"Mom, I'm telling you, the stores here have everything. This cruise ship has a full size mall in the center with everything you could want," Garrus said. So far the vacation had gone well all things considered. His mother seemed to be enjoying the new places; it had been so long since she was in the military traveling across the galaxy.

It had already been three weeks since they left the Citadel. The cruise had visited several asari colonies between there and Illium as well as both Elysium and Eden Prime. For Garrus, these two colonies were the most interesting. They were where Shepard had risen in the ranks, first with his defense of Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz and later where he learned about Saren. There had even been a memorial built on Elysium, Garrus thought a bit prematurely. They were now travelling through Council space towards Illium for their final leg of the journey.

"I know but I don't think they'll have it. Asari paring knives are so rare outside of Illium and so expensive. Are you sure you can afford it?" His mother asked.

"Yes mom, I'm sure," Garrus replied. Shepard had been right. Despite the things he had bought his family over the past three weeks Garrus' account had never been far from its starting point of 10 million and a week ago it had been refilled. Has to be Liara, he thought. His father had been suspicious when he bought his mother that salarian vase. It had been on auction for 250,000 credits and he had bought it as a surprise for his mother who loved art from other species. In hind sight maybe not such a great idea.

"Well alright. I'll go down to the shopping center and take a look," His mother said. She got up from her seat at the couch and moved to the door of their suite. The furnishings of their four suites were more lavish than anything Garrus had ever been in. Platinum trim along all the furniture, silk cushions imported from Earth, four-poster beds with velvet drapes of amber, mahogany, indigo, and royal blue respectively with gold sewn into them. The restrooms were filled with gold and the video screen was an entire 3x5 meter wall.

These rooms would be an absolute pleasure to fight through, Garrus thought to himself for the hundredth time on this trip. The décor had initially surprised him and made his family extremely suspicious but they eventually got used to it and began to enjoy it. Each of them had their own room. Whenever his family asked about how he had won the tickets he told them, "It was a heavy risk, but the prize was worth it."

Garrus went back to his own room. The theme was what humans called mahogany. The cushions of the furniture were dyed a red brown color and the drapes of the four poster bed were gilded with gold around the edge of the mahogany fabric. He took a seat in the couch in front of the video screen and turned on the news. He couldn't quite relax knowing that Shepard was still working and he kept trying to hear about what he was up to on the news.

There wasn't much. There had apparently been an incident on Bekenstein. Blood was found in a park but no body was recovered. There were still reports of strange ships that looked like Rachni ships and the turians and humans were still trying to recover diplomatically from Anderson's raid on Cerberus. He switched the news back off, disappointed and frustrated that he was out of the loop. He leaned back in his seat and began to nod off when there was a knock on his door.

"Come in," he said. His pistol was hidden in his shirt within easy reach of his hand. His armor and other weapons were stowed in the closet, ready to be put on if they needed to be.

But it was only Sol. "Dinner in 30. Mom found a paring knife down at the stores, she's preparing some real food in her room," she said. The thing about luxury cruise ships was that you couldn't get a decent sized meal. Yeah the food was good, but there was too little of it for any of them to be satisfied.

"Alright, I'll be there," Garrus replied. He watched as Sol closed the door to his room. He was not looking forward to dinner. His father always chose that time to interrogate him about his operations and his facial scarring. He still hadn't committed to telling them everything.

Later he would regret dreading dinner with his family.