So, after replaying the first Mass Effect, I was reminded that the reapers are confirmed to come from “dark space” which is beyond the ‘outer rim’ of the Milky Way galaxy. It’s called dark space because it is only truly illuminated by other galaxies millions of light years away (e.g. the Andromeda galaxy).
In contrast, Star Trek classifies the Milky Way into four quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. The premise of Voyager is that Captain Janeway and her crew are set on a mission departing from the Deep Space 9 station to find a missing Maquis rebel ship, which security officer Lieutenant Tuvok has secretly infiltrated. While in the “Badlands” of space, USS Voyager is enveloped by a powerful energy wave that kills several of its crew, damages the ship, and strands it in the Delta Quadrant, more than 70,000 light-years from Earth.
However, in the ME universe, what’s classed as the unknown Delta Quadrant is simply part of the Terminus Systems, Geth Space, and half of the Attican Traverse - and is, for the most part, known to the inhabitants of the Milky Way.
Therefore, for my crossover universe with @parallaxedcaptain we’ve been figuring out how Captain Janeway still endured a 7 year journey to see her crew home.
Notably, Starfleet is an exploratory branch of the Systems Alliance. Rather than training Marines and Soldiers, Starfleet has three divisions (Command, Operations, and Science), which trains individuals to live life aboard exploratory and colonial ships. They work as another arm of the Systems Alliance that is less military based and more about expanding humanity’s reach into space. Often times, if required, they work on joint ventures, and many people choose to cross-over from one to the other (e.g. former Starfleet command personnel may be fast tracked into the Systems Alliance command branch with their experience). There are some attitudes, especially of Alliance Marines that believe Starfleet is the more ‘cowardly’ whereas Starfleet personnel may believe that Alliance soldiers are just military jarheads. Of course, these attitudes aren’t always shared, and many successful joint ventures have led to creating human colonies in the Attican Traverse (for example, Mindoir was established by such efforts, and Shepard grew up around both Alliance and Starfleet personnel).
As such, the USS Voyager was set to return a missing Alliance vessel, headed by mutinous soldiers. Essentially, the ME equivalent to the Delta would be a portion of dark space. While searching the fringes of the Terminus Systems, Voyager experienced the same, unknown energy wave near what was thought to be an inactive mass effect relay. The ship was subsequently ‘yeeted’ into the depths of uncharted dark space, with no certain way to return home.
As we know, reapers lie dormant in the depths of dark space, conserving energy for when they become active again. Of course, to Janeway and her crew, they do not know exactly what these lifeforms are. And, over the course of their journey trying to return to the Milky Way, the encounter the borg - another synthetic based lifeform that seek organics to assimilate them into their collective. The borg have never infiltrated the Milky Way as far as they know, catching any organics who stray into the depths of dark space from the fringes of the the known galaxy.
After seven long years spent travelling dark space, Janeway manages to get her crew back to the Milky Way by 2182 CE. This is just one year prior to the events with Saren and the geth. As a Captain of Starfleet, Janeway was sent with an Alliance representative, Captain David Anderson, to report their findings to the Citadel Council to corroborate in what they found in dark space with Commander Shepard’s story.
Much like Shepard, Anderson and Janeway were met with doubt from the Council. With bias against humanity and belief in Saren as a Council Spectre, Captains Anderson and Janeway left frustrated with the political blackballing. As the events of ME1 unfold and Sovereign attacks the Citadel, Shepard makes the decision to allow the Destiny Ascension to fall in favour of attacking the reaper. The Council dies, and with them, the case for the reapers in dark space from Voyager’s reports. Even with a new Council, and Anderson chosen for Councilor, Janeway’s reports are buried, covered up and scrubbed from the Council’s knowledge, just like the events of the attack on the Citadel.
This leaves a lingering frustration for both Anderson and Janeway. However, when Shepard becomes MIA assumed KIA, the two Captains work together to try and make the Council believe them again. The two become friends through this effort, and while never officially Alliance, Janeway spends her time working with Anderson aboard the Citadel.
In the meantime, the events of the Cerberus-led ‘suicide’ mission against the Collectors occurs. Shepard is confirmed alive and well, doing what the Alliance won’t to save human colonies. They fight the human reaper and destroy the collector base through the Omega-4 relay. Additionally, Shepard’s decision to aid the destruction of the Alpha Relay to delay the reaper invasion is deemed a war crime by the Alliance, and she is encouraged by Admiral Hackett to return to Earth, to surrender the Normandy. She obliges, and is sentenced to 6 months of remand to quarters in Vancouver.
When the reapers invade before her trial, Shepard is reinstated by Anderson. However, as he decides to stay on Earth, he sends Shepard and crew to do what needs to be done to unite the galaxy to fight the reapers. In the meantime, when they arrive to the Citadel, Anderson messages now Admiral Kathryn Janeway to take his place aboard the Normandy. At first, Shepard is somewhat skeptical, as if Anderson is sending someone to “babysit” her, but the tide soon turns when Janeway’s experience in dark space proves invaluable in a position of command - and more.
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