Kal'Reegar may have been just stating facts, but he was right. She does deserve better than what she's getting.

Shepard opened his eyes and looked over to the clock beside his bed for the fifth time in ten minutes. 3:27 a.m. Earth-time. With a frustrated sigh, he rolled over and sat on the edge of the bed. There was just no more point in trying.

The events of the day were still replaying over and over in his mind: The admiralty board stripping Tali of her name, the anger he felt for having her character questioned like that, the utter helplessness as he embraced Tali and felt her shudder and sob. At the end of the trial, full of bile toward the whole courtroom proceeding, he'd stated that he was defending one of his own people instead of one of the quarian's. They had no more claim to her, after what they'd put her through.

But she'll never give up on her people, and neither can I. Unfortunately, I can't be there to defend them if they start a pointless war. The Reapers are coming, probably sooner than later, and the quarians need to conserve their strength if they want to have a home to return to.

A message to that effect was sitting on his private terminal waiting to be sent back to the Rayya, once the Normandy finished crossing the Raheel-Leyya system and connected to a secure comm buoy on the other side of the mass relay. Shepard walked over to his desk, reviewed what he'd written, and decided to leave the letter alone. It was diplomatic enough, and made his point clearly. With a few quick keystrokes, he activated the intercom to the bridge.

"Joker, what's our ETA for the mass relay?" When nothing but radio silence answered back, Shepard tried again. "Joker?"

The color of Shepard's quarters shifted ever so slightly as EDI's graphical interface flared to life.

"Flight Lieutenant Moreau is currently asleep in his chair while the ship is on auto-pilot, Commander. I have no recorded observations of your time aboard the Migrant Fleet, but given the statistical improbability that you took time to rest during your visit, you yourself have not slept in the last 37 hours and 26 minutes. An 8-hour period of suspended consciousness is highly recommended, if you wish to maintain high levels of efficiency during operations."

"I'll try to keep that in mind. How long will it be before we hit the relay?"

"Proceeding at our current velocity, we should reach the mass relay in 2 hours and 14 minutes."

"Thanks, EDI."

With a wink, EDI's holographic display faded from view. Shepard walked across the room and gave another sigh as he leaned his back against the aquarium.

I can't let them get into a war with the geth, and I don't want to have to choose between saving Tali's family and everyone else caught up in the Reapers' path. I'd save every quarian in the galaxy individually if I could though, if it would make her happy. I helped Kenn get out from under Harrot and off Omega. I helped―what was her name? Leah? Lia'vael. I helped get her out of trouble with C-Sec last time I was on the Citadel. That's two quarians, but I need to save 17 million.

Shepard reached up to rub his eyes and then brought his hands back down sharply, striking the wall behind him.

It's always one or the other. The quarians, or the galaxy? Terra Nova, or Balak? The infrastructure, or the citizens? Ash, or Kaidan? I could never make that choice again. Heaven help me if I had to choose between Tali and... anything, really. Why can't this just be easy?

Shepard brought his fist down against the wall again, louder this time, and the reverberating thud brought him to turn around. A thick layer of food pellets was floating on top of the water with all the fish congregated near the surface, swallowing their food with short gulps. Looking at where he'd been leaning against the wall, Shepard realized he'd been right next to the feeding controls.

Ugh. If it's not neglect, it's overfeeding. Forget keeping the galaxy alive. I can't even save a fish tank.

Shepard gave one more weary look at the clock and headed for the elevator.

3:34 a.m.