A/N: I'm terribly sorry for this chapter being out so late, I've been very busy and have had very little time to write. So yeah, shit happens, and here's the new chapter.
RING RING RING-
Oh great, time to get up.
RING RING RI-click.
I open my eyes as much is possible when they are glued together with gunk, and glance at the clock. 6:01 am. Time to get up, I guess. I roll over and nearly fall out of bed. I flail my stiff arms and legs, making more popping sounds than a bubble wrap in the hands of a 5 year old, and grab the bedding, but all that does is drag it down with me.
Thud. Ow.
Well, at least I'm wide awake now. I untangle my legs from the sheets and get up, not bothering to make my bed. I get dressed, grab my duffel bag, insert the recharged earpiece and head towards the door. In the hallway, I drop the orange bag at the door and go to the kitchen, intending to make a pot of coffee and a couple sandwiches. Tali is nowhere to be found, so I start a pot and rummage the fridge for sandwich toppings, finding some cheese spread and some sliced bacon of questionable freshness. That'll do. I set out the ingredients and slice some bread, then drop it into the toaster.
Tali is still absent, so I head over to my sister's room and knock on the door. When no response is heard for a few seconds, I open it and stick my head in and look around the room. I see Tali laying on her side on the bed, her face turned to the opposite wall. A faint snoring sound can be heard. She mutters something in her sleep, but I can't make out what it is. I switch on the translator app and call out: "Tali, It's time to get up." She stirs, turning over to face me, and I see her eyes open behind the visor. I prompt her to get up again, and return to the kitchen to enjoy my breakfast. About halfway through my first sandwich, I'm joined by Tali, who walks in and stretched her arms. "Good morning. How soon are we leaving?" I swallow the piece of food in my my mouth and reply: "In about fourty minutes." You should eat some and put the clothes on before the taxi arrives."
She takes another food tube from her pouch, and sits at the table. My curiosity gets the best of me: "What do those taste like, anyway?" She pauses her efforts to attach it to her emergency induction port, and says: "Well, there's no point of reference between quarian and human food, but I guess you could describe it as somewhat bland, with a sweet undertone. It's designed for nutritional value, not taste after all." And with that, she attaches it and goes silent for a while. I finish my breakfast and do a last check-up on my bag to make sure that I took everything I needed. I walk to my room; just a couple days ago, the thought that Tali'Zorah vas Neema would pop in out of thin air and we would try to break into CERN would just make me laugh, but here we are! What a thought, though...
Soon, My phone rings - the taxi has arrived. I throw my jacket and shoes on, and soon Tali exits the bedroom, dressed in my mother's clothes and taking unsure steps in the unusual footwear. "Is it time already?" I pick up my bag and switch off the lights. "Yeah. It's time. We'll be in a motorcar, probably pretty slow by your standards." She nods, and we exit the flat and I lock the door. The cab is already waiting at the door, and we climb in. The driver is an old Caucasian man with a week old stubble full of silver hairs, and he's wearing a cap. "Where to?" He asks us with a thick accent. "Sheremetyevo airport." He starts off, and I watch as Tali looks out of the window, taking in the view of Moscow. After about twenty minutes of silence, the driver points to Tali and asks: "So, what's with the mask, miss?" Tali is about to answer, but I cut in, since the driver wouldn't be able to understand her: "I'm sorry, but my...sister doesn't speek Russian, It's her first time here. She has a very rare disease, don't worry - you can't contract it. It makes her lungs extremely allergic to any irritants, so she has to wear the mask always." The driver gives her a sideways glance and returns his full attention to controlling the vehicle. After a while, though, he ask the question that must have been nagging him: "Well, what's it called?" I look at Tali and turn back to him: "Rannoch's disease."
The rest of the ride went without incident, and we arrive at the airport. I pay the taxi driver, and we enter. I ask Tali, not sure where to go now: "So, what's the plan now?" She takes out the tickets, and hands them to me. "We can go through the 'For Diplomats' gate." I drop off my baggage at the check-in and find the passport control. By now, I am very nervous about this, but am doing my best to not show it. We come up to the stand, and behind it sits a man. I hand him my passport and tickets, and he takes them, eying Tali with suspicion. He reads them and frowns. By this point, my heart rate is through the roof and my breath is fast and shallow. Jeez, the suspension is killing me! Then, he let's out a low sigh and places stamps on the documents and hands them back to me. "Have a nice trip." - he grumbes.
I hear Tali exhale. I grab the documents off the stand with sweaty hands and proceed to the security checkpoint. I am about to go through the scanner, but Tali signals to the 'For Diplomats' way. We go through, and finally arive at the gate to the plane. The whole time we wait, neither of us says a word. Finally, the gate opens, and we get into the plane.
Between us, there sits a fat woman, who almost immediately falls asleep.
The plane begins to accelerate and takes off. A stewardess, checking seatbelts, walks along the isle. She asks me to turn off my phone, which I was holding in my hands. Tali looks at me, and I can see her panic a little. "Don't worry, just put your seatbelt on and turn off your omni-tool, and all will be fine. These things are safe(-ish, I think to myself)" and so, I turn off my phone and earpiece and take it out. Now that we are on the plane to Switzerland, I feel much better and safer. Looks like Tali's hard work payed off, and her hack was successful. Phew! I fall asleep, contempt with the fact that we are on our way.
I wake up from the fat lady stirring in her sleep and leaning on me. Ew! I reel in disgust. Call me an intolerant bastard, but I find fat people gross and a disgusting. It may root in the fact that I used to be a chunker a few years ago, and I really resented myself because of it. Since then, though, I've been working on loosing weight, and quite effectively at that. Call me a hypocrite, but I managed to overcome it, and so should they. But I digress. The captain comes on over the intercom: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are beginning our descent, and will be arriving in Geneva Airport in twenty minutes." I look over to Tali, and see that she is looking out of the window at the ground, appearing among the clouds only to dissappear a few moments later. I wait for the plane to land, exit, and Tali and I find ourselves in front of the passport control on this end of the trip. It all goes smoothly, once again proving Tali's skill at hacking stuff to be amazing. I walk over to the baggage claim and wait for my duffle bag. In the meantime, might as well figure out what we do next.
I walk over to the side kf the room, making sure no one is in the nearby vicinity. Tali follows me, and I reactivate my smartphone and earpiece, and insert it into my left ear. I start up the translation app, which I dubbed 'TaliTalk' im my mind. I face the quarian and ask: "So, now what? We get a taxi and go... where?" She replies in a hushed voice, making sure no one but I can hear her: "We are staying at the 'Grand-Feinman' hotel, only a few kilometers from the research facility. I've printed out the booking here" - she hands me an A4 sheet of paper, which was conveniently stored in her satchel. Just how much can she fit into that one little thing!? Oh, well. Must be the equivalent of my mother's handbag, which can fit a seemingly indefinite amount of things and still look half-empty. I take the paper and read. Yup, that what we need. Ah, and there's my bag! I take it and heave it over my shoulder. At last, we make our way to the taxi service and I explain where we need to go. The lady at the counter smiles warmly, and shows us the way to the taxi parking area after radioing ahead to a driver. I thank her, and we go to the parking area. Soon, a man in a yellow jacket greets us and showz us the way to the car. We get in, and he takes off.
This time, the driver was silent, so the trip was overall somewhat boring. I did get a good view of the local scenery,once we left the airport complex. We soon drive up to the hotel, which is a five - story red and grey building in a small resort area. I pay the cabbie with some of the money I had converted into euros in Moscow. Tali and I step out of the car, and after a moment's pause walk into the reception. A young woman is sitting behind the marble desktop, and is busily typing on a computer. I walk up to the desk and interrupt her work, placing the reservation down in front of her. She looks at the paper, and asks: "Ok. I see you have already payed for a week, so your room is number 345, second floor. The elevator is to the right," She gestures with her hand, "Enjoy your stay!" And with that, she goes back to work. I find the elevator, and we get to the room.
It's a spacious room, with a balcony and a bathroom with a large tub. There's a wardrobe, a lerge plasma TV, a couch, and... a double bed. Well, this is awkward. I guess one of us sleeps on the couch. I decide to take the initiative; "I got dibs on the couch!" I drop the bag and leap onto it headfirst.
Ow!
I hit my ribcage on the wooden board dividing two parts of the couch. Christ, that hirts! The divider was hidden between two pillows, so I didn't see it from the door. I roll off the sofa, clutching my lower ribs. Well doesn't feel like I broke anything. I open my eyes and look to Tali. She is standing right where she was, her arms crossed and facepalming - or,rather, visorpalming. I can hear her laughing lightly, though. I chuckle as I get up: "Note to self: Always check for a soft landing first." Damn, that's gonna bruise. "Are you alright?" She inquiries, removing her hand from the helmet and walking over to the balcony door. "I think my dignity is hurt more than I am, but I'll live." I rub my ribcage. At least it didn't hit me in the solar plexus. Because that would royally suck. Tali shuts the curtains and begins to shed the clothes that she pulled over her environmental suit half a day ago. I never would have thought that the sight of a woman undressing in front of me could be so underwhelming, but of course they usually don't wear full - body enviro-suits underneath...No! Bad thoughts! Bad! Stay! Christ almighty, Alex, don't even go there!
Aaanywaay.. I sit on the cursed sofa, and state: "Now that we've arrived, we should start planning the heist." I pull my phone out of my pocket; surprisingly, it's only discharged by thirty percent. TaliTalk must really be energy efficient. Although it might just be receiving a signal from Tali's omni-tool. I scan for a Wi-Fi signal, and am glad to find a free hotel-wide network. Times-a waistin', so we should get moving. I bring up the CERN Web page, and look at the eexcursion times. Oh, it's free! Yay! So.. nearest timw is tomorrow at 12:00, so that's when we go. I inform Tali of this, and shd seems to be fine with that.
So, now we have some time to kill.