How could he do this?

Take a geth with him? After all they had done to her people.

They had forced them to flee. To live inside the Flotilla.

And worst of all, to live inside the suits.

She could understand him waking it up, and even talking to it. It could have some useful intelligence.

But he took it with him? How could he?

An error message.

She slammed her fist to the console.

"Work, bosh'tet!" she snapped at it.

Stupid geth, it was it's fault she had made a mistake.

She heard someone nearing her.

"You okay, Tali?" Kenneth asked.

"No," she snapped, not turning away from the console "Go away! I have to fix this!"

Donnelly took a step back. Tali was usually very calm.

Or hot, depends on what you mean.

"Feeling feisty today?" he asked jokingly, hoping it would make her feel better.

At least she turned towards him.

"I like feisty, just so you know," he continued, while grinning.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

She imagined her fingers around Kenneth's neck, but not in a way he'd like. Then she imagined her fingers squeezing his neck, strangling him.

"Leave. Now," she hissed.

Connelly took another step back. She was serious.

"R-right. Sure. Sorry," he stammered, his hands up. He walked back to his station.

She kept staring him angrily as he went, then turned back towards the console.

Stupid error message. She couldn't fix it right now, so she decided to take a break.

She arrived to the mess hall. She took a tray, and put a plate on it. She didn't need a fork or a knife, since she only had to attach the air-tight, sterilized food package into her mask, then the suit would 'feed' her.

She sounded, and must have looked, like a freak. Even Garrus, who was the only other dextro, could eat normally. The thoughts didn't make her feel any better, actually they made her feel worse. Now she was angry, confused, and depressed.

"Hello, miss Zorah," Mess Sergeant Gardner greeted her friendlily, nodding.

"Hello, Rupert," she greeted him back, but with a lot less enthusiasm.

Gardner looked awkward.

"I...I'm sorry miss Zorah, but the purifier is broken," he said apologetically.

"Oh..." she moaned in disappointment.

Great. Food paste.

Apparently Gardner noticed her disappointment, since he raised his hands, palms towards her.

"Don't worry, we'll fix it!" he said quickly, and lowered his hands again.

"But you're gonna have to eat food paste until then," he continued, now lowering his head in shame.

First the geth, then the error, and now the food paste.

She had hoped that some good food might cheer her up.

Food paste. Not exactly cheering.

Sticky, tasteless paste, that got stuck inside your mouth, and was very hard to swallow.

But she was hungry.

"Give me a tube,"she said blankly.

Gardner tried to smile cheerfully, then placed a tube on her plate.

She looked at it, and even the sight of it made her feel even more depressed.

"Thanks," she said quietly and took the tray, looking for a free place.

The hall was pretty packed, but there was a free table on the other side of the hall. She started walking towards it. Walking through the mess hall was always terrible. Some men, and a few women always discreetly tried to stare at her, but she always noticed. The quarians, as well as the asari, seemed to be very interesting to humans.

But their interest made her just feel awkward.

She approached the table, then two crew members sat down at it, right before her nose. She stopped.

Great. She felt like slamming the tray to the floor.

"Tali!" she heard someone holler.

She turned towards the voice, and could see Garrus sitting at one of the tables.

She would have preferred to be alone, but it would have to suffice.

She sat down opposite to Garrus.

"You looked pretty lost. Something wrong?" he said, as she sat down.

Tali tossed him the tube of food paste.

"In addition to this?"

Garrus inspected the tube for a moment.

"I've never tasted this," he muttered, now turning towards her "Can turians eat this?"

Tali shrugged. She had never thought that anyone would want to.

"We have same amino-acids, so probably yes," she replied.

"Hmm," Garrus mumbled, and handed her the paste back "Could you leave me some?"

She stared at the food paste blankly.

"Sure," she replied, her tone blank as well.

Garrus continued eating.

"Legion bothering you?" he asked, while chewing on his food.

She lowered her head in defeat. Her tries to cover her feelings, by changing the subject with the tube, had not been very successful.

"Is it that transparent?" she asked.

"Can't figure out any other reason, since Shepard's not the moody one this time."

"I'm not moody!" she snapped.

She was just angry, depressed and confused.

"Whatever you say," Garrus chuckled.

Was she moody?

Wasn't moody acting childish? Was she acting like that? No. She was just going through her emotions by getting angry at everyone...

She moaned in defeat and leaned on the table, her hands supporting her head.

"I don't know why Shepard took that thing with us..." she muttered.

"Well, perhaps you should ask him," Garrus replied, still chewing.

"He doesn't need me to second-guess him. He already has that Miranda and the Illusive Man doing that job."

Garrus lifted his gaze from his plate, and stopped chewing.

"Aren't you like his girlfriend or something? He probably not only could use your opinion, but value it too."

Tali sighed.

"He probably knows what I'm going to say anyway," she said quietly.

"And what's that?"

She brushed him off.

"You know already what I think about this," she snapped.

She sighed again, and straightened her posture.

"He's the Commander. He knows what's best."

Garrus' mandibles started to flicker.

"Dashing Commander, don't forget that" he remarked, lifting one talon.

Tali punched him on the shoulder.

He grunted.

"Damn! I have stitches!"

"Maybe they should have stitched your mouth shut," she said mischievously.

She walked back towards her workstation again. Garrus had cheered her mood a bit, but she still felt pretty down.

And even more down..

She tried to open her omni-tool, but nothing happened. It was missing.

She had probably left it at her workstation. Stupid geth. Another mistake.

She entered the core room, and walked to her station. She looked around it, but didn't see the chip.

Where was it? Had she dropped it on the way to the mess hall?

She walked towards engineer Daniels. Connelly was somewhere. Good.

His remarks were especially annoying right now.

"Gabrielle, have you seen my omni-tool?" Tali asked.

Daniels turned towards her and wrinkled her brow.

"No," she said "You can't find it?"

Tali shook her head and kept glancing around.

"Has anyone been here while I was gone?"

Daniels' brow wrinkled again.

"Only Legion, the geth."

Tali's eyes narrowed.

"What was it doing here?" she asked

"Commander had allowed it to make improvements for our shields. It worked on your console."

Legion...

Tali immediately began jogging towards the A.I core. The geth had obviously taken her omni-tool.

She shuddered to think what it could find. The messages discussing plans to take back the homeworld, the blueprints of Fleet ships. The materials she had sent.

This could make the geth attack first, and even succeed. She may have been exiled, but she wouldn't let the geth to harm the Fleet.

She stepped inside the elevator, and send it to the crew floor. She slammed her fist against the wall.

"Faster you bosh'tet!" she yelled.

Stupid. So stupid. How could she just leave the tool so carelessly. She knew there was a geth on-board.

And why had Shepard allowed it to 'make repairs' or something? Didn't he trust her skills?

Why did he even take the damn thing with them?

She felt betrayed.

The elevator arrived, and she ran towards the med-bay. The whole mess hall turned towards her as she ran through it. The med-bay's doors opened, and she stepped in.

Doctor Chakwas turned towards her, but didn't speak, as Tali just ran past her.

The doors to the core opened, and Tali stepped inside.

Legion was standing in the corner, scanning one omni-tool with his own.

Tali felt her teeth clenching together, rage going through her. She unholstered her pistol, and pointed it at the geth.

"Give me my omni-tool. Now," she hissed.

She had never hated anyone as strongly as she did the geth before her. It had stolen from her, even though she had done nothing to it. Something she was going to rectify.

Legion turned it's head towards her.

"We cannot," it replied, with it's emotionless, robotic voice.

"Now!" she snapped, squeezing the trigger a little harder.

She hoped that the geth wouldn't give her the tool. She wanted to pull the trigger.

The doors to the med-bay opened. It was Shepard.

"What the hell's going on?" he asked.

Finally Shepard could see how untrustworthy those synthetics were.

"Good you're here Shepard. I caught Legion scanning my omni-tool. It was trying to send something to the geth! It's betrayed us!" she emphasized the geth's name, as if it was the worst insult one could say.

"We have not. We merely wished to inform the Collective of the Creators' plans of attack," the geth defended itself.

Tali turned her head towards Shepard.

"If it does that Shepard, they're going to attack the Fleet! You can't let this happen!"

She didn't know if she could trust him anymore. He had made her work with that thig, and even allowed it to snoop around her workstation.

Tali kept glancing at both Legion and Shepard.

Shepard's face started to wrinkle, as if he was in great pain. Now he put his both hands on his face, then slided them down.

Tali couldn't understand his expression. Frustration?

He turned towards Legion.

"What are you doing, Legion?" he asked pleasantly.

Legion turned it's head towards Shepard.

"We are presently trying to send the information of the Creators' plans of attack to the Collective."

"Yes. Why?"

The geth blinked.

"The Creators are planning to attack. We need to be ready."

Shepard frowned "So you're going to kill each other?"

"Peaceful coexistence does not seem to be possible."

Shepard now crossed his arms.

"Okay. So when are the quarians going to attack?"

What was he doing?

"You can't let it sen--" Tali tried to interrupt, but Shepard raised one finger to silence her.

The geth blinked again.

"We do not have the exact date."

"So it's not final? It could be canceled?"

Legion tilted it's head, and the plates moved quietly.

"We do not see any way to cancel the attack. The geth believe in self-determination, but organics apparently do not. The Creators wish to destroy us."

"Self-determination?! You tried to bring Sovere-- " Tali again tried to interrupt, but was again silenced by Shepard.

"Shut up. Haven't you thought that maybe you could change it? Work as an emissary between the Collective and the Fleet?"

The geth blinked again, then was silent for a while. The geth thought at speed of light, so it must have been a difficult decision.

Tali lowered her pistol in shock. Why would the geth want to have anything to do with the quarians? Did Shepard know something that she did not?

"We had not seen this solution. However this platform is not programmed for such activities."

"Well, you can speak for the other geth. Isn't that enough?"Shepard said.

"What's going on Shepard?!" Tali yelled.

This time he would not silence her.

"I'll tell you soon! Sh--" Now Shepard was interrupted by Tali.

"No!" she yelled, and Shepard stayed silent, but a moment later he began to walk towards her.

He placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Let Legion answer the last question first, okay?" he said soothingly.

He was just going to manipulate her like this? And succeed?

Apparently yes, since she nodded.

Shepard let go of her, and turned towards Legion.
"Legion?"

"Yes. We can communicate."

Shepard sighed.

"All right. Could you tell Tali the same thing about the planet Rannoch that you told me?"

"Acknowledged."

Rannoch? Their homeworld? What could Legion know about that?

Well, a lot, since it did live there, but what worth telling would it have? She couldn't understand any of this. Emissary? Rannoch?

Legion told her about the homeworld and the heretics. Apparently the geth did not live on Rannoch, but on space stations. They were just clearing it. Rannoch was a some kind of memorial for those that had fallen in the Uprising, both geth and quarians alike.

Cemetery? For quarians? Geth didn't hate them? But quarians hated the geth...

Maybe they had just expected for them to feel the same. They were enemies.

The hate towards the geth was probably the thing that kept the Migrant Fleet from disintegrating. A unifying element.

"I..I don't know what to say...b-but how do we know you're not going to kill us after we get there? You could be just making this up."

"We could ask the same of you. If the Creators believe to have a chance for victory, the probability of their aggression has been one hundred percent."

"We just did what we had to," Tali said strictly.

The geth tilted it's head.

"So did we."

She was starting to run out of arguments against this.

"You still didn't answer my question. You could be just making this up," she said coldly.

"The geth do not make things up. We believe in self-determination."

Now she had ran out of arguments. She did not know what to do. She had been raised to believe that they were the enemy,who wanted to destroy them.

Everything had turned upside down.

She looked at Shepard.

"What...I...I don't know what..."

Now she lowered her head.

The others. Would they accept this? There were those who believed in peace, like Zaal'Koris...but what about Han'Gerrel? Or Admiral Xen?

"It's not my decision, Shepard."

Shepard put his hand on her shoulder, and she looked into his eyes.

"I know," he said, then paused, smiling "but we'll find out who are, and contact them after the mission."

After the mission? After the suicide mission?

She felt her dead lowering again.

"You don' know if we even survive..." she whispered.

Shepard moved his hand on her chin, and tilted her head upwards. They looked into each other's eyes.

"I promise," he whispered, and raised his hand, as if swearing an oath.

She placed her hand on his and their fingers wrapped around each other.