A/N: So... in case you didn't get to read it in my profile, this is my second account. This story was originally started on my imjusttori profile, and I have absolutely no clue what my logon is to that. Which makes me sad and mad and all sorts of things. Anyway. I decided to make a new account and bring over the story, with a few minor tweaks. I've spent the past year and a half or so in the MERP fandom on facebook and BOY has Nikki evolved. So here is her story, with some minor tweaks to chapters I've already written, but nothing super duper huge.

And also the disclaimer... I only own Nikki and her backstory. Bioware owns the rest.

Now... Here we go!

You'd think the life of a hacker would be a glamorous one — with lots of money and fast skycars and always surrounded by pretty people.

It's not.

Okay, so it may be if you're working for the bad guys… or you are a bad guy. Whatever.

I'm not.

I was hired by C-Sec as a "Cyber Security Specialist" because of all the interest in the silly side projects I'd worked on in my parent's lab as a teenager- some of them being picked up by various organizations that even went on to improve medical technology. The human Councillor eagerly sponsored me when I applied to C-Sec at sixteen, and I instantly pissed off a lot of people by being the youngest member of the division… as well as the only human. Most hardly gave me the time of day, thinking I would amount to absolutely nothing, and let me be so that C-Sec could have its "token human".

Boy, did I prove them wrong.

I've been here ten stinking years and now I'm the top hacker. Okay… "Cyber Security Specialist"… because paid hacker doesn't sound as nice. But it's what I do.

See, the automated security protocols around all sensitive data here on the Citadel are really good, but not the best. I'm here to try and get around those automated defenses and firewalls, and then write the programs to prevent anyone else from doing the same.

I'm also responsible for finding the scumbags trying to hack anything else in the system, and notifying the right C-Sec department so said scumbag can be put behind bars.

While it's boring most of the time, it can be pretty satisfying — knowing I'm helping to make the Citadel a safer place.

But that's just my day job.

Five years ago I was contacted by an agent for the Shadow Broker, who told me that the Broker himself wanted to meet me for an "interview". I was young and stupid and was pressured into going by the agent, not realizing that I really had a hit on me. Any number of things could have happened, but luckily fate was on my side.

I work with all different sorts of aliens on a daily basis, and I'm not afraid of any of them.

I was afraid of the Shadow Broker.

I'd never seen his species before, and I haven't since. I assumed he must be ancient — long lived like the Asari — and my respect, out of fear, was high; because this guy was huge. And scary… like, straight from hell scary.

Once I got past my initial fear — and believe me when I say I was scared shitless the entire time I was there — the Shadow Broker told me he was impressed by my skills; said they were the best he'd ever seen. He told me I was the only person to have ever hacked his intel network. When I admitted I hadn't realized the system I had gotten into was his, he seemed surprised, but he believed me. I felt honored that he was impressed with my abilities, and even moreso when he "asked" me to become an agent for him.

The alternative was a slow, painful death, which he described in great detail on how it would be carried out. So, like the sane, rational person I sometimes pretend to be, I took the job.

But I'd put enough of his information brokers in jail because of how some of them got their intel, as well as how they distributed it. I wasn't going to be one of them. I told him I'd only give the information to the people who it would benefit the most — even if it meant a lower amount of money. He agreed, amused that I had the audacity to put terms on my employment. I was to collect information for him with my position on the Citadel.

I didn't like it, but in my line of work, there were things you came across and couldn't do anything about. Having a direct link to the Shadow Broker would change that… Most of the time anyway.

So fast forward five years to present day. I'm still in this mundane job, spiked with occasional bouts of fun and a feeling of self-righteousness at being part of the greater good.

I led a good life, had a couple of good friends, and although I wasn't uber rich, I was on the richer side of well-off. My life was pretty normal — as normal as can be for someone living on the Citadel — until I went to Eden Prime to visit my dad.

My whole world changed that day…