บท 19: Interesting Times - Chapter 19

April 4th, 2169

14:27 SET

Citadel, Abera-Ward

Ad Astra Citadel HQ

Aaliyah'Cadre, Quarian

Deep breaths, deep breaths, she told herself while she waited for the elevator to arrive on the sixth floor.

When she had sent in her application, she hadn't even considered that Ad Astra would take it seriously. After all, who would hire a Quarian? Especially one exiled by the Migrant Fleet. Not even other Quarians would give her a second look when they found out. The reason behind her banishment was irrelevant. The only fact that mattered was that it happened.

Perhaps, the reason was that the humans were still new to the galactic stage that Aaliyah got the invite for a job interview.

Yet, their opinions were probably influenced by the rumors circulating in Citadel space about her species. Inside Citadel space, every Quarian was just one step from becoming persona-non-grata. Additional checks at spaceports, "random" controls by police officers, and more were standard for every Quarian on their pilgrimage.

Still, Aaliyah would take her chance with this interview.

This was something that every Quarian learned on their pilgrimage, too. If the consequences of an opportunity only consisted of lost time and/or humiliation, you took it without hesitation. As a Quarian, you never got many of them in the first place, so one took what they could get.

A soft ping sounded inside the elevator cabin when it arrived on the sixth floor. Its doors opened, and Aaliyah stepped out into the hallway.

Her visor took a moment to adjust to the new light conditions, and after that, she took a look around.

The hallway wasn't overly decorated or tried to intimidate through an obvious show of wealth. Instead, the hallway was quite empty, yet the decor captivated one through its simplicity and elegance.

One wall of the hallway was dominated by large windows that let in the light, which was reflected by the polished stone floor. At regular intervals stood potted plants that Aaliyah had never seen before but looked quite nice. The only thing she hoped was that her atmosphere filters were good enough that no spores or pollen got through. She didn't want to get sick during the interview, which would probably be quite disadvantageous.

As she walked down the corridor, she noticed that the doors were made out of wood, or at least looked like they were made out of it.

She arrived at the door, and the sign next to it said "Room 6-24", which was the room where the interview was supposed to happen.

Come on, Aaliyah told herself, you can do this. You're a great engineer and scientist. Else that Bosh'tet wouldn't have felt threatened and got you exiled. You can do this!

After her psych up, she took another deep breath and knocked on the door lightly. It took only a moment before a gruff voice sounded through, and her translator translated the words into Khelish.

"Please come in!"

Hesitating momentarily before steeling herself, she lifted her right hand and swiped over the sensor to open the door.

The door opened with a soft sound, and Aaliyah took her first step into the office on the other side.

She took a moment to appreciate the simplicity of the office, which reminded her, like the hallway, a bit of her old room. Like many other Quarians, she came to like simplicity, more out of a need than anything else, but still, it was nice to see that Ad Astra seemingly followed the same school of thought.

The walls in front of her and to her right were replaced by huge windows that let the sunlight in and gave a stunning view of the Abera-Ward of the Citadel. It was even possible to see the other arms of the Citadel in all their glory from this office.

To her left was a small sitting area with two armchairs and a couch with a small table between them.

Directly in front of her was a desk that dominated most of the office space and would have been probably the most intimidating thing in the office if the man sitting behind it wasn't there.

It was a human male, as far as she could tell by the missing mammary glands, and was probably older than most humans she had seen today, evident by his graying hair.

Keelah, when was the last time I saw a Quarian without their suit? Do Quarian males also get gray hair when they are getting older? I can't remember.

Currently, the man was looking at his activated computer, his eyes scanning over the displayed text fast, but he gave Aaliyah a side glance, pointed at the chair in front of his desk, and said: "Please sit down, Ms. Cadre. I will be with you in a moment."

From her place by the door, Aaliyah walked forwards and sat down on the offered chair. Contrary to her expectations, the chair was not uncomfortable at all. A second look was all it took to notice that the chair was made to fit the Turian and Quarian physiology and not the more common Asari and Salarian, which the humans shared.

Still, while she sat there waiting, she started to play with her fingers, a nervous tick that followed her since childhood.

I mean, it has to be a good sign, she reasoned to herself, if they took the time to get a chair that fits me, then they can't be prejudiced, right?

A soft cough tore her away from her thoughts, and she flinched slightly at the sudden noise. She looked up and saw that the man had closed his computer and was looking at her, his mouth lightly stretched upwards and showing a few of his teeth.

For a moment, she froze up, thinking about if this was like the smile the Asari had or the threatening gesture of the Krogans right before they tried to eat one.

A smile, it's a smile, you idiot. Why did you take the time to read those books about human culture and everything else over the last week when you forget everything anyway!, she scolded herself, trying to get a grip on her nervousness.

"Everything is alright, Ms. Cadre. There is no reason to be nervous," said the man in front of her, his voice a soothing baritone.

"Yes, yes," she replied, her anxiety bleeding through her voice. Aaliyah half expected the human to look annoyed at her nervousness, but he just smiled and waited for her to relax.

She took another deep breath, which wouldn't be last during the interview, and forced herself to calm down.

After a few seconds of quiet, the man started to speak again: "It seems like you calmed down somewhat. Good, then we can probably start with the interview, or what do you say?"

"I'm ready for it," Aaliyah responded, forcing her voice to remain steady.

"Wonderful," the man said and clapped his hands together. In the back of her mind, Aaliyah asked herself if that was an expression of joy or just a signal that things would start. She shelved that thought for now, and instead concentrated on the man's next words.

"Since I already know who you are, Ms. Cadre, from the application you sent us, it would only be fair when I introduce myself as well. I'm Brian Nolan, Assistant Director of Human Resources, or HR as we call it, in our Citadel branch office. The department of Human Resources is responsible for managing anything that is employee-related within our company. Despite the name, that includes any employee of a different species. In fact, it is my personal responsibility to oversee the hiring process of any person not of the human species, which includes you, Ms. Cadre."

Mr. Nolan took a short break to observe her, and Aaliyah squirmed under his look. The look wasn't even half as intimidating as the one she got from the Turian customs officer, but it made her thrice as nervous. This man wasn't just a little cogwheel in the machine but one of the big players, or so she thought. It was normal to be nervous, right?

"As of now, we have employed sixteen Turians, twelve Salarians, five Asari, and one Krogan. This isn't because we discriminate against any species, it is because we started to allow applications from non-humans just this year. Mr. Denebren, the owner of Ad Astra, believes that every single person has something that can contribute to the success of this company."

The genuine smile that Mr. Nolan sent her way assuaged any remaining worries that she would be discriminated against for her Quarian heritage. It was one thing to read about company policies on the extranet, it was another to be told to your face that it was true.

"Yet," Mr. Nolan continued, and his voice took on a more serious tone than before, "we have to inform you, before we continue with the interview, that there are legal requirements that have to be fulfilled if you want a job at Ad Astra. We like to inform potential employees beforehand since some of them are quite dissuasive, or so I'm told by some of the other interviewees. If you have any questions, please ask them, and if you think you can't accept any of the following conditions, say so, and we finish the interview right then because these are not negotiable. Have you understood everything?"

Aaliyah swallowed but nodded nonetheless. She had already heard that Ad Astra dictated a few conditions if any non-humans wanted to work for them. She didn't know what they were, but they couldn't be so bad, right?

Seeing her nod as a sign to continue, Mr. Nolan put his hands together in front of him and said: "Very well, as I already said, there are a few non-negotiable conditions. You probably know that Ad Astra has a close working relationship with the government of the Systems Alliance, especially their military. For that reason, we expect every employee to sign a non-disclosure agreement so that every secret of our company or the Alliance that you will come across is protected. If someone breaks the agreement, the punishments can range from immediate firing to prosecution for treason."

"Treason?!" gasped Aaliyah.

"Yes, treason," confirmed Mr. Nolan with a nod that conveyed how serious he was. "Some of our employees have access to military secrets, so anything that could endanger them is taken as espionage."

"I see," said Aaliyah slowly, trying to understand what he meant, and what was so special about it. To her, it seemed like a standard contract that was used in most companies. At least their definition of terminating the contract didn't mean the termination of the employee, too, as some businesses did in the Terminus systems, but that was the Terminus for you.

"I guess there is something more?" she inquired.

"That is correct. If an employee is a citizen of the Systems Alliance, the non-disclosure agreement would have been the end of this particular endeavor, but since you, and some of our other employees, are not, you need to sign an additional agreement. With this agreement, you agree to give up your right to a trial held by your government. In essence, any crime that concerns your relationship with Ad Astra will be tried by a human court of law."

"That seems... appropriate," said Aaliyah hesitatingly.

For a moment, it didn't sound too bad, but the longer she thought about it, the more she understood the implications.

Should anything happen, then there would be no fair trial. The judges would be even more biased than the Citadel Council.

She would basically be working for them with a damaged suit. One little mistake, and she would be sick. If she could recover from it, would be up in the air.

"Does this apply to the Council species, too?" Aaliyah inquired.

"Of course," confirmed Mr. Nolan. "The human ambassador herself got an agreement from the Citadel Council that this kind of contract is legally binding."

"The Citadel Council agreed to this?" repeated Aaliyah, disbelieving that the Council of Bosh'tets agreed to this.

"Our ambassador can be fairly convincing," said Mr. Nolan. "We already had to make use of this. A Salarian with connections to a warlord in the Terminus systems tried to get access to confidential files. He's currently serving a ten-year sentence in a human prison whose location is kept undisclosed."

She knew that he said the last thing to intimidate her, to let her know what could happen if she broke the rules, and it worked.

There was no doubt that there was more behind the story of the imprisoned Salarian. If she had to take a guess, the Salarian was probably an STG agent that tried to infiltrate Ad Astra to get access to military secrets. A smirk appeared on her face, not that anyone could see it through her mask. It was always nice when those fast-talkers got one-upped. The only thing that would have been better was if it had been one of those arrogant blue bitches.

"Do you need some time to decide if you can agree to the outlined conditions?" asked Mr. Nolan, distracting her before she could really start to rant about the Asari.

"No, not really," answered Aaliyah with a shake of her head. In the end, it was an easy decision for her. She had no home, no place to return to. Of course, she could look for some job that didn't have strings attached, perhaps in some run-down workshop as a repairwoman. Yet the thought alone gave her shivers. She had a bright future once, and she wasn't ready to give it up yet. She wanted more, she wanted to be someone important, and if she couldn't be that in the Migrant Fleet, then she would become it somewhere else. Ad Astra was a chance, a chance that would never come again. So she would take it. Burn bright or burn out, just like her mother had told her when she was little.

"I agree to the conditions."

"Wonderful," said Mr. Nolan with a smile, visibly relieved that this topic was over. "We will need your signature, but that can wait until we discuss the actual contract. I would like to continue with some other questions. We need to know a bit more about your personal information. There are some gaps in what we know, so we would like it if you could fill them."

"What do you need to know?" asked Aaliyah, already knowing what he wanted to know but still hopeful that the questions were about something else.

"In preparation for this interview, I tried to learn a bit about Quarian culture to avoid social faux-pas. And I couldn't help but notice that the name you wrote on your application was only Aaliyah'Cadre. I thought that all Quarian names had the name of a ship at the end? I believe it was nar for Quarians on their pilgrimage and vas for adults, or am I wrong?"

"Normally, yes," answered Aaliyah. Her very, very, tiny hopes were cruelly crushed and ground so much that not even specks of dust remained.

Yet, was it really a surprise that the first thing Mr. Nolan asked was about her missing ship name? Most versions of the galactic codexes highlighted the importance of the ship name for every Quarian, and here she was without one. If that didn't raise any warning flags, then she would have thought that they didn't do their research very well.

"Then could you please tell me why you didn't add it?" asked Mr. Nolan, and from the tone he used, Aaliyah knew that this wasn't a question that she could refuse to answer.

It was hard to get the words to cross her lips. Like speaking out loud would make her situation more real. More real than it already was. Perhaps she had denied it somewhere deep in her heart, convinced her subconscious that this was just an extended mission away from the Migrant Fleet.

Every time she thought about home, there was a deep longing inside of her to go back. And every time, it was accompanied by a wave of burning anger at that Bosh'tet that caused all this, just because she couldn't accept that there was someone that could rival her in the scientific field.

"I was exiled from the Migrant Fleet, and thus lost the right to bear the ship name," forced Aaliyah over her lips before stiffening in fear of Mr. Nolan's reaction.

If even your own people don't want you, why should we?, echoed through her head in Mr. Nolan's voice.

She readied herself to be told to leave the premise after the admittance of her exile, but to her surprise, Mr. Nolan only raised one of his eyebrows in response.

"That was... unexpected", said Mr. Nolan slowly. "Does that happen often? I mean, do get Quarians often exiled?"

"No, it does not. Only seven in the last century. Well, eight now with me," answered Aaliyah more out of reflex than anything else.

That definitely wasn't what she had expected. Truth be told, she had expected to be escorted out of the building by security right now, not continuing with the interview.

"Sir, I don't... I mean... I," she started hesitatingly but stopped since she couldn't articulate what she wanted to ask without sounding more like an idiot than she already did.

Mr. Nolan just smiled slightly in response and leaned back into his chair before saying: "I can guess what you want to ask. You're wondering about my reaction or lack thereof, am I correct?"

"You are," she admitted, her voice a soft whisper.

"Normally, the interview would have ended right then, but we informed us a bit about you, about your old workplace during your pilgrimage. You had talent back then, and we're sure you only honed it further, so we're ready to overlook a few things as long as they won't come back to us. Or is there anything that we need to know?"

The hard stare that Mr. Nolan directed at her made her squirm, but somehow she felt more relaxed than before. Perhaps it was the fact that the interview was still going on, or that her exile seemingly had no effect on Mr. Nolan's opinion of her. Nonetheless, she had to think if her exile had any consequences for the company she wanted to work at, and should something happen that could have been prevented by her telling them beforehand then it would be her head on the chopping block, and she would be powerless to do anything against it.

Taking a minute to arrange her thoughts, Aaliyah thought about possible scenarios while Mr. Nolan patiently waited for her to speak up.

"Nothing that comes to my mind," she answered after mulling over the question.

"So if we started to hire other Quarians, perhaps those on their pilgrimage, there would be no problems?"

"Not that I know," came Aaliyah's truthful reply. She didn't know if there would be any problems, but the only thing that could happen was that the young Quarians would refuse to work with her personally.

When she told Mr. Nolan this, he hummed and closed his eyes for a moment, seemingly deep in thought.

"Is there anything, and I mean, anything," began Mr. Nolan, opening his eyes and leaning forward, his eyes finding hers through her mask, and freezing her in her place with how intense they were.

And I thought Krogans were scary, thought Aaliyah as she felt how her blood got colder in her veins.

"...that could create problems from the side of the Migrant Fleet, be it for Ad Astra or the Alliance in general?" continued Mr. Nolan, his eyes never leaving hers for even a moment.

"There could be one little thing, but I don't think that she would do anything. She got what she wanted, and if she causes problems it won't have anything to do with me, but because she is the biggest Bosh'tet that ever existed!"

Her voice had been barely a whisper at the beginning, scared that this could become the reason why she wouldn't get this job. But as she continued the anger and fury came back, and her voice got stronger with it.

I already lost so much because of you, and now you're going to be the reason why I won't get this job, too! Choke on your damn ambitions! I hope you die before you can ever lie an eye on the homeworld! screamed Aaliyah inside her head.

At the end of her rant, she was almost screaming for real, and when she noticed that she had stood up and was yelling at Mr. Nolan's face, she froze. She quickly sat down again and mumbled an apology, embarrassed and fearful at the same time.

That couldn't have happened, right? She knew she held a grudge for what had happened, but Aaliyah thought she had control over her feelings. Perhaps it was the tension of the situation coupled with the feelings she had repressed for months that it all came out now.

She hesitatingly looked back to Mr. Nolan after she had averted her eyes out of embarrassment, expecting to see...

Aaliyah didn't know what she expected to see, only that she hoped it wasn't anger.

When she finally looked at him, Mr. Nolan appeared completely expressionless. If she had to make a comparison, she would have said she was looking at an Hanar, only with a lot less red.

"Did you calm down?" he asked, his voice not betraying any feelings.

"I'm sorry," mumbled Aaliyah, and made to stand up.

But before she could even stand up halfway, Mr. Nolan's voice interrupted her: "Where do you think you're going?"

"I... I thought... after what just happened... I thought.." she stammered but stopped when Mr. Nolan raised his hand.

He let out a long sigh and said: "I understand what just happened was out of the ordinary, and my questions may have helped to drag out some unpleasant feelings. I won't ask who that Bosh'tet even is, or what that even means. We will come back to you for that information at another time if that is ok with you?"

She could only manage a shaky nod, still in denial that she wasn't being thrown out of the room right now.

"Now, can we please finish the interview?" asked Mr. Nolan and pointed at her chair, signaling her to sit back down.

Aaliyah sat down and fell back like all the bones in her body just disappeared. It was like the fact that the interview continued after all this forced her body to release all tension in it, even those she needed to sit normally.

With a bit of effort, Aaliyah managed to position herself in the chair so that it looked normal and waited for Mr. Nolan to continue.

"There are only a few things I have to ask and inform you about it, and after that, you can let a lawyer of your choice check the contract."

"What contract?" interrupted Aaliyah, and Mr. Nolan grimaced for a moment, but it was over so fast that she didn't know if it really had happened.

"Since before you entered the building, we were ready to offer you a contract. There were only a few things we had to discuss first, and while it wasn't as smooth going as I had hoped, it was still inside our tolerance interval."

"But why?" she inquired. "I know I did well on the preliminary tests, but that can't be all, right?"

"You would be correct with your assumption," confirmed Mr. Nolan.

"The reason is twofold, or threefold, depending on how you look at it. The board wants Ad Astra to be a shining example of interspecies cooperation, to show the galaxy that we can work well with others and that we're integrating with the rest of the galaxy. In essence, it's a PR move."

Aaliyah just nodded, not understanding how that helped her get the job. She never had any talent for politics, one of the reasons why that Bosh'tet got away with what she did, but right now, she was grateful for politics, probably for the first and last time in her life.

"The other reason is that we're still a very young company in the eyes of the galaxy," continued Mr. Nolan. "Most of the big companies in Citadel space exist since centuries ago. So we need every advantage that we can get our hands on, and everyone says, even if they do so reluctantly, that Quarians are among the best engineers in the galaxy. And we're not satisfied with the average. So I only have one more question for you, Ms. Aaliyah'Cadre. Can we welcome you into the Ad Astra family?"

Under her mask, Aaliyah mirrored the smile that appeared on Mr. Nolan's face during his speech, and with a nod, devoid of any of her previous nervousness or hesitation, she answered his question.

Half an hour later, she left the building into the busy streets, a contract saved on her Omni-tool that would, and did, change her life.