"Well this raises several interesting questions. Namely, you got laid?"
"Feels emptier than our last briefing, doesn't it?"
Davisson's rhetorical question went unanswered by any of them. Liara had hoped that Garrus, at least, would be interested in this, but he had insisted that after the earlier shock of Shepard's awakening, someone should stand guard in the medical bay. And he wasn't going to let anyone else take the job. Tali, too, opted to stay in the Engineering deck, though she suspected that choice was less to do with the drive core than it was to do with still being angry at Kaidan.
Not that she pitied him very much. Under the circumstances, Tali's anger was entirely justified, and Liara also wondered why the Spectre thought leaving her out of the loop would be a good idea. Granted, being in his position couldn't be easy, but merely one name given earlier might have given them two extra companions for the immediate future, and stopped quite a bit of resentment.
"Well, at least we can let the crew off the leash." Davisson continued. "The Jewel of the Krogan Clans might not be the best vacation spot, but they've got to have bars somewhere."
"The improved ecosystem has supported a steady amount of tourists for six years." EDI said. "There will be several avenues for departure of standard duty, and rest time is important for morale."
"I know about shore leave, EDI." Kaidan said shortly. Clearly, he wasn't the only one angry about his slip-up. "But we need to be ready to leave at a moment's notice, no matter the location. All essential crew stay aboard."
"Where is Dr. Solus' lab located?" EDI asked, unfazed by the Major's manner.
"It's mobile, we're not sure exactly where." Kaidan indicated the map hovering over the briefing table.
"Then why are we here?" EDI sounded puzzled, referring to Kehtus, the city where they were landing.
"We need the coordinates from his assistant, Urdnot Deshayla, to find exactly where he is." Liara explained.
"And this Deshayla is...where?" Davisson perked a brow.
Liara just smiled.
Deshayla, as it turned out, was not in a high-tech facility, behind a desk, trading messages with shady informants. Deshayla was, in fact, at a bar. Drinking several fresh warriors from various clans under the table.
"Oh how times change." Davisson grinned, his comment nearly unheard under the din of various krogan and other species drinking, arguing, laughing (one pair in the corner was singing, but none of them wanted to pay them attention) or brawling.
Kaidan glanced at a nearby Ganar clan warrior and rubbed his forehead. "Let's get our information before something bad happens."
What looked like the third warrior in a row passed out in front of a highly intoxicated krogan female who, oddly enough, was wearing a male's combat armor. She laughed and downed another glass of ryncol for what Liara could only imagine was 'the hell of it'.
"Come on!" She shouted, glancing around at any others nearby. "First one to take me on gets a kick in the quad, on the house!"
"Maybe we could buy you another round and talk, instead." Kaidan said diplomatically, holding up a hand.
He got a suspicious glare in return. "Not unless you take one yourself, plateless."
"Look, we don't want to-" Kaidan began.
"You're on." EDI, Liara, Kaidan, and the krogan looked at Davisson with dispassionate curiosity, amazement, frustration, and shock, respectively. The marine grinned at her. "But how about we try something with more of a kick than that crap you call a drink."
The krogan stared at him for a full three seconds before bursting out laughing. "You've got a quad and a half, human! Bring it on!"
Davisson signaled to the bartender. "Two Batarian sidewinders, toss in some red bloom and make it quick."
Given the lethality of what he just had requested, Liara was impressed that the krogan barkeep barely blinked. He mixed two bottles with each other, added some crushed herb, and gave one glass each to Davisson and Deshayla. "Fine. But when you die of alcohol poisoning, make sure it's outside."
Deshayla growled and tossed hers back immediately, with Davisson consuming his beverage soon after. She set the glass down and stared for a moment, then blinked.
"Holy sh-" The bar rocked as she finally keeled over. Liara heavily suspected that she would need to replace at least one liver after that.
Davisson set his full glass (a small amount of the drink was over his closed lips, which he wiped off) back down on the bar and glanced down, looking vaguely disappointed. "Guess I'm gonna miss that kick in the quad."
"Colonel, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Kaidan's hands were closed into fists.
"Saving you an hour and a half of diplomacy, sir. She's a krogan; you need to be strong enough to respect."
"He knows us better'n you, human." The bartender shrugged, then offered Kaidan a drink. "Ryncol?"
Kaidain threw his arms up in the air and scoffed, resigning himself to leaning against a nearby wall, scowling.
"We should probably wake her as soon as possible. Do you have any cold water?" Liara inquired to the bartender.
"This is a bar." He responded, like the answer was obvious.
Liara just raised a brow at him.
"Outside, in the back." He thumbed in that general direction.
"Great, cheers." Davisson hefted half of the unconscious Urdnot across his shoulder. "Want to help me out here, you two?"
After the third barrel of ice-cold water soaked her head, Deshayla opened her eyes with a jolt, sputtering.
"What the-?" She saw Davisson and narrowed her eyes. "That thing knocked me on my ass and left you standing?"
"Yeah. Didn't anyone ever teach you to not pick battles you can't win, lightweight?" Liara was about to face-palm when the female actually grinned.
"Guess not." She admitted. She stood up and looked around at the four of them, realization dawning on her quickly. Her grin turned to a scowl. "But I get the feeling you didn't drag me out of there just to rub it in. What do you want?"
"Wrex sent us to-" Kaidan began.
"Wrex? Dammit, you're after that crazy pyjak Solus, aren't you?"
"That is the five-minute version, as it were." EDI said.
"As long as it was Wrex's idea, I'll give you what you'd like." She glared at the four of them. "But I'm not going to open up just because you asked."
"Good." Kaidan said bluntly. "Because he sent along some insurance." He activated a message on his omni-tool and Wrex's voice barked out suddenly.
"Deshayla, stop drinking and tell them the damn location already."
Liara chuckled. That was definitely Wrex. Apparently Deshayla thought so too, because she flicked on her own omni-tool and transferred some data to Kaidan without missing a beat.
"He's off-planet. Some backwater asari world. I don't have a full handle of what he's doing over there, but with him it's never small."
"Mesana system?" Kaidan asked. "Isn't that…"
"The location of the Ardat-Yakshi monastery, yes." Liara nodded. "He must be studying their condition, or something similar."
"Must be something pretty interesting to get him to drop whatever he was doing here." Davisson noted. "Or maybe he was just bored."
"Either way." Deshayla shook her head. "You never know with that one. By the way, just thought I'd let you know that anyone looking for him is either crazy or stupid."
"You don't seem to have a high opinion of him." Liara pointed out.
"He's useful for whatever the research of the day is." She admitted grudgingly. "Teaches some nice tricks. But…humph. Never mind. Pacifists make my plates itch, is all."
"That would explain a great deal." EDI commented dryly. "But also seems odd, given his choice of role model."
"I know. You'd think he'd be varren-shit crazy on the blood rage side of the scale, but no." She sounded disappointed. "I'd just be satisfied if he set some idiot on fire every once and a while."
"It sounds like we have our heading, then." Kaidan closed his omni-tool, clearly eager to be anywhere else. "We should get back to the ship."
"And I need a longer nap." Deshayla rubbed her head with one hand, then gave Davisson a predatory look. "Keep in touch, human. I still owe you that kick in the quad."
She left him blinking and stunned in the Tuchanka sunlight. "I…I uh…I think I was just propositioned by a krogan."
"Yes." Liara said simply, putting a hand on his shoulder. Then she smiled at him wryly. "Goddess help you."
Even after the four-man squad had left briefly for Tuchanka, and in fact still some time after they had come back and the Normandy was set in motion, Tali was seething. She knew she couldn't stay angry at Kaidan forever, not while so many things were going on or his actions were (in a very small way) remotely understandable. So, she'd take it all the way as long as she could.
Not even Gabby and Kenneth's jovial manners, nor Adams' comforting presence could get a rise out of her. She was determined to be angry and by this pulsing drive core, angry she'd be. But then…
"Secondary systems are functioning at two point seven percent higher efficiency." Jeddah said, checking the readouts nearby.
Tali sighed. Damn you, Jeddah. She thought dramatically. Why must you be so pleasant. Why…
"What? We're already operating at maximum efficiency." Adams asked in disbelief. "Let me see that…" He looked summarily impressed. "So it is. That's amazing."
"Least I could do…" Tali muttered noncommittally.
"Amazing seems to be the word whenever Tali's around, eh?" Kenneth got a light smack on his arm for that, courtesy of Gabby, who was smiling despite it.
They all turned around, however, at the sound of commotion just outside the corridor.
"-Give you the right to be insubordinate!" Tali resisted the urge to groan; Kaidan.
"With all due respect, Major, I was given no orders to the contrary of saving the mission." Aside from the enunciation, by contrast, Davisson sounded rather calm.
"Just because you know something that might be helpful doesn't mean you can run your mouth when you feel like it! There's a chain of command for a reason, and you are to inform me before jumping headfirst into something like that."
"Sir, yes sir."
"…Was there anything else?"
"…No sir." His tone seemed to imply that yes, there were several more things he would like to say, but all of them would end with a relief of duty.
"…Just get back to your quarters." Tali resisted the urge to laugh. It might have been for something completely different, but in a childish sort of way it was nice that someone was getting Kaidan frustrated. She heard footsteps fading in the distance and with a jolt realized he was coming in.
"Ugh…" She finally gave in and let out a groan. She wasn't sure she was ready to deal with this quite yet.
"Creator Tali'Zorah, if you would prefer that I forestall a confrontation with Spectre Alenko, my frame is large for a reason." Jeddah's voice came in over her private comm channel, and she was sorely tempted to take it up on its offer.
"No…" She responded, the opening of the engine room door drowning it out. "I'll handle it."
Notably, none of the crewmen said anything when Kaidan stepped in. Not that she would exactly appreciated backup, but it would've been a nice thought.
"Tali…" Well. He at least sounded apologetic. That was a start.
"Major Alenko." She said casually, keeping her eyes on her work.
"I wanted to ap-"
"Don't worry about it." She cut him off hurriedly. "It's fine."
"You're…not angry?" He sounded confused.
She turned on him, and his face turned quickly to surprise, then mild fear. She supposed she looked rather threatening just then. "Not angry? Not angry? Keelah, I'm absolutely furious! You all but lied to me about the most important thing you possibly could have told me, nearly got us killed with lack of information, and now you're coming down here acting as though some half-assed apology can just fix that as easily as I can fix a drive core?"
"I…I wasn-"
"Jeddah!" She cut him off again. "In the event of a major overload, how quickly can I bring this drive core back to operational capacity?"
"Twenty-seven point eight nine seconds, Creator Tali'Zorah." The geth responded immediately.
"Damn straight." She nodded, pointing accusingly at Kaidan, pushing her finger into his clothing. "Right now I think you're heedless, idiotic, and most importantly incompetent. And no amount of apologizing is going to just 'fix' what's going on until I am ready to accept it. And none of that matters right now because I don't need your apology anyway."
Kaidan looked pained, trying to find words for, well, something. "Tali, I-"
"Kaidan…" Third time's the charm. "Shut up. We've been through too much for this to be necessary. Just…give me some time so we can get back to normal. And if you could be more considerate about who needs to know what in the future, that'd be great."
"I…whah?"
"Now, if you've got anything else to bring up, it'll have to wait." She made a shoo'ing motion at him towards the exit. "I'm in the middle of some calibrations."
She waited for Kaidan to finally stop being shell-shocked and leave, then chuckled and activated her omni-tool. She definitely needed that.
"Something you need, Tali?" Garrus came in on the other end of the comm link.
"Yes, I'm sending you fifty credits."
"What? Why?"
She smirked under her mask. "Royalties."
Davisson would have liked to say he was busy. Really. It would have looked good on a report and been an excellent way to avoid conversation besides. But, in actuality, he was bored out of his mind. His gear was clean and squared away, his quarters were spotless, and he was on his fourth game of solitaire. It just wasn't fun after you learned how to hack it. So, when Liara walked in, he was really very pleased for the company.
"Dr. T'Soni." He nodded, at least making the effort to keep it casual.
"Colonel Davisson." She responded in kind. He was impressed by her manner, really. Formal, yet…at ease, too.
He waited for her to say something. After a moment, he had a feeling he'd be waiting a while. "In lieu of awkward silence, maybe you could pull up a seat. I don't have a lot of prothean ruins in here, but there's bound to be something interesting to scrounge up."
That at least got a hint of a smile out of her. Or maybe that was a grimace. He'd forgotten how much more difficult decent poker faces made his life. She sat nearby, looking suddenly more like a psychologist than an archaeologist. Maybe that was just his imagination.
"I have to admit, your file didn't say anything about your problems with authority." She said ponderously.
"Oh, is that all? Well, I should tell you that my 'file' will tell you next to nothing. And my problem lies with taking people seriously, not authority." If that was what she was fishing for, she'd have a different conversation on her hands than what she imagined if he had a say.
"Taking them seriously?" She asked.
"Results, Doctor. That's what I look for in a commanding officer. I could care less if we like each other, as long as we both get our jobs done." He left out how high his standards were intentionally.
"You think Kaidan is incompetent?" He took note of her reference to him as 'Kaidan'.
"There's no denying he can get results. He just feels…" He searched for the right term.
"New at this." She supplied. "Being in charge."
He nodded. "Yeah. I guess Spectres are usually solo acts. This can't be his idea of a good time." He came to the realization and suddenly felt a bit guilty. "I doubt my antics are helping."
"Like your last four commanding officers?" My, she did read his file. Deeply, too.
"Let's just say I'm not a stellar definition of 'professional'. But if you dug that deep, you'll also know perfectly well why I'm here."
"Yes." She admitted. "Your list of commendations almost crashed my omni-tool. It says a lot about someone when a Star of Terra is among their least impressive feats."
He grimaced. "Yeah, well, no need to dig too deeply into the past."
"There are always things in the past that we want to keep hidden." She stood up, apparently done with the conversation for now. He wasn't. Not that it mattered.
"Despite your not stellar professionalism, remember that you are on a team, now." The door to his quarters slid open. "And this team doesn't need another Torfan."
She turned just in time to see his look of shock. That had been low.
Bitch.
"Uh, Joker to away-team? You guys might want to take a look at this. Now."
The message rang to the communications devices of each of the seven teammates several minutes later, and all of them rushed to the cockpit as quickly as possible.
"What is it, Joker?" Kaidan was the first to arrive, Davisson and Liara right behind him. He noticed that each kept glancing at the other. He pushed it to the back of his mind; he'd deal with it later.
"Distress call from Lesuss. Looks like a ship in orbit. It's getting hit hard by a pirate vessel. A big one, from what I can tell from this distance." Joker began transmitting the message aloud just as Garrus and Tali arrived.
"Attention all friendly nearby vessels, this is Lieutenant Renar Vakarian of the turian ship Victorious," Garrus' blood ran cold, and he managed to ignore every last one of the others looking at him like he'd just jumped off a moon. "We are under attack. We have suffered heavy damage to primary systems, and we cannot last much longer without assistance. Please respond."
"Um." Joker looked around at the rest of the team. "Not to put a damper on the rescue mission, but did he just say his name was-"
"I'll explain later." Garrus said quickly. "Right now I'm taking executive command of local combat operations until such time as my ship is either destroyed or secured. Any complaints can be forwarded out the airlock." It looked as though his position would in fact pay off. "Joker, take us in. Jeddah, EDI, keep the ship running. Liara, go down and keep an eye on Shepard. Everyone else, suit up and meet me back here in five."
"We have a job to do."