Path part 1-6

After that, a briefcase was placed on the table, which, unfortunately, blocked everything that was happening on the table from me. I fidgeted and whined, leaning to the right and left in an attempt to see what was happening on the table, but in vain. So I didn't see anything.

When it was over, Leshkin's hand was wrapped in a cool white scarf.

"That's Michael." Said the doctor. "You will arrive at the hospital in two days, we will remove the retainers there and it is better not to strain your arm for a week, you understand everything, young man." She turned to Leshka.

"Understood." My brother squeaked.

"And no bike racing. I'll rip off my otorvam piston today, too, and insert it." Dr. Duck said.

"Mish, we're going to arrange for an accident, anyway!" I called Father Azari. "Let's go" said the doc. "The victim's name?"

"Alexey Mikhailovich Shepard."

"Age?"

"7 years."

"Date of birth?"

"July 22, 2348."

"Place of birth?"

"Leonov city, Mendoir colony."

"Parents, father?"

"Mikhail Alexandrovich Shepard."

"Age?"

"65 years old."

"The mother?"

"Hannah Diana Shepard."

"Age?

"63 years old."

"Home address?"

"Leonov City, Strawberry Street 2, Whisper Ranch"

"Okay." Said the blue doctor. "I'll fill out the rest myself."

Then the Turian Duck came up to me, and I stared at him with wide-open eyes with undisguised curiosity, and there was something to see. Well, first of all, he looked like a game Turian and didn't look like one at the same time. He did not have so-called mandibles, just his cheeks with horny plates growing on them closer to the chin, curved with pointed ends below the chin itself and fused with a lower lip, under which fangs were hidden looking down four centimeters long. That makes me understand teeth. The lower canines were much smaller than two and a half centimeters. The figure was dense, proportionally built, beautiful even to a human eye, and not that the product of Biovar designers was squalid, the hands were surprisingly four-fingered, and the little finger was thicker than the index and middle fingers and only slightly shorter than the index finger. All the fingers on the hands ended in powerful, slightly curved claws. The Turian's skin was golden brown, his face had a colorful tattoo of white and blue lines woven into a complex pattern, his eyes were deep-set with dark gray whites, and the iris was incredibly glowing bright blue around a round pupil.

Curiosity radiated from him in a wave, and I stretched out my hands and clenched my fingers into fists several times.

"That's right!" The father said with a smile. "Not a drop of fear immediately begs to be picked up."

"Yes, we can easily do that." Duck replied. "Come here, little one."

And he yanked me out of my chair. I didn't see anything repulsive up close, but on the contrary, I ran my hand over the Turian's cheek, the skin was smooth and velvety to the touch, and hot, about forty degrees, he already squeezed his eyes shut with pleasure, and made a strange purring sound, which was immediately picked up by our cat standing in the hallway.

"And you're going to Aunt Ray's."

I heard it from the left. Turning, she met the gaze of the Asari. She was smiling, which made her face even more attractive. Somewhere else, though.

I reached out to her and was immediately taken away from Duck. The Turian laughed.

"That's Ray. Everyone sticks to you, even the kids."

I was looking at the Asari with interest. The blue skin is soft and silky to the touch, the appendages that slightly springy under the fingers, the pattern of pigment spots in the form of a complex pattern around the amazing color of lilac eyes. By the way, the Asari had eyelashes, although there were no other types of vegetation on the skin. Strange.

"And what's your name, young lady?" Ray cooed.

"Zhenya," I replied! Wow, it turned out to be clean to say!

Dad's jaw dropped, and Mom's already big eyes widened. Oh, to be naughty so naughty! She poked her finger under Asari's chin and I said:

"Ray."

Then Azari's eyes got big, like animeshki with his mom. Turning to Duck, she pointed at him and said:

"Duck."

The Turian's jaw dropped. And I was just overwhelmed by a wave of amazement. The adults were stunned into silence.

"Well, what's my name?" The father came up and asked.

I smiled at him with all my twelve teeth and said:

"Misha's dad."

Just look who's talking! My father said, laughing.

"I'm going to my house!Э Dr. Duck hurried over. ЭI need to examine my senior. Ray, let's go."

"Bye guys!" Azari said, and the medics picked up their stuff and left.

Chapter 2.

Eugene (Mendoir April — June 2358)

April 11, 2358

The slowly rising sun illuminated the peaks of the mountains in the east, they are clearly visible from the window of my room in clear weather. It's been four years since I've been in this universe. The world of a computer game that has come to life, so similar and at the same time completely different! A year ago, I got a desktop terminal at my disposal and started a real brainstorming session. I managed to find answers to almost all my questions. The most important thing was that they had never even heard of the Reapers here, there was a huge pile of contradictory information about the Protheans, and most importantly, everyone was absolutely convinced that they had built both the Citadel and the repeaters. Which means what?! The canonical events did not happen! But most importantly, there is no certainty that I am connected with them. After all, John Shepard, like Jane Shepard, exist in reality and the funny thing is they are members of the same family! Yes, on May 22, 2355, my younger brother was born, and my dad named his youngest son Ivan according to the old Russian tradition! He is very original! Mom laughed and told him so. Well, my parents are retired military personnel, my dad is a Captain of the First Rank or Captain in the Anglo-American rank system, and my mom is a major in the Naval medical Service. Plus, I'm a colonist from Mendoir, just like in the game, but in a crowd. And as far as I could remember, in the game, the colonist's entire family is killed, after which he (she) goes into the army. I'll get out of my skin, but I won't let them kill my family!

After Vanka was born, they pushed taking care of me onto my older brothers and our wonderful cat! The brothers were not particularly pleased, but the redhead seemed to be just happy. A mustachioed babysitter followed me around the house, played, slept, and accompanied me on trips to the center of the town. And after the brothers were allowed to take me out with them, Barsik and I became as much a part of the children's company in our village as my brothers, their Turian friends Hamon (Ham) and Tamil (Tam), the sons of the same Dr. Duck, their Azari girlfriends named Vasil, the daughters of Dr. Ray and a small-time Turian my age, Nino, the younger sister of Ham and Tama. Last September, I went to the local kindergarten equivalent, where a lot of amazing discoveries awaited me.

The alarm clock on my desk showed 6:30 a.m. even though the day on Mendoir is as long as 9 minutes longer than on Earth, but the year is shorter by 7 days. So we live by the time of the Alliance of Systems, that is, Greenwich Mean Time on earth, plus sunset-sunrise correction. The clock is periodically adjusted according to the signal of the planetary control virtin. The whole family is still asleep, but I get up earlier than everyone else and do exercises, several yoga asanas mixed with classical gymnastics and weights on my arms and legs have made me very strong for my age, improved flexibility, coordination of movements and motor skills in two years of training. I haven't forgotten the weaknesses of the first year of my life, and I don't want to be weak. It takes very little effort. Thank the extranet for a huge number of all kinds of video lessons. The main language of the colony was Russian, although English was spoken by everyone, of course, the main language of the Alliance. Plus, they spoke in "Basic" or basic galactic, also known as "galact". It was developed by the Salarians together with the Asari as much as two and a half thousand years ago. Well, all the "strangers" spoke their native languages perfectly, the natural "Babylon 5", not Mendoir!

And once, I bend my whole body forward, leaning on my hands, and twice, in the opposite direction. After all, the girly body is much more flexible than my past, like rubber, after six months of training, I sat down on the splits completely, sitting in the lotus position also did not cause any unpleasant sensations. In general, everything is very good so far, well, except for one small disadvantage, an extremely low pain threshold. But I attribute this to the child's body, I hope it will pass with age. I heard noises on the ground floor, my mom probably got up and went to make breakfast, and it's time for me to take a shower, brush my teeth, and get ready. My brothers will take me to the garden soon.

Five hours later.

A whole bunch of youngsters from all races of the citadel space go to my garden with me. And who is not in our still junior group, ten human of all colors and races, three Asari girls, three Turians, two boys and a girl, two Batarian girls!! And like the icing on the cake, the drell guy! That's a gang of nineteen bullies. Our group is led by two Azari teachers, both purple. The head of the group, Rien Vais, and her assistant, Taya T'dari. Since I'm considered a kind of child prodigy here, I've already kind of learned to read, by the way, looking at me, my whole group has learned to read, after all, children of any kind have a very developed imitative instinct. They really don't read well, but that's in less than four years. As far as I've found out, all children develop about the same way, even Azari girls. To my wide-eyed question to our educators, why is this so, because Asari have been living for so long and have been considered adults since they were a hundred years old, I received a very detailed answer. That the Asari stage of growing up has three stages:

The first stage, from birth to about fifteen years of age, is due to rapid growth and development, and intellectual abilities develop during this period of life, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, physical development slows down sharply but does not stop, and a young Azari, who looks like a human girl aged 13-14, begins to improve intellectually, they study a lot, train, harden their minds and the body, this stage lasts up to about 45-55 years. Then the third stage of growing up begins, the young Asari begins hormonal restructuring, she grows up a little more, gets rounded in all the right places, and begins to develop mental abilities, it is at this time that the Asari are taught to work with biotics, and merge consciousness, in the so-called "embrace of eternity". Well, that's all ideally, of course, in fact, the quality of development is very dependent on social status. Well, just like Humans.

The racial composition of the Mendoir colony is actually more extensive, but since Salarians or Vorks develop much faster than others, it was considered unnecessary to include their children in general groups. You'll probably ask where vork comes from. And so. As the local online encyclopedia suggested to me, the Vork is actually a fairly advanced species, maybe inferior to humans and Turians in intelligence, but with a huge adaptation resource! In the Vork citadel space, they are mostly employed in the mining industry, as it turned out, they are excellent miners. Capable of working in conditions in which most of the races will simply bend. That's why they work in the mines on Mendoir and live in large clans in mining villages. They rarely leave the villages themselves, and almost no one is allowed in, in general, they are recluses. And those thieves who hang out in all kinds of gangs are exiles from clans, complete outcasts and lumpens. With their lifespan of thirty standard years, banishment from the clan is the most terrible punishment for a vork. Because women are never expelled.

And so. Mendoir is actually a world belonging to the Asari Republic, and it is considered a human colony because the Rosenkov Materials Corporation has concluded a concession agreement with the Council of matriarchs for 20% of the total share of resource extraction. Well, since the corporation has little interest in the troubles of the Alliance of Systems Council, it hired staff for colonization without really looking at race, but more at the professional qualities of the employees.

Wow, I spread my mind over the tree, and they were going to congratulate me. So they built a round dance, put me in the center, and under the general screeching and squeaking, we made a loaf like on Eugene's name day.... Of course, I'm making a happy appearance, but I don't want to laugh. Well, I'll get over it, and I'm a recognized authority among our entire group, which I won in an unequal struggle with the Turians. Back on the first day at kindergarten, these two little ringleaders tried to build the whole group. And they built it, but they broke off on me. Well, it's not a small thing to compete with an adult in psychological pressure, even in a child's body. They recognized me as the head of the pack and calmed down (pack predators, damn it) and now with all their problems, the little ones first come to me, and then if my solution does not suit them, they go to the teachers. To be honest, it bothers me unspeakably.

By the way! I have two "girlfriends" here, although I don't have a girlfriend anymore, one is a Turian girl named Nain, the daughter of that very Dr. Duck. My dad's big friend, partner in the preference game, they've been friends since the Navy days, when my dad served as captain of the light cruiser Loki, and Duck or Dakar Tanir was the chief doctor on the Turian dreadnought Smasher, and they turned out to be jointly chasing Batarian pirates in the Skillan Reach. And they were catching up to the point that the father thundered to Dak in the infirmary because the infirmary on Loki was blown apart by a direct missile hit.

The second Girlfriend is Jean Batarian, full name Gina Natol, and I met her at our ranch. Her dad is my assistant, and my deputy chief engineer of the corporation's enrichment complex, and the chief engineer of the complex is a QUARIAN!!! By the name of Tael'Rigar and the corporation values him so much that they ordered him a special house, no less than ours, by the way, completely sealed with air filtration and disinfection systems and a huge glass bay window. It stands in our village on the second street called Strawberry, and Uncle Tael, having taken off his suit and put on a bathrobe, likes to sit in the bay window admiring the life of the village. The most amazing thing is that he differs from a human only by a slightly different knee structure with feet on which there are only four fingers on the hands of these fingers, just like humans have five, and a face more like an elf from fairy tales, with light lilac glowing eyes and pointed tips of ears. It's idiotic to make aliens three-fingered, try holding a rifle with three fingers and shooting at the same time. Igrodely fucking! And his fingers are just like a pianist's, long and nervous. And skaf's gloves also have steel claws, at first I didn't understand why, I thought it was a weapon until I saw how it worked on the omny-tool. There are two times fewer buttons than my father's, and there are twice as many buttons. I once asked my father how cool Uncle Tael's toolbox was, and my father just rolled his eyes.