Chapter 9: Preparing For The Journey
Zach descended from the balcony stairwell with Garrus and Tali right behind him. Already his thoughts were racing on what he just did. On one hand, he just threw himself into the one situation he never wanted to be in: serving a bunch of beaurocratic assholes. On the other hand, this gave him a slight advantage against Saren, and his acceptance will help humanity's reputation. But he had to work for beaurocratic assholes...
"No. I'm waiting to speak to one of the councilor's assistants." Zach heard a human speak to his right. He initially had him pinned down as an admiral once he saw him due to his uniform and the way the man carried himself. The graying hair on his chin pegged his age around the early fifties. In front of him was a terminal he was speaking through to someone Zach wasn't initially sure of. "No. I just want to ask a couple of questions."
Shrugging his shoulders, Zach walked towards the man, who turned around after whoever he was speaking to hung up on him for no apparent reason. When the man realized he was coming, he turned to face him.
"Congratulations on becoming the first human spectre, Commander Shepard. I'm certain you'll be up to the challenge." The man's sudden greeting made Zach extend his hand in thanks, shaking firmly the hand of the admiral in front of him.
"I appreciate that."
"My name is Admiral Kahouku. It's about time we got one of our own into their ranks. We need someone to deal with our problems."
"Do you have a problem, Admiral?"
"I'm being stone-walled by beaurocratic assholes. Nothing new."
"I hear you. The only problem I'm having currently with my new job is the fact I have to work for those beaurocratic assholes."
"Maybe you can help me, Shepard. One of my recon teams was scouting the traverse when I lost contact with them. Now I'm told I don't have clearance to go there. Suddenly it's a restricted area! But that doesn't apply to you. Spectres can go anywhere they want. You can find out why my team dropped out of contact."
"I'll make some time to find your men, Admiral." Zach offered.
"Thank you, Commander. I was running out of options. I'm going to stay here and see what I can find out through official channels. Won't hold my breath, though." The man tapped on his omni-tool. "I'll upload their last coordinates to your ship. I hope you can do something about this." After a quick nod towards each other, Zach departed from the admiral to head back for the wards.
Back at the wards, a man in black was walking towards a certain turian vendor in a back corner of the bottom floor. The turian himself was wearing a casual brown business suit, and he had a small Calypso insignia on his chest, in the area where his heart would be. When he saw the man in black approach, he turned and saluted him.
"Klaus. I didn't expect your new shipment to arrive so soon. Is the boss pushing out sales on military rations?"
"At ease, Nyk. The boss has a certain request for you. In these crates is a shipment of dextro rations; half of it either sterilized or shoved into nutrient tubes. He requests you offer it to Commander Shepard, and say we gladly support the first human spectre in his new mission."
"Whatever you say, Klaus. Have the shipment brought out to the front. Although I have to wonder why the Commander would need dextro rations at all."
"He suspected you'd ask. Not to worry, Nyk. When you see the new additions to his crew, you'll understand." Klaus saluted Nyk as a krogan carried a few crates past him. When the two dropped the pose, he turned around and walked away, disappearing into the shadows as he ascended up the stairs. But before his form reappeared into the light, it changed into yet another form. This time, The Stranger had taken form of a turian with blue tatooes on his face; his clothes and hat matching the color. Walking through the door to the small commence area with a great view, he stared at the towers outside that resembled the buildings of Earth. Of all of the places he had seen in his seemingly brief existance, The Stranger was most pleased by this reality. Especially since he was able to make a difference here as the reclusive owner of the second-largest galactic company of the traverse. He first started on Earth, building slowly from the ground. He branched out to the salarians and turians, going from simple mundane items people could enjoy to military-grade hardware and communications equipment. Eventually, Calypso stretched out to become a multi-race, multi-purpose company with his secret agenda working alongside his normal routines.
It was now as big as his other group in the-
He dropped his thoughts when he sensed Commander Shepard's presense.
Looking around the small area full of chatting pedestrians, Zach spotted Emily Wong in the same place she was at when she called upon him earlier. "There she is. We'll talk to her quickly, check up on Dr. Michel, and then we need to find a vendor who sells dextro rations."
"Should we split up and just take care of all three things at once?" Garrus asked.
"No. Given the reputation Tali's people have on the rest of this bigot-filled galaxy, I don't want her left alone. Think of all the people swarming her with insults."
"Like that clerk who wouldn't let her hand the evidence to the council?"
"How do you know about that?" Tali stared at him with an unseen look of curiosity.
"I was the officer who was being called to arrest you. I was going to bring you to the council so we could add the evidence to the investigation. But you ran before I could explain. So I punched him in the face."
"You punched him in the face?!" Tali's glowing orbs grew larger.
"That's pretty extreme, Garrus." Zach joked.
"Laugh it up, Shepard." Garrus said glumly.
"You know Garrus, I'm kind of jealous. I would've liked to give that clerk a piece of my mind."
"Careful, Shepard. If I was smart, I'd say you had a crush on Tali."Garrus's mandibles twitched happily as he pointed his thumb at Tali, who seemed to become nervous at the acknowledgement as she moved her hands nervously together.
"What?" Zach's eyes grew wide at this statement. "Garrus, we only just met about an hour ago!"
"So what was with the hand-holding all around the presidium?"
"I was trying to be nice. The quarians are always being judged from what happened all those years ago. I wanted to show her the nice side of humanity since she already saw the awful side with Stark."
"Commander?" Zach turned to face Tali. "I have a question about Stark, actually."
"What?"
"When I met him, he spoke about that knife of his as if it was a person. Why does he do that?"
"I don't know, actually." Zach admitted. "If I had to guess, it's probably because he has post-traumatic stress disorder." And I'm probably responsible for it. He kept that last thought to himself, feeling he was not ready to say anything about that. "His mind is probably stressed from all of the horrible things of his life. He lost his family, lost his squad; all because of the batarians. He absolutely hates them all. Every batarian he has fought, he has slain with his blade, a batarian-made military talon."
"He actually commented my knife, too." Tali pointed at her blade on her boot. "He said it could match his own in combat."
"You don't mind if I see it real quick, do you?" Zach asked with an open hand. Slowly' Tali pulled it out of the sheath and handed it to the commander. He examined it carefully, admiring the craftsmanship of its quarian design. "He's right. I nearly lost my neck to his blade, and I've examined it carefully before."
"Why did you almost lose your neck to his knife?"
"That's a story for another day." Flipping the blade so he held the blade carefully, he let Tali grasp the handle and cautiously take it back, sliding it back into her sheath. "I think we've wasted enough time. Let's just get back to business."
"All right." The turian smiled. They walked over to Emily Wong, who seemed to be jumping with joy.
"Hey, Commander. Word on the street is you've become the first human spectre, and have been assigned to take down Saren Arterius. Did you happen to find anything I could use for my own investigation by any chance?"
Zach pulled out the OSDs from Fist's office from the small pocket on his armor. "These OSDs from Fist's office might be what you're looking for."
"You've got Fist's files?! This is even bigger than I dreamed! Here, Commander. Five hundred credits for your trouble."
"What would my future cooperation be worth?" Zach asked nicely but with a plan. "Say, an interview when my investigation is over?"
"Exclusive?! You'll talk to me before anyone else?! That would be worth quite a lot! I'd be happy to compensate you further for that." She then handed him seven-hundred fifty credits and walked away.
"And when that interview comes, I'll make sure the whole crew is there to be interviewed as well." Zach said to Garrus and Tali. "I want the galaxy to know it was a group of different species that took down Saren. And if the Alliance has a problem with that, they can all go to hell."
"Do you really mean that, Shepard?" Garrus asked, cocking a scale up.
"Not really. But I won't stand them having a problem with it. Let's go see Dr. Michel real quick." After a quick walk to her office, they walked in to see the doctor was with two gentlemen; one of them was sitting on the operating table as she applied medi-gel to his arm.
"Damn it, Shawn. What did I tell you about the forklift?" The man standing up next to him scolded.
"That it was broken and it was going to be fixed Wednesday." The one named Shawn replied.
"And what's today?"
"Wednesday?"
"No. It's Tuesday! Do you honestly think the thing would be fixed on Tuesday when I said Wednesday?! Now Mom's gonna be pissed because all that merchandise for Mr. Elkoss you dropped on yourself is scattered all across the docks, we've got a medical bill to pay, and to top all that off, I'm missing that date with Rebecca. Do you have any idea how angry that woman can be when I don't give her a heads up on events like this?!"
"Will you just calm down, Ethan?"
"No! I will not calm down! You've goofed up big, little brother!"
"Gentlemen, please." Dr. Michel spoke. "You are distracting me from my work. If you want the bill your mother will most definitely want to pay to be small, you'll want to be silent for thirty more seconds."
The three that walked in shook their heads, laughing and giggling silently in unison. When the two men noticed the group that entered the clinic, they dropped their argument at the sight of the human commander they were facing.
"Hey, that's Commander Shepard! He just became the first human spectre like literally an hour ago!" The one on the table named Shawn stated, pointing the finger of the arm that wasn't being patched up by Dr. Michel at him.
"And you'd know this how?" The one named Ethan asked his brother.
"I saw it on the news."
"While the forklift was raised right above your head?"
"Yeah." Shawn's reply was returned with a smack to the back of the head from Ethan.
"Damn it, Shawn! You can't be watching the news while working at the transport depot."
"Why not?"
"Because then you don't pay attention to your work, and I end up having to clean up one of your messes."
"Geez, you need to change your attitude. You're so uptight."
"I'm uptight?!"
"Boys!" Dr. Michel yelled. "You're both grown-ups. Act like it!" She released her hold on Shawn's arm. "There. The injury has been taken care of. Just don't put too much strain on your arm and you should be good."
"Thanks, doc." Shawn jumped off of the table and walked for the door, facing Zach as he passed by. "Good luck on your new mission, Commander." His brother followed behind, nodding to him as he departed.
"Well, that was unexpected." He finally spoke.
"That's my job, Commander. Expect the unexpected. I always have to take care of Shawn and his injuries every month, it seems." Dr. Michel turned towards Tali. "Tali'Zorah. Good to see you again. I see you found Commander Shepard."
"Actually, I think it's more accurate to say he found and rescued me from Fist's thugs."
"He did the same for me, as did Garrus."
"Just doing my job, ma'am." Garrus winked.
"I never got to properly thank you from saving me from Fist's thugs, Commander."
"It's all right." Zach replied. "I'm just glad we got here in time."
"Me too, Commander."
"I was wondering, Doctor, how did you end up getting this job on the Citadel?"
"My parents had studied the medical profession back on Earth and were field medics in the Alliance. Even though I didn't want to end up working for the Alliance, I still followed the medical field and got a job in the medical field that eventually brought me to this clinic."
"Thanks for your time, Doctor. I'll see you later."
"Likewise. Although, if you don't mind, I'd like to borrow Tali for a few minutes to check to see if the patch to her suit was secure enough, and if her fever has died down."
"Tali, would you be all right if the doctor did a quick check-up while Garrus and I get some dextro rations for the two of you?"
Tali was about to say she was fine, but one look into the doctor's eyes said she didn't really want to check on her. "Uh, sure. I'll be fine. You guys go ahead. I'll be here when you've gotten the order."
"Okay. We'll be back soon, Tali. I promise." When the two men left for the markets, Tali turned to face the doctor.
"You don't really need to check on me, do you?"
"It's better we do just to be safe, but that's not the real reason I wanted you to stay behind for a bit."
"So what is the reason?"
"Remember our little talk on good and bad examples of humanity?"
"Yeah?"
"I just wanted you to know you've found a good example of humanity. But I'm afraid you've also found another tragic figure."
"How so?"
"Commander Shepard hasn't exactly had the best life, despite how his career is so far. He grew up on Earth, our home world, in a poor, worn-down city. He had no family, no home; only the support of a known xenophobic priest and an Earth gang that almost killed a turian representative around 2171."
"He's been around xenophobes? But he seemed to be nice to Garrus and I." Probably a little too nice to me.
"He isn't a xenophobe, but he isn't fond of politicians much. Despite his affiliation with xenophobes, he's shown how humanity can cooperate with the other races many times, which is why his career has been successful so far. However, his greatest tragedy was the loss of his entire unit on Akuze. Fifty soldiers were known to have been slaughtered and eaten by a nest of thresher maws that attacked a small colony being set up on the planet. Only one body was ever found intact."
"Who's body was it?"
"It was a woman named Sergeant Jessica Weaver. I saw the news report on the incident. Shepard had gone to her funeral. The tears he shed on that day were filled with so many different emotions: sadness, regret, most likely anger as well. And only someone who can observe people really well could've probably picked up the one emotion that seems hard to find anymore."
"What?"
"Love." And that last word made Tali think for a second upon their meeting with Samesh Batia. Tali tried to comfort him because she saw how sad he was becoming over the meeting. Could Samesh's grief have reminded him of this Jessica Weaver Dr. Michel had spoken of?
"On our way to the council chamber, Garrus had asked Shepard a question about a name he called him that was not his own. Shepard had accidentally called him Red. Was Red one of the soldiers that died on Akuze?"
"Red was one of Shepard's friends, but his real name was Corporal David Armsby. Other than him and Weaver, Shepard's only other friend that died on Akuze was Corporal Kyle Toombs. They were all part of a small patrol unit as the vids described, and they were the last four survivors before Shepard's friends were picked off one by one."
"Keelah, that's horrible!" Tali exclaimed. "To see all of your friends slaughtered by such beasts!"
"Yes, and something like that would break most beings, but Shepard is still around to live a full life."
"But he's forever changed, isn't he?"
"I'm afraid so." And at that phrase, Tali felt a ping of sadness towards the man that saved her life. How could the commander live such a hard life and still hold some semblence of his spirit? "Now, I think we actually do what I said we'd be doing before they come back, no?"
While Zach and Garrus walked in the markets, they came across the volus merchant they had passed by earlier in order to get to Chora's Den. Deciding to give him a try, the two walked over to his kiosk.
"Hello, Earth-clan. Will you be needing supplies for your trip back to the colonies?" the merchant sniffed.
"Sure. Do you have any dextro rations and sterilized food tubes for sale?"
"Unfortunately, no." he sniffed. "We don't carry that kind of stuff here, unfortunately. However, if you need medi-gel and grenade upgrades, we can provide you with the newest cutting-edge medi-gel delivery system!"
"Maybe when I come back. Thank you, though."
The merchant sniffed again. "No problem, Earth-clan. I hope to see you do business here again soon."
Zach turned around, rolling his eyes. You'd think finding a vendor that sells actual food would be easy to find in a marketplace as small as this. As soon as he finished that thought, a turian wearing all blue walked towards them.
"Excuse me. I hear you're looking for some dextro rations and sterilized food tubes for quarians." The turian's voice was casual, but there was a silver tongue hidden behind it.
"Are you spying on us?"
"I have an ear to the ground on things. That means I can tell you that there is a vendor downstairs that got a shipment of what you're looking for. It'd be worth taking a look."
"Well, thanks a lot, Mister..."
"Stalus. Uton Stalus." After bowing his head, Mr. Stalus turned around and walked away. Taking his advice, Zach headed down and found the turian vendor in the back corner of the stairwell on the bottom floor. The turian was wearing a casual brown suit with an insignia he thought he had seen before, only to realize it was the symbol to Calypso, the group responsible for most of galactic trade in the galaxy. Walking towards the vendor, he saw the turian smile.
"Commander Shepard, the first human spectre! It's a good thing you're here! You're looking for a shipment of dextro rations, are you not?"
Zach crossed his arms. "You seem to know a lot about what I need."
"My employers heard of your acceptance into the spectres, and they saw in the news you have a new turian and quarian crew member. They sent a shipment from their private docks they are willing to sell at reduced cost for your mission."
"Really?
"Yes. The CEO's lifetime goal is the preservation of the galaxy. Our entire company works to ensure that goal is fulfilled everyday. Your mission against Saren just might preserve the galaxy, so we are willing to offer any aid we can."
"All right. How much does it cost?"
"Normally, a shipment like this would cost twenty thousand credits. However, since you are now a member of the spectres, you can have a Citadel employee discount, which brings the new total down to fourteen-thousand, seven-hundred and fifty credits."
"You got a deal." Zach then swiped his credit chit through the terminal, succeeding in making the purchase. "Have the shipment brought to the Normandy, docking bay 422."
"We'll see to it, Commander. Thank you for your business."And once the transaction was complete, the two men left the kiosk and headed back to Dr. Michel's office.
As Tali allowed Dr. Michel to quickly run through a quick check-up, she saw the doors open to Commander Shepard and Garrus walking through. Both seemed to have a grin on their face (With Garrus, it's harder to tell what emotion he has) which likely meant their business was successful.
"We're back!" Garrus said cheerfully.
"How's she doing, doctor?" Shepard asked.
"Very good. Her fever is now gone; no likely the result of the special medicine I gave her. I also carefully rechecked her wound. It's been healed, but she'll likely carry the scar on her arm for the rest of her life. I'm amazed you possessed that medical program on your omni-tool, Commander Shepard. Tali's arm is no longer in pain."
"It came pre-installed with my omni-tool. It's helped me in my worst situations when I've gotten pretty banged up." The Commander smiled at Tali. "I'm glad I was able to help you, Tali."
Tali blushed under her helmet. "Uh, thanks, Commander."
"Your welcome. Now, how much did your treatment originally cost?"
"There's no need for that, Commander. I already said she didn't need to pay it." Dr. Michel interjected.
"The medical supplies you used likely costs a lot. I'd like to help you out by paying for her bill."
"Are you sure about that, Shepard?" Tali asked.
"Absolutely. I have plenty of credits in my account. I'll be fine if I spend some here and there for my crew."
"If you want to, Commander." Dr. Michel allowed. "Her treatment, and the medicine she used, costs two-thousand credits all together."
"Here you go." He handed her the money and looked back at Tali. "Ready, Tali?"
"Yes. Let's go." She hopped off the table and faced Dr. Michel. "Thanks for the check-up, and for our little talk."
"No problem. I hope you guys visit again soon." When they exited the clinic, Shepard spoke again. "So, what'd you guys talk about?"
"Oh, you know, this and that." Tali lied. Even though she felt bad about not telling him the truth, the Commander didn't seem to want to push her on the subject. They walked towards C-Sec's elevator in silence. Once they were on, Tali allowed her eyes to scan Shepard again, looking not just at his battle-scarred armor; which has likely been patched up from every battle, but also at his facial expression. He didn't look like a guy that was greiving the death of his entire team on Akuze; in fact, right now he looked as if he was at peace with himself at this present moment. His blue eyes were static as well; no emotion seemed to be flowing through them at all, unlike when he fought off that assassin to save her life.
She felt indebted to the man. He saved her life, payed for her medical bill, allowed him to join his team, and didn't ask for anything in return. It said a lot about him. He seemed to be a self-less individual; a figure missing in this galaxy, and he didn't seem to judge people based on their history. But if Dr. Michel was right, then he was a sad figure as well because of his harsh childhood and his mission on Akuze. It was because of his childhood that made Tali feel like his life was similar to her own on the flotilla; with the difference being he didn't live on an old ship that needed to constantly be repaired. And somehow, his history on Akuze made her want to hold him close and make him feel better. She also wanted to know more about this 'Jessica' he had known-
"The quarians endangered the entire galaxy when they let the geth free. I hope your people are properly contrite, Tali."
Garrus's words broke her from her conversation, making her mad at his insult. "As the turians are properly contrite for releasing the genophage upon the krogam?" She snapped.
"You're asuming sterilizing them was a mistake."
"I can think of another mistake your people made, Garrus." Shepard finally spoke up.
"What?"
"Do the words Relay-314 ring any bells?"
"Shepard-"
"You know, I think your species should give us reparations for the whole incident! Then you can all give the quarians reparations for not even allowing them the chance to settle down on another planet after their war with the geth!" Shepard's sudden bout of anger surprised Tali immensely. She never expected Shepard could possess a temper. "Garrus, since you're now part of the crew, the one thing you need to understand is that I will not allow discrimination between the rest of the crew based on race, color, gender, religion, or history. That means do not insult Tali or her people!"
The turian raised his hands in the air in defeat. "All right, Shepard. You've made your point. I'm sorry."
"Good. Now let's drop this and move on." As Shepard returned to normal, the elevator doors opened and Shepard led them to another elevator that was twice as big. The tubular elevator closed its glass doors and ascended up. Already there was some elevator music on.
"So, anyone like the elevator music?" Tali heard Shepard ask.
"You seriously like it?" Garrus asked.
"Surprisingly, yes. Ba-ba-ba-ba-bum-ba-da-ba-ba-bum-ba-da-ba-ba-bum-bum. Ba-da-ba-ba-bum-ba-da-ba-ba-bum-ba-ba-ba-ba-bum."
Tali laughed. "You're funny, Commander."
He shrugged. "Not really. I'm just full of those random moments."
They laughed until their elevator came to a stop at the top of the docking bay.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First, I'd like to apologize for the long delay of the next chapter. I did warn you that I would be gone for about five days last week, but the few days after that, I either took little time to write this chapter, or I was too busy to write anything at all. However, I promise I'll try to make better timing on the release of the chapters so long as I don't have to work any more of those long work schedules. Second, the guy I give a shoutout to a lot, ProjektNemesis7, brought up something that I keep writing down. If you've realized, I kept mentioning that Tali had two fingers. That is because I consider the thumb to not be a finger exactly. So if you were confused by that, I hope this clears it up for anyone else who saw it and got confused.
Anyway, I'm hoping the next chapter will be the talk with Anderson, epic speech aboard the Normandy, and Shepard going to speak to his crew members down in the cargo hold. Shoutout to ProjektNemesis7 as well (you're awesome!) and to anyone else who makes the attempt of reviewing as much as he does. Review or PM any questions you have and I'll answer them ASAP if not immediately.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna play through Rannoch again.