Chapter 1
In a back alley behind the markets on the Wards of the Citadel a quarian on her pilgrimage Tali waits for a meeting with the Shadowbroker. Ever since the start of her Pilgrimage, Tali has run into nothing but trouble. From the beginning it was the way the populace of planets would treat her, a vagrant and thief. Next it's all the danger she's been in ever since she had come into possession of evidence that proves the well known and respected Spectre Saren Arterius is working with the Geth. Assassins and the Geth have been hunting her down ever since she's gotten the information. Tali waits for her meeting with the Shadowbroker and all she can do is sit up against one of the crates nervously wringing her hands, something she finds herself doing whenever her nerves get the best of her.
Tali takes a deep breath. Come on Tali. You can do this. You need to look and sound confident and this will all be over soon. Tali forces her hands away from one another decides to cross them to keep herself from her stupid habit. Finally a turian followed by numerous mercenaries entered the alley way. On the opposite side from which the turian and mercenaries entered a krogan and turian merc stepped into view blocking the other exit. Oh keelah this can't be good. The turian continued his approach ordering his mercs to stay back as he inched closer to Tali.
"Did you bring it quarian?"
"Where's the Shadowbroker? I was told he would be here." Tali replied.
The turian's taloned hand began reaching for the right side of Tali's shawl "Don't worry he'll be here now where's the evidence?"
Immediately smacking his taloned hand away "Forget it, the deal's off." Tali turned ready to walk away from the turian when he reached out and grabbed her arm and yanked her back. "Let go of me you bosh'tet."
"Oh no that's not gonna happen you stupid suit-rat. You know i've always wondered what a quarian looks like under those stupid buckets." Bringing his talons up to caress the side of her helmet.
Tali reached down grabbing the knife strapped to her boots bringing up and diving it into the turian's arm. "I said let of of me you stupid bosh'tet." Tali pulled the knife back and stood in a defensive position.
The turian looked at his bleeding arm then back to Tali "You stupid bitch! I'm gonna rip that suit right off you!" Beginning his assault on the quarian he went to strike her in the head but she ducked out of it's way and slashed at his torso. This time the turian only growled and grabbed the hand that was holding the knife and he twisted her wrist. Tali shrieked in pain and immediately dropped her knife. Pulling his side arm out he brought it up and whipped the side of her head with it causing her to come crashing to the ground.
Tali opened her eyes in shock at seeing a crack in the side of her visor from the impact of the turian's pistol and the floor. She began to panic but realized that there were no breaches and everything was still holding together. Flipping to her back she looked up at the turian who was standing over her with his pistol aimed right at her with a smirk on his face. She clenched her eyes shut. Oh keelah no… not like this. She heard shots but didn't feel anything and began to open her eyes.
All Tali could see was a blue ball of energy then she saw a tall broad human male standing in front of her with his back turned towards her. He was clad in black armor and had a red and white stripe down the right side of his arm. Keelah i-is he shielding me from that bosh'tet? The human's hands were glowing blue and he was holding the turian's hand back. He collapsed his own pistol and brought it to the turians chest and fired three shots. Stumbling back the turian grabbed at his wounds and fell back choking up blood. The human finished by putting one last shot into the turian's head.
Tali was in complete shock and could only stare at her savior. Finally she began looking around and noticed a scarred up krogan in blood red armor looking over the now dead mercs and a turian leaning against the wall close to the krogan. Returning her gaze to the human who had just saved her noticed he had turned around and stuck his hand out towards her.
"You alright miss?"
"Wha… uhm I ya... I guess so, but who are you?" Taking his hand and helping her up.
The man just smirked and put Tali's knife back in her hand. "I'm Commander John Shepard, Alliance Navy. The krogan behind me is well a mercenary and the turian is a c-sec detective." Wrex just grunted in acknowledgement and Garrus simply nodded.
"Thank you... All of you. I wouldn't still be breathing if it wasn't for all of you." She sighed. "But I'm guessing that you didn't save me out of the kindness of your heart did you?"
"Don't mention it, these scumbags got what they deserved." Garrus replied.
Shepard sighed "I'm afraid not miss, but don't get the wrong idea though if I was walking by this same scenario I would have done the exact same thing. And the reason we saved you, we heard that you might have evidence that proves Saren Arterius is a traitor."
"Well since you did just save my life the least I can do is help you." Tali stuck her hand out and shook the Commander's hand. "My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya. But we shouldn't do this here, it's not safe."
Garrus spoke up "Well Commander we could take her to the Human Embassy and show it to the Ambassador."
"Good thinking Vakarian, well miss Rayya why don't you follow us."
Tali laughed and shook her head "Commander, the Rayya is the ship I was born on. Just call me Tali."
"Hmm, alright then Tali why don't we get moving?" The group then began their way towards the Human Embassy.
Ambassador Udina turned to look at Shepard. "You're not making my life easy Shepard. Firefights in the Wards… who is this? A quarian, what are you up to Shepard?"
"Well Ambassador if you'd let me speak I could end up making your day." Shepard replied sarcastically.
The other man in the room, Captain Anderson gave Shepard a stern look "Commander."
Shepard sighed and looked back to Udina "My apologies Ambassador, but Tali here has evidence that proves Saren is working with the Geth."
"We don't see many quarians here. Why did you leave the Flotilla?" Udina asked.
"I was on my pilgrimage, it's my right of passage into adulthood"
"Alright Tali why don't you tell the Ambassador and the Captain here what you found."
"Right, while traveling I heard that people were coming into contact with the Geth which is interesting since the Geth never travel outside of the Veil ever since they drove my people from their homeworld. I tracked a group of Geth and followed them until I could get one of them alone. After I disabled it I removed it's memory core." Tali explained.
"I thought the Geth fried their memory cores after they died?" Captain Anderson asked.
"That usually is the case when you disable one but if you're quick enough you could save some of the Geth's data but you have to be lucky like I was to pull it off. Most of the core was wiped clean but I did salvage something from its audio banks." Tali explained. She then started up her omni-tool and played the recording.
"Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit." Then another voice was heard. "And one step closer to the Reapers."
Udina with a puzzled look. "I don't recognize the other voice"
"That doesn't matter at the moment this proves that Sarens is a traitor. There's no way he can get out of this one" Anderson eagerly replied.
"Oh the Council is going to love this" Udina stated sarcastically. "We need to present this to the council right away."
Anderson spoke "I agree Ambassador we need to get this to the council right away." Udina nodded and walked over to his terminal setting up a meeting with the council.
"Well what about the quarian?" Garrus asked.
"I have a name you know." She turned towards Shepard "Commander please let me come with you I could help you."
"Tali it would be safer for you to stay with the Alliance here until this all blows over and what about your pilgrimage?" Shepard asked.
"Commander what would it say about me if I turned down an opportunity to assist the galaxy. I want to help you... please."
"Alright I have no problem if you want to help and if that's what you wanna do Tali." Shepard stuck his hand out grabbing Tali's and shaking it "I welcome aboard." He said with a smirk on his face.
"Oh thank you Commander. I-I won't let you down I promise."
Udina rejoined the group "Commander Shepard, Tali'Zorah the council would like to see you."
Shepard looked over at Tali and smirked "Finally got that bastard."
Shepard and Tali met with the Council and presented the evidence that she had found. After showing them they marked Saren a traitor and made Shepard the first human Spectre. Tali had felt honored being present with the Commander as he was bestowed with such an accomplishment. Shepard's first task as the first human Spectre was to bring Saren to justice by any means.
Shepard and Tali began to make their way to the ship Shepard was stationed on. Shepard had the biggest most stupid grin on his face he couldn't belive that had just happened. "Congratulations Commander, it must feel crazy to think that you're the first human Spectre."
Shepard looked over at Tali and shook his head "Please Tali drop the formalities. I've always hated them, just call me Shepard."
"Alright then Shepard. What's the plan now?" She asked.
"Well for starters we are heading back to the Normandy and begin the hunt… of course that is until after we celebrate."
Tali smirked at his mention of a celebration. I wonder how humans celebrate things, this surely is gonna be interesting. Tali thought to herself.
The two finally arrived to the ship and to Shepards surprise he noticed that his Captain and Udina were waiting for him near the ship. Tali was in complete awe that she didn't even realize that Shepard had left her side and joined with the other two humans. Tali had never seen a ship quite like her. The Normandy. After admiring the ship she noticed Shepard had joined her side again and leaned against the railing with her, taking in the whole ship.
"Comman- I mean Shepard I've never seen a ship quite like that. I mean it must be amazing serving on a ship like this."
Shepard shook his head and chuckled causing Tali to look at him in confusion. "Well I guess you can call it my ship now."
"Wait seriously? This ship is yours now that's insane! I can't wait to see and work in engineering. As long as you're ok with that I suppose it is your ship now Captain?"
Shaking his head "If you feel like you'll be the most useful in engineering then say no more."
"Wait really? I-I mean I guess I just didn't expect to be treated so kindly, like I'm an equal to everyone else." Tali replied with a bit of sadness in her voice.
"Tali, I don't care about what everyone else thinks as the quarians as a whole because I'm not gonna judge you based on those stereotypes. You haven't given me a reason not to trust you, and I can tell that I'm gonna like you." Shepard grinned at her and put his hand on her shoulder and began walking into the ship. "Now come on Tali why don't I give you a tour of the ship now?"
Tali looked into his eyes and nodded following him into his ship. She blushed a little under her visor at Shepard's comment. There's something different about him he sure is dashing.
Author's Notes
Keep in mind that this is my first fanfic and even though it starts off like how Shepard and Tali meet it's going to be different. I'm not gonna follow canon and i'm gonna add in my own ideas to make things interesting like maybe some characters might not die and maybe some major events will happen differently. I do plan on making this story include the first, second, and third Mass Effect. I hope my writing gets better and I'm open to any criticism. I would like to get a chapter out a week but it all depends on my work schedule. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you all enjoy it.
-Insaiyan01