Granted, she hadn't seen much of the quarian so far, who was hanging out around the engine room most of the time - doubtlessly wondering how to reproduce the Normandy's tech in her own fleet, not that she'd have much luck with that - and the asari girl, who kept to her lab mostly, but the krogan and the turian featured very prominently in her sight, as they kept to the same places she did.
The krogan, Wrex, at least kept to himself and didn't talk much, which was at least something. As far as Ashley had heard he'd been some sort of mercenary, and like any good soldier serving in a proper military, she had no patience for mercs at all. She had to admit that he seemed to know what he was doing on the battlefield, though.
Garrus was another matter, however. She'd first been taken aback by his willingness, if not downright enthusiasm, to help track down and kill one of his own people. It had disturbed her enough to make a comment of it, and he had quite reasonably explained that he simply thought it was the right thing to do, species of the traitor notwithstanding. He'd challenged her about what she'd do if she were in his place and the traitor they'd hunt for were human, and she'd thought about it and then conceded the point. In that context she was a bit hazy on the concept of redemption and application thereof.
If he wasn't in a furious fit about the turian Spectre, however, Garrus seemed curious about his surroundings by nature and probably by training, given that C-sec officers were more cop than soldier, and he wasn't content to simply observe, but was trying to engage any of them in conversation if something puzzled him or caught his attention.
And of course, Shepard encouraged this behaviour, too, and even shared his curiosity about alien culture and thinking.
As far as Ashley was concerned, none of that was necessary. She was enough of a professional to be able to work together with any of them, regardless of the fact that with them being aliens, one could never be really certain of their motivations or know where their loyalty lay. There was no need at all to get personal about it, however. They weren't friends, nor was it likely they ever were going to be. It was enough for a reasonable working relationship.
And so far it had worked remarkably well, she had found. She had been reluctant to have a turian at her back in combat, but that had changed quickly enough once she realised he was very good with a sniper rifle, which complemented her own preference for closer range quite well. Shepard seemed to agree with that, because Ashley found herself paired up with Garrus on a regular basis, lately.
Currently she was at her station, idly taking apart one of the standard issue rifles for maintenance when she heard the clicking footsteps that were so distinctive of the turian. Since she was busy, she could just ignore him without being too impolite about it.
Unfortunately he had other ideas, as a datapad was thrust into her field of view.
"Chief Williams. Does this belong to you?"
She regarded the pad briefly. "Yes. Must have left it on the mess deck. Thank you." She took the pad from him and placed it aside.
Garrus made no move to leave, however. "I looked at the contents briefly." he stated. "but I admit it didn't make much sense to me. Maybe something lost in the translation. What is it?"
Ashley frowned slightly. "Just a collection of poems by an Earth poet from long ago. Tennyson, to be exact." She thought about it, then shrugged. "I'm not surprised it doesn't make much sense to you. It's not easy reading. After all, the vocabulary and the imagery is very dated."
"Obviously not." He seemed curious. "Would you explain?"
She hesitated. Usually she didn't do this, as for some reason her admission of liking poetry seemed to be taken as an invitation to make fun of her most of the time. It was beyond her why her being a soldier should automatically prevent her from having any sense of culture or appreciation for literature, but keeping quiet about it had been less effort in the long run than having to punch every idiot who thought he was funny in the teeth. Not that she hadn't done some of the latter.
In this case, however, it wasn't an issue. He didn't know enough to consider it worthy of ridicule. And it was just an honest question.
"Which one did you read?"
"The one at the last page."
Well, she didn't have to look that one up.
"I think I got the nautical references." he continued. "I looked them up, since my translator made a jumbled mess out of it." he said thoughtfully, and she looked at him in surprise, finding it difficult to believe that he actually had made the effort to research. "It didn't improve things much, though. I don't quite get why anyone would describe sea travel in such a complicated way. It seems more like some sort of code to me."
That made her smile despite herself. It didn't surprise her that he'd try to go at this like decrypting a code, and fail miserably at it. "In a manner of speaking it is, but probably not the way you're thinking of. It's a metaphor for life, or transition beyond life as it may be. And about faith."
Garrus seemed confused, and she shrugged. "I'm no expert at this either, and interpretation usually varies heavily with the person experiencing the poem. It's just as much about mood and the image and emotions it evokes as the words themselves." She thought about it some more, than gave up. "I don't think it can make much sense in another language, nor without the cultural context."
"Very well, that makes sense. I don't understand the general principle, though. What's the purpose of being deliberately ambiguous? What's the point of obfuscating the message one wants to get across? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?" He paused, then shook his head. "And how would you ever know you got the interpretation right?"
"That's easy. You don't. You can guess, of course, and with enough historical context and maybe some notes the author left you can be pretty certain what was intended to be said. But in the end, you have to find your own interpretation, and you may have to work at it."
Like faith, and religion, come to think of it, she thought, but didn't say it aloud. That would make even less sense to him.
"I see. I don't think I can do that, but I at least understand the problem." Garrus admitted. "Maybe it's just that a certain mindset is required to resolve it."
Ashley snorted. "That one's a given. And not every human has it, either."
She was wondering whether to offer to try and and give her own interpretation. Before she could reach any decision, he inclined his head slightly.
"Thank you for explaining it. I've taken enough of your time, I'll better leave you to your work."
With that, he took himself off, and she found herself staring after him, undecided whether to be relieved or disappointed. And wondering why she'd care, for that matter.
With a sigh, she went back to working on the disassembled rifle.
****