Chapter Text
Nicholas Brohm was currently a very nervous man. Being called into your bosses' office was bad enough, especially when you worked for the police. Even worse when you were a trainee detective at C-Sec, and your boss was Castis Vakarian. He'd never seen any human leave that office with anything close to resembling a smile. As for the aliens, well, it could be hard to tell sometimes.
He'd been living in the Citadel for a year so far but it was still a brand new world - well, space station - to him. Even more so after moving up to the Presidium for this exchange program between the Council and the Systems Alliance, along with several others. Some had dropped out entirely, some went back to the wards. There was only him and a couple others left, Julie and Chris, if he could remember correctly.
As he approached the door to Vakarian's office, it seemed like the orange holographic lock was taunting him. Daring him to ask for access. Come on, you've spoken to him before, this can't be that bad...right? Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he exhaled quickly and knocked on the door. The lock turned green a moment after, and he opened it with his omni-tool.
Chief Detective Castis Vakarian's office was sparsely decorated. A photo frame and a terminal on a large desk, a safe on one wall, various screens on the opposite wall, and the man himself in the centre of it all. His light grey plates were complimented by his amber coloured eyes, which were in turn contrasted by his dark blue markings.
The imposing turian gestured to the seat opposite the desk. "Good afternoon Mr. Brohm. Please, sit."
Nicholas did as he was told. Normally he would look around a little, perhaps slouch a little in the chair, it annoyed one of his previous bosses back on Earth, but he soon learned after arriving here that that Castis was not like his previous boss. He sat ramrod straight, shoulders back, head high. As was expected of him.
Castis' mandibles parted sideways from his mouth ever so slightly. A turian smile, if he could remember correctly. "First of all, you’re doing a good job Nicholas, you've been progressing very well. How have the training courses been? Good? Bad? I'd like to hear feedback if you have any."
Well this was unexpected. "I'm just doing what I came here to do, sir. They've been good actually, yeah. A good mix of theory, research, and hands-on work. It's a much better balance than what I've dealt with before." As Nicholas began to explain his difficulties with reading certain alien expressions - mainly turian, asari, and batarian - Castis took notes on his terminal, one of the many screens shifting ever so slightly.
"Be proud of what you're doing here Nicholas, there aren't many humans in C-Sec yet, but you're setting a fine example for future officers. I'll ask around and get back to you, if you feel parts of the courses aren't helping as much as others then we can see about adjusting them." Castis said with a twitch of a mandible. "Now, when-"
As Castis began speaking again, the door behind Nicholas opened, and Castis' eyes went wide for a second before he straightened himself up with an "Executor, sir!"
Meanwhile, Nicholas froze in his chair. Pallin? Why's he here? Just my luck.
Executor Pallin's gravelly voice seemed to radiate around the room, as if he didn't care who else he shared his information with. "Apologies to barge in on your little session here" - Nicholas could swear he felt Pallin's eyes boring into the back of his head - "but the SSV Normandy docked here an hour and seventeen minutes ago. The Council has since grounded the ship until further notice. Keep an eye on their crew, we don't need them spreading any further rumours." With that, Pallin stormed out, leaving Nicholas not sure how to feel. "So… uh, should I go?"
Castis took a breath, glanced at the photo frame on his desk for a moment, tapped a gloved talon on his desk a few times, then looked back to Nicholas. "Come with me. Time to put some of your previous training to use."
That's not ominous at all.
Nicholas followed Castis out of the room and down into the main office area. "Caellius! With me!" Castis barked out. A turian on the other side of the room almost jumped out of his seat and joined up with the duo. The turian man had dark grey plates with dark brown skin peeking through. Green facial markings too, he shared a couple of the same markings Castis had but the structure of them was vastly different overall.
"Caellius, this is Nicholas Brohm. Nicholas, this is Caellius Nartus. He's your new partner, I want you two to get in touch with the guards at the docks, see what's going on, and get some officers down there." Castis fired off in the rapid, authoritative tone that everyone in the department was so used to hearing. "Report back to me in an hour."
"Yes, sir!" Caellius replied. His voice was smoother than Pallin's and Castis', but still had that distinctive turian dual tonal sound. He turned to Nicholas as Castis sped off, looked him up and down, and gestured down another corridor. "This way. Don't mind him, he gets like this when something big happens."
"I take it that these things don't happen often? I mean, I know the Normandy is Commander Shepard's ship, but I don't know much about them. I saw a vid of them talking to the Council a few weeks back. Something about a turian Spectre called Saren?" Nicholas replied.
Caellius scoffed a little at that. "He was the most famous Spectre going, until Shepard got him kicked out and got inducted in his stead. If the Normandy is in lockdown, under orders from the very top? Well, that’s not a good sign.”
The pristine, shiny walls of the C-Sec department seemed to close around Nicholas. Spectres? Shepard? The Normandy? This isn't what I was planning for…
"Hey! You still with me?" Caellius said as he thumped Nicholas on the shoulder lightly. "Just relax, follow my lead, you’ll be fine.
Nicholas just nodded, his mind still racing at the thought of what he was getting himself into. The duo soon arrived at the station's armoury, with Caellius equipping himself like he could've done it in his sleep. Nicholas was trained, but nowhere near as fast. After receiving their service pistols and basic equipment they headed out for the docks, a kilometre or so away.
Caellius was the one who started the conversation. "Do you have any expectations for what we're going to be doing?" He asked as they took one of the Citadel's famously slow elevators.
"...I don't know, I was hoping you would provide some insight. First though, we should get properly introduced." Nicholas replied as he put out his hand between the two of them. "Nicholas Brohm, from Earth."
Caellius looked Nicholas' outstretched hand for a moment, looked up to the man in question, took his hand, and gave it one good shake. "Caellius Nartus, from Digeris, Hierarchy space. Been with C-Sec for 10 years now."
"Nice to meet you properly then Caellius. Let's go see what all the fuss is about shall we?" Nicholas smirked at the turian as the elevator was approaching their destination.
All Caellius could do was show a twitch of his mandibles, "Sure thing kid."
"Kid? I'm 26!"
"And I'm in my 40s, so you better get used to it."
The elevator doors opened, and after a few minutes of walking, the two men arrived near the docks where the Normany was located, the views of the wards and space alike stretched out in front and around them. The Citadel Defense Fleet, for all their size and power, just seemed like dots in the distance to Nicholas. Except for the flagship - the asari-run Destiny Ascension - although at this distance it was still small, it was easy to tell how it dwarfed everything else.
While Nicholas was ship-gazing, Caellius approached one of the guards and asked where the SSV Normandy was docked. The salarian replied with a destination that was roughly ten minutes away. When they started walking, Caellius muttered under his breath "Should've just gotten a skycar."
"Come on, walking’s good for you!
Caellius just narrowd his eyes slightly at Nicholas. "Come on, we need to report back to Castis in just over half an hour."
Nicholas had seen the Normandy in various photos and vids, but the first thing that got his attention was how small the vessel was in comparison to what he always imagined. "We should get some extra guards down here. Might deter the press if they get any ideas, amongst other things." He asked, racking his brain to recall what the proper procedure for someone of his rank should do in this situation.
"I agree, I'll call in some backup. There should be some guards here anyway. Spirits, I'm glad I'm up in the investigative division now and not stuck down here with the grunts, but honestly? This is disappointing." Caellius trailed off as he took a few steps away and started typing on his omni-tool.
While Caellius was busy, Nicholas used his omni-tool to take some pictures of the Normandy - no time to be artsy unfortunately - and the surrounding dock. He’d take notes and make some annotations on where their guards should be positioned, both for the Normandy itself and to keep and journalists or passersby away.
He heard some of what Caellius was saying, mainly: “Spectre authority?” “..Spirits.” “How close can we get?”, but nothing from whoever he was talking to.
As he was finishing up marking optimal guard positions, only a few minutes away from having to get in touch with Castis, a loud thrumming noise suddenly started to echo around the docks. Looking up, he noticed the Normandy's engines flaring a bright blue, and the docking clamps beginning to detach from the ship. "Caellius! They're leaving! I thought they were on lockdown!?"
Caellius looked over at the same time he did, for a moment his mandibles slackened and his mouth hung open slightly, before speaking into his omni-tool "Nevermind all that, I'll get back to you soon, it's an emergency." He ended the call with whoever he was speaking to without waiting for a reply, and immediately dialed someone else while opening up several windows and menus.
"Castis here." The voice of the aforementioned turian came through Caellius' omni-tool.
"Sir, the Normandy just left."
"They left?"
"Leaving right this second. I don’t see any undocking procedures filed.” His eyes were flying over his omni-tool.
"...Code Blue approved then. Spirits damn it, I'll get word to Pallin, get back to the station as soon as possible. I’ll send over some names for you to get a briefing started with. Castis out."
Caellius pinched his nose with his gloved talons and groaned. "We came all this way just for that?” He muttered to himself. “You can walk if you want, I'm getting a skycar.”
"Wait, I'll come with you. I don't fully know what Code Blue means. What are we gonna do?" Nicholas was getting nervous, this wasn't something he'd trained for yet!
Caellius waved his hand. "Calm down, Blues don't happen often, but I'll tell you what the protocol is on the way back, no doubt you’ll be in that briefing Castis mentioned too." Caellius explained, but Nicholas could see the slightly tensed stance in the man compared to when they were en route to the docks originally.
"Thanks." Nicholas found himself calmed with just the few words that Caellius had said.
"Don't mention it. Castis might be a bit of an old git, but he knows his stuff. Once there’s a plan, he'll make sure we know it, and he'll lead us through it." Nicholas could tell he looked up to Castis in how he spoke about him, and a VI-controlled car was fast approaching where they were standing. Takes a lot to lead a C-Sec division I suppose.
"Just so you know, I'm driving. I've seen some vids of human drivers and I wasn't that impressed." Caellius said while looking at Nicholas out of the corner of an eye.
"Works for me. I don't like driving anyway, nevermind on the Citadel.”
"See? Perfect."
As they began the journey back to C-Sec headquarters, Caellius explained some of the protocol to follow during a Code Blue scenario, which would no doubt be repeated soon enough, but told Nicholas to prepare for a patrol on the presidium. Following that, there was a few minutes of comfortable silence.
"Hey Caellius, what are you expecting to come of this? I mean, the Normandy broke lockdown! I know Code Blues are for when lockdown is broken, and sure, Shepard's a Spectre, but they answer to the Council, not break their rules! Right?" Nicholas couldn't help getting worked up a little, nothing like this had happened to him before.
Caellius sighed, "...I have no idea, kid."