[h3]Ezra; Helmsman[/h3]

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Born into the batarian slave trade, Ezra was quickly separated from his mother, as if she were only meant to produce more labor and nothing else. Under the harshest conditions of sleep-deprivation, physical and mental exhaustion, malnourishment, and painful abuse at the hands of his masters, the boy had hardly been able to develop a sense of self. Though he remembered the names of each master that had owned him, he never had a name of his own. Only a tracking number and insulting nicknames usually bestowed to living property (Kon'fadah being one of them, which is roughly comparable to “little bitch” post-translation).

Despite a lack of any formal education or skill training, Ezra was actually a fairly sharp lad. He had a level of patience and resilience that far surpassed his fellow slaves. The boy taught himself to read and write early on. This was, of course, limited to the batarian languages and dialects; but he managed to use this to his advantage when he was being routinely traded at an auction. His picked out the potentially least worst of the buyers and made his knowledge of how to read and write blatantly known by speaking out of turn. This earned him a brutal retaliation of several lashes to his back, but the batarian that would actually go on to buy him grabbed the whip on the down-swing to stop the punishment. He then introduced himself to the child as Farith Cres'baros.

Farith would end up being Ezra’s final master in his thus far miserable existence, and at least he was a far easier master to serve under compared to the previous dozen others. During their short time together, Farith made considerable use of Ezra’s ability to read, write, and communicate effectively with other batarians during trade deals and negotiations as a translator and someone that could also put a unique spin on whatever Farith was selling. This had the amusing effect of greatly [i]pissing off[/i] Farith’s competition, as they saw having a slave as both a spokesperson for a company and a personal translator--and a [i]human[/i] at that--as being incomprehensibly disgraceful and preposterous. Furthering Ezra’s talents at being a translator, Farith taught the boy how to mostly read, write, and speak the galactic trade languages to get across complex points and hold conversation. This eventually evolved into a more sturdy multi-linguality.

Ezra’s relationship with Farith was… complicated. Some moments, he was the batarian’s favorite of the other slaves; and at other times, he was receiving the blunted end of a beating club. Whenever the boy made the occasional and near-fatal error of thinking Farith was a friend, he was always severely disappointed and suffered greatly for it. There were also a few darker moments that haunt him still. However, despite the rotten hand he had been dealt in life, Ezra strived to remain ever optimistic.

Fate finally graced him with surreal relief when the Reaper War affected Omega. Cerberus’ short lived occupation of the station had completely halted all business, especially the trading of slaves. Farith ordered Ezra and his other slaves fight with guns in the streets as the overwhelming Cerberus forces and their nightmarish Adjutants decimated Omega’s mercenary forces. It was the first time that Ezra had held a gun, let alone killed others. He was a horrible shot, of course, and could only end up downing a few of the soldiers that had been caught off guard by others; but those moments would add to the many thoughts that keep him awake at night to this day.

A specially held amount of xenophobia toward batarians saw to it that Farith received a mass accelerated round to the cranium from one of Cerberus’ armored goon squads. Fearing for his own life and caught up in the confusion just as much as the next person on Omega, Ezra ran for his life and hid among the masses of citizens that had been cooped up in their districts behind the Cerberus-deployed containment fields.

A few days after Aria T’Loak aggressively took back the station from the invaders, she took notice of Ezra attempting to steal provisions from one of Afterlife’s storage rooms. He was immediately suspended in the air and trapped in an endless orbit around a biotic singularity. Oddly, however, the young human refused to beg for his life. This had caught Aria off guard and Omega’s ruler found herself taking a liking to him. Ezra was the name she had given him, finding that a tracking number no longer suited the boy.

Aria quickly learned that Ezra’s appearance was quite deceiving, masking the horrible tale of a survivor of both slavery and war. Unaccustomed to not answering to anyone, the boy shadowed Aria wherever she went, despite her protests. At one point, she threatened to throw him onto the streets… and she eventually did. Yet, Ezra always found a way to come back. Finally, at her wit’s end with the boy, T’Loak agreed to let him work for her; but that he would be granted simple jobs that wouldn’t endanger his life. This was seen by some in her inner circle to be out of character for her. Of course, Aria’s estimation of how dangerous something is, is… well… unique, to say the least. Ezra was put in charge of transporting valuables and goods to and from Aria’s warehouses on Omega. This was done at first by using small single-man vessels that could easily navigate the station’s expressways. After he proved to be a fast learner, Aria approved his role in larger shipment operations, upgrading his new skill to encompass freight transport vessels and small mercenary frigates around the Sahrabarik system and, eventually, the rest of the Omega nebula.

Blood tests place Ezra’s biological age at approximately fifteen years old.