Upon reaching the designated dock, Mya glanced around at the few others who had congregated already, most of whom were spending their last moments with family, a few others like herself were alone. A solitary dark and brooding figure caught her eye, and she couldn't help thinking he looked vaguely familiar, though for the life of her she couldn't put a name to the face. It was hardly surprising; throughout her alliance career she had met a lot of people. To her embarrassment she was caught staring and even though she was nothing short of mortified, she tried to look nonchalant and at ease, offering the stranger a grin.
"Normandy?" he asked striding over to her with a sincere smile. It was easy to return the smile, in spite of the fact she was sure her cheeks had flushed scarlet with embarrassment.
"That's right, you know much about what's happening?" she enquired dropping her bags to the floor gently. Her new acquaintance shook his head and shrugged.
"Not much of anything, I do know however that we won't be boarding her here…merely catching a transport to rendezvous with her on Arcturus." Mya's eyes widened as she mulled over this recent titbit of information. He regarded her thoughtfully before extending his hand. "Kaidan Alenko."
"Mya Danson…great to meet you. At least I feel like l know somebody now." She shook his hand firmly with a slightly nervous laugh. Kaidan smiled warmly.
"Wait til you get to know me better, then perhaps you won't consider yourself so fortunate." He teased raking his fingers through his short dark hair. Mya laughed heartily in spite of herself and shrugged.
"I guess only time will tell. What's your specialty?" she asked, starting to feel a little more comfortable. Kaidan shrugged and scratched the back of his neck a little self consciously.
"This and that…mostly marine grunt work…oorah!" He smiled. Mya nodded and shrugged.
"It could be worse you could be sitting in front of a console all day with your ears crushed by delightful headsets."
"Good point well made. Tech specialist?" he queried, lowering himself to the floor and leaning back against his bag and folding his arms across his chest. Mya followed suit and leaned against her own belongings, crossing her legs comfortably.
"Yeah I'm a bit of a Jack of all trades myself." she commented with a wry chuckle. Kaidan raised an eyebrow.
"Master of none?" he teased good naturedly.
"Depends on who you speak to." Mya replied with a wink. She took some satisfaction in noticing a blush rise to his cheeks this time. "Shouldn't be too much longer?" She added glancing at her omnitool. It surprised her that there weren't that many other people here, and it must have shown.
"Maybe there are others travelling from other bases?" Kaidan offered, wondering the same thing.
"That or this isn't shaping up to be a particularly large crew."
"Think of it this way…smaller lines for the showers."
"That is an excellent point." She conceded with a nod. "Gosh I'm starving already and I had a huge breakfast!" she muttered, pulling a sandwich from her bag that she had made the night before. Kaidan's eyes widened.
"You made a packed lunch? Why didn't I think of that?" he shook his head with a chuckle. Mya smiled and reached back into her rucksack and pulled out another neatly wrapped sandwich and offered it to him. "Are you sure?" he asked raising an eyebrow.
"Of course, I have plenty in there, I had to use up the contents of my fridge, so there is quite literally a little bit of everything in these sandwiches." She handed it to him before taking a bite of her own. Kaidan did the same.
"You weren't lying, there's a lot in this sandwich, I'm guessing this is the last taste of proper food I'm getting for a long while, I intend to savour it, Damned metabolism" He muttered between bites.
"Biotic?" she queried knowingly. He nodded and swallowed.
"Yep, one of the many wondrous side effects"
"I know it only too well." Mya agreed knowingly. His eyes widened.
"You too? But, why are you a tech specialist then? Didn't you get advanced biotic combat training when you enlisted?" he asked utterly confused.
"I did, and I ask the same question to every C.O I've ever had, nobody has ever been able to tell me why my training has never been utilised, perhaps our new C.O will be a little more forthcoming. I have my suspicions though."
"Oh?"
"Family, I come from a family who have served in the military for centuries. The men enlist, the women tend to marry military rather than enlisting themselves, I was the first female to enlist in over sixty years, I get the feeling my parents weren't exactly thrilled about it, and I think my dad called in some favours to get me benched, or rather parked behind a desk instead of on the front line." Her gaze dropped to her well shined boots. Kaidan gave a low whistle and shook his head.
"It negates everything you've worked for, I'd be sore about it, if it were me."
"Yea, I'm not thrilled about it myself, but I'd rather serve than not, no matter what capacity it happens to be in."
"I know what you mean, your blood family is important, but there's nothing quite like your military family is there?" he said softly.
"You've hit the nail on the head." She met his gaze shyly. He nodded in agreement.
"Well, you'll be stuck with the lot of us for the next couple of years, goodness knows what we'll be up to." He mumbled, finishing off his sandwich and folding his now empty wrapper and placing it in his pocket.
"I'm hoping we get some time on the Citadel, I haven't been there in maybe, six years? And even then I was so wide eyed and bushy tailed I didn't really get doing much." Mya's voice trailed off as a shuttle came in to land, at which point all conversation ceased among those waiting.
"Next stop, Arcturus!" Kaidan sighed, climbing to his feet and offering her a hand up. Mya took it and hopped lightly to her own feet, dusting off her uniform before gathering her bags and striding to the shuttle. The butterflies were back, now that she was really going, she couldn't wait to see the Normandy. She was thankful to have met Kaidan, at least now she didn't feel so alone and hopefully the trip to Arcturus would go in a little faster with some company. All in all it hadn't been a bad start thus far.
