*First off I'm amazed how well my last chapter went down I want to thank everyone who reviewed and favourite it.
Hope you all enjoy*
''We need to remove her immediately, we've already had two injured personnel.'' said Miranda in her usual matter of fact way.
''It's not that bad.'' shrugged Shepard.
''Three cracked rib's and a black eye is worse than 'bad'.'' she said curtly.
Most of the ground crew were gathered around the armoury along with Joker, Chakwas was in the Medical bay providing around the clock attention for Tali who currently was lapsed into another strong fever after the new tear in her suit.
''Still it's not her fault.'' he said slowly unsure of his own argument,
''That may be the case, but she still pose's a danger.''
''Then surely sending her away to people who may not be prepared for her would be worse?'' questioned Garrus.
''Obviously the quarians will be prepared to treat this sort of thing.'' Miranda replied in a condescending tone.
''And if us, a state of the art military vessel with some of the more hardest people in the galaxy almost couldn't keep her down what chance will a bunch of limp-dick quarian doctors have?'' asked Zaeed in his usual gruff tone. ''Of course if I was there shit would've gone differently.'' he replied earning disapproving glances from everyone at the meeting.
''Obviously she will have a security detail and most likely be kept sedated through her time.''
''Is keeping her asleep for who knows how long really the best thing?'' questioned Garrus earning a nod from a few other crew member's.
''Anyway'' Joker added. ''She is one of the original's ,she should be with us.'' he said with great vigour almost slamming his fist on the table but stopped himself short realising that it would probably break his wrist.
''We can't allow sentiment to cloud our judgement.'' replied Miranda.
''Well do we know anything about what's wrong with her?'' asked Kasumi motioning towards Mordin and Legion who stood standing straight as if being stood stock still for lengths of time did not in anyway affect them, with Legion that was understandable but Mordin made it seem somewhat creepy.
Mordin shook his head and his brow furrowed in frustration. ''No, no extranet turned up nothing so I turned to old STG contact's and they've never heard of this, so little knowledge about quarian, if I possibly had a body to commit to dissection-'' he then suddenly stopped mid-sentence realising what he was suggesting and his large eye's rapidly flicked towards Shepard to see if there was any reaction. ''Not from crewmember Tali'Zorah of course.''
''We also have been unable to find the reasoning behind creator Zorah's actions.'' Legion then gave an almost human shrug as it admitted it's failure. ''It is highly likely that the time during after the Morning war the sterile environment may have altered the creator's biology in some way, Geth knowledge of this time period is scarce for obvious reasons.''
''We also have found nothing.'' came the disembodied voice of EDI. ''There is a possible chance that it is a possible allergic reaction to several exposure's and ingestion and contact with organic material could be possible cause for symptoms.''
''Do you mean she may have gotten sick when she was with Shepard?'' asked Garrus.
''Yes.'' came EDI short reply.
''Improbable.'' said Mordin with a shake of his head. ''initial test's on blood samples was to see if it was caused by those factor's and it showed no sign to support it, it seem's as though her immune system are not even aware that there is a threat.''
''Maybe it's not viral?'' asked Garrus. ''Maybe she took a knock to the head and it's something in her brain?''
''That is a possibility.'' answered EDI. ''neural damage could cause severe bouts of anger, I will request Medical officer Chakwas to run a scan.''
''If that turns up nothing then we'll have to either remove her from the ship to either the Migrant fleet or a high security medical unit somewhere, I suggest we prepare for that outcome now as to minimize stress.'' Miranda said boldly, the comment causing many of the gathered crew to look away and shuffle their feet, unsure if they should oppose or support the action especially with Tali's Lover who was also their Commander being present although he had little to no input to the debate, he simply leaned heavily against the corner table and hung his head, his glazed eye's starting blankly at the floor.
''This could just be speculation.'' said Garrus his voice showing that he believed it to be anything but that. ''It seems as though your eager to see Tali gone?'' the crew leaned forward expectantly sensing that thing's were about to grow tense when Miranda's back straightened and gave Garrus a hard glare that could have crumbled rock. Infact Joker actually rubbed his hands against each other eagerly until a soft nudge from Kasumi stopped him.
''I want nothing of the sort.'' she responded coldly her head held high. ''Unlike you I'm looking at this objectively, we cannot afford distractions and having a delusional quarian on the verge of snapping is what I consider I major distraction.''
''Your getting dangerously close to insulting her.'' growled Garrus menacingly.
Miranda braced her feet subconsciously and her hands balled slightly into fists, expecting anything as per usual.
''Tali's been through a hundred times more danger that you have.'' Garrus continued his eye's flicking to Shepard to see how he was reacting to their talk but his head still hung limply, Garrus wasn't even sure Shepard was aware of anything that was happening around him.
''Shepard?'' prompted Garrus. ''Can you just stand by and let this happen?''
An awkward silence fell in the room as initially Shepard failed to acknowledge the question, then slowly a slow sigh escaped from the Commander and his back straightened, he cast his eye's along everyone there studying each person present one by one as if just realising other people were in the same room. To their credit only Garrus, Miranda, Grunt and Legion held his gaze but the reason for the latter two was most likely because the pair didn't understand the concept of awkwardness.
''I… I don't know.'' he said quietly.
''What do you mean?'' asked Garrus.
''I mean'' snapped Shepard. ''That I don't know, if you haven't noticed I've quite abit of shit to deal with recently so as you can see I'm not at my best.'' he said his voice full of anger.
The room became deathly silent, it wasn't often Shepard raised his voice outside combat and even in his distraught state it carried a sense of authority and command that made disobeying difficult.
''So it clear what we must do.'' cut in Miranda. '' Tali need's to be sent away.''
''You can't do that!'' shouted Joker.
''Oh and you're going to stop me?'' asked Miranda making no attempt to hide the challenge and superiority from her voice.
''But I will cheerleader.'' said Jack darkly her hands already blazing with biotic fire.
Jacob's hand quickly went to his belt and rested his hand tensely on his pistol holster unsure which side he should be on.
''Enough!.'' Shepard's voice instantly cut through the hostility, almost instantly Jack stepped back and her biotics subdued to a low shimmer while Jacob slowly drew his hand of his pistol and leaned back against the table once more.
''I, and it pains me to say it, can see what Miranda is saying, Tali is a danger to herself and to others.''
Garrus opened his mouth to protest but Shepard raised his hand and silenced him.
''Garrus, you even saw what she did, what would have happened if we both hadn't been there, Chakwas was lucky to have only gotten a bruise. No we need to move her to an area where she will be less prone to anger, and sadly with me here I doubt the Normandy will fulfil that role, and as Legion said there's little we know about Quarians since there exile apart from what Tali has told us and racist theories. '' while he was talking Shepard back wilted slightly more and his eye's became darker as if speaking were words were physically weakening him.
''You can't just get rid of her.'' Kasumi protested. ''She's one of us!''
''Do you think I want to?'' barked Shepard. ''Do you think I'm leaping at the chance to send Tali light-years away from here while she is struggling with, well her self. No this option is for the best.''
''Shepard.'' came EDI's voice across the comm's. ''I have kept medical officer Chakwas up to speed with your decision and she says that it will be at least two days before Tali is stable enough to move and to ensure she does wake up and the run the scans on her neural area's.''
''Right, EDI I want a shuttle prepped tomorrow for that time so we can move her as soon as possible and get a comm channel linked to the Migrant fleet for my private terminal.'' he finished the last sentence his voice slowly diminishing in strength until it resume the dull tone it had at the start of the meeting. Casting a wary glance around room he grunted. ''Crew dismissed.'' before striding out of the armoury before anyone could comment.
Miranda quickened her pace to catch up to Shepard who was practically racing towards the elevator hatch, fortunately for her he had to wait for the elevator to reach the second floor and so she had some time to catch up and speak her mind.
''Shepard.'' she spoke her hand reaching forwards to touch his shoulder but she pulled back at the last minute.
After he didn't initially respond Miranda was about the ask again when his head slowly turned towards her and raised an eyebrow.
Taking that as her queue to speak Miranda cleared her throat slightly. ''I just want to say that I admire your professionalism in that situation I -''
Shepard's head quickly snapped round fully to look directly at her and he spoke cutting her off. ''I did not do that for your approval.'' his voice taking a dark tone
Miranda stopped in her tracks unsure as to what to say, the venom in Shepard's voice was thick, her mouth briefly opened then closed wondering what to say next so she wouldn't anger Shepard even more.
''I didn't mean it like that, it's just that it's nice to see your capable of making tough choices.''
Shepard nodded solemnly at that though in his eye's Miranda could see that he didn't quite believe her words. ''And I wish that I really don't have to.''
''Someone does.'' she said.
''Unfortunately.'' said Shepard before the pair lapsed into silence, this was not how Miranda wanted to conversation to go put was afraid to push Shepard to talk more in case he simply retreated further into himself. So the pair waited outside the doors in silence before the familiar chime sounded, Shepard stepped into the elevator although Miranda stood outside which cause Shepard to open his mouth in question.
''I'm staying on the CIC a while longer I just wanted to talk to you that's all.'' she answered before he could speak with a small smile.
Shepard nodded slightly and Miranda could have sworn the bleakness in his eye's lifted temporarily before the light was quickly smothered. ''Thanks Miranda and goodnight.''
As the elevator door's swooped shut in front of her Miranda's smile broadened and spoke. ''Goodnight John.''
Tali felt adrift in a sea of darkness, isn't wasn't that she couldn't feel anything but all her sensations that came to her felt as though they were happening to another person, with her suit her sense's were always restricted but when compared to what she felt now her suite might as well have been a silk dress.
She tried to turn her head to see her surroundings and she wasn't sure if she was successful, all around her was a vast sea of unending darkness that stretched on for infinity, but then again she might simply still be looking in the same direction for she had no way to know if she was even moving.
As the minutes descended into hours, well at least to her they were hours, Tali's struggled ceased realising that whatever was holding her like this would not be moved by her pitiful efforts she resigned to simply floating in oblivion.
Recently such fruitless efforts would have led her into a deep rage and have further increased her attempts to break free, strangely though she didn't feel angry, she didn't feel much of anything and surprisingly she felt content with that. After all the anger and hate she had experienced it was nice to finally be submerged into ignorant bliss.
Unfortunately such a feeling wouldn't last as a small trickle of memories and regrets slowly leaked in her mind, building on top of each other in an effort to crush her underneath there sheer mass, but when she looked back at her actions it seemed as though she was looking at it through someone else and she couldn't quite manage to gather the emotions that she knew she should be feeling. Seeing her fist slamming into Shepard's face would at any other time caused her to break into despair at what she did but now she simply looked at in my mild discomfort.
As the memories and sensations flooded through her brain Tali realised that she felt much more content during this brief period than how she had for a long time.
*I know I promised to get these out quicker and compared to my previous 1 month a chapter quota and I suppose I am (the reasons it took so long is because I had a lot of exams) I tend to finish these now in about a week and a half , what is somewhat slowing down the process is that I then send my chapter's to a FF user to check and though no fault of his own because he does a brilliant job but of course it extends the time between chapters. And recently I've had trouble's with my beta reader so this chapter will be sub standard, I apologise.
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