Hannah met the sixteen pairs of eyes glowering at her with a glare of her own, scanning the group encircling her. She hoped she portrayed more confidence than she felt. Her eyes came to rest on Balak who stood directly across from her.

"So, you think yourself superior to batarians, do you?" he accused her, his voice rough and furious.

"I didn't say that," Hannah shot back, glancing once more at the group surrounding her, looking for a way out. The hallway she had been pushed into seemed unused. It was dimly lit and no one was in sight. She thought for a fleeting moment about the human children who had recently been revealed as possessing biotic abilities. She fervently wished she had those skills right now.

Balak pointed to his lower right eye. "This proves your prejudice!" His eye was already beginning to sport a bruise where Hannah had punched him.

"You had no right to try and make me leave," Hannah protested, putting as much aplomb in her voice as she could muster.

Balak spit on the ground. "Humans! You're a blight on the galaxy, one that should be wiped out permanently."

Hannah wasn't sure what Balak had planned, but she didn't want to find out. In a sudden movement, she rushed to her right, doing her best to punch and kick the batarians that stood there out of the way. She knew her attempt to escape was feeble at best, but desperation pushed her to try it anyway. She failed. Several batarians were on her in an instant, dragging her backwards and pushing her to the ground. She found herself kneeling on the floor. She felt pressure on her legs and assumed a batarian was sitting on them. Another held her arms behind her back. She tried to yank herself out of his hold, but struggling seemed useless against the strength of the batarians that incapacitated her.

Balak approached her. He cupped her face tightly with his right hand, forcing her head up to look at him face-to-face. "You're going to learn your place, human!" He backhanded Hannah across the face so hard her head snapped to the side. Pain radiated through her jaw and neck and she tasted the tang of blood in her mouth.

Hannah shook her head and looked back up at Balak, her eyes angry. Balak didn't remain in view for long as a swift kick from his foot to her stomach caused her to double over. She groaned aloud and tried to suck in air, her breaths coming in short gasps. Next thing she knew, her head was forced back as Balak pulled aggressively on her ponytail. He grinned at her, obviously enjoying the pain he was inflicting upon her. "You'll never be better than us, human." He raised his fist, ready to punch her in the face, when a new voice shouted out from the left.

"Balak!"

Balak turned his head to see who had called out. A wave of shock passed over his features and he let go of Hannah's ponytail. Hannah tried to see who had spoken, but several batarians blocked her line of sight.

"Keta," Balak said in a hushed voice. For a moment, he stared as if unsure how to proceed, but then a determined and vicious look returned to his face. "The Hegemony's been looking for you."

"I'm well aware of that," the new voice answered. Hannah thought the voice sounded batarian, though higher in pitch.

"You know I'll tell them I found you," Balak said.

"Oh, you can do that if you want. But if you do, you know you won't see the light of day again, you or your lackeys." The batarians in the circle surrounding Hannah began to send each other uncertain looks, suddenly fearful.

"You can't kill us all," Balak tried to confront whoever belonged to the voice, but Hannah could tell even he didn't believe what he was saying.

"Maybe. But I'll kill you first. I should have done it by now. I'm sparing you, Balak, for old time's sake."

Balak growled out, apparently aware that the voice was all too accurate in its statements. "Why are you here?" he demanded to know.

"Let her go." The voice sounded deadly serious.

"What?" Balak looked stunned. "You're rescuing the human?"

"She's done nothing to you."

Balak pointed to his eye. "She insulted our home world when…"

"I saw what happened. I knew you wouldn't let it go. You've never been able to. You were at fault. Now, let her go, or your brains are going to decorate the wall."

"If I let her go, I'll find her again."

"She's coming with me and while she's on the Citadel, I'll consider her safety my number one assignment."

Balak uttered a fierce cry of frustration. He turned back to Hannah and waved to the batarians holding her, who reluctantly released her. Hannah stood shakily, her legs sore and partially asleep from the weight that had been put on them.

"Come to me," she heard the voice speak. She knew the command was directed at her, so she made her way towards it. As she passed the batarians who blocked her view of the owner of the voice, she beheld another batarian. This one was shorter than Balak and had a thinner face with red and black lines on the side of its head. Hannah got the impression this batarian was female. If this assumption was correct, she was holding a shotgun pointed straight at Balak. Hannah limped over to stand next to the batarian.

"Walk that way," the batarian said, pointing with a thumb over her shoulder. As Hannah stumbled down the dim hall, the batarian followed, pacing backwards, keeping the gun aimed on Balak. When Hannah reached the end of the hall, the batarian whispered to her.

"Do you see the vent?"

Hannah looked around the corner. About half-way down the next hall a grate was laying on the floor next to an open vent. "Yes."

"Go get into it and move back to make room for me."

"Okay." Hannah sprinted to the vent. She found the inside narrow, but she was able to wriggle inside and pull herself down as far as she could. She glanced back at the opening just in time to see the batarian come sliding in, quickly replacing the grate, sealing it in place with her omni-tool.

"Go!" the batarian whispered urgently.

Hannah crawled down the vent, followed by the batarian. Shouts sounded outside, but Hannah perceived footsteps running past and not stopping. She struggled down the shaft until it intersected with another one, this one vertical with ladders above and below attached to its sides. Hannah pulled herself out of the horizontal shaft and balanced on a small ledge, moving to the side to allow the batarian to climb out next to her.

"Up," the batarian instructed, grabbing a hold of and ascending the nearest ladder. Hannah followed behind. After several minutes, the batarian stopped and stepped onto another ledge, then crawled into another horizontal shaft. Hannah copied the batarian's movements. When the batarian reached the end of the shaft, she disappeared. Hannah pulled herself towards another vent opening, pushing herself out into a brightly lit room. She felt a hand on her arm as the batarian helped her stand and walk over to a chair. Hannah sat gratefully.

"Your lip's busted," the batarian informed her. She put the shotgun on a bed and proceeded to rummage through a drawer, eventually returning with a tube of cream. "Put this on. It'll keep it from getting infected, maybe take away any residual pain."

"Thanks," Hannah muttered. It hurt to talk. Her lip felt like it was on fire and her mouth had swollen. The side of her face still burned where Balak had hit her. Hannah noticed a small sink against one wall. She walked over to it, turned the facet on and gently rinsed her face, appreciating the coolness of the water against her burning cheek. She returned to the chair and squirted some of the cream onto her finger, then carefully rubbed it over the sharp pain on her lip.

The batarian occupied the bed, her knees pulled into her chest, watching Hannah attend to her wound. Finally, when Hannah was finished, she met the batarian's gaze. "Thanks again, not just for this," she held up the tube of cream, "but for the rescue."

The batarian smiled. "I'd do anything to harass the Hegemony."

Hannah had heard only snippets about the batarian political situation. She knew it was ruled by the Hegemony, a strict government that controlled its population with an iron hand. Those batarians that were let out usually had some tie to its oppressive government.

"Are you…female?" Hannah asked. She felt awkward asking the question, but it was the only way to find out.

The batarian grinned widely. "Yes. Your first time to meet batarians?"

"Yeah," Hannah answered.

"Well you certainly met the wrong one to begin with."

"You can say that again," Hannah agreed, gingerly touching her swollen lip and wincing in pain.

"Balak's the blight on the galaxy, not you."

Hannah couldn't help but laugh slightly. The batarian took a deep breath. "We'll wait a little. Then I'll get you back to the Presidium."

"Why did you intervene?" Hannah didn't know exactly what to think of the feminine batarian facing her. Batarians and humans didn't get along. Why would she go out of her way to get involved?

"I saw you punch Balak. You didn't let him push you around. I respect that, maybe even honor it, more than you know. You did better than I ever did."

Hannah cocked her head. "What's the history between you two?"

The batarian rested her chin on one of her hands. "We were lovers for a time. But he's young, ruthless and brutish. Not a good combination for a relationship."

Hannah nodded. She could agree with that.

The batarian shook her head. "The abuse I let him take out on me, well, it would have broken lesser batarians. I was made tough. Brought up to be tough. The Hegemony made me that way, so I withstood him."

"You're so…open with me," Hannah said. She remembered what Balak had said, that the Hegemony was after this batarian.

"I trust you. Don't ask me how I know it, but you're honest. I know you'll keep my secret. At least, I'm fairly certain the first thing you'll do when I say good-bye to you isn't running to the batarian ambassador to tell him where I am."

Hannah shook her head. "No, I won't be doing that."

"I knew you wouldn't. What concern am I to you?"

"Well," Hannah said, contemplating the question, "If you were ever in trouble, I'd gladly pay back the favor."

"Good to know." The batarian stood, walked over to Hannah and held out her hand. "Keta La'ali." Hannah shook her hand, surprised Keta knew the human gesture.

"Hannah Shepard." Keta sat back down on the bed and continued to stare at Hannah. There was a moment of silence. Hannah gazed around the room. It was small. There was the sink against the wall with a shower stall next to it. The chair she sat in and the bed Keta occupied filled the rest of the room. Yet even in its sparseness, the room was decorated tastefully—artsy figurines stood in the corners and portraits done by artists unknown to Hannah hung on the walls. Hannah's eyes fell on a rack that boasted several different types of weapons. She stood up and walked over to them. Some she could identify, others were new to her.

"You have quite an arsenal," Hannah commented.

"Hum…" Keta intoned. "How much do you want to know about me?"

Hannah looked to Keta, smiling at her open and direct way. "As much as you're willing to tell?"

Keta shifted on the bed, lying down, staring at the ceiling. "The Hegemony removed me from my family when I was five years old because I displayed 'unnatural talent.' Can you guess what that talent was?"

"Uh…" Hannah fingered one of the guns. "Shooting?"

Keta eyed Hannah. "Close…killing."

"At five?"

"Oh, I didn't kill anyone real at five. Just in virtual simulations. But that was enough for them." Keta focused her attention back to the ceiling. "So they put me into a training school. I excelled and by the time I graduated, I was working for the Hegemony—their top assassin."

Hannah had paced back over to the chair and now sat slowly, locking eyes with Keta who had turned to see how Hannah would handle the information. Hannah wasn't quite sure how to feel knowing she was sitting in a room with a professional assassin. Keta smiled slowly.

"I'm not exactly an assassin now, so there's no need to worry."

"Alright," Hannah said quietly.

Keta stretched her arms above her head and blinked all four of her eyes. "After…many kills later, the Hegemony told me to return, that they had decided my career was at an end. They'd found someone else better qualified." Now Keta sat up abruptly, her voice seething with wrath. "I wasn't going to go back there, have them turn me into a baby producing factory. They'd throw me aside like trash. So, I fled. I traveled all over the galaxy for a time. This," Keta indicated the room with a wave of her hand, "is my home away from home. I'm not here all the time, just between assignments."

"Assignments?" Hannah queried. "If you don't work for your government, who do you work for?"

"Anyone who will hire me."

"So…you still kill?"

"I try not to. I usually make a deal that favors both parties and get paid handsomely for it."

Hannah eyed Keta carefully. "I don't think I ever want to be on your bad side."

Keta laughed. "That's wise."

A pregnant pause turned into silence again and Hannah understood that Keta had revealed all she was going to about her personal life. There was one other question burning in Hannah's mind, though. "You don't hate humans?"

"Why should I?" Keta asked, her face serious. "What have you done to me? For that matter, what have you done to my people? So you want to settle in the same system as the Hegemony. So what? It's Balak and batarians like him with their narrow-minded views that keep my people under the thumb of the Hegemony. If it takes humans to bring the Hegemony to its knees, I'm perfectly fine with that."

Hannah sensed she had found a solid, though unlikely ally in Keta La'ali. Despite her past, Hannah liked Keta's frank way and her willingness to fight against a culture that brainwashed its own people.

Keta stood up. "It's probably been long enough. Balak won't find me, no matter how hard he tries. Let's get you back where you belong."

After leading Hannah through several twists and turns, up apparently unused hallways and stairways, Keta arrived at a door sealed shut. It took a couple minutes of working with her omni-tool, but the door eventually slid open. Keta stood to the side and gestured for Hannah to walk through.

"Thank you," Hannah said once more.

Keta grinned at her. "I hope to see you again sometime. But don't look for me. I'll find you."

"Okay," Hannah agreed. The door slid shut and Hannah heard it being sealed off again from the other side. She turned to get her bearings. She was in a small hallway. At the end, she glimpsed the artificial sky. Hannah made her way down the hall, then stepped out onto a balcony high at the top of the Presidium. She found some stairs and began descending. The closer to the bottom she got, the more aliens appeared. Each of them stared at her for a moment, then turned away, not saying a word to her. She knew she must look a mess on her face.

When she reached the bottom, Hannah made a beeline for the rooms the Alliance had rented. By the state of things, she thought it must be around lunchtime. No one was in the lounge next to their rooms. At first, she moved towards her room, then backtracked and stood hesitantly in front of Steven's door. Finally, when she'd gathered herself for his reaction, she touched the panel outside the door. She heard a chime ring inside. She realized he might not even be there, but she hoped he was.

The door slid open. Steven blinked his eyes in surprise and immediately reached out a hand to her. "Hannah, what happened?"

Hannah was comforted by Steven's hand on her shoulder and let him direct her towards a chair in his room. She sat and tried to control her feelings as she spoke, not wanting to lose it and bawl like a child in front of her captain.

"I was attacked."

"By who?" She heard controlled anger in Steven's voice.

"A group of batarians."

"Why?"

Hannah launched into the tale, how Balak had come into the bar and tried to force her out, how she'd defended herself and how he'd gathered a gang of peers to teach her what her place was in the galaxy as a human.

Steven paced back and forth in the room as she told her story, his hand covering his mouth and chin as he listened. When she finished, he stopped pacing and stalked over to the comm unit on the wall. He called up C-Sec and demanded they send an officer to his room immediately. It took some convincing, but at length he got an agreement to do just that.

"I'm sorry, Hannah," he said as he sat down across from her in a chair.

"I am, too," Hannah stated, gently touching the side of her face. "What do I look like?"

"It's not pretty. You're bruising on the left side. Your lip is swollen." Steven paused. "Daniel's going to kill me when he finds out about this."

"Don't tell Daniel," Hannah insisted firmly.

"He'll want to know…"

"Don't. Tell. Him," Hannah said, emphasizing each word. "He's just starting to be okay with aliens now. He can look at a turian on the television and not leave the room. I don't need him embroiled in a vendetta against batarians."

Steven nodded. "Alright. I won't tell him…But I'm sorry," he repeated. "Sorry your first trip to the Citadel ends up like this."

Hannah shook her head sadly. "I think I learned what I was supposed to learn by coming here—most of the galaxy hates us."

"Well, not all at least," Steven said. "The asari aren't so upset by us. Many races just leave us alone completely. The volus love us. They'll take credits from anyone. But, yes, humanity faces prejudice at the least and dangerous enemies at the worst."

"It's…difficult," Hannah said. "I've never faced this before, never been considered a hated minority."

"It will be an uphill battle for certain," Steven agreed. "The problem is that most of the alien races view humanity as aggressors. We came to their attention through a situation that revealed our prowess at making war. They were astounded we could defeat the turians and our warfare isn't conventional from their point-of-view. Truth be told, I think they're scared of us. We're a sleeping giant that might wake up and destroy them."

"But that isn't our intention," Hannah protested.

"No, but they don't see it that way. They only make judgments from their perspective. We're the new race of the galaxy, young, ambitious and militarily strong. In their eyes, we're like children playing with new toys and if they aren't careful, they might watch us become the bullies of the galaxy. They want to make sure we don't ruin the peace they want to maintain."

A chime sounded. Steven stood and walked to the door. It opened to reveal a turian from C-Sec. The next ten minutes found Hannah describing the assault and relating that the name of her attacker was Balak. The turian seemed a little suspect when he mentioned Hannah's injuries were not that extensive for being accosted by eight batarians. Hannah then admitted a good Samaritan had come to her aid, though had asked to remain anonymous. The turian wasn't pleased she didn't give him a name, but didn't try to force her to do so.

When he left, Hannah looked to Steven. "Do you think that did any good?"

Steven shrugged. "If he believed you, they'll look for this Balak. If he doesn't, they'll probably look anyway. I've heard the head of C-Sec is a by the book turian, personally involved in his work. They'll investigate. Whether they look hard enough is anyone's guess."

In the evening, Hannah sequestered herself in her room. Everyone had gone to dinner, but she hadn't felt like eating and declined to join in one last stroll around the Citadel. She just didn't feel safe enough to walk out the door yet.

She lay on her side in her bed, propped up on her elbow, reading her data pad. Daniel had sent a message. She'd never felt more happy to hear from him.

Hannah, hope all is going well on the Citadel. Things are same old, same old here. Docks and home. Jane's doing great. I can hardly believe she's eight. Seems like just yesterday we were looking at her in that incubator. She's already excited, knowing you'll bring her back a present. I tried to explain to her that even if you didn't bring anything back, just having you here is a gift. She agreed, but I think her mind is still on what you'll get her. Looking forward to having you back soon. Love you. Daniel.

Hannah closed her eyes against the tears that welled up in them. Daniel was her safe spot; with him, she felt comfort and security. Today, she'd felt terribly alone. She finally admitted to herself that she had been scared, petrified facing eight aliens whose only intent was to hurt her and maybe even kill her. The fear became palpable as she let down her guard while reading Daniel's e-mail. She wished more than anything she could be enveloped in one of his hugs right now.

Wiping her eyes, Hannah looked back down and noticed a new e-mail in her inbox. She didn't recognize the sender. The subject line read "Outraged." She tapped the line and the e-mail popped up.

We have been made aware of the incident that occurred today. We want to express our extreme sadness and outrage over how you have been treated. Humanity has found itself alone in the galaxy—there is no alien race willing to support us. We stand on our own. We feel that you are someone who understands this. We would like to ask you to record a statement for us so that humanity will know exactly what we are facing. It is time people knew the truth, that the aliens of the galaxy will stop at nothing to eradicate humanity. We will call you tonight at 2100. Terra Firma.

Hannah recognized the political party. Terra Firma had formed soon after the First Contact War, decrying humanity's entrance into the wider galaxy and citing Shanxi as evidence that to get involved with the rest of the galaxy was to destroy humanity. Hannah had always ignored their paranoia; now, she paused for a moment, willing to consider their point-of-view. At Shanxi, the turians had attacked a human colony, revealing the willingness to shoot before communicating. She'd heard a turian cop give up on a complaint because a human had reported the incident. She'd been assaulted by a group of bartarians who admitted openly they wanted nothing more than to wipe humanity out of the galaxy. Was there something to be said for standing against the aliens?

Hannah lightly touched her face, the bruises fresh and tender. She flinched and laid back on the bed. Yes, many aliens hated humans, but they didn't all hate them. The asari bartender she'd met today had been friendly and open. Then there was Keta, who'd revealed her presence on the Citadel to rescue a human she didn't even know. In truth, what Terra Firma stood for was exactly what the batarians who attacked her stood for: the supremacy of their own race over others. She couldn't support that.

Hannah reached over to turn off the lamp next to the bed. She closed her eyes, her mind contemplative. In a wider galaxy, what was her purpose? Everything had seemed so straightforward when humanity was "alone" in the galaxy: get a career, get into space and go as far as you can. But now that humanity found itself only one of many species, had her purpose changed? What was she meant to do?

Hannah fell asleep in the midst of her thoughts, worn out from the day's events. The beeping that indicated a call was coming through at 2100 hours went unanswered.