Summary: A very different First Contact. Well, Third Contact, really. But who's counting?

Author's Note: Because of the Prolong Treatment, several characters are significantly older than canon. This only affects humans. The Minimum age to either enlist or test to become a Siren is 20. Starting in this chapter, some character ages to be aware of:

Shepard: 74

Miranda: 27

Kaidan: 26

Ashely: 21

... ...

Chapter 1: 2357CE – New Neighbors

"Goddess! What did the Turians get us into?"

Matriarch Benezia really wished she could disagree with the distressed-sounding comment made by one of her personal guard. Unfortunately, as she stared at the map of the star system splayed out in front of her, she honestly wanted to scream. In frustration or terror, she wasn't sure. But she definitely wanted to scream. This System, Arcturus the humans had called it, was swarming with ships. She was quite sure that the humans were putting on a show of force, but the fact that this wasn't their homeworld meant that the vast majority of the vessels she was seeing were warships. She was seeing nine dreadnaughts, not including that godawful Super Dreadnaught. Which already put them in violation of the Treaty of Farixen, even if they didn't have a single additional ship of the class. Which, considering the huge number of cruisers and frigates she was also seeing, didn't seem likely.

And then there was that space station. When she'd first seen it, she'd hoped it was, like the Citadel, a Prothean leftover. Even a cursory look over the design had disabused her of that notion, unfortunately. Even ignoring the architecture differences, like the ships in this new species' fleet, the station wasn't radiating a very strong eezo signature. Instead, it was radiating more of the exotic energy that they couldn't make heads or tails of. Given the fact that this 'Arcturus Station' was roughly of a size with the Citadel, some seriously disturbing things about the new species' engineering and construction abilities. This species had built a space station nearly on par with the seat of the Prothean empire. And they had done so simply as a nodal defense to protect their actual home system.

She was going to find a Turian neck to wring if this went sideways more than it already had. A lot of necks to wring. Assuming she even survived if it did go farther sideways. Which honestly seemed unlikely, with the amount of firepower all around them. She took a deep breath to center herself, calmly reminding herself how readily the 'humans' had accepted ambassadors. After the Turians had been forced to apologize and promise reparations, at least. For all the brutal bluntness they'd displayed arriving at the Citadel with a war fleet, they'd been otherwise reasonable once the 'act of war' had been cleared up. Now she just had to figure out how to get them over this little hiccup and convince them to join the Citadel as an associate race…

... ...

Senior Lieutenant Sae Shepard, Siren and recent graduate of the N7 program, watched with curiosity as the aliens disembarked from the shuttle that had ferried them over from their diplomatic cruiser. She'd gotten comprehensive briefs on all three species, of course. But, somehow, actually seeing them in person was very different. The Turian was actually a bit shorter than she'd expected, only just over six feet, and moved with a notably different gait than a human. To her eyes, his metallic skin and hard angles made him appear as the most alien of the trio. The Salarian was the next most alien, with huge eyes and a 'horned' head. But it was at least a bit more organic-looking. The Asari…okay, the Asari were totally Blue Space Babes. There was no other way to put it. They were human enough looking that Sae had trouble not letting her eyes wander to places they shouldn't. The only thing helping prevent their looks from being a distraction was the fact that every single one of them, especially the ambassador, moved with the sort of instinctive grace that screamed combat training. It could just be how they were built…but two of them were guards. And she'd read enough in the briefing to realize that the Ambassador was likely at least several centuries old. Meaning it was more than possible she was the most dangerous person in the room.

Thankfully, it didn't look like violence was on the table, the trio of alien ambassadors exchanging pleasant greetings with their hosts. Even so…it paid to be paranoid. And Sae was here for a very specific reason. One that went beyond merely being a very dangerous guard dog. Double checking that her mic was muted and her helmet tinted enough for her mouth moving to not be obvious, she addressed her AI.

"Mira? You ready?"

"Yes, boss!"

Shepard couldn't help but smile at the cheerful voice of her AI. No one knew exactly how the neural net duplication worked, and Mira's personality had been a hell of a surprise. Sure, Sae had been a hyperactive bundle of cheer when she'd been a kid, but she'd also grown up in a military family. And that had meant learning to reign that side of her in more and more over the years. By the time she'd passed the rigorous qualifying process to become a Siren, she'd learned to channel the hyperactivity in the laser-focus that had gotten her that spot in the first place. Moreover, the following initial years of training and combat ops, before she'd ever been guided through making Mira, had farther distanced her from that bright-eyed, hyper kid. All of which meant that Mira coming out as a bundle of chaotic cheer had seemed to come from nowhere.

Not that Sae disliked it. In fact, Mira's constant, cheerful optimism was what had gotten both of them through the next decade and a half. First of training as a Siren, then as an active navy spec-ops operative. Considering that Sirens were almost always sent to the worst, bloodiest fights…Mira's disposition had been a Godsend in keeping Sae's own sanity on tract. Well…mostly on track. It had had the side effect of bringing out Sae's own latent high-energy and chaotic personality a bit. Which might be why she was still only a Lieutenant. It was possible. Just possible mind! That her record might have a few…incidents in it. Like that time she'd gotten slightly drunk, stole a Scout Javelin, and somehow ended up doing the funky chicken with it at a wedding reception. It's also entirely possible, but certainly not at all likely, that the only reason she hadn't gotten in more trouble the with the Javelin incident, was that she'd drunkenly improved said Javelin's performance by fifteen percent in order to get it limber enough to dance properly.

Sae had not particularly hated the 'punishment' of being pulled from active duty to reconstruct what she'd done for the developers. Getting to play with more Javelins until she could make them all do silly dances had been fun. But she did slightly regret the giant heap of black marks it had gotten her, which had seen her passed over for a promotion until she'd got out of the doghouse. She did wish she remembered what exactly she'd drunk that night, though. Mostly so she could try it again. Siren regeneration normally countered alcohol to quick to get properly hammered.

Shaking her head to clear the memory away, Sae twitched her fingers. That particular motion was the one she used for Phase Shifting, which was an odd sort of technopathy that combined her Siren abilities with her AI's processes. Between one eyeblink and the next, Two thoughts streams became One, and then Many as Shepard's Phase Shifted vision showed her all the connections in the room. With a shark's grin, she dived into the 'omni-tool' that the Turian Ambassador was wearing. It had good security. Good enough that traditional hacking would certainly have alerted him to the attempt on his information, even if the attempt had worked. But the AI-Backed Siren ability that was Phase Shift broke a lot of the regular rules. Like the one where that omni-tool wasn't in networked mode at the moment, but Shepard was accessing it anyway. Trying to ignore the Mira half of her that wanted to cackle in maniacal glee, Sae got to work raiding the omni-tool for all of its secrets…

After all. That was why she was here. She was an incredibly skilled solider, sure. But there were dozens of Sirens with decades of experience on her. Two of them were even in this room right now. But Shepard had a gift with Phase Shift that surpassed anyone but its original creator. Given that Patrica Thorn had the people skills of a brick wrapped in thorns, actively waiting to thump you in the face when you least expected it…

Yeah, Shepard was the best person for this job…