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When she exited the lounge, Shepard found that Tali had met Javik. They were standing by the memorial wall, sizing each other up.

"So it's true," Tali was saying. "You're a Prothean."

"You are surprised?"

"Shepard told me to expect the unexpected—" She glanced at Shepard, who could practically see the wry humor in her friend's eyes even through the visor. "Which I always do, on the Normandy. But a Prothean? That seemed … unlikely. And yet here you are."

"Here I am." Javik, too, looked at Shepard. "I seem to have this effect on most humans. And asari. And hanar. And turians. And now quarians, it seems."

"You are the first Prothean to see daylight in fifty thousand years."

"I suspect I am also the last." In anyone else it would have sounded like self-pity, but that wasn't Javik's style.

"For what it's worth," Tali offered, "quarians understand what it's like to lose your home."

In his usual sharp manner, Javik retorted, "I understand that was your own fault."

"What do you mean?" Tali asked icily.

"In my cycle, quarians didn't need helmets to survive. You were the masters of your own planet."

"That was a long time ago."

Javik went on as if Tali hadn't spoken. "And if you hadn't given birth to the machines, you would still breathe the air that evolution intended."

"I see. Liara warned me you weren't what she had expected."

"Ah, so you did know I existed."

Tali was silent, accepting that she had been caught in the exaggeration.

"Nothing in this cycle is what I expected." Javik looked Tali up and down. "Even the primitive quarians of my cycle were considered very attractive."

Tali stiffened. "If you'll excuse us, Commander Shepard and I have an important meeting to get to."

Javik moved aside to let them pass. "Commander? Why have you not thrown the 'Legion' machine out the airlock? There is still time."

"No one's being thrown out of the airlocks, Javik," Shepard reminded him. She stepped into the elevator with Tali.

Predictably, Javik couldn't let it go, standing in front of the doors as they began to close. "And the machine you call 'EDI'? What if she sympathizes with the geth? We should watch her carefully."

The doors closed before Shepard had to respond, and she leaned back against the wall of the elevator with a sigh.

"He is … colorful," Tali observed.

"Never a dull moment."

"No. Shepard, I wanted to say that I am sorry about Thane. I will miss him."

"Thank you. I will—I do, too."

"For what it's worth—I think he would have approved of you and Kaidan being together."

Shepard nodded. "I think so, too. I'm not sure other people would see it." She reached out, touching the back of Tali's glove lightly. "It's so good to have you back with us, Tali."

"I'm glad to be back." Tali looked around affectionately. "The Normandy is like home."

"How is it, being back with the fleet?"

"Exhausting. I'm an admiral in the middle of a war. I don't have to tell you what that's like. I just—I just want all of us to get out of this alive. Everything else can wait."

Shepard wished she had that luxury, but she didn't say so. What Tali was going through was equally hard, in its own way. "When this is over," she said instead, "I could use your help."

Tali shook her head. "I can't, Shepard. If we survive this, we'll have a homeworld. My people need me."

"You could help your people's homeworld by fighting the Reapers."

"I … don't know. Like I said, I'm not thinking that far ahead yet. Can we talk about this after we've stopped this stupid war?"

"Of course. How did this war with the geth get started, anyway?" Shepard asked.

"Admiral Xen."

"I should have guessed."

"Right?" Tali agreed. "She developed a scanning countermeasure that interferes with geth active scans. It's like a flashbang grenade. It effectively crippled the geth ships in combat. My fleet couldn't pass up the chance to attack."

"That sounds useful. Do you think we could use it to fight the Reapers?"

"Unfortunately, it only works against the geth."

"Of course." Shepard tried not to let her weariness show. She was so tired of never getting anywhere, of new fights and new arguments, of new technology that didn't help in the real war, the one for the very existence of all the races of the galaxy.

Tali was explaining in detail how the flashbang grenade worked, and Shepard nodded and "mm-hmed" as if she understood as they left the elevator and made their way to the war room. Outside the door, she braced for the meeting with the admirals. They were never easy to deal with in the best of times, and right now she was too tired and too angry for the diplomatic minefields that lay ahead of her.

Still, there was nothing for it. Touching the door panel, she stepped through, with Tali behind her.