Prologue: I
Chaos. Seconds after the ship-wide status update displayed "Evasive Maneuvers", the SSV Normandy lurched violently, sending Tali'Zorah nar Rayya to her knees. The Tantalus core halted its rotation and gleamed a sickly yellow, sparks arcing across the engineering bay. Three of the large coupling arrays burst in succession, the echoes of each report rolling into the next. Each severed array shed raw energy from the core, causing the alloy casing to shrivel and melt. Smoke and drops of liquid metal filled the air. Tali felt a pressure in her stomach as the ship's artificial gravity cut out. For a split second the engineering bay was a picture of hell; wide-eyed organics surrounded by fire, fume, and the inescapable fury of a vengeful machine. She could see Engineer Adams floating backwards, holding his face where it had smashed into his console. Her eyes gleamed, two points of light in her tinted mask; wide, breathless.
After but a moment the ship's on-board redundancies were able to compensate. The Tantalus corrected its cycle, feeding power to the damage control. Healthy, blue Mass Effect fields encased the live ends of the shattered couplings, shielding the crew. The artificial gravity returned, again sending Adams to the deck. Tali, nimble on her feet, braced herself against her console, already trying to run the appropriate diagnostic routines. Within moments the other Alliance engineers helped Adams to his feet and took up their stations.
"Tali," Adams called, wiping blood from his mouth, "report. Is the drive stable?"
"I think so," she replied, her three-fingered hands dancing around the haptic interface. "All anomalies have been auto-purged from the drive core."
The ship's heart flashed into radiance, and Tali could feel the artificial gravity system engaging its compensation protocols. Joker had engaged the sub-light propulsion systems, and the ship's VI was stabilizing the interior of the ship against the murderous inertial forces. She tried to concentrate on the core's readings. Where only moments ago there had been calm, now there was dread. What had she forgotten? What routine bit of maintenance had she overlooked that she now had no time to perform? For the moment, she could find none.
The Alliance engineers were trained to keep the Tantalus core in peak output and efficiency, Tali was not. However, several months aboard the Normandy had allowed her to learn both from the highly trained engineers, as well as the drive itself. Tali was a quarian, by necessity forced into mechanical aptitude. But even among quarians, Tali was exceptional. Her intuition mystified her so-called peers and superiors alike, quarians no less than her new human friends. All her intuition was brought to bear, feeling the ebb and pulse of the beloved heart of the Normandy.
The slight pressure in her stomach changed direction again and again, making her feel slightly queasy. Her envirosuit's internal pressurization zones lessened the effect that she knew the human crew were feeling in its entirety. Pride as Alliance crew, experience as victors at the Battle of the Citadel, and adrenaline from this new, unknown danger kept the humans at their posts, striving to keep the Tantalus drive at peak output despite the damage.
In an instant, the deck rose up sharply as the Normandy's hull buckled. Tali could feel that something was wrong. The Tantalus flickered, shifting to an angry red. Her quarian intuition told her that it was overtaxed, that there was not enough power for the automated damage control systems. Her native gift told her that the Normandy had broken her back. Fire erupted through a three-meter wide breach in the hull, engulfing Engineer Gladstone before the VI could erect a barrier between the bay and the vacuum of space.
A resounding groan reverberated through the deck. Tali could feel it in her teeth, in her eyes, and in her gut; the Normandy was crying out it's warning, "Go now!" She stared at her diagnostics in disbelief, the most advanced drive core in the known galaxy was spooling down, its output coming in fits of unstable pulses. The containment field was also weakening, soon the engineering bay would be filled with radiation.
"Adams! We have to go!" she cried.
He tried to reply, tried to reassure her and the other engineers, but nothing came out. The look on his face showed he knew exactly what was going on. His vast experience told him there was no coming back from this sort of damage. Before he could compose himself to issue an order, the general evac flashed on every display screen in the engineering bay. Yellow screens and haptic interfaces flicked in and out of life as power arrived from the broken core, dancing in his tear-filled eyes like a fitful nebula. With a sigh he nodded. "Go now. There is nothing we can do for Gladstone."
Tali sobbed involuntarily. How many times had he helped her and Adams decode alien technology she, Dr. T'soni, and Shepard had found on some remote planet? How many times had they boarded derelict ships or space platforms together, in search of resources to aid in the fight against Saren and his geth? She could not watch as he fell, immolated, and she could not bear to look back as she turned to the doors leading to the cargo hold.
Small arms, foodstuffs, and debris littered the floor as they passed through the blast doors into the cargo bay. The contents of both the Requisitions Officer's stock and the ship's armory were scattered about. Several breaches in the bulkhead were visible, each glazed over with a wavering Mass Effect field. The deck itself was buckled in places, having completely ruptured through the center of the bay in a five meter gash perpendicular to the keel. Only Garrus was still in the hold, fumbling with one arm to put on his helmet. The Turian's other arm hung limp at his side. He leaned against the Mako rover, now several meters away from the deactivated clamps that used to hold it fast to the deck. He nodded toward the engineering crew as he hefted his sniper rifle.
"Garrus, what's going on?" Tali asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine. I've heard nothing from the bridge, but the Mako came loose and almost crushed me, I was out of it for a few moments. Williams made it to the elevator when she couldn't find me under the rover."
"She left you?"
"She knows her duty. With Alenko gone she's in command of the marines. It's her job to get everyone off safe. Besides, I heard the elevator shaft rupture, it's possible she never made it up to the crew deck. We'll have to use the maintenance hatches."
Tali fought to hold back another sob. She was not close with Gunnery Chief Williams. The Alliance soldier had never much cared for non-human species, but she had grown to respect them over time as allies. Like any good soldier, she put aside her personal feelings and protected her allies from their enemies. In the heat of combat, few could stand with Williams, reliable bulwark, proof against any enemy advance. It was this strength that eared her the respect of Urdnot Wrex, who spent so much time in the cargo bay during their pursuit of Saren. It was this strength that won her the heart of her commanding officer, the only man ever to support the weight of galactic civilization on his shoulders and remain standing. She could not be dead. If Williams fell, there was no chance for anyone.
"Hey, snap out of it quarian," Garrus said. "The girl who put a bullet in Saren's head shouldn't be zoning out at a time like this. You first into the duct."
Tali could not speak, so she just turned towards the access hatch. Garrus did not understand, she thought. Fighting against Saren was combat. It was easy to face an enemy you could see, to put your life on the line. The turian knew that well, but what he did not know was the pain a young quarian could feel leaving her home behind. The sensitivity was an integral, unwanted part of her culture.
In a few moments she pulled herself out of the maintenance duct. She tried to get her bearings as the Normandy again shuddered under the attack of an unknown enemy. Fire was everywhere, the heat reaching even through her suit. Garrus emerged from behind her and stooped to help Engineer Adams.
"Quickly Tali, the escape shuttles!"
Across the crew deck she could see Liara helping Dr. Chakwas through the round door of a shuttle. Tali was relieved the two were unharmed. She had great respect for the young asari, both for her academic expertise as well as her reliability under pressure. Often, during the chase after Saren, it was Liara and Tali who accompanied Shepard. Liara's mastery of biotics had proven the difference in many dangerous situations. Liara was awkward and standoffish, but never treater Tali with disrespect.
The ship heaved again, knocking everyone about. Tali could feel the air pressure drop sharply until she hear the blast doors leading to the CIC slam to. The gravity went haywire and fire filled much of the crew chambers. She stumbled as fast as she could across uneven deck to the nearest shuttle.
She could not see the faces of the two crew members inside, but they reached for her to pull her through the door. She stopped, seeing out of the corner of her eye, and far down the bay of sleeper pods, an obscured N7 logo. In slow motion, Shepard tossed a fire extinguisher to Williams. As she caught it he ordered her to continue moving the crew onto the shuttles. The chaos of the ship kept Tali from hearing the reply. A moment later, she clearly heard Shepard's voice, "I'll take care of Joker."
Garrus leaned into her from behind, pulling a choking Adams with him. "Get in the shuttle Tali, we've got to get off the Normandy!" She pulled her eyes away from Williams and Shepard, knowing the Gunnery Chief would be reluctant to obey. When true danger was at hand few commanding officers would put the safety of every last crew member above their own. But humans were strange, and Shepard was the strangest of them.
As she pulled the seat restraints down over her head, Tali heard Williams' voice shout from nearby, "Everybody in! Go! Go! Go!" A sharp explosion erupted just outside the shuttle, killing one of the crew members running towards escape. As the door slid shut, Tali could see the twisted body. She pressed her hands to her mask, sobbing, feeling utterly powerless. The lights in the shuttle flashed green, and the small pod rocketed out of its port in the side of the Normandy. Tali, Garrus, Adams, and the others were safe from the dying ship, but none could guess what would become of them as they drifted away from the the Normandy in its final throes.