Airquotes - Mass Effect SI

[Strunkriidiisk]

Chapter 1

I resisted the urge to rub at my face in exasperation. The human ambassador was being as much of an intractable spur-ache as ever, and furthermore this 'tribunal' was far too rushed. It had been barely a few standard days since the Geth attack on the Eden Prime human colony, and less than that since C-Sec had been able to put an investigation together.

Spirits take it, I'd been working on getting the investigators some limited access to Spectre records so they could actually do their damned jobs - Saren might have been a friend, but that didn't afford him any special treatment. I'd been pushing for greater accountability to be required of Spectres since I'd been appointed to the Council, but Tevos - ever the conservative, and damn her patronizing attitude - had stonewalled me with 'arguments' that the Spectres had been fine without such for centuries, and Valern consistently kept her side. Even now, Tevos worked to keep the boat from rocking: Saren was an effective Spectre, and him getting genuinely in trouble would make the Council look bad, she claimed. So the so-called 'tribunal' was pushed forward; there was no solid evidence, the humans would be laughed out, and everything would go back to normal.

Except I knew it wouldn't, because the humans were right, and we were all doomed.

"The Geth attack is a matter of some concern," Tevos said placidly, "but there is nothing to indicate that Spectre Arterius was in any way involved."

I gritted my teeth for a moment. "Citadel Security's investigation has not turned up any evidence to support your charge of treason against him," I added, with veiled irritation at my fellow Councilor.

"An eyewitness saw him kill Nihlus in cold blood!" And there was the ambassador. Truly I had no idea why the Systems Alliance thought his appointment was a good idea. The man seemed to embody the frustrations I had with Humanity - he wanted the galaxy with very little offered in return. Humans had been part of the galactic community for less than thirty years, and yet individuals like Udina seemed to believe they deserved anything and everything when they'd done nothing to deserve such.

"We've read the reports, Ambassador," Valern replied. "The testimony of a single traumatized dockworker is hardly compelling proof."

"I resent these accusations," commented Saren, his holographic representation - and the FTL-linked camera floating in his 'head' - turning to regard us. He hadn't yet looked at the humans. "Nihlus was a fellow Spectre, and a friend."

"That just let you catch him off guard!" Captain Anderson. I remembered him. Former Spectre candidate himself. The circumstances behind his disqualification had been falsified, I knew, but there hadn't been evidence of Saren's wrongdoing then either.

Saren turned, and smirked slightly at the human. I imagined that Tevos or Valern might have caught it, but other races found our expressions hard to read. I doubted they cared, even if they had. "Captain Anderson. You always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me." He cast a disinterested eye over the smaller frame of the human woman standing at the captain's side. "And this must be your protege, Commander Shepard. The one who let the beacon be destroyed."

Shepard bristled. "The mission to Eden Prime was top secret," she shot back. "The only way you could know about the beacon was if you were there!" I suppressed a sigh. The humans were playing into Saren's hands. Getting agitated wouldn't serve to strengthen their claim against him.

"With Nihlus gone, his files passed on to me," Saren replied, patronizingly. That was, unfortunately, a solid excuse; all Council Spectres were to designate at least one other to be the recipient of any of their files on ongoing missions, such that if they were killed in action valuable intelligence wouldn't be lost, and I knew that Saren had been in line for Nihlus's. "I read the Eden Prime report, and I was unimpressed. But really, what can one expect from a human?

"Your species needs to learn its place, Shepard," Saren continued. "You're not ready to join the Council; you aren't even ready to join the Spectres."

"He has no right to say that!" Udina was flushing noticeably, and his composure seemed entirely departed as he shouted. "That's not his decision to make!"

I interjected firmly. "The Commander's admission to the Spectres or lack thereof is not the purpose of this meeting." I passed a cold glance at Saren for a moment. "Though the ambassador has a point, Spectre Arterius: that decision is none of your concern."

Saren's mandibles were pinched close over his jaw, and they twitched; it was a tic I recognized, meaning he felt irritated. "This meeting has no purpose," he returned, curtly. "The humans have no proof; they are wasting your time, Councilors. And mine as well."

"Saren is hiding behind his position as a Spectre," the small human woman declared hotly. "You need to open your eyes!" She was right, and I knew that, but her attitude was beginning to grate. I felt irrationally affronted as a turian to be subjected to this arguing without proper evidence, even though I knew it wasn't her fault that there was no hard evidence to go on.

"What we need is evidence," Valern said. "So far, we have seen nothing."

"There is still one outstanding issue," Anderson came back with. "Commander Shepard's vision. It may have been triggered by the beacon." I couldn't help but wonder if Anderson realized how absurd that had to sound to an uninformed party like my fellow Councilors. I idly toyed with the idea of getting an asari into the meeting to confirm Shepard's vision, but decided against it. The Reaper vision didn't have anything relevant to the matter at hand, and I doubted that just any Asari would be able to parse the information as anything useful anyway. Best to let that wait for another day.

"Are we allowing dreams into evidence now?" Saren was fairly sneering, and his tone was biting. "How can I defend my innocence against this kind of testimony?"

"Our judgement must be based in facts and tangible evidence," I declared, looking hard at the Human commander. "Your 'vision'" - I resisted the faint urge to use airquotes - "is dubious at best without any corroboration."

Tevos then stepped back up. "Do you have anything else to bring forth, Commander?"

"No," Shepard replied bitterly. "I can see you've made your decision. I won't waste my breath."

Tevos nodded, a look of probably false sympathy carefully arrayed on her face. She and Valern then both looked over at me, and after a moment I reluctantly relented, shaking my head slightly. She acknowledged me, and said: "The Council has found no evidence of any connection between Spectre Arterius and the Geth. Your petition for his suspension from the Spectres is denied, Ambassador."

Saren fairly radiated smug satisfaction. "I'm glad to see justice was served." He nodded at us, looking for a moment longer at me than the others.

"Councilors. Good day." His hologram winked out, and the FTL camera floated away through an opening in the wall.

"This meeting is now adjourned," Valern said, and we filed out. I was last, and I glanced over to see Shepard turned away and talking indistinctly with her captain and the ambassador. There was some agitated waving of hands on Udina's part.

After a moment of consideration, I opened my omnitool with a flicking motion of my wrist. I tapped out a short message, and then sent it in a quick point-to-point communication with her omnitool after I quickly pinged the IDs of the 'tools in the area to find hers. I saw the commander activate her omnitool as Anderson and Udina departed, then jolt slightly and glance back at me. I gave a single short, slight nod, and then strode off toward my office.

I believe you. Find evidence.

---

I got back to my office, rubbing tiredly at the bridge of my nose. I passed by the desk of my adjutant, the younger, barefaced male diligently tapping away at his console and preparing my itinerary for the next week. I offered him a reserved nod in greeting. "Tacitus."

He glanced up. "Councilor Sparatus, sir," he replied crisply. "Did the meeting go well, might I ask?"

I sighed lightly. "It went as expected. I know he's likely too busy to talk, but can you communicate my apologies to Executor Pallin?"

Tacitus nodded. "Certainly, sir."

"Thank you, Tacitus," I replied genuinely, smiling slightly for a moment. Then I passed into my office.

My office space, as the humans would say, was rather Spartan. A desk, computer console and chair for work, a couple of small doors leading off to a closet and a QEC booth, and a comfortable - if slightly worn - couch and pair of chairs off to the side for guests. The only decorations were an antique sword I'd hung on the wall - an anniversary gift, that - a small holoprojector that flicked through stills of my family back on Palaven - I reminded myself that my niece's boot camp was coming up soon, and I'd have to find time to attend the going-away party - and a suit of armour sitting on a stand in the corner - fully functional, because I liked to be prepared. There was a nice view of the Presidium through the office's large windows.

I went over to my desk and pulled a decanter of brandy and a tumbler out of a drawer, then poured myself a measure of the alcohol and went to sit on my couch. I swirled the liquor around a little, and thought. It was finally happening. The Reapers were coming, and all I could do was try and smooth Shepard's way.

The Council wasn't the be-all-end-all of galactic politics. We were supposed to represent our race's interests in the Galaxy, but ultimately I was an advisor to the Primarch, if a high-level and respected one. I couldn't simply order the Turian military-industrial complex to ramp up production of materiel, or expand the armed forces; I could advise the Primarch to order such, but without a clear and unambiguous threat there was little reason to take such advice seriously, and the Turian military hadn't had a major mobilization other than general peacekeeping and pirate-hunting since the Relay 314 incident - and even that had been too small and short-lived to amount to anything.

I hoped, inwardly, that Shepard might release the Rachni into the galaxy and not kill the queen on - I grimaced; I couldn't remember where the rachni queen was. Couldn't remember any of the particulars of what Shepard was supposed to do.

But still, the Rachni; that might get me some actual leverage to get things in motion. And wasn't that a terrifying thought: Rachni, loose in the galaxy again, and I only had vague memory to tell me that they wouldn't kill us all.

There I sat, mulling possibilities over in my mind and sipping at expensive alcohol, for the next hour. After that, I needed to get back to work, and I returned to my desk to draft my report on the Council's deliberation.

 

[Strunkriidiisk]

This is undoubtedly a terrible idea.

 

[NakedFury]

Really that is all you would do? No offing anybody? No amassing some army to cut off a canon plot, just go with the flow?

how disappointing.

 

[Wolfund]

since this is something I had in my own basket of Idea.
You have my curiosity.

 

[Strunkriidiisk]

Really that is all you would do? No offing anybody? No amassing some army to cut off a canon plot, just go with the flow?

how disappointing.

Click to shrink...

1) Who would I 'off' that would would actually come to prominence in time for me to do so before becoming a highly-visible political figure? Saren wouldn't have been in the same military service as me, Benezia was a highly respected matriarch (also not crazy), both of them would be much more able to kill me than I them. The Illusive Man is, well, elusive, and taking out the Shadow Broker would be difficult at best and both would create all new problems. Ain't shit I can do about Sovereign, because I A) don't know where it was and B) wouldn't have been able to deal with it on my lonesome. Shall I go on?

2) Do you suggest I pull said army out of my butt? People tend to notice if a military unit goes AWOL (that's ignoring problems with getting them to defect in the first place); major merc groups are established and setting a new one up without being shut down by the bigger players would be difficult at best, taking one over would be functionally impossible, and mercs aren't particularly loyal anyway. The only way to actually gain de facto free control over any significant military force would basically be becoming the Primarch. And fucked if I know how, other than that high-ranking military personnel are in the line of succession apparently.

 

[Night_stalker]

Really that is all you would do? No offing anybody? No amassing some army to cut off a canon plot, just go with the flow?

how disappointing.

Click to shrink...

Heck, send Saren off on a mission to contact the Collectors.

No Reaper IFF means no worries.

 

[Generic_Generica]

You had my curiosity but now you have my attention.

Proceed.

 

[NakedFury]

1) Who would I 'off' that would would actually come to prominence in time for me to do so before becoming a highly-visible political figure? Saren wouldn't have been in the same military service as me, Benezia was a highly respected matriarch (also not crazy), both of them would be much more able to kill me than I them. The Illusive Man is, well, elusive, and taking out the Shadow Broker would be difficult at best and both would create all new problems. Ain't shit I can do about Sovereign, because I A) don't know where it was and B) wouldn't have been able to deal with it on my lonesome. Shall I go on?

2) Do you suggest I pull said army out of my butt? People tend to notice if a military unit goes AWOL (that's ignoring problems with getting them to defect in the first place); major merc groups are established and setting a new one up without being shut down by the bigger players would be difficult at best, taking one over would be functionally impossible, and mercs aren't particularly loyal anyway. The only way to actually gain de facto free control over any significant military force would basically be becoming the Primarch. And fucked if I know how, other than that high-ranking military personnel are in the line of succession apparently.

Click to shrink...

Saren.

Eden Prime would have been easy to find once info of humans colonizing it came and it would have been easy affect things there.


Apparently your SI spent decades sitting and sipping Turian tea.

 

[CrunchySharpie]

Watched with interest.

This is an interesting perspective to see Mass Effect from and basically forces a very, diplomatic and bureaucratic story by having councilor Sparatus be the PoV. He can't leave his post, he's very much so forced to play the chess master while dodging his fellow councilers and maybe pulling some serious social-fu to get the galaxy up to snuff for the Reapers.

My question is; What exactly is this? SI? Reincarnation? There's a very Turian mindset to this with the character emotionally involved with their family which sort of rules out SI, but they have extensive information on events that haven't happened. So either it's you reincarnated into Sparatus body and having lived through his experiences, or Sparatus' mind was sent back in time from at least the end Of ME3 to the beginning of ME1.

I like this idea, I like the possibility of an future aware player running politics in the background making the MC's job easier and I really, really like where this is going. Till the next chapter my friend.

Apparently your SI spent decades sitting and sipping Turian tea.

Click to shrink...

If its a time travel fic with Sparatus getting sent back to just after the Eden massacre then you could hand wave that concern away.

 

[Dragonvx100]

Saren.

Eden Prime would have been easy to find once info of humans colonizing it came and it would have been easy affect things there.


Apparently your SI spent decades sitting and sipping Turian tea.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, lets have a very likely non military trained individual try to assassinate the highly trained and best overall black ops special force individual in an entire galactic community... There is absolutely nothing that could go wrong with that Fury.

 

[Strunkriidiisk]

This is an interesting perspective to see Mass Effect from and basically forces a very, diplomatic and bureaucratic story by having councilor Sparatus be the PoV. He can't leave his post, he's very much so forced to play the chess master while dodging his fellow councilers and maybe pulling some serious social-fu to get the galaxy up to snuff for the Reapers.

Click to shrink...

That's the idea. I just hope I can do it justice.

So either it's you reincarnated into Sparatus body and having lived through his experiences

Click to shrink...

This one. Other-Me remembers the broad strokes of what went on, but he's forgotten finer details - for example, he remembers that Shepard had a vision of the Reapers and vaguely that it was scrambled around, but none of the specifics on how to fix it, and he remembers Saren going bad but not specifically Benezia (he knows there was an asari, though). Speaking of which, I need to fuzz up the Noveria detail.

The chapter itself was bashed out in a couple of hours, and I'm more or less figuring out what I'm doing along the way (well, not quite that bad, but I only started with a vague idea of what I was doing and I'm trying to work out a coherent plan now).

Yeah, lets have a very likely non military trained individual try to assassinate the highly trained and best overall black ops special force individual in an entire galactic community... There is absolutely nothing that could go wrong with that Fury.

Click to shrink...

Other-me actually is military-trained (Turians have compulsory service as requirement for citizenship), but there's a difference between 'trained as a soldier' and 'trained as a space!Green Beret while also being able to kill you with his brain.' Guess which one Saren is.

 

[kylina]

This is interesting and I like it. Basically seconding everything CrunchySharpie said

 

[devo342]

Seems promising

 

[Faith]

You.

I like you.

*adds to watch list*

I'm interested to see the kind of butterflies that come from this. Obviously Senator Airquotes is going to be hamstrung by the Council for the most part, but having someone who is both meta-aware and in such a position of prestige and power is bound to have some advantages for Shepard.

 

[Lyova]

Politics!

This seems fun. Interested to see what your character will be doing.

 

[roman566]

Seriously? You did absolutely nothing? There is a huge dreadnought running around and attacking colonies! Dreadnoughts are serious shit, there is an entire treaty limiting their construction and someone got one without ANYONE noticing. If they got one, why not two, three or couple dozens? But why bother, better sit back and sip turian tea. Shepard has it covered...

 

[Dolly Fail Fail]

Seriously? You did absolutely nothing? There is a huge dreadnought running around and attacking colonies! Dreadnoughts are serious shit, there is an entire treaty limiting their construction and someone got one without ANYONE noticing. If they got one, why not two, three or couple dozens? But why bother, better sit back and sip turian tea. Shepard has it covered...

Click to shrink...

Not "someone", the GETH, this isn't a random Joe Shmoe somehow gaining access to a dreadnought, this is a recognized and powerful AI army. The council has no control over the Geths actions, the best they could do is start a long bloody war, which would only weaken council forces when the Reapers came, as well as likely removing any chance of Geth assistance. The SI knows that Saren is evil but you know who doesn't? The other council members. Even if he told them, he has no proof, he has NOTHING, just his own word, what he could have done was get another specter on the case, but even that might draw attention.

 

[MatrosIvan]

This has potential. Already there are glimpses of what it's like to be at the top of galactic nation.

A nation is not a sports car, that sits two people, obeys even slight turn of the wheel, and if you are good, can turn on the spot.

A nation is more akin to autotrain of three strory busses. You drive one venicle out of many (the first in train if you are lucky), and not only must turn very carefuly to avoid topling your bus (and all the people in it) over, or clipping the stray lamp post, but you also must remember that the rest of the train is driven by their own drivers, how could very well have they own ideas as to where the whole thing should be going. And won't hesitate to tow you the other direction, if they think you are wrong.

 

[Guardsman_Sparky]

It's always a bit of a paradox when dealing with foreknowledge, given that the future is ever changing, and what is possible now might not be so in even a few minutes. So the problem any time traveler, reincarnation, or seer with even partial meta knowledge is: how to use it?

For one, depending on the qualities of the knowledge/memories, the person in question might just think it's a dream he had once or that he's crazy, right up until it happens, at which point they are left scrambling to try and remember what happens next.

Then there is the matter of spreading that information. If you want to disseminate information on the future, how do you go about it without being thrown in the loony bin or killed for witchcraft?

Thirdly, and perhaps the most important point, is the uncertainty of acting upon your information. What if acting on your metaknowledge means that what you know never coming to pass? What if in acting to stop something from happening, you end up making it worse in your fumbling from not knowing everything? What if by your actions, the hero, the one person who could save everyone, is killed in what should have been the start of their legend? What if, what if, what if.

Thus is the dilemma of holding metaknowledge. What do you truly know, how do you use this information, and do you dare act upon it for fear of making things worse?

 

[kylina]

I would think also that since this was a reincarnation SI, the SI growing up probably would have only a very vague and incredulous idea at being THE Councilor Sparatus. I mean seriously, we have almost nothing on the guy except he's had military training (like the rest of turian citizens), is a diplomat, is very skeptical about Shepherd's claims and did air quotes the one time.

I highly doubt that while growing up he was like, "Oh I'm totally gonna be the Citadel's Turian Councillor that would be in a position to assist with the extinction event coming up in like 20-30 years instead of the thousands other Sparatus that might be living in the planet/colony/space station/ship I'm in"

 

[shadowace2400]

HUGS FOR EVERYONE!!!!! The trauma train is incoming!!!!

 

[Hanashinobi]

You guys are assuming OP is arrogant enough to think they can solve everything themselves without help. OP is just humble enough to realize they are not as amazing as a video game protagonist and is instead trying to help said person and make her life easier. A lot of people over estimate how competent they or others would be with a little future knowledge.

 

[Serran]

Interesting. Very interesting.

You pretty much listed my points of contention with the first meeting. Udina was an A**hole, and not even in any constructive way. Anderson should have kept himself under control and the Council should have made an investigation possible. Just as bad were some of the options you get as Shepard. The entire Data transfer of the 'obviously more advanced aliens' was described as a Vision. Make it sound even more out there, why don't you add a few mushrooms that Shepard ate beforehand.

I don't know if it was intentionally, but you only described the parts that actually pertain Saren and not the response that the Council has to a rouge Dreadnought as large or larger then the Destiny Ascension. You propably can't leverage a lot from this, but it would make a good jumping of point. Make people aware of the danger that the Geth might be and increase military spending. Until you get solid evidence of the Reapers hammering on the Geth threat seems to be a viable strategy.

A solution to some of your problems, since you do not remember most central details, would be suggesting or ordering (depending on your sway with Sheppard) for everyone of his team to carry authentizised mission recorders during every deployment. It would allow you to question Sarens control of events after Noveria. Mostly if he can control indoctronation. After Virmire, where it comes out that he has scientists studying it you can pretty comfortably state that Saren has been mindcontrolled just as Benezia and has to be stopped just as she has.
WIth the additional evidence of mindcontrol on Feros you might be able to set up taskforces to develop countermeasures.

 

[Darrenb209]

Saren.

Eden Prime would have been easy to find once info of humans colonizing it came and it would have been easy affect things there.


Apparently your SI spent decades sitting and sipping Turian tea.

Click to shrink...

They are very much in character as the Turian councilor then.

It'll be interesting to see where the story goes.

 

[BlindLine153]

Well this is watched