***Author's Note***
Part 2 of the Alarei mission, updated very
quickly as per your requests! I had a couple
scenes aboard the Normandy interspersed
throughout the chapter, but in review they
seemed to take away from the overall feel of
the chapter, so I pulled them to add in a later
chapter.
Hope you enjoy this very non-canon approach
to the story! It's going to set up a much different
chain of events in the ME3 re-take.
- Trust -
"Two center!" John called out as he swung his assault rifle to the right to take out a pack of three platforms rushing toward them. Sweat dripped openly down his face behind his visor, and he strained to hit all the targets presented to him; and there were many. Without missing a beat Tali, her back to his, thrust her right arm out without looking at the units he'd alerted her to. Chiktikka winked into existence and rushed through the air to harass them while she hammered home devastating shots with the pistol in her other hand.
"Five left!" She called out to him, panic evident in her voice.
"Down!" He yelled, and spun on the spot. As he turned, she ducked, and he steadied his rifle in the space her head had occupied a split-second ago. Seeing the geth clustered together, he slammed down on the trigger, disruptor rounds tearing through their shields and short-circuiting their internal hardware. The five platforms fell, and silence engulfed the now-significantly emptier mess area. John let his rifle arm drop to his side, reaching down with the free one to help her up, a gesture she eagerly accepted. She rose off her knee with a grunt of pain, and a scowl crossed his face as he noticed again the suit breach she'd suffered in one of their earlier encounters. He'd been clumsy, allowed a gap, however small, in their firing field, and they'd taken advantage of it with ruthless, unfeeling, mechanical precision, sending a bullet grazing across the entire front of her right thigh. She had favored the leg a bit ever since, and while she wouldn't say it, he could see it gave her more pain that it looked.
"You alright?" he asked quietly. She nodded to him, and they moved on. Tali set to work on the encryption set on the door at the other end of the room, and whispered softly as she worked.
"Keelah, John, they're all his work. Every lockdown protocol I have to dismantle…I learned how to decrypt them from him. Back when I was still a girl, just learning about this kind of thing. Before…"
He placed a hand on her shoulder. She'd told him about her mother aboard the SR-1, and speaking about it was always both a sad moment of mourning a good woman lost, and a bitter moment of outrage at the sheer frailty of her people. Still, she needed to be of a clear mind, and he spoke softly.
"That's…good, right? It means he's still alive to be locking down all the doors."
"I hope so," she answered quietly. The doors slid open silently, and they stepped into the empty hallway. Moving forward cautiously, John felt his nerves begin to fray at the lack of resistance. After a moment, Tali motioned to a side room, and he trained his weapon on it as the door opened. Seeing an empty research bay, he lowered the rifle and followed her inside.
Six research stations lined the outer edge of the room, every one occupied by some mechanical piece of equipment. After sweeping her gaze across them, Tali crossed quickly to one, running her hand over it as she whispered.
"I…I sent this here."
"What?" he approached to see her hand tracing the edge of a very familiar-looking robotic arm. "Is that a geth piece?"
"Yes. My father asked me to send back any non-functional geth pieces I encountered while out on my Pilgrimage. The data core I showed Anderson and Udina when we first met, I got it trying to salvage the unit I'd taken down, for the same purpose. Still…I…I double and triple-checked everything. I didn't send back anything operational…I couldn't have…"
"Hey, I believe you," he interrupted her train of thought. "Maybe one of these terminals has more information about what happened?" Shaking her head slightly to finish whatever thought she'd been harboring, she looked to the nearest one, activating it and scanning through research logs. Finding nothing, she hacked into the security network for the ship, finding archived footage and playing the most recent recording. The image snapped into existence above the terminal, and she stepped back beside him as they watched two quarians speaking.
"Is everything on schedule? I just want to make sure we aren't wasting any time."
"No, I understand, and yes I believe everything will be ready in time for the tests. Our technicians are understandably apprehensive about what they're being asked to do…but I've assure them it is for the good of the Fleet."
"It is; I assure you. If admiral Zorah's work is a success, we'll be back on the homeworld in a matter of months."
"Keelah, just to think of it…"
"We won't need to think of it anymore if your technicians come through for us; it will be a reality."
"Then we will increase our efforts. Something this important…it's too big to worry about old stigmas and anxieties." The first quarian chuckled in response.
"That's the spirit. Let me know when you're ready to go." The other nodded, and they parted ways. Tali turned off the recording and looked to him.
"It sounds like they were doing some sort of weapons testing, but that's what I figured my father would be using the pieces I sent back for. What could he have been doing that put his people on edge like that?" A silence fell upon them, and eventually she spoke again. "Let's keep going." He nodded, and led the way. After a few minutes of eerie quiet, they came to a large bulkhead that was, as had been the others, sealed off from them. Tali opened her omni-tool, accessing a ship layout of the Alarei, and spoke.
"This is a compartmental separator. Some older ships were built in large pieces and then connected by just a single large door. In the event of an explosion or, in this case, some kind of testing catastrophe, everyone could flee to the other side of the ship, then detach. I should be able to get it open for us but…" she trailed off, staring at him with concerned eyes.
"But what?"
"John…this door isn't meant to be open unless in an emergency. I can guarantee you any survivors would have gone past it into the other end of the ship as the very first measure of safety from any kind of geth attack. It has to be held open manually." He nodded silently as understanding washed over him.
"I assume there's a similar panel on the other side?"
"There should be. But if it's been decommissioned, you'll have to reach the security room to let me through. We don't…" she crossed from the access terminal to him, taking one of his hands in both of hers. "We can try and find another way, or I can try to think of a different way to hack the door…" he smiled, pulling his hand free of hers and wrapping it around her waist. Pulling her close to him in an embrace, he replied to her.
"We don't have time, especially if there are still people on the other side of that hallway." Her eyes reached up, finding his.
"I…I don't want to lose you again," she whispered.
"Don't worry; I'm a lot tougher to kill this time around. And that first time was a cheap shot anyway, I don't really count it." He waved his hand dismissively, and the smallest of laughs came from her. He squeezed her close. "Once I'm through, see if you can't find out more about what happened here. We'll use the encrypted channel Liara gave us on Illium for communications."
"Good idea," she said, stepping back to the terminal. "It would take them too long to break through it, if they even notice us using it at all."
John nodded, readying his rifle and standing by the door. Tali used the terminal for what felt like an eternity before pressing a final key. The doors hissed for a second and then slid apart, revealing a short hallway leading to a similar door on the other side, also standing open. Her omni-tool leashed out to the console via a thin orange line, and the door stopped, holding its position and allowing him to pass. Stepping through the opening, he tapped into the encrypted channel. "Can you hear me?"
"Yes, you're coming through clearly." Her voice was clear as well, and it gave him a large bit of reassurance.
"Love it when one of my plans comes together," he mused aloud, sweeping his weapon across his entire field of view as he walked through the empty connecting corridor. Approaching the opposing access door, he pressed his back up against it, leaning out into the opening to find a bead on any targets. There were none, and he felt his nerves rise again as he stepped out into the room, taking half-cover behind a nearby lab station. As he was about to speak again, the door behind him slid shut once more, a boom of finality echoing slightly into the chamber where he stood. "Was that you?"
"Yes," she replied, her voice clearly nervous but refusing to admit it. "It appears if I want to access the ship's records, it requires severance of the door mechanism."
"Shouldn't be a problem, I'll interface with the control panel on this side and get you through in a second."
"Understood. I…Keelah, John, be careful."
"I will, Tali. It's going to be alright." As if in reply to his assurance, the far door to the room opened, allowing a squad of six platforms plus one larger than he'd ever seen to come pouring into the room. They took up defensive positions and immediately began to rain gunfire down on top of him. As soon as the fight had begun, he saw out of the corner of his eye bullets slamming into the access panel on this side of the connecting hallway. Swearing, he dropped down fully into cover, moving along the side of the lab table to a new position before popping up to fire into one of the units. Its shields winked out after a few hits, and full impacts sent it flying backward into the bulkhead. The moment he'd come up, however, the larger unit had leveled a large assault weapon at him and peppered his shields with bullets. As the regular unit fell, his heads-up indicators began screaming, and he ducked back down, reloading the weapon.
Surprise pushed aside all other though as, while in the process of reloading, the large unit vaulted over his cover spot and shoved the barrel of the weapon inches away from his face. John dropped his rifle, pushing every bit of reflex he had into rolling to the side, and was sure that were it not for his cybernetics, he'd have been dead right there, as a cascade of fire erupted from the weapon. Slamming a foot outward, he caught the machine in the knee joint, sending it stumbling to the side as he scrambled to his feet and crested the cover position. From all sides, bullets immediately began to find their marks in his shields, and two-thirds the way across the room, his shields gave out, allowing two shots to clip his right leg. Pushing through the pain, he vaulted another lab table, landing at the feet of a regular geth unit. Before the machine could react, he threw his arm out, grabbing its leg and yanking it down. The geth came crashing down on top of him, and he grabbed its head, slamming it with force into the bulkhead behind their cover spot. A shower of sparks and screeching metal rewarded him, and the things soulless optical sensor winked out.
Scrambling again, he rushed to the edge of his cover spot, just in time to see the large unit spray bullets into where he'd just been. Ripping a grenade from his belt, he hurled it across the room into a pair of geth, who scrambled to get away from it. The first had been too slow, being destroyed by the blast. The second was flung forward, its legs destroyed, but its upper body intact. It fell to the floor, skidding across the room before coming to rest with a clear line of fire on John. Swearing again, he rushed for it, allowing his recharged shields to soak up more fire as he closed. The machine was precise, however, and again his shields were overloaded before he reached the target. It fired a shot that embedded itself accurately in his left shoulder. Roaring in pain, he pushed himself harder, diving forward to grab the geth's gun as it lined up another series of shots. Pushing his arms to their limit, and ignoring the fire inside them, he forced the gun skyward, riddling the ceiling with bullets before disarming the platform. Slamming his hand into the back of the machine's neck, he grabbed a handful of wires and ripped them out.
The machine deactivated, and John tried to take a moment to breathe. His enemies, however, wouldn't allow it, the large machine closing on him once again and taking aim. Desperately, he grabbed the inactive torso of the geth he'd just taken out, holding it in front of him to soak bullets as the larger geth relentlessly fired. It vibrated with the number of impacts, and John used all the adrenaline he had to push forward, coming to his feet and thrusting the machine forward. It connected with the larger geth's head, obstructing its vision, and John grabbed its weapon arm, pushing every ounce of strength he had into twisting the machine around to aim at the three regular geth left. Sweeping the machine's arm in an arc, he cleanly dispatched them, leaving him alone with the towering enemy. With its free arm, it ripped the geth torso from in front of its optical sensor, hurling it downward at John.
It struck him in his injured shoulder, and for an instant the shriek of pain in his mind made him falter, falling to a knee. The machine wasted no time aiming the weapon at him again, and in a last-ditch effort John grabbed the barrel, pushing as hard as he could and bending it at an angle as the geth fired. The explosion of a trapped round sent them both flying back, and John roared as pain radiated out from his hand. Looking down at it, he could see where the metal of his combat gauntlet glowed red from the intense heat, and he ripped it off, tossing it unceremoniously to the side as he stared at the bright red and blackened skin on his palm. Disbelief splayed openly across his face as he stared at the serious injury he'd sustained, but it was all pushed away in an instant as he raised his eyes to see the unit charging him. He scrambled to his feet to meet it in melee, and ducked under a swing, throwing his weight into the machine to push it off-balance.
It had calculated the maneuver, however, and stepped back, planting a foot to counter his force. It slammed a fist into John's gut, and even his protective armor and cybernetics couldn't soak the full impact of the blow, which winded him. Dropping to his knees, he gasped for breath as he looked up into the cold optical lens of the geth. The lighting fixture caught his eye, and he looked to its supports, one of which had become completely detached in the results of his grappling for the regular platform's gun earlier. Reaching to his side, he grabbed his pistol with his critically burned hand, wincing at the almost unbearable pain, and raised it up past the geth. He got off two shots before the machine swatted the weapon away, but it was enough.
The fixture came crashing down atop the taller platform, catching it off-guard and sending it tumbling to the floor. John sprang up, Pulling his combat knife free with his good hand and slamming it into the back of the machine's neck. Twisting the blade, he ripped it to the right, half-severing the head in one cut. The geth quickly tried to stand, realizing its impending deactivation, and John wrapped an arm around its neck, throwing his weight into turning his upper body. The machine's momentum in rising to its feet was turned instead into the twist of a tourniquet, and finishing his turn allowed John to finish what he'd started, ripping the head away from the torso in another shower of sparks and frayed wires. He tossed the head aside and tumbled to his knees, breathing heavily as sweat poured down his face. After a pause, he picked up his gauntlet and tucked it behind his belt, favoring his hand but refusing to look down at it.
"John? Are you there?" Tali's voice sprang into his comm channel, and he tapped it, trying to speak as calmly as he could muster.
"Yea, I'm here. Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine for the moment. I just haven't seen the door open yet. Have you opened the access panel?" He looked back to the panel, it's intermittently-sparking interface a myriad of snapped wired and damaged electrical equipment.
"That's not an option anymore," he replied. "Met a small bit of resistance. I took them out, but they blew the panel the second they walked in."
"Bosh'tets," she swore into their channel. "Then the only other access point is the security mainframe, I'll update you map now. How…" she paused for a moment before continuing. "How bad was the resistance?" He looked down to his hand, which throbbed in pain, and to the bullet embedded in his shoulder, then down to the graze marks on his leg. He knew they were the least serious of his injuries, but he could feel the steady trickle of blood inside his armor running down to his boot.
"I've seen worse," he replied. Technically, his brain reminded him, it was true. He had, after all, died in the vacuum of space and then experienced atmospheric re-entry. After that, pretty much anything could be an 'I've had worse.' Still, his words seemed to reassure her for the moment, and he moved on, picking up his rifle in unsteady hands and stepping into a small corridor that led to a long, rectangular research room. On a long table near where his hallway met the room, three dead quarians lay in a pile, gunned down by geth from, he assumed, right where he now stood as they tried to cross the room. Their target was indicated on his map as the room he needed to get to, and he rushed to it as fast as he could, vaulting a table despite a protest from his leg. As he reached the door, he put his back to it, weapon at the ready to cover any attack from behind. Using his right elbow, he pounded on the door three times before speaking. "This is Shepard, is anyone in there?" Despite everything that had happened, he couldn't help letting a smile spring onto his face when he heard the muffled replies.
"Keelah, he's here! He made it! Yes, we're in here! Please hurry, the admiral's been injured!" The smile instantly dropped off his face, and he spun on the spot, looking down as the red access panel turned to green. He touched it at the doors sprang open, revealing four quarians, one of them propped up against the back wall of the room, bandages evident on his torso. John lowered his weapon, rushing into the room and kneeling down beside the injured quarian. Despite his injuries, the man regarded him with hard, knowing eyes as John spoke.
"Admiral Rael'Zorah?"
"Is," he began, coughing overtaking him mid-sentence. "Is she safe? Is she with you?" John immediately understood, nodding as he replied.
"Yes, sir. She's waiting for me to open the connector corridor for her, the geth blew out the access panel on this side."
"Oh, I can do that," one of the others chimed in, turning to the security terminal and getting to work. Nodding to him, John tapped his communicator.
"Tali, the doors should be opening for you now. Double-time it over here; we've got survivors!"
Tali tapped furiously away at the console in front of her, trying to find the security footage she needed, trying to find a live feed of the ship's rooms ahead of John, trying to find anything to help. Her endeavors fruitless, she lowered her head for a moment, sorrow attempting to take her over. How had it come to this? Storming a geth-controlled ship with just her and Shepard to find out what had killed her father.
He was dead; she knew it. She had, in some small part, already accepted that inevitable fact. It grieved her greatly, and in response she had held tightly to John more than ever; which was why this whole situation, being locked away from each other, unable to assist, gnawed incessantly at her. What if he died? Not only would she be completely alone in the galaxy, but the Collectors, the reapers…no one would stand against them…
She shook the grim thoughts from her head. John had said he would open the secondary controls when he reached the security room, and once he did, she'd be able to help him again. It was that simple. Determined to see him succeed, she once again accessed the controls, digging through personal messages and conference recordings. She found only one with her father's name on it, labeled as a routine maintenance log; it wouldn't have any information she needed. Still…it was the only file on the system with Rael'Zorah's name on it…hesitantly, she accessed it. The video that played was from a security camera just outside what she assumed were her father's quarters aboard the Alarei. He was flanked by two engineers, and playback began in the middle of their conversation, with Rael speaking.
"Use spare parts out of the Alarei's cargo bay if necessary, I want those platforms up and running by the end of the day. Strings 586 through 714 require at least three geth networked for the attack to strike at full potency."
"Sir," one of them began hesitantly, "I understand the necessity of testing these algorithms, but the risk of bringing these pieced-together platforms online, much less allowing them to network…"
Rael turned to her, looking her in the eye. "I know the risks. I also know the potential for our Fleet, for our species, if just one of these attacks proves successful. We must continue, no matter the cost."
"Agreed, sir," the other engineer spoke up, "but the pieces we're using to construct these platforms are…highly irregular. If we could send out some salvage teams to bring back more actual geth parts…perhaps even contact Tali'Zorah to see if she cou—"
"Absolutely not!" Rael turned to fully face the man as he continued. "Tali risked enough on her Pilgrimage sending us what material she could; I don't want her exposed to any political blowback this situation could create. And sending out salvage teams would be too conspicuous. We must work with what we have here aboard the Alarei."
"Understood, Admiral." They nodded and turned to run off. The image remained on her father, standing in front of his door as he slowly shook his head and entered, then ended.
Tali took an unconscious step back from the terminal, her fingers intertwining in front of her waist. She hadn't seen that correctly, hadn't heard it correctly. Something was wrong. She reached forward with a trembling finger, playing the video back again, and shaking her head in disbelief as she realized she hadn't misheard a thing: Her father had been bringing geth platforms online for weapons testing; using parts she had sent him under false pretenses. Rage tried to build within her, but it was quickly suppressed by sorrow; he had protected her while engaging in the most unacceptable thing a quarian could do. After a moment, terror drowned them both out.
Once they found out what her father had been doing…his name would be forgotten by her people, perhaps even that of her mother. She would be ostracized, her family constantly used as an example of the greatest evil. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks, and she worked frantically to wipe the data from the network. She scoured it, finding any references to what had happened aboard the ship and erasing them from existence. As she worked, her tears of sadness and shame turned into those of anger. She was covering up her father's horrific work, allowing the deaths of dozens of people to be forever unknown so his mistake wouldn't be known; so he wouldn't hurt her in death as he had in life. As she finished, she stepped back again, crossing her arms and staring at the blank screen of the terminal. Thousands of emotions boiled beneath her surface, and she felt completely lost in her feelings when John's voice came through her headset, anchoring her in an instant.
"Tali, the doors should be opening for you now. Double-time it over here; we've got survivors!" She looked over to where the door was standing wide open. How long had it been like that? She'd completely missed the sounds it had made, wrapped up in her conspiratorial work.
"I'm on my way!" she replied, crossing through the connecting hallway. When she stepped into the first room on this side of the ship, however, she froze in her tracks, her eyes going wide at what she saw. Six regular platforms, and a gigantic one the likes of which she'd only seen a few times when hunting Saren, lay scattered about the room. Bullet holes riddled the walls and ceiling, and near where the large geth lay, a huge black scoring mark from an explosion marred the deck. "A 'small bit of resistance'?" she whispered incredulously as she stepped around the pieces and rushed into the hallway, coming out into a long rectangular room at the far end. Her eyes found him immediately, leaning wearily against the doorway to the security room, and she rushed to him, eyes appraising his wounds. She grabbed his hand and he winced, pulling it away sharply before turning it upward at her confused look. His skin was torn and burned, and she met his eyes with more concern than she'd ever held.
"I'll be fine," he whispered to her, taking her hand with his other. "Listen," he began cautiously. "There are four quarians who holed up in the security room during the attack. One of them…" he looked away, then back to her. "Tali, one of them is your father. He's injured, but stable, and if we can get him out of here, he's going to be fine." His words slammed into her mind, and she stepped away from him, moving into the open doorframe of the room. He said other things, other words, but she didn't hear them, instead letting her eyes move from quarian to quarian before coming to rest on her father, leaning up against the back wall of the room. His eyes widened with recognition, and she rushed to kneel beside him.
"Father, are you alright?" Her eyes found his wounds, and she found them to be as John had said, serious but stabilized. His voice was raspy, whispered.
"Y-Yes, Tali. The others have taken care of me." He turned his attention to the others in the room, his voice tightening to that of a commanding officer. "See what Shepard needs to get the situation here resolved." They all nodded, moving out of the room and letting the doors shut behind them. His eyes found hers again, and there was a…softness…in them that she hadn't seen in a long time. "Tali, I'm so sorry." She looked away from him, it was too difficult to look him in the eye after what she knew he'd done here.
"Yes, I'd say you have a lot to explain," she replied coolly.
"No," he insisted, grunting as he moved to sit higher. "Not for what happened here. These tests were going to take us back home. Everyone here knew the danger, as did I, but it was for the good of the Fleet." He reached out to take her hand, and the gesture surprised her into looking at him again. "Tali, I'm sorry for what happened out there," he said, gesturing beyond the walls of the ship. "When…when your mother died—"
"Stop," she said, dropping his hand and moving away from him. "You don't need to explain that. I know what happened.
"I hurt you," he whispered. It was the last thing she'd ever expected to hear from her father, an admission of weakness, of guilt. "I pushed you away because…you remind me so much of her. I know you were just a child when she joined with the ancestors, Tali, but…you two are so alike." A silence fell between them, and he spoke again quieter. "I know I don't have any right to ask for your forgiveness, and receiving it is a hope I've all but given up on. But just know that…I am proud of you, Tali. You've grown into a headstrong, intelligent woman, despite the horrible things I put you through. You're more of a hero to the Fleet than I will ever be."
"I never wanted to be a hero to the Fleet," she whispered. After a moment, she spoke again, in a harsher tone. "I erased everything…"
"It won't be enough," he said, coughing again at the end. "Shala knows enough already, she sent a team to try and establish communication, and they were killed by the geth. If I'm lucky, the repercussion of this failure won't touch you." She pried her gaze away from him, shaking her head in shame.
"It already has, father." After a moment, she stood again, turning her back on him and walking out of the door. She saw John lowering the body of one of the quarians killed on the table to the floor. He was so careful, so respectful of it, and warmth flooded into her heart again. She crossed the room to him, and as he turned she saw immediate concern on his face. She felt herself inches away from erupting into tears, and he seemed able to sense it too, stepping forward and embracing her in the tightest grip in which she'd ever been held.
"Hey," he whispered as she wrapped her arms around him. "It's alright." A long moment passed between them, and she felt as if she never wanted to separate from him again, comfortable and safe in his arms. When she did step back, she looked to the dead quarians as she spoke.
"It's not alright. Once Shala and Han see what happened here, they'll try my father for treason and endangering the Fleet. My family's names will be forgotten, our clan will disown my father…it will be as if we never existed." Her eyes found his again, and he stared back into hers, silent for a long time before shaking his head softly.
"I won't let that happen, Tali."
"John…I appreciate your support, believe me I do. But…there isn't anything you can do."
"You let me worry about that," he said. "I've got the others getting medical equipment for Rael, and I alerted Shala and Han that the ship is secure. They're expecting us to meet them back at the other end as soon as possible."
She nodded silently. Inward chaos threatened to destroy her, and she pushed it down with finality. Her father could say whatever he wanted to, but he'd done his damage, both to the crew of the Alarei and to her. His actions would almost certainly get him exiled, and she would most likely spend the rest of her days aboard the Normandy, too mortified to ever face her people again as the daughter of Rael'Zorah. It both saddened and reassured her. She knew what was coming, what was inevitable, but John was with her, and no matter what, he would stay that way.
"Members of the admiralty board," Shala began, her voice wavering slightly at the gravity of the situation, "this hearing is brought into session."
John stood at parade rest to the left of Tali. To her right sat Rael in a chair provided for him. It had been three hours since Shala and Han had taken Rael and Tali from the Alarei directly back to the Neema. John had been told that Rael's injuries would be seen to, and that as an instrumental third party with eyewitness experience of what had transpired aboard the ship, he would be permitted to stand at the following trial. Tali had told him to go back to the Normandy and get his injuries treated, and he had done so.
Chakwas had hissed aloud when she saw his hand, wincing at the pain she knew he must be feeling, and had seen to his handful of injuries. Garrus, Joker, and Miranda had all asked him what happened, but he'd simply told everyone to return to their posts, that he would be leaving again shortly and they needed to be ready to go once he and Tali returned. To his affection for them, no one argued, not even Miranda. They simply agreed and left. Once he had been patched up, he'd taken the Kodiak back to the Neema, docking at a private bay used only by admiral Han'Gerrel, and had been escorted by the man himself to the trial in an adjacent room.
From where he stood, he could see the four admirals seated at a slightly curved table in front of the three of them. Shala and Han in the center he recognized, and off to their left and right respectively sat admirals Daro'Xen vas Moreh and Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib. Despite the gravity of the situation, it had taken John more than a little self-restraint to not chuckle at the name during their introductions. Now, however, seriousness filled the air as Han spoke, his voice also a bit unsure as he addressed his fellow admiral.
"Rael'Zorah vas Rayya, you are hereby charged with bringing several geth units into an active state aboard one of our ships, a charge that…is very serious, Rael." He set down his datapad and folded his arms on the table before speaking plainly. "Rael…what the hell happened on that ship?" Tali's father straightened his back and replied calmly.
"I had been performing weapons tests on pieces of geth hardware, to assess any potential weaknesses in their security system integrity to better assist us in a possible reclamation effort." Han nodded before replying.
"While I understand the potential knowledge from that kind of low-level testing…it still doesn't explain why fully active geth were able to overtake the vessel." A pause hung in the air again, and John glanced over to where Rael sat, watching the admiral look to his daughter. Tali stood calmly, but seemed to stare directly into the table at which the admirals sat. She met no one's gaze, and clearly had the entire scene already played out in her mind. She was simply waiting. John shook his head softly, knowing he'd have to go forward with his plan. It would cost him a great amount, but If it worked…they would both be safe.
Rael sighed softly, and began to speak. "I br—"
"I can answer that question for you, admiral Gerrel," John cut him off, and all eyes were on him. Tali's snapped up as well, this part clearly not having been in her mental image. Emboldened, he stepped forward and continued. "When Tali served on my ship during my hunt for Saren Arterius, I received a message from admiral Rael'Zorah. It was short and simple: he acknowledged Tali's transfer to my command and, as any father would do, threatened to take severe action against me should anything happen to her. He told me the quarian people didn't have much besides each other, and the family they shared; and combined with the stories of the Fleet Tali imparted to me over the course of our time together, those words resonated with me. I wanted to help your people retake your homeworld." He let a pause hang in the air for a moment before steeling himself and continuing. "I sent those pieces back to admiral Zorah."
"You sent pieces of geth material back to the Fleet?" Admiral Xen asked intently as she leaned forward to hear him.
"Yes, admiral. I've spent the majority of my recent career fighting the geth, those under Saren's command as well as on outlying planets. I felt that I knew pieces of importance when I saw them, and I decided that admiral Zorah could benefit from having such pieces to study. At first, the admiral refused, saying the risk was too great."
"John, you don't have to—" Tali whispered fervently.
"I insisted," he continued. "I assured him that I knew what I was doing, that I was a seasoned soldier with more experience fighting the geth than any human, and probably most quarians, and eventually he agreed on the condition that I send him only disabled parts. I consented, and began sending pieces back through anonymous drops." He looked across the faces of the admirals, read their eyes the way he read Tali's, and knew he had them. "Toward the end of my hunt for Saren, Tali and I uncovered a huge cache of geth information, and upon her request I agreed to give her a copy to bring back here as a Pilgrimage gift. After looking through it on my own, I came to the conclusion that admiral Zorah would need more central cores from geth casualties, as most of the information inside the data pertained to central systems and networking. I began sending what cores I could get a hold of…" he trailed off, hoping one of the admirals would pick it up, and was relieved when Han finished his crafted story for him.
"And one or more of the cores contained a not-fully deactivated geth cluster."
"Unfortunately, it seems that's precisely what happened, admiral Gerrel. The incident aboard the Alarei was a catastrophe, and as its perpetrator I assume full responsibility for its occurrence." The quarian sat back in his chair with a sigh, and the others seemed to relax as well, and John had to stop a smile cresting onto his face. Their fears that Rael was a monster, a traitor, were quickly diminishing, and instead they were chalking the incident up to a human's failure to be as thorough as one of their own. Admiral Koris spoke.
"Rael'Zorah, when you received these cores, did you thoroughly scan them? It's my understanding that Commander Shepard has been out of commission for over two years since the mission he's speaking of ended, and I'm curious to know how several geth could remain dormant for that long, until now, despite all the…studies…I'm sure had been occurring." John glanced to Rael, and found the man's eyes already searching for his own. They locked for an instant that seemed like an hour, and Rael turned back to the other admirals.
"Of course I did, Koris," he said with no small amount of indignation. "I knew the danger of what we were doing, but sometimes risks have to be taken to potentially take back our home. The geth aren't living creatures, they're soulless machines that would have killed every last one of us."
"Rael…" Shala began hesitantly. "What happened aboard the Alarei was an atrocity. And while you clearly were not activating the geth on purpose, they activated nonetheless. Tell us, is what the Commander says true?"
"He is correct, yes," Rael replied assuredly. "He convinced me that, for the good of our people, we should undertake such testing to be ready for reclamation; an idea I think anyone in this room would support."
"I don't know about anyone," Zaal'Koris replied.
"Leave politics out of it for the moment, Zaal," Han'Gerrel said, looking to the other quarian. After a moment, he spoke louder. "I think in light of Commander Shepard's testimony, I would move to absolve Rael'Zorah vas Rayya of the charges of treason to the Fleet. While the deception and activation of geth aboard one of our ships is a tragedy, it's been made clear, to me at least, that their activation and networking was not an intentional act of Rael'Zorah's doing." The other admirals tapped decisions into their consoles, and Shala spoke after reading them.
"By unanimous decision, Rael'Zorah, you are found innocent of these charges, and are encouraged to retake your seat on this admiralty board." From the corner of his eye, John could see both the relaxing posture of Rael'Zorah and the outright surprise of his daughter. After a moment, Daro'Xen's attention turned to him.
"Commander Shepard, your actions led to a massacre of our people on a scale not known to us in a very long time. Whether in accident or not, dozens of our people are dead by your indiscretion." He had known this part would come; it wouldn't have been a sacrifice if he didn't suffer.
"Shepard also was the decisive force in stopping the geth on the Alarei, before they could threaten the entire Fleet!" Shala spoke with a tension in her voice he hadn't heard before, and if any doubt as to her knowledge of him and Tali remained in his mind, it was extinguished.
"Shala is correct," Han added. "Besides, Shepard is not one of us; we don't have the authority to punish him for this or any action."
"I agree with Xen," Koris said. "Shepard's actions, benign or not, cost the lives of our people. Some form of justice must be had." The admirals sat in a tense silence for a moment, and John simply stood waiting. After a moment, Shala spoke again.
"The board is split evenly over this matter. Rael…the decision falls to you." John's eyes turned fully to look at the quarian he'd just been burned for, seeing the man's eyes focused on his own. Tali visibly relaxed, assured the decision had been made in his favor, but John remained tense. After a moment, Rael spoke, confirming John's thoughts.
"I agree the loss of life was tragic…but neither can we, nor should we, punish Shepard. I feel that in this case, a severing of ties would be best. The Commander should be asked to leave and not contact the Fleet again; if there is anything I've learned from this experience it is that we quarians must prepare for and fight against the geth ourselves. Outside help, however well-intended, is simply not the way."
"What?" Tali's words were pure astonishment as she rounded on her father. "Shepard just risked everything to save you, and so did I. How can you just throw him aside after everything he's just done for you?"
"Because the quarian people need to stand together against the geth. They are a problem we unleashed on the galaxy, and one that we alone must solve. This Fleet is all of our family, a lesson you would do well to learn." She prepared to yell again when John placed a hand on her shoulder.
"It's alright Tali." She turned to face him, eyes losing every ounce of fury as it was replaced by surprise. He then turned his attention back to the other admirals. "I accept the judgment of your admiralty board. I will take the Normandy and my crew and depart immediately." Nodding to them, he turned. "Come on, Tali, let's go." She turned immediately to fall in beside him, when Rael cried out.
"Where are you going, Tali'Zorah?" The surprise in his voice made it clear he thought he had successfully separated them, and John rounded on him.
"Miss Zorah has a mission to complete, admiral; or do you not remember granting her the clearance to dictate when that mission was finished?"
"Yes, and I also remember revoking that clearance just recently."
"An order I easily ignored," Tali spat back at him. "Shepard is fighting an enemy more dangerous that the geth will ever be, and if you thought that clever politics were going to keep me off the Normandy a second longer than I had to be, you're sorely mistaken, you bosh'tet!" Everyone in the room, John included, was shocked at the outburst, and Rael seemed completely speechless. After a moment, Han'Gerrel spoke calmly.
"Tali, as the captain of the Neema and the admiral in command of these proceedings, I grant you leave to continue your mission until you reach a satisfactory conclusion. You are dismissed from this hearing along with Commander Shepard, and I would ask that you please contact me on a secure channel once you reach such a point." Rael's head whipped back toward Han in outrage, and Tali nodded to him.
"Thank you, admiral; I will." Turning on the spot, she took John's hand and half-led, half-dragged him out of the small room and back to where the Kodiak sat waiting in a docking hanger. After checking to make sure they were alone, she placed her hand on his cheek, looking up to him as she spoke. "You…but you'll need them. You'll need the Fleet when the reapers come." He placed his own hand atop hers, smiling down at her.
"When the reapers come, I'll find a way to get their help. I can win back their support when the galaxy is in need of it, but I can't get you or your father un-exiled…if that's even the word for it…"
"I wouldn't know…it's never happened…" she whispered.
"Exactly. This way, you're safe, and so is Rael." She looked away from him.
"Keelah, John, I'm sorry for what he did to you, after everything…that det kazuat..." He placed his hand under her chin, turning it to face him again.
"He thinks he's doing the right thing, but what matters is that he's still alive. All you need to worry about is that you're still well thought of by your people, and you get to stay aboard the Normandy." He turned to the shuttle, and she followed him. Opening the side hatch, he followed her inside. She moved to the front of the shuttle, after a moment pulling it away from the Neema and piloting it through the cluster of other ships toward the Normandy.
John sat down on the crew bench with a heavy sigh. Despite Chakwas' best efforts, she'd told him it would be a few days before the burn on his hand would heal up, and his shoulder ached at him when he leaned back against the bulkhead of the ship. He closed his eyes, relaxing completely as they traveled back to the ship. After a moment, he felt a pressure on his legs, and he opened his eyes to see her sitting on his lap. Silently, she took his injured hand in her own, staring down at the wound with saddened eyes.
"Who's piloting the ship?" he asked in a whisper.
"EDI; I suppose she has her uses." He laughed softly, and she reached down to her wrist, loosening her glove and slipping it off. Immediately, he heard the click of her section seals clamping down around her bare wrist, keeping the rest of her suit's contents protected. Gingerly, she placed her hand atop his own, her soft gray skin covering the wound. He curled his fingers, brushing them across the top of her hand and ignoring the pain that doing so caused him. She shivered at the contact, and he smiled, silently pulling her closer to him as the shuttle flew back toward the ship they called home.