UNBROKEN RECORD

DJ-TAL1 has faced a lot of challenges in her life, sometimes with explosive results. What's next for the controversial recording artist?

Interview by Ceyxda Sana.

I meet Tali in a penthouse hotel suite the rest of the press hasn't managed to suss out. After checking IDs and subjecting me and my photographer to a full security scan, her bodyguards begrudgingly let us in.

Tali herself looks like any other quarian, as she lounges on the hotel room's luxurious couch, which probably costs more than the rent on my first apartment. She's a gracious host, offers me a drink. I refuse.

I can only assume the low-key disguise makes it easier to sneak past the press. She's not even the popular omni-skates she's a spokeswoman for.

There's a turntable on the suite's kitchen countertop, and a few suitcases scattered about. But when you're wearing a sealed life-support suit, I assume you don't travel with much in the way of clothes.

This popular and often controversial musician grew up an admiral's daughter, and discovered her DJ talents during her pilgrimage.

"I don't regret it," she says. "Any of it. Not for a second."

Even after the Hotel incident?

Tali is quiet for a moment. When she speaks, I hear the ruefulness in her voice. "Regret is...not exactly the word I'd use."

-/-

Ah, the hard life of an idol.

It was harder than it sounds. Sure, you got to fly everywhere in the lap of luxury, but you had to do a lot of it, for most of the year. Most of the money was in touring and merch.

And for Tali, there was the sneaking suspicion that the bottom could fall out at any time, that It would be Over, just like that.

So, sometimes she indulged herself.

The bodyguards didn't like her little impromptu signing gigs. They liked it when the fans came at her, one at a time, in a straight line, preferably after a full security scan, tissue toxicology test, and cavity search. Or, even more preferably, not at all.

But the label said it made her more approachable.

"I think…" Tali said. The guards tense like so many springs. "I think...We're leaving early."

The tension did not decrease. If anything, it increased. The turian head guard - she never really bothered to learn their names, just set tags hovering above their heads in her AR display - nodded. Ma'am.

She waited until they had the place cleaned up. Or, rather, they had thrown the worst of the wrappers into the bin. Wasn't a good idea to have a client return to a mess.

When she heard silence behind her, she turned away from the view, and said "Ready?"

"Ready," said the turian, in tones of barely concealed You spoiled idiot.

But what was the point of being an idol if you didn't have a little fun?

They rode down to the ground floor in a square, with Tali in the middle. The second the elevator opened, the square became a flying wedge, and they arrowed toward the kitchen and the back entrance-

Tali tapped the turian on the shoulder.

"Ma'am?"

"I'd like to see some of the fans. Out front."

She could almost hear his mandibles grinding. "I...do not think that's a good idea."

"Oh, it'll be fine. There's plenty of time to get to the concert, and you big, strong guards will protect me."

The Turian did not sigh. "You're the boss. Fury element, bring the car to the front."

They got out of the lobby and out the front before the fans caught on. But when they did, several of them screamed, and flowed toward Tali like a wave. The feeling was like the baby brother of that warmth she felt at her concerts. She started signing photos left and right. Well, she waved her omnitool in vaguely the right fashion, and it corrected itself into a signature.

Better living through technology.

-/-

And that's when the gunfire started?

Tali nods. "They looked just like average, everyday, ordinary quarians. Like a lot of my fans."

Why did they start shooting before they reached her?

"My guess? Someone panicked. They hadn't expected me to leave early. It's a minor issue, but a little bit of confusion can be a powerful thing."

Most assassins try to get in close.

"I know." She stares at her hands. Opens and closes them. "Gallio." The head of her security detail. "They went for him first. Or maybe they were aiming at me, and they missed."

Some people call her the next Lucio. A musician, a DJ, who's politically active. The woman who pushes quarian integration, like the man who bought down Vishkar.

"Officially bought down Vishkar."

Does she believe the, ah, theories?

"I believe...a powerful organization can be a hard thing to pin down. Especially if they see you coming."

-/-

Tali ducked and covered, and reached for a pistol she didn't actually have on her hip.

Cover. Get to cover.

Okay. That was a direction. That was an action plan. That was-

Deeper shots rang out. A rifle?

Tali looked up. Her guards were on the ground around her. The nearest one - the boss - looked mildly shocked. Blue blood tricked out of his mouth, the holes in his suit.

Gallio, her HUD said.

She hadn't even heard them die.

Or the fans nearby. The ones that hadn't run.

So that's what real combat is like.

Bodies. Dead bodies, farther out. Like they had fallen running toward her. Dropped guns when someone shot them. Every quarian among one more who couldn't help their people.

Why am I alive?

A shadow fell over her.

There was a turian in blue and black armor, blue clan markings on his mandibles. He held a scoped rifle in his right hand, and offered her his left.

"Tali? C-Sec. Come with me if you want to live."

Tali stared.

Tali took his hand.

-/-

"I get a lot of fan mail," Tali says. "A lot of 'nobody cares about your opinions. Just shut up and sing.'" She shifts in her seat. "And a lot of things that aren't so nice. I have to wonder; if they don't care about my opinions, why did they care enough to tell me to shut up?"

Does she feel you have a greater responsibility, as a celebrity?

Tali leans back. "No! Keelah se'lai, no! I still think of myself as Tali. Just plain Tali. All of -" She waves her hand at the suite, and the guards, and the equipment. -"this is just...extrinsic. It's not who am, it's just what I do."

'Just plain Tali'?

"That's right."

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Admiral's daughter, award-winning hardlight science teen genius. Shortlisted for the Quarian Marines elite Astrorescue Division, until she left to pursue a music career.

Tali freezes, stares at me, and presently says "I'm pretty sure that list is supposed to be confidential."

-/-

The planters outside the hotel were designed by a very enthusiastic asari firm. They gushed about the healing, calming power of natural greenery, as long as it was carefully-selected and maintained by an army of workers. They waxed eloquent about its potential to subtly direct the eye or eye-equivalent of visitors to the entrance, without being overwhelming.

As the cop and Tali vaulted over one, they were mostly concerned about cover and concealment.

Especially the former.

A bullet tore divots from the stone next to Tali's hand, and she thanked Whoever that she had kept up with her cardio. Her landing on the far side wasn't as smooth as her brand new best friend's, and her feet scrabbled for purchase on the tile-

He reached out, shoved her head forward. "Keep down!"

"Sorry!"

"First assassination?"

"Yeah."

Their side of the planter faced the hotel entrance. Which had, naturally, gone into lockdown. There was another planter on the far side of the entrance, mirroring Tali's. She glanced that way, and there was another fan. A volus wearing a shirt of hers.

Something twisted in her gut.

Two shots from the cop. One of the terrorists shouted something, and, presumably, went down. The cop muttered "Stupid ambush. They could've put a bomb under your car."

"No, they couldn't," Tali said. "Not with the security sensors. And I'm pretty sure they weren't expecting me to come out the front. At least, not so early. "

"What did you do to piss these guys off?"

"I said quarians should make friends with other people."

-/-

Sergeant Vakarian, I note, has become kind of a big deal since the incident.

Tali, a bit too quickly, denies having a crush. She's probably heard it before.

-/-

"I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Tali, and you are…?"

"Vakarian. You really think this is a good time for a chat?"

"You just happened to be in the neighbourhood?"

The cop's rifle barked. "Something like that."

"One of my guys had intel something was up, so I wandered by."

"Your guys?"

"Informants. I got her a reduced charge on red sand possession. And you know what?"

Three quick barks. "Some days I really, really want to go into Investigations."

Tali walks to the window, looks out, and asks me if I'm familiar with the Romans, an...ancient human civilization.

"There's a story, about their conquering generals. When they were being paraded through the streets of Rome in their chariot, the gods would send a spirit to whisper in their ear."

What did it whisper?

"'Memento mori'. You are mortal. You will die." She turns to face me. "I try to remember that. I have a reminder programmed into my suit. Random intervals."

I want to say something comforting. I can't even see her face, but she looks defensive, vulnerable, young. I say the terrorists were planning to ambush her at the normal time. She accidentally caught them out of position. Could've been worse.

Her visor turns to face me. A long silence. "How?"

-/-

Tali's HUD alerted her to a potential skycar collision. Nothing around her, nothing behind her - besides the planter -

There was a van hovering overhead. An unmarked van. "Vakarian! Up!"

Vakarian turned, just as the door of the van slid open. "Spirits preserve us. I don't think I can get through that undercarriage. "What are you doing?"

Tali paged frantically through her omnitool. "Hoping I didn't clear out my drive - got it." She held her hands close together and spread them as a glowing sphere of mass effect fields grew. "'Sic em, boy!"

The orb flickered, then shot upward, straight through the van's open door.

Caused quite a ruckus.

Vakarian looked at Tali. His mandibles flared in a way Tali's systems identified as CONFUSION.

"It's not lethal," she said. "Only stunning. Limited charge."

"Why do you even have those?"

"It...it was an old science project."

"Did you win?"

Tali's omnitool sent a notification. "And that's it."

"Got another one?"

"Out of omnigel."

"Can you send me the program?"

"Custom omnitool."

"Ah." Vakarian pointed his rifle up. "Well, maybe one of them will be stupid enough to stick their head ou-

And then a vaguely quarianoid shape plummeted from on high, straight through the van, and hit the ground in a cloud of smoke, cracking tile, and the faint blue glow of a mass effect field.

Tali blinked. "What was that?"

Vakarian's mandibles flared. PLEASURE/AMUSEMENT. "A krogan airdrop."

Farther up, a skycar turned side-on to Vakarian and Tali, and a human woman leaned out. She wore a hat, for some reason, and peered down the scope of a strange looking rifle-

Vakarian's comms pinged. He answered, said "Morning, Shep."

"Mornin', Blue. Need a little help?"

"Please."

"Good. Duck."

"Duck?" Vakarian looked up, saw the krogan moving in the smoke. "Tali, duck!"

When the glowing hook shot through the space where their heads had been earlier, it cleared the top of the planter and caught the leg of the terrorist who had just been climbing over it. He had a half-second to go "wha-?" before the krogan yanked back on the omnicord and reeled the bad guy into a massive fist.

There was a shotgun in his other fist.

The krogan took a close look at the terrorist's vest, nodded to himself, and removed his head. Then he said "Shepard, Pull!", and swung the headless corpse around like a shotput-

Tali's mouth hung open under her helmet. "Uh...who are these people? Was that a CQC specialist?"

"No," Vakarian said. "That's the medic."

The medic threw the corpse past them, to the far side of the planter. While it was still in the air, while the terrorists were just freezing in their tracks and turning their eyes upward, the woman in the skycar shot it.

Which detonated the suicide vest.

-/-

Was it Tali's first time hearing about Overwatch?

"I'm not sure. I may have heard them mentioned in passing, but-" She lifts her shoulders and spreads her hands. A human gesture indicating doubt and uncertainty.

What was it like?

"I've never seen anything like it. I've never even heard of anything like it. Just two of them show up and come up with a battle plan-" She snaps her fingers, another human gesture. "-like that. If there was even a plan at all."

They're a rapid-reaction task force. Private, no government charter. Officially.

Tali perks up. "Really?"

She sounds like she admires them.

She's silent for a moment. "Maybe I do."

Seems rather ironic. For someone known for advocating peace.

She's silent for a few more moments. "There's more than one type of peace."

-/-

The cop peeked over the planter. "I think we're safe."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

Tali peeked.

Vakarian was right. It was safe. For them. The bad guys the krogan was introducing himself to? Not so much.

The woman from the ship hit the ground behind them, let go of the rope with her...her cybernetic hand. She flexed it as she approached. Her hat was even more impressive up close. "Vakarian. Who's your friend?"

"Tali, This is Hannah Shepard. She's Overwatch. Well, part of Overwatch. On loan from the Systems Alliance."

"Don't let that scare ya, we'll take justa 'bout anybody." She sounded relaxed, friendly, but her eyes kept scanning the area, and her finger was very near the trigger of her rifle.

"I...see," Tali said. And before she could stop it, her mouth said "so you hire quarians?"

Shepard smiled. A sign of pleasure or amusement for humans. "Turians too, though Blue here won't do the sensible thing and go private."

Vakarian moved his mandibles in a different way. "I'm a cop, Shepard. My dad was a cop, I'm a cop, and little Garrus, spirits willing, will be a cop too."

"Garrus? I wanted a girl. At least one."

Vakarian snorted. "Whoa there, Hannah. You haven't got me yet."

-/-

How did the incident change Tali?

"I...lose sleep, sometimes. I'm seeing someone, regularly." A slightly sardonic edge enters her voice. "But online only, I don't want my therapist to have press outside h-their door. No offense."

Anything else?

She sits forward. "I've started my tac training again."

And the rumors she's made inquiries into Overwatch?

She tilts her head, and gives the impression she's smiling. "I can neither confirm nor deny." ⧎

- CnT -

In case you're eager to hear my Unsolicited Thoughts On Celebrities And Politics, they're...complicated.
1) I think many people place too much value on celebrity political opinions.
2) I think many celebrities place too much value on celebrity political opinions.
3) I think many people are so politically polarized they can't enjoy works involving a "cancelled" celebrity who has opinions they disagree with.
3b) I don't know of any attacks like the one in this chapter, but I get the impression many people would do physical violence to celebrities over certain opinions if they could get away with it.
4) Tali's stance is not meant to represent Irish reunification, Irish independence, Scottish Independence, BREXIT, or any real-world cause you care to name. I just wanted a generic political opinion.
5) I have seen lots of creative people that have incredibly stupid sociopolitical opinions. This is rarely enough to make me avoid consuming their work. Unless, of course, I suspect that stupid opinion is a big part of the work itself.

Or they like pineapple on pizza. What kind of monster does that?