One year later
About a year has passed and things have only gotten worse, over the past year Tib has changed and has gotten more tense and silent. He stopped his jokes and overall upbeat nature; from what I've seen he has been focused on doing his duty and doing research on The White Death. I've tried to ask him about it but he's been more hostile towards everyone. Polnia just leaves him since he does his job, that seems to be a common thing with Turians.
Aside from trying to help Tib I've been focused on improving my equipment and preparing for future situations. I even made another drone and I named him Patriot, I designed him in the shape of a small bird just like Flint. Patriot however has a different purpose, I created him as a recon drone after what happened on the first mission since I wanted to avoid being caught off guard like that again. I set him up so that any person he sees he'll highlight on my Hud, blue for friendly, red for enemy and green for unknown.
I also have another project in the works but finishing it up is difficult since it's a different kind of territory, it's also difficult to work when it feels like the entire ship is on edge and is about to dive face first into a planet's core. I get up and walk into the ship's kitchen cause it's simply too damn early today to think about this.
I finish making some coffee which taste absolutely horrible, Turians don't know how to make decent coffee it seems and I see Polnia is finally up, seeing her walk in like a zombie that hasn't gotten any food in years. She's always the first one up after me, I'm pretty sure my habits as a marine haven't changed even though my situation has drastically changed, everyone gets up early of course but annoyingly enough my body takes it a step further.
"Hello there Vakarian." She says looking at me as she breaks my chain of thought and grabs some food from the fridge that's basically dead and empty by this point.
"Hello ma'am pleasant morning isn't it?" I say as I continue to drink my coffee hiding my smirk as I can hear a rumble of annoyance from her sub harmonics.
"Don't give me that sarcastic S'kak Vakarian, you know full well by now that I despise mornings." She says as she eats giving me the occasional glare.
It gets silent as we both just try to adjust to the morning, this is pretty normal, Polnia is likely one of the better leaders I've had in my lives, I've dealt with so many idiots that make me question just how they got to where they are. I suppose that's a positive of Turians, due to how things are set up we get more competent people in charge most of the time. My mind can't help but drift to the Turian consular, yeah most of the time.
"Ma'am that reminds me, when is the next shore leave at the Citadel, we're running a bit low on supplies and things are getting a bit...tense here on the ship." I say letting out a small uncomfortable cough as I put my cup down finished with it.
"We're actually on the route to the Citadel at the moment, we'll be there for about three days." She gets up and puts her plates and utensils in the sink. "Do me a favor Vakarian and let everyone know that they have shore leave in about six hours."
I nod and watch her leave before walking into the beds and finding Maxus there. He's a strange one, he keeps his distance and doesn't talk much to anyone here, but he does his job and that's what matters to us.
"Maxus do you know where the others are?" I say hoping he actually answers me instead of ignoring me like usual. He simply points in a direction. "Thanks Maxus." I then take off towards where he pointed which leads into the engine room as I spot Destia.
"Destia! Polnia wanted me to let you know we're stopping at the Citadel in a few hours, we'll be on shore leave for a bit. Also do you know where Tib is?" I say as I get close and see her checking up on the engine and making sure it's running correctly.
"Thanks for letting me know, and Ursiril was making his way to the workbenches last time I saw him, I believe he was going to do some maintenance on his weapons." She doesn't break eye contact with the terminal screen as she speaks.
"Thanks for the help!" I say as I run off to the workbenches waving back at her as I notice her give me a small wave back making me smile. I arrive at the workbenches and I find Tib there. "Hey, Tib we're going to have shore leave in a few hours." I say as I walk up next to him and put a hand on his shoulder getting closer making sure I have his attention.
"Alright, I get it, I'll be ready once we get there." I can't help but wonder what's going through his head as he gets back to working on his guns. I give him a pat on the back as I start to walk away.
"By the way Tib, make sure you keep your head on straight you're my friend and I want to keep you living well, so just... keep yourself together man." I say as I walk away leaving him to think and work.
I walk into the small barracks and prepare a few things before pulling up my omni-tool and taking down a few notes of things to get when we get to the Citadel. I stretch before getting into clothes suitable for roaming the biggest space station in existence. I put on a simple black and dark green hoodie with some loose pants. "Damn these spurs always make pants a pain."
I spend the next few hours running a hacking program on my omni-tool testing it against different levels and types of firewalls. I then hear us finally arrive and dock with Citadel port making me breathe a sigh of relief that we finally have a bit of time off as we restock the ship.
I hear a beep from my omni-tool and see a message from Destia. "Hey, I'm going to be shopping for a few things mind accompanying me, we can travel to wherever you need to as well." I know we have plenty of time so it wouldn't hurt to run with Destia by a few shops, just as I send the message and think for a moment, I realize the situation soon after and I feel conflicted. I mean I'm still not the best at understanding more subtle Turian emotions. Nothing is more confusing than a Turian and Human mind conflicting on what the hell is attractive.
Well I guess I'm committed to this now as I follow her out of the ship. "So, where's the first stop? What are you getting in the first place?" I say as we stop at a store, I don't recognize so I simply read the shop's name Amy's Antiques.
"It's a Human antique shop, I met a Human a while ago when I was on shore leave when I was with my last unit. since the shop is open, she should be nearby." I nod as I walk in with her as she searches around for who I assume is a friend of hers. I walk around browsing as I see a lot of old items, a few that are even from my time as I see an old smartphone causing me to chuckle.
"Wow it's strange seeing this after so long..." I get lost in my thoughts for a moment taking a moment to remember some nice moments as a human, god talk about a reality check.
"Hello! Is there something that catches your eye? Surprised to see a Turian here in a Human antique shop." I look over at the girl talking to me who's quite short likely only about 5'3 in height with tanned skin. I hear her give a friendly chuckle as I put the old smartphone back on the shelf.
"Is that a bad thing miss? I say smiling at the friendly woman, relaxing as I put my hands and talons in my hoodie pockets.
"No not at all I welcome it in fact, the more who get to experience old human culture the better!" I nod in response
"Couldn't agree with that more, that reminds me I'm guessing you're Amy, pretty sure Destia is looking for you." I say as I notice Destia walking over to us. "Speaking of the devil, hey there Destia, I think I found your friend."
"Destia's here?" She says before turning around and seeing her "Destia!" Amy proceeds to quickly hug and squeeze Destia clearly excited. "It's been so long! How are you?"
Destia returns the hug before moving away. "I'm doing well all things considered, I mostly came here to check up on you Amy since it's been well over a year since we've seen each other." Destia and Amy proceed to catch up with each other making me smile before walking away and continuing to browse letting the two friends catch up with each other.
It's good to see a Turian and Human getting along, glad to see neither has been raised with resentment to each other. I continue to think before stopping as I see a particular item an old electronic piano keyboard, sitting and collecting dust on the shelf. "This brings back some memories..." I start to get nostalgic as I pick it up and hold it looking at it. I remember when I played with these as a kid up till, I was sent off to Marine Corps boot camp, I just never really had the time to pick it back up then.
"Hey Amy how much would this be?" I say as I hold up the old keyboard. Looking at my account as well as I see I have a nice sum of about 30,000 credits from my monthly pay and knowing I'll be able to afford the price.
"Hmm, oh that? It's an oldie that just needs a bit of power to work, I would say that's about 200 credits." She says as her face crawls into an interested look. "Just curious... but what motivated you to buy that Velius?"
I hand her my credit chip and pay for it as I answer. "It simply reminded me of some happy times, that's all." I say as I take the keyboard back and put it into my backpack. "Hey Destia I'll wait outside while you two catch up, it was nice to meet you Amy." They nod and Amy waves goodbye as I walk outside feeling a bit nostalgic as I think about the past and my last life, then my mind drifts to this life and the time I've spent here all the way from baby Garrus, Tibertus, and now Destia. "I guess I can't forget what I have to protect here."
A few hours later Destia comes out and we finish up hers and my shopping. My bank account now at a lower 10,000 credits due to what I bought, which was mainly forging equipment so I can continue to make more tech and gear to improve, the Auto-Forge, Auto-Lathe and Omni-Optic were expensive but not too bad, however all the materials I needed is what caused my account to go down the drain.
As I think about how much I paid for everything I feel my stomach growl at me. "Hey let's stop for something to eat, I'm sure you're hungry, it's been a bit since breakfast, I'll pay." I say as I see us passing by a restaurant that serves dextro food.
"Sure! Should be good especially if you're paying." She says with a joking tone making me smile as we head inside and get a table and I swear I can see her drooling at the menu.
"Well it's good to see you like the menu." I say with a bit of amusement in my voice.
"Oh, don't start Velius I saw you staring at the restaurant before we even got in here, it looked like you were going to attack it and eat everything." She says with a tone of sass which gains a small laugh from the both of us.
A little bit later we have our food and we eat throwing some questions at each other and discussing a few topics when a question pops into my head. "That reminds me, you never told me but how old are you? You said you were in a different unit before this one." I say curious.
"I'm 20 and I'll be 21 in 2 months." She says and I'm intrigued as I start counting.
"Hey that's awesome, I'll actually be 18 in a month, It's interesting in a simple way." I say as there's a notable silence at the table afterwards as a more delicate question sneaks into my head. "So, just curious, why did you invite me out to shop together, not that it was a bad thing of course." I say trying to have my question come across wrong.
"I just thought it could be a fun time, better to shop with someone rather than no one." There's another silent pause in the conversation. "Though I suppose I would be lying if I said there wasn't a second reason." She says as she takes a breath. "I've grown... interested in you, we have a lot in common and I feel like we're a good match." I'm sure if she could blush, she'd have one.
"I feel the same Destia, talking with you and spending time with you has been some of the greatest moments while with this unit, and I feel like we can make this work." I take a moment before taking my gloved hand and grabbing hers before I move and touch my fringe to hers taking the moment to just enjoy the moment and for the first time in a while feeling truly happy and peaceful.