June 27th, 2175
11:23
Citadel, Widow-System
C-Sec HQ
"Thank you for accommodating us, Ambassador Denebren. There is so much work that it's simply more efficient for us to meet here."
"Of course, it is no problem, Chief Tactilius," I replied, keeping my thoughts about this obvious power play hidden. There was no way that someone in his position wouldn't be able to make time to walk up to the Presidium. Furthermore, Chief Tactilius already had more than enough meetings there. He could have scheduled our meeting for a time he was already there. "It gave me the chance to observe how C-Sec is doing and look around your headquarters a bit."
"And how did you like it?" asked Chief Tactilius while taking a seat and pointing to another for me.
"Organized and busy," I said. "Like a beehive."
"A beehive?"
"A bee is an insect on Earth. Their home is called a beehive. There is an idiom among us humans that uses the phrase "Busy as a bee" to describe people who are very active or hardworking."
"Ah, I seem to understand," said Tactilius, and I was sure that he didn't understand a bit but was too proud to say that out loud. "I am glad that you hold C-Sec in high regard. Yet, we should start with the topic we are here for."
A slight smile found its way onto my face. The fact that Tactilius changed the topic toward the actual reason of our meeting showed that I "won" the greeting. That would put us now on equal footing since Tactilius had been the one to decide the meeting place.
"I would love to. After all, we are both busy people," I agreed, emphasizing my second sentence. I wanted him to think I was annoyed about his reason for choosing the place. That way, he might believe he still had an advantage over me, which wasn't true. I didn't care about the meeting location as long as I got what I wanted.
Tactilius pushed a datapad over the table and said: "We looked over the list you sent us, and we have made some adjustments."
I took the datapad without words and looked over the list. As I expected, the number of names had been severely reduced from the one we sent over. Less than 50% of our recommendations remained. None of those left was above the rank of lieutenant. Not a single captain was among them, and I wasn't aware that any human was slated for promotion to that rank.
"And here I thought that C-Sec was looking for more people. Yet, you positively gutted our list of recommendations," I commented, and didn't bother to hide or stop the slight edge that crept into my voice.
"It isn't as dire as people think," Tactilius countered, his mandibles flaring. "Besides, we also have to take into account every other government besides yours. After all, they also provided recommendations for this hiring period, and we don't want to give the impression of favoritism. Furthermore, we also have to take into account the people who directly applied for a position with C-Sec. We don't want to give them the feeling that the only way to join C-Sec is through governmental recommendations."
Well, now, I knew that Tactilius was full of crap. Even if the situation wasn't as dire as people thought, it would have been over the line where it would be called dire. After all, C-Sec had also been affected by the Batarian Hegemony leaving the Citadel. While living on the Citadel and having jobs hadn't been prohibited for the Batarians, to be employed by C-Sec, the species had to be a member of the Citadel. Ergo, a lot of Batarians had been let go from their positions within C-Sec since they weren't allowed to work there anymore. To make matters even worse, Batarians had been the fourth numerous species in C-Sec, even more than the Volus. So, saying that there was no need for many new officers wasn't quite true.
"Not even for that new precinct in the Zakera Ward that has just been approved?" I questioned. "I would think that your current roster can't fully staff the new precinct without stretching your people thin elsewhere? Or are you not opening it?"
I was intentionally adding the last part. C-Sec had long petitioned for opening a new precinct in the Zakera Ward, which was slowly becoming one of the most popular wards on the Citadel and was becoming a major trade location. This new popularity, of course, also attracted all kinds of shady characters, making it a necessity for C-Sec to reinforce their presence there beyond simply sending in patrols more often. Furthermore, C-Sec had already announced that they would open a new precinct, and going back on their word would be a hit to their reputation and raise questions about whether they were even able to adequately secure the Zakera Ward.
"Do not worry, we will open the precinct on schedule," assured Tactilius. "While it is true that there will be some difficulties, it won't be anything too difficult for us to handle. Yet, you are also right."
While keeping my expression calm, I couldn't help but blink in surprise at Tactilius' admission. I hadn't expected him to admit that the situation was slowly becoming difficult to handle.
After all, Tactilius wasn't known for liking humans much. Instead, he was known for the opposite. Not quite the attitude one would want from the person responsible for the recruitment process. The situation had to be truly serious, and C-Sec needed people.
That was an opportunity for me to get what I wanted from this meeting.
"Could you please elaborate? Do you mean that your people are getting stretched thin?"
"Yes," confirmed Tactilius, and I heard the slight unwillingness to do so in his voice. "The current C-Sec officers have to do more double shifts than before the Batarians left the Citadel. After all, the rules of the Citadel are no secret."
Ah, apparently, Tactilus was more vexed with the Batarians leaving than with us wanting more people inside the force.
If I remembered the documents I studied prior to this meeting correctly, which I did, then most Batarians had occupied positions up to the rank of lieutenant, and in the last sixty years, there had only been one Batarian captain.
"Well," I sighed, and exaggerated a bit while doing so. "I understand, and I have an idea." I activated my Omni-tool and pretended to put together a list of names like I hadn't already prepared it. After two or three minutes, I sent the list over to the datapad from Tactilius and moved it back to him.
"And what am I looking at here?" Tactilius asked.
"An adjusted list. A list that could help you cover shifts so that your officers can get some sleep."
It was always better to offer a solution than to create more problems and tension, especially with a character like Tactilius. I could put pressure on him to get more humans in positions of power within C-Sec, and I would perhaps get away with it, but he would definitely make the lives of those humans hell. Or, he could stonewall completely and stop any recruitment of humans and concentrate on the other Citadel member species. The latter option was something I had to avoid at all costs.
For this reason, I had proposed to Anita concentrating on filling the ranks with our people instead of getting as many higher positions as possible. And I wanted to pull through with it. After all, it was always better to appear helpful.
I waited for Tactilius to read through the updated list and observed the changes in his expression as he did so. Of course, a Turian's expressions were different from a human's, but with experience and time, it got easier to read them.
And while Tactilius did his best to control his expression, probably due to long-time training, he wasn't as careful as usual, probably because I was a human. So, I found a few signs that showed interest. Apparently, the categories and names were exactly what he needed. A good sign.
"It seems like there are many young people among the names you gave me," mentioned Tactilius with a hum. Interesting that he focused on that point. Yet, I also had an idea for why.
"Those are the young officers who mentioned a desire to one day work on the Citadel. It was part of a questionnaire at the beginning of their training. Of course, we selected only the trainees who got the best results during their training. They have at most one or two years of actual work experience. We thought it would be best if they didn't have any habits before trying to fit into a new environment."
"A sensible approach," admitted Tactilius. "The Citadel is truly a unique work environment. C-Sec has to deal with a diverse mix of cultures and societal norms. And the officers who come here from other jurisdictions have to learn a new set of rules. Even I had to familiarize myself with some laws that were different from those on Palaven."
I gave him a small smile and nodded at his words. It seemed like this was better than I expected. Tactilius was talking himself into a state where the prospect of hiring young, inexperienced recruits became increasingly appealing. A process I didn't want to interrupt.
"Very well," said Tactilius, more to himself than to me, after a short minute of silence. "It will take some time, but we will look over this new list and give you our reply in a few days."
When Tactilius was about to stand up, I held up my hand to stop him and asked: "And what about those we recommended for positions other than new recruits? I want to go back and send a report to Arcturus that sounds more like a success for those politicians sitting in parliament. You know how it is. Otherwise, they will make things difficult just because."
Tactilius remained in a position half between sitting and standing up for a moment, blinking at my statement before sitting down again with a sigh.
He activated the datapad again to look over the list once again. While doing so, he looked more bored than interested and said in the end: "Six detectives, four sergeants, and at maximum two lieutenants. More I can't do."
"Sounds good to me," I replied. And I was truthful. The numbers Tactilius gave me were what I wanted. Of course, more would have been better, but becoming greedy and demanding more would probably have consequences that would impact my relationship with C-Sec negatively in the future when I really needed something done.
The goal wasn't to achieve the maximum benefit at all costs, and to burn bridges in the process. Instead, the goal was to maintain and reinforce those bridges. After all, when all bridges were burnt down, you had to expend disproportional more effort to get results, and if that didn't work? Well, you lost your usefulness, and without that, you were quickly without a job in the field of politics.
"The Alliance is always willing to help and do its part in protecting the Citadel." I took a moment to decide if I should add anything, and in a leap of faith, I added: "At least, that is the party line. We both know it is for the influence on the station."
Tactilius looked at me for a moment, his eyes growing bigger and blinking at me almost for a full minute before he started to laugh loudly.
He almost laughed for a full minute, his laugh slowly petering out. "Great," said Tactilius. "An ambassador who is not afraid to tell the truth."
"I always was of the opinion that you build the best working relationships by trying to be as truthful as possible. Of course, there are times when you can't do it. National, personal, advantageous secrets, and so on. But talking around a truth that both know, like most politicians do, is something I only try to do when it is necessary to be polite."
"And you decided that with me, you don't need to be polite?"
"Rather, I believe you neither have the patience nor the inclination to listen to polite politician talk. You probably hear it every day, especially from people who don't know how to talk differently."
"You can say that again," agreed Tactilius. "Even some of my fellow Turians talk that way with me, as if they have replaced the discipline they learned in the military with the doublespeak of the Presidium. It's rare when somebody speaks bluntly."
Apparently, I won my gamble. Telling the truth bluntly could have backfired, but the risk had been, in my opinion, minimal. After all, every day, people like Tactilius and I had to deal with individuals who rarely spoke their minds bluntly, and after some time, we simply wanted people to be honest. It had to be even more agonising for Tactilius, since the file I read mentioned he had been working his way up as a detective in his youth. He had worked hard to get the truth out of people who wanted to conceal their crimes, and now he had to deal with people who treated the truth like something to avoid at all costs and nod and smile while doing so.
Tactilius would probably never see humans as anything but ambitious newcomers, or, at least, it would take a very long time until his opinion changed toward something more positive, but that didn't mean that his opinion of me personally had to stay in the same drawer. If he saw me as different, and I mean in a good way, that could help me the next time when a recruitment process came around.
As I mentioned earlier, building bridges was crucial in my role.
"I would like to have someone speak with me like that from time to time, too. It gets annoying if you have to deal with it constantly. Yet," I said, "I can find some beauty in the doublespeak. It is like a battle."
From Tactilius' reaction, I could see that I had him interested.
"I like to imagine that it is my personal battlefield. I was never in the army since I didn't have any talent for a direct military role. Instead, I took on a supporting role to give our people the best chance at victory possible." I had to add the last bit to prevent Tactiliu's opinion of me from going down. After all, despite it being a stereotype, it was true enough that Turians held big pieces on one's obligation toward the defense of their people. Now, I had to draw some comparisons to divert his attention back to my initial point. "If you look for it, you will find that those battle of words have their own strategies and tactics. People try to gain or not lose something. Everyone has a goal."
"I haven't seen it that way before," whispered Tactilius to himself. "An interesting perspective. I hope you don't take it badly, but I think I would prefer an actual battlefield or the battlefield of a criminal investigation. It is much cleaner since the good and the bad guys are cleanly defined."
I let out a short laugh. "Personally, I expected it. You seem like a straightforward person. Moreso than I am."
Tactilius let out a small laugh at my comment.
Without much more to talk about, our conversation continued on for a little while before I took my leave.
As I walked out of the meeting room and through the halls of C-Sec's headquarters, I couldn't help the smile that appeared on my face. I had accomplished all my goals and did, in my opinion, well in raising Tactilius' opinion of myself, so that he would probably give the Alliance the maximum number of positions he talked about. Furthermore, even if he didn't, and just gave us enough positions so that nobody at the embassy could cry about discrimination against humans, he would employ the rookies. I knew that without a doubt. And the rookies were the actual goal.
After all, those rookies would be out on the streets in C-Sec uniforms, showing the residents that humanity had more and more influence inside C-Sec.
And sometimes the perception of the public was enough to shift the power structures inside an organization.
—
June 27th, 2175
13:04
Citadel, Widow-System
Presidium
Human Embassy
I let myself fall into my chair with a deep sigh. The softness of the chair's polsters was heavenly. The money I paid for it, and the time it took to choose the right one, were already paying dividends.
Well, maybe not the time.
After all, the time it took hadn't been mine.
"Have I already mentioned that you have chosen the absolute best chair possible, Yvonne?"
"I believe you have, sir. Four times," replied Miranda Lawson from the chair across my desk.
"Then I believe I should mention it a fifth time. I like the number five. It is so evenly odd."
Having Miranda Lawson apply as my new secretary was something I thought impossible a month ago, yet it paled against the fact that I hired her.
Furthermore, the fact that Andrew even told me it would be a good idea to hire her was also up there on the list of improbabilities. He saw it as a chance.
It was Andrew who told me that Miranda had cut ties with her father, disappeared with something that had Henry Lawson furious, and, after some time, reappeared as a Cerberus operative. He was of the opinion that having a Cerberus operative, one who was apparently favoured by the Illusive Man himself, close by was an opportunity.
Her orders were probably to spy on me and report every one of my actions, and to perhaps try to manipulate me. With certainty, she would be trying to find out if I was sympathetic toward Cerberus.
Of course, by doing this, Miranda opened herself to be manipulated, too, this time by me. Yet, I wasn't sure it would be possible. At this time, Miranda was heavily involved with Cerberus and a staunch believer in their ideology. Changing her stance right now was probably almost impossible, especially since Miranda was using Cerberus's resources to hide her sister from their father, not knowing that the Illusive Man was also working with Henry behind Miranda's back. Timmy boy was lying to them both, yet convincing Miranda of this without any proof would probably be impossible. So, I wouldn't even try to, not right now.
Perhaps after she met Shepard and learnt a bit more about how Cerberus operated. After all, she was an incredible asset for every side she was on.
But, right now, she was the one helping with my administrative work and the person I had fun teasing.
"Yet, before I say it, you should improve your coffee-making skills," I added with a teasing grin.
In response, Miranda rolled her eyes, already used to my comments. "You know that my coffee is good. Otherwise, you wouldn't ask me to always cook some for you." She was quite prideful, and even something as simple as making fun of her coffee could elicit a reaction. She had luck that her cover was close to her original personality and allowed her to take pride in her skills.
"Just because your coffee is better than the usual office coffee doesn't mean it is good. After all, that is not a difficult hurdle to overcome." She narrowed her eyes while I still had my teasing grin on my face. "Yet, as I said, it is better than the office swell, so would you kindly make me one?"
Despite rolling her eyes, I knew that Miranda would make me one after we finished going through the remaining appointments for the week.
"How did your meeting with Chief Tactilius go? From what I heard, C-Sec isn't quite willing to staff higher positions with members of a newcomer race."
"Quite right," I replied easily and added, "but that was never the plan in the first place." My addition visibly surprised her, and her eyes widened a fraction.
"So, what was the plan if not getting more influence within C-Sec?"
"It seems like you are misunderstanding something. The goal is to gain influence within C-Sec, but not by flooding higher positions with our people. Instead, the rookies will be the key."
"The rookies?" asked Miranda.
"What is one of the tasks that young officers have to do, and how could that task help us gain influence?"
My question didn't get an immediate answer. Instead, Miranda contemplated the answer for almost a full minute before answering me. "Menial tasks, right? Patrols, securing crime scenes, running errands for those truly important."
"All of those are absolutely correct, yet you still have to give me an answer to the second part of my question. How does that help us?"
Spurred on by my confirmation that she was on the right path, she took another moment. "Acclimatisation," she said finally, hesitating a little, before my nod gave her the confidence to continue her train of thought more thoroughly. "You want to acclimate the public and even the officers to seeing humans in C-Sec uniforms. You want them to see humanity as an integral part of the organization, one you can't dismiss anymore. And the rookies and officers on the street are your tool to accomplish this. You want to change the public perception."
"The power is there where people believe it is," I replied.
"And by making the people think that humanity has power within C-Sec, you slowly lay the groundwork to get that power." Miranda stopped for a moment before adding, "Yet, that will take a long time before it shows any results."
I couldn't help but shake my head in amusement. Like many, especially those of the Cerberus variant, Miranda wanted power and results quickly. Even the Alliance parliament wanted those, so I couldn't even be disappointed by her reply, at least not without sounding like a hypocrite since I was guilty of the same attitude from time to time.
"Yes, that is true, but getting results quickly isn't that important for now. I want to make a solid foundation. If we gain power too fast, we could lose it just as quickly when our opponents inevitably make their move. If we make just one mistake, they will argue that we weren't ready for the responsibility and hold that argument over our heads for centuries, since they will be the ones who will decide when we are ready. Think about it a little more," I urged, "What is another advantage of getting as many people into the force, even if it is just the lower-end positions. What should happen to them in any other organization when they do good and competent work?"
"They should get promoted," responded Miranda immediately. "Good and reliable work should always get recognized and rewarded."
"My opinion exactly," I said with a nod. "And if our people do good work, they will get promoted and fill out higher positions naturally. We don't have to do anything. C-Sec will do our jobs for us, and we don't have to lift a finger."
"Yet, how can we be sure that C-Sec will really do so? The Asari, Turians, and Salarians will never allow us to come into power. For them, our species is too young to handle such responsibility."
I could hear the slight frustration and the distaste for the Council species in her voice.
"We both know that age is just an excuse, even among us humans. It is true that young people can often be irresponsible, but age can be offset by skill, ability, and maturity. Furthermore, you are once again only considering from the perspective of someone in a position of power. I don't know when you feel yourself ready for your next career step, but I sincerely hope that during your time with me, you will learn not to underestimate the power of change that can come from those who are often overlooked."
I paused for a moment to make sure that Miranda was listening to my words carefully. If I managed to instill in her the ability to consider the perspective of those apart from the movers and shakers of the galaxy, she would become even more effective than she would already become in the future. Bad in the short term, good in the long term.
I wasn't surprised that she viewed problems and possible solutions from the perspective of those in charge. Despite her dislike of the man, she had learned from her father, and Henry Lawson had also been someone who thought that only those with power could affect anything.
"The first possible outcome if the higher-ups of C-Sec regularly skipped promoting human officers despite their good work, is that they lose the trust of their own officers. The widespread belief that other species don't trust us is false. They are wary of us, that much is true," I added when I saw her opening her mouth to retort something. "That's because they don't know us and only know what they have heard about us. Despite that, wariness can be overcome easily since they are much more accustomed to cohabiting with other species. If we prove our worth, we will get accepted.
Of course, there will be those who will not like us no matter what we do, but we humans have already done the same to ourselves, and we learned to live with that. I am more concerned with the human officers antagonizing the other officers, since we don't have a good track record of accepting people who are different from us. It took us long enough to accept the, in comparison, small differences between us humans, and there still exist some people who believe that they are better because of this or that stupid reason."
Letting out a quiet sigh, I used the short break to organize my thoughts.
"But back to the point I wanted to make. The average member of C-Sec doesn't care about species. They have probably seen enough crimes committed by every possible species, even their own, to stop caring about that. Furthermore, they have to trust their partners. Their job is dangerous, no matter how safe their PR department proclaims the Citadel to be, and danger has a way to forge people together."
The last comment got to Miranda. I could see it in her face. She was probably thinking about some other mission she did for Cerberus and the people she worked with on those. I gave her the time and gestured for her to think out loud.
"You mean that if, for example, a Turian sees his human partner overlooked for a promotion again and again, he will feel indignant about this treatment."
"Yes," I said, giving her a proud smile that had her smiling slightly as if it had been the first she got. Knowing Henry as I did, it could have been. "I know it sounds cheesy and like I took it from a novel, but friendship and camaraderie are important and powerful factors. Ask any of our soldiers or police officers, for example, if they would stand up and stand beside their comrade if they saw a member of their group being treated unfairly without any apparent reason."
"But what if they don't?" asked Miranda. "I mean, it is one possibility that could happen. Yet, I don't believe that you are simply trusting the power of friendship. You don't seem the type without a backup plan."
"Well, I could be, right?"
"No."
I snorted at her bluntly delivered answer and replied: "Yeah, I am not. My backup plan is to collect evidence that our people are being overlooked for promotions and file a lawsuit with the Citadel Courts for specieism."
"That's it?" asked Miranda, her mouth hanging a bit open in disbelief.
"Yeah, that's it," I answered easily. "The evidence should be easy to collect if they do that. There is also a precedent. The Hanar filed a lawsuit for the Drell and won that case. Furthermore, when we win that case, the Council will also be unable to overturn the decision without outing themselves for having prejudices against humanity, which could easily be expanded to include every other species that does not sit on the Council. Either they lose their positions quickly and their decision gets overturned by their replacements, or they will turn every other species against them."
"That sounds a bit too easy."
"Oh, it does. It is much more complicated to pull off, but doable. Sometimes, easy is the best way.
Now, do I get my coffee or not?"
Miranda sighed, but stood up to get me my coffee. But before she left through the door, she said: "When I come back, we still have to go through the remaining paperwork. Don't believe you have distracted me enough to forget that and make me do all the work." A little quieter, she added for herself: "Not again."
Well, you can't get everything.