I don't even know why I find it so funny, but I just can't stop laughing. C'mon I'm sure he was joking. When I finally manage to control myself all three aliens in the room are looking at me with "what the fuck is wrong with you" look. I don't find it so funny anymore. They must think I'm a freak, but it's not my fault they don't know movie clichés.
"I… I'm sorry . It's just that you… never mind." As the silence sets in I feel totally embarrassed. They are the first aliens I meet and I make myself look like an idiot.
"Well if you are done laughing we might want to start," fringed turian says with emotionless tone. His voice unlike the asari's has a strange tone. At the same time it's not so much different from human and I'm on one-hundred percent sure he's a male. What means he must be Executor Tarrmal. Also it means the fringe-less one is a female. Actually this is the first time I can take a good look at turian. They both seem to be roughly the same height and except fringe (or it's absence) and slightly different spurs I can't see any differences. Like boobs for instance. Luckily they have facial marks like asari. That should make recognizing them easier.
"Miss Sabal, could you leave us for a moment?" Executor 'asks'. Xantra doesn't even replies and walks into the elevator. Tarrmal is watching her until the elevator door closes. He then shifts his attention to me again.
"Sit down." I do as asked. "I want to make this as short as possible, so pay attention because I won't repeat myself. You are here only because some idiots think it's a great idea. But it's not! I don't want any dirty humans anywhere near me or this station," dramatic pause. "Unfortunately it's not up to me to decide, so I have to announce you that your tests are in three days. Miss Kastan."
Miss Kastan is obviously not anymore fond of humans than Tarrmal. She moved her chair as far away from mine as possible and has been giving me disgusted looks since I stepped in. As for the tests, of course I haven't been told about them before, but they can't be very hard. I hope. The tests on Earth were easy my only problem was shooting. I'm not exactly a marksman, so if my target is further than 50 feet, there's a good chance I'll miss. And I'm not even talking about guns bigger than pistol.
Kastan looks at me with a bored look and starts rambling: "Your tests will consist of council laws, sharpshooting, physical strength and martial arts. They'll take place here in three days at six-hundred o'clock. Until then you are considered a civilian and if you fail the test you'll be deported back to your home planet. Any questions?"
Damn, she definitely skips the bullshit. I must admit that her voice is more feminine than Tarrmal's and I certainly wouldn't mistake it for male's. She's wearing dark black combat armor that matches the color of her facial marking and goes pretty well with her green eyes. I wonder why turians wear armor all the time. It's not like they need it in the office and it musts make using the toilet… interesting.
"Just one. Who are you?" Tarrmal is the executor and my new boss, I get it. But who is she? My guru?
"Detective Vala Kastan, murder department. I'm you babysitter." No shit. Was that a joke? Hmm, unexpected.
Executor is probably shocked by that too. Because he gives her a sharp look and hisses something.
She gives me an angry look, like it's my fault! "Sorry sir. I meant that I'm supposed to answer any question of mister Stoll," she says mister Stoll like it's a disgusting disease" and if he passes the tests, what is unlikely, I'll be assigned as his partner."
So she'll be my new partner. That will be interesting. Wait what?
"What do you mean by 'unlikely'? What makes the tests so difficult?"
She gives me the sweatiest… is that supposed to be a smile? "Nothing, if you have studied council laws for three years. If not, well than you would have to learn more than three-thousand laws in a few days."
She says teasingly. Of course I haven't studied those laws three years. Three years ago I didn't know that there is something like Council. Or the Citadel, or aliens. Shit, I guess I'll have a lot of reading to do. For now I think I need to do a little revenge. I put on my brightest smile and answer, mimicking the tone she used.
"Miss, don't be ridicules. You think our government would send here someone who doesn't know council laws?" That makes her smile fade a little, but it again appears after a second.
"You're bluffing. You don't know anything about council laws, do you, 'sir'?" This is getting serious. She wants the war, fine I'll give it to her. I want to answer something witty, but before I can Tarrmal steps in.
"Enough you two! Stoll I don't want to see you here anymore. If you'll have more questions contact Miss Kastan. Both of you, dismissed!"
We both stand up at the same time and I immediately head to the elevator. Kastan walks in right after me and presses some buttons. The door slowly closes and elevator starts it's slow descend. She is almost one head taller than me and I hate to admit it, but it makes me feel uneasy. Especially, in this small elevator. After a few seconds I notice she's staring at me. So I look in her eyes and frown. Because we are standing so close I have to tilt my neck backwards to look into her eyes and that doesn't give me any badass bonus points. She flexes her mandibles and we just keep staring like that for the entire elevator ride.
Finally, as my vision is starting to blur elevator stops. I give 'Miss Kastan' one last frown and step out. For some reason I don't really feel mad at her for insulting me. Maybe it's because it reminds me banter between me and Mel. Also I don't think she really hates me, it's more like prejudice of something. Anyway just as I think I'm done with her, she places her left hand on my shoulder and roughly turns me towards her.
"If you have at least a little bit of brain in that fury head, you won't show up at the tests. There's no way you can pass, you'll just make an idiot out of yourself. Again." Now she crossed the line. If I was concerned I won't make it before, than now I'll just too see he face. I show her hand away and make a step to her, closing the distance between our faces to mere inches.
"Then it's good I don't have brain, right?" That sounded way much better in my head, but whatever. I turn on a heel and walk across the room with everybody staring at me, even more than before. If that's even possible.
Xantra is waiting by the exit while fiddling with her omni-tool. When I come closer she finally notices me. "I suppose your meeting went well. I just received your study material. Sending it to you now." My omni-tool flashes to life and it shows me some document.
"It's not that much. Only ten pages," I tell her hopefully after a quick look at the document parameters.
Xantra actually properly laughs. "Yes, but it's just the names and description of the books you're supposed to read." As she says it I have already opened the file and oh, my, god. The list of the books goes on and on. The worse is that the description says that most of them are more than five-hundred pages long. And I'm supposed to read this all in three days! And actually learn it!
"I think I'll look into it later. So, where are we heading now?" I'm getting hungry and a little lunch would be great. I heard that asaries can prepare amazing meals and I like trying new things. No pun intended. Also I'm sure they must have assigned me a flat or some place to stay, so it would be great to see it. Shit, I completely forgot about my stuff!
"And don't you happen to know where my luggage is?"
For the rest of the day Xantra was showing me around a little bit. I think I saw all the alien species. Even one krogan and a volus. They are so funny. I mean volus of course. Like a balloons with tiny hands and the way they walk. It reminds me a chicken, left-right, left-right. As for the krogan, well he wasn't so funny. One head taller than average turian which means two heads taller than me. I didn't noticed much more because I only caught a glimpse of him.
Xantra even took me to a lunch. I ordered some pan…, parr…something and it wasn't half bad. It looked like a kebab and tasted similar. Only downside was that everyone in the restaurant was watching me all the time. It's not like they were staring at me nonstop. Only when they thought I'm not looking. In the end it was probably the worst lunch I ever had. I think that Xantra noticed it because we didn't stayed long and after that she showed me a few less populated areas of the Citadel.
I have to say that after spending a few hours with her she became much more relaxed and even started to ask me questions about humans. Our food, culture,… just the basic things. Certainly not: 'Hypothetically, if we wanted to enslave you, what should we do?'. It turned out to be a pretty good day, even if all the places I visited mixed together in my head. It's all just the same: glass, metal, couple of plants, shops… more metal. All the same.
At the moment we are heading to the flat that was assigned to me by Council. My luggage has already been moved there, so with luck I'll settle in before going to bed. Xantra says it's fifteen minute shuttle ride to my apartment from the c-sec offices.
"I saw the flat a couple of days ago and I think you'll like it Daniel. Don't expect anything fancy it's just bedroom, living room and small bathroom. And almost all your neighbors will be c-sec officers because those flats were built for that. Anyway we're almost there,so you'll see for yourself." Indeed, our shuttle is slowing downand I can already see the landing pad and terminal next to it.
From the landing pad it's just a few minute walk to apartment house. We pass a couple of bridges and a small marketplace on our way. The floors here are terraces like so under most of the bridges is a couple feet fall and then another floor. I hope I'll get a chance to try parkour my way to down floors sometime. That would be absolutely awesome. Anyway just like everywhere else people here have been glaring at me, but luckily there's not that much of them. Strange I called them people, guess I'm beginning to adjust. So people it is.
Most of them are turians and asari, but there are a couple of salarians and what are they called? Quarian right. From what I've read about them they resemble humans a little, which means they're not exactly popular. There's a sob story behind it, but I haven't read it yet. The one I'm looking at is repairing something in the back of shop. The sign says it's shop with omni-tools and accessories. Maybe I'll come back here later and have a talk with him. It would be great to know a couple of people here and also he could give me some advice about my omni-tool. But hat will have to wait because we have arrived at my new home.
This 'apartment house' doesn't look like any I've ever seen. I thought it'll be sort of like a skyscraper, but no, it's much smaller. The entrance is also not exactly an entrance. It's a hallway on the right side of a street with three elevators.
"Are all apartment houses like this?" I ask Xantra curiosly as we walk to the elevator on right.
"No, they aren't. Most of them are much higher with a lobby, but the ones like this are meant for the personal working at c-sec or embassies. You have probably noticed by now slow speed of the citadel elevators. This is because after a couple of incidents when elevators were overloaded their emergency brakes didn't manage to stop in time. So Council released a regulations about maximal speed of the elevator."
I interrupt her when I notice what she's getting at. "Right and because c-sec and embassy officers have to be somewhere very quickly from time to time they can't wait for the elevator to go down eighty floors."
"Precisely. And don't worry if it looks too small, it's pretty spacious inside. I also have a flat like that." By the time we were talking elevator already took us on fourth floor where my flat is. At least I think that's number four. It's written in alien and I'm not quite used to the translator just yet. Each time I look at something written in alien language it changes shape to human letters, but only if I focus hard enough. Otherwise it just shows alien letters and blurry translation over it
Elevator took us to another hallway much like the previous one, but this time there are more doors. On the left side of the elevator are the other two elevator doors and in front of them are ten other doors. They're like all the doors on the Citadel. Every lock is flashing red except one that is orange.
"That one's yours," Xantra says, pointing to the orange one. "It's flashing orange because the omni-tool with the access code is nearby. I have the code for now, but I'll send it to you in a minute."
"Isn't it dangerous?" I ask her. "What if someone stole my omni-tool. This would show him where my flat is and he'll be free to rob it with the access code." Xantra just looks at me funny.
"That's exactly why your omni-tool is synched with translator. It only works when they are together. Of course someone can rip translator from your skull, but in that case robbed flat would be the last of your worries." The first joke she's made so far. Wooow.
She sends me the access code before I can ask something else and icon of a key flashes on my omni-tool. She then steps away from the door and gestures me to try it. So I touch the lock and after it spins for a couple of times the door opens.
First thing I see is my bedroom. It's spacious and a bed looks comfortable, the color sucks though. It's the same grey like everywhere else, but that just a cosmetic detail. As Xantra said there wasn't much else. One door in the bedroom lead to a small bathroom that looks exactly like human one, thank god. And second door lead to really small living room with barely enough space for a couch and small built-in-wall TV. The most surprising thing is a balcony. It's small, maybe 10 feet long, but with some pipes leading next to it and a great view to the streets below. I think I could climb these pipes and get to the rooftop. Hmmm.
"So? Do you like it?" Xantra asks from the door.
"If my neighbors won't make wild parties every night I think it'll be great," I say with a smile and check my bags. They are lying next to the bed and as far as I can tell, they seem OK.
"I'm sure they don't. Most of them are turians and I think you already know they're not like that. Anyway, I think I'll leave you for today. Since six o'clock the outer lights will slowly start to fade and around eight it should be pretty dark. I'd recommend you to study those books and maybe look around a bit. If you'll need something give me a call." She'll leave me just like that? Not that I mind, but still.
"Well thanks for showing me around, I appreciate it." After we both say goodbye she leaves and I'm all alone. Omni-tool says it half past five, so I still have a lot of time to wander around a bit. But… I still need to unpack and take a look at those fucking books. Ahhhhh.
Ok, not even an hour has passed and I'm settled in. Oh and I know there's no way in hell I can learn the laws in time. Not that they'd be that much different from ours, but they are ordered and formulated differently. And there's A TON of them, all written in long boring books without a single picture. That gives me three options.
First: give up, but that won't happen because I'm too stubborn for that and I won't let that turian bitch win.
Second: hope I'll have a lucky day and guess the answers. This plan has a multiple flaws.
Third: cheat.
Because the plans one and two are both ridicules I choose plan three. Now I only have to figure out the details. I have approximate idea how to do it, but I absolutely don't know if it's possible. One thing's for sure, I'm not going to think about it now. Tomorrow is also a day and I think, that traveling god knows how many light years is considered tiring.
Before I go to sleep I want to check just one more thing. I walk to the balcony and check the pipes again. They aren't actually pipes they look more like fat, silver cables, but I think they should support my weight. I quickly check if there isn't anyone looking and I grab them. As I thought they are solid and climbing them is a piece of cake. In less than thirty seconds I'm at the rooftop.
It looks like a high-tech version of a regular rooftop. Metallic (yeah aliens love their metal) surface with lots of real pipes and something like air conditioning unit. What is strange though is that all buildings in this area are similar height. I think that that if I manage to pass the tests and stay here, they'll be great place for my trainings. No one could see me here from the street so I won't be embarrassed if I screw up. Maybe it won't suck here that much after all.
Author note:
I'll make this quick. Sorry for late update and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review.