Archive of Our Own ^beta

She looked around anxiously, desperate to finally see a familiar face in the crowds. But until now there were mostly turian and asari ships arriving. There hadn’t been any new ships from earth the whole day.
Freya’s parents had put her on the first rescue ship they’d found, just after the reapers started attacking. There hadn’t been any space for them after the ship was already full to the brink with families, children and older people. Instead, her parents had promised her to take the next one. She hadn’t heard from them since.
With every hour that passed she was afraid that her parents hadn’t made it. Earth had been hell, who knows how many people had died just in the first few minutes.               
She saw asari families reunite, she saw a turian and a salarian give each other a half hug and she saw a volus run as fast as he could to a teenage human boy. The seats around her were mostly filled with humans and turians and there were only a few seats left that newcomers could rest.
Suddenly someone sat next to her, and she saw someone stretching their legs. She turned around and was surprised to see a batarian. They seemed to be on their own as well, which was rare since most people had come with someone. She got nervous because she knew how much batarians hated humans, especially after the destruction of the Bahak system. She couldn’t help looking at them. She’d never seen one. Obviously. And everything she knew about them was that they were weapon and drug smugglers, slavers and murderers. But looking at the batarian next to her, they looked just exhausted as everyone else.

Suddenly they turned their head to her.

She panicked and a nervous and squeaky “Hi!” escaped her mouth.

They didn’t react at first. Then she heard the deep and rough male voice. “Hello.”

Now she had to say something, otherwise it would be even more awkward. “Uhm...just letting you know that they’re handing out fluids and snacks for everyone over there.”

“I don’t require anything, human.” He sounded irritated.

“Ah...great. Just...yeah, maybe for later. I’m Freya by the way. I arrived just after the attack on Earth. I’m still waiting for my parents, there wasn’t any space left for them on the ship that I took.” She realised that she was rambling. “So, what’s your name?”

Why was she having small talk, that could only be considered small talk during war times, with a batarian?

At first, he didn’t look like he would answer. He even looked away from her for a few seconds. Then he mumbled “Karek.”

“Are you here from Khar’shan?”

“No. Anhur.”

Oh. Anhur had been one of the planets with the worst slavery situations until the rebellions.

“Have…Have you even been to the Citadel before? I haven’t. Actually, I haven’t been anywhere other than earth countries. And this would be so exciting if the whole situation wouldn’t be so horrible.”

She was still rambling. But she was so anxious, stressed and worried and it felt good to have someone to talk to, even if it was just a batarian who didn’t really wanted to talk to her.

“Human, do you ever stop talking?” He didn’t even sound angry. More resigned than anything.

“I’m sorry! I’m just nervous and worried that my parents won’t show up and you’re the only person who has sit down in their own in a while and somehow, I just thought it would be nice to have someone to talk. But I know batarians don’t really like humans, so I understand if you don’t want to talk!”

She shut up before she could make the situation any more awkward.

A good ten minutes passed, and she continued to watch newcomers and situations that occurred due to people being stressed and on edge.

She saw a teenage girl talking to a turian. She had seen them talking again and again over the time she had been here. In the beginning the girl always seemed relaxed but at this point Freya could make out the anxiousness in the girl’s posture. She was probably waiting for someone as well. Or maybe she had gotten bad news.

“I haven’t been to the Citadel before.”

Surprised she looked at the batarian again.

“We’re not allowed to leave our systems. And those who do pursue illegal traits.”

“Oh wow. I mean yeah, I heard that batarians mainly stay on their planets and I’m really not one to talk because as I said I’ve never been off earth. So, what do you think of it? For me it looks like a human shopping mall. Everything is so clean, there are windows everywhere and everything is so…white and silver.”

He stared at her. And somehow being stared at was even more unnerving when the other person had four eyes. “You really do talk a lot. And you’re very…direct. And open.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not…necessarily a bad thing. Just not what I expected. And to answer your question: It’s cold. Batarian planets are generally hot. But here it’s surprisingly cold.”

She leaned a bit closer. He observed her subtle movement with scepticism. “What did you expect?”

He didn’t answer her at first, then he sighed. “We are told that humans are cold-hearted people who will do anything to destroy our kind and our culture.”

She laughed. “How ironic. We’re told pretty much the same about you guys. I mean after the relay I can understand your wariness. But we have a lot of our people enslaved on your planets.”

He rotated his shoulders and leaned back. “Slavery is no longer allowed on Anhur.”

“Since the rebellions, I know.”

“I fought in the rebellions.”

She didn’t dare blink. They had been talking so civilly, why did he mention this now?

“I fought against the slavery.”  He said it nonchalant, but it was obvious that he was waiting for her reaction.

She didn’t know what to say. A batarian from one of the planets with the worst slavery situations had fought against slavery. “Why?”

“Because I think slavery and our whole caste system is bullshit. There, I said it. I don’t even know if I’ll survive this and we batarians are not usually pessimistic. But I’m talking to a human and my planet is probably a burned down hell by now.” He sounded bitter.

“I’m sorry?” Having a heart to heart with a batarian wasn’t how she’d thought the day would go. “I also think slavery and caste systems are bullshit. We had both on earth at some point and it was obviously a pretty shitty situation for some people.”

She didn’t add anything because he seemed lost in thought.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “It is surprising. We’ve been around aliens for quite some time now, and the hegemony denies that other species might be better in some regards. Instead, they tell everyone that our way of living is the best. But still, our people in low castes die from poverty. They tell us species with less than four eyes are worthless and less intelligent but it’s us batarians who are too blind to see that our government is killing our species on the long run.”

She couldn’t help but stare at him with an open mouth. Here was this batarian, a barbarian as far as most of the galaxy thought, and he spoke politics and criticised his government. She didn’t know what to say.

“To be fair, we humans also thought whatever aliens we should ever meet would be either weird green men from mars or insect-like, just barely intelligent enough to decide to kill us. We had various movies with these stereotypes. It’s probably normal as a species to think you’re better developed than other species. Although, it’s dangerous for a society.”

“You had movies about green insect aliens before meeting other aliens?” Okay, he didn’t want to talk politics and society anymore. Probably for the better. The mood was bad enough without thinking about society’s problems.

“Yeah.” She looked for some videos on her omni-tool. Then she leaned on his arm rest and showed him the video. He shifted a bit.

They were so close, she could feel his body heath. She was sure she was blushing.

He let out a rough chuckle when the baby xenomorph burst from Kane’s chest in a sea of bad blood and gore.

Freya laughed as well. “It’s a really, really old movie.” She also showed him the scene of the xenomorph killing Brett.

“It’s probably good that we first encountered the citadel species. I can’t imagine how people would’ve freaked out if there had been rachni on the citadel.”

That made him chuckle even louder. Not a full-blown laugh but a really amused chuckle. The heat in Freya’s cheeks got even more intense. She enjoyed the sound immensely.

They got weird looks from two asari as well as a turian and another human.

And she couldn’t blame them. A human and a batarian laughing, what a weird sight they had to be.

Karek nudged her with his arm. “Do you have more?”

Freya smiled and leaned against his arm rest some more. “Sure!”