Path book 1 Igor

Then the Turian Dahe came up to me.

I stared at him with undisguised curiosity, wide-eyed, and there was a lot to see. First of all, he looked like a game Turian and didn't look like one at the same time. The mandibles covered the cheeks, closer to the chin, with curved, pointed ends lower, under which fangs were hidden, looking down, two centimeters long. That's what I understand, teeth... The figure was dense, proportionally built, beautiful even to a human eye, and not that squalor — a product of Biovar designers. The hands are four-fingered. 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 gRatnate whites and an incredible, simply glowing bright blue iris around a round pupil. Curiosity radiated from him like a wave. 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, just begs to be picked up."

"Yes, we can easily do that." Dahi replied. "Come here, little one." And he pulls me out of the chair. I didn't see anything repulsive up close, on the contrary. I ran my hand over the Turian's cheek: the skin was smooth, 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.

"Are you 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. Although, somewhere else! I stretched out my arms to her and was immediately taken away from Dahya. The Turian laughed. "That's right, Ratnate, everyone sticks to you, even the kids!"

"I looked at the Asari with interest." Blue skin, soft and silky to the touch, appendages that slightly bounced under the fingers, a 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 is your name, young sir?" Ratnate cooed.

"Igor," I replied. Wow, it turned out to be clean to say! I see my father's joyfully surprised face, and my mother's already big eyes are wide open. Oh, to be naughty, so naughty! Poking my finger under Asari's chin, I said:

"Ray."

"Then Azari's eyes got big, like two animeshki with her mom."

She turned to Duck and pointed at him:

"Dahi."

The Turian's jaw dropped, and I was 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. "And now you two. Go without a bike for a couple of months."

The boys groaned.

"I'm going to my room!" Dr. Dahi hurried on. "I need to examine my senior. Ratnate, let's go."

"Bye guys!" Azari said, and the medics gathered their things and left.

Chapter 2. This world, is everything wrong here, or is it...?

Igor (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 world, the world of a computer game that has come to life, so similar and at the same time completely different! It's been a year since I got my hands on a desktop terminal, and I've started a real brainstorming session.

I managed to find answers to almost all my questions: 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 sure that they had built both the Citadel and the repeaters. So, what? The canonical events did not happen! But the most important thing is that there is no certainty that I am connected with them. However, "John" Shepard, like "Ingvar" Shepard, exist in reality, and the most amazing thing is that they are members of the same family!

Yes, on May 22, 2355, my younger brother was born, and my dad, according to the old Russian tradition, named his youngest son Ivan! He is very original! Mom, laughing, 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 Navy 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. The 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, Azat and Ali, the sons of the same Dr. Dahi, their Azari girlfriends named Binna, the daughters of Dr. Ratnate, and a small a Turian, my age, Nasar, the younger brother of Azat and Ali. Last September, I went to the local kindergarten equivalent, where a lot of amazing discoveries awaited me.

The clock on my desk read 6:30 a.m. Although a day on Mendoir is longer than a day on Earth by as much as 9 minutes, a 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 a 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. A few classical exercises with weights on my arms and legs over two years of training have made me very strong for my age, improved flexibility, coordination of movements and motor skills. I also started working with a pole. I remember well the weakness of the first year of my life and I want to be strong. Thank the extranet for the huge number of all kinds of video tutorials on physical education! 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, aka "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, a natural Babylon 5, not Mendoir!

Right now, I'm pretty well developed for a human boy my age. The body is strong and flexible enough to be able to enter the youth corps of the Navy for officer training.

I heard noises on the ground floor, probably mom got up and went to cook breakfast, and it's time for me to take a shower, brush my teeth and generally get ready. My brothers will take me to the garden soon.

Five hours later

There are also a whole bunch of youngsters from almost all races of the Citadel Space who go to my garden. And who is not in our, still junior, group: ten people of all colors and races, three Asari, three Turians (two boys and a girl), two Batarian girls! And, like the icing on the cake... the drell guy! That's such a gang of nineteen bullies! Our group has 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" how to read. Looking at me, my whole group learned to read, after all, children of any kind have a very developed imitative instinct. They still read poorly, but that's not even four years old. As far as I've found out, almost all children develop about the same way, even Azari.

To my wide-eyed question, our parents: "Why is this, because Azari live for a very long time and are considered adults from the age of one hundred?" she received a very detailed answer. The Asari's maturation 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 of 13-14 years old, begins to improve intellectually. They study a lot, train, harden their mind and body, and this stage lasts up to about 45-55 years. Then the third stage of growing up begins: the young Azari begins hormonal restructuring, she grows up a little more, gets rounded in all the right places, and her mental abilities begin to develop. It is at this time that Asari are taught to work with biotics and merge their consciousnesses in the so-called "embrace of eternity". Of course, the speed of development is very dependent on individual characteristics. Well, just like people. 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're probably asking, where does Vorka come from? 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 Vorka Citadel Space, they are mostly employed in the mining industry, and as it turns out, they are excellent miners who are able to work in conditions where most members of other races simply die. 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. For a Vorka, with their lifespan of thirty standard years, exile from the clan is the most terrible punishment. Because women are never expelled. Our planet Mendoir actually belongs 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. Since the corporation has little interest in the troubles of the Alliance of Systems Council, it hired staff for colonization, not really looking at race, but more at the professional qualities of the employees. Wow, I've been thinking about something on the tree... And they're going to congratulate me! So they built a round dance, put me in the center and, to the general screeching and squeaking, they began to sing: "How did we bake a loaf on Igor's name day..." Of course, I'm making a happy appearance, but I want to laugh, I won't save you! Oh well, I'll get over it. Even on the first day in kindergarten, two small Turian 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. But I can also fight in sparring. They got a lot of abrasions and bruises and calmed down, and now with all their problems, the little ones go to them first, and then, if their solution does not suit the little ones, to me. To be honest, it bothers me beyond words...

By the way! I have a girlfriend and a boyfriend here. One is a Turian kid named Nasar, the son of the same Dr. Dahi. A great friend of Daddy's, a partner in the preference game. Actually, they've been friends since the Navy days, when my dad served as captain of the light cruiser Loki, and Dahi Tanir was the chief physician on the Turian dreadnought Smasher, and they, as it turned out, jointly chased Batarian pirates in the Skillian Reach. And they were catching up to the point that dad thundered to Dahi in the infirmary, because the infirmary on Loki was blown apart by a direct missile hit. The second friend is Avanti Natol Batarian, and I met her at our ranch. Her dad is my assistant, and mine is my deputy. chief engineer of the enrichment complex of the corporation. And the chief engineer of the complex is a Quarian named Aegih'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 filtration and disinfection systems, and a huge glass bay window. It stands in our village on the second street called Strawberry, and Uncle Aegikh, 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 ear structure, there were four fingers. And his face looks 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 to hold the rifle with three fingers and shoot at the same time. Igrodels suck! And his fingers, just like a pianist's, are long and flexible. And there are steel claws on the gloves of the skaf. At first I didn't understand why, I thought it was a weapon, until I saw how it worked on the toolbox. There are two times fewer buttons there than my father's, and twice as many buttons themselves. I once asked my dad how cool Uncle Aegikha's toolbox was, and he just rolled his eyes.

They sang a round dance and pulled me to the table, there is a cake. I saw through the window how his mother brought him and put him on the veranda of the group. A hefty cake, by the way, though, for twenty-one children's mouthfuls — in one bite. A hefty pot of compote was brought here from the dining room. And here, as it has already turned out, there is no trace of any poisonous food from dextroamacids. At least the Turians ate everything they could. But Azari and Salars are very picky about their food. The Kvarin preferred generally sterilized Turian food. Humans, like Krogan and Batarian humans, had some food preferences, but they could eat anything if they wanted to. Of course, all races have dietary restrictions. So my cake is universal, suitable for all races ... which, alas, does not add to its taste.

That reminds me! One day Uncle Dahi came to visit us with his family: his wife and three children. His eldest sons are the same age as my older brothers, and since we are also neighbors, they are bosom friends, and all the mischief in the village is the work of my brothers and their Turian friends, plus Dr. Ratnait's daughters, as it turned out, are also our neighbors.