Bioware owns the characters and everything else you can find in the Mass Effect Wiki. Calinstel owns 96.0% of the ideas behind the Quarians that I'm using. The rest is mine.
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ALSO! A new chapter is up for my in-universe fic, now titled Warrior Ethos: Tabula Rasa. You should check it out because there's stuff in there that applied to the main series. Plus, it's like getting a 20,000 word update all at once.
Chapter 11: Nothing Else Matters
With the exception of a few key members, the Normandy first-shift crew gathered in the shuttle bay, it's open expanse doubling as a gym of sorts. Weight training equipment, treadmills, and various other fitness equipment dotted the walls, each sandwiched between workbenches, fuel dispensers, and racks of spare parts, among other things. The crew stood in a loose formation at the center, chatting about sporting events, ship's gossip, the mission, and everything in between. Miranda positioned herself at the front and checked the time on her omni-tool, patiently waiting for the last two crew members to arrive.
"Hey, what did I miss?" asked John as he stepped out of the elevator wearing his Alliance physical fitness uniform, strolling towards his place at the back.
The Spectre took a mental roll-call of his ground-team as he approached, eyes glancing over each and every person in attendance. Garrus and his people were absent; he expected that. Miranda was there, which meant that Jane manned the combat inform center. Mordin had yet to miss morning physical fitness training since their talk, and Jacob never missed one. Today was no different. Kasumi and Jack stood talking together at the for end of the formation and Zaeed, looking as if he'd just been woken from the dead, occupied a position at the back. Lia stood next to the grizzled mercenary, saving a spot for the commander.
"Attention on deck!" called Miranda, snapping into the rigid stance, the other crew following suit. The Cerberus operative leaned forward a bit, trying to get a better view of anyone that might be lingering in the open elevator. Confused that the commander had arrived alone, she crisply saluted him on behalf of the formation, the other man returning the gesture. "Good morning, Sir," he said, "Just waiting on Tali. All others accounted for. Garrus and his gun crew have been excused for a surprise close-air-support drill."
"She won't be coming," said John, "She's going to sick-call." A room full of wide eyes turned to the commander as he spoke, the widest of all belonging to the ship's other quarian inhabitant. "Her engineering section with be doing PT with me and the rest of the unassigned ground-team today."
A barely audible sigh of relief came from Kenneth and Gabriella, followed by a few chuckles. Lia allowed herself a few bounces on her toes.
"Eyes front!" yelled Miranda, upset with the attention the commander was receiving. The chief engineer may be sick, and the CO's face appeared to cut and swollen, but it didn't necessarily imply anything. It was none of their business anyway.
After accountability and a few announcements, the first-shift crew and the ground-team members split up into their sections. Each section had a designated work-out plan, some more rigorous than others. Notorious for his independent mind-set when it came to exercise, John called over the engineering crew and his charges, those ground-team members that had no sections aboard ship.
"We've got an hour and a half," he said, "I want you sweating the entire time. I don't care what you do to get there. Get to it." Ken and Gabby both whooped with excitement for the reprieve they'd been granted from their lieutenant's border-line insane exercise routine, while the others seemed far more indifferent. He started to head over to a piece of exercise equipment before turning back to the group. "Lia, Jack, I've got something for you."
From a pocket, he pulled out two sets of non-commissioned officer rank, holding them out for the pair. Lia took hers instantly with a smile, setting about pinning it to her Realk, bouncing on her toes the whole while. "Thank you, Sir!" she said cheerfully.
Jack eyed her set wearily before retrieving it from his palm, murmuring, "Thanks, Boy Scout." Jane had provided the biotic woman with a set of old mismatched work-out cloths, which she presently wore, stuffing the insignia into one of her pockets.
John nodded to the pair, effectively dismissing them, and started off for an unoccupied bench press machine. As he saddled up to it and began working out, he noticed the ship's armorer approaching.
"Hey, Sir, need a spot?" asked Jacob, noticing the incredible amount of weight his commander currently struggled to bench press.
"No," he gasped, "I'm... Good..."
"That's a relief," replied the operative, "I don't think I could have helped anyway." He stood there watching as John lifted, over and over again, wondering how many more repetitions the man could do before his cybernetics would give out. His team certainly hadn't shorted the twins in the strength department.
As he stood, worriedly observing him push through his set, Lia ambled her way over to stand next to him. Deducing that the young woman wished to speak with his superior about her missing lieutenant, the armorer took his leave of the pair.
John placed the bar back on its rack and sat up. "What's up?" he asked her, motioning for a near-by towel.
Eager to help, the girl snatched it up and held it before him. She watched interest as wiped the accumulated sweat from his head, biceps, and forearms. Seeing him set the towel aside as he finished, she rushed to reclaim it, intent on taking it to the hamper for him. "Well, I wanted to make sure the lieutenant was alright," she said, "Illnesses can be tough on us."
"She's fine," he replied, averting eye-contact, "she not sick anyway. Just allergic," he finished before he could stop himself.
"Oh, right, of course," said Lia, "we don't really get sick. Bacteria and stuff always cause an allergic reaction... Unless it's our bacteria, and it's three centuries ago. Then nothing would really happen."
John nodded in confirmation, relieved she hadn't pieced anything together from his comment. If Tali wanted her fellow engineer to know what had transpired last night, then she could be the one to tell her. "What do you mean 'your' bacteria?" he asked.
"Well, not just bacteria, but anything from Rannoch that's small enough be absorbed through our fasakt or skin," she replied, "but these days I imagine it would probably cause a pretty bad reaction."
John stood up to make way for Zaeed, who awaited his turn at the bench-press. The commander motioned for Lia to follow him to the next machine and she gladly obliged, tossing the soiled towel in its hamper and exchanging it for a new one. He wanted to ask what those things she mentioned were, but he felt that any discussion of quarian physiology should be left to his fiancé. "So what happens if you get something into your system that isn't native to Rannoch?" he asked instead.
"Well, if it's dextro, then it can kill us," she said casually, "Especially bacteria. Viruses need compatible DNA to replicate. But bacteria can just eat you away from the inside out. If it's levo..."
John looked at her expectantly, their eyes making contact. Perhaps he looked a little too expectantly.
Lia smiled, her grin broad enough to dim her eyes.
Caught. He'd been caught and he knew it. He turned away, stepping up to a pull-up bar. Clever girl...
"Well," she continued, drawing out certain words, "if it's levo, then nothing might happen. Some of the proteins and their amino acids wouldn't cause a reaction any more than microscopic dust would. Those ones are totally incompatible, good or bad. Some might cause a bad reaction because the part of the amino acid that our systems respond to has nothing to do with its chirality. Then if our bodies try to incorporate that backwards amino acid into our own proteins, all hell breaks loose."
As she spoke, John couldn't help but day-dream, lost in her streaming biological monologue. This girl was to biology what Tali was to engineering. Instead of paying attention, he began to wonder what Liara had been up to for the past two years, and if perhaps he'd be able to find her when they touched down on Illium. What would she think of the two of them returning from the dead? Would he need to convince her like he had to do with Tali?
Noticing her commander's eyes glaze over, she quickly summed-up her thesis for him. "Hard to say what might happen. Either way, I imagine that we would adapt to, ah, uh..." Entrenched in scientific thought, Lia paused when the words she was about to say caught up with her. Scratching at the backs of her hands, she finished quietly "Um, we will, that is, we would, adapt to repeated exposure."
John lost count of his repetitions. Closing his eyes and sighing, he began again. "So it's not that big a deal for you all to go unsuited around here?" he asked.
"Oh, it is!" she insisted, "On a ship like this, our biggest problem is that it's been contaminated by a fellow dextro crewmember." She looked around, as if trying to spot Garrus. "More importantly, air from the Citadel or other places with turians circulates through here when we're in port. That alone could kill us. Plus, even if both the lieutenant and I were in a perfectly clean environment, we'd still contaminate each other if we unsuited in front of each other."
"You seem to know a lot about this sort of thing," he said, holding out his hand expectantly.
She draped the towel over his palm. "Well, my degrees are in biology, xenobiology, and organic chemistry," she said as he began toweling himself off again.
Finished with wiping himself down, he gave it back to her. "That's pretty damn impressive," he said, "why aren't you working for Mordin or the doc instead of Tali? Oh, do you want to do a set?" he asked.
"Can we do the leg press instead?" she asked. John nodded and together they walked to that machine. Setting the weight to eighty-percent of maximum and beginning her work-out, the girl continued, "I'm not that impressive. There was a lot of overlap between those majors. We all have an intense education because there's a lot of knowledge to go around and not many of us to learn it. If you think I'm in any way remarkable, then you should ask the lieutenant about her degrees."
Thinking about it, it occurred to John that he'd never actually asked Tali what kind of formal education she had. He'd always just been told that she was an engineer and he left it at that.
"I asked Mordin if he needed any help," she said, "but he told me no. He's doing doctorate-level work anyway. Way above my head. The med-bay is well staffed. Engineering is short on raw manpower, so I think I'm of the most use there."
"Right, well, what happens if a levo race gets into contact with some dextro... stuff?" he asked.
"What kind of 'stuff?'" she asked, "and what levo race are we talking about?"
John frowned at her, his glare letting her know exactly how far he was willing to let her pursue this line of questioning. He struggled with every fiber of his being to not lick his painfully torn lips.
"Well..." she said softly, "if a, uh, human," noticing his eyes narrow, she held up a hand in mollification, "-for example only- were to be exposed to some proteins commonly found in a quarian, also for example, then probably there wouldn't be much reaction because your body wouldn't recognize them as something it needed to react to. We all have some small amount of amino acids of the opposite chirality floating around inside us. It just happens. There might be some light swelling of the affected area."
John looked away and licked his lips, feeling them itch as she spoke. Lia was kind enough to pretend not to notice.
"But that probably has more to do with the injury." Lia bit her lip so hard when she realized what she's said, almost doing to herself what Lieutenant Zorah had almost certainly done to him. "I mean... I... Sorry, Sir. It's, well it's pretty obvious."
"Keep it to yourself, Sergeant," he said, invoking her new rank as a way of showing his sincerity, "Tali's private about this sort of thing, so I need to play it safe and keep this very quiet for the time being, understand?"
"Of course, Sir," she replied at a whisper.
...
"Jesus Christ, Nee! You look like you were mauled by a badger!" She grabber her brother's face with a hand under his chin, forcing his attention away from the ship's lunch menu and the plate of sandwiches he'd been scrutinizing. Turning his head left and right, she examined him. "What the hell happened?"
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep a grimace from invading the corners of his lips. "Training exercise got a little too rough," he replied without missing a beat.
"Who were you training with?" she asked. Her fingers suddenly snapped with realization. "Garrus! That turian bastard's got claws-"
He shook his head as he turned away to accept Gardner's offering, a pair of mugs, coffee for himself and decaffeinated tea for her. "Jane, it wasn't-"
As he turned back to hand it to her, he noticed her furiously scrolling through the contacts on her omni-tool, stopping on the one labeled 'Gare-Bear.' With a snort of laughter he spilled some of the hot beverages down his hands. "Ow. Here take this," he said, offering her one of the drinks.
She hit the call button and snatched the cup out of his hand, spilling even more of it on his bare skin. "I'll make him wish he were dead for not wearing gloves."
The turian answered the call. "Hey, babe, how-"
"Garrus! Did-you-hurt-my-brother?!" she asked in a flurry.
"No..." he said slowly, trying to think as he spoke, adding, "I mean not today. Maybe I hit him one time too hard when were sparring the other day-"
"Okay, so you didn't tear his lips open in a couple places and scratch his cheek? What about last night?" She gave a sideways glace to her brother. He caught her eye and started walking to one of the mess-tables, sipping his coffee, suddenly engrossed in his data-pad.
"Spirits no, Jane. You know where I was last night, and I've never drawn blood with my talons." He paused, considering his words, "On your brother."
"Right, well, are you coming up for lunch?" she asked, deciding to change the subject. She snorted with laughter as she witnessed her brother struggling to keep the hot coffee off his pained lips. "Please come Skully. Watching John drink his coffee is priceless."
"Well, I was going to run through some more drills with the gun crew..."
"Please...?" she asked, using the pleading tone she defaulted to when intimidation wasn't possible, a tone she almost exclusively reserved for Garrus and her brother.
"Alright, I'll head over."
...
"Morning Tals, how're you feeling?" asked John into his omni-tool, pulling a straw from its wrapper as he spoke. The coffee felt way too hot against his mending wounds.
"Better. The anti-inflammatory drugs and immuno-boosters did their job, but I still feel a little sick. Karin ran some tests this morning and she says I'll be fine and I should be able to head back to work after lunch. How are you?"
"Not bad," he replied, "My lips and tongue are a little sore, but in a good way." He smiled at the memory and stuck the straw in his coffee.
"John, I'm so sorry about that, please forgive me. It was so stupid and I should never have done it, but I just had to kiss you... I don't know... And then I got carried away in the moment." She paused to chuckle, overheard into the comm. "I don't even think I'm completely to blame, I mean you're so damn-"
"Tali," he cut her off in a firm tone, "Jane is walking over now. Join us for lunch?" he asked.
"Absolutely!" she squealed over the comm, "I'm just wrapping up a very important message. I'll be down in a minute. I love you!"
"Love you too, Tali," he replied before closing the connection.
...
"Priceless?" asked the turian, taking his seat across from Jane and next to John, "Doesn't that mean kind of interesting in human-speak? He looks pretty boring to me."
Jane glanced at her brother as he slurped coffee through a straw then turned her attention back to her eggs. "Yeah, looks like he's figured it out. Sorry."
"So what happened?" he asked, looking back and forth between Jane and John.
"Don't worry about it, buddy," said John, "I'll tell you both later... It's hardly a big deal." The truth was that he'd be more than happy to tell them now, except that he hadn't asked Tali if she wanted it public knowledge that she'd been mask-less. He couldn't think of a reason why she'd mind, but that wasn't the point. His opinion of the situation only amounted to half of those that counted.
As he Stared down at his Reuben sandwich, trying to figure out how to eat it without further aggravating his injuries, John barely saw Tali's shapely quarian form taking a seat next to him. He smiled to himself, slipping his hand onto her thigh, running it up and down its length. Idly, he checked his data-pad and sipped his coffee, all the while pretending not to notice the woman. She played along, not saying a word, only spreading her thighs to admit his hand and giving grateful shudders of appreciation whenever it rubbed up against her most personal of areas.
"Hi, everybody," said Tali, taking her seat across from John.
While Jane and Garrus made their greetings, John gasped in shock, instinctively retracting his adulterous hand at high-speed, slamming it hard on the underside of the table. His inhalation, so forceful that a few chewed morsels of his lunch traveled down his wind-pipe, sent him into a thunderous coughing frenzy. With the exception of Lia, all the diners stared at the man, Garrus going so far as to pat him on the back a few times. As he regained his composure, the Spectre reached for a napkin, giving the decidedly non-Zorah quarian to his right a pointed, sideways glare.
Her eyes betrayed a broad smile as she gave the human a light-hearted shrug.
"John, are you okay?" asked Tali, her hand reaching across the table to his.
He gratefully accepted it, hoping the touch would purge his memory of where it had just been. "Fine, Tali, fine. You?"
"Not bad. My nose is a bit stuffed up, and I've got a sore throat, but I'm feeling much better, actually," she replied, inserting a nutrient paste tube into its slot beneath her facemask.
Jane and Garrus exchanged glances, immediately after which they both smiled. Soft sub-harmonics filled the table; the turian equivalent of muffled laughter.
John lowered his face onto a hand, rubbing his brow with a finger. He had expected the young woman to answer with the standard fare, banal pleasantries and the like. An accurate appraisal was not prescribed. Does she not care if anyone else knows?
"What about your lips?" asked Tali, "Did you go see doctor Chakwas? You might be experiencing a reaction to my proteins."
Apparently not...
At this, Jane whistled aloud while Garrus gave John a pat on the back, whispering into his ear "She's hot, isn't she?"
John kicked the turian's calf, not dignifying the question with even a look, let alone a response.
"That must have been some training last night, Johnny," said Jane, smiling. She shifted her attention to the turian as he nursed his throbbing leg, "He tried to blame those marks on you, Garrus."
The male Shepard grunted from biting his previously wounded tongue and dropped his sandwich, its constituent parts separating on his plate. "Ith nether thaid thath!"
"I'm not surprised you believed it either," replied Garrus, "no one can resist this face." He made a show of spreading his mandibles wide and waving a hand under his chin, as if displaying tempting merchandise before an audience.
Jane leaned in to kiss him on the lips, "No comment."
"What's the big deal, guys?" asked Tali, looking between the pair of humans, the turian, and one other quarian.
They all still sat there, smiling like idiots.
Looking extremely worried, she faced her inszel. "Why didn't you tell them, John? Are you ashamed?" she asked, before addressing the group, "I didn't mean to hurt him. It's just that I've never kissed anyone before..."
"Oh, no, honey," said Jane, reaching over to embrace the girl, "You did fine-"
"I just need practice..." the quarian mumbled softly as Jane spoke.
"You did great," she said, looking to her brother and tilting her head, using it to convey her desire for him to say something encouraging, "Right Johnny?"
"You were great Tali," said John, "you know that. It's just that I wasn't sure you wanted me spreading our private business about the ship, so I was being evasive. Now that they found out the truth, they're giving me a hard time, that's all."
"Spreading our...?" Tali shook her head and smiled, at a loss to describe her human's lunacy. If she couldn't read his honest expression so well, she would have thought he was making up the most transparent lie possible. "John, sweetie, you visit me every day. Where I work." She pointed to the elevator shaft. "Next to a bunch of gossiping engineers." She pointed to Ken and Gabby sitting at the table next to them. The pair waved at them and John waved back, "And I spend the first ten minutes of it groping you." She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes on him, "Every. Single. Day."
"Right..." John said, trailing off.
"Not to mention what we did in front of poor yeoman Chambers," said Tali, rolling her eyes.
"No hard feelings!" called Kelly from somewhere near the buffet line.
Tali smiled brightly in the direction of the yeoman, thrusting a hand in the air and waving at her. John sunk his head into his hands again, rubbing his face with both palms.
"I get it," said John, "I get it. We have no secrets on this ship."
"Oh, that reminds me. I have some news," said Tali. She put a hand on Jane's shoulder and turned to the woman, "This is for you too. It will probably effect both you guys. I was typing out a message to your mother, saying hello, you know, getting reconnected... when I let it slip that we were engaged."
"Nice," said Jane, glancing quickly to Garrus then back to her meal before he noticed.
"Huh," said John. He very well couldn't get upset at Tali for something like that. Although he never let her know, he had been a little upset when he found out that she had been too scared to tell her family about their engagement. "How did you let it slip?" he asked, trying to hide his curiosity behind an innocent sounding question.
"Well, I signed my name as Tali'Shepard. I did it out of habit." She shrugged, she sounding almost smug when she spoke.
"Did you?" asked John, "And how long have you had this habit?"
"Well..." She tilted her head and brought a finger up to where her mask covered her chin, thinking for a moment. "I guess it all started when I wrote a letter to your mother this one time half an hour ago..."
"Uh huh," said John, nodding to himself, "So are you going to sign your next letter to Shala or Rael that way? Or tell them at all?"
"Yes." she replied, feeling perturbed at having her feet held to the fire, "I was just going to get on that. After lunch. Promise."
"If you're going to change your name," said Jane, "we'll have to update your service records-"
"Not yet!" she interrupted, before continuing in a softer tone, "there has to be a bonding ceremony. That's what you would call a wedding. And John has to get me something first."
Lia nodded and bounced a little in her seat. "Let me help him pick it out, please?!" In an instant she regretted her outburst. She slouched her shoulders and lowered her head, feeling like she was still in the bubble and had just shouted down everyone at the adult table. "I mean, Sir, Ma'am, I could volunteer my services. That would give the commander knowledgeable advice on quarian customs while keeping it a surprise. Which is traditional."
"There's nothing that says I can't design the pal'tec vis surden for him," retorted Tali, "If I want to tell him what kind of future he'll provide for me, then I will." She glanced over to John and his raised eyebrows, "...I mean, yeah... maybe you should help him with it after all."
John turned back to his half-eaten sandwich, catching sight of Lia out of the corner of his eye. She was staring at him, her giddiness spelled out through her body language and eyes. "We'll talk about this later, Lia," he said, "Tali has already given me some designs, but I have some questions I'll ask in private."
"Have you guys set a date yet?" asked Jane.
"No," replied Tali, answering for both of them, "we really haven't done any planning at all." Tali's heart started to flutter at the thought. She had yet to give the idea any serious consideration, beyond the fact that her groom was no longer a corpse, which would serve to make the entire affair a much more comfortable experience for the guests in attendance.
The first step in the process would be getting their bonding recognized by the fleet. That task seemed more difficult than it actually was.
Any of Tali's neighbors aboard the Neema, going three rooms left or right and two decks above or below, could attest to the legitimacy of their bond. Her old psychiatrist Elan'Shiya could attest to it as well. Even her father must have held little doubt. He was an admiral of the Fleet who had openly allowed his daughter to participate in an extremely dangerous mission with the only man she ever loved. That also meant that Shala must have agreed to it; her aunt had made it known long ago that any decisions regarding Tali's welfare had to go through her first. Would Father have let me join John if they thought he worked for Cerberus? she wondered, Probably. He had to have known there was no possible way to stop me.
John interrupted her day-dreams and mental war-gaming, "I'm going to head up to our cabin and get changed for the training at fourteen-hundred," he said, getting up to leave with his not-quite empty dishes.
"I'll come too," said Tali, "I've got to send that message to Shala and Father."
...
Tali walked into their cabin behind John, taking a seat at his desk terminal while he continued on to his set of drawers. She opened her e-mail client, checking for new messages, indifferent at not finding any. She started to compose a new one, but kept losing her train of thought as she typed, he eyes continually wandering to the human changing his clothes across the room. Somehow the novelty of the nude human had yet to wear off, even after all the time they'd spent together.
John's anatomy had become natural, to the point where she almost didn't remember what quarian men were supposed to look like in the nude. Not only had she never seen a nude member of the opposite sex in person, it had been a decade since she'd seen any other females either, and even then they hadn't been completely naked. Between John and the human/quarian interspecies 'research' she was prone to do, the thought of a sexual partner looking anything different from the man before her just seemed... disturbing.
"Tali, quit staring," John said, slipping a fresh pare of boxers on.
"Well, I will now. The good part is over," she replied, giggling, "Sorry, I'll get back to my letter."
Tali started typing again. As she did, John finished getting his armor on and walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and leaning in. She absentmindedly played with his fingers where they pressed into her realk, almost as efficient at typing one handed as she was with two.
"There, done. What do you think?"
John read over the document.
To: Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, Rael'Zorah vas Alarei
From: Tali'Zorah vas Neema
Subject: I am requesting permission to bond with John'Shepard vas Normandy
Father, Aunt, as you know I began the bonding process with John'Shepard two years ago aboard the original Normandy. Later, I went into deep felz'eltwhen he was taken from me. It goes without saying that I was substantially bonded to him, and that path could have only led to one conclusion. Not so long ago he was brought back to me with a new ship and a new crew. With your approval I have rejoined him and continued down the path. I believe now we are at silz'asul felz, so I would greatly appreciate your consent in recording our bond in the ship's log as lifemates. Soon we will set a date for the for the formal bonding ceremony, hopefully to be held within the next six months.
Your Daughter Always,
Tali'Zorah vas Neema
"Well?" she asked, as John kept reading through the document.
"Looks good," he said.
"Really?" she asked with a twinge of surprise. She had thought he might have balked at the tone of the letter and the way it seemed to be requesting permission, rather than stating a fact. She was glad to not have that particular argument with him; he wouldn't understand what it was like growing up with Rael'Zorah as a father and Shala'Raan as an overly-protective, if understanding, surrogate mother. Not to mention that she wouldn't dare sign her name as 'Tali'Shepard' to them yet, despite her earlier statements to the contrary.
"Yeah, really," he confirmed, appraising the letter like an art connoisseur might appraise a painting, "It looks very pretty. All those squiggly lines and such. Beautiful, actually. One day I'll have to learn to read it. What's it say?"
"Oh. Right," she said, hitting the send button and spinning in her chair to face him, "well it says the same thing I sent to Hannah, more or less." She smiled behind her mask, knowing full-well that John rightfully suspected that there was more to the story.
Content to fold his arms across his chest and sigh, John changed the subject, "You know, I never got a chance to thank you for the kiss lest night. It was... unexpected."
"I should thank you for letting me kiss you!" she smiled up at him. After a moment's recollection, she dropped her head, hiding her visor behind a hand. "And I should thank you for putting up with my attempts at making-out for I don't know how long. Did you... enjoy it maybe? At least a little?"
"I told you I enjoyed it, and I think the evidence is clear," he smirked at her, gesturing with a thumb to the laundry hamper in the hopes she got the implied message. "I can't stop thinking about how incredible it was. How your breath felt on my face. How you smelled. My God, Tali, it was the best kiss of my life, hands down, cuts and all." Still smiling, he rubbed his lips with a finger, "It looks like you 'marked' me after all."
"I... marked you?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, "What do you mean? I'm confused."
"You know, biting me? You said you might do that."
"Oh!" she exclaimed with a slap on her knee, "I made that up. It's something turian men do, not quarian women."
John thought about that as she said it, wondering if Jane knew what she was in for.
"Although, I mean, I could do it," the engineer continued, "if you wanted me to, and if I had the proper motivation."
"That's a no on both counts," said John. He bent down to grab her hand. Gently pulling her up from his chair, he sat down in it, drawing her down on top of him using one of her suit straps as a hand-hold. He swiveled in the chair to face his terminal. "You know, I really wished I could have seen your face last night."
"Yeah, but I'm still really nervous about that," she sighed, rubbing his arms as he brought them around her.
Rather than holding her tight, his hands moved past her torso and began typing at his computer's haptic interface. "Still nervous? Tals, we share everything. We've done so much together already. I'm not some random guy on the street, so I don't understand why you need to keep that part of yourself private from me."
"It's not that John," she said quietly, holding her head low and slouching forward, elbows on her knees and fingers intertwining nervously, "I'm... scared of how I might look to you. I'm scared of how ugly I am."
She glanced up, noticing what he typed, a message to his mother about their upcoming day together. Keelah, I completely forgot about that. Maybe I should bring a peace offering. Or a handgun. Ancestors, I should bring both.
"You're kidding, right?" asked John, still typing. When she failed to say anything, he got the disturbing impression that she was, in fact, serious. His hands abandoned the interface and pulled her in for a warm embrace. "Lets see, to start with, quarians are known to be the most human-like race, more so than asari, so there's that. I also happen to know you have teeth," he smiled as he said the last, snuggling his face against her neck, "and lips," he started kissing her neck, "and hair. So I'd say there's no danger of me freaking out or anything," he finished, releasing her and going back to typing.
"Yeah, but that makes it worse," she gestured as she spoke, before again settling on engaging her fingers in a furious dance for dominance, "I'm worried that I'm ugly not different. If I was a turian, there would be no way to compare us. I mean, look at Garrus! By turian standards, the man might uglier than a krogan's butt for all we know. But he's so different from us that he's just cute."
"Uh-huh, cute Garrus. Got it. I'll be sure to tell him you said that," said John, deadpanning his response.
Tali lightly kicked him in the shin with a heel. "I'm serious! You wanted to know why I don't want you to see me and so I'm telling you. I have only ever seen three quarian faces in my life. My mom's, my aunt's, and my own. Bodies are important, and I'm not varren-ugly in that department, but faces are too. I'll tell you, I hear there are some disappointed couples when they unmask for each other the first time."
"Well, we won't be disappointed, I promise."
"You're right, we won't be, because I already know what I'm getting," she reached around to rub his cheek, "You might be, though. I mean, I think I'm about average, compared to human females, but... I just don't know for sure. Besides, someone like you deserves a six, and I think I'm a three, tops."
"Is that on a one-to-ten scale or a one-to-six scale?"
"One-to-six," she replied, sinking down against him.
"Well then damn right I deserve a six," he replied laughingly. Finished with the letter, he started tickling her, forcing the young woman into a fit of breathless, tinny laughter. "You know I don't give a damn what you look like-"
"Stop- Stop it! I can't-" her words were drowned in her own laughter. She got up and ran a few paces away to escape his jovial assault.
"You'll have to show me what you look like at some point." He got up to chase her down, both of them crashing to their bed together. His tickling renewed, he pressed on, "You might as well get used to the idea. Is there anything I can do to make it easier for you?"
"Yes!" she screamed, "Stop tickling me!"
He eased off her and laid back in the bed, arms behind his head.
She wrapped herself around him and continued, "You can just prepare yourself so you aren't so disappointed. Just picture in your head the most ugly, hideous human girl you can imagine. Then give her pale, violet-blue skin, something approaching freckles, some black lines on her forehead, and plain white eyes. That's my face."
"Got it. I still love you."
"Good. Do you still need to see it?"
"Yes."
"I could just keep my mask on." Even before she finished saying it, she shuddered at the thought. John deserved better than that. She wanted to show him, desperately wanted to, in fact, but she also wanted him to be happy with what he saw. "Fine, I'll show you."
"Now?" he asked, turning to face her, eyes wide with anticipation.
"No!" She shoved him in the chest. "Later."
"Fine," he harrumphed, looking for the galaxy like a pouting child, "I've got to hit send on that letter and we need to get to our afternoon training exercise anyway."
He climbed out of bed and headed to his terminal, dutifully followed by his quarian fiancé. When he took a seat, she sat on his lap like it was her personal piece of furniture.
Seeing John reach for the haptic interface, she said, "You can't send this."
"Why not?" he asked.
She pointed to the screen, "Well here where you said 'I meant to tell you in person and I'm sorry Tali spoiled the surprise,' that has to go. You're not supposed to know I spilled the beans, as you say. I just told you that so you didn't go into dinner unaware."
"Why am I not supposed to know?" he asked, "And since when can you read English?"
"My visor detects it and translates it into Khelish," she replied, sounding a little smug, "You're not supposed to know, because she'll think that I told you the other stuff I said in that message, and maybe why I sent it in the first place."
"Well-"
"Forget it John," she cut him off, "That's between me and her. Please don't ask what you're thinking, as a favor to me."
John became pensive, chewing his scabbed bottom lip for a few seconds. "Alright, deal. You want to rewrite it for me?"
"No."
"Okay," he smiled to himself, rubbing her stomach, "This dinner is going to be interesting, isn't it?"
"Yes."
...
"Thanks, Jack," said Jane, pulling her top down over her freshly tattooed and medi-gelled back and rolling off the woman's cot, "The lines are so clean, and the colors are perfect."
"No prob," she said, "You get enough of 'em and you either run out of money or get tired of sleeping with the artists. It helps if you can do it yourself."
"Ehh... You never asked for money," Jane started scratching at the back of her neck, "You're not gonna ask to shag me, are ya?"
"Ew, no. But I've been looking through that data you gave me," she replied, putting her tattoo machine away, "and I might have a favor in mind when I'm done with your tat. You're brother now... different story if he wants some ink done."
"What do you want from me?" she asked, clasping her armor into place around her "tell me quick cause we've got to get to Johnny's training."
"I want to blow up my old Cerberus prison."
"Right, we'll have a go at it," she nodded on her way up the stairs, "Talk more later."
As she reached out to palm the elevator interface, she happened to glance at the port cargo hold, remembering the ship's newest piece of luggage. Walking to the hold, she opened it with the wave of a hand and stepped inside. Eyeing the tank suspiciously, she commed her brother, "Hey, Nee, before we do this training thing, do you want to deal with this krogan?"
"Yeah, I guess I could spare a minute, I'll meet you down there."
She closed the connection and turned to EDI's holo-pad. "What can you tell me about this thing?"
"The subject is stable, Captain. Integration with onboard systems was seamless. The subject is an exceptional example of the krogan species, with fully formed primary, secondary, and tertiary organs, where applicable. No defects of any kind-"
Jane mulled over that. She's seen some tough krogan in her day, Wrex being the foremost, and if they weren't perfect then... "Any idea how dangerous this guy is?"
"He's a krogan, Shepard," there was no way EDI wasn't rolling a set of imaginary eyes when she said that, "If you are asking if he's actively hostile, I don't have the necessary data to answer. Okeer's technology could impart data, not methods of thinking. The subject may know of his views, but would not necessarily share them."
Just as Jane pondered her next question, useless though it might prove to be, the door to the hold opened, allowing her brother entrance. "So, you ready?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said, looking over the controls and finding them locked out, "lets do this."
"Cerberus protocols are very clear regarding untested alien technology," interjected EDI.
"Too bad I don't know what they are," retorted Jane, "and I won't be second guessed on my own ship... by my own ship. Do it."
"Very well, Shepard. The controls are online. The switch- and consequences- are yours."
"Yeah, I needed to hear that." She turned to John, "Guns out, Nee."
John pulled out his Incisor, expanding it and loading a fresh thermal magazine. He took a position in one far corner of the room. Jane retrieved her Claymore and advanced on the tank, her hand looming over the controls. In a flash, she slapped the release button and retreated to the other far corner of the room.
The glass front of the tanks slid open, releasing gallons of solution, and with it a young krogan male. He hit the deck with a heavy thud, landing on his hands and knees.
"Charge and we're blowing your head off," said John as the beast started to regain his wits. He sincerely hoped that the creature had been given a translator along with his armor, or at the very least been taught that it was a bad idea to attack things that were pointing long, cylindrical objects at their faces.
The krogan tank-borne got to his feet and narrowed his gaze, appraising the pair of creatures before him. "Humans. Male and Female. Before you die, I need a name."
"I'm commander John Shepard, and this is my sister, captain Jane Shepard, and I don't think we'll be dying any time soon."
"Not your names. Mine. I am trained, I know things, but the tank... Okeer couldn't implant connection. His words are hollow." The krogan appeared to think for a moment. "Warlord... Legacy... Grunt... Grunt was among the last. It has no meaning. It'll do. I am grunt. If you two are worthy of your commands, prove your strength and try to destroy me." He started towards Jane, balling his hands into fists.
"Uhhh... Are you really sure you want that?" asked Jane, her index finger hovering over the firing stud, her weapon not wavering in the slightest.
The krogan stopped in his tracks. "Want? I do what I am meant to, fight and reveal the strongest. Nothing in the tank ever asked what I want. I feel nothing for Okeer's clan or his enemies. That imprint failed. He has failed. Without a reason that's mine, one fight is as good as any other. Might as well start with you two."
"Look idiot," Jane growled, "It's not gonna be a fight. It's gonna be two seconds of loud bangs followed by two hours of cleaning your leftovers out of the cargo hold."
John sighed, "Listen, if you need something to fight, we're going up against the strongest enemies in the galaxy and putting down anyone dumb enough to stand in our way. You either can join us, die here, or be dropped off on Tuchanka and spend your days battling it out over a few meters of nuclear wasteland."
"Your words are wise, male Shepard. And you've got a quad, female Shepard. If I find a clan, if I find what I... What I want... I think I will be honored to eventually pit them against you two." He held out a hand, a very human gesture.
Jane took the hand with a smile, "Glad to have you aboard."
John took it next, saying, "Welcome to the team."
...
Still sore from extremely physical nature of John's combat training, Tali waited patiently as he and Jane spoke with Liara's assistant. She found a corner of the reception area and began massaging her aching muscles.
She'd been expecting to get beat up during the exercise, given that its focus had been unarmed combat in an urban environment, but her finely orchestrated battle with Jack had deteriorated into nothing more than a wild varren fight, and for absolutely no good reason that she could determine. Furtively, Tali shifted her eyes to the ex-con, taking advantage of her glowing pupil's inability to give away their exact position. She couldn't help but sneer when she found the woman shamelessly staring right back at her. The engineer's expression curled into a grin when she took in the evidence left by the vast array of injuries she had visited upon the human.
Tali had easily held the upper hand in the match until the woman brought her biotics to bear. From that point until near the end, it was all she could do to ensure her visor wasn't smashed wide open as Jack flung her about the room. That was not the way she had wanted John to finally see her face.
'Unarmed' was a relative term, though, especially for a skilled quarian with an omni-tool, and she had taken full advantage of that glaring loop-hole. The way she figured it, she was more likely to lose an actual arm in combat than her omni-tool, so it wasn't cheating. After all, one of them she could pick up and keep using; the other, she could not.
Between landing from one biotic slam and taking off from another, she had sent not one, but two drones out, both occupying Jack's attention. With some breathing room opened up by Chiktikka and her as-yet unnamed drone, she released an energy drain, the better to funnel some of the woman's biotic powers into her suit's shield systems. Then she had used a damping field to make it that much harder for her to counter-attack. In the midst of an ongoing barrage like that, it had been a simple enough matter to pin the young human female in a leg-lock and end the match.
Jack's eyes left her visor, looking now at something directly across from Tali. The quarian followed her eyes, eyes that almost seemed misty and weighed down with a touch of sadness. Keelah, no fucking way... Stare at him all you want, 'cause it'll never happen.
Tali wasn't angry at all; she could hardly blame the woman for wanting John. She herself had had an attraction to him from almost the moment she met him. Seeing that Jack felt the same only meant that her body-art belied her good taste in men, which was somewhat surprising. Never would she have thought that John was this woman's type. Who are you kidding, girl? Rich, famous, and gorgeous? John could be as dull as a post and as dumb as a brick and he'd still be fighting women off with a stick.
Tali shrugged. If their fight had been more personal than she first thought, then so be it. Win, lose, or draw, it wasn't going to accomplish anything except remind the ex-con of what she couldn't have and give the quarian a little more practice at hurting people.
The twins turned away from Liara's assistant and started for the office door, "Tali, Garrus, lets say hello. The rest of you guys stand fast."
The large group milling about the foyer, which amounted to the entire ground team save Miranda, who elected to keep watch aboard the Normandy, started chatting in small groups, activating their omni-tools, or checking their weapons.
John palmed the interface and stepped inside, followed by Jane, Garrus, and finally Tali. Liara had her back to the group, engaged in a heated discussion with a timid looking human over a holo-comm.
"Have you faced an asari commando unit before?" she asked, "Few humans have," she began pacing back and forth in front of the image, "I'll make it simple. Either you pay me, or I flay you alive. With my mind."
John gave a deliberate cough. Jane folded her arms and waited. There was nothing in Liara's words that they found particularly shocking. If one took an archaeologist to a gun-fight, there was bound to be some lasting ill-effects. Hopefully she was seeking counseling or some other treatment.
The asari turned her head to the noise and finally caught sight of the diverse ensemble invading her office, "Shepards! Nyxaris, hold my calls," she said to the assistant that no one had noticed slipping in behind the group.
She closed the gap to the twins with a trio of confident strides, taking Jane into a warm embrace. Coming within centimeters of pressing her lips against the human's, Garrus' image stepped into her periphery at the last possible instant, forcing her into a sudden course correction. She planted her kiss on Jane's cheek, released her, and did the same thing to John.
"My sources said you two were alive," she choked out, fighting back tears, "but I... Seeing you in person... I'm so happy, so relieved." She took in the other pair of familiar faces in the room and smiled. "Tali, Garrus. I'm so glad to see you as well. I knew that if any of the old crew would be by their side, it would be the both of you."
"Thanks, Liara," said Garrus, striding up to her and pulling her into a hug, one which she awkwardly returned.
Tali grunted with a curt nod, arms folded under her chest.
"So what are you up to here on Illium?" asked Liara, taking a seat behind her desk, "It wasn't just to see me, was it?"
"Not just to see you," said John, "We're here to pick up three more recruits, and make some dinner reservations for an evening with Mom."
"Really?" asked Liara excitedly, opening up an extra-net window on her terminal, "How's Hannah doing? I know a few places that she just loves to visit when the Kilimanjaro is in port."
John raised an eyebrow and leaned forward, "She's fine, I think..."
Jane decided on a less circumspect approach, "I know you're an information broker and all, but why are you spying on our Mom?"
"Spying?" Liara was taken aback, "Goddess, no Jane, she and I meet up every time she's here. She even took me on a tour of Austria when I vacationed on Earth last year. She didn't mention that we'd been keeping in touch?"
"No..." John said slowly, tracing circles with a finger on her desk.
"You haven't talked to her at all, have you?" asked Liara, slapping her hand down near his, biotics just starting to bend light around her. "She's probably worried sick about you!"
"Liara, we're going to be spending the whole day together," said John, placing his hand over the one she had lashed out with, "Plenty of time to catch up with her. And I did message her, yesterday."
"Why Austria?" asked Jane, refusing to care that she had somehow upset the asari, "sounds pretty boring to me. Plus, Mom's never been there before, that I can remember."
"Wha...?" Liara asked, stymied by the other woman's non-sequitur. Had it been anyone else, she might have gotten upset by the obvious distraction, or at least frowned, but not for Jane. "I... Well, I found it interesting. There were some great beaches, we went out on the ocean to do some fantastic diving, there were animals called horses that I got to ride-"
"Wait," said John, pointing a finger at her and frowning, "You went diving. In the ocean. Off the coast... Of Austria?"
The twins broke into rapturous laughter, John holding his head in his hand and chuckling, Jane throwing her head back and belting her laughter out in loud bursts.
"Yes, Shepards, what so-"
Jane and John's omni-tools chimed and illuminated, breaking up the revelry. The twins shared a glance, and the brother nodded to his sister. "This is Jane, go ahead," she said carefully into her comm.
"Captain, Commander, this is the XO. We've got an emergency. The collectors have been spotted on orbital descent above the planet Horizon. We need to move quick if we are going to intercept them."
John nodded again, never taking his eyes off his sister.
"Go ahead and issue a general recall," said Jane, "We'll be there in a minute."
As the twins got up and Tali and Garrus turned to the door, Liara followed after them. "Wait, what about your three recruits? What about them?" she asked.
"We'll have to pick them up later, after we handle this," he replied, walking down the stairs, Liara hot on his heels, "It shouldn't take long. Either we get there and we can make a difference, or we can't and we're all dead."
"Or we're too late and there's nothing left," added Jane, pressing a hand into her brother's back, ushering him onward, "Don't forget that."
"I could look into tracking your people down for you," said Liara, placing a hand on John's shoulder, desperate to help in any way she could. "Who are they?"
"A drell assassin named Thane Krios, an asari justicar named Samara, and you." said John, still walking to the docking area and showing no signs of slowing.
"Oh, I see," said Liara, "I'll do what I can." They continued to walk in silence, guilty features marring the asari's normally placid expression.
"And can you handle the reservations for us? Dinner this Friday?" asked John, turning to face her. "I'm sorry to drop that on you, but you know this place, know where the four of us," he waved a hand to Jane, Tali, and Garrus, "and Mom all might feel comfortable."
Liara nodded. That had been code for 'find a place that served a wide variety of dextro and levo cuisine, and would make a quarian feel welcome.' The latter requirement would mandate some searching on a planet like Illium, but it shouldn't be too challenging.
As for Hannah, she had always liked to unwind when on shore leave. Formal dinners, the asari had been told, had stopped being fun sometime between Hannah's academy graduation dinner and graduating the academy. Liara turned to leave, but not before hugging the pair goodbye. She had just the place in mind.
"Oh, and Liara," called Jane as she was about to head down the Normandy's docking bridge, "My XO is from Austria. We'll bring her along next time. You can tell her all about your stay there"
...
From: Liara T'Soni
To: Hannah Shepard
Subject: Re: Thank you for saving my children
Hey Hannah, Jane and Johnny stopped by the office today. They want to have dinner with you on Friday, three days from now, and asked me to find a good place. What about Eternity? I think I can get you all a private room and the bartender there seems to be really friendly.
-Liara
Within minutes, the asari's omni-tool chimed. She activated it, opening the unread message at the top of her inbox.
From: Hannah Shepard
To: Liara T'Soni
Subject: That would be wonderful
Liara, go ahead and make the reservation, I think the casual atmosphere might make things easier for all concerned. But please, make the reservation for six. You should come as well, my treat, and I will not take no for an answer. See you then.
~Hannah
Smiling to herself, Liara activated her comm, "Hello, Matriarch Aethyta, this Friday we'll need to find a new sitter..."
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