SSV Einstein, March 9, 2170

Orbiting Mindoir

Executive Officer Commander Hannah Shepard sat in her quarters looking at reports from the crew on her terminal on the SSV Einstein. Unfortunately, having two hyperactive children with her was the perfect recipe for 5 cups of coffee in the span of two hours. Originally it wasn't so bad, the occasional crying here and there but nothing she couldn't handle, despite being a widow after her husband died from complications that stemmed from his involvement in the First Contact War while she was pregnant. But even after 11 long years of taking care of her children and hoping one day they would calm down to let her work, they were worse to take care of than an angsty teen, and if this was how they acted now, god knows how they would be when they were actual teens.

Downing her 6th cup of coffee she got sent a message from the ship's captain stating that she would have the deck as he had to attend some business on the planet of Mindoir which the Einstein was orbiting.

'Great, now not only do I have to make sure those two monsters don't cause trouble, now I get the ship to take care of' she thought.

Thankfully she would be able to not worry as much in a few hours as she would send her son down to Mindoir for Biotic lessons from a school on the planet. John had developed surprisingly strong biotic abilities since he was eight after he had almost had a box filled with tools dropped on him when he surprisingly managed to lift it without implants. It did however leave him unconscious for a few days and with a massive headache when he woke up but it had been enough to catch the attention of the Alliance and many biotic schools. Hannah however was very skeptical of most of them- especially after the BAaT incident- but she knew she could at least trust this one as she had friends who had their children there, and if trained well, his abilities could eventually challenge the likes of many Asari.

John would usually try training on his own when no one watched, but that usually led to disasters if the window looking at space he almost cracked was of any indication. Unfortunately for Hannah, his biotics weren't the only problem for her, the fact that he knew his way around tech was even more annoying as he loved trying to hack even the most complex systems leaving Hannah to get scolded by her superiors for not watching and stopping him before he managed to enter forbidden areas.

But soon she would only have to watch Jane for a few days. She was the more level-headed and calm one, but also somewhat jealous as she never developed any biotic abilities and the best she could do is know how to use holopads to her mother's relief. But what she lacked in biotics (And brains) she made up in physical power as she decided to train her body as much as she could with exercise despite her mother's constant pleas for her to not over-do it.

Suddenly, Hannah received a message from her terminal from her crew about a request from another ship. I thought we were the only ones in this system at the moment?

She opened up the request and immediately went wide-eyed. The ship that had requested wasn't another Alliance vessel, it was an alien one, the Quarian Migrant Fleet had just made a request to send a diplomatic team to the Einstein.

Quarian Migrant Fleet

Liveship Rayya

Looking out of the window of the Liveship Rayya, her home and birthplace, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya couldn't help but be fascinated at the planet she could see in the distance. She had no idea what the name of the planet was but her mother had told her that a new species to the galactic scene resided there, Humans. She had heard from some of her people about humans and how remarkably similar to Quarians they were in appearance. This however, would be the first time she would see one in person, after very constant pleading with her mother (Threatening to hack her omni-tool and ping her at random times for several days) she had finally caved and allowed her to come with her to the Alliance ship if the humans accepted the request.

Being new to the galactic scene, Quarians had attempted to make contact with humans for years hoping they would not have heard of their reputation as thieves and beggars and that they could at least establish peaceful relations with them, and finally they had managed to make contact with them.

But Tali didn't really care about relations between humans and quarians, she only wanted to be on that ship for two reasons: Meet a human, interact with them, and learn about their cultures. But more importantly she had always loved to learn about new things, and from what she had heard, humans were already highly advanced rivaling even the likes of Turian ships and well on their way to rivaling Asari ships. Being very excited about engines she was hoping that maybe she could slip by her mother for just a little while and at least catch a glimpse of the ship's core. Of course she would need to come up with a plan which was much easier said than done especially with how many guards there would be who could easily call her out.

"Tali, we leave in a few minutes" a voice suddenly snapped her from her thoughts making her jump, turning to look at the voice she saw her mother who immediately started walking towards the young Tali and adjusting her realk "Keelah Tali, you look beautiful even inside your suit. It doesn't hurt you or anything right?" her mother asked.

"No, it's okay, just tight. Still better than being in a bubble though. Keelah I hope I get to meet some humans there!" Tali couldn't help but bounce on her toes at the idea of not only meeting a new species, but also maybe exploring a little as she had finally grown just old enough to get herself a suit a few days ago finally being able to exit her bubble and explore as much as she possibly wanted.

"Remember Tali, don't get too excited, we are only there to try to talk with them and maybe start some peaceful relations with them, maybe this will be a new turning point for our fleet if we can get on their good side."

"Yeah I know. I just hope I at least get to maybe talk to one" And catch a glimpse at whatever their drive core looks like hehe.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find someone to talk to there while we talk with the humans. Now come on, we need to get to the shuttle in case the humans accept our request." Tali's mom began to walk away with Tali following close behind her barely containing her excitement 'I can't wait to be on that ship!'

SSV Einstein

"Oh shit shit shit SHIT! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?! AH FUCK I WASN'T TRAINED FOR THIS!" Hannah was having a complete mental breakdown, of all the times that aliens could have decided to make a request to dock with their ship and converse with them, they decided to pick the time when her captain was gone and she had to make the decision herself. She eventually started to calm down though, she hadn't heard much about quarians, but she had heard that they didn't exactly have the best reputation 'thieves and beggars' every species called them, but this was first contact with them, and if they rejected it they could ruin a potential future partnership and alliance between humans and quarians.

Hannah decided to send a message to her captain first in order to see what she should do, eventually though her captain replied back allowing her to accept the request of the quarians and to not make humans look bad. That was one of the things she liked about her captain, unlike most who held grudges against ALL aliens post-First Contact War, her captain didn't hold any, and was always open to converse with any of them. Secondly, she made contact with Admiral Steven Hackett who told her that he would send a diplomatic team but that for the time being she could at the very least give the Quarians a good impression of humanity before the real diplomats got there. Immediately she gave the heads-up to the entire crew of the Einstein and accepted the Migrant Fleet's request.

It would take them at least a couple of hours to reach the Einstein as they were pretty far away from the ship which gave Hannah enough time to look appropriate and reach the room she had left her kids in.

Opening the door to the room, she immediately started looking around for her kids, walking over to the table and then the bed at the corner, but to her dismay she couldn't find them "John? Jane?" I swear, if John hacked the lock again... Suddenly she got grabbed on both of her feet by hands making her scream and jump in surprise before she heard the giggling of a boy and a girl. Lifting up the sheets she saw her two troublemakers below the bed and they launched themselves onto her both of them hugging her.

"M-Mom! Yo-You should have s-seen how you jumped! It was absolutely priceless!" John said between laughs.

"I don't think I've ever seen you jump that high!" Jane said.

Hannah couldn't help but chuckle despite the situation she was about to be in "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up you two. Just put some bunny ears on me and call me Bugs Bunny why don't you? How long were you two waiting down there?"

"Only 10 minutes. You have perfect timing!" Jane said giggling

All three of them stayed hugging one another for a while until their laughter died down.

The silence was finally broken by the boy "What are you doing though? I mean, I'm not complaining, you came at the perfect time so we could scare you quickly, but I thought you would only visit us in an hour?"

Hannah tensed up and put a serious face before responding "Right, listen you two, we have a bit of a problem and I know I can't trust either of you to stay in the room when I tell you what is about to happen." John and Jane exchanged glances before looking back at their mother "We are about to have some alien visitors on the ship in probably an hour and quite honestly I know you two will want to see them first hand so I cam to tell you two to dress up and look at least somewhat decent. I know it's no problem for you Jane, can't say the same for John"

"Hey!"

Hannah shrugged "Just get ready okay? With any luck this meeting will be over fast because I was not prepared to ever do this."

Jane looked confused for a moment before asking "Mom, what aliens are you talking about?"

Hannah looked at Jane before responding "I think it was the quarians, this is our first contact with them. This really isn't something I was trained for and all I can do is at the very least be welcoming and make a good first impression." Both of the kids exchanged confused glances as Hannah stood up before grabbing both John and Jane and lifting them off the ground making them yelp in surprise "Now get ready, they will be here soon."

It took well over an hour for the Quarian shuttle to arrive at the Einstein and begin docking, Hannah was very nervous at the idea of playing diplomat, but if she could help humanity by starting peaceful relations with the quarians then by all means she would play the game. But what scared her more were her children, she knew just how devilish they could be and leaving them alone for who knows how long would mean that they would be lucky if the carrier didn't crash-land on Mindoir by the end of the day, night? Not sure, time is confusing in space. So instead she decided that while she talked to whoever they were sending she would put her kids in a place she could at the very least keep an eye on them. Or at least, that's what she hoped.

After some waiting on the bridge of the ship, she felt a very slight but still noticeable shake "The shuttle has docked with the Einstein Commander" one of the crew told her who from the tone of their voice she could tell they was also very anxious, after all, this could either end with quarians and humans getting along well, or it could end with another First Contact War.

After waiting for what felt like hours the doors to the bridge opened, in the front were a few human guards and behind them... the quarians.

If she had to be honest with herself, the suits the quarians were wearing were beautiful -but confusing- they wore skin-tight suits, had helmets that obscured their faces, and had veils that went from their knees to their heads, the veils were of many different colors and covered in different designs. Their body structure was surprisingly close to a human; except of course, their three hand fingers and two toes on what looked to be the males and apparently a third small one on females? This is confusing... and of course their weird knees, though turians also had similar ones so it wasn't anything new to her. And she did have to admit some of them had very nice thig- What the fuck? I haven't even talked to one and I'm already thinking that?!

But the most surprising part of all for her was that the leader of the group had a child behind her. Probably so we won't get any funny ideas against them? Maybe they are just as nervous as we are, or at least I am.

Keelah, they look so much like us, but what is wrong with their knees? The leader of the group couldn't help but be amazed at what she had around her, not only was their technology impressive but they species they were meeting were almost like a reflection of them when you didn't account for the fingers difference... and they don't have to wear enviro-suits.

Glancing behind her she could see that her daughter was also amazed at everything she was seeing but she was also worried it might mean that she would try to run off to get better glances at everything.

I hope they will actually be nicer than other species... Finally being in earshot of what appeared to be the captain of the vessel she spoke "I am assuming you are the captain of this vessel?"

Hannah nodded and assumed a more military stance "I am Executive Officer Commander Hannah Shepard, the Captain of this vessel is currently on Mindoir and will not be available for some time so I am filling in for him. I received the go-ahead from him and Admiral Hackett to meet with you as of now."

Well, no insults as of yet, maybe we have a good chance with them. The Quarian clasped her hands behind her back "Understood Captain Shepard, I am-"

Hannah held her hands up stopping her "Commander, not Captain."

Hannah thought she could see the quarian smile despite the visor "You are filling in for your captain, you are currently responsible for the lives aboard this vessel, that entitles you to respect amongst our people 'May you stand between your crew and harm as you lead them through the empty quarters of the stars'" The quarians behind her all responded in unison "Keelah se'lai"

I'm not really leading them anywhere but okay, also what the hell does whatever they just said mean? Hannah pushed her confusion aside to address the leader "Very well then, sorry for interrupting you before, what is your name if I may ask?"

The quarian assumed her formal posture again "I am Nila'Zorah vas Rayya, I am here on behalf of the Admiralty Board to hopefully begin negotiations with your species."

Hannah began rubbing her chin with two fingers once again confused "Ah well, nice to meet you miss... Rayya? Zorah? What exactly do I call you?"

"You can just call me Nila" she said as her hands dropped to her sides again.

"Very well then Nila, welcome to the SSV Einstein." Nila was taken aback at how this human was actually being nice unlike other species "Now I have no idea how your... politics work but captains, or in my case commanders, don't really do the negotiations ourselves. However, I believe I mentioned Admiral Hackett already correct?" Nila nodded at her question "Well, he already sent some diplomatic teams over here who should be here in just a few hours. If you want, I can tell you about our species and tell you what you can probably expect from those diplomats. Trust me, you will need to be prepared for them."

"That is acceptable Captain Shepard." Nila responded.

Hannah said in a somewhat low voice "Now, I've heard about your... reputation" Oh Keelah, and this was actually going well... "So I'll try to see if there's anything me or anyone can do to make sure we don't let a reputation like that be the basis on if our species can have peaceful relations with yours." Wait, what?

"You'd actually do that?" Hannah looked up and nodded "Most species usually just laugh at us... or insult us." Nila finished with a low voice while looking down.

"I prefer not letting what some species said about you just drive us away from peaceful negotiations. Besides, we were able to look past the turians attacking us in the First Contact War, I think we can try looking past the reputation of a species we just met and try to form relations between us."

"That is... Keelah I can't even describe just how glad many of my species would be glad to hear that. If you wish we can go talk about what you wanted to talk about now as well." Nila finished while nodding seemingly excited at this chance.

Hannah began looking towards the direction of her children who to her surprise were still there just looking at her "Alright then, just give me a moment to lock my two children inside our room, otherwise I don't think we'll live to see tomorrow."

Nila looked at the direction that Hannah was looking in and couldn't help but be surprised, it had not been long since she had last seen her daughter outside of her suit and even human children looked remarkably similar to quarian ones. What surprised her more however, was that she had two children instead of one "You have two children?" she asked as both women locked eyes again "It must be difficult to keep track of two instead of one." Nila reached behind her and picked up her daughter as she let out a surprised squeak "This is my daughter, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, and I do love her but ancestors she can be troublesome."

"Mom! I am not troublesome..." Tali scoffed as she crossed her arms making Nila laugh.

"Tali, you threatened to hack my omni-tool just so I would bring you along."

Tali gasped in mock indignation "I did no such thing!"

Nila cocked her head to the side "Do you want me to play the video recording?"

"Dear god, your girl is so much like my son." Hannah cut in.

Both Nila and Tali now looked at Hannah and spoke in unison "How so?"

Hannah smiled and chuckled "The kid has some very good technology skills, at least by our standards, but he has used those skills in a way that has gotten me in trouble, like when he bypassed the security systems on a mech just to see what would happen..."

Apparently John was able to hear her mother despite being relatively far away when he yelled "I did no such thing!" which his sister argued that he had done so not even a day ago.

"And the attitudes between both seem to be the same..." Both Hannah and Nila laughed for a bit before finally leaving the bridge, they put John, Jane and Tali into the XO's quarters and stationed guards outside at Nila's request in case either children tried hurting her daughter, they then went to talk about their species and about preparing for the diplomats.

While both humans were unfazed the room having been there not two hours ago, Tali was ecstatic... and scared. She was amazed at the size of the room, she had been to the quarters reserved for captains and the ones for admirals thanks to her father. This was on another level, the room had so much empty space and was almost three times as big as the Flotilla's, however, what feelings of excitement she had though were cast aside due to the fact she was locked in a room with two aliens. What will they do to me? Are they going to hurt me? Laugh and insult me like those aliens dad mentioned? She started wringing her hands as she thought about what they would do now that they were alone with a quarian. Sure there were guards outside who she could scream for and their mother did seem nice when she met with hers but she didn't know about these children.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as one of the children spoke "Hey there!" Tali's head shot up looking for the source of the voice and found that the boy the human captain had mentioned was now speaking to her "Sorry if we're making you uncomfortable, I can only imagine what it's like being locked in the same room as two people you don't know."

Tali looked up a bit to meet his gaze and she drank in all the details she could make out of him, he had dark hair that wasn't long but still somewhat covered his ears, he had a smile that she actually found quite... pleasant to look at, and his blue eyes captivated her, she felt as though she could get lost in them. Apparently she had done so however as she realized the smile the boy had was fading.

"Sorry, didn't mean to make you even more uncomfortable." His head dropped down thinking he had managed to already scared her.

Tali quickly put up her hands "N-no! No you didn't! It-it's just that... well... I've never seen a, um, a human before... well, never talked to one actually." She let out a half-chuckle at that.

"Oh, um, well I mean... I-I've never seen a quarian before... well not counting the ones I saw with you on the bridge but umm... It's nice to meet you. I'm John and that..." John pointed a thumb at where his sister was standing clearly amused at their nervousness "That's my sister Jane."

"N-nice to meet you too. I'm Tali... Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." Tali's head leaned a bit to the side in confusion "D-do either of you have clan names?"

Now it was John's turn to be confused "Clan names? I uhhh... I don't think so, unless I've missed out on something..." John began rubbing the back of his neck as Jane had noted he usually did when he was nervous.

"Oh umm, well you see, we usually have our clans in our names. I am clan Zorah so that's why I'm called Tali'Zorah."

John was still way too confused at what his 'clan' name would be before Jane stepped into the conversation "So they're like your last name? If they are then we would probably be Shepard, you know, like he is John Shepard and I'm Jane Shepard, nice to meet you by the way."

Keelah, they are both so nice, but what's a last name? I guess it's close enough though...

Tali slowly nodded "Y-yes, I suppose that would be it, n-nice to meet you as well Jane'Shepard"

Jane chuckled and held her arms up "Please, you can just call me Jane, just like you can call him John, and we'll just call you Tali, that's okay with you right?"

"Y-yes, that is fine with me..."

"Good! Now if you don't mind I'm just going to take a nap since this guy thought it would be funny waking me up after only four hours of sleep." Jane pointed at John "Also I'm certain that he'll do something that will get mom mad and I prefer to stay out of it. Enjoy your talks you two!" Jane began walking away and Tali noted some differences between her and John. Jane was shorter than her brother and had red hair and green eyes which Tali found were more confusing to look at as opposed to John's dark hair and blue eyes which she found... appealing. No, you just met him, don't think of such silly things Tali...

She was however fascinated at how their hairs differed in colors in that way. Her species only ranged from black, gray, and bluish hair while she had noted that humans had different colors of hair. And their eyes did as well, but John's were very captiva- Stop thinking that! Besides he's a human and you're a quarian, that is just wrong to even think about...

"So umm, do you wanna, you know, sit down and maybe talk? Or take a nap like Jane?" Tali looked over at John "Or you can just not do either of those things and do whatever you want in here..."

Tali looked away for a few seconds before speaking "Actually, I'd like to get to know more about you. If that's okay with you of course."

John smiled once more and she felt herself almost melt at the sight of it. John beckoned her to follow and they sat in two chairs on the opposite side of where Jane was now sleeping forcing them to talk quietly. To Tali's surprise, John had actually shown a keen interest in her species, but she still felt quite giddy at that. They talked for what felt like hours, John usually asked questions and Tali eagerly answered the ones she could like their cultures, clans, and their fleet. Unfortunately the mood soured a bit when John eventually asked the question about the suits, quarian's immune system was weaker than other species, and if they didn't have the suits they would get very sick and maybe even die. Tali had always hated being pitied and she had felt that when John answered he would do the same, but to her surprise, John didn't do that, he simply showed understanding, or at least the closest to understanding as he possibly could. Eventually the mood began to get more lighthearted once more as they began talking about just how much of a pain they had been for their parents with their technology skills and John even showed her a bit about his biotics and even told her of what he wanted in his future. To join the Alliance like his mother and father had and protect the ones that couldn't defend themselves. They even found out that in human years they weren't even three years apart but the age gap still made it a bit awkward between both of them.

The conversation went on for a bit and they began to run out of things they wanted to ask and things they could answer. Of course, Tali hadn't forgotten the other thing she had wanted to see, the drive core, after all her talk with John had only reinforced her belief in that Alliance ships were indeed pretty advanced. At least by her fleet's standards.

Apparently though, talking with Tali had given John enough reason to suspect what she truly wanted to do here, and while alone he hadn't been to that room yet, maybe with her they could in fact get in it, once and for all. That is, IF she wanted to do it.

"Alright Tali, let me ask you something. You said ship engines fascinate you right?" Tali nodded Keelah, does he know what I want to do? Oh please don't tell me he's going to laugh at me for that...

"Well, if our conversation is anything to go by, I'm assuming you want to see this ships drive core don't you?" Tali tensed up at how much she had let slip that John had already caught on to her. To her surprise, he didn't laugh, instead he opened up his omni-tool and pulled up a layout of a ship. No, it was the layout of the ship they were in. John pointed at a specific spot on the layout "Well, this right here is the engineering deck. If you really want to see the drive core, maybe I could help you in finding a way to get there?"

While John couldn't see it, Tali had her mouth wide open "Wait, you actually want to help me see it?!"

"Sure! I mean, if it's what you want."

"I mean, I would love to see it! B-but why are you willing to help me with that?"

He let out a light chuckle "Well, this may be your only chance to see them. Besides, I think a girl like yourself should be able to get what they want." John quickly tensed up as he realized just how what he had said must have sounded to her. Sure enough, below her helmet, Tali began to blush at his words before John tried to quickly get on with the subject "Umm... okay w-we will need a plan to get there, especially with all the guards." John let out a weak chuckle to help with his own embarrassment.

They both managed to come up with a plan that was so dumb neither of them thought it would work. John loved to create devices with materials available to him. He was able to quickly come up with a small electronic that would simply create some noise which he used as a distraction for the guards at the door putting it at a safe distance and trying to activate -and sometimes failing- it with what he knew of biotics. Tali on the other hand was able to find out how the ship's systems worked and despite being younger than John, she managed to hack the doors that he usually took several minutes with in just a few seconds. They quickly made their way through the gray corridors of the ship while simultaneously evading guards and crew -and probably creating a lot of suspicion- they eventually reached their destination which surprised even them at just how incompetent the guards managed to be that two children managed to get past all of them. With Tali's much better hacking skills she was able to get the door to the engine room open without any problems, there were a few people in that room but they hadn't seemed to notice the two children standing in the doorway. The room was quite large, there were almost no light, instead the room was illuminated by the ship's drive core.

John stood looking smug at the fact that he had finally been able to get into the last room he had yet to see. Tali on the other hand was bouncing on her toes and did her best to contain her excitement. The drive core was leagues above what she had been expecting to see, despite being so new to the galaxy, humans were already so advanced. Her only regret was that she couldn't even see what made it tick but the fact that she was at least able to see it was incredible in and of itself, and while she wasn't sure if she would have been able to get here by herself, she knew that she was here now, all thanks to this human right beside her.

Tali looked over to John who was crossing his arms looking over the room. While she was fascinated by the drive core, she couldn't help but feel more fascination when she looked at him. Since she had gotten onto the ship she had caught a few people who had looked at her and her mom weird, she had expected that John and even Jane would do the same. Instead they both treated her with respect, and John had even helped her get to see what she had wanted since she had stepped onto the ship. She felt as though she could trust him with anything, despite having only known him for a few hours, but even so, she was glad she had gotten to meet him and obtain someone she could call a friend, even if they were from a different species.

"Thank you John, for helping me see this." Tali spoke.

John now looked at her and smiled "You don't have to thank me Tali. I know you probably want to see it longer but we do have to leave before anyone sees us... sorry." He finished by rubbing the back of his neck.

Tali giggled which John found quite adorable "That's okay, all I wanted was a glimpse of it but thanks to you I got to see it for more than just a glimpse."

John shook his head and began turning around with Tali following him. Unfortunately they must have spent way too long in there as one of the engineers took notice of both of them "Hey! What are you two doing here!" Both John and Tali tensed up knowing they had been spotted but before Tali could think of an excuse for both of them John had grabbed her arm and began running causing her to let out a surprised squeal.

Turns out that guards don't take too kindly to children wandering the halls in forbidden areas as they saw a few of them trying to stop them as both of them ran trying to find a place to hide eventually arriving at a storage closet and locking themselves in there. John put his head against the door and heard the guards go past the door and he fell to the ground exhausted. He began laughing which Tali found quite contagious as she sat and began laughing with him.

He looked up to meet Tali's gaze and spoke between laughs "I'm just dying to see how mad my mom will be when she hears about this. Just think about what they will tell her!" John began putting on as much of a soldiery voice as he could "'Yes ma'am, two children were able to evade us completely and even when we saw them they still managed to outrun us!'"

Both of them laughed a bit harder for a while before they could calm down. As silence settled in once more, both of them gazed at each other's eyes. Tali had found herself lost in John's blue eyes once again, John on the other hand, found Tali's eyes incredible. Even in the dimly lit room her white eyes shone so brightly behind her mask almost like how he had heard Earth's moon shone brightly during the night.

John eventually broke the silence between them as he realized something "So, umm. I know my mom will be pretty upset with me doing this, but what about yours?"

Tali was snapped out of her gaze at John's sudden question "W-w-what? Oh. Oh! Y-yeah, I umm... I don't know. Maybe she'll be mad? I'm... I'm not sure..."

"Oh." His head dropped "Sorry... I forgot that you could also get in trouble with her."

To his surprise, Tali giggled and he looked as her eyes took the form of crescents as she laughed which he found adorable "Don't worry about it, I did want to do this myself after all. Besides, even if she gets mad..." Tali scooched closer to John causing him to tense up and... blush?!

"It was totally worth it."

He smiled at the confirmation that Tali was still satisfied but still couldn't get rid of the feeling of guilt over getting her into this situation. John stood and extended his arm to help Tali get up which she took with some complications in figuring out how to intertwine her three fingers with his five "Alright, I think we should be in the clear. Let's get back to the room okay?" Tali nodded which John took as his chance to open the door and leave the storage closet.

The walk back to the XO quarters was much easier than when they tried to reach the engineering deck. Suspiciously easy... After reaching the door to the XO quarters they found no guards outside of it. Opening the door however, revealed exactly what John should have expected: Two very clearly frustrated mothers -Or at least his was, he didn't know about Tali's mom- and an amused Jane just shaking her head while looking at them.

Hannah put one of her hands to her face "John... is it really that difficult for you to just stay put for a few hours? Not only did you enter ANOTHER forbidden area, you also had that poor girl with you!" Hannah pointed at Tali "What if either of you had gotten hurt?!"

Tali immediately tried to defend John by saying how she was the one who wanted to go there, but before she could get a word out John began speaking "I know, we were just talking and she mentioned how she liked drive cores so I thought it would be fun if I showed her the one this ship has." John looked over at Tali "Sorry I dragged you over there Tali..." She tried to understand what he meant but eventually realized that he was lying, pinning all the blame on himself. We don't even know each other that well, why are you protecting me like that?

Any attempts that Tali made to say how she had gone there willingly were immediately interrupted by John coming up with some surprisingly well crafted excuse. Apparently Hannah had bought into his lies as she scolded him for several minutes for what he did. Once it was over, Nila asked Hannah if she could talk to Tali and John privately which she agreed with when she grabbed Jane and pulled her out of the room.

Once the door closed Nila kneeled down to be at eye-level with the two children. John was fully expecting whatever kind of punishment quarians gave to children who broke the rules. To his surprise though, instead of any kind of yelling or scolding, she began chuckling "So... How exactly did my daughter manage to rope you into helping her see the ship's drive core?"

John tensed up "W-what? She didn't d-"

Nila put up one hand stopping him "Please, while I appreciate you trying to take all the blame yourself, I know for a fact that Tali went there willingly. I was already certain she would try this either way when she begged me to come along. With or without you when she would have probably found a way to get there nonetheless."

"You're not mad at her?" John asked.

"Well, I probably should be, but Tali has always loved seeing them. I only wish she would have at least maybe let me ask the Captain for permission, but at least she did have someone with her who was willing to protect her." Nila smiled behind her visor and began walking away.

It took one more hour until the diplomatic teams Hackett had sent arrived at the Einstein. Thankfully he knew what he was doing and had sent ones who were willing to look past previous reputations just like the ones that had created negotiations between humans and turians after the First Contact War. After several hours of non-stop negotiations that Hannah was thankful to not have been a part of, the politicians had agreed to thoroughly consider a possible Alliance between them and the Migrant Fleet, but it would take some time as some humans still held many prejudices against aliens for the war. However, the fact that they were so much as willing to actually consider it was actually far more than the quarians believed they would actually get from the humans.

Unfortunately as the negotiations came to an end the quarians now had to return to their fleet and simply wait until they got a response back from Earth. This in turn meant that now Tali had to leave her newest friends for what could very well be a long time. She wasn't willing to just go without at the very least saying a proper goodbye though, and managed to convince her mother to give her at the very least five minutes with both John and Jane even if she didn't know about Jane as much as she did her brother.

"So, I guess this is goodbye. I don't know if we'll ever see each other again, but it was nice meeting the two of you. Especially you John." Tali said sorrowfully.

Jane let out a weak chuckle "Heh, maybe next time I'll be the one to hoard the tour so I get the 'especially you' treatment. Maybe this was your plan all along John? Just get me so tired that I took a nap so you got to talk to our new friend more than me. Shame on you for playing dirty John. Shame on you"

"I don't see how he would have know we would come here?" Tali began rubbing the top of her realk.

"She's joking Tali, don't worry about it."

"Am I?"

John shook his head "Still don't worry, I'm certain we'll see each other again at some point." John looked at Tali and she saw him let out the same smile that had warmed her heart every time she saw it.

"Oh... I see. So what will the two of you do now anyways?" Tali asked

"Well, I will stay on this ship, probably just working out. I don't really have a very interesting life right now. Maybe when I join the Alliance it'll get more interesting." Jane said

"Oh, so both of you want to join the Alliance then?" Tali asked

Both John and Jane responded in unison "Yeah"

"I see. And what will you do John?"

"Oh, I'll be heading down to Mindoir tomorrow."

"Mindoir?"

"Oh right, never told you about it..." He pointed at a window that looked straight at the planet "That right there is Mindoir, it's a human colony. I have to go down there because there's a place where I can train with my biotics."

"Oh, you have a colony... That's... nice..." Tali's mood dropped considerably when John had mentioned the colony.

"Are you okay?" John asked concerned.

"Hmm? Oh ye-yeah. I'm okay. Just umm... I was just thinking about how nice it must be for you to have no problems getting colonies. The fleet always has problems getting one." Tali lied just so they wouldn't press the subject further and she wouldn't have to reveal that quarians didn't just not have colonies, they didn't even have a homeworld.

"Oh, I'm sorry." That was all John could muster as he knew it must hurt how most species just treated quarians poorly, unaware of what had truly hurt Tali in what he had said. What a way to go John...

"It's okay John. I'm sorry but I have to be going now otherwise mom will think I ran off again." Tali walked over to Jane and hugged her. She might not have known her as well as John but she had no reason to believe she couldn't also be considered a friend. Walking over to John she did the same which he reciprocated. But that wasn't the only thing she did, she also put her visor against his forehead for a few seconds before leaning back and breaking the embrace. John was left confused at why Tali had just done that to him and not Jane too, blissfully unaware that he had just received a 'quarian kiss' from Tali. "Thank you John. For helping me" she said causing John to smile as she began walking towards the door.

Both humans accompanied her over towards the shuttle that would take Tali and the other quarians back to the fleet. Once she stepped inside she turned to look back at both of her new friends with their mother standing behind them. Both were waving goodbye at her prompting her to do the same as she stepped inside and the doors to the shuttle closed. The three of them watched as the shuttle got further away from the Einstein through a window, and while Jane and Hannah simply smiled and eventually began leaving, John stayed for a while feeling tears swell up in his eyes as he thought of how slim the chances were that he would ever see Tali again. But despite all that, he also felt happiness at meeting her, and despite the scolding he had gotten from her mother, John couldn't help but agree with what Tali had said to him.

"Totally worth it."