Warren emerged from the café, saw Gillian waiting at a table in the shadows and wandered over. He placed the food he had just bought on the table and a few bottles of water, and sat down opposite her, checking he still had the pilfered credit chit in his pocket. Had he left it at the counter, the people inside the café might have checked the name and ID on the chit, which would certainly not by his.

"I know it's not much," he said, indicating the small lunch, "But I didn't want to risk buying anything extravagant. The guy I took the chit from might not have noticed it yet, but someone in the bank might let him know if people keep making large purchases."

"That's fine."

Gillian ate mostly in silence, but that suited Warren just fine. He was giving himself a refresher course in galactic history, using a hastily bought omni-tool with access to the extranet. He had already looked through the news reports from the local stations, and while they did mention the Alliance presence nearby, there was no report or request for information on an escaped shuttle; hopefully they had escaped detection.

Still, there was a lot that he had never heard of before. For instance, the Reaper invasion. Now, he had expected that something like galactic annihilation might have stayed in his memory, but no, he could not remember a damn thing about it. Perhaps he hadn't been involved… although, reading this report, he very much doubted anywhere hadn't been involved.

The local extranet sites were full of requests for donations to help the rebuilding of cities and the rehousing of civilians who had been uprooted on the planet. Hell, according to this, Cerberus had even taken over much of the Human colony on Eden Prime, but not one site made any mention of the underground facility he had just escaped from. Perhaps it was a recent construction, then. According to the report, the Reapers, and Cerberus, had been stopped about five years ago. No doubt the organisation could have done a great deal since then.

"Do you want to borrow this?" he asked, realizing that Gillian was watching him. She shook her head. "What's up, then?"

"You really don't remember anything?" she asked, giving him a most curious stare.

"Not a thing. I remember waking up, and there are… flashes, I suppose, of whatever happened before then, but nothing substantial. I don't know how I know how to handle a gun, or how I know about things like shuttles or biotics, but I keep getting this information from… somewhere." Warren sighed, closing his omni-tool. "What about you? Do you remember what happened before you were detained?"

"I'd rather not say."

Well, that was ambiguous, Warren thought. He nodded his acceptance though, and ate his own share of the food. He hadn't realized until they had stumbled upon this place, but he was pretty damn hungry. He devoured what he had bought and washed it down with some water, which really hit the spot, and settled back to scan his surroundings.

He wasn't sure what the colony here was called, and it was quite small, but it had served their needs; Warren had found a suitable mark, swiped his credit chit- another skill he couldn't quite remember having learned- and they had hunted down a shop where they had bought fresh clothes. That was when his stomach had rumbled, and Gillian had tracked down this café.

He was glad for the new clothes, and the fact that they had ditched the shuttle some distance away from the colony; there was a remarkably high military presence here, and Gillian confirmed that they were Alliance soldiers. The cruiser that had attacked the Cerberus base had, a short while ago, flown towards the docks in the colony and had landed. No doubt that was where the soldiers were coming from. They didn't pay any special attention to Gillian or himself. They could easily have been another young couple just hanging out in a street side café. Nothing special.

"So," he began, turning to his companion, "Where exactly do you plan on going from here? Earth?"

"No. I'm going to the next base."

"The next Cerberus base?" Warren asked, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I don't know if you realize, but they really didn't want you to get out of there. If you attack them, they could imprison you, or kill you, however they wanted!"

"That doesn't matter."

Warren stared at the girl for a moment. There was something in her eyes. Not exactly anger, but… fire. Something was alive within her, and he couldn't tell if it was vengeance or some other personal quest, but he knew that she wasn't going to be convinced.

"Are you after them for revenge or something? Or were you captured trying to bring them down?"

"Both."

"That doesn't help."

"Good."

"You can be difficult if you want, but until I know why you want to bring these guys down, I'm not letting you out of my sight." Warren settled back into his chair to avoid the heat of the glare. "I helped you get out of there. I don't want to see you charge off to die."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but at this very moment in time, you are the only person in the whole damn galaxy who knows who I am and would believe anything I have to say." Warren brought up his omni-tool again. "So, how do you plan on getting to that Cerberus base? Do you even know where it is?"

"Noveria. I was planning on taking the shuttle."

"Oh, a grand idea, taking a shuttle across space. That was a close-range escape shuttle, Gillian; they aren't built for deep-space flight." Warren frowned once he had finished; how had he known that? He kept doing that sort of thing. He flicked through a few extranet sites until he had hit upon the right one. "There are no direct flights to Noveria from here, but there is a ship chartered to the Citadel. It's listed as a travel hub. It leaves in an hour. Does that sound acceptable?"

"How would we afford it?" she asked, folding her arms.

"How indeed," he chuckled, sliding the stolen credit chit out of his pocket. "No spending limit, Gillian. I'm sure we can find some way to afford it."

"We'd best get moving then."

"Oh, so you're alright with me coming along, then?" he asked, as they stood up and gathered the water bottles. "You seemed against it a moment ago."

"Would it make a difference if I asked you not to?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Then I won't."

Warren used the extranet to bring up a local services map of the colony, and led Gillian to the docks, located towards the edge of the colony. He observed a group of police officers nearby talking to a local business clerk, and noticed that they were holding a picture that looked very similar to the man whom Warren had stolen the chit from. He picked up the pace.

"You keep taking charge," Gillian mumbled.

"Well, do you know where you're going?" She shook her head. "Then stop complaining." Warren guided them towards the spaceport, at this point more following the flow of ships and shuttles rather than a map. Warren saw more police officers and military personnel the closer that they got to the spaceport. He regretted not keeping his pilfered pistol, but it was hard to conceal.

"Gillian…" he mumbled, grabbing her hand and pulling her closer to him. "Does anyone in the Alliance know who you are?"

"What are you doing?" she asked, ignoring him, staring at his hand in hers.

"Acting. Now answer the damn question." The Alliance personnel were casting them glances, but most of them were focused on Gillian, and not on Warren. He realized that he had not thought about Gillian being a powerful biotic; perhaps there was some way of detecting them. Did the government not want biotics roaming free? He hadn't thought to research them on the extranet.

"I don't think so." That was all he could get out of her.

"Fine. Don't let go of my hand until we're on a ship, and for god's sake, try to look happy. The way you look, people will think I've kidnapped you."

"You almost did."

Warren led Gillian onto the spaceport, and he was glad he had taken her hand; the place was busy, not just with soldiers and with spaceport security, but with ordinary civilians, flowing to and from large transport vessels that were arranged around and above the spaceport. Some of them were too large to land, and instead hovered in the sky ahead, using shuttles to ferry people between the ground and the ship.

Having no clue where to go, Warren contemplating checking for an information terminal, but he had no idea how to find one, and the crowd wasn't making it very easy. He settled for plan B; asking someone.

"Excuse me," he called, hurrying over to a man who looked to be a member of the spaceport organisation authority. "My friend and I are looking for a ship to the Citadel. I was wondering if you could help me out. I'm not sure which ship is which," he laughed.

"Don't worry, lots of people get confused," the worker said. "You'll want to take the Tiptree there, at the end. Speak to the man by the boarding platform, and he'll arrange for you to buy a ticket for the transport."

"Thanks very much."

Warren and Gillian fought their way through to the ship that the worker had mentioned. The Tiptree, a smaller civilian vessel, was guarded by several Alliance soldiers. It made sense to have a small military presence on a transport ship; no doubt pirates were a concern this far out, and considering that Warren had just broken out of a Cerberus facility, maybe they were still a threat.

There was a large queue for the ship, and the man in charge of the boarding was clearly having a bad day; he looked ready to explode. By the time Warren and Gillian had finally made their way to his side, he was looking positively furious, though at what, Warren wasn't quite sure.

"You wanting transport?" he snapped.

"Yes, please. Two to the Citadel."

"Well, we haven't got any room. You'll have to wait. Thanks to the damn Alliance taking up room, we've not got the room." The man waved them away.

"Wait, surely there's something we can do," Warren said, smiling warmly. "Maybe I could pay a little extra?"

"We don't operate like that around here, boy," the man said, fuming. "We haven't got room, and I can't do anything, so you and your girlfriend can just go back and wait for the next transport."

"It's a big ship, how can there not be room?" Warren shouted. "I'll sit on the floor if I need to!"

"Regulations state that-"

"Regulations also said that your passengers weren't allowed to bring any illegal goods on board," a female voice called out, "But you still managed to let three people on board, two of which carried red sand and one carrying a stolen firearm." A woman appeared by the crewman and let a number of Alliance soldiers pass, who were dragging three hand-cuffed civilians with them. Long black hair and an impressive physique, she was tall and had a strong aura about her. She was obviously used to giving commands.

"Commander Williams!" the man yelped, his anger gone and replaced by fear. "I didn't inspect their property myself, ma'am…"

"No. I bet you didn't." This Commander Williams turned to Warren and Gillian and gave them a cursory glance. When her eyes met Warren's, her face seemed to change, her suspicious glare replaced by surprise, but she quickly fought it and waved a hand towards the ship. "As luck would have it, seats just opened up, and they've been paid for. Come aboard."

"Thank you very much," Warren said, giving her a warm smile. "Come along, dear," he said to Gillian, who looked dumbstruck; clearly she had forgotten they were supposed to be acting out the part of a couple. Warren and Gillian were allowed up the boarding ramp by two guards and disappeared behind the closing door, while Williams stayed outside with two more Alliance soldiers.

"Are you going aboard, ma'am?" one asked.

"Hm?" she mumbled, quite distracted. She stared after the young boy, wondering…

"Ma'am?"

"Oh, it's nothing." She waved the soldiers away. "I'll be heading to the Citadel, Sergeant. Report to the Captain and pass him the reports I've made. And, until the Admiral has prepared a formal statement, say nothing about the Cerberus presence here to anyone."

"Understood, ma'am."

"Was that boy suspicious, Commander?" the other soldier asked.

"Not really, but… I'll keep my eye on him."