"Jarred!"

The man's eyes widened, his hands finding his gun, and he stood up in a flash expecting combat. But he was inside of a ship instead of a battlefield, and his green eyes blinked. He looked around and saw a male human, grinning.

"Tristan… I mean, Commander Alenko." He straightened and saluted.

Commander Tristan Alenko was in an act to return his salute, but he stopped and grinned, waving his hand. He was a well-built man, honed to fight and win. Jarred had known him all his life, mainly because his father helped him to become an N7 recruit at the age of 15, and because his father, Kaidan Alenko, was one of his family's friends. He got his father's jet black hair and build, but he had inherited his mother's blue eyes. Jarred lowered his salute, and grinned back.

"Stop that, Jarred." Tristan said, "You know me well enough to call me that."

"But still, this is your ship, Commander." Jarred said, emphasizing the title again, "It would be unprofessional of me to call my Commanding officer with his first name."

Tristan laughed, "Oh, shut up." He pointed to the direction of the bridge, "We're nearing the Citadel now. Edison said we'll be there in five minutes." Tristan placed his hands on his back and regarded Jarred with proud authority. "You really did well, Jarred. That Cerberus base was not known by our researchers. That fact that you traced it and destroyed it… almost by yourself, was admirable. Though…" At this Tristan looked saddened, "I am… sorry about your squad. I should have known that there were a lot of guards there. You shouldn't have gone there with just four people. I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to not consider Cerberus that much of a threat."

Jarred nodded and looked down. He had discovered a hidden Cerberus base with the help of the Shadow Broker, and headed with a small team of four people to Gromar in the Voyager Cluster. Upon investigation, they found out that the Cerberus base was still active, with guards patrolling the area. Even though they were able to destroy the relatively small base, Jarred lost four of his soldiers to the guards. He had barely reached Tristan's ship, the Normandy SR-2. He got exhausted in the fight, and was grieving, and he was advised to rest…

Which was why he dreamt of the silver woman.

"What are you thinking about?" Tristan asked.

Jarred shook his head, "Nothing. I just… I just dread what the Council would say."

Tristan patted him on his shoulder, "You did what you could. Your mission was to destroy that Cerberus base, and that's what you did. I never knew that Cerberus was still pretty active, despite that it's been thirty years. I guess some people are just that angry at aliens that they're obsessed to kill them all."

He scoffed, "If Cerberus hates aliens so much, they'd probably hate me more."

Tristan laughed, "Hey now. Guys like you are awesome." And it that instant, the Normandy SR-2's pilot, Edison Moreau's voice crackled through the InterComm, "Commander Alenko, you are needed at the bridge."

"Yeah, I'll be right there. I'm just here at the Main Battery Room with Jarred." Tristan patted his shoulder again. "I'll be right back."

Jarred nodded, and he went back to his console as Tristan stepped out of the room. He glanced over the wall, where the steel reflected his image. He stopped what he was doing and walked towards his reflection.

Jarred Vancair was a turian-human hybrid… the first of his kind. He had a turian father and a human mother, and although his genetics was primarily dominated by his mother's genes, he still had turian traits. His skin was still rough like the turians, but it didn't cover him like plates, but rather like human skin. His hands might have five digits, but his nails were more like short talons. His face was handsome, but he had inherited his father's turian plating, which covered his forehead, the top of his skull (where the plates formed into a shorter fringe than the pure turians) and around his eyes. He also had mandibles, which flares when he smiles or laughs. His body was more human than turian, however, and he also inherited his mother's green eyes and red hair, which covered the lower part of the back of his head, where it flowed down his shoulders. Dark blue marks were painted on his mandibles and under his eyes.

Yes. Cerberus would truly hate an abomination like him.

"Jarred, we're here." Tristan's voice said through his earpiece. "I'll see you at the dock."

Jarred nodded, "Sure. I'm on my way." He stopped looking at his reflection, holstered his assault rifle at his back, and headed out the Battery Room.