Editorial Note: As previously stated, I divided this personnel report into two parts, given its unusual, but undeniably informative, length. It is my privilege to present the thought-provoking developments and conclusion for the consideration of the reader.

Personnel Report—Tali'Zorah vas Normandy

The guard at the airlock outside our designated shuttle looked a bit uncomfortable. Partly because he knew he had to treat a fellow—or former—crewmate as a potential traitor. Mostly because of Legion. We managed to get through the requisite chit-chat without things getting too tense, though.

At least, not as tense as the trip over to the Alarei. Silently and nervously re-checking weapons isn't exactly conducive to a peaceful state of mind. Nor is waiting for the damn airlock to finish its numerous decontamination cycles. Or the long walk through a corridor littered with dead quarian bodies. Or the empty room with nothing but...

"Incoming!"

"Typical," I grumbled as we dove for cover in the formerly-empty room. "We've been here for less than a minute and we've already run into hostiles."

"26.5 seconds," Legion corrected helpfully.

"Thanks," I muttered sarcastically before sniping a geth trooper.

"You are welcome, Shepard-Commander."

In the time it took for me to shake my head at Legion's complete inability to grasp my sense of humour, the squad finished off the last geth trooper. A quick check of my HUD told me that we weren't safe yet. "More hostiles inbound," I announced, pointing at a door at the far end of the room. "Miranda, Garrus, and Kasumi: stagger your EMPs. Tali, Legion; hack the strongest geth as soon as they're vulnerable. Everyone else: keep 'em bottled up by the door."

That plan only worked for half a minute, as the geth were smart enough not to freeze when they were hit with EMPs, bullets and everything except the kitchen sink. It didn't take long before the squad was forced to split their fire, which allowed more geth to stream through. Still, we were keeping them at bay, slowly picking them off one by one.

Then I saw a telltale flicker of light as a large geth-shaped shimmer moved our way. A geth hunter under cloak. And no one could see it but me. I quickly did a check. Tali was too busy pointing out which geth her drone Chikkita should shoot at with the business end of her shotgun. So that left—"Legion, standby to hack a hostile."

"Ready."

Grabbing my submachine gun, I started chipping away at the hunter's shields. It didn't take long before I got some help. It was hard to tell for certain, what with all the bullets flying around, but the trajectories suggested that Miranda and Legion were lending me a hand. No doubt both of them had traced my line of fire and extrapolated where my invisible—from their perspective—target was located. With their help, the hunter's shields—and cloak—soon shut down. "Legion?"

"Overriding IFF protocols."

The hunter immediately turned around and opened fire on its former buddies. Now that I had a chance to assess the battlefield, I assigned a severely damaged geth trooper for Team One to take out. I was about to do the same for Team Two when I saw another shimmer. "Team Two, there's a hunter hiding at these coordinates. Tali, get ready to hack it when it decloaks."

Thankfully, Team Two didn't question my sudden eagerness to waste ammo by firing at supposedly empty air. (1) It wasn't long before the second hunter was under our control... just as the first hunter shook off its hack. After a couple seconds, the second hunter shook off its hack. On a whim, I had Legion hack the first hunter.

The rest of the battle was spent by alternating which hunter got hacked, forcing the rapidly dwindling numbers of hostile geth to constantly switch targets. Too bad I didn't bring any popcorn.

Once all the geth were down—except for Legion, of course—we looted the room for goodies. We got plenty of thermal clips, creds and a power cell. We also found a laptop. Most of its hard drive was damaged beyond repair, but I did manage to salvage one audio log:

"Something's slowing down the systems," a male quarian reported. "We're taking down the firewalls to rebalance load distribution. Rael'Zorah ordered us to bypass standard safeties. Following security protocols will take too long."

'Bypass standard safeties.' 'Following security protocols will take too long.' Now where had I heard this before?

Wordlessly, we left the room and entered a winding corridor. The first door we came across led to a med-bay, where I quickly hacked a terminal for credits before turning my attention to a table. Or, more specifically, what was on the table.

"This is one of the items I sent to Father," Tali identified.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A disabled repair drone with a custom servo-arm, plus a reflex algorithm that I didn't recognize. I got this on Haestrom."

"Haestrom?" I repeated, jerking my head up. "That was one heck of a war zone. How did you manage to salvage anything in the middle of all that?"

"These suits have more pockets than you'd think," Tali chuckled, patting her hip as an example. "Quarians have learned how to salvage whatever we can whenever we can. Within reason," she quickly amended. "We're not vorcha. But we repair what most people would throw away. Tools, equipments, vehicles... even ships. Hundreds of the ships in our fleet were salvaged wrecks, either found dead in space or purchased for next to nothing."

Made sense. The quarians had to get the optimal output out of whatever they could find if they were to survive another day. No surprise that they could resurrect hundreds of ships from the scrap heap. But I had to focus on the mission. "What made a part worth sending back to your father?"

"It had to be in working order," Tali replied. "Something that could be analyzed and integrated into other technology. Anything new had priority. Technology the geth had developed themselves. Something exhibiting signs of modification or clues to their thinking."

"How did you get these things to your father?" I asked.

"Sometimes I left packages at secure drops in civilized areas. Someone on Pilgrimage would see that it was shipped home. For especially valuable finds, I'd signal home, and Father would send a small ship."

I poked at the drone. "Does this give you a clue as to what happened here?"

"No. I don't know." Tali shook her head, injecting an incredible amount of frustration into those few words. "Shepard, I checked everything I sent here. I passed up great finds because they might be too dangerous, prone to uncontrolled reactivation or self-repair. I don't know which possibility is worse: that I got sloppy and sent something dangerous... or that Father actually did all this."

I kept my suspicions to myself. Mostly because there was a lot I didn't know. All I knew was that the former option was extremely unlikely: Tali was both far too professional and far too concerned about the welfare of her people to ever get that careless. But if she didn't do something wrong, then someone else did—and her dad was the only candidate at the moment. So either I open my big fat mouth and say that her dad screwed up or keep my big mouth shut and let Tali stew over the possibility that she screwed up. (2) "I vote for the possibility that we should keep moving," I finally said.

"Good idea," Garrus seconded.

Before we left, I absently swiped some medi-gel from a wall-mounted dispenser. Then we hit another room that contained a small computer. Someone must've been doing some R&D on it, because I uncovered some schematics for an upgrade. An upgrade for a geth-designed shield generator. Tali didn't object when I downloaded it, even though there was only one possible candidate who could benefit from that upgrade. Yet another sign that she was seriously troubled by what we had discovered so far.

The next data log we stumbled across made things worse, and not just because there was a dead quarian lying nearby. "Who's running this system diagnostic?" a female quarian asked. "I didn't authorize... oh, Keelah. How many geth are networked?"

"All of them," her colleague, a male quarian, replied. "Rael'Zorah—"

"Shut it down!" the female quarian ordered urgently. "Shut everything down!"

"But..."

"Don't you understand? They're in the system!"

If I didn't know better, I'd think Rael'Zorah and his buddies called up TIMmy and asked how Cerberus ran Project Overlord. Yet another sign that some things are truly universal. I tried not to look at anyone. Even a silent gesture like that might set Tali off—in anger or in tears. Or both.

It wasn't long before we entered another room full of surprises. Good surprises—like the laptops with accounts just asking to be hacked and the wall safe stuffed with creds. Bad surprises like the hunter and the third laptop that had another research log. I wished that the time spent shooting the hunter full of holes and shamelessly swiping creds could have lasted a little longer. It would have delayed the rather grim recording that awaited us from that female quarian we saw earlier:

"We locked down navigation. Weapons are offline. Our mistake won't endanger the Fleet." She paused and looked off to her left. We could hear a harsh sizzling in the silence. "They're burning through the door. I don't have much time. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Sparks started flying through the air as the geth gradually cut through the door. "Jona, if you get this, be strong for Daddy."

Then the door exploded. The quarian ducked, somehow avoiding most of the shrapnel. As dust billowed through the room, she made her way back to the vid-cam. "Mommy loves you very much!" she called out before a hail of gunfire cut her down. Mercifully, the recording ended there.

It was with a curious sense of detachment that I hacked a nearby wall safe for creds and led the squad up a flight of stairs and into some sort of lab. Thankfully, the tingling on the back of my neck brought me back to my senses. I ordered the squad into cover just before the geth arrived.

The geth attacked us from two doors on the other side of the lab. Miranda zapped one of the geth's shields with an EMP, opening the way for Samara to yank it up into the air. While Grunt finished it off with a concussive shot, Kasumi fired off an EMP of her own at another geth. I took it out with a simple head-shot.

As I lowered my sniper rifle, I saw that Team Two was having similar success with 'their' group of geth, though they'd chosen to go for the 'zap n' hack' routine. To each their own.

Then I saw another hunter sneaking around under cloak. Miranda's omni-tool was still charging up another EMP, so I was forced to take out its shields the old-fashioned way. Once I'd done that with a full thermal clip worth of ammo, Legion hacked the sucker. It was quick to open fire on a geth trooper who, up to that point, had been tagging along behind it.

I looked over at Team Two just in time to see a pair of troopers getting awfully close. Thankfully, Jack was able to knock them back with a biotic shockwave. Thane followed up by hitting one of those geth with a biotic attack of his own, before finishing it off with a sniper shot. Meanwhile, Zaeed chose to take out the other geth with his assault rifle and a lot of cursing.

That left three more geth-including another cloaked hunter. I got Miranda and Kasumi to drop a pair of EMPs over its head. Tali had already deployed Chikkita against a trooper and Legion was otherwise occupied, so it was up to me to co-opt it with my woefully pitiful hacking protocols. It only bought us a couple seconds worth of temporary ally, but it was better than nothing. Especially since all three geth were severely damaged by the time the hack wore off.

It probably goes without saying that we finished them off, quickly searched around for any valuables and left the room. Same with the next room, though that one also had a computer. I tried my luck with it. After a couple minutes, I gave up and turned around. "Tali?" I invited. "This console might have something, but most of the data's corrupted."

She took a look for herself. "Yes it is," she agreed, "but a few bits are still intact." Using her omni-tool, Tali sifted through the computer's database. "Well?" I asked when she turned around.

"They were performing experiments on geth systems, looking for new ways to overcome geth resistance to reprogramming," she reported.

"And none of this sounds familiar?" I pressed. "You're sure you didn't know what kind of experiments your father was running?"

Tali shook her head. "No. Father just told me to send back any geth technology I could find that wasn't a direct danger to the Fleet. I suspected he might be testing weapons, but I thought he was just working on new ways to bypass shields or armour."

"Even so, we're talking about subjecting sapient beings to these experiments," I argued. "Do you think testing weapons—even cyberweapons—on the geth was right?"

"It's not testing weapons on prisoners," Tali insisted. "I only sent Father parts. Even if he assembled them, they wouldn't be sapient."

And that made it all better? Tali must have seen the doubting look on my face, as she quickly added: "You saw what Saren and Sovereign did with the geth. Any research that gives us an advantage is important."

I still had my doubts—a lot of them—but I set them aside for the moment. I could always argue with her later. "Could any of this data help clear your name?"

"Doubtful," Tali sighed. "This is mostly results data. Effects of different disruptive hacking techniques. I don't understand all of it. But… they may have been activating the geth deliberately. I don't know. Nothing here says specifically. But if they were… then Father was doing something terrible."

Why did I have the feeling she was talking about putting the Fleet at risk and not creating a sick little amusement park?

"What was all this, Father?" Tali asked out loud. "You promised you'd build me a house on the homeworld. Was this going to bring us back home?"

"Maybe it's time for your people to let go of reclaiming your world from the geth?" I suggested.

Tali slowly turned and advanced on me. "You have no idea what it's like! You have a planet to go back to! My home is one hull breach away from extinction!"

"So is mine," I argued. (3) "Home is about who you're with and where you belong. You've got that already, Tali. Don't throw it away in a war you don't need."

"Don't need?" Tali echoed. "Shepard, if I don't wear a helmet in my own home, I die! A single kiss could put me in the hospital!" Her voice grew more ragged as she continued. "Every time you touch a flower with bare fingers or inhale its fragrance without air filters, you're doing something I can't!"

Oh. Um. Oops. (4)

"Damn the Pilgrimage," she quietly raged. "Without it, I might never have known what I was missing. What we had lost when we lost our homeworld."

"Why couldn't you colonize a new world?" I asked. "There must have been discussions and studies to explore the idea."

"I told you on the Rayya, Shepard. We'd have enough difficulty reacclimating to our own native environment. Adjusting for exposure to a foreign colony would be even harder."

"But after generations of living aboard starships, wouldn't adapting to your homeworld be just as hard?" I argued.

"No," Tali shook her head. "It wouldn't. Going back home versus founding a new colony? It's the difference between 60 and 600 years. For anyone alive now to watch a sunset without a mask, we must take back our home.

"At the very least, we can take back one ship. Come on," she concluded, sweeping past me to continue through the ship.

"Team Two, take point," I belatedly ordered.

As Team One started to follow, I saw a communication request on a private channel blink from the corner of my HUD.

"Are you all right?" Miranda asked when I finally activated it.

"Considering we've shot a lot of geth, I guess," I tried. "But we still don't have any proof that might exonerate Tali."

Miranda wasn't buying it. "But we have found proof that her father was conducting dubious experiments on sapient beings, even if they are synthetic in origin. I can't help but note certain similarities between their research practises and those used by Cerberus."

So I wasn't the only one who'd noticed. "You picked up on that as well, huh?"

"I did."

"Is it just me, or is this a little... hinky?"

"Hard to say," Miranda sighed. "I can see the potential strategic advantages that could come from this research, but I could say the same with previous Cerberus projects. We both know how they turned out. And from what I've seen, it appears that Rael'Zorah and the crew of the Alarei met the same fate."

"Hard to think about it," I sympathized.

"I'm trying not to," Miranda admitted. "I—what was that?"

Our private chat was interrupted by the sounds of gunfire. Rushing into the next room, we found ourselves on a catwalk with a stairway heading down to a lower deck. Geth were entering that deck through a door at the far end. Looking around, I quickly settled on a course of action. "Miranda, Kasumi, Legion; attack this geth."

Obeying my commands, they quickly proceeded to suborn a previously-hidden geth hunter. As the hunter opened fire on the closest trooper, I opened the squad channel. "Tali; be ready to hack that hunter again when needed. Meanwhile, Team One attack the closest trooper; Team Two attack the geth coming through the door!"

The geth had gotten reinforcements. Just troopers, from what I could tell, but there were a lot of them. Grabbing my sniper rifle, I was starting to aim at one of them when I felt some bullets hit my shields. Looking over to my left, I saw a lone geth trooper over on our left. Either it had materialized out of thin air or it crawled through the ducts and out of an access hatch onto the upper level. While there was a lot of debris preventing it from sneaking around and flanking us, it could still hit us with weapons fire. Thankfully, the same applied for yours truly. Activating my cloak, I took a step to get a better angle, breathed out and squeezed the trigger.

As the geth trooper collapsed, I quickly assessed the battlefield. Ordering Tali to re-hack the hunter, I assigned each team a new geth trooper to take out. Then I got Mordin's attention. Pointing to the access hatch, I asked "Think you can keep any more geth from popping out?"

Mordin gave a decisive nod before melting its latch with a well-aimed burst of plasma. A very bright burst of plasma, I noted. Took a while to blink away the afterimage, I noted, as it kept ghosting up the stairs...

Aw, crap.

Before I could give an order or warning, the hunter had reached the top of the stairs and had decloaked. Thankfully, everyone knew what to do. A quick barrage of fire from the entire squad wiped out its shields, leaving it wide open for Legion to work their digital magic. Now we had two hunters wreaking havoc—and attracting all the weapons fire.

Still, that was too close a call for my liking. There was no sense in preserving a temporary ally if it meant risking our necks. "Change of plans," I announced. "Team Two; keep hitting targets of opportunity. Team One, we're going to help the geth take out one of the hunters before it can shake off the hack."

For once, my timing was perfect. About thirty seconds later, one of the hunters restored its IFF protocols and starting gunning for us again. Too bad that we were already shooting it. It had only made it halfway up the stairs when Grunt sent it flying, courtesy of a concussive shot to the knee. It tumbled all the way back down and never got back up again.

I checked my HUD once again. One hunter and three troopers were left. "Tali, hack the last hunter again," I called out after checking my sensor readings. "Everyone else, hold your fire." I waited to see which trooper the hacked hunter attacked, just so the squad could gang up on it too. After that unfortunate synthetic collapsed, I decided to hit the big fish next. That way, we'd only have the small fry to deal with.

Before we knew it, all the hostile geth were down. "Team One's going down to secure the lower deck," I decided. "Team Two: keep an eye on that door in case any more geth show up."

As it turned out, there were no geth party crashers, so I was able to loot the lower deck in peace. Then I motioned for Team Two to come on down. They joined us just as I accessed another research log:

"First entry: Our hacking attempts failed. The geth have an adaptive consciousness. Hack oneprocess and the others auto-correct. Still, we're making progress. Rael'Zorah is convinced we'll have a viable system in less than a year."

Boy, that made the body we found in the adjoining hallway all the more depress—

"Father!"

...

Shit.

"No! No, no, no!" she cried, pushing past me and dropping to her knees. She activated her omni-tool, no doubt trying to patch into her father's hardsuit sensors and detect any life signs. "You always had a plan. Masked life signs or... or an onboard medical stasis program, maybe. You, you wouldn't... they're wrong!" she wailed, shaking her father as if trying to wake him up. "You wouldn't just die like this! You wouldn't leave me to clean up your mess! You can't—"

"Hey," I interrupted gently. "Hey, c'mere." I pulled her to her feet. She collapsed into my arms, weeping and sniffling. I could feel her shaking and quivering, even through my hardsuit.

"Damn it!" Tali sobbed. "Damn it." She pulled away from me, took several deep breaths and tried to compose herself. "I'm sorry," she apologized.

Typical Tali. She'd just lost her dad, and yet she was apologizing to us for taking a minute of our 'precious time' to grieve. "You've got nothing to be sorry about," I insisted.

"Maybe," Tali sniffed, "maybe he would have known I'd come. Maybe he left a message."

She crouched down and started poking at her father's omni-tool before I could warn her against any more false hope. To my surprise, there was a message. "Tali," a voice echoed throughout the room, "if you are listening, then I am dead. The geth have gone active. I don't have much time. Their main hub will be on the bridge. You'll need to destroy it to stop their VI processes from forming new neural links. Make sure Han'Gerrel and Daro'Xen see the data. They must—"

A sudden clang was the last thing we heard before the message ended, but we got what we needed. "Thanks, Dad," Tail said quietly. She moved her father's hands to rest over his chest before slowly getting to her feet.

"He knew you'd come for him," I offered. "He was trying to help you. It's not perfect. It's not what you wanted. But it's the best he could do."

"I don't know what's worse," Tali replied slowly, "thinking he never really cared or thinking that he did and that this was the only way he could show it."

Yeah. That conundrum really sucked. And now she'd never know the answer.

"It doesn't matter," Tali continued, resolve creeping into her voice. "One way or the other, I cared. And I'm here. And we're ending this."

"Damn straight," I nodded.

After quickly searching for any more goodies, we headed up a flight of stairs to the bridge. Through a thick pane of bulletproof glass, we could see six or seven geth, including a geth prime and a geth hunter. Miraculously, all of them were facing away from us.

Using my HUD and hand signals, I selected targets for the squad. "Got it?" I mouthed. Everybody nodded before getting into position. They watched as I held up three fingers and silently counted down. When I reached zero, I made a fist, pumped my arm down and the party started.

Miranda zapped a trooper's shields, clearing the way for Legion to hack it. Garrus and Tali did the same with another trooper. While the geth suddenly attacked their hacked counterparts—the ones that were easiest to hack, I might add—the rest of the squad opened fire on the geth hunter before it had a chance to cloak. Within a minute, the hunter was down. The hacked troopers weren't faring much better. "Weapons free!" I yelled.

That was the cue for each team to attack any targets of opportunity, preferably without risking their own necks. The hacked geth restored their IFF protocols just long enough to point their weapons the right way before we took them down. Two more troopers quickly bit the dust—assuming quarian ships and their super-efficient filter had dust. I spotted the last geth trooper trying to get the jump on us. I also noticed that it had no shields. So I hacked it.

The trooper pointed its weapon at the geth prime and... did nothing. It just stood there. After a moment, I realized that the bulletproof glass was in the way. I waited for the trooper to sidestep around the glass and join the squad in attacking the geth prime. Instead, the trooper just stood there. I waited for my hack to wear off—by which point the squad had drained the prime's shields—and ordered Tali to hack the trooper. The trooper just stood there.

Oh for crying out loud.

Grunt saw what was happening. "Can I punch it?" he asked hopefully.

"Fine," I sighed.

As I sent a bolt of plasma towards the prime, Grunt cheerfully smashed the trooper into the glass until its flashlight head was as flat as a dinner plate. The rest of the squad alternated attacks, with each team attacking the prime with everything they could bring to bear, then retreating when it turned around and presented its back to the other team. By the time the prime had deduced our strategy, we'd broken through its armour.

Unfortunately, the prime settled on a new strategy that was right out of Grunt's playbook. Raising its machine gun, it stomped towards Team Two. They ducked back just in time, milliseconds before a stream of bullets cut through their last location. "Legion, hack it!" I ordered before it could get a clear shot at Garrus or anyone else.

The geth prime came to a sudden halt. For a moment, I thought it had fallen prey to the same stupid behaviour the trooper did earlier. Then I figured it out: now that the geth prime was under our control, it would stop attacking us and attack the nearest hostile... only there were no more hostiles in the area. So, the only remaining option was to just stand there.

Worked for us: everyone opened fire without waiting for my say-so. Its exterior shell was about 75% compromised when it finally rebooted. It turned to attack the closest opponent. Which was me, for some reason. Figures. It took two giant steps forward and loomed over me, far too close for me to bring any of my weapons to bear. So I hit it with my fists. Over and over again.

It seemed to take forever, but the prime finally collapsed to the ground. Everyone stared at me. I thought they were marvelling at the fact that I went mano-a-mano against a geth prime and won. It was pretty impressive, now that I thought about it. I mean, that thing was almost twice my size and—

"Um, Shepard," Garrus coughed, "did you realize that you defeated it by punching... well, by punching what passes for its crotch?"

Oh. Right. Awkward...

"Ooh, look: another ship to add to my collection," I blurted out. Partly to distract the squad; partly because I didn't have a model quarian ship hanging in my quarters. The funny thing is that it worked. The squad quickly split up to sweep the room for loot. Well, most of us. Tali was busy tinkering with a computer console—the one all the geth had been clustered around when we entered the bridge.

"This console is linked to the main hub Father mentioned," Tali explained when I joined her. "I just finished inserting some kill commands that will shut down any geth we missed."

"Good idea," I nodded. "Anything else?"

"Well..." Tali paused before answering me. "It looks like some of the recordings from the research logs remained intact. They may tell us how this happened. What Father did."

"You sure you want to hear it?" I asked. "Any one of us could peruse the recordings instead."

"No, I have to do this," Tali shook her head. "I just—this is terrible, Shepard. I don't want to know that he was a part of this."

Tali visibly steeled herself before entering some more commands into her omni-tool. We had to skip through the recordings that we'd already viewed before we found a new one:

"Do we have enough parts to bring more online?" Rael'Zorah was asking.

"Yes," a male quarian confirmed. "The new shipment from your daughter will let us add two more geth to the network."

"Your daughter?" the female quarian we saw earlier repeated. "I didn't realize Tali'Zorah was assisting the project."

"She isn't," Rael'Zorah replied. "Not to her knowledge, anyway. I just asked her to send any interesting geth parts to me. How is the research progressing?"

"We're nearing a breakthrough on systemic viral attacks," the female quarian replied. "Perhaps we should inform the Admiralty Board, just to be safe."

"No," Rael'Zorah replied immediately. "We're too close. I promised to build my daughter a house on the homeworld. I'm not going to break that promise just because I sat around and waited while the politicians argued."

Aw, crap. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tali wearily shaking her head.

"We'd have an easier time if Tali'Zorah could send back more working material," the male quarian suggested. "Even a few specific components would be more useful than an entire shipment of random parts. I've been compiling a list that could speed up our progress—"

"Absolutely not," Rael'Zorah said firmly. "Tali was kept in the dark for a reason. I don't want her exposed to any political blowback."

"But—"

"Leave. Tali. Out of this. Understood?"

"Yes, Admiral."

"Good," Rael'Zorah nodded. "Assemble new geth with what we have. Bypass security protocols if need be."

The quarians continued chatting, but we tuned them out. We had gotten the gist of it. This recording, backed up with all the others, was the smoking gun we were looking for. Unfortunately, it came with one horrible caveat. "It sounds like he was doing it for you," I finally offered.

"I never wanted this, Shepard," Tali replied in despair. "Keelah, I never wanted this." She started to pace back and forth. "Everything here is his fault! The research, the deaths, everything! I tried to pretend it didn't point to him, but this… When this comes up in the trial, they'll…"

Tali whirled back towards me. "We can't tell them. Not the admirals, not anyone."

"Why? These recordings exonerate you. Rael'Zorah specifically said he didn't want you to be caught in the politics. I mean, yes they also indicate he had—"

"You don't understand, Shepard," Tali interrupted. "They would strike his name from the manifest of every ship he ever served on. He would be worse than an exile. He'd be a traitor to our people, held up for children as a monster in a cautionary tale!"

"Look, I get that he's your father and you don't want to besmirch his name. But maybe a cautionary tale's what your people need. He fooled around with living, thinking, sapient beings. He deliberately used his position to override any safety protocol. And all he got out of it was the death of every quarian on this ship and creating a clear and present danger to the rest of his people."

"I know that," Tali said. "I do. But he's done so much for my people. He gave them courage to continue in our darkest times. Provided strength and guidance when they needed it most. I can't let all the good he did be destroyed for this, Shepard."

"Tali, he kept you in the dark to protect you," I reminded her. "To ensure that if something like this trial occurred, you wouldn't be implicated or exiled. Which is exactly what's gonna happen if we don't hand over this evidence!"

"You think I don't know that?" Tali cried out. "You think I want to live knowing that I can never see the Fleet again? But I can't go back into that room and say that my father was the worst war criminal in our people's history. I cannot!"

You know, ever since I'd known Tali, my position on her father had been ambivalent at best. It wasn't until this point that I realized how low my opinion of him had sunk. Here was a woman who grew up to be a smart, courageous, selfless member of quarian and galactic society, no thanks to a dad who basically kept her at arm's length during her childhood. Now he expected her to clean up after his colossal screw-up, even if it meant permanent exile. And the worst part? She was volunteering to do it. Maybe I'm biased from my own daddy issues, but I couldn't help but think that Rael'Zorah didn't deserve a daughter like Tali.

"We're not going to decide anything here," I sighed. "Let's see what the admirals say once we get back."

"You're my captain in this hearing, Shepard," Tali replied. "It's your decision. But please: don't destroy what my father was."

"We'd better get going," I said after a pause.

"Agreed," Tali nodded. "If we wait too long, they'll decide we're already dead… and none of this will matter."

Tali wasn't kidding. The trial had already resumed by the time we returned to the Rayya. "We need to face facts," we heard Koris say when we passed through the airlock. Guess the trial was being broadcasted over the PA. Heck, for all I knew, it was being broadcasted throughout the entire Fleet. "There has been no word. There is no reason to think Tali'Zorah survived."

"We must trust Shepard's offer of assistance!" Raan said. "It has only been a few hours!"

"The quarian marines lasted less than five minutes, Admiral," Gerrel cried bitterly. "We have to call it."

"A pity Shepard vas Normandy was a better speaker than a soldier," Koris sniffed. "I recommend posthumously exiling Tali'Zorah."

"What?" Gerrel burst out.

"We'd better double-time it," I suggested.

"It was agreed that Tali'Zorah would not be convicted if she were killed in action!" Raan protested as we broke into a jog.

"It was suggested, Admiral," Koris corrected her. "I recall no agreement. To that end, I call for an immediate vote."

I think I was starting to dislike him again.

"Very well," Raan sighed as we burst into the atrium. "Is the Admiralty Board prepared to render judgement?"

The squad pushed and shoved our way into the amphitheatre until we faced the Admiralty Board. "Sorry we're late," Tali said sarcastically.

I may have been a little more blunt. "You didn't waste much time declaring us dead. Go get your ship. That is, unless you wanted to place another bet."

"We apologize, Shepard," Gerrel tried. "Your success in taking back the Alarei is… very unexpected."

Really? I hadn't noticed.

"But also very welcome," Raan smoothly added.

"Did you find anything on the Alarei that could clarify what happened there?" Gerrel asked.

I glanced at Tali before stepping forward. "Shepard…" Tali whispered as I passed her. "Please…"

Argh. I hated this. I really did. Either I screw Tali over by letting her be the scapegoat or I turn quarian society on its head by letting the hammer drop. Wasn't there a third option? I looked around at the crowd, hoping for inspiration.

"Does Captain Shepard have any new evidence to submit to this hearing?" Raan intoned.

I turned back slightly, looking sideways at Raan…

Sideways…

Hmm.

Maybe there was.

"Tali's achievements are the only evidence you should need," I snapped. "Come on, Tali. We're leaving."

"What?" Raan sputtered. To be fair, my squad was equally confused.

"This is a formal proceeding!" Koris shouted.

"Bullshit!" I shouted back, my mind racing now that I'd seized the initiative. "This is a sham! You're trying to build sympathy for the geth to forestall the war effort!"

"That—that is completely—"

Ignoring Koris, I whirled on Gerrel. "And you, Admiral Gerrel, you want all the messy experiments covered up so you can throw the Fleet—and your people—at the geth!"

"I… I…"

"And let's not forget Admiral Xen, who just wants to subjugate the geth to fuel her sick fantasies and delusions of grandeur."

Xen didn't say a word. Which made it easier to hear all the muttering that was going on around me.

"If this trial really was about Tali, then we'd be focusing on everything she's done and accomplished. She knows more about the geth than any quarian alive. She's risked her life for the Fleet and the galaxy time and time again. On the Alarei, on Haestrom, hell, on the Citadel when she stopped Saren! She's been the most positive example of the potential and selflessness of the quarian people since who knows when!"

"But no, rather than acknowledge her years of service, you'd rather drag her name through the mud without giving her even a second to prepare. You'd rather put her on trial before telling her that her father might be dead! And then, rather than have the decency to let her process that, you chose to manipulate her into cleaning up your mess. Hell, you couldn't even give her a chance to clear her name before voting on her guilt! Not to mention broadcasting this crap throughout the entire Fleet like a bunch of tabloid hacks! All so you can push your own private agendas!

"Is this what Tali spent her life trying to protect? Is this what she gets in return? She deserves better than that!"

I saw some jostling out of the corner of my eye. Looked like my half-assed plan was paying off. The natives were getting restless. Two of them, in fact, were making their way towards us.

"Wait!"

To my surprise, Veetor was one of the two quarians. He pushed his way to join us, beating Kal'Reegar by a few steps. "Shepard is right!" he panted. "Tali saved me on Freedom's Progress! She doesn't deserve to be exiled!"

"Damn straight!" Kal'Reegar barked, positively quivering with outrage. "Tali's done more for this Fleet than you assholes ever will! You're pissing on everything I fought for! Everything Tali's fought for! So if you exile her...

"...you might as well do the same to me."

Ooh. That was a good one.

"Me, too," Veetor said firmly.

The quarians were definitely getting restless. And angry. There was a lot of nodding and shuffling and fist-shaking. Xen hastily activated her omni-tool and tapped some holographic button. Gerrel was quick to follow. I guess they were voting on Tali's fate before they got lynched.

Curiously enough, Koris just watched his fellow admirals before turning to look at Tali. They stared at each other for a minute. Then he activated his own omni-tool and cast his vote. (5)

"Tali'Zorah," Raan formally announced, "in light of your history of service, we do not find sufficient evidence to convict. You are cleared of all charges."

About damn time!

"Commander Shepard, please accept this gift in appreciation for you taking the time to represent one of our people."

It was a good thing I was wearing my helmet. Otherwise, the entire Fleet might have witnessed my drooling over the tasty tech upgrade that was dangling in front of me. Before I snatched it in a most undignified manner, I had one more thing to say: "If you really want to thank me, then listen: the Reapers are coming. I'm going to need your help to stop them. Please: don't throw your lives away against the geth. Stop this fixation on retaking your homeworld by force and find another way."

"Thank you, Commander Shepard," Koris said. "I hope this board carefully considers your advice." (6)

Was the fact that he addressed me by my proper rank a compliment or an insult?

"This trial is concluded," Raan pronounced. "Go in peace, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. Keelah se'lai."

"Keelah se'lai," the crowd echoed.

With the so-called trial concluded, everyone started to disperse. The quarians were still talking excitedly about its conclusion as they passed us.

"I can't believe Tali and her captain took back the Alarei," one quarian whispered.

"I can't believe the speech her captain gave," another quarian replied. "Did you hear it? Keelah!"

"The admirals would have faced a coup if they'd exiled Tali'Zorah after what Shepard said," a third one said knowingly.

Tali slowly turned to face me after the crowd dispersed. "I can't believe you pulled that off. What you said... it's been a while since anyone shouted down the Admiralty Board. I think it was good for them."

"In my experience, superiors need to be shouted at every now and then," Garrus said sagely.

Heh, heh. "You think they need some more?" I suggested. "They haven't left the atrium yet. We can still drag them back and shout at them again if you want."

"Thanks, but I'm fine with things like this," Tali laughed. "Though it's fun watching you shout." She paused before continuing to more serious matters. "Shepard, I've never had anyone speak like that on my behalf. Thank you for being there for my father and I, even when..." She stopped talking for a moment, struggling to compose herself. "Thank you," she managed at last.

"Tali," I said softly, "about what your father said and what he did? You deserved better."

"I got better, Shepard," Tali replied simply. "I got you."

For some reason, I felt this lump in my throat. "Come on, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy," I said once I swallowed it down. "Let's get back to our ship."

"Thank you... Captain."

Somehow, that promotion in rank didn't sound so wrong coming from her.

Naturally we didn't go straight back to the Normandy. Kept bumping into people who wanted to chat.

"Very impressive speech, Commander Shepard," Xen complimented me. "But tell me truly, did you recover any of Rael'Zorah's research on the Alarei?"

"Nothing that would help you, Admiral," Tali said firmly. Clearly she didn't want the nutjob getting her hands on anything like that.

"Pity. Ah, well," Xen shrugged. "Whatever is created can be recreated. In any event, I am pleased that our talk regarding the war conundrum allowed you to help Tali. Her exile would have been unfortunate."

"You should abandon your plans, Admiral," I told her. "They're only going to make the situation worse."

"We shall see, Commander. Many things are impossible until they are done."

Oookay. That wasn't creepy.

"Nice talking, Shepard," Kal greeted me. "Funny how it takes a commander to remind the admirals about military honour."

"I guess they're too busy filling out paperwork in triplicate to remember silly little things like that," I sighed. "Priorities, you know?"

We shared a laugh before Tali stepped forward. "Kal, thank you. I can't believe you did that."

"You'd have done the same for me, ma'am," Kal shrugged. "Figured I had to say something when you didn't use that evidence you found on the Alarei."

Tali stiffened. "I didn't say anything about finding evidence, Kal."

"Noticed that, ma'am," Kal replied mildly.

Heh. Guess Kal read between the lines. Or Tali's body posture. Nice to meet a soldier who was a bit more than a dumb grunt. (7) "Any idea what your next assignment is going to be?"

"I'm going to be escorting more techs around to look for signs of dark energy buildup," Kal said. "Maybe see if they can figure out what's causing it. Wherever they send me, I hope it'll be less exciting than Haestrom."

"That hope might not last long," I frowned. "Especially if you do go to war. Speaking of which, that's your take on that? Do you think the admirals are really going to try to retake the homeworld?"

Kal shook his head. "I won't shy away from a fight, but if the admirals throw the Fleet at the geth, all they'll get back is scrap metal and body parts. The best bet would be for us to find another way. But a soldier can't say unless his superiors ask."

"Don't I know it," I groaned. "Well, we gotta get going. I appreciate your help, Kal. To be honest, I'm not sure what I would have done if you and Veetor hadn't stood up to help."

Kal waved off my thanks. "I'm sure you'd have figured something out. Stay safe out there, Shepard. Ma'am."

"Kal, just call me Tali," she told him softly.

"I... I'll work on that, ma'am," Kal said formally.

Oh well. Baby steps, I guess.

Next, Tali ran over to Veetor. Knowing how awkward he was in social situations, she stopped short of tackling him in a bear hug. "Veetor, I can't believe you stood up and spoke for me," she said.

"Oh..." Veetor clearly wasn't expecting anyone to thank him for sticking his neck out. "Well, it's good Reegar was there," Veetor said modestly—and nervously, judging by the way he was bouncing up and down on his feet. "He said most of it."

"Veetor," Tali said knowingly, "thank you."

"Oh, um, okay," Veetor replied awkwardly. "And thank you, Shepard. For... for helping me and Tali."

"I should be thanking you," I smiled. "It took a lot of guts to do what you did."

He glanced at Dr. Elan'Shiya. It was only then that I'd noticed she hadn't looked at us. She'd been staring at Veetor the entire time. In fact, she hadn't taken her eyes off of Veetor since the trial concluded. I guess this debacle had shown the true character of a lot of people.

"Well... maybe," Veetor mumbled at last. "Good luck out there, Tali. And you too, Commander."

"The admirals thought they were hobbling you by forcing you to represent Tali, Shepard," Rann chuckled when we bumped into her. "I'm glad they were wrong."

"So am I," I grinned.

"You didn't mention survivors." Rann said quietly. "Did you find Rael, Tali? I'm sure he would have left you a message if he'd had time."

"We found his body," I replied after a quick glance at Tali. "He did leave a message for Tali." Figured I should keep it short and simple.

"I can only imagine how horrible this is for you, child," Rann said sorrowfully, "but at least you got to hear your father tell you he loved you."

"Yes," Tali whispered. "Thank you, Auntie Rann."

"Congratulations, Tali," Rann said. "Your father would be proud. Good luck on your mission, and remember: no matter how dark it gets, the Fleet is always with you. Keelah se'lai."

When we talked to Gerrel, he didn't waste any time before coming straight to the point. "You called us out on the carpet out there, Shepard. And you were right. Thank you. Tali shouldn't have been involved in that argument."

"Agreed," I replied. "I'm glad we finally agree on something." See: I can be diplomatic every now and then.

"Mind you, it was about time someone reminded Admiral Koris the woman he was accusing of treason is the pride of the Fleet," Gerrel said, clearly not content to leave things alone. As evidenced by his next question: "Tell me, though, honestly: what did you find over there? You spoke well, but I know a feint when I see it."

All those years of political talking and manoeuvring must've been good for something, I suppose. "We found a lot of..." I started before pausing and turning to Tali, as if I wanted to spare her feelings. The fact that that was true only added to the deception.

Tali played along. "We found a lot of dead bodies, Admiral, including my father's. That's all. Whatever research they were doing was destroyed."

"I'll take your word for it, Tali. Not that I have much choice."

Ah. Guess Gerrel wasn't completely buying our lie, but at least he wasn't going to push it. Unlike me: "You do have a choice about going to war with the geth," I said pointedly. "Face it: you're outmanned and outgunned. If you try and pursue this by force, you'll lose too many ships and too many lives that, by the time it's all over, your victory is gonna be awfully hollow. You've gotta find another way."

"We'll see."

Why was I not reassured in the slightest?

"Fight well and fly safe, kid," Gerrel nodded, turning to Tali. "Your father would be proud of you."

Of course, we couldn't leave without chatting with the pompously courteous Admiral of the Qwib-Qwib. "Very impressive, Shepard," Koris complimented me. "Thank you for your help on the Alarei. And thank you for helping Rael'Zorah's daughter. You stood for her when we failed. We were wrong to let our own concerns about the war overshadow Tali's trial."

See, this is what made it so confusing. He caused the most grief for Tali during the trial, yet he seemed the most sincere when it came to his apologies. And his convictions: "Your timing may have sucked, but the galaxy needs more people saying what you're saying," I said. "Good luck."

"Good luck to you, Shepard. And to you, Tali."

With all that taken care of, we headed for the airlock. Time to go back to more familiar ground. After the quarians scanned our suit databases to remove anything that might get back to Cerberus, of course. Kar'Danna met us there while they finished the scans. "Congratulations, Tali'Zorah," he greeted her.

"Thank you, Captain," Tali nodded. "I'm just glad that this is over."

Kar'Danna harrumphed a bit before continuing. "I must admit I was skeptical about your choice in captains, but I see now that I was wrong."

Normally I'd take offense, but if I was in his boots, I'd be wondering what Tali saw in a kleptomaniac with appalling luck too. "You wouldn't be doing your job as Tali's captain if you didn't worry about her," I assured him.

"Thank you for your understanding," Kar'Danna said. "Tali, you'll always have a place on the Rayya, whenever you decide to come home. Good luck out there."

Before I left, I hacked into the Rayya's PA system and uploaded a song. It started playing as we shuffled into the airlock. Just a little something for the Admiralty Board—and the quarians—to think about:

"Don't you know what time it is?
It's the new time.
All disciples gathering by the boats.
But your revolution is chasing its tail,
You love to take the wind out of my sail,
But not this time.

"In between commercial breaks,
It's a new war.
Men with books have run away to the coast.
All the ladies quit calling them back,
And starting plotting a counter attack.
You foolish animals!

"She's out in the park conducting the birds,
Trying to remember which bicycle's hers.
Filling her pockets with handfuls of dirt,
It's amazing.
Out in the park." (8)

A couple hours after we returned to the Normandy, I dropped by Engineering to see how Tali was doing. "Keelah, I'm sorry I dragged you into quarian politics." She shook her head in dismay. "All that infighting, seeing what my father did... you were the only one there for me, Shepard—the only cover I had against that storm. Thank you."

"You're welcome," I nodded. "I imagine they're trying to fill your father's spot on the Admiralty Board. What will that do to the balance of power?"

"I have no idea," Tali shrugged. "In hindsight, being exiled might have made it easier."

"Easier?" I echoed.

"A few people are suggesting me as a candidate."

Judging by what I'd seen, that would be a heck of an improvement. Then again, they say that the best leaders are the one who don't want anything to do with it. (9) "I thought you said a while ago that being on the Admiralty Board wasn't hereditary," I reminded her.

"It isn't. But after everything you said... I guess it gave people a couple ideas. Not that we have to worry about it right now: replacing an admiral takes time. You may not have noticed, but quarians like to debate."

"It did seem that way," I agreed. "Um, Tali... are quarian politics always like that?"

"No. Sometimes, it can actually get unpleasant."

Oh, really?

"We're a very social people, Shepard. We have to be, to make up for being stuck in these suits. And part of that means getting involved in each other's business."

"You ask me, the whole trial was a goddamn insult," Ken shouted out. Or tried to shout out, as he was buried in the guts of one of the computers.

Gabby kicked him, but evidently agreed with his sentiments. "You should have had time to mourn your father, Tali."

"I don't think life is about what you deserve," Tali replied thoughtfully. "But my father would be honoured that I chose to mourn him by blowing up a lot of geth."

Yes. Because violence is the cause—and solution—of all of life's problems.

"I should get back to work," Tali said. "But thanks for checking on me."

I thought things were going quite well, all things considered. Helped Tali out, got a few toys and even a little insight into quarian politics. Yes, Tali's father was killed, but at least it wasn't through any fault of Tali's. And judging by that conversation, Tali was feeling better. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Maybe I should have paid a bit more attention to the way said conversation ended. If I had, things might not have gone straight to hell.

It had been an hour or so after we returned to the Normandy. I was passing through the mess hall when I saw Tali get out of the elevator. Seemed a bit unusual, but I figured she was just hungry for a tube of protein paste or something. So I just waved to her and resumed my walk to see Garrus. I was just at the door when Joker contacted me. "Um, Commander? Tali just went to have a 'chat' with Legion. You'd better get down to the AI core."

Of course she did. Shaking my head, I made an immediate about-face and headed for sickbay. "I'm on it, Joker."

When I burst into sickbay, Dr. Chakwas was already on her feet and pointing towards the door leading to the AI core. "Tali just stormed in there a minute ago," she told me. "She was armed."

Of course she was. Which explained why Tali was pointing a pistol at Legion when I barged into the AI core. I made a mental note to talk to Jacob about that once this standoff was over. (10) "What's going on here?" I asked.

"Shepard, I'm glad you're here," Tali breathed a sigh of relief. "I caught Legion running a remote scan on my omni-tool. It was going to send data about the flotilla back to the geth."

I don't get paid enough to deal with crap like this.

"Creators performed weapons tests and were discussing plans to attack us," Legion explained. "We believed it necessary to warn our people."

"We already made the geth stronger by rewriting the ones that worshipped the Reapers!" Tali burst out, conveniently ignoring the fact that that wasn't exactly what happened. "I won't let Legion endanger the Fleet by giving them more information!"

I really don't.

"Creator Tali'Zorah acts out of loyalty to her people," Legion stated. "She was willing to be exiled to protect them. We must also protect our people from the Creator threat."

"You can't let this happen, Shepard," Tali implored. "I trusted you, and I worked with a geth on the squad, but this is too much!"

I took a deep breath. "Is it, Tali?" I asked. "Your father was running brutal experiments to bring geth to life before trying to kill them over and over again. If the subjects had been humans, I'd damn well be telling the Alliance about it. And if they were quarians, you'd be on the comm warning the Fleet in a heartbeat. Can you really blame Legion for doing the same?"

"I guess," Tali said hesitantly. "But if the geth find out—"

"They might attack," I interrupted. "Or they might bunker up and wait for the quarians to strike the first blow. Either way, unless the geth and the quarians realize how stupid this whole thing is, everything will escalate into a full-blown war. One that would leave both sides weakened and vulnerable when the Reapers show up to force every sapient race to accept their truths and further their future." I turned to Legion and paused to give them a few additional seconds to remember that particular conversation we had had. "Is that what you want, Legion?"

"We believed it was necessary to relay the informat—"

"OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!"

I slammed the wall in frustration. Ignoring the crack that echoed throughout the room, and the pain that was suddenly throbbing from my hand, I glared at Tali and Legion. "Sooner or later, you're both gonna have to grow up and stop fighting this war! Or we'll all end up paying for it."

...

...

...

"To facilitate unit cohesion, we will not transmit data regarding Creator plans."

"Thank you, Legion," Tali said grudgingly. "I understand your intention."

She lowered her pistol, much to my relief. I leaned over and plucked it from her hand before she could change her mind.

"What if I gave you some non-classified data to send instead?"

Did I hear that correctly?

Legion may have thought the same thing. However, they were able to recall that last bit—and verify their audio receptors weren't malfunctioning—a lot faster than I could. "We would be grateful," Legion replied.

I watched while Tali activated her omni-tool to pull up said non-classified data. Maybe Xen, of all people, was right: many things were impossible until they were done. The smile on my face was matched by the one I saw Dr. Chakwas sporting when I turned around. "Well done, Commander," she congratulated me.

"I'm just glad there wasn't a firefight onboard," I shrugged.

"Quite," Dr. Chakwas nodded. "Tends to get rather messy, and I'd have to clean it up. Speaking of which, would you like me to take a look at your hand?"

"If it's not too much trouble," I said. "I think I broke it."

"One moment, please."

"While you're at it, get me a painkiller," I added. "I think I've got a headache."

(1): Thankfully, Shepard didn't question why his team—either one—would question his orders.

(2): Many leaders face this scenario. Few are agonized by the dearth of desirable options.

(3): Tali'Zorah's words about humanity's home and possible extinction would prove to be hauntingly prophetic.

(4): To be fair, most people would have difficulty understanding how much they take for granted from the perspective of the quarians, and how rarely the quarians complain about it.

(5): Shepard never explained how each of the admirals voted. If he did find out, he kept it to himself.

(6): Regrettably, history would show otherwise.

(7): Oh, the irony.

(8): 'Out in the Park,' released by Sarah Slean in 2004. In hindsight, it was a remarkably prescient choice.

(9): Indeed.

(10): Shepard later found out that Tali put the pistol together herself through various parts she cannibalized together. After scolding her for violating safety protocols, he asked how she pulled it off.