Over eight years have past since I first posted this story. I have not felt the drive to continue in so long. Relegating to reviewing stories and given advice/betaing for others. Now, with Disney+ and one of my favorite authors continuing his gargoyles saga back, I have received a much needed shot of inspiration. How long it will last, I can't say for certain but I'll take advantage of this as far as I can.

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Chapter 2: Ancient History.

Manhattan, New York City, New York, Earth

11:59pm. December 1, 1999.

On the top of the Empire State Building, under the soft glow of the full moon, two being in elegant white locked lips in full embrace. Relishing the wonderful moment as this night will forever be marked as grand. Through five years of trials and dangers. Facing threats of mundane and mystic in nature. All culminated to this moment.

This night.

One of the First Race. One of the Second Race. A gargoyle and a human...have become mates.

"The first of its kind in five thousand years."

Blocks away on a rooftop of a simple office high rise beyond notice of the united sat an individual in black with a drink in hand held up high in toast.

"Goliath. Elisa. Congrats on finally breaking that streak." In one shot, the glass was emptied of its content before vanishing from grasp. "And you two can break an even greater streak. But you're holding yourselves back. Fear. A bit of uncertainty." Vanish in the air the seat went as the figure amble to the edge of the building as if toward the couple. "And a preconceived belief that it could never be. Very understandable." A tilt of the head to the right. "But utterly unnecessary. You two just require a small push. And a push you've just received."

At those words, the pair made their way off the Empire State to return to the Castle for the rest of the festivities.

"Enjoy the….honeymoon? Heh. A human custom Goliath wouldn't mind indulging in, most certainly."

Tonight was a night only a few would ever know as truly momentous on this planet. But there are those who would see the occasion in a negative way. An afront to nature, they'd yell to the stars.

"Which reminds me: there are still a number of loose threads that need to be addressed before I make my announcement. And what a beautiful night it is to tackle them." The shadows stretched out toward the lone figure. The roof now vacant.

Normandy Hanger, Asteroid Ring, Sanctuary System

17:38 Ship Time. January 24, 2186. Two hours after arrival

"We can set additional defense drones on the supports." Miranda pointed above to the girders, specifically the areas that would give the best vantage points. "Keep them concealed so not to give off any ill impression." she was in a panic. Something only witness before on Illium though she was more controlled here than back then.

It was standard regulations within the Alliance (and all governments) to assume hostile upon First Contact with another advance civilization. So standing just opposite of Miranda is Jacob on Shepard's left. Pistol holstered with his arms cup back but ready to draw it at a moments notice. Standing behind him at the appropriate distance are three security at attention with rifles in stand-by fashion.

The entire hanger bay has been rearranged with everything moved to the port side as the starboard side has been made as clear as can be for the foreign shuttle's arrival. The raised stands and cooling units all lowered with the Normandy's only two vehicles moved to the side.

Up on Deck 4 formed an audience from many curious crew members and others. Tali, Garrus, Grunt, Zaeed, Thane, Samara, even Jack. Mordin and Legion seems to have chosen to view the event through the security cams like the other crew members who could leave their post. Kasumi is no doubt watching this in her own way: under cloak.

'I trust her not to do anything that could jeopardize this.'

Shepard tugged the collar of his Cerberus-issued officer's dress. He hates this thing. He has refused to wear it and all the other Cerberus issued uniforms. Electing to wear casual when out of his armor. Unique circumstances was the only reason he chose to work with Cerberus despite the crimes they've done. But he wasn't going to conform to any of their standards.

Once again, unique circumstances played against him. He couldn't present himself in casual on such an auspicious moment and give out a rude impression. So he stored away his pride and donned the black uniform. He did get the Cerberus logos removed and the Alliance logo patched in their place to make it somewhat tolerable to wear.

"They'll be here in a few minutes, Miranda." Shepard reasoned with his XO. "We've taken as much precaution already without coming off as too hostile. If this breaks down, well, we've faces great odd with little intel before."

Miranda returned his remark with a piercing stare. "I'm concerned with how they know about us at all."

Shepard didn't get the chance to form a reply before Joker came on the intercom.

"Commander, shuttle from the Lamorak is on approach. Ready to roll out the welcome mat down there?"

The Lamorak. Another oddity. EDI's search in the ship's banks shows that Lamorak is a name in Arthurian legend and backed by Kasumi when she brought up one of her books centered around said legend.

"On our best behavior people. We don't want to start an interspecies incident here...not this early, anyway." Little light humor always helped at easing the stress among the crew. Though Shepard was under no delusion that it was more for his benefit than them.

Not only was he representing the Human Systems Alliance (Unofficially) but with his Spectre status reinstated he also represents the Citadel Council. Despite the aggravating misgivings and bureaucratic stonewalling, he wasn't going to personally tarnish the Council's image. Not when the galaxy if under eminent threat of extinction.

The ship's atmosphere barrier came up over the hanger entrance as the ramp lowered down and from the corner came into view the shuttle ferrying the group that will open the first in what will no doubt be a series of talks.

As the shuttle came into view, Shepard started inspection its features. It was almost as long as two Kodiak shuttles and a bit wider with a height equal to the hammerhead when in operation. Like its home ship, its a strange complement of silver and a coloring that looks almost like granite. Its design a surprising mix of graceful curves and strong angles not too unlike how asari and turian design their vessels. But the overall vessel was nothing like either two. In a rather strange way, this shuttle looked almost human in make.

As the shuttle came to land, Shepard instantly took notice of the landing gear. Rather, how they came out. Small sections from under the nose of the craft and the back seem to melt off and drain down to the floor before going solid as a cross shaped plate. And that was it. There's no strut linking the plate with the main body. Though he did notice a strange green field between the two that seem to contort as the shuttle powered down.

'Liquid metal? Nanotech held up by energy shields?'

The port side of the shuttle began to 'liquefy' revealing that section as a hatch which immediately turned into a ramp for the occupant to walk out.

'Here we go.'

The first to walk out are two honor guards. As expected. They wore full body hardsuits with featureless enclosed helmets compete with black tinted visors colored a basic navy blue and black carrying rifles of an unusual but ergonomic design with red illuminated section in typical stand-by fashion. Shepard even spotted a badge on each of their collar guards. Denoting their individual rank, most likely.

What truly stood out among the two were their differing builds. One stood at around 5'9 and has the general silhouette of a human male. His comrade stood at least 6'10 on digitigrade legs that end in four toes and his helmet is shaped in a way that closely resembles canines. Neither of them have wings or tails.

'Multiple species!? Something like the Citadel Council? This just got more complicated.'

Next down the walk was Ms. Maza in a sky blue dress uniform of some sort. Simple in design with a single breast pocket on her left side and decorative buttons and belt. Pants reach down to wrap around the top of her high heeled shoes. Her wings hang low behind her with the thumb-like strut sticking out of the top resting a pair of shoulder boards designed with said appendages in mind. It almost looks like a cape.

The last occupant to come out was heard first. Footsteps like the clopping of horse hooves. Upon emerging out of the craft in full view did Shepard's breath stop for a moment as he stared in genuine surprise.

- - - - - - - - - – - -

Engineering Deck

"No fucking way!"

The non-human crew were surprised by the appearance of the forth guest on the ship. First Contact with multiple species at once is something that, while postulated, is such an astronomically small chance of ever occurring that its waved away as a general impossibility. And yet, one deck below, four different species just came out of an alien shuttle. To say this is momentous would undersell it.

"Jack?" Garrus turned to see the ex-con of the team after her rather uncharacteristically restrained outburst. Pressing her hands against the window with a look on her face that clearly says abject shock from what he has seen of human facial expression. A look shared by the rest of the humans. He could see why. Lower half aside, that alien looks remarkably human.

Even Kasumi was so surprised that she dropped her cloak standing next to Zaeed. The mercenary himself actually dropped his aloof demeanor at the sight of this alien who has grabbed his attention entirely.

"That's impossible. He looks like a – a." Garrus turned again to his opposite side Engineer Daniels staring at the forth individual with a bigger look of shock on her face and a quivering hand pointing at the alien through the window. With the ship 'parked' in place, there was less need for her overseeing the propulsion system so she got the free time necessary to personally witness the meeting with the rest.

Tali stood next to the stunned engineer and place a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Breathe, Gabby. What's wrong?"

Daniels turned to Tali for a second before returning to stare down the window. "Th-He looks EXACTLY like a-"

- – - - - – - – - - – - - – - - - – - - -

Hanger Bay

'A centaur!'

There was simply no other word to describe this alien's appearance. And by the faint gasp he heard to his sides, even Miranda and Jacob shared the same thought.

Upper half is that of a human. Clear Mediterranean features with an olive tan and brown eye. His black hair slick back in a professional crew cut with small signs of grey and matching beard cut of long stubble. Draped in a dark navy blue uniform with a number of pins and badges on his chest's left side and a green sash coming down from his right shoulder.

His lower half was that of a horse. Robe-like pants of identical blue covering just under the knees leaving his hooves for all to see and an opening in the back allows his tail to swish in the air freely.

It was a creature of myth in modern attire! There was simply no other way for the humans of the ship to see it.

The guests made their approach and Shepard filed all the questions racing in his head away for later. Right now he had to keep up a professional pretense, so he stood up at proper attention put on his most diplomatic tone.

"Welcome aboard. I am Lieutenant Commander Ryan Shepard. Commanding Officer of the SR-2 Normandy." He held up his arm to greet the group. The handshake greeting is an etiquette shared across most species and if these people know of Earth, they'd recognize it.

It was the centaur who reciprocated the greeting. However instead of taking his hand, he shook his wrist.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Commander." he replied in a cordial tone keeping his expression impartial. "I am Captain Alexios Nassnos. Commanding Officer of the TAV Lamorak." He pointed to the young lady. "You have already met Cadet Maza."

The winged woman gave a casual salute with an innocent smile on her face.

"A cadet?"

"Till a proper diplomatic team arrives, she will assist in these preliminary talks as she's the only one with the proper Contact training onboard." Nassnos explained.

"Plus, my background makes me an obvious pick." Maza interjected. Her comment eliciting curious looks.

"I assume you have a proper briefing room on this ship?" Nassnos received a nod of confirmation. He looked past the three. "But I doubt your lift is large enough to support us all."

"I admit that it would be impossible to fit all you all and ourselves inside at once." Shepard said.

"Then the initial talks will be had here. Cadet, set the table."

Maza removed a small, hand size device from her belt. It almost looked like an omni-tool. Normandy security tensed but kept their rifles down. She fiddled with the device before, cautiously, moving between Shepard and Nassnos. Holding out the device directly in the middle.

The device fell an inch from her hand when she let go before arresting its own descent. A small disc came off form the bottom and slowing fell to the floor. The sides of the device open and metal slides rotate outward to make a round table top with the upper half of the device resting center. Rising out from the sides of the floating table was more of that amorphous metal that took the form of two stands with a bowl on top of each. White spheres appeared floating just above the bowls.

Shepard could not help but be intrigue by their technology.

"Now then.." Nassnos manipulated the device at the center and a detailed 3D scale projection of a well known object came up. "...What exactly is this construct that your ship came out of?"

'They don't know what a Mass Relay is!' This revelation carried many implications. If they don't know about Mass Relays, could it be that they don't use Mass Effect technology?

Their ship was moving at speeds similar to that of modern cruisers given the dense asteroid fields and it had barriers since the rocks were visibly moved out of the way without making contact to the hull.

That and more questions for another time.

"Its called a Mass Relay." Shepard explained placid and conscientiously. "It one of many spanning the galaxy in a network. It allows for mass transit at near instantaneously speeds to another relay within the network."

The spheres changed from white to a greener coloration. Nassnos regarded the color change before nodding.

"What is your purpose in our system? How did you activate this relay from afar?" he was being direct. This is turning more into an interrogation but Shepard remained the picture of control. If the situation was reverse, this would play out identically.

"Actually, it wasn't our intention to travel here." Shepard gave him the truth. He eyed the spheres still green in coloration and guessed what they were. "We don't know how we got here. Or where even this system is. From what little we gathered, this relay was enclosed in an asteroid. I assume you detected that yourselves?"

Nassnos nodded.

"There is nothing like this in my ships archives to explain what has happened but I assure you, we don't mean any hostilities with your people."

The captain looked at the sphere. Still the green color. He and the young cadet gave each other curious looks. The two guard even turned their head to give a side glace at themselves.

"Too forward." Miranda whispered in Shepard's ear now that the guests are distracted. Making her displeasure at the Commander's honest approach clear.

Before he could defend his tactic, Nassnos drew the meeting back. "One final question before I allow Cadet Maza handle the rest. Our scans detected the presence of non-human entities." He looked up past them. Shepard followed his sight toward the overlook windows on Deck Four and the non-human team members watching before moving back towards the Captain, still observing. Even Cadet Maza joined in with a subtle look of wonder on her face. The two guards were hard to tell but he did notice how their heads were raised a little higher.

"Have the humans of Earth learned not to fear and hate those who appear different from them? Letting go of the blind bigotry and baseless xenophobia?"

The allegation in his voice came off like a gust. As if speaking from personal experience. His eyes turned sharp, as if ready for the reason to pass some sort of final judgment on the accused.

The cadet took on a more solemn posture. Her eyes falling to the floor.

Their sudden antipathetic demeanor threw Shepard off. What exactly set off such a shift? Their question clearly indicates that they have had contact with the humans of Earth at some point. And since Captain Nassnos resembles the typical depictions of a centaur to a fault, its more than likely they have been to Earth in the past. And the people of the time did not treat them well.

But that just raises even more questions on top of other.

Shepard took a deep, silent breath. "There are still those who hold on to such sentiment. Anti-alien groups. Pro-human organizations. Even when we were introduced to the greater galaxy, there are still those who are distrustful of non-human on the simple grounds that they aren't humans. But there are also those who see that see the benefit of working together with them. How there is more to gain by cooperating and understanding one another than closing off from everything. And those people are in the majority. The non-humans are here by choice. Some I even call my best friends."

The sphere's remained green.

Nassnos held any reaction. Kept his face neutral and stared at Shepard for a few tense second before breaking the silence. "I appreciate your honesty, Commander. Though your troth of words may contradict with the reality." He left that piece to ponder.

He stepped back from the table and the young Cadet took his place. "Commander Shepard. Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Cadet Natalie Serenity Maza of the Trinity Alliance Military. I'm sure you have about a million question just swirling around your heads and we will try to answer them in due time. I will answer one question you have." She indicates to her captain. "Yes, Captain Nassnos is indeed a centaur like those in Greek myths and legends." She paused as to let the information to sink in.

Shepard just stared wide as he turned to examine the captain who was staring at the cadet with a critical eye.

"How do you know so much!?" the Commander whirled his head to his XO who has let her composure slip after restraining her desire to know how it was that a foreign civilization knew so much about Earth. "How can you possibly know about Earth? And about our myths? How can he [points to Alexios] be a centaur!?"

"Stand down, Lawson!" Shepard took note at how the guards where getting ready for things to turn. His security responding equally.

Miranda looked at the hard resolve of her CO. He rarely addresses her by her last name and in most cases it was during serious situation. She stood back two steps and donned the face of professionalism. And Shepard apologized on her behalf.

Maza stayed silent while that played out with a befuddled expression that made it seem as if she wanted to step out. "Putting that drama aside. Commander, I believe you can see that this entire affairs is ground shaking. Magnitude 10,000 how huge this is."

Commander Shepard raised an eye brow at her elucidation.

Counting off with her fingers. "A ship from Earth arrived in system through an alien station that seems to have been here since always with a couple of aliens in the crew. The only way other surprise you can throw is if this ship can transform."

It took an immense amount of will for Shepard to keep his face blank after being throw that image. Imagining Joker cheering to high heaven with a quick remark at key moments at the very thought of the sarcastic pilot in the helm of a transforming Normandy filled him with enough whimsy as it did a pinch of dread. Yet he managed to keep his face blank.

Jacob flattered if the short snicker coming his direction is any indication.

"High command will have questions. So will everyone else within the Triumvron. And we can't forget the evil that is the press who will claw and peck their way to get even an image of you guys. I'm sure that giant tuning fork is being blasted on every news channel and public forums with rampant speculations coming by the thousands every second.

Now my paycheck isn't big enough to inform me how they will proceed, since I'm not even getting paid for this, but I can surmise that your ship will be moved to one of the high security docks. Give the people assurance that the government is handling this. We've always known that the time will come when we end up establishing contact with Earth. Naysayers aside, at least. Hard as it is, please try to cooperate with us as much as you can allow yourselves.

Please cooperate with me."

Chocolate locked onto frost blue as Commander Shepard stared at the determined but soft eyes. This girl is way over her head but she wants to make this work even though this was just testing the water for the real talks. However, he has seen more than his fair share to know that this meeting held a deeper, personal significance to her.

'She claims they've been expecting a meeting with Earth for a while now. With how much they know about our ancient history, they've been there before. Exactly how long ago was this? Why did they stop? Exactly how far are we from Sol if they have traveled their with no knowledge of relays?'

More questions formulated in his head the more intel the locals reveal. Vague as they are. Still, he went back to his training in how to proceed with First Contact.

"I will cooperate with the….Trinity Alliance- " He guessed that was the government in charge. " without compromising my oath to the Human System's Alliance. My primary condition is that any questions is to be directed towards me or my XO when unavailable. Any talks your government wants with the humans in my crew must first have my permission and their consent. For the non-human, only the latter applies.

And though my presence in your system wasn't our intention, I am expected by my superiors to report back within an allotted time. Understand that the Normandy can't remain here for very long. So if your people think they can keep us for week or months, well, I recommend they rethink that."

A promise of participation with a veiled warning at the end. A passive aggressive approach is something only used in specific, critical situations. The events just a few hours ago, though not directly related to this, still apply.

Maza gave a quick glance at the sphere. They haven't changed color.

"I can't make any promises, Commander. But everything discussed here will be reviewed and taken into account. The questions will be about Earth as a whole. The Human Systems Alliance you mentioned. The relation with the other inhabitants of this galaxy. And many more. But I want to start this with a question that a bit personal.

What year is it on Earth in the Gregorian Calendar?"

Shepard's answer left Natalie stunned into silence.

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I began this with inspiration and the drive to write. And as I near the end of this chapter days later, it like the light faded within me.

I don't know or understand what happened. All I can say is this and other stories aren't dead cause I refuse to see them die as long as a pulse still courses in me.

When is the next chapter? When will I update my other stories? I can't say cause even I don't know. But I won't stop trying to put my thoughts into writing.