AN: Another side piece that was floating around my noggin. Didn't think it's really worth a separate story of it's own.

Sergeant Charles P. Nithercot, Alliance N7 Training Base Alpha, Unknown

What the fuck am I doing here? Was pretty much on repeat in Charles's mind. It started as he got on the shuttle. It got louder when all the windows in the shuttle went dark and the lights went out. He may, possible, have whimpered for his mother. Then there was that hissing sound, and the sweet scent. Now...he was here.

'Here', in this case was a large square room full of bunks, each one with a different person, all wearing the same olive green Alliance jumpsuits. And, like him, they were waking up.

"What the hell?" somebody muttered.

"Fuckers gonna pay!" another voice said.

"Where are we," one of the more calm voices asked.

"Hey, there's a door," a female voice called out.

"Open it, moron," a tall beefy looking guy with long dark black hair growled as he dropped from the top bunk. He was huge! Like, stupid huge. The kind of huge you see in back action vids. He has a swarthy complexion.

"Is everybody up?" the female voice called back. "Do we have something to defend ourselves with? Is there even air out there?"

"Shut up, moron," the large man spat as he stomped toward the female voice, shoving others out of his way. For some reason, Charles followed in the man's wake.

Reaching the door, Charles saw a blue asari standing in front of it. The markings on her face were bright red, curving gently. She was...beautiful. And angry.

"You are not opening that door, asshole," she said, glaring up at the dark man.

"This is some sort of training," the man growled. He seemed to be a bit confused by the asari's lack of backing down. "Now let's get a fucking move on!"

"I swear to everything, if you so much as touch this door with a finger…." the asari stepped forward, raising a fist.

"Wait, wait!" Charles interrupted, stepping between the pair. Which was stupid. He was short. Five foot five. And small. A buck fifteen wet. "We can access the door system by the panel there! With it I can probably link into any security system they may have!"

For a long moment the man and asari just stared at each other with narrowed eyes. The man blinked first.

"Try it,"The asari said, looking to Charles

"Hey, I'll help!" came a voice as a couple of people worked forward. "I'm an engineer."

Then...the door opened.

"Hello!" a small old man stood in the doorway, smiling. He was that kind of shriveled, bent over old that made you wonder how he was still able to walk on his own. His wispy white hair stuck out at random angles and a pair of wire rimmed glasses sat perched on his pointed nose. He was wearing blue overalls with the name 'Stewart' sewn over the right breast. "I'm stewart. There was supposed to be a big, manly man to take you to the place you need to be to start your training schedule, but he is late, so I'm afraid I'm your guide!" Stewart smiled as he scratched at the back of his head.

"I finally get to fucking N7 school, and I get met by the fucking janitor?" the huge man grumbled.

"Not what I was expecting, either," the asari blinked. "But, let's just get the hell out of here."

"This way, this way," the old man turned and began a slow hobble down the hallway. "As you can probably guess, you are in a very secret location. In fact, only people with level nine or above security clearance know of its location! Which is not me, by the way," he smiled at Charles with a wink. "I just don't leave."

"Yes, yes," the huge man sighed, spinning his hand over. "It's down the hall, yes? I can just go, yes?"

"Well, you can…" no sooner were the words out of Stewart's mouth than the huge man, and easily half their number pushed past, walking quickly down the hall. "...But the door on the other side is locked."

"Oh, come on!" the huge man's voice echoed from up ahead.

"Inside," Stewart smiled as he opened the fifth door. By now the huge man, who was named Thomas Patel, Charles learned, as well, as the other pushy people had given up, and just followed after the old shriveled man. "Go on in and it will all get started!"

The room Stewart had led them to was large, easily large enough for the entire group to fit comfortably. It was circular, the walls a dull shiny steel color.

"About fucking time," Patel grunted as he shoved past Stewart again, this time staggering the little old man.

Charles caught the old man, steadying him on his feet. "Sorry about that Stewart," Charles smiled as he followed the group into the room. "I look forward to talking with you later."

"Oh...no, you aren't," the old man winked. "You weren't an asshole, so I'll give you a little advice. Follow directions, but don't be afraid to think around your problems." Then, Stewart touched a button closing the door.

"There's nothing in here!" a voice called out.

"Now where are we?"

"Is this a test?"

"Shut up!" a voice echoed from hidden speakers. "You are all officially beginning your N series training. Almost all of you are going to fail. Half of you will be gone in two days. I will make very fucking sure of that.

"This particular batch looks extra stupid. We may not get enough of you to actually finish all the way to N7. Fuck it. Take off you clothes. And toss them into a corner."

Slowly the group looked around at each other, then they began to awkwardly remove their clothing. Well...it was awkward for Charles. Most other others, like Patel, just stripped in a blink and stood, almost posing. Charles, naturally, nearly fell over trying to get his foot out of his jumpsuit.

"Whoa, there," a woman laughed, catching him. Looking back, Charles felt himself pale a bit as he realized he was being held up by a naked, blue asari.

"Uh, yeah...thanks," Charles swallowed as he pulled off the jumpsuit and stood up. The asari was taller than him by nearly half a foot….

"Hmm," the asari planted its fists on its hips as it eyed him. "Are you reacting like that because I am asari or because I have tits?"

"Umm, neither?" Charles almost whimpered. "I kinda want to go home."

The asari rolled its eyes with a small laugh and held out a hand "Sorry, I'm a bit touchy. It's been a rough couple weeks, and long ride to get to this point. My name is Kelly Shepard."

"Charles Nithercot," Charles nodded, taking the hand. "Do you go by male, female, neither?"

Now the asari looked surprised, but a slow warmer smile followed. "Female, thanks for asking. Almost nobody does. Not that it really matters I suppose."

"I try to be polite," Charles smiled hesitantly.

"Alright!" the voice boomed again. "Now...how many of you can swim?"

Charles looked around as a forest of hands went up. Except his own. "All but Bob, huh. Well, tough break for you Ned."

"Umm… my name is ChaAAAAAA!" he screamed as the floor opened beneath them. They fell, quite a ways. And Charles screamed the whole way down, until they hit the water. Then he just drowned.

Kelly, A Wet Hole

Gasping, Kelly surfaced, spitting out water and coughing. Around her, heads bobbed up, much like her, dog paddling and looking around fearfully. Except for Charles.

"Shit," Kelly cursed quietly as she looked down. She really couldn't afford to fuck this up. But...dammit….

Taking a deep breath, Kelly dove under the water, swimming down. She looked around in the dim light until she saw the little man, struggling. Reaching out, she took his arm, pulling him against her as she begane swimming back up.

Breaking the top, Kelly gasped as Charles flailed a bit, coughing and sputtering violently. "Charles! Calm down! I got you!" She yelled. Slowly, still coughing, the man sagged a bit.

"Th-thank you," he choked out. "Do I kick or something?"

"No, just be limp and let me hold you up," Kelly chuckled.

"Keep your lungs inflated, little man," Patel said loudly. "It will help keep you buoyant and not so hard to hold up." The large man sneered with disgust at Charles. Though, he held two unconscious people in his own arms.

"Not quite so bad as you seem," Kelly smirked. "Still an ass."

"Fuck you, you little Blu-" Patel started before a purple flash rolled over Kelly.

"If you call me a blueberry, I swear to fuck I will crumble you up and shove you up your own ass," Kelly growled.

"Ha!" Patel laughed. "I was going to say blue-bird, but I'll keep it to myself now I suppose."

"What the fuck are you idiots doing?" the speaker's voice yelled. "Get the fuck out of that water. You have ten minutes!"

"Umm...does...does than mean we have to find our own way out?" Charles looked around, seeing close to six doors, but no interfaces. Not even handles.

"Bah, it's just like that first room, Patel grunted looking around. "Except now we are in water."

"And some wounded," Kelly sighed. "Okay Chaa, I'll pull you over to the closest door. You see if you can find an access panel or something."

It seemed to taes Chaa a moment to process her words as she began to swim toward one of the doors. "Charles," he said quietly.

"Nah, I like Chaa," she couldn't stop herself from giggling. "I mean you yelled it out so loudly."

"But…."

"Give it up, Chaa," Patel snickered as he swam lazily next to them, still towing the unconscious pair.

"Mother fucker," Chaa groaned. "I got this far without a weird nickname, only to blow it now?"

"Don't you worry," Kelly winked as she grabbed onto the edge of the door. "Hey! Guys!" she yelled, drawing the room's attention. "This little guy! His name is Chaaaaa!"

"Chaaaa!" the entire room yelled back, mimicking his fall.

"Fuck you all!" Chaa cursed as he started looking for a way out of this mess.

"Should be fine," Chaa sighed. "It's not a pressurized door, so there is atmo. Beyond that, not sure."

"We are almost out time," Patel groaned. He had taken to just floating on his back. The pair that he had help earlier had woken and where now clinging to him. They seemed to have hit their heads and were still dizzy.

Around the room people floated alone, or in small groups, some clung to each other, or the walls. A few had disappeared under the water, and no matter how they were looked for, they were not found.

"John did say people died during this," Kelly muttered to herself. "Didn't think it would be this early."

"What was that?" Chaa looked at her. "Are...you alright?"

"It's nothing," Kelly smiled weakly. "An advantage humans have, you can regulate your body temperature better. I'm beginning to freeze my mallina off."

"That some weird asari sex thing?" Patel grinned at her, crudely. Honestly, if she hadn't been stuck with him here this long she would have punched the shit out of him for that. But, now, she had come to realize that he was just trying to provoke her.

"It's my head crest, dimwit," she said instead. "See? This is why you aren't getting laid."

"Pff, honey, when you are as good looking as me? You never need to worry," Patel laughed.

"Yeah, well, you aren't packing like Chaa here," Kelly smirked. "Maybe we should call him howitzer?"

"Can we not," Chaa sighed in defeat. "Not That I don't like you, Shepard, but I think I want to go home. Soon as I can figure out how to surrender."

"Aw, don't say that little man," Patel actually looked serious. Well. Almost. "I need somebody to keep the ladies off me so I can find some juicy ass…" Patel's look turned vulgar again as he began to scan the crowd. "Got my eye on a couple of these boys."

"No, seriously, I don't know why I accepted the recommendation," Chaa shook his head defeated. "I don't know what Ryder was thinking."

"Chaa….I will tell you what," Kelly grinned as she got an idea. "I will bet that I can get this door open. If I can do it in...a minute you stay to the end, right?"

"And if you can't?" Chaa gave her a patronizing look.

"Then, you can give up and I'll do something sexual at you," Kelly laughed. "It doesn't matter. I figured out the trick."

"Fine, let's see," Chaa shook his head. "I couldn't find the catch, but if you do…"

"Yeah, yeah," Kelly nodded as she moved closer to Patel. "Here, Patel, take my little man."

"Sure thing," the big man nodded pulling Chaa closer. "I gotcha little dude."

"I thought you were an asshole?" Chaa scowled as he held on.

"I am," Patel half shrugged. "However, I know that we need to work together to get out of here. Don't you worry, I'll go back to being an overbearing asshole when Shepard does whatever impossible voodoo her family does."

"And here I figured I had hidden my secret," Kelly chuckled. "You will probably be a bit disappointed. I'm not nearly as clever or smart as my brother or sister. Or mother. Or father….fuck I'm depressing myself…"

"Can you just get it done," Patel sighed. "You are looking like shit and your shivering is making me cold."

Kelly blinked. Looking down, she realized that she was in fact, shivering. In fact her teeth were chattering. How the hell had she missed that?

"Fuck it," Kelly decided as she grit her teeth and reach out her hand. She flared purple as her biotic aura rolled off her, creating small waves through the room. She pulled her hand back as she concentrated as much of her power as he exhausted mind could gather, the water seemed to pull away from her as she surged up, her fist lashing out to strike the door clearly in the center.

The shockwave from the impact washed over the others in the room, churning the waters and pushing people around with cries of displeasure

The door didn't break. Quite. The center, where Kelly's strike had landed, was deeply dented, pulling to metal of the door inward, far deeper than is should have been able to go. It was so distorted that light was visible around all of the edges, clear around the thing.

Then she hit it again, bending it more, almost in half. The, a third time, the door finally gave in, ripping free from the frame completely and skidding down the hall in a flash of sparks and crashing metal.

"You sure don't do things small," Patel grunted as he paddled his way to the doorway and began gingerly helping Chaa up, and out of the water.

"Yeah, well," Kelly panted deeply as she struggled to keep afloat. "I'm a brute force kinda girl."

"Your next then," Patel frowned as he grabbed her, shoving her toward Chaa.

"Hey, there are others that…" She started to protest.

"That are not exhausted from caving in a foot thick steel door and in danger of drowning yet," Chaa scolded as he grabbed her by the shoulder and began to pull her from the water.

"Well, that was something," Stewart stood darkly over Chaa's shoulder. Now he didn't look quite so old and feeble. He was still a small man, wirey. His hair was now combed back in place. And now, instead of the janitor's jumpsuit, he wore Alliance Marines battle uniform, with the rank of Master Chief. "Now get the fuck out of that water, you lazy shits. I already had the divers pull four of you sacks, and I see six more that are going home. Sorry to burst it to you Shepard, but you took exactly one minute and six seconds. Chaa gets to got home. I'll let you borrow my office real quick before he goes, though."

"Uhh…" Chaa flushed deeply as he gave Kelly a terrified look. "Maybe I'll just stay…"

"Hey!" Kelly frowned at the man. "I'm not sure if I should be insulted by that!"

"Umm...no?" Chaa gave a small crooked smile even as he continued to help others from the water.

"Enough shit, Get out of the pool, fuck-knuckles!" Patel roared as he started bodily shoving people up and out of the hole. "I got shit to kick and names to take!"

Asari Lexicon

Mallina: Word for an asari's head crest of semi-flexible cartilage that grow into shape