Chapter Two: The Alarei
Taking the shuttle to the Alarei was an eye opening experience. Shepard had expected much more external damage, but the hull seemed sound. Indeed preliminary scan revealed there was no structural damage. Then again the synthetics were all about precision, despite the massive waves of geth the shuttle guard warned them about, they never wasted a shot.
The guard also said there were more than there should be, until Tali pointed out there should not have been any. The Guard seemed to think either the geth were building more of themselves or repairing themselves-either prospect was possible. And more than a little troubling.
The Alarei's overall shape at least to Shepard's human eyes bore the look of an old fashioned speaker from the 1970's with pronged spikes jutting off its aft section.
Shepard decided to board the lab ship via the aft emergency airlock nearest to the living quarters. The reason being was simple enough, there may be a small contingent of guards holding position but unlikely to be more than half-dozen at best. It was the surest way in.
"Make sure kinetic barriers are up and shields are on full. Stay frosty; we know how to do this. Tali deploy your drones if we're lucky there won't be any sulkers but if they are, the drones need to neutralize them as swiftly as possible. Same with any mobile turrets.
"I also want you to hack any juggernaut or hunters and set them on their own. Beware of the stealth abilities of the hunters. Garrus override their shields; If I hit them with singularities and lift / pulls. I can set them up and make them fly, make sure your timing is spot-on to cause tech and biotic explosions."
Both her companions gave the affirmative. As soon as Shepard had finished issuing deployment orders Tali tapped into her omni tool to summon both her combat and defensive drones. The latter remained hovering over Tali's left shoulder. Chatika however hovered just before the engineer's right shoulder, bouncing in the air like an over-excited puppy ready to launch itself at anything that meant harm to her mistress.
Just like old times: Only by now the Normandy flagship team were far more practiced.
All three dove for cover behind counter tops and bunk-beds as soon as they entered the crew quarters. Shepard signalled to Garrus to hit the trooper closest to them with an overload, Tali hit the two that followed it with power-drains leaving them open to Shepard's pull. She hoisted the trooper into the air and threw it into its compatriots stomping in behind it. Like a house of cards they toppled over one another—and exploded in a spectacular display of tech and biotics.
Immediately Shepard erected a barrier bubble protecting her and the team from the fallout of shrapnel from destroyed geth platforms falling down around them like so many hailstones.
"Go get them Chatika! Good girl!" Tali ordered her drone as soon as she laid eyes upon Hunter rushing the room with its own bobbing orange drone sweeping the perimeter.
Like binary stars locked in an elliptical orbit the drones engaged one another drawing the attention off of their intended targets onto one another—allowing for the moment both parties to remain undetected by the enemy counterpart.
The Hunter was still cloaked. But a careful eye could see it. A patch fifteen centimetres square at the center of mass. It was as if the air was ripping in tiny visible waves, distorting the sharp edges of the beds and counters behind it. A chink in the armor, as it were.
Tali zeroed in on target. At this range her M-27 Scimitar shotgun was more lethal than Shepard's Kassa Locus SMG. The Hunter faulted back, its personal cloaking shield dropped. As soon as it did Garrus hit with an overload setting it up for Shepard's twin-bladed shadow strike with omni-blade and asari katana. When it exploded Shepard was well out of the way via the shadow-strikes charge.
"Clear. Targets down. Move on." Shepard sheathed the blade and pulled the SMG from its holster on the weapon's pack.
"Hang on. Got something here: an active computer." Tali said moving towards a laptop on one of the private work stations and activated it. The image was a little fuzzy but there was an image of a middle aged male scientist.
'Something's slowing down the algorithm. We're taking down the firewalls to realign the load distributions. Rael'Zorah ordered us to bypass standard safeties. Fallowing security protocols will take too long.'
If there were more to the logs, they could not be retrieved. The rest of the logs were either deliberately deleted or corrupted, regardless they could not be retrieved
"That isn't good." Tali shook her head. "Bypassing the safeties? Father how could you be so reckless?" Both Shepard and Garrus knew she was not speaking to either of them.
"Tali we got to move on." Shepard said.
"Roger that." the younger woman nodded and turned away from her laptop.
The trio moved along an enemy corridor towards the next lab. Shepard and Tali's fingers flagged the triggers of their firearms they moved for the doorway of the next lab. She flanked the right side of the door, Tali the left, Garrus pointed M-8 Avenger directly at the door and nodded. Shepard activated the door's guai locking mechanism. When it slid open, Tali's drone buzzed in and bleeped all-clear.
The three moved into the lab which looked more like a medbay than laboratory. On middle bed was looked to be one of the white sentry rocket drones. Tali recognized it immediately. "This is one of the storage units I sent to Father." she said staring down at the main chassis. "Looks like parts from a disabled drone, plus reflux algorithms I don't recognize. I got this on Illium."
Shepard looked down at the rocket-drone it made her wonder. "What made a part worth sending back to your father?"
"It had to be in working order. Something that could be analysed and integrated into other technology." Tali ran a hand over the chassis. "Anything new had priority. Technology the geth had developed themselves. Signs of modification, clues to their thinking."
"How did you get these things to your father?" Garrus asked.
"Sometimes I left packages at secure drops in civilized areas. Someone on Pilgrimage would see that it was shipped back home." As she spoke Shepard ran her omni-tool over the deactivated drone. Perhaps in attempt to see what her chief engineer saw when she looked at the thing. "For a very valuable find, I'd signal home, and Father would send a small ship.
"Our return trip to Illium was a war zone. How did you salvage gear in the middle of all that and work your magic on Vigil's new body?"
Tali smirked behind the faceplate. "These suits have more pockets than you think."
"I can attest to that. Not to mention snug in all the right places." Garrus backed up his wife, and then coughed realizing he might have said a little too much. His mandibles flickered with his embarrassment.
Both women chose to ignore the poor man's lack of discretion with but simple shakes of chiding heads. Though if Shepard were being honest with herself, Garrus had it in one, that suit was snug in all the right places.
"Quarians learned how to salvage whatever we can whenever we can. Within reason. We are not vorcha. But we repair what most people would throw away. Hundreds of the ships in our fleet were salvaged wrecks, either found dead in space or purchased for next to nothing." Tali said covering for Garrus's little slip.
"Does that salvaged gear give you a clue to what happened here?" asked Shepard.
"No." Tali shook her head. She sighed. "I don't know. 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." another heavy sigh. "I don't know which possibility is worse that I got sloppy and sent something dangerous or that Father actually did all this!"
"I hate to say this Tali, but you heard what that tech said, your father had them bypass the securities to fast track their research. This isn't on you, babe."
Tali didn't answer, she didn't want to. She already knew the answers. They all did. Whatever Rael was doing was the cause of the geth activation, the cause of everything that had happened on the Alarei.
There were no more answers to be found in the lab.
Tali pushed past her teammates back into the corridor mindful to keep her eyes open for an ambush. She didn't forage ahead into the next lab but held position just outside of it, waiting for Shepard's orders.
Shepard signalled for Tali and Garrus to take cover behind the lab stations—targeting the rampaging hunter and pick apart its shields with an energy drain and overload. Opening it up for Shepard's pull / flare attacks. The AI fell to its knees—silent and dead.
Hacking the safes and laptops revealed little they didn't already know. The team moved to the top of the stairwell just as geth troopers filtered into the lab as the trio entered. They had just enough time to dive for cover. Geth didn't need radios. What one knew the others knew exactly at the same time—they were networked. The troopers became fanatical when they realized what became of their brethren. Networked geth fanatics gained shielding preventing effective biotic attacks.
"Target the hunters." Shepard ordered. "I'm staying on the troopers."
"Roger that." the others acknowledged the command.
Tali had Chatika buzz the hunters, but by now they didn't immediately turn on the hovering sphere they as predicted summoned their own drones. They were ready for the storm. Garrus shot tripwires from the omni-bow. As soon as the geth encountered it the wires set off micro explosions. To those unshielded it was lethal, those protected with heavy shielding or biotic barriers they'd survive—just. The web set Garrus darted to a bird's nest position, targeting the geth through the scope of his Black Widow– one shot—one kill.
He had to be careful and swift or the geth were able to paint him as a target. a few got past his own shield making him take cover in order for the shields to recharge themselves as soon as his HIUD turned green alerting him he was back on full power he popped out took aim, and made a kill just to duck back once again.
Tali's brilliance and talent in geth constructs allowed her to easily hack into their CPUs and cause them to turn on one another. The first wave turned on their brethren who followed after. The engineer jumped on the confusion, took careful aim with her shotgun to those she hadn't hacked but were the targets of those that were. The elongated flashlight heads were vulnerable, but with a shotgun the center of mass was a superior target.
Shepard sent flares and warp fields into the heart of the enemy. Her body hummed in dark energy-surrounded in a biotic annulation field that eliminated the hunters' shields, and weakened their life-force leaving them completely vulnerable. Using pulls Shepard lifted the white shelled hunters off their legs and hurled them into bulkheads. Those that didn't detonate in a biotic combo she would toss sticky-lift grenades at them and watch them explode in a dozen different directions.
More and more she was relying on her biotics as first weapon of choice. An N7 Slayer who thought and moved like an asari Huntress and attacked as a Spectre. Swift, decisive and accurate. She held the enemy fast in singularities, flashed in with shadow strikes only to turn and charge again landing hits with twin biotic slashes—shockwaves sent though edges of her twin blades. Using what skills she learned in the Echo Game, Shepard was able to land hits with an SMG with almost blind aiming.
The first two waves of geth troopers were pushed back and their third died in the cradle. In the moment of quiet Shepard moved up to yet another monitor and began accessing more of the Alarei's records. There wasn't much left but a small snibbit of security footage.
'Who's running the system diagnostic? I didn't authorize...oh Keelah. How many geth are networked?' The voice belonged to a female.
Off camera came the voice of the same male scientist that was on the first laptop. 'All of them. Rael'Zorah...'
The researcher panicked. 'Shut it down! Shut down everything! They're in the system!'
The Spectre zipped past the corrupted recordings to the only one left.
'We locked down navigation. Weapons are offline. Our mistake won't endanger the Fleet' This was no data log this was a last testament for this woman's family. 'They're burning through the door. I don't have much time. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!'
The woman was pleading now. 'Jona, if you get this, be strong for Daddy. Mommy loves you very much!" She screamed the last word as the geth gunned her down.
"Oh god." Shepard. Closed her eyes. Mommy-Daddy? Those are the words for a very young. child. This Jona couldn't be any older than five, six at the most. Goddamn it! There was no way a babe in arms should ever see this. It would destroy him. It would be horrible enough to be told Mommy is never coming home again. He shouldn't have to hear her scream.
In that very small moment between inhaling and exhaling Shepard heard another scream. One that haunted her forever echoing in her memories and in her dreams—Liara's scream as they lost their baby girl. Their Little Sparrow.
"I'm sorry." Shepard whispered and deleted the files. Jona's daddy shouldn't be haunted by his dying wife's screams of death either. Tali and Garrus having heard the woman's terror filled scream and watching the footage as she died knew what Shepard did she did out of mercy. Both of the Trusted had stood out in the halls of the Victory's medbay after Liara's attack, waiting—hoping- praying that Dr. Chakwas would be able to save the young asari's life. They heard Liara cry of pain and Shepard's anguish filled scream of denial at the death of their child.
Saving another from hearing that cry was a mercy. No one said anything. It was a simple silent agreement to press on.
The next room held supply caches of heatsinks and med packs either left by the marines who had to retreat or they were ships stores, either way the team confiscated them and restocked.
Tali was the first to notice a large interface on the facing wall of the door. "This console might have something. Most of the data is corrupted, but a few bits are left." She synched her omni tool into the core drive and started to hack into the memory banks. "They were performing experiments on geth systems, looking for new ways to overcome geth resistance to reprogramming."
Shepard had to ask however indelicate it might be. "Do you think testing weapons on geth was right?" how she loathed to sound like that swit Koris.
Tali became defensive as she had with the Admiral. "Its not testing weapons on prisoners, Shepard. I only sent Father some parts. Even if he assembled them, they wouldn't be sapient." She pointed at Shepard. "You saw what Saren did with the geth. Any research that gives us an advantage is important!"
That's a fair point and more than true enough. Aloud Shepard asked. "Did you know what kind of tests 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. Like I did when I was with you on my Pilgrimage. I suspected he might be testing weapons but I thought he was just working on new ways to bypass shields or armour."
Shepard inclined her head, pointing with her chin to the console. "Can any of that data clear your name?"
Tali shook her head once more. "Doubtful. This is mostly results data. Effects of different disruptive techniques. I don't understand all of it." Tali started typing activation commands into the keyboard to bring up the recorded data files. "But...they may have been activating geth deliberately. I don't know. Nothing here says specifically. But if they were... then Father was doing something very terrible."
Without a word Garrus stood closer to his wife but didn't interfere with what she was doing. He only let her know that he was there for her
Tali glared at the orange screen as if it had offended her directly. "What was all this, Father? You promised you'd build me a house on the homeworld. Was this going to bring us back home?"
"Maybe its time for your people to let go of reclaiming your homeworld from the geth." uttered Shepard
Tali turned, her voice still angered. Now it was all directed to one person. "You have no idea what its like! You have a planet to go back to. Two of them! My home is one hull breach away from extinction!"
"You and Garrus got a place here Tali, you have Pavlon as well. Don't throw it away in a war you don't need." Shepard went to touch Tali's shoulder but the quarian backed away.
Behind Tali, Garrus winced but he knew far better than to butt in. This had stay between the women he cared for.
"Don't need!? Shepard, if I don't wear a helmet in my own home, be it the Normandy or here I die! A single kiss from Garrus outside of our clean room could put me in the hospital! Every time you touch a flower with bare fingers, inhale its fragrance without air filters you're doing something I can't!" her voice breaking. Yes she was jealous of her best friend. Jealous of the touches she could randomly give Liara the 'just-because-I love-you' kisses she gave as she was passing from one room to the next. That was something she could never do with Garrus. Tali hated herself for resenting Shepard and Liara for this wonderful privilege they had taken for granted.
"Damn the Pilgrimage!" She slammed her fist into the wall. "Without it, I might never have known what I was missing. What we lost when we lost our homeworld."
Shepard looked to Garrus whose eyes were downcast. Without the Pilgrimage, there would be no marriage to the woman he cared for so deeply, either.
"Have the quarians considered colonizing a new world?" Shepard said so very softly it might have been a whisper.
"We'd have enough difficulty reacclimatising to our own native environment. Adjusting for exposure to a foreign colony would be even harder. It's the difference between sixty years and six hundred. For anyone alive now to watch a sunset without a mask, we must take back our home." Tali shook her head letting out a small breath. "At the very least we can take back one ship. Come on." She pushed passed Shepard and Garrus, unlocked the doors barring her way and waited for the others to catch up. She was angry but she wasn't about to allow that anger blind her, especially on a ship still filled with danger.
The room opened up to a balcony overlooking a geth stronghold. There Geth hunters and troopers waited them entrenched, their weapons held at the ready pointed up. Two breaths were all the companions had to sprint for cover. Indeed. Their shields faltered and dropped altogether. It would take another three breaths before the trio's shields came back on line.
The objective clear: keep the geth from coming up the stairs. As before the troopers on the stairs were much easier to cut down than the hunters. The hunter's shields proved more of a deterrent, while they were impervious to inferno ammo they were not so with cryo. During the battles waged against the synthetics whilst on the hunt for Saren, the newly minted Spectre and her team learned geth shields were very susceptible to the snap-freeze ammunition and biotics slams. The former was unavailable to the team on the Alarei, however because of Shepard's mastery to manipulate dark energy she was able to enhance their ammunition with micro-fields of warp-energy.
When they struck home the bullets sheered into the shielding as readily as the biotic combos. Even with energy drinks and pushing her implant past the safeties Shepard could not keep up these attacks indefinitely. She needed time for the implant to cool down to use her gifts effectively.
Holding their current position was a wasted effort, without a word spoken Shepsignalled for her team to fall back and take cover behind the stacked crates. Staggering their attacks between tech explosions, gunfire and biotic explosions stopped the synths from adapting their defensive capacities too quickly.
That wasn't the larger issue. Instantaneous communication was. Organics had to rely on radio transmission to relay INTEL and SitReps, the geth shared a singular consciousness. What one knew-all knew. That was the beauty of a shared mind. The synths sent a band of drones to take out Garrus's net of tripwires.
Trooper assault teams rushed forward already knowing they would be destroyed via the rocket drones Tali had seized and corrupted with her AI hacking. That left the Hunters who stormed in as a wedge, when one fell the one directly behind it took the fallen geth's position by simply walking over and on the defunct platform.
Garrus and Tali were able to create kinetic barriers recovered from fallen geth troopers. It was enough to stop the first volley. The guai shields might hold for a second but not a third firestorm. Limited options and limited time.
"Give them a volley of our own." Shepard ordered. She reached to the side of her weapon's pack and withdrew three of six slam grenades. Garrus and Tali both had six of their own sticky grenades, all of which they launched at their enemy by tossing the skyball sized orbs over the kinetic barriers.
The grenades stuck to the white hardshell platforms-before they detonated Shepard used a warp-throw to push the geth backwards. The fallen geth created stumbling blocks—toppling the platforms that had only a moment ago walked over their chassis.
The team never wasted their moment open to them. Shepard flung out a large singularity—its constant churning undulating radius and its ever-widening epicentre caught the platforms both active and destroyed and fallen detritus into a hurricane. It bought that much more precious time. Garrus and Tali negotiated around barriers, lifted assault rifles and shotguns in absolute precision and opened fire with all due prejudice.
"Fire in the Hole!" Shepard tossed her last three grenades directly into the centre of the singularity allowing the centrifugal energy to cause the most damage in such a confined area. The power of the explosive force was equivalent of an RPG hitting a fuel tanker at very close range.
Her warning gave her teammates time to fall back against the shields and for Shepard to enhance her barriers into a bubble. It was just enough to keep them from dying. Their hardsuit shields however once more were lost—burned out in the repercussion impact of the explosions.
In war there are breaths. Taken and exhaled. The whole outcome of a battle field can be measured in those breaths. In –hold-aim fire. Exhale-center-search-new target. In—hold—aim—fire.
Sometimes the moment between breaths last hours. Sometimes it lasts microseconds. Both times last an eternity. Smoke coiled, rose and clung to the ceiling then got sucked into the ventilation system. As the smoke dissipated the trio realized they had cleared the room.
Keeping frosty they moved down the stairs into the lab proper. There were no parts on tables as there were in the other labs. Here was the epicentre of the geth reconstruction. If there were any parts here, they were now lying destroyed at the Normandy's teams' feet.
Effectively and efficiently the trio swept the lab. Several laptops lay open but only one had an active file. Shepard immediately hit the playback. It was Jona's mother on the laptop as it had been with the others. As they progressed further and further into the ship the entries on the computers seemed to be dating earlier and earlier:
'First entry. Our hacking attempts failed. The geth have an adaptive consciousness. Hack one process, as the others auto-correct. Still we're making progress. Rael'Zorah thinks we'll have a viable system in less than a year.'
No one said anything. Not a word. By now it was evidently clear. Rael explicitly ignored all safely protocols to expedite his research. His people paid the ultimate price.
Behind her mask Tali winced. The truth sticking home more and more as they progressed. If not for her father these people would have lived. Would have—had lives with their children. Jona wouldn't just have his daddy. Tali touched her still empty womb and thought of the child she wanted with Garrus. She thought for a moment for the daughters growing within Liara's womb that were part Shepard.
She wanted to be different. Needed to be different than her father-than her mother. Her mother...hell she had stronger memories of Aunty Raan than her own mother. She didn't want that for her children.
Her father's legacy was death. The events on the Alarei—all the testimonies recorded on the laptops were testaments to it. Her mind spiralled around those events when she, Garrus and Shepard walked from the lab into the next corridor.
It was there at there at the bottom of the stairwell the three found a body.
"Father!" Tali sprinted to the dead man. Her heart shattered into a thousand pieces of splintered glass. "No, no no!" She shook her head in desperate denial. "You always had a plan. Masked life signs, or, or an onboard medical stasis program, maybe. You! You wouldn't..." Tali wept. "They're wrong! You won't just die like this! You wouldn't leave me to clean up your mess! You can't." the tears fell freely, her body shuddering as grief took her hostage.
"Hey. Hey come here." Shepard cooed softly taking Tali by the arm and enfolding her into her arms, holding her close. From behind Garrus did as well.
"Damn it! Damn it!" Tali sniffed trying to find the air to push past the lump lodged so firmly in her throat. "I'm sorry."
"You've got nothing to be sorry about." Shepard uttered in her softest voice.
"He was trying to help you, Tali the only way he knew how. He didn't want to leave you." Garrus uttered gently, his hand stroking the place between her shoulder blades.
It did not sooth her. In fact the words had the very opposite reaction. "Of course he did! Every time he went off to battle. Every time he sent me away. It was all he about what he wanted." Tali felt the strength in her knees give out. Her words choked by a tightening throat, tears streamed from silver eyes. "I wanted a father who'd take the sick-leave time and let me see his face without a helmet in the way."
Her breath was a hiss as she drank in oxygen. "Instead I got orders. And this. And a panel of Admirals who think I'm a traitor. Those were my father's gifts to me." Tears of rage now muffled her voice.
Garrus was afraid to open his mouth lest he say something to make things worse. He looked over Tali's head to Shepard silently pleading with her to help him make it right. Somehow.
As she had with Liara long ago when her lover lost her own mother on Novaria, Shepard didn't try to placate the hurt, how could it be? But she could perhaps take the sting away from a parent labelled by everyone else as a traitor.
"That's not all he gave you. You got his mind and the best military training in the quarian fleet. You're right, neither Garrus nor I know what it is like to be cut off from the world. To be forbidden simple things like touching the petals of flower. But we both know what it is to have a parent who gives orders rather than endearments, who were swaddled in military issue dippers and show their love by having us strip down a gun in record time and reassemble it in perfect working order."
Those words more emotionally stunted drew Tali back. "Maybe...he would have known I'd come. Maybe he left a message." She turned in the arms holding her and slipped out of Garrus's grasp to kneel back down to her father's broken body.
As soon as she tapped into his omni tool a small holographic projection appeared. "Tali. If you are listening then I am dead. The geth have gone active. I don't have much time." there was struggling for breath after each word. From a cursory look at the corpse it was easy to see why he was struggling to breathe so, as his lungs had been crushed. "The main hub will be on the bridge. You will need to destroy it to stop their VI processors from forming new neural links. Make sure Han'Gerrel and Daro'Xen see the data. They must..." The recoding cut out due the massive sound of a very close explosive. "I ...love you...L'il Sparks."
"Thanks, Dad." Tali uttered to the shell of her father's body. She touched her helmeted forehead to that of her father's. A quarian kiss.
"He knew you'd come for him." Shepard said quietly, she knelt down beside the younger woman. "He was trying to help you. It's not perfect. It's not what you wanted. But it's the best he could do." She placed a tender hand on her back.
Tali didn't move. She just stared down at the body. "I don't know what's worse. Thinking he never really cared, or thinking that he did, and this was the only way he could show it." A thousand mile stare fell down like shutters around Tali's silver eyes. "It doesn't matter. One way or the other. I cared. And I'm here. And we're ending this."
The vow made the gauntlet dropped.
The stairs lead to the bridge; this was where that promise came true.
Tali sent her defensive drones up the stairs acting as recon and relay their information directly into Tali's HUD in real time. She linked her HUD vision into Shepard's and Garrus's so they saw what she did when she did.
The tactical drone buzzed the room. There was a prime at the hub linking into the central processing core just as Rael said it would be. Near it were four hunters, as soon as Tali's drone appeared the synths cloaked but did not engage.
Tali and Garrus turned to Shepard awaiting orders. There was no way to flank them coming down the stairs. Not without tactical-cloaking. The only one able to do so was the Spectre. And even then, she was unable to sustain it for longer than a minute. But sixty seconds was all she truly needed.
None of them had any grenades left. But they still had options. "Remember how we took out that dropship back on Illium? I need all your claymores, Garrus. I'll float that bitch directly into the alcove where the Prime positioned itself. When I call I need you to scope and drop this thing." she moved to one of the ammo caches and ripped open the lid to which Garrus stockpiled his remaining proximity mines. There were only three left—it would be enough. "The blast radius should take out the Prime and the severely weaken surrounding hunters' shields."
"Commander, hate to point out the obvious but last time we did this was in open air. A blast like that inside a sealed pressurized container isn't good."
"Noted." Shepard turned to her XO and smiled. Hand it to Garrus to be on top of everything. There was a reason he was in charge of maintaining the heavy gun calibrations. Yes fire as intense as proximity landmines going off on a starship was more than bad news, it was extraordinarily hazardous. "Which is why I'm staying on point to maintain a barrier bubble."
"Shepard that's crazy." Tali protested.
"Which is why it will work. I don't know why we're all standing around here arguing what's been decided. Those flash-light heads won't be logged into the central core long. Tali when you see that bubble go up target whatever hunter you can and make it turn on the rest. We have a limited window before they activate more clankers. Let's make it count."
Shepard's body swirled in a field of element zero, allowing her to charge through solid matter as if she were a neutrino. N7 Slayers dubbed this ability as 'blinking.' Shepard slipped into the stream of dark energy dropped the ammo-case-clicked her comm twice.
Garrus took the cue. He had been watching his commander through the scope of his Black Widow. He saw nothing more than a flicker of purple blue, then a floating crate. He held his breath, squeezed the trigger. Warp-ammo already locked and loaded.
Tali shielded her eyes from the blinding flash of light and spray of smoke and metal. A ball of fire plumed outward like an exploding rose blossom.
Shepard's full concentration was on keeping the inferno contained within the barrier bubble she had generated.
Tali targeted the closest geth CPU. Skill and speed allowed her the precious moments needed to break into the firewall and override programme and turned it against its comrades. Weakened by the fire and plasma rounds it took very short time before all three of the troopers destroyed each other.
Faster than it takes to blink an eye the geth prime stomped out of the dying inferno and backhanded the Commander hard enough to send her flying backwards into facing bulkhead with a loud crack. Her body tumbled to the deck, but she was moving.
"Shepard!" Garrus and Tali called out.
"SHOOT"! The Spectre cried out once she managed to suck in air that had been forced out of her lungs, her head ringing. Her eyes wouldn't focus correctly. "Shoot it!"
The prime whirled around from the prone human on the ground to the last remaining creator on the ship. It had not expected to find rage seething in the quarian's heart. It burned with vengeance, the need to destroy her enemy. Her boldness inspired by hatred. She had one thought to crush the geth, to crush the prime who had the audacity to survive the Spectre's explosion.
"Eat this bosh'tet!" Tali slammed the muzzle of her shotgun into the prime's upper chassis—it's 'rib cage' and pulled the trigger until the heatsink was empty. Every time she pulled the trigger the momentum knocked the prime back. And still Tali pushed on until the prime was forced to lock down its mag-boots. Four. Five. Six. Seven. She was out. The next time she pulled the trigger came back a deafening empty click.
"Garrus: The Collector rifle!" Shepard ordered. The prime was only half functional. Its decrepit shell creaked and groaned. Shepard now master of her senses yanked Tali back with a pull, the power of it as gentle as a mother bear moving her cub from danger.
The heavy weapon Garrus was meant to use- a Collector's particle beam. Was strong enough to take down biotic barriers, enhanced tech-armor and kinetic shields. Its problem: it had very limited ammo. It would be enough.
The prime lumbered forward intent on destroying the last creator standing on the Alarei. Each step was a groan of metal screeching against metal. The green beam stuck center of mass. The head of the prime swivelled 180' facing this new insult.
The Archangel saw his greatest and closest friend and commander sail through the air after this tin monster had struck her, saw his wife face it without fear within dagger range. It wasn't rage that filled him. But pride. He would end this tin- monster.
The clanker shuddered. It had no armour, no shielding—no allies it was separate from the collective. Its mental state retarded to simple processing could not counter or anticipate enemy actions.
Its destruction was no less explosive than the firebomb set off in the little alcove. It took a moment to realize the trio had won.
There was no time to congratulate one another, only to take stock in each other's health. Shepard didn't even allow her companions to question how she was doing after being sent flying across the bay. She showed them she was hail and hearty or at the very least gave the facade as such.
"Tali, what do we have?" she inclined her chin to the three computer banks the geth were attempting to link into.
There was no hesitation in the engineer just as there was no hesitation her earlier defence of her commander.
"This console is linked to the main hub Father mentioned. Disabling it will shut down any geth we missed." It was difficult sometimes to recall that the units the geth walked around in were simply shells like computer or omni tool, the true geth were software.
"It looks like some of the recordings remained intact. They'll tell us how this happened what Father did."
"Are you going to be okay with that?" Garrus asked, coming up behind his wife. "You sound like you really don't want to hear it."
"No. We have to, Garrus."
"Take as long as you need, Tali." Shepard echoed the sentiment.
"I know. I just...this is terrible, Shepard..." Tali shook her heard, her voice sounding drained. "I don't want to know that he was a part of this." Without further ado Tali activated the archives.
On the screen was Rael'Zorah alive and whole. 'Do we have enough parts to bring more online?'
'Yes the new shipment from your daughter will let us add two more geth to the network.' Answered the male scientist they had seen on the first console.
Jona's mother was the next speaker. 'We're nearing a breakthrough on system viral attacks. Perhaps we should inform the Admiralty Board just to be safe.'
Rael was swift to shoot that idea down. 'No. We're too close. I promised to build my daughter a house on the homeworld. I'm not going to sit and wait for politicians to argue.'
As soon as Tali heard those words she dipped her head and sadly shook it. It was so much easier when she believed her father to be cold and removed.
A fourth scientist piped up. 'We'd have an easier time of it is Tali'Zorah could send back more working material.'
'Absolutely not! I don't want Tali exposed to any political blowback. Leave Tali out of this! Assemble new geth with what we have. Bypass security protocols if need be.'
"Sounds like he was doing this for you." Shepard said
"He wanted to keep his promise." Garrus added gently.
Tali's whole body became tense. "I never wanted this. Keelah, I never wanted this!" She turned and looked at the still smouldering bodies of the geth. "Everything here is his fault. I tried to pretend it didn't point to him, but this...When this comes out in the trial, they'll..." new tears fell. She stopped speaking for a breath then turned to face Shepard. "We can't tell them, not the Admirals, not anyone."
"Tali we need to use this!" Garrus protested.
"Tali, without this evidence you're looking at exile." Shepard said more firmly.
"You think I don't know that? You think I want to live knowing that I can never see the Fleet again? But I can't go back to that room and say my father was the worst war criminal in our people's history! I cannot!" The heart-broken anger mingled with desperate tears.
"Rael'Zorah doesn't need you to worry about him anymore. You heard him say he didn't want you caught in the politics!" Shepard countered.
"She's right Tali, your father is dead. Don't let his sins be yours." her husband tried.
"Neither of you understand. They would strike his name from the manifests of every ship he ever served on. He would be worse than an exile. He would be a traitor to our people, held up for children as a monster in a cautionary tale! I can't let all the good he did be destroyed for this, Shepard."
"We're not going to deciding anything here. Let's see what the admirals say once we get back." the Spectre said with the full authority of command in each syllable.
"You're my captain in this hearing Shepard. It's your decision. But please don't destroy what my father was." Tali's voice became more resigned to face her fate, defeated. "Come on, if we wait too long, they'll decide we're already dead, and none of this will matter."
The way back was heavy and cloying as the ride to the Alarei. Tali couldn't help but keep a watchful eye on her Commander. Trying to anticipate what Shepard would say or do was fruitless. As soon as you thought you knew the woman's mind she turned double summersaults and pirouetted in a whirlwind of countermeasures and counter thoughts. Whatever Shepard was going to do or say it would surprise her as much as it would the Admiralty.
As they landed the trio could hear no doubt purposely so the arguments of the Board over the intercom:
The voice of the first speaker was clear, the grating- grinding tones of the geth sympathizer. *We need to face facts. There had been no word. There is no reason to believe Tali'Zorah survived.*
"Sounds like the hearing is already underway." Tali muttered.
*We must trust Shepard's offer of assistance. It has only been a few hours!* Raan protested. Trying to remain optimistic
Yet even Gerrel was ready to throw in the towel "The quarian marines lasted less than five minutes, Admiral. Call it.*
Condescending as ever Koris voice was full of glee when he said. * A pity Shepard vas Normandy is a better speaker than a soldier. I recommend posthumously exiling Tali'Zorah.*
*WHAT!* Gerrel snarled. Well as least he hadn't fully turned his back on the daughter of his best friend.
*It was agreed that Tali'Zorah would not be convicted if she were killed in action.* Raan reminded them all.
*It was suggested Admiral. I recall no agreement. To that In I call for an immediate vote.*
The team rushed the stairs and stormed into the atrium, just in time to hear resignation in Raan's voice.
"Very well. Is the Admiralty Board prepared to render judgment?"
Tali pushed past the crowd and stood defiantly in the defenders' box. "Sorry we're late." she jeered at Koris
Then Shepard moved forward, her full demeanour was a challenge and commanding. "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy saved the Alarei. I hope this proves her loyalty to the quarian people."
Koris pointed a finger back to Shepard. "Her loyalty was never in doubt. Only her judgement."
From behind the accusing man came Raan's voice. "Perhaps Tali'Zorah can offer something to encourage trust in her judgment."
"Did you find anything on the Alarei that could clarify what happened there?" Came Gerrel.
Tali looked at Shepard and for a moment they held each other's gaze. When Shepard looked away, Tali grabbed the human's arm. "Shepard...please...'
"Does Captain Shepard have any new evidence to submit to the hearing?"
"I don't need evidence. Tali helped me defeat Saren and the geth at the Citadel. That is all the evidence you need. "
Koris shrugged indifferently. "I fail to see what relevance..."
"I'm not done! If this co-called trial is a hearing I will be heard!" Shepard growled. "You're not really interested in Tali, are you? This trial isn't about her. It's about the geth." Shepard leaned all her weight on the rail of the podium in front her, her blue eyes flashing in barely contained rage.
Koris echoed the Spectre's stance, once more he belligerently interrupted. "This hearing has nothing to do with the geth!"
"Bullshit! It has everything to do with the geth!" Shepard slammed her hand down on the railing, not truly realizing or rather caring that by now her body was humming with dark energy. "You want people to sympathize with them! Han'Gerrel wants to go to war! None of you really care about Tali!" By now Shepard's voice was echoing off the walls.
"She knows more about the geth than any other quarian alive. You should be listening to her, not putting her on trial!" She moved to pace causing Tali to take a very quick step back as Shepard took full command of the court. "Tali'Zorah saved the Citadel! She saved the Alarei! She showed the galaxy the value of the quarian people. I can't think of stronger evidence than that!"
"Are the admirals prepared to render judgment?" Raan swiftly took advantage of the upheaval and momentum of Shepard's very powerful display.
Xen was the first to enter her verdict. Followed by Gerrel and then slowly by a chagrined Koris.
"Tali'Zorah in light of your history of service, we do not find sufficient evidence to convict. You are cleared of all charges."
Tali lost a hundred pounds of tension in that moment.
Raan continued speaking. "Commander Shepard, please accept these gifts in appreciation for representing one of our people."
"It's Spectre Shepard and with all due respect Admiral. I didn't represent one of yours. I represented one of mine. If you appreciate me then listen: the Reapers are coming." Shepard once more leaned on the railing trying to hold the attention of the quarian admirals. "I'm going to need your help to stop them. Please don't throw away your lives against the geth."
Koris was the one to answer. "Thank you Spectre Shepard. I hope the Board will consider your advice."
Shepard rose up from leaning on the banister and shook her head disgusted. The panel of Admirals were no better then the Council on the Citadel. By the time anyone in power listened to Shepard it would be far too late. The only hope for the survival of advanced sentient life in the Milky Way may now very well be frozen on the Arks sailing for Andromeda.
"This hearing is concluded." Raan announced. "Go in peace Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. Keelah se'lai."
Once more the gathered crowd echoed the salutation. And as they started to disperse, Tali followed Shepard, proud, amazed and flabbergasted at what her friend and captain had just accomplished.
"I can't believe you pulled that off. What you said...I've never had anyone speak like that before." She glanced to her husband. Not even Garrus had spoken like that about her. She squeezed his hand but continued to focus her attention on Shepard. "Thank you for being there for my father and for me, even when...Thank you."
"We can still go back in and get you exiled, if you want." teased the older woman, she needed to step back from the rage that had burst from her seconds ago.
Tali chuckled. "Thanks, but I'd fine with things like this." She again looked to Garrus. "More than fine. It's fun watching you shout."
"Have to agree with my girl on that one Shepard. Damn but if you didn't own that trio of twits. Love it when you put the smack down and kick their asses." Garrus patted Shepard on the back. "Next round in the Normandy's lounge is on me"
"It's free there." Shepard said
"Well, I'll still pick up the tab."
Shepard looked to Tali, and felt the need to clear something up. "I didn't do it for Rael. Tali, about what your father said, what he did. You deserve better."
"I got better, Shepard. I got you." and she leaned in to Garrus, wrapping her arms around his waist. "And I have him."
"Absolutely. Always." Garrus's arm coiled around Tali's shoulders, very possessively.
"Come on Miss Tali'Zorah vas Normandy...let's get back to our ship."
"Thank you...Captain." Tali looked over to Raan and placed a soft hand on Shepard's forearm. The intent of an unvoiced question clear.
Shepard nodded. Things between family should not be allowed to lie as there were. Tali would always regret it if she did not make peace with the woman who was as much as her mother as the woman that gave birth to her. The mission to through the Omega Four Relay could very well be a one-way trip. Now was a time for reunification.
Shepard and Garrus gave Tali whatever time she needed.