Leeds System, Kingdom of Bretonia
Battleship Stirling
Recreational Bay "The Old Shanty"

Brown. The entire system was varying shades of brown. Aela had never seen so much of the colour in space. In fact, as far as she knew, this was supposed to be impossible. "How?" was all she could muster to respond.

"Most of it was a result of early Bretonia, you know." Perkins casually explained, "What you are seeing is the results of centuries of industrialization."

"You mean-"

"Yes. You are looking at the largest smog clouds in the Sirius systems. I would've said galaxy a few days ago, but I've no way of knowing that now." he said apologetically, as if he didn't know the full extent of what Aela was seeing.

"How?" was all Aela could repeat after a brief moment of silence. How could any one species create this much pollution?

"Centuries of industrialization I suppose. The Bretonnia was the last of the colony ships to land, and we ended up with the most resource poor area of Sirius. Leeds was the closest system with a good number of resources to New London, so logically, after the initial colony was established on New London, BMM was given carte blanche to do whatever they wanted with the system, so long as it could help Bretonnia. There are hundreds of abandoned refineries and mining stations in this system and thousands of orbital manufacturing centers around Leeds. I can better explain once we go in orbit of Leeds itself." he replied, keeping his casually contented tone of voice.

She could only wordlessly nod, and sit, silently watching the nebulae of smog drift by. Just… How?

She then noticed the Stirling approach a strange set of platforms just casually drifting in space. Then a sort of white ring of energy, somewhat similar to what she saw in action earlier in the Jumpgate appeared, and she could see it just getting closer and closer.

Then, the light just became one long tunnel of light again, but this time, she could see the space around her. She could see how the smog clouded even the sun of this system, and in the distance, she could see one refinery near a small planetoid, belching out great amounts of smog, all of it speedily passing by. "What-"

"It's a trade lane." Perkins interrupted, sensing the question she was about to ask, "Don't quite know exactly it works, but it basically brings the ship to FTL speeds, allowing us to get from one end of the system to the other pretty quickly."

So they had no FTL on their ships? Or perhaps their engines could only bring them up to light speed itself? She was no physicist or engineer, so she really had no idea how. Still though… that they had such an understanding of physics that they could manufacture their own wormholes, yet have a comparatively slow engine? It made little sense to her.

As the Stirling exited the trade lane, since the view she got on the window visibly slowed, Aela got a close up look of one of the space born refineries that Perkins mentioned. It was a massive ugly thing, with huge plumes of smoke coming out of its massive smokestacks, probably refining some rare minerals of some sort. She felt like she was staring at some incredibly crude construct, belching out its meal.

"That's Stokes Mining Station, oldest continuously running mining and refinery in all of the Colonies." Perkins said, clearly deciding to play tour guide to Aela, "she's been providing raw and basic materials to Bretonia and Kusari for centuries." he finished, a little pride in his voice.

Centuries. That… thing had been operating for centuries, belching who knows what into the system. They managed to create artificial nebulae from their industrial output alone? In mere centuries? No one in the Citadel could even feasibly find a way to perform such a feat of stellar engineering, and yet to do it as a mere byproduct of their industry alone? For a single system to have done this, even with the most efficient means possible, it would surely have required nearly the entire output of the factories of all three Citadel species to perform an equal amount of production. Even if this system isn't producing at it's peak, she could easily imagine it capable of outproducing at least one or two of the Council member species and the Volus.

Soon enough though, the Stirling went through another one of these Trade Lanes, quickly bringing the ship to the Planet Leeds.

From orbit alone, Aela could see what looked like massive smog clouds forming in the atmosphere of the planet. Aela couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like to live down there. What sort of… nightmarish conditions do these humans live in as they doubtlessly worked in what she imagined were hundreds of thousands of factories and mines, producing countless millions of tons of products.

"Planet Leeds, 3.3 billion people live on that planet alone, another 200 million if you count the people in orbital facilities, working in everything from refineries to mines on that planet, all of it fueling the ever growing demand for Bretonnian products. " Perkins lectured, pride still strong in his voice. "See those two rings there?" he pointed out to two rather distinct rings, rather much like the Jumpgates, but much smaller, "Those are Docking rings, we use those to maintain a clear corridor to land in the planet. You can't just land or take off from any point on our planets, there are far too many orbital facilities and trash for it to be done safely." he cautioned. "Anyways you'll get a better look see in a bit. We're going to go take off, and I'll do a quick flyby so we can satisfy that curiosity of yours, eh?" he said rather far too cheerily for Aela's taste. How could one be so cheery in the face of… this? "If you could kindly follow me to the Docking bay, we'll go visit your new home away from home" he said as he motioned her to follow him with his hand.

"Yes." she said, "Please, lead the way." she would much rather try to take her mind off the disturbing implications of what she just saw.

_
Battleship Stirling
Docking Bay

Aela got herself a good look at what Perkins said would become something like her second home. It was definitely one of the ships that had taken on the Mollies, with its distinctive aquatic animal look.

"Meet the BA-907F Heavy Fighter Crusader!" Perkins exclaimed proudly, "Born from the great minds in both the BAF and Cambridge, this here is 20 tons of the finest Bretonia has to offer! This particular model has been modified to hold a copilot seat, for My Lady of course," he said with a flourish and a bow towards Aela," and has been outfitted with a Torpedo launcher, Mine layer, the latest in countermeasure technology, and finally, my personal choice of main weaponry, with three Skyrails and three Rippers, all primed for maximum amounts of lethality!" he finished, clearly proud of his machine.

She honestly had no idea if this was well equipped for Human standards, but by Citadel ones, based on the battle earlier, she was pretty sure a fully armed Crusader could quite feasibly take on a Citadel frigate, and maybe just barely win.

"Please," he said, as he gestured toward the open cockpit, "climb in, I'm right behind you."

Aela could only silently gulp, as she steadily climbed up into the cockpit of the Crusader.

It was something kind of familiar to her. Surprisingly enough, these Humans still seemed to make generous use of what looked like analogue equipment for one thing, she could see something that resembled a keyboard on one side and a joystick on the other. She could also make out a few other displays, likely displaying some sort of information that she couldn't figure out. It was also pleasantly roomy inside, with enough space for her to stand up and walk a bit.

"Right," said Perkins as he entered the cockpit, "This is our home away from home for the foreseeable future." he said, waving his arm about, "This here, is as I'm sure you've figured out the cockpit, the one on the left is main, and the one on the right is yours. " he said as he pointed at each of the seats, "You are strictly a passenger on this flight, so pending any horrible accident, don't expect me to teach you how to fly this thing." he said jokingly. Goddess, Aela hoped she wouldn't need to fly this. She had enough trouble flying an aircar, what more with something like this?

"Here,take this," said Perkins as he tossed a suit and helmet her way, "It's one size fits all, so you should do fine. The suit and helmet should help keep you alive in the highly unlikely event we have to bail out." he said jokingly. She wasn't sure if that was a topic to be joked about, but she put on the suit nonetheless. It was quite light, and very snug in a comfortable manner. She was reminded a little too much of some of her more… risqué Maidenhood exploits. Then she put on the quite heavy helmet. She could hear some air moving about, likely a seal of some sort. then she noticed her visor had a HUD on it. "I'm pretty sure you don't have any implants that are compatible with the helmet," Perkins continued to explain, "so I've taken the liberty of putting the helmet on visor HUD mode. It should be showing you some of the more relevant data you would doubtless want to know to ease your mind, and to help me as a co-pilot, speed, shield, hull and energy levels, etc. In combat, it'll be best if you keep an eye on those and remind me of it." he said seriously, "a co-pilot can save lives, especially an attentive one."

"Of course." Aela said, after gulping a bit. She really hoped she wouldn't need to do any of that.

"Right then. Red bar is hull, blue is shield, yellow is energy. The number by the circle is for the number of auxiliary shield batteries we have left, the grey bar tells you how many liters of emergency repair nanobots we have left." Pekins continued, "Now please, do sit down, I'm going to do some pre-flight checks then we'll take off and head for New London." she promptly did so, and tried to relax a bit, and take in what she could see.

The ship was certainly well kept, though everything was rough in appearance, it was quite clean and probably well maintained. This fighter didn't have a… lived in feel, as if it needed to prove its worth some more, but it had earned some details, a little splash of what she assumed was non regulation colour, a very vivid shade of crimson, by the left side. On it she could see a few marks, ten golden mining picks were on that wall, perhaps a list of the kills he made?

"Everything is ready for launch. Please stay quiet as I obtain the necessary flight clearance." Perkins steadily commanded.

"This is Freelancer Hotel four dash zero to Battleship Stirling, requesting permission for liftoff."

"This is Flight Control, you're cleared for take-off. Good flying."

"Thanks Flight Control. Take care of Thatch and the lads."

"Yes sir." replied Flight control.

"Right then." replied Perkins, "Time to show you the wonders of Bretonnia." he said, as he pressed a few buttons on his dashboard, and then suddenly the ship was moving. Slowly, gently, Perkins maneuvered his ship towards the doors, using clean, well-practiced movements to nudge the ship in the right direction. Then the ship came to a stop, and a pair of doors closed behind them, probably the airlock. Then the door below them opened, and Aela could see that they were on the bottom of the Stirling, one of it's massive turrets mere meters away from her. She imagined it could easily destroy a frigate in one volley.

"Engaging cruise engines. Let's give you a quick close-up of Leeds on the way to the Trade Lane eh?" Perkins cheeringly told Aela as he gently nudged the ship towards the Docking rings.

"We're now close enough for you to see the Space Lifts. Can you see it? It's by that mooring platform above the Docking ring." he pointed out.

"Yes I can see it." and she wa pretty sure she could see other elevators as well. Multiple space elevators on one planet? As far as she knew, no planet in Citadel had one, let alone several of these

.

"Right. Some ships are simply too big, or too bulky to go back into atmo." he said casually, trying to keep things calm and relaxed. "So we use those to transport goods down onto the surface or as a staging area for freighters to go pick up goods to bring to the facilities orbiting the planet. I'm sure you can see the traffic from here, clogged as always."

Indeed, Aela could make out large numbers of bulky ships, all going in and out of various orbiting facilities she could make out, some even went towards the mooring platform, towards some of the huge train-like ships over there now.

"There is always a ship doing traffic of sorts around orbit of Leeds here you know. From here, they go everywhere, from New Tokyo to New Berlin, these goods always have somewhere to go." he said casually as he directed them back towards one of the Trade Lanes, where even now, Aela could see many dozens of ships, particularly the long train like ones, were approaching. "Don't worry, we should be fine. The traffic in the trade lane is still perfectly manageable." he said, trying to make sure Aela was as comfortable as possible.

"You know…" Perkins said, as they gradually approached the Trade Lane, his hands casually at the back of his head, likely the ship was on autopilot, "I never did get your name." he said quite apologetically. "For that I'm quite sorry, and at the same time you have me at a disadvantage. Let's introduce ourselves again shall we?"

"Okay." Aela shyly said, she wasn't too comfortable with revealing her name to Perkins, but since they would be working together for quite some time it would only make sense to do so. "I'm Dr. Aela D'Avo, of the University of Thessia. I'm a… discoverer of the past?"

"An academic," Perkins said, as if he was completely expecting this, "I figured you for the type, kind of nervous, taking great big looks at everything, and very quiet when someone is lecturing. And I do believe the word you are looking for is archaeologist. You studied ancient cultures and all that?"

"Indeed." she said, slowly getting more comfortable, "I specialized in Prothean culture and language, which was why I was originally assigned to investigate your Jumpgate in the... Tau 30 system you called it?" she said a little hesitatingly. It would be embarrassing to forget the name of a system where such a momentous occasion happened.

"Yes, though please do go on." Perkins said a little encouragingly.

"We thought it was some ancient alien device," Aela continued, "so they decided to send in an expert…"

"Only it turns out it was completely unrelated." Perkins finished, "Don't worry Aela, may I call you Aela?"

"I'd prefer it if you did Commander." Aela replied, a little more lively

"And I'd prefer it if you just called me Perkins, Aela." Perkins replied, with a little smirking twinkle in his eyes.

"Alright then Perkins. So, how long to New London?" she asked curiously. She wondered what their capital world would be like. It must surely be unlike this… Leeds place.

"It'll be maybe a half hour till we get there, so sit back and relax. This thing flies itself unless we get into a scrap." Perkins replied, visibly relaxing and laying back in his seat.

Aela saw that she had quite a lot of time till they reached New London, so she decided to start writing down notes on her Omnitool. She had start with her report, she figured that it would only get much much longer.

New London System, Kingdom of Bretonia
Near the New London - Leeds Jumpgate

The first thing Aela noticed after the jump through the wormhole was that space was a rather normal shade of black again.

The second thing she noticed was the huge field of debris just to her right. What had happened here? The after effects of some battle, kept around as a memorial perhaps?

"I see you've noticed the Southampton debris field," said Perkins, still a little pride in his voice, "that there is the result of early Bretonian industry. Centuries worth of discarded ship parts, from engines to plain hulls, anything that wasn't deemed useful was thrown out by the Southampton shipyards, which we will see in a bit by the way," he said, as if she was worried about missing some sort of monument. "All of this was a result of early Bretonia expanding her fleet at any and all costs. When I said earlier that BMM had carte blanche, I really meant that they could do just about anything short of replacing the King." finished Perkins as he directed their ship towards a Trade Lane.

To think, this field, this giant… junkyard was created by a single nation? Goddess, imagine what they could learn just by investigating these ruins. She imagined that even an old outdated engine of the Humans would have thousands of lessons to teach to even the finest of Salarian scientists.

"Gotta be careful around that field though," said Perkins, as he visibly tensed up clearly expecting trouble of some sort. "Corsairs use the combination of radiation from the discarded engines and the debris field itself to mask their presence. They often hit the trade lanes around the entire system." he finished.

"But isn't this your capital?" Aela asked, a little confused. Pirates were able to strike this deep into their territory?

"New London is indeed the seat of our government, from the administration to the military." Perkins replied.

"Then why don't you just… hunt these Pirates down?" she said. It was common sense, when pirates got bad, the military was sent to hunt them down. Yes they can hide for a while, but surely it couldn't take that long to destroy a rag-tag team of pirates?

"I think you severely underestimate the size of space Aela." Perkins countered, his tone quite serious. "We've patrolled these debris and asteroid fields for years, always searching for any sign of pirate activity. It's very easy to convert an asteroid into a space station, or make use of one of the many abandoned stations throughout the area as temporary staging posts. Space is mind bogglingly big, and there are many places to set up a base. We've yet to find any active illegal bases in the area, save Trafalgar, but we have an understanding with the Junkers." he said, a little embarrassed.

"Junkers?" Aela asked. What kind of name was that?

"A group of people who just salvage the debris fields for scrap metal and components. They then go on and sell these to BMM or whoever wants them," he replied. "We are also sure that they smuggle in certain… unpleasant objects through their stations. Criminals love to go there and use it as a neutral zone of sorts," he finished as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "We let them operate, they throw us a bone when it comes to apprehending a particular scoundrel or two."

Aela wasn't quite sure what to make of that. The world wasn't quite black and white like what many of the Justicars would think, but… it sounded like these Junkers were rather like Ilium. There, just about anything was legal, despite it being frowned upon in the rest of Citadel space. They even practiced slavery under the label, 'indentured servitude'. Perhaps these Humans weren't so different after all?

"I'd rather apprehend them too, but this is all for the greater good," Perkins said as he saw Aela's face slowly scrunch in disapproval. "We've caught more than our fair share of criminals who were hiding out on a Junker station because they handed them over to us. Those arrests often lead to more information as to where to find the bastards," Perkins said a little righteously, but then his face drooped again. "We're pretty sure now that the pirates are coming in from Jumpholes within the fields. They are practically beyond our reach now," he said, the disappointment deep in his voice. "But enough about that," he said suddenly after a bit of silence, "lets not dwell on such unpleasant topics. I'm supposed to be your tour guide throughout the colonies after all," he said, his voice trying to be a little happy, just as the ship exited the Trade Lane.

Aela guessed these must be the Southampton Shipyards. A massive Space station that drifted in the middle of the system, clearly designed for one thing; the production of even more ships. She'd never seen such an enormous station created by a sentient species in what looked like the middle of nowhere. She was pretty sure, judging from one rather large shell in one of the bays, that they were also building a new Dreadnaught. She has seen some shipyards before, but never one so massive. She was confident that this single shipyard could build three Dreadnoughts at the same time, while still retaining the ability to construct smaller ships. Though there was something that was nagging her. Perkins mentioned Jumpholes as the source of the pirates. What were they? She was about to ask Perkins when he suddenly started to talk.

"Aye, she's a beauty isn't she," Perkins proudly proclaimed, seeing the curiosity in Aela's eyes. "The Southampton Shipyards have been producing ships for almost as long as there has been a Bretonia. Over 10,000 people live on that station permanently, and over 100,000 people work there, all towards building the future of the Bretonian Navy. I'm sure you can see the new Battleship, under construction too. She'll be the one replacing the Hood." he said as he directed the ship towards another Trade Lane. "We'll be at New London in a few minutes now," he said, a little bit of excitedly with a hint of childishness. "I'm going home and meeting the King! It's practically every boy's dream come true."

She understood excitement at meeting the most influential man in the government, and going home, she herself was starting to miss Thessia, but she wasn't quite sure what to make of the youthful exuberance. "I'm not quite sure why you would dream of meeting the King since your childhood. Why?" Aela asked.

"I wasn't nobility you know, back on New London. Was practically a pauper there. Not by colonial standards mind you, but by New London I was. Parents were a bunch of bureaucrats for some government department regarding titles I do believe. Worked hard all my life to try and get into the Military Academy, and even then, I had to compete with my betters. Did well enough, not bad for a pauper boy, and never destined for greatness like some of my other mates at the academy. Now I get to have an audience with his majesty himself, thanks to you," he said, genuine gratitude in his voice.

She… honestly didn't know what to make of that.

Soon enough, the ship exited the Trade Lane, and Aela got a good look at New London. It seemed so… cloudy. Not smog, but actual natural clouds. She could make out glimpses of a continent or two, and she definitely caught glimpses of a rather large ocean as well. It seemed like an unusually cloudy, but otherwise normal, garden world.

What caught her interest though was the sheer number of orbital facilities she could make out. There were hundreds of little stations, some of them even had what looked like great glass domes, likely for parks or something. Then there was the huge station, dwarfing the others. She'd never seen so many facilities orbiting any one planet, let alone this massive station. It wasn't on the scale of the Citadel, but considering these Humans definitely made it… She was starting to think these Humans had a rather healthy love of space.

"That's Waterloo station," Perkins said, continuing to play the tour guide. "Basically... the Foreign Corporate hub of Bretonia. All the foreign companies have set up local headquarters there, though everyone knows that's really an Interspace Commerce station, one of Liberty's three biggest corporations. They're basically the guys who insure all shipping throughout the Houses. From Oxygen to Gold, these guys will insure your cargo. Anyways, we'll be landing shortly, so please be quiet while I talk to the Docking authorities."

Aela was starting to get an image that these Liberty folk were a lot like the Volus. Very good with money, and very good with making a good trade. She was sure they would get along swimmingly.

"This is Freelancer Hotel four dash zero, requesting permission to dock."

"This is Planet New London Traffic Control, you are clear to dock in bay four."

Aela kept her eyes clearly glued towards the window. As the ship got closer to the planet, she could see that Perkins was subtly turning the ship, directing it towards wherever it was they were going. Then they hit the atmosphere and she couldn't see anything but cloud

Suddenly, they broke through the cloud barrier, and Aela could hear the rain dash against the ship as it descended towards a city of brownish-grey skyscrapers, with the occasional dash of brilliant color: a neon sign here, a giant stained glass window there. This was, despite the gloomy weather, a city that looked to be full of life.

Soon enough, Perkins approached a rather flat looking area, probably a landing pad, and then engaged what he said was called the gravimetric gears, a landing gear of sorts probably. Perkins didn't contact any other authorities, so Aela figured this one must have been assigned to them in adva- Wait. Perkins just called his landing gear gravimetrics. Surely he's not talking about true gravity or mass manipulation. That's just not possible. Everyone knows you need eezo to do that. Perhaps an error in translation?

Right?

"Come on," said Perkins as he stood up, "best get dressed and all that." He removed his helmet and proceeded to go towards the ladder.

Aela followed suit, taking care to leave the helmet on her seat, and set foot on a Human world for the first time.

Aela's first impression of New London could be summarized very neatly in one word. Wet. If a planet could smell wet, yet not as wet as a jungle, New London was probably it. As she and Perkins raced towards one of the many buildings nearby, she didn't think that this sort of rain would stop anytime soon. When they got in, Aela could recognize the tell tale signs of a cargo room. Huge containers, a couple of people, nothing much else in sight.

"Well," said Perkins, panting a little. "You've gotten but a taste of New London's weather. If it isn't raining, it's foggy, and often it can be both. You just caught it on a merely rainy day," he said as he dusted his suit of water and walked towards a door. "Come on, might as well get you all cleaned up before meeting the King. We're going to my place."

Islington, New London
New London System

It took Aela and Perkins a few minutes to get to the apartment. They had to take a monorail to get to his building and she got a few looks from what few locals were around, but they didn't approach or gawk like she expected. "Why aren't they… shocked or surprised?" Aela asked quietly.

"There is a visiting Liberty convention full of the latest and greatest in media Liberty has to offer," Perkins whispered. "All the kids from across Bretonia are dressing up in a costume of some sort and heading towards the convention center. You look fairly human, minus the blue skin and the tentacles, so they probably think it's just a rather well made costume for some show or game they never touched or even heard about."

So Humans dressed up to emulate a fictional character or species? For what purpose? Prestige? A form of admiration? Imitating something is a sign that its good, so Aela figured it was the latter, though it could also be some way of attracting a date.

Still, as the train approached the next stop, which Perkins said was theirs, Aela couldn't help but ask Perkins, "Why would someone dress up as a fictional character?"

"Many reasons really," Perkins said as they both stepped off the train, "Some cosplayers do it because they simply love the show. They want to be the characters they loved," he said cheerily. "Some do it because its a job to them, it's a good paycheck and publicity," he continued as they approached one building. "Finally, some just do it for the fun of it," he finished simply as he typed in something on a keypad and motioned for Aela to go in.

Aela entered and got her first glimpse of what she guessed was the typical Bretonian way of decorating a building. Tall arched windows graced the taller parts of the lobby, each of them covered in stained glass, causing the room to have a rather muted and surprisingly somber atmosphere. The floors were left rather barren, just a rather muted dark, well polished metal. The walls were rather the same, but in-between a window or two lay the occasional rather bestial mix of human, and she guessed animal, statues. Just what were they? Were they mythical beasts or demon? What was it all for? A reminder of their… purpose? To emphasize the rather dark atmosphere? The entire lobby felt as if she were being judged, and should be very very quiet as they walked toward what she suspected were the elevators.

Aela most definitely did not expect stairs. Especially up to the 5th and top floor. So it was rather understandable that she was panting a bit once they were up top.
"Yeah, it is quite a walk." Perkins apologized. "I remember back in the Academy, I'd end up walking up those stairs drunk and it was the absolute worst." he said, laughing a bit.

She would rather not imagine her doing this drunk but she could imagine that someone more physically fit like Perkins wouldn't find it as much as an issue. While she was rather more physically fit than your average academic due to her field experience, she felt she was rather lacking in her fitness, at least compared to some of her colleagues. Perhaps she should start exercising more, especially since she had this strange feeling that crime would become a bigger problem in the future.

"So anyways," said Perkins as he opened the door to his apartment. "Welcome to my humble abode."

Aela was starting to get a better feel for these Humans. It seemed that they kept their private and public decorations very different from each other. On one side of the room, tall and wide arched windows dominated, letting in what little natural light there was into the apartment. On another side, a massive screen dominated the wall, and a couch was facing it. Opposite the windows was what she assumed was the kitchen, seeing what looked like a stove and a fridge there. She couldn't help but feel that this apartment wasn't well used though. There was far too much dust on the floor.

"I don't really stay here often. Not anymore anyways. Work took me everywhere but here. Parents gave it to me as a gift before heading off to the Academy," Perkins said as he motioned for Aela to follow him as he went towards one of the doors.

She could recognize a bathroom when she saw one. Toilet, sink, shower, all there. It seemed that with a species that resembled the Asari a lot, it made sense they would share a lot of similarities when it came to hygiene.

"Right, I imagine you madam would like to freshen up and the like. Set your bag down and I'll let you do your womanly thing." He said as he moved toward the shower. "Move the handle left for hot water, right for cold. Pull towards you for stronger water," he explained. "I'll leave you be now, I'll just watch the telly outside. Let me know if you need anything else."

The shower was unsurprisingly normal. Water was water, wherever you went in the galaxy, and for such a technologically advanced civilization, these Humans still kept cleaning simple with the use of the shower. Some things just can't be improved on Aela figured as she dried herself off.

The dress she brought for her eventual meeting with the king wasn't actually hers to begin with. She hadn't expected to need to dress in such a manner when she was recruited on to the ship. Captain T'Loni actually had to lend her one of her own dresses since they were roughly of the same measurements. It was a simple white thing with a few violet lines that vaguely reminded her of what the Consort's assistants on the Citadel would wear; a simple white thing that hugged her in the right places, and flowed everywhere else. It was a typical and simple Asari dress, not some Illium billionaire's dress, but still, Aela hoped it wouldn't offend anyone..

So when Aela stepped out, she most certainly did not expect to see Perkins sitting on the couch and wearing a brilliant red coat with some gold… things hanging on his shoulders. Coupled with the gold buttons and the white pants he looked quite handsome in an alienly fierce way. It made her feel like her dress was rather plain. That made it a little disturbing to see him so quiet and staring at her, his mouth drooping slightly. "Is something wrong?" she replied worriedly. It wouldn't do at all to meet the King and shock them all into silence because she was so offensive.

"No…" Perkins replied after a worrying moment of silence. "It's nothing." He looked back at the screen, which appeared to be showing a news report of sorts.

"Breaking news," the reporter, one that looked a lot like an Asari, Aela guessed she was a female, said. "The HMS Stirling has reported encountering intelligent alien life. We are not alone. More details at Six."

"That's after your big meeting," said Perkins worriedly as he stood up and turned off the screen with a remote. "Expect Reporters, especially Liberty ones. Be careful, and whatever you do, don't mention who you'll be travelling with or what you'll be travelling on."

Aela nodded, she guessed some things would stay the same throughout the galaxy. The paparazzi would clearly forever try to hound her during her explorations here. Best to avoid them if possible.

Still, she was quite excited. Here she was, about to meet what would surely become one of the most powerful people in the galaxy, representing not only her people, but billions of others as well. It was most frightening, but at the same time, she couldn't wait for it to happen. This would be the first steps towards a bright and shining future.