Once the four of them were back up on the upper city they found it to be extremely calm with minimal Sith presence, however they were still around. Carth was still carrying Nick and the group hesitated before they spotted other civilians roaming around. The sun was rising over the horizon, even though it physically couldn't be seen around through the buildings, the iconic orange glow was visible.

Before the four of them proceeded Mission stopped Carth. "I'm sure the Sith up here will be at least vaguely aware of what went on in the maintenance tunnels, if you go up there carrying him the Sith will instantly know." After saying this, Carth nodded in silent agreement and started to gently lower Nick off his back.

Tali helped him down onto his own feet "Can you walk?" She asked, her tone caring and gentle, Nick only grunted in response, but after a few seconds of probing he nodded slowly. The four of them moved away from the hole that they had emerged while Nick limped between them, Mission walked in front while Carth and Tali stood beside Nick to make sure he did not fall.

"Not much further now." Mission said as she made a direct beeline towards the medical facility, Carth and Tali glanced at each other as they walked, making sure to avoid citizens and Sith troopers alike in order to not arouse any suspicion. Luckily they managed to get across to the facility without grabbing anyone's attention, Nick leaned against a wall beside the entrance while Carth and Mission went to open it. Nick was breathing heavily and looked as though he was about to collapse, his eyes couldn't stay open and he was barely able to even lean against the wall.

As the door opened Zelka Forn approached and greeted them "Ah, Mission. How are you today -" Nick walked in and almost immediately lost his footing and collapsed to the floor, Mission gasped and ran to his aid while Zelka silently crouched to aid as well. "What happened to him?!" The doctor asked before looking at his singed back and instantly realised, "We need to get him to the Kolto tank immediately!" Zelka ran to the wall opposite the door and pushed a button, Carth and Mission lifted Nick up while Tali watched from behind. They carried him to a tube that was draining of some kind of liquid, Tali presumed this was the 'Kolto' substance she had heard of, and Carth helped Nick into the tube while Zelka and Mission stripped him down to a thin jumpsuit beneath his armour. Finally Zelka attached a rebreather mask to Nick's face and then connected it to a tube at the top, after all this the tube was shut and it started filling with Kolto.

Tali watched from the side and it was a far cry from her experience of slapping medi-gel on everything and hoping for the best, from what she understood, submersion in Kolto could heal minor wounds in a matter of hours and major ones over a day or two. So far she was impressed, but she knew when she was not needed and instead opted to poke around the facility. There were several other similar tubes in the facility, however they were in a state of disrepair, there was exposed wiring in the ceiling, water dripping in the corner and a few beds scattered around. Near the entrance was a small console with a far shadier looking man hunched over, Carth and Mission were now conversing with Zelka. While passively looking over one of the desks, something caught her eye: a pair of dog tags lay on the table, in her curiosity Tali lifted them up and looked at them.

Blood type B

11002897

Sanchez

J. S.

M

SAN

Tali idly pondered what 'SAN' could mean in this galaxy, like most dog tags both sides were identical, however once she flipped them over she stopped dead and her hands went solid. In front of her lay the unmistakeable insignia of the Systems Alliance, slightly scuffed but otherwise still true. She quickly concluded that they must have belonged to one of the marines that crash landed with her and for a brief second she regretted the fact that she didn't even know their names. Her mind cast back to the first time she held Shepard's dog tags in a similar way to the ones she held now, but she pushed the thoughts out of her mind as she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Carth watched Tali turn around and saw his slightly faded reflection in the depths of her mask "What's up?" he casually asked, noting how she seemed tense.

"It's uh… it's nothing." Tali said quickly, scrunching her hands behind her back, the chain of the dog tags rattled slightly causing Tali to silently disparage herself.

"What are you holding there?" Carth asked, gesturing to the dog tags that she was holding tightly behind her back.

Deciding that secrecy was probably not the best course of action considering her position in the galaxy, Tali silently removed her hands from behind her back and revealed the metal tags that she had been hiding. Carth suddenly wretched, thinking that they could belong to a dead or dying republic soldier but once he saw the strange logo he regained composure. "These belonged to one of the soldiers that crashed with me here." Tali said with a soft worry in her tone.

Carth reeled slightly after hearing the words, but decided to comfort her, "Are you sure?" He asked gently, understanding that the moment was tense.

Tali simply nodded. Carth turned to see Mission and Zelka finishing up with Nick in the Kolto tank. "Mission said he'd take in anyone, so these guys must be around here somewhere." He said while looking around.

Tali brought up her omni-tool and passively scanned the room, finding that she was having some trouble registering the technology in the room, she still hadn't worked out the specifications of this galaxy, but there was no time in her current situation. She passively scanned past a wall – at least that's what she thought before receiving life readings on the other side.

She look behind her, Zelka and Mission were finished and were now discussing something she couldn't hear. She silently motioned for Carth to approach; once he was within earshot she whispered "This wall." Tali waved her hand "I think it might be a door, there are life readings on the other side."

Carth turned to look at Zelka quickly before turning back, "Makes sense, if he has fugitives he probably wants them hidden."

"But would he believe us if we said we wanted to help?" Tali asked, overstepping herself slightly. She shot a look at the doctor, to her surprise he was staring directly at her, as if trying to get a reading. After a tense few seconds he turned back to Mission, setting Tali's thoughts and fears in motion. "You go distract him, I'll open this door." She said adamantly.

"Are you sure? He could be a help to us-" Carth uttered before Tali cut him off abruptly.

"I'm sure." Tali interrupted, another thought crossed her and she decided to voice it "What if he's working for the Sith? It sounds like the perfect front operation; citizens bring in Republic troops and the Sith are able to take both into custody!" Tali half whispered, half shouted. Carth to reeled back slightly, the thought had crossed his mind, but it did sound quite plausible given the situation, Carth nodded in agreement and called Zelka over to look at something else. Tali tried interfacing with the door lock through her omni-tool, but to no avail, her hacking program didn't recognise the foreign device despite uploading code from the droid arm earlier. Conscious of time, Tali closed down her omni-tool and started to work on the door itself – cracking open a nearby panel as quietly as she could – the technological barrier was still an issue, but there were remarkable similarities she started to notice and very quickly she had crossed the correct wires allowing the door to wheeze open. She had no doubt that Zelka would hear it but she was unfazed as the door creaked open.

The room on the other side was fairly similar to the main reception with beds and similar Kolto tanks, the tanks on the far end were occupied by two humans, one male and one female. On nearby tables the familiar blue Alliance Marine armour was lying arranged along with a pair of M8-Avenger assault rifles. Tali stood in surprise, she didn't know what to expect, but it was clear that this man had no ties to the Sith. Zelka ran up behind her "What are you doing?!" He said, but it was too late everything was clear. Tali stretched out her arm and let the tags hang from her hand, rattling slightly, Zelka took the tags from her and relaxed slightly, "You know these men?" He quickly asked.

"Yes." Tali replied as she moved forwards into the room towards the Kolto tanks, Mission had joined Zelka by his side and Carth was walking behind Tali to the table where the weapons and armour was located. Tali walked closer to the tank and began to notice the extent of their wounds; they clearly weren't going to survive.

Zelka was confused, he had never in his entire life seen or heard of soldiers like the two Alliance Marines in front of him, and knowing someone else who did was extremely strange. "Some citizens brought them to me a few days ago, they didn't know where they came from but they were sure the Sith would want to arrest them. What could I do? I can't refuse medical help to any wounded person, their injuries were too severe however and they are on their way out." Zelka moved behind Tali as he spoke "I keep them here so that their final days can be lived out in peace, the Sith would not grant them the same treatment." A look of remorse flashed over his face.

"Thank you." Tali softly said, the only compassion she had received since entering the galaxy had been from Carth, Mission was still a little cold and she could hardly get a reading on Nick. Carth came up beside her and the two exchanged a look, his confident yet calm demeanour reminded Tali of Shepard, a tear welled up in her eye as her mind was cast back to him, she was glad that Carth couldn't see her face.

Mission came up to her and looked over towards the armour and weapons on the table, "Okay, who and what are you?" Mission had finally worked up the courage to ask the question that had been burning in her mind since meeting the Quarian in the Undercity and then fighting alongside her in the sewers.

Tali looked over to the side and met Carth's eyes, he silently nodded giving Tali all the encouragement she needed. "I'm not from this galaxy." She said slowly, turning around to meet Mission mask to face, "Our entire galactic civilization was destroyed by…" She stopped slightly as she was forced to relive the destruction that the Reapers brought "By the Reapers, we were forced to run and we left the Galaxy in order to colonize new worlds."

"Huh." Mission said in slight awe at Tali's retelling of the events in her recent life.

"We… the fleet that we arrived in was attacked… I was separated from my friends and even my own species. Carth helped me." Tali stuttered slightly, she gestured to Carth. She looked at Mission in front of her, she had no idea what her expression was but she was anxious that it was disbelief. "If you don't believe me then have you ever seen someone that looks like me? Have you ever seen weapons and armour like that?" Tali pointed towards the nearby M8 – Avenger.

"It's alright." Mission said slowly, walking towards Tali, "I believe you." She said with certainty in her voice, surprising Tali who had been sure that Mission would be doubtful.

"Really…?" Tali replied after a long silence, her voice dripping with anxiety, she was holding her wrists and shuffled to the side nervously awaiting a response.

"Yes." Mission said after a long silence, "I've never left Taris, but my Brother used to tell me about all the different kinds of life in the galaxy and what could be lurking outside of the galaxy." She smiled slightly while reminiscing about her brother, Tali detected from her slightly pained and forced smile that it was likely a sensitive subject. "I'm ready to believe anything after what's happened recently, but now isn't the time to tell me your whole story – that can come later."

Tali was overjoyed and barely able to contain it, instead she sighed and let her arms down in a relaxed state, she definitely felt far more relaxed now that she had let others know about her past. "Thank you. But can we keep this quiet for now? I would prefer it if less people knew."

Mission nodded and offered a friendly smile, "Anyway, the Beks should be done installing that engine by now, and I sent Big Z to carry it back to their base." She turned around to Zelka who had been a little bit surprised by the preceding conversation and was obviously in heavy thought, "We can leave Nick here for now, right?" Mission stated, her reply was that of Zelka turning to her with a shocked look on his face, he simply nodded in silence and decided that the best course of action would be to just leave it alone and go back to business.

"Are we all ready?" Mission asked, already walking through the open door onto the street which was now flushed with activity from citizens and merchants shambling all over the place, however the Sith presence had gotten even heavier with the checkpoints persisting and large patrols going back and forth through doors that lead to other platforms or other buildings. Above the crowd, Carth could see a squad of Sith Commandos escorting a large group of aliens and humans out of one of the apartment complexes.

"ATTENTION ALL CITZENS." The dreaded loudspeaker came on with another whine, demanding the attention of every single person in the vicinity. "ANY AND ALL DISSENT WILL BE MET WITH OVERWHELMING FORCE, FOLLOW INSTURCTIONS AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED." The speaker switched off with another feedback whine, the citizens continued to trudge around with their spirits and any fight left within them crushed.

The group continued on in silence, doing their best to stay out of trouble, deciding to take the Sith for their word, they continued back to the checkpoint at which point their clearance was still active and they were waved down to the lower city.