Chapter Four, Strange New Life

"Never walk away from home ahead of your axe and sword. You can't feel a battle in your bones or foresee a fight."

Martin made a makeshift bed out of the crates that were all over the shuttle. He and Velpia decided to take up shifts watching over the autopilot. Of course, since he couldn't fly the shuttle, she instructed him not to touch the controls and wake her if anything happened. She also set up proximity waypoints on the nav computer to let Martin know when to wake her. This was a notification system to alert them when they needed to use a Mass Effect relay or reached a point. This was all above his head, and he knew it. He started to wish he was thrown in a time machine and sent backward in time rather than gone forward.

The relays had amazed him; then again, it was the size of a small moon. It reminded him of a massive gun, which made his inner childlike wonderment bounce with joy. He dared not let Velpia see his excitement.

His time alone in the cockpit was used to read. She showed him how to access the extranet when they passed by a comm bouy, which allowed him to start reading up on the time he had missed. There was one subject that he avoided. Instead, he skimmed through a few general summaries on general Human history that he had missed, trying to skim through as much as possible to grasp the 'world' he was introduced to. Sleep was difficult for him; his mind would race around, searching for answers on how he ended up here. He only came up with some vague theories, some of which almost gave him a panic attack. Eventually, once he laid down on the floor with his legs propped up on one of the crates, he found some sleep.

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His mind slightly perked awake after his four-hour nap was supposed to end. "She must be having some fun; she hasn't woken me up yet." he thought as he slipped back to sleep.

Martin sprang up several hours later. The crazed half-baked thought of the ship drifting into a star sitting shook him awake. He looked around, still a bit groggy from his sleep; the shuttle was strangely empty and quiet. No vibrations or noise from the engines, nothing. He rose up from the floor and checked the cockpit. No one was there. He quickly moved to the side door, put his hand on the release handle, and hesitated momentarily. "Wait," He remembered her words from earlier, not to open any hatches.

He returned to the cockpit and looked out the front of the shuttle. This was not space. He saw a sea of tall brown-tinted buildings, some looking like skyscrapers. Others hang from the ceiling. All with a yellow/reddish light source that imitated a sun far away. Some of these buildings had flames bursting from their tops. Everything gave off the impression of a dirty atmosphere.

"Where in the fuck am I?" He moved back to the shuttle's door and grabbed the handle, pausing for a moment, debating momentarily about breaking the rule. The door opened without his command, and he took a step back. He was frightened by the thought of suffocating from the lack of air. This feeling lifted to see a familiar gray face greeting him.

"You alright? You look like you saw a ghost." He stood there for a few moments breathing in the air that he thought wouldn't be there; then the outside smell breached the ship.

Martin cleared his throat of his embarrassment. "Ah, where are we? Smells like rocks and despair." Martin quipped. Velpia walked into the shuttle and headed toward the back of the ship, where the weapons were.

"Omega." She picked up Rifle and some other items. "Get some guns; probably best to stay armed here." Martin looked a bit confused but did what she commanded. He picked up what was left, a Carnifex pistol and a shotgun. She embarrassingly had to show him how the weapons folded to be put away and how to store them on his suit.

They left the shuttle and headed down a fairly wide walkway and headed toward one of the columns he noticed earlier. "So what's the story with this place? Is it underground or what?" Martin looked around above him.

"We are inside a very large asteroid; this is where people try to come and start a new life... well, try to." She shrugged her shoulders. "It's really just a haven for criminals, terrorists, weapons, and narcotic trafficking... a fun place to be."

Martin began to smile; he could barely hold back. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

"Pretty much," she answered back. Martin shook his head, realizing his joke flew right over her head.

They finally entered the building and walked into an elevator. "So what are we doing here?"

Velpia leaned up against the wall of the elevator and looked at him. "There weren't many places to go." The elevator's floor count kept rising. "We don't have travel credentials, so we can't go to the Citadel... Earth... Sur'kesh... definitely don't want to go to Palaven... we need credits to go to Illium, so yeah, Omega." Martin leaned back against the wall with his hands on the railing that rounded the elevator.

"And besides, I figured if you wanted a ride back home, you could find it here without me being stuck in the middle of nowhere."

Martin was quiet; returning to Earth appealed to him for a fleeting moment. "No," he stated while dropping his eyes to the floor. "I can't go back, or I don't know if I can."

The elevator stopped, and she slowly began to walk out the doorway. Martin followed her to an area that looked suspended from the original skyscraper. He could see a landing pad to his left, some building to his front with a line of people and aliens waiting to get in. The dark architecture surrounding him was lit; his closest guess was neon lights. She walked to the railing in front of them, the distant sound of electronic music playing in the background. Probably coming from that place with the sign called 'Afterlife.' He dismissed it, thinking it looked like some post-punk church. He then looked up and saw a hologram of two aliens dancing provocatively. "That has to be one interesting church."

Velpia stared off into the distance. Martin joined her but faced the opposite way keeping an eye on the scenery behind them.

"So." She paused for a moment. "You don't want to go back to Earth?" she asked while folding her arms.

Martin sighed defeatedly. "I don't know if I can; I wasn't exactly on the best of terms with the government back home, and like you said, no travel creds."

Velpia's nice demeanor changed to a more stern stance. "Well, I'm not a tour guide; I'm a Private Security Contractor, so I'm not going to give you a handout."

"I'm not asking for one. If you don't want me around, I'll figure my own way. I appreciate you getting me here." Martin stepped away from the railing and began to walk away. To where he didn't know.

Velpia shook her head, "You idiot, you have no idea what you're doing!" He stopped and turned back around as she walked to him. "What I was trying to say; you seemed like you were good with a gun back on the Batarian ship, and I need help with some work. We can help each other out until we get on our feet."

Martin thought about it for a few short seconds. He couldn't say no, he had absolutely no idea where he actually was or how anything worked, and Omega didn't give off the nicest of feelings either. "Alright, what did you have in mind?"

"We need credits, or we won't get very far. So we should probably sell the shuttle."

He looked at her, a little confused, "They'll just take a stolen shuttle? There's not a title of ownership or anything with these things?"

Velpia giggled as she began to walk down the pathway. "This is Omega; no one cares about paperwork."

They took what they needed off the ship and headed towards a used ship dealer. They explained that they came across a nice shuttle for him. This Batarian didn't seem to care where the shuttle came from or their story. She bargained with the Batarian for about forty-five minutes before the Batarian agreed to a price. The two walked out of the storefront; Martin was generally impressed she could get fifty-thousand credits. Velpia, however, seemed disappointed. Martin quickly realized he may have been pinning the value on the money value back home; he tempered his emotions.

"Do we have enough?" he asked gingerly.

She seemed a little annoyed by the question refusing to answer for a little while as he followed behind her. "For a short time, I'll have to reach out to my contacts to properly get us on our feet."

Martin quickened his pace to keep up with her long stride. "So where are we headed now? He asked. "We're heading to my old apartment; I want to see if it's still here, it's a bit of a walk, and we aren't spending any money on a cab."

The pair walked for hours to another large column structure and entered what looked to be a housing unit. This building seemed more run down than the other structures they visited. The architecture seemed strange to Martin. After traveling through the short entrance hallway, the walls opened up. There was a large open area with some raised plots of dirt and trees; it gave him the impression of being outside yet at the same time enclosed in a dome or habitat. Like much of what he had seen so far, this place was darkly lit. There was lighting, but not enough to overpower the dark gray steel colors that surrounded him.

She led him to an elevator to an upper floor and down a tight hallway. She stopped in front of a doorway. She placed her hand on a green pad that hung off the doorway some six inches or so. The two entered the room. "It's not much, but it's home," Velpia said.

The apartment was tiny; by his estimate couldn't have been more than ten feet wide. He saw her walk into the back room to the right. She couldn't have walked more than twelve feet to the door. There was a door leading outside to a small balcony directly in front of him on the far side of the apartment, nearest to the door she entered. To the left was another door that led to a bathroom. The apartment was messy or somewhat disorganized.

A couch to his right was perpendicular to the wall; in front of the sofa looked to be an entertainment stand that was home to various nicknacks, tools, and random oddities; he guessed this was the living room. Behind the couch was the Kitchen, again small, with a small row of countertops and what appeared to be a stove and what he hoped was a fridge. Not a lot of room to make a several-course meal, but livable. The walls were similar to every place else; Martin thought that the builders of this station had never heard of paint.

Martin sat on the couch, thankful that he could finally sit down after such a long walk. He removed his weapons and placed them on the messy coffee table in front of him. He laid back on the couch, closed his eyes, and stretched out his legs. After a short while, he heard footsteps from the direction of the bedroom. Then dart across the apartment. He ignored the sounds of running water. He was tired and honestly wanted out of the Hard suit, but by the sounds of it, he would have to wait his turn for the bathroom. He then realized he was probably stuck in it since he didn't have any other clothes, but that was later him's problem.

A little later, he heard the door shut to the bathroom, which startled him awake. He rubbed his eye as his vision readjusted. He sat up a bit and turned around on the couch towards the sound. Velpia had stepped out of the bathroom; His eyes locked on her... figure. At this point, Martin hadn't completely registered just how alien she was compared to a human. But as different as these Turians looked, they still weren't so different. The clothes she was formerly wearing seemed to hide her hourglass-ish figure, which was now on display. She wore a tight short red shirt that showed a bit of her midsection, and dark-colored pants clung to her and accentuated her hips and the way her thighs curved. That's where human similarities stopped. The top head hole of her shirt was very wide, leaving space for a very short circular ridge structure wrapped around her chest all the way around her head.

Martin turned back around, trying not to stare. It wasn't so much that he was attracted to her; she was more of a curiosity, maybe for further study. Velpia sat down next to him on the opposite side of the couch. "Nothing like a hot shower after being abducted to really clear the mind." She boasted.

Martin tilted his head towards her. His eyes started low; her forearms were covered in some sort of bone/metal plating, some sort of biological adaptation, he had guessed. This plating was also on her legs and her face. Martin realized he was staring again for too long and shut his eyes hard as if something was wrong with his vision.

"So... ah," Martin cleared his throat before continuing. "You don't happen to have spare human clothes do you?"

Velpia's eyes darted about, "I think I have something." She got up, dug around for a few minutes, and gave him a Sweatshirt and sweatpants. She explained she had gotten curious about humans' apparent obsession with Sweat clothes. Whatever the case, he could finally get out of the suit. It started to chafe because he discarded his old clothes and undergarments on the Batarian ship.

He entered that bathroom, unzipped the hard suit, and hung it on a rack by the door. He turned to face the mirror and looked down at the scars he had on his chest, shoulders, and arms. He began to hear faint screaming in his head and phantom pain that manifested as a slight itch in his scars. Martin quickly turned away from the reflection. Each was a reminder that he couldn't completely escape, and he was too tired to confront those demons today.

Once he was done with the shower, he returned to his spot on the couch. Velpia seemed to have retired for the night or day; he couldn't tell what it actually was. He laid himself down across the couch and tried to make himself comfortable. Within a few minutes, his thoughts once again drifted to how he made it eighty-something years into the future. The last thing he remembered was being taken to prison. It was such a massive leap from prison to waking up from a cryo pod that he started thinking that he could be a clone. Martin eventually closed his eyes as he struggled to fend off the silly scenario.

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Martin was forced awake with a rush of adrenaline. He was out of breath, sweating, and hot, his muscles all very tense, and he was angry; which only made him angry. He quickly laid his head back down, gritting his teeth, trying to force whatever was happening to him to go away.

There was a loud series of bangs on the door which startled him. He quickly sat up as Velpia dashed out of the bedroom to a monitor hanging from the ceiling inside the door. Martin wiped his face of sweat and noticed Velpia had her pistol in her hand. The door opened just as the malfunctioning screen powered up.

Velpia immediately pointed her handgun at the person standing on the other side. The human pushed his way in, not phased by Velpia's pistol. She walked backward as he pushed his forehead into the barrel of the pistol as if tempting her to shoot. The human eventually stopped about five feet away from the door.

Martin, now standing, tried to reach down for his pistol on the coffee table, but more blue and white uniformed guards burst through the door with their weapons pointed at him. They surrounded him with weapons just a few feet away. He decided to forego the pistol and stand back up straight.

The man slowly drew from his side and slowly pointed it at Martin as he turned his attention back to her. He could plainly see that Velpia was terrified. She was shaking ever so slightly, her eyes were wide open, and she was breathing heavily. She was trying to keep it together.

"So, who's the fuck boy?" The man asked.

The man paused for a few seconds and waited for a response. "Alright... how about we put the gun down? We both know you won't use it."

Velpia darted her eyes toward Martin as he was waiting for her to make a move; "What? Do you need his permission?" The man dropped his weapon and turned towards him. Martin clenched his fists, expecting to get shoot or hit, and stood defiantly, staring into the man's eyes. The man approached him and stopped only inches away from his face. "You don't seem tough, short shit." The scared-faced man grunted.

Martin cracked a smile through his building anger. "Tougher than you."

He inched closer as the man grunted and cracked a smirk. The man took two steps back and straightened his back, the smirk disappearing from his face as he extended his arm and fired his weapon at Martin's foot. The gun let out a deafening bang, and the round ricocheted off the floor and into the wall behind him. Martin winced from the noise but held back his fear long enough for it to pass. The man seemed to be disappointed in Martin's reaction as he turned his attention back to Velpia.

"Velp, tell me something." He paused as she lowered her weapon.

"I didn't interrupt anything, did I?" The man asked as he swung around his gun as he was talking. "I mean, everyone's still in the PJs; it took a while for someone to answer the door... I walk in, and he's already sweating, and that's before any guns are pointed at him."

Velpia swallowed some air. "Mitchell, I can explain!" Another loud bang rang out in the apartment as he fired his weapons without looking at Martin. He looked down to notice that the man missed, but not by much.

"Velp, I think you know what happens when you lie to me..."

"Mitch, I told you I'd get you the money, and I still plan on it. I just got back home today." Martin watched her demeanor tighten up from frustration. Mitchel grabbed her gun arm without a fight, and she dropped her weapon to the floor.

"I will do you a favor and not kill your toy if you don't make this harder than it already is, but you and the boss have to work some things out." He pulled her behind him to the other men and walked her out of the room.

Mitchell turned his attention back to Martin. He was helpless to do anything more than just stand there and watch her leave with the other guards. The man stayed and turned to face him.

"You seem pretty fresh to these parts; otherwise, you'd be pissing yourself right now, kid. I'll let you in on a little tip." Mitchell reached into a pocket on his belt and pulled out a cigarette, and lit it while taking a few drags. "When the Blue Suns walk into your house, you show us some fucking respect. There's no hero's out here. You'll wind up dead quick. You're lucky she's a friend."

Martin kept quiet while folding his arms defiantly across his chest, darting his eyes down at the pistol on the table. "Go ahead, champ, make my day. It would be a shame to have to tell Velpia that I had to kill her pet."

Martin didn't move; he knew he was at a disadvantage.

"No? Good boy." Mitchell grunted. "Now, if you have our credits, bring them to us if you wanted her released; otherwise, stay out of our way, freak." He flicked the cigarette onto the floor and walked out of the door, closing it behind him.

As the door shut, he ran into the bathroom and gathered his suit.