Admiralty Board Games
Shepard sat in the Conclave chambers, resting his head in one hand as he worried about Tali. He lifted his head to give another glance at the clock on his Omni-tool, then let his head fall back down to the table in front of him with a loud thump. He wanted to sleep off his boredom, at least until Tali showed up, but the 32-hour day cycle was making that rather difficult.
Maybe Zaeed had the right idea, staying back on the ship. This is ridiculous. The old mercenary had left with Aria about two hours ago, rather than sit and listen to the constant bickering of the conclave. Everyone else on the ship was out exploring the village just outside, but he was stuck in here. Shaking his head for what felt like the millionth time since being told to wait, when he had said his matter was not 'urgent'.
Big, big mistake.
He let himself tune back in to what was being said, and instantly grew bored of it.
"…We can't allow the southern continent to have all of the farming machinery, unless we want to be completely dependant on them for our food." Admiral Koris sat among the other Admirals, all of whom were there, with the exceptions of Raan and Tali. The room had been arranged in a large semi circle, allowing the members of the Conclave to all face the center stage, where the Admirals sat to address problems and debate important issues. The whole setup had the distinct feeling of being a temporary accomadation.
Admiral Gerrel stood up to replace Koris with a rebuttal.
"You and I both know we aren't suggesting sending all of the farming equipment, just the majority. They have far better farmland than we do and it would simply expedite our food growing capacities."
Xen spoke before Han could even sit back down. "Yes, giving them the majority of our equipment helps us grow more. Of course, how foolish of me." Her sarcasm made Han'Gerrel's hands curl into a ball, but he managed to restrain himself from an outburst.
"I meant our combined stores. If we let this devolve into our settlements versus theirs, then the whole point of retaking our planet was moot." Some members of the Conclave disliked the statement, standing from their seats and shouting, but most remained quiet.
There were only a hundred or so Conclave members at the meeting, so he had to assume they weren't ship captains, but village leaders instead. So far as he could tell, the quarians had only made a hundred or so towns and villages, most cramped together to form small cities. But until they had their construction industry fully underway, making true cities instead of prefab collages would be difficult.
"I propose a vote; majority rules for who gets the farm equipment," one of the conclave members shouted over his colleagues, only to be shot down by another.
"You'd like that wouldn't you? We both know there's more people on the northern continent, but we have the best soil to use it on!"
Another stood up and shook a fist as he yelled.
"So we should just give you our only hope of feeding ourselves on the chance you do well? Over my dismantled ship!"
the room quickly exploded into shouting and arguments, while the Admirals tried desperately to restore order. Shepard laughed to himself as he watched the bickering around him, not in any real amusement, but at the similarities he saw between these people and his own government.
Well, Tali did say they were a very social people. But how they ever get anything done in this is beyond me.
As the situation continued to deteriorate, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"You look amused, Commander. Might I ask why?" Shala'Raan pulled a seat back from his table to sit next to him, while Tali sat on his otherside.
"I was just thinking how much like the our government this is, but without the false smiles and political correctness." Raan watched him as he smiled at the shouting and fighting, while the other Admirals vainly attempted to get everyone's attention.
"And how do your people resolve such things?" she made a vague gesture with one hand at the crowd, but kept her attention on him.
"Well, I cant remember ever seeing human politics turn out quite like this, but usually they have a recess until the members can get a hold of themselves." Raan just looked around for a moment before giving a tired sigh.
"I see. Well I suppose we better get down there, Tali." She pushed herself up and walked down the isle to join her fellow Admirals. Tali remained where she was for a moment, her eyes roaming over his face, before she too lifted herself up to follow Raan.
"Go get em' Gorgeous!" he had to yell to be heard over the cacophony of shouts, making her miss a step and look around to see if anyone heard what he'd called her. Shaking her head at him, she continued to the center of the room. As Tali and Raan took their places, the crowd finally started to quiet down, making Koris and Gerrel slump into their chairs as if exhausted from yelling.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Please, calm yourselves!" Admiral Xen attempted to take charge of the situation as the last few diehards stopped yelling at each other.
"We will have to come back to this topic at a later date, we need to address the other issues before us." Xen raised her Omni-tool and brought up the next item on the Admiralty board's list.
"We move on to personal requests from the populace to their respective town leaders. Please look at the list I have forwarded and make your decisions. Any complaints should be directed to the board for review." Xen sat down with a bored sigh, clearly believing she had much better places to be. The Conclave members all brought up their Omni-tools and went through the lists of requests, while a small buzz of conversation slowly built up throughout the room.
He watched Tali as she fidgeted in her seat in front of everyone, still clearly uncomfortable with being in the spotlight. She looked up at him where he sat at the back of the room, and saw his huge smile, deciding to give her a thumbs up for good measure. He saw her put her hand over her mask in what he assumed was embarrassment before someone spoke over the low hum of people talking.
"Is this right? I have a housing request from Commander Shepard!" It was an older quarian, his voice was raspy and his suit a near relic compared to his nearby colleagues, all of whom were gathering around to double check him. Shepard sat further into his seat and put his hands behind his neck, retaining his smile as he watched the excited murmurs and gesturing. They apparently hadn't noticed him sitting in the back of the room for the last two and a half hours.
"That is correct, elder Jo'Hasha, The Commander has requested a plot of land in your jurisdiction." Koris' voice was bland as usual, it seemed the man couldn't help it.
Elder Jo'Hasha pushed his way through the crowd of his fellow quarians and started heading toward the exit, and incidently, towards Shepard. He quickly leaned forward and put his hands in his lap as the elder approached. The man almost walked right past him before Shepard could get his attention.
"Elder Jo'Hasha? Are you looking for me?" The old quarian stopped and glared at him for a moment, giving Shepard the impression that if he'd had them, the old man would be adjusting a pair of spectacles to get a better look at him.
"Shepard?" he moved in closer, inspecting him as he answered.
"That's me, sir."
"Keelah! It's an honor to meet you, truly." He extended a hand for him to shake as the older man continued to gush.
"Commander Shepard, living in my community? Oh Keelah! This is quite exciting, not quite as exciting as bullets whizzing by mind you, but much, much more welcome." Jo'Hasha spoke in such a slow voice it would make an Elcor blush, but the enthusiasm was definitely there.
"Thank you, Sir. Finding something exciting that doesn't have anything to do with bullets has been a life long dream of mine." He smiled broadly to show he was joking, but the man didn't laugh. Instead he looked back towards the Admiralty board and at Tali, before looking back at him.
"Seems to me like you found it already, Boy."
Shepard could sense a smile behind the Elders mask, but it wasn't a taunting or belittling one. Shepard too looked at Tali sitting next to the other Admirals, watching her as she answered questions from the conclave and fidgeted some more.
"I most certainly have, Sir. Tali means everything to me."
"And might I ask why you want this plot of land? It is prime real estate where you want to go, being next to the ocean as it is." The Elder drew up a chair and watched him as he continued to stare down at Tali.
"It's very close to where we first landed on this planet… she asked if quarians could get used to living in one place again, since they were so used to carrying their homes with them." Shepard looked down at his hands, remembering vividly the feel of the rock, the texture from the dust and silt that cascaded from it as he plucked it from the ground and handed it to Tali.
"I picked up one of the rocks and handed it to her…" He smiled as he saw her in his minds eye, twisting coyly as she took the rock and looked up at him.
It's a start.
"Shepard? You ok?" the old quarian shook his shoulder a little as Shepard shook of the daydream to look at him. "Keelah, I haven't seen a face like the one you just had in a long time. Not since my Miera died. You love that girl, and that's good enough for me. Enjoy the land, son. Make her happy." The man slowly stood from his chair and turned for the exit, while Shepard was still working his mouth in astonishment. As the Elder left, Shepard looked back towards Tali, making his astonishment melt into a face splitting smile.
We did it, Beautiful. I'll build you that house yet.
Unable to contain it anymore, he pumped his fist and laughed his victory, ignoring the stares from the conclave members who heard him and grinning like an idiot.
When he finally got the excited jitters from out of his stomach and calmed down a little, his smile started to slowly slide from his face as he remembered something. Standing from his chair, he walked out of the Conclave building and searched the streets, looking for Jo'Hasha. After a minute more, he saw the Elder shuffling into his air car at the far end of the landing area. As Shepard jogged closer, the old man apparently noticed him and stopped to watch him approach.
"Everything alright, Commander?" the fragility in the mans voice sounded almost painful to Shepard. Nobody lives forever, it's just too bad is all. Ignoring his thoughts, he walked closer to the man.
"I forgot at the time Jo'Hasha, I have-"
"Just Jo, boy, only the Conclave calls me Jo'Hasha."
"Right, Jo. I forgot to mention earlier that there should be another request in there from another human, can you give me a call on the Normandy after you've reviewed it?" the old quarian looked hard at him for a moment, then brought up his Omni-tool. After a few seconds he tapped some more buttons then closed his tool, looking back up at Shepard.
"That fella Zaeed? Did I say that right? You want him as a neighbor? You both do know that the actual town is over a mile away from those cliffs." It wasn't so much a question as a statement, but Shepard chuckled at it.
"I'm counting on it, Jo. If we had anyone else with Zaeed nearby, they'd never get a full nights rest."
The other man cocked his head at him for a second, and then shook it tiredly.
"Well tell him he's approved. Youth is wasted on the young, I swear." He continued mumbling as he got into his car and waved before he flew off over the town.
As he turned back to return to the Conclave meeting he saw almost everyone was leaving. A great crowd had begun forming at the entrance as people moved to their cars to go home, as the sun was far below the horizon and dark was fast approaching. He spotted Tali struggling through the crowd and waved her over, watching her as she waded through conclave members like one would through a swamp.
"Thank Keelah that's over, did you really sit there for the entire time we were gone?"
He nodded his head sadly, earning himself a pat of what could've been sympathy, but probably wasn't, on his bottom.
"Come on, John, let's get back to the Normandy." She continued past him and left him looking around in confusion.
"Tali, we don't have a vehicle. I used Koris' and you used Raan's air car to get here, so how are we getting back?" almost as if to punctuate his words the Normandy's shuttle flew in low over the buildings, making a few other cars that were trying to get out of the lot veer violently for fear of being smashed. The shuttle landed in the center of the lot, the hatch popping up on either side as the autopilot kept the engines running.
"Hurry up, Shepard. Your wife needs to... speak with you."
He smiled as she hopped up to the deck and took a seat.
"Yes ma'm."