Chapter 8

"I am Ambassador Donnel Udina, and these are Diplomats Garsea Brewer and Krystof Lugus. Our goal is to end the current hostilities between the Turian Hierarchy and the Human Systems Alliance, as well as establish peaceful relations with the Citadel Council as a whole." The three Councilors looked between each other, before the Asari one started speaking. "I am Councilor Tevos of the Asari Republics, and these are Councilors Valern and Sparatus of the Salarian Union and the Turian Hierarchy respectively. While your goals are noble, there are a few other things that must be discussed as well, such as your breaking of Council law." And here we go, Udina thought to himself. "I don't see how that is applicable. Council laws do not apply to Humanity, as we are not in any way part of or affiliated with the Council. As such, that has no bearing on what we are here to do. The Turian patrol fleet led by one Desolas Arterius attacked a Human Systems Alliance Relay Containment Force with no provocation. If the Turian Hierarchy was on its own, with no superior body, we would have declared war. As it is, if these negotiations are not prosperous enough, we still might, especially given the STG ship we disabled and captured before leaving our colony." That sent a rumble through everyone in the room. No one catches an STG ship if it doesn't want to be seen, that's just how things were. The Council in particular had shocked looks on their faces, though it passed too quickly for anyone who didn't have diplomatic training to see.

Things went back and forth all day, with both sides putting their version of events out, then the other correcting it. A very basic history of both sides was introduced, though the Council didn't know that Humanity already had the entire Codex in their hands. By the end of the day, very little had actually been accomplished, though a good framework had been laid down. Overall, when Udina left the Citadel to return to the Avalon, he was quite pleased. When he returned to the Avalon, Alliance High Command was already on the line waiting for a debrief of the situation. "Overall, negotiations are going well. A framework has been established and we are ready to start talking about just what will be happening. I expect that we will get the offer to join sometime tomorrow, though I will hopefully stall it enough for some work to actually get done. We have no clue what will happen when we decline, though I don't expect it to be good." One of the civilian members spoke up, "What can you tell us about their government?" Udina grimaced, "Just as arrogant as we expected. I only spoke with the Council, and never once was I so much as introduced to the ambassadors from the other species. To add to that, they were quite shocked when I revealed we caught their STG ship, though they hid it well. Overall, I recommend that we go for resource trading, and nothing more. If we did do more than that, they could tie us up in so much red tape that we would have no option but to join, and as we all know that would be a disaster."

Behind the main Council chamber, there was a small room unknown to the general populace of the Citadel species. It was simply called the backroom, and this was where the Council made all the really important decisions. Currently, all three were deep in thought. The long silence was broken by Tevos, stating the question that was on the mind of all three. "Should we ask them to join?" Valern was the first to respond, "Yes. Their technology is so different, who knows what they could do. Plus, it will let us have some degree of control over them. If we don't, who knows what they could end up doing." Sparatus agreed, saying, "We need to curb their military. They use nuclear weapons for anti-fighter purposes, and call ships larger than dreadnoughts "heavy cruisers". If we were to go to war, we would probably overrun them in the end, but it would be bloody and would cost most of our forces. The only way I see of controlling them is bringing them under our laws." Tevos nodded, "Then it is agreed. When should we ask them? In my opinion it would be better to get the current negotiations over with, so there is less tension." The other two quickly agreed, and they all dispersed to their various suites for the night.

Admiral Hackett looked over the intelligence report for that day. While negotiations were occurring, a spread of heavily stealthed drones was released to gather more information. Most of what they got was already known, but there was still a few things that was learned. The first was that the massive flagship of the Citadel Defense Fleet, the Destiny Ascension, wasn't as dangerous as originally thought. While it was big, all it would take was a few heavy missiles detonating in the massive hole through the ship to destabilize its drive. There was also the take from the AI infiltration probes that had been launched at the Citadel, and that was really worrying. Apparently, they detected some form of dormant AI on the station, and from all counts it had a timer that was set to wake it up in a number of years. The infiltrators decided to not stop the timer, as that might be detected, but instead slowed it down to the point that it would activate the AI in about another 2.8 million years. Plenty of time to figure out just what the thing is. He forwarded everything to Alliance High Command, and stood up from his chair on the Avalon's flag bridge. He turned to his chief of staff, and said, "I'm turning in, let me know is anything happens." The commander nodded, and Hackett left the bridge to go to his quarters. According to Udina, tomorrow would be a very interesting day. Just what type of interesting it would be was yet to be seen, and Hackett really didn't want to be too tired to think straight if it was the bad kind.

AN: Finally got the next chapter done. I know it isn't the best chapter out there, but a combination of time to write it and the fact that I am just bad at writing diplomatic scenes all played a part.

AN2: Again, please rate and review.

Codex:

Alliance High Command: Alliance High Command is the current evolution of the UN Security Council. While its name suggests that it is only or the military, it is actually composed of a group of both military and civilian leaders. Overall, High Command has the final say in anything that affects Humanity as a whole.