Chapter Five
Ralik was already two steps ahead of Kevin, coming up the stairs from deck two to his left just ahead of him. He must have been alerted as well. By the time they both got to the bridge, the Citadel was already in their viewports. Kevin immediately took the foremost seat and quickly urged Ralik to sit as well.
"Might want to grab a seat, Ralik. I can't dock a frigate to save my life."
Ralik nodded and took the seat behind and to the right of Kevin's. "As long as we avoid skyscrapers, I believe we will be fine." The salarian ended the sentence with a sly smile.
"You're just full of good humor today, aren't you?" Kevin asked, only slightly miffed.
"Keeping a cheerful atmosphere relieves stress on the mind, don't you think?"
"Is that your way of saying you have a coping mechanism?" Kevin chuckled.
"Perhaps. . ." Ralik's decisions of when to be stark and when to be enigmatic seemed random, if not well planned.
Kevin opened the local docking channel and hailed the traffic agents on the Citadel. "This is the Kellius, requesting permission to dock."
"Welcome back, Kellius," was the oddly lighthearted turian's reply. "Will you be staying at your private dock today?"
Kevin thought for a second. A private dock meant an expensive, well maintained area with plenty of guards around, maybe even a greeting party. Additionally, the fact that they knew the ship by name meant that Linus visited the Citadel often, and people at that private dock would be expecting him to step off the ship. They did not want that kind of exposure.
"No thanks. I've got some business to do in the wards today, and I need a dock away from my usual. Got anything in the Kithoi Wards?" Kevin clenched his teeth, hoping this wouldn't be too unusual a request.
"We do. Upper Kithoi Wards, dock forty-seven. Will you need a security escort? We have several C-Sec officers standing by."
"You guys are off the hook today, I have my own escort. Thanks for the offer though. Kellius out." Kevin was about to lean back when he realized the channel had not been cut yet.
"Aren't you going to need a vector and a berth, Kellius?" The turian's cheery voice now sounded suspicious, and a tad worried.
"My pilot has it covered." Kevin clenched his teeth once more, this time coupled with a fervent look of troubled failure on his face.
"Uh. . . Alright. Have a nice stay, Kellius." Soon after, the docking channel was cut. The docking agent was too busy to deal with that any longer than he already had.
"I suppose I should have said yes," Kevin reasoned as he brought the ship around to head towards the long arm of the Citadel known as the Kithoi Wards.
"Why didn't you say yes?" Ralik questioned, looking at Kevin in disbelief.
"I don't even know what a vector and a berth are. I just know basic piloting, I've never had to deal with that crap flying a shuttle."
Ralik brought an open palm to his long face and laughed. "Well, you've managed to wing it this far, let's see how you do here, yes? Also, when did you acquire a private dock? That's no small expense."
"It's a long, complicated story that I really have no desire to repeat. Again." Kevin had no idea if Ralik was going to leave once he found his brother, so there really was no need for him to reveal that the Kellius was technically stolen.
"Alright, alright," Ralik gave in, hands up in front of him. "I'll simply have to ask later."
"Is it just me, or are you actually enjoying pushing my buttons?" Kevin asked, not looking away from the screens and viewports as he descended to the location of fock forty-seven.
"I have no idea what you are referring to." A convenient dodge.
Kevin simply gave up, needing to concentrate more on docking the frigate. As the neared the dock, Kevin could clearly make out the hexagonal 'clearing' known as the famous Edroki Plaza. Kevin had a lot of memories of there from when he first visited the Citadel after leaving the Alliance. Some he wished to forget, others he cherished. An all around mix, really. He certainly planned to visit the plaza again while he was here. If his memory served, Tarsil spent a lot of time in the plaza do a myriad of things. Most of those things involved money and clandestine transactions. It wasn't black market, not really. The items that he dealt with would be flagged if they passed through C-Sec, but Tarsil knew ways around that. His clients needed to move otherwise flagged items through to people on or going through the Citadel.
As they lowered, the hustle and bustle typical of any upper wards arm could be seen coming into view, but the dock was just outside the maintained atmosphere so they would not be going all the way down. To Kevin's relief, the docks on Kithoi, or at the very least this dock was still pretty low-key, with only a typical C-Sec docking guard squad and crew. It was rather unlikely that any of them knew the Kellius. The docking procedure here was a bit easier, due to quite a bit more free space to give room for error. This didn't mean that the process was without bumps, however. Kevin's abilities ensured that. Even still, the ship was docked without any serious incident, similar to the Illium docking.
As they left the Kellius, one of the armed C-Sec guards came out to meet them. There wasn't any need for alarm, as the gun was still holstered. It was obvious the turian coming out to meet them wasn't looking for a fight or arrest.
"Bad news," the turian started. "Your ship's been flagged for investigation."
"What?" Kevin asked, surprised. "Why?"
"Apparently the law enforcement on Illium has you wanted for arrest," the officer explained.
"Figured that might come back to bite us," Ralik stated regretfully.
"It doesn't say what for, so you guys are still cleared to roam this ward. Thing is, your ship'll be locked down until an envoy from the Illium police force can get here and take a look themselves. It's out of our jurisdiction, so we won't be touching it. Don't worry, we respect people's privacy and all that. Just don't give us a reason to, hear me?"
"Dually noted, officer," Kevin assured. "Don't worry, that's all a misunderstanding and I certainly don't plan on causing trouble on the Citadel."
"See that you don't. I've got enough crap to deal with. Anyway, the Illium police force said their envoy is held up in some recent issues in Nos Astra, so it might be a couple days before they arrive. Have a nice day." The C-Sec officer then turned around to leave and headed back into the guard station.
When the officer left, Kevin and Ralik simply continued on their way towards the docking elevator that would take them to the surface of the upper wards. This particular area wasn't very busy. Most of the vehicles coming and going were part of the Rapid Transit system the Citadel used and anything bigger than that tended to be mid-sized frigates carrying supplies. There were less big name stores on this ward, so traffic wasn't as intense as, say, Zakera ward.
Just outside the guard station was a Rapid Transit terminal. Kevin activated it and chose the Rapid Transit station closest to the Edroki Plaza, where they hoped to find Tarsil. Not more than a few seconds later, a small automated shuttle quickly pulled up and opened for the users to sit inside. The following trip to the next station was quick, albeit quiet. Apparently Ralik had no ill-timed words of wisdom or button pushing wits. Once they pulled up to the destination, the shuttle opened and they both stepped out to a metallic platform overlooking the majority of the surface of Kithoi's upper wards.
The Edroki Plaza was one of the most popular areas on all of Kithoi Wards. It was a giant square of surface area on the upper wards devoid of skyscrapers and large buildings of any kind. The center most area of the square, taking up roughly half the free space is a green area. Trees, soft grass, benches and even a flowing creek are in this park-like zone, meant entirely for the enjoyment of the citizens of the Citadel. A few species of the more pleasant animals from various planets resided here, helping create a natural and serene ambiance not easily found on the static atmosphere of the grand space station.
Just outside this green zone was a cacophony of things to see. High-tech tents of traveling merchants setting up shop as close to the legal commerce border of the green zone as possible. All manner of species walking to and fro, some shopping the daily rotated wares and some enjoying personal hobbies. Various people were playing strange and alien forms of amateur sports games, others elected to show off hobbies, such as personal skills and collections. Beyond this area, known as the 'Ring of Edroki', was the outer plaza.
This area, which extended to the very outside edge of the square, was where a lot of more permanent buildings resided. These buildings were rented out on a standard galactic weekly basis to small shopkeepers looking to sell wares with a bit more chronological stability than the ones within the Ring who are in and out within one to two galactic days. This area tended to be the busiest, as the majority of the cheaper shops on the Kithoi wards were here.
Standing on a ledge next to a set of stairs heading down between tall shop buildings and to the plaza, Kevin could see the large Taralos Amphitheater building in the distance, sparkling in the ambient light of the surrounding wards and the Serpent Nebula about half-way between the plaza and the outer tip. There were a number of large, brightly colored lights orbiting the top of the structure, indicating a production was about to be experienced. A glance behind him reminded him of just how large the wards actually were. Even when overlooking the plaza and all the wards beyond that to the pointed end, he was really only about half way to the elevators linking the wards to the presidium. He could only barely make out the massive and uniquely shaped structure where the Council Central Archives were housed. Whenever Kevin traveled to the plaza, he always took a moment to take in the sight. Since the Edroki Plaza was more or less smack dab in the middle of Kithoi, this busy Rapid Transit Station was raised considerably and had one of the most impressive views of the wards. The only place more scenic than this was Kithoi point.
"Uh, Kevin, are you coming?" Ralik asked, breaking Kevin from his moment. The salarian was already partly down the stairs. He seemed anxious and in a hurry to see his brother.
"Yeah, coming," was his distracted reply.
The further down the stairs they went, the louder the ambient noise became. It was in the middle of the day here, and the plaza was already pretty busy. Kevin began to wonder just how long it would take them to find Tarsil. Edroki Plaza wasn't small by any means. The glow of shop-mounted signs attempting to catch the eye of passers by and lure them in bathed the outer edge in a vast array of colors. Down the row to their right, Ralik spied a building with a large blue-hued sign for information. Deciding not to speak above the crowd in case someone was listening, Ralik nudged Kevin and pointed to the building. Kevin nodded, thinking the information kiosk was certainly a good place to start. Fortunately for Kevin and Ralik, while crowds here tended to be large, they were also loose. It was no trouble weaving through the flowing groups of shoppers and strolling individuals. Within a matter of five minutes, they had reached the information kiosk building and stepped inside.
The moment the door shut behind them, two salarians from across the lobby walked around from behind a counter and approached Kevin and Ralik rather quickly. Armed. Kevin quickly identified the weapons as turian-issued pistols. Kevin, being rather familiar with situations like this, casually put his hands into the air.
"Alright, we surrender," he said in mocking disinterest. Ralik went to speak, but he was cut off before so much as a word was spoken.
"You know the rules. No protection services are allowed here." It seemed as though they were speaking to Ralik. Kevin took a second to think before he realized that Ralik was still in his Eclipse hardsuit – and he was without his. After casting a glance to his salarian shipmate, he found Ralik already realized what they were referring to. Kevin tried to talk them down, being slightly surprised that they had weapons aboard the Citadel.
"Now hold on just a-" He was cut off by the same salarian that spoke before. They weren't having any of it.
"Stop talking and just get out, or we'll have to drop you and turn you over to C-Sec for harassing merchants."
Kevin and Ralik simply looked at each other and cautiously turned around to walk out. As soon as they approached the door and hit the access panel, it slid open revealing a salarian prepared for an ugly situation with a full combat suit and helmet who immediately shoved a pistol in Kevin's face. Big mistake.
The split second that the realization of a firearm was that close to his person, Kevin's reflexes took over. His right hand quickly came up and grabbed the end of the pistol and twisted it jarringly and awkwardly, ripping it from the unsuspecting salarian's hand. A quick follow-up kick to the abdomen in just the right place laid the offending salarian out in the doorway with a loud grunt. Lastly, Kevin spun slightly to point his newly acquired weapon at the two merchants. As he aimed down the sight of his pistol, he quickly discovered that it was bent horribly out of shape – namely, the shape of a human hand that had gripped it from the barrel end. He turned the 'gun' to the side a bit to get a better look at it. Now that it was deformed, he could tell it wasn't a real gun. Was he just fooled? In a slight fit of confusion, he heard Ralik shouting at him from behind.
"Kevin, stop! Really, just take a breath." Ralik's tone indicated that he was a bit peeved at Kevin's immediate reaction. Kevin turned around once again to see Ralik helping the salarian he kicked up from the floor.
"Does someone want to explain to me what the crap is going on?" Kevin asked to all in the room.
"Augh," the now standing salarian grunted, "No no, it's our fault. We should have known better with someone like him." He wavered as he went to stand on his own, still wheezing from the kick. "That was a heck of a kick, Kevin. Just at the right place to knock the wind out of me. Wouldn't expect any less from you."
It was only now that it dinged in Kevin's head who was talking to.
"Tarsil? Are you freaking kidding me? What's with the setup?" Kevin was both relieved and irritated at the same time.
"It's called preparation, Kevin," Tarsil lightheartedly informed as he gingerly removed the helmet. "We saw someone in an Eclipse uniform walk into our information booth. You know our policy, Kevin, 'No gang members allowed'."
Kevin placed a hand on his face. He had totally forgotten that Ralik was still wearing the Eclipse suit. "Oh good Lord. I'm an idiot. But... What's up with the guns? Clearly these aren't real."
Tarsil chuckled. "Well, as you know, guns aren't permitted on the Citadel. C-Sec gives us shop owners here on Kithoi these phasic tranquilizer pistols in case someone does try to shake us down before the guards can get here. A preventative measure, see? Though... It appears their construction leaves much to be desired," Taril murmured as he took the now uselessly deformed pistol from Kevin.
"I suppose that makes me feel a bit better," Kevin said, relieved.
"What do you mean?" asked Ralik.
"The two desk clerks - I didn't recognize them. I feared someone got a hold of your shop, or C-Sec ran you out."
"That's because you've never met them before," Tarsil stated, something clicking in his head. "Which also explains why they didn't recognize either of you as well. That said, allow me to make the introductions. Kevin, Ralik, these are our two new recruits – Jolaar and Deramus. Jolaar, Deramus, this is my brother Ralik, and this is my good friend Kevin. One is family and one is like family, are we clear?"
The two new clerks nodded without hesitation to Tarsil, then sent some awkward, but understanding waves and gestures of greeting towards Kevin and Ralik. Kevin and Ralik both returned the gestures, equally as understanding and equally as awkward.
Tarsil pressed to move on. "Now then. Since formalities are out of the way, why don't we take our conversation to the back of the store?" Tarsil was already on his way around the counter by then.
"Right behind you, man," Kevin eagerly stated as he followed Tarsil around.
"As am I," Ralik said, doing likewise.
The two clerks resumed their positions behind the counter, waiting for customers to enter as Tarsil, Kevin and Ralik went through the thick metal door behind them. They seemed to briefly eye the two 'newcomers' before the door shut completely. Once the door was shut, the room inside was pitch black.
"Lights on," Tarsil casually stated to the darkness. Within the second, the lights of the back room came on and blanketed the place in a soft blueish white light. Now revealed was a spacey room centered by a transparent table and soft chairs. Further to the back was yet another door, which Kevin knew was their communications outlet. The left side of the room was lined with computers and database servers, along with some typical office-type locked drawers for holding physical documents. The right side of the room was more amenity-driven. Food and drink storage, vid screens, a set of comfy laid back chairs and a salarian-originated table-top game that Kevin could never pronounce correctly.
"Please, have a seat," Tarsil said, waving a hand at the table and surrounding chairs as he headed towards the food storage.
"I see you fixed the place up nice, Tarsil," Kevin mentioned, impressed as he took a chair. "Looks less like a batarian info-mining bunker."
"It looked like what before?" Ralik asked with a chuckle.
"Hah. Yes, the place definitely needed what you call a 'face lift'," Tarsil added while tossing Kevin and Ralik sealed bubbly drinks. "There's a lot more functionality now."
"That's good. It also looks like cybersecurity is on the up and up." Kevin popped the seal on his beverage and started to chug, stopping only so that he wouldn't down it all in one shot.
"Of course," Taris said confidently, "Information's becoming a lucrative, but dangerous business. I can't quite compete with the Shadow Broker, but I'm already pulling in some very interesting tidbits thanks to our mutual friends. Some tidbits even the Shadow Broker sent agents to buy."
Everyone nodded, acknowledging the accomplishment that Tarsil had achieved. Anything the Shadow Broker deemed worthy of purchase was definitely information worth selling. Then there was a lasting silence. Awkward, like the kind you have after meeting a family member for the first time and not knowing what to talk about. It prevailed for maybe a minute and a half before Tarsil broke the silent streak with a legitimate question.
"So... Ralik. Did you go join those scum Eclipse while I wasn't looking or what?"
Ralik's immediate reaction was surprise, but that only lasted a fraction of a second. He sipped the last of his drink and sat forward, placing the container on the table. "Oh, you mean my suit. Let's just say it was a necessary acquisition for my infiltration into one of their HQs on Illium."
Tarsil laughed.
"So you're the one that stirred up the nest?" he laughed while taking a seat. "That's just about the best thing I've heard all week." He was obviously very amused.
"Why is this so hilarious?" Ralik asked, rather curious and marginally irritated at the implications.
"Well... Because the one to make interplanetary underground wanted boards by infiltrating their stronghold and stealing experimental technology is actually my very own Ralik Dolannus! Ha!"
"Wanted boards? That does not sound healthy. How worried should I be?"
Kevin creaked a smile. He knew what was about to be said.
"Normally? Not very. One salarian in the galaxy is generally difficult to track down, especially since you left the planet on a ship they don't have tabs on. So really they don't know where you are or who you are."
"I suppose that's a relie-" Ralik was cut off by the rest of Tarsil's explanation.
"But they know him," he stated, flicking a finger towards Kevin. "They've got more than a grudge against this guy. According to some data I mined a few days back, they've spent almost a million credits faction-wide trying to track and bring Kevin down."
"Almost a million? Wow, I'm almost proud of myself," Kevin sarcastically blurted out just before he leaned back and interlaced his fingers behind his head.
"And since they've seen you with him, you're quickly gaining yourself a bounty as well," Tarsil finished with a humor-driven smile.
"Great. This means bounty hunters. Leave it to Kevin to keep things interesting for me," Ralik mused, only mildly depressed.
"Hah. You don't know that half of it, Ralik," Tarsil continued. "The longer you hang around him, the more 'interesting' things get." He leaned back in his chair and began to rock it back and forth ever so slightly. "Now this explains why the Eclipse are after you," he thought aloud while pointing to Ralik, "but this doesn't explain why the Illium authorities are after you," he continued as his pointing finger slowly shifted accusingly from Ralik to Kevin.
"What, me? Come on, I'm a do-right guy. Just helping a local salarian out of a bind."
"A do-right guy that gets lockdown orders," Tarsil chuckled. "You know me, Kevin. I'm just interested in the story, I don't judge. Gives me something to tell the guys down at the bar."
"It may have something to do with disruption of traffic, firing weapons in the travel lanes... Oh, and the hole in the side of the hangar building probably made news, too. I did all that just getting your family here away from the 'Eclipse Scum'."
"I didn't have a ship," was Ralik's simple side of the story. "Apparently, Eclipse mercenaries can mobilize much faster now then anytime we faced them in the STG."
"You live and you learn, right Kevin?" Tarsil said while lifting his drink to Kevin.
"Or you forget and you burn," Kevin finished, raising his empty canister to the toasting salarian.
"Which reminds me!" Tarsil suddenly jumped out of his seat, not having even drank to that little toast he just announced. "Come with me. You guys will want to see this." He then swiftly moved off to the side of the room where the wall was lined with terminals.
"This should be good," Kevin said, smirking. "Tarsil doesn't get this excited over much of anything." He and Ralik also stood from their seats and moved to the terminals with the now sitting Tarsil. "Whatcha got?"
"Apparently, there was a combined effort between the salarian, turian and alliance military to send stealthed probes out deep into geth space in order to gain more intelligence on just what's left. Even though the geth aren't much of a threat right now, that could change if they find a lot more geth out there gathering their forces together. Anyways..."
"Breathe, Tarsil." Ralik laughed and patted his brother on the shoulders.
"Right, right. Yes. One of the probes found something of particular importance. Out in what is currently known as the An'Ramini Expanse, an area beyond the Far Rim relay towards the very edge of the galaxy, the probe picked up an unusually large concentration of geth forces. With a stealthed probe fly-by, it scanned everything it could."
"Alright, so there are more geth out towards dark space. How is that surprising?" Kevin was mildly disappointed. He was hoping for something far more interesting on the galactic scale. This only meant there would be very long deep space trips in uncomfortable warships into the An'Ramini Expanse to wipe out the geth before they could organize another attack. He was glad he wasn't still in the military.
"Ah but it gets better. When the probe flew by, it picked up some interesting things, like new geth ship designs, undocumented, but strip-mined planets and... something else." Tarsil hit a few buttons on the terminal and navigated to a collection of images. He expanded one of them to show on the wall-sized screen so everyone could see.
"It's an active relay," Kevin boringly stated.
"Let me finish!" Tarsil shouted. "I did some digging to see if this relay had ever been documented before, and it has. For the most part, the An'Ramini Expanse is unexplored. The quarians that discovered it never bothered with a place so close to the edge of the galaxy. That was almost four hundred years ago. Some time just before the geth uprising, a group of salarians traveled out that way with exploration in mind. They found that relay there and named it the Melkanis Relay, likely after one of the crew that helped discover it."
"You're boring me with history, Tarsil. You are going somewhere with this, right?" Kevin immediately felt the hand of a salarian hit his arm, but it wasn't Tarsil's.
"He said let him finish," Ralik ordered.
"Fine, geez."
Tarsil finally continued. "Try as they might, the salarian group could not get the relay to activate, as if it was permanently shut down or incapacitated. Apparently there were one or two other groups that tried, and no one could get the relay to activate. It was soon declared as a 'dead' relay and no one bothered to place it on star maps."
"But..." Kevin started, placing a hand on his chin. "that one's active. That's the Melkanis relay?"
"Precisely. But that's only half the reason I'm so thrilled over all this."
"Can I ask one question before we get to that?" Ralik asked, stopping the explanation and leaning back with his arms folded. "If this is a military effort, how are we reading this? I expect this is highly classified information."
"And so," Tarsil smugly began, "we move onto the other half. Someone in one of those three military groups leaked this information out on the extranet. It was only out there for a short while before its source was deleted, but guess who got full copies of all this information?"
"Tarsil you sneaky son of a gun. You stole leaked military info." Kevin patted Tarsil on the back with a smile. "Know if anyone else got it?"
"As far as I can tell, there were only two other active connections to that server while I was coping the data. Like mine, those were killed when the server was shutdown to delete the sensitive data."
Ralik nodded. "So what you're saying is... You have an extremely rare and valuable piece of information that all sorts of factions will want to get their grubby hands on."
"We're going to make a fortune, brother."
"Unless the shadow broker has it and is already selling it out." Kevin always was the buzzkill.
"That's where you are wrong, Mr. Folner," Tarsil countered, waving a finger in confidence. "I've already had two offers from shadow broker agents. I guess the shadow broker knows about it, but doesn't know about it. It also shows just what kind of competition we're becoming. An ominous, yet welcoming thought, yes?"
"Hmm." Ralik was clearly lost in thought, having been stuck in the same pose for several minutes now. "I'm more interested in the relay. Did you see the direction it was pointed in? It only had one rail out, pointed towards dark space."
"Maybe there's a small cluster of stars out there or something," Kevin guessed. "Whatever it is, the geth have taken a liking to it, and that makes my gut turn." There was a brief pause at such a thought.
"I bet finding out would make for one heck of a discovery," Ralik nodded, curiosity rising.
"And I bet that discovery would be worth an insurmountable number of credits," Tarsil added.
"Now now, let's not get greedy. This information alone will get you enough credits to live comfortably without working for years. Though I have to admit, I'd like to know what's out there. Something even the citadel doesn't have information on." Even Kevin's curiosity could not be kept under wraps.
"Kevin you have a new ship, why don't you go find out?" Tarsil turned his chair away from the terminal to face the other two. He couldn't resist the sudden and convenient opportunity.
"Well the Kellius is fast, but I don't know. Flying right into all those geth seems like a suicide mission. She's got no dogfight weapons, only a spine-mounted one. Plus it looks like a long trip. How far away is the An'Ramini Expanse anyways?"
Tarsil spun back around to find that out on the terminal. "According to these documents... At least a few days worth of FTL travel from the Far Rim relay. There are some planets marked out on the map that make excellent discharge locations."
"That's all well and good, but I don't have the fuel or the supplies to make that long of a trip."
Tarsil smirked. "That's an easy fix. I can have some supplies and gratuitous amounts of extra fuel 'accidentally' redirected to your ship."
"Great. And I suppose the next thing you're going to tell me is that you can cancel the lockdown on my ship," Kevin said, knowing full well that Tarsil was capable of such a feat.
"Kevin, who are you talking to?" Tarsil asked with another smirk. "Here, I'll even make it worth your while. Forty thousand credits for the delivery of information regarding exactly what is on the other side of that relay."
Kevin's barriers on this subject came crumbling down. "Yeah, yeah. Alright, I'll give it a try. But if those geth give me trouble, I'm turning around, got it? Assuming I can turn around by then." Kevin chuckled and walked back towards the table. Meanwhile, Ralik finally snapped out of his deep thought.
"Wait, what? You're going to try and pass the relay? With all those geth? In that tin can?"
"Yeah, no thanks to your brother and all his irresistible offers," Kevin said.
"Then I'm going with. I'm a field scientist, after all. What better chance to study the unknown than to fly right into it? Ah, ignoring black holes of course." Ralik's excitement was similar to Tarsil's. Fitting, since they were brothers.
"It is settled then," Tarsil said decisively. "I'll get you supplies and you'll explore the unknown. Bring back some neat data and we all win. Bring a game with you, though. That'll be a long, quiet trip."
"Beh. I'll figure it out tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to hit the sack back on the Kellius."
"That's alright," Tarsil mentioned, tapping away at his terminal, "I'll need a few hours before the supplies can be delivered anyways."
"I'm going to stay here and help Tarsil with whatever needs to be done, Kevin. We have plenty of catching up to do anyways."
"You say that as if I'm looking forward to such conversations, brother," Tarsil sternly noted. When Ralik looked to him in disgust, Tarsil pointed at him in a 'got you!' style and they both laughed.
"Try not to kill eachother, alright? I wouldn't look forward to doing this all by my lonesome." Kevin said lightheartedly, nearing the exit.
"Lonesome?" Ralik shouted back. "What about your alluring female companion? She's going as well!"
"Female companion?" Kevin had to stop and think. He was pretty sure there wasn't anyone else on the ship. And then it hit him. Ralik was talking about Terra. "Screw you, Ralik!" he yelled back, not exactly angry. "I'll see you later."
After a quick wave from the brothers, he finally pushed through the metal door back to the information broker lobby. Upon shutting the door behind him, he was greeted by the staring eyes of the two desk clerks who probably heard him yelling back at Ralik. He put one hand up as he walked around the desk and towards the exit.
"Just... Don't ask."
Once outside, Kevin drew in a lung full of not-quite-as-artificially-refreshed air. He let it out in a long slow exhale as he stared into the moving masses of aliens and human alike all about the Edroki Plaza. He had the strangely distinct feeling that things were going to get ugly on the trip, and not with Ralik. Still, such things never deterred him in the past and they certainly wouldn't now, not with so many interesting things about to play out. For now, though, Kevin decided to worry about the prep tomorrow after some shut-eye. Turning left, he began to make his uneventful way back to his ship, and eventually, his oversized bed.