Sitting down at a table in the far corner of the Dark Star lounge, Lia'Vael looked around nervously with her leg twitching out of fear of her situation; the dark blue and cyan hues coupled with the soft, echoing music doing little to ease her tension. Asari, Human, and Turian patrons alike danced the night away at the back of lounge while others ordered drinks and sat at tables sharing casual conversation. She had already received sneers from a few of them on the way in which only made her feel more out of place. The C-sec Drell, known as Kolyat who introduced himself to her after showing her a random act of kindness, had offered to pay for the drinks while she waited for him at the table. A moment later she noticed him walking back over to the table with two drinks in hand. One being a sealed canister filled with dextro, Quarian-safe liquid.
"Sorry bout the wait." he said; taking his seat and passing her the canister-drink. "Bartender isn't exactly a fan of aliens." He took a quick swig from his glass before finishing with a smirk. "Too bad for him, I'm the one with the badge." Lia managed a fake smile beneath her visor to try to hide her nervousness. Though it was unnecessary since he wasn't even able to see her face anyway.
Kolyat took several sips from his glass as he scanned her body language trying to figure her out. Lia averted her eyes and just gazed at the canister in her hands as she gently fondled it in their awkward silence.
"Aren't you hungry?" He asked sincerely. "Nutrient paste lasts but it still has an expiration date." She finally brought her gaze up to him, keeping her voice low but still loud enough to be heard over the bass of the music.
"It's stolen food...I shouldn't eat it." she replied sadly.
"From what I remember it was still paid for. Go ahead and eat up." He finished with nod. Lia began to hesitantly reach into her belt's pouch and lifted the small packet out. She held it with both hands over the table; again fondling it as if she didn't know what to do with it.
"I think I owe you an explanation officer-" she said, dropping the packet on the table.
"Kolyat." he interrupted.
"Um Kolyat, I'm not a thief and...well I didn't mean to get myself into trouble..." she paused for a moment and cursed herself out of her nervous babbling. "Thank you."
"You looked like you needed help. I'd be abandoning my duties to not provide it." he replied. Another awkward silence fell upon the two with the music being the only sound besides the muffled conversations of the patrons. Kolyat took another swig of his drink before deciding to start one himself. "So tell me about yourself. What were you doing trying to steel from the cafe?"
"I came here on my pilgrimage about 3 months ago. I was thinking there would be a lot of maintenance work to repair the damage caused by the battle 2 years ago..." Her head sunk as she continued with depression clear in her voice.
"It wasn't at all what I expected. I knew people hated us, but I haven't been able to find a single place willing to hire me simply because of what I am. I ran out of credits by the second month. Since then I've been living off the Turian shelter a few levels down." Kolyat pushed his drink aside and clasped his hands together over the table as he continued to listen to her story.
"But the shelter closed up for good last week and finding food has been difficult." Lia took both hands and covered her visor in shame. "You must find this pretty ironic...People always refer to us as thieves and vagrants...Well, here I am. Living proof..."
Kolyat leaned back in his chair and said "All I see is an honest, young girl a little down on her luck."
"Yeah well...you're only the second person to think so..." replied Lia.
"Mind if I ask who the first was?" he inquired.
Leaned straightened her posture and looked at him while she spoke. "Funny story actually. 3 weeks ago I was walking to the used ship dealer on level 26 when this Volus bumped into me outside the Sirta foundation."
"What happened?"
"Well, I didn't think anything of it at first so I kept walking. Next thing I know, he runs up to me with a C-sec officer and starts shouting that I stole his credit chit."
"Just like that?" asked the Drell with a puzzled look.
"Yeah, the officer actually believed him to but his omni-tool didn't find it on me so he didn't have any evidence." she explained.
"I assume he let you off the hook?"
"No! He actually threatened to run me in for vagrancy when I told him I didn't have a permanent address. I even explained to him that I was on my pilgrimage but he completely ignored me!" Lia rested her hands on her thighs before continuing.
"That's when this human came over with a Turian and another Quarian asking what was going on." Pausing for a brief moment, Lia let out a barely audible chuckle which caught Kolyat's attention.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"Oh, well the Volus started rambling on about how all Quarian's 'take anything not welded to the deck' and the human's Quarian friend blew up in his face. She even threatened to jack his olfactory sensors." A giggle followed. "I wish all off my people could be that assertive."
"So who was this human anyway?" asked Kolyat.
"I didn't know at the time. Anyway, he offered to look for the Volus' chit and ended up finding it being held at Saronis Applications. Bosh'tet Volus..." she mumbled. "When he gave to him, all he had to say was that I could have stolen it. Even the C-sec officer threatened me again with a charge of vagrancy. But before they could walk away, the human told them both just how absurd their accusations were." She paused as a smile grew on her face. "I remember the officer threatened to run him in for obstruction of justice. It was then that he said 'you think you're going to run in a Spectre?."
"He was a Spectre?" said Kolyat in surprise.
"Yeah it was right then that I recognized him from extranet videos before I left the fleet. It was THE Commander Shepard. The one who defeated Saren 2 years ago. Unbelievable right? Anyway, after that the officer and the Volus ran like a couple of frightened pyjaks."
Kolyat lowered his head and shook it in disbelief while grinning from ear to ear then said "That doesn't surprise me."
"Why's that?" she asked.
"I actually know him. My dad is serving on his crew." he answered with pride and a smile.
"Your father is working with a Spectre? Wow, you must be really proud of him mister..."
"Oh, pardon me." he said. "Sorry, I should have introduced myself earlier." The Drell reached across the table and offered his hand which Lia, hesitant at first, but accepted and shook gingerly. "Kolyat Krios."
"Nice to meet you Mr. Krios." replied Lia with a grin.
"You're welcome to call me Kolyat."
"Oh...of course. Kolyat." It was then that Kolyat was distracted by a scuffle between a Human and Krogan, who were pushing and shoving each other aggressively on the dance floor. He shook his head and turned back to Lia as he stood up.
"I'll be right back..." he sighed. Lia watched as he walked over and came in between the two arguing patrons who were pointing the finger at each other, making it hard for Kolyat to understand the circumstances of the quarrel.
Lia suddenly noticed the cold feeling of the canister in her hands for the first time and instantly felt her thirst return. She brought one of her three digit hands up to the side panel of her mask and slid back a tiny panel revealing a tube which she extended from her helmet and connected to the top of the canister. A soft beep inside her helmet confirmed that the seals had engaged and liquid was ready to be savored.
Lia began to gingerly suck on the straw like object that extended into her mouth inside her helmet and let the liquid flow on top of her tongue. It was then that she noticed a flashing text on her visor that read "warning, levo-proteins detected." Without a second thought Lia's eyes widened in shock as she spat the fluid out of her mouth onto her visor. She coughed repeatedly as the liquid dripped from the visor to the pit of her mask; masking sure she emptied every last drop from her mouth.
"Keelah! What in the!" in the corner of her vision she noticed the chuckling of the Turian bartender who quickly averted his eyes when he realized she was looking directly at him. Feeling the fury build within her, she got up from her seat and stomped her way over the counter to confront him. All the while, the bartender was cleaning a glass with a rag, trying to look busy. Lia slammed the canister down on the counter causing some of the liquid to splash out from the open top.
Bringing her hands to her hips she said angrily. "Excuse me, what the hell is this?" The Turian kept whipping down the glass without looking at her.
"That's your drink. Don't like it, don't drink it." he replied flatly.
"Drink? This is a levo-substance! You could have killed me!"
He finally placed the glass along with the rag under the counter so that he was looking straight at her with venomous eyes. "And the Hierarchy would call me a patriot. Lia gasped at his openness. She had been cursed, falsely accused, and threatened. But never had someone been so stern to openly admit trying to poison her.
"You Bosh'tet!" she shouted, pointing at him furiously. "You can't just kill me because of what I-" The bartender lunged forward like an angry cobra and griped her wrist tight.
"If I had the chance I'd walk into a room of unsuited Quarians and breathe my germs all over the room just to watch them suffer while they squeal for mercy." he hissed quietly. The patrons around the counter began to step away. Not even bothering to lend a hand to another beggar Quarian.
"Let me—ugh! You're hurting me!" Lia pleaded. The Turian leaned in closer to her face.
"Not yet I'm not." he said while squeezing her wrist.
"Is there a problem here?" The struggling Lia'Vael turned to see Kolyat with his arms crossed standing along side her. Upon noticing the C-sec armor, the bartender immediately released her.
"As a matter a fact there is." said the bartender. "This Quarian was harassing customers and scaring away my business."
"Really?" Kolyat replied sarcastically while arching his hairless brow. "It looked to me like she just wanted a dextro-safe drink. I think you should give her what she wants?"
"You calling me a liar amphibian? This Quarian bitch is who you should be interrogating!"
"Sir, I'm going to ask you to give the lady her drink, and apologize for calling her a bitch." replied the Drell sternly. The bartender leaned closer to him.
"You're actually standing up for this whore? Who the fuck do you think you-" Moving swiftly, Kolyat grabbed the back of the Turian's head and slammed his face down on the counter, using his other hand to hold him down by his neck. The surrounding patrons gasped at the scene. Drops of blue blood dripped from his mouth and he could tell one of his mandibles was broken.
"Everybody stay calm! This is a C-sec matter." he proceeded to lean in close to the Turian's face. "Apologize..."
"F-Fuck you!" garbled the Turian. Kolyat used one hand to grab his mandible and began pulling until the Turian yelped in pain.
"Apologize or this canister..." he said motioning toward the levo-protein drink. "Is going down your throat, and my gun is going up your ass."
"A-Alright alright!"
"Say it!"
"I'm s-s-sorry!"
"Better..." Kolyat then through the Turian back causing him to shatter the glass on the counter behind him as he fell. Kolyat then walked behind the counter and grabbed a canister full of dextro-protein liquid and handed it to Lia as he walked back around. "Come on." He led her outside the lounge a moment later.
"Thank you for your help back there. But I don't you think you were a little...excessive?" she said as they walked through the crowds on the 28th level of the Zakera ward.
"Bastard tried to poison you. What I did to him was an act of mercy compared to what my dad would have done." he replied.
"Listen..." Lia stopped him. "You've been very kind to me and you've gotten me out of trouble twice today. I just don't know how to repay you..." she said as her gaze sunk to floor. Kolyat tilted his head to the side and stood in thought for a moment before reaching a conclusion.
"Do you...have a place to stay?" he asked softly.
"Oh, I sometimes get a hab-capsule in 633 block, why?"
"Well, I just got a place in the 800 blocks. It's a two bedroom apartment if you don't mind sharing with a Drell." he finished with a slight smile. Lia was taken aback by his offer. He was too good to be true. She began to wonder if he had some sort of angle with all the kindness he had showed but she didn't let that stop her. Anything was better than those cramped hab-capsules.
Hesitating, she finally said. "I'd—that would be great! I can't thank you enough."
"No problem." he said now grinning. "After all, what would Shepard do?"
Things went back to being quite busy on the Normandy after the mission on Ilos. Kal'Reegar had volunteered to help in engineering after helping Vel'Lara into her assigned bunk in the crew quarters. Although her paralysis had been corrected via cybernetic implant, it still took time for a body's central nervous system to fully integrate with the artificial vertebrae; thus she still had trouble standing. He could at least take comfort in knowing that she was alive. It could have ended much worse.
Meanwhile, Shepard was on his way up to his cabin were Tali had gone to work quietly on accessing the Geth memory core. She hadn't eaten anything since awakening from her sleep in the med-bay, so he decided to bring her some food and force-feed her if need be. He insisted that she take more time to recover, but her flotilla instincts took over as usual saying that she was fine and needed to get to work. It was an argument he never won.
As soon as the elevator doors slid open he walked up to the cabin door which unlocked and hissed open silently. He instantly noticed Tali sitting in a chair and working on breaking through the Geth encryption using her omni-tool. She knew he had entered the room but didn't want to break her concentration on the delicate process of her hacking attempts.
Stepping up closer behind her he asked. "Tali?"
"Shh!" Shepard took a quick step back at her response and shrugged absentmindedly before laying down the packet of nutrient paste on the counter. He then leaned back against the wall behind him and crossed his arms while letting her work peacefully. Less than a minute later he finally heard a peep from her.
"Ahah!" she shouted triumphantly.
"You hacked the core?" he asked, hoping for a yes.
"Of course not bosh'tet. That was only the first layer of encryption!" she replied, her tone sounding slightly playful.
Shepard scratched the back of his neck. "How many layers are there?"
"Ten." she answered.
A frown was notable on his face. Nearly an hour of hacking just for that? There was a long awkward silence.
"I'm kidding bosh'tet." she teased, seeing him relax at her comment. "Now, every Geth's memory core records log files of any system changes such as run-time alterations and faulty individual programs..."
"So if Sovereign is controlling them using some kind of Reaper virus..." he interjected.
"We'll find it." Tali finished. "If that's the case, I may even be able to construct a counter-virus. But let's not jump to conclusions just yet. We still don't know what we're dealing with Shepard."
"Lets take a look..." Tali typed in a command in her omni-tool which caused a transparent screen to appear over her forearm with codes scrolling slowly across it. Shepard stepped closer and leaned over the back of the chair to examine what she was scanning through. Tali stopped the continuous scrolling on a certain bit of information that caught her eye.
"There doesn't seem to be any major alterations. But there is a log here showing that this Geth picked up some kind of signal that instantaneously changed it's directive."
"Changed to what?" he asked puzzled. Tali's answer was a narrowing of her eyes that suggested he asked a stupid question.
"Right...kill organics..." he said shaking his head. "Is there anyway to reverse the process?"
"Maybe, it would be easier if the process were more subtle. I'll collaborate with Mordin on this. There may be a way." Still looking at her omni-tool, Tali absentmindedly stands up and heads for the cabin door only to be stopped by Shepard standing in her path.
"Whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going?" he waved the packet of paste in front of her visor. She slapped it away.
"I think I'd rather starve than eat any more of that infernal slop." she replied with a hint of sarcasm.
Shepard chuckled. "Don't make me force-feed a Quarian." Tali tried to slip past him and quickly became annoyed with his body continually blocking her exit.
"Shepard, please move your human buttox before I..." Shepard began to laugh.
"Make me." he said with a sly smirk. Tali halted in her struggle and narrowed her eyes as she suddenly pounced on him, causing him to fall to the floor while she straddled on top of him. Shepard looked up into her visor to see her narrowed eyes widen slowly as she quietly began to laugh which quickly grew louder causing him to do the same. The both laid there for a moment just admiring the humor of the situation. There wasn't much time to 'play' on the Normandy; not with some suicidal mission always dragging them through the gates of hell. It was nice to day dream once in a while.
The two were distracted by the hissing of the cabin door opening and both looked to see Kal'Reegar standing in the doorway.
"I interrupting something?" The couple shared a brief glance before Tali rolled off of Shepard and they both quickly stood up and brushed themselves off in embarrassment.
"Apologies Shepard." said Kal formally. "If it's alright with you I'd like to have a word with Tali...in private..."