Delayed Translation

Part 4: A Bucket of Problems

How many hours had it been... or was it only minutes? Time was hard to grasp in a room with no windows, not that the dark space would had helped.

Scion was lying on his bed while Sidonis and Tarquin talked about something.

The commander had not returned and Garrus was not sure she would, the door was still unlocked with no guards but they had not attempted to leave the room.

He adjusted his armour for the tenth time trying to focus on anything else than the lack of a bathroom.

" Just use the bucket I found or something, you are starting to get on my nerves."

Scion said with closed eyes and waved at a bucket from his bed.

" What, and risk that a human walks in and get to see the goods for free? They can't handle it."

The comment earned a small snort from Sidonis, Tarquin cleared his throat and Scion laughed. Garrus himself held back a small smirk when the door opened up, the human male named Kaidan entered the room with an expression Garrus guessed was discomfort.

The room fell silent as the human looked around but avoided eye contact.

" The commander sent me to make it clear that you are free to move around in the ship."

Garrus nodded in acknowledgement not knowing if the male was equipped with a translator or not.

Kaidan was just about to leave when he stopped and turned around, he locked eyes with Scion who had gotten up from the bed. They glared at each other for a moment, neither of them wanting to look away first. The human was the first to avert his eyes.

" But make no mistake, we will be watching you."

Then he left without looking back again, Garrus felt like sighing, Scion action in the elevator had probably just earned them an extra vigilant guard. Scion on the other hand seemed to not be disturbed by it and casually strolled out from the room. Sidonis and Tarquin choose to stay for the moment.

Garrus himself felt rather uncomfortable on the thought of walking around without a firearm on a human ship. There might be one less turian in the room, but he still would prefer to not use a bucket, it was simply not sanitary.

There was no sign of Scion or Kaidan when he left the room, he made his way to the elevator and noticed that it was on its way up.

As he waited on the elevator to return he realised that he did not know where the bathrooms were located, but came to the conclusion that they must be on the same deck as the crew's quarters. When the elevator finally returned another obstacle emerged, his translator did not translate the text.

He looked at the screen with names of the different floors and sighed, there was no way he could be able to read the weird symbols on his own. He ended up pressing randomly and hoped it would not send him to an off limit area with turian torture devices or something, but it probably would; if not worse.

No one entered the elevator as it continued to rise until it stopped. He felt nervous not knowing what to expect when the doors opened. When the door opened it lead him to a small corridor. There was only one single door there and it was unlocked so he entered.

He had ended up in a pretty spacious room, music was playing in the background and a huge empty aquarium filled one of the walls and there on the bed sat the human commander.

He swore to himself and tried to leave as quickly as possible hoping that she had not noticed him.

" One moment, I just have to ... oh ... what are you doing here?"

He froze on the spot, for a moment only the buzzing from his working translator filled the room. Before he could answer did a voice from a speaker fill the room.

" Commander, are you okay? Why is a turian in your room?"

He recognised the voice as the pilot's, of course cameras and sensors would monitor their movements.

" Joker, are you spying on me again?" The commander asked as she stood up and looked around.

" No ma'am..... okay perhaps a bit but only because EDI picked up a turian life sign moving towards you."

The commander laughed and ensured the pilot that there was no problem. Garrus could not help but to wonder if she was purely confidant or naïve, perhaps both. He was bigger and had sharper teeth and talons so he could easily overpower her without a gun.

When she had finished talking to her pilot she turned her attention to him. He then realised that she did not even have armour on, the human female looked even smaller without it.

" So big guy, is there anything you want to ask?"

The question took him by surprise, he had half expected her too shoo him away, was she always so .... familiar with others?

"Bathroom? " He blurred out when he saw her rising an eyebrow in waiting. Her eyes widened by surprise. He wanted to hit himself, what a stupid thing to say, he should had just excused himself and kept on searching.

Instead of dismissing him she simply pointed towards a door in the room.

" Sorry, I forgot that the cargo hold had none. The public bathroom is on deck 3, together with crew's quarters, life support control, the mess hall and the medical bay. But you can borrow mine this time. "

Garrus looked at the bathroom door and back at the commander, stunned by the offer. He mouth plates clicked shut when he realised they were open.

" Thanks, but I will just take my leave to deck 3." He hastily said and turned around, if he had been able to wait for this long he dammed well could wait a bit longer.

Garrus thanked the spirits that the elevator still was on the same deck so he could get on it fast.

He promised himself to not tell the others what had happened; he could already hear Scion and Sidonis make fun of the situation. He counted the buttons from top to down and pressed on the third one. Just as the doors was about to close a hand stopped them and the commander stood in front of him with a smile.

" Forgot to tell you men's restroom is on the port side, and the women's is on the starboard."

He thanked her as she walked back towards her room, the door closed and the elevator started to move.

Thankfully the bathroom visit went smoothly and he did not bump into any other human. When he was done he quickly returned back to the cargo hold. Scion was back too and next to his bed stood something that looked like a box of ration bars.

Garrus sat down on his bed and started to work on his translator, Sidonis and Tarquin were chewing on ration bars and speculated about what kind of prisoner they were traded for.

"A guy in the mess hall gave me these, Catch." Said Scion and threw a ration bar towards him.

Garrus caught one and dodged another that end up landing in the same bucket that would have ended up as a toilet.