Flux Bar, 1 Hour Later

Tyrik had been down to the presidium numerous times for his work with the Council Security, but he never bothered to venture past the embassies and the main tower, so to describe him as a kid discovering video games for the first time would be an apt description, as he stood there admiring the architecture.

Damn this place looks rad, can't believe I've never been to this bar, then again I haven't exactly been anywhere in the past 6 months…

Shaking his thoughts, Tyrik put his hands in his coat and walked up the stairs towards Flux.

Daymn…

He was now standing just inside the entrance to one of the premier bars on the Citadel, the pounding music, the almost nauseating lights, the rich oxygen; it was the most alive Tyrik had felt in the past 6 months.

But he had business to attend to, and he had to find a quarian that is willing help out with his investigation.

But wait, what is a quarian doing in a place like this?

His thoughts were crudely interrupted by a waitress who accidentally bumped into him.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed

He merely grunted before he continued making his way towards the bar.

With that exchange over Tyrik began to look around for any sign of a quarian; it didn't take him long to find her though, as she was sitting on the far side of the club with a drink on her table and no one else sitting next to her.

"Mind if I join you?"

Tyrik smiled, the first smile he had in a long time, in fact his face muscles were aching in response, as if they had forgotten how to smile.

She merely looked up, her eyes staring him down, as if they were piercing into his very soul.

"Why would you want to join me? Listen if this is about that incident at the skyport-"she was now pointing her finger directly at him.

"Uh no ma'am this is actually something more confidential, I could use your help on something" he said, as he sat down and tried to calm her.

She looked taken aback and immediately softened up

"Oh I'm so sorry, please continue"

"Miss Zorah I'm here to-"

"Please call me Tali" she interrupted as she waved him off

"-Tali, I was wondering if I could use your expertise on a confidential C-Sec investigation" Please work, please work…

"Confidential- Wait why do you need me?" she countered, she did have a fair point.

"Well Tali, you were the closest quarian I could find on short notice that's why I came to you" he said, leaving his sentence half finished.

"Why would you need a quarian to help you out?" Her head was tilted as she asked the question.

Tyrik looked around to see if he was being overheard, before leaning in and whispering

"It's about the geth. I found a geth unit here on the Citadel"

Tali's reaction was almost predictable; she shook with shock as she spilled her drink all over the table. Her eyes widened and her posture immediately went into that of a soldier; rigid and firm.

Without waiting for her reply, he kept continuing

"I would really appreciate it if you could come take a look at this" He was almost pleading now, an act very uncommon with someone who was dealing with a quarian.

"Let's go" was Tali's only reply as she got up and cleaned her drink.

"Wait what? You don't even want an explanation or money or-"

"You are the first human to treat me like a normal person here on the Citadel, and you trusted me with sensitive information unlike the security guards here who think I'm out to rob them. So yes, I'm willing to help you out" She was standing tall and straight, Tyrik was almost betting she had a fierce look of determination on her face

"Alright then, this way" he said, gesturing towards the exit

Wow that went way better than expected…


"You weren't lying"

Tali was now standing alongside Tyrik next to the body of the geth. Rykim and the two other C-Sec officers were standing back giving Tyrik and Tali room to work with the body.

"My initial hypothesis was that the geth was shot directly in the head, from behind, as you can see from all the white liquid being sprayed all over the front of the unit. The bullet suggests that it was most probably fired from a Carnivex. The proximity to the unit tells me that the shooter knew the victim, which also makes sense considering the fact geth aren't meant to be drinking alcohol and having fun in a nightclub" he said, as he moved around the body pointing and explaining the case.

Tali was now crouching, unmoved through Tyrik's monologue.

"Drinking you say? Geth don't drink they have no need to" Tali sounded mad, Tyrik was getting the feeling he accidentally offended her with something he said…

"Yeah I found trace elements of alcohol all over the body, which makes sense when you consider this" He kicked the side of the geth in the same spot that Rykim did a few hours ago.

Tali jumped back in shock as she saw the geth temporarily transform into human before the holographic projector short circuited and it returned to normal.

"Let me check the memory banks, see if there is anything salvageable" she said as she bent over and began opening a small panel on the side of the geth's head.

"Geth have memory banks? Damn…"

Tyrik stood there and observed as Tali went to work, trying to detach the memory bank from the geth, eventually he bent down to help her.

It took the pair a couple of minutes before they managed to remove some sort of chip from the geth, it was long and black and the end was burnt off due to the impact of the bullet.

"I think there might be some salvageable information from this" Tali was holding the chip high above her head, using the light to try and inspect it further.

"Are you sure, I mean it looks pretty badly damaged" Tyrik wasn't trying to undermine her abilities, but at the same time he needed to know if this wasn't going to be a wild goose chase.

She turned around and looked at him, her hand on her waist.

"Please, I'm a quarian, I've built engines out of parts that are probably cheaper than your clothes, this should be very straightforward, but it will still take some time for me to work on"

I did want a fucking expert…

"Okay Tali, you can stay at my place, work there for as long as you need until you can come up with something"

"Oh no I couldn't! Ill just stay at-"

"Tali, you are holding a highly classified piece of evidence, if my superiors even found out you were in possession, let's just say it wouldn't be pretty. The only option you have is to stay at my place, or quite possibly go to jail"

Tali sighed, she knew she had no choice and this human did seem trustworthy, sleeping in low budget motels was getting boring anyway…

"Fine, lets go, can't waste any time, there could be even more geth on the station" she said, as she storm past Tyrik back towards his skycar

Damn, girl has spirit…