Chapter 3: Movement
Liara and Tali got off at the crew's quarters and made way to life support when James Vega had nicked Shepard's; Well Anderson's punch bag and put it in there to train with. They found all 3 of the remaining squad; Javik, Kaidan and James, in there watching James punch away making his usual noises before turning to realise that Liara and Tali had entered
"Well hello ladies" James said in his usual flirty tone, his voice did manage to make Tali swoon but knew she probably wasn't his type so she just rolled her eyes, not that he could see that. Liara shifted weight to one leg and placed a hand on her hip, she went to speak but Javik decided to pipe up.
"This primitive thinks what he is doing is called 'combat' I've seen stronger uppercuts from Thresher Maws and they have no arms"
"Hah hah!" Kaidan laughed doubling over hand holding his stomach "You just got served Vega" he added
"Guys!" Liara chirped cutting her eyes looking at all 3 of them, she wasn't impressed at being interrupted. "We're about to get moving, we finally know where we are"
"Do we? Hell that's…err, kick ass yeah" James added
"Stupid meat head" Javik put in before Kaidan doubled with laughter again. Cortez buzzed on James' comm
"Hey esteban, get your butt away from the Kodiak and get here, apparently we're scootin' off"
"Where to?" Came the reply from Cortez
"Err…" James looked to Liara "Where to?" he asked shrugging his shoulders.
"Just tell him to come here before this turns into something ridiculous" Liara huffed, she looked over to Tali whose arms were folded and she shook her head with despair, they looked like a pair of mothers about to tell off their kids.
Brief moments later Cortez walked in
"So, what's going on?" Cortez asked as the doors swiftly closed behind him
"Well" Liara began, her hands clasping behind her back, standing tall with an air of importance "We finally found out where we are and are setting off for Earth pretty soon, we're on planet Casbin in the Armstrong Nebula, Hong system. But-"she huffed slightly "I've had Intel to say there is a possibility that some relays may be damaged which will extend our travel time greatly. Either way, it's a start and we need to get moving" Kaidan had leant onto the table at this point with his legs crossed over and arms folded, his head was tilted
"Have we had any more news on Earth?" he wanted his question to be 'more news on Shepard' but ever since she told him in hospital to 'carry on' and confirm that things Had got on with Garrus he felt he couldn't say anything that way. He still cared deeply for her and was very jealous of how intimate and tight Shepard and Garrus seemed. They were tight knit, he felt like his was a mere one night stand at this point.
"Yes." Liara replied "Earth is still standing, and they're already cleaning up the rubble, well basically the mess and destruction of the war, Reapers have been confirmed dead which is great news, but a lot of issues with most technology have been reported"
"Huh, that's why my omnitool kept playing up." Kaidan muttered
"Anyway," Liara continued "The search is still on for Anderson, but they found Shepard"
"Ho-ly Shit!" Vega blurted out "Oh sorry, ahem" he recomposed himself
"She's… not, dead?" Kaidan asked his eyes searched for a quick confirmation of what Liara just said, Tali picked up on his eagerness to know, he was pretty bad at downplaying his emotions.
"She's very much alive, although not stable-"Liara continued
"Whaddya mean 'Not stable'" Kaidan sounded frustrated, Cortez placed a hand on his shoulder to show he was getting a little hostile with his tone of voice and to calm down.
"She's suffered numerous injuries, broken leg, arm, some ribs, she's pretty beaten up. She's comatose" she ended, her eyes looking to the floor. Kaidan's eyes widened, their appearance seemed to be becoming glazed somewhat, he swallowed hard, looking away around the room to avert anyone's gaze towards him.
"She's a tough son-of-a-bitch that Lola, she's gonna make it through this" Vega added pumping his fists together "Wouldn't her cyber thingies pretty much heal her up straight anyway?" he shrugged.
"Well as technology seems to be off, it seems her cybernetics"- she emphasized on the 'netics' "Seem to be off too, they're helping but not as good as they should be." Vega nodded his head repeatedly, slowly. Javik just sat like nothing mattered nor did he care, although he did care for the Commander. Cortez scratched the back of his head and gestured to pull his trousers up slightly.
"Well we better get ready to take off" Cortez added "The Kodiak needs a lot of care after my crash on Earth I'll get her in prime shape"
"Yeah we'll be in here, just Y'know…being" Vega added turning back to his punch bag and going at it again with gusto.
"Right, OK" Liara nodded and walked out with Tali and Cortez
"I'll just nip into Chakwas' room and update her" Tali said to Liara. Liara nodded and waved Tali off lightly before making her way to her quarters. The doors hissed open and closed, she looked towards Glyph's usual spot and intended on getting him back up and running. She missed him this should take some time up she thought before pressing away on her terminal to try get Glyph back online.
Joker plotted the course ready to go and made an announcement to all members aboard before going
"This is Joker here, we're about to take off, it seems none of us will know how long our journey will take but buckle up either way, 'cause here we go" Not one of his 'professional' talks but whenever was Joker professional?
The thrusters fired up and off they started, all hopes that this wouldn't take too long.
Hours passed and Joker could make out the blue hue of a mass relay emerging, Traynor sat in the opposite co-pilot seat to EDI and looked towards Joker
"That… Doesn't look right" she said, her voice mixed with confusion and sarcasm.
"Yeah, but it still glows, that means it works right?" Joker asked back
"EDI-"Traynor began her inquiry "Information on how broken mass relays may affect travel?"
"Broken mass relays should be avoided when possible, upon entering a broken relay may result in being thrown off course or damage to your ship." Her reply came so wooden, so rigid that Joker winced with grief every time she spoke.
"Well? What do you think?" Traynor asked Joker.
"I couldn't give a rats ass anymore Traynor" he replied shuffling in his seat to get comfy and stretching his fingers out "We're going in" Traynor's eyebrows raised.
"OK well lets warn the crew" she held a button to communicate over the ship like Joker did normally "Traynor here, can all members buckle up, we've encountered a mass relay that appears to be slightly damaged it might get bumpy so be cautious and safe please"
"You're such a killjoy" Joker added
"Better safe than sorry" Traynor bit
"Exactly, ya wet blanket." Joker quipped as they approached the relay. Upon closer inspection this relay seemed pretty much intact, the only issue they had was the end had crumbled, resulting in a much shorter, 'stubbier' looking relay "well" Joker huffed "here goes"
The hum cranked up like normal, the mass relays beam locking onto the Normandy like nothing was wrong, the ship started to accelerate more – so far so good – As the ship was pushed from the relay something odd happened, due to the short ending of the relay it sent the ship off at an angle, Joker fumbled to get the ship steady and when they came out the other end it didn't look like the Sol system had been reached. Joker looked at the status reports quickly.
"She's still in-tact YES" he fist pumped
"Yes, well that aside Joker, WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?!" Traynor yelled "I don't think this is where we wanted to be. Just a hunch" she added.
"Err" Joker drawled. Liara's footsteps could be heard coming toward the cockpit.
"What the hell just happened?" she asked her forehead crinkling towards the middle-her eyebrows meeting with the said crinkles. She leant over Traynor's shoulder and looked through the window she then looked over Joker's shoulder. "How the-" she began "Well it's a start, this looks like the Serpent Nebula" she pointed her finger to the window "It's thick to see through, and has that purple hue"
"Yeah, but it's pretty hard to be sure as there no god damned Citadel here" Joker sarcastically added
"My point exactly, the Citadel is still by Earth, therefore it confirms that we are in the Serpent Nebula" she answered back very confident in her answer. Traynor squinted her eyes at the dense atmosphere outside
"Are you certain Liara?" she added
"Of course I am, I'm more shocked that you pair don't recognise it!" sounding almost offended she folded her arms
"Right right, don't get your panties in a twist…or whatever it is you wear-"Joker sounded off
"Panties is correct Jeff" Liara interrupted, Joker rolled his eyes as he went back to dancing his fingers across his numerous terminal screens.
"Well after that crap I am not jumping a mass relay again, no way. We'll do this the slow way – otherwise at this rate we'll end up in Far Rim and I'll be damned if I'm flying with no mass relays from there"
"Don't let Tali hear you say that" Liara muttered
"What the hell was offensive about that?!" Joker stammered.
"Nothing, just don't-"
"Don't what? What's the hold up?" Tali confusingly asked from behind all 3 of them
"Ahm-"Joker decided not to continue "Nothing! I think Liara wanted to pass wind or something and I said don't"
"Jeff!" Liara snapped, eyebrows angry
"What?" he shrugged with a smug grin across his face.
"Guys?" Traynor had seemed absent in the entire conversation until now, she piped up like a little dormouse peeking a head out of a skirting rail to say hello "There seems to be something in the distance…" Liara didn't even look over and was about to continue the argument with Joker waving her hand towards Traynor.
"Yes if you recall the Serpent Nebula is filled with debris of many sorts"
"No" Traynor bit back very annoyed at Liara's pass off "There's SOMETHING in the distance. I think it's a Geth ship" She frowned looking forward, then started to work her Terminal to see if she could get a better reading. "It is, it's a Geth drop ship!" she tapped about on some buttons, Tali seemed baffled too and leant into Traynor's space examining the terminal screen. "It's not active, not moving, it's just drifting through space" she said confusingly
"That seems… odd" Tali mused.
"We're being hailed" Joker spoke raising his eyebrow, his hand reached to answer the call and Liara stood closer behind him to make sure she had full view of what was going on, her Asari diplomatic cap was on. A Batarian flashed onto the screen.
"Hand over your ship and no-one gets hurt" he barked. Joker guffawed
"Are you serious? Do you even know what this ship is?" he sarcastically raised his one hand towards the screen his head tilted down and eyes up to the screen condescending the Batarian in every way possible.
"Don't get smart with me, should have known it was a stupid Human" he snapped immediately "Hand it over NOW!"
"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that" Liara replied calmly
"Oh and an Asari too, tell you what you can stay so I can pop credit chits into your panties" he sneered.
"Look dude, you aren't making a good case, so far we've detected you're on a dormant drop ship – HOW you got there is beyond us, there's a full crew on-board this ship and oh" he got ever so sarcastic again "Need I mention this is the SSV Normandy? Are you really going to fuck with us?" The Batarian's eyes flickered around his own quarters on-board the Geth ship for a second awkwardly before Joker caught a whisper
"Shit the Normandy? Cut the comm Gruz fuck sake!" The Batarian kicked something – or someone underneath him
"What was that?" Liara demanded
"Shut up and just hand your god damned ship over you stupid blue head!" The Batarian barked back before a hand came along and slapped him away from the vid screen. A Turian roughed him up a bit and shoved him to the side.
"Hello SSV Normandy this is Narran. Narran Harkan, we require assistance please." Liara glared her eyes at the sudden change in demand even if it was a different person speaking and cocked her head to the side.
"Why should we?" Joker blurted as Liara placed a hand upon Jokers shoulder.
"How did you get onto this Geth drop ship" Liara probed, she leant towards the screen closer, inspecting the Turian as good as she could, he had no specific 'Clan' markings as such facial wise, just two strips on his outer two fringes in black. This seemed fishy, it plain wreaked of suspicion.
"Err, well we ran out of Fuel and-"The honest side of the Turian was about to blurt out before the hiss of a Volus slowly told him off.
"OK, this is getting stupid now" Tali spoke up arms folded, "It's like a bad joke, a Batarian, a Turian and a Volus walk into a Geth Drop ship…" Joker smiled, Tali made a funny.
"Hello earth-clan, Thessian-clan, my name is Dornak Vorht, We indeed did run of fuel – He took a good intake of air – and called for help upon this Geth ship only we had no response. So we decided to see if something was wrong and err, boarded it."
"So you boarded a Geth ship without gaining access from the Geth to it?" Tali asked
"Err well…" His hands started to wring "We 'may' have used some force to get in"
"Like?" Tali probed for more
"Well we used a welding gun, it didn't take much. Anyway when we got here all the Geth on-board were dead… and none of us know how to use a Geth ship" his words hurried out from his breather helmet, almost sounding innocent.
"I'm sorry they're all dead? How? Gunfire?" Tali became confused why would the Geth – who had agreed to join the war effort after Shepard got the Quarians and Geth to co-operate – would open gunfire in the midst of war…unless it was the reapers.
"No!" The Volus yelped thinking Tali insinuated they opened fire "They're all just on the floor, there's no fluids to show wounds or anything" the Volus shrugged his arms. Tali looked at Liara and Joker
"I want to take a look at those Geth…" she looked at them with confusion in her body language "Something isn't right" she ended. Liara nodded and looked back at the screen.
"A small team will meet you on the ship, if you ready weapons we will open fire, so don't get stupid." She'd had enough of the run around now. The Volus nodded and ended the chat.
"Something seems odd here" Tali spoke "Geth just dropping, no wounds, nothing? And those three just seem thick" Joker laughed
"That one seems TOTALLY plausible"
"Either way I need to look at them, I might need Garrus too, that Turian seems like he was holding something back too"
"I agree" Liara added "Turian's normally don't lie, it's dishonourable plus Garrus' c-sec work could come in handy here" Tali nodded in agreement
"Erm you might need at least another person" Joker butted in "Two against three? Y'know?"
"Yeah, call up one of the lads I guess" Tali nodded, Liara smiled and lifted her hand to her ear comm
"Garrus, we could use your help boarding this Geth ship with Tali"
"Geth ship? Is that the big thing blocking all the view from Shepard's window?" He sounded tired.
"Yes" Liara responded "Could you ready right away?"
"Right." He replied and she opened her next chat.
"Kaidan?"
"Yes Liara?" Kaidan's voice rang, his voice was always so softly spoken but even still it had discipline.
"Tali could use your help boarding a Geth drop ship, can you assist ASAP please?"
"Uhh, Sure, any hostiles?" he sounded slightly worried.
"Possible three but very doubtful, they seem harmless… as well as stupid."
"Ok, on my way C-"He almost stammered out Commander instinctively "Liara" and ended the transmission.
Garrus walked up toward the cockpit, finishing up buckling his gauntlets. A glint in his eye let the crew know he was excited to be doing something right now.
"So, who needs their ass kicked now?" He said smarmily, Kaidan soon stood beside him looking up towards the Turian's scarred but smiling face – as well as a Turian could smile that is – always with a hint of jealousy after Shepard chose Garrus over himself. Liara readied herself like she was a Commander but it was just her way of speaking to people.
"At the moment until we board that ship no-one. We just had a transmission from a Batarian, Turian and Volus aboard requesting assistance"
"Is this some kind of joke?" Kaidan asked seriously, Joker laughed, making Kaidan frown even more at the prospect of being laughed at.
"No totally serious" Liara sternly answered turning to Joker and giving him a very annoyed look. "They seem suspicious of something, but the main issue is they gained access to that ship to find dead Geth aboard. And they aren't dead by force from what we're told, so Tali would like to inspect them" Tali gave an almost awkward wave from behind Liara then popped a heat sink from her gun.
"OK. Ready?" Tali asked the guys looking behind herself for reassurance, she felt awkward being in Shepard's position.
"Do you want me to reply with 'on your six'?" Garrus laughed
"Why break the habit now?" Tali said almost flirtatiously.
"Got it. Right. On your six!" He shouted, after snorting like an immature child does after a bad joke and they made their way to the dock doors. Kaidan walked on behind, shaking his head with despair.
Garrus and Kaidan slipped their helmets on before leaving the dock which quickly lined itself up with the Geth ship entry, the welding the Volus had owned up to was evident.
"A bloody Elcor could have done a better job and they need to be on all fours" Kaidan sniped, his 'joke' wasn't met with a minor grumble and a confirmation that it was indeed a shoddy job.
"Yeah, it is pretty piss poor" Garrus concurred as he prized the doors open with his hands letting Tali duck under soon followed by Kaidan who held it open for Garrus to enter afterward. Garrus withdrew his sidearm and immediately started looking at any open areas around them making sure the area was clear, Kaidan walked on in front. His assault rifle was in both hands just in front of his chest when he heard something scuffling about behind a door.
"Guys!" he shouted in a whispered tone, Tali drew her shotgun and crouched besides the door opening. Garrus inspected the door lock.
"It's encrypted, but it doesn't look like someone set it this way, more of a malfunction" his voice was slightly raised, he was confused and shot a look to Tali. Tali shrugged and put her head against the wall to try listen, she looked to the side to help her concentrate. Kaidan looked and followed suit. Two voices were present behind the door.
"That doesn't sound like any of the guys we spoke too" Tali whispered "The voice is too high pitched." Kaidan's eyebrow raised as he pressed his head harder to the wall to listen to what she meant.
Garrus started tapping away on his omnitool trying to hack the door. The sounds of a slightly irate female could be heard, it sounded like she was trying to talk to someone else but wasn't getting a response. Garrus messed around on his omnitool some more before the sounds emerging from the door sounded like they were getting somewhere.
"Got it" He said proudly, his decryption skills still sharp. The doors parted and in a small room they could see a Geth communications hub, their eyes drew to a Salarian slumped on the floor unconscious and the immediately to the shaken Turian female clutching a pistol.
"I'll shoot! Don't think I won't!" She spoke frantically, her hands trembling she looked tired, more than that, Exhausted. It could have indeed been the lack of energy speaking for her.
"Calm down we're here to help" Kaidan softly spoke as he approached her slowly, one arm reaching out ready to snatch the gun away from her. She shook a bit more, her eyes widened with fear and panic. She looked over Kaidan's shoulder to see Garrus and Tali tending to the Salarian.
"He's out cold. I didn't know what to do, we've been here for 3 days" She bit, her gun raising to Kaidan again as he got closer, her view locking back onto him.
"Look" he remained calm and eventually took her by the wrist on top of the gun "We're honestly here to help, tell us what happened and we can do all we can to get you safe" She felt like she could trust him and let her tiredness take over her before agreeing and dropping the gun.
"Okay, okay…well, we were here with the Geth to help communications as we went into battle with the reapers"
"Help in what way?" Tali looked up towards her from the floor unsure why they had trusted a Turian and Salarian to do this job. The Turian put her hand to her head tirelessly
"The Geth communicate in… Shall we say an odd way of speaking" Her words almost slurred as her harmonics became more apparent
"Well why didn't they trust a Quarian to do so?" Tali sounded a bit miffed.
"Would most Quarians do so? After all the peace deal Commander Shepard brokered is still pretty raw for most. Anyway as we went to send confirmation we had gotten back away from the sol system everything just" she shrugged with genuine confusion "Went! Me and Soleet here were locked in and have been since, we kept banging the door but no one came. Then Soleet got a bit too hysterical today, we'd ran out of nutribars and were hungry, he just fainted! Just like that and I couldn't get him to come to"
"So that explains why those 3 weren't wearing helmets then" Tali pondered.
"What? What 3?" the Turian frowned she was getting more confused and tired by the second.
"There seems to be 3 visitors aboard the vessel" Garrus chimed, his omnitool still scanning the Salarian as it found a pulse "Very shifty characters too, we came to check them out…Along with the fact the Geth have just dropped down 'dead' "The female Turian eyed around Alenko to admire Garrus before Tali stood up in front of him, noticing she was checking him out rather than looking at him since he merely spoke.
"So" She said sternly folding her arms "We now know his name, what's yours?" Tali's eyes cut a picture of bitchy-ness mostly in defence of Shepard. The Turian coughed and recomposed herself somewhat, brushing down her lab outfit.
"Sheena. Sheena Dredgan." She spoke back with an insane amount of calm in her voice, but her body language got defensive, she knew Tali was game - I guess they're together then – crossed her mind. Garrus' ears pricked, not that it were visible of course but he definitely showed curiosity after hearing her name.
"Dredgan? As in Keoran Dredgan? Any relation?"
"Yes, he's my father" She replied, a little shocked but a sly grin emerged before she glared at Tali like this was a one 'up man ship' over her.
"Wow, I worked with him when training for C-sec, he's a great guy."
"Why thank you…" she drawled, trying to add an air of mystery to herself
"Vakarian, Garrus Vakarian" he offered his hand forward to shake hers and she reciprocated she was left a little annoyed that Garrus' body language didn't react to hers.
"Well we still have an unconscious Salarian here" Kaidan broke up the – whatever it was- that was going and knelt by the Salarian's side. He tapped his cheek and without any notification the Salarian shot up gasping a breath looking around panicked and jittery.
"Whoa now, it's ok" Garrus began to reassure the Salarian before Sheena stepped ahead of him.
"Soleet! It's ok they're here to help us, look they unlocked the door" she pointed to the corridor now present after the hacking.
"But what? Just-ahh-oh god I'm dreaming again-which-who?"
"Soleet. Calm. Down" Sheena put a reassuring hand on his to which Soleet responded with a huge intake of air through his nostrils. Garrus and Tali looked at one another as it was very much like Mordin's quirk. His eyes focused and he looked around at the three kitted out people that towered over him.
"Are we. Are we still at war?" he seemed to ask almost deliriously, he shifted his derriere on the floor uneasily awaiting an answer.
"No, we're not" Tali finally relieved him "The Reapers are dead. We made it through, but there's a lot of work to be done, travelling between systems isn't as easy as mass relays and technology seem damaged. But in a nutshell, it's over."
"My, I didn't think she could do it!" Soleet gasped shaking his head "The woman is a hero, she-"
"Whoa whoa Soleet, let's not get too carried away right now we're hungry and tired…" Sheena softly spoke whilst she still had her hand over his
"Look, we don't mean to be rude but this ship. It's dormant and full of Geth who appear to be 'dead' never mind the three other guys"
"Dead?! Other guys?!" Soleet panicked, he looked like a deer in headlights.
"Soleet! Let me handle this" Sheena shot Tali a dirty look for making Soleet panic. "Here" she tapped her omnitool for a few moments before looking confused as it froze.
"And here" Tali added with a bitchy tone whilst she managed to fix Sheena's omnitool. "Now can we have the key codes to open the doors please? Or do you need me to do that as well" Tali condescended Sheena, Garrus and Kaidan exchanged glances bitch fight ran through their minds, it communicated well, before Garrus broke the silence with a chuckle.
"What?" Sheena bit emotions started getting a little tense.
"Ok now, let's go investigate see what throws up" Kaidan stepped in "Because this, is getting us nowhere"
"Key codes." Tali bit.
"Please" Bit Sheena. Garrus tapped his tool and looked at the pair angrily.
"Bicker amongst yourselves, we've got the codes" he spat out, Kaidan following him.
"Hey! Wait up!" Tali chirped, she hadn't a clue at why they had gotten angry. They approached the main doors and Garrus typed in a key code and watched the doors open, Geth littered the floor, stations were unmanned. Tali knelt towards a Geth and started examining him with her omnitool.
"What the hell was that all about Tali?" Kaidan asked, he nudged another Geth slightly with him hand, the limp roll-over of its head confirming no life signs to him.
"What was what about?" She mumbled half concentrating on Kaidan's question, keeping to the matter at hand.
"That show you put on for us. It wasn't the most comfortable thing seeing two females getting all hostile on each other" Garrus added, he was over the far right to the room examining a terminal.
"What?" She pulled her attention away from the Geth that lay before her "You mean to tell me you didn't see that bosh'tet checking you out?" her head slightly swung about with attitude.
"Who?" Kaidan frowned
"Garrus of course" She snapped. Of course muttered Kaidan.
"No, and nor do I care, you of all people should know that Tali, I only have eyes for one woman." Garrus spoke with a mixture of annoyance and frustration.
"Yea but 'A' like she knows about Shepard and 'B' you're not scent mated, so in her eyes, you're game"
"Look Tali, no offense but I don't need you fighting my battles for me, if she does make a move I'll soon put her straight" Garrus snapped finally. Kaidan enjoyed the bickering.
"Whatever" Tali huffed.
"Yeah, Whatever!" Garrus answered back "Now this ship literally went down around about the time the Normandy propelled to the Armstrong Nebula." Kaidan nodded taking the information in.
"It seems the Geth went down at the same time too." Tali added, she was moody when she spoke, like a child sulking. Kaidan interjected.
"Well now with that information, coupled with all the Normandy stuff…And the fact EDI went down? To me it just seems linked" He tailed off there, hoping for an agreement from someone.
"I agree" Tali mused she saved the findings to her omnitool plus Garrus' gathered data from the ship. "Now where are those 3 guys?"
"They're in there" Garrus pointed his thumb towards the closed room next to him, eyes still glued to the terminal "I can hear the Volus thudding around like an Elcor on heat"
"Better get cracking and see what their story is then" Kaidan drew in a deep breath and walked towards the door. Garrus tapped it open.
"Ahh!" the Volus screeched. The Batarian shot him a filthy look whilst the Turian put his hands towards his ears and frowned. "Oh! – Breath – it's you, you took your time" the Volus responded.
"Did you really expect a Human to rush?" The Batarian bit nastily his arms folded defensively across his chest.
"Actually you would, that's their reputation' The Turian bit back at the Batarian.
"Er, well hello guys was expecting more of a 'thanks for coming to save our asses' response but ok, whatever." Tali huffed she couldn't be bothered with their bickering. Kaidan noted Tali's frustrated attitude and looked towards the Turian.
"What were you doing here?" The Turian wrung his hands for a mere moment before the Batarian got defensive.
"What's it to you moron?" he snapped, saliva was evident in the air as his words spoke sharply.
"What's it to me? You seriously call our ship firstly demanding we buck to your call, then ask for help and as we come to assist you, you get rude, arrogant and cocky? REALLY?" Kaidan got angry, his fist started to hum with a blue aura.
"Whoa, Woah!" The Volus stepped in between the two, his hands pushing their lower torso's apart, Kaidan's shoulders and head however, still lurched to meet with the Batarian. The Turian cracked.
"We're pirates OK?!" the Volus turned his head to look at the Turian, if he could show that he was angry now…it would be the time. The Turian shrugged with a 'well this was going nowhere else' look, and continued to Kaidan.
"We were looking for any salvage especially fuel and well, came across this ship…"
"No you're not Pirates, you're scavengers" Garrus interjected, he walked into the room with his cop persona actioned, the atmosphere around them changed and immediately the dynamics in the crew changed from Kaidan straight to Garrus being in charge. The Volus' body language jerked in disgust.
"No we are not" he snapped back
"You are, people who loot other ships that have been knocked down by another encounter are scavengers, as Shepard would call you, Hyenas" The Turian and Batarian looked perplexed. Tali noted Garrus bringing up Shepard in conversation, even when not around she was on his mind.
"Err" The Volus took on a very odd stance, preparing to run away, Garrus turned around to see Sheena stood at the doorway with a gun in hand.
"Let's not get too hasty now" Kaidan went to grab the gun away from her, she batted his hand from her
"Who are they and what did they do to the Geth?!" She spoke like the Geth were an extended family to her, she cared deeply about her job.
"We didn't do anything you idiot!" The Batarian, Gruz barked.
"Right well this won't solve anything!" Tali screamed "Everyone just calm down, no one is going to shoot anyone or quip back with a ridonkulous comment-" yes she said redonkulous "Or do anything stupid and god damned annoying like you all are right now you're doing my head in!" she breathed deeply. That was building up for a while now… The Turian stepped forward.
"Look we weren't aware of any survivors all we wanted was junk and fuel. What more can we say? Sorry? Sorry! There I said it" he shrugged and looked at Sheena intensely. She dropped her arm slowly, still wary of the strangers who stood in front of her.
"Get off the ship" She muttered
"Well now, wait" Tali said turning to Sheena "without the Geth working most of this ship, you're going nowhere. They need fuel which you have and to be honest with you all, you all could do with getting some decent food and rest…"
"So we take the fuel for the Normandy and they hitch a ride with us to Earth" Garrus interrupted.
"Wait...What?" Tali's eyes were squinted with disbelief
"What? We all seem to have the same goal right? Let's take them to Earth and we can all get cleared up there…"
"Garrus" Tali spoke closely to him through gritted teeth "Three of them are pirates and the one is an overtly horny Turian female who isn't afraid to point a gun at anybody, not to mention the Salarian who scales the ceiling when you say boo" He looked at her with a face that read 'trust me' all over it, she shook her head and turned away disagreeing with his decision.
"Look here's your choices, you either sit here and fester waiting for the Citadel to come back, which I might add is still docked in the Sol system, bickering as one ship works but has no fuel, the other has fuel but doesn't work. OR you come with us, come to Earth and go separate ways from there on."
The three pirates had a huddle whilst Sheena looked pissed. The Salarian came up behind her
"We'll come with you" He spoke, arms folded behind his back.
"Soleet!" Sheena responded, she was not impressed he had agreed to going along, she wanted the power.
"Shush Sheena, it's the best opportunity we will get as of now" Sheena stropped off going to collect her belongings. Garrus turned to the other 3.
"We'll – breathe – Join you" the Volus added "And as a gesture of thanks, we can bring any salvage you might need on board"
"Why that's…mighty kind of you" Kaidan added, shocked. The Batarian hissed then coughed hard, air exhaling from his chest as the Volus elbowed him in the stomach to shut him up.
"That's sorted then" Garrus ended. "Now Soleet, if you wouldn't mind showing us to the fuel reserves, we might need that fuel, and we can tag this ship in the system with our Omnitool's maybe the alliance can help us understand what's happened to all these Geth"
"Certainly" Soleet signalled them to follow, Kaidan stayed to escort the remaining 4 onto the Normandy.
