The Little & Big Things Chapter 5: Chronicle of History, a mass effect fanfic

-Aboard The Rayya-

Thirty men and women stood silently at attention and waited for Rael'Zorah to arrive.

When Admiral Rael'Zorah did arrive, many of the quarians stood straighter and waited for him to walk up to the pedestal to begin the briefing.

A minute passed by when Rael finally got his papers together to begin.

"At ease, ladies and gentlemen, you may take your seats."

Thirty quarians sat down with a charade of squeaky chairs.

"Information presented to you during this briefing is to not leave this room. This is strictly for your ears only." He cleared his throat as he looked down to his omni-tool to transmit data directly to the screen behind him.

There was an intermittent pause before the screen focused into a specific cluster, which revealed a planet overwhelmed with gray clouds and her sixteen continents.

"Her name is ASPO-D22." Rael began as he glanced behind him to look at the planet himself, "For now, her new designation will be Primerah. The planet was never formally named for reasons I don't know why. Possibly lost in translation."

The slide changed and he started giving basic demographic and geographical information about the planet. "Primerah once belonged to the Peoples Republic of Gormeh. Most of its farmlands are dotted around the peninsulas of the northern continents since its iron deposits and tough tundra further inland complicated agriculture. This is important to know because the inlands indicate to us that dust storms of great magnitude will sweep these iron deposits up and into the air. You know what that means. Poor to no radio communication."

The slide switched again and showed what had to be a satellite image of Primerah's northern continent.

"This is where you'll be. It's an abandoned quarian settlement spanning seventy or so kilometers in length and width. As you can see behind me, there are two walls. The outermost wall and the innermost wall. The outermost wall holds the main city, while the innermost wall seems to be a military base of sort. Most likely an R&D facility, though we can't be sure. The blueprints we've uncovered from the information Tali'Zorah provided suggests strongly that there is indeed a lab and research station, which doubled as a living space."

He took a steady breath and switched to another slide to show the blue-prints he'd found.

"We have reason to believe this research module could give us a good clue as to how the geth have evolved. Answers as to why the geth ventured beyond the veil to ally themselves with a Council Spectre, Saren."

He looked up to see a single hand raised in the crowd.

"A question? Yes?" He waited patiently for the query.

"If you have information pertaining to the geth, would it not already have info on why they'd join… Seereen?" The quarian marine butchered the the dead Spectre's name terribly.

"As of now, no. What we have recovered at the moment is a detailed schematic for how an algorithm works and functions in a single Geth unit. And we can make the assumption that much has changed since the exile... more so than we thought from what we've pieced together." Satisfied with his own answer, he continued his briefing, glancing at Tali who sat at the very front of the row to his right.

"We are on the cusp of finally breaking down the geth, from top to bottom, in detail. I will not lie to you ladies and gentlemen. I would not squander with the resources of the Migrant fleet marines if I didn't believe it absolutely necessary. The better we know our enemy, the closer we are to defeating them." Gripping the podium with whitened knuckles, his gaze wandered through the faces of his audience before continuing.

"You will be deploying in 3 separate corvettes. We've monitored a meteor named: Nocturnal-Sentinel; a giant rock 1 kilometer in length and width passing by ASPO-D22 with a berth of approximately 600,000 kilometers." He shifted his feet into a more comfortable position. "That will be your ticket in. You will anchor yourself and coast in 4 days time until you reach your Target. From there, you will disengage and drift until re-entry of Primerah's atmosphere. Retrieve the target, and exit out by using the meteor you landed on."

And so the briefing continued for an hour longer before they were dismissed; the platoon of soldiers and scientists filing out into the cramped hallway, row by row, until no one but Tali and Juel remained.

"Up for it?" Tali shifted in her seat to look at Juel. He nodded.

"Drifting on a giant rock should hide our emission bleed… seems safe enough. Besides the whole—" He finger quoted, "—Geth could be at our necks at every second our heart beats." His shoulders slumped back at his sides before sighing. "Yeah. I'll go."

"Thank you Juel."

"Don't mention it. Seriously. I might change my mind."

-Hours Later...

"Tali?"

Tali's hands seized tightly around her little multi-tool and screwdriver. "...Dad?"

"Can I come in?" He rapped lightly against the side of her cubicle.

She got up from her desk and opened her curtains.

"What are you doing here? Why are you on the Neema?"

"I..." His stare faltered, "...came to see you."

She gave him a deadpanned and not very understanding stare. "Why?"

Rael swallowed hard.

When Tali never got her answer, her frown turned into a scowl. So she sat back down at her desk and went back to work.

"I see you got a new suit..." Rael said carefully to try and spark a conversation. He felt his neck dampen slightly at her disinterested and splintered attention.

It took her several seconds to reply. Each second that passed in silence made Rael think the ambiguity between them was bigger than he imagined.

"Yup."

She tweaked some stuff on Shala's broken omni-tool before setting aside more space to do her repairs. "You noticed."

His thin frown and worried brows deepen.

"How... have you been?"

"Fine."

"...Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"...I uh, I noticed you got new boots too." He said before awkwardly pointing at them, "You can see I got some myself… they, uh— take some getting used to." His awkward laugh simmered through the air and evaporated instantly.

He'd never felt this uncomfortable in his life. He'd faced down skirmishes in space, fought geth on the ground, and defended the fleet against pirates.

But he couldn't face his own daughter and have a real conversation with her?

She set down her tools and faced her dad with a "what the fuck are you doing?" look on her face.

"What exactly do you need, dad?"

Rael's mouth hung open as he scrambled to think of something to say.

The pang of grief and sadness in his chest started to throb slowly. All he could think of was everything he'd done to neglect his own flesh and blood, even though everything he'd done as an Admiral was for her.

It was catching up to him. And it was too late to change anything. Years too late.

"I—I don't know. Shala had..." He felt himself at a total loss of words. His stare turned glossy and he never finished his sentence.

And seeing as how Tali had yet to reply, he stood with a look of regret.

"I suppose I should go." He murmured quietly. As he moved her curtains aside carefully, she went back to repairing without even giving him a second glance.

He looked back to her one last time. "I'm sure you have things to do. I won't take anymore of your time."

As silently as he could, he absconded himself from what could barely pass as spending time with family.

When her curtains stopped rattling, she set her tools aside and took a breath before looking back at what passed as a door to her little room.

"...What in hell was that." She muttered as she kept staring at the drapes before shaking her head. Her dad looked like an emotional train wreck. His attempts to bond could barely pass as subtle. Him mentioning Shala at all made it clear that the woman finally convinced him to see her outside of work. But what did he expect from her? The old Tali? The one who took shit from people all the time? That died pretty fast when people started shooting at her for a year.

It's not like she forgot their last talk. Because their reunion wasn't all that swell. I mean, someone accusing you of cheating the pilgrimage? That would have a tendency to piss you off. Her dad no less. Calling it animosity against her dad right now would be an underwhelming claim.

She slouched slightly in her chair and shook her head again before biting her lip and looking at the little screw driver in her hand.

It was one thing to be pissed about her dad doing what he did. But it looked like he was trying to own up to it now. And the way she just blew him off wasn't exactly helping.

"Fuck." She took in a breath and closed her eyes before swiveling back around to face her desk. "Fucking fuck."

|Days Later|

|Chapter 8|

|Date: 5/1/2184|

|Location: Gemini Sigma/Julas Cluster/Migrant Fleet/Aboard Live-Ship Rayya/ Study Deck|

"I don't know how you manage to get your hands on any of this. It's like winning a lottery." He toyed with the bladder of juice before stuffing it into his pack.

Tali scoffed feebly.

"It's luck. Really." She replied.

"Okay." Juel said, obviously unconvinced, "You probably get drone deliveries from Abazon or something."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"It's like, ninety credits for one of those to come here."

They took the ladder down before finally meeting Kal.

"Ma'am." Kal regarded her before nodding to Juel. "Juel.

"Hi." Tali acknowledged as Kal passed by to his soldiers.

"Alright. You know your stations everyone. Check your gear more than I can count... which isn't that high."

Tali rolled her eyes at the joke. Kal was much smarter then he let on. Which made her wonder why it was always so easy for him to pick on himself. Before she could think more on the matter, a voice called her name.

"Tali."

Tali whirled around to see her dad standing right behind her.

That was certainly a surprise.

"...Dad?"

He nodded and faced Juel. "Could you leave us just for a moment? I'd like to have a word with her in private."

Juel gave Tali a glance before nodding to the admiral. "Of course."

Tali waited for him to leave and spoke. "Uh... what are you doing here?"

He took a deep breath and stared distantly at the Rayya's docking station rife with activity. "Just saying good-bye to you." He murmured before glancing at his feet for just a moment, "...Be safe out there."

She gave him an unsightly look as if he were ill. "I... I will."

"Good." He nodded before standing slightly straighter, "I love you."

Tali felt whatever words she had fall right off her tongue.

"Farewell, Tali." He said before cupping his hands together behind his back and leaving.

Tali, for lack of better word, was caught off guard.

Completely.

Admittedly, she kinda felt bad she hadn't said it right back... or it all even.

She looked on until he was well out of sight before finally making her way to their ship.

Stepping inside, she saw both Juel and Kal having a brief conversation before giving her an appraising look.

"That was quick." Juel observed with a grin, "Everything went well, I'm hoping?"

"Better than I hoped." Tali remarked with a sigh, "Are we ready to leave, Kal?"

"Yes ma'am." He brushed his hands off before setting himself down in the co-pilot seat to get access to the radio.

"This is cradle six ready for dust-off and direct departure. How-copy? Over."

"Cradle six, you are granted immediate departure. Releasing docking clamps, you will now be escorted to airlock six. Stead-fast, over."

The magnetic compress liberated the corvette's wings before a giant crane seized the body to haul it over to airlock six.

When they finally entered airlock six, the doors closed behind them to equalize external vacuum pressure.

"Keelah Se'lai. Ancestors watch you." The traffic controller terminated their COM link channel.

"Right." Kal muttered before standing up and speaking over the intercom to his men.

"Okay, everyone." He began with a sigh, "Get settled in, it's going to take a week or so before we hit the Far Rim. Have fun, take stock. You're all dismissed."

He turned to Tali.

"We'll be going over the logistics of our mission in 3 hours, Ma'am." Kal said as he hung the PA's receiver, "I'll meet you there with Juel and we'll get to work."

And with that, he shouldered his pack, gave them both a nod, and headed down deeper into the ship.

"Why can't he just call me Tali?"

"Don't know." Juel shrugged when he picked up his bag, "Come on. Let's get settled in."

"Right behind you."

|Date: 5/8/2184|

|Location: Gemini Sigma/Han System/Aboard Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/ Housing Room|

"Still haven't unpacked your bag, I see." Juel mentioned before pointing at her stuff.

"I know, Juel, I know." She grumbled before reaching for the duffel, tossing it onto her cot, and opening it, "Just been holding it off."

"Uh huh."

She ignored him and went over it all over just for keep sake.

Inside were the usuals.

Stak-Aid-4 utensil packets.

Injection Medi-Gel.

Embuterolin Smear.

Thermal Clips, Suit Patches, Glass Sealant.

Back-up Omni-Tool, OSDs, Tablet.

Water.

The list went on with a dozen or more items.

"Yeah..." She said, suddenly disinterested in unpacking the stuff from her carry on, "I'm just gonna do it later."

Juel shrugged and thought little of her laziness.

"So. We've got a long while before we hit the Far Rim… how many relay jumps do we hit until we get there again? Five? Six?"

"Somewhere around there." She murmured before lying down.

Whew.

She hadn't realized how tired she was.

Her eyes flicker for a bit before finally closing.

"I'm tired..." Tali murmured, "Mind waking me if anything happens, Juel?" She turned over in her bed, slipped off her boots, and covered herself in a cheap comforter.

"Yeah." He nodded without sparing the chance to look at her, "When you wake up, we can pass the time by going over these eezo reports… I've been checking the spread sheet for days. Could use some help."

"I'd rather we play some blackjack." She mumbled sleepily.

"Black... Jack?"

"Human game John and I…"

"Tali?" He looked over to see she'd fallen asleep.

"Damn... Never seen someone just lose like that right in the middle of talking." He said to himself with a puzzled look on his face before returning to his tablet without a second glance.

|A week after the Mission on Noveria.|

|Date: 7/28/2183|

|Location: SSV Normandy/Frigate Class Vessel|

|Alliance Command CCEDF Number: 33DEFZE9-87541JSN|

...

'ʜᴇʏ, ᴛᴀʟɪ. ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏɴ ᴜᴘ ᴡʜᴇɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ꜰɪɴɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴊᴏʙ. ɪ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ sᴇᴇ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ.'

...

Her heart always seemed to flutter whenever she got a text message from him.

Excitedly, she opened a new box to reply.

...

'ɪ'ʟʟ ᴊᴜsᴛ ʙᴇ ᴀ ᴍᴏᴍᴇɴᴛ, ᴊᴏʜɴ. :)'

...

She sent the message and gussied herself up before making her way to the elevator.

She'd be lying if she didn't feel a slight stride in her step.

After the ride in the elevator with Ashley, the dainty quarian walked over toward Shepard's quarters and knocked.

"Come in." She heard him say.

She stepped in and saw John at his computer looking over the combat simulation John and Tali did a while ago.

"Hey." She greeted simply.

"Hey. How are you feeling?"

"Definitely better than last week."

"I'm glad."

"Whatcha watching?"

"Us, actually." He thumbed the monitor behind him, "The simulation we had around... two months ago I think?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah. You've got some skills, Tali."

"Thanks."

"No, I mean it. Exemplary stuff. You're a tactician on the field."

She leaned in next to him to get a better look of his monitor.

He pointed to the screen. "Look. Right there. Tech mines. Used them after you tried to lure me while you were reloading? That's smart as hell. A quarian almost got me… and I'm in the goddamn Special Forces."

She slapped his shoulder playfully.

"Need I mention that I'm a Spectre?"

She sat down and bristled. "Jerk."

"Yeah, I know. You know... Garrus was supposed to be here, but he said something about telling jokes with Joker." He shrugged.

"Telling jokes." Tali said with a weak smile, "With Joker."

"I know." John rolled his eyes, "Pretty sure the pun was intended there."

Tali's tone went serious. "Hey. I'm, uh, glad we're doing these talk more. I— I've needed it lately." She said as she stared distantly at the floor, "do this every other day?"

"I'd rather we do it everyday." John said before closing his eyes and leaning back, "Just... sit down and talk."

Tali felt herself mimicking John much the same way by leaning back and closing her eyes. "Thanks."

"For what?" He opened his eyes and looked at her, "For this?"

"Of course." She answered, "John... just last week I was— I don't know. But you were there. And I feel like me again."

"That what friends are for Tali." He murmured.

"Friends don't just put something into my hand— something that could help me step foot onto my homeworld and say 'that's what friends are for.' That's more than a friend, John."

She felt her gaze meet the floor as if she were just realizing it now. "...You're the best thing to happen to me since… I don't know... I don't remember if anything was as ever good as this."

"I know. I'm just awesome like that."

She actually guffawed at him before laughing.

"Bathe in your glory." She said, nodding, "You've earned it."

"I'm just glad you got what you needed." John said with a thin pressed smile, "The best part is that you don't have to worry about it anymore."

"Of course. Well. Because of you."

Tali suddenly frowned.

She didn't have to remind herself that John had practically finished what she was out here to do.

Which meant she had no other reason to stay once they were done doing what they needed to do.

After that, she'd never see him again.

She inhaled sharply.

Tali sensed he was thinking much the same. "It might be a ways off from now..." John admitted, "But I'm gonna miss you, Tali."

"I'm going to miss you too."

"But for now," He said on a much more happier note, "We're together… and a whole fight to finish with Saren. And when we're done… I'll take you to the Migrant Fleet myself. You can show me around. I'll meet your dad."

"I'd like that."

He rose from his chair to pull out a deck of cards from his nightstand before spilling them across the table to shuffle.

"How do you feel about not having any leads on Saren?"

"Mortified and relieved at the same time." Tali answered.

John chuckled. "Unfortunately that's the case. We've got days until we hit up our resupply. Then we have to stop by the Citadel. Hopefully by then we'll have found something."

"Hopefully." Tali repeated.

"Hey, why don't you fetch Garrus. Think it's about time we do a little rematch."

"Okay." She said before standing up.

Before she left she turned to him. "Hey, John?"

"Yeah?"

She went over to him and squeezed him firmly around the neck. "Thank you."

He returned the hug and couldn't help but smile. "Of course. Anytime."

She let go and made her way to the door. "If I did that in front of Garrus, we'd never hear the end of it."

"No... I suppose we wouldn't." He said as she left to get Garrus.

Quietly, he shuffled the cards again while he thought about what the relationship between him and Tali was exactly.

There was something there.

Something more than just being a friend.

Not that it made complete sense.

It couldn't be that uncommon of a thing to have a relationship with someone that wasn't the same species.

Right?

He shook his head.

Was this even something worth considering?

John Shepard planned things for the long term. Including relationships.

And...

She was going to leave someday.

He shuffled the cards a little harder than necessary before setting them back down on the table and sighing.

He really didn't want her to go.

"I'm back!" Tali exclaimed before taking a seat next to John.

Garrus quickly followed and took a seat.

"Joker's crying, Shepard."

"Really." John said unconvinced as he passed out the cards, "You actually hurt his feelings?"

"Hurt? No. He's just never heard of turian stand-up." Garrus corrected before picking up his cards, "What game again? Mexican Sweat? What a disgusting name."

"No Garrus. BlackJack." Tali mused.

They all laugh.

John arranged his cards and gave them both smug looks. "I'm gonna kick both your asses."

Garrus gave John an unimpressed stare. "Oh? I actually remember you losing a five hundred credit pot. To Stacker."

John gave Garrus the finger. "You know what this is?"

"Yes. It means 'fuck you' in human." Garrus quoted with his fingers, "Classy, Shepard."

"That's right." John asserted with smile.

"Garrus is right though, John." Tali added, "Worst poker face I've ever seen."

John held up his hands in defeat before rolling his eyes. "Okay… so I'm not that good. I just do it to hang out with you guys."

"That just makes me blush, Commander."

John gave Garrus an odd stare. "…Turians can blush?"

"Of course we can. Though only the females do it. When they're in the heat."

Tali and John stare blankly at Garrus.

"What."

"I'm just joking, guys."

"How the hell are we supposed to know that?" John shouted, completely flabbergasted, "You've got twigs for a mouth."

"You mean these bad boys?" Garrus puts on a show by wiggling his mandibles.

"Keelah."

The turian laughed a little more.

"You know… I don't know how I'd do this without you guys." Shepard put on a sincere smile after the laughs died down, "Couldn't imagine chasing down the biggest bad guy in the galaxy without anyone else by my side."

"We're with you 'till end, Shepard. Count on that. Right Tali?"

"Absolutely."

John looked at his hand of cards and smiled. "We're going to kick Saren's ass. He's got nothing on us."

"He certainly doesn't." Garrus agreed.

"Though I can't make any guarantees of surviving the after party." John joked, "You're gonna have to give Tali here my last words after I drink enough beer to make me think throwing myself out an airlock is a good idea."

"A little celebratory suicide, huh?" Garrus shook his head, "No worries. The first person to know'll be Tali. Because as soon she hears it she'll be out there wringing your dead neck in space."

"Very funny, guys." Tali shook her head and couldn't help but laugh at the terrible joke.

|Present Time|

|Date: 5/9/2184|

|Location: Gemini Sigma/Han System/Aboard Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/Housing Room|

"Well good morning there, Tali." Juel called out as he sat down on his cot, "You've been out for seven hours. How do you feel?"

"Amazingly better." Tali said with a smile, "Had a dream. John was in it. And Garrus."

"Oh." Juel nodded, less enthusiastically, "We, uh, actually got a message from your dad from Garrus not just ten minutes ago."

Her eyes shot open and she got up from the bed.

"What? I need to see it. Now."

"We forwarded it to your omni-tool." He said before returning to his book.

She turned on her omni-tool and went straight to her inbox.

Inbox(1)

FROM: Garrus Vakarian

TO: Tali'Zorah

SUBJECT: It's from Liara.

Tali. I'm sending you that trinket Shepard made for you. Some quarian said she was returning from Pilgrimage and promised me to pass it on to you. Her name is Miya'Kahto nar Chasuk. I reminded her (Quite a lot I might add) to give it to you. I don't know your new ship name… I'd really like to know what it is.

And Tali… the Alliance just found a message from Shepard shortly after the incident on the Denmark. Found it in some floating wreckage on a black-box.

Yeah.

Liara sent it to me as soon as she got it from them.

They're his last words.

And it's for you.

[Audio File held within.]

Install [Y/N]?

INSTALLING

{…Link Established.}

||Enhancing Audio….Eliminating Electrical Noise./

||Integrating Internal Audio Receptors…./

||Initiating Recording….||||Begin? [Y/N]?||

"Lieutenant Commander John Shepard, acting captain of the SSV Normandy, Log... 843."

He closed his eyes and felt oxygen deprivation start to take its toll.

He had to make this fast.

"I decided to record this message in the event that someone does eventually discover my remains." John started.

"This is for my crew... sorry if it sounds rushed. I haven't had much time to think of a parting speech."

Tali saw him give off a glint of a smile before shaking his head slightly.

"The honor was mine friends. To lead you, to fight beside you, and be a part of the Normandy and her people. I'm gonna miss you all."

His breaths turn hurried and thin.

"I don't...— have much time…" He coughed as he thought of what he really wanted this message to be about.

"Tali…?" He said as he thought of her, "You have given me so much to look forward to in my life... I'm so sorry I won't be joining you in the end... and I'm sorry I won't be able to fulfill— anyofmypromises."

John took another empty breath of nothing and kept talking.

"Thank you, Tali… for everything… You live happy, long, and— Well… okay?"

Another empty breath, just to keep the words going.

"Everything will work out for you, Tali— take my word for it… for my sake… you have to move on—"

He squeezed his eyes shut and put every ounce of his focus in his memory of her.

In his final seconds, John took his last breath, and smiled sadly.

"—Don't you let me down. I'm so sorry this is how it ends. I'm sorry. And, Tali?"

There was a sizable pause as his gaze went glassy. "I love you."

End of Audio Message. Replay? [Y/N]?

||Ending Message…/

Tali. I am so sorry. But we know you needed to hear this. If you ever need to talk, I'm here.

-Garrus

Tali's mouth went dry.

Fear.

Pain.

Despair.

Nausea even.

Her trembling hand clutched her heart, while the other tried to muffle her sudden sobs.

Here, she realized they could have saved him.

He was alive.

And they could have saved him.

Tears fell freely from her eyes.

Time. That was all he needed. But time was the friendly ally of entropy. And entropy won. It always won.

John Shepard, the man who'd saved the galaxy, died at the hands of entropy's addiction to disaster with a little taste of irony at the end.

A part of her wished she never heard the message. The pain was real. And it hurt more than anything Tali could ever have fathomed in her short years of life.

...But... at the same time... hearing him one last time had—

God no.

nononononono.

No.

Walking to nearest airlock and dumping herself out into the vacuum of space sounded more bearable than this.

Anything at this point was better than this.

Anything.

"Tali. Come on. Down this way. There's a room down there for you." Juel said as he guided her out to the hallway to an empty room, "You need some time alone."

"Y…yeah... yeah I do." She murmured.

"Just say something when you need me."

"I will." She choked with a quiet sob.

|Date: 5/10/2184|

|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/Approaching Nocturnal-Sentinel/Aboard Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/CIC:Pilot Deck|

"This rock is massive." Juel muttered as he watched the port view camera.

"Touch down in three." Kal exclaimed as he motioned to those behind him.

The corvette trembled when its feet made contact with the ground.

Juel and Kal lean their heads back in relief.

Phase one was done and over with.

Kal unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of his chair. "Let's go ahead and get ready."

"For what?"

"We're going topside to see how the other teams are doing."

"Whoa. What? Out there?" Juel pointed to the small window, "Do we even have a rover?"

"Juel. I ain't walking a mile just to meet them. That'd be ridiculous." Kal said as he shook his head, "Who'd wanna waddle out in the vacuum for two hours?"

Juel shook his head and shrugged before waving Tali goodbye. "Take care Tali. I'll be back soon."

She didn't bother replying.

Her mood wouldn't allow it.

And even though Juel knew why, it didn't stop him from feeling terribly shitty for her.

Her mood had been a real drag as of late, (more than usual) and he was starting to worry.

If it were really his guess, she'd been pale under that mask of hers since John's death.

Hearing that message probably made her look like death.

She hardly ate anything lately... and the lack of sleep was chipping away at her already crass and acrid attitude. The woman was slowly killing herself.

With one last reluctant stare, he turned the corner and made his way to the cargo deck with Kal.

Tali stared blankly at them before leveling her gaze back at the empty metal wall before her.

It'd been two days of travel before they finally landed on this rock.

Two days since she heard John's last words in Garrus' email.

She never did reply to the turian... and she wasn't exactly in an eager mood to reply either.

She was sure he expected that. He'd understand.

Ten minutes pass and she still hadn't moved from her chair.

The pilot had left minutes ago with one of his buddies and no one, not a single crew member or marine, had come up to her to ask for her help or bring her attention to an important matter that needed tending to.

So she sat and waited for nothing.

Waited for the mission she didn't want to do anymore.

A mission she wasn't motivated to finish or even work up the courage to worry over.

The mere idea of staying another four days on this shitty asteroid only made her feel worse.

Her two hands grip the arm rests until it hurt.

"Fuck." She said with a long drawn out mutter. She got up and decided it be best to go to bed and hide under her covers until someone would come along and bother her with work.

Before she could take two steps off the bridge, her radio squawked.

"Hey Tali." Juel said over the radio.

"Juel." She greeted, "What do you need?"

"Reeger and I are leaving now in the rover." There was a pause and she could hear Juel shouting at Reeger for running over a giant rock, "Keelah, Kal! Slower! The thing beats walking, but I don't want to spend an hour fixing it!"

She could hear Reeger mumble a half-sincere apology in the background.

"Anyways, Tali, just let us know if anything happens, okay? We're meeting up with the second corvette in about thirty minutes."

"Okay." She mumbled.

"For what it's worth, Tali... know that I'm here. Hope you feel better soon." Juel said before closing the channel.

"Yeah..." She muttered lamely to herself, "Me too."

|Date: 5/10/2184|

A chime is heard from the far end of the room.

…

Liara picked up the phone.

"Garrus."

"Liara. I sent the message two days ago. She still hasn't answered." The turian sighed. "She must be taking this pretty hard."

"I guessed that..."

"How bad was John when you found him?"

"The vacuum of space did a good job of preserving his remains." Liara managed to say before placing a sweaty palm on her forehead.

Garrus' reply was hoarse enough to hear the prominent plucking of his vocal chords. "Seeing that there wasn't a planet to fall into anymore… I'm making the assumption that his remains floated in vacuity. How'd you find him?"

"It was almost impossible. Radiation from Ullipses' star made it nearly unfeasible to find an eezo bleed anywhere." Liara shook her head, "So we started searching for debris. And we found him inside a VTOL. The same one that got us off Ullipses."

"Should we say more? Is the line secure?"

"The line's fine. We may not like them Garrus... but what choice do I have?"

There was a slight pause before Garrus replied hesitantly.

"Not much."

"You listened to John's message. How well do you think she took it?"

"She's... going to need time to digest that." Garrus murmured.

"How long did you know?" Liara asked.

"Elaborate."

"How long did you know they were together?"

"I don't know. They loved each other. That's all that counts."

The turian's voice suddenly lowered into a low growl. "Tali needs to know."

"She can't."

Garrus curbed the urge to slam his fist on the table next to him.

"You're making a mistake."

"Then I'll pay for it."

He shook his head disappointingly.

"I don't know what else to say, Liara."

"You don't need to say anything."

"You're giving John a second chance. And one for Tali too."

"I know."

"I only hope the amount of effort you brought bringing Shepard back will recompense the mistake you're making."

"If those words could have any more meaning… I might not worry."

"We'll see about that." He remarked, "Liara. I'm going to have to call this short. I've got to get back to work."

"Work?" Liara frowned, "Garrus… what are you doing?"

"The dirtiest house-cleaning a turian could ever muster to do, Liara."

And with that, Garrus hung up the phone.

|Date: 5/12/2184|

|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/Departing Nocturnal-Sentinel/Aboard Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/CIC|

"That's our window." Kal pointed to the monitor overhead, "Okay, bring the landing gear up. Let the rheostats do their thing."

Kal grabbed the radio's receiver. "Maintain disciplined radio silence, everyone. This'll be the last transmission we do before we hit the planet's atmosphere. Communicate with low-level light flares if it becomes necessary."

The other two ships acknowledge his command before terminating their channel.

Kal's hands met his lap before leaning back in his chair to get a better look out of all the screens around him.

"It'll be another day or two before we hit the planet's surface." He said as he faced both Tali and Juel, "You're free to do whatever. l'll call if I need you."

Juel waved good-bye before turning the corner with Tali down to the bunks.

"You feeling any better?" Juel stooped under a panel to the roof of a service duct somebody had opened to repair.

"Better than yesterday." Her voice flattened when she dipped under the grating herself.

"Good." Juel said, "Have you replied to your friend?" He sat down at his bed and started going through some of his things.

"No… I haven't." She sat down on her own bed and crossed her arms to hide the slight trembling from sobbing the past hour.

"You should. I remember you telling me that you haven't spoken to him since leaving them."

"Later." She muttered.

"Tali. I'm being serious." He murmured, "You hold out on it, and you'll lose them someday." Juel gave the wall next to him a long sideways glance while frowning sadly at some of his memories, "I've... done it one too many times."

"I won't." She spat rudely before throwing the blanket over herself, "I just need some god damned time."

"...More than your soul could ever afford, Tali." Juel said before patting the end of her cot.

"Keelah Se'lai." Her eyes squeeze shut and remembered how Raan had said the same thing to her all those months ago.

|Date: 5/16/2184|

|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/ASPO-D22/Departing Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/

"I want weapons in everyone's hands people!" Kal said as he motioned for the rest of the team to deploy onto the ground.

"You will eat, sleep, and cherish the rifle in your hands. You will have an affair with your rifle, and hope that your living other-half never finds out!" Kal joked.

Several of his marines chuckle.

Kal's attention turned to Tali and gave her a nod.

"The others have landed one click to the east, and two clicks to the southwest ma'am."

"Thanks, Kal." She murmured.

Juel, behind both Tali and Kal, swore loudly while he replaced the rover's wheel Kal had managed to break on the asteroid.

Kal thumbed behind him to Juel.

"Juel's, uh, pissed, ma'am." Kal managed to say before massaging the back of his neck embarrassingly.

"Kal. He's got a good reason."

"Not that we need it anyways. We have the transport in the back." And on que, the corvette's undercarriage started lowering an M-29 Grizzly with a crane.

"Uhm... Where's the gun?" Tali asked.

"Yeah, that's what I said." Kal motioned for her to follow when he approached the APC.

"They had to make room. We improvised and ended up installing a thirty caliber coaxial anti-tank weapon system on the side. Turian made. About as hardcore as it gets. For the size at least."

"Impressive." She said, "I hope we'll never have to use it."

"Couldn't agree more." He climbed to the top and opened the driver door.

"After you, ma'am."

The M-29 Grizzly was an icon for colonizing space.

And while the name resonated with many, it never made up for how shitty the suspension system was.

Juel groaned, as did several others, when they went over another steep rock and jostled around like a gaggle of idiots.

Five point seat belts didn't do much, other than keep you from slamming into anyone else. And while they shouldn't have taken it for granted, Juel couldn't help but feel about how much a far cry it was from say, some of the old hoverdynes they used back when he was in the marines.

Conversation was mostly absent also. If anyone wanted to talk, they had to do it through the suit radios because the cabin was so goddamned loud.

A miserable experience, put simply.

"Ayguhr-one to Ielsima-one, radio check, over."

"Ayguhr-one this is Ielsima-two, reading you five by five. Go for Ieslima-one actual."

"Copy two, some windstorms are picking up five clicks east of here, break..." Another vicious tremor rumbled across the car, "... and the forecast looks bad."

Kal looked over the data scrolling across the truck's windshield. "So it looks like a storm is gonna stick with us for the rest of the week, over."

Great. More reason to leave this rock.

"Copy, one. The outlook doesn't speak highly for our stay." She replied slowly while her voice went deeper into static.

"Agreed. What's your estimate on signal strength then?" He leaned back as he maneuvered around some of the random rocks and dead trees that would cross their path.

"A hundred meters, one. Nothing more. From our readout, high concentrations of iron definitely litter this continent. Intelligence was on the money. COM units can't push through those deposits."

"And neither will the Geth." Kal asserted as his hands tighten on the steering wheel.

"I'd like to entertain that idea, Ayguhr-one. Let's not get our preconceptions hopeful now... over."

"Noted, two. Let's maintain radio discipline until that storm hits. I don't want a surprise waiting for us in the storm."

"Copy last, one. Anything else?"

"That'll be all. Stand-by for future updates. We'll keep you posted. Out."

Kal hung the receiver, sighed, and kept driving before glancing at Tali.

"You alright?"

"Yes." Tali lied, "I'm just thinking."

Kal's brow furrowed darkly at her slouched posture. "...Right."

"Seriously... You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine."

Kal saw Juel, who'd been sitting next to her, shake his head before crossing his arms and mouthing: 'Leave it be, Kal.'

Leave it be.

|Date: 5/17/2184|

|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/ASPO-D22

Kal was right.

The dust storm couldn't really compare to anything Tali had ever experienced in her life. She'd heard of the stories and the vids about people trudging through giant storms and getting swept away into oblivion. She was aware of the dangers. She understood them. But it wasn't the same until you were actually going through the real thing.

And the howling in her ears and the ghostly silhouettes that played across her eyes were terrifying.

Sure, she'd been through worse.

She'd faced the geth, krogan, and even Saren himself. She probably had the highest body count here. But there was something about it that made it... different.

The winds were gusting at an excess of sixty to seventy kilometers. Anything beyond what they could touch with their hands wasn't visible anymore.

In all honesty, she was surprised they hadn't been swallowed whole by some raging vortex yet.

Who the hell knew; maybe they were about ready to walk right into a sweeping tornado.

So far, seven people had lost their Realks. When that happened, many stared dumbly at the flying clothes before deciding it be best to take theirs off to avoid something as embarrassing and as awful as that.

To keep everyone from getting lost in this horrid weather, Kal ordered the platoon to stretch a cord between them and hold onto it as if their life depended on it.

Which, for all intents and purposes, it did.

Tali's grip tightened on the rope.

They needed to get out of this weather.

Like, now.

"Keep moving," Kal said calmly over the radio, "I see the station. And it looks like a good place to set up camp too."

Eventually, they reach the building Kal was talking about. It was hard for Tali to make out, but it looked to be around three to four stories tall.

"Moraah, Pilah." Kal called for his demolition experts, "Directional charges on the door." He said before pointing at the large hinges.

They did as they were ordered and set up the plastic explosive.

After a headcount twice over, Kal finally gave the okay to level the door.

Tali couldn't wait to get inside. Her Realk, ever since they traversed across this sandstorm, felt more like trudging around with sacs full of sand tied to her belts.

Which brought Tali to think about what a terrible coincidence it was to having to ditch their rides back at the gated walls that surrounded the inner part of the settlement right when the sand storm was picking up.

Kal had considered blowing a hole through the wall so they could drive the rest of the way there... but firing HE or sabot rounds through buildings and walls that have been aging over the past couple of centuries probably wasn't the best way of doing things. Especially when they were supposed to be searching through said buildings. So they ventured on foot into the abandoned settlement and made their way to the research centers in hopes of finding a depository filled with stuff they'd come all this way for.

It was better than having to walk on foot through the entire city... but it wasn't exactly convenient to muddle through three kilometers worth of thrashing sand to finally get there.

It'd soured everyone's mood, so most of the walk there had been carried in silence.

Tali checked, for the umpteenth time the past five or so minutes, the belts that fastened her realk closely around her.

There was no way she was going to lose this.

Eventually, the entire team lined their backs against the wall and waited.

"Sora, Maal, and Dyavo. On me. We clear the building first before we move in. No chances."

Kal motioned for everyone to stay outside before he took his small team with him inside.

Tali had counted the minutes that passed by and the pounds she took on just from all the sand massing in her pockets.

Wow. Being out here really sucked.

"Anything of yours break yet?" Juel asked.

She shook her head. "Nope."

"Lucky. My candy got sand in it. Ruined. Bah." He dropped his bar of turian chocolate and watched it blow away. "That's an ill omen, that there." Juel mumbled mostly himself. He tapped her shoulder to get her attention. "How're you feeling?"

"Distracted." Tali answered truthfully, "Better this than staying on the ship." She added dryly.

"If you ever want to talk..."

"You'll be the first to know, Juel."

"Good."

Kal stepped out from the door and waved the rest of the group in. "Okay people. It's clear. Move in one at a time. Check your things and then we do another head count." Kal said through the radio.

Everyone stood up and grabbed for their things. One by one, they started moving in.

When Tali finally stepped into the dark room, she couldn't help but smile sadly at it all.

She was in a quarian building.

An oxymoron by today's standards.

And by the looks of it, they were definitely in some kind of foyer.

Tali couldn't help but wonder if this had been a shelter at some point for refugees running from the geth. She shrugged and thought little of it.

After they had taken stock, they formed up and had their team leaders report to Kal.

No MIA.

Good.

The last thing they needed was to find out some poor quarian got lost out there. In this storm, it'd be impossible to find them.

The team spread out across the foyer and got to work.

While Tali, Juel, and several others pushed over some furniture over to a growing pile of junk, others had tied down a tarp over the door to keep the blasting wind and sand out.

After that, they cleaned the place up as best they could and set up camp.

"Weird." Juel said while he unpacked his gear.

"What?" Tali asked between unshouldering her backpack and gun on the wall.

"We're in a quarian building. Who gets to say that?" The flashlight mounted on the side of his head turned on so he could get a better look of the giant room everyone was in.

"I was just thinking the same thing." She murmured quietly.

They both continued staring at the wall, and for once, didn't have anything to say to each other.

Her frown deepened.

It was pathetic to see what'd become of her people.

Handicapped, immunity deprived, victimized nomads.

There wasn't any hiding it.

They'd been kicked to the dirt.

Though a more accurate analogy would have been something more along the lines of 'being kicked to the void'.

Literally.

"After we get settled in, I want everyone to group up into teams of two and spread out." Kal said, "Bring whatever you can back here. Old tech and artifacts are a plus. You find an OSD and I'll owe you a drink. Let's go people."

"Green. Then red." Tali said.

Juel tapped his chin thoughtfully while he looked between two pieces of warped metal. "Green?"

"Then red." She repeated. She stood behind him and toyed with a small metal ball-bearing she'd found on the floor.

"A lizard?"

She shook her head. "No."

"A monkey."

"Definitely not."

He grumbled confusingly. "Then what?"

"A Toucan." Tali answered.

"What the hell is that?"

"A beautiful earth bird. John showed me one time on the extranet."

Juel guffawed and stared dumbly at her. "Now, how was I supposed to know that?"

She blinked several times and clicked her tongue. "I... I don't know." She dropped the rusty metal ball and suddenly felt stupid with herself.

He crossed his arms after facing her. "How're you feeling?"

"Better..." Tali, for a brief moment, looked away and wrung her hands together in some pointless attempt to keep the conversation off her, "Focused."

"Right." He shook his head, despite knowing she really wasn't all that much better, and turned back around to resume his aimless browsing.

"I am." Tali whispered sadly.

Juel didn't hear.

"You wanna know what I think is weird?" Juel played with the handle to a filing cabinet and shook it.

"What?"

"If this place is as important as the geth say it is... then why aren't they here?"

"I don't know."

"Who knows." Juel mused as he kept inspecting the metal cabinet, "Maybe it is important. Or maybe we're just wasting our time." He finally opened the drawer and ruffled around its old contents.

"Maybe." She mumbled.

"I think I found something." Juel hissed.

Her pulse heightened. "What?"

"A credit chit. Ha!"

Other than the six credits Juel found, they'd found nothing.

The other search teams also came up empty handed.

Not a good sign.

Come next morning, they'd have to double their search efforts if they had any hope of bringing something back.

They had a big window of opportunity here. If they didn't find something whithin four days time, they'd have to leave. That or wait three long years before they could leave on the meteor they came riding in on.

And that wasn't exactly an option.

"What've we got." Kal asked Juel.

"Other than some money I found and a bag of bolts from team four... nothing."

Kal nodded thoughtlessly and shrugged. "Was afraid of that. I don't know if we'll be lucky, considering the place is over three hundred years old."

"We'll see what happens, Kal. I'm turning in for the night. See you in the morning."

"Take care."

Juel waved him goodbye before walking to the other side of the foyer where Tali was busily preparing her sleeping bag.

Juel set his up next to hers and laid down before opening his tablet to write something in it.

"It's not dusty here…" Tali murmured. She shut her eyes and got comfortable, or as comfortable as she could sleeping on this shitty concrete floor.

"One of the guys found a broom. Swept the place around the pads." Juel replied. Seeing as how there wasn't the extranet for him to watch a video or an eezo report to read, he put the tablet down and closed his eyes.

Tali laughed softly.

"What?" Juel opened one eye and peeped at her.

"No eezo report tonight, huh? That habit will die with you, Juel."

"I suppose it will." he agreed.

"You wanna hear a story?" Tali said, facing him with an elbow propping her head.

"It's late. I'm tired."

"Bedtime story then." Tali mused.

"What kind?"

"It's the one when I first met John." She answered.

"Well, damn. You should've said that first." Juel pat his pillow and faced her while still lying down. "I'm waiting."

Tali took a moment to collect her thoughts and began. It took her forty minutes to explain her story from start to finish.

"…And that was it…" Tali finished before glancing at Juel who'd fallen asleep long ago.

She smiled.

It wasn't a surprise to see that happen.

Half way through the story, Juel's eyes looked about as focused as a man without a brain.

At that rate, he was going to succumb to his snoring before she'd get to finish.

Which he did.

But she told it anyways.

Not because she had an audience to give it to, but because she wanted to hear it again for herself.

It certainly put her in a cheerier mood.

She laughed softly, shook her head, thought of John for one last time, and set her head against her pillow before finally falling asleep with the barest hint of a grin on her face.

|Date: 5/20/2184|

|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/ASPO-D22

Juel was going to be pissed if he caught her rummaging out alone like this.

But she didn't care.

Out here, alone, in this dark corridor far from the others? It was calming in a way.

She didn't have to talk to anybody... or make appearances. Or act like everything was okay when it wasn't. The only thing to keep her company was her thoughts, her flashlight, and the abandoned antiques she would occasionally come across.

She kept walking slowly and would pause every once in a while to look at the old dusty relics scattered about the floor. Most of the stuff here was well beyond recognizable. 300 years of rotting and aging would do that, Tali supposed.

She took a left down another hallway and walked down its length.

And right when she was about to take another bend down another corridor, she stopped when she'd noticed one of the thick plated doors hadn't been shut all the way like all the others.

Which, obviously, spiked her immediate interest.

"Huh..." She mumbled under her breath before setting a hand against its frame. It certainly wasn't big enough to squeeze through.

But it was opened just enough for her to peek in.

Judging by how thick the door was, it ran off a motor.

Which meant there were gears to operate it. But three hundred years of not being listed on the maintenance roster or getting lubed was bound to have rusted shut by now.

She pushed it anyways to see if would give any under her strength.

Surprisingly enough, she'd seen it shift a couple of centimeters.

With luck, she could pry the door open with a pipe or something...

She clipped her flashlight to her belt and started searching the ground for anything that would look even remotely useful.

And just then, her radio squawked.

"Uh... Tali?" Juel said over the radio, "Where are you?"

Tali sighed, walked over to some old drawer and pilfered through its contents. "Uhm... Looking around."

"Looking around." Juel repeated nonplussed, "You with anyone?"

She was hardly paying attention to what he was saying as she pushed the drawer back in to search for something else. "Uh..."

"You're alone, aren't you."

"Maybe." She answered as she knelt down to pick up what looked to be some old gun next to what looked to be the remains of an old rusting pitchfork.

"Keelah, Tali. You're breaking the rules."

Tali didn't reply.

"Tali?"

She blinked in surprise, the weapon in her hands forgotten. Just at her feet, next to where she'd picked up this ancient rifle, was a dead geth.

Tali would have readily admitted that she felt slightly panicked by the sight, even if it were just for a moment.

"Tali? You okay? ...Answer me."

She knelt down closer to the centuries old geth carcass, with its calcified joints and browning metal, and tried to read the inscribed label that would have been on its left pectoral.

"Yeah, I'm fine Juel." She murmured.

And right where Tali expected it to be, it read:

SM: 9463-35-33

UNIT: 1281A [FACILITY OF SCIENCES: CELL 18]

PROPERTY OF GORMEH PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

She sighed when she couldn't read anymore of the inscribing.

It was a wonder she was even able to read any of it honestly... past the rust and chipping paint, was a warped hole in its chest.

Whether the gun she was holding in her hands was responsible for that, she could only guess.

"Tali, I understand why you're out there alone. But it isn't safe."

"I've been in worse Juel." She said with a faint smile, "Don't worry about me."

She could hear him muffle his sigh. "Just... call in when you're done or if you need help."

"I will Juel. Don't worry."

Juel cut the channel.

She got up, went over to the door, and jammed the barrel of the gun she was holding into its crevice before using some leverage to pry it open.

She smiled as the door gave in and opened itself wide enough for her to slip through.

And when she did, she stopped herself from lurching back and gasping at what she'd found just ahead of her.

"K... Keelah..."

Bones.

Or whatever was left of them.

Judging just by the number of them alone told her at least three quarians died here. And the bits of tattered cloth that dangled off them was hauntingly disturbing to look at.

She took one small step inside the room, checked every corner twice over with her flashlight, and looked back at the quarian remains.

She hadn't noticed the beat of her heart thrumming in her ears or the shallow breaths she was taking.

She didn't know why... but she was scared.

She set a hand against her radio but immediately thought better of it.

She didn't have the heart to say anything or to call Juel, so she kept silent and searched around the room to see if she could find anything worth taking back to camp.

It didn't take her long to see that, just above the bones, to the wall, was a safe.

She took one small step after another, stepped over the quarian remains, and set a hand against the keypad.

And just for the hell of it, she pressed some keys.

And, just as she expected, nothing happened.

Well.

That was that.

"Hey, Juel?" Tali called over her radio, "I think I found something."

"Damn, Tali." Kal managed to say before putting his hands on his hips, "You've certainly found something."

"We're talking about the bones right?" Juel interrupted, gaping at the quarian remains, "Because I think that's way more interesting than the safe."

"That may be the case, but they aren't particularly useful to us." Kal retorted.

"What makes us think we'll even find something in it?" Juel wondered.

"Well, typically, people use them to put important things in." Tali replied.

"Let's hope so." Juel grumbled, "Guess I'll take it out of the wall then."

"Need any help?"

"I'd imagine the safe's just a door over a concrete hole." Juel observed, "All it might take is hammering out the rods holding it in place."

"Do what you need to." Kal said, turning on his heel, "In the meantime, the others will keep searching for more rooms like these."

"Have fun."

"Keep your new friends company, will you. Looks like it's been ages since they've had guests." Kal said, thumbing the bones before walking out.

"Oh, yeah." Juel scoffed before turning to Tali, "Well. You ready?"

She nodded.

"Here goes." He set the drill bit against the first screw and started.

Tali frowned at the squealing sound of metal.

"How you been?" Juel asked to start some small talk.

"I'm okay." She said simply.

"Yeah? I've been doing okay too." He answered.

He cracked his neck and pressed harder into the drill.

"Yeah, you should've been with us, Tali. We were down looking at this underground garage. Full of armored cars and a drop-ship."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Eye candy, really. Too bad none of them work. Shame."

"You find any bones there?" Tali asked, glancing at the ones next to them.

"Nope. You'd think we would have." Juel said before shrugging.

He finished the first bolt and started with the next, "So... What do you think happened here?"

"Bad things." Tali answered.

He stopped drilling for a second and shook his head before staring at the remains.

"Yeah..." His stare lingered for a moment, "Tragic."

"I don't think 'tragic' does them justice." Tali whispered.

"Probably not." He nodded before setting himself back to work.

"Need any help?"

"Really a one man job, Tali. No need."

"Think there's any way you can salvage this?" Tali asked before picking up the old rifle she'd used to open the door with earlier.

He glanced at the old pathetic thing for all of a second before shaking his head. "No way. You're talking about hundreds of years of rusting. The threading inside's ruined. The internals are probably the same too.

Tali shrugged and set the gun back down on the old desk. "Oh."

Juel worked silently and she watched.

When he finished stripping out the second bolt, he turned around, nodded to Tali that he was almost done, and started on the third one.

"Really think we'll find something in here?" Juel said.

"I don't know, Juel. That's why you're doing this."

"Hope I'm not wasting my time."

"If the safe's airtight... then whatever's in it will have stayed preserved." Tali thought aloud.

He nodded. "Well. We're gonna find out soon enough."

Juel broke the third screw and started with the last one. "Yeah, it looks like the safe's a solid box and not just a door. Damn."

Tali stepped in next to him and waited for him to strip the last screw.

When he finished, he set the drill down and started pulling the safe out of the wall.

"I need some help." Juel grunted.

They each grabbed a side and pulled the safe out of the wall. When it clunked heavily onto the floor, they heard several things rumble around inside of it.

"Well... that answered that. Something's in it." He breathed.

"Yeah..." She said distantly while nodding, "Definitely."

Juel rubbed the kink out of his shoulder and bent down to pick the fairly large safe up. "Okay. Let's carry it down and we'll open it there."

"Right."

Two hours later...

Areht'Mar vas Paltino tossed over a piece of rusty metal over to an ever growing pile of junk before glancing at Juel and giving him a sorry look.

The guy had been working on that safe for the better part of two hours.

And it didn't look like he was making much progress.

"Juel, you know it's okay to take a break, right?" Areht said concerningly.

A marine overheard Areht and shook his head. "Yeah. Bet your back's killing you."

Juel spared himself a moment to give them both a shrug before returning to work.

His back was killing him.

And the only thing that wasn't stopping him from taking a break or giving up wasn't the idea that there could've been something important in it, but his inflated sense of curiosity.

Seriously. What the hell could be in this thing?

Well, he wasn't going to find out if all he did was wonder about it. He applied more pressure against the drill after setting a boot against the metal box.

Tali, who'd been looking over some of the electronic relics brought back to camp that seemed even remotely interesting, would occasionally look to see if Juel had made any progress.

And so far, she couldn't really tell.

The front of the safe had been marred beyond all recognition from Juel's drilling.

He caught notice of Tali staring and shrugged in slight disappointment before kicking away some of the shavings that'd been collecting near his feet.

"Keep working on it, Juel." Tali offered as she tossed a piece of junk behind her, "You'll get it eventually."

"Actually... I think I'm..." Juel strained to say as he started to feel something crack and give, "almost there..."

He pushed harder.

"Come on... Come. On. you... bosh'tet."

Several quarians gather around him as he worked, sensing that he was finally getting close.

"You think you got it?" Kal asked.

"Yeah... I g—" Juel didn't get to finish. The safe finally busted wide open and made everyone jump in surprise.

"Shit!" Juel yelped as they all stepped back.

"Holy fuck!" Kal screamed, "Keelah... That was loud as hell. Everyone okay?"

"Yeah..." They all mumbled.

Tali stood up and crossed the room to Juel. "Well?"

Juel set the drill down and got on a knee to get a better look.

"See anything?" Tali asked, leaning in next to him to try and get a peek.

"...Yeah..." He said before pulling out a folder chocked full of papers and a little brown satchel, "Wow..."

Anyone within earshot of him turned around and stared at the stuff in his hands.

"Move over." Juel demanded as he made his way to a table.

"What the hell is all that?" Kal asked.

"Juel. Open it up. Let's see."

Juel set the folder aside and slowly unwound the binding of the little parcel before digging a hand inside.

His eyes widened a bit and the room fell silent.

"Guys." He murmured with disbelief, "They're OSDs."

Everyone crowded around to get a better look.

"Do they say anything?" A woman asked.

"No. Nothing." Juel answered quietly, his eyes transfixed on the ancient little devices.

The lead scientist, with the name of Pirahn'Roh vas Noriah, picked up one of the disks, examined the little sub-port, and nodded to himself.

Technology was different back then. And the team anticipated that.

So they brought equipment that would be compatible with anything that would've survived here.

Namely, OSD's fabricated three centuries ago.

"Get our computers up and running now." Pirahn called out, "I want g-cam six cables here, wired up, and ready for info taxing."

"You heard the man, let's go!" Kal ordered.

The quarians split up into a hurried bustle to fetch Pirahn the things he needed.

While the team scrambled, Juel and Tali stared blankly at the disks in their own hands to see if they could learn anything else.

So far, they'd all been blank and unlabeled.

"Juel. Keep looking to see if you can find anything. I'm going to start searching through the papers."

Juel nodded. "Be careful though, Tali. They're a little brown. Might crumple if you manhandle them."

She flipped open the binder (delicately she might add) and started skimming through its ancient contents.

The first thing she noted was the hand writing.

Obnoxious penmanship, definitely.

Almost illegible.

She sighed and strained to pick out the words in Khellish.

Of the things she could read were words like "constraints" and "time-frames" or terms like "cost-benefit analysis" and "dimension diagrams".

"The safe belonged to an engineer, I think." Tali said. She flipped through several other papers and started to see military documents.

"Anything else?" Juel asked.

"Uhm... Yeah. Looks like whoever this was might've been in the military too."

"You don't say," Juel intoned quietly as he handed her a disk, "because this one's been signed by a Major Dieeal'Larma..."

Tali took the OSD and read over the name before looking through the papers again.

At the top of one of them read:

GORMEH PEOPLES ARMY

MAJOR DIEEAL'LARMA

[FACILITY OF SCIENCES]

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT (RESEARCH DIVISION)

[CELL 14: Group 1]

When Pirahn's team set up the tables and computers with the right drivers to accept the OSDs, Tali and Juel walked over with them in hand and set them into stacks.

The foyer fell deathly silent.

Pirahn stepped aside to give Juel some room.

"Do it Juel." Tali said stoically.

He gave her a single nod, selected one at random, and looked around at the dozens of faces watching him.

"Here goes." He whispered.

He inserted the drive into the computer and waited.

"Bring it up on the holo screen." Pirahn said.

One of his technicians put a duplicate up to a large blank wall for everyone to see.

Pictures started to line the screen.

Pictures of a quarian family.

And when they did, jaws dropped.

Tali's mouth went dry as she stared blankly at the colorful images of their naked ancestors before setting a hand against her chest.

Juel scrolled down to look at more of the photos.

The next one was of a girl, no older than four, sitting in her mother's lap in the midst of a grassy field on a bright and sunny day.

"It's a video..." Juel whispered, his hand trembling slightly over the play button.

Tali stared deeply into the mother's eyes, crinkled and relaxed from her wide smile.

Her daughter looked much the same.

"...Play it." Tali said.

"Video file selected. Compiling data. Stand-by." The computer said.

The picture of the woman and the girl began to move.

The first thing they hear is laughter.

"Milia, look at the camera, my daughter!" Said someone out of the shot. The father must've been the one filming.

Milia shook her head from left to right with a big beaming smile on her face.

Some of the quarians standing next to Tali take a step back, some purely out of shock or of just how surreal it all looked.

But she stood rigid and watched.

The mother wrapped her arms around Milia and gave her a kiss on the cheek before speaking.

"Come on Milia, smile! We'll look back and laugh at how silly you are now."

The mother's raven black hair fell across her shoulder and diffuses the sun's ambient and bright yellow rays behind her.

The camera zooms in closer to focus on Milia.

"Tell daddy you love him." The mother said to the girl.

"I wrove ue, dadee!" The girl giggled as she looked toward the camera before smiling brightly.

"I love you too, my baby." The father cooed. A bare three fingered hand, no doubt the father's, entered the shot and touched Milia's cheek.

The girl leaned into her father's hand.

Tali felt herself smile.

It was beautiful.

"Say bye-bye to the camera!" The mother guides her daughter's hand to and fro, and the video winked out of existence.

And that's when Tali realized she'd been holding her breath.

"Keelah." Pirahn muttered.

Tali nodded absently and realized every member of the team stared resolutely forward at the blank wall where the video had just been.

No doubt form reflecting or swallowing what they'd just seen.

"...Are there any more, Juel?" Tali asked quietly.

"I—I don't know..." Juel murmured when he finally took a seat. The way he wrung his hands over the keyboard spoke volumes of the anxiety in his gut. He leaned back into the computer and turned to everyone else.

"Anyone want to see more?"

Tali nodded while the others did much the same.

Juel selected another.

One dated much later than the last.

|Approximately 289 Years ago.|

|Date: 8/8/1895 CE||Quarian Calender: YR 2486|

|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/Gormeh Peoples Democratic Republic/City of Basin Si/ASPO-D22|

|Eighth Cycle: Crescent Noble.|

Milia wouldn't stop crying.

So Yima'Larma did her best to try and comfort her daughter.

"Shhh, it's okay, Milia, it's okay," Yima cooed as she wrapped her arms around her, "Everything's fine."

Another explosion rumbled in the far distance and the glassware in the kitchen shook ever so slightly.

"Dieeal...?" Yima muttered, her eyes wet with barely held back tears.

Milia continued to sob into Yima's shoulder.

The vibrations from yet another explosion from somewhere far off disturbed the dinner plates on the table. The loaf of bread from their hardly eaten meal tumbled to the floor.

They found them.

And they were getting closer.

Dieeal stared on, through the window, into the inky darkness of the night and nodded with a thin lipped frown at the immensity of it all.

"We have to move." Dieeal said simply.

He turned away from the window to his wife and daughter, "They're coming."

"Coming? We're supposed to be safe!" Yima cried, "The evacuation fleets won't be here until two days' time!"

"I know." Dieeal murmured before grabbing his wife's hand and consoling her, "We have to go. Come on."

The three stepped out of the kitchen and made room for several quarian soldiers running to get outside.

"Where are we going?" Yima wondered as she carried Milia.

"To my office." Dieeal answered as the cross down a hallway and up a flight of stairs.

When they entered his office, Yima set Milia down, hugged her again and went to Dieeal.

Another distant explosion rattled the building.

And it was much closer than the last.

Klaxons started blaring.

Milia's crying turned to sobs.

"Yima, you need to put this on." Dieeal handed her a chest rig with armor plates and a gun before dawning himself in his own gear, "You're going to lock this door after I leave, do you understand?"

Yima holstered the sidearm her husband gave her before shaking her head immediately. "No. You cannot be serious."

Dieeal's radio squakwed. "The geth have breached the outer wall. All units stand by for immediate recourse of orders."

Yima put her head into her palms and shook her head madly from left to right. "Why. Why is this happening...?"

"I don't know. But you need to protect Milia, Yima. I'll be back soon, hun."

"Dieeal," Yima muttered as the tears fell, "Please be safe..."

"I will try." He whispered sadly as his wife handed him a camera.

"Put it on your helmet. And record everything."

Dieeal nodded, pressed the record button, and attached it to his helmet before kneeling down to his daughter.

"Milia. Daddy's gotta go."

"No." She sobbed, wrapping her dainty little arms around him, "please... don't."

"I know, Milia. I know." He said as he bit his trembling lip, "But I have to. I'll be back soon. I love you. Be strong for mommy, Milia. She'll protect you."

Dieeal stood up and ruffled her hair with a smile that looked more forced than anything before turning to Yima.

"I love you." Is all he could muster to say. They kissed each other with as much passion as he could fit inside of a second and went back out into the hall before giving them one last loving glance.

And then he was gone.

He jogged down the hallway and joined several other soldiers running outside.

"What's the situation?" Dieeal asked as he clicked the gun's safety off, "How many are here?"

A lieutenant looked back at Dieeal as they both jogged down the hallway and answered. "Hear there's a thousand units at least, Major. That's what I've been told."

Dieeal nodded.

When they finally reached the exit to get outside, they watched hundreds of their fellow kin running and scrambling in preparation of the coming fight.

Armored vehicles stood around and waited while several VTOLs loomed over head, to drop off more soldiers.

A quarian Major, with the name of Lohnda'Mar, caught notice of Dieeal, his longtime friend, and waved him over to see him.

"Dieeal!" Lohnda shouted, "Over here!"

Dieeal ran to him. "What's going on Lohnda? You have any details?"

"Keelah, Dieeal, it's not good."

"How bad."

"Outer wall's been compromised. The militia is fighting them right now, but they're losing. Fast."

"Casualties?"

"Hundreds by now." Lohnda managed to say while he shook his head, "We've already got civilians coming in waves, running from them."

"Lieutenant Mihles told me the geth are at least a thousand strong. How true is that?"

"Not accurate at all, Dieeal... we're looking at a force of at least eighteen thousand units."

"What?" Dieeal took a step back and his face paled, "There's only six hundred men left in our entire battalian, Lohnda. A hundred of them, noncombatants."

"I'm aware, Dieeal. But I've got good news too. Intelligence suggests they only possess anti-personnel weaponry."

"How sure are we?"

Lohnda brought up a live feed of the city's outer wall and the geth pouring through it with his omni-tool.

"Look," Lohnda pointed, "Third armor stationed three of their tanks near the breach to stop their advance. But it's not working."

Dieeal grit his teeth.

Just as Lohnda showed, Dieeal watched their tanks flinging lead from every gun mounted on their hulls toward the geth horde.

But they didn't stop. And they didn't slow.

It seemed the geth didn't have much to consider when they were eighteen thousand strong.

The payout of decimating an entire quarian party of only six thousand survivors, most of them civilians, would be nothing short of a statistical success.

The geth knew this.

And because of that, the armor was completely ignored.

Completely.

Thousands had passed them straight into the city.

And they would slaughter anything with a beating heart.

Dieeal didn't have stretch his imagination far to think that any soldier stationed nearby was dead by now.

That meant half the militia and at least a company of rifleman.

Gone.

"They'll run out of ammunition long before they do any real damage..." Dieeal murmured in disbelief.

"Then they'll start running them over if they have to then." Lohnda growled before jumping onto the turret of his own tank, "I'll start running them over if I have to, Dieeal."

"What of air support?"

"Three gunships and several drop-ships and enough ammo for two minutes worth of sustained fire. Nothing more. The armory had fourteen ZED missiles for the gunships. Air support's limited, Dieeal. It's falling to us to stop them."

"Keelah."

"The ancestors aren't gonna help us Dieeal. Only bullets will. No point in hiding it anymore."

Dieeal sighed. "Never believed in that stuff anyways, Lohnda."

"Don't think anyone does really." Lohnda said with a frown, "But if they do exist, I'm hoping they do something about it, or we'll all end up being ancestors."

Dieeal didn't get to reply.

"We've got contact!" Someone screamed out frantically, "They're just over the bridge!"

Both Lohnda and Dieeal look to see hundreds of geth running to get into the compound.

"Holy—... they weren't supposed to be that close..." Lohnda whispered disbelievingly, "What the hell is going on?"

"Does it matter?" Dieeal said in a much more agressive tone, "Get in your tank and go!"

"Right." Lohnda gave his old friend one last look, nodded to him, and closed the hatch to drive off with his crew.

A company's worth of men formed a line on the other side of the bridge and fired into the mass of charging geth.

Most of them were holding improvised pikes and shivs. Some even guns. No doubt from the soldiers they'd killed near the city's gates.

They fell by the dozens, many of them slipping into the rapids below, but the others charged on, closer to their creators.

And just before they could make it to the other side, Lohnda's tank fired a 120 millimeter shell into one of the struts.

Dozens of tension cords snap and give and the giant column fell with a loud crash before crumbling the bridge and sending hundreds of geth into the rushing whitewater underneath them.

The soldiers didn't cease their fire. Any synthetic simpleton who'd survived and worked the courage to try and climb out of the water was quickly cut down.

"No mercy men!" Dieeal screamed as he joined in the charade of gunfire himself, "They shan't have it for you!"

A gun ship roared overhead and finished whoever was left of the charge.

The victory was short lived.

Suddenly, a quarian soldier elicits a short scream before slamming against the ground. "Fuck! I'm hit!"

Several more men follow quickly after and drop to the ground.

"Sniper! Take cov—" one of the sergeants never finished. Lead exits her throat and kills her instantly.

"The walls!" Another shouted, "Look high!"

Dieeal turned and saw dozens of geth jump over the high walls to get inside the compound.

Right where Yima and Milia were at.

"We need to fall back! Fall back to the median! Move!" An officer screamed.

"No!" Dieeal screamed frantically, panic swelling in his heart, "Yima!"

The quarian firing line turned to a mess. Dozens of soldiers lay on the ground bleeding while anyone standing scrambled to find some cover or an escape from the deadly crossfire.

"Fall back! Fucking run! Go!"

"Move!"

"GO!"

"Run!"

Dieeal started running. But not to safety, no. He started running toward the geth, back to his family.

Dieeal trudged passed his fellow kin to the exclusion of all else.

He had to save his family.

Abandoning his wife and little girl was not an option.

It never would be.

Not now.

Not ever.

He started running, fired his rifle calmly at any machine who'd happen to chance upon his iron sights, and forced his way back into the building by crashing his shoulder against the door.

The first thing that met him were the screams and gunfire resonating inside the building.

"Yima!"

The gunfire and screams are the only things that answer him.

Swallowing his worst fears, he raised his gun to eye level and scanned the stairwell before slowly making his way up.

The gunfire and sounds of struggle didn't cease.

His office was just a hallway down now.

"Yima! ...Milia!"

"Dieeal!" Yima screamed, "Here!"

He took the stairs two at a time and when he made it to the top, he stumbled upon a geth armed with nothing but a bloody pitch fork.

Not even a second could pass before three sharp prods pass through the other end of his back, right under the armor plates of his carrier.

The first thing Dieeal felt wasn't pain.

It was shock.

Shocked that he'd even been caught that off guard.

Shocked that he'd come so close to getting both his wife and daughter out of here safely.

So. Goddamned. Close.

But there wasn't a point in giving up now.

The geth forced the fork deeper and Dieeal kissed the barrel of his rifle right under its pectoral before firing a long burst into its chest.

Ambulatory fluid, shell plating, and internals fly from the new cavity and the geth dropped lifelessly onto the concrete floor.

Dieeal fell to his knees and felt tears welling in his eyes as he stared at the farming tool lodged in his abdomen.

If it meant anything to Dieeal, at least the prongs were thin.

"Dieeal!" Yima screamed as she ran to him. She fell into place next to him with her hot tears and sobbed.

"Shhh..." Dieeal murmured quietly, "It's okay..." He dropped his gun next to the dead geth and held the pole resting right under his naval, "We just gotta... pull it out and get out of here. Where's Milia?"

"In the office..." Yima choked as she cradled her husband as carefully as possible, "Keelah, this can't be happening..."

"I know..." He mumbled before setting a packet of clotting agent and medi-gel on the floor next to him, "The fork's thin. I'll be okay if we can get out of here and to the Army's combat hospital."

He stopped and finally looked to her, "You're going to have to help me."

She nodded dutifully and held the end of the pitch fork. "…Ready…"

He gave her a scared look. "...now."

They both pull slowly and Dieeal felt unconditional pain. Pain so unlike anything he'd ever felt in his entire life.

The pitch fork finally left him and Yima tossed it to the side and wasted no time in applying the medi-gel into his wounds with a syringe.

"I'll be okay, Yima, " He said with a heavy breath, "but we have to go, we are out of time."

Suddenly Milia screamed from down the hallway in his office.

Both Dieeal and Yima spring to their feet.

"Milia!?" His wife screamed as they both started running to their daught̷͇̘̗̲͍͖̘̰͚̮͂̈́̆̆̈́͒̉̕͘͝ȩ̷̛͉̦̲̠͍̦͖̝̈̾̓́͋̇̉͒̚͜r̷̨̡̹̺̻̖̝̳̯̻̓̀̍͊̊͆͒͛̽̈́. ̦̺̲̩̝̘̖̣̀͊̎̆͆̎̀̆̈́͑b̴̺̖̩̙̤͚̰͕͖̙͗͗͛̈́͒̎͒̏̌Bũ̶̢̧̢͎̙̗̯̲̖̱̀̀̀͗̈́̋͂̾͝ẗ̸̢͙̪̤̳̼̺͙͚͆̒̆̄̈́̏̎̈̕ͅ ̴̡̨͔̹̼̪̟̪̺͍͂̾̈̈̆̅̉̓̂̚ţ̴̧̧̛͔͎̥̭̣̟͚͒͑̆͐̇̋̋̇̚ĥ̶̠͙͔̮̙̳̦͙͚̲͒̈́́̿̑́̈͒̕e̵̻̻̘̱̤͙̪̰̓́̀̉̄͊͒̚̚͜͠ͅỹ̵̛̹̤͇͔͚̙̮̭̱̆͐̌̏̔̀͘͘͜ ̷̭̪͙̺͙̺̖̹̩̙͛̈́̅̿̍̃̑͌͆͠w̵̡̞̩̠͖̺̺͍̖̫̽̽͊̂̌͆́̏̚̕ě̷̟̩̱͕͈̭̩͖̗͑̂̔̈́̈́̐́̚͜͝ŗ̶͔͍̟͕̮͓̣̼̱͌̋̒́͂͗̍͋̂̐e̶̩͓̠̺͕͍͕͉̰̤̿́̊̂͒̋̿̃̾̚ ̣̘̥̱̩̰̬̗̠͌̓͆̔̊͗̓͂̾͑t̷̢̺̼̘͖̟̝̣͗͂̔̄̀̿̌̊̉͘ͅͅo̶̢̡̡̩̗͉͖̫̠͐̆̇̈̌̊͌͒̋͗ͅơ̴̺̺̞̬̥̻͎̤̳̑̓̓̋̽̈́͆̈́̊ͅ ̷̛̣̜̲̖͉̭͉͉̀̌̆͑͐͗̓́̂ͅͅl̷̢̛͕̫̳͖̬̩͙͇͐̈́͆̊̂̀͆̒̕͜a̷̧̗͚͇̣̰̟̗̲̻͆͒͑̂̔̎͐͐̃̽ẗ̴̡͈͇̠͈̟̲̮̯̼́͑̈͐̍̑͐̆̿̆e͇̳̝̊́̆̽̈͌̏̌͝.͇̻͔̻̱̹̲̒͗̋͆͛̽̋̅́͐ ̷̧̛̛̣̜̬̭̟̩̳̫̮́̔͋͗̅͋͘͝f̷̢̡̛͇͍͖̖͎͈͍͖̎͊̌̎͛͐͘͝͝a̵̛̪̰̺͎̱̱̗̥͖̳̽̑͂͌͌̈́͐͐̕ṛ̻̙̥̜̈̒̌̽̿͂̍͌̕͝ ̴̲̼͉̺̖͕͉̭̥̅̒̂̊̉́́́̃͘ͅt̵̨̰̱͇̭̣̲̺̳͙̏̉̎̈̎̌̄̌̄͝ō̶̦͇̱̘̤̝̭̙̺͎̽́̈̉͆̈̈́̚͝o̵̮͉̻̹͇̺̠̘̘̹̽̎̒͗̾́̑͋͠͠ ̶̧͓̭̩̪̫̤͙̟̯́̾̅̊͋͑̂̚͘̕l̵̹̹̘̣̬͎̹̮̜̯̔͐̅̊̔̊́͛̅͝ä͇͖͖͉͙͕̰́̀̽̔̇̄̓͊̀̚͜t̵̛͕͕̱̦͙̹̥͖̳͍͋͌̅͗̈́͒͗̎̕ȩ̷̧̠̘̖̮̣̹̥͔̋̀͆̉̍͆͐̈͋͘ ̴̧̭̠̹̜̘͍̬͔̅̉́̀͗̿͋́͘̚͜t̷̡̡̡̝͓͓̦͈̗͒͆̐̒͌͊͋̒͑͜͝ǫ̶̝̝̦̘͈̖͇̱̀̑̅̉͐̑͂͋͋͜͝ ́̑̇̆̇͗͊͝d̷̢̯͎̲̤̜̱̬͈͖̽̍̃͗̍͛͒̋̋̚.̵̨̛̭̤̯͇̮̣̮̙̆̿̑͑̈́̍̈́̂͘͜ ̶̛̪̪̦̫̘͕͇̰̩̖̬̲̺̦̣̦̟̪̣̀̊̈́̍͒͆̃͒̉̀͋̅͛͐̚̚͝ ̷̖͍͎̼͖͉͖̝̻̻̠͎̺͙̲̯̺̓́̒̇̏̋̔̋̎ᗡ̴̧̨̥͖͔̻͕̤͖͔̬̖̹̻̤̣͕̠̼̼͆̾̐̌̉́͛̎͌͊̔͑̀̍̇̀̒̇̽͝Ǝ̸̷̶̷̢̧̧̢̧̢̨̨̛̜̥̼͉̱̣̲̻̩̰̤̖͓̬̬̳͚̩̗̜̹̩̟͔̼̫̩͖̻͉̹͉̜̠̭͉͓̺̺̱͇̳͉̠̜̥̮̠͈͓̝͙̗̥͎͙̪̯̘͈̣̥̰̝̮̺̰͋́̈͆́͌̉͂̔͊̑͗̀̄̉̉̂͆̑̈̈́̾̍̎͊͗̿̿̏̏̏̊̓̀̓̊̒̃̔͊̅̐̆́̽̿͋́͋̋̀̈́̈́̓͐̒̈́͒̾̈̊͒̿̄͊̊́̚̚̚͘͘̕̕͜͜͜͠͝͠͝͝ͅH—-[=⃫=/RECORDING ABR⃥U⃥P⃥TLY-HALTED..]

[F̶̷̸̲̲ᴏ̶̷̸̲̲ʀ̶̷̸̲̲ᴍ̶̷̸̲̲ᴍᴛ Cᴏʀʀᴜᴘ̶̷̸̿ᴛ̶̷̸̿ɪ̶̷̸̿ᴏ̶̷̸̿ɴ̶̷̸̿ Iᴅᴇɴᴛɪғɪᴇᴅ.]

ADOC:/E%%RECO^RDING[ABRUPTLY[HA8LTED.87(87&T⃫E⃫S⃫T⃫I⃫N⃫G⃫^65Error^**[STAN7D-BY]RESEQUENCING/:

A new recording appeared.

One of a blood soaked floor and deathly silence.

Just ever so faintly, you could hear Dieeal's sobs before picking the camera up with two red stained hands, limping over to a safe on the wall, and turning off the camera for good.

|Present Time|

|Date: 5/20/2184||Quarian Calender: YR 2775|

|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/City Ruins of Basin Si/ASPO-D22|

|DESIGNATION: PRIMERAH|

"Oh my god..." Came Tali hoarse whisper, "The bones. It was them..."

Juel, as silently as he could, removed the disc from the computer, set it quietly on the table, and stared distantly off into nothingness.

No one had a thing to say. Most stared distantly at the dark screen with their empty eyes before wandering their cold gaze to the floor.

Tali took a breath and took into careful consideration everything she'd seen and questions she wanted to ask.

First and foremost...? What were they going to do with this stuff?

Pirahn stepped up next to Juel, took the disc out of his hand, and stuck it back into the computer.

"What the hell are you doing?" Juel asked shockingly.

"Copying everything over and making sure the Admiralty board sees this. All of it." Pirahn said flatly as he continued typing.

Some nodded at the prospect of showing this to the Admiralty board.

With something like this, the push for an immediate preparation for war would seem all but unstoppable.

Others immediately disagreed. The ramifications of using this to emotionally distress the quarian government on such sensitive matters involving the geth was not a good idea.

One of Pirahn's cohorts, with the name of Rieyel'Tea, was one of the people who disagreed. "What? That is not our mission parameter, Pirahn."

"Excuse me?" Pirahn rasped, turning around to face the woman. Judging by his raised voice, it seemed Pirahn was used to Rieyel's open mouthed pandering and constant objection.

"And why is that, Rieyel? Tell me!" Pirahn shouted as he took a step toward her, "I'm all fucking ears!"

"You're copying this monstrous shit for the Admiralty board and asking for an emotional fuckfest, Pirahn. You're just giving the war-mongering idiots like you another reason to go to war with the geth!"

He punctuated his words by taking several steps closer to her.

"You. Fucking. Geth sympathizing bitch!"

Pirahn tackled Rieyel and they both fell to the floor.

Several of the other scientists and marines started to shout out at Pirahn before leaping in and prying him off the poor woman.

As Rieyel crawled away from the screaming man, she started to cry at the trauma he'd just caused her.

"You just saw what they did to us you fucking bitch!" Pirahn screamed as he struggled against the arms holding him back, "How can we let them get away with this!"

Kal pointed out to a hallway. "There's a room we cleaned up down the hallway. Get Pirahn out of here." Kal ordered, "Now. He can come back when he's calmed down."

"Get your hands off me!" Pirahn screamed as he and the three marines restraining him took him out, "Let me go!"

Everyone waited until the three marines and Pirahn left.

"...I'll tell you what we need to do." Someone else said, continuing from where they left off, "Take it back out of the computer and break the disc."

"Pirahn's wasn't wrong." Another argued, "It would be wrong to not let the Admiralty see this."

"No one is going to do anything until we think this through!" Kal yelled sternly before giving everyone a look, "Got it?"

Everyone stopped talking and held their heads low.

"Good." Kal breathed before taking a moment to think, "Who in favor of keeping it? Raise your hands."

Slowly, thirteen hands go up.

"Who in favor of getting rid of it?"

Twelve different hands go up. Tali and Juel included.

"Still too close to decide." Kal intoned quietly before sitting down and sighing.

Tali's downcast eyes stared absently at the ground for a long while, thought long and hard about what she saw, the political implications it could bring, and the people around her.

Surely some would understand the danger the choice of showing this to the admiralty board would bring.

Hugely disproportionate factions between peace or war.

Martial law. More so than what it already was.

A disband of the Conclave.

All out war.

Mass Destruction.

Extinction, even.

And either the quarians would win, or they wouldn't.

This was a simple dichotomy.

But what was more important than this?

The Reapers.

The quarians had the biggest fleet in all the galaxy.

Surely that would help logistically when the Reapers would come.

That was more important than this pathetic squabble now.

Tali took the stage and stepped in front of everyone so they could see her.

Kal looked up from his hands to her. "...What's up, Tali?" He asked quietly, "Have something to say?"

"Yes." She answered with a slight nod before turning to everyone.

"I don't know if you all know me," Tali began rather somberly, "But I'm Tali. And you all know my father."

Everyone trained their eyes on her and she took a shaky breath. "My experiences travelling across the galaxy... The people I was with... The people I met... the people I fought against... They all taught me a lot. Skills I'll take with me for the rest of my life."

She looked down momentarily to gather her thoughts.

Everyone trained their eyes on her and she took a shaky breath. "My experiences travelling across the galaxy. The people I was with. The people I met. They taught me a lot."

She looked down momentarily to gather her thoughts.

"One of the things I've come to learn, especially when it comes to the geth, is that war is last resort." She turned around, picked up the disc sitting on the table, and stared at it as if it could give her more to say. "This is a horror best kept buried. Galvanizing the admiralty and conclave could mobilize us for a war we would never win. It's not worth it."

"...You make it out to be like we wouldn't have a chance." One of them said.

"You think we would?" Tali asked rhetorically, "Do you honestly think we could?"

The person said nothing.

"Tali's right." Juel added to her defense before taking a spot next to her, "This stuff right here? It needs to stay here."

"If you do that, this guy and his family died for nothing." Another pointed out.

"And if you do show it, we'll all die for nothing." Juel countered quickly, "...There's no way we're ready for this."

"He's right." Someone else agreed, "As much as I want the geth gone, you're talking about working up against the impossible."

"If we decide to destroy this, there's no telling how Pirahn's going to react to this, though."

Rieyel finally had the courage to speak again. "Who cares what he thinks?" She sighed, "His opinion doesn't matter."

"But it does if he says something about it when we get back home." Tali supplied before stepping next to the woman and putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, "He needs to see reason. Especially since he's leadership."

"I don't want that bosh'tet anywhere near me." Rieyel whimpered slightly before wrapping her arms around her chest, "But do what you have to."

"We will." Tali nodded before looking back to Kal. "Kal? We need to see Pirahn and speak to him."

"I'll take you to him." Kal said as he stood up, "Let's go."

Tali gave one last fleeting look to everyone crowded together before following both Juel and Kal out to meet Pirahn.

And the first thing she did when they entered the hallway was sigh.

How was she going to convince someone like him a decision that meant stalling a war he felt necessary to bring back their homeworld was wrong?

Appeal to his same desires by saying she wants the geth gone too but that they can't?

Maybe.

It was about the only card she wanted to play or could even think of at the moment.

It wasn't long before they arrived with Pirahn grumbling to himself and the marines guarding the entrance.

Kal waved to his marines to step aside and the three walked in before sitting down in front of Pirahn.

"Hey." Kal greeted, "Have you calmed down yet?"

"Calmed down." Pirahn scoffed before looking to both Juel and Tali and huffing, "Hardly."

"We came to you because we made a decision." Tali expressed as calmly as possible, "And I'm sure you know what it is."

Pirahn's hands turned to fists in his lap. "You're. Making. A. Mistake."

Tali sat right across from the man and leaned in close to try and punctuate her point. "I want you to know that everyone here with you wants the geth gone just as much as you do. But jump starting something we're not ready for is not going to help us."

"The more we wait... the more we won't be ready." Pirahn strained to say before turning back to face Kal, "Tell Rieyel I'm sorry. For everything."

"We will. You'll get to apologize in person. But we're talking to you now because we still value your opinion." Kal answered.

Juel took the mantle. "Everyone wants our planet back, Pirahn. But this isn't the way of doing it. We have to do it with facts. Not by twisting an emotional hand behind every back we can."

Pirahn sighed and held his head low. "Fine. Do what you want with it. I'm done arguing. Just remember that I think you're doing everyone we know a disservice. Everyone."

"We know Pirahn." Tali murmured sadly, "If I knew we could win the war, I'd be right beside you. But not now. Not in this case."

"Take some time to think, Pirahn." Kal said as they all stood up, "Join us when you think you're fit for duty again. We've got a dozen more discs to look through which means we need you back at the helm for this."

"Okay." Pirahn breathed before slumping in his old rusting chair.

And with that, Tali sighed her relief, stood up with the others, and returned to work.

|Four Days Later|

|DATE: 5/24/2184|

|Location: Far Rim/Il-Ma System/Nocturnal-Sentinel/Aboard Corvette Class Ship: Event Horizon/CIC: Observation Room|

Tali watched through her small little window, the planet they'd been on for the better part of almost two weeks.

As they drifted seamlessly through space on their asteroid, away from Primerah, Tali thought of her time spent alone and the discoveries she made.

And, of course, Dieeal and his long dead family.

Tali finally turned away from the little window before unshouldering her bag and taking a seat and smoothing out the wrinkles in her realk.

They'd found outdated things mostly on the other OSDs. Some of it an exchange of research between nations involving the geth. Samples of unchecked geth evolution. Development of possible geth culture in the event of AI transfer. Others about simulating armament potential had the geth been equipped for an all out war.

The numbers didn't look good if Tali had any real say in the matter.

Which made her think of why the geth tied this all up with the information she'd procured on that terminal when she was with John all that time ago.

She shrugged to herself mentally. Was it really worth thinking over? It's not like she'd come to a conclusion that easily just by thinking about it hard enough.

The only suspicion she could gather really was the geth knew of the research conducted and marked it as a point of interest.

What else could be said of it?

She looked back out and the window from her seat and frowned.

Not much, she supposed.

Fortunately, the stuff they'd found would be good enough for her dad and the other admirals.

Just another baby step forward to getting their old home back to what seemed to be an infinitely bigger line ahead of them.

She couldn't help but feel hopeless about that.

All this for some unremarkable baby step.

Pirahn's words echoed in her thoughts.

'The more we wait... The more we won't be ready.'