Chapter 16. So who am I?

The Presidium greeted us with clean air, a beautiful view of green parks and artificial lakes and a peaceful atmosphere. And artificial lighting, climate control and a hologram of the sky gave the feeling of a sunny summer day.

But the most important thing is the diversity of races. In asari space, I had the opportunity to see representatives of other species, but for the most part the inhabitants of the visited planets were represented by asari, and here... Turians, volus, elcors, drells, krogans, and even hanars were here, on which Liara was stuck.

"What's the matter?" he whispered under the ear of the lagging sister, making her jump in surprise.

"No, it's nothing Ivon, it's just... I've never seen hanars," Liara finally died.

-Oh really? Or is it because of the interesting pictures of intimate content involving tentacles and innocent asari?— he whispered sarcastically, watching as Liara's face began to rapidly darken. —We need to clear the search history...—.

-All! Shut up! "I stumbled upon them by accident!" Liara closed my mouth. - And in general, he himself is still vulgar. I also saw your search history, you should at least close the tabs with Azarian porn.—.

"Mmmm." I tried to answer, but Liara's palm still covered my mouth, not allowing me to make intelligible sounds, and only when my sister cooled down a little and unhooked me, was I able to answer. "I have nothing to be ashamed of, I'm a male going through puberty surrounded by only females." It is quite natural that I became interested in the opposite sex, and among women I am only attracted to asari.—.

Liara was already ready to fall into the ground from embarrassment from the entire conversation, and my casual tone of such an intimate conversation confused her. Fortunately, the procession of Benezia and her paratroopers had already moved well forward, leaving only Shiala now choking with laughter. Eh, even though Liara is three years older than me and has greatly surpassed me in height, I am clearly developing mentally much faster.

-Okay male, let's move on. Lady Benezia will now immediately go to negotiations with the turian primarch, so I think we should immediately head to the guest apartments allocated to us." Shiala ended the conversation and turned around and headed to the nearest public terminal, on the move contacting Benezia's security group to notify about our deployment and this deliberately wagging his hips.

Well, the tight-fitting asari commando jumpsuit is something and Shiala knows how to take advantage of this feature of her equipment and her excellent appearance. At least my gaze was firmly fixed on the round, juicy buttocks of the asari. And not only mine, as far as I could notice, several passing turians too eagerly glanced sideways in our direction so that this could be considered an accident, and Liara just pouted funny and, grabbing my hand, increased her pace, catching up with Shiala and depriving me of such a spectacle.

We didn't have to wait long for a taxi, on the Citadel they all belong, in fact, to the Citadel itself, and not to private companies, and some individuals have priority access, such as the Azari matriarch, whose data we used, so in just two minutes a brand new luxury aircar class arrived to pick us up, and after another five minutes we unloaded from it in front of the hotel. An extremely expensive hotel, popular with ambassadors, diplomats and big businessmen due to its location near the Presidium.

"Forward!" children's screams and laughter were heard, muffled by the tramp of the feet of someone very heavy.

And very soon a rushing krogan appeared around the corner with a wide grin on his face and four small cubs on the back of his neck, urging his... um, father on?

—I didn't think that a krogan could have more than two children because of the genophage. And I certainly didn't think that Krogan children were being released from Tuchanka," I remarked stunnedly when a two-meter hulk rushed past, almost knocking me down in the process.

-Oh, this is Hagur. His clan was recently almost completely destroyed on Tuchanka, but he and several children and women managed to escape by escaping to the Citadel. Now he works at Elkoss Harvester," Shiala said calmly, looking at the eccentric family. -Come on, let's go. Need to check in.—.

"Shiala, how do you know him?" Liara anticipated my question, but none of us received an answer.

The adult asari just smiled mysteriously and headed to our room, making us languish with curiosity.

Until the evening we walked around the Citadel, enjoyed the views, tried food from other races, although we didn't try Turian. Well, Liara didn't try it, but when I reached for the turian nuts, Shiala started saying something about dextro and amino acids, but quickly fell silent, her eyes widening in shock when I calmly threw them into my mouth and swallowed. And I got even more crazy when I began to calmly eat the ordered turian bird straight from Palaven, the home world of the turians. At the same time, I was in no hurry to grab my throat from a monstrous allergy or my stomach due to severe diarrhea. Eh, so I tested the versatility of my protein in practice, I can safely eat turian food.

However, besides all this, I never gave up trying to find out how Shiala is connected with that krogan, for which I tried to quietly hack her tooltron, but failed. She has some kind of cunning military-style firewall, she can't connect to it remotely, not with my programs. Well, we'll have to act in a different way.

"Shiala," he called to the asari sitting on the side of the fountain and eating ice cream, to which she focused her gaze on me. Can I go to a local club? It's my birthday in a week, I wanted to celebrate, but in a week we won't be here anymore. Oh please.-.

At my words, even Liara, who had previously been lying on my lap and enjoying the massage of her scallops, deigned to open her eyes and looked with interest at our escort.

-Okay Ivon, but no alcohol and no tricks! "Do you understand me?" the asari frowned, and after waiting for a nod from me, she smiled and continued. - Let's go, there's a decent place here, I think you'll like it.

Talay-Less really turned out to be a nice place. A clean room, no windows and artificial lighting create the illusion of time standing still. A pleasant melody plays in the background, the establishment has a restaurant where you can sit, eat and drink in a cultural manner, and there are slot machines in a separate room. If you want to dance, there is a dance floor on which rhythmic music plays; fortunately, the masses of the specially configured field enclosing this dance floor act as an excellent sound insulator. At first, not like Liara, even I was timid and just looked around. But having overcome my shyness, I quickly got my bearings and had a good rest, met two asari maidens, whose contacts I saved on my communicator, fortunately I am tall enough for my almost fourteen years old, and they themselves are still quite young. We even managed to drag Liara onto the dance floor, where, surrendering to the rhythm and atmosphere, we looked more like not brother and sister, but a couple of excited teenagers who would attack each other in a moment. But Liara still came to her senses and quickly retreated to the bar counter where Shiala had previously been sitting.

"Speaking of her," he whispered under his breath without noticing our escort and sat down next to his sister, ordering something non-alcoholic from the salarian bartender. —Liara, have you seen Shiala?—.

"N-no, I'm looking for her myself." The sister looked away, embarrassed.

She probably remembered how she rubbed her recently rounded ass against me on the dance floor.

And yet, where is Shiala? I wanted to get her drunk and directly find out information about the krogan, but at first I got carried away, and then completely lost it.

"Are you looking for someone?" a vibrating voice brought me out of my thoughts, but as soon as I looked away I shuddered... from disgust.

Plump lips hid a palisade of needle-sharp teeth and framed a pale, shiny face, like a monster mask stretched over a crooked skull. The ribbed flat nose only intensified the feeling of creepiness of the xenos sitting opposite, as did the look of four slightly wandering eyes. And okay, it would have been an ugly man, but the xenos in front of me was a woman, as hinted at by the off-shoulder dress, narrower waist, rounded chest, braided hair and earrings in the ears. All this created a bright contrast, making the picture even more disgusting.

"Well, you're an abomination," he blurted out without restraining himself, from which he caught Liara's dissatisfied glance.

But the batarian herself froze as if in shock. And it seems like I needlessly insulted a woman...or a girl, who the hell understands the age of this image. In short, I did the wrong thing, but there was no pity for her, so I just threw her out of my head and reached for my juice, but was stopped by the strong grip of a hand on my shoulder.

-Listen, puppy. What did you say about my sister?" a batarian with clearly developed muscles turned me to face him and spat out these words.

"I said that she's an abomination, I've never met a bigger monstrosity in my life." Like a pimple on the ass of the galaxy, however, this can be said about your entire race, dirty slave trader," the bataru answered again without holding back his words, feeling a wave of pure hatred rise in his soul at the sight of his ugly face.

From such an attack, the xenos was even confused at first, but quickly came to his senses and, baring his teeth, sent his fist straight into my jaw. I don't know who he is, but he fights well. For the amateur. I was trained by an asari commando, so I may be inferior to my opponent in terms of size, but I will give a huge head start in technicality.

Seeing the fist approaching, I ostentatiously moved my head to the right, letting the battery pass and causing him to "fall" forward, right onto my fist, which I slammed directly into his diaphragm, knocking out all the air. And a second later, with a little concentration, he caused a directed biotic explosion of low power, so as not to kill the xenos, but to send him flying. True, I did not take into account the trajectory of his flight and he landed on an asari chatting with a turian, burying her under him. The turian could not stand this and, snatching a bottle from a krogan chatting with his friend at the next table, he savorily dropped it on the head of the batar who was trying to get up. True, he was immediately struck on the left mandible by a healthy fist from a krogan upset by the loss of his drink. But then the asari came to her senses, saw what happened to her companion and, covered with biotics, showed why all asari, no matter how fragile they look, are very dangerous and there is no point in angering them. In general, a brawl broke out, which included more and more people. They also tried to run over me a couple of times, one batar even took out a knife, for which he lost it... and a couple of fingers to boot. I did not stand on ceremony and with a resotron (a modification of the instrumentron, which is a molecular, red-hot disposable blade) cut off the blade of the knife and in the process touched his fingers, after which I knocked out the freak with a blow enhanced by biotics.

-Liara, get out! It's too hot for us here!" he got his bearings in the very quickly changing situation and led his sister to the exit, trying to stay away from the crowd hitting each other in the face.

However, the main exit was blocked by a pair of turians methodically knocking out the teeth of a krogan knocker. I had to hide behind the bar and hack into the club's firewall to find the location of the service exit, where we headed, on the way looking into the server room, where I deleted the surveillance camera footage for today.

In the end, I managed to get out and even move away from the establishment, but... "Well, well, you're not even twenty yet, and you're already breaking the law, Mr. T'Soni." A malicious female voice with a characteristic Serrai accent stopped me.

Slowly turning around, I had already accepted that the C-Sec (Citadel Security Service) would be waiting for me, but instead of a security guard I saw an asari in a tight-fitting combat suit with a purple pattern on his beautiful face.

"Tela Vazir, Special Tactical Reconnaissance Corps," the asari introduced herself, causing thoughts of escape to disappear as quickly as they had appeared. —So, what do you have to say in your defense?—.

—Please don't tell mom.—.

I don't know what she heard in my words, but at first light sobs were heard from her, and then SPECTER laughed uncontrollably, leaning against the wall.

Only after a couple of minutes, having laughed it off properly, Tela calmed down and clarified. - You do understand that the Security Security Center will identify all the participants in the brawl based on camera recordings? And they should have already arrived.—.

"Well... um... I... I erased the recording." he mumbled, preferring not to lie to the SPECTER.

However, instead of a lecture or detention, the asari only grinned wider and, turning on her tooltron, requested my contact, and a couple of minutes later Shiala contacted me and so she, with all her diligence, picked my brains on the topic of my irresponsibility, broken promises and about the mountain storm in my ass . Fortunately, Shiala didn't tell her mother about this incident, otherwise she would have gotten it too, and three days later Shiala led me straight to the asari ambassador's office, where the ambassador herself, Benezia and, which was very unexpected, Body SPECTER Wazir were.

"Ivon." Benezia looked me up and down and, making a sign to the ambassador to leave us, continued. -What have you done again? No, what exactly did you do that aroused SPECTER's interest? —.

"It's not what he did, but how he did it." Any idiot can start a fight in a club, but fighting off everyone who wants to, including Turian army soldiers on leave and C-SEC representatives without uniforms, is another matter. And this at the age of thirteen," Vazir reported, and with every word her mother's face became darker and mine paler.

"Almost fourteen," I tried to object, but was ignored.

"In addition, it is worth noting the excellent physical shape even for adult asari, excellent hand-to-hand combat, a good level of biotics... he was trained by your commandos, right?" Tela asked Benezia and, waiting for a nod, continued. —And on top of that, excellent knowledge of engineering and programming. True, I could not find information on the biometrics of Ivon, the concentration of the zero element in the body and genetic modifications, which is strange.—.

"What are you leading SPECTER Wazir to?" Beenesia Telu interrupted.

—Ivon has excellent data and has every chance of becoming a SPECTER. In the future, about forty years from now. And if he wants...—.

"No!" Mom interrupted her, jumping out from behind the table. -We'll finish here. It was nice to meet you SPECTRUM.—.

Having met Benezia's gaze, Tela froze for a while, as if they were having a mental battle, after which Wazir said goodbye and left the office. But I stayed and my mother and I had a long and detailed conversation about my behavior, about the dangers of joining SPECTER, about other possibilities... In general, my mother tried to convince me that being a lone special agent is extremely dangerous, stupid and is not categorically suitable for me . Of course, I calmed her down, but I didn't delete the letter that came to me with Tela's contact for communication, you never know how life would turn out.

***

Athena Nebula, Parnitha system, planet Thessia. Two days after returning from the Citadel.

Once home after five days at the Citadel, I had to deal with the accumulated matters. Well, contact friends, check out the new developments of FreeMen Armory and FreeMen Inc., fortunately at least I didn't have to deal with homework because it was the holidays.

"But this is interesting," he whispered, looking at the message from an unknown contact, which contained the text: "If you want to know the truth about Gordon Freeman and your origins, come…" and coordinates pointing to a place near the Atame Temple.

"Ivon!" Liara burst into my room, burning with indignation. -Are these your jokes?

And she shoved a message in my face on her instrument with the same content as mine, only instead of the sentence "find out about your origins" it was "find out about the origins of your brother."

"Well?" Liara demanded an answer when I finished reading.

"I don't know who this is, I recently received something similar." He showed his letter, dispelling his sister's suspicions.

While she was reading the forwarded message, I hugged her from behind, pressing my whole body against her, which made Liara tense up.

-And then Liara, did you really think that I could joke with you? Over anyone, but definitely not over you." He blew on his sister's scallops, which had become extremely sensitive from tension, causing her to tremble and bite one of them with her lips, hearing Liara sigh raggedly.

"Ivon." My little sister got out of the captivity of my hands, clearly embarrassed by my attention, which made her neck and face noticeably darken. —If...if it's not you, then who?—.

-Don't know. But this can be easily found out." He shrugged his shoulders lightly.

-Do you want to go there? Trust some suspicious message? "Are you serious?" Liara was indignant, instantly forgetting about all the awkwardness. -We need to tell mom.—.

"No, wait," I intercepted my sister. "Listen, if something happens, I can fight back so that I'm not in danger, especially the meeting near the Atame Temple, almost in the center of the city." I'm not in any danger, but my mother will forbid me to go anywhere and in the end I won't learn anything about myself. There are many of you asari, but who am I? Not an asari, not a turian, not a quarian, and definitely not a batarian. I have no idea who I am at all. And I'm all alone. Don't take away my chance to learn something about myself.—.

"You're not alone," the sister whispered, hugging him in an attempt to console him. -I will always be with you. And...we...we will find out everything, but together.—.

Heh, it was always quite easy to pity your little sister.

After standing there for a while, I pulled away, but froze when I saw Liara's eyes. She also froze for a short while, but a little later she approached almost very closely, a matter of millimeters before our lips touched, leaving the choice to me. And when I was about to share our first kiss...

—Avon, will you have dinner? "And you haven't seen Liara?" Shiala interrupted us, opening the door and making us jump away from each other, blushing.

"Oh, you're together, is everything okay?" I noticed the awkward atmosphere of the asari, but immediately changed the topic. -Dinner is ready, are you coming?

"Y-yes, let's go." He quickly calmed down, and, pulling himself together, was the first to step towards the exit, as if nothing had just happened.

Except that our intertwined hands with Liara were out of the usual picture.