It was no longer a dream.
She woke from her self-induced stasis to the sound of some tens of thousands of hearts beating as one in a uniform hum. It resonated in perfect harmony with the drive core of the Idenna, with a loud, familiar buzz that rang in her ears.
Step to the left off of the bed. Rise. Stretch. Adjust environmental suit. Turn around. Roll bedroll. Turn around. Advance. Those were the beginning steps in Gillian's morning routine, for two galactic standard years of her life. However, this was no longer the case.
To wake now, Gillian had to exit on the right. Rise. Stretch. Adjust environmental suit. Turn around. Adjust sheets and blankets and pillows. Tuck all corners in neatly and firmly. Turn around. Advance to television. Check Cerberus reports.
Her life on Omega was forced and unpleasant, but it would be here, statistics showed, that she sustained the best chance of evading Cerberus. Cerberus had no business among throngs of downtrodden aliens and poor humans. They would have no desire to sift through the slovenly halls of trash and muck that made Gillian's skin crawl--she was valuable, yes, but not so much that they would risk Omega. She hoped.
She set her environmental suit to filter out most of the known dangerous toxins from the air (there had been a plague here, she heard,) and she set out of her apartment. The thrum of Idenna's engine had been replaced by the loud thrumming bass from Afterlife, always open to those older than her up above. She doubted that she would have an issue getting in if she so wanted--security had other things to worry about--but to risk it would be to draw attention to herself. Instead, Gillian stuck to the streets, slipping in between shops and past vorcha who smelled human but saw quarian and didn't have the mental capacity to waste on anything in between.
Gillian's new adopted life among the masses was anything but routine, but it was safe nonetheless, from the hungry jaws of Kai Leng and of Cerberus, and from everything that she knew to be evil in this universe.
