A sudden woosh could be heard on the inside of the ship as the mass relay jump reached its conclusion. The world that could be seen outside the reinforced window seemed to become more real, albeit emptier and more dull.

Just as it always would.

Truth be told, this was the first time I had taken part in one of these, the experience was meant to be new. I could have imagined any of the other younglings staring wide eyed out through the window, watching the streams of apparent light in the mass free space-time corridor, but captivate me they did not. I had spent most of the voyage sitting alone, not even in the vicinity of my parents, either thinking to myself or observing the passers by.

To my surprise, many came over to ask if I was alright and maybe share a moment of conversation. The asari on the ship, especially, always promised friendliness as such, even to one of another race. They most often seemed to surprised when I told them of my age, complimenting me with a social ability that was apparently "beyond my years". I brushed it off as too many years of having to deal with over-excitable children who had an inability to know when not to speak. I thanked them nonetheless, remembering my manners. I brushed a talon against my fringe and let myself sigh, as we broke free of the Charon relay and the FTL drives engaged into full throttle, soon speeding past Pluto and Neptune.

As we passed Uranus, my sight was caught by a relatively large ship, named the "Normandy SR-2" and adorned with a logo that seemed to attract looks of distaste among the most of the adults on the ship; provoking a few mumbled discussions involving insults in several different languages, left un-translated by my ear piece for reasons I assumed were obvious. Strangest of all, however, was the fact that this ship seemed to be in the act of launching several mining probes to land on Uranus's surface. I had remembered from what little I had learnt about the Sol Cluster that Uranus was near to depleted of resources, due to Helium-3 retrieval once humans had developed FTL drives. Regardless, the ship seemed very keen to keep launching probes; I soon grew tried of observing it and returned to my former position, attempting to lie down and sleep for a moment or two.

This plan was foiled by my mother calling out to me, coming over and insisting to sit by my side, wanting to talk about something. She sat down and looked at me, with eyes of concern piercing my gaze.

"You've been awfully quiet during the whole trip, your father and I are worried. What is the matter?" she asked me, in the same tone you'd expect any worried mother to address their son.

"I promise, I'm fine." I assured her, putting on a slightly fake smile in an attempt to please her and alleviate her concern.

"Listen, you don't have to pretend you're OK if that's not how you actually feel. I know this is an awfully big change, I felt sad as well knowing we would have to leave Palaven and everything we'd ever taken as home. But…"

"I know, I know…" I interrupted, slightly rudely, I admit, but felt to be necessary nonetheless "…the one hundred thousand credits a month salary was too good to refuse and will give us the life we've always wanted. Please, mother, don't worry about me. I understand that this is necessary and that in the long run this will be a good thing. I promise you, I will be fine" I finished, speaking from the heart.

"Thank you, son. You've been too good to us" She responded, embracing me in her arms. I returned the gesture; thereafter she released me and walked off up the stairs to the next deck. I laid back down and prepared to attempt sleep once more, not wanting to dwell on the partial lie I had just told my mother and telling myself I did it for the greater good of keeping her happy.

My thoughts were invaded by a memory of a group of friends, waving goodbye as the ship I was on right now left Palaven, and began the ascent into outer space. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but I knew it was not, merely a day or two in reality. I reached into the back of my casuals and retrieved the physical version of the memory from them. I opened the hologram and saw their faces again. A mixture of sadness, happiness, and other emotions for which I had no name. The names of the people repressed themselves in my mind, confronting me with the truth that remembering them would bring more harm than good. Remember them, I of course still did, but now was not the time to do so. Taking what I hoped would be the last of many sighs I had on the trip, I put the hologram back into the pocket and closed my eyes, relying on the dreams to clear my thoughts.

Unfortunately, once again, I was interrupted, but this time by a message beginning to play on the ship's audio announcement system.

"Attention all passengers, we are just now passing by Mars and are on course to land on Earth in approximately 10 earth minutes. Please return to the main hallway and fasten yourselves into the safety harnesses to ensure lack of injury during landing. T-9 minutes to landing zone. Thank you"

I heaved myself off of the recliner and walked up the same stairs my mother had before, eventually spotting both her and my father amongst the rows of seats. I smiled and waved at them as I approached, sitting in the seat adjacent to my father and fastening the harness as instructed. We looked out of the front window to enjoy the only spectacle we'd get as we landed. 8 became 7 and 7 became 6. Soon enough the numbers did not matter. The seats were eventually all filled, including the other one adjacent to mine, by a human of the same age as my parents. He leaned over me and said only one thing:

"Welcome to the capital, Turian!"