Interesting Times

May 15, 2162

15:29 SET

Arcturus-Station

I sighed, dropping my datapad on my desk and rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand.

Paperwork was really the bane of all creation. Nothing could be more boring than reading through mountains of monotonous reports and proposals.

I turned my chair around to look at the wall behind me. It had been one of my guilty pleasures to make the wall look like a giant window, the Arcturus system, and the stars beyond it proudly displayed for all to see.

The view always helped me relax, the irritation of doing absolutely tedious work flowing away.

Not for the first time, I wished I had a drink in my hand and had nothing more to do than to watch the stars, but drinking made you sloppy, and sloppy wasn't something I wanted to be associated with my work.

A sigh left me again.

It had been more than two years since I had risen to the position of Minister of Economy, three years since the attack on Shanxi, and the galaxy was surprisingly quiet.No notable events happened during the last two years that could change the current political climate.

Most people were happy about that. The fear that once hung over our heads that war could come was gone now, and people were ready to meet their new neighbors.

The economy had taken a dip after the stock market opened to Citadel investors, but it was already rising again.

I snorted, remembering my last visit to the Citadel that happened eight months ago. When I was there, I met with Val Dosck to go over the currency exchange numbers to check if the rates were stable or needed adjustment. He told me that the Asari I negotiated with had been recalled to Thessia for urgent business, and after a while, he got the message that she retired from her position due to personal reasons.

While discussing the exchange rates, Dosck and I also made a trading deal concerning luxury goods.

He told me he had connections to various people that were interested in buying items that were uniquely produced inside the human territory.

They had the necessary trading network in place already and could start immediately with the distribution of the goods, even into the Terminus systems if there was a demand for it.

It was a good deal since the number of trading ships that were allowed to enter Citadel space was heavily restricted.

Not even two months later and I had talked to dozens of company representatives, bringing them onboard, creating proposals for the Parliament, and trying to relax the entry into the Shanxi system for merchant vessels.

Shanxi was our gateway into Citadel space, and it was growing to be one of our most developed colonies.

The damages from the First Contact War were removed and repaired, and the colony looked better than ever. The additional income from taxes during the last few months was a great help in growing the capital and its defenses. In my opinion, the only planets better defended than Shanxi were Earth and Reach, our homeworld and military capital, respectively.

Even if the Citadel fleet just beyond the Shanxi relay jumped into the system, the defenses could hold until the closest fleet arrived for support. Not that it would take long, Admiral Wright had decided that one fleet was always patrolling the territory close to the Shanxi system, not close enough to worry the Council about an attack, but close enough to respond to any kind of crisis.

Thinking about the Citadel fleet beyond the gate, I could only roll my eyes in annoyance.

In the two years since the meeting and agreement with the Citadel Council, only a fifth of the Turian ships had been replaced with Asari and Salarian ships.

Dragging their feet was an apt description for it. The Turian ships would be replaced one at a time and only when a Salarian or Asari ship arrived to take their place, something that could take months in between.

The official reason was the Asari and Salarian couldn't just take more than one ship from their patrol duties, else it would leave gaps in their security net.

Nobody believed that reason, but we didn't call them out on it either. The most important thing was that they wouldn't assemble more ships on the other side of the relay.

Furthermore, sending one ship at a time was a lot safer for us than a whole fleet just arriving and saying that they were there to replace the Turian ships. If that happens now, we will know that there is something else going on.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door to my office, and I turned back on my chair towards my desk and called: "Enter!"

The door opened sideways with a hiss and my assistant Mike Barns entered. He walked in with his eyes glued to the datapad in his right hand while holding three or four in his left hand. Those were obviously for me, and I could barely stop a sigh from escaping at the idea of even more paperwork.

"What do you have for me, Mike?" I asked, hoping to get some interesting news and not just more forms to sign.

Lowering the datapad in his right hand, he said while holding up five datapads in his left hand: "Two forms to sign, Mr. Denebren. One report on the last quarter. Those are the ones for the Alliance. The other two are a commission for more ODPs for the Alliance, it just needs your signature, and the other is a report on the ongoing projects."

I had dreaded it would be just more paperwork. That it wasn't so put the first genuine smile of the day on my face.

"Wonderful," I answered and pointed to a corner of my desk. "You can leave the reports and forms there. But I would like to hear the cliff notes about the projects."

Mike nodded and said: "Of course, sir. What would you like to hear first?"

For a moment, I closed my eyes, going over the projects currently developing, before I had another idea.

"Before we start, was there any news from Anita? I didn't have the time to call her in the last week, and the connection to our outpost on the Citadel isn't as secure as I would like."

"I haven't heard anything new, sir. As far as I know, she's still trying to delay the relay opening."

The relay opening.

Or like many of us call it, the day the slavers come.

For more than six months now, the Batarians were advocating to open the relays connecting their territory to ours, for trading only, of course.

Utterly bullshit, in my opinion. The only thing the Batarians were interested in was enslaving people. Taking our people and giving us death was the only trade the Batarians would make.

Thankfully, Anita had been on the Citadel when they made the proposal to the Council. She had been able to run interference, giving one reason after another why it could be a bad idea to open the relays into our territory. From telling that her government didn't give her the authority to make the decision by herself, to arguing that there could be more systems in the relay route between the territories of the Systems Alliance and the Batarian Hegemony. The last one was one of her most effective arguments since it played on the fear of another Rachni War. Yet, it would only be a matter of time until the Council decided in favor of the Batarian Hegemony.

Some would say it was because the Batarians were part of the Citadel, embassy, and all, but that would only be part of the reason. The other half of the reason would be to keep humanity from growing too strong too fast. If the Alliance grew strong enough to contend against any of the Council species, it could threaten the power of the Council. The only option, in that case, would be granting humanity a Council seat but sharing their almost absolute power wasn't something they were keen on doing. After all, they kept everyone from gaining enough power for more than a millennium, and they wouldn't stop now.

"Let's hope Anita can delay them for a long time. But enough of that, what about the skycar designs? Are they finished?"

Mike lifted his datapad and swiped the touchscreen to find the correct file. His eyes darted over the displayed information before he looked up and said: "The designs themselves are ready, the body and the interior both, but they are still analyzing the skycars bought from the Citadel. The basic principles were easy to discover, but they are struggling to make them different enough so that nobody can claim that we stole their work."

"Good," I answered. "When the skycars are out on the market, I want nobody to be able to sue us. Have you seen the designs? How do they look to you?"

"They are interesting. Some would say they are less aerodynamic than the standard ones, slower as well, but they are eye-catching. And that is what we're going for. I think the limousine will be very popular among the rich. They are elegant from the outside, and their interior is comfortable and luxurious."

"Good to know. I guess the designs are on the datapad?" I asked, lifting the datapad in questions up.

"Yes, sir," answered Mike with a nod.

"I will take a look at them later. And now that we're talking about designs anyway, did Dr. Hoshiyume send his designs for the new fighter?"

"He did. You can find them on the datapad under the name F-04/A-3241."

Within a few seconds, I found the file and opened it, and the picture that greeted me, made me almost laugh out loud. Still, a snicker escaped me nonetheless.

"Sir?" questioned Mike with a raised eyebrow, not understanding what I was laughing about.

"Did you ever see the movie Star Wars? The first ones, I mean," I asked him, which he answered with a shake of his head.

"In the movie 'The Return of the Jedi', the third Star Wars movie, there appeared a starfighter called A-Wing, and Takahashi's design is heavily inspired by it. You can almost say he wanted to build it in real life. But it's a good design, he wouldn't have chosen it just for appearance's sake."

I scrolled through the data, looking at the specifications of the starfighter. The estimated speed of the fighter was phenomenal, and its weapons would give anyone trouble, but what really impressed me was the fact that Takahashi had managed to include a small shield generator. It wouldn't hold against prolonged fire from other starfighters or GARDIAN-lasers, and a single shot from any ship above a starfighter would rip it into shreds, but the shield could help save lives. With their speed, they would be out of danger in moments if they were hit at all.

"How fast can the production start?" I asked, my eyes still glued to the displayed information.

"If you sign off on it now? A month, give or take a week."

"Consider it signed off. I want the facilities ready as soon as possible.

I also got a message from Admiral Wright. He wants to keep one dreadnought slot open for the future. Maybe he was taken by Takahashi's idea of a 2km dreadnought, an answer to the Asari's Destiny Ascension. Any news on them?"

It took Mike almost a minute to find the necessary file inside his datapad, a testament to how much information it held.

"The construction of one of them is at its halfway point, and for the other, it hasn't begun yet. The materials are ready, but the workers were still waiting for the final okay," said Mike.

"The number of materials should be enough," I mused, thinking about what to do. "Sent word that they will not build a dreadnought, instead send them the plans for the battlecruiser, Type-DF09. I will talk with Admiral Wright tomorrow about it. The Alliance already paid for a dreadnought, the price for an experimental battlecruiser should be around the same."

"Yes, sir. I will also arrange that the excessive materials are redistributed."

"That won't be necessary," I said, declining Mike's offer. "Someone else will take care of that. You will have to do too much to organize that."

I smiled at him, telling him without words that I valued his work too much to waste his talents on such a task. The way he returned it with a shy and, at the same time, pleased smile let me know he understood what I was not saying.

Yet, that was only half the reason I didn't want him to handle the issue of redistributing the materials.

He wasn't skilled and experienced enough to make them disappear from the books.

Whenever such an opportunity arose that materials had to be redistributed, no matter if the chance came by coincidence or planning, I made sure to inform my contacts in the AIS to redirect a shipment or two to another shipyard. From there, it would take a few detours until it finally arrived at a storehouse no one knew. Ready to be used for any project the AIS had.

"If you would allow me the questions, sir," asked Mike tentatively, "it's something I noticed about the starfighters."

"Go on," I said, asking myself why he seemed so nervous.

"I looked over the designs myself, and I have to say the F-04 seems like a great starfighter, but to me, it seems like his strengths lay in harassing enemy forces or protecting our own ships from enemy fighters. Nothing in its armament specifications portends to being able to damage even a frigate."

"Ah, I understand. Well, the F-04's, the A-Wing's job isn't to take on battleships, not even in groups. Their job is to make sure that enemy fighters can't do theirs and to escort out heavy hitters to their targets."

"What heavy hitters are you talking about, sir?"

"The YSS-10, a starfighter specially devised to damage battleships. In combination with F-04s, which will be equipped with rockets to disrupt the shielding of ships, they will be able to take out even heavy cruisers. The most common design of ships emphasizes the importance of kinetic shielding. For that reason, the hulls of the starships are weaker than our own. If a starship loses its shields, it becomes easy prey for everyone. The YSS-10 will be equipped even better than the F-04 to disrupt shielding. Furthermore, it will be able to reduce their hulls to nothing in three or four bombing runs."

"But if the disruption of shields is the most important thing, why should we even build the YSS-10? Shouldn't we concentrate on the F-04?" asked Mike.

The question was a good one, why indeed. I had discussed the subject with Admiral Wright and Takahashi dozens of times, both not seeing the need for them as well.

I couldn't very well tell them that we would probably need them against the Reapers, they would have looked at me like I had gone crazy.

The more I thought about it, the more obvious it became, at least to me. Every time the Reapers appeared and the civilizations of the galaxy fought, it was a fight of big guns against bigger guns. Naturally, the bigger ones won.

But there were scenarios where those with the bigger guns lost and that at times spectacularly. The best example would be the Death Star, one of the biggest guns in space that I knew of, and in the end, it was destroyed by a small starfighter.

It had started as an idea to have more options available in a fight, but that idea quickly became the knife in our armory. Why try to cut through armor with a sword when you can stick a knife through the seams?

Someone once said that space battles were like battles between armies on earth when humans just started to use rifles to fight. Two sides, both standing in the open, trying to hit each other and not get hit in return.

One may argue that the Salarians were fighting as I wanted us to, but in my opinion, they didn't. They fought like the Turians, battleship against battleship, or used a needle coated in poison, a single strike to bring everything down.

"The question is a good one, Mike," I started. "I want us to have more options available. While the YSS-10's job is to take out battleships in close combat so that our ships are not in too much danger, they can also be used in atmospheric combat. They can easily be modified for air support to help our troops on the ground."

"I think I understand, sir. It's less because we need them than that the Alliance is still trying to figure out which tools we will need in the future and how our military doctrine should adapt," said Mike.

"If you want to see it that way, yes. We are still new to true space battles, and we don't really know what we need to pacify an enemy colony.

But enough of that, how are our mining operations going? And did you hear anything about that absurd bill to prohibit the use of drones?"

"Our survey teams found dozens of planets with enough resources to maintain the Alliance's growth for another decade or two. Furthermore, they found an enormous deposit of E-Zero on one of the moons in the Abraxas system. It's outside the relay network, so only our mining ships can go there."

"That's great," I said, "anything else?"

"There is one thing, but I don't know what to make of it," said Mike confusedly.

"And what is it?" I urged him to continue.

"The survey teams found remnants of some kind of superstructure. The first results from the carbon dating tell us that the ruins are around 150.000 years old. Much older than anything that we found from the Protheans. The theory is that there were older civilizations around, and they ceased to exist as the Protheans did."

"Yet, that can't be all, right? You wouldn't be so skeptical if it were just old ruins," I asked.

"No, not that alone," agreed Mike. "It's the fact that deep surface scans revealed that it couldn't have been more than a small city, and it was the only one on the planet. The system hasn't been completely surveyed, but there were no signs of other ruins. Besides, there were eezo traces in the ruins, which led to the conjecture that they were a spacefaring species."

"Still nothing wrong with that. There have been probably dozens of galactic civilizations since the big bang."

Probably hundreds if not thousands, if you look at the number of Reapers.

"We have surveyed most of the star cluster but have yet to find even a single secondary relay. That is what I don't understand. The only two possibilities are that this civilization either had something like the DR-drive themselves or that someone moved the Relays away since we found no evidence to them being destroyed."

That stopped me short.

I didn't even entertain the possibility that this civilization invented something like the DR-drive. The Reapers went to great lengths to make sure that the major civilizations of each cycle would find the remnants of their predecessors and with them the Mass Effect technology and the Relays. Humanity would have done the same if I hadn't intervened.

Yet, the thought that the Reapers would move the relays intrigued me. Why would they do something like that?

The answer came to me like a hit to the head. The Reapers wanted civilizations to thrive so that they could harvest them one day.

They would choose which species was to lead the new cycle and then place the relays in a way that would lead to the ruins of their predecessors and to the growing civilizations of their designated successors. At the same time, they would prevent that the ruins of older civilizations were found, stopping the questions of what happened to them, and that other species could evolve on planets far away from the relay network.

"That's truly interesting," I said slowly, my thoughts still on this matter. "Have we found similar ruins somewhere else?"

"Not that I know of, sir. But we haven't looked very closely either. There were some rumors a few years ago that something had been found in a system close to the Olympus system, but I don't know if it's true or not."

"Get someone to follow that rumor then. Find out if it's true and if it is, start to look in the other systems close by," I ordered.

"I will contact some people as soon as possible."

I had never considered the possibility that ruins of civilizations older than the Protheans still existed. I knew, of course, that even the Protheans learned from their predecessors but didn't pay it any mind before.

If we could find those older ruins, they could become a great benefit to the Alliance since Citadel law stated that only Prothean ruins had to be shared among the Citadel species. There was no mention of other civilizations. To be sure, I would get a lawyer to look over that particular law to close all potential loopholes.

"And what about the bill?" I asked, returning to the conversation at hand.

The bill banning the use of autonomic drones had been a pain in the arse for me since it was brought up in a public discussion concerning the topic of artificial intelligence.

One opinion was that the way how we used drones for construction, and especially mining with minimal user input, could be counted as a form of artificial intelligence. They droned on and on that if we didn't prohibit the use of drones, it could hurt our chances of joining the Citadel one day.

Utter bullshit, in my opinion. They were, at best, highly sophisticated VIs, and nobody could tell me something different. The drones could not learn and evolve by themselves, and that was a sign of an AI.

I quickly found out that the rumor, for that, was it and nothing else, had been spread by one of my business rivals that couldn't keep up with me as long as I used these drones. By the time I moved against him and showed my displeasure with his actions, the rumor had gained the attention of others, business and political enemies alike. Ever since then, I had done to crush any motion that could see my drones banned. Yet, sometimes someone thought themselves clever to try again, just like now.

But it would be stopped like always because I had a big bag of tricks, full of blackmail, threats, bribery, and favors owed.

And I had one more trick, one of my favorites, one that I hated when it was used against me, but couldn't deny its effectiveness...

"The bill has been stopped before it could be even discussed more than once. We managed to bury them in so much red tape that it will take a year or two before anyone thinks about the bill again."

...bureaucracy and paperwork.

It's very effective when used correctly.

"Wonderful!" I exclaimed, a smile spreading on my face, banishing the annoyance I felt, whenever that topic was brought up.

"That should be all for today. Or is there something else that you would like to bring up, Mike?"

"Not at the moment, sir. If you'll excuse me, I will start to contact some people."

Not a moment after I did so, Mike was out of my office, and the moment the door closed with a hiss, I pushed a button on the underside of my desk. The door locked shut with a click, and a quiet humming echoed through the room. With a quick look at my Omni-tool, I could see that all signals in and out of the room were blocked.

I grabbed one of the datapads that displayed nothing more than a standard form for one thing or another, and while holding the flat of my hand on the display, I said: "Fac quod necesse est."

When I took my hand off the datapad, the display had changed. It didn't show a form anymore. Instead, it showed files upon files about the beginning research of Dr. Constantin Shayle.

The good doctor had been truly a blessing, excentric as hell but just as talented and intelligent.

And that was why I had given him a special task.

Officially, he worked on gene-mods for the Alliance military, nothing that would get us in trouble with the Citadel or our own population.

Inofficially, he worked on the 'Orion-Project', our very own supersoldier program.

Surgery, advanced gene-modification, and experimental armor, everything we needed to recreate the Spartan program from the Halo universe, fell in his field of research.

Of course, we wouldn't recreate the Spartan-IIs or Spartan-IIIs, but the IVs were definitely possible.

The research would probably take decades, but it would help us to be prepared.

After all, the galaxy might be peaceful right now, but to me, it felt like it was just the calm before the storm.

How long we would be waiting for the storm, wasn't something I knew, but he would come.