Chapter Three

The Naglear is a battered old Turian Frigate. From the looks of it, it was decommissioned around the time the first stars were forming in the Galaxy. Barbarus Hermean no doubt picked it up real cheap. He made a number of improvements to the vessel, increasing speed, durability and most importantly (to him at least) it's cargo capacity. The downside of this is there is very little space for the crew to operate in. That's fine with Captain Hermean though, gives him an excuse to keep as small a crew as possible. That way he doesn't have to split the profit too many ways. The main crew is a mere five people, one Batarian, two Humans, a Volus and Hermean himself. I never bothered to ask any of their names and they never bothered to ask mine. The Humans seem to be technicians, the Batarian is the pilot and the Volus is Hermeans' personal accountant. Usually there are a couple of hired bodyguards and until recently I was one of them. It seems old Barbarus doesn't trust the muscle long enough for them to become a permanent part of the crew. Probably afraid they'll ask for a proper cut. For this trip it seems he has skipped on the security, I would guess at the Shadow Brokers request.

Despite it's small size, the inside of the ship doesn't feel too cramped. The command deck is split into two halves, the front features the cockpit and navigation, while in the rear is the recreation and mess hall area dominated by a large poker table (that doubles as the Volus' office when a game is not in session). The next level is crew quarters and engineering and then the rest of the ship is all cargo hold. I had found my way to my usual hang out on the ship, a worn out old green couch that looked about as out of place as a piece of furniture could on a starship. I found it strangely comfortable, I guess I like the little luxuries. The Volus was sitting at the poker table as he always seemed to be, doing some calculations on his terminal. He was hunched over and muttering to himself while breathing heavily as Volus do. I always thought their suits seemed a little primitive, but then their needs are very different to Quarians. They don't do much to customise their suits either. This Volus was wearing the traditional brown number you see almost everywhere. He had barely acknowledged my presence since I came back on board. I decided it was time for some questions.

"So, what's your take on all this?" I asked him,

He paused from his work and turned his head towards me, taking in a long breath as Volus do before speaking, "My take, clanless one, is that I need to figure out how to make the most of this detour your presence has forced on us." He took another long breath, "We usually plan all our trading far in advance, but this assignment has ruined all that". He paused for a moment, looking me over as if to judge my credit value , then took another breath and continued "It is fortunate that the money we were offered for this detour should outweigh the loss we'll make on our current cargo. Still, my job is to minimise that loss when we arrive at Lorek.

"Well, sorry to inconvenience you" I told him, "By the way, the name's Kal'Reegar not clanless one"

There was another long breath, though it could very well have been a snort too. "So the Quarian thinks that because he has upgraded from thug to cargo, we are now on a first name basis? I don't think so clanless one." He returned to his work almost immediately, clearly not caring to continue the conversation. In normal circumstances that would have irritated me, but I had more important things on my mind. I decided it was time to go and speak to the captain of this vessel and see what he knew, or at least what he was willing to tell me. The captain would be in his cabin on mid deck. I got up off the worn old couch and made my way to the lift.

The lift clunked and whirled it's way up to me. The original lift in the ship had been replaced along time ago with what was essentially an old cargo lift. Basically just a big yellow platform with a wire cage around three of the sides. As I got in, I noticed the Volus cursing to himself, seems he was going to struggle to maximise profits on this trip. The lift motor started again and I gradually lost sight of the command deck, the poker table with the little Volus and the worn out couch that I found so comfortable.

Captain Barbarus Hermean was in the engineering section of the ship debating power efficiency with one of the technicians, a short scruffy looking dark haired Human in blue workman's coveralls. The conversation appeared to be over, at least as far as Captain Hermean was concerned, and he turned to face me as I excited the lift. He was perhaps a little short for a Turian at just under six foot, and had a pale greenish skin tone and his face was marked with dark blue paint symbolising whatever colony he originated from. Probably the most notable feature of his face was the long scar across the right side of his face, with a dark cybernetic eye at the centre of it. I would guess it was from a very nasty knife wound, but I never asked about it and the only friendly conversation I ever had with the rest of the crew involved them advising me never to do so. He wore battered old dark red combat armour of a kind that is common amongst Turian scouts and snipers, designed to provide good protection while maintaining maximum mobility and not fatiguing the user over long periods.

"Well this is a turn around for the books" he said loudly, walking towards me "The cargo has come to check on the ships' Captain! So how is my one time bodyguard doing?"

"I'd be better if I knew why you were doing this." I replied. "Is it just money or does Crux have something on you?"

He was right in front of me now and he dropped the level of his voice and leaned over staring into my visor like he was trying to read the expression on my face inside it "I have my reasons Kal'Reegar. Suffice to say it is in my best interests and let's leave it at that". I knew not to press the issue, but it was clear there was something other than money at stake here.

"Fair enough, but if you know anything about my mission it would be useful if you were to share it."

"What I know is that I have to take an unplanned detour on my trade route, that I'm to drop you at an old Asari research station on Lorek, That I will have to make what trades I can there and sacrifice a good portion of my cargo capacity for the return journey to make space for whatever you will be collecting from there. I don't know what you're collecting and I don't care. My only concern is that it gets back to Illium and after that, as far as I'm concerned" he sneered "you can both go to hell."

"So what about Lorek? You been there?"

"Lorek is a paradise!" He laughed "Providing you like red! With that suit of yours you should be practically invisible. hah!" He looked over my custom red suit with a smirk on his face. I can't say I'm especially fond of red, but with so much metallic grey around the fleet a lot of us like having something more colourful on our suits and I wasn't about to go for a floral pattern.

"So, anything useful or just jokes about the suit?"

"The planet is tidally locked to a red dwarf. The only habitable areas are in constant sunset and the crazy weather patterns tend to cause heavy fog. So yeah, it's very red. Other than that it's a fairly normal world. The native fauna tends to be black or at least dark shades. Overall the place looks like some twisted dream. The Batarians seem to like it anyway, at least I assume more than Asari did or else they wouldn't have given it up so easily. As a trade route it's poor at best, the Batarians there are pretty inconsistent. One day they will be stocking up on weapons to repel the local Warlords and Mercenary groups, the next they realise they are overstocked and sell them off. If I was lazy I could probably just about make a living buying and selling them the same guns! Hah! But that takes too long and eventually they'd figure it out. They aren't Krogans after all!" He got serious again for a moment "Oh yes, just so you know, there will be no hand holding down there. I'm dropping you off at the coordinates we were given, which turns out to be an old Asari comm station and then I'm off to see what trades I can make in this dump. We'll come back for you when you're done!"

"I would certainly appreciate it. Much as I like red, I have no plans on becoming part of the landscape." I can't say I was keen on being dropped onto a Batarian world with no back up, but it's not like I have a choice any more.

"Don't look so concerned. We're with you until you have the merchandise. Without that we don't get paid. Now if we're done here, I have Humans to shout at!" He said that with a smile on his face, but I could tell he planned to do exactly that. Old Barbarus takes efficiency seriously.

"Fine, thanks for the information. I guess I'll get back to my couch"

"Hah! I don't know how you can stand that old couch, smells live Varren piss to me". With that, he went his way and I returned to the cargo lift. Nothing much to do now but wait.