This is my entry in the Aria's Afterlife December Secret Sanata Fic Swap Contest. My prompt was A Day In Someone's Childhood from Bluekrishna. Some of the elements of Quarian culture in this story were inspired by other stories on this site, however I cannot recall exaclt which sotries those are, so if there are similarities please know that I am not trying to steal anyone's ideas. Other than that, merry late Christamas and have a happy new year.
The Rayya was cramped and constricting, so much so that one would have to be incredibly small to be able to squeeze past anyone in the long, winding corridors of the ship. Every inch of available space was used, everything from packages of emergency food reserves to spare parts of the ship's engines were stored in boxes that were stacked in tall columns that lined the hallways. In most cases getting by someone who was going the opposite way was something of an event consisting of a carefully improvised dance and a string of awkward apologies. Luckily for Tali'Zorah though, she was indeed small.
She was racing through the corridors as fast as she could, climbing over boxes and crawling through legs whenever she had to. She almost tripped several people doing that, but most simply laughed at the young, 10 year old girl's energy after the fact, even if they gave her a light scolding as she zoomed away. By then though the young Quarian was long gone, unable to hear them as she sped ever closer to her destination.
She was breathing heavily from all the running and jumping and sliding she was doing, but still she had air enough to giggle in excitement. She kept thinking about her father and how pleased he would be with her. Perhaps this would be the time when he would congratulate her on a job well done. If not that, then perhaps this would be the time when he would at least say that he appreciated her, loved her, or even accepted her presence. Anything instead of the usual cold calculation of how she could have done a better job, how many mistakes she made. These thoughts threatened to put a damper on her mood, but then she thought about how this time would be different and giggled again.
She sped through the last few feet of the corridor she was in and came to a wide open room that had a few dozen different paths running away from her. She was in the home-stretch now, so close to her destination that she bounced an the balls of her feet in expectation. She had made it to the one of the Living Spaces. This was one of the gargantuan rooms that housed most of the Quarians who called this ship home, and where her family also happened to live. Each Quarian family got a single "room" that had just enough space for everyone to sleep in. Even Captains and Admirals had to make due, and most were proud to do so, seeing it as a duty that they live just like everyone else. Despite the lack of space, almost every family packed as much as they could into their humble abodes, personal items that held value only to them. Because of this Quarians had become masters at storage, fitting everything as effeiciently as possible to make the most out of the alotted space.
This made Tali think about what aliens would think about the Quarians living conditions and decided that they would mostly be shocked at how much junk a Quarian could hold on to. She imagined an Asari's eyes jumping out pf her head and rolling across the floor at the sight of the Rayya's Living-Spaces, and promptly laughed hysterically. Her boistrous laughter caught the attention of some adults nearby, who looked at her as if she grew a third arm, and she quickly calmed herself down and raced off to her family's room.
As she ran shew looked around her into all the rooms she passed by. There was no such thing as privacy on a Quarian ship, what with everyone living practically on top of each other. Some families tried hanging blankets or other such things to form a sort of door, but this usually led their neighbors to suspect that they had something to hide, which only led them to be nosy, so most didn't bother. Tali could see other children her age, playing with, laughing with, or just sitting comfortably with their parents. She even saw one child be picked up by its father who placed it on his shoulders and spun around as fast as possible. They were both laughing as hard as they could to the point where they soon both collapsed to the floor, clutching their stomachs and trying to catch their breath. She was jealous, but she was still happy for them. They were lucky.
Tali shook her head and forced a smile. She had to remind herself that this time would be different, her father would be happy for her, she just knew it. Re-encouraged she picked up the pace, stomping down the pathway but keeping her head straight so as not to catch a glimpse of anyone else with a nice father.
After what seemed like an eternity she finally made it to her family's room, to find her mother and father sitting together on their bedrolls in silence. They did that a lot, Tali saw, and she wondered why. Did they ever talk to each other or did they just sit there, letting time mosy on by? Putting the question out of her mind she ran to her father and tackled him with a hug. Her father let out an "oof" as the air rushed from his lungs due to 80 pounds of Quarian, then he sat upright and pried himself from his daughter's arms. Her mother merely watched with an amused glint in her eye.
"How was your day, father?" Tali asked, trying to mask the excitment in her voice. She found it difficult even to try.
"It was fine. What is it you need, Tali?" he said in reply, straight to business as always.
Tali nodded, took a few steps back and cleared her throat. She had prepared a bit of a script for this moment.
"Father," she said in mock concern, "where is your Omni-tool?"
Her mother chuckled as if she knew where this was going, but her father seemed oblivious. Tali smiled, that was how she wanted it.
"On my arm, Tali." he aswered, activating it to prove his point. Tali recognized it as his backup one for in case his good one wasn't working for some reason. Its orange glow lit up the room for a few seconds before it dimmed and went away as it was deactivated. Tali shook her head in embarrasment, she had forgotten about that one. Her script had been interrupted already.
"Not that one, your other one." she said, throwing her hands up into the air. Her father merely shrugged. "It's over there, until I have time to fix it." he said, pointing over to his pile of stuff-he-wasn't-willing-to-get-rid-off. Most of it was tech related, broken gadgets that needed a part he didn't have, nothing sentimental. A practical man, he called himself, with no time for sentimentality. Tali thought that was a shame, but it wasn't surprising. Tali mentally shook herself, she was getting off track. Clearly she just needed to come out with her surprise.
She activated the Omni-tool on her arm. "No, here it is!" she said with a big smile. Though no one could see it directly, it showed in her eyes. Waving the Omni-tool around she continued.
"I fixed it for you. Surprise!" She laughed and then stood still, waiting for her father's response. At first he said nothing, then he shook his head and sighed.
"Tali, you know better than to take someone's things without asking." he said disappointingly, then stuck out his hand, expecting her to hand it to him. But Tali couldn't move, she was shocked at his reaction. It wasn't at all how she had hoped it to be. She had wanted him to be surprised, which he surely was, but she wanted him to be happy. She wanted him to be proud of her, she wanted him to be joyfull and playfull. She wanted him to pick her up and spin her around like that other father. She wanted him to hug her and never let go, and to tell her 'I love you Tali'Zorah'. But he didn't. He merely continued to sit there with his hand stuck out expectantly, staring at her with a blank, emotionless expression. Tali looked to her mother and saw that she had her head bowed, a clear sign of sadness, but that was all. Tali quivered, desperately trying to hold back tears. She had learned long ago that crying would bring her no sympathy.
So with as much decorum as she could muster she removed the Omni-tool from her arm and placed it in her fathers expectant hand. "I'm sorry, father. Forgive me." she said, sounding as dignified as a 10 year old on the verge of breaking down could sound, and turned on her heel to leave. Before she could get very far her father called out to her one last time.
"Uh...Tali..." he said hesitantly, prompting her to turn and face him. She held her chin high as she did, knowing it would be what he expected. Her father stumbled over his words before stammering out, "Thank you, though. You did a...fine job." Tali continued to stare at him expectantly, demanding more, but he didn not yeild. He stared back, silently saying that was all he would-or perhaps even could-give. After a few moments Tali nodded but didn't say anything, and left the room. She just needed a few moments to herself.