Chapter 2

Palaven. The hot summer air was thick across Cipritine's towering layered boulevards, the Turian Capitol's massive population sliding through the skyscraper-bound streets in hovercars at all altitudes of the air, managed by powerful AI traffic minds all across the Hierarchy.

Garrus Vakarian stood inside the city's primary spaceport, waiting at the edge of shuttle bay 516, watching the traffic soar from tower to tower, pathways weaving in between the almost haphazardly placed skyscrapers.

"Garrus!" He heard the call ring through the air behind him. He knew that voice well.

"Nihlus?" Garrus replied almost softly. Technically it should have been "Major Kiryk", but neither of them was huge on the formalities of command.

"We're leaving in two hours, what are you doing here on the wrong side the complex?"

Garrus paused, turning to face his CO. Nihlus looked at him quizzically, his mandibles held apart from his mouth, his head slightly twitched sideways. Nihlus's crimson scales looked somewhat pale in the bright lighting of the shuttle bay, his off-white markings even more so. "Just saying goodbye to a friend Nihlus, I'll be aboard the shuttle and ready to go within half an hour. Speaking of which, what are you doing here, on the wrong side of the complex?"

Nihlus glared at him, his heavy, red and black armor shone slightly in the sunlight coming in through the window before them. "I just got here Garrus, You've been standing in the same spot for five minutes at least. Who is it you're waiting for?"

Garrus's mandibles widened slightly, his jaw lowered. The Turian smile. "A friend, Nihlus." He stated simply, no matter how much Garrus liked the man; his personal life was his own. "I'll meet you on the shuttle; she's scheduled to arrive in less than a minute."

Nihlus looked him in the eyes, "She?" he asked calmly, mandibles apart. "Fine then, I'll leave you be, but don't be late." And with that, Nihlus left the boarding platform.

Garrus watched the major leave, he was a good officer, and there were very few people in the galaxy Garrus could say he held as much respect for as Nihlus Kiryk.

It wasn't a long wait before the shuttle could be seen coming in to dock, and even less time after that before she stepped off.

Her features were fairly pale, softer than turian scales. Her mouth sat low on her face, with soft, flexible lips instead of Mandibles. Thin discolored ridges crossed her skin, two diagonally on her forehead, and four along the front of her neck. She was the only Quarian on the shuttle, but even if she weren't, Garrus would have recognized Tali'Zorah anywhere.

"Tali" he flagged her down, watching as she turned towards him, smiling. Damn she's beautiful when she smiles like that.

Behind her walked a smooth, robotic form, curved in appearance, with a bright light for an eye, the Geth platform was Tali's bodyguard assigned by her admiral father on Rannoch. Legion it was called, Tali said it'd been named during some AI work out in human alliance space a few years back. Its deep grey armor had spots and linings of crimson across the body, two high shoulder plates rising from the arms, with tangled, wire tissue forming most of both its arms.

Tali walked to Garrus, her features alight as he asked her "How's the traffic job going?"

Tali reached him, embracing his scaled body as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Finished, traffic AI's are easy to program. I wish they'd let me experiment a bit, personality is what makes AI's worth having around."

Garrus let go of the hug. He wanted to fell happy for her job well done, he really did, but it still gave him pause. "Done? Then what are you going to do? Are you headed back to Rannoch?" the final question Garrus couldn't protect from the air of desperation, almost fear it came with. He didn't want Tali on the other side of the Perseus veil when he came back from duty; he wanted her here, on Palaven where he knew he could always find her.

She had that look in her eyes that was almost like she was laughing at him. "I'm going to Monath, they're expanding the traffic system there too." She put a hand onto Garrus's neck, her thumb rubbing against the bottom of his mandible. "Don't you worry about me finding a job Garrus, good AI specialists are hard to come by in Quarian space; they're practically non-existent in Vol-Heirarchy territory."

Garrus sighed, trying to hide some of his relief. She was always doing that to him, like she wanted to see him squirm. "I thought you weren't going to take more Traffic jobs, you said they bored you?"

"I've always got my work for the geth consensus going on in the background, and I'm getting paid ridiculously well for that too. By the time I'm done with these Palaven jobs, we won't need you to keep going out into the field. Think about it Garrus" She leaned against the window beside him, an arm behind his back. "You get some cush job teaching in the academy while I bring in the big credits. You safe in my bed every night."

Garrus looked her in the eyes, feigning surprise. "I for one, still think I should meet your family before we go there Tali." He slid an arm behind her head, his hand resting on her shoulder. "I know neither of my parents would be comfortable knowing I was sleeping with a girl they'd never met."

Tali gave him that wry, mischievous smile that always got him nervous. "And it's double that for my father. How long did you sign up for this deployment?"

Garrus truned upward, his eyes tracking the ceiling in though "Six months." He said unsure, "yeah, six months, I timed it to the Quarian holiday season."

Tali gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. "You kissass. That's perfect, we'll go to Rannoch for the holidays then, and you can meet the family." She stood from the wall, pulling him up by the arm. "Will that satisfy your nerves Garrus?"

He gave her a Turian smile, his arm still round her neck, holding her close "Yeah, Tali, that'll soothe my nerves." He looked at her, a feeling of longing filling his gut. He didn't want to leave her embrace. But he knew he had to, he was running out of time, and Saren wasn't going to wait on him. So he let go, holding Tali by the hands as he faced her. "I love you Tali," he began to say, pausing, unsure.

"I love you too Garrus" She returned, giving him that smile he always found so beautiful. "Come back in one piece for me. I'll be waiting."