While the Cat is Away

October 25th 2189 Citadel

Sparatus looked over reports. The instant it became clear that the unknown ship was heading towards the Citadel he'd wanted to fire on it. That's why they had the Citadel Defense Fleet in the first place but Tevos and Esheel had both voted against it, pointing out that the ship had entered into conversation with the Citadel itself. How they had worked that out was beyond him. The ship wasn't responding to their hails and wasn't that what was important? Why did they even have the Defense Fleet if they weren't prepared to use it?

The two women had been adamant though and despite his better instincts he'd been forced to let it land. The fact that it had done nothing to date was not a comfort. It could be an advance scout, a spy… it could be a bomb… it could be anything! But his two fellow Councillors were not interested in listening to logic. They were enamored of the fact that the ship had somehow spoken to the Citadel, had gotten the ancient space station to respond to it.

They got so caught up in governing that it was sometimes easy to forget that the Citadel predated them all and that despite numerous attempts they had really only begun to scratch the surface of its purpose. A fact that was made abundantly clear by the unknown ship now clinging like a limpet to one of the Citadel's arms.

Sparatus let out a sigh and put the reports down before moving to the bathroom. It was late, and he needed to sleep. He wiped at his face, removing the paint of his colony but the routine of the evening did not calm him. There was something about that ship… He was sure of it.

His quarters were about as far away from the ship as could be managed. That had just been pure chance but he was thankful for it now. Some residents had reported that they could hear a whispering at night since the ship had docked. There was nothing to hear though, recordings had proven that. Yet the residents continued to complain, and some had tried to move. That usually wasn't an issue, there were plenty willing to be close to the thing.

Saren was going into it tomorrow! Why any decent Turian would want to enter the thing he had no idea! Though Saren was the Council's best Spectre, so he was the logical choice. Yet it was another oddity and Sparatus was fast becoming tired of them. Both Tevos and Esheel had nominated Saren. In a case like this he would have sworn the two of them would have nominated Spectres from their own species. Granted Saren was the best Spectre but… he'd been distant lately. His reports were empty of detail. That wasn't like him. Still again Sparatus had been outvoted, and he truly couldn't think of a better Spectre to examine the ship and his argument that they shouldn't be examining it was by then a moot point.

Sparatus didn't often pray but he reached out across space, praying to the Spirit of Palaven that he had the wisdom to see the truth in the events around him because they were fast spinning out of control. He could not shake the feeling that something was about to go dreadfully, irreversibly wrong.

October 30th 2189 Citadel

After Saren Arterius' initial foray into the unknown ship and subsequent exploration by other teams the ship is declared safe. Despite monitoring, there have been no further signals between it and the Citadel. To the amazement of all the Keepers enter the ship and appear to be tending to it, exactly as if it was part of the Citadel. While the Spectre Saren and Councillors Tevos and Esheel had declared the ship safe, it is the actions of the Keepers which convince most.

November 18th 2189, Citadel

It was early. So early that Tevos knew that the other Councillors would assume she was still sleeping yet Tevos was sitting in her office. The lights were dimmed and her eyes were closed. She was meditating. Not of the calming waters of Thessia or on something equally stress relieving. No she was meditating on the humans.

That's what Saren had called them and that's what they called themselves. It hadn't been easy but she had gotten a few, paying exorbitant amounts to the surviving Batarian Slavers for individuals. Those individuals hadn't said much. The Batarians had never bothered to learn their language and the few skills they had beaten into them were not sufficient for extended conversations. After all, a human slave was a decorative item, a sign of your wealth and power, nothing more.

Still they had shown her enough that she had not risked a meld with any of them before they were shipped off to a secure facility between Salarian and Asari space. They'd begun the study there. Tevos was intelligent but she didn't understand half the terms the team she had assembled used to describe the humans. It didn't matter, so long as they found a solution. Still, she knew that they were a levo-amino species who were relatively new to space. They, like so many others, had discovered Prothean ruins which had advanced them but sometime before they truly began exploring they had been approached by another race. A race of sentient machines.

Unbidden her hand clenched and it required a conscious effort on Tevos' part to relax again.

Sentient Machines! They broke the most fundamental of the Council's laws, though she could, in all honesty, say that at least the humans had not developed them. Saren had been clear on that. The machines had approached them. It was a brilliant play. It had been years since her days in the Asari Military but she could acknowledge the sheer tactical genius of it. Take a new race, give them some tidbits of technology, secure them enough planets and let them breed and they would fight for you; out of love, out of respect, out of a feeling of mutual alliance if you played your cards right. Tevos had every reason to believe the machines had played their cards right. That was the scariest thing. If Saren was to be believed, and he had been right on everything else so far, then the machines didn't even need to be diplomatic. They owned the humans, controlled them as if they were just another machine. And the humans didn't even realize it.

What was the term Saren had used? Indon… Indoctrinated. It was an alien word, human. It sounded heavy to her and it was odd that the humans had a term for the state they were in. If the machines had time to prepare the forces of the humans, they would, when they struck, at the very least match the rest of the forces of the galaxy. Tevos was inclined to believe they'd outnumber them. Sentient or not, machines were still logical and logic dictated that, where everything else was equal, combat was more likely to succeed when you outnumbered your foe.

She wanted to dispute a part of that but she couldn't. The humans shouldn't possess technology of the level of Salarian and Asari but she knew they would. Even if they didn't now, they would. They had taken everything from Khar'shan which would put them on par with the Hemegony and would have given them samples of tech used by other races.

But that wasn't the worst thing. Tevos fought off the frown that marred her features. No, numbers could be matched, technology could be fought… the real fear was their minds. The machines would direct them to fight, and the humans would fight. They wouldn't even question it but they would fight with a mindless tenacity that not even the krogans could match. They wouldn't grieve, they wouldn't falter. No loss would be too high, so long as they won. That's what indoctrination meant.

Ruthless, cold, uncaring. Driven not by emotion but by the cold logic of a machine. They would work towards the goal they were set without caring for themselves, without seeing that what they were doing was wrong. It would not be like the Krogan Rebellions. No matter what it seemed, the Krogan were an emotional people, their battles were not logical, and their fight, while wide spread and damaging had been fought on emotional lines. Even if they had of won, they would have self-destructed. It wouldn't even be like the Rachni. They had been territorial, battles with them, while coldly logical had also had defined lines. And for both the Rachni and Krogan their home worlds were known.

She knew roughly where the human home world was. It didn't matter that she knew. The relays were closed. That was almost as frightening as the indoctrination. But Saren had said it wouldn't matter, that he could open the way… or rather the Sovereign could. But if they did that now, the humans would spill forth like a hive of angry wasps, intent on destroying everything. The machines wouldn't even need to control the humans then, they'd just need to clean up afterwards.

That's why they had to be ready. You did not fight head on a race that did not care about losses, did not care about defeat and who pushed on regardless. No, you had to be smarter. You had to be ruthless. Ruthless in a way they did not see coming because you only got one strike. And that's why she'd authorized it.

It was not genophage. It was not something any civilized race had any reason to develop. Yet she had given the order because she was, as Tevos reminded herself, one of the guardians of Civilization. She had a duty to ensure that they were not over run and sometimes… just sometimes that might mean she had to take a path that most would find abhorrent. That was her duty and she would take that burden, had taken that burden and had instructed that it be done as soon as possible.

They would only get one chance because if they allowed the humans time, then it would all be too late and already Tevos could feel time running out.

November 22nd 2189 Citadel

Curiosity about the unknown ship does not abate amongst the general population of the Citadel. Numerous forays into it have been made by Spectre Saren and Councillors Tevos and Esheel have toured the ship. In response to repeated citizen requests the Council authorize limited public tours of the unknown vessel. The tours will stick to the best explored places while Council Spectres will continue to probe the unfamiliar layout of the ship. Council Sparatus is the one dissenting voice refusing to give his blessing to the operation which promises to be profitable in both terms of credits and technology, though in his own words his opinion hardly matters since he's been outvoted.

The price for initial tours is astronomical but is paid by curious citizens, many of which have traveled from distant planets to see the ship which communicated with the Citadel and could therefore possibly be Prothean. There is intense speculation about what happened to the crew and what the ships purpose is though no one can say for sure and the Keepers as always answer nothing.

Salarian agents have already made some minor improvements to some mass effect technology based on observations of the unknown vessel and Turian weapon experts are already demanding that official exploration be accelerated so that they may get better scans and observations of the ship's main weapon.

November 29th 2189

The Asari Republic send informal communication requests to Sur'Kesh and Palaven. They deliberately contact lower level officials, seeking to establish relations beyond the Citadel once they realized what the ship was. They say nothing and a series of shadow communications ensue as the Republic attempts to discover how deep the infection is. They never reveal Vendetta but they obey its suggestions. There is relief when it seems that Councillor Sparatus is not infected though they cannot yet know for sure. All communication occurs with the utmost secrecy and complete deniability.

December 1st 2189 Turian Mining Facility Chatti Alpha Eight

Sparatus watched the batarian before him with distaste. It was a pirate, one who should have known better than to launch an attack on a turian guarded facility. Still, his stupidity might possibly help Sparatus now.

Spearing the upper set of batarian eyes with his gaze Sparatus leaned forward slightly. "I want to know about the race you Batarians were fighting," he asked calmly.

"What?" the batarian spat. "Volus and…"

"No. Not your ineffectual attempt at a raid," the Councillor cut the pirate off. "Several years ago the Hemegony went silent. You and I both know that this is not a political stunt because for at least a decade before that the Hemegony were fighting a war. I want to know about that species. If you tell me, I will request leniency."

For a moment, Sparatus thought the Batarian would try to deny it, or would refuse to speak but then he humphed. "Fine. I don't know much but I'll tell you what I know."

Now that was not surprising. The chances that a randomly captured Batarian pirate would know a lot about the unknown race were slim but at least he knew something and he could potentially direct Sparatus to those who knew more. While being frustrated with his fellow Councillors and their seeming love affair with the unknown ship that had docked with the Citadel he had realized that everyone had seemed to have forgotten the military force on their border. They had no information themselves but there were other avenues to examine. Valern probably already had, but Esheel was not sharing the reports and so he had been forced to investigate himself. Even if they were currently silent, and had been silent for years, they were still behind the batarian relays and the Council knew next to nothing about them. Sparatus couldn't do anything about the unknown ship that had docked with the Citadel, a ship that Tevos and Esheel had both authorized limited tours of but he was not about to be meet by a military force unprepared. The investigation made him feel like he was doing something.

"They call themselves humans, and look kind of like asari but not blue and with fur on their heads."

Sparatus nodded, indicating that the batarian should continue speaking.

"I have no idea why the Hemegony went to war with them. Probably thought they'd be easy slaves…. They should have been. Every colony we ever saw was either farmers or miners. Real easy targets. But as you say, a decade of war at least. Their troops were everywhere."

"How were you defeated?" That information Sparatus desperately wanted to know enough that he'd overlook the oddity in the pirate's previous statement. The Hemegony would focus on soft targets but after a decade of war, what had tipped the balance into the human's favor so decisively?

The batarian pirate was silent for a moment before he spoke forcefully and particularly clearly. "I do not know." The phrase was simple but the Councillor could hear the truth. "One day we're reporting back to the Hemegony and everything's fine, the next they are screaming something about being attacked and then they go silent. I don't know what happened, and none of those who headed back ever came back to report."

Sparatus nodded. He might wish for more information but that fit with what he knew. Whatever the humans had done had been fast and decisive. It had been a total information black out. On impulse he held up his omni-tool and keyed it to display the one holovid they had managed to retrieve from batarian space. The image of the alien cutting through batarian troops played.

The pirate hissed and drew back. "The Butcher!"

"The who?" Sparatus asked.

"It's a human. That human is called the Butcher. I don't know where that battle was, some asteroid the Hemegony wanted probably. The humans set a trap. There were more fucking soldiers there than eezo so it wasn't the easy raid they promised. Just as they get the humans pinned down, out pops that one and batarian guts and blood go everywhere 'cos of that knife. Don't really know what happened beyond that. I came to the Terminus System just after that happened."

"What about this one?" The Councillor changed the vid, this time showing the unknown ship that had appeared in briefly in Citadel space to destroy the Batarian ship. The images included a close up of what they thought was the identification writing.

"That could be human. Looks like one of their designs and the writing is theirs but I don't know what it says and I never saw one of their ships quite like that."

"You are being very accommodating…" Sparatus let the implications hang in the air.

"I ain't lying," the pirate objected. "I got no reason to lie to you. And what I've told you is about all I know."

He gave the batarian a piercing look. The pirate was correct, he had no reason to lie and withholding information in this situation would be stupid. Any leniency would be lost. "Who can tell me more?"

"Some of the Slave masters could probably tell you more."

At the word slave Sparatus started as a new thought occurred. In decade of war the batarians would have captured some humans, they'd have some slaves. "I want one," he said suddenly.

"Huh?"

"A human slave. I want one." Sparatus clarified, ignoring the looks he was getting from his fellow turians.

"Heh… you'll be lucky."

"They were never allowed out of Hemegony space?" He hazarded a guess.

The batarian shook his head. "No… jut they're rare and…" the pirate frowned as he trailed off.

"And?" Sparatus prompted, allowing irritation to color his tone.

He got an odd look from all four eyes. The pirate seemed confused. "Tevos not sharing?"

There were many things Sparatus could have said to that but his mind was in turmoil. Tevos… What did the asari councillor have to do with this? He remained silent for long moments before finally questioning the pirate. "Tevos?"

"She's been buying up every human she can get her hands on for the last few months. 'Course, we aren't meant to know it's her, but you Councillors aren't as smart as you think you are."

Sparatus sat back and took a deep breath as he thought. Tevos… Why would she be buying humans? He felt a headache forming behind his eyes. "Regardless, I want one. I'll double whatever she is paying." He flicked his hand nonchalantly even as his mind raced.

The pirate looked up at him. "If you want that, you are going to have to let me go."

"If you can get me a human and a slave master who can tell me more…?" He let the statement hang.

The batarian looked thoughtful for a moment. "It will take time."

"You have two weeks," Sparatus insisted firmly before he gestured for the guards to take the pirate out. The headache that had been threatening bloomed and he let out a groan. What the hell was Tevos doing? What was she playing at? Why hadn't she said anything? Why was she buying humans? He had too many questions! But one thing Sparatus knew for sure was that if it came to a war between the Council and the unknown race, it would be Turians who died. He wasn't a fool, he knew they died each day on patrol but that was open. It was honest. It was not some shadow war he knew nothing about!

"Sir?" an aide entered the room.

Sparatus sighed. Whatever Tevos was up to he couldn't work it out in one day. He would just have to start collecting the information so that everything was clear… The batarian pirate was just one source of information but he'd need others. There had been something… a few years back now… something with Saren and it was a sure bet that whatever Tevos was up to, it involved Saren. And one turian had been suspicious of Saren for a long time.

"Get me the ex-C-sec officer Vakarian," he ordered.

"Flavus?"

"No," Sparatus shook his head. "Garrus. Find out where ever he crawled off to and drag him back to Palaven. Tell him I want to talk to him."

The aide nodded, though was obviously overwhelmed with the order. Sparatus didn't care. The turian would get help from others to carry it out. The Councillor nodded to himself before he got up and took himself back to his temporary quarters. For an inconsequential raid, it had been quite a productive day. As he walked through the base, Sparatus paused to look out to the stars. They were peaceful here but there was tension brewing in them. There were too many unknowns.

For the sake of all Turians, he would have to tread carefully.

December 15th 2189

Reports filter through that from various Prothean experts that the ship is not Prothean. While initially disappointing, the information serves to make the ship even more exotic as something not Prothean but still able to communicate with the Citadel. Attempts to date the ship are met with inconclusive evidence. One scan claims the ship is one day old, another says 20million years, while yet another says 1.2 billion years old. There is no conclusive number found.

Saren receives permission to remain aboard the unknown ship.

December 28th 2189

The Asari Republic issues a command that no Asari are to enter the unknown ship. The command is largely ignored by the citizens of the Citadel and is countermanded by Asari Councillor Tevos. Councillor Sparatus attempts to contact several Matriarch's who issued the Command but none are available for comment. While annoyed, he takes the issuing of the command as a good thing and does what he can to enforce it. Most of his efforts are countered by Tevos and Esheel and unknown to Sparatus his two fellow Councillors send a petition to Palaven requesting his replacement. The Hierarchy, while not truly believing the reports from the Asari Republic, dismisses the application anyway. They inform the Councillors that disagreements about the unknown ship are not of sufficient importance for them to remove their Councillor. It has nothing to do with the running of the galactic community.

At that point Sparatus tells his fellow Councillors that whenever a vote comes up in regards to the unknown ship, he will oppose it, unless it's to blow it up, but Sparatus is aware that he is fast becoming a minority on the Citadel. More and more of the citizens accept the ship.

December 31st 2189

Reports from Therum, where an archaeological dig investigating Prothean Ruins is being staged announce that they have found visual evidence of a ship like the one on the Citadel. Matriarch Benezia confirms her daughter's words and issues orders for Liara to come to the Citadel to see the 'proof of her research'.

Liara indicates that she will come in time but she has work to do here. This appeases Benezia who is pleased that her daughter is showing some will, though she insists on a date being set. Liara tentatively makes a date in a few months stating that the transports don't come Therum that often.

January 9th 2190 Turian Mining Facility Chatti Alpha Eight

Sparatus looked over at the slave. It was human. Male he'd been told and was currently chained to the ground. Its eyes were baleful and it hissed at the turian guards. It really did look like an asari with fur but it did not behave like it. This was meant to be a sapient creature? One who's species had taken out the batarians… The slave master had assured him this was the case though the batarian slave master had not been able to provide many more details about the fall of Khar'shan. He had been able to provide more details about the long standing war. He looked back at the human…

Were they just mindless brutes? Like the Krogan? No… Sparatus did not believe that. No mindless race could have conducted a war that long against the Batarians or such a well-planned blitzkrieg to finish it. Which meant that either this human was defective or… Sparatus narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the human. It would not meet his eyes. The Councillor flicked his talons over his omni-tool, setting it to translate his words into batarian.

"Why don't you drop the act and sit up here?" The slight start from the human was the giveaway but Sparatus was still impressed. The human's acting had probably never needed to be that good. No one paid that much attention to slaves after all, especially not to those who were acquired simply to show Batarian power. He remained silent, watching the human who watched him. It took a few minutes but eventually the human sighed and seemed to uncoil before it stood, shifting as well as it could with the chains still on it and shuffled over to the chair. It at least had the grace not to glare at him but now that the act had been dropped the human was examining him closely.

More minutes passed. The human looked around, noting who was where and what species they were before it looked back to Sparatus. "What want know?" Its batarian was broken but it was good enough.

"Got a name?" Sparatus asked attempting to be polite. This human was careful and was smart. It seemed to be exactly what he wanted.

"Vega." It watched him, brown eyes blinking occasionally but it said nothing more.

"I want to know many things," Sparatus said. "Your species is interesting, especially for one that has not been introduced to the galactic community."

"The four eyes?"

The Councillor frowned. He didn't recognize the phrase but it was descriptive enough. "Yes, the Batarians. Why did your war suddenly end?"

The human blinked and Sparatus could see it thinking. "Annoyed someone, must have them." The phrasing was atrocious but he understood. The Batarians must have annoyed someone. Except what was human society like if they could be at war for decades but then end it so suddenly?

"Who'd they annoy?"

"SIL."

Sparatus frowned. SIL? The human's expression was definite so it was an answer. "What is a SIL?"

"Ally. Human ally. Navy," Vega replied, gesturing vaguely towards himself.

"The SIL are your navy?"

"No. Ally."

The turian councillor wasn't sure he liked the implications but he couldn't be sure he wasn't drawing the wrong conclusions. "The SIL attacked the batarians?"

"Must have."

"You don't know?"

"Not sure," the human said, shaking his head. "Slave," Vega spat the word, "eight years."

Eight years? Sparatus was impressed. From the information he possessed the Batarians usually had their slaves fully conditioned within six months. This human still had spirit. But a human slaves value was in its rarity and Vega had supposedly spent most of his time in a display cage. He didn't need to be conditioned. "Tell me what you believe happened," he invited. The Batarians in the Transverse did not know. Their planets had no evidence and the Council had been able to find nothing out. Even if it was speculation, he'd listen to human speculation because they at least represented the other side. They knew what the humans were capable of.

"Think… think SIL invaded," the human said after a moment, heavily emphasizing the first word to indicate it was mere speculation. "No know why."

"What are the SIL?" Sparatus asked again. That seemed to be the key.

"Ally. Human ally," Vega replied again before he frowned, realizing he'd said that before. "They navy. Not human navy."

Sparatus felt his eyes widen. If he understood that correctly… The SIL were a military partner of the humans… a Navy, a powerful one if their ability was anything to go by. "Why didn't they help earlier?"

The human shook its head. "No know."

That was reasonable. If the human had been taken as a slave at least three years before the end of the war, he probably didn't know what had changed so Sparatus let that drop. "How are they your allies?" Would the SIL be hostile towards the turians, towards the Council? That was the real question.

"Went to Earth. Offered trade. Protection for humans," Vega shrugged as if the answer was obvious.

"I know they protect you," Sparatus said, keeping his voice reasonable.

"No!" the human said forcefully, though for the first time it looked frustrated that it could not speak freely. "SIL offered trade. Protect Sol, if give human them."

Sparatus frowned as he translated the words. "You give humans to the SIL and they protect your home system?" He assumed that's what Earth and Sol referred to.

Vega nodded. "Yes."

The turian suppressed a gasp. What type of barbarian race was he dealing with if they would trade their own kind to another for protection? But then other implications dawned to him. The SIL were powerful. They could close relays and who knew how long it had taken them to defeat the Batarians. Probably not that long, despite the amount of time batarian space had been closed. Whatever the SIL were they had cleaned up after themselves and that took time. He remained silent as he continued to think. The humans themselves weren't weak, not if they'd kept the Batarians at bay for ten or more years by themselves so why had they accepted an alliance with these SIL? The way Vega was speaking there was no great dislike towards them. He gave no indication that the alliance had been forced upon them. He called it a trade.

"Why?" Sparatus heard himself ask.

The human looked at him and the turian didn't recognize the expression. "SIL strong. SIL powerful. Humans no know about galaxy then. Know other races but no meet. Trade one million human for billions safety. Home world safe. Good trade."

Sparatus felt himself nod. If he understood that correctly then the humans were a space faring race who had known that other races existed, probably due to finding Prothean ruins but they had not yet discovered anyone. Then the SIL had found them and for some reason that Vega had not said had offered to protect the human home system in exchange for one million. Brutal but it was a good trade. It sounded like the Collectors though. "What do the SIL get out of the trade?"

"Humans," Vega replied. "One million given to SIL."

He'd asked the wrong question. "Why did the SIL want to trade with you?" That was better.

Vega frowned again and then the human growled. He said something but it was not in batarian and for a moment he was silent. "Explain no. Right words don't have."

Sparatus nodded holding up one hand to indicate he understood. For all that the human could speak batarian and could speak it well enough to hold this conversation no doubt the reasoning behind their alliance, or trade was complicated. He'd have to find out about it later. "Turians do not keep slaves," the Councillor said. "But I cannot just let you go. You'd be recaptured. And I cannot return you to human space. The Relays are closed."

Vega nodded, "SIL closed them," he offered the explanation.

"I don't know," Sparatus said. "But I want you to go with these turians. Don't try to run. They will find something for you to do and see that you get feed."

The human nodded. "Trade fair. I work, I eat. No work, no eat," he added. "Run no. But…"

It was the way the human said the word that made Sparatus pay attention and he gestured for the human to keep speaking.

"Will return home," Vega said, his eyes somehow showing more conviction than most aliens Sparatus had ever seen. "SIL Relay open. Will go home."

Sparatus nodded. "If these SIL reopen the Relays," he agreed. "I will see to it that you are sent home." He didn't care about one human but he recognized that it would be a good gesture towards the humans and their rather enigmatic allies if he returned a human slave. Until they knew the true extent of the human's military strength, it would be wise to be cautious.

Vega looked at him for a few more moments before nodding again. "Good. Humans no war. Peace good. Peace better. Four eyes war. We defend. Must war only. No war turians."

"I understand," Sparatus said. "You only went to war with the Batarians because you had to. They broke Council laws as well by going to war with you and they would have been punished for that if they weren't already defeated. Turians do not fight unnecessary wars. I'll see that you are returned home if we are able to. For now though I must go."

"Good," Vega nodded and got up, still shuffling with the chains. Sparatus gestured towards one of his guards to remove the chains and he could see their reluctance as they did it. The human stood impassively and just rubbed at his limbs once they were good. "Work?"

"They'll show you," Sparatus said as he left, trusting his underlings to find something the human could do. They were intelligent and the human seemed smart enough. They'd find something. He had other concerns now.