A/N: Nothing much to say here, so I'll just include this will probably be the last chapter that takes place entirely on the Atlantic for awhile, the next chapter should jump back into the action, or at least as a pretense to it. And as always, please read and review!
Chapter 29
"It looks like the signal is coming from the Faryar System," Tali said, hunched over the glowing holographic monitor. Her hands ran gently across its surface, twisting and contorting the projected image where it seemed to float in space, illuminated by an esoteric blue glow. She continued to manipulate the projected image, trying to pinpoint the origination of the pulsing waves, but the source remained obscure, resting just out of reach of her fingers. "I'm sorry, I can't narrow it down any further." She muttered a curse under her breath, softly enough that it wasn't picked up and projected by her mask's sound receptors. She looked across the room, eyes locked onto its one other occupant. She found herself glad of the privacy of the mask, the polarized surface hiding her gaze from him.
"Again with the self-deprecation? Tali, I thought I've told you many times that all you're far more talented than you give yourself credit for," Shepard said, smiling as he shook his head in feign impatience.
"Adam, I believe I've discovered the secret as to why you are never able to accomplish anything."
"Other than saving every species in the Universe from complete annihilation?"
"Yes, other than that."
"Well then, I'd be glad to hear your expert advice, Miss Zorah," Shepard said, giving a small bow.
"Well, it seems you have mistaken self-deprecation with a drive to improve upon your accomplishments. And if you think admitting you aren't perfect is essentially the same thing as admitting you are completely hopeless, then you'll never achieve anything, because you're too scared to admit everything didn't turn out exactly as you had hoped. And that would just tear you apart, considering how much your greatest love in the galaxy is yourself."
"Second greatest love," Shepard quickly corrected. "Three guesses as to the first," he added with a smile.
"Let's raise the stakes a little," Tali replied. "I can't be sure, but I think I could get it in one."
"Ah, gambler, are you?" Shepard asked raising his eyebrows.
"Only when the odds are in my favor, Adam," she responded. Before he could say anything else, however, she simply walked up to him, and took his hand in hers. "I love you too, Shepard." Reaching out, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bring her limber form tightly against his chest.
"Aren't we the cute couple," a voice said from the room's entrance.
"Hello, Garrus. Glad to see you're done with the whole angst charade," Shepard said nonchalantly, still remaining locked in the embrace.
"It got boring once I couldn't get anyone to give me any pity," Garrus joked, smiling at his own words.
"Misguided sense of humor, check. Jealously fueled insult of anyone who has a partner, check. Adam, it appears the indigenous asshole Turian is back," Tali said, in a whisper just loud enough for the words to carry to where Garrus stood across the room.
"That hurts, Tali. What would you do if I went and killed myself after you made that little statement?"
"I don't think we have to worry about that eventuality," Shepard answered. "Apparently, Tali sees all the men on this ship as self-absorbed pricks."
"That isn't true!" Tali shouted indignantly, trying to force down her laughter. "Mordin seems quite humble, actually."
"Is Mordin even a man?" Garrus asked Shepard over Tali's shoulder. The Commander simply gave a small shrug in response.
"I'm telling him your him of your high opinions next time I see him," Tali responded.
"Careful, Tali. He might sing Gilbert and Sullivan at you. It's a more traumatic experience than you might initially expect," Shepard warned matter-of-factly.
"And it sounds pretty terrifying to begin with," Garrus spoke up from where he leaned idly against the wall.
"Do you have any idea what Gilbert and Sullivan is?" Shepard asked accusingly.
"Not at all, but the prospect of Mordin singing in general is enough to elicit a fearful response," Garrus countered. Before Shepard could respond, the door opened once more, the swift movement as the door slid out of sight within the wall drawing Shepard's eyes to the newest arrival.
"Shepard, I need to speak with you, immediately," Miranda said breathlessly.
"Can we just discuss whatever it is here?" Shepard asked casually. Miranda stood silent for a moment, her face passive and unreadable as she watched Tali, still held in Shepard's arms.
"I guess that would be okay," Miranda finally consented, none of the others seeming to pick up on the slight hesitation before her final answer.
"Fantastic. What was it that you needed?"
"My omnitool server has completely shut down. There aren't any files remaining, all the applications I had are deleted, when I open it, it's like looking at a blank screen."
"Maybe the microchip failed," Shepard suggested.
"That wouldn't work," Tali responded, her words muttered almost to herself. She stepped back from Shepard's embrace, moving to stand at Miranda's side, bringing lifting the woman's arm up, accessing the tool's interface to clarify her point. "If it was a simple problem with the microchip, we couldn't even access the device. As it is, we can access the screen as normal; there just simply is nothing there. I'd say it looks like every single memory log was somehow wiped."
"Is that even possible?" Miranda whispered. "I thought they were supposed to be un-hackable! If they can be accessed remotely like that, why is it that nobody has ever been able to route an electrical current through an enemy's omnitool? That's much more effective than overload, because it bypasses shields completely and theoretically could kill someone on its first utilization, given a high enough signal."
"Before you start planning any combat tactics around this, this should be impossible. The firewalls that are built into this are actually built into every circuit in the microchip, there shouldn't be a way to circumvent the security, because the microchip is registered to a single user and shuts out anyone else as soon as an owner is programmed. And I assume you've had your omnitool registered to your signature for a long time, correct?"
"Yes. But if what you're saying is true, then how did this happen in the first place?"
"Someone apparently found something that could disengage the firewalls," Tali said coolly. "And if that's true, they would have likely had to concentrate whatever it is to target us."
"Damn it," Garrus suddenly said, still frozen in his stance against the wall. "So you're saying we're going up against someone that has a tech weapon that could disable our abilities to combat it?"
"It seems that's a likely possibility, yes," Miranda said, shaking her head angrily.
"It is possible," Tali replied, beginning to trail off in thought. Suddenly, she snapped back, her head swiveling to look at Miranda even as she raised the arm with her own omnitool. Her fingers passed over the digital interface, the movement so practiced that she began to speak to the former Cerberus operative, not once watching the three digits as they finished the instinctual motion. "If whatever happened actually did eliminate one of the protective blocks, then it may still be down, and I can access it, maybe even pinpoint the origins."
Finally, as she felt the faint wash of heat, noticeable only to her trained and honed senses that indicated the removal of a firewall block did she glance downwards. "Keelah." Her voice was soft, muted by shock. Instead of the mass of icons representing each individual function, only the soft, white backdrop remained, devoid of even the basic, pre-programmed utilities.
"What is it?" Shepard asked, a note of worry coming into his voice.
"The same thing happened to mine as it did Miranda's, and I installed a double firewall system for twice the security normally produced on these things!" Furiously, she tore the device from her wrist, hurling it against the wall before storming out of the room.
"Tali!" Shepard called anxiously after her, but she had already disappeared, and his words received no answer. "Damn," he muttered, softly enough that only he was able to hear his own words, before rushing out after her.
He found her sitting inside an open sleeper pod, the lid raised, her legs dangling over the side. Her head hung forward, and crouching down at her side, he saw a lone tear drop frozen in place within her mask, shining like a crystal as the polarized glass reflected the light. Her shoulders shuddered weakly, but no sound resonated from the small speakers that lay hidden beneath her veil. Rising from his squat, Shepard sat down beside her, draping his arm across her shoulder, holding her close.
"What are you doing in here? I thought we agreed that my quarters here were yours."
There was a short pause, followed by an almost inaudible click as the mask's audio receptors turned on and began to receive input. "I didn't know if you were going to go in there; the last thing you'd want is me sobbing and feeling sorry for myself and adding more troubles to your plate." Her voice was thick, trying to hold back a sob.
"Tali, what's wrong? Is there more to this than the busted omnitool?"
"It's just…I've become so accustomed to that thing, that it's become a part of me, almost like a third arm. I just feel so weak, and vulnerable knowing I don't have it, like I'm unprepared for something, and it scares me. I've spent days recalibrating it as well, enhancing security measures to prevent something like this from happening, but it's still gone. I've failed, I couldn't keep out a simple virus. Maybe I'm not the genius technical expert everyone claims I am."
"I think that theory needs to be discredited immediately," Shepard said earnestly, his hand beneath her visor, tilting her head to look at him. "You've done things nobody else has ever been able to do. How many people, or even Quarians, do you know of who've been able to salvage a geth memory core in the mere seconds after its death before it's erased beyond any hope of retrieval? And those countless times you've been able to save all our asses in the middle of a firefight by burning all those synthetics against each other, even as they're bearing down on you? I don't care what you say, even if I was a technical genius, I couldn't maintain my focus half as well as you do. And let's be honest here, if you weren't the prodigy that you are, we'd all have been obliterated by the Reapers before we even managed to destroy Sovereign. Whatever happened here was a freak occurrence, nobody could have foreseen it. And again, I'm no expert, but I don't think it was your security measures that were the problem. I think somebody has a found a way to completely ignore the defenses in the first place, shut it down before any precautions even register something's wrong."
"That isn't possible, the defenses are put in place so they can't be overridden by any known utility or signal, or anything else of that nature."
"Tali, the reapers were able to completely the genetic code of an entire species, and turn them into submissive, mindless slaves. I think that seems a little more impossible than breaking down a few security measures, as difficult as that process may be. And whoever it is that's attacking us has plenty of resources at their disposal, including the Blue Suns, it would seem."
"Are you saying whoever was behind disabling our omnitools is the same one who's trying to kill us?"
"I'm saying it doesn't seem all that far-fetched. And that would definitely give them a motive, as well, take out one of our primary lines of defense, our firewall, you could say, and leave us easier targets."
Suddenly, the door burst open, a panic stricken Mordin rushing into the space. "Shepard, tried to find you, horrible news!"
"I know, the omnitools are disabled. We'll have to pick up new ones if we can't re-access our current ones."
"No, irrelevant now, can be fixed later. This is much worse."
"Mordin, what is it?" Shepard said, rising, a note of impatience entering his tone.
"Come with me," he said quickly, a look of concern plastered across his features. "Not you, Miss Zorah, please, should remain here," he added, as the Quarian stood up to follow. She reluctantly sat back down again, her posture suddenly rigid with apprehension.
"Mordin, what the Hell is going on?"
A/N: Credit time! The song today:
When the Weeping Dawn Beheld Its Mortal Thirst - Mournful Congregation
http :/ www. youtube. com/ watch?v= EjfK3bcfZbA
