I exited the massive that is CTC (combat training center) with all of its arenas. Combat simulations are amazing, and I will never think about them different. Just today, I got paired with three random guys. Two turians and one salarian. We all signed up for a two-hour campaign simulation. Two hours of hard fighting. At least hard for my current level. This was the most challenging campaign that was available to me. A novice. Yeah, they used a level system similiar to the one in the third game. The scenario put us as soldiers behind enemy lines, protecting our colony. I gained enough points to advance in rank. I was now a Cadet. Sweet progress.

Now it's time to jog back to the motel and continue my research. One command to Haenu and a new slightly longer route to motel was set. This time I will jog a few more blocks towards the city outskirts. I turned on my playlist and activated my HUD to show me where to go. As I ran, I started to think about my situation again.

It is already one month since I started to live on Palaven. One month of calm, regular life in what before was a science fiction to me. Each day was a cycle of waking up, jogging to gym or CTC, training, jogging back, resting, searching for odd programmer jobs on extranet, possibly doing one, checking my account balance, spending my free time on whatever until I fall asleep. End of the day, repeat tomorrow. Not so much different from when I lived on earth and tried to live independently of my family for the first time.

But this time, I wasn't in another country, but in another galaxy. With no home to come back to. That itself is terrifying, even if you don't include machine cuttlefish from space that in a few years will come to turn most people here into paste and pump it into more machine cuttlefish. Nothing can be done about that now, so no pressure on that front. For now. Making myself home here takes priority, yet I have to take the future into account, while doing that.

That means I had to make some decisions. Living on Palaven, like I'm now, is a somehow good option. I lose about one to two thousand credits per month even if I do some programming jobs, with means I can be here, in safety, for a long time. But that gives me nothing. Thanks to my perk choices, I will end up with Shepard. I need real experience to survive that and, later of course, reapers. Taking all of that into account, I did made a plan. However, it is based on luck, and it has one very important drawback.

Following the trail displayed on the HUD, I turned sharply into the alley between the two buildings. A moment later, a narrow passage opened to reveal a multitude of flowering plants hanging from metal beams stretched between the walls of the buildings. The multitude of colorful flowers that emerged from the silver leaves stopped me in my place. Hanging gardens were very popular on Palaven. I've seen many of them over a month, but they still took my breath away. I checked the map and saw that I'm only twenty minutes away from the motel. Good place to catch my breath. I sat down on the bench and began to admire the view while also continuing to rethinking my ideas.

Knowing what I know from games, I can see geth in a much different light than the rest of the galaxy. Geth don't really have anything against current quarians, even after their ancestors tried to kill them out of fear. I'm more than reasonably sure that I could convince them to let me settle on Ranoch. Then, I will be the safest person in the galaxy. And what's more, I will have a chance to convince them that Nazara is a piece of shit not worth following! But to do that, I need to contact them. And I'm not going to risk getting killed while searching for them on extranet, with I know they look at, because citadel council, shadow broker, some asari matriarch or salarian dalatrass might also find out about my search and decide that it is much safer to just eliminate me. A little paranoid, but also realistic.

So I have to travel there myself and do all of that. Yet despite it sounding absurd, that was in my opinion an easy part. The second is harder, but not as hard as I originally though. Checking extranet for relay map was a good move. Stupid of me to think about it just a few days ago. Geth's space could be accessed from human space with just one stop in Traverse. Palaven is in Trebia system with is part of Apien Crest. I can use its mass relay to travel to Serpent Nebula and from there to Local Cluster, where sol system is. Next would be Shadow Sea, from where I could jump directly to Far Rim in geth space. Much safer route than the one through Terminus with only one dangerous spot that was Shadow Sea because it lied in Traverse. The only problem will be waiting for relay to realign to his brother in Far Rim, but there really shouldn't be that much time for any pirate to attack me.

The third part is worst. I need a ship. And I could buy one. Civilian, of course. Military ships cost millions. So for a hundred thousand credits I can buy the ship of my choice. Panril-class explorer, a turian ship designed, as the name suggests, for exploration. Good ship. I checked its specification. However, despite the fact that I could fly it immediately after purchase, it does not have many functions that I will have to buy if I want to actually be safe in it. If I buy this ship now, I will only have fifty thousand credits left for them. Not too much. But if I'm betting on my plan to work, it's not too bad. The crux of the problem is that this ship requires a crew because the pilot cannot do everything by himself. At least four people. Second pilot included.

How the hell am I supposed to get a crew?! Who would agree to fly with me to a fucking geth space?! No one, that's who. My only hope is to make modifications that will allow me to operate it myself, even if it becomes difficult to pilot. And doing that will take time. A lot of it. I can't just do a good enough job with it. It has to work near perfectly if I want it to be safe and don't crash against mass relay or other ships!

I sighed in annoyance. My brain hurt from all these speculations. Checking how plausible these modifications are will come later. Let's go back to motel for now. I got up from the bench and stretched my limbs. Time to run again.

Around twenty minutes later, I was on the last straight to the motel. Damn, was I tired. This exercising was good for me, but I can't see myself going full Saitama on it. I entered the motel and immediately went for the bar. Today there was not that much traffic. Only a few of the guests sat at the tables, eating, drinking, and talking. Once I was seated, I leaned heavily against the counter and rested my head on my arms. I stayed like that for a good two minutes before someone taped my shoulder and some glass was placed right in front of my face.

"Hanbagi juice filtered three times." I look up and see a pale face smiling at me. Anna, one of the owners. "I figured that you would order it anyway. You know, like you do every day."

Having stayed at the motel for so long, it was impossible for me not to get closer to its owners. Anna and Nivia. At first, we only exchanged a few sentences on several occasions. With time, the conversations grew longer and the talk about the weather turned into more serious topics. Both of them were from army. Anna served in the Alliance and Nivia served in the Hierarchy. They surprised me when they told me how they met during the First Contact War. Being in a small bunker whose entrance was buried with rubble. Only an alien who doesn't speak your language to company. Waiting for rescue, trying to pass the time by talking through gestures. It's easy to see why these two are so close. The only thing they lack is an official marriage.

"You look like shit."

"Hah. I kinda feel like one, too." I reach to my pocket and took out a fifteen centimeters long metallic object. My Emergency Induction Port. So… a fancy straw. "How's today's business?"

"Nice and easy. Few guests today, and only three of them will stay longer than two days." She pushed her black hair back from her face. "You want me to get you something else?"

"No, thanks. I would ask you for that Asari drink that Nivia recommended to me, but seeing that bottle is at top shelf, I will wait for her for that." I smiled. "Don't want to bother you and force you to stand on a chair to get that one." Nothing like a friendly banter.

"Har har, you jerk." She smiled back at me. "Being on the smaller side has some benefits."

"Like?"

"Like, being easy to carry around by your tall girlfriend, for example." She gave me such a shit-eating grin. "One day, maybe you also will taste such blessing."

"Yes, yes. You two are a great couple. I know." I drank some more. Damn, this hanbagi juice tastes so good. "Speaking of your taller half, where is she?"

Anna took an order for a drink from another client and started to prepare it.

"She's with new guests. The ones that will stay longer. They wanted to ask her a few questions about some customs on palaven. It's their first time here."

She handed the drink to the customer. "Speaking about them. They rented the room next to you. Number twenty-one. They are a couple with a kid, so please don't disturb them."

I raised my hands in a protest. "That was just one time!"

"Your shouts woke up three other rooms." She deadpanned. "And no. We told you that this horror was a scary one. You choose to watch it at night, high as a kite."

And the echo of my embarrassment comes to haunt me again. "I underestimated turian movie industry, I admit that." Fucking turian horror for teenagers. Whoever directed that was a master of eerie atmosphere and suspension. "And don't worry, I will be too busy for something like that." I looked at her directly. "I think that I decided to buy a ship."

She looks at me with surprise in the eyes. "Going big, huh?"

I shook my head. "More like going for what I can. If I could, I would buy a military ship. You know, the one that has guns." I did pistol impressions with my hands.

"Citadel space is safe for civilian flying." Anna started cleaning one of the glasses. "Don't worry too much. As long as you stay away from terminus, you should be safe."

Yeah. I definitely will.

"So what ship are you buying?"

I opened my omnitool. "Look here…"

I admit that I really wanted to show what I wanted to buy and what I wanted to do with it, modification wise, of course. In that matter both of my parts, human and quarian, work in tandem. Human me always wanted to go to space. Who wouldn't?! There is so much there to explore, to experience! Quarian me already experienced some of that and was more interested with technical aspect of things, how that ship works, what can be done to upgrade it, how to operate it. And one thing that united them both was the fact that both wanted to own a ship. My own ship. The very idea that I can just pack and fly to another planet whenever I wanted was magical. For both of me.

So I showed Anna holographic model and went into total tech freak mode.

I showed her the ship's schematics and started to talk about it. What's good, what's bad and what I will do. She asked why I was planning to do once I got it. If maybe I would like to join the migrant fleet.

I did not want to tell her about my plan, so I just told her that I will travel to Sol and try to get some work there and get some money before any major decision.

As I talked about buying advanced thrusters to increase the speed of the ship, I felt someone touch my shoulder. I turn my head and to my surprise I had to also turn it a little down. Some dark haired human boy was looking in fixation at the hologram emitted from my omnitool. By his looks, he couldn't be over fifteen.

He didn't notice that I was looking right at him as his eyes darted across the hologram. "Hello?" I greeted him.

His focus was cut off and his attention shifted to me. Oh. It seems he only now realized what he was doing. He paled slightly and, ashamed, took his hand away. "Sorry, I… I just…"

"Wanted to look?."

"Yeah."

"You didn't do anything bad. There is no reason to apologize."

Without even looking at me. He began to play with his hands, nervously. "B-but..."

He really looked like he wanted to sink into the ground, lost on words. Really, he didn't do anything and his demeanor was really endearing.

"You were really interested in this." I gesture at the hologram. Small talk might help him to loosen a little. "You like starships?"

He lets out a few non-words before speaking correctly. "Y-yes. Not just starships b-but technology in general."

I smile to him. With, he cannot see. But I hope that the tone of my voice will carry that. "Want to sit with me and look at the ship that I want to buy?" He perks up a little. "I might need a second opinion since this is the first time I'm buying one."

"R-really?"

"Yeah. You have a fresh point of view that might help me spot something that I missed." And really there is no harm in letting you look. "So what? Care to join?"

He seems to think about it for a few moments, then nods. I reached for the adjoining barstool and pulled it closer. With a gesture, I motioned for him to sit down. Less nervous, he grabbed the bar counter and pulled himself up beside me. Once he sat, I started talking.

"Panril-class explorer. One hundred thousand credits. I want to modify it to be able to pilot it alone. I also want to buy advanced thrusters to be able to run away if I get in trouble. So far it looks rather nice and every minute that I spend looking at schematics I only want to buy it more."

"It's good." He put a hand to his chin and thought for a moment. "It already has med-bay, probe launcher and mineral scanner as expected for, an explorer ship. But if you expect to run into trouble, shouldn't you buy some security system?"

"Well… it's not cheap."

"What is your budget?"

"After buying this ship." I sight. "Fifty thousand. Well, forty-eight thousand to be precise."

"Oh. I see."

Yeah. Turns out that what I was taking for a huge pile of money is really not that much, if you want to do something big. I really jumped into deep waters here. Well, not yet, but I really don't see other ways for me to get money. I don't have another stash of minerals handed to me by CYOA. My skills while good are not on the high enough level to get me funds for my 'project'. At least not in programming. I could do a lot of them, but for many, the pay was shit tier. Getting more of a hands-on job, in engineering, was hard. I was turned down on many of them, and the ones that would take me were going to pay me shit. So much for taking the perk that makes me good at it.

"This should be good." The boy pointed at the hologram after scrolling down, looking for upgrades that were available to me. "Internal Defense System. If something bad will happen, then this should deal with it. There are options for it too."

"Go on."

"There is basic IDF, professional one and military-grade one."

I can see where this is going. "How much?"

"Twenty-five thousand for basic."

"Damn."

"Fifty for professional."

I rested my head on the counter.

"This is… not too bad? I can buy basic one."

"That would be a good idea."

"And costly one. But I will buy it." Don't really have a choice here. "I don't expect to gather crew for it. Ideas?"

"Well…"

We talked about how I could pilot it if the ship mainframe was upgraded. More processing power meant that more complicated tasks could be somehow automated and would require only minor overseeing. Kid was smart. Shy at first, but after I let him talk free and show him that I share his interests, he opened up. He really was into spaceships. He knew a lot about many famous models and lines. And I learned that spaceships were a lot like cars. In the sense that they shared similarities in pricing. Cheap models that could just get me around were many. Solid ones that you could be sure of were more pricey. Luxurious ships could cost a fortune, like if you wanted to buy a limo. My Panril was a good spaceship. Nothing luxurious, but very solid, all around. Kid really like it.

"... and that's why this model has so many maintenance shafts. The core idea was to use it for prolonged exploration, so to make it more viable for long operations, they made it easier to access all parts of the ship for quick repair and installation of new parts."

"Damn, you know your stuff, kid." Right, I should already ask for his name. "Actually, I should already ask, what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Yu Mitchell. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Hael'Yaanar, nice to meet you too. You have Japanese name and english surename?"

"Yes, my mom is Japanese, and my dad is from the USA. My mom choose my name. You know the difference?"

"I watch a lot of old human media."

"Really? Like what?"

"Mostly games and anime. Then books and movies."

He smiled. "What anime did watch lately? I'm watching Spacezone Zero series. It's awesome and animation is very polished!"

"Fellow connoisseur of good media, I see. I mostly watch an older stuff. I watched JoJo, currently still can't go past part one. So I starded One Punch Man, and I'm now on Garou's fight with S-Class Heroes."

"Oh. JoJo I know. It had a reboot, a few years ago. I tried it too, and I didn't hook me. I don't know the second series. Is it good?"

"Yu, that series is pure awesome. You should watch it."

"Made a friend, Yu?"

I turned around and saw Nivia with a human woman, probably Yu's mother. She was short, with a petite figure and dark hair. I don't know if humans changed much in the last hundred years, but she looked frail, sickly even. Pale skin and small bags under eyes as if she had trouble to sleep. Yet despite that, her smiling face beamed with warm. She approached us and put her hand on Yu's shoulder. He visibly perked up.

"Oh, hi mom, this is Hael, we talked about spaceships and then other things."

I stood up, and extended my hand. "Hael'Yaanar, nice too meet you."

His mom, still smiling, took it. "Asato Mitchell, nice to meet you as well. I hope that Yu didn't trouble you?"

"Not at all. It was actually nice to talk with someone that knew more about this stuff."

"So what sparked this talk about spaceships? Yu normally shies away from people." Judging by her happy tone, she was pleased by it, not angry about it.

Yu looked a little embarrassed. "I saw how Hael was showing a hologram of a ship and talked about it, and I become interested."

"Then I asked him if he wanted to take a closer look."

"Good to see that he can go out of his shell. We tried many times to push him a little, so he would socialize with other kids. But talking with someone older is a good thing too." She looked at her son. "It's good to see you making progress."

Yu gave her an honest smile, but soon it turned upside down as he fixed his gaze on the counter. "When are we moving out?"

Huh?

"Not soon. Your father went to deal with some issues, but we should be able to settle here for at least two months for sure."

"Last time, you told me the same thing. But we didn't stay there even for one month."

"Yu, I know it's hard, but..." She started to talk with him about some issues with papers and problems with bureaucracy. I didn't get most of that. It seemed that they forgot about anything else and just started to talk about some serious topics. I really wasn't needed here. Are those tears in his eyes? Yeah, I shouldn't be here.

I looked at Anna and Nivia for help. Few glances between three of us and Anna came to my rescue. She offered them something to drink while I paid my bill and prepare to leave. But it wouldn't be right of me to just leave the kid like that.

"Yu." He stopped mid-sentence and turned to me. "I have to go, I need to check on a few things and prepare everything to buy the ship. If you want to talk more about spaceships or other things, feel free to knock on my doors. Number twenty-two."

"Oh, y-yeah, thanks." That cheered him up a little.

I said goodbye to him and his mother, leaving them, so they can talk in peace.

I come back to my room and went to take a shower. Well, quarian equivalent. I can't take my suit off. Not if I don't want to get sick and maybe die. Well, not really. While infections are dangerous, not all of them are life-threatening, but taking it off is still not an option. Therefore, the suit has a special system built in, which allows you to take care of hygiene. Just plug the container with clean, filtered water and liquid soap. The liquid will be sucked into the suit where, step by step, thanks to the possibility of isolating its individual parts and the mechanism that sets the water in motion, your body will be cleaned. When cleaning is complete, all you need to do is drain the water from the suit, turn on the internal heating and wait. This cleaning is nothing like standing in the shower and scrubbing your body with a sponge, but it is enough.

After that, I lied down and turn on my omnitool. I checked what I should do to be able to buy a spaceship. No surprise that I will have to visit a few offices and sign some papers. I should be able to do all of that in one day. I added all of that to 'to-do' list and decided to, just today, don't search for any programming commission and just relax. Getting that ship and then tinkering with it will probably consume most of my time from tomorrow onwards. All things consider, everything is going pretty good. The only thing that I need to worry now is how I will pilot the damn thing alone. Other than that. Nothing, really. I turned on TV and searched for something interesting to watch. Tomorrow will bring all new kinds of problems, I feel.

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About 70 % of this chapter was done in like one week after the previous one. But while I know where I want this story to go and what next chapters will be about, sometimes I don't know how to lead the current moment to that. For example, Nivia was supposed to have a bigger role here, but it just didn't click in the right way with the rest.

For this story, I plan to roll for many things because while having characters and situation made by me would be good, having them more random would in my opinion be more natural. Yu was made that way. I like to think that he is interesting, but much of it will come out after some time. His name I took from a webtoon that I recommend, "The Boxer".

I had many ideas what to do with Hael. Getting ship is the first step that should open many possibilities and problems. He will be able to travel, but without the crew… it will be hard. Maybe even too hard.
I still don't know what Shepard I will use in this story. The most popular one from what I saw is female, colonist, survivor package.

I rarely see male Shepard being used with makes me want to do just that. But there is still time for that, so I ask, what do you think?

One guest wrote that I should get a beta reader. And I admit that I don't know how to do that. I was thinking about getting some software like Grammarly for that. If you know how to get a beta reader, then please tell me.

Also, why is text formating getting so fucked on this site?

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