Chapter 3 : Marooned

Bridge: 21:24 hours

Gravity flickered turning Shepard's guts upside down for a second before righting itself. A dull thump was heard and felt through the ship as alarms began wailing.

"What the hell happened EDI?" Shepard shouted as he watched Jokers control panels winking out. Emergency lighting sprang to life around him. EDI had not answered him, "Joker, what's going on?"

"Commander, I..I don't know. There was a spike in all power readings then..." Joker stated using his arms to indicate his control panels "this. It looks like we lost both the port and starboard power grids. That means something blew in engineering." His voice strangely quiet.

A hand grabs Shepard's shoulder. "Shepard, Tali is in there." Garrus stated softly. "I'll go see what I can do, you need to stay here in case something else happens." Turning to head aft Garrus pauses as Shepard grabs his good arm stilling his motion.

Shepard states without any hesitation though his voice is strained "Garrus, I need you to get to the AI core and try to get Legion functioning." With a hitch in his voice he continues "We..We may need his engineering skills."

Garrus nodded, afraid to trust his voice. Together they quickly headed aft to the elevator hoping that it's backup power was functional. Shepard tries to raise Tali on the suits comm set. Only static is heard.

Far behind the Normandy, the unleashed fury of the Collectors base core was fading. Plasma streams, writhing in their death throws winked out.

Engineering: 21:24 hours

Overloaded in the battle, stressed past breaking in the flight to safety the starboard primary power coupling failed. Tali heard the alarm moments before an explosion tossed her hard into a bulkhead. Her last vision was of a fireball reaching out for her in the darkness.

The explosion knocked Ken and Gabby off their feet. Their consoles saved them from the flames that quickly extinguished itself. Darkness surrounded them for a brief time then the low powered emergency lighting flickered and illuminated the engine room in a cold white light. Picking themselves up, Ken notices the unmoving body on the deck.

"Tali!" he shouts, forcing Gabby to look as well. Moving quickly to kneel beside he says "EDI, medical emergency. It's Tali" but no response is heard. Trying again he looks at EDI's console, it's dark. He hears Gabby calling for help on the ships backup system. Looking down he is relieved to see Tali's chest slowly rising with each breath. Gabby joins him next to Tali saying "Ken, don't worry. I got through. They are on their way."

Medical Bay: 21:25 hours

Dr Chakwas looks at Mordin "Go, I can handle this for now." indicating the sickbay filled with injured people. Grabbing the trauma kit he quickly exits the med bay and almost runs into Garrus stepping out of the elevator. Entering he notices Shepard mashing the Engineering decks selector. "Repeated presses of a selection do not in fact speed the process." says Mordin. Shepard does not hear him.

As Garrus enters the medical bay, Dr. Chakwas notices his arm and tries to steer him to an empty chair but Garrus waves her off. "I'm sorry doctor but this" indicating his arm "must wait, I need to get Legion working again" he says grimly. With that he passes her and heads into the AI core.

Engineering: 21:25 hours

Gabby looks at Ken, "Go, see whats left in electrical and try to get power up. I'll be there in a sec." Ken nods and slowly stands. Activating his omnitool he starts diagnostics. Gabby meanwhile leans in close to Tali's head whispering "Tali, don't worry. We are here and help is coming." With no other sounds to mask it, she can hear Tali's light breathing through her filters.

Ken calls "Gabby, here. I need a hand with this cable." Leaving Tali's side Gabby joins him as they attempt to drag a 5 centimeter cable to rig as a bypass for the destroyed couplings.

Engineering: 21:27 hours

Rushing into the room Mordin quickly sees Tali and moves to her side bringing his omnitool up for medical scans. Shepard looms over him asking "Is she alright, Is she alive, what happened?" in rapid fire. Mordin ignores him as he studies the readout. "Hum, concussion, no broken bones, no suit ruptures, signs of infection" he takes a deep breath "not caused by explosion." He looks at Shepard saying "She will be fine, needs rest, time to heal."

Shepard stands there just staring down at Tali, not at her mask but at the face of the person beneath it. He hears his name called. "Shepard!" Snapped out of his thoughts he turns to the speaker.

"Begging your pardon but we could use a wee bit o help here Shepard" says Ken and for once Gabby does not correct him. They are both trying to drag a heavy cable from storage over to the hole that was once the housing for the power couplings. He glances back at Tali once more before joining them. His injured ribs complaining again as he helps the engineers move the cable into position.

As the two finish hooking up the bypass Gabby looks at Ken saying "Ken, I'm worried. We may get power up but the engines are dead. The entire propulsion system fried with the overload. We need a spacedock to fix them."

Ken replied softly "Aye Gabriella I did." His use of her real name caused Gabby to look at Ken as he continued "But I can think of no one better to drift through space with than you."

Engineering: 21:35 hours

Once done, Shepard picks up Tali and with Mordin by his side monitoring her he carries her to the elevator. Mordin states that there are no beds available in medical and presses deck 1. Shepard just holds her quietly looking at her still form as the elevator ascends to his cabin. In his mind he repeats what Ken had said to Gabby.