Winning Peace - Chapter 38 (Patreon)

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Admiral Gratus,” I stated, extending my hand.

After pausing for a split-second, the admiral goes for a handshake instead of the normal turian forearm-clasp. His flange parts in his species' version of a smile as we grip each other's hands tightly enough to notice, but no further. Good, that means there's genuine desire to make this work. I'd thought so, given the peek I'd taken into his systems and personal devices, but it was good to keep an eye out for problematic tells.

“A pleasure to meet you as well, Ambassador Lopez. Or do you prefer doctor?” He asked with an ongoing smile.

“I'd tell you to call me Ezekiel, but I suppose that's too informal for a first meeting,” I smiled. “So we'll go with doctor. It's less official, and I'm new to the ambassadorial scene anyway. Maybe after this I'll feel as though I've earned the right to call myself such.”

The Admiral perked up at that, giving me a nod of respect. “I have to say, the new translator you're using is quite excellent. It's even doing well matching your mouth's movements. Those are typically only a feature of the highest-tier of asari-made Citadel devices.”

I grinned and shook my head slightly. “Oh, I'm not using a translator. I had a spare few hours at the time I was notified of this meeting, so I learned a few of your dialects in preparation.”

Gratus blinked, “You... learned our dialects?”

 “Only a handful,” I reassured him. “My main focus was on Palaven's primary dialect to ensure I was able to communicate properly if we needed to discuss legal concepts, military strategy, and other forms of high-governance, since it seems most of your documentation is taken down in that parlance.”

 “Y-yes,” the Admiral cleared his throat, appearing to regain his footing, even as his subordinate appeared a little stunned. “Out of curiosity...”

“Digeris, Taetrus, and Aephus,” I replied, then swapped to the first of the three. “I find Digeris-nul particularly interesting in its divergence in the noun-verb tenses. It makes the adaptations of that play you sent in your First Contact package extremely interesting. The Betrayal of Kallus, wasn't it?”

“I'll admit I haven't seen it in years, but it's in the package for a reason,” Gratus chuckled, rubbing at his fringe with a claw. “It's historically part of the pre-spaceflight era, back when we were just experimenting with powered flight, if I recall correctly. So it got picked up and changed a bit on all of the colony worlds it was brought to. Digeris is one of our oldest, given it required little terraforming and was hospitable to dextro-based life.”

“Which would mean it has the most divergence from the original source material,” I nodded, following along easily. “Given the variations in the play according to the dialects and the number of variants included in your First Contact package, the differences are probably a point of pride amongst your colony worlds.”

Gratus nodded. “That was the idea behind it when we went over the material back in officer training, at least. Colonial pride is a bit of a sticking point in the Hierarchy, even as united as we are in resistance against outside threats, so it was a real challenge to come up with a unified message when we were composing First Contact material. The Betrayal of Kallus was chosen because of how the original epitomized turian values of duty, honor, and vigilance, but over the hundreds of years each colony world had to develop before the Reformation Wars, they each put their own unique alterations on it.”

I shook my finger in the air, the Admiral seeming to take the gesture neutrally. “Even if I'm not the greatest patron of the arts, remind me to hand over a copy of Les Miserables and a context briefing. It's a very different style of movie with very different themes, but you might enjoy the stark contrast in the messaging.”

“Honestly, I'm not all that much a patron of the arts either,” Gratus stated bluntly with a grimace and a wave of his hand. “My pursuits have always tended towards...” He motioned to our surroundings, the great bulk of his fleet's flagship.

I nodded understandingly. “If you want, we could discuss military history instead? I understand that anything current would likely be beyond that scope of our meeting today, and classified besides, but there are some interesting pieces of ancient and recent military accomplishments that I could easily relate.”

“I'm somewhat surprised by that, admittedly. Most of the accomplishments on your record seemed to be political, economical, and, of course, technological,” Admiral Gratus stated thoughtfully, then straightened. “Ah, I'm getting too absorbed in our discussion. Please, I'd like to introduce my Executive Officer, Captain Orolienus.”

“And I should introduce my associates as well. They're senior officers aboard the Capital Ship Uruk. These are Chief Mate Elizabeth Conroy and Senior Navigation Officer Hirohito Hoshino,” I stated, stepping away to give line of sight to the two individuals who had accompanied me.

Greetings were exchanged and we were seated at a table soon after.

Immediately, I accessed the room's projection hardware and cued it up, fine-tuning the various lenses and hardware to give a sharper picture. “Okay, so the first thing on the agenda is, and forgive me if I seem eager to send you on your way, but I imagine you want to get back to the Hierarchy as soon as possible, correct?”

“Ah, yes... if I may ask,” Captain Orolienus began slowly, looking between myself and the projector. “How did you tap into our hardware just now?”

“Ah, I don't notice much cybersecurity these days. The vast majority of it is basically just window dressing when you get to my level,” I shrugged, still looking at the star map I'd cued up. “I can leave your technicians a thorough report on the backdoors in your systems after we're done here, if you like?”

My two human compatriots sighed as one began rubbing her temples and the other massaging the bridge of his nose. Chief Mate Conroy spoke up first, “Dr. Lopez, please don't treat a potential diplomatic contact's systems as... nonchalantly as you do our own.”

 Admiral Gratus looked between the three of us even as I rolled my eyes a bit. “Dr. Lopez... does things like this often?”

The two senior officers looked at me with a tinge of worry and I shrugged, implicitly giving them permission to say whatever they liked.

Nav. Officer Hoshino cleared his throat, still slightly anxious. “Ah, Dr. Lopez is essentially the architect of our modern communications infrastructure from an inter-system and interplanetary scale down to the local neo-net we use day-to-day. In addition to that, much of the framework for our military data systems. It's not much of an exaggeration to say that he's possibly the only person in the entire Stellar Council or the Alliance as a whole that actually understands all of our modern infrastructure at its proper scale.”

The two turians turned to stare at me and I shrugged again. “I know things and can do stuff, it is true.”

Both men blinked.

“I see,” the Admiral replied, in a tone which indicated he very much did not.

“At any rate, though, I've used the star maps in your First Contact package to hypothesize a route using secondary relays which you should be able to use to bypass the contested system which you emerged from initially. This should also give us a safe secondary route through which to conduct trade and cultural exchanges. Your ships will have to be escorted by two of our own fleets during transit, but I've already taken the liberty of sending a potential flight path through to the Stellar Council and notified the rachni and accosian governments through the Systems Alliance. I'll ask for your understanding while the relays are opened and properly explored, but we should be able to get you back to your people within the month if all goes well.”

The two turians looked at each other, a wave of tension seeming to ebb from their forms. The Admiral released a long breath. “If true, this solves a great deal of problems for us. Thank you very much. We were deeply concerned about our chances fighting our way back through the relay, even with the supplies your government has graciously offered. On the note of our ongoing conflict, may I ask if your people have begun planning further defenses in this system? I understand there's likely much you can't tell us for the sake of your own operational security, but there's a very real possibility that the Imperial fleets may follow us through any day now. Just as we've had time to repair the damage, so to must they have.”

“I'll choose to defer to my attaches on that note,” I stated, waving off to the actual military personnel.

Conroy nodded and leaned forward slightly. “I've been authorized to disclose that we'll be moving a second fleet in-system. Part of my placement with Dr. Lopez was to forward the information related to its composition to ensure there were no misunderstandings or misidentifications.”

So said, she pulled out a small computer and passed it over to the captain, who took it with a nod. “We thank the Stellar Council and the Systems Alliance for their efforts to ensure our continued safety while in your territories.”

“We'll also be moving a second dedicated mine-crater in orbit around the star and beginning to supplement the defensive screens around the various strategic points of interest in the system,” Hoshino added. “The platform in question will have some of our best stealth technology equipped, so we ask for your understanding if you pick up something that your sensors are unable to properly read. Rest assured it's one of ours and not an enemy.”

Both men nodded as Gratus spoke. “I'll be sure to notify our sensor officers of the possibility and now that communications have been properly sorted out, we'll be able to confirm with you in real-time.”

“Alright, now that we've gotten all of that out of the way,” I stated, popping my neck and grinning at both turians winced at the movement. “I need t o ask a lot of boring political questions that the people in charge would get irritated if I didn't. So, first off, can I assure my government that the Turian Hierarchy has no designs on human, rachni, or accosian space?” I asked bluntly.

Gratus looked thrown off by the first part of my spiel, but quickly shook his head as the question properly registered. “No, well... officially, I can't speak for my government on such a high-level consideration of policy, but at the moment our primary military concerns are defending our space from the New Prothean Empire and curbing Citadel slaver raids on our colony worlds. Given the current situation, I don't believe we'll have any forces to spare even if we wanted to pursue conquest of your space. Which, for the record, we would not wish to do unprovoked. My people are militaristic, I will admit, but we're not war-mongers.”

I kept my face neutral at that, dimly-remembered actions from a universe or more away making me doubt that assertion. Anyone could be anything, should the circumstances call for it, but these turians weren't those, and I wouldn't assign them guilt due to crimes they'd never even had the opportunity to commit.

“I'll carry your assurances to my government,” I nodded, leaning back. “Now, next order of business is what we can expect from the other party in your war and the third group you mentioned just now, the Citadel. I've reviewed your data packet on them and it's hardly flattering. In your own words, and for the record, if you would state your belief as to the course of events that will follow our entry into galactic politics?”

Gratus straightened his already military-perfect posture at the formality and nodded, taking a moment to think as he stared into the middle-distance speculatively. “Keeping in mind that I am not a political official well-versed in foreign affairs, I do liaise with their department semi-frequently based on concerns military actions in disputed space have. So while I feel confident in my own assessment, it would be in your best interests to seek other sources of information to better confirm or deny what I'm about to tell you.”

I hummed and made a few notes on my own private document. “Your caution is received and will be considered. Thank you.”

 The Admiral took another deep breath and began speaking. “The New Prothean Empire is expansionist in nature. I don't even think they would dispute that assertion. To their credit, they do open initial diplomatic talks with new border-worlds peacefully, but eventually an ultimatum is handed down that their governments must fully join the Imperial Union, cede authority such that they become a puppet state, or ready themselves to defend their sovereignty.”

“So you'd describe them as aggressive, but intelligent?” Conroy asked, frowning.

“Unfortunately,” Orolienus chimed in with a nod, receiving a motion from his superior to continue. “The New Prothean Empire has ongoing diplomatic communication with the Citadel, even if much of it is perfunctory. Both parties know that, under other circumstances, the Empire would be at their door right now instead of slowly digesting their gains in the Terminus Systems and our own outermost colony worlds.”

“Do you think they're likely to start another war with us? Particularly since we've given you shelter and material aid?” I asked, curious on their take.

The two turians exchanged looks and made a few hushed remarks back and forth before Gratus turned back to us and began speaking again. “It depends largely on your first contact with the. The likelihood is high that they'll be pursuing our fleets through the Shanxi relay at some point soon. Once that happens, if hostilities are initiated the commander of the fleet may feel obligated to press any advantage he feels he has.”

“Alternatively,” Orolienus spoke up again, “lack of a particularly thorough defense may be taken for weakness on your part and, therefore, vulnerability. If they feel your worlds would be particularly easy to take control of, they may pursue a strategy of conquest immediately. There's also the issue of the rachni...”

I cleared my throat. “The Prothean Empire and the Citadel have both had hostile relations with the rachni to the point of active campaigns of xenocide. In recent times to include both parties, but the Imperial information you've forwarded and the rachni's genetic memory suggest conflict even before the 'Interregnum' event some fifty-thousand years ago. Do you believe that their presence on our worlds will increase the probability of conflict between our peoples?”

“Bluntly?” Gratus asked. “Yes.”

“If you could elaborate?” Conroy asked.

“The Citadel, in particular the batarians, will likely be extremely hostile to any diplomatic overtures once it gets out that you're housing rachni. Given the Hierarchy extended asylum to many krogan clans in the wake of Tuchanka's collapse and the Second Genophage's release and the treatment we've endured because of it, you can almost certainly be expected to be targeted by batarian slaver raids as a tactic to intimidate your into seeking the Citadel's protection.”

“I'll go ahead and say that's unlikely to result in a favorable outcome for the Citadel,” I replied casually. “First Contact information has only begun to be disseminated in the last day or so, but we're already seeing a very significant unfavorable opinion forming towards the Citadel. Frankly, I don't foresee a possibility where any member of the Alliance will vote to politically entangle themselves with slavers. Let alone the problematic traits of the asari or salarians, which bring significant difficulties as well.”

“I can see why your people would react negatively to the salarians, but the asari?” Gratus asked, stroking his fringe. “I'm sure some politician back home will have my rank if I don't ask for more details. They're the most diplomatic of the factions within the Citadel.”

I chuckled, even as the two humans looked to me in curiosity as well.

“The primary point of disagreement will be economic in nature. Although your contact data is preliminary, it's very obvious that the majority of the galaxy still functions on what we term a 'scarcity' economy. That is, an economic and societal structure dictated by the fundamental understanding that resources are limited in nature. While the accosians are still acclimating to the prevalence of nano-fabrication units, the idea that one can simply print out almost anything one would want for virtually no cost beyond the energy it takes to convert matter from one form to another will be anathema to the asari, salarian, and batarian-style economic systems.”

“I can see why it would cause problems in the Hierarchy, I suppose,” Gratus conceded, “but the Citadel is the largest economy in the galaxy. Surely they won't be that affected?”

I shook my head. “They won't be, because the very idea of what we're proposing will make the corporate interests in the Citadel lobby for an expansive trade embargo, if not a complete blockade. Oddly, I can see the batarians being the least affected by our economic model considering their tight state-controls of most resources. The salarians seem borderline xenophobic at the best of times and will likely lean into a cultural predisposition towards their own goods or, at least, Citadel-made ones. The asari, though, seem to be dominated by the interests of matriarch-owned megacorporations. The idea that we could flood their consumer base with products made for a fraction of what it would cost them and sold for an absolute pittance will be a waking nightmare. I see trade with any of the Citadel factions being extremely limited and likely limited only to the exchange of cultural products such as plays, movies, and other forms of art.”

Which means my adorable little students will almost certainly be fucking around with a black market for shits and giggles.

As Gratus called for refreshments and we steered the talks in another direction, alarms began to blare.

The New Prothean Empire had arrived.

~~~

Another one down!

Well, as promised, here's the real contact with the turians, Ezekiel being surprisingly normal by his usual standards, at least until the interrupt.

Now that the WP chapter is up, I'll be working on a chapter of the Marvel side of Industrious and hope to have that out sometime Wed/Thurs or so.

Other than that... not much going on. Lots of big heat coming people's way, so I hope everyone stays cool and safe. Enjoy the chapter!