Hi everyone. It's been awhile. I've had some stuff going on (I won't bore you with it- hopefully it's over now) and then I had a case of writer's block. BUT, I've had some lovely messages from people who have motivated me to get through (AEMcDuff and Kellise I'm looking at you in particular). So thanks a million for that. It made all the difference. I think this installment may well have suffered as a consequence of everything that got in the way, but here it is anyway. Hopefully it's not too bad! I just have Thane and Legion to go now.

Oh and to anyone new- Hi! I'd like to stress that there's no reason that you'd have to read the other stories to understand this one or anything like that. But if you like this, for some reason, you may well like those.

Thanks!

Oh Tali…Hehe… It's stupid, I don't know how many Geth I've seen leave the world at the end of her shotgun… and yet I still think of her as my little sister sometimes. She'd punch me if she heard me say that… it wouldn't hurt a lot— tiny Quarian fists y'know— but still…

Tali grew up so much during the time we spent chasing Saren, but she matured even more between returning to the fleet and when I saw her on Freedom's Progress two years and one resurrection later. She… she was the first person I saw from… before… after I woke up. I was so so relieved to see her— but she… Well, compared to some of my other reunions with… old friends… it went pretty well. But she was… well, wary… surprised I guess. And that's fair enough. I can't really blame her for not dumping her mission to join a terrorist cell with me. Stupidly, I think a part of me was still sort of… I don't know… miffed by it— though I realise now that I had no right. It was only when she and Veetor— he was a witness to the attack and the reason her team were there in the first place— when they headed back to their ship that I noticed Tali had different style of envirosuit to the one I remembered. Since I'd been gone, she'd taken the Geth data back to the Migrant Fleet, fulfilled her pilgrimage and become a full adult in the eyes of the Quarian people. I swear, every time I get my head around the whole 'missing two years' thing, something slaps me in the face like that.

Anyway… It was quite a while before I ran into her again. Cerberus' info placed her on Haestrom— quite a hideous planet really. Just a shit—tonne of rubble under a sun that'll burn your skin clean off, right in the middle of Geth Space. Delightful right?

That sun I mentioned was the reason Tali and her team were there. They were studying it— or trying to anyway. But the Geth had other ideas. Haestrom used to be a Quarian colony, but there wasn't much evidence of it left when we got there and, unfortunately, to get to Tali in time we had to blow up some of what remained— in addition to a whole lot of Geth of course. Garrus was eager to see Tali again— he plays it so cool but he's a puppy when it comes to her— so I took him with me. Kasumi made up the rest of the squad… I figured it'd be useful to have her cloak past Primes and take them by surprise— she's good at that.

Other than Tali, there was only one other Quarian left on Haestrom; a marine named Kal'Reegar. We found him holding his own against a Colossus and a platoon of its homicidal friends— despite a nasty suit rupture. That guy knows his way around a ML—77 Missile Launcher, I'll tell you that. He's a good man and a great soldier— so naturally he was prepared to throw himself at the Geth whilst we made a break for Tali. It doesn't matter what species they are, Marines are stubborn as shit. But the other thing about Marines is that if you throw on your best Officer Voice they'll pretty much do whatever you say thanks to years of conditioning. Ha… So I got Reegar to take cover and watch our back whilst we dealt with the mess between us and Tali.

That was one verrrry nasty skirmish. There are no words— and I mean NO words— to describe how I feel about Geth Colossuses… or Colossi? Whatever. The point is, I loathe those bastards. And, back in the good old days, I usually had a Mako to speed things along.

Anyway, eventually those Geth were all in teeny little pieces scattered around us and we found Tali. She seemed much happier to see me this time, but then I guess I had just saved her ass. I didn't even have to persuade her to join up, she handed Kal the data she'd gathered on the system's sun and told him she was coming with us. Garrus was purring like a big spiky cat.

Tali settled into the SR2 pretty quickly— well, the engineering deck at least. She got on well with the Cerberus engineers down there, and of course there were a few familiar faces on staff. Being down there meant she saw more of Jack than most of us. If Tali had still been as young and wide eyed as she used to be I would have been concerned that she'd be a bad influence. In the end, I think Tali turned out to be the influential one— definitely for the better; Jack even stopped calling her 'Buckethead'.

As for the rest of the crew… well she was very guarded around Miranda and Jacob because, y'know, Cerberus. Although she didn't have that issue with Donnelly and Daniels— I guess they bonded over drive cores or some shit like that. Jacob made the effort to bring her round and it's hard not to like him, so they were fine after a while. Miranda… not so much. I mean, it definitely improved… but I'd call it mutual respect rather than friendship. Kasumi and Tali were natural friends. The tech might've been the reason, but they're also both prone to giggle fits and romantic daydreams.

She was closest to Garrus and Kas— and me I guess— but… you just can't dislike Tali; everyone was protective of her. So when she ran into some trouble, there was no shortage of volunteers to help her out. Before her Haestrom mission, Tali had been sending tech to her father for research. Specifically, Geth tech. Just parts, bits and pieces, harmless stuff. Well in theory at least. Because something went wrong and… well, the ship her father was on, The Alarei, was attacked and taken over by Geth— from within. Tali had sent the tech, and in the eyes of the Admiralty board that qualified as treason, for which the punishment is exile.

I couldn't believe it when she told me. It was fucking absurd to anyone who knew Tali. She'd been summoned to the fleet for a trial and wanted leave to go, but there was no way I was letting her go through that alone. Kasumi and Garrus— naturally— came with us to face the accusations. As Tali's Captain— by their rules at least— I was expected to speak for her. Put an assault rifle in my hands and I'm your girl, but legal oratory? Not so much. It didn't actually last that long, because the bastards sprung the details of the situation on us then. Before that, we didn't know much other than the accusations made against Tali; we certainly didn't know her father was presumed dead. Urgh… imagine springing that on someone in that awful, highly public setting.

Once we knew that, I immediately volunteered to investigate the Alarei. For Tali's sake, if there was a chance that Rael Zorah was still alive, we had to do it. I also figured we might find something to exonerate Tali. The Board clearly didn't expect us to return, but they agreed regardless and off we went.

I've ran into quite a few ghost ships in my time— more than I'd like, certainly. This wasn't even my first one caused by a Geth attack… But you never get used to it. Well, I say it was a ghost ship… the crew was dead, but there were plenty of Geth around. It was horrible fighting through the ship, but it got a lot worse when we found Tali's father's body… She was devastated… For a second I didn't think she'd be able to carry on with the mission, but it just made her even more determined. She said it was what he would have wanted.

Unfortunately, we found evidence that proved Tali's father was to blame for the attack. Not on purpose of course… He'd been reactivating Geth parts and linking them to neural networks to try and study them more thoroughly… Same old story of man's reach exceeding his grasp— well, Quarian's reach.

I think that was almost harder for Tali than his death, because it felt like such a betrayal. She couldn't understand… he knew better than that. At least, that's what I think… I wouldn't pretend to have any idea what she was going through that day. Tali was adamant that we couldn't show the Admirals the evidence, even though it would be the final nail in the coffin for her. She wouldn't have his memory tarnished like that. I tried to change her mind but… well, she can be stubborn as hell— and it was so important to her. I knew she'd never forgive me if I used it to prove her innocence.

I have absolutely no idea how we managed it, but somehow, the trial went better than I could have hoped and Tali wasn't exiled from the fleet. I think in the end it was her previous service to the Fleet that convinced them. That and the obvious embarrassment when I pointed out that the whole affair was a farcical excuse for a couple of the Admirals to push their military agendas. Tali retained her status as a citizen of The Migrant Fleet and returned to Normandy with us.

She was incredibly grateful— seriously, she wouldn't shut up about it— but she needn't have been; I never even considered any option but helping her. Like I said, molecular chirality aside, she's my little sister.