Tali,

Since the day I met you, I've always thought of you as a girl that could be innocently cute one second, and a badass soldier the next. I'm extremely glad we picked you up on the Citadel years ago, though I'll admit I wasn't exactly sure it was the best idea to take you with us at the time.

I hope you'll let me explain myself.

When we found you, you had just walked into a trap that any one of my soldiers would have smelled from a mile away. No one would be able to meet the Shadow Broker. Definitely not a quarian out on her Pilgrimage. And we had just learned about the Shadow Broker that day. I remember us walking into that alley and finding that turian groping you, only for you to shove him away and toss a grenade at two of his assassin friends. As we engaged the assassins, I thought for sure I was going to be pulling the file we needed from your omni-tool as your corpse cooled in the alleyway. You certainly surprised me when you came out of there unscathed, brandishing a shotgun like it was born in your hand.

That data was exactly what we needed, and though I wasn't exactly sure about how well you would acclimate aboard a Systems Alliance military ship, I thought I at least owed it to you to give you the chance to prove yourself. When you walked aboard that ship and saw the drive core, all I could think about was an awkward kid who had hardly walked outside her whole life. It wasn't the best impression I could have gotten.

Since then, you've never ceased to amaze me.

You got used to the ship remarkably fast, and Greg tells me you started showing him things about his own ship that even he didn't know about. You were quick to learn how we do things on the ship, even if we kept military regulations to a minimum, and you were always very respectful to my team, many of them never having had contact with an alien before in their life. You were instrumental in getting the galaxy to the point that it is at right now: aliens of all types working together, having set aside their differences for the good of the galaxy, all brothers and sisters in a war we desperately want to see through to the end.

You may think I'm exaggerating, but I can say with all honesty that you are one of the people that literally changed the galaxy, and that without you, the galaxy would have been a darker place. You've gone from sheltered child to wizened leader. Your people can start anew on Rannoch with the geth as partners and allies instead of hated rivals. You won't be confined to suits for very much longer. You've proven to the people of the galaxy that the quarians weren't what they appeared to be: a broken, desperate race of scavengers. You, Tali, have proven to me, and to the galaxy, that the quarian people are a proud race of soldiers and geniuses that, through their exodus from their planet, have overcome the natural barriers of greed and hate that plague other species. You have proven to the galaxy that you are better than that, that you have risen past petty differences, despite the discrimination the galaxy has placed on you. It makes me proud to have watched your race forgive the galaxy when such a forgiveness wasn't deserved. I hope my people can learn from yours, and I thank you for teaching me humility and kindness.

To you, I leave a scale model of my homeworld, Earth. I was born in Los Angeles, on the west coast of North America. I've circled it for you. I hope you get a chance in your life to visit it someday. I owe a part of myself to that city, as it made me the man I am today. I enjoyed what time I spent on Rannoch, and from what little I saw that wasn't a warzone, it seemed beautiful. It made me miss my own home, though because of this war, I haven't been able to return until now. I couldn't imagine how you felt about Rannoch until we changed course for Earth for the final assault. Now I wonder if I'll ever see Earth whole again.

I don't mean to complain, though. My home has always been the Normandy, and my family, my crew. Which brings me to my second gift to you.

I'd like you to have my replica of the Normandy SR-2. Joker got the SR-1, simply because he was the original pilot of it and he seemed quite devastated when the Collectors destroyed it. Because you love ships so much, though, I thought I'd give you the SR-2 in the only way I could. I hope you place this ship somewhere so that it'll be remembered as I saw it: our home.

I hold you in the highest regards, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, and it has been my honor to serve with you.