, We're undoing the genophage, I don't give a damn what the council says about that." Shepard said.
"Thank you, Prime Minister Shepard. I don't know how we'll repay you, but our people are indebted to yours." Wrex said.
"We don't do debts. All we ask is that you allow us to assist." She said sincerely.
"Hannah Shepard, you humble us with your kindness. There is much to discuss, but I must admit, I am optimistic." The female shaman said, bowing slightly.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?" Hannah asked.
"I have no name, I surrendered it when I committed myself to the life of a Shaman." She said.
"Ah, I'm afraid the information we had beforehand about the Krogan was limited." Shepard responded.
"It's quite alright, the rites of Krogan Shaman are not known to many outside of our race." She explained. "I'm quite interested in learning more about your people as well. For example, are your leaders always women?" the shaman asked.
"No, only the good ones." Shepard said grinning, this got a laugh from the shaman.
"Perhaps that is a lesson you can teach my people." She said, glaring at Wrex, who took it in stride. Macho bluster and chest-thumping aside, he made no secret of his reverence for females, especially this one.
Across the galaxy, a luxury transport named the Kartan approached Ellis Station in orbit around Earth. The Turians aboard stared in awe at the Alliance ships that were flying around, not the least of which being the MSV Mayhem a gargantuan beast of a battleship. Easily four kilometers long, it couldn't dock directly with the station so it had an extension leading a kilometer out from the station to its airlock.
"Spirits, and the Council wanted to make enemies of them?" Garrus asked.
"I lost what faith I had in that organization a long time ago, Son." Castis said. Nuleh sat beside him busying herself with her knitting. Castis still to this day had trouble reconciling the merciless warrior he saw killing dozens of Batarians, sometimes with her bare hands, and the domestic goddess he saw before her. He knew not to question it though, he was a lucky Turian and wise enough to realize it.
The ship shook slightly as it docked, and the airlock cycled to equalize the pressure. It then opened, allowing Castis and his family to disembark on to the station.
"Castis Vakarian?" a suitless Quarian woman wearing an Alliance uniform asked as he stepped onto the station's deck plating.
"Yes, you must be General Kala'Daan Vas Arcturus." He said, offering a hand in greeting. Kala was not expecting this, the last Turian she had met was on the Citadel, who instead of offering a hand in friendship had spat at her and called her suit rat. She shook his hand and smiled.
"I am, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." she said.
"This is my wife Nuleh, and my son, Garrus." He introduced the two, and the exchanged pleasantries.
"Excuse me, but are you the same Garrus Vakarian that works for C-Sec?" Kala'Daan asked.
"Formerly. I tended my resignation just before leaving for here." he said.
"Oh? Why ever would you want to leave such a dignified and prestigious organization?" she asked, grinning.
"Oh, Spirits don't get me started. I wish I'd never taken the job in the first place. I wanted to leave before I was forced to take part in something gut-wrenchingly stupid on their behalf." Garrus said, rolling his eyes.
"Good Instincts. Let me know if you're looking for work, Turian military experience would be valued on the station's defense force. Besides, I, uh kind of looked you up when I saw your name on the manifest. The only marks on your record coincide with your submitted complaints against fellow officers. They may not have use for security officers who can think for themselves, but we certainly do." She said, before bowing and taking her leave.
"I may very well take her up on that." He said to his parents as they made their way towards processing. They checked their bags and met with the station's processing officer, an excitable human male who was all too pleased to speed along their paperwork.
"Yes, so we were originally going to house you on Arcturus station, but since the Asari had shown an interest in establishing an embassy as well the destination was moved to Earth, of which I'm sure you are already aware. The embassy building will not be ready until next week so you'll be put up in one of the city's finer hotels until the embassy building is completed. You are still citizens of the Turian Hierarchy, and thus subject to its laws, not ours however you are entitled as our guests to housing, food, medical care and transportation if you are unable to arrange it for yourselves. Humans and Quarians also have levo protien chirality so feel free to visit any of our restaurants, as of now we do not know of any human or quarian food that is disagreeable to Turian systems." The man rattled on.
"Thank you very much, sir. We are ready to disembark when you are." Castis said, and they made their way down to the planet. They were pleasantly surprised with their accommodations, despite the humans' backwards knees they provided seating suitable for Turians, and the internal lighting had been modified to provide the increased UV radiation that Turians require for synthesizing certain chemicals in their bodies.
"I can't believe how hospitable these humans are being, especially after that debacle with the councilors." Nuleh said, as she unpacked her bag into the drawers.
"I'm anxious to meet up with Ambassador T'Soni and find out what her impression is of them. Logically this seems too good to be true, but my instincts are screaming at me to trust and follow them." Castis said.
"Well we'll take it one step at a time, darling. Garrus, dear, could you please bring in my knitting?" She asked.
"Of course, mother." he said as he retrieved her bag and dropped them next to her.
"Thank you, dear. What do you think about that job offer?" She asked Garrus.
"I'm going to ask around and get an impression about how Alliance law enforcement works. It's always been a dream to be in law enforcement, but I'd hate to trade one unethical, corrupt boss for another." He said.