A Just Measure 3 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Mace Shepherd

A Just Measure

Chapter 3

-VB-

Ambassador Eina Zolanna

Shanxi

AR 2111.11.27 (same day)

She … did not know what to think about the tiny ambassador.

And they were tiny. 

If she were to estimate her size, then she was barely bigger than both of Eina’s fists. But the fact that she was not speaking with a squeaky voice but an y’elasmara*, which was something most classic Asari singers longed for and yet failed to have. 

… But how was a tiny no bigger than most flying creatures able to speak with such a low tone? 

A mystery for sure. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet the first Asari to have stepped onto one of the confederacy’s worlds,” Ambassador Anita Goyle spoke up. It sounded professional and heartfelt. “Though I wish it could have been under better circumstances.”

“I too think so as well. It’s an honor to meet the first of your kind that my people have lain eyes upon,” she said with a shallow curtsy.

Perhaps it was not the best way to approach this as it was not part of the Republic’s professional stance to use ancient customs, but she was of the Zolanna Clan, one of the oldest bloodlines of the Asari Republics. It was her right to approach this meeting as she saw fit both as a representative of the Asari Republics and the Citadel Council’s ambassadorial corp. 

“Would you like to move right into negotiations or should we spend the first day learning about each other’s peoples?” Goyle offered. 

Eina thought about it. 

Starting off negotiations right off the bat might come off as business-like but also rude and condescending. There were multiple ambassadors in Citadel Council’s history who encountered races and peoples, sometimes even old colonies from bygone eras, who did not appreciate such a direct approach.

Sometimes, it was best to ask. 

“If I may ask, would it be considered rude to your people to begin negotiations right away or would it be seen as pragmatic and professional?”

Goyle looked surprised for a second before a real smile showed up that reached her eyes. “It would depend on the culture, but there are a thousand and more cultures in the confederacy, so it would be hard to give you a good answer.” A thousand cultures? It sounded very much like the Asari Republics in that regard. “The majority of the confederacy’s federal government will not see a first day negotiation start as rude or in a negative light. However, it may be a good idea to use Shanxi’s cultural mannerism as a respectful nod to the negotiation’s location.”

“I see. And how do the people of Shanxi negotiate?”

Goyle smiled. “First, we eat a shared meal from a communal pot and get to know each other and each other’s people. A communal meal shows that since we mean to not harm each other as attempting to harm the other party will spill the food that both tried to consume.”

“A communal tradition?”

“One that originates from Shanxi’s harsh past, if I am correct. Shanxi used to be a very harsh world where the local titanofauna restricted where the colonists could build and share kitchens.”

“Titanofauna and communal restrictions. What a fascinating history this world holds. It is a shame that a violent first contact happened so close to it. But, oh yes, a conversation over a meal is one that my people also appreciate.”

“Wonderful. Since we don’t know each other’s dietary restrictions, should we have each other’s people bring meals here?” 

---

Ambassador Anita Goyle

Asari were an interesting race. 

No, more than race, she was more interested in their cultures. As a mono-sex race, the Asari developed in ways that simply can’t be replicated by anyone else out there. Even unisex or hypothetical machine races cannot because to have a sex means sex-related hormones and biases affecting decisions. 

And despite what the good ambassador across from her insisted, the Asari was a definite female race. It wasn’t just their appearance and overall female appearance, though those two definitely played a part in it. It was also in how the Turians and other races supposedly interacted with them as well, which was something the Turian prisoners of war talked about. 

As much as she wanted to spend a decade or two just researching Asari sociophysiology, anthrohistory, and matriarchal politics, Anita was here as an ambassador and her job was to make peace here without giving away territorial or legal concessions. 

And from what she was hearing, the Asari Republics would not care about extracting concessions from the confederacy. They were more concerned about keeping the status quo. Anita knew this was what the Asari Republics would want because there was a constellation of worlds within the Blue Planet Confederacy itself which acted similarly to the Citadel Council and the Asari Republics as Ambassador Zolanna was telling her. 

Even if there were some strong embellishments in what was being told to her, the Asari Republics held one of the three executive political votes in this council of theirs. On top of this, they were not only the dominant economic powerhouse of the Citadel Council’s three most powerful states but also the entire Citadel Council. 

Quotes from the Turian POWs ranged from the Asari Republics controlling anywhere from 20% to 45% of the entire economy, and the ambassador’s offhanded statement about the importance of the Asari Republics’ financial and mining industries to the Citadel Council as a whole only confirmed that guess. 

“So the Asari Republic and our Blue Planet Confederacy share many similarities!” Anita hummed as she took a bite of her meat-berry steak.

“It certainly seems so,” Ambassador Zolanna nodded as she took a sip of her toyan* valley wine. “It gladdens me to see that there is another true democracy out here in the galaxy.”

“I can toast to that,” Anita smiled. 

Democracy.

What a joke.

The Blue Planet Confederacy tittered on the brink of splintering in all but name. The federal government could barely do anything, and it was only in cases of emergencies like this first contact debacle that they came crawling for help.

Her mentor, the president, wanted to use this incident to raise the legal authorities of the federal government, but to do that, she needed to ensure that the result of this war didn’t hurt the confederacy… too much. To do that, she needed to engineer a situation where the core world alliances looked at the situation and saw a need for a stronger federal government. 

But with what the ambassador was freely telling her, she wasn’t sure if she could make such a thing happen.

“Then I assume that each of your worlds operate their own military? Militia?”

“They do,” she nodded. “And those who cannot produce their own spaceships buy them from others who can.”

“And does your federal government place any restrictions on the size of the spaceships? There must be some fear of what individuals and independent actors might do with them.”

Size on spaceships?

“No, we do not.” They didn’t have to worry about that when it was exactly the individuals that they needed to worry about more. The King of Gran Moria, for example, was someone who would handily defeat General Williams. He and his people had waged defensive wars against those seeking to take control of his collection of systems, which was an admittedly very lucrative collection of eleven habitable gaia worlds, but every gun, every armored truck, every tank, other Haki users, frigates, battleships, and even dreadnoughts that his enemies brought to the field were all handily defeated by the man. “Not when we have individuals like General Williams.”

The reminder of the ancient giants’ descendants stalled the Asari ambassador. 

“Right, of course. Your people are … unique. Footage I was able to view showed many of your people being able to do some fantastical things. We have something similar called biotics.”

“Fascinating. You too?” she asked with a broad smile. 

But Anita also knew - again, thanks to the interrogated Turian POWs - that Citadel Council’s biotic specialists were nowhere near the power levels of the top ten percent of Haki users and Devil Fruit users, never mind the mindnumbingly powerful top 0.01% percentile combatants.

The confederacy called them colony breakers for a reason. 

She was just playing along with the Asari ambassador’s attempt to even the playing field, because once it became clear that what the Turians faced here on Shanxi weren’t the best of the best or even the best … or even the top 10% percentile of Haki and Devil Fruit combatants? She would freak out. 

The negotiation itself might become difficult. So in a way, Anita was playing along because leveling the playing field was exactly what she and her mentor wanted. Keep the other side calm, get minimal concessions to get the people upset, get the people to give the federal government more power, and work from there. Oh, and peace, yes.

‘But then again,’ she thought to herself as she took another bite. ‘The Citadel Council and the rest of the galaxy beyond their territory might be a useful valve to shunt excess pirates and criminals into.’

The conversation over the meal didn’t delve into anything deep after that, but the way the ambassador had asked about size restrictions on spaceships was something she will have to ask the general to ask the Turian POWs about. 

“Speaking of which… what do your people call yourselves?” Zolanna asked. 

Anita swallowed. “We call ourselves dwarves.”

“Dwarves?” the Asari ambassador looked surprised. “Is the translation working?”

“It is. We do call ourselves dwarves.”

“Does that not carry negative connotations…?”

“Hmm? How so?”

It was only then that she remembered just how stale the differences in appearances that Citadel races had within each race. The size and shape of their noses, the height, weight, width, and even smaller details like eyelashes were so close to each other. 

Humanity was much more diverse than these aliens. 

“I apologize. It seems that it is a cultural connotation that you do not have,” the ambassador replied after a moment to gather herself. “Dwarves, when used within Citadel space, is often a term used to belittle those with short heights or genetic problems.”

“Ah, I see. I understand. In that case, Little People may also be used to refer to my people.”

“And are you a different species from the most populous ‘humans’ I’ve seen outside?” 

Different species? 

“Goodness, no. We are a different race, for sure, but humans and dwarves can interbreed and produce viable children.”

The Asari ambassador stared at her. 

“I’m sorry, what?”

“All races you have seen here on Shanxi,” Anita clarified. “And many others that you have not are all part of humanity, and we have been like this for thousands of years even before we left our homeworld.”

It was the first time that she saw the ambassador’s professional smile drop into a gobsmacked face. 

---

Eina Zolanna

Eina knew that she had reached more than she should have with some of the questions. And that she might have provided more information than strictly necessary. 

But, in exchange, she also learned a lot. 

What she and the rest of Citadel Council had thought was a collection of races - and thus the “confederacy” in their name - had been, in fact, many subspecies of one species. 

While it was too early for her to say this, she believed that “humanity” was a very adaptive species. 

One might say that they were even more adaptive than the asari, who were known for being able to live and work in basically any environment that wasn’t immediately hostile to their existence. Which meant that the humans and their subspecies would become the asari’s biggest competitors. 

She could not allow that to happen. 

So she now sat before her ship’s bridge screen and waited for the Council to respond to her.

The wait gave her time to think even more about the situation at hand. 

It was a good thing that negotiation was happening, because the more she had learned about the humans, the more she realized how badly the Turians had thoughtlessly provoked a superpower. 

Yes, a superpower. 

Because even if they could not bring everything they had to bear, the Blue Planet Confederacy was a superpower. If they could only bring a quarter of their full might to bear, they would have overwhelmed the Citadel Council, especially since the Council’s capital ships and warships had no counter to the long range laser weaponry used by the human warships. 

And there also seemed to be a lot of ship manufacturers.

Like.

A lot.

This was from the humans captured on the other side of the relay, but there were essentially close to a hundred different spaceship manufacturers, of which a tenth were capable of producing viable warships. 

And, if it was to be believed, then even the goddamn pirates had their own manufacturers who were capable of capital ship production while there were numerous smaller shipyards that could and would refit smaller ships for piratical optimization. 

Or that piracy was a tradition.

Yes.

Tradition. That piracy has been a major traditional industry for the humans for more than a thousand years, going back to their homeworld. 

And it was something the ambassador had confirmed for her. 

She wasn’t sure if that had been a threat or not. After all, confirming something like piracy being a major traditional industry - like how the batarians had their slavery - would be like insinuating a plausibly denial form of retaliation that the confederacy could unleash.

… Except that had fallen under scrutiny rather quickly. Both humans captured on the other side of the relay and the ambassador stated that it was only considered “traditional” because so many beloved historical figures started their life long journey as a pirate, and sometimes remained as a pirate for their entire lives. 

Pirates like Whitebeard, Pirate King Gol D. Roger, Pirate King Monkey D. Luffy, Emperor Buggy, Grandmother Vavayag, Warlord Inconquita, and so many more. 

And a brief look at human history (courtesy of the ambassador - it had been a gift from her at the end of their first meeting) told her that humans were not a structured race like the Turians and Asari. They were also not centered on a central figure like Salarians because the figure they gravitate around can change and had no biological cause for it (mostly). They were also not like the Elcor, Hanar, and Volus, who liked to keep to their own space. 

Humans might not live as long as the Asari but a select few had been known to live for more than a few hundred years. They might not be as subtle or smart as a Salarian on average, but once in a while, a genius will pop up that will utterly change everything. They might not be structured as the Turians, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be; they simply chose not to, but woe to any who gives the humans cause to discipline themselves, even for a moment.

Of course, she took this “history book” she received with a grain of salt.

But Eina would treat it as if it wasn’t; being cautious here would pay dividends later, and if more than half of the events and traits she expected out of the humans turned out to be false, the humans would still be the dominant race once this war came to an end, especially because they didn’t need mass relay to travel. 

T-r-ring.

She sat up as the screen smoothly transitioned from center towards the edge into a livestream of three separate images, each containing one of the councilors. 

“Ambassador Eina Zolanna,” the Asari Councilor, Tevos of Clan An’Dhalia, spoke first. “You’ve asked for a priority meeting.”

“I have, councilor. I am transferring all of the data I have so far collected.”

“It takes ten minutes for long distance data transfer, so why don’t you tell us your impression of these humans in the meantime?” the Turian Councilor, Sparatus asked. 

“I have confirmed what our prisoners on our side of the relay stated during interrogation. The Blue Planet Confederacy is not only made up of multiple races but also dwarfs any individual member or associate state of the Citadel Council.”

Salarian Councilor, Jur Huokka, hummed. “We will need higher funding for STG and Spectres and expand their numbers.”

“... Before I continue, I must point something out.”

“Go ahead, ambassador.”

“When I said race… I did not mean species.”

That made all three Councilors pause.

“Explain,” Councilor Huokka asked with a frown. 

“The confederacy’s ambassador was not a human but a race called the Little People,” she said as she brought up an image taken by the security cameras within her ship. 

“... I assume you are not joking,” Councilor Sparatus hummed. 

“I am not. A … sentient being that is barely bigger than one of my fists was sent to treat with me. Initially, I thought that this was because they were looking down on the Citadel Council, but I quickly learned that it was the opposite. The ambassador is a student of the current president of the confederacy, and is a member of a race known for their prodigious strength.”

Here, she played a video, taken by the same cameras, of the dwarf ambassador showing off that strength at her request. The dwarf lifted one of the equipment in the ship, some kind of a cart, that weighed at least half a ton with one hand. And then sped around like a bullet, her form rendered down to a blur in the high definition security camera’s recording. 

“Are you sure it is not some kind of ploy?” Tevos asked with a frown. 

“No,” Eina replied. “And I believe I understand why their ambassador is being open with me. It is simply that they have interrogated their prisoners as well, collected enough evidence to support those claims, and understand that the Citadel Council is not a threat to them. So they want this misunderstanding solved as quickly as possible.”

“And why do they think the Citadel Council is not a threat?” Sparatus asked with a frown.

It was obvious why he was the one to ask that question and so quickly. The Turians considered themselves to be the defenders of law and order within the Citadel Council and its associate races. To state that the Council was not a threat was to state that the Turians are not a threat. 

And she was going to have to be the one to break that bubble. That the Citadel Council was no longer the superpower. Or at least, no longer the lone superpower. 

“Councilor, I say this respectfully, but human pirates have more tonnage and more advanced weapons technology than any one of the Citadel states do.”

“... What?” 

“The ambassador admitted, hesitantly, that their pirates have formed multiple bandit kingdoms that are large enough to be a bigger problem for them than the rest of the Citadel Council is. The only reason they have not been able to effectively combat this threat is because their own politics prevents them, not the willingness or the raw military might.”

And after that, she had to explain to the increasingly alert and upset councilors what she had been told as well as the evidence presented to her. 

The humans wanted this to go well because it was in their federal government’s political agenda for this to go well, not that the First Contact scenario itself was a monumental thing. It was, kind of, but most on the other side of the confederacy wouldn’t care, because the humans was a species composed of many subspecies - the “races” she mentioned earlier - and how they were, in effect, their own Citadel Council with more stars, more colonies, more population, and more industries under their nominal control than what the Citadel Council ever had. 

Yes, Councilor Tevos, this monumental historical event was nothing but a political move for the humans. 

No, Councilor Sparatus, they are most likely not overexaggerating the military might of the pirate problem they have not been able to solve for more than a thousand years. 

Yes, Councilor Huokka, humans were that decentralized, and that was the reason why the humans were most likely using this event to gain even a little bit of centralization. 

No, Councilor Sparatus, any further military action will only help them, and I believe it was in our best interest to back off now before humans use a lack of peace for further centralization, and thus become a bigger problem for us. 

… Yes, Councilor Tevos, there was a not insignificant chance that human pirates may migrate in massive numbers into the Citadel space and beyond once they realized that there was room here… with patrols that lacked defense against their lasers. 

Yes, Councilor Huokka, humans possessed advanced lasers and energy shields needed to keep them at bay. 

Yes, Councilor Tevos, I will do my best to negotiate a technological exchange with the humans, but I cannot guarantee them signing the Treaty of Farixen.

“Councilors, there is also something else I must report as well.”

At this point, it had already been an hour into the meeting, and loathed as she was to extend it even further, which cut into her actual planning time, she must get their opinions and instructions. Because these two things were too big for her to decide on her own.

“Go ahead.”

“Aside from the numerous subspecies, it seems that the confederacy has a very decent biotechnology base and a very widespread one at that.”

“... Gauge what exactly they are involved in first and report to us,” Tevos replied. “Anything else?”

“Yes, councilor. It’s regarding their version of biotics.”

“They have biotics?” Sparatus asked with a hum. “It’s only expected, I suppose, for a nation of that size with frequent enough encounters with element zero.”

She grimaced. “Not … exactly, councilor. They possess two alternate ways of augmenting their elite soldiers. The first is some kind of anomalous, even naturally occurring fruit that supposedly gives each individual unique powers on par with biotics.”

“Fascinating,” Huokka muttered. 

“And the other is …” she sighed. “I have no idea how to put it other than an innate supernaturalness of the humans.”

“An innate supernaturalness…?” Tevos asked skeptically.

“Yes, ma’am. According to the ambassador, they call this haki, and while not every human or individuals of human subspecies can use it, there are enough of them that we can expect to encounter anywhere from a dozen to thousands of haki users.”

“And the extent of their combat ability?” 

She grimaced. 

Instead of replying, she played a video. It was a combat footage one of the Turian soldiers managed to get, and this was given to her by the admiral currently still in space. 

And in it, a haki user, a mere militia captain, turned shiny black and tanked a direct hit from a tank shell. And then proceeded to dodge a hundred plus projectiles from a squadron of Turian soldiers.

Which frankly bordered on impossible because eezo principle implemented weapons - which was basically most weapons in Council space - shot metal grains or shrapnels at speeds too quick for biological eyes to detect, never mind track. And to top it off, at the very last moments of the video, the human soldiers almost disappeared from screen before using his fists to crush armored Turian heads into pulp.

“... Impressive. And worrying,” Huokka summed up what everyone felt. “What do you think about these haki and devil fruit, ambassador Zolanna?” 

She thought about it. Well, she had already thought about it for a long time even before contacting the Council.

“I believe that the confederacy is being open with us. On this colony alone, there are reportedly at least half a dozen such individuals on this world of Shanxi, and there aren't even ten million residents here. Even if the ambassador exaggerated the numbers to us, we are looking at an army with special operatives that even biotics would have trouble dealing with.”

“... are any of the humans we captured have either of this haki or devil fruit?” Sparatus asked. 

“No,” she shook her head. “Most of them are civilians, and the soldiers we captured are all regular sailors.”

“Then we must gain access to this haki and devil fruit. Make that a condition for peace.”

“And if they don’t accept, councilor?” she asked. 

“We’ll cross that relay when we get there.”

-VB-

Ambassador Anita Goyle

Shanxi

AR 2111.11.29

The first day of negotiations - greetings, understanding, and learning - gave away to the true phase of the event: negotiations. 

They agreed both sides wanted peace. 

They agreed that neither wanted to “dominate” the other. 

And that’s where the agreements stopped.

During the second day, there were agreements about the borders of the Blue Planet Confederacy and the Citadel Council lay: right here in the Shanxi System and the other side of the Mass Relay 314. The negotiations had continued after that to include exchange of prisoners, which they agreed: all prisoners would be exchanged without valuation on each individual’s worth. 

During the second day of negotiations, they discussed a very critical point of contention: fault. After spending a whole day, it was agreed that the confederacy was at fault for not sending out scouts but the Citadel Council, specifically the Turian Hierarchy, was at fault for opening fire on what was a mostly civilian fleet and then invading Shanxi instead of waiting for the rest of the Council. The Turian hierarchy would pay reparations to the families of the deceased and the Blue Planet Confederacy would not close the borders to the Citadel Council. 

The problem came to head on the third day of negotiations.

“You are saying that the council wants access to what is considered a strategic weapon?” Anita asked incredulously. 

Eina looked … upset. Frustrated. 

Was it a play? Was it genuine? Anita liked to think that she had seen enough from the Asari across from her, but the Asari ambassador was being too open. It made her question the tells that she observed. 

“They want assurances,” Eina smoothed the accusation. “Haki and devil fruits are … unfamiliar things for the Citadel Council and its people. They want to know if this is something that may cause problems for us.”

“You mean use it against us.”

“In exchange, we are willing to open up our borders and offer the confederacy favorable trade deals.”

“Trade is not what we are interested in. You know that peace comes first, and trade was never on the table to begin with.”

“It is something the councilors insisted on.”

“... What changed? We have had great talks and negotiations so far? Why risk it here over this?” she asked exasperatedly. 

Eina took a deep breath in and looked at her. She had to be thinking whether or not she was being candid. 

“It’s because your confederacy is too powerful, and the Citadel Council is now keenly aware of the slumbering giant on its doorstep.”

While it was true that the confederacy was exactly that, a confederation where the central government had little power, it was a lumbering giant that could wake up at any time to crush anything that stood in its way. That’s how Grandmother Vavayag’s reign of terror ended. A pirate queen who once ruled over fifty systems for over a century had been utterly crushed after pushing the line once too far by the combined might of the confederation. 

And the Citadel Council had apparently decided that they were too strong to just … let be. 

“And throwing all of our hard work at the last step is the best way to go about this?” she asked. 

Eina shook her head. “It’s out of my hands. I would have concluded the negotiations yesterday. We got everything we wanted, but apparently not for the council. They want the secrets of your haki and devil fruits.”

“And they think it’s something we’ll just hand over?”

“They are willing to open up -.”

“The confederation at this time does not care about trade, and if you keep insisting that trade is worth that, then you can leave the Shanxi System and we can go back to fighting each other. So I’ll wait right here for that final answer. Go and talk to your councilors.”

And after that, she plopped down on her raised seat.

Eina opened her mouth -.

Anita turned her head away. 

If they were going to be obstinate, then she was going to do the same. 

The Asari ambassador sighed and left the room. 

When she returned an hour later, she conveyed the Citadel Council’s agreement. 

There would be peace, and they will not seek the secrets of haki and the devil fruits… for now. 

-VB-

The First Contact War, or Relay 314 Incident for the Citadel Council states, was monumental in that the races of the Blue Planet Confederacy finally encountered something that was truly “alien.”

However, as far as scales went, it was not a big event. 

No. What happened next was an even bigger deal.

Because when the news about First Contact spread and the locations of the Blue Planet Confederacy in relation to the Citadel Space - and Terminus Space - was revealed to the public, there was a small migration from the Confederacy space to the Council space through various means. 

Some took the legal route. For exploration. For tourism. For learning. For good things. 

Others … didn’t. 

Mercenaries, slavers, and pirates poured out from the confederacy’s periphery into Council space. They saw races and states without haki and devil fruit. They saw states without weapons and shielding technology. They saw … fresh meat. 

And thus began the Third Space Age of Piracy. 

The races of the Citadel Council would have another name for this era: the Rampage. 

However, it was not all chaos and violence. There was a significant number of cooperation that happened between the two civilizations. 

And the first cooperation they had? They wanted to learn about each other. 

Tourism exchange. 

-VB- 

Assume none of these are canon

*toyan - a valley in Thessia famous for asari-wine production

*y’elasmara - alto/deep contralto but not Tenor or reaching the average lows of baritone