Alcubierre:
Chapter 10: Third Contact
January 31st 2131
Mass relay transit at least got a lot easier with the prevalence of Artificial gravity. Less of everything on the ship not bolted down flinging forward along with anyone not Magbooted down and holding onto something. Still, it was bizarre.
Shepard hadn't been a frequent user of Mass Relays. Humanity had only used three so far, Kruger, Wolf and Cygnius.
And she was mostly on anti-Pirate operations in Colonial fringe space.
Still, here she was, somewhere else entirely.
She saw the fleet IFF's, the Supercarrier, and the 29 other escorts. Still waiting on the far side of the Mass Relay ready to destroy the Elcor ship if they received the order.
They would not receive that order. Not today.
Shepard immediately sent a signal towards the elcorian ship.
"Gleefully. I can't wait to tell Fat... Hesitant pause. Captain, about our successful trip." said Carlyn.
Shepard couldn't help but shudder. How much of what Carlyn said was really his own thoughts, and would the other Elcors remember the other Elcor they sent. Just what on Earth possessed the Kruger Assembly to do that.
"This is Captain Shepard of the Paint it Black. Requesting to rendezvouses with your ship." said Shepard.
"Bluntly. Captain Shepard. This is Captain Jarlyn. Message received, preparing docking procedures. Curiously. Is my son okay?" Asked Jarlyn.
"He's perfectly fine Captain, he will re-board your ship shortly." Said Shepard.
"Pleased. Excellent. Over and out." Said Jarlyn.
The message cut off.
"Carlyn, if you could please make your way to one of the docking ports. Lieutenant Forsell will take you there." Shepard suggested, pointing to Lieutenant Forsell, a Tau Ceti Marine Lieutenant.
Carlyn nodded and began to lumber over to the Marine Lieutenant and the two of them left the command deck.
Shepard immediately sent out a priority one message to the Supercarrier Gabriel.
Shortly thereafter Admiral Lossarion appeared on her screen.
"Captain."
"Admiral. Sir, we are to follow the Elcorian vessel towards it's homeworld and establish contact with the Elcorian Government." Said Shepard, relying her orders.
"I've been informed of this. Rest assured, we have prepared the crew of the Elcorian vessel for any changes that may have occurred over at Kruger. Our agents are thorough." Said Lossarion.
That sent chills down her spine.
"Yes sir." Said Shepard.
She ran a hand through her hair. How on Earth could he know about the missing bodyguard? How could he have possibly prepared for that? Just what was going on?
"Captain, we are preparing to send over a shuttle to the Elcorian vessel." Said
"Understood. Once they are aboard we shall plan our route to their system." Said Shepard.
She pushed such thoughts to the back of her mind. It would do her no good to worry about some grand conspiracy considering that she was on the verge of official first contact with an alien species.
She saw Carlyn off her ship and keep a safe watch as the shuttle returned to the Elcorian vessel, before after a quiet five minutes another communication request came through from Admiral Lossarion. She gulped and hoped to god it wasn't the order she was fearing. After all, the fleet still had their guns trained on the vessel.
To her surprise and quiet relief, it was a fleet wide vid conference, which was also showing the strange alien face of the elcor she assumed was Captain Jarlyn, though she couldn't truly tell him apart from other elcors.
"Joy. My son has told me much about his time aboard your vessel and your space station. He spoke highly of your ships speed considering the vast distance it had to travel." Said Carlyn. "Seriously. I will show send you the navigation data to our homeworld. We will have to jump through three mass relays and I believe it should take roughly [98 Earth standard hours]."
"Rest assured Captain, we have enough provisions on board our ships to last for months, and the means aboard my vessel to grow more as needed. We are ready to depart immediately." Said Lossarion assuredly just as the Nav data came through. Shepard immediately sent it to her ship's navigator.
"Relief. Excellent. We were worried about feeding you considering the chance of illness from eating alien food not meant for your species consumption." Said Carlyn blandly.
"We shall depart within the hour, we have to make some final checks and I am quite sure you must do the same." Said Carlyn.
"Indeed. We will release the blockade around the mass relay when you are ready Captain." Said Lossarion.
Shepard sighed in relief as she watched her fleet data screen showing most of the close range laser PDCs shutting down or no longer aiming directly at the Elcor vessel.
As so, she to began barking orders at her crew, ready to go further then any human vessel had ever gone.
The elcor insisted on waiting in system, in orbit around a large gas giant, before making the final push through the mass relay towards the elcor homeworld.
They had travelled through two mass relays so far and had travelled several thousand light years. At this moment they were the most distant humans from Sol, or indeed any human colony.
In three days they had travelled a distance that might take an Alcubierre drive almost a year to do. It was insanity. And stranger still, these systems they had travelled through were both sparsely populated and rarely travelled. They had only encountered a few other vessels. Two elcor frigates had joined the fleet as escorts, and what the Elcors called a "Quarian mining ship." had left system almost as soon as they had arrived in one. The Elcors hadn't paid them much mind, but they did inform the Captains of the fleet about who they were.
And that had left the fleet a little worried. It seemed not every alien encountered was part of this "Citadel Government" and the Quarians were now aware of their presence. And apparently they had a fleet that almost dwarfed every other in the galaxy. It was decided, privately between the human fleet captains to gather as much intelligence on this possible threat as they could, and not just what their tour guides were willing to tell them.
Still, it was a fairly easy assignment for now. Tail an incredibly slow ship. It was what was waiting for them on the other side of this relay that had them scared. First contact. Apparently the entire Citadel council and representatives from every species were there on the Elcor home-world waiting for them. Shepard had discharged the trained ambassadors she had brought from Kruger Station onto the EENS Gabriel and had boarded the ship for a private meeting between the high ranked in the fleet and the Admiral.
"Attention!" Shouted a Marine NCO as she stood ramrod straight. The assembled Captains and officers followed suit.
Admiral Lossarion walked into the conference room, discussing the contents of a document of some kind he was looking at with an assistant, who was carrying several identical copies of it. He didn't even look up before saying "At ease".
The men and women, including those not officially under his command relaxed and sat back into chairs around the massive round table, their assistants standing behind them with their hands behind their backs.
"Officially, all of you are merely escorts for my vessel, and my vessel is simply a mode of transport for our illustrious ambassadors who will be doing all of the talking and fact finding." Said Lossarion as the assistant he was previously talking to handing out the paper documents she was carrying, one to every man or woman sat at the table.
Shepard glanced down at her document before Lossarion spoke again.
"Unofficially. Orders from all our respective governments, Sol Protectorate, AFS, whatever, is that we are to go fact finding. Each of us, bar five ships that I will rotate out are to go on "Diplomatic missions" to some of these alien colonies. Should you happen to end up in "Non Council space", well, you were just exploring." Said Lossarion.
He held up the document.
"This is all of the information we have managed to gather on the Aliens. Their main government is the Citadel council, at is to them we will be making our most obvious overtures. However, there are others. A government called "The Batarian Hegemony" is kicking up a stink about the council continuing to outlaw slavery, and we are going to be making some peaceful overtures towards them for our own protection." Lossarion explained. "Similarly, some of you, will be heading into what the locals call the "Terminus systems" and sucking up to every warlord and corporation that owns a planet out there."
"You will be under "Advisement" by several intelligence agents. Unless I order otherwise, they are in charge of what your ship is doing, where it is going, what you say and who you say it to. This is a priority one order from the ASF and SolP. I expect it to be carried out." Said Lossarion.
Several hands raised, though Shepard, knowing just how deep these intelligence agencies ran and having previously worked with EEIS and her own governments service, wisely kept quiet.
"This is not negotiable." Said Lossarion firmly, glaring at those that had raised hands. "I know you have your misgivings, but we are not going to risk another Kepler war because we weren't smart enough to make alliances."
"I thought our policy was going to be isolationist." Said Rear admiral DuFran. He was in charge of the second largest ship in the fleet, PNS Jury. His fleet, which had previously been guarding the relay on the human space side had joined the diplomatic fleet in order to "Show the colours" and to ensure the Sol Protectorate had equal representation.
"Thank you DuFran." Said Lossarion with an nasty tilt. "Yes. In case you guys hadn't got the memo there is absolutely no way we will be joining this "Council." we will ask for rights to the Orion arm, a place that they with their slower FTL drives cannot hope to colonise, and then we will be leaving them well enough alone as much as we can."
"The problem, is that inevitably trouble will find us. At some point they are going to build their own alcubierre drives. At some point they are going to start some war near our turf, or we are going to want something they have or, as all of you know, the Reapers are going to arrive and try and succeed in wiping us all out."
You could hear a pin drop. Yes, everyone had a rough guess that the "reapers" existed. Hell, even the average civilian could point to the mysteriously missing colony ships, increased black budgets and the glassed part of the Keplerian homeworld and join the dots. Shepard had heard Hargreave's terrifying confession but even before that she had those... voices in the back of her head, same as anyone during operation Oppenheimer.
But to hear an admiral, one of the highest ranking in human space, declare so bluntly that at some point humanity was going to go extinct was quite a shock, even for her.
"So, we need allies. Or at least, people willing to work with us when the next galactic fuck up occurs. Or at least, willing to work with SolP and AFS when some new upstart human governments decides they should be ruling. And you can bet those Pirates in the Borderless fleet are going to start raiding in Citadel space at some point."
The room was dead silent.
"So, are my orders clear?" Asked Lossarion.
Several captains mumbled their affirmations, Shepard included.
"AM I CLEAR!" He shouted.
The entire table fell over themselves in approval of Lossarion's orders. Though obviously even he was under orders from some higher power. Someone with power over both the SolP and AFS at any rate.
"Good. You'll have your individual orders once we arrive at this "Citadel". Until then, leave the diplomacy to the diplomats. Dismissed." Ordered Lossarion. "Except for you, Captain Wells, Captain Shi, Captain Jackson and Captain Aulani."
Shepard nodded and left the conference room, intensely reading her intelligence document.
The big day. Shepard, for her part in escorting "Ambassador" Carlyn to Kruger had been allowed to be a part of the ceremony on Dekula whilst the rest of the fleet stayed a respectful distance away from planetary orbit. Though Shepard knew that every single ship in the fleet was primed and ready to warp in orbit and begin firing on the honestly quite large fleet the citadel had brought with them.
Most terrifying of all had been the enormous 2km tall dreadnought "Destiny Ascension". Apparently at least she was brand new. But the fact that the Citadel had the resources to create an actual dreadnought with an enormous mass effect cannon spoke volumes of their power. The fact she was one of a kind did little to abate those fears.
Still, Shepard stood there, next to Admiral Lossarion and Rear Admiral DuFran, and looked across the crowd gathered in front of pavilion.
They were in a square in what was reportedly the capital city of the Elcor homeworld. The buildings were fairly small, compared to the enormous mega-structure arcologies that dotted human space. The rather intense gravity was also fairly noticeable, but Shepard had been space faring most of her life and was both used to and modified to be able to work in all gravities that might reasonably be expected. Humans weren't overly scared of inhabiting larger planets if they could support life, preferring to modify the colonies via augmentations and genetic modification then to leave a garden planet alone. They were still unpopular destinations to live on though.
Indeed, it seemed the citadel council and their retinue were having more trouble than the humans. The three strange alien races were at a place of high honour in the pavilion, and they way the elcor deferred to them despite the fact they were the ones that made contact and the fact that this was their fucking homeworld spoke volumes about the kid of power they could demand.
Shepard studied these strange aliens.
The first, and from what information the report she had been given said, perhaps the most dangerous, was a strange almost amphibian race. They had large dark coloured eyes set into rather small heads. They had strange skin horns poking out of the top of their heads. The one before them was dressed in a strange mix between a burka and a three piece suit, it's red brown skin only visible on it's face.
Then there was the larger one. Bony plates across it's face that moved with every breath, inside it's mouth were small sharp teeth. It had beady blue eyes. It was about 7ft tall, and was wearing what almost looked like hard ceramic armour inter sped with bolts of cloth running across it's body, a brilliant and colourful display of deep reds and dark purples. It was the one making the most furtive glances towards us humans.
And then finally, was the most ridiculous one. A blue woman.
Alright, it was slightly more alien than that. For starters, it did have no hair, instead out of the back of it's head it had strange tentacle like things that folded down the skull and ending two inches above the neck.
It had a rather form fitting dress on, though it was at least covering a lot of skin. It reached all the way down to the floor, but did not go beyond it.
Admiral Lossarion was looking at her furtively and with a little pre-emptive fear. It seemed he personally thought that these "Asari" were the most dangerous.
The oldest species in Citadel space and happened to look just like humans, with lives measure in several centuries, they were too close to be human for his liking. Or at least Shepard assumed. He didn't seem smitten with her, unlike a unfortunate grunt who couldn't hide his puppy eyes even behind his helmet
Shepard turned away from her staring and focused on looking forward, her arms behind her back.
The speech was a rather boring one, and despite swearing she'd try and listen to what would likely be an historic speech she couldn't. Something about mutual cooperation and inviting new neighbours. The Asari's translator was playing up for them, seeing as they had only sent the data on the English language to the Elcor, not them.
But it ended soon enough, with the bipedal aliens clapping politely and the Elcor stomping their front feet on the ground, something that Rear Admiral DuFran almost joined in with were it not for a rather sharp glare from Lossarion which soon turned into a polite clap. Shepard half heartedly joined in, but soon enough an army of Asari and Salarians started herding them and the council off the pavilion and into what Shepard assumed was a luxury shuttle.
As she climbed into the shuttle behind the two admirals she felt herself lighten. It was insane. They were bothering with lowering the gravity of the vehicle's interior in atmosphere? How wasteful were they? Element Zero was expensive as crap back home, comparable with Negative mass. But at least Negative mass could be (Read: Only) produced artificially. Element Zero required harvest the stellar dust from dead stars.
It was a shame Arcturus blew up, that might've had a little Element zero in it.
Still, it was wasteful, but hardly unwanted as Shepard and DuFran relaxed into the (probably) leather seats. Lossarion remained straight back and cautious, glancing all around. The Councillors stepped into another shuttle behind them and soon enough they were darting through the air.
Checking to see what species the driver was, and seeing it was a Salarian, Lossarion dropped into Icelandic. The reason was that Icelandic was notably not on the pre-built first contact package unlike most other languages and was on even the cheapest human universal translator. This meant that even if the elcor had shared the first contact data with the council already and they had added the language to their translators, they would not be able to understand them.
"Leyfðu mér að gera allt sem talað er. Agent Parker af MI6 mun vera með okkur í ræðu." Said Yossarion.
Shepard and DuFran set their output on their universal translator to Icelandic and responded.
"Náði því" the two of them replied.
"Þegar við erum búin hér aftur til skipanna og bíða eftir frekari pöntunum." Ordered Yossarion. Shepard and DuFran nodded.
The shuttle weaved between the rather low buildings, but seemed to be making it's way to what Shepard would consider the only true skyscraper in the city.
Still, she thought over what Lossarion had just said. Why had an MI6 agent been aboard their fleet? How did he know about and Du Fran, commander of the SolP forces, did not.
So much shadowy shit was going on here, and so fast. There really couldn't have been mch talk between "The EENS Gabriel" and Kurger or Epsilon Eridani govnerments. And there were so many unanswered questions running through Shepard's head. The Elcor, for all their annoyances, did not seem to be lying when they said that they did not turn on the Mass relay. Hell, it seemed like doing such a thing was just as heavily frowned on in Council space as it was in human space.
So... Who turned on the Mass Relay?
Alcubierre: NEO-TOKYO
Chapter 1: Nil
December 25th 2174
Epsilon Eridani- Freedom's Reach
"Two... Cigarettes. In an Ashtray. My lover and I. In a small cafe."
Hargreave slammed another straight Vodka back. Gritting his teeth, he swallowed the bitter drink before reaching for another.
The bar was mostly empty, utterly unmanned, using the self service VI droid to serve on Christmas day. Hargreave was utterly alone in this bar.
He drank another, and dropped the glass onto the bar top. It fell onto it's side and rolled off the bar top. Hargreave placed his head in his hands.
"Then a stranger... Came along, and everything went wrong. Now there's three cigarettes in the ashtray."
"Would you like another [Double Straight Vodka, no Ice], Stranger?" Asked the VI.
"How much have is on my tab already." Moaned Hargreave, clutching his head with one hand, his eyes forced shut to block out his headache.
"I watched, her take him, from me... And his love, is no longer, my own."
"You have bought [28] such drinks over the last [12] hours. You have spent [140.79] Credits." Said the droid.
"Now they are gone. And I, sit alone. And watch one cigarette burn away."
Hargreave searched his wallet. A relic of a bygone era of physical money. It was all these alien Credits now.
They had at least given him some money. They had taken his identity, after all, Arthur Hargreave had been legally dead for over 45 years.
They had taken fifty years of his life, and his sanity. His dreams even now were filled with images of that monstrous thing on Kepler.
His every waking moment haunted by his murders. Tetsuo. Paskins. Mathers, Hatigew. So many others. Even... Grahm.
He woke up. In a future he didn't understand. Forced back into the world the moment the Hospital declared him fit. He had new things in his head. The Greybox, so much of his brain was now cybernetics. Was he the real Hargreave, or a computer replacement? Had the real Hargreave died on the Midnight City. Or did he die on the operating table of a Keplerian ship.
"Two more." Said Hargreave wearily.
The droid, little more then two arms behind the bar and several cameras, robotically poured out two vodkas and placed them on the bar top.
At least, for him, his physical therapy had been quick. Wonders of future... Modern medicine he supposed.
He heard the door open behind him. Perhaps it was the owner of the bar. Asking him to get out. He wouldn't have thought so. Even if it was Christmas day, shitty bars could stay open.
He turned, wearily, to look at the new patron.
Oh great. It was an alien. At least it wasn't a Keplerian.
Hargreave studied it and tried to remember which of the many types of aliens it was. It wasn't a blue woman. Or a bipedal frog. It wasn't a trunk-less elephant or jellyfish. It was one of those tall bony aliens that look like, well, Hargreave couldn't remember. Not this many drinks down.
"Finally, a bar with someone in it." The.. Taruin? Tarquin? Tariun? Turian. That was it. Turian. "Everywhere else is utterly abandoned."
Hargreave turned away from the Turian and slammed back another drink. He was not interested in conversation.
"Weird thing left over from my time in the military. Can't stand drinking on my own." Said the Turian, as he sat right down next to Hargreave.
"Uh huh." Said Hargreave.
"Name's Septimus." Said the Turian.
Hargreave tried desperately to ignore the Turian. But his gods-damned manners demanded he replied.
"Prestoria." He replied.
He hated his new name. It meant nothing to him. Some echo, some part of him clung to it. He wasn't... didn't have to be Arthur James Hargreave, hero of the Keplerian war and super spy. He was just Jonathan Prestoria. A nobody drunk.
"You ex military yourself? You look the type." Said Septimus.
Hargreave gritted his teeth. A talkative alien drunk. Great.
"Special ops. Navy." Said Hargreave. He didn't give a shit about "The importance of covering up Operation return to sender." He wasn't going to blurt out state secrets, but if someone pieced one and two together he didn't care what happened to him. They could execute him for all he cared. He'd been dead for fifty years at least, what was an eternity more?
"Damn. I was a general myself." Said Septimus. "Retired last month. Big thing back on Palavan about it."
"Uh huh." Said Hargreave, slamming back another drink. Then holding up his fingers for two more.
"Yeah. Figured I'd travel the galaxy for a bit. See the sights. Experience other cultures." Said Septimus.
"Why are you here?" Asked Hargreave, annoyance in his voice.
If Septimus heard it, he ignored it.
"Human's control so much territory. The entire Orion Arm. And yet, they are so utterly fractured. So unique. One world near the centre of the galaxy could be a cultural and economic hub set up less than a decade ago, and another, right next to their homeworld, could be a desolate rock devoted only to mining." Said Septimus.
He understood the worlds he was talking about. Gardenfort in Cygnus-9109128 and 61-Cygni respectively.
"And so here I am. Epsilon Eridani. The first human extrasolar Colony humanity ever built." Said Septimus. "Do you mind if I select the song?"
Hargreave listened. The current song was now something about sleeping on a bed of Roses or something.
"Go on." Said Hargreave.
Septimus got up off the stool next to Hargreave and made his was over to the jukebox. Why he didn't use his Omni-tool to remotely change the song he didn't know, but some people cared about the physical interaction of things.
"Human music is generally pretty terrible, on average, but your kind are good at your depression. It strange that a race that can be as young for as long as yours still bemoans days past." Said Septimus.
"We aren't young forever." Said Hargreave, staring into the mirror behind the bar.
He looked at himself.
His once blonde hair, now steel grey from stress and PTSD, getting sort of shaggy and long. His crows feet slowly dipping in. His scar across his right eye still bright red against his pale face. His steel grey stubble becoming a beard.
He looked Haggered. A mixture of non-stop drinking, little sleep and the physical effects of a fifty year coma, coupled with the beginnings of depression.
"Rare for a human to say that. I can't work out your ages. Just how old are you?" Asked Septimus.
Hargreave sighed softly as a new song began. Something about... Falling. A way.
"93 Sol years." Said Hargreave for clarity, since he had no idea what a galactic or "Citadel" standard year was. Biologically normally that would've put him in his late twenties early thirties depending on luck of the draw. Hargreave guessed he was biologically in his early forties/very late thirties with all the damage his body went through. "Robot. Another 4."
"Yes sir." said the serving droid, as it deftly and mechanically poured out four glasses of double vodka.
"Your kind able to drink alcohol?" Asked Hargreave.
"If its not got too much other things in it."
"Well, this is pretty close to pure ethanol. Should be fine." Said Hargreave.
The robot placed four glasses on the bar top.
"Can't deal with sober right now." Said Hargreave.
Hargreave slammed back another Double Vodka, annoyed at his synthetic liver.
"Human after my own heart." Said The turian, briefly running his Omni-tool over the drink for a few seconds before slamming both back in quick succession.
Hargreave raised an eyebrow, but simply finished his other drink, wincing as he did so.
Hargreave stumbled into his one room apartment on the 128th floor of the Freedom's Reach Arcology 12D.
He fell onto his sofa bed and stared at the spinning ceiling.
Who was Hargreave?
A drunk hiding behind a dead man's name, knowing in a few short years it will all end anyway. There was no point to leaving this room. A small part of him wanted to rage at the "injustices" done to him. To the shadowy EEIS for taking away his identity and forcing him to take that sodden implant all those years ago. Or was it a mere few months?
He wanted an enemy. He wanted to fight and die with some form of purpose.
But the EEIS had given him this apartment and a modest salary to do nothing but stew on his failures. He could drink until the Reapers killed him.
And he could not fight the force of nature that were the reapers. How many civilisations had fallen before those black monoliths? How many more would do so?
What was his purpose?
There was none. There was no one to fight. He had nothing in this new, soon to end age.
Soon all would return to darkness, and the cycle would start anew.
He closed his eyes, but did not sleep. He did not sleep anymore. Only dreamed.
Terrible dreams of metal gods and their fleshbourne thralls. Of brief moments of light against an encroaching an inevitable darkness, all to be repeated again and again. Of a child laughing so many times. Laughing at him. Laughing at the world. At the universe.
Darkness took him soon enough.
He stared at the screen. A news story on some deal between Hargreave Aerospace and Armitage Armoury to develop some new warships or something.
Hargreave took another slug of Vodka.
At least his brother and Father were doing all right.
At least they knew that they were Hargreave's.
Hargreave took another drag of his cigarette. The smoke filling the room with a shadowy haze.
Hargreave drunkenly opened his Omni-tool.
"Former Admiral Shepard."
She had at least gotten somewhere in the world. Had a son, commanded a supercarrier. Had started relations between Humanity and the Citadel. Done a better job of first contact than Hargreave and Grahm had, seeing as it only degenerated into weary coexistence rather then total war.
A son. John Shepard.
Hargreave... Never loved anyone. He enjoyed their company, but love was not something he knew. He certainly didn't love her. He knew her for a total of about 5 days. Still, he thought he might have found something there. A future.
Instead, she had gotten quickly married and equally quickly divorced in the fifties.
Hargreave had been searching the extranet regular, watching the live of people he once knew.
People he couldn't...
Hargreave's eyes widened. She was doing a book launch in Freedom's Reach? Some Autobiographical work on the Keplerian War and the Citadel Contact.
Hargreave eyed the rapidly emptying bottle of Vodka and the dying cigarette in his mouth.
She wouldn't recognise him. It wouldn't be breaking the Secrets act. He could see her.
No. What would be the point? Why would he burden her?
Well, she likely knew about what might be burdening him. He worked out most of the human governments did after all, what with a few "missing" colony ships that suspiciously disappeared near black holes.
If she knew, and had somehow managed to cope with the inevitable extinction of all sapient life in the galaxy that was coming for them.. If she too had meet with Azemothran and survived... Maybe she could help him.
Hargreave stubbed out the cigarette in a ash tray on his coffee table and ran a hand through his long hair as he stood up. He'd go. He'd meet her. Ask her...
He walked into the bathroom and splashed water on his face before removing his t-shirt and washing.
He decided against Shaving. He needed to look just like any other veteran. He wasn't Hargreave anymore.
He had to give up that past up. And Shepard would help him understand this new world he had found himself in.
Jonathan Prestoria threw on a woollen coat and walked out the door of his apartment, heading into the hallway.