Slayer Anderson
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Winning Peace - Chapter 47
🕑 Added 2024-10-16 06:07:55 +0000 UTC“The shots curved away from you,” Saren stated unambiguously.
Tali and Rael blinked, turning towards me as I paused on my way towards my ship. Turning back, I could see the impressively-clad turian soldier staring at me. Vaguely, I remembered a cybernetic eye glaring out from an old war-wound and, for a moment, a phantom image overlaid itself in my vision. The next blink, though, saw it vanish as I regarded the elite soldier with both my physical eyes and the advanced suite of sensors packed into the cybernetic frame I was inhabiting.
As I'd been told, the turian-krogan Archangel Initiative was their answer to the Citadel Specter agents and STG teams, and their gear reflected that.
Truthfully, they weren't on the bleeding-edge of what was possible with eezo-tech, but that hardly mattered at this point. Especially since Saren was wearing modified Cyclone powered armor in Archangel colors. While they'd dropped the wheels that loaded onto the back of the suit for the transformation, the eezo-style thrusters attested to the suit's ability to make short-range personal flight a reality.
Combined with the protoculture power cell feeding the system, I wouldn't be too surprised if an enterprising soldier was able to make orbit with sufficient determination. Combined with a full loadout of micro-missiles, reflex-style handheld energy weapons, and a durability that definitely surpassed anything on the Citadel-side save for, perhaps the famous asari-made silaris starship armor.
An armor, mind you, that just wasn't possible to equip infantry forces with.
All in all, it was an impressive package, especially with the add-ons from eezo-tech they'd put in the design.
“That was probably just a trick of the light,” I smiled at Saren, who gave me the turian equivalent of a scowl in return.
“I don't appreciate it when people I'm supposed to be protecting feed me a crock of varren-shit, Dr. Lopez,” Saren replied firmly, stepping closer to me.
I huffed a laugh and shook my head. “Agent Arterius, while I'm grateful for your willingness to assist, I must point out that there's a very, very good reason I'm the only one of the assembled dignitaries here who travels without a security escort.”
Rael and Tali each blinked, surprised and turned to their geth escorts by instinct before turning back to me and reassessing the clear lack of backup I possessed.
“A fact for which I will be lodging a formal complaint with your government as a matter of course, but one which I am also beginning to understand the basis of,” Saren nodded, clearly looking me over now that he'd closed the distance. “To be able to stop three soldiers from attempting to move you to safety, you must obviously be very heavily cybernetically enhanced.”
I shrugged. “That's one way to look at it, I suppose.”
Saren kept up his scowl as he watched me silently for a long moment. “We'll need to do a full debriefing regarding the technology you used. I'm not asking for manufacturing specifications or documentation. I'm fully aware of the specifics of the aid you've rendered to my people, my own armor being proof enough of that, but if I'm going to be serving as a security detail for the people around you, at least, I'll need to understand at least the broad-stroke capabilities and limitations of the kinds of shielding and e-war systems you're using.”
I hummed, nodding slowly as I turned back to my ship. “A not-unreasonable argument. Why don't we continue this discussion aboard my ship? I need to make a call anyway, and I think the experience will be rather enlightening if you sit in on it. It might even do me the favor of answering some of your questions.”
Saren made a rumbling sound that intimated disagreement, but acquiesced nonetheless. I was not unaware of why that was, though. As physically-capable as Saren was and as highly-esteemed as his rank made him, I was... perhaps not directly higher than him in the chain of command, but certainly so far outside of that same chain that I couldn't be dealt with in the same manner that more local or political obstructions could be. It probably didn't hurt that I'd also just demonstrated I was an unknown quantity should it come to an actual fight.
“Very well then, Dr. Lopez. We'll play this on your terms. If nothing else, I can given the Council of Primarchs my appraisal of your personal vessel, should it come to it.” Saren stated, and I could hear the footfalls behind me following.
“Dr. Lopez... I was doing some reading...” Tali spoke up, her own hurrying footsteps catching up to my longer stride. “I was under the impression that the human government doesn't allow private ownership of spacecraft.”
I smiled at the younger alien. “Broadly true, but we humans have a saying that, 'the devil is in the details.' It means that the specifics of a given topic are often much more complex than it would appear at first glance.”
“What are the specifics of the laws, in this case?” Rael asked, his tone curious. “I'll doubtless be answering this same question to some of my associates in the Federation government given how directly it correlates with any potential trade deal.”
“The principle distinction is that the Solar Council has banned private ownership of any starship capable of faster-than-light travel. Anyone may own, and is in fact encouraged to strive to own, a private starship that is limited to STL speeds or a space station of any make or model they can afford,” I explained patiently. “While I've heard criticism of the laws, much of it is fairly fringe. If one wanted, for instance, to transfer their ship to another system, you can easily pay a nominal fee to dock a smaller vessel on a larger FTL-capable ship to make the jump.”
“Then why have the laws at all?” Tali asked, frowning.
Saren grunted, interjecting. “To deny any non-state actor the ability of simply purchasing a ship that they can ram into a planet at FTL speeds.”
Tali drew in a quick breath, even as I noted Rael didn't seem all that shocked. There was an air of realization in his expression, though, one that attested to his having read a bit more of recent human history than his daughter, even if he hadn't connected the dots.
“Would someone really...” Tali asked, looking between myself, her father, and the turian.
I cast Saren a look over my shoulder, interested in how he'd choose to phrase this one.
“It isn't as though the tactic is unheard of in the wider galaxy,” Saren replied bluntly. “For all that they are an invaluable ally, the krogan's tactics later in the Rebellion had little regard for loss of civilian life. The salarians as well, it must be noted.”
A surprisingly diplomatic non-answer from a soldier, one that didn't even make reference to human terrorists.
I nodded. “Our government wanted to protect against the possibility that anyone of a mind to follow in the Last Dogs' footsteps would have a much more difficult time of it. Granted, in recent years we've had to make a few allowances regarding systems that face trade lanes. The Shanxi system, for instance, allows licensed craft owned by non-human individuals and corporations to transit the system with flight plans filed in advance. We're still getting a similar system set up at the Hot Gates.”
“I suppose that explains how you were able to get this ship out of your species' systems,” Rael noted. I decided to decline mentioning the fact that I had filed for something of an exemption when constructing my ship. Not a total one, mind, but enough of one to carry a private vessel through to alien space, where human laws didn't apply. “How does that work with the rachni and the accosians?”
“The rachni are a hive-mind species, even with a surprising amount of devolved sentience to individuals,” I replied with a shrug as we entered the airlock. “In practice, that means they don't really understand the concept of 'private ownership' the same way that we do. Their concept of it boils down to resources required for sustaining an individual's life that can't be jointly-utilized. Personal food and water requirements, living space, that sort of thing. Virtually everything else is what we would term 'community property.'”
Tali was obviously enthralled with the discussion. Given our need to depart SA space, she hadn't had time to interact with too many rachni, but found the species absolutely fascinating on a societal level.
It was a trait that obviously concerned Rael greatly.
Saren, for all his apparent indifference as he inspected the first part of my personal ship, was clearly paying close attention to the conversation even as he relaxed minutely now that we were out of direct lines of fire. I say minutely because the four geth in our entourage never ceased to be at least vaguely threatening.
“The accosians do have a concept of private property,” I continued, “but their manner of starship construction is as much 'growing' as it is 'building,' and makes the entire process difficult to justify privately owning. Especially since, until recently, they've required help getting their ME drives up to par with our own. That and a general deference to humanity on some legal aspects mean that they've adopted our own restrictions rather than being the odd one out compared to the rachni and ourselves.”
“I'd think it would help that not many of their major corporations survived the move to their new world,” Tali added thoughtfully. “So that meant there wasn't as much political backlash when they instituted the new laws?”
Rael chuckled and patted his daughter on the head of her suit. “I'm glad you listen to at least some of my lectures, even if they aren't in your field.”
“Dad!” Tali cried, batting his hand away and making the two of us, both fathers, chuckle. I even detected a hint of a quiet amused grunt from Saren as we made our way into the ship proper.
“Your design philosophy is significantly different from your species' military,” the turian in question spoke up at last as he looked around at the triple-wide hallways with rounded corners. “It's interesting that I can see elements of my own species' construction, yet at the same time see how divergent it all is.”
“The ships I helped design for the Solar Council and the Systems Alliance are far more... optimized than this craft,” I explained slowly as we made our way through the cruiser-sized ship. “SA ships are essentially hexagonal cylinders with interlocking and modular sections to fill out each segment. For vessels that are expected to carry enormous amounts of people, cargo, resources, and be able to switch roles as-needed, that layout is much better.”
“And this one? It was called...” Tali stopped, then tapped up a recorded image from her suit onto her omnitool's display. “The...”
“Sir Isaac Newton,” I spoke, clearly pronouncing the alien – to Tali – name, then chuckled. “He was a visionary mind on the topic of gravity and the laws of motion several hundred years before humanity left its homeworld. There's a running joke on our version of the extranet that he's the 'deadliest son of a bitch in space,' because some people comically attribute responsibility for the fact that mass drivers, asteroids, and other kinetic impactor weapons work due to his theories.”
Tali snorted. “I'll have to remember that! There are two or three quarian thinkers that we could make the same joke about, too!”
Rael wore a humorous smile as well, though Saren sent me a look that made it clear he understood why I'd chosen that particular name and reference for my own ship. Even if it was a cruiser-class ship of the line by hull size and displacement, the personal technology I'd already shown off hinted at some very deadly technology within these halls.
“And here we are!” I cried grandly, clapping my hands as a set of large airlock doors opened to admit us into a cavernous space within the central region of the ship.
“Ancestors!” Rael swore, looking around with wide eyes as soon as they stepped past the threshold.
“It's exactly like Rannoch!” Tali cheered, taking quick steps into the tamed foliage as a few insects flew around. “C-can we take off our suits?!”
The geth units had followed their creators into the large nature-filled space and were pivoting as they scanned their surroundings. Small vents opened up on their bodies, sampling the atmosphere. Finally, the 'lead' unit spoke up. “Microbiome content is identical to Rannoch-standard. Creators are deemed safe to remove their protective environmental suits.”
“Geth-I mean, Tali! Wait-” Rael called, watching as his daughter pulled her helmet off and took a deep breath of the fresh air within the ship, looking up at the false-sky above.
“Ancestors, it feels so good to get out of that!” She groaned, sliding a hand through the hair-like quills on her head and shaking them free as she turned to smile at her father and myself.
Rael groaned and stepped forward to speak with his daughter even as I met Saren's eyes and jerked my head away from them. Nodding slightly, the turian followed me towards a terminal I'd set up near a pond to enjoy the artificial nature I'd cultivated here. Rannoch-style flora was actually quite pleasing to the eye, if slightly unsettling to the traditional color palette on Earth.
I waved Saren towards a bench, which he blithely ignored in favor of standing while I seated myself on the luxurious floating recliner and eased myself into the proper position with a sigh. Even if my legs didn't really get sore anymore, there was something psychologically-pleasing about sitting down and putting your feet up after spending the entire day walking around.
“Override Councilor Aethyta's personal terminal and open a private conversation window,” I commanded to the thin air around me.
Saren stiffened as the command hit home and a holographic window popped open in front of me.
Araeus Aethyta jerked slightly in surprise, her eyes widening as she took in my face on the other end of the line. Her surroundings, the private apartment she shared with her daughter, indicated that my full control of her systems was holding strong, though I expected nothing less.
“D-Dr. Lopez!” Aethyta cried sitting upright and straightening her appearance even as I heard someone else in that room squeak and fall to the floor.
“Councilor Aethyta,” I smiled. “I'm sorry to have to override your filters for your communication systems, but I'm afraid I need to speak with you rather urgently.”
The muscles in her jaw flexed as my words hit home, even as the hushed sounds of demands being made from the other end of the line threatened to undermine the gravitas of the moment. The asari matriarch turned away from the tiny camera on her omnitool. “Liara! A moment please.”
Turning back to me, Aethyta cleared her throat and reached up to self-consciously straighten one of her scalp crests before taking a deep breath. “Very well, Dr. Lopez. What do you have to tell me that would provoke such a dire breach of diplomatic etiquette and personal privacy? For your sake, I hope the censure I will be forwarding to your government will be worth it.”
I didn't let my smile drop. “Given the salarians don't run their off the books operations by you, I don't expect you to be aware of the fact that several STG teams just attempted to assassinate myself, Rael'Zorah and his daughter, several turian officials, and Urdnot Wrex... on turian soil during a diplomatic conference.”
Another flex of the muscles around her eyes as she controlled her reactions, waiting a brief second before opening her mouth to deny, deny, deny.
I didn't give her the chance. “We have their bodies. We have the lobotomized krogan servitors they deployed. We have the data. I have more besides even that, if you really want to drag out denial of your ally's actions, but I think I've made my point.”
Aethyta took another deep breath and nodded. “You have, though I don't truly understand your motivation in disturbing me during my off-hours. I'll agree that, should you actually have such proof, it would be a damning indictment of the Salarian Union's foreign policy decisions, but as you've already noted I have little to do with those policies.”
“True enough,” I replied, “and that's not actually why I'm calling you. All of that? I could take that on the chin – a human euphemism for being largely unbothered by an offense.”
Confusion cleared on her face and she nodded.
“I'm not actually angry that someone tried to kill me. It wouldn't be the first time, or even the tenth time,” I stated, waving off the attack. “I am a bit irritated that an attempt was made on the lives of the Zorah patriarch and his daughter, as they're under my protection, but the security policies of the turians and the krogans is very much their own problem to deal with.”
Saren, outside of the Councilor's field of view, gave me a turian scowl at the implicit insult.
“They did something else, then, that would motivate you to make this call,” Aethyta stated, her lips twisting into a thoughtful frown as she stared at me. “Something that would invite your retaliation. You're calling in an attempt to warn me off considering whatever you're about to do as an act of war against the Citadel at large.”
“What I've already done,” I clarified, making her grimace as one of her hands reached for a terminal and began scrolling through news, no doubt looking for something blowing up or someone dying suddenly. “I gave you advance warning about the slave revolts when I didn't have to. I expected that to be enough of a warning, but I was clearly wrong.”
Aethyta shook her head. “Whatever it is, Dr. Lopez, you have to understand that even in my position as a Councilor I have little ability to truly sway public opinion in the face of significant outrage or a call to arms. If you've chosen to inflict violence on the Citadel in a way that 'sends a message' as so many would-be dictators, terrorists, and pirates have before... it will only result in the full might of our armed forces coming down on humanity.”
“I'm well aware of that,” I smiled again. “And it's something I have no interest in provoking. Humanity is already becoming entangled with the turian-prothean conflict and we have no need of another war breaking out. Which is why I've chosen to target something that even the Union publicly denies exists. After all, how can I inflict casualties on an organization that isn't real?”
Aethyta stopped scrolling, realizing what I was getting at, silently regarding me with a narrowed gaze.
“Tell me, Councilor... what would your response be, if someone sent a kill/capture team after Liara?” I asked, making her entire body tense in response while anger burned in her gaze. I continued regardless. “You see... I've made it my life's mission to be scary enough not to provoke, but not scary enough that it provokes someone else to kill me out of preemptive self-defense.”
“I understand the sentiment,” Aethyta replied shortly, holding up a hand to her daughter when Liara began to say something off-screen. “Then they truly...”
“It was a cold insertion, done months in advance,” I answered, my expression no longer smiling. “It didn't work, obviously, or else I would be taking a much less restrained response, but you can imagine my displeasure when I discovered a hollowed-out asteroid filled with antimatter and an FTL capable shuttle on a gravity-slingshot course to Shanxi.”
Aethyta took a calming breath and closed her eyes, murmuring a curse under her breath before opening them to look at me once again, a silent question in her gaze.
“The STG.” I stated bluntly. “All of them. Every team, every shred of gear, every piece of infrastructure. It took me six hours.”
Despite herself, her eyes widened and her throat worked as she swallowed against the sudden pulse of panic.
“I dearly hope that this properly showcases my abilities to the point where our two civilizations no longer have to come to blows,” I stated, smiling slowly once again. “Because, if I have not shown myself to be adequately intimidating as to disincentivize further... ill-advised decisions, then the next response will need to be much more... energetic.”
“To be clear, you are explicitly warning of retaliation against the Salarian Union or the Batarian Hegemony if they are implicated in actions specifically against you, those under your personal protection, or your family?” Aethyta asked, her face a mask of cold consideration.
The question left little ambiguous as to what she was actually asking. “As long as the Asari Republics or the associated member species are not part of any such effort, I see no reason to retaliate against parties innocent of any wrongdoing.”
Because, realistically, the salarians were too clever to realize they should quit while they were behind and play nice. The batarians were too cruel to do the same. It was one of the reasons why I'd opted for a target that wouldn't be in the public eye. Giving their public something to take offense at would only create a bigger problem for me to deal with. This way, at least, I bought time. The batarians would be dealing with the slave revolts I'd instigated and their aftermath for at least a decade, and rebuilding their economies in those sectors for another. The salarians... would take far longer to rebound. Having to create a new pool of intelligence operatives in their snake-pit of a domestic political environment would give me a century of breathing room to solve more important issues.
“You've made your point, Dr. Lopez,” Aethyta stated. “I'll do my utmost to ensure no part of the Republics' governments are involved in anything untoward regarding you or those around you.”
I nodded. I wasn't going to do anything so childish as to ask that the asari be 'hands off' towards humanity in general. That was both naive and impossible. They'd have to have a surveillance state beyond even the Union or the Hegemony to accomplish that. No, I understood that the asari corporate sector would want to take advantage of humanity in some way, just as some enterprising individuals on the human side would hear opportunity knocking as well.
“And, in return, I'll at least do you the favor of bringing forward any evidence I have to discuss before taking unilateral action.” I smirked slightly at the surprise that flashed over her expression. “I'm not unreasonable, Councilor. You've been straight-forward and as honest as you can be in your dealing with me. It behooves both of us to maintain this relationship in its current state. To that end, I don't want you to be too concerned about my reaction to bring a matter of mutual interest to my attention.”
The asari Councilor paused for a moment, then nodded. “I see. Very well, Dr. Lopez. I do hope we'll be able to defuse any future issues without... regrettable misunderstandings between humanity and the asari.”
“As do I,” I replied, the window cutting out a moment later.
Turning to Saren, who was regarding me like a particularly dangerous pit viper, I grinned. “I think that should answer most of your questions, shouldn't it?”
Saren snorted, looking equal parts irritated and slyly amused, before nodding. He still refused to take his gaze off me. “I think I have a report to make to the Council of Primarchs. If you'll excuse me.”
It wasn't a question, but I gave him a wave of dismissal anyway. “You know the way out, Agent Arterius. Have a good day.”
~~~
Extra Long Chapter! Woo!
Ezekiel has gotten to the point where his valley of fucks is dry and barren and he will bring no more to market this season.
In the meantime, I'll be working on the next chapter of The New Ron. So look forward to that in a few days!
Comments
Slayer Anderson
I mean, this is kind of a foundational element of being an Inspired Inventor. You have 'fuck off' tech that no one can has an answer to.
Net Lurker
Backdoors no one will notice? Even billions of years old synthetic intelligences? Backdoor shutdown codes that always work properly? Bit of a stretch, but he does have type 3 KS tech so ok.
Sumgai101
You know, it's kind of funny that apparently even well past her first century, Liara still sleeps with her mom. Or maybe it's more of a cultural thing with family communal bedrooms. Too bad for Liara, her opportunity to fangirl at Lopez was blocked by serious business.
Slayer Anderson
You’re beyond those things when you made them and put backdoor in their systems to shut them down at will.
Net Lurker
No one is beyond a zero point energy source and a energy weapon that can carve trough entire fleets. This is multi galaxy conquering tech he gave to the Turians. Even worse it means it risks this tech being out in the wind and leaking or getting stolen. The Reapers will certainly try to get it
Jokarun
Oh hello God emperor of humanity. Its been a while since someone forced you to the surface.
Steve Jullian Perez
That's the reason for this scene. Lopez was the one to give the technology. Which means with his abilities he is already BEYOND it. While the Turians were given the tech, what is unsaid what will happen to the if they use it for ill.
Guilherme Bezerra
And to think this is mellow Lopez after he had a kid and destressed after saving humanity. And the Accosians and the rachni
Marius Petrauskas
nice
Net Lurker
What compelled Lopez to give up protoculture power-cells and reflex weapons to the militaristic and expansionist Turians? That is a lot of power to give an alien polity/government he can at best direct and at worst nudge. Do they really need it to fight the Proteans? They can't be that scary, they only have mass effect tech. The Alliance will have to work very hard to tie the Turians politically and economy in and curve their worst impulses.
Slayer Anderson
Fixed in the doc, thanks.
Sumgai101
Small typo btw "The question left little ambiguous as to" should be "left little ambiguity as to"
Slayer Anderson
It's pronounced 'thorough,' but yes. The salarians wanted to make sure they weren't hitting a body double or something. Also, you were indeed correct that Saren very much heard the quiet part. He understood why he was sitting in on this conversation as an observer and what the implications were.
Sumgai101
Huh, so they were planning to hit Shanxi at the same time as Lopez? Talk about being very ambitious.
Slayer Anderson
Zeke makes reference to having been standing ‘all day.’ It takes a long time to get paranoid security personnel to stand down when the big important guys they’re supposed to be guarding just got shot at.
Calamity
Upon asking Wrex how would you best describe Dr Lopez. “I’ve heard some pyjacks say he’s like a Thresher Maw. Having seen him in action I’d say that’s accurate. But only if the Thresher Maw in question is Kalros.”
Sumgai101
What Lopez said: "Yeah Agent Arterius, you can tell your bosses that the STG doesn't exist anymore and that was all me, and I did it six hours ago" What Saren hears: "I can also do that to you if you want to play fuck fuck games." Timeline wise though, how does it fit in? It can't have taken six hours between the attack and when he started poking Aethyhta. Was the STG strike team the last members left alive when they launched their attack?
