Mass Effect: The Forgotten Soul

Chapter Twenty-Two: End of the Line

Date: September 6th, 2183

Planet: Illum

Two weeks after the Battle of the Citadel.

"Jesus, I hate this planet," Martin complained as he tried to keep pace with Velpia.

"What, not cold enough for you?" She quipped back. Martin looked over the side of the railing they were walking past. The vertically built city stretched further than he could see. Nothing but densely packed "elegant" skyscrapers polluted the sky. "There's that." Velpia looked at Martin and smiled. "You just don't like it because there's not enough dirt."

"Dirt doesn't hurt as much as concrete and metal."

"Well, if you didn't end up in the ground so much, that wouldn't be a problem." Velpia quipped.

Martin smiled and shook his head. "I thought you liked the sight of me laying down?" She quickly turned her head away and cleared her throat of her embarrassment, and changed the subject. That was the first time she could remember that he had made that kind of joke. She cleared her mind and refocused herself. "The bar is up ahead. Remember, I'm meeting reps of the Turian government; don't do anything stupid."

"Yeah, I'll try not to fuck anything up this time."

As they approached, Martin slowly fell back, creating distance between them. Velpia walked in first, sitting in the back left. Martin took up a seat on the other side of the room. After a few minutes, Martin ordered a drink and sat quietly. Soon two Turians entered and took seats at her table.

Martin watched as they began to talk. Slowly sipping on his drink before returning to overlook the bar. His thoughts drifted; most of the stress of the last few years finally felt as if it had been lifted. Cerberus' agreement seemed to be holding, and he was sleeping more at night. The night terrors were becoming rare.

Between the pay they had gotten from Cerberus and from completing their job on Elysium, they were neck deep in credits. So much so that Martin ordered a second hand cannon from the old Quarian Rilo back on Omega, and Velpia had even updated her arsenal. All in all, things looked up for them; at least things were better than before.

Martin's thoughts were interrupted as a shadow covered the table. He noticed a human with slick back gray hair and a heavy five-o'clock shadow standing in front of his table. The man didn't seem armed but seemed in good fighting shape for his age.

"Can I help you?" Martin asked as his eyebrows dropped lower.

"My name is Alec Rider, and I represent an exploratory organization.  If you have some time, I'd like to discuss a business proposal."

Martin paused momentarily and looked towards Velpia, still talking with her contacts. "I've got some time, I guess," he sighed as he slouched and propped his left leg on his knee. "I'm not much of an explorer, so you'd probably be wasting your time."

Alec sat down across from him. From how the man carried himself and sat in his chair, he figured the man was probably military. He signaled over to the barkeep for another drink.

"Maybe I am, but that's why this discussion is important. Have you ever heard of the Andromeda Initiative?"

"Nope," Martin quickly replied while an asari delivered the second drink.

Martin slowly slid the second glass of whiskey toward Alec.

"The Initiative is a project aimed to put explorers in the Andromeda Galaxy with the end goal of creating permanent self-sustaining settlements."

Martin raised one of his eyebrows inquisitively. "The Andromeda Galaxy? You can do that? I don't know much about space travel, but that would take thousands of, not millions of years-"