The Alarei

The Quarians provided us with a shuttle, unarmed, and flew Tali and I out to the Alarei, which had been left stranded by itself with a security screen of heavy cruisers around it to destroy the ship should the Geth try to fight their way out. Tali sat in quiet contemplation, her mind whirling around as everything that had happened to her began to hit her.

"What kind of evidence should we be looking for?" I asked her to try and get her to focus.

"Anything that tells us that this was all just a horrible accident and that neither me nor my father are to blame for this. When we find father… he'll tell us what really happened and then the other Admirals will have to believe us."

She sounded so sure that Rael'Zorah was still alive on board the Alarei, and while I was sure that there could be a chance of finding him, I was also sure that that chance was minute.

"Tali…" I was going to tell her what I honestly thought, but she stopped me,

"My father is alive, Scott. And I will find him."

I held my tongue, and when the shuttle arrived at the docking port, Tali and I readied our weapons and moved onto the Geth controlled ship. As soon as we stepped aboard, we saw dead Quarian marines, obviously killed as they fought a vicious rearguard action as their comrades escaped. Through to the next room and we instantly began to hear the metal clanking of Geth footsteps heading towards us from multiple directions,

"Fight them just like we always have Tali," I told her and she nodded confidently. There were few in the galaxy more accomplished in fighting against the Geth than the crew of the old Normandy, and Tali and I were certainly the most knowledgeable there were.

The doors opened and from our defensible positions, Tali and I mowed them down as the synthetics poured through the various bottlenecks. Six were shot to pieces before the others drew back and disappeared deeper into the ship.

"As we kill more of them their tactical processing will become downgraded and slower," Tali told me, "soon they'll just start to rush us blindly."

"Sounds fun," I said with a hint of irony, "is there any data on the computers in here?"

Tali scanned each computer with her Omni tool while I watched for more Geth to appear,

"No. They're all just progress updates on weapons experiments, testing them against Geth materials and such… wait," she halted at one console and uploaded a video log.

The video showed a Quarian researcher sitting at the computer and another one, probably the project lead or a higher-ranking officer, approach him,

"Who's running the system diagnostic? I didn't order…," the Quarian officer stopped, sounding suddenly terrified, "how many Geth are networked?"

"All of them," the researcher replied defensively, "Rael'Zorah ordered me to…"

"Shut the system down!" the project leader bellowed, "the Geth are in the system, shut everything down!"

The video cut out and Tali was left stunned.

"Pretty damning stuff," I said, "but it still could have been seen as an accident, we don't know."

"Yeah…" Tali said half-heartedly, sounding less sure than she had before, "it has to be an accident. They'd have to be crazy…" her voice trailed off as she argued the wither-to's and the why-for's with herself. I could sense the turmoil within her building like a great storm and I was worried that it would grow to such terrible strength that it would consume her, but I felt helpless considering what we had gotten in to. The Quarian relationship with the Geth, their research and the morals surrounding it was beyond me. At the same time, I felt that I could not tell Tali how I was starting to believe that Admiral Rael'Zorah was indeed responsible for this catastrophe. However, whatever I was starting to believe, I was not going to betray Tali and if there was a way for me to stop her being exiled by her own people, I was bloody well going to find it!

We moved methodically, checking every corner of every room we entered before declaring it clear for Tali to check the computers around us. However, she was continually coming up empty until we entered a small side room which had parts of Geth bodies, weapons and technology that the synthetic race had made by themselves all on display. Tali lifted up what looked like a storage unit,

"This is one of the pieces that I sent to father. I got this on Haestrom."

"That place was a warzone," I said, "how did you salvage anything there?"

"I had found it and took it back to my team's ship before the Geth detected us," Tali gazed at all the other bits and pieces that littered the room, "what was all this for father?"

"What made a piece worth sending back?" I asked her as I picked up a Geth sniper rifle and got a feel for it.

"It had to be in working order, but not capable of reactivating itself and becoming a threat to the fleet. Anything new was prioritised. Things that the Geth had created themselves, things that gave a clue to how they were thinking and evolving."

Tali's shoulders sagged again and she turned to me,

"I don't know which is worse, Scott: Thinking that I got sloppy and sent back something dangerous or that father was actually reactivating the Geth himself. I need to find him," she sounded angry, "I need to look my father in the eyes and force him to tell me what he was doing here!"

"Then let's move on," I said and charged on while Tali followed close behind me.

The Geth had seemed to all but disappear, until we reached the kitchen. The wide-open seating area left Tali and I horribly exposed and the Geth leapt out at us from behind the heavy cooking units and service counters. Pulses shot out at us from the half-lit room and a shot struck Tali in the arm. She cried out in pain and I let off the entire thermal clip of my Mattock and nailed three of the bastards.

"Tali!" I shouted to her as she crept behind the washing-up area, the only available cover.

"I'm ok," she responded, but I was not convinced and I applied a healthy dose of medigel with all haste. Just then my shields flared up as I took repeated hits and Tali grabbed me and shoved me behind the sinks. Phaser shots pinged and bounced off of the sturdy metal culinary equipment while a Geth trooper threw a grenade in between us both. On instinct, I grabbed the grenade and threw it back just in time and the grenade exploded in mid-flight, destroying four of our attackers.

With the slackening in the Geths' crossfire, I fought back and when more Geth had been killed Tali rejoined the fight and together we succeeded in driving off the rest after a hellish fire-fight. The Geth had retreated up a set of stairs at the far side of the room and we moved to pursue them before Tali came to a halt in front of the single computer in the room,

"Wait, I'm picking up another video log," Tali tapped away on the console and the recording started. I recognised the project leader from the previous video, but before she spoke I heard gunfire and explosions in the background.

"The Geth have overrun the ship," the Quarian scientist said, her voice fearful and jumpy, "we've locked down, navigation, weapons and communications, the Alarei will be of no threat to the fleet. If anyone sees this just know that all we wanted was to put the Quarian race back on the homeworld. And tell my son, Jona, that he needs to be strong for daddy now!" the gunfire was getting louder, "tell Jona that his mother loves him very much…"

The doors beside her were blown open and a volley of phaser shots tore through the Quarian. There the video ended. I looked down on the floor at the body of the dead researcher and felt a pain in my chest, like a stab of ice. Whatever was going on here, legal or illegal, moral or immoral, the Quarians involved were all good people. They were all mothers and fathers, sons and daughters to others and did not deserve what had happened to them. Tali was shaking and I heard her sob quietly, the impact of the video hitting her hard.

"Tali?" I said to her. All I got in reply was Tali gripping her assault rifle tightly and proceeding up the stairs where the Geth had fled. I followed the troubled Quarian up and covered her while she led the way through the ship, systematically securing it room by room and checking for any Intel available.

After an hour or more of searching and running into only small groups of two or three Geth at a time, we had found nothing. There was nothing to prove that Rael'Zorah and Tali were guilty of deliberately bringing active Geth to the fleet and jeopardising the lives of innocent Quarians. However, there was nothing to disprove the accusations either. Any snippets of conversation that we caught between the Quarians on Rael's science team only pointed to them wanting more and more Geth materials sent to them. Tali was trying to ignore where the evidence was going, what it all meant. On one hand, I admired her for her willingness to be exiled to protect her father's name. But on the other, I could not see why she would disgrace herself in the eyes of the Migrant Fleet to protect one who was already dead.

We were near the front of the ship and had suffered another Geth ambush when Tali and I found a Geth unit standing by itself, immobile and inactive. It was hooked up to a series of monitors with floods of data roaming across each of the screens.

"Anything here Tali?" I asked her. Tali checked each monitor, voicing her disappointment as she went,

"No… No… No. It's all results data. They were experimenting on systemic viral attacks on Geth systems. I don't really understand all of it. Although…" she uploaded something to her Omni tool, "there's some data here on Geth shielding that I could use to improve our own."

It was a little bit of good news, but of little consolation to Tali,

"What was this, father?" she said angrily, "you promised me you would build me a house on the homeworld! Was this going to get us there?"

"He told you that?" I said, surprised to hear of the apparently cold and distant Rael'Zorah showing such affection.

"It's the fondest memory I have of him," Tali said dreamily, "I was young and had had a history lesson in school on the Geth uprising. I was so scared that I left the class and ran home through the ship to hide."

I laughed a little with her, glad to know that she had a smile on her face again for the moment,

"Father was there," Tali continued, "but when I told him what had happened, he didn't tell me off for being silly or for running away from school. Instead, he sat down with me on the couch and told me that one day, when our people were strong and proud, we would go back to the homeworld and take back what was ours. He told me that we would live on the southern continent and we would see the rebirth of the proud Quarian civilisation from before our exile. He would build our family a house on the shores of the sea. He promised me that he would do this, for his little girl."

Tali was lost in this treasured memory of her father and I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, she reached up and placed her own hand on mine,

"That sounds like a promise worth keeping," I said softly. Tali shook her head,

"That was the closest I ever felt to father. After that he just became absorbed, obsessed with his work…" her eyes met mine, "I never wanted this, Scott. I just wanted to know that he cared."

"Maybe when we find him," I said, feeling like I was only giving Tali false hope, "he can tell you."

"Yeah… or he'll just give me another set of orders. Come on."

I hoped that Rael really was alive. Tali needed to hear her father tell her what she meant to him. However, as soon as we passed through the next set of doors, all my hope crumbled away in a flash.

"Father!" Tali screamed when she saw the body on the floor. The Quarian man was lying propped up against the wall, but he was undoubtedly dead. Several puncture marks and scarring from Geth phase rifles were on his body and his mask had been shattered. Knowing the importance of revealing one's face in Quarian culture, I respectfully avoided looking at the face underneath, but Tali knelt helplessly beside her father and looked into his dead eyes.

"No… no," Tali begged, "You always had a plan, masked life signs or a medical stasis… You can't be dead. You wouldn't leave me like this. You wouldn't leave me to clean up your mess!"

"Hey, hey," I called to her, gently taking hold of her arm and lifting her up to her feet. Tali threw herself into me and I wrapped my arms around her, feeling her pain and heartbreak with her every shuddering breath. Tali cried long, hurtful sobs and her fingers would have been digging into my back were it not for my armour.

"It's gonna be ok, Tali," I whispered to her. Even with the immediate threat of the Geth, we stood in our embrace for a while. I just wanted Tali to know that I was there for her. That was all I could do for I had no words that could even come close to helping her. When Tali managed to compose herself, she was drawn back towards her father,

"Maybe… maybe he left a message. Maybe he knew I'd come."

Tali configured her Omni tool to activate her father's and the dead Quarian's wrist lit up as his tool became active. Instantly a holographic message from Rael appeared and began speaking,

"Tali, if you are hearing this then I am dead."

I watched Tali sadly as her whole body just seemed to slump and her head hung low.

"I don't have much time," Rael said in his last message, "you need to head to the bridge and destroy the Geth Hub to stop them from forming new neural links. Make sure that Daro and Han see the data. They must…" Rael was suddenly cut off and I could hear the sounds of Geth firing, my eyes moved to the burn marks on the wall behind where Rael had died.

"Thanks dad…" Tali said grudgingly, unable to believe that her father's last words were a set of orders, just as she had predicted.

"The Geth cut him off Tali," I told her, "you don't know how he would have finished his message."

"I don't know which is worse," Tali said as she stood up and backed away from her father's body, "thinking that he never really cared, or that he did and this was the only way he knew how to show it."

Tali stood thoughtfully, but I suddenly I heard noises from the stairs leading up to the bridge,

"Tali get down!" I shouted.

The Geth opened the doors at the top of the stairs and a tsunami of phasers rained down towards us. There was barely anywhere to take cover and my leg began to burn up as I took a hit. I grabbed Tali and forced her back into the previous room where we could dig in and hit back at the Geth.

"Scott!" Tali pleaded, "my father…"

"The Geth can't do any more to him now. And I won't let you get yourself killed over him."

That shut Tali up and from our improved defensive position we fought the Geth off once again, leaving a pile of six or more bodies at the door.

"When we get up to the hub the Geth are going to fight desperately, expect a head-on charge," Tali said.

"Great," I said wryly, "I was getting bored of the tactical stuff."

We passed Rael's body and chased the Geth upstairs. When the doors opened, I shot down two of the synthetics on one side of the room as Tali nailed another on the other. In the middle of the room was a screen of glass with access around the sides of it and on the other side were the last of the Geth. A dozen of them suddenly whipped around and let off bursts with their pulse rifles and the glass wall was shattered. As the fragments showered us, we raised our rifles and fired wildly into the cluster of metal bodies.

There was no finesse needed here, just sheer weight of firepower. Though the Geth had us outnumbered they were tightly grouped together and we had cover behind the door frame. Tali unleashed an overload charge on the nearest Geth, and due to the close proximity of the synthetics it shot through all of them. The surviving Geth toppled to the ground and Tali and I finished them off one by one with a bullet to their heads.

I picked a shard of glass out of the chest piece of my armour and looked at it. All this fancy armour and shielding and I still could have been killed by a bit of glass. When I looked at Tali, I realised that she had suffered from the shower of glass as well and her suit had been ripped across her arm and stomach.

"Shit. Tali are you ok?" I asked her and rushed over to her side. Tali placed a hand over the wound on her stomach, fortunately, there was no blood,

"If we weren't on one of the Flotilla's ships, I'd be worried, but as long as I get this seen to before we go back on the Normandy, I should be fine."

Stepping over the Geth corpses, we reached the main Geth hub and with a simple shock attack from her Omni tool Tali fried the whole thing. I searched through the computer and found data files related to Rael's research as well as another video file.

"This could be it," Tali said worriedly as she came over.

"You sound like you don't really want to hear what's on here," I said.

"I don't," Tali said affirmatively, "but I know that we have to."

Tali played the video and two Quarians appeared on the screen, most likely researchers. They were talking to each other when Rael approached them and asked,

"How many more Geth can we add to the network with the new parts Tali sent us?"

"Two more, Admiral," the male scientist replied, "but I still think we should be getting your daughter to send back more working pieces, it would help our work progress a lot faster."

Rael'Zorah became livid,

"Absolutely not!" he scorned his colleagues, "I don't want Tali exposed to any political blowback. I promised to build my daughter a house on the homeworld, I will not jeopardise that by having her face the Board for something that was not her fault! Leave. Tali. Out of this!"

The video cut and both of us stood quietly, certain now of what Admiral Zorah had been up to.

"It sounds like he was doing this for you Tali," I said to her.

"I did not want his affection like this. And look where his efforts have gotten us! He's dead and I am on trial by the Board for something that wasn't my fault. This is terrible!"

"Tali," I looked straight at her, "this evidence can get you exonerated, the Board will have no grounds upon which to exile you."

"You don't understand, Scott!" Tali walked back and forward, her arms waving around in frustration, "If the Board finds out what my father was doing… he would be worse than just a criminal. He would be wiped from the histories of the Migrant Fleet. His name would be erased from the manifest of every ship he ever served on. He would be used as an example in a cautionary tale that a parent would tell their child. I can't let all the good work he did for our people stand for nothing, Scott."

"Ok, ok," I stopped her from driving herself mad with grief, "we won't decide anything here. We'll wait until we're back at the trial."

"You're my Commander and defence in this trial, Scott, and you're my boyfriend and I trust you. But please don't destroy my father's name."

I looked at the screen, the static video focused on Rael,

"Wipe it Tali. Wipe the memory of the security systems. After we leave, salvage teams could end up finding this otherwise."

Tali activated her Omni tool and erased everything on the terminal, removing the only evidence that could save her from being banished from her own people.

Sensing that she was doomed for exile, Tali stood with heavy shoulders and a bowed head,

"There's nothing…" she started.

"We should get back to the Rayya, there's nothing more we can do here," I told her. Tali, feeling drained of all energy, virtually fell into my arms and I held her.

"Before we go back and… the Admirals judge me, I wanted to thank you for being here for me. No one else would have stood by me through all of this."

"Tali," I looked at her, those lilac eyes sparkling out at me from behind the mask, "what else was I going to do? I would never have you suffer."

Tali's hands reached up and removed my helmet before they moved to her mask. I carefully took hold of her hands and stopped her,

"Tali… I don't think this is the time, or place."

"We can't do it in front of the crowd in the plaza," Tali said wearily, "and I need you right now. When I feel your skin touch mine it… makes me feel alive, I feel stronger."

Tali had me. I took off her mask and stoked her cheek, her smooth skin was hot from the fighting and I gazed at the beautiful face of Tali, a true wonder of the universe in my opinion.

"I love you, Tali," I said and closed in for the kiss. It was long and tender and when we were done, we rested our foreheads together, our noses gently brushing.

"I know you do," Tali whispered to me, "and I love you, Scott. I want you to know that there is no one that I respect more than you in this entire galaxy. Now, let's finish this. See how it ends."

Shortly afterwards we arrived back on the Rayya via shuttle. The plaza was still teeming with Quarians, pretty much all of them waiting for the trial to recommence. When we entered the area, we found that the Admirals were already back at their posts having already been informed that we were back,

"Sorry to keep you waiting, but we had a lot of Geth to kill," I said when I was close enough to them, annoyed at their impatience.

"Killing some Geth is hardly enough to help your case," Daro'Xen retorted.

"Commander Gardner is right," Shala said, "we should give them the chance to tell us if they found anything. Tali," the Admiral looked hopefully at the young Quarian, "did you find any evidence in support of your defence?"

Tali looked at me, her eyes pleading for me to keep her father's experiments secret. When I stepped forward to give my statement, I heard her say my name, as if to remind me of what we had planned.

My mind was racing. Telling the Admirals what had really gone on aboard the Alarei would see Tali safe from exile and allow her to remain a proud member of the Fleet that was so central to her life, to who she was. However, if Tali was willing to sacrifice that to save her father's name and legacy… then who was I to say differently? There had to be some way that I could do both though. Save both Rael and Tali from their dismal fates. The only card that I had to play was the infighting between the Admirals, I had to break them apart to see that justice was served.

I pressed my attack on the Admirals,

"We shouldn't need evidence! Tali fought against the Geth and Saren over two years ago. I could not have defeated him without her help and Tali showed the entire galaxy the true value and worth of the Quarian race!"

"I don't see…" Zaal'Koris started, about to question the relevance of my words, but I cut him off.

"This trial isn't even about Tali!" I roared, "it's about the Geth! You, Zaal'Koris," I banged my fist on the panel in front of me, "want people to sympathise with them. Han'Gerrel, you want to go to war. None of you even care about her. Daro'Xen, you just want to tinker around with them to satisfy your own curiosities! This trial is about the Admiralty trying to decide whether they should drag their people into another war with the Geth. Tali knows more about the Geth than any other Quarian alive. You should be listening to her, not putting her on trial!"

The crowd let their shock be heard as I revealed the secrets of what the Admirals discussed behind locked doors. It was compounded by the fact they had done this without even asking the people if they wanted a war. The Admirals stood silently as they bore the scrutiny of the Quarian crowd,

"I dare you to prove me wrong," I finished. After a long period in which the three judging Admirals said nothing, Shala encouraged the trial to keep proceeding,

"Do the judges have anything else to say? Or are they prepared to render their final judgement?"

Daro'Xen and Han'Gerrel both judged Tali to be innocent at the same time, but Zaal'Koris hesitated. He stared long and hard at Tali, suddenly realising the gravity of what he had almost put Tali through for his own interests.

"Innocent," Zaal eventually announced for all to hear. Excitedly, Shala raised her arms to the crowd,

"This trial is adjourned. The accused, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, has been found innocent. All charges will be dropped from her name. Thank you for representing one of our people, Commander Gardner."

"With all due respect Admiral," I said back to her, "I didn't represent one of your people. I represented one of mine."

"That you did, Gardner," Han said, "that you did."

The trial was over. The Admirals went their separate ways and the crowd parted. A few of those who had supported Tali and never believed the charges against her offered their congratulations to her before leaving, including Veetor and Kal'Reegar. While I could tell that Tali was genuinely pleased to receive their praises, I knew that she was still dwelling on her father. When we finally had a quiet moment together, Tali thanked me,

"I can't believe you just pulled that off! What you said…"

"Tali, it's going to be ok. Your father's name will be honoured and you're still part of the Migrant Fleet."

"I don't know what I would do without you, Scott, you're sexy when you shout."

Just then Admiral Shala'Raan came over and both Tali and I tried to look like we hadn't been in the middle of flirting.

"Tali," Shala sounded overjoyed, "I am so happy for you child, I truly feared the worst when we began this trial."

"Thanks, Auntie Raan," Tali said.

"And what of your father? Did you find Rael on the Alarei?"

"We found Rael's body," I explained, "he left a last message to Tali to give her orders."

"Your father loved you, Tali," Shala told her, "never doubt that. He wanted to put our people on the homeworld so he could see his daughter happy."

"I just wanted a father," Tali responded remorsefully.

"Did you find anything over there? Any evidence whatsoever?" Shala asked. Tali and I looked at each other quickly,

"N… no. There was nothing," Tali said. Fortunately, Shala seemed satisfied,

"Then I am glad that you have such a charismatic Commander as a friend… and more."

I knew then that Shala had found out about Tali and I being together, but I was left bewildered at how that was possible. Shala took our silence as admittance to our relationship,

"Shortly after we detected that the last Geth unit had been destroyed, the surveillance feeds became active again," she explained. I knew that the moment she was referring to was when Tali eliminated the incriminating video that would have seen Rael's name eradicated from Quarian history.

"The Board was watching when you shared your… intimate moment," Shala finished.

"And they didn't try to use that against me?" Tali sounded amazed.

"I forbade it," Raan insisted, "your personal life was not on trial so there was no need to bring it up. Plus," she looked at me, "with Commander Gardner being the man he is, proud, strong and honourable, it actually served to strengthen your position. For what it's worth Tali, I'm happy for both of you. And Scott," she took a hold of my head by my helmet and made me look straight at her, "you make sure that you take care of Tali. Rael's daughter is very important to me. I was there when her mother gave birth to her and I want her to return from whatever awful places you are sure to be going."

I firmly, but respectfully, removed the Admiral's hands from my helmet,

"I swear to you that I will do everything I can to bring Tali back. You have my word."