Legacy of Shepard - The Engineer

by Nightstride

This is the novelization of my play-through of the Mass Effect trilogy spanning all three games and eventually the aftermath. It is focused on the growth and camaraderie of the major crew and will eventually lead to a romance between Tali and Shepard. It is one of the few stories based around an engineer Shepard and attempts to explain the mysteries of "Space Magic."

10. Desperate Measures - Building Worlds

Chapter 10: Desperate Measures/Building Worlds

Tali sat in the chair in front of Shepard's terminal, exploring the capabilities of the creation suite he had recently installed.

"It looks like they upgraded it since I last worked on it," Shepard spoke from his seat next to her, "a lot of the major bugs seem to be gone."

"This suite looks to be…surprisingly user friendly," Tali observed, looking over at him.

Shepard nodded, "That's what we were aiming for."

"Did you have any plans to release it?"

Shepard shook his head, "No, or, not at the time. There were too many bugs."

"Anything that stood out?"

Shepard sat back and crossed his arms, "Well, getting it to work with all omni-tools took a while. Getting my Savant was a big plus in that regard. Uh…continuous rotation was a problem."

"Rotation?"

Shepard nodded, "Surprisingly yes…It's a programming nightmare. It used a lot of 'brute force' to work," Shepard brought up his omni-tool, looking at the source code, "Hmm…looks like they simplified it…smart buggers…"

"What parts did you work on?"

Shepard powered down his omni-tool, "I focused more on designing the interface and figuring out exactly what we wanted the suite to do. They focused more on the 3d aspects. We all worked together on getting the two to work together."

Tali looked back at the monitor, "How many of you were there?"

"Including me? Four."

"Wow…this is…how do I start?"

Shepard smiled and leaned forward, pointing, "With a box…the first thing we ever created on this software."

"Does this allow me to work on electrical circuits?"

Shepard commandeered the terminal temporarily to shift the interface, "Another nightmare was getting the tester to work. We had to call in a couple of sparkies to get it figured out."

Shepard gave her control of the terminal again, "Hmm…Sparkies?"

Shepard shrugged, "Electrical engineers."

Tali leaned forward, her mind was already starting to work, "Can you get me access to a grenade?"

Shepard smiled, "Give me a minute."

OOO

Ashley had been sitting at the table in Shepard's quarters for a good hour, telling the aliens about human history. She was leery about them, but the Commander asked her to. It wasn't an order, but an actual request…how could she say "no"?

Her food was long gone by now, and, as she talked, she was dismantling an empty grenade to get at the circuitry inside.

"So you blew them up once and they did not surrender, so you blew them up again?" Liara asked.

She had been telling them about key points during both World War I and II, "There's been a lot of speculation on whether or not it was the right thing to do, but the fact of the matter is, we don't know where we'd be today if they weren't dropped."

"Whatever the case," Shepard spoke from where he was lying propped up on his bed, "we made a relative peace after that…if you consider peace to be a lack of war…with guns…"

Ashley saw Tali glance over at Shepard.

"What'd ya' need, Tali?" he asked.

"I'm trying to pick a size for the robot."

Shepard powered down his omni-tool and crossed his hands over his stomach, "Just pick an arbitrary size, you can scale it later."

Tali didn't respond immediately, "Makes sense…where's the scale button."

"Look around, you'll find it."

Ashley watched Tali's hands work before she let out an, "Ah…there it is."

Everyone in the room jumped when Joker's voice came over the comms, "Message coming in…patching it through."

"Commander," Hackett's voice spoke over the comms, "It's good to see you in the area. We've got a situation that requires your expertise…A group of fanatical biotics have kidnapped he chairman of the Parliament Subcommittee on Transhuman Studies. Their freighter sustained damage and is dead in space. Get in there and take them down."

"Uh…What are they asking for?" Shepard asked, still trying to get over the abruptness.

"They're L2 biotics, and most of them are suffering major side effects from the implants. The chairman's subcommittee recently denied a request for reparations to all L2 biotics…apparently they'd like the chairman to reconsider…"

"Apparently. What kind of resistance should I expect?"

"The biotics were seen loading equipment onto the freighter. Expect traps and combat drones…Nothing you can't handle."

Shepard gave a single nod, "Understood, Admiral, I'll see what I can do."

"I appreciate you taking the time, Commander. I'm sending you the last known coordinates of the freighter. Good luck. Fifth Fleet out."

"Get that Joker?" Shepard asked.

"Coordinates locked in," the pilot returned.

"Send a message to Kaidan and…Wrex. Tell them to suit up."

"Message sent, Commander. Joker out."

All the women in the room were looking at him.

He looked back at each of them, "What?"

None of them made replied.

Shepard shook his head and slid to the foot of the bed, "Tali, you can keep working on that if you want while I'm not here; I trust you to stay put of the classified files. Ash, all I ask is that you finish dissecting that grenade and leave it on the table for now."

"Will do, Skipper," Ash responded.

"And Liara," Shepard continued, "feel free to do what you will…just don't touch the terminals."

With a final nod, Shepard left them all to their own devices and walked out.

"Soo…Now what?" Ashley asked.

The women looked at each other, though Tali's gaze lingered on the door for a second longer, probably deciding whether or not to leave.

"Uh…What happened after they surrendered?" Tali asked.

One of Ashley's eyebrows went up in surprise since the quarian was actually paying attention. She started on the grenade again and continued her explanation.

OOO

Shepard, Kaidan, and Wrex were waiting on the interior side of the airlock for Joker to connect the Normandy to the freighter.

"So, Commander," Kaidan started, "What's up with this ship?"

Shepard didn't look away from the airlock, "MSV Ontario. A group of L2 biotics have captured a politician. Expect drones and other traps."

"And the Alliance wants us to save him?"

Shepard looked back at him and shrugged, "Is there any doubt?"

"Aligned and connected," Joker informed, "I'm reading a breathable atmosphere over there; you shouldn't need your helmets. It also looks like we have a few Alliance vessels floating nearby."

"Good to know," Shepard pulled out his pistol, "You guys know the drill. This will likely be close quarters combat."

"I guess that explains Wrex," Kaidan joked.

"And the L2s explain you," Wrex fired back.

"True in both cases," Shepard responded before cycling the airlock.

OOO

They were entering the freighter via the starboard (aka: right) airlock on the rear of the ship into what appeared to be a massive storage area. There were quite a few crates thrown haphazardly about the room.

"Clear," Kaidan informed.

"They packed this place neatly," Wrex noted sarcastically.

"The drones may have done this when they deployed," Kaidan responded. "Happens sometimes when they go directly from the crates."

"Plus L2s tend to be fairly unstable…we lucked out," Shepard continued.

"Thanks, Commander," Kaidan responded. "Reading hostiles in the next area."

Shepard led them through the door opposite where they entered and into a hallway that seemed to connect to the port storage area, engineering in the aft, and the fore (front) storage area that most likely held the crew quarters as well as the cockpit.

He led them through the door to the fore of the ship, and they were greeted with a solid wall of very large crates.

Shepard sighed, "Why do these things always start with silence?"

He cautiously stepped forward. The wall of crates blocked off the left, but there appeared to be a way to get past them to the right.

Everyone jumped as Wrex discharged his shotgun into the air.

Kaidan and Shepard looked back at him.

Wrex shifted his shotgun back to the standard position, "If they're drones, it's better to have them come for us."

Shepard nodded and, seeing as how there was a corner coming up, took up a spot just before the corner. Wrex ran across behind a crate opposite the corner.

"Intruders! Kill the hostage!" someone yelled.

Kaidan saw Shepard lean out and kill the speaker with a single shot to the head. Kaidan followed up with a biotic throw at someone next to the speaker, but they countered with their own biotics. Wrex countered by shooting them with his shotgun.

Kaidan looked back to see Shepard floating through the air with the bluish tint of biotics.

"A little help here, Guys!" Shepard called.

Wrex quickly pulled him from the air, "Stay down, Shepard. We'll take care of this"

The blue tint faded after Kaidan took another shot, causing Shepard drop unceremoniously to the ground.

He quickly stood up, "Can't do that. Try not to kill anyone else. Did you see that door on the far side?"

Shepard had both Kaidan's and Wrex's attention now. Wrex nodded.

"These people want something; they're desperate, they aren't thinking straight. I want you to charge through, straight for the crew quarters. We need to get to that chairman!"

Wrex gave another nod and created a biotic barrier around himself. Kaidan did the same. With a roar, Wrex charged.

Humans scattered. Shepard and Kaidan stayed right on his tail.

In one motion, Shepard hacked the door and locked it behind them after it slammed shut.

"Good job Wrex," Shepard acknowledged, "let's hope he's not dead yet."

Wrex's barrier dissipated, "Drones my a**."

With smile and a nod, Shepard walked through the door to the port side crew quarters.

OOO

"See how it is? You write letters, and everyone ignores you. Force is the only thing people appreciate." The leader of the biotic terrorists was holding a shotgun to the back of the head of the kneeling form of the chairman, "So how about if I kill Chairman Burns and finish this charade?"

"Please!" the chairman called back, "I was trying to help you people!"

Shepard holstered his pistol, "Let's not do anything we're all going to regret."

"Why not?" the Leader returned, "What have we got to lose? Since the chairman here decided we didn't get reparations, we've got nothing left to live for!"

"But I've changed my mind!" the Chairman returned, "Seeing y-you all, it's c-clear that you all d-deserve…"

"You had your chance!" the Leader interrupted with a nudge of his shotgun, "Some L2s are nearly crippled from the side effects of the implants, but you voted against reparations!"

"Think about this." Shepard spoke, "Burns is the one man who can help you!"

"Yes!" the Chairman agreed, "if you release me, I can take another look at the reparations request!"

The leader laughed and nudged the Chairman with his shotgun again, "What, we're supposed to trust you?"

"I'm an L2," Kaidan spoke up, "like you. Trust me. The commander can make sure that Burns follows through."

The Biotic Leader wasn't convinced, "Sure, you promise us freedom and say everything will be fine, but as soon as we surrender, you'll double cross us!"

Shepard put up his hands, "I'm not promising to let you go. All I'm saying is that Burns will take another look…Right, Burns?"

"Absolutely." The Chairman replied, his voice resigned and speaking only truth, "I had no idea that the L2 biotics were this desperate. If I had known…The reparations will come. For whatever it's worth, I promise that."

The biotic leader stared at the Commander silently for a few moments before making a decision and finally pulling his shotgun away, "You're right…I don't want to die. Maybe something will happen this time…We surrender."

The Chairman stood up, "Thank you, Commander. I thought I was dead when they took me. I'll see to it that the reparations discussion is reopened. I didn't know they were so desperate."

Shepard gave a single nod and sent out a message via omni-tool, "A Fifth Fleet cruiser will be by shortly to pick you and the prisoners up."

As they were walking back to the Normandy, Shepard spoke to Kaidan, "Good job Kaidan."

"I just hope he can do something for them."

A slight shudder went through the freighter as the Alliance cruiser attached to the ship, "I will do what I can to make sure he follows through."

They reached the Normandy airlock, "I know, Commander."

OOO

"Shepard!" Joker called back as the Commander and the team re-boarded the Normandy, "Hackett's on the line."

"Thanks, Joker." Shepard started heading to his armor locker, "Admiral," he greeted.

"Shepard," the Admiral responded, "thank you for dealing with the hostage situation. Chairman Burns was quite impressed by the way you resolved the situation peacefully…Your assistance above and beyond formal duties has been noted, Commander. Fifth Fleet out."

Shepard just reached the bottom of the stairs when he noticed that at least half of the crew was crowded around the table in the mess. He couldn't see what they were crowded around, though.

"What's going on here?"

Kaidan and Wrex walked up behind him as the crowd parted. Ashley was arm-wrestling one of the male crewmen…she was winning.

There was a slight thunk as the crewman's hand touched the table. Ashley released him and leaned back, "Alright, pay up."

The crewman was rubbing his bicep as he brought up his omni-tool. There were a lot of other flashes as other crewmen paid up their bets.

"Who's next?"

Everyone looked at Shepard.

He looked around at them, "That would be no contest right now...My armor's still on…I have partially motorized joints."

Ashley looked back on the crowd, "So whose up?"

Shepard held up a hand, not quite finished, "But I do know someone who might be able to."

Ash looked back at him with an eyebrow up.

"Hey, Tali!" Shepard called.

Ashley's mouth fell open.

Tali walked out of his quarters, "Shepard?"

"You ever arm wrestle?"

Tali looked nervous with all the eyes on her, "Um…not really."

"You understand the gist of it?"

Tali focused on him, "I…think so."

Shepard nodded, "Good enough…Thousand credits on Tali."

The room fell dead silent.

"Anyone going to match me at half?"

There was a flurry of responses and bets. Even Wrex and Kaidan were in on it.

Shepard waved Tali over and sat her down, "Don't feel too pressured, I can blow a lot more money on mods easy."

With a nod, Tali faced Ashley and assumed the position. It was at this point that Shepard walked away to remove his armor.

"And go!" someone yelled.

Shepard couldn't help but smile as he heard Ashley yell a surprised, "Damn, girl!" and a thunk as her hand hit the table.

There were a whole bunch of sighs and groans as credits started getting passed around. Shepard heard the telltale beep as money was transferred into his account. He stopped each transfer at half the credits owed and transferred whatever made it through to Tali's account.

Shepard felt the eyes of his crew on him. Without turning to face them, he asked, "So how many of you knew that dextros tend to be physically stronger than levos?"

He slowly turned his head and only saw a couple of people with their hands up, plus Wrex.

"Hey, good job…you're probably a few thousand richer. The rest of you learned something I hope."

"Yeah," one of the crewmen muttered, "Never bet against the Commander."

That drew a round of laughter from the crowd as they dissipated and went about their duties.

Shepard finished removing his armor and sat down next to Tali.

"So Ash…surprised?" he asked.

Ashley crossed her arms, "I will admit…a little bit."

Shepard looked over at Tali, "Good job, Tali. I knew you wouldn't let me down."

Tali returned his statement with a nod.

Shepard looked back at Ashley, "A little?"

Ashley sighed, "Okay, a lot…Just don't tell Scuttlebutt."

"I'm sure you were just tired from all those other competitions you had."

"Yup…that was it…You still have yet to go."

Shepard smiled, "Ah. No. I would very likely lose. Engineers are not naturally built for strength, well, of the arms."

One of Ashley's eyebrows went up, "Uh-huh."

"Plus I play dirty when I arm-wrestle."

Ashley stood up, "Uh-huh…Well…see you later…Commander and Tali."

Shepard watched her leave, then looked over at Tali and propped his head up on his fist with his elbow on the table, "So, Tali, any progress?"

Tali nodded, "Yes, I am figuring out the circuitry right now."

Shepard returned her nod, "Why don't you take a break, I think Adams is getting a little lonely down in engineering."

"Hmm…I do have a few ideas about improving the drive core efficiency."

Shepard smiled, "Then hop to it. I'll come down to chat later. After I finish my reports."

---

Shepard just powered down his terminal when Joker's voice came over the comms, "Commander, we're over Juntauma. There appears to be a freighter in a state of orbital decay."

"Any signs of life?"

"None."

"Energy sources?"

"Nope."

"Get a team together. Have them board and see what they can find."

"Will do, Commander, Joker out."

Shepard brought his hands up and rubbed his eyes. Working on official reports really drained his energy.

Shepard shook it off and stood up, Might as well see what people are doing.

OOO

"What're you doing up there, Garrus?"

Garrus looked over to see the Commander watching him from the side of the Mako, "Uh…I had an idea."

"Uh-huh…are you going to put the gun back on any time soon?"

Garrus looked down at his work. He had the cannon separated from the top of the Mako, "Well, I figured that this thing used ball bearings to swivel. I was right."

Shepard crossed his arms, "And you took it off because…?"

"I had an idea on how to virtually eliminate the friction."

"And how did you intend to do that?"

Garrus started rifling around in a small toolbox he had up by him, "Well, I figured that I could put in two very powerful magnets with the same sides pointed at each other."

"So it essentially floats on the magnetic field?"

"Yes…"

"But?"

"But then I realized that that wouldn't work too well if we were on a high-gravity planet, plus it could mess with the projectile if improperly calibrated."

"And?"

"And I would be much better off using a form of a mass effect field to reduce the weight of the canon independently of the rest of the Mako."

"But then you realized that the battery wasn't big enough to support another mass effect field nor an electromagnet, since you would need an electromagnet to compensate for the gravity?"

Garrus looked back at the Commander, his arms were still crossed, "Yes, and it would make it unstable…so here I am…Trying to find the ball bearings to put them back in."

"Uh-huh," Shepard looked down to see a greasy metal ball with a diameter of about three (human) finger-widths sitting on the floor next to the Mako. He picked it up and handed it to Garrus, "Just stick to calibrations. Hmm?"

Garrus took the bearing from his hand, "Probably for the best."

Shepard wiped his hand off on the side of the Mako, "But, hey, if you have any other ideas, just run them by an engineer first."

Garrus placed the bearing back where it needed to go, "Yeah, well, two more to go."

Shepard walked away shaking his head.

OOO

Tali was crouched in one of the engineering tunnels above the drive core. She was trying to implement her ideas directly at the terminal that controlled how the drive core worked.

"Hey, Tali!" Shepard called from somewhere to her left.

"Up here!"

She heard the patter of him climbing up the ladder before he appeared over the bend.

"What do you need, Commander?"

"I said we were going to chat, so gall 'dern it we're going to chat. Plus, Adams figured you might need a little help up here since that terminal requires double authentication."

Tali looked back at the terminal, "That does explain a lot."

"The Alliance is nothing if not paranoid," Shepard climbed up all the way and crouched next to her before bringing up his omni-tool.

"That did it…so what should we talk about?"

"I have to monitor what you're doing here, otherwise it will lock you out again. Um…not sure…how about the geth?"

Tali shrugged, "I doubt I can tell you more than you already know. It's been almost three centuries since they drove my people to exile. All I know is the story of their origins: what they were when we created them, and how they turned on us."

"Interesting," Shepard replied, "go on."

Tali took a breath, "The geth were originally created to serve as an automatic manual labor force. Initially, their intelligence was as limited as any VI. Over time, though, we made small modifications to their programming to allow them to perform more varied and complex tasks, bringing them closer and closer to true AI status."

"Didn't the Council step in?"

"No, this wasn't true AI research. We may have been skirting the bounds of the law, but we never did anything that was actually illegal. The changes were so insignificant, so gradual, that we were able to control them…Or so we thought. But one thing we underestimated was the power of the neural network. A million geth thinking simultaneously created an inherently unstable matrix."

"What made them rebel?"

Tali shrugged, "As we built more and more geth, their effective intelligence became more sophisticated, more abstract. One day, a geth began to ask its quarian overseer questions about the nature of its existence, 'Am I alive?' 'Why am I here?' 'What is my purpose?' As you can imagine, this caused a near-panic among my people."

"What's so bad about those questions?"

Tali felt like Shepard was testing her, "The geth were created to engage in mundane, repetitive, or dangerous manual labor. That's fine for machines, but it won't satisfy a sentient being for long. The geth were showing signs of rudimentary self-awareness and independent thought. If geth were intelligent, then we were essentially using them as slaves. It was inevitable the newly-sentient geth would rebel against their situation. We knew they would rise up against us, so we acted first. A general order went out across all quarian-controlled systems to permanently deactivate all geth. The geth responded to this order violently."

Shepard had his eyes on his omni-tool, "One can't really blame them for fighting for their survival."

Tali threw up her hands, she had to make Shepard understand, "We had no choice! The geth were already on the verge of revolution. By acting quickly, we had a chance to end the war before it began!"

Tali took a breath to calm herself down, "The hope was that most of the geth would still be little more than machines, incapable of organized resistance, but they had progressed much further than anyone anticipated. The war was long and bloody. Millions upon millions of quarians died at their hands. In the end, we were forced to flee our own homeworld. We feared the geth would pursue us, but they never came beyond the Veil. Now we drift through space, exiles searching for a way to reclaim what was once ours."

"One might find it hard to feel sorry for the quarians. Your ancestors tried to wipe out another species."

Tali felt herself getting more flustered again, "We made a mistake when we created the geth in the first place. But we did not make a mistake when we went to war against them. If we had not acted, they would have wiped us out! They're a synthetic life-form. They have no use for organics." She was doing a lot gesturing with her hands, "None! Why do you think they cut themselves off from the rest of the galaxy? Why do you think they've killed every organic being who's ever tried to contact them?"

Tali saw Shepard look over at her with what appeared to be shock, "Whoa sorry, Tali, I…didn't men to offend you."

Tali took a slow breath, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so worked up. Most quarians tend to have pretty strong opinions about the geth."

Shepard smiled, "Evidently. I'll try not to bring it up again."

"It's okay, Commander."

Shepard shrugged, "I've personally always found it hard to consider war to be a first option, but conversation over…Now what should we talk about?"

Tali was silent a moment, "Well, I told you a little more about my people, why don't you tell me a little more about you?"

Tali saw Shepard's smile grow, "Let's see how long it takes you to get me flustered…Where did I leave off?"

"You just joined the Alliance."

"Ah, yes," Shepard shifted his position so he was more comfortable, "Since I was going to be an Alliance Marine, I was referred to as Corporal Shepard…"

OOO

Adams was running diagnostics on his terminal. It looked like whatever Tali was doing was actually working, but he decided to wait for her and the Commander to get back down before running the full diagnostic.

As if on cue, he heard the dings of two people climbing down the ladder in the engineering tunnel. It sounded like the Commander was talking to her.

"…So they made me an offer and I accepted."

"Making you an official N1 recruit?"

Adams looked over to see Shepard's torso rise out of the entrance to the engineering tunnel in the floor.

"Yup," the Commander replied as he climbed out and offered her his hand. Tali took it and he helped her out.

"Get to Elysium yet?" Adams asked.

Shepard looked back at him as he helped Tali put the floor back to how it was supposed to be, "No, just past Corporal Shepard."

"Ah," Adams nodded, "Now that you guys are done, I'll run the diagnostic."

Shepard and Tali approached to see his terminal.

"Comparing to previous results…there's about a 25% increase in efficiency. Good job Tali."

Adams saw Shepard give Tali a slight bump of agreement out of the corner of his eye.

"Commander, there you are," Joker came over the comms, "weren't getting too kinky with Tali up there, were you?"

To everyone's surprise, Tali responded, "We're engineers, Joker, of course it was getting 'kinky'…assuming you noticed the increased performance."

There was an awkward silence as everyone gaped at Tali.

The Commander was first to break the silence, "Tali…you succeeded…Anyway, what is it Joker?"

The pilot took a second to respond, "The away team has been back for the last hour, they found nothing on that freighter but a data drive. They think it's Prothean."

"We'll send it to the Alliance once we're back on the Citadel. Where are we right now?"

"Heading to the next major system in this cluster…maybe another hour."

"Okay, Joker stay the course and do general sweeps once we arrive."

"Will do, Commander. Joker out."

Shepard looked over at Tali, "So Tali, hungry?"

Tali shrugged, "I guess I could eat."

Adams turned back to his console as they walked away.

"Oh, Commander?" He heard Tali start.

"Hmm?"

"Why do I have around 2,000 extra credits in my account?"

"Huh? Oh, you won."

"You made the bet."

"I had no need for the money, and it was a good opportunity to teach them something. Consider it payment for being a teacher."

"Right…"

Any further conversation was cut off by the door closing. Adams just shook his head, amused.

OOO

Ashley-Liara-Mako

-Shepard

Ashley powered down her omni-tool; it looked like she was a part of the ground team. And it looked like she was going to be partnered with an alien…

She heard the elevator open and saw Liara walk over to her own armor locker.

The asari was practically human, Ashley decided, other than for her tentacle-like 'hair' and blue skin. She was a few times her age, though, too, but she still had the innocence of a, well, much younger person.

Asari must mature slower than most other species.

Ashley shrugged,she could live with working with her, she supposed.

The elevator door opened again reveal Shepard already in full body armor with his helmet under his arm.

He walked up behind them, "So…who wants to drive?"

Ashley and Liara looked at each other, then at him.

"Okay, I'll drive. Ash has the gun and Liara, you have the engineering station."

Both Ash and Liara nodded and continued suiting up.

"So, Skipper," Ashley started, "What's the lowdown?"

Shepard walked over to the weapons bench to retrieve his guns, "We are heading down to the planet Trebin. ExoGeni recently crashed a water-ice comet into the planet in attempt to thicken the atmosphere and help the planet develop some sort of biosphere."

"How does this concern the Normandy?"

Shepard shrugged, "ExoGeni sent a survey team down to monitor the progress as well as wait for the planet's first rainfall, but they stopped reporting in and we were in the area. It could be due to something blocking the signal, but they managed to get signals out beforehand. Apparently something on this planet also messes with their GPS satellites."

"Could it be pirates?" Liara asked.

"It could. Be ready for anything."

Ashley strapped on her last gauntlet, "Ready, Skipper. Just need my guns."

"And your helmet Ash."

"I can take care of that in the Mako."

Shepard nodded, then looked at Liara, "How's it coming Liara?"

Liara extended her helmet and put it under her arm, "Ready."

Shepard gave a single nod, "Well, ladies, let's go find that survey team."

OOO

Liara was hunched over inside a spherical escape pod that they found on the planet's surface, looking for any evidence that suggested where the supposed survivor could be. It was the closest anomaly to their drop zone that Joker had marked on their map.

"Anything Liara?" Shepard called from outside.

"N-nothing yet!" she returned.

"Might as well start pulling out, then."

With a sigh, Liara started heaving herself out, but when she felt her foot crush something soft, she stopped and looked down.

"Commander! I think I found something!" she called out as she leaned down to pick up the tattered thing.

Shepard's helmeted head peeked in through the entrance of the escape pod above her, "What is it?"

Liara flipped over and unfolded the rag-like thing in her hands, "I think it is a flag. Look at his insignia."

Shepard took the flag as she handed it up to him and gave it his own examination, "Looks turian."

Liara saw Shepard fiddling with his omni-tool when she fully extricated herself from the pod. She took Ashley's offered hand for help getting down.

Shepard looked up at her, "Garrus says it's a Nimines Colony insignia."

"Another one for the museums Skipper?" Ashley asked.

Shepard folded the small remnant of the flag over his arm, "Yup." He pulled his un-extended assault rifle from where it was propping up the escape pod to keep it from rolling down the hill. With its support gone, the pod started rolling away.

"Just think, Liara," Ashley joked as she watched it roll into a large empty area, "that could've been you."

"That is why Shepard put his gun there," Liara responded, obviously not catching the humor.

"It was…never mind."

Liara felt a slight shudder go through the ground, then glanced over at the pod to see a tentacle disappearing into the ground.

Her mouth fell open, "A-A-Ashley."

Ashley looked at her, then followed her gaze to see the rapidly closing hole that suggested a thresher maw was in the area.

"Commander!" she called, voice slightly higher than usual.

Shepard had the door to the Mako open when he looked back at them, "Did you guys feel something?"

Both Ashley and Liara started running in his direction, "Thresher maw!" they yelled together.

"What? Where?" he looked over at where the pod disappeared, "Oh…well…all aboard."

They all quickly jumped aboard and high-tailed it out of there.

OOO

"Tali? Are you okay?"

Tali looked up from her terminal in engineering, then over at Adams, "Wha? Oh, um yes, I just have a million things on my mind right now."

Adams was looking at her, "Anything stand out?"

Shepard, she thought, but said, "I have a few ideas about different things. I'm just trying to get them sorted out."

Adams looked back at his terminal, "What's the top one?"

Tali was silent a moment, "After seeing that terminal above the drive core, I found a few tools on it that I think can use to improve the efficiency even more."

"You didn't try them when Shepard was up there?"

Tali looked back at her terminal, "I thought about it, but I wanted to run a few simulations before trying anything. That's what I'm doing now."

"Any results yet?"

"The increase seems to be only about two percent if I implement it while it's in use; but if I implement it when it's 'cold' there's an increase of about five."

Tail saw Adam switch his terminal to her results in her peripheral vision, "Hmm…You can implement it now if you want. We can tweak it from these terminals once we pull into a dock and bring it up to its full potential."

Tali thought for about a minute, "No, I'll wait for Shepard, he needs to let me in."

Adams looked over at her, "I do have clearance to let you in as well."

Tali didn't turn her head, "It's okay, you're busy."

"I don't have to be up there to let you in, I just have to keep my omni-tool powered up."

Now Tali looked over at him, "You don't have to be in close proximity?"

Adams shook his head, "Not at all."

Tali felt her heartbeat speed up, Shepard actually wanted to chat with me!

He said he was going to, the other side of her countered.

Her heartbeat slowed as she took in her own words, but then a question popped into her head, Then why didn't Adams let me in?

She felt her eyes widen as realization dawned, He knows!

"…but if you want to get 'kinky' with the Commander again, it's your choice," Adams was speaking.

Tali felt her face getting warm, "Ah that, uh, just slipped out before…uh…before I had a chance to think about it."

She heard Adams laugh, "Don't worry, I won't mention it again. If nothing else, I think the Commander is rubbing off on you a little bit. He tends to say a lot of things without thinking too much…I swear it's all a part of the plan, though."

Tali sighed in relief, "You can let me into the system now; I'll modify it now and tweak it later."

Adams looked over at her, "You don't want to wait for the Commander?"

Tali powered down her terminal and started walking towards the engineering tunnel entrance, "No, it's a better use of time if I take care of it while he's down doing his own thing."

Tali didn't see Adams' ghost of a smile nor his omni-tool powering up on his left hand, "There, you should have access when you reach it."

As Tali lowered herself down into the tunnel, another thought occurred to her, Shepard said I 'succeeded'.

She felt a small smile form on her lips as well as some heat in her cheeks, I made him flustered.

OOO

"Looks like nobody's home," Ashley spoke as she stepped out of the Mako behind the Commander. They were in an area nearby some low hills where the survey team made camp. There also appeared to be an entrance to a mine nearby.

Shepard walked up to one of the temporary shacks and the door immediately opened up for him, "Hmm…It looks like they were planning on coming back. Their Grizzly is still here so they can't be far."

Ashley looked back out and sure enough, the Grizzly was still there. It was a rover, but much longer and flatter than the Mako, as well as a much more boring brown color. The Mako seemed more like a compact yacht in comparison.

"Let's check out the other buildings; see if we can't find where they went."

The squad didn't find anything of value in the second shack, but the third contained an open terminal.

"According to these logs, the survey team unearthed some kind of alien technology," Liara spoke after haven sat and read through a few of the logs."

"Could be answers at the excavation site," Ashley continued.

"Okay, people, back to the Mako," Shepard ordered.

OOO

It took only a few minutes for them to reach and enter the mine.

"They must have had some results," Shepard commented, "we have standing water."

The first room of the excavation site was very similar to the other mine Shepard had been in in the sense of its relative size and shape, though it was much emptier.

Shepard pulled out his pistol, he was getting a bad feeling. He led them through a passage to the left, relative to the entrance, and came upon a larger cavern with significantly more crates and boxes than the previous room. It would have been pitch black if not for the lights shining through the tube they just came through

Immediately when the door opened, a sort of tortured moan came through.

"Oh, God," Ashley spoke.

"Husks!" Shepard shouted, then crouched in the entrance with Ashley and Liara covering his flanks. The intention was to let the husks come into the light and pick them off one by one if need be.

"Oh, God," Ashley repeated, "There's so many of them on my HUD."

As she spoke, the first husk came into view, and Shepard promptly shot it down, "Husks are dumb, incapable of organized resistance. We'll take them down one by one."

Two more husks appeared and the team cut them down too. There was what seemed to be a second's hesitation before a huge wave of husks appeared. Liara created a singularity that picked a few of them up and kept them suspended while Shepard and Ash peppered the rest with hyper-accelerated grains of sand. Their guns overheated a few times, and Shepard was forced to kick a few back before his gun cooled down. One of them unfortunately took out their shields when it let out an electrical wave as he hit it. Other than those, though, no husks got within ten feet of the squad.

"Clear," Ashley informed as the last husk fell.

Shepard holstered his pistol, "That accounts for the survey team I guess," he turned on the flashlight on his omni-tool and entered the cavern.

"Sad way to go," Ashley spoke.

"Let's see what caused this."

OOO

It was unsettling what they found in the excavation site. They found devices similar to what the geth were spearing people with on Eden Prime. The problem was, there was no evidence to suggest that the geth had anything to do with this, and the devices were obviously dug out. It must only take a touch of those devices to begin the transformation to a husk.

Shepard stopped walking down the ramp from the excavation site when he heard something land on his helmet. Looking up, something landed on his visor too…water. He couldn't help but smile at that.

He turned around and looked at his squad, "Ladies…congratulations on being among the first people to feel the first rainfall on this planet."

Liara looked up, "This is a big moment…I am glad to be a part of it."

"Looks like ExoGeni succeeded…despite their losses," Ashley commented looking up as well.

Shepard looked up again and let the steadily increasing rainfall fall on him for a moment longer.

Funny how rain just washes away problems.

He then ushered his squad on, "There's one more anomaly we have to check out…I have a hunch it's what's messing with the GPS satellites around here."

OOO

Tali was sitting in the mess, idly running simulations on her omni-tool when Shepard walked in from the direction of the elevator wearing full body armor and looking…wet.

Tali cocked her head.

Seeing this, Shepard responded, "Planet's first rain...with a vengeance…there was some flooding."

"I see," Tali commented.

Shepard shrugged and walked past to his armor locker.

"Commander," Joker spoke over the comms a few minutes later, "where to?"

Shepard didn't respond immediately, "Noveria…might as well take care of that now."

"Course plotted. Night shift starts in a couple hours."

"Good. Bring us into the system and find a planet to discharge the core. We'll hit Noveria in the morning."

"Will do, Commander. Joker out."

Shepard came around and sat in the chair across from Tali, "Hey, Tali, I forgot to mention this before, but I found a copy of the music from Flux."

"Oh?" Tali returned.

"Do you want a copy?"

"Um, sure."

Shepard powered up his omni-tool and sent her the data.

"Thank you, Commander."

Shepard nodded and powered down his omni-tool, "Having fun?"

Tali powered down her omni-tool and stretched, "I was just testing out a few theories."

She couldn't help but notice how Shepard's eyes were drawn to her form, "Promising results?"

Tali put her arms on the table and stretched towards him, "A few, I was going to try and implement them while we were on Noveria."

Shepard was silent a moment, "Does that mean you don't want to be a part of the ground team?"

Tali's head snapped up to look at him, "What? No. I can be a part of the ground team if you want me to. I can have Adams implement them."

Shepard waited for her to sit back before continuing, "Then let's plan on that. My conversation with Anderson and Udina suggested geth on the planet."

"Who else are you going to bring with?"

"I haven't made a decision on that yet…I'll sleep on it."

Tali nodded.

Shepard sat back and crossed his arms, "Well, that's all I have."

Tali stood up, "Then, uh, good night? Commander?"

Shepard stood up with a tired smile, "Yeah, after I finish a few things. Make sure you get to sleep too…Sleep well, Tali."

Tali watched him leave. Deep down, in the part of herself that denied her unprofessional affection for Shepard, she was flattered that her body drew his attention, and that she was his first go to for the ground team.

---

Don't ask how the arm-wrestling started…not even I know. It was implied later in the game that dextros tend to be stronger than most levos in ME2 conversations, I believe…I heard it somewhere. And hey, off to Noveria. Since this fic is for the most part focused on Tali and Shepard, it's a safe assumption that all the major missions will include her at least…so you can rest easy. And though it has multiple meanings, if you believe the 'kinky' statements are kind of leery, please pm me and I'll remove them; I want to keep this rated T.

Also, there's a few more comics out as well (called foundations), I will try to work references to them in sooner or later. I may go back and modify things too, though I'll point any changes in the newest chapter.