As the two entered the elevator Shepard started a conversation with the nervous Quarian. Clearing his throat he started, "Do you have family on the Flotilla?"
"Oh- yes I have.. a father on the Flotilla... Though he isolates himself in his work most of the time after my mother's death," Tali responded as she was taken back to the bright white medic bay of the Rayya; there her mother laid on the hospital bed, gasping for breath. Monitors all around her with a maddening beep. Quickly, Tali rushed over to the side of the bed taking her mother's hand in hers. "Please don't leave me again... I needed you.." She quietly begged but to no avail as her mother slowly disappeared into dust followed by the room disappearing in tandem. Dropping her head to the floor she whispered, "I love you mother." After this, her father appeared across from her, back turned. Tali approached the figure and faintly heard a mumble, "I will get you back the homeworld Tali." repeating himself again and again until finally, she felt a slight jolt.
Awakening from her daydream she heard Shepard, "I'm sorry to hear about that Tali, so how did you get all your wits for technology then?"
"It comes with being a Quarian; we don't have many amenities aboard the Flotilla so most children tinker with unusable te-technologies... I guess I may have done it more than the others," Tali chuckled and began to rub her hands together.
Passing over a bridge Shepard responded, "That must be an understatement for your abilities, I have dealt with Geth once but salvaging data cores is impressive,"
"Well if you try hard enough anything is possible with courage," Tali responded with humorous sarcasm.
"You should be a Alliance military recruiter if you keep spouting these things," Shepard added "I'm sure the amount of soldiers would double with that logic." Getting a hardy laugh out of both of them.
After some more banter the two walked passed a music shop where Shepard got enticed into going into after seeing the crimson red guitar with Tali following suit.
"Are you the Lion of Elysium! Please have a look around sir, thank you for your service" the old frail shop owner told Shepard. "I'm sorry ma'am but we only sell human instruments here," the owner of the shop told Tali with a hint of sincerity.
Which she responded with, "oh that's fine, I'm with him.. I mean, errr.. Not like th-that." Nice job Tali you made the situation awkward she thought to herself.
Chuckling he responded, "haha, I understand; if you need any help finding anything please ask away."
Shepard then picked up the guitar he spotted and started testing out the strings, now that he had an entire captain's quarters he thought buying a guitar wouldn't be that bad of an idea. Slowly he began to play the rhythm of Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground, humming along with the melodic rhythm the guitar dueted. Feeling the strings twang against his hand reminded him of his childhood.
Noticing this Tali spoke up once he finished part of the song, "That was a beautiful rhythm, though uhm, what song was that?"
Shepard smiled, "It's Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground, a song made almost 300 years ago by Blind Willie Johnson." calling the owner over Shepard asked, "How much for the guitar."
The Human responded excitedly, "For the Lion of Elysium only 200 credits."
Shephard's eyes suddenly became distant remembering the horrors of the battlefield. His world became dark with grey sand under his feet, shells exploding all around him as his squad was entrenched waiting for the fifth fleet to come for backup. A blitzkrieg of pirates drew from the smoke, too many to count the team opened fire with Revenant light machine guns. Shepard could faintly hear the fearful screams of the colonists in a prefab for shelter.
Coming back to reality Shepard noticed Tali staring at him seeing his eyes go blank with dread.
Bringing his hand to his head he replied softly, "Here you go, can you send the order to council docking bay F-34."
"Of course that will only be a 20 credit shipping fee," the owner responded.
Handing him the credits and the guitar Shepard left with Tali to continue with the original goal.
"I saw you become distant in the store... I mean are you ok, sorry I shouldn't have said anything," Tali asked Shepard.
Realizing she noticed a flashback he had Shepard covered it up, "No, don't worry about it... I was just remembering something." Shepard then proceeded to cut the conversation short with that comment.
Nice job Tali, what were you thinking about asking him she berated herself.
Trying to recover the conversation he killed Shepard asked, "I have to ask, how does your ship's government work."
Perking up after being reminded of her people she started, "Oh- well, we have two forms of government we have the Conclave which is like your Parliament on Arcturus Station, but in reality, the power is only symbolic like the captains on each ship governing them. Then we have the Admiralty Board that makes most of the decisions that affect the whole fleet." Continuing she told, "There's the heavy fleet which Han'Gerrel controls, the patrol fleet which Auntie Raan control err- I mean Shala'Raan, the civilian fleet which is controlled by Zaal'Koris, and then my father who controls special projects."
Giving one of his notorious smiles Shepard teased, "Ah I got it, you're like the princess of the Quarians."
"No, I'm no princess, j-just his daughter." Tali corrected.
"Whatever you say.. Princess." Shepard teased.
Stopping in her tracks she crossed her arms across her chest and she looked at him while leaning on one of her legs, she faced him and through a smile said, "You are one stubborn man Commander Shepard."
Secretly she loved being called an endearing word by Shepard... But she couldn't let him know that. He wouldn't ever date a Quarian girl anyway she thought to herself, but I can still be near him even if nothing will come of it. Not only was the fact she was stuck in the suit that disappointed her but she also had a people to return to eventually and abandoning them would be selfish of her.
"I think you're just mad I'm right and you're wrong" Smiling uncontrollably Shepard kept teasing.
Lightly hitting him as a joke she flirted to him, "Maybe... I don't want to join your crew, captain"
"Captain?" Shepard questioned, "I don't think anyone has referred to me outside of the Alliance by my status."
"You're gonna have to get used to it then, captain. In quarian culture captains of ships are some the highest regarded people in the Flotilla." Tali explained to Shepard.
Heading farther down the strip mall type area they were shopping at, the two made it to the store. The neon sign read 'Black Heart's World of Technology' in a cascade of glowing orange lights. Entering, the Salarian at the desk greeted, "Hello, I'm Torow Cix, if you have any trouble finding anything please ask away."
Nodding his head towards the greeter Shepard handed Tali 1,000 credits, "If you find an Omni-Tool or anything that will be useful go ahead and use this to buy it."
Widening her eyes behind her mask she gasped, "Shepard please, I don't need anything, it's your money and I wouldn't want to waste that much money."
"Tali please, you are using a Blue Wire tool; head to the front desk so we can get you an upgrade," Shepard asked.
"But what about you... you're using a Savant tool?" She questioned.
"Once we're on our way out of here I'll go to the Alliance military dock and get a PALADIN tool. " Continuing, he explained, "The Alliance made the PALADIN just recently apparently for N7 Sentinels to use in the field."
Walking towards the counter Tali asked the employee, "Hi, uhm can I see your catalog of Omni-Tools for combat?"
The employee thought to himself, does this vagrant even have enough money to purchase an Omni-tool? "Yes, follow me," the worker said with annoyance.
Putting on his best marketing voice he coughed lightly and began as they walked up to a display case, "This is the cipher tool, this beauty can draw volts from an external battery unit that can be mounted on your back or if you'd like it can use its power source."
"How much does this cost," Tali asked.
He responded, "Only at the low price of 650 credits."
After waiting for a second considering the steep price she gave in, "Here, I'll check out with him." Walking over to Shepard she noticed him examine older circuits in the back of the store, "Hey, Shepard."
Startled, the commander turned around, "Oh, hey Tali. That was fast, you bought an Omni-Tool right?"
Sarcastically she pretended she was annoyed, "Yes, Commander. I was wondering what you are examining there?"
"It's an old Human technology called a Hard Disk Drive that stores data, I'm surprised they still exist outside of a museum," Shepard explained. "These were first made before us Humans were even in space," He continued.
"It's amazing how fast you Humans evolved to be a contender on the Galactic stage even though you've been here for only 26 years."
"It's the benefit of having a population eager to be the most powerful again," He admitted "My race has been fueled by power for our entire history, it's a virtue but comes with a great drawback as well." "But, we should probably buy that Omni-tool so we can get back to the hotel eventually," Shepard told Tali.
Shepard put down the circuit and walked with Tali to the counter, "Here you go, sir."
Taking the credit chit for the Omni-tool the cashier handed a bag containing the tool, "Have a nice day sir." Trying his best to ignore the suit-rat in the store.
Once outside they went to a Skycar depot, getting into the closest one Shepard took the controls and piloted towards the hotel.
Author Notes: I'm back after recovering from coronavirus, school, and relationships filling my days (I even considered giving up on this but decided Ill continue). Also it isn't mentioned anywhere what fleet Rael'Zorah controls (or at least from what the wiki says) so I explained it as he originally controlled special projects. But I know new chapters are completely random on scheduling however, the next chapter should be up hopefully in 1.5 weeks but possibly longer the way life is going.