The Flotilla, a vast fleet of ships of every class, both old and new, never ceased in its movements, always traveling, never staying in one place for too long. Currently, it was drifting near the borders of both Citadel space and the Terminus systems, mining minerals from the nearest asteroids and unimportant dwarf planets. It would have all progressed like any other day in the migrant fleet, but the presence of a far off, drifting vessel caught the fleets attention, as any vessel abandoned or in well enough condition to repair would always be scavenged and used by the space-fairing race of Nomads.

A ship was dispatched a short while later, its class being comparable to a scout vessel. Though small, the ship harbored a crew of well over forty quarians, a prime example of how careful and desperate of living space they needed. Its captain didn't mind, however, as the ship was more than enough for him.

Captain Krim'Laevel looked at the ship carefully as it visually grew as his vessel neared it. He was intrigued by its presence out here, so far out from Citadel space, basically the middle of nowhere, but as long as they acquired a new ship for his kind, he didn't care much either way.

Once close enough, many details could be made out from the vessel, the outer hull decorated in the design of human fabricators, a new species if he remembered correctly. It had only been two years since they had been discovered and already they claimed hundreds of planets as their own. A shockingly fast colonization attempt, if he would say so himself. Something he found himself jealous of.

The vessel was heavily damaged, most of the starboard screens being either broken or cracked. The engines themselves were clearly damaged, but not to the point where they were truly unusable. There were no noticeable known power sources aboard the ship either, not even a faint light. The Flotilla should have a power cell or extra generator within its storage, so that settled that problem. That is, if the problem was a damaged power cell.

The captain looked at the shuttle from his screen, giving it one last visual inspection. It was very strange to find a human ship this far out from Citadel space...

He pushed the comm unit on his helmet, the system automatically connecting him to the ships pilot. "Run a scan on the ship. I want its status ASAP." The pilot replied with a "Yes sir." and began a scan which would eventually appear on the captains terminal.

He stared at the ship though his screen, looking at the small series of scorch marks that riddled the ship.

'What are you doing here... '

"Sir, scan's shows that the ship's venting atmosphere, but the emergency bulkheads sealed off parts of the ship. No life signs detected aboard.", the pilot said. Krim'Laevel tapped his finger against his 'chin'. "Send three marines and a technician. I want that ship secured."

...

The quarian vessel carefully drifted alongside the human craft, its docking tube extending until a loud thud and hiss connected both vessels.

The team waited patiently as the exterior doors opened and walked towards the sealed bulkhead door of the human craft. The technician, ahead of the others, stopped at the door and activated his omni-tool, tapping a few buttons and trying to manually, or hack, the door open.

The quarian eventually sighed in frustration. "It wont open," he reported, not looking up from his omni-tool. "the ships systems are fried. We'll have to blow the door."

He stepped to the side, leaving an opening for another quarian. The quarian who stepped up had two minor-grade explosives at hand. His fellow marines looked at him.

"Breach charges," he explained, sounding a little too excited as he began setting up the charges. "made just for such an occasion."

The two marines nodded as he stood up, detonator in hand. The lead marine and the one holding the detonator flanked the door, the third marine and the technician standing nearby, prepared for entry. The quarian with the detonator shouted, "Clear!" and pressed the button.

Turning their heads to shield their eyes, the 'explosion' came as a loud, single boom and blew the hatch open. Once the hatch fell, the lead marine turned around and leaned into the open passage, his rifle aiming in several directions, checking for hostiles, if any. He never trusted ship scans. There had been one too many occasions where a scan falsely led them to believe there was no one in a ship.

Giving a chance for some of the smoke to clear and one last check for any open hostiles, he gave a quick wave of his hand. They began filing in, the lead marine in the front, progressing slowly.

The marines had uneasy looks on their faces as they moved around the small, central hall of the ship, trying to glance into the room that had open doors. The marine in the back stopped only to touch a scorch mark, which hardly came off, but left a dark print on his gloved finger.

"Fresh scorch marks." he said over the comm channel. Based on its nature, they had been made recently, at least within a five hour period.

The two marines looked back at their friend, then at each other. They looked down the corridor and progressed, their grips on their weapons tightening. The technician shifted nervously.

As they turned a corner one of them gave a surprised yelp as they tripped on something. His weapon fell beside hi, but it wasn't long before he grabbed it and quickly turned to see what he had tripped over. He froze in place.

A body. A human female's body. Looking to his left, he saw another nearby, leaned against a wall. This one was male. They looked around carefully. They found two other humans in the room, one of them sporting light armor of sorts, probably a personal set. What saddened him the most was the female human, her physical characteristics telling him she was pregnant or nearly so. The marine stood up and looked at his leader, whose eyes looked around the room in a thoughtful silence.

"Fan out, sweep the ship. I want to know what the hell happened here." he finally said in a commanding, silent tone.

The third marine looked over the bodies, giving a gesture to each and giving a silent. "Keelah se'lai" to them.

The two marines ahead entered another room, both looking around. There was a small silence before one of them muttered, "Keelah...".

The room was littered with bodies, each of a different race. A turian, one krogan, three batarians, each of them sporting the same colored armor, green. A mercenary group perhaps? It was clear a firefight ensued, either way.

"Sir. We have multiple KIA. No known survivors. The ship is damaged, but salvageable." one of the marines reported.

There was a minor silence before the captain responded, "Understood. Return to the ship when ready."

"Yes sir." the marine finished, letting go of the comm by his helmet and gesturing to his friends to move out. He motioned to his friends to move out.

They neared the hatch when a silent noise made its way to a marine. The marine turned and kept his eyes primed for any movement. The noise came again. He made his way down the passage, his friends looking back at him, but not voicing a question. Near the end of the corridor, he found something, a small hidden door. He gestured to his squadmates and they all converged on it. Again, they primed their weapons.

Opening the hatch from the small door, the marines rapidly filed in, but stopped as the brightness of the room itself caught them off guard. This room was powered, unlike the rest of the ship, clean and unaltered. Seeing no noticeably hostiles, the marines lowered their weapons and briefly scanned the room. A strange object caught their attention, its shape being box-like, but wide. Two of the three marines neared it.

The container became clearer, as did the equipment beside it, somewhat camouflaged by the rooms lighting. The marines stood, shocked, as the object within the container became present. It was a human infant. To one of the marines, a quick memory of the recently deceased female told him more than enough that it was her child. He neared the case and looked at the child continuously. The other marine looked at him and eventually broke his gaze as a small datapad caught his attention. he picked it up, read it, and eventually read it aloud to his team members.

"Healthy male. Human. Iris' are light green, predicted to darken in the future. No genetic deformities. Born... four hours ago...?"

The marines looked at him, then at the boy. The marine sadly shook his head, but went back to reading the datapad.

"Parents: William and Hannah Shepard. Any known family: Parents wouldn't say. Genetic screening shows... biotic potential...?"

He put the datapad down and gave a sigh, turning slightly to look at the child. One of the marines approached him, saying, "We should report this to the captain. Let him decide the fate of this human child."

The marine nodded and didn't bother turning as his teammate turned to leave, leaving his other teammate and himself in the room alone. he turned to the child and shook his head sadly.

'Such a tragedy...'

...

"A child?" Krim'Laevel asked. Of the three marines before him, the one in the center nodded.

"Yes sir."

"And what do we know of it?" he said, crossing his arms.

The marine folded his arms behind his back. "No known relatives, no genetic tampering, and has possible biotic potential."

The captain gave a long, but subtle 'hmm', thinking to himself. He finally commanded, "Send word to the Alliance. Send the child to them."

The marine nodded once. "Yes sir." With the conclusion and decision made, the marines began filing out. All but one, that is.

"Sir?" the lone marine said.

The captain turned to look at the marine. "Yes, soldier?"

The marine looked disturbed, then started making out the question.

"Sir if I may. Could I maybe, If you'll allow me, ...raise the child..?"

The captain looked at the quarian marine, dumbfounded. The absurdity of the request was more than simply present. "Marine, why, in the ancestors names, would you want to raise a human child?"

The marine stalled, "Sir as you may not have known my wife died not long ago."

The captain nodded and was about to ask how this was related when the marine interrupted him. "Sir.. she died with child." he said, his voice wavering upon mentioning what would have been his son. "This child... for him to appear only days after the incident.. I think it's a sign, or at least a gesture... a chance…" he finished.

Krim'Laevel looked at him, then answered, "Marine I'm sorry for you're loss, but you don't know a thing about raising a child, let alone a human child." he responded.

The marine gave a minor shrug. "Couldn't be that different from a quarian child..." he answered halfheartedly.

Krim'Laevel looked at him, then at the data pad in his hands. He sighed heavily, shaking his head and looking back at the marine. "What about the fact that he's a biotic?" he asked. "We quarians have never had a biotic amongst us in the three hundred years we've spent in a fleet. What do you plan to do? How do you plan to train him if his powers 'do' become active?"

"I'll find someone. A trainer. Someone that the fleet knows maybe." he replied.

The captain sighed and shook his head in frustration. 'He's not going to give this up...'

Both stood in silence for a moment before Krim shook his head, muttered to himself, activated his omni-tool and keyed a few buttons. "The least I can do is report your request to admiral Knil. If not him, perhaps a small portion of the conclave." He mentally scolded himself for even considering giving the child to the marine. While his reasons are small and insignificant, a part of him felt like giving him a chance, though chances are that the admiral or conclave members would turn it down immediately. He closed the omni-tool and looked at the marine. "Don't get you're hopes up, Ymir. I know you don't want to hear it, but your request is likely to be rejected."

"I know about the odds, captain." Ymir replied with a nod. "All I want is a chance."

...

"A HUMAN CHILD!" shouted the admiral. "IS HE MAD? THERE'S NO WAY WE'LL APPROVE OF THIS!"

The five admirals looked up from their data pads and each gave a different response. Three of the admirals shouted their disbeliefs and disapprovals at the request, while the other two only nodded at it with different types of approvals.

"What was he thinking! He doesn't know the first thing about humans, let alone a child!" shouted the first Admiral.

A different quarian stood up, looking at each of his fellow admirals. "Gentlemen, Lady," he said, nodding to the only female quarian amongst them, "we can see how this request should be denied straight away, but we can use this to our advantage." Three of the admirals looked at him, their expressions matching their emotions towards the situation. disbelief.

"The adoption of a human into the fleet would show a willingness to embrace changes. Our acceptance and care-taking would bring positive feedback for the model he will pose in the future, perhaps even become an influential force for us. This could help us in terms of relations with humans, a way for us to slowly become allies to them, much like the volus and the turians. It will take years to make something possible and it wont be easy, but this is a chance, a vivid, unclear, but possibly rewarding chance." he stated, knowing that such a result was a long shot. Two of the four other admirals shook their heads. The other two gave subtle nods.

"I see you point, Knil, but do you honestly believe that the humans will help us?" one of the admirals asked. "They may be new to the galaxy, but they aren't gullible idiots."

The admiral known as Knil nodded. "Certainty is impossible, but there's a possibility it help us. If not now, then later. Good things will come of this, even if the way to it is a bad one."

The first admiral shook his head in protest. "If we do that then they may claim that we only want to use him. They could also use our lack of proper raising of a levo-acid child against us."

"You don't know that."

"And neither do you!" retorted the admiral, pointing a finger at him.

Once again, the admirals began debating the human child, the lone, supposedly meager topic, taking much more time than any of them anticipated. In the end, the possibilities, both good and bad, roughly matched each other, but it didn't stop the admirals from disapproving under their breath.

With the facts present to all, the admirals silently nodded to each other, activated their omni-tools and pressed a holographic key. The tally of the voting came present once the last of the admirals voted.

Three to Two.

Knil nodded to himself and gave the admirals a second to accept the vote. "The boy is to be adopted to Ymir'Ksik vas Hyami." he declared after a while. "The future will decide whether this decision is right, or wrong. Keelah se'lai"

The admirals nodded in understanding, one slower than the rest. With the last of the important matters finished, they rose and began filing out of the small room. Once the last of them left, Knil sighed and shook his head. He spent a minute simply standing before following the admirals, thinking to himself, 'I hope I'm right about this…'

...

Ymir sat somewhat impatiently, awaiting for a small icon on his omni-tool to beep green…or red.

He wasn't sure why he was this eager for a child that was of no relation to him. He figured it was chance of having something he wanted. Though he was not of blood, let alone race, he finally had something, some 'one', to unofficially be a son of sorts. He nervously chuckled at the thought, being a father. He could get a simple quarian child, any who were left without parents were always taken care of by their clan. This child had no clan, no significance in any quarian way.

He saw this as an opportunity.

His omni-tool beeped, eliciting him to stop his rapid, unfocused thoughts and look at it. The color of the icon made him give an unsure chuckle to himself.

He slid from his 'relaxed' sitting position and held his wrist in front of him, looking at the icon in somewhat disbelief. "Its… its green…"

While his body was still, his heart beat rapidly as the tension passed and a form of happiness came to him. He chuckled. "Its green." he repeated with a nod. He never figured the admirals would have accepted. Maybe they weren't the tight-suited bunch he originally thought they were.

He stood and looked around, lost for a moment as his mind sent a surge of thoughts through his mind. Eventually he stopped at what he figured he'd want to do first. He'd have a look at the child.

...

"We didn't know how to do it with this little one." A medical officer told Ymir. Looking over to the child, sleeping soundly within one of the Flotilla's many bubbles, he looked back at the medic. "We decided it would be better to be safe, than sorry." He finished.

He nodded

"Now, Ymir, it is the time for your decision. Should he keep his family name, or should he be registered under yours?" asked the officer, picking up a data pad and prepping a finger over its screen.

Ymir looked at the child once more, sleeping blissfully, not knowing what happened to its real parents, or what would happen to him. He felt somewhat sad for the child and how bad things had begun for him, but he felt ready to fix it, even if the child felt nothing for people he hardly knew or would remember. Ymir tilted his head towards the officer.

"…Keep his name. He deserves to know who he wa-… is."

The officer nodded and tapped at the data pad. Looking up, he added, "Ymir. We only know him by his surname. As you are to be his father, what would you like for his name to be?"

'Human last name… might as well give him a quarian first name..'

" Imre." he said after a while. He looked at the child for a few seconds before finishing, "Imre'Shepard."

The officer nodded once more and pressed a few keys. He stalled as a screen appeared and looked up at Ymir. "The name of the human vessel was burned off and there are no known names found within what data we could briefly extract from the ship. You know what this means, don't you?"

Ymir nodded. With the destruction or lack of information on the original ship, the child would take the name of his ship, temporarily on many cases. That settles it for the name…

Imre'Shepard "Nar Hyami…"