Chapter 3! Enjoy!

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"How has Urvat been treating you?" Aria asked, her calm voice clearly audible through the electronic music of Afterlife.

Nicolas blinked, feeling a little woozy from the drinks he'd had up to that point, "Who?"

Aria rolled her eyes, "The salarian bartender who you lost a bet to," she waved her hand dismissively, "It doesn't matter. I called you up here because I have a little job offering."

"More pushers I should take care of?" Nicolas asked, wary of where this conversation would take him. He stole a glance at Aria's guards. They all were staring back at him, their assault rifles expanded in their hands.

"Oh no, nothing of the sort. You see, here in Omega, there are a couple of private security companies that have certain disagreements regarding their market shares. It just so happens that one of them has been gaining too much power, and I want to avoid a monopoly forming," Aria stretched out a hand and within seconds, a blue drink was handed to her by an old bare-faced turian, "You can help keep the competition fair by intercepting a little shipment of weapons this company is receiving and making it disappear."

"You want me to destroy a weapons convoy," Nicolas leaned back a bit and crossed his arms, raising his eyebrows slightly to look uninterested.

Aria tilted her head back laughing, "Not too good with big words, are you? Yes. At Dock alpha 14, in the lower levels, a shipment will arrive in about two hours' time. Get rid of it any way you can, it doesn't matter how. When you're back, I'll have something to compensate you for your troubles. Now go on, time's wasting, little human."

Nicolas was escorted to the club floor by the same batarian that had lead him up to Aria, handing him an alcohol metabolising pill on the way. Walking over to the salarian bartender Urvat, Nicolas asked for a glass of water, downed the pill and walked out of the club, feeling sober by the time he was out in the commercial district.

Nicolas spoke to Hal after looking around to check nobody was within hearing distance, "We need to buy materials."

"There's a weapons shop on the way to the duffel bag. We could buy anything we don't have and then head down."

Nodding, Nicolas walked down the dirty corridors of Omega. He did his best to keep a straight face when he entered the weapons shop Hal spoke of and saw the clerk. Explosives lined the desk behind which a vorcha stood, waiting for Nicolas to decide what to buy. Guns of all shapes and sizes were on display along the walls.

"The human is interested in buying?" the alien hissed. It was impossible for Baker to know whether it was just a normal question or he was being hurried.

"I need a kilogram of plastic explosives and a remote detonator."

"Kilogram… kilogram… the human should learn to use common units… kilogram… that's a unit and a half, yes," the vorcha retreated into a little door at the back of the shop, returning with a cube of explosives wrapped in nano-carbide film and a little metallic disk with a holographic display on one side, "the human will use this for what, if Korvos asks?"

"I wanna make myself a new apartment but I don't have the time to do it right," Nicolas joked. Korvos seemed to understand, as he made a coughing noise, which might as well have been interpreted as a laugh.

"15 credits, human."

Nicolas payed and walked back out, heading for his duffel bag. Reaching the corridor where he had left his bag, he found only the bones of the batarian and human he'd left dead. Probably some other aliens had come to feast while he was gone. Nicolas shook his head as he entered the little abandoned apartment and retrieved his assault rifle from the bag, holstering it on his back. Making sure his bag was hidden, he left for the lower docks.

The place was packed, with people of all races pushing their way through the crowd. Putting his meanest face on, Nicolas walked through the crowd, pushing whoever was in his way aside. He bumped into someone carrying some weird smelling food, making it fall on Baker's armour. Thinking back to what the krogan bouncer had said about dirty armour, he decided to simply glare at the owner of the food to avoid any further confrontation and kept walking.

Dock alpha 14 was still just as crowded as the higher levels Nicolas had walked through. The blast doors were sealed shut and Baker spied a couple of armed batarians both wearing matching yellow armour. Nicolas tilted his head downwards to discreetly address Hal, "Those guys have matching armour with a sun and horizontal lines on it. Could you look for anything on the extranet?"

"Searching… bingo. It's the logo of Eclipse, a merc company."

"So private security… these are our guys. Where are they based?" Nicolas walked past alpha 14 and rested his back against the corridor wall a couple of meters away from one of the mercenaries.

"Nearby. They're in the lowest levels of the commercial district, ten levels up."

"Anywhere else they might have storage space?" Nicolas took a cigarette out and patted a thigh pocket where his plastic explosives were stored.

"Not that I can find on their extranet page… Maybe if I was able to datamine one of the guy's omnitools, I'd be able to get something on where they'll take the weapons."

Nicolas looked at his unlit cigarette and then at the mercs. He muttered a 'be ready' to Hal and approached the nearest one. A batarian with scuffed up light armour, he occasionally stole glances at the other two mercenaries which were deep in conversation. He looked like the underdog of the three, so it should be easier to get a good hold of his omnitool.

The batarian noticed Nicolas approaching and tilted his chin up, "What do you want, human?"

"Oh, hey man," Nicolas widened his eyes, feigning surprise. He lifted his cigarette innocently before producing another one, "I just got my omni stolen and I really wanna light a cigarette. I've got another in case you want one!"

The batarian muttered to himself under his breath then nodded, taking Nicolas' cigarette before raising his omnitool, a red hot nano-carbide film flash-forging into existence. Nicolas grabbed the batarian's hand to guide the film to his cigarette as Hal spoke into his translator, "I made contact. Just stay within a couple of meters for a little bit."

"Thanks, man. Mind if I stand here?"

The batarian said nothing and looked away, puffing smoke out. Seconds later, Hal asked Nicolas to walk away so they could talk in peace.

"They're gonna take the shipment to the higher levels but from the outside of Omega. It's going to do a pit-stop here so they can check the delivery before one of their own vessels takes it up." Hal spoke through Nicolas' translator, his tone unenthusiastic, like he was giving up on finding a way to get the job done.

"Then we just need to get outside and plant the explosives without them noticing!" Nicolas started walking briskly towards the end of the alpha docks.

"And how are you going to get outside?"

"Through any airlock," Nicolas smiled to himself, patting his helmet that was hanging on the belt of his armour.

"But you don't have a ship! What reason can you give someone to let you out without a ship or a way to manoeuvre yourself outside?"

"Some people don't need a reason," Nicolas walked and smiled at a batarian standing on one of the docks. He got a snarl in return so he approached, the smile still on his face.

"What the fuck are you smiling for, human?" the batarian growled when Nicolas was within hearing distance.

"I found the perfect man for a little deal I want to make! How would you like to make fifty credits?"

"Quit wasting my time, filth," the batarian spat on the ground beside Nicolas' boot but he didn't back away.

"Please, man, it's something I can't do myself! I need you to open this airlock while I'm inside."

The batarian's eyes widened, "You want me to kill you?"

"Yes!" Nicolas nodded, offering his left arm with the omnitool glowing, ready to make the transaction.

The batarian took Nicolas' hand to transfer the credits and input a password into the dock's airlock. The blast door opened and Nicolas stepped in, hand ready on his helmet. When the doors started to close, he hastily fastened it and got ready for decompression when the breather activated. The second blast doors opened and the decompression was instant, hurling Nicolas into the dark void of space. He had no spin, so he extended his assault rifle and fired continually until Hal told him he was not moving away from Omega anymore.

"That would've never occurred to me," Hal muttered.

"We're in Omega, Hal. If you give someone a reason to kill you here, chances are they'll take it."

Nicolas held onto the service railing of dock alpha 14 with one hand as he took the cube of plastic explosives out of his thigh pouch. Holding the bomb between his knees, he peeled off the nano-carbide film and pressed the detonator onto the surface of it.

Hal notified him that the cargo shuttle should be arriving in a couple of minutes. He synced his omnitool with the detonator and waited, looking out to the starry sky, spotting the dim sun Sahrabarik radiating orange light on himself and the space station. When he saw the blue glow of ship boosters drawing closer, he pulled himself against the wall that would be the floor of dock alpha 14, lying flat against it. The ship touched down and attached itself to the dock. When Nicolas felt the shudder of the blast doors opening, he pulled himself onto the outer hull of the ship and looked for any kind of panel that could be connected to the ship's computers.

Finding an electric socket near a cargo coupler on the stern of the ship, Nicolas flash forged some wires for Hal to interface. The AI extracted the schematics of the ship and the manifest, confirming the cargo and locating a weak spot where the explosives charge would make the biggest hole in the hull. Pulling himself to the designated spot, Nicolas stuck the explosive to the belly of the ship, under the oxygen and hydrogen tanks used for propulsion. As soon as the block was secure, the ship's boosters activated, almost blinding Nicolas as it pulled away from the dock. He fired his rifle a couple of times to grab onto the dock once more and poked his head around the edge of the space station's walls to look at the ship picked up speed towards its final stop. Activating his omnitool, he detonated the plastic explosive. The fuel tanks ignited and created a white ball of flame that expanded in all directions, fuelled by the rapidly spreading oxygen gas. The explosion dissipated quickly as the fumes decompressed in the vacuum. All that was left were ribbons and jagged chunks of metal.

"Now to get back into the station…" Nicolas muttered.

A krogan banged his head against the blast doors of the beta 3 dock. It had been at least ten hours since he'd hit that bag of red sand and he was still dizzy. If I see that salarian again, I'm gonna beat him up so bad, his eyes will realign permanently, he thought to himself as he continued to bang his head on the door, making anyone who passed by hurry away from him. He fumbled around in his pockets, looking for cigarettes to see if they could take some of the effects away, or at least calm the nausea that was accumulating in his stomachs. The thin white tube of batarian tobacco looked miniscule in his shaking hands as he stopped banging his head to hold the cigarette in his mouth. It never reached his face, as his hands clenched into fists instinctively, crunching the cigarette when the blast doors seemed to bang back. The krogan jumped backwards, faintly glowing blue when the blast doors banged again. His dizziness faded away as he activated his omnitool and pressurized the airlock.

The blast doors opened to show a human ruffling his brown hair, a long beard covering the lower half of his face, and was there… pyjak stew on his armour? The human made a perplexed face at the krogan, eyeing the blue glow and the crumpled cigarette in his hand. A second later, a knowing smile crept across the human's face and he produced a cigarette from a pocket. He swiftly stepped forward and placed it in the krogan's open mouth. He patted the krogan's shoulder and walked away after chuckling, "Lay off on the sand, buddy. You're seeing things."

Nicolas was starting to feel drowsy as he walked through the commercial district. The bright lights coming from the shops stung his eyes as he neared a full day of being awake. He wondered if there was anywhere safe where he could sleep for a good eight hours as his ears buzzed from overexposure to Afterlife's deafening music. He lit a cigarette as he walked lazily towards the stairs that would lead up to the VIP floor. As he started ascending, a turian stood in his way. He didn't recognize him from the other times he'd been at Aria's part of the club, so he figured this particular guard hadn't been told about him. Regardless, Nicolas wanted to get his errand over with. He was sleepy, therefore cranky, and he was in no mood to be held back for more time than was necessary.

He gave the turian a bored look after scanning him from head to toe. Taking a long drag from his cigarette, he blew the smoke to the side and spoke loudly, "Aria wants to see me, man. Let me through."

The turian grinned smugly at Nicolas and produced a datapad from a back pocket on his armour, "Then I should be able to find your name on the VIP list. Right, human?" a moment of silence ensued. The turian raised a hand to the side of his head before glaring at the human, "Go on up. She's waiting."

Aria sat at her usual spot, this time with a green drink in her hand. A small smile tugged at her lips when she saw Nicolas approaching, "I heard Eclipse lost a ship at the lower docks a little while ago. They didn't want to say who did it but their money is on the Blood Pack. You wouldn't know anything about that?"

Nicolas shrugged, his face drooping in a bored expression, "Don't even know who the Blood Pack are."

The asari patted a hand on the sofa she sat on, "Come sit with me, it's time we got to know each other."

He sat beside the queen of Omega, who stretched the hand she was holding her drink with out. A moment later, the drink was taken from it and a new one offered. She took it without taking her eyes off Nicolas and asked if he wanted rum. He nodded and a moment later, a salarian waiter was pouring the liquid into a clear glass. Aria smirked as Nicolas sipped from the glass and spoke, "So how did you do intercept the delivery without anyone knowing it was you?"

"A magician never reveals his tricks, Aria." Nicolas smiled behind his glass as he took another sip. The asari laughed and looked him up and down, taking in his features.

She scooted a bit closer and looked into Nicolas' eyes. He felt a slight tingling at the back of his neck and his heart skipped a beat when Aria spoke, her voice seemingly coming from right behind his ears, "Does this magician have a name?"

Hal's voice crackled into his ear, "Don't give her your real name. Repeat after me…"

"My name's Jerris, Nathan Jerris," Nicolas did his best to keep a straight face as he said the familiar last name. Did Hal just give me Caleb's last name?

Aria raised her eyebrows, "Is Jerris a common name amongst humans? I've heard it before," before Nicolas could answer, Aria raised her hand dismissively, "I don't really care, and I have to put my attention to other things soon. I have a feeling you're tired anyway, so let's talk payment, alright?"

Nicolas nodded and Aria continued, "Since you're obviously new here, I'm guessing you don't have accommodation," again, Aria continued before Nicolas could answer, "So I have an offer. You work for me, and I give you a place to stay. We can talk about money tomorrow, when I have another job for you. Does that sound fair?" a second later, she talked again, "Perfect! I'll have Urvat take you to your place when he's done working, which should be… now. Go see him at the bar and be back here by midday tomorrow. Off you go!"

Nicolas got up from the sofa and walked down the stairs sipping on his rum. His muscles started aching from moving around for so long, every cell in his body begged for sleep. The salarian bartender was standing on the customer side of the bar, his big eyes fixed on Nicolas. The two moved wordlessly towards the outside of Afterlife. Nicolas asked Urvat if he could walk with him to where he left his duffel bag and then to the wherever Aria had instructed them to go. The salarian nodded and they crossed the bridge to the commercial district.

They had finished walking seven levels up when Urvat walked away from the stairwell, down a corridor of apartments with reinforced doors and windows. After turning a couple of corners, the Salarian came to a stop at a door like all of the others. He raised his left hand to Nicolas, omnitool activated, "The keycode to unlock apartment," he offered.

Nicolas raised his omnitool to Urvat's until it pinged. The salarian nodded once and walked away. Nicolas opened the door to his new apartment and walked in. It was a small place. There was a toilet and shower crammed into a two square meter room, and a living space with a bed that folded out from the wall. A small heating unit sat in the corner of the four meter squared room and the window leading out to the corridor was blurred. Nicolas dropped his duffel bag on the floor and collapsed on the bed, falling asleep instantly.

"Oh honey, did I wake you up?"

Nicolas opened his eyes. He looked to his side, seeing the orange glow of a holo-screen. His eyes focused to see Jane's face on the screen. Her eyebrows were raised in the middle and drooping at the sides. Her lips were pursed in an expression of mock guilt. Nicolas smiled and tried to speak, but the words wouldn't leave his mouth.

"Hun, you don't need to be angry because I called late. I just wanted to see how you were doing. Don't you want to talk?"

Nicolas nodded but it seemed like Shepard couldn't see him. She shook her head and walked away from the holo-screen, out to the room where Nicolas was laying. She stood at the edge of Nicolas' bed, letting her arms fall at her sides. Her eyes were tearing, "I just want to talk to you…" she sighed.

The wall behind her started twinkling as stars appeared, and the once solid wall receded into infinity, becoming the black void of space. Shepard walked back and began to float, drifting further and further away from Nicolas, "I just wanted to talk to you."

Nicolas tried to sit up. He stretched a hand to Jane, but she was too far away to grasp. Tears began to fall down his cheeks as he tried to call for her and no sound came.

A yellow light started glowing behind Jane, growing brighter and brighter, "I just wanted to talk to you before I died," the light was blinding at this point, and it engulfed Shepard as Nicolas' voice came back.

"Jane!" Nicolas screamed, but the light died away and Shepard was nowhere to be seen.

"Nicolas!" Hal's voice awoke the human as he sat up with a start, "You were talking in your sleep."

Baker wiped tears off his face as he murmured, "it was just a bad dream Hal. I'm alright."


So yeah, Nicolas' first day in Omega's over. I hope you like the chapter! As always, feedback is much appreciated!