"Please tell me that I'm doing it right this time?" I asked, sweating cold as I looked at my appraiser expectantly, using all my willpower not to move a muscle.

Because if I move, something disastrous will happen.

Drerk's thoughtful and coldly calculating expression lit up with a wicked smile when he said, "Yes, you are. After the twenty-fifth attempt. At least you didn't nearly blow up the mass effect field generator this time. "

A roll of the eye was my only response before I returned the focus to the spanner of some kind I was using to handle the skycar's gear and circuits.

What happened is that after Harris hired me as a mechanic's assistant, I decided that I should learn the basics of futuristic mechanics so I wouldn't be totally useless. What followed was at least two hours of theoretical lessons from a Batarian who showed pleasure in mocking my repeated failures when I revealed to be the shame of the profession.

"Well, here's your damn thing." I said, throwing him a futuristic version of a starter.

Or what I imagine to be the futuristic version of a starter. Could it be a… carburetor? Meh.

"Pillars ... this sucks." Drerk said, giving a brief sigh as he studied the object. "How they manage to cause this kind of damage I never understand."

"How bad?" I asked, taking a cloth and wiping the sweat off my face.

"Too bad, it was almost completely burned." He answered with another indignant sigh. "How they manage to cause this kind of damage I have no idea, but I bet 20 credits that most are chases between gangs or escapes."

"Okay, can you fix it?"

"No." Drerk said simply, throwing the piece away. "Damaged beyond repair, it sometimes seems that they expect us to work miracles."

"So, what's the alternative?"

"I'm going to replace this ruined mass compensator with a slightly less ruined mass compensator." He replied. And with I he is referring to me.

"Shouldn't you replace it with one that is fully functioning instead of 'a little less ruined'?" I asked.

"Normally? Yes. But doing so will not guarantee a steady clientele to keep business going."

"This is unethical." But in a way well thought out, although I won't admit it to him.

"This is Chalkhos, Kane. You want an honest and clean workplace that doesn't look like shit, go to the citadel. Otherwise, get this and work." He said, handing me the rusty-looking compensator.

"You're the boss." Shrugging, I went back to the torturous session of trying to install this on the skycar. "These gangs ... seem to have a presence here. " If the things I saw in the market district are any indication. "You guys never had any problems with them?"

Even if the place has this… reliable "aura" when you pass it, no doubt someone badly enough would have tried something. After all, it looks just like a workshop with no defense looking from outside.

Drerk's answer came in the form of two turrets that unfolded from the ceiling at the command of his omni tool. The heavy artillery poles circled the workshop briefly before disappearing through the opening that closed.

"If anyone tries to fuck around, they'll be greeted by a rocket right in the face."

"Have you reached that point yet?" I asked, without taking my eyes off the practically instinctive work I was doing.

"No, from a distance you can see that we have nothing worth stealing or extorting." He replied, taking a cup and filling it with coffee. At least what I imagine to be the Batarian version of cafe. "But the old man thought it best to take some precautions. And even without those turrets, he would blow the brains out of anyone who have ideas."

"Probably after saying welcome to Chalkhos." I said the last sentence in a weak, sulky voice in an attempt to sound like Harris.

"You are beginning to understand." Drerk said in an amused tone. "Just don't let the old man hear you talking like that or he'll kick your ass."

"What happened to the solidarity with the newbie?"

"He fell into a hole with several beasts in the desert." I raised an eyebrow in confusion, but decided not to ask about it. It must be a kind of batarian expression.

"How long has he been in this business?" I asked. I will not be able to fit the compensator with this here on the way.

"About eight years."

"And why Chalkhos? I mean ... he seems to hate the place." I think why the terminus system would be a better question. A little more to the left ...

"If he wants, he can tell you the whole story. Until then, just try not to burn the circuit." He replied simply, and I could see from the corner of my eye he is looking at me with that expression of analysis. Ok… you can see that individual privacy is well respected here.

"Right, at least you could tell me how I can install this here with all this-"

As I struggled to work on the skycar, a small spark came when I removed something that I shouldn't have removed, since the spark that was followed by a small mass effect field explosion that sent both of us, the toolbox, and probably Drerk's coffee to the floor. Shit...

"I think… could you give me a hand with this now?" I asked, avoiding looking around and contemplating the damage I caused.

A grunt was his response before he got up and came over to where I was lying, offering me a hand that I readily accepted.


After the little skycar incident, Drerk decided to closely monitor anything I was working on to make sure I wasn't going to destroy the place. Although it became a little uncomfortable for him when more customers arrived and he had to divide his attention between me and his own vehicle.

At least until he was sure I wasn't going to blow anything up.

Then… lunchtime came, which was spent mostly talking. Once Drerk managed to put aside the point of pointing out how inept I am as a mechanic, I could see that there was a nice guy in the deep inside.

Two more cars that I spent the last few hours trying not to destroy under strict instructions afterwards, it was closing time.

"This will do." I said, closing the skycar compartment and discarding the futuristic spanner that was becoming my best friend. "In the worst case, I can claim that it was the driver's negligence and get away with guilt if it ends up exploding."

"Or destroy the entire workshop."

"Where's your faith?" I asked, throwing my arms in the air in a false display of confidence.

"You got lost in the desert when you spilled my coffee and almost gave yourself a concussion." He replied mockingly.

"What's the deal with batarians and deserts?"

"What's the deal with bristle? The humans I saw had more than that."

"Do you mean my hair?" I asked, giving him a questioning look. Apparently he knows as much about human anatomy as I do about the desert thing.

"Nevermind." He focused all three eyes on the skycar before looking at me. "Are you sure it won't explode when we leave?"

"Come on, I would say I did a good job for a change." I emphasized my point by tapping the car.

What I didn't expect was that the skycar would start producing a lot of strange and very audible sounds that made us both stand still in place.

"We better close the shop." I said, moving slowly and carefully away from the futuristic car. He just nodded as he walked away without taking his eyes off the skycar.

"What are you two doing?" We jumped at the sudden sound of the voice, which resulted in a rather confused expression of the middle aged man staring at us.

"Harris…" I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself from the fright before continuing. "What's up?"

"I hoped the two of you were closing the place at this hour. "He looked between us and the skycar." What's the deal with the car? "

"And we were, before Kane's hidden abilities as creator of improvised explosives show up." He replied with a grin, to which I just gave him an empty look. Creator of improvised explosives? Fuck you. I would say I did a decent job.

"I don't even want to know." Harris said, letting out a tired breath. "How well did he do? "?"

This is where things get dark. This is clearly one of those 'we'll give you a chance and see how you work, and in the end we'll see if you're worth it' moments. Even if Harris' intention was to give me some help, I had no doubt that he would send me away if I worked worst than it was worth. He has a business to run after all.

So I just remained silent, waiting for the assessment of the batarian who was looking at me with an expression that was making me nervous. Will he seriously do that? I wouldn't say that we became best friends in just a few hours, but I also wouldn't say that I gave him reasons to try to screw with me.

"He was reasonable for someone with no experience in the area. He was able to do a decent job with supervision, and I would say he will be able to do well on his own with a little more practice and training in a few days. " Drerk said in a serious tone, the most serious I heard him use during the few hours I met him. Suppressing a sigh of relief, I gave him a look of thanks.

"Good." Harris looked at me with a satisfied smile. "I knew you had the potential for that, kid, I'm glad I wasn't wrong."

"What can I say? I try to please." If you call almost blowing up a skycar to please.

"There's a bed waiting for you at the office. If something goes missing from the workshop, I'm going to rip your fingers off. I was that clear?" He asked with the most serious and sinister look I've ever received from him so far. I could only nod in response.

"See you tomorrow kid. Lock up when we go out." He give me a light slap on the shoulder before leaving.

"Well, I think I'm going to have to make sure that you don't break anything for the rest of the time you're here." Drerk said with that sneer of him.

"Ass." I replied with mild humor before my face took on a more serious expression when I asked, "Why did you do that?"

"Hmm?" He seemed stunned by my question.

"Not to mention my failure as a mechanic, or the fact that I almost set a skycar on fire." He seemed to think about it before he simply shrugged.

"You're going to need this job if you want to survive here, so it wouldn't be fair if I just mentioned something that would make you leave before you even started." He looked at nothing in a very reflective way for a moment. "Besides, my mom used to say that the pillar says that we need to be charitable or something like that, I'm not really religious."

"So you basically feel pity for me?"

"Yes." He answered simply and I eyened deeply at him. "This isn't something you find around here. So just be grateful that I didn't screw you with the old man, Kane.

"Drerk." He stopped walking to the exit to look at me. "Thanks."

"Don't mention that." And with that he left, leaving me alone.

"Well ... not bad for a day of work I think." I said, going to the doors and locking the place. Checking it a couple of times to make sure it is sealed, I made my way to the office.


"You're here to finish off don't you? Clean up the loose ends. I know you'd be back. Guys like us, we don't know when to stop."

"It's done, you are the last." And with that the salarian wearing a kind of futuristic version of a brown overcoat, pulled the trigger and the credits started to roll when the screen went black.

This was strangely familiar. Using my omni tool now synchronized with the TV, I switched to any news channel.

For starters ... yes, Harris had actually prepared a bed that consisted of a mattress, blankets and pillows on the office floor. Not much stewardship, but who is asking for it? There was also the TV, which gave me several hours of pain when I searched the entire office for a remote control just to see that I didn't have one. Instead, it was synchronized with my omni tool.

Which led me to another problem: learning how to synchronize the omni tool with the tv.

After that, I browsed through several channels in search of anything minimally interesting to kill boredom. All I found were gossip channels speculating things like: who or what Aria was sleeping with, the repercussions of some murder committed by Jona Sederis and so on. The only interesting thing was an action movie about a tech and hacking salarian expert who had lost his niece in a mob hit. And as soon as the movie ended, I found myself with a lot of time to think.

Especially in my memories ... or what was left of them.

I still remembered… clearly my last playthrough in the mass effect trilogy. From the beginning of the journey of my vanguard paragade Shepard in Eden prime, until the awful end of the third game. I clearly remember playing the three games on a led television with problems with the buttons, I remember my room, the neon lights illuminating my apartment.

And I partially remember watching a movie or series where there was a man wearing a kind of costume that reminded the Christian devil, and a guy with guns drawn who looked like he was spit on and beaten for life. The rest ... it's as if a kind of curtain, or rather a fog, is covering everything. My name… family… everything covered.

My conclusion: in no fucking way I belong to this world. Even though I have an identity with my photo that proves the contrary, I am sure that I don't belong here.

And speaking of that identity, I discovered that it was not the only thing in the omni tool.

In addition to a bank account that to no one's surprise was empty, because it would be too easy otherwise it wouldn't be? there were several strange messages in my email box that looked like they were written in codes. At another time I would have considered it spam, but they all had the same sender.

"HJ…" Strange. Initials of… Harry Johnson maybe? Meh. There were several messages dated from 2180 to the current year. The most recent was December 13.

A week before my arrival to the hospital.

Objective parked at luminosity 170, relays 4, systems 2, planets 3, moons 0.

Success in completing this task is of vital importance to me, priority level 1.

"What the fuck does that mean?"

I was facing these… codes? For at least 10 minutes trying to get some sense of what that meant. It could be a code message, it could be spam (which I highly doubt), or…

Fuck… it's not like I'm going to find out now. With a slight yawn, I turned off the omni tool and laid my head on the pillow.

Many things I need to discover, many things I still need to understand. Maybe I can never remember everything, or maybe I remember everything tomorrow. But one thing I know, one way or another I will find answers.

Or maybe I just settle, spend all my salary on drinks and find some nice girl who doesn't charge for the night.