A/N I own nothing. Mass Effect is owned by Bioware
This chapter is the first time I am introducing an OC suggestion (OCS). Thanks to Sornosquinfallen for the suggestion. More of this will be spoken of at the end.
Also, I start back at university this week so while I will try to keep going with regular updates, it might slow down if things get a bit busy and I have to focus on my studies. Bear with me though because I am not killing this story. Not yet anyway.
Comments:
VODKA18, Nipplegunz, rfpizzle, frankieu – thanks. Also, Nipplegunz – love the name!
FuZzvKiNgZz – Well, I have been doing the planning of that chapter. I will most likely post a warning ahead of time so people can avoid if they wish. I might need to change the rating too. Again, I will warn people first.
zapper25 – it's close! Next chapter (chapter 10) should be the one.
BrotherCaptainSheperd – I imagine he would. We may see that whenever we get introduced to him later. Who knows?!
ArchAngel319 – Thanks. I have been considering whether or not to do a romance of the MC. If it does happen I don't expect it to be for a while. There are psychological issues regarding this. More will be explained in a few chapters.
Jotun – Well, for starters, I am glad that you missed out on PTSD in the navy. Lots of people get caught up in that and I know it can be pretty heavy stuff and leave long term problems for the sufferer and their loved ones. As for Tevos, that will be coming up soon. And as far as melding goes, well, there are mental blocks, but a more powerful asari can override a weaker one, which is one of the most serious crimes in asari culture so far as I know. That may be brought into the story later.
On with the story!
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CHAPTER 9
Walking around the Citadel again, I was strangely feeling better than I had in a long time. It's as if the dark cloud that hung over me had shifted, letting in a few rays of normality. It felt good. Maybe it was a sign of further improvement after my deep and meaningful with Aleria or maybe it was just the fact that the next step had gone as planned. Either way, it was satisfying.
The first thing I had done upon arrival was to release Sel. He had been quietly furious the remainder of the trip, refusing to talk to anyone else, except to call Ely and Hectar 'traitors to the Fleet' whenever they dropped food off to him. Aleria was always in tow, to restrain him with biotics if he decided to try anything but he ignored her. I released him and escorted him back to the airlock. Once we had cleared decontamination I gave him his omni-tool back. He yanked it out of my hand angrily and started walking away. I called out for him to stop. He did but he didn't turn around.
I walked up behind him, halting a few steps away, the others staying back, watching cautiously. "You know," I said to his back, "I don't blame you for wanting to help the Fleet. It's your people and you want to help them in the best way you know how. That is something I can never find fault in. So as a result, I won't broadcast it out there that you tried to betray your employer and your crew."
I walked around until I stood directly in front of him, staring him directly in his glowing eyes. "But, you did try to steal from me," I continued, my voice hardening. "That is something I can't abide. So I will be getting the details of your captain back in the Fleet and informing him of what you have done, as well as my actions. So, if what I think I know about quarians is correct, you are going to need a damn good gift to give back to the Fleet to escape any punishment from them."
His eyes widen behind his mask and he stiffened even further. I stepped forward until I was only inches away from him. "Now, I know it won't make much sense now," I whispered making sure that my words didn't carry to the others. "But soon enough, you and the entire galaxy are going to realise why I need the money. And when you do, you are going to be glad that I stopped you from doing what you planned to do." With that, I opened up my omni-tool and paid him for the days he worked before his confinement and left him to his own devices as he stalked out the docking bay.
After that I took the eezo in a secure container to a mineralogist in the Wards. I viewed this as a crucial step in proving that my eezo was not stolen and was indeed genuine. I had gone gold prospecting back home and had learned that it was possible for gold to be tracked to the location that it had come from by the other minerals that were found in it. From memory, it was possible to track the source of the gold to within a square kilometre. I didn't know if it was transferable to element zero but I didn't want to take the chance of having someone claim that I had nicked it from Thessia or something. I got a nice little certificate from a very polite human saying that my eezo was genuine and from no known source. That worked wonderfully.
I was now sitting down at a café in Bachjret Ward near where I had run into the homeless girl just over a week ago. It wasn't an accident that I was here; I was hoping to run into the little girl again. Once I had given her those drinks for her and her little turian friend I had told her that if she ever sees me again then to come over and say 'hi' and I would buy her and her friends more food. She hadn't said anything, just nodded and disappeared.
I had been sitting at the café for the last hour, finishing a few job advertisements for my crew now that I would likely be able to afford expanding. The loss of Sel meant I needed a new engineer or two, now that I was going to have the credits to expand the crew.
A scuffling of feet nearby broke my concentration and I looked up to see a familiar, somewhat dirty, face. The little girl that had stolen from the salarian merchant when I was shopping for the Hidden Enterprise, was standing next to the table looking up at me. She was a pretty little thing. Now that I was closer and getting a good look at her I realised she was slightly older than I thought, maybe six or seven years from the height of her, and very skinny. Her brown hair was a bit tatty and tangled and there were smudges on her face, showing off her life in the ducts.
"Hello," I said, giving her a welcoming smile. "Do you want something to eat?" I pushed my mostly uneaten food towards her.
She reached out with one skinny, dirty hand and grabbed half a sandwich. She ate it with a speed and an enthusiasm that left me feeling a little envious. Even though I had been free for the last three weeks now, I still had not regained the ability to eat normally. I only ate small portions of bland food. Even though I was hungrier now that I was exercising regularly, I was only having an extra snack, not a proper meal. My ability to eat different foods was coming back slowly but I had not yet been able to eat rich foods or anything too sweet.
Before I knew it the food had disappeared down the little girl's throat and she was wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Do you want me to order some more?" I asked, reaching towards the menu.
She shook her head and waved for me to follow her. She took off before I had even thought about it, heading towards an alley. I quickly paid for my meal and moved to follow her. i lost her a couple of times as she weaved through the crowds of foot traffic moving through the markets. Every time I lost her, I would move to the side and wait until she came back. She did every time, moving back to where I could see her and waving impatiently for me to catch up.
After a few minutes of chasing after her she ducked down a side alley in a quieter area, disappearing from view. I looked around and, not seeing anything suspicious, moved into the alley.
It looked like the alleyway was used as the back door to several businesses. There were garbage disposal units and some scattered rubbish that had fallen free. There was no foot traffic anywhere.
There was also no little girl.
I looked around for a duct opening, trying to see where she might have disappeared. There was one further down the alley that looked like it lead to what might be considered 'underground', if I wasn't on a space station. There was one up ahead about fifty meters away. I didn't remember the girl having that much of a lead on me, but maybe she had starting sprinting once she was out of sight. Either way, I headed towards it.
"Looking for someone, slaver?" a flanged voice behind me asks.
I turn around slowly. By this point I was about thirty meters into the alley. Standing about halfway between me and the entrance back into the street beyond was the young girl and a turian that didn't look quite fully grown. I didn't have enough experience with turians yet to get an accurate guess on his age but from how he looked compared to the other turians I had seen walking around the Citadel I was thinking he would probably be the equivalent of a late teenager. Maybe about seventeen in human years.
Oh, and he was holding a knife in one hand.
"I am no slaver," I said, feeling remarkably calm. It was almost like my body knew what to do. I guess I kinda had been through something similar before so I wasn't all that inexperienced in this type of situation.
"Liar," the turian growled, his fists starting to glow blue. I tensed up a little. I had not ever faced a biotic attack and I had no idea how good this kid was. But seeing as he was young and hanging around with the homeless… actually, he looked nearly as dirty as the girl did, now that I focussed on him. He was probably one of them. Either way, I didn't think that he was likely trained to use biotics.
"You slavers need to start using new tricks," he spat. "Trying to be friendly with the duct rats before you drug them and take them as slaves!" The blue glow started to focus around his hands. He was clearly powering up an attack. "Pathetic."
"I am not a slaver," I repeated, trying to keep calm. It was getting harder to do, seeing as he was threatening me with something I had never had experience fighting against. A twitchy homeless turian with trust issues was a little outside my expertise of either defusing or fighting.
"LIAR!" he screamed and let go of a biotic pulse. A huge biotic pulse. It was a ball more than a meter in diameter and flew towards me.
I dove to the side, managing to get away from the ball but not completely away from the pressure that followed around it like a shockwave. It pushed me into the wall, even though I had not actually been hit by the glowing blue ball. The ball itself continued down the alley until it dissipated more than fifty meters away.
I looked back at the turian and the girl, feeling apprehensive. That was a hell of a powerful attack. Even with my lack of knowledge on biotics, that seemed overly powerful. Damn.
I got back to my feet and got ready to defend against another attack. Or rather, dodge it. I had no desire to see how it felt getting hit by something that powerful.
"Don't attack me, you idiot!" I yelled at the turian. "I am not a damn slaver!"
"Don't lie!" the turian kid screamed. "I know how slavers act! You play nice and make friends with us then you kidnap us and make us slaves! You won't get us! I won't let you!" He started to glow again.
I came up with a frantic idea. I yanked up the sleeves on my shirt. "Do these look like slaver marks to you?" I demanded, holding up my arms so they could see my scars.
He visibly hesitated. I still didn't have much experience in dealing with turians in general so while I saw that his mandible twitched open slightly I had no idea what that meant, but I was willing to guess that it might mean 'uncertain'. I took advantage of his distraction to pull up my shirt and show the scars all over my stomach and chest, keeping my face free to see what they would do. The turian seemed to freeze and the blue glow of biotics faded. The little girl's mouth had dropped open and she looked both shocked and concerned.
I let my shirt drop back down and pulled my sleeves back into their normal positions. "Do you believe me now?" I asked sarcastically.
The little girl's went up and down in such a way that I thought she might lend her services out as a jackhammer. The turian youth paused for a long moment, before he finally nodded once. Good enough. I walked towards them and, despite the lack of glowing biotics, I saw him grip his knife a little tighter.
"Now," I said, stopping a few steps in front of the pair of youngsters. "What is your name?"
He looked at me for a long moment, his mandible clenched tight against his face. She just stared up at me with big eyes, still looking surprised.
"Torrin," he said finally. "Torrin Jogon."
I looked at him for a moment, trying to remember all of the turian names I had ever come across in the games. They had all seemed to have an old Roman or Greek feel to them; Arterius, Fedorian, Vakarian. I know that this is an alien civilisation but the name Jogon didn't fit into that very well.
"Is that really your name?" I asked.
He looked down. "Torrin is," he mumbled. "I gave myself the name Jogon. It was the name of an old krogan I met after I ran away. He was the one that taught me to be strong on my own."
"I see," I replied. I looked at the girl. "And what's your name?"
She just blinked at me, saying nothing.
"She doesn't speak your language," Torrin said. "At least, not one we can recognise. We, uh, usually talk through our own sign language." He lifted his hands in a gesture that reminded me of exasperated hand waving in humans. "It can be pretty confusing when she does something new. Even my omni-tool doesn't recognise it." He held up his hand to emphasise his point.
I looked at the little girl. She could speak but not in a recognised language. She was human, with what I would recognise as a Caucasian complexion, a soft brown hair colour and bright blue. That made the Asian languages unlikely. I didn't know how to speak any other language fluently, but I knew how to say hello in a lot of them. The benefits of multiculturalism. Also, a benefit for how similar the universes were. So I drew on the knowledge that I had gained on languages from the most helpful resource I had come to mind at that moment: the language menu off any DVD ever.
"Español?" I asked. She looked at me blankly. "Italiano? Français? Deutsch? Polski? Russia? Norsk? Svenska?"
She nodded, her face lighting up. "Svenska!" she exclaimed happily. Then she proceeded to jabber away at me in Swedish, as if she expected me to understand what she was saying. Torrin's mouth dropped a little and his mandibles opened up slightly. I guessed that meant surprise.
I chuckled and held up my hands to stop her. I activated my omni-tool and searched for a link for a Swedish to English translator. I hoped that they had one. I also really hoped it wasn't as bad as trying to get direct translations from google translate. I don't know too much about the learning and mapping of a language for the Codex that the galaxy used but I figured that seeing as there were more than a hundred languages on my Earth then it stood to reason that it would take time to add the non-major languages like English or Mandarin.
It took me nearly ten minutes of just standing there going through the Alliance records of languages while Torrin just stood where he was, fidgeting and the girl had a big hopeful smile on her face. Finally I found what I was looking for: a Swedish to English language mod that could be downloaded and applied to an omni-tool. It wasn't a standard app and there was no direct Swedish to High Thessian or Palava translations, which meant that everything first had to be translated into English, then retranslated to the specific language. Now I really hoped that there wouldn't be a google translate issue.
I downloaded the mod and selected broadcast mode too. The girl didn't have an omni-tool so mine would provide both translations.
Now," I said looking at the girl, "what is your name?"
She gave me a beautiful smile that warmed my heart a little. "Klara."
I smiled back. It actually felt genuine. There was something about the little girl that was heart-warming and charming. "Good to meet you Klara. My name is Brock Neilson."
I straightened and looked at Torrin. "So, do you want to stay talking in an alley, or do you want something to eat?"
As they led the way out of the alley, I looked around and got an idea. I quickly sent off a message to Hectar, saying I needed to see him in an hour.
Ten minutes later we were in a café of Torrin's choosing. I told them to order whatever they wanted and I would pay for it. Torrin tensed up again when I said that. Clearly he still didn't trust me. Klara just gave a big smile and held out a menu towards me. I read out the options and she listened to the translation before pointing to what she wanted. An asari waitress walked over and took the orders. I noticed that Torrin's eyes followed her closely as she walked away.
"Careful kid," I cautioned lightly. "Not all women appreciate being drooled over by adolescents."
His mandible clenched again and he looked away hurriedly. I chuckled good naturedly. It was almost the exact same as making fun of teenage boys and girls about whoever their crushes were.
I let them both eat without interruption while I sipped at the water I had ordered for myself. Had I not known better, I would have sworn that Klara hadn't eaten half of my food earlier. The girl seemed to have a bottomless stomach. I had to slow her down. I knew from experience that eating too much after being starved was a fast way to tasting it twice. Once on the way down, once on the way up.
Finally they both seemed to have eaten their fill. Klara sat back in her chair, rubbing her now protruding stomach. Torrin made a few contended noises as he wiped away the last few crumbs from his mandibles.
"Now, let's talk," I said, looking at the turian evenly.
He hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"You don't trust adults, do you?" I asked, figuring on starting with an obvious question.
He quickly shook his head. "No one here looks out for the homeless," he spat. "Asari talk about helping but they never really do. Most adults tend to look down on us. They call us ducts rats and other names. Most of the rest are slavers. They only try to be nice so that they can take us later." He gave me a hard look. "That's why I thought you were one. After you met Fingers here," he gestured to Klara, "there was a group of slavers that came for her group. Only her and two others got away."
Huh. I guess that explains the suspicion. Still, I felt a little annoyed to have been associated with slavers. I violent twitch ran through my right hand that I suppressed immediately.
"Well, I had I nothing to do with it," I said. "I just helped Klara here to get away from some salarian merchant she had stolen from and gave her a drink because I felt sorry for her. After all, I highly doubt anyone chooses to live in the ducts as a first choice." So I felt sorry for her and her little turian friend, obviously it wasn't you, and bought them a drink each."
"You wouldn't be the first person to buy things for us as a way to make us think you are our friend," Torrin growled. "Slavers do that a lot too."
I clench my jaw for a moment, before letting out the angry with a long sigh. "Alright," I finally said, keeping my voice as neutral as possible. "What do you need to know before you will trust me when I say that I am not a slaver?"
He looks at me directly. "How did you get your scars?"
I stare at him for a moment. "From bad people who did bad things," I replied. I know I was being evasive, but honestly, I didn't really want to scare them. More specifically, I didn't want to scare Klara.
Torrin sat back in his chair and crossed his grey scaly arms. "I need more than that," he bit out. Obviously this kid wasn't going to let up that I wasn't a slaver. As annoying as that was I couldn't really blame him. I had seen some very manipulative people during my time as a prison guard. I hadn't really met any slavers yet but I could imagine that they were some of the best groomers around, especially on the Citadel where violent abductions were probably frowned upon.
I looked at Klara. She was just a kid, not even ten. She didn't need to hear this.
"Fine," I said eventually. "But not in front of her." I gestured to the girl.
He gave me what I assume was a turian glare. It looked angry enough. "Why not?" he demanded. "She has seen bad things before. Even saw some dead kids that got caught up in one of the ventilation fans."
I narrow my eyes and give him a cool glare. "Because the things that happened still give me nightmares," I said, feeling the anger starting to build up. I let it come out a little in my voice, trying to be a little intimidating. "She doesn't need to have them too."
It seemed to work. He sat back in his chair and he didn't seem as certain, I think. Still working on translating turian body language. Klara just looked at me with a sympathetic expression. It was really cute.
"It's ok," she said, her voice coming across a little tinny from the translator. "I know that bad things happen. I am sorry that bad things happened to you." She put her little hand on my arm. It made my heart melt a little. It was an action that reminded me of what Jason would do if he saw someone who was upset. It immediately pushed away all my anger and made me feel an echo of melancholy through my heart.
"I know that you do, Klara," I said softly. "I just wish that you didn't need to see more."
I sat back and looked at Torrin again. "I will give you the basics," I finally relented. "I was taken from my bed, held captive and tortured for nine months before I managed to escape and killed everyone that hurt me. These," I lifted up my hands to show my wrists, "were from when I escaped from the chains that held me. This," I pulled at the collar of my shirt to show the large jagged circular scar on my right shoulder that was surrounded by other small, unrelated scars, "I got from a butchers hook that was shoved through my shoulder." I let the shirt go and let my scars be covered up again. Torrin's mouth had dropped open while Klara just looked sad.
"Satisfied now?" I finished sarcastically, focusing on Torrin.
I felt something grab me and I jumped slightly and looked to see that Klara was hugging me. I hesitated. It was the first time I had been hugged by a child in… a long time. I slowly reached an arm down and gave her what was admittedly an awkward hug. It probably looked more like someone patting a dog that didn't belong to them, but it just kinda hung around their feet. But… it felt good. Pure. I missed hugging Jason and this… this made me feel like I was getting a little something back that I had been missing. I almost thought it was a bit of my humanity but that sounded corny and overly dramatic when I said it in my own head. Whatever it was, I had been missing it. She wasn't my kid, but that didn't matter at the moment.
We let go at the same time and she went back to her seat.
"She does that," Torrin cut in dryly, ruining the moment and bringing me back to the present. "Even when she couldn't speak to people she would know if they were upset and she would hug them."
"She must have a wonderfully compassionate heart," I said, smiling down at her and receiving a big smile back.
"So what happens now?" Torrin asked, shifting in his seat. He looked a little uncomfortable.
"We talk," I said. "How long have you been on the Citadel?"
"A few years now," he replied. "I left Palavan when I was ten and got here I think it was about four years later. I just kept sneaking onto ships and going where ever they headed. Fingers here has been living in the tunnels for about a year."
"Why do you call her Fingers?" I asked.
"Because no one could understand her when she said anything so she just used her hands to point at stuff. Someone called her Fingers and it just stuck."
"Ok," I said slowly. "Why is a biotic turian kid hiding in the tunnels on the Citadel and protecting the homeless kids instead of being drafted into the Cabal special forces?"
He froze for a moment. "That's none of your business," he growled.
I raised my hands, letting my sleeves fall back down to expose my wrists. "I showed you mine," I said evenly.
He looked at the scars for a long moment. Then he sighed. "Fine," he grumbled. "Not all turians on Palavan look at having biotics as a good sign. No one seems to have any issue with the asari having them but even though we have been part of the Council space for more than thousand years, the idea of a turian biotic still concerns some people. Not the military though. They love them. My parents thought that me being a biotic wasn't great. Felt like it made me less of a turian and more of an asari. They just… handed me over to the military when I was six. The scientists realised that I was pretty strong and they put some sorta experimental biotic amp in me, one that would be better suited to a stronger biotic. Then they ran tests on me. No matter how much I asked them to stop, they just kept going, saying it was 'for the Hierarchy'." He grunted in displeasure. "It didn't take long for me to hate doing anything for the benefit of the Hierarchy. Eventually I managed to escape and hid on a shuttle that made its way to a spaceport and took the first cargo ship I could find off planet. Made my way through turian space for a while. No one asked questions after I got off at any stop. I only got caught on ship a few times and they would put me to work if they found me. Most cargo captains were good. I lived on the streets and in shelters wherever I stayed and finally I made it here."
"Ok," I said. "But the Citadel has biometric security and hundreds of scanners everywhere. How have you avoided getting caught?"
"There have been a few close calls," Torrin admitted. "But when you stay in the ducts and tunnels below the surface, no one seems to care. Most people look the other way, as if they never saw any of us. I stole the omni-tool to be able to talk to people and sometimes people we know give us food but mostly not so we steal it or take it from the bins behind restaurants."
It made me think of the ME2 storyline of Thane dealing with Mouse. Then something came to mind.
"So if you have been living on the streets for the last, what, seven or eight years, then who taught you biotics?" I asked.
He gave a shrug. "The scientists helped me to channel them but they didn't teach me any techniques. I had to learn most of it on my own. I can only really do push and barrier though."
"Still, impressive. And dangerous." I turned to Klara. "What about you? How did you end up living in the tunnels?"
"My mummy was killed by some batarians when we got here," she said sadly, looking at the floor. "They were robbing a bank my mummy was in and she was shot. Daddy started to get angry all the time. He was drinking things that made him angry. One day he got really mad and hit me. I hid from him until he went to sleep. Then daddy wouldn't wake up. I ran away after that."
My heart went out to the little girl. No one that small should be left to live as an orphan on the streets. I decided to ask of something I had been thinking about since I ran into her the first time.
"If you had the option, would you stay somewhere other than the tunnels?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Torrin asked a little suspiciously.
"I mean, if you had a proper house or something to stay in, would you prefer to stay there?"
He hesitated. "Uh, that depends," he said slowly.
Before he could continue Hectar appeared and walked up to the table.
"Hey Captain, you wanted me?" he asked, rubbing his hands together nervously.
I looked at the time on my omni-tool. "Ah Hectar, you're early," he greeted warmly. "I looked at Torrin. "Convinced that I'm not a slaver yet?" I asked rhetorically. One of the few universal truths was that no quarian would ever work willingly for a slaver.
I looked back at Hectar. "Just give me a minute, Hectar, and I will be right with you."
He nodded and walked away to give us some privacy.
"Look," I said to both the urchins. "I need to meet with my technician to prepare for a meeting. Meet me here in two days at lunch time and we can talk again. Assuming that I live that long," I added with a grim smile.
They nodded and ran off together back towards the alley they had attacked me in. I paid the bill and headed over to where Hectar was waiting. Time to see how prepared we could be for this meeting with Tevos.
...
A/N Please Follow/Favourite/Review as you please.
For those that didn't realise, Torrin is the OCS. He will be coming up more in a couple of chapters and will be integrated into the main story. Hope you enjoyed him. Thanks again to Sornosquinfallen for the idea. If anyone else has an OCS they want to put forward, PM them to me and I will consider them. No guarantees though. I will only put them in if I can find the right way to include them in the story, regardless of how good they might be.