A/N I own nothing. Mass Effect is owned by Bioware

Wow thanks for the response to the last couple of chapters! It is gratifying to see that people are liking and reading this thing all over the world.

Sorry for taking a couple of extra days to get this out. Exam period is over now. Can't guarantee that things aren't going to slow down in the future but I will try to keep it regular.

Comments:

Mouse the Annon: Don't worry, the pieces are coming. Hopefully I do this right!

frankieu: Thanks. I hope I don't disappoint.

I am nuber Five: Thanks. I like you too.

betapike: Glad to have you along for the story!

Blaze1992: Hmmm. That is a fair statement. This story is going to have some dark parts. Obvious, considering the opening chapter. They are going to be brought into it in the next few chapters but after the exposure things move on. It will be brought up again from time to time but not focussed on too much unless it is necessary for the story. If I only focussed on it over and over again then I think it will get boring and depressing after a while. I may change the rating for this for purely for the reveal chapters as it may be a little dark. If that turns you away then sorry. I hope you stick around though as I am sure that you would enjoy it otherwise!

Guest-Questioner: I know filler is important. Stories need to be built with context, otherwise the reader has no idea what is going on. The problem I am facing is 'am I writing too much?' I am trying to give the appropriate level of information and keep it interesting without rambling.

Guest: I know. Don't worry though, more is going to be revealed soon! Maybe as early as next chapter.

Jotun: Thanks. As to letting die, that depends on whether or not the readers keep wanting the story. If people stop wanting to read it then the motivation to keep writing it will go down, I imagine.

ErzherzogKarl: Thanks. The geth are going to play part of the story later. Not entirely sorted out on how yet but they will.

Artyom-Dreizehn: Thanks! I have deliberately avoided saying one way or another on the Shepard identity. The choice has been made but it will be there.

…

CHAPTER 5 – UNDER WAY

I looked on at the last of the work that my quarian workers were doing, satisfied that my first plan was off to a positive start.

I had ended up taking the salarian kirik-class medium freighter. All it had taken to inspect the two ships offered by the greasy salarian salesman was five minutes aboard each one before both Ely and I had seen more than enough to turn away from what was essentially overpriced space scrap. I had a strong feeling that either of those ships would have shaken themselves to pieces just taking off from dock.

But the salarian freighter was clean, looked to be well made and maintained and was large enough to do what I wanted to do for one of my bigger plans later. At three hundred and twenty meters long, a hundred meters high and a hundred and forty meters wide, the ship was almost a perfect rectangular prism, except with smooth edges. The living quarters that occupied three floors in the top thirty meters of the ship. The cargo bay was huge! Well, as far as I was concerned anyway. It was essentially a massive cavern that ran the entire length and width of the ship. It opened up from the front through some massive doors built into the nose of the ship. That worked well for what I had planned later.

The mass effect core was a lot smaller than I had imagined it would be. I guess I kinda let the size of the engine that you could see in the Normandy be my measuring stick for how large the engines really are in ships here. Turns out I was very wrong. I mean, I remember the Admiral that inspects the Normandy at the Citadel saying that it had taken billions of credits just for that engine, but even so I was not impressed with the engine core on my new ship. The thing was only a sphere that was about one and a half meters of glowing eezo in diameter. I was immediately concerned with how the ship would perform in terms of speed and manoeuvrability. I realise I have absolutely no understanding of element zero physics, but this was a freighter more than twice as large as the Normandy, that was meant to carry large amounts of cargo. Sure, it was not a military ship, but that didn't mean I wanted it to go too slow or be too ponderous in the turns. Upgrades to the engine would be one of the first things I would insist on once I had the credits.

I had also found a pilot. It was an asari maiden by the name of Aleria N'Tavis that had wanted to come on an adventure, but wasn't interested in stripping or becoming a mercenary and was surprisingly unobjectionable to working with quarians. At the rather young age of one hundred and thirty-five she was already starting to feel like she was missing out on exploring her maiden years to their full potential. She was very easy on the eyes and very chatty, but only with me. If she wasn't shamelessly, but harmlessly, flirting with me then all she was interested in doing was sitting in the cockpit getting used to the controls. I think it put off Sel'Hara when he had tried to flirt a little too obviously with her a little and she completely ignored him. I did give me a little smile of amusement to watch it though.

Right now, the three quarians were finishing calibrations on a geological sensor suite upgrade that I had purchased. Well, Sel and Ely were. Hectar was currently trying to finish programming a ship VI that I had asked him to make for me. Honestly, the nervous techie was a wizard when it comes to programming. I had only had him as an employee for a week and he was certain he could have it finished today. Another day to install and set up in the ship and we could be on our way.

He had been very nervous about making the VI too advanced. I understood perfectly. After all the issues that the quarians had because of the geth, an advanced VI was probably pushing it a little far for their liking. I assured him that I only wanted a VI that would follow instructions, not to think for itself, which calmed him down a lot. I had no interest at this stage of having a self-aware computer in charge of my ship. Maybe later, but not right now.

The extra week for installation helped me get a few other things that I needed to sort out as well. For me to be able to put my plans for the next few years into effect, it all begins with the groundwork. Things that are an absolute pain in the neck to deal with but still crucial despite how bureaucratically slow the process is.

So that means permits.

I know. Not what anyone really has in mind when they think about saving the galaxy.

The problem is that the government restrictions here in the ME universe are a lot tighter for corporations than I want them to be, yet confusingly open on an individual scale. For example, I can research and build an assault rifle on my own without any problem, as long as I don't carry it around with me on the Citadel. I can have one on my own ship or even keep one in my private rooms but I can't carry it with me without a permit. But if I want to sell it, or make more than one, I have to be listed as a Citadel approved corporation. If I was to operate in the Terminus systems then it wouldn't really be a problem, other than having to face off pirate and mercenary attacks, deal with slavers and so forth. Even then, I wouldn't be able to sell it legally to any Council race or military without that race being seen as illegally funding the Terminus. That would be a breach in Council law and brings a lot more complications. Sure, the batarians probably wouldn't care that much but they would probably be the only Council race that would work with me and I really don't want to give an advantage to the race that is most likely to use the tools I am going to create, or reintroduce in certain cases, to enslave the other races.

As a result, my company Shieldstar Corp was born. Fitting name, if a little bland. Not the best, I know, but honestly I couldn't come up with anything better in the ten minutes that I was thinking about it.

Still, despite the annoyance of paperwork, most of which I have been provided by the local Citadel Business Directorate office, the process of setting up a corporation that is designed to do what I want it to do is relatively painless.

So, what do I want my corporation to do? Build weapons, of course. And weapon platforms, of the orbital variety. Among other things like exploration, trade and customise starships.

Unfortunately, the process of applying for the licences costs tens of thousands of credits, and that is before I even hire any extra staff to do it.

Money is starting to run thin. I had managed to get the turian reward for those batarians which gave me an extra four hundred thousand credits. It was a much needed boost. Buying the ship, fitting it out, incorporating a company, hiring crew… all that costs money. With the extra credits, I still had about seven hundred and fifty thousand to use. I didn't want to use it all yet, just in case. There were plenty of projects that I had planned so I needed plenty of capital for them.

Then there are the Citadel waiting periods on permits. Having gained a firearms licence in Australia, I had assumed that the twenty-eight day waiting period, or 'cool off' periods as they know it, was a long time to wait. Oh no. Those pesky local bureaucrats in Australia had nothing on the Citadel. Once I handed in the proper forms to the Business Directorate, I was informed that there would be a four month delay to process my application and to determine that my application fee was in order. Granted, a weapons permit wasn't the same as a weapons company permit, but even so it was a long wait. I was only able to convince the turian sitting at the desk to cut the time down to three months by subtly giving a ten thousand credit handshake. It maybe wasn't the most honest thing to do, but I am running on a time sensitive schedule.

"Mr Neilson," I heard Hectar say, drawing me from my thoughts.

"Hectar, I thought I told you to call me Brock," I said with a friendly reproving tone.

The quarian rubbed his hands together nervously. "Uh, yes sir," he mumbled, not looking me in the face. "I just wanted to tell you that the VI for the ship is finished. Just liked you asked for."

I gave him a small, genuine smile. The VI I had asked him to build was similar to a standard ships VI. It would inform me of incoming calls, not that I expected there to be any yet, keep track of internal communications, monitor ship systems and so on. The custom bits that I had asked for were slightly more advanced. I wanted it to be able to control the communication port and run monitor and tracing of any omni-tool on the ship, run calculations and have it wired to the galactic market. It also needed to be able to run a decent autopilot program so that our main pilot could sleep during our trips. There were a few other custom modifications to it, such as changing out of the monotonous voice, but that was the main things. The only reason it took almost a week was that I had Hectar make it from the ground up. It was his work and his work alone.

"Excellent," I said. "Have a short break and then get started on the installation. I want that thing ready to go tomorrow."

He nods and heads off, probably to get some lunch. While there is no actual night or day on the Citadel, there is a cycle that is followed as if there were a night and day. According to that cycle it was about lunch time were we were.

Thinking about food reminded me of something. I sent a message off to Aleria and asked her to meet me at a retail district nearby. The young asari was probably sitting in the cockpit organising things to meet her preferences. She had been there a few times, adjusting the holo-monitors, switching things around or just clearing out unnecessary panels. I didn't mind so long as it looked clean when I went in. She almost brought up the idea of removing the co-pilot chair but I refused immediately. I planned on sitting in the thing and learn how to fly my ship at some point and I wasn't going to do that from the navigation console.

I got a quick acknowledgement and decided to walk there first without waiting, thinking about how things were going. I had been here for about two weeks now and, as things stood, I had a ship, the makings of a crew, the knowledge of some very valuable resources and a plan to use them. Not a bad start, if I do say so. And it only came at the cost of complete and total mental and physical scarring.

I shook that thought out of my head. I knew that if I focussed too much on what happened to me then I was lost. I had to do this. For Jason.

I arrived at the shopping area and started looking around to take my mind off the darker topics that tended to rudely invade my thoughts if I wasn't careful. This shopping district, due to its close proximity to the dock, specialised in shipboard supplies. I had already bought a lot of things here to help the outfitting of the ship, under the guidance of my resident asari and quarians. Being a newcomer to space travel, I was obviously still learning what constituted as vital for long journeys. Luckily, bedding is a universal requirement so I had that one figured. I had gone with real metal-frame beds, not the sleeping pods that most ships needed. After all, plenty of space with only a small crew allowed for some perks.

"Hey boss!" a familiar, supremely cheerful voice interrupted my window shopping. I turned to see a slightly purple asari maiden making her way directly towards me. A few heads turned to watch her pass, mostly human and turian males. Aleria seemed to have that effect, but that's not why I chose her. It was because she was a qualified pilot that had promised to teach me to fly my own ship. It's going to save me a lot of money on lessons. Can't complain about that. Still, the cheerful nature was contagious. Even with my perpetually grim nature, I couldn't help but feel better in her presence and that is not something to be underestimated.

"Hello, Aleria," I replied with a nod.

She walked over and linked her arm with mine and we started to walk through the district.

"So, what are you buying for us today?" she positively cooed.

"Well, I think it is about the last thing that we need," I replied evenly. "We are fully fuelled, have bedding, an upgraded sensor suite, a mini vid centre and all our amenities, even a new high quality gym. But we are missing possibly the most important thing."

Aleria looked at me with a puzzled look on her face as I stopped in front of a specific store. "What's that?"

I nodded at the store. "Food."

Her soft purple face lit up as we made our way inside. I honestly had no idea about food fit for space travel. Two weeks into living in this universe and I am still trying to adjust to sugar. Too much of it makes me sick now in a way that I hadn't ever really had before. Not to mention the whole 'never actually been on a spaceship before' element that couldn't be overcome without raising a lot of questions I didn't want to answer. I just hoped it wasn't too different from being on an airplane or a boat.

Luckily, my problem was not an issue for my cheerful asari pilot. She seemed to know the best foods for levo-based species. We didn't really have any experience in dextro-based foods but luckily there was a turian working the counter so she was able to recommend a few types of nutrient pastes that the quarians would be able to, well, maybe not enjoy, but tolerate for a few weeks before we made it back.

The only personal thing I really wanted to get was easily procured on the way out. It was also the only thing that I actually carried with me. A bottle of wine in a small box. I didn't care about the year or vintage. It wasn't for drinking.

"So, boss," Aleria said as we walked back to the ship. She had linked her arm into mine again. I guess we probably looked like we were in a relationship, a lovely couple going for a walk. A nice image, maybe, but a relationship was definitely not something I was ready for. Not for a long time, most likely. "I noticed that you haven't actually said where we are gonna go once we leave the Citadel. Feel like sharing that information with your most attractive crew member?"

I turned my head to look at her, seeing the mischievous grin on her face. "I realise that I may not be the best person at telling this, Miss N'Tavis, but are you flirting with your employer?"

She gave a light laugh. "Now, Mr Neilson, that would be most unprofessional of me," she mock protested. "But I notice that you failed to answer my question."

I couldn't help giving her a small smile. The young asari just exuded brightness. Even if she turns out to be a mediocre pilot, I don't think that I am going to regret hiring her. Hell knows I could use some brightness in my life. I couldn't bring myself to feel any romantic feelings at the moment but a cheerful presence is a cheerful presence. Morale would not suffer on this trip. I might even get a few laughs at Sel going in for a second shot with the bubbly purple girl.

"Well, Miss N'Tavis," I continued, "we are going to be making a retrieval mission for some cargo that we are going to be able to sell to the highest of all bidders."

Her smile lost some of its shine and her brow furrowed into a tiny frown. "You mean… smuggling?" she asked, sounding nervous.

I raised my eyebrow at her, feeling a little defensive. I felt a little twitch of anger that I quickly squashed. She didn't mean anything by that, I could tell. I probably just left it too open for interpretation for her.

"Not at all, my little violet pilot," I reply as reassuringly as I can. "We are going to claim some new goods that we can sell directly to governments. And trust me; this is something that governments would fight each other for. I will give you a hint: it as something to do with the geological sensor suite that is being installed by out dextro friends as we speak."

Her face cleared up. "We are hunting for minerals?" she asked, the doubt gone from her voice as she looked at me, her expression playfully curious.

I gave a small nod as I looked forward again. "Of a sort," I replied casually. "Something that will make governments desperate if they find out. It's the lifeblood of their very technology."

I wasn't looking at her but I could feel her stiffen next to me through our intertwined arms.

"Eezo?" she whispered excitedly. "You found some eezo?"

I smiled without looking back to her. "That, my little lilac fairy, is what we are going to find out."

+++

I stood outside the airlock of my ship, at its loading dock in the Kithoi Ward. The dock looked like the loading dock you land in on the Presidium in ME1 where the outside of the ship was accessible from the catwalk and not separated by glass like it is in ME3. We were finally ready now that the last few things I had requested be fixed had been finished and the VI now fully installed. All items for the ship had been delivered and were where they needed to be; beds in sleeping quarters, gym gear in the massive cargo bay, food in the galley and so on. Facing me was the rest of my admittedly small and slightly unconventional crew. Three quarians and an asari. Despite me still having a lot of numbness interspersed with bouts of anger, I can't help feeling that this a little bit momentous. According to Manuel, I have the ability to have a real impact in the fate of the galaxy. I knew that I was going to be having a massive impact on the technology here. And it is all starting with a medium freighter, myself and four small and, relatively speaking in Aleria's case, young aliens. It seemed momentous somehow.

I gave them a nod to begin, getting three nods and a smile in return.

"Well, seeing as we are about to begin our little journey together," I said, my voice calm and steady, "I thought it fitting to do something that has been a tradition for humans for at least the last half millennium, long before our industrial age." I picked up the bottle of wine, and kept it unopen in my hands. I know that technically this is supposed to be champagne but all things considered that was a minor detail.

"The tradition dictates that when a ship is sent out on its first sail, or flight in the space age, it is christened by smashing a bottle of alcohol over the bow," I continued. "I know that this isn't a new ship, or even a human-made ship, but thanks to our tech specialist," I gestured to Hectar, "it has at least been given a new name. So, I would like you to join me in celebrating the newly named Hidden Enterprise."

I turned around on the catwalk and threw the bottle of wine as hard as I could at the bow. The bottle spun lazily and smashed against the steel hull, bit of glass and liquid falling below. The crew clapped cheerfully with a surprising level of enthusiasm from the quarians, but I guess that ships were a really big thing for them so it probably shouldn't have been unexpected.

"Without any further ado, let's get on board!" I proclaimed.

A cheer sprung out of both Ely and Aleria and I turned around and led the way into the ship. I turned left towards the cockpit with my excited pilot, Hectar moved towards the sensor suite to begin calibrations and Sel and Ely headed to the engine room. As I took my seat I finally felt something positive.

For the first time, I finally felt like the journey had really begun.

…

A/N Follow/Favourite if you like; up to you. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Trolls are ignored.