After seeing kids and therapy dogs at the mining colony, Matt the former badass Cerberus infiltrator began wonder if he'd made a mistake. When he arrived at his living quarters, he was even more sure. The Rokas Natural Resources mining company hadn't exactly splurged when they made the miners' quarters. Matt recognized the cheap prefab buildings which were similar to the type used by Cerberus in their training barracks. The company apparently felt the same way about their miners that Cerberus felt about their troops. They cared enough to keep them alive long enough to get the job done, but they didn't care if their people were comfortable or not.

Then, when he unpacked his duffel bag, he decided that he wanted to have a few words with Jake Jensen. Jake had packed Matt's duffel bag with some spare clothes that the pirates had taken while robbing a cruise ship. The first thing Matt saw was a colorful tropical print shirt with the slogan, Surf Nicaragua. The second shirt was black and read Schrödinger's Cat: Wanted Dead or Alive. The third was an obnoxious pink shirt with the words Go Petunias in a fancy script. The Petunias, according to the back of the shirt, were apparently the name of a kindergarten girls soccer team. A fourth blue shirt had the word Monkees shaped like a guitar. A fifth was a black shirt with the word RAMONES in white letters.

"Who the hell are the Monkees? Better yet, who's Schrödinger and why should I care about his cat?" asked Matt aloud.

As far as Matt could tell, not one of the buildings on New Ericson was a permanent structure. Most of the buildings looked like prefab structures that could be shipped in containers and then unpacked by a small construction crew within a week, or a few days, or even couple of hours for the smallest buildings. He even noticed a few tents that his Cerberus squad could've assembled in a few minutes.

Cerberus, he remembered, used a similar setup for the shelters they used at their forward operating bases. Once, Matt and the rest of Randall Ezno's infiltrator team had been on a mission to a planet where the outside temperature at the landing site was about 110 degrees of desert heat. Cerberus had landed a pop up shelter from orbit which the team assembled in minutes using a few high powered drills and wrenches. It sheltered the team for more than a week. Jordan had been happy to see that the pop-up shelter included some MREs, but then spat and complained that the MREs tasted like month-old cardboard. Samantha and Evan had laughed, saying that Jordan should have known better.

After a day of securing the landing area against nothing more dangerous than cacti, a few desert lizards, scorpions, and a few annoyed beetles the size of your fist, Randall had contacted Cerberus and assured them that nothing within three hundred miles was occupying that godforsaken rock. So then, the powers-that-be at Cerberus made the glorious command decision to send a platoon of thirty construction engineers to dig a more permanent dugout into a nearby hillside. The team stayed just long enough to see that they missed out on staying in an underground structure with first-rate air conditioning and a cold water supply. Sheesh.

Most of the miners lived in about 25 dorm-style buildings with about a hundred people in each. The housing area had four streets which had been named after the Beatles. So Matt was living on Ringo Starr Street. Whatever. He noticed a few token security cameras on the narrow lanes between the buildings. The dorm buildings probably had a few cameras too, probably with a couple of roving security guards. His room was on the second floor, not far from a stairwell and a building exit. That would give him some security against intruders, while still giving him an easy escape route if he needed it.

He felt the sandpaper day old scruff on his face. He might as well shave. He was going to get dirty in the mine, for sure. But it was his first day at something resembling a job since he'd defected from Cerberus. Might as well look presentable just on principle. He'd miss the feeling of discipline and structure if he didn't keep a routine.

His omni tool beeped, and he'd received a message from his new team leader. Apparently his supervisor was an asari named Seelid Matari. Her text message welcomed him to New Ericson, told him to get a good night's sleep, eat a hearty breakfast, take the monorail to mine site, get dressed into gear, and assemble near the entrance to the mine. He was going to be a member of Blue Team, whatever that meant. The asari added that he should get downstairs in a hurry while the food was still hot.

So he'd be taking orders from an asari. Well, whatever. PTSD or no PTSD, flashbacks or no flashbacks, he had to get used to working around non-humans. If he had to spend the next couple of years churning up rocks under the ground, he would've liked it more if he could've been taking his orders from a human. Oh well. You couldn't have everything.

The cold water in the shower shook him for a few seconds until giving way to heat. He wondered if he should even bother cleaning himself before a day of churning up dirt and rocks in a mine, but he figured it was better that he did. It was bad enough that he'd be getting dirty under the ground, but he didn't need to add his own stench on top of it. His mind began to clear and sharpen as he brushed his teeth, shaved, and combed his hair. He was Matt Gerrard, a former soldier who'd escaped from Cerberus. Compared to his recent past, his new life as a miner would be a piece of cake. He'd been a miner before, and for the time being he could be a miner again. He felt hungry and started to look forward to his first meal. He opened the door to his quarters and walked out with purpose in his stride.

That plan worked right up until Matt walked straight through the doorway and into an invisible barrier that stopped him dead in his tracks. Matt's eyes widened in shock as a transparent industrial-strength sheet of plastic wrap strained hard against his weight and then threw him like a rag doll backward into his quarters. Through the plastic wrap Matt had an instant of time to see a human female, a turian, and a krogan all burst out roaring with laughter as they saw him hurtle backward through the air.

The world spun around Matt as he tumbled and landed in a sprawl in the middle of his room. The miners outside were laughing as hard as ever after he landed. He heard more laughing and applause.

"Great job, human!" It was the krogan. "I really thought you were going to break through for a minute."

"Hey, noob, are you all right? Are you okay? Sorry about that." It was the human. As Matt staggered to his feet, he saw that the woman had a medium build, light skin and blond hair, and was starting to pull down the plastic wrap sheet. "Oh my God. I can't breathe. Dude, the look on your face was priceless."

"Works every time – I told you it works every time!" The turian's voice sounded bizarre to Matt, like it was made by a machine. It clumsily pulled the other side of the plastic wrap off the door frame.

"Nice job," grumbled Matt. "Real nice. Do you guys pull pranks on all the new miners?"

The krogan extended a clawed hand about twice the size of Matt's and patted him on the shoulder with the other one. "Yes. We do. Every time. Especially for the new members of Blue Team. Seelid gave us your name and told us to meet with you. She doesn't mind if we do pranks, as long as we don't hurt anybody. We found out where you lived and it was easy from there. I'm Makson Strig. You're, uh, Matt Ulric Gerrard, aren't you?"

The human chuckled as he pulled off the last of the plastic wrap. "Makson's always worried that we punked the wrong guy. That hasn't happened yet." She extended her hand to Matt and they shook. "Astrid Eriksen, good to meet you. Our intel expert on pranks is Velmius."

The turian nodded. "Velmius Falnion. Good to meet you. I help Makson and Astrid with pranks. I'm good at finding out things."

Astrid helped Matt to his feet. "Hope you didn't mind the prank. We always do them to welcome the new guys. Seelid and the rest of team leads are already at the mine. She looks forward to meeting you."

"No problem. Good to meet you too."

The group walked with Matt toward a stairwell. "Makson, you might need to wait while we go downstairs," said Velmius. "These stairs aren't big enough for you."

The krogan waved a clawed hand at the turian. "I think the company made all these places with you little guys in mind." It was big enough to hold them all, though Makson did dominate the space. "So Matt, have you been to Pat's yet?"

"No, I just got here."

Astrid glanced and grinned over her shoulder. "You're welcome to join us. We don't pull any pranks when we're eating. Pat's is a great place. Try the cheesesteaks. They've got a cook from Philadelphia. We'll all do shots after dinner to break you in."

Velmius glanced toward Astrid. It spoke tersely and snapped, "Cheesesteaks clog arteries worse than any food in existence. That's in the whole galaxy. Are you trying to die, Astrid?"

"Whatever, Velmius." She glanced toward Matt again. "Cheesesteaks. Make sure you get one. And, how long have you liked the Monkees?"

Matt had forgotten his shirt. Apparently he'd chosen the blue shirt, while forgetting the words. He lied, "I've liked the Monkees all my life. I'm a big fan - they're the greatest."

Astrid laughed. "I've got their greatest hits album if you want to listen. The best 1960s pop fluff ever."

Pop fluff? 1960s? Matt's parents had shown him old history pictures from the 1960s. Some weird people were called hippies back then. He cringed, but said nothing.

A light breeze went over their faces as they walked outside. A pair of salarians and a group of three humans walked by them as they headed to Pat's and Matt had his first cheesesteak in years. He had his with ketchup and had salt and pepper potato chips.

….

The next day, Matt had decided to wear a black t-shirt with a picture of Daffy Duck. It had the caption, In My Defense, I Was Left Unsupervised.

Makson laughed when he saw Matt. "You have the greatest t-shirts."

Matt did his best not to mind and said, "I try."

The team boarded the town's monorail train which sped away from town at high speed for a thirty minute journey to the mine. Mass effect-driven technology provided a smooth quiet ride as the near forested valleys blurred past them. After about 10 minutes, the forests gave way to the rugged barren terrain of the mountain range. He'd been on plenty of monorail trains before. Most of them had a display that told the passenger where the next stops were coming up. This one showed a basic terrain map, and a simple line that snaked its way between the features of the mountain range. There were three dots on the line. One of them was New Ericson colony. The second dot was the train. And the third dot was the end of the line. It was the mine.

Matt could imagine the monorail's massive iron supports shaking as the train rumbled by. He wondered if there were any deer or wolves looking up toward the mechanical beast, or if they'd gotten used to the sight of the train by now. Heck, he wondered what forest animals lived on this planet.

Astrid looked brightly at Matt. "You handle your shots well, Monkee man. I still have a headache."

Matt allowed himself a chuckle. "You guys had me worried for a minute. I thought for sure they'd have to carry me back to the dorm."

Velmius chimed up. "I heard from my son last night. First time in a few weeks. By the Spirits, he's better than ever. I hope he didn't notice I was buzzed."

The small talk continued like that for a while. Matt noticed some animals running through nearby brush, but couldn't tell what they were.

"Are there any wolves here?"

Astrid was standing closest to him. "Come again?"

"Wolves. Are there any wolves on this planet? Or deer. Or squirrels. I'm just wondering what kinds of animals live here. My middle name Ulric means Wolf Ruler."

"Seriously?" he had the krogan's attention now.

"Couldn't make it up if I tried."

Astrid spoke next. "Yeah, there are some earth-like animals. Not exactly like the ones on Earth, but similar. There was some guy from a visiting science institute who gave a talk on how it'd take a perfect storm of events for the wildlife to evolve like Earth. I didn't understand half of it, but it was a pretty cool speech. He said that there used to be a lot of dire wolves here just a few thousand years ago."

"The colony admin paid to have somebody fly all the way out here to tell a bunch of dusty miners about wolves and squirrels?"

"I know, right? It sounds crazy, but somebody put in the idea, and the colony admin Eve Chang listened. She cares about morale. Pretty cool that they were willing to do it. But anyway, there are some wolves here. And a lot of wildlife similar to what you'd see on places like Earth. But a lot of weird stuff too. The guy said that this planet has things that look like giraffes except that they have shorter necks. Dwarf bears. Things that look like turtles except that they have sprinter speed. Furry rhinos with blue fur."

"Weird stuff. Any platypuses?"

"Who knows. I don't think they're explored much of the planet with any boots on the ground besides this area."

"I'm surprised nobody's opened an eco-tourism company here."

"If this planet wasn't so far off the mass relay network, somebody might have. Give them time."

Matt glanced toward some other miners on the train, and noticed something strange. He asked his team, "I saw a few miners flash each other a letter "C" with their hands. What's with that?"

Astrid glanced over her shoulder as Makson turned toward the group. "Oh, you noticed the secret handshake, did you?"

"Secret handshake?"

Makson lowered his head as though telling a secret. "They're fans of Cerberus."

The hair on the back of Matt's neck stood up. "Sympathizers?"

Astrid said, "No. Not really. They're just fans. Sometimes you'll see them flash three fingers that represent the three heads on the Cerberus dog that guards the gate of hell."

Matt grimaced. "Sheesh, are you kidding? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

"It's true. Sometimes their crowd has parties out in the woods that are off the compound, so they were technically off-colony. Because of that, they can do whatever they want. They called it the 'we're only human' party, but that really meant that only humans were invited. I got invited and didn't know about their crap, and left after five minutes. Maybe 25 people were there. One of them brought a homemade Cerberus flag and another one wore a t-shirt of the Cerberus dog. Another guy put a noose around a Godzilla doll and said it was a krogan."

Matt rolled his eyes. "Jerks. They wouldn't know their elbows from their…oh nevermind." In Matt's mind, they weren't sympathizers. They were worse. They were just fanboys and fangirls who hadn't the slightest clue what they were talking about. "They're acting like those terrorists are a sports team or a party punch line." When he said the word 'terrorist,' it burned in his stomach.

"You don't need to convince us," said Velmius. "But those miners are just misled, is all. I don't see any of them running off to join Cerberus. Anyone can go do down a bad path. I've heard Cerberus still has hundreds of thousands of people. They can't all be psychos."

Astrid interjected. "Velmius, of course they are. If they're not psychos, then what are they? You saw that news about Ares station. They have monsters working for them, and the rest of Cerberus just doesn't care."

Matt's stomach dropped again. He'd once witnessed a Cerberus soldier get ten lashes on his back for being insubordinate. He didn't know exactly what the soldier had done, but he was sure the Alliance never treated its own troops that way. He cocked his head toward the Cerberus fan group, and said, "Those fanboys and fangirls might be kidding themselves, but do any of you actually think some people from Cerberus are misled?"

Velmius lowered his head for a moment. His expression seemed almost pained. He seemed to pause thoughtfully. "I saw all that stuff on the news about Ares. So yeah, some of those guys are monsters." Matt flexed his jaw but said nothing as the turian continued. "But others probably joined because Cerberus offered them something they believed in. Or, they're telling them enough half truths that they believe the lie. I'll say it again, there are hundreds of thousands of them, Astrid. I mean, not one of those people grew up thinking that they'd be a terrorist one day. There must be some hope for redeeming them."

Matt glanced back at the fanboys and fangirls. "Maybe you're right, turian. And those people over there need a clue." He also thought to himself, So much for getting a clean slate away from Cerberus. At least those dorks aren't the real thing. He leaned forward as a couple of miners moved around him on the train. He noticed that they were five minutes from away the mine. "When do we see the mine?"

Makson gestured toward a window to Matt's left. "You'll see it through that window. It's just beyond this next pass."

Matt felt the train angling downward and looked through the window. He saw a series of buildings, fire stacks, conveyors, shipping cars, and hundreds of people in an area nestled at the bottom of a group of mountains. There were multiple pathways leading into tunnels that must have been fifty feet high.

"So that's the mine."