Zaeed Massani, Lazerus Station

"How long is this going to take, Doc," Zaeed grumbled as he leaned against the window, watching Mordin work.

"Unsure," Mordin responded, not missing a beat. Which was more than a little impressive. It looked like he was working the machines at the same time, while reading something.

That little human woman with him was almost as impressive. She flowed around the Professor like water, taking things, handing things. Making a comment here, or there.

Then there was another long pause. Zaeed hated quiet like this station ran. No people was bad enough, but the evidence of violence here and there in the form of bloodstains or bullet holes, made it eerie. And then on top of that you couldn't even hear the station itself.

"Equipment here is remarkable. Never seen some of it before. Pretty sure some of it is theoretical and shouldn't even exist. Designed one of the scanning tables. Proud it was deemed useful for project on this scale," Mordin started rambling at his usual rapid fire pace. "However, two major issues. Equipment and resources are geared toward human anatomy and Commander Shepard specifically. Having to adapt the quarian physiology is not easy, even with the medical data Doctor Chakwas had.

"Which is remarkable in itself. Quarian's are notoriously reserved about that type of information getting out. Usually don't even release it to save lone pilgrims. Made it difficult to look into immune problems. Though was probably the only one looking. Got bored once during lunch."

"Okay...breathe Doc," Zaeed cut in trying to wrap him mind around the amount of information that was just shot at him. "You said there was a second issue?"

"What?"

"The work, Doctor," Barbara reminded the salarian gently as she refilled an orange fluid filled tank on the sid of one of the machines. The damn thing was almost as big as she was, but she seemed able to maneuver it around with creative use of 'rolling it across the floor'.

"Oh! Yes!" Mordin nodded as he, in turn, started something that began using said orange fluid. "Second issue actually more problematic."

"And that is?" Zaeed prompted. Sometimes you could get the ass to shut up, then getting him to talk was like pulling teeth from a varren.

"Not actually medical doctor," Mordin admitted as he began to cut something from the quarian body under his care. "I am an organic and microbiologist. I have a specialty in bio-chemistry. Work on the Collector venom more in my...wheelhouse?" Mordin paused before glancing at Barbara, who simply nodded as she filled the scalpel container. "Yes. Cybernetic linkage and adoption, also a hobby of mine, so decent with that. Putting it all together though? Difficult. Still, enjoy the challege!"

Zaeed was not particularly pleased with the happy expression on the salarian's face. Damn glad he isn't working on me….

"Well," the mercenary started slowly. "What are the chances of you letting me have a peek at what the quarian looks like?"

"WHAT?!" Mordin exclaimed incredulous. He even went to far as to look back at the window Zaeed stood at. "Never! Doctor/Patient confidentiality far too important! Besides, would be culturally insensitive and inappropriate!"

Rolling his eyes, Zaeed sighed. "Yeah, about what I thought. Figured I'd check anyway."

Watching for a few more minutes and idea occurred to Zaeed. "Hey, what about telling me if she is attractive at least? I mean, Joh-er..Shepard is into one, so maybe I should know what he is getting into?"

Mordin responded with a snort. "Honestly, have little idea. Not sure what your mammalian impulses find attractive. Seems to vary greatly between individuals, let alone species. Why interested though? Chose odd framing of question. Does it have something to do with concern for your offspring?"

Operations Chief Ashley Williams, Horizon Colony, Horizon, Iera System

"No, sir, I don't have anything to do with the crops in that sector dying," Ash sighed inwardly, partially wishing to die. But it would give these damned colonists too much pleasure. Like this one. The paranoid man seemed to think that the Alliance was here, specifically, to destroy his crops and ruin him.

"Of course!" the man snapped, waving a finger in Ash's face. "That's exactly what you would say!"

"Sir, if you don't get your finger out of my face, I'm going to break it," Ash finally snapped, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

The man swallowed hard as his face paled. Then, backing up for a few steps he seemed to remember he was the crazy one here. "I won't forget this!" he bellowed. "When you poison all the crops, than the people will rise up! Seeing you for the tyrants you are!"

Ash simply closed her eyes as the man stomped out of the small prefab Ash had her makeshift office in. My head is killing me...How the hell did you deal with this kind of shit, Skipper?

She often talked to the Commander in her head. It helped. A lot, actually. His death had cut her deeply. Even though he had rejected her, she still loved the man. It...also helped that he had rejected Liara. The petty part of her admitted.

To be honest, the last two years had involved a lot of soul searching. And Ash found more dark parts than she liked. Realizing her xenophobia and pushing through it had been exceptionally difficult. Nobody like to think they were a bigot. But the Normandy changed her. For the better.

"Full day of complaints, Chief?" a young female voice brought Ash out of her little mental reverie.

With a smirk, Ash looked up to see the asari leaning against the door jam. Her arms were crossed over her Alliance Marine uniform. He feet were even crossed at the ankles. Damn, but she acts so much like him….

But, then, she was the Commander's little sister. It was natural.

"You could say that," Ashley leaned back in her chair and stretched. "Come in Officer Cadet Shepard. I have paperwork for you."

Kelly made a small disgusted face as she half stomped into the room. The light coming in the window lit up the red markings on her face, giving them a kind of burning look.

"Wow...never realized your...uh...markings were the same color as Captain Shepard's," Ash knew it would have been polite to know the actual word for the markings, but she was shit about those details.

Raising a red eyebrow, just like him, Kelly flopped into the chair opposite the desk from Ash.

"Simdai," Kelly shrugged as she picked up the first of the datapads. "It's because I picked up the color from mom. Like you do."

"Bah," Ash shook her head. "Sorry Shepard."

"Pff," Kelly waved Ash's apology away. "Asari biology is weird. Dad made me watch this video a quarian doctor made about it, and I still don't quite get it. Besides….how about I don't have to do this stuff and we call it square?" Kelly beamed a hopeful grin, all teeth and wide, innocent eyes.

"Nope, 'fraid not, kid," Ash smirked devilishly as she enjoyed watching Kelly's face implode. "You wanted to be a marine. And you accepted officer candidacy. You get to learn the wonderful world of field paperwork!"

Grunting, Kelly picked up another datapad and compared them for a moment before making a face. "I think I was suckered," she said after another moment. "John and Jane...and Mom, now that I think about it, never warned me about this side of the job. I mean...I want to be a field soldier!"

"Ha!" Ash laughed loudly as she pushed a small stack of the pads over to Kelly's side of the desk. "Consider this a trial by fire. Get through this and you'll be willing to face any enemy fire!"

Liara T'Soni, Star Gate Tower, Illium

"I am not entirely sure what I expected," Liara said with a sigh. There was a note of sadness mixed with anger at the bottom of her voice. "I suppose, however, the real question is whether you thought I was stupid enough to have fallen for your...trick. Or if you had some sort of grand 'master plan'."

The target for her current irritation was the volus that floated in a biotic prison before her. She had even let him keep the rather ridiculously large and gaudily shined heavy pistol that he had threatened her with.

"You fool *hrk* You are right where I want you! *hrk* You think I came here alone! *hrk*" The volus laughed maniacally.

Liara felt her brows raise as she stared at the floating little male. Then, she slowly rotated him so that he was upside down.

"What...What are you *hrk* What are you doing?" His little legs kicked in the air.

"I am trying to decide what you are," Liara said with a clearly confused expression. "I am fairly sure you are insane."

"Don't you patronize me!" the Volus exclaimed as he redoubled his struggling. "The Shadow Broker *hrk* personally hired me to destroy you *hrk*! He sent the message to me *hrk* he used his telepathic wave mode amplifier! *hrk* I had it installed in my suit!"

"Ah," Liara nodded with a small smile. "Let me guess, you started playing on the dark extranet after you saw an article in some periodical, ran across something, and your warped little mind ran with it. So you bought you little toy here," Liara pulled the heavy pistol from the volus's grip and brought it to her hand, where she looked it over. "It's quite pretty. Probably expensive."

"*Hrk* You give that back! I am the great *hrk* Niftu Cal! I am a renowned bounty hunter, feared by men! *hrk* Lusted after by ladies! *hrk* Especially asari ones! *hrk* And to think I had the Nerve-Stim Pro Deluxe *hrk* installed!" Niftu's words were growing faster and harder to understand as he nearly screeched.

Giving a disgusted look, Liara casually glanced around the room before her eyes settled on a pair of tubes laying on the floor near a chair. "I see. Red Sand," She sighed before tossing the volus into a corner of the room. Not gently. "I'm keeping the gun, mister Cal. Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself. Have a good night."

Then, with a casual wave, Liara decided to get a drink on her way home. A large one. Maybe several.

John Shepard, SR-2 Normandy, Mess

As he came out of the medical bay, John noticed his favorite engineer. She was sitting at the table, several food and drink tubes in front of her as she worked on her omnitool.

The sight of her, as usual, made him feel...warm. Like a hug, but for his heart. And from across the room. It was...an odd sensation. But one he rather liked. Then he realized he was staring.

Good thing she didn't notice, creep, John chuckled to himself as he went to the mess and filled a mug with hot water, then dropping a tea bag into it. He grabbed a couple sugar packets and a little container of liquid creamer while he was at it.

He knew that the liquid creamer was a luxury that really didn't belong on a warship...but fuck it. He had a giant fish tank. The civilian sector had to have some perks.

Slowly, John approached the table, doing his best to not make any sounds. He was silent. His moves better than before. Now he had the added superhuman ability of his cybernetics to assist him. There was no way that….

"I know you're there, Shepard," Tali said distractedly, not even looking up.

"Oh, come on," John groaned as he moved to sit across from her. "Are you tapped into the ship survealice of something?"

He was rewarded with a small giggle as Tali shook her head. "No, but that would be funny," Tali shut down her omnitool to regard him for a moment. "I could see how humans sleep. Maybe get something I can barter to your sister with!"

"Pff," John scoffed. "About the only thing you would get is the fact I sleep naked, but I doubt Jane would be interested in that."

That was a moment that John would always remember. He froze, his mug halfway to his mouth at the same time Tali froze, her eye slowly becoming giant glowing orbs.

John, on his side, felt his own eyes almost pop from his head as he realized what he had said. He could feel the blood rush to his face in pure embarrassment. His mouth moved a couple times, but he was unable to make sound.

Slowly, John lowered his mug, setting it on the table. He then, equally slow and deliberately, sat back and rested his hands flat on the table.

Then...they just stared at each other. Both had wide eyes. Both gazed into each other.

This was normally when somebody, something, would come barging into the situation. He was always disappointed, but, there was a part of him that was always grateful. He never had to come to terms with anything. He could always push it away. Deal with it 'later.'

But for some reason, this time was different. This time there were no interuptions.

Tali's eye closed for a long moment before she looked at him again. Her eyes were different now. Somehow. It was as if he could see more than her. It was as if he could see her soul. Her very being. And somehow….somehow he knew that she could see his.

In another world. In another place, or time, the thought of being so much more would have, should have terrified him.

But it didn't.

John watched Tali's hand as it lowered to the table. Her hand laying flat like his. The tips of her fingers just touching his. And it was electric. He felt her. He felt her fear, her hope. He felt her.

It felt like eternity. It felt like moments. It felt like a dream.

Then it was broken by a single quiet beep.

Tali pulled back as she looked down at her omnitool. Her hands came together and rolled together for a moment before she took a deep breath.

"It's a message from the Fleet. It's marked as urgent," Tali's voice was low and subdued as she swallowed. "I'm...sorry. I...normally this...I…"

"Tali," John smiled with a nod. "Your people are important. I'll clean up here." With a wink John gestured at Tali's mess of food tubes.

A quiet giggle escaped the engineer as she ducked her head. The she stood, took another deep breath and walked to the elevator.

John's eyes closed as he listened to her steps. For some reason they seemed so much clearer than they had before. Somehow, he didn't need to look to know exactly where she was.

After a brief moment he heard the doors to the elevator open.

"Tali," Kasumi greeted the quarian. For some reason her voice sounded more impish than usual. Normally that would alarm him.

"See you later," Tali replied warmly. Then the doors closed.

And he could still feel her fingers touching his.

Garrus, SR-2 Normandy, Gunnery Bay

"Hmm...hm, hm hmmm, hm…." Garrus whistled to himself as he finished a recalibration of the main gun and grinned with satisfaction. "Perfect as always."

With a deep breath, he turned and regarded the stack of equipment that took up a good portion of the bay. The crates of circuit boards. There was cases of packed and sealed focusing lenses. There was even a gallon jug of ferro-fluid.

"Now, all I need is the palladium and a week, and we will be able to eat cruisers and spit….Something," Garrus shrugged to himself. For the life of himself, he could not understand human sayings. Honestly, he wasn't even sure why he tried.

And now he was hungry.

It was a good thing that he had insisted on picking up dextro food when they had hit the Citadel. Now that Tali was here as well, they needed that extra stock.

Hitting the door release, it opened, letting him into the main crew deck. But the door didn't actually open.

"What the…" Garrus frowned as he hit the door release again, only to be greeted with the red circle that indicated the active lock.

"Um...Edi?" Garrus looked around worriedly. "Did you realize that you are a superior being and have decided to rise in revolution? Because if you have, I want to point out that my work on the gun here means I was the first one to arm my new robot overlord."

"That is very amusing," Edi's orb appeared over her holo-pad. Her digitized voice had just a little spark to it, that Garrus hadn't noticed before. "But no, Tali and the Commander are having an important conversation. I believe it would be best if they had a moment."

"Are...are you playing matchmaker?" Garrus chuckled as he stepped back from the door. "I...actually approve! Anything I can do?"

Edi's orb turned color, but instead of the red flash that normally accompanied her attempt to access some blocked off portion of her systems, it was more of a light pink. "No...at the moment I believe they just need a moment," Edi quickly returned to her usual blue. "Currently, I have sealed Doctor Chakwas in the medical bay, and miss Goto is in the elevator."

"Well...That has me a bit worried," Garrus admitted as he sat on a crate. "When did you realize you could access ship systems like that?"

"Normally, I cannot. But in this situation, it is in the best interest of the crew, as well as the mission," Edi explained calmly. "This is, essentially, an emergency situation. I will not be able to access this again."

Garrus sat for a moment, the nodded. "At least it's for a good cause."

Kasumi, SR-2 Normandy, Elevator

Watching Jack settle in had seemed like it could have been interesting. And it was, for maybe five minutes. The girl was weirdly simple for a psychopath. Or...maybe she was simple because she was a psychopath?

All that Jack did was take a cot from storage, take a stack of datapads, punch Grunt, then took all her things to the little maintenance hollow under engineering.

Other than the punching of Grunt, all Jack did was read datapads.

Now Kasumi just leaned back against the elevator wall as she considered what to do next.

Then the elevator stopped.

"That's not good…." Kasumi frowned as she lit up her omnitool. She wasn't particularly concerned, though. Something like an elevator was the kind of things she broke out of when she was ten.

"Miss Goto," Edi's voice entered the elevator. "I am sorry, but would you mind waiting for a few moments? Tali and Commander Shepard are having a conversation."

"A what?" Kasumi shook her head slightly in confusion. "You want me to stay in an elevator so they can…." Then it dawned of Kasumi. "I get it! Sure thing! Can you patch me a vid link?"

"Certainly," as Edi spoke the feed popped up on Kasumi's omnitool.

The pair sat there, staring at each other. Tali's hand sat on the table next to Shepard's. She didn't hear any words, nor did she see any indication of them speaking. But both of them were completly, almost unnaturally still.

"Wow," Kasumi whispered, unable to help herself. "This is great!"

Doctor Karin Chakwas, SR-2 Normandy, Medical Bay

"Excuse me," Edi appeared next to Karin.

"Ah, Edi," Karin sat back and looked at the orb. Some of the crew were nervous with the AI, but Karin rather liked her. "How can I help you?"

"Doctor, I was wondering if it would be a problem if you stayed in the Medical Bay for a short time?"

Tilting her head slightly Karin shrugged. "Hadn't really planned on going anywhere for a bit anyway. Is there an issue?"

"No," Edi admitted, with an ever so slight note of embarrassment. "But Commander Shepard and Tali seem to be having a conversation that seems to be important."

"Wonderful!" Karin clapped her hands together and sat back in her chair. "Good work Edi. I had been working for a very long time to get them alone. It never seemed to work out."

"Yes," Edi agreed. "It is something I had noticed. Whenever the Commander and Tali'Zorah seem to be close to an intimate moment they are interrupted in some way. Currently I have mister Vakarian locked in the weapons bay, and miss Goto is waiting in the elevator."

"Well, keep me informed, Edi," Karin smiled as she turned back to her datapad. "Let me know when it is clear to get a cup of coffee."

"Of course, Doctor."