The lowkey rumblings of the Nexus engines penetrated the supposed sound proof walls of Nayely's office. It left her in a Schrödinger state of without sound and with sound. Nayely's office was immaculate, so much so that even her old Turian Boot Camp Drill Instructor would be proud of the sight. However, she would have taken off points from how sloppy Nayely, herself looked. At her desk sat her only physical picture of her family together; her human mother, her turian step-father, herself, her turian step-brother, and her little adopted krogan brother. Leaning in a corner of the office behind her sat her guitar, it had started collecting dust.
She was looking over the morning engine reports on her computer to send to Superintendent Kesh when someone knocked on her door. Sighing, Nayely rubbed her cold hands on her burning eyes. Then she closed her computer lid, sat up straight and with a smile said, "Come in."
Lana Cuthbert, an asari, poked her head through the door way, "The two Angaran transfers are here."
Genuinely excited now Nayely said, "Well, let them in."
Lana smiled with a nod and two humanoid-like aliens walked in. The two angaran men walked in on thick ostrich like legs, reminiscent of how a quarian's, turian's, salarian's, and krogan's legs are like, and Nayely appreciated the familiarity. This being the first time she's meeting with these new aliens Nayely noted their purple skin and how they had a kind of sub-color on top of their purple skin. One had patches of lavender on his purple skin and the other had patches of greenish-purple on his purple skin. Both angaran men have crystal blue cat-like eyes and big round flaps on the sides of their heads that go down past their necks. When she got up and shook their hands, she noticed that their last three fingers fused together, leaving only their pointer finger and thumb free.
"I'm so glad to see you both here," Nayely said as she pulled out two folding chairs by the door then sat back down, "My name is Nayely. Also, I've heard about your Moshae and what happened to your people in the Kett base on Voeld and I'm happy she's back and I'm sorry for your collective losses."
The angaran men nodded their heads in acceptance and thanked her.
"My name is Lethoul," the lavender speckled angara said.
"And my name is Saalro," the greenish-purple speckled angara added.
"Nice to meet you two," Nayely said, "Welcome to the Nexus Engine Room Sleeping Quarters and Lounge Area, where you sleep next to where you work. Now, are there any special needs you two might need because I need to know, as your manager, so I can make sure you guys are comfortable and are capable of working at 100%."
"How long do we stay down here?" Lethoul asked.
"When we're fully staffed, at least three people get the weekend off every other week and usually go upstairs to enjoy themselves. Right now, it's one person gets a break once a month," Nayely said.
"That sounds awful," Saalro said, then added, "We'll need special lights then, since we'll get sick without proper sun exposer."
Nayely thought for a moment then reopened her computer and brought up a notepad app and typed in: need two UV Light stands – ask agriculture people. "Alright, I'll get you your lights. Should get them within the week. Anything else?" Nayely asked.
"How do we contact our families? Are we allowed to do that from down here?" Saalro asked.
"Oh, sure. There are several ways for you to talk with your families from here. The main and quickest way is by the vid call screen, but there's an hour per day time limit to it since everyone here has family they want to talk to and there's only one vid call screen to use. You can of course call multiple times in one day, but it must be after everyone else has had their turn. The other way you can contact your family is through your omni tools that you were given when you boarded the Nexus," Nayely said.
"These things," Saalro asked while holding out his wrist which held a watch sized computer.
"Yep, You make a little E-mail account and you can E-mail them whenever you want on that, but it's not as strong as the vid caller, so if you have family on Eos or Aya then you will be exchanging E-mails throughout the day just fine, but if they live far away like on Elaaden or Kadara then it'll take up to two days or more to exchange your messages," Nayely explained.
"That's not so bad," Saalro said.
"These little things are a lot stronger than I thought they would be," Lethoul said, thinking out loud while admiring his omni tool.
The three of them continued talking about compromising time off and the amount of pay they're given and who'll be their designated trainer and where they'll be sleeping and so forth.
"I think we all know what we need to know so you two can go. You both will start work tomorrow morning so I suggest exploring the Nexus while you still can," Nayely advised the two aliens.
The Angarans stood up, folded the chairs and placed them where they last saw them.
"I think I'll take you up on your offer," Saalro said.
"I'm going to settle in first," Lethoul said.
Nayely waved goodbye to the Angarans as they left her office. She was once again alone, and she slumped forward with a sigh then there was another knock on the door and Nayely straightened up again.
"Yes," Nayely asked.
Odann, a salarian, poked her head through the door with a data tablet in hand. "I have the mid-day shift's engine reports."
"Oh, thank you Odann," Nayely stood up as Odann walked in to hand her the data tablet, "Have a good evening."
"Thank you. Don't work too hard," Odann said as she closed the door behind her.
Nayely smiled at the joke then collapsed into her seat and half-heartedly touched the tablet to her computer and air dropped the data, then she sat the tablet to the side with the other one.
# # #
It was 11:00pm by the time Nayely had finished all the paper work and had it E-mailed to Kesh for her to look over it in the morning. Nayely stood up stretching and rubbed her burning eyes with her cold fingers and she kept them there for a minute. Then she picked up the three tablets she gotten over the day and as she walked out of her office, she turned off the lights. It was pitch dark in the kitchen/office area of the lounge. There weren't any lights coming from under the doors of the men's or women's sleeping quarters from across the make shift living room. There was, however, a faint light and the sound of running water coming from the men's side of the shower room as Nayely walked over to the door leading to the engines. As Nayely placed the three data tablets into wall pockets next to the door she listened in on whoever was talking.
"When will you tell them?" Saalro asked.
"Tomorrow morning," Lethoul said, "I thought it was too soon to tell them on our first day here."
"How do you think they'll handle it," Saalro asked.
"Well, Pathfinder Rider and, my yalaon, Jaal gave me hope that the Jarevaon Imasaf will accept what I have done," Lethoul said.
"They'll be very mad, though," Saalro stated.
"Oh, they'll be furious," Lethoul said as the water shut off, "But they're going to find out I'm a former Roekkar eventually."
Nayely walked up to the entrance to the men's side of the shower room and half shouted, "Or I can find out right now." She heard them shout skkut then Lethoul stuck his head around the corner. He was about to say something when Nayely interrupted him, "You take your time. I promise I'm not mad." Then she left and sat on the couch in the make shift living room in the dark, with the only light coming from the shower room. It took them five minutes to get dressed and exit the shower room.
Nayely scooted over and patted the empty space beside her on the couch. The two angara sat down. Then Nayely proceeded to say, "I personally don't care if you were a Roekkar or not. You're not against us anymore and the organization, over all, has fallen apart. If I allow myself to start doubting that you guys aren't good people, then we'll have chaos down here. That's why I think it's best if we keep the fact that you're a former Roekkar secret until someone does find out. If you still want to tell everyone what you were, then I'll support it. Just make sure I'm there so I can act as mediator."
"There is no shame in making mistakes. Why would I keep my mistakes secret? Wouldn't that make them angrier?" Lethoul asked.
Saalro nodded his head in agreement.
Nayely shrugged. "Who knows, everyone here's different, but I'm not going to stop you if you think telling everyone's the right thing to do," Then she stood up, "Good night gentlemen." Then she started walking towards the woman's sleeping quarters then pause, "Oh and one more thing. If you're trying to have a secret conversation, you'll want to whisper in the bathroom. It echoes like crazy in there."
# # #
It was 5:00am when Nayely woke up like usual; three hours before everyone else. Going to the woman's side of the shower room, Nayely took a cold ten-minute shower to wake herself up more and when she finished, she examined herself in one of the five sink mirrors. She thought she didn't look too good; with dark purple bags under her eyes that seem so deep that they cover the cheek part of her face tattoos. She thought to herself that she looked pale, even though her skin tone rivaled the dark void of space. She finished drying off and got dressed in her work clothes and went to the kitchen/office to make coffee for everyone. While the coffee machine was doing its magic, Nayely took out all the quick to make breakfast stuff. After doing that Nayely took out her personal coffee mug with her face on it and quickly switched out the coffee pot for her coffee mug and once it's filled, she switched the two out again.
Nayely took a moment to breath in the aroma of her coffee and then took a sip. Then she made her way to the vid caller, next to the entrance to the higher levels of the Nexus, and on the opposite wall of the entrance to the engines. She tried calling the number Luso, her turian brother, gave her again. All she got was a dial tone. Then she tried calling her little krogan brother, Surd, and she got dial tone again. Sighing, Nayely turned off the vid caller, finished off her coffee, grabbed a pair of noise canceling headphones then got to work on doing the morning rounds. It technically wasn't her job any more to do morning rounds of the Nexus engines, but it always made her feel better knowing that despite everything, the engines were still going.
It was 9:00am by the time Nayely had finished diagnostics on the engines, making sure the movable joints were well greased, that the fuel tank was full, and that the batteries connected to the solar energy panels weren't corroding. She passed Lethoul, Saalro, and Puvus, a turian and their trainer, on her way back. She put away her ear muffs and opened the door to smell someone cooking fried eggs. It was Vimia, a turian, at the oven.
"When did we get eggs," Nayely asked Vimia.
"I made a trade with Vetra," she answered, "I thought it would be nice to have since we got some new help."
Nayely stretched and yawned as she walked away, "Well, have fun. I'm going to do paper work."
Lana stopped her in her tracks, "Oh, no you don't. When's the last time you've eaten."
"Oh, I don't know, but I'll be fine," Nayely said as she was forcible sat down into a stool. Vimia handed her a plate of eggs.
"Don't worry," Vimia said, "They're levo-amino based eggs."
Lana sat down next to Nayely and got herself a plate too.
The smell and look of the eggs were making Nayely feel sick, but she didn't want to be rude to Vimia, so she tried eating. The eggs tasted bland and the texture made her gag a little.
Lana asked, "Are you okay?"
Nayely coughed as she answered, "Yah, I just—um, got it down the wrong pipe."
Odann was grabbing herself a glass of water and had grabbed two glasses and handed one to Nayely, "Here."
"Thanks," Nayely said before drinking.
Nayely pushed around the eggs on her plate. She missed the days when food didn't taste awful to her. Vimia was generally a good cook, but ever since she lost contact with her brothers six months ago, she hasn't felt like eating very much as of late.
Nayely stood up, "I'm done eating. I'm going to go work on the schedule."
"Okay," Haestar, a salarian who was walking by, "Don't forget to give me my day off I asked for."
"Don't worry, I saw your request, but I make no promises," Nayely said before she closed the office door behind her.
# # #
Nayely was in the middle of writing another request to Kesh about getting a new manager when someone knocked on the office door.
"Come in," Nayely said without looking up.
"I'm ready to tell everyone," Lethoul said.
Nayely rubbed her eyes, stretched, then stood up. "Alright. Let's do this."
As Nayely walked out of the office she called out to everyone to gather around. All nineteen employees were present.
"Alright everyone, I want you all to stay quiet until," she turned and whispered to the angaran beside her, "What was your name again?"
"Lethoul," he whispered back.
"I want you all to stay quiet until Lethoul has finished what he has to say. Okay?" Nayely told everyone.
Everyone nodded or replied, okay.
"If you will," Nayely said, giving Lethoul the floor.
Lethoul took a step forward and said, "I use to be a Roekkar solider."
Nayely felt the atmosphere of the room go from cautious curiosity to hostile.
"I cannot change what I have done with the Roekkar and I'm not telling you this in hopes of you accepting my apologies," Lethoul continued to say, "I tell you this, because you deserve to know. Thank you."
Everyone was silent then Raeso, an asari, was walking up to Lethoul with blue biotic fields covering her fists.
"Your kind killed my sister," Raeso cried as she threw a biotic punch at Lethoul.
Nayely went in to disengage her attack like she used to practice, but Raeso's biotic punch was so forceful that instead of redirecting it away from Lethoul and herself, Nayely ended up taking the punch. She couldn't breathe for a whole minute as her employees surrounded her, worried. Nayely slowly stood up, then placed a hand on Lethoul's shoulder.
"You are all entitled to being angry at the Roekkar and what they have done to us, but punching an Angaran who's changed their ways and are trying to do better isn't going to bring back the people we have lost," Nayely said, "Before Lethoul told you about what he used to be, what was your impression of him?"
The hostile atmosphere had lessened to an angry annoyance.
Puvus, their trainer, stepped forward, "A genuine hard worker and a curious type."
Haestar also stepped forward, "I thought he was fun."
Then Lana stepped forward, "I think he's a real family man."
Raeso shouted, "But that doesn't excuse what he's done."
"No, it doesn't," Nayely and Lethoul said at the same time.
Nayely stayed quiet and motioned for Lethoul to continue.
"All I ask is for you to give me a chance to prove to you that you can trust me," Lethoul finished.
Nayely sensed that the atmosphere was still angrily annoyed with Lethoul, but in a more accepting kind of way. Nobody said a word for a good minute.
"Well," Nayely said, breaking the silence, "If nobody has anything else to say then let us all get back to work."
Everybody wondered off to do their jobs, except for Lethoul.
"Thank you for your help," Lethoul said, "Will you be alright? That punch looked nasty."
Nayely waved it off, "I'll be fine. I'll probably have bruised diaphragm since Raeso used her biotics, but I'll be fine. Come to me if you need any help diffusing any animosity towards you."
"Thank you," Lethoul said. Then before Nayely walked into the office Lethoul asked, "Did the Roekkar hurt your family too?"
Nayely was silent for a moment then said, "I don't know." Then she closed the door to her office.
