[Mars] just a beer

Richard was walking along a corridor of glass, his jacket over his shoulder. He wasn’t very remarkable in appearance, dark hair, neatly combed after the shower he had taken after the shift, of average height and build, strong but not excessively muscled. He was dressed in a standard issue suit of grey and dusty red colors, the martian port authority emblem on his sleeves. Green grey eyes were observing a brewing storm on the horizon, one of the lighter sort, so he wasn’t concerned, it was business as usual on Mars.

He was in good mood as he looked forward to a beer or two with that turian chick (he giggled a bit while thinking this) he had met on this weird extranet forum.

Mita, the asari he had been spending a lot of time with lately, had left for a couple of weeks of holiday to visit her home republic so the break of the usual routine was more than welcome.

From the corridor, he entered another larger building, it was a hub that connected living arcologies and contained entertainment and shopping zones, in one of which the bar of his choice was located, the Jeddak. Beer, sports holos and snacks, nothing fancy but very cozy to chill after a hard days shift loading and refuelling freighters.

A couple of alliance personnel and some civilians were distributed at the bar and some tables, all humans. That wasn’t unusual; Mars was a predominantly human after all. The guys at the bar followed some martial arts competition on a screen and were occasionally debating.

He set down at a table and waited.

"So where are we going again?" Maria fidgeted about, alternating between tugging at her shirt and worrying at her hair. She was tall for a human, with a small but noticeable limp. Dissatisfied with her ponytail, she undid it and attempted to bring the tangled brown mess into some sense of order with her bare hands.

The dark-plated turian besides her grinned at the display. Green eyes matching green colony marks wandered about the hub, searching for something. "Somewhere in here, I think." She looked back to her omnitool and frowned. "It's a place named, what was it... Oh, there it is, Jeddak, down that way. Going to go meet somebody there."

Maria gave up on her hair and crossed her arms as she spoke, "Who, that random guy from the extranet?"

The turian gave a nod and kept walking. "Yes, he's offering drinks."

Maria gave a short laugh at that. "Drinks, I, I wouldn't have taken him up on that. What if he's a complete psycho or something like that?"

"He seemed nic-" Temyss tried to interrupt, but Maria kept going, gesturing wildly as she went.

"Like who even does that? Just go asking random people on the extranet to, uh," She paused with a sudden realization. "Wait, does he even know you're a turian?"

Now somewhat annoyed, Temyss tried again. "Yes, he does. Why does that matter? He seemed nice enough."

She replied far too quickly, and with far too wide a grin. "No reason!"

"You're ridiculous. Just try to relax for once, okay? We're here."

With that said, Temyss strode into the bar. She made it a few steps before she suddenly stopped, looked around, and frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"I have no idea what he looks like."

Richard had his Omnitool set to submit his tag. He usually disliked this function as everyone scanning their surrounding with one of the public apps could ID anyone who had his active but in some cases, like when you wanted to meet up with someone, it could be a really handy device. His alarm was set to “tater_tots” but of course he could not be sure if that turian had her ID set to that. Dammit, he should have asked that.

There came a turian and a human woman into the bar. Well… he turned his tool off, with a raised eyebrow. On the other hand turian women were such a rare thing on mars anyway.

He stood up, waving at the two, straightening his jacket. Dark skinned and green markings… he had never seen green markings, at least not these. His stints on the Citadel didn’t gave him close and personal contact with many turians though, his observations had been mostly in public environments. But working at the port had brought him in contact with many turian crews by now, enough that he didn’t see them as exotic being from holovids anymore. His time on earth, where he had had next to no contact to aliens was almost forgotten.

That woman next to her was tall, a bit taller than himself even! And she had a skeptic look to herself…

“Hey, uh… Tater? I am Richard, cool thing you came, please take a seat.” He was offering a handshake to both women and invited them to the table. It felt a bit awkward to call someone by their extranet handle, but that had been sorted that out on the one previous occasion where he had met other CDN people.

“Mind if I look into the menu?” It was rhetorical, since he knew the thing in and out but he just liked the ritual before ordering something he already knew. “They have a dextro selection of snacks if you want something... It’s nice to have company over a beer after the shift, so how are you doing?” He put down the menu, folding his hands.

Temyss felt perfectly at ease she was the only non-human in the place. She was used to being around aliens, and had been this deep in Alliance space long enough that being the odd one out of a room no longer bothered her. The human - calamity, was it? - seemed friendly enough, if a bit short. But all humans were a bit short to her. "Hello Richard, I'm, uh, you can just call me Temyss. I'm doing fine." She returned the handshake and took a seat as Maria introduced herself. Her eyes lit up at the prospect of food - real, solid, food! Even if it was reconstituted junk it would be better than the nutripaste she had been living on for the past month.

Maria seemed rather scattered, like she wasn't sure of what she should say. "Hey, I'm Maria, Ria for short." She smiled and laughed, but it was more out of awkwardness than being friendly. "Didn't know this place was here." She couldn't help but survey the room - entrance, doors, windows, vents, people. It was an old habit she had trouble breaking. She was just getting drinks with a friend, there was no reason for her to feel so anxious, but here she was, a bundle of nerves buzzing away. Calm down, be friendly. "So, what do you do around here? Like, uh, as a job I mean." Well that was smooth, good job.

The turian couldn't help but chuckle. Ria was being a goofball again. She placed her order and settled deeper into her chair. It was good to relax and not worry about things. She smiled warmly at the thought. "It really is a pleasure to meet you, thank you for inviting us."

The turian had the exotic appeal of a feline bird with a raspy voice that made strings vibrate. Richard, not very close and personally familiar with female turians specifically was a bit mesmerized when he shook her hand.
“Sure, Temyss. Suit yourself on a drink, round’s on me. I guess it’s pretty dusty out there where you come from, huh?”

“Hello Ria, nice to meet you.” His job, right. He pointed at his sleeve and the emblem.
“I’m a loader at the spaceport. I operate the mechs that move the heavy loads and observe the refueling. It’s a lot of in-suit job at times, depending on the type of vessel, some can’t dock into the hubs, these have to be handled on the field.” He pointed out the window, tow the sand clouds rising on the horizon.
“That guy may look like nothing major but it’s enough to disturb and prolong the procedure if you have a ship sitting on an outside platform.”

The waitress, a young and a bit cranky looking human came to their table. A close observer could have noticed a small smile towards the regular Richard as he ordered his beer and a plate of chips.

“Thanks… What’s with you? Any success in recovering those … probes or what it exactly is you’re working on?”

Richard was giving Temyss an odd look. Maybe he wasn't used to being around turians? But if he was a loader at the port then surely he would have encountered some before. She briefly considered messing with him to gauge his reaction - flash your teeth a lot, that always freaks out the humans! - but decided against it while Maria explained.

"Damn dust gets everywhere and it isn't pretty at all!" She laughed at that. He was just some guy, that made it easier to relax a bit. Or maybe it was just the beer she had started on. She grinned before continuing. "So you know that big river valley up north? Airy Villa or whatever, there's a buncha old-as-shit little outposts, like, back from when the ESA was running things? Some politician or something wants to get them liveable again for colonists, so we're up there fixing and replacing the life support and comms and stuff. Lot more demo than fixing, a lotta stuff was older than we are!"

"Those old computers are fascinating. I managed to get one working well enough to let me poke around. Most of the code is obsolete but you can see the influence the architecture design has on current human systems. Half of the system calls are, uh..." She stopped as she realized that neither of the two humans likely knew what she was talking about. Ria was more of a wrench-monkey, and it sounded as though Richard was of a similar sort. "Well, anyways, have you ever been to the Ares Vallis? The view is absolutely incredible, when the dust isn't kicking up."

"Great view and great location, right on the waterfront! All it's missing is the water."

“Yeah, the dust sucks, I can tell you! That’s why I need a beer now. I mean, it’s good and all inside the suit but after sift, when you clean up, you still keep coughing it up. They say the red spit makes the true martian!” In fact, that was true while being a bit crude. Martians could be a bit rough and most of them liked being respected for the red dust they lived in.

Ria seemed kinda cute too and suddenly the idea of them being an item occurred to Richard. Oh dear, hopefully he had not made a fool of himself yet.

“Oh, who would want to settle out there? But then, I know a lot of the refugees that can afford it come looking at solar system bases to settle down. Look at me for example, I have been in Hong Kong before… you know, all crater now where I used to live. I just got an apartment on my own in the new western arcology and that’s way better than out there in small prefab containers or what it is they put up there… I can bet that’s all kinda museum style tech. But back then things were built to last, isn’t that right? I mean, the basic infrastructure still holds up and can be used.”

The waitress arrived and brought their drinks.

“Thanks… Uhm, yes, I’ve been out at Ares, hiking in the northern ridges. I’m trying to be out and about as much as I can, usually on weekends. Olympus Mons, Labyrintus Noctis, these things. It makes me get a feeling for my new home planet. I have a colleague I used to go with a couple of times but she’s on holidays…. Anyway, a toast to an old and rusty desert planet?” He raised his beer, smiling at the two ladies. “And to nice company?”

"Well, some people just prefer to stay planetside. But Earth's a shithole so they come here I guess. And like you said, it's cheap. And there's not much of the old stuff left after we were done with the place; most of it's all nice and shiny now. It's cheaper than building from scratch I guess? Foundations are still good, tunnels are still good, rail's back up and working."

New home planet? Where were you before? I'm, well I'm obviously not from around here, I grew up on Taetrus and Ria is from... uh, well, damn." She dropped her head and chuckled. "I can't remember."

"Pfft, everywhere really. Grew up on Earth but didn't stay long. Did some stuff with the Navy and kinda bounced all over the place. Not from anywhere really." Maria shrugged and reached for her drink. "To a great big rustball." She glanced over to the turian. "And friends."

Temyss smiled and raised her glass. "I can drink to that."