Tali stood at her workplace in engineering, it was half way through first shift, which meant that it was just about noon in the ships internal twenty four hour cycle, which was apparently synchronized with the city of Toronto on earth, the human home planet, where the System's Alliance had their capital – while Arcturus station was the seat of parliament and government, a space station was hardly a good fit for a capital city, at least any space station that wasn't the Citadel. It was the second day of the planned three day shore leave, and most of the crew was out and about in the wards, but at least a skeleton crew had to remain at all times, and as far as engineering was concerned, for today's first shift, that was her and Adams. She liked working with the early-middle aged man; he was a good teacher and had acquainted her with all the Normandy's systems at lightning speed, and while he wasn't as interesting to talk to as Shepard, she still enjoyed listening to him tell her about his children and the things his wife lamented they got up to in his absence.
She was about to open her mouth to make a suggesting about using the shore leave to take apart the casing of the second starboard engine and finally fix that minor fluctuation in it's heat routing towards the banks, when she heard the door to the cargo hold open and a very familiar step entering their domain, followed shortly after by the associated voice.
"Mornin' , Adams."
The Lieutenant chuckled. "Good morning, Sir." He left his console be and turned around, grinning at Shepard. "You do realize it is 1200, don't you Commander?"
Her captain return the grin tiredly and scratched the back of his neck, groaning at the movement. Tali failed to contain a short giggle, and Adams, while remaining respectfully reserved, was obviously quite amused too. Shepard, Wrex and the boys had taken it a bit too far last night, and it looked like he was paying the price now, the skin under his eyes darkened, a sign she had learned to associate with a lack of sleep in humans.
"I woke up half an hour ago, so I say it's morning. My ship, my rules." At this, Adamn snorted once, but relented and turned to get back to his station, stopping when Shepard addressed him again. "Think you can lend Tali to me for a couple of minutes, Adams?"
The smirk returning to his face, the chief engineer nodded. "I think I'll manage alone for a while, Sir."
Having expected that answer since they weren't really doing anything big or urgent right now, Tali had already turned around and closed half of the distance from her workplace to where Shepard was standing. "Hey, Shepard. What's up?"
He turned himself towards her and adopted a cheeky grin. "Oh, you'll see. It's a surprise." With that, he got going towards the exit, leaving her with not much choice but to hurry after him.
"A surprise? What have you done again, Shepard?" , she tried to tease him, while scouring her brain for what he was talking about. Was it simply going to be Garrus waiting on the other side of the door, ready to scare her? After last night's drunken debauchery, she wasn't so sure if she'd put something like that past a shore-leave Shepard, immature or not. Or had he perhaps...keelah, he couldn't have bought something again, could he? Her equipment was top notch, the armor was in good condition, and Shepard had said himself that her shotgun was 'pretty damn neat' . In way of an answer, the man only chuckled to himself, leaving her to speculate, until they finally stepped into the bay, where he lead her over to Wrex's side, to an empty spot next to the starboard engineering door that wasn't being used to stow crates or gear. It had been like this for the entire time she had been here, and had served as a sparring place more than once, including that one terribly embarassing time where Shepard wanted to try out if Quarian kicks were what everyone made them out to be and had ordered her to give him a shot to the ribs. The stupid bosh'tet had, when he thought no-one was looking, winced with every movement for two days.
Now, it was being occupied by two boxes, one much longer than deep and wide, the other almost a cube, and a third one, somewhere in the middle.
"Shepard...?" She had given up on guessing at this point. He still didn't answer her question, choosing instead to walk over to the boxes and start opening one. Fine, if he wanted to savor this, she would let him, and so she leaned against the bulkhead, crossing her arms over her chest doing her best trying to look uninterested – but she had little faith in herself doing a good job of it, since as much as she knew that was what he wanted to see, she simply couldn't stop herself from at least subtly bouncing on her toes from the anticipation. Shepard was many things, but boring or unimaginative wasn't one of them, and whatever he had come up with now was promising to be interesting.
By now, he had opened the long box and laid it's contents out on the floor, a number of poles, metal angles and screws, and was getting to the second one. Garrus,looking surprisingly good, though that might have been just her having little experience with how a hungover turian was supposed to look like, approached and appraised the commander with a skeptic look before shooting a questioning glance at her, which she could only answer with a shrug. Seconds later, the box came open and Shepard hunched over it, grabbing something inside with both hands and shaking, slowly but surely loosening the traction the object and the box had on each other before finally yanking it out.
It was a cot. "A...bed?" He ignored her question, looking up only shortly to , to his evident satisfaction, see her standing closer now, still in apparent confusion, before grinning widely and getting to folding the thing apart. Finally, he put it down and plopped down on it, the bed squeaking a little at the sudden weight.
"Shepard, please! What is this?"
His grin lost it's cockiness and morphed into a simple, warm smile. "Your new bed."
"B-but...I don't need... I mean, the pod is great, and even if it wasn't, it wouldn't be proper-"
"The pod isn't fine Tali, it's been close to three months and you're still not sleeping properly. This spot is perfect, it's free and close enough to the drive core for you be able to hear it and be comfortable."
She was at a loss for words for a while, wringing her hands furiously as the human in front of her simply watched her, his face betraying his amusement, and Garrus felt much the same, judging by the low chuckle escaping him. "Th-thank you, Shepard...really..." she looked about, somewhat confused. "But it's a little...public, isn't it?" She felt terrible complaining about this incredibly generous gift, but their sleep was one of the few activities where any Quarian could expect, and was used to, some privacy, and the thought of trying to sleep here in the cargo hold just like that, with the third shift people passing through and seeing her curled up and unconscious was immensely uncomfortable. "I-I'm sorry, Shepard, this is so nice, I don't mean to..."
He simply snorted and got back up, gesturing towards the poles on the ground. "Calm down Tali, you are right. Which is why the surprise encapsulates more than just the bed. That down there, is your new room. Or cubicle, to be more precise."
She felt like passing out. "Wh-what!? But Shepard! I can't ha- it isn't right! I don't deserve-"
"Jesus Christ, Tali. I'm the acting captain, I say who deserves what, and I think that everyone on my ship deserves a proper damn sleeping place, and at this point I've come to the conclusion that the pod's just don't do it for you. Besides, it's going to be really small, pretty much just a screen around the bed. " He nodded towards the last box. "Come on, open that one yourself."
With trembling fingers, equally giddy about and horrified of what might be in store for her now, she got out her boot knife and opened the box, putting aside the cover to reveal...something very familiar to her, the swirling wave pattern of clan Zorah embroidered on a purple field. It stretched out across a large, folded stack of cloth, metal rings worked into the edge on one side of the fabric.
Keelah...he didn't...
Shepard bent down and gripped the cloth, pulling it out of the box and unfolding it with some flicks of his elbows, revealing it to be a veritable carpet, larger than that even. "Tali , meet your new walls." He gestured towards the poles on the floor. "You won't have a proper door, but it's essentially the same. Like a shower curtain, just as a room." He gave her one of his lopsided grins, and she noticed her fingers were doing their thing in front of her waist again.
"Sh-Shepard, I...I don't know what to say...", she shook her head. "This is the nicest thing anyone outside of the flotilla...no, this is the nicest thing anyone except my mother has ever done for me, period. Thank you. But...I can't accept this." She saw him frown. "It's just not fair, Shepard. I-it's not everyone else's fault that I don't sleep very well, this...this is...it's a warship, nobody has a room to themselves. It's preferential treatment. I-I don't deserve that, and I don't want to..." She had cast her head down towards the end, feeling terrible about having to turn down such a generous and well thought out gift.
He sighed, stepped in front of her, and put a hand on her shoulder. "Tali. Everyone is getting gifts from me this shore leave. You're all getting Spectre grade weapons later today. Assault rifles for me and Ashley, SMGs for Liara and Kaidan, a marksman rifle for Garrus - " she could see the Turian's eyes light up and his mandibles flare in the corner of her vision – " and pistols for everyone. I've got some money to spend. Courtesy of that volus, Barla Von." He smirked, somewhat sheepishly. "It's not like I wasn't already wealthy before becoming a Spectre, but between that guy's investment skills and the salvage from some of our operations it has been piling up. You're getting only a pistol because honestly, your shotty is a piece of art, so this here..." he gestured around the area that was to become her 'room' - " is just peanuts compared to what I'm spending on some of the others. If you absolutely have to know."
She nodded several times in quick succession, her fingers wringing furiously from her complete embarassment. Of course he thinks of everyone, that what he's like, how could I even think...keelah...
"Y-yes Shepard, I suppose that's fair...I...keelah, this is so embarassing." She hit or hand on her mask trying to palm her face as had been happening more than once lately since she had been picking up some gestures from all the humans around her. Not sure what to do with her hands now as she really didn't want to continue wringing them together, she just stood there for a moment, looking at Shepard, who was still just standing there with an amused, but warm expression on his face, and then back towards the large cloth with her color and pattern on it , a question forming in her head. "Where did you even get this, anyway?"
"Easy, snuck a picture of your hood and sent it to a tailor on the Citadel. Been lying around there waiting for pickup for a while now."
The tiny voice in the back of her head pointed out that this meant that his justification about everyone getting presents didn't hold up anymore, but that ship had already entered FTL. The embarassment had begun to be replaced by sheer amazement. "Keelah, a bed and a room! It's just like home, too, you know? On the flotilla, we make the rooms out of cloth, too. Makes it easier to rearrange and move. Cheaper, too."
Shepard snorted. "I know, Tali. You explained that one before."
"Sorry..." , she said, slightly embarassed again, but the negative feeling failed to take proper hold as she watched Shepard, with the help of Garrus, get started at installing the poles that would make up the suspension for what would soon be her cubicle. A piece of home out here on her pilgrimage.
"Shepard, I...I know you don't think this is such a big thing, but it really is. I don't know what you say, honestly, except thank you."
He turned around and just smiled that lopsided grin of his, though without humor this time, just warmth. "That's quite alright."
…...
John closed the door behind himself and slumped against it, finally relaxing, groaning from the pain the movement sent trough his battered ribs. The firefight against the pirates they had intercepted and boarded today had turned out tougher than expected, with the criminals having several quite powerful Asari biotics in their ranks. His team had eventually prevailed, of course, wiping the pirates out to the last – two of them had tried to surrender, but Wrex hadn't cared, and quite frankly, while he would've taken them prisoner himself, Shepard didn't deem scum like this worth the effort of starting an argument with the Krogan. However, before they had died, one of the biotics had managed to slam a heavy crate into his chest at high speed; as Dr. Chakwas had just confirmed, nothing was broken, but that was solely thanks to his armor, and he felt like a ruin. Stifling another sound of pain, he got his shirt off and let it drop to the floor carelessly, the rest of his clothes following soon after, his mind bent on getting to the bliss of his shower as quickly as possible.
A minute later he was standing with his forehead against the metal wall, letting the warm water rinse over him, once more incredibly thankful for the fact that he, being a captain now for all intents and purposes, had his own shower. However, being on a ship, one couldn't indulge themselves like this too much; after all, the water supply was limited. So he willed himself to straighten up, stop the water, and begin soaping himself, hissing when his hands passed the large hematoma on his left ribcage. He looked at it, for the first time actually, as so far only Dr. Chakwas had had a an actual visual look at it, scanners doing most of the work of confirming that nothing was broken. He grinned to himself, thinking about how good it was that Tali hadn't seen it, she had already been worried enough when she had noticed that he had been hurt. During the mission itself, he hadn't given any indication of it that he could think of, but the girl was ridiculously perceptive when it came to these things.
Tali. The thought of his favorite Quarian made him cringe again, annoyed at what an idiot he was. When he had woken up the next 'morning' after their trip to Flux a couple of days ago, he had immediately remembered her dancing, and his staring, and had spent about a quarter of an hour just lying in his bed trying to understand the whole thing. In the end, it had really been more of a matter of admitting it to himself than of actually understanding it – he was a damned fool, and had developed feelings for a teammate. Given how attached he had gotten to this team – something he hadn't planned, but certainly wasn't going to try and change now, it was what it was, and he would live with the eventual downsides of it – this probably shouldn't have been as much of a surprise to him. He was a man after all, and she was, despite of how fierce she could be, a sweet girl at heart, and they really had spent a ridiculous amount of time together over the past months. Again, not something he had planned that way. In a way, his present for her, her 'room', had been both a blessing and a curse because of this. At the time of his initial realization, he had been conflicted, since giving Tali what was, as he refused to not think of at least a little smugly, a bloody awesome gift, wasn't exactly going to be conductive to what he knew he had to do – distance himself from her a little in a way that would help him come to his senses without giving her the cold shoulder she did not deserve. In the end it had turned out brilliantly, since his idea with the room had actually worked, and she appeared to sleep much better now; in fact, he hadn't seen her at all in the last couple of nights, and while he definitely had caught himself missing her company, it was better this way, both for him to straighten his stupid head out, and for her, too. Both because after all, she really did deserve proper rest like everyone else, but also because the last thing Tali needed was her, as she insisted Captain, trying to take a good friendship down an entirely different road. He didn't even want to start imagining what kind of social faux pas this probably was in quarian culture. Well, perhaps there was one good thing at least about the Quarian immune system – if he was being like this without even being able to see Tali's face, he'd probably have been head over heels by now if he could.
Grinning mirthlessly at his own stupidity, he dried himself off and got to gathering together the dirty laundry and preparing a clean uniform for when he would get up, before getting into bed. He'd write that report later.
Not nearly enough time had passed when he was abruptly awoken by Joker's voice coming over the intercom.
"Commander , Admiral Hackett is waiting to speak to you in the comm room. Priority five. I already have the Normandy on course to our mission, Sir."
Shepard had been almost completely awake by the time Joker had finished saying "Admiral Hackett", and any residual drowsiness instantly vanished when he heard the words "Priority Five". Whatever was going on, there were going to be thousands of lives at stake and it was happening soon. His concern had only grown further when the pilot told him that they were already on course – while giving the pilot of someone else's ship direct orders was certainly within the power of an admiral, it was only ever done in order to humiliate a captain – or in moments of the most extreme urgency.
Having dressed himself with the frantic efficiency of a seasoned soldier, he squeezed himself trough his door as it opened and sprinted up the stairs to the CIC, taking two steps with every stride. Barely a minute after being woken up, he came to a halt in front of the comm room's big screen, on which Hackett was already waiting. He saluted, as he always did for the old man even though he technically didn't have to anymore, and Hackett returned the salute, but did so even quicker than usual.
"Shepard, " he said, abandoning even the low amount of formality he was known for, " there is a situation developing in the Asgard system. You're already in the cluster and can make it there in just under three hours. Noone else is close. "
John frowned. "Asgard...Terra Nova. Is the colony in danger, Sir?"
The older man's face was a mask of stone as usual. "Half an hour ago, the communication to a research asteroid in the system was lost, asteroid X57. The problem is that this asteroid is mobile." His eyes left whatever they had been reading and transfixed Shepard. "And it has adopted a collision course with Terra Nova."
Shepard's eyes widened. "How big is this asteroid exactly, Sir?"
"Bigger than the one that took out the dinosaurs. And it's going to hit just a couple thousand kilometers away from the main colony. There are four million people living down there."
John's stomach fluttered for a second; the dimensions of this mission that he had been woken up to so rudely were staggering. But within a second, he fought it down, as he always did. Not a good time to get wet feet. "How do I stop it, Sir? What do we know about the situation on the asteroid?"
"Absolutely nothing. The loss of communications wasn't even reported to the Alliance until ten minutes later, when the thing changed it's course. The controllers thought it was just a technical issue." The admiral sighed. "Can't blame them, really. Bottom line is, we know nothing. Except for how to fix it. The asteroid is being propelled by three fusion torches the scientist installed. You need to capture them and use them to change course. I do not assume that you need to be lectured on what happens to a moving object in space, Commander, so I will trust that you understand that capturing these torches intact is of the greatest importance."
Again, Shepard simply nodded. He would need technical expertise on this one to figure out how to change the course...good thing he had Kaidan and Tali with him. To the general, he simply said, "Understood, Sir. If that is all, I'll go and make ready."
The older man returned the nod curtly and sat back in his chair. "Good. We are currently scrambling to evacuate the colony as much as possible, but with no actual navy assets in system, you can imagine how many people we will be able to save that way. There is no alternative to that asteroid being diverted, and I have not a shred of doubt that you will accomplish the task. Now go and save four million lives, Commander. Hackett out."
The connection cut and John took one deep breath. Four million lives. Then he exhaled and turned around, striding towards the exit with purpose. There was work to be done.