Alleviating some pressing concerns

Head of the Andromeda Initiative's Militia, Tiran Kandros, has been feeling the pressure for a while now. For over eighteen months he has done everything he can to keep the Nexus safe from threats both within and outside, but it just never seems to be enough. Fortunately, a certain human Pathfinder showed up and started to alleviate some of his concerns in ways he'd never anticipated.


Chapter 1: The reality of life is getting under someone's skin

23 July 2819, 21:34 HST
Operations Control, Nexus, Zheng He

"Spirits, it has been a long day."

That was all Kandros was still able to say or think while making his way out of Director Tann's office.
Looking at the current time on the station, the display of which seemed to be firmly ingrained onto the large screen at the end of the main hall, he could swear it was personally mocking him with letting each passing second waste away, while he was still stuck in Operations HQ.

Starting to walk towards his office, he could feel the strain on his lower jaw and mandibles from the continued shouting and cursing during his meeting with Director Tann. Pressing his hand against his left mandible in an attempt to smother the uncomfortable feeling, he could not help but let out a small groan at his current exhaustion.

"It wasn't supposed to be this way."

At least that's what he's been telling himself for a while now.
The day had started out promising enough; he woke up, had a quick 'breakfast' (slimy nutrient paste) and took the tram towards the heart of the Nexus.
However everything went downhill as soon as he took his first steps into his office. Because of course it did.

Immediately he had to deal with renewed civil unrest near one of the Hydroponic bays yet again, concurrently deal with the resulting fallout of removing said protesters afterwards, only to end up in a meeting with the rest of the Nexus's leadership that went on for the entire afternoon and then finally to have Director – toady – Tann insist on having, what the Director called, a 'performance review' of Kandros his temporary leadership as head of Nexus Security as well as leadership of the Militia.

After all of that, Kandros was finally free for the rest of the day. Not that it mattered much; his work schedule, the state of the Nexus as well as the reality of living in the Heleus Cluster meant he'd have to be back on duty at 05:00 in the morning.

As he thought about it all, he started to lose his normally carefully guarded composure against the overwhelming return of his own anger and frustration; he quickly moved his arms downward, pressing both his hands into fists so strongly he'd swear his talons started to pierce his own metallic like skin. Silently muttering to himself with clenched mandibles so tight it wouldn't surprise him that they would attach themselves completely on his own face.

"Don't lose control again Tiran, you just did that already."

Normally, he wouldn't be the one to be so disturbed by it all. Really, he wouldn't. Turians are renowned for their sense of duty, strong composure and militaristic culture after all and Kandros wasn't the one to completely break with those esteemed values altogether. And he remained firmly convinced that under any other circumstances most problems would not have fazed him. Hell, he led men and women into battle many times over, sometimes with consequences that, yes, for many would be very difficult to live with. Lately however, things somehow had started to change, and he hadn't exactly pinpointed why he felt like he'd been running on empty for a while now.

Summarizing his own current condition as he walked down to the lower floor in the direction of the APEX's offices, he concluded that today's events just had to have been a extraordinary whirlwind of problems that needed his attention, the only difference from the usual routine being however was that said problems started to crop back up just when you actually thought you had dealt with them. He figured that's why he had to have reached, and greatly surpassed, his breaking point.

And given how Director Tann practically hid behind his desk with those two big black Salarian eyes of his, getting so large he'd thought they would pop right out of the Director's head while he told him what he thought of the Director's 'performance review' and of the quality of the Initiative's Director's leadership in general. In short, it really cannot have looked pretty.

Finally reaching his office, and having had several more minutes to cool down, he quickly scanned through his office, taking a last look around to see if he still needed anything to take with him to his apartment in the Habitat Sector. As he looked, he started to talk to himself again about his current predicament.

"And to think that early in the morning I still considered everything to get better ever since the Hyperion arrived."

The annoyingly conscious ridden part of his brain however reminded him that wasn't really the truth though.

"No, when that human Pathfinder arrived. I really should have known that somebody who is so pretty too look at would also have been so difficult to deal with."

Despite feeling reasonably assured no one would overhear him in his own office muttering things about the Pathfinder, his last comment still managed to surprise himself about what he just blurted out.

The absolute last thing he wanted was others to know about his recent crush, which frankly, was outright ridiculous. Even if he tried, it couldn't possibly work.
First of all, he was the leader of the Militia and Nexus Security. That certainly did not leave any room for a lengthy relationship.
Secondly he had the Kandros family's reputation to uphold after all. And while Tiran couldn't care less about his families proper past back on Palaven and their collective choices in military careers, that did mean he'd have to settle down with some nice Turian lady, eventually.
To make matters worse, the Initiative protocols and directives as well as the medical staff both of turian and non-turian origin aboard the Nexus seemed pretty concerned with the whole issue of procreation.

"Oh great, as If I needed to remind myself of that" Kandros said with an almost theatrical sounding sigh.

Feeling slightly annoyed as his mind immediately started drifting back towards that embarrassing incident in the Nexus Medical Center. Several days ago, after getting the call from one of his deputies on an occurring incident of civil unrest and harassment caused by a medical practitioner, he went to investigate the incident personally.
The perpetrator turned out to be a recently awoken fertility expert that was harassing both women and men about the importance of having children right up to the point of demanding...samples...to start the 're population process' and 'boost their batter'. Needless to say, after getting a taste from her ongoing rambling himself he concurred with the remaining medical staff's conclusion that the fertility expert's passion for her work would be better suited on Eos than in a holding cell. Prodromos was eager to transform from an outpost into a proper town after all and the Nexus was still a space station with severely limited resources.

"Huh, maybe if I stayed on the Nexus I could forgo on that particular 'demand'."

Finally, concluding that his earlier thoughts didn't matter that much, because no matter how many reasons he could come up with how it wouldn't work between him and the Pathfinder, there was only one reason that stood way above all others; the Pathfinder hasn't shown any indication that he likes him in the same way that he likes the Pathfinder. Kind of an important starting point and he didn't even have that.

Shaking himself loose from his depressed ramblings, he grabbed one of his data sticks and locked the devices away within his suit. He still had reports to review, notifications to send to several team leaders and finally contact the Pathfinder himself. But he was damned if he did that in HQ today. Enough was enough. No matter what protocol had to say on the matter.


Author's note:
Thanks for reading my first English written fanfiction dear Mass Effect fan!
I've already planned out the story and I fully intend to turn this into the m/m romance MEA never had but should have had. It won't be long until Kandros will get a chance to make a lasting impression on his favorite human in the Andromeda Galaxy. So, any review and/or feedback is greatly appreciated! Ta ta! :)