A/N

Have fun!

Kyson's POV

The mission had gotten dicey almost right off the bat. They had entered the derelict ship only to find it over run by Blue Sun's mercs sending missiles at anything that moved. Nia had taken it upon herself to try and take the ship herself being an 'infiltration specialist' and all. It was fine by Kyson except she had gotten herself cornered at the bridge with the full might of the Blue Suns' upper echelons tried to take her out. If it wasn't for Kal's quick thinking and Kyson creating a diversion by using himself as bait, she would have eatin' it.

Overall the mission was a success despite finding the entire crew butchered. It was never an easy sight, seeing the charred corpses of the crew but, when it came to mercenary groups, it was to be expected. After they had routed out the Blue Suns the Captain's logs had the proper code for the valuable cargo that had prompted the entire raid and the logs also gave them the permission to take it. Kyson had been the one to open and retrieve the cargo only to jump back in shock. Kal and the third Quarian, Balan, had asked what it was but Kyson just sealed the item in a nearby crate. They had to get back to the Admirals.

Once the team was back on the Neema, all of the Admirals were present and Kyson quickly ushered them into the small space in the Kodiak. Many questions began to flood his ears but he kept silent and simply threw the lid off of the crate. It was a Reaper indoctrination device, just like what he had found back at the Alliance base. The only Admiral that seemed to understand the risk it posed was Daro'Xen who argued for the ability to keep the wretched thing but Kyson walked out with the crate while the others bickered. They were silenced when Kyson just dropped the crate on the deck in the main bay and promptly blasted it to bits with his rifle.

"Piece of shit…" he muttered as the Admirals just stood in silent shock. Seeing that the argument was now a moot point, Kyson tried to bring up his data on the Reapers and present it to them but they all just waved him off with 'We have an entire fleet to worry about right now…" before leaving him alone to his thoughts. He found out quickly that he would have more time to brood than he thought for once he contacted Han for his next assignment, he was flooded with requests to help overhaul some of the oldest and decrepit ships on the fleet and found himself dead tiered after each cycle. Which for Quarian time was about sixty some earth hours that they had broken up into four 'mini days' as he would put it.

He didn't mind the work, hell he loved it! It was all new to him even if the equipment was hundreds of years old. It was all so alien to him but beautiful in its own way how they Quarian engineers of old intuitively designed each part to form living beings that housed up to thousands of Quarians. He even was making a small name for himself besides being the resident 'Human' of the fleet he had found it very easy to use Human designs and techniques to smooth out old systems. Each day he got up he had several hundred new messages asking if he would come and visit ships to overhaul the AI support or, the plumbing and hydronics design was so shitty, they needed a fresh pair of eyes. He couldn't help but be proud of himself.

There was a major down side though. While he had nearly free mobility throughout the fleet because of his board, he had to clear every message that he wanted to send out of the fleet. He understood, but it was irksome. How could a message about how he was doing to Beni and his dad be dangerous? But there was another problem with building a name; it took up all of his time.

He would always start and end his days back in his Kodiak which now had the hammock set up and clothes strewn about. He hadn't thought about laundry, but what little time he did have was spent with Tali. They would keep each other posted and meet up at his place whenever possible even though it was only for a couple hours at a time but they made the most of it by talking about the work they were doing or Tali laughing at his antics with the other engineers on the fleet. He always loved being center of attention but as the next three weeks went by, he noticed that she would talk less and less and whenever he tried to bring it up she would just deflect him with the whole 'I'm fine' routine.

"Kyson, really for the last time I'm doing just fine!" Tali shouted at him as he leaned back against the one free bench in the Kodiak and took a drag on his cigg. Kyson looked up at her and even though she had her full suit still on, he could see she was pissed. But he had heard the same line to many times now and couldn't take any more diversions.

"The hell you are, we've been over this. When someone says their fine it's nothin' but bullshit. So stop bullshittin' and let it out already. Every time you visit it gets worse and worse!" he shouted at the end while pinching his brow and closing his eyes. It's like pulling goddamned teeth from a Varren…

"What are you talking about? I've never lied to you! I'm just working my ass off just like you and I'm tiered! So don't go and start patronizing me you Bosh'tet!" she shouted. He could hear her words echo in the small space as well as in his skull causing him to grimace. He stood up and went to his 'bar' which was a cluttered section of the opposite bench and picked out a bottle of half-finished Wild Turkey and took a quick swig.

"I'm not going to patronize you, but I've been hearing things from the rest of the fleet…" he said quietly still facing the wall in front of him. He could hear Tali shift slightly growing agitated.

"Is that so? Please, do tell. It only is the way of our people to be nosy gossips." Tali spat. Kyson sighed heavily before answering. He had not intended on this being a slug fest.

"That's why I'm askin', what the hell happened between you and that young girl who mentioned me in a bad way?" he asked while turning around. It was a week ago that he heard that some young girl who was close to her pilgrimage had made a snide remark about how she was being cozy with a Human and Tali had nearly blasted her in half with her shotgun but the girl had run off before Tali had the chance.

"I…she was speaking out of place…" she stammered.

"Orrrrr, how about freaking out on the entire engineering crew of the Neema after you found only three loose bolts on the drive core? I heard something about Urdnot Wrex was coming to visit?" he said while razing an eyebrow questioningly. Tali started to fidget with her hands and looked away.

"If I hadn't caught that, one of the Helium3 fuel lines would have come loose and dumped radiation into the entire compartment and possibly bleed into the nutrient vats…" she trailed off at the end while crossing her arms trying to regain her composure.

"And Tali, the past four times you've come to visit you've been dead silent or just fallen asleep in my arms…or pretend to at least." he said. It was true though, he had figured out a trick to tell if she was sleeping or not. Dorn'Hazt had given him a small scanning program that detected heart beats. So when she was lying with him in the hammock, he could hear a normal heart pace from her, she had never slept.

"How do you know that?!" she shouted slightly shocked. He shrugged and sat down next to her but maintained a safe distance, the situation wasn't diffused yet.

"Han has also told me that you are running around like a mad woman and only catching two or three hours of sleep at a time and reports of you screaming out while passed out. Tali, something is wrong and I can feel it…"he said softly. When he had heard about what was happening with her, he was hurt that she hadn't come to him and even more so that she couldn't be in his arms at night anymore. But he also figured it came with the bonding as well. Their separation was wreaking havoc on his emotional state. He would have wild swings in thought patterns each time she would be close to him and when she left the Kodiak, he was probably saying shit in his sleep two. He watched a Tali's shoulders sagged and she leaned back against the bench.

He reached over and brought her close which was no hard thing as she allowed herself to be gratefully embraced.

"I'm sorry. I've just got so much to do and none of it is getting done." Said Tali distantly.

"I know, but something big is tearing you up inside." He replied. He wanted to bring up the obvious about the Geth and the Reapers but decided to let her take her time.

"They…they made me an Admiral, Kyson." She said sullenly. He went ridged and tensed up. An ADMIRAL! Holy shit! The implications started to wiz through his mind as he tried to come to grips with this news. Tali was now a leader of her people! And with that, she was able to have a say on the politics that always seemed to be a social cluster fuck here on the fleet. But even more importantly, she could hopefully find peace with the Geth and start preparing for the Reapers.

"Tali! That's awesome! You can get the fleet to listen for a change now!" he said excitedly but was met by a wall of silence. She shifted in his arms a few times before she finally spoke up.

"No, it's not. Kyson, do you know the true implications of this? For us?" she asked leaving him speechless this time. He didn't see any problem.

"Kyson, my new position is an honorary one. They say that it deserve it but…they needed someone to replace my father. They don't care about anything else except to fill a void with someone they think they can control. And even If my people started to listen to me, I would be discredited among many for not bonding with another Quarian. Kyson, I can hear the accusations they would throw at you…how you are manipulating me and using me for Humanities needs and not our own." Tali went quite again and he didn't know what to say. She was right. He had noticed on the fleet the amount of pent up hate and resentment the race collectively had from being trapped in limbo drifting through space always on the verge of extinction. They had become isolated and always under duress so it was only natural to fear an unknown variable, him.

"Well, let's talk to them." He said simply. He couldn't see any other option at this point.

"Are you crazy?" she asked as she jerked slightly in his arms.

"No. We have only two options open to us. Either we keep sitting around twiddling our thumbs or we take action even if it means me getting booted off the fleet. We have to be ready for the Reapers…" he said as he got up and pulled Tali along. She held onto his hand for a moment before letting go.

"I know…" she sighed but then stood up straight and quickly turned back to him.

"Put on your suit and let's get this done. I'm going to call the other Admirals to meet up in the meeting chamber next to the commons." She said strongly. Kyson couldn't help but stand at attention and give her a salute.

"YES MA'AM ADMIRAL MA'AM!" he shouted and started slapping his armor on as she rolled her eyes.

"You had too much fun with that." She said shaking her head. Once he had his suit on they headed up to the commons. He wasn't looking forward to the coming meeting but it had to be done. Either the Admirals would wise up or there was no point and they would get themselves killed like the rest of the galaxy. It took them twenty minutes to the commons where Tali had her trial and she told him to wait for him to be called in.

"Fine I can wait…sure, let me call Kal up as well. I have a feeling he should be here." Said Kyson while bringing up his tool.

"Ok. It might be a while before you can come in and I need to get that bunch of data slapped together that we've been working on. See you soon." She said before disappearing into the door to the left of the auditorium.

"Yeah…" he said quietly to himself. So once again he was left to ponder things and walked over to one of the row of seats in the auditorium and put his elbow on his knees and his head on his fists.

"Why the hell can't things be simple? Oh that's right, life…" he began but he had an odd sensation on the back of his neck as if someone was watching him suddenly and he whipped around only to find himself alone. Huh…this is where most people shrug their shoulders and turn around only to get eatin' by a thresher maw. Not me! It was a good thing he didn't ignore his instincts for as he stood up heard a loud *crack* and the room flickered slightly as he heard a shout of warning.

"Watch out Human!" said a voice he couldn't find.

"What the fu…" he started only to look up and see a light fixture falling towards him.

"OH SHIT!" he said as he dived out of the way and bounced down several benches at the light crashed right where he was standing. He got up and walked over the busted light. No real damage had been done to the benches but the light was toast. Glass and pieces of filament were a nasty mess all over the area. He looked up the rows to find the same group of kids from before staring at him in a huddled group. But they were all looking up at the support beams. Following their gaze, he saw the old soccer ball wedged between two beams and the electrical box that once held the light fixture. He sighed and brought out his board and hopped on it causing the children to gasp in amazement.

He couldn't help but smile knowing that he too had been a kid looking at the older guys with the cool boards. He gently flew up to the beams that were three stories up and retrieved the ball and looked at the electrical box.

"Damn thing was on its last legs anyway… good thing it fell when it did and not during a meeting." He saw the deteriorating metal box and rust that had built up. He shook his head and flew back down to the kids and tossed the oldest one the ball.

"Here you go." He said and the oldest one grabbed it out of the air and stared at him.

"Whhooaaa… where did you get that board?" one of the kids asked awe struck. Kyson jumped off the board and placed on his lower back and smiled.

"Illium." He said simply before turning away and going to clean up the mess. He figured it was best not to freak out on the kids cause…he'd done so much worse with his buddies. Setting half a wildlife reserve was a real boo boo, not one light fixture so he decided why not clean it up. He didn't have anything better to do.

"Hey human!" shouted the oldest kid in the group causing him to turn back.

"Wanna play?" the kid asked. Kyson looked at the rag tag group of kids. They probably ranged from ages ten to almost eighteen and all of forty of the twenty kids eyes we're trained on him.

"Sure, I haven't played soccer in ages. But we will have uneven teams…" he began. The oldest one laughed at him causing the others to join in.

"We're not playin' soccer. We're playing 'Smash em'!" said the apparent leader. Kyson had no idea what he was talking about but he was ushered to follow and the oldest finally introduced himself.

"The names Ezka Mr. Sorley. Pleased to meet you. Now, the rules…" said Ezka without pause. Kyson smirked. He liked the kid. Quick and to the point. He was led to the main grassy area where four trash bins had been set up as two obvious goals.

"Ok, so the point is to get the ball threw the goal. Each goal has two goalies or (Krogan) and everyone else is in the middle. There are two teams but you have an individual score as well. One score is getting the ball past the Krogan and into the goal for the team and two points for the individual who kicks it in, but, you get three individual points if you run it in like your football game on earth." Ezka turned around to see if he understood the concept. He watched as kids began to take positions and taunt each other. Kyson saw that the four biggest were the Krogans and the one team had blue strips of cloth tied around their shoulders for their team.

"Got it, but the teams are still uneven. And the goals almost span the entire room...anything else I should know?" he asked thinking that he would just hold back and see how things play out before going full tilt.

"Yeah, you play against your own team as well as the opposite, so although you are trying to beat the other team, you have to defeat your own as well. The total score of sixty wins. You're on the ribbon side. Good luck!" said Ezka loudly and threw the ball into the air. A wicked grin formed on his face as he kept his eye on the ball and to the astonishment to the kids jumped up above the other rushers and grabbed the ball and hauled a to the blue painted bins. That's when the games name showed itself. He heard Ezka behind him shout 'SMASH EM!" as the two goalie 'Krogans' seemed to appear from nowhere and collide with all of their force into his shoulders sending flying backwards the ball bounced from his hands.

He didn't even have time to recover before the rest of the kids swarmed over him yelling and screaming and kicking each other trying to get the ball. Luckily for him the mob moved off as the ball was nudged several feet away and Ezka was standing over him with a hand out.

"Nice hustle…but the Krogans got you…" Ezka laughed as Kyson huffed and got himself up. He looked at the sheer chaos as the group of kids wrestled over the ball. Holy hell this game is nuts! AWESHOME! He didn't respond to Ezka a he bolted into the pile of fighting kids and front rolled at the ball as it popped out from the middle of the group and grabbed it and began to dodge the frenzied kids.

As he played the surprisingly rough and tumble sport from the Quarian kids, he noticed that when facing each other, they only used their feet and used their hands at the right moment to snatch, grab, and run like hell. But whenever he got the ball however, the kids went all out. He had been tripped, kicked, punched and tackled to the ground sometimes having five or more team up on him at once. It didn't hurt but the sudden stops made him pause. He noticed that Quarians were fast, very fast. While they only had two toes they had more surface area and much stronger legs. He had to take an extra second just to try and keep track of one at any moment. But he held his own scoring a few points here and there; he was about to quickly snatch up the ball again when he heard a shout.

"Think fast!" he heard as he looked up upon reaching the ball. He saw two of the teens pick up a slightly smaller girl and chucked her straight at him. Both he and the girl screamed together as she hurtled right at his face.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed Kyson as he tried to catch the girl who slammed into his chest and wrapped herself around his helmet. He nearly toppled but regained his balance and pried the frightened girl off of him and set her down.

"I…I saw my life flash before my eyes…" she said shaking and looking up at him. You and me both kid…He thought but he jumped sky high another hand clamped down on his shoulder causing him to jump and yelp again.

"AH Hhoo Hooey! What the?" he shouted and whipped around to see Admiral Zaal'Koris staring at him.

"Ahem, Mr. Sorley…" said the Admiral awkwardly. Kyson turned red and looked back to the little girl.

"Did you see your life flash too?" she asked. Kyson just nodded and turned around to the Admiral.

"I…I guess I'm needed huh?" he stammered still embarrassed. Zaal turned around and nodded towards the other four Admiral and back to him.

"Um yes, we…we have been watching for the past fifteen minutes…" said Zaal as he began to lead the way towards the Admirals. Kyson even spotted Kal waiting with his arms crossed but soon as their gazes met. He got a thumbs up causing Kyson to smile.

"You're quick for a Human, a short one that is…" said Zaal chuckling slightly.

"Thanks, you ever play that game before?" asked Kyson still running on the adrenaline. Zaal chuckled for a second before his tone dropped.

"Yes I did. But…" Zaal stopped short and stopped halfway to the Admirals.

"But what?" asked Kyson. Zaal sighed and started moving again.

"Damn Han and Rael were cheap bastards…" grumbled Zaal leaving Kyson trying not to laugh and he nearly choked on his own spit. As they neared the group, he could see clearly who was annoyed with him. Daro was tapping her foot with her hands on her hips while Shala had her arms crossed and her head cocked to the side. Uh oh…Danger Zone! He said in his mind but started to laugh again.

"Nice moves kid! Well, until you got plastered at the end that is…" said Han'Gerral who seemed amused by the whole thing. Kyson simply shrugged in response, he was just having some fun.

"Well, this meeting would possibly be over by now, if it wasn't for Han and Kal wanting to watch you make a spectacle of yourself Mr. Sorley." sneered Daro. Kyson rolled his eyes and tried to ignore her.

"It seems to be a habit of his. Shall we get this done with?" added Shala in a similarly condescending tone. The two Admirals turned together and entered the meeting chamber followed by the other three males. Tali had been leaning against the bulk head with a hand on her visor but she had been observing with one eye the entire time. She waited till Kyson came up to her before standing fully back on her feet.

"Not good with kids?" she asked trying not to laugh. Kyson picked up on it and just shook his head.

"The best kids are somebody else's. You can give em back when they're not being cute…" he said with a wry smile she couldn't see.

"I see the problem now, you don't want to change their waste…" Tali began only for Kyson to hold up a hand.

"Exactly, ok let's do this. Is the data ready?" he asked Tali who nodded. They finished walking into the room and up to a large central display hub.

"Alright Miss. Zorah, what's this emergency all about, it can't be serious if we could spend fifteen minutes watching the Human make a fool of himself." Said Daro opening up the conversation. Kyson tried not to laugh again. She didn't let up at all did she?

"Trust me it's worth it. Tali, would you be so kind?" asked Kyson motioning to the holo display and Tali opened up several screens and a full three dimensional profile of Sovereign. Daro seemed to flinch a bit while the other admirals began to scan the data sheets and reports. Kyson and Tali stood quietly for a few minutes and waited to answer questions. Kal came up behind the two and quietly whispered to them.

"What the hell are you two up to?" hissed Kal concerned. Kal had a bad feeling things were going to get violent but Kyson just shrugged again and whispered back.

"It's gotta get done Kal. I'm sorry just bear with me." He said. Kal took a step back and Kyson could hear a soft 'Keelah' muttered from the marine. After a few more moments Shala was the first to ask.

"So you two truly believe in this?" she asked with doubt clearly reverberating in her voice. Kyson took a few steps towards the holo and brought up a model of the collector base as well as Saren. When the former specter was brought up he could have sworn he heard someone growl but he pressed on.

"Yes Admiral. This first Reaper, Sovereign, was the one Shepard and his team took out a few years ago when it hacked part of the Geth collective and attacked the Citadel with the help of the rogue SPECTER Saren Arterius." said Kyson who minimized Saren and then brought up an image from inside the collector base and the humanoid reaper fetus which caused all in the room except Tali to cringe.

"Two years later Shepard and his newly reformed crew were asked to investigate Human colonies being abducted and the trail finally lead them to the Collectors who lived beyond the Omega four Relay, what they found was not just astonishing but horrifying. The collectors had been harvesting humans to build a proto Human Reaper…" he said as he dived into the story of the Normandy.

Both himself and Tali recounted the whole ordeal with Tali doing most of the talking since she was the one there over the years, but Kyson helped by making sure the group stayed on track by answering questions where he could. By the end of the whole thing the Admirals were speechless and he could relate. When he had been fully briefed when coming onto the Normandy he had been scared shitless.

"This is insane! You're grasping at any connections you can. You two have been following a mad man just like that Matriarch followed Saren." said Daro with conviction in her voice. Tali Glanced at him and he just shook his head.

"Xen is right, we don't have time to play with wild fantasies while we need to get our own home world back from our own rogue machines…" said Han who caused Zaal'Koris to puff up his chest and square off against Han.

"We've been over this! You'll only get us all killed you war mongering bastard!" shouted Koris. Han balled his fists ready to strike.

"I'm not a damn suit wetter who will apologize to a damn machine for taking what's rightfully ours you pathetic apologist!" shouted Han. Kyson groaned. He had seen the vids from Tali's 'trial' and he knew she was having flash backs to the bullshit for she had her hand to her visor once again and sighed. When he re focused on the shouting match he heard Daro cut in.

"Can't you brain dead idiots see we need to override the damn things and be done with it? It saves time and resources and we'll have a labor force once again!" she shouted trying to be heard over the other Admirals. Shala threw up her hands and walked around to Kyson and Tali while the others argued.

"What is the point of this you two? Why stir up this trouble?" she said angrily. Tali began to bounce on her toes but Kyson squared off.

"Cause the Reapers are almost here ma'am. And the Galaxy need both the Quarians and the Geth working together." He said firmly and loudly enough so the other Admirals could hear him. The room froze into silence at his words.

"What? You can't be serious?" said Han incredulously. Kyson was fed up with the stalling and bickering.

"Damn serious Sir. That's why we presented the data about the Reapers first. The galaxy is going to need both the Flotilla and the Geth Armada to win the coming war." He said bluntly. All he got in response was laughter even from Zaal'Koris which caused Kyson to slam his fist into the holo projector causing a loud bang that caused the holo to flicker and dim before stabilizing.

"Laugh all you want! But before you get all high and mighty on me, this is what Cerberus has done with the tech they recovered!" Kyson brought up the videos from the raid on the Reds base. As the group watched they looked at him a couple of times. He played all the way up through the extraction before cutting the feed. He noticed that during the vid when he had been confronted by Finch, Tali had edged close to him and Daro had caught the movement.

"Tell me Kyson…is it? Why I should trust you?" said Daro in a cruel and icy tone with a hint of amusement. It made the hair on his neck stand on end and he could swear he saw an evil and toothy grin. Ah shit, what is she up too?

"You have no reason not to. He has just given you the compilation of data of years of pain and bloodshed! He has come to us trying to help!" yelled Tali for the first time during the entire meeting leaving everyone taken aback. She was shaking now as the anger inside began to boil over after having the hard won evidence rebuked in front of her by her own people. Kyson knew the lives that had been lost to get this far and felt her anger seeping into him.

"We are not disputing that Tali, we just don't have the resources to…" started Shala but Tali just clenched her teeth and turned away.

"Then you can kiss your asses' goodbye when shit hits the fan…" said Kyson as he instinctively stepped over and placed a hand on Tali's shoulder. Daro smirked to herself and found the perfect time to jab.

"Tell me Kyson, do you know any of the rumors about you here on the fleet?" asked Daro in a light and airy tone causing him to turn back to the Admiral. He could only guess at the 17 million Quarian game of telephone. Oh fuck you bitch don't you do it…

"I hear that once it becomes widely known That Tali is an Admiral now, that no one will support her due to outside manipulation, if you catch my meaning?" she asked and chuckled at the end. Kyson saw the line of reasoning she was drawing and he balled his fist ready to lunge.

"I don't think I do Admiral, Why don't you just say it and be done with it." He growled. Daro took a step back but baited him more. She put a hand to her chest and acted astonished.

"Oh you didn't know, Ha! Well, I'm just saying that who would trust and Admiral who was bonded to a different species?" asked Daro. Kyson felt a rock plunge into his stomach as he heard a pistol being drawn. He looked over and saw that Shala had one pointed right at his gut.

"You're what?" she asked as growl escaped her lips.

A/N

Oh and there is second another chapter after this one at the SAME time. So go ahead, keep reading. You know you want to. This isn't a lie I promise...