Tali was surprised to discover how many people were crammed into the mess hall, waiting to hear the results of the trial. Even Adams was there, rather than monitoring the drive core.
When she entered the mess deck behind Shepard, there was a certain sense of relief, even though she didn't know most of this crew very well.
Shepard stopped, and looked around. "Tali's resignation from the Admiralty Board was accepted," she announced. "And it's been recommended that she go into the diplomacy corps. She's a quarian in good standing."
Applause erupted, and even a few cheers—mostly from Ken and Gabby.
"Let's have some lunch!" Palmer called from the galley, approaching with two plates of dextro-something, which Garrus sniffed at with more than a little interest.
"How did you manage that?" he asked, taking the plate.
"So it smells right?" she asked, grinning.
"It smells amazing," Garrus answered.
"In that case, I'm sorry I can't eat it with everyone else," Tali sighed.
Palmer's expression twitched, as if she didn't know what to say.
"Can we put it on to warm, and I'll just have some nutrition paste now to take the edge off?" Tali asked, pretending not to notice. Mealtimes were usually awkward in one way or another, when one had environmental concerns others didn't. She'd become accustomed to it. "I'd really rather stay with the group."
"Sure." Palmer set the plate in a heating unit, and began serving the levo crewmen with brisk efficiency.
Tali found herself sitting beside Garrus, with Adams and Gabby, being congratulated and praised. It felt like family, she mused as she listened to Ken and Gabby get off on a tangent, which left them arguing (to the amusement of those nearest to them).
And, as people got their plates from Palmer, many stopped to offer further congratulations, or express pleasure that she would be staying with them.
"One more thing," Shepard declared, before leaving the deck, a tray in one hand.
Silence fell.
"For anyone interested in attending, there will be a memorial service for Legion tomorrow morning, dawn local time. You're welcome to come if you like."
With that, Shepard turned to head out of the mess hall. If Tali had to guess, Shepard was going to try to eat between FTL calls with the Council and the Alliance.
"Will you need any help, Shepard?" Tali called.
"No, I've got it, thank you." With that, Shepard disappeared.
The chatter of the mess hall at mealtime rose to its usual pitch, gladness over a crewman being okay mingling with the loss of the unorthodox crewman only a few of the crew actually knew. Tali thought Legion would have liked to know that sea stories about it—him—had been brought out to be shared.
Tali sighed. The quarians had a good representative to the geth with Koris. Hopefully, everyone—and she admitted she meant her own people more than anyone else—could keep their fingers off the triggers, could refrain from jumping to conclusions based on old fears and prejudices.
She just had to hope that everything would be okay, and do her part to ensure that it was. With the homeworld recovered, and the conflict with the geth over—or, at least, a truce having been reached—then it was time to see if the Council would restore the quarians Embassy status. After all, they had their homeworld back. She didn't think the Council would be ecstatic over the idea, but if Wrex could battering ram his way towards an Embassy—which he was apparently still doing—she could show at least that much tenacity on the behalf of her people.
It did not fail to occur to her that, as the quarians cohabitated Rannoch with the geth, that a Quarian Embassy probably required a geth representative, too. Oh, the Council would love that! A real live—so to speak…then she corrected herself that this was no way to think—geth on their station that didn't want to murder everyone! Gasp!
"What's so funny?" Garrus asked, blinking at her.
"Oh, I was just thinking. If the quarians can get an Embassy on the Citadel again, there should probably be a geth representative, too, since Rannoch is a two-species world," Tali answered. "I was just imagining how the Council would take it. Maybe we shouldn't tell them about the geth representative until we get the Embassy. Who doesn't love surprises?"
Most within earshot laughed at this. Even Tali chuckled quietly over it. Surprises indeed—and that did sound like the best way to handle a geth representative: sneak them into the Embassy and then mention 'oh, hey. As a two-species world, we have a representative for the other species right here! Ta-dah!' Wouldn't that shake things up?
"That is a gracious thought," EDI observed.
"Thank you," Tali responded, regarding the synthetic, suddenly struck by the fact that the treatment of the geth by the wider galaxy might have ramifications and implications for EDI, also an artificial intelligence, as well. "There's no time for moving forward past differences like a victory party. I hope that will hold true for synthetic lifeforms as well."
EDI smiled, doodling with her fork along her empty plate. "Thank you. I hope so as well."
Tali didn't know what more to say, so she said nothing, merely considered the noise and camaraderie of the mess hall. It was good to be home, she thought. After another ten minutes, she took her plate and headed back to her room in the medbay.
The food was delicious, if nothing like quarian cuisine, which was necessarily vegetarian. The simple fact that remaining in a warming unit for so long hadn't messed with the flavors of the texture—as far as she could tell—said something about turian cooking.
She also wondered how Palmer managed a decent-tasting dextro meal, when she couldn't taste any of the ingredients herself. The girl had skills and talent, Tali decided. There was no other, or better, explanation.
