AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just making sure it's known. I ain't making this shit up about Tali being the one to invent the cyclonic barrier tech. That shit's canon. She's a genius.

And I also want to answer the question from A13x who I can't respond to directly. For the rest of you, that question was about whether Shep would learn certain biotic abilities on the basis of how they're limited or spread to classes in multiplayer. My answer, is that the class system, I believe, is a lot more loose in how things would work in real life. For an N7, at least. Now, in my little take on the Mass Effect universe, any biotic (who actually develops their abilities with training and implants, not like some civvie Asari who just do nothing with their innate powers) can learn any ability. At least in theory. Some who are on the weaker end of the spectrum, who just don't have that much eezo to draw off of, have a harder time. Some they can only use in controlled environments and with strain. Shepard's implant, I'm certain, would allow him to use a wide range of different biotic abilities. (though he'd never be as powerful with them as Samara or Jack. Or a SAM boosted Scott in my Andromeda story. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Tali'Zorah

I had felt the ship shake slightly as it does when speeding through a planet's atmosphere, and could hear the faint sound of torpedo's firing. If I was in engineering, or any other deck, I'd doubt I'd be able to hear it. They must have detected a Blue Suns shuttle attempting to flee. Maybe that... Vido was aboard. I returned to my work. I had been trying to think of a way to improve the ship's kinetic barriers. Unfortunately, this tech is limited. Mass disruptor torpedoes have, for example, been designed to completely counteract the effects of kinetic barriers. Their own mass effect field increases their mass to a point where the barrier can't hold it back, then the warhead itself can detonate and damage or destroy its target. The only counter to that are GARDIAN laser defense systems to take the torpedoes out before they hit. But I recently had an idea. I simply haven't had the time to work out the math yet to find out if my idea could work. It was, in fact, Kal who had given me the idea, though he didn't realize it.

Before we had arrived on Haestrom, Kal was sparring with one of the younger marines, newer to the squad. He wasn't that new to the marines, he was experienced, and this mission would be to see if he was capable of being a more permanent addition to Kal's team. Fortunately, Saato survived with just a wound. Kal's going to need the new blood. Anyways, Saato had had some level of martial arts training, but not much. Kal was fixing that. Despite going against his Commanding Officer, and one from a family with a long history of military service both in the Fleet and back on Rannoch, Saato had at least some measure of confidence. He was larger than Kal, and while we were setting up our camps on Haestrom, he quickly earned himself the nickname of Baunhor, a pack animal back on Rannoch. During the sparring match, Saato relied on his strength, naturally. He went to hit hard. Most of the time, Kal avoided the blows all together, striking back whenever he had the opportunity But a few times, he made a point of not avoiding his attacks at all, but rather redirecting it. After he had beaten Saato to the ground, he, of course, helped him back up and started the verbal part of the lesson. Outwitting one's opponent, using their moves against them. Their weight. Their momentum.

Avoiding an attack is good, but if you can redirect the attack, to take its momentum and force it in another direction, it's even better. True, you can't punish your foe by avoiding or redirecting an enemy attack in space combat, but perhaps I can configure a barrier to redirect an attack. It won't be easy, and it'll be an extensive and expensive install and modification if this can work. I finished typing in my Omni-tool. The calculations should be complete, now, just to begin the trial and error of running simulations.

Commander John Shepard

Zaeed had been both calm, and quiet for the rest of the mission as we secured the surviving workers. He is goddamned lucky that the explosions had given the workers some measure of warning, as well as alarms, to get to relative safety. The refinery's own safeties would have normally kicked in automatically to cut the flow of fuel and the fire suppression system would activate, but to squeeze more out of the refinery, the Suns had turned off more or less all of the safety systems. Altogether, it would have been far worse if the explosions originated within the refinery itself, but it could have been better. If he was Alliance, and… I guess if I was still Alliance, I haven't gotten any updates on my status with them yet, Zaeed would have been dishonorably discharged on the spot. But as it stands, it's tricky. I still need him for this mission, but I also can't afford to have this repeat. That's what the little chat with Zaeed eventually boiled down to. I was still pissed, and he knew it. Yet his demeanor was… at ease. Relaxed. He didn't regret his actions but admitted he'd have been fine with one of the alternate methods of entry I listed off after I punched him, he was just seeing nothing but red. While it doesn't excuse him, I'm guilty of acting irrationally because of anger before. Like with Cerberus, or with Elanos Haliat. As for whether or not this could happen again, Zaeed assured me that, for the first time in his life, he has no ambitions. No ulterior motives. He's got his contracts, and that's it. And if his contract states that he follows my orders to the letter, even on a suicide mission? Then that's fine by him. Offing Vido could be considered the last box on his bucket list.

It'll have to do. Once the workers had all been secured and Eldfell-Ashland was signaled for a safe pickup, we returned to the Normandy. It remained quiet all the way back to the ship, and the moment we were aboard, Joker began to journey to the Citadel. Everyone went their separate ways for the rest of the day, though after a visit with Tali, I told Kasumi to expect me in her quarters. Once I was back in regular clothes, I made my way to the med-bay. Tali was working on her omni-tool, completely enamored by it. And Chakwas was just at her desk. She noticed me enter, but not Tali.

"She's been working since you went off on the mission. I remember her begging me to clear her for regular duty, but by the sound of it, you should want her to finish… this, before sending her back to engineering," the doc remarked. Chakwas speaking up, of course, got Tali's attention, her eyes widened for a moment as she saw, and she allowed a wave before returning to work, as to not interrupt Chakwas.

"Is this about those shield upgrades you mentioned?" I asked. Tali began her answer without even looking up.

"Yes. Instead of a static kinetic barrier, this one will cycle to deflect projectiles, in particular, disruptor torpedoes, instead of just absorbing the energy and pushing it back."

"Like a parry or deflect?"

"Exactly. The math works, but with the barrier emitters we have, the rate at which the barriers cycle would either be far too slow, leaving us vulnerable to any other form of fire, or it can go at the speeds it needs, but the emitters overheat in seconds. So now what I have to do is design an entirely new form of emitter. Maybe ones that spin on their own for the sake of the cycle. In theory, you could be shot through it, but it would be like shooting a target inside a spinning ball. One that's spinning fast. It's very unlikely."

"And… you're designing this. All on your own. Right now? Before anyone else has?"

"Yes."

"You realize that this is going to be an invention that completely revolutionizes barrier technology, right? And that you're going to be hailed as a fucking genius for this?"

"...Uh…" she actually stopped, processing it. "N-no, it's just a little bit of thinking… differently."

"Outside the box thinking is what gave humanity some of its greatest achievements and advancements. Face it, a few hundred years from now, every engineer is going to learn your name in a textbook for this."

"He's right, you know," Chakwas piped up from her own desk. She was getting embarrassed, wringing her hands.

"Can we… talk about something else, please?" she asked.

"Alright, alright. I'll hold off singing your praise for now," I relented.

"Thank you," she sighed. "So. How'd the mission go? I know we shot something down." I frowned.

"Could have gone a helluva lot easier than it did. Vido was definitely down there and seeing him got Zaeed unhinged. Maybe some of it was the taunting as well. Sure, Zaeed had good reason to be unhinged by Vido, but he put the mission and the worker's lives in jeopardy needlessly. Caused a chain reaction through the fuel pipes, and I had to send Thane and Kasumi to put out fires and secure the workers while Grunt, Zaeed, and I chased down Vido."

"What about Garrus? And how bad was it?"

"Garrus was in an overwatch position in the jungle before and as we entered the facility. He was catching up. As for how bad, could have been worse than it was. The Sun's had turned off the safeties, but the workers could hear the explosions before it reached them. In the end, minimal worker casualties, and that's including those Vido had already killed before we got there. And Zaeed got his revenge. Before we left, he and I had a talk. Came to an understanding. I won't forgive him for what he did, but I can look past it for the mission," I explained.

"At least there's that. So, to the Citadel, right? To help Kasumi?"

"Yeah, we'll stop at the Citadel but Kasumi and maybe a standby ground team for emergencies are going to take a shuttle to Bekenstein, let the crew be on leave."

"And after that?"

"See Anderson, both to chat and see if he can help us procure something to help with Jack's request, talk to Hackett maybe, and see if Kaidan is there. I'll send a message ahead of time after we're done here. And hey, maybe you and I can have a do-over of Illium, eh?" I smirked. "You are sounding better, after all."

"Don't get any ideas, I'm not clearing her for combat yet," Chakwas called out. Tali slumped, annoyed a little.

"My throat is still sore, and while I'm not sneezing so much, my sinuses are still clogged," she admitted. "But I'd still enjoy the 'do-over.'"

"I'll allow another dinner, and I'll allow you to leave my direct care on the Citadel, but not for work."

"And I want you to keep working on the new shield tech rather than your regular work down in the drive core. The others down there can handle it until this is done," I added.

"I can accept that," Tali nodded.

"Good. Now, I need to talk to Kasumi about the plan for Bekenstein. So I'm going to send that message to the Citadel, then talk to her. In the meantime, you keep that giant brain of yours at work," I remarked.

"The size of the brain has nothing-"

"Human figure of speech," I laughed. "It might not be how it actually works but we say it anyway."

I took my leave of the med-bay, and in the mess, having a protein bar, I typed up and sent a message. Just letting Anderson know we were on our way to the Citadel, letting him know that business was going to take me away for the first day or two, and saying that I'd like updates on the Alliance side of things and to see about seeing Kaidan when I'm back. With that done, I went to the lounge to see Kasumi. She had claimed half of the lounge but was careful to leave the bar and the holo-pod free of her own items. In the other half, there was a bed, a bookshelf with physical books, drawers, and cabinets with some of what I'd assume to be her memorabilia. A rose, some kind of a stone bust, and she also had a strange, but interesting painting on the wall. Kasumi was lying in her bed, head on her pillow, but her legs crossed as she held a book over her, reading.

"Hey Shep," Kasumi smiled, turning her head to her side, setting her book down on her left, and rolled over onto her right side, holding her head up with a hand.

"Kasumi. You seem to be alright, despite the close call on Zorya."

"I might have been a bit hot under the hood, in more than one way, but I let you handle it. Not sure I want to screw with Zaeed, least, not without my cloak. So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Bekenstein. What's the plan?"

"Of course, Mr. Gunn," Kasumi kept her smile as she sat up, legs crossed in front of her. I raised a brow. "Your cover name. Solomon Gunn. Can't have you going in as Shepard, after all. I've already got your cover well established. Smaller time arms dealer in the Terminus looking to make his way up and to worm into Council space, and an interview in Badass monthly. No, Gunn doesn't really exist, but I fabricated him with enough depth to get an invitation secured."

"Suppose that would be easier to do in Terminus," I mused, impressed by the fabrication.

"Especially with my contacts. Now, you will be wearing a full tux for the party. I've got your measurements and the tux is waiting on the Citadel, as well as the gift for Hock. A mandatory addition, but not one useless to the plan. It is going to take up the hold of the shuttle, though. So, you and I.

"What kind of gift is this thing?"

"A 'gold' statue of your old friend Saren. At the base, there's a secret compartment that'll store your weapons and armor. You won't need a disguise in the vault, after all, and if it's ever going to get loud, it's in there while we're making the get-away," she explained.

"How'll we get in?"

"I won't know until I get eyes on the vault. I'll be able to get us in, but the only information I could get on the vault is its location. Accessible through the party, below the water feature in the center."

"And the get-away?"

"The vault does have more than one entrance, and the one we're going to use as an exit is one we absolutely can't use as an entrance. It's guarded with checkpoints that we won't be able to just sneak around. If we're lucky, coming up from behind, we might be able to take them out quietly while we get to the landing pad, with a shuttle waiting."

"And all you want is the gray-box?"

"Yes. I'll store a bag for each of us, though, on the off chance we see something, we're not eager to leave without. You can consider it me paying you."

Tali'Zorah

John… is right, I suppose. But I shouldn't get that much credit. Kal gave me the idea from basic CQC, I only had time to work on it because I was sick, and I need to make sure we survive the Omega-4. Any quality engineer would do the same in my position. That's how father taught you to think. Mother would try to pick you up and spin you in the air cheering, praising you, and being amazed if she were here. And Auntie-Raan would be right beside her. They'd be full of pride. They'd want me to be proud. No, pride is a distraction. There's nothing more important to my people than the fleet. I'm nothing, they are everything. The door to the med-bay opened, it was Kasumi.

"Hi Tali, Chakwas," the small human woman smiled. "Shepard told me what you were working on. Impressive. Really hope to see it work out."

"Thank you, Kasumi."

"No, thank you. If it does work out, it's all the more likely we'll survive. That's something I'd very much like to do," she remarked. "But, changing topic, you should have seen Shepard when he told me. He was gushing about you."

"Gushing?"

"Excited. Saying he couldn't believe how he had a genius for a girlfriend." I heard Chakwas chuckle quietly. I blushed, thankful for my mask. "You've got him wrapped around your finger." Another human phrase I didn't recognize. She saw my moment of confusion. "I mean you could ask him for or to do anything and he'd do it instantly and then some because he's just that crazy about you." I blushed brighter.

"I-I'm sure you're just exaggerating."

"Not at all. I remember how Keiji and I talked and acted towards one another. I see the same look on Shepard when he talks or sees you. But enough about that. I thought we'd talk. Get to know each other."

"I'm not opposed, but, why?" I asked.

"Well, we're working together, sure, but I like you. And hey, we already have a few things in common. We're both small, cute, and we both wear hoods," she smiled. I was a bit cautious about telling her too much, with her being a thief by trade, but something about her friendliness was… infectious. Genuine.

"Ask, but I can't promise I'll answer."

"Fine by me. So, what was it like growing up on the fleet?"

"Much closer together than I've seen anywhere else. And even the children have to pitch in to help on most ships. But I grew up on a liveship. We still had to help after our schooling every day, but there were so many adults on board as well, so the work was less than on smaller ships. They do what they can to keep the work fair, but supplies always have to be unloaded and loaded, and there's always something somewhere that needs to be fixed or replaced."

"I'm sorry your childhood couldn't be more of, well, a childhood. It must have been scary having a home always being fixed."

"It's just something we're used to," I shrugged. Kasumi looked down for a moment then back.

"And your parents?"

"My father's a member of the Admiralty board, and that always took most of his time. When he was around, he was always tired, and he's always been strict, always pushing me to be better. Mother was around much more, and much more supportive. So long as I tried my best, she was happy. She died a few years ago when bad filters let a disease spread," I ended quietly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"I miss her, but I still have good memories of her. I remember how she never wore her suit within our home, instead, wearing clothes leftover from our exodus, handed down through her family. I remember thinking she was the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. I felt safer with my suit on, but I would have my helmet off with her and she taught me to care for my hair," I smiled fondly at the memory.

"I didn't know you still had hair in those suits," Kasumi remarked.

"We do, but it's short. Our helmets don't let it grow much. But when I was younger, having it off more frequently with my mother let it grow down to my shoulders. It's short again now, though."

"Maybe you should let it grow again sometime," Kasumi suggested.

"Maybe. I just haven't had time. My turn for questions?"

"Sure."

"How about you growing up?"

"I was born in Tokyo, Japan, raised there by my grandmother and the streets. Despite her best efforts," she giggled. "Don't get me wrong, I love her, and had no problems at home other than just being lower income. My father entered the Aokigahara when I was still a baby, and my mother made use of alcohol and drugs. I don't know what happened to her, but she was out of my life a few months after my father. I don't remember either of them," Kasumi explained.

"Wait, I'm sorry, what did your father enter?"

"That didn't translate, did it? It's an infamous forest outside of Tokyo. The rest of Earth knows it as 'The Suicide Forest.'"

"Keelah, that's terrible."

"Our culture looks down on men who struggle to provide for their families. They're taught to feel ashamed, and I know my family was struggling then."

"What drove you to the streets?" I asked, changing the topic.

"Personal choice, mostly. I'm a bit of a kleptomaniac," she chuckled. "And I've always been a mischief maker, but I was good at it. And it helped that the city was crowded. Grandma just wanted me to be a good little girl, go to school, get a job, find a nice boy. I like to think I did. I did go to school, though I don't think I… applied it as she wanted. I got an… illegitimate job I'm good at, and I found a good man. Only thing I haven't done is give her great grand-babies."

"Is she still around?"

"In this day and age, she's still alive and well. I send her messages every once in a while, others, see her. I've given her enough money to retire safely, but I can't even begin to explain how many proxies that went through."

"That's nice of you."

"It's the least I can do for her. She doesn't know what I've been doing all these years, though. She thinks I'm an accountant on the Citadel." Kasumi smiled.

"You can't tell your grandmother of your real occupation? I'm not sure I'll ever be able to tell my father about my boyfriend," I chuckled.

"Alright, maybe yours is a little worse."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Logan Paul, no, get out of here. We ain't having any more of your shit with that damn forest. And no, I didn't know the Japanese name for that forest before a google search. I just put the Japanese name to be a pretty clear way of saying that Kasumi just talks in Japanese, and, thus, goes through the translator so we hear English. (No, I don't plan to research fancy japanese words that slip through the translator, because I figure that all of a single species individual languages get translated flawlessly because of how long they've been translated to one another and everything, then adapted to the translator tech. But with whole new languages with whole new sets of rules, and with Khelish being a bit more remote in use because how Quarians are in the galaxy, for us, non-human languages are the ones that only ever have errors.)