Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema - or was it "vas Rannoch" now? - had been planetside for a few days after returning from the Sol system. After speaking with Tali'Zorah, he acquiesced when she told him that she had "obligations" on Earth. He had been in no mood to argue with her at the time, still stunned at what had happened and focused as he was on ensuring the safety of what had remained of the quarian fleet after the final battle. In the time since, however, he had become far more incensed at her behavior.

Putting the life of the human bosh'tet above her obligation to her people. An admiral's obligation, no less.

Spitting on what was left of her father's legacy.

And all because she thought that this human was - "Ancestors preserve us," he spoke aloud - her saera? Han knew that such a thing was impossible. Quarians could only feel that depth of a connection with other quarians. No, he was quite convinced that she was either incredibly naive, had been seduced, or had been tricked in some way.

He wasn't sure which possibility was the least unnerving.

But Tali'Zorah was only one of the problems that he was grappling with. And today he was going to rectify the other one if he could.

He was not at all surprised to find that Daro'Xen had already moved her office to a somewhat secluded building in what currently served as the capital on Rannoch. He strolled through the courtyard, quietly pleased that most of the remaining Geth platforms that had been left idle after the Pulse had been removed. Seeing them would have agitated him even more. Although he reckoned that Daro would have been quite pleased at her good fortune: an almost unending supply of inert Geth platforms for her to experiment on was something he thought that she would have found quite agreeable. He watched the low bushes sway at the soft kiss of what was undoubtedly a warm and pleasant breeze, and not for the first time wished that they had somehow managed to glean more than just their immuno-boosting data from the Geth before they were destroyed. Further treatments, or doses, or next steps would have been nice. Would it have been too much to have gotten that bit of information before everything went haywire?

Apparently, yes.

"Haywire". That was a about as good a term as he could come up with for what had happened. The Pulse had not only ended the Geth, but had also severely crippled all of the networks on the planet itself. Idly, he wondered if there was a connection there. He remembered being accosted a few hours ago by an unnamed technician, telling him that not only were their networks running at only about 20% capacity, and that the information was still out there, but would take them a long time to download it into their memory banks on the planet. And "20%" was about as good as they were likely to get. "Too much degradation," he had told him.

Keelah.

So much for celebrating the end of the Reapers.

Arriving at the single-story building that constituted her headquarters, he felt a distinct pang of uncertainty. Out of the four other admirals, Daro'Xen was definitely the one that made him the most…antsy. She was eccentric, and at times obsessive. But, she was someone who had understood the Geth threat, even if defending against them wasn't always her primary concern.

Which made her an ally.

Of sorts, that is.

For now, she was convenient.

"Come in, Han. It's not locked." Her voice had transmitted unceremoniously through his helmet's internal radio. With a sigh, he stepped through.

He could not say that he was surprised at the sight before him. The room itself was open, with high ceilings and intricate lines and swirls crafted into the walls. Xen kept the standard sparse quarian living quarters of course, with the silver and black colors of her clan hanging on a banner from the far wall opposite the doorway. Her desk and other pieces of furniture (still a quarian, it was only a bed and a small set of drawers for her personal items) sat in the same corner to his left. And smack dab in the middle was her workstation, a raised platform that was brightly lit, where she was elbow deep in the carefully opened torso of the shell of a Geth Prime.

Gerrel took a few steps toward said workstation, feeling curiosity and disdain in equal measure. He clasped his hands behind his back, waiting for her to finish with whatever it was that she was so intensively working on. Finally, after a few clicks and snaps, she held up a small microchip between the business ends of a small set of tweezers. She held it up in front of her, studying it as she slowly turned it in multiple ways.

"Do you know what this is, Han?"

Keelah, even the sound of her voice made his skin crawl.

"You have me at a disadvantage, Daro. I do not."

"This," she extended the tweezers and chip in his general direction, "is the future of our people. Inside, it contains countless secrets, countless opportunities. It is also a useless bosh'tet!" She screamed the last sentence with an unfiltered anger as she threw the whole apparatus - tweezers and chip - against the far wall. It clanged loudly twice - first as it hit the wall and once more as the gravity of Rannoch did its thing. Han'Gerrel did not so much as flinch. He knew that she was…a little unsettled.

"They are just shells now, Han. Every single one of them. Without them, how are we to rebuild?"

He cocked his head in curiosity. "Rebuild what exactly, Daro?"

She let out a noise of exasperation. "'Rebuild what' he asks. Rebuild everything, Han. Our past. Our glory. Our future. And now," she finally walked over to retrieve the discarded tweezers and useless microchip, "we have none of it. Nothing tangible, at least."

Han nodded in understanding. "So, you've had no luck with the data either, then."

She sniffed a mirthless laugh. "No, Han. None of us have." She circled the table once more, placing the discarded items on one end. "Which is why I'm performing dissection - or an autopsy…" Her voice dripped with disdain as she said this last word. "If that little det kazuat hadn't interfered…"

Han straightened his back at the use of the exceptionally crude Khelish term. "And to whom are you referring, Daro? Tali'Zorah or Shepard?"

Her head cocked slightly, apparently actually thinking about the question. "Hmm. Does it matter? Neither? Why not both? They are both at fault to a degree. In any case," she stepped to him as she continued, "I am at a stand still. There are no active Geth, we won't ever be able to use them, and now I don't even have their data to work with." She became curious. "Han, you wanted them gone as much as anyone - even as much as that fool Rael," Han began to formulate a meek defense of his friend but was cut off, "so what is your problem? I suspected that you would be out in the square, dancing like children would now that they're gone."

Han bristled at the implication - an admiral dancing like an idiotic child in the streets - but kept his temper under control for now. "Yes, I am happy that they're gone, but I do not like their secrets. I do not like that they may have tried to give us one final 'gift'. I didn't trust them." He paused, considering something. "It occurs to me that all of this 'data' that has done nothing except overload and largely disable the networks might have just been a way for them to hurt us."

Daro almost laughed at him, but for once managed a bit of self-control. "Come now, Han. You give these machines too much credit. You almost make them sound like salarians. I don't care what it was that Tali'Zorah or that Captain Shepard did, because they," she pointed animatedly at the Geth lying on the table, "were just machines." She looked back over her shoulder at the prone form of the Geth lying on her table. "Very useful machines, I had hoped. But just that." She pouted, a throwback to when she was a little girl. Before her experiments began.

Those poor dolls.

A thought struck her; one she hadn't had until this little chat with Han.

"Han, I have a question, because I think that perhaps the Geth may still prove useful." She still looked longingly at the Prime on her table.

He cocked his head in curiosity. "And what is your question?"

"Since they were all networked, and you've said that their little 'gift' originated from Earth…do you believe it possible for us to access that data at the source?"

He chuckled at her; she had not expected that response. "Daro, why do you think I bothered to come down here? I was wondering that myself, and since you have brought it up now, I presume that my hope might even be a realistic one."

She seemed somewhat taken aback by his response. It hadn't seemed to be a spur of the moment retort; he may have actually come here with that idea. She clearly had not given the old fossil enough credit. "Well, we both could get what we want then: I could learn all of their dirty little secrets, and you…well you get to learn whether they really were trying to end us…as a 'parting shot', I believe the phrase goes. Surely, even Shala and that idiot Zaal could not object to this." She pondered for a moment. "It will be a 'fact-finding' mission; a way to preserve the 'legacy of the geth'."

With any luck, she could find new and inventive ways to perhaps replace them.

Han smiled to himself. She was right. "And since Tali'Zorah is still in-system, she can do this for us, and then she'll have to return to Rannoch. Where she belongs."

Daro scoffed at his last statement. "Oh, come now, Han. Surely you won't begrudge the little minx a little alien delight." She had a sadistic smirk on her face. She loved pushing buttons, and Han's were so big, evident, and satisfying.

Han lost it, as she expected he would, arms flailing as his temper took over. "Rael would be furious! And that Shala abides it is unconscionable! It is not right! 'Bonding' with this alien! Putting him before her people!"

Daro's smirk widened to a full-on grin.

"Well, this will be a convenient way to rectify it then, Han."

He unconsciously straightened his suit after his verbal explosion. "Hmph. Yes, it will. And, uh, I apologize for my outburst, Daro. Sometimes it gets the better of me."

Daro placed a hand, reassuringly she had hoped, on his shoulder. She was not good at interactions by any measure - quarian or otherwise. "Quite all right, Han. Quite all right. Now, let us discuss how we will present this to Shala and Zaal."

When he finally left, after they had prepared their proposal to the other senior admirals (boy, did she love that Tali was still beneath her, if only in practice), she couldn't help but hum a happy little tune she hadn't thought of in years.

Yes, this day had gotten far more interesting.