Mass Effect: Reaper Dreams

Double Deal

"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"

Abraham Lincoln

May 6th, 2187

Gianna Parasini

"Buttoned up," Gianna said aloud as she fixed her jacket, smoothing out the wrinkles.

The intercom crackled. "Madam Secretary, the delegates are aboard."

"Thank you, Austin," she replied. "I'll be there in a few."

Madam Secretary indeed—she was never going to get used to that title. Gianna Parasini, Secretary General of the Alliance. 'If dad could only see me now,' she thought.

Of course it was a promotion under fire. The Reapers had butchered or indoctrinated every political official on Arcturus Station and Earth. There was no possible way to hold elections in the near future so Hackett assigned the positions, passing them out on hand-written note cards on actual fucking paper. President Martin Burns, Vice President Elspeth Murrain, Secretary General Yours Truly, and three other minor appointments that slipped Gianna's mind. It was all a sham of course, the military was in complete control, but appearances were everything.

However, it was worth noting that as long as she followed Hackett's principal directives she was afforded a broad range of power that perhaps no lone political officer had wielded in the past thousand years of human existence. The President and Vice President would be primarily concerned with the reconstruction of earth, but Gianna had been tasked with overseeing political alliances with aliens. In the next few years there would be a mad scramble to fix the Mass Relays. The haves and have nots of the galaxy would be determined by which relays opened first.

The Salarians and Asari were not doubt already hard at work on the problem despite feigning helplessness on the matter. Both races had become accustomed to privilege and people who were accustomed to privilege would not easily relinquish such power. They would work every angle, use every resource, and put themselves back in superior position before any other race even managed to dig themselves out of the grave.

Humanity was holding many cards, and yet they were at a severe at disadvantage thanks to Cerberus. If they weren't careful, they would soon find themselves relegated back to second tier status, unhappily sitting next to the Volus and Elcor at the kiddie table.

Hackett was a military man and his thinking was distinctively military, yet she had to give the old buzzard credit. What he was proposing took some serious cojones; it would more or less shake up the political structure of the entire known galaxy. 'We need to play to our strengths, Gianna,' he had told her. However, time was of the essence. She had to get the right races on board and quickly. If any word of her proposal got out, Hackett, the President, and the Vice President would categorically deny it and she'd be the one to take the fall.

Smoothing the wrinkles in her suit, she stepped into the corridor and made her way to the aft access tubes of the Tai Shan. The massive dreadnaught was the fourth largest ship in the Alliance fleet, check that, the third largest. The Shasta had been destroyed just five days prior. Gianna shook her head silently. There was still no true account of the losses, but the numbers were climbing daily.

Straightening her shoulders as she walked, she began to assume the characteristics of her office. Gianna wasn't a politician, but she could certainly play one—buttoned up, affable, outwardly altruistic, but above all; self-interested.

The tube opened. Two crewmen acknowledged her with a nod as she entered; a sharp hiss announced that the door had sealed behind her. Not wanting to crease her suit, she grabbed the handrail as the tube accelerated to the aft deck.