Chapter 6: Socially awkward
I blearily open my eyes and sit up, and immediately wish I hadn't, my body hurts all over, but I muddle through it and stumble my way to the showers. The showers are several small floor-to-ceiling cubicles in a room together, not really communal showers, but you could still talk to someone next to you. But I'm the only one in here right now so I throw my clean clothes and a towel onto the hooks in the stall and play some music from my Omni tool, as they are waterproof, and go about my business.
"Bang bang your dead…" I sing a bit under the music's volume, Ozzy Osbourne great music.
I step out of the showers feeling refreshed and head down to the mess hall for some chow. Liara is sitting down just as I come in. I grab some food and sit down across from her.
"Doctor T'soni?" I ask politely.
"Please just call me Liara, and you were on the ground team correct?" She replies.
"Yup, Jonathon Knight, but just call me Jon, How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling better, being stuck in that stasis field was not the most pleasant experience." She looks down for a second. "I don't know what would have happened if you and Shepard hadn't come and rescued me, Thank you."
"Don't thank me thank Shepard, I was just with him." I respond.
"Oh, but I saw you and Mr. Vakarian was it? I saw you and him firing on the Geth from over by my cell you both seem quite proficient." She states.
"Garrus is a crack shot he's got a lot more experience than I do, but Shepard would have got you out without us, He's a hero like that." I reply smiling.
"So it would seem, but if you don't mind me asking, what do you do aboard the Normandy?" She asks.
"I'm a weapons and armor technical specialist, I build, upgrade, and repair the crew's weapons and armor, if you ever need something you can usually find me down in the cargo bay." I reply.
"Hmm, I'm not much of a fighter but perhaps this is where I'll learn?" She replies shrugging.
"People are naturally drawn to the fight around Shepard, he has that effect on people." I stand up and toss out my garbage. "I'll see ya around Liara it was nice talking to you."
"Yes, same to you."
With that I decide to go talk to Tali, I'm supposed to teach her how to use an assault rifle. I walk through the doors to engineering and Tali turns to face me she seems… sad.
"You ok Tali, you seem unhappy?" I ask, "This must be the point where she gets homesick."
"I can't sleep this ship is too… quiet." She replies wringing her hands.
"Hmm most people think quiet is a good thing, but I can't imagine it's ever quiet on the flotilla."
"No quiet on a ship means an air filter has stopped working or an engine has shut down, perhaps this is the true meaning of the pilgrimage." She sighs.
"You don't know what you've got until it's gone." I reply somberly.
"Yes is that a human saying?"
"Yup, if you have trouble sleeping you could try something I used to do, I didn't like the dead quiet at night so I played music just on low volume, maybe that will help?" I reply shrugging.
"Hmmm I would like to try that but I don't have much music on my Omni tool it's not really important on the flotilla anymore."
"Well, all I have is really old human music, but you're welcome to it." I reply bringing up my Omni tool.
"Thank you, I'll have to listen to some, What's human music like?"
"Well I mostly listen to various forms of Rock, which puts allot of emphasis on guitar, drums, and bass guitar, Vocals are still important but they complement the other instruments, rather than being complemented by them." I reply.
"Hmm Quarian music is allot more focused on long notes, not actual words just notes." She replies scanning through a list on her Omni tool.
"It sounds like human opera music, anything that catches your eye?" I ask.
She keys something on her Omni tool and I immediately recognize the opening notes of 'The Pretender' by the Foo Fighters, I just smile.
She lets it play for a while before turning it off. "Now did you need something? I doubt you came down here just to help my insomnia."
"You wound me, I would always assist a damsel in distress!" I reply striking a knightly pose.
She giggles "You really are crazy, aren't you?"
"Aye that is the general consensus, but yes I came down here to see about training you for assault rifles." I reply mimicking a firing pose.
"Oh! Yes where should we go?" She asks closing a few things on her terminal.
"Well the Normandy doesn't have a firing range but I found out that the cargo bay doors can open and put up kinetic barriers so we can fire at holographic targets outside." I reply as we walk over to my workbench, I grab a couple different models and some ammo, as we walk over to the doors they are already open and Ash and Garrus are practicing, I give them a nod and set down my burden. I pick up a standard Avenger handing it to her and grabbing another one.
"Alright, assault rifles are quite different from anything you've used before, they have more focus on accuracy than shotguns while still being able to provide suppressing fire unlike a sniper." I show her how to action and reload the weapon and a good firing stance.
"For long range its best to fire in controlled bursts." I fire a few bursts at targets 400 yards out. "That is well beyond the range of my pistol but I can still score hits with this, now you try."
I step back as she takes aim. She misses the first two targets mostly with bursts to long or to short but gets the last one. "These bursts are difficult to control."
"That, my friend is why some weapons have a burst fire mode." I hand her a vindicator that Shepard picked up somewhere. "This weapon fires a three shot burst each time you pull the trigger, it's more powerful than the Avenger so burst helps keep the gun cool."
She takes aim again, only missing one target this time.
"That's it, I think the Vindicator suits you better." I say.
"Yes, I could never hit targets at that range with my pistol, thank you for teaching me." She says reloading and signaling three more targets.
I grab my guns and do some target practice myself. After a while I put my guns away and decide to introduce myself to Wrex.
I walk up and he grunts and looks down to me. "Do you want something human?"
"Just introducing myself, I'm Jonathon Knight." I say.
"Urdnot Wrex, if you know what's good for you you'll leave me alone." "Friendly"
"I'm a weapons and armor technician, if you want upgrades or something just come talk to me."
"Hmph, you humans are soft, always trying to make up for it with weapons and armor, but it makes it easier to fight so maybe I'll come see you eventually."
I just nod and walk off, best not provoke him for now. I walk over to Ash whose cleaning her weapons.
"Hey Chief what's up?" I ask casually strolling over.
"Hey Jon, Can you believe all the aliens we're picking up?" She says turning to face me.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool, Turian, Quarian, Asari, Krogan, never thought I would get to work around all these different species." I say knowing full well she's going to explode at me.
"What! You like having all these aliens onboard?" She asks exasperatedly.
"Yeah, Garrus talks guns with me all the time, Tali is all mysterious and techie, Liara is very refined and pleasant to talk to, Wrex is more like talking to an angry pile of red cinderblocks but maybe he'll come around." I reply.
"I can't believe you, we're letting all these aliens onboard the most advanced ship in the Alliance an-"
"Good, the more we cooperate with other species the better we'll get at fighting with them, and we're gunna need that if these Reapers are as dangerous as they sound, because if they are Humanity is not the only one at risk and we can't fight them alone." I state resolutely, I can't stand blatant Racism.
She sighs. "Yeah maybe but I don't like it."
I just frown and head over to Garrus at the Mako.
"Hey Garrus what's up?"
"Hmm? Oh hey Jon, just doing some calibrations, do you need something?" He says only glancing away from what he's doing.
"Already calibrating, at least it's not stopping him from talking to me."
"Just came over to chat, how's the Mako?"
"It took some minor damage in the last battle but it was nothing, although the heat seems to have affected its targeting, hence the recalibrating."
"Mmm, so what do you think of the Normandy so far?"
"Well I feel like I'll finally be able to do something now, C-sec always had rules and regulations holding me back from doing my job."
"There's usually a reason for those rules and regulations, as much as they get in the way, it's usually to make sure innocents don't get hurt."
"Shepard said about the same thing, but don't you want to catch the bad guy? These rules get in the way all the time!"
"Sure I do but sometimes you just have to stop and look at what's happening because of your actions." I say somberly. He seems to think on that for a long moment.
"Yeah, I guess you're right, no point in saving the people if they resent you for it right?"
"That's one way to look at it, alright I'll see you around Garrus."
"Yeah, Oh hey Shepard said were going to Feros next."
"Alright, thanks."
I've talked to just about everybody now I guess I'll go see Joker, so I head up to the CIC and up into the cockpit.
"Hey Joker."
"Hey Knight, what's up?"
"Just going around talking to everyone." I reply leaning against the bulkhead.
"I thought that was Shepard's job?"
"I wasn't aware it was a job."
"What you actually want to talk to everyone?"
"Mostly, I'm not sure how I feel about talking with Wrex, but I like talking to Tali, Garrus, and Liara."
"What you not talking to our human crewmembers?"
"I'm talking to you aren't I, or was I wrong in assuming you are human?" I reply sarcastically.
"Oh, you didn't get the memo? I'm a rare wonder of the universe, only one of my kind left in existence." He replies snidely.
"So you have almost no chance to get laid then?" I remark sarcasm dripping.
"Oh HAHA, everyone picks on the cripple."
"Hey you brought that on yourself!"
We continue to exchange banter for about twenty minutes before I leave him to his ship. I'm walking back down into the mess when I realize I haven't yet had a chat with Kaidan. I look around but he doesn't appear to be in the mess. I just mentally shrug and head back down into the hold. Oh there he is, he's over talking to Ash. I walk over to my workstation and he comes over.
"There you are I was looking for you." He says walking up.
"You were? I've been up in the cockpit talking with Joker, but whatcha need?"
"I was wondering if we had any better pistols, I may mainly use my biotics but I don't want to have to rely on them."
"Actually now that we have plenty of resources I've made some more Phalanx heavy pistols, the machine was tooling about a hundred pieces when I went to go talk with everyone, I've got enough parts for one ready now." I reply checking some things on my workbench.
"How many pistols are you making?"
"When it's done there will be enough parts for four plus yours." I reply assembling his pistol.
"You need a hundred pieces for 5 pistols?"
"No I'm working on a few other things too." I motion to the massive clutter of parts that is my workbench.
I hand him the finished pistol. "I would offer to customize it, but the machines busy right now, check back later."
"Alright thanks kid."
"No problem, it is literally my job."
He laughs and walks away. Several hours later Shepard walks up to me.
"So I hear you've gone and talked to everyone on the ground team."
"Yup." Is my short response.
"Well good you all need to be able to work together." He says nodding. "What are you working on?
"Well I've got heavy pistols for almost everyone, and I'm almost done with a project." I say hefting a piece of unfinished weapon.
"Hmm, good after that fiasco on Therum we could use some more big guns but what is it?"
"How long do we have until Feros?"
"About 8 hours why?"
"It'll be more fun to show you, should be done by then." I reply smirking evilly.
"Alright, well let's see this pistol then."
I hand him a customized Phalanx painted black, white, and red, with a big N7 on the side. I just grin as he takes it.
"You're good at what you do I'll give you that much."
"I try."
"That's why I wanted you on my team, you do good work, and you're willing to keep doing it."
I stop in my work and face him. "Thanks Shepard, really that means something to me."
He holds a hand up. "You're not Alliance just call me John."
"But that's my name!" I reply.
He just gets a 'Derp' face for a second before grabbing the bridge of his nose. "I foresee problems with that in the future."
And true to Murphy's Law Tali comes over. "Jon"
I and Shepard both turn to her. "Yeah?"
Tali stops and looks back and forth, I just facepalm and Shepard shakes his head.
"She's yours Knight, Be ready in eight hours, I'm taking everyone to Feros since we don't have to drop on." Shepard says walking towards the elevator.
"Ok bossman." I reply turning to Tali. "Whatcha need?"
"Why do you call him Bossman?"
"It's just a sort of nickname for whoevers in charge, I'm not Alliance so I don't have to address him as Commander, but calling him boss still acknowledges his rank." I reply.
"You definitely just made that up to sound impressive." Tali replies completely flat voice.
"Danm she's onto me!"
She giggles and shakes her head.
"Anyway what did you need?" I ask leaning against the workbench and facing her.
"Well I'll need to carry more ammo than I usually do now do you think you could help me modify my armor?"
"Sure thing, oh and here." I say handing her a smooth black Phalanx painted with Dark purple designs here and there, and a purple laser.
"Wow, this is beautiful you didn't have to do this for me." She says admiring the weapon.
"Hopefully everyone will have one soon, I only had enough material to make five."
"Ok, but I meant the paintjob, you shouldn't have spent so much time on it."
"Please Tali, I'm an artist, I take pride in my work and my weapons, I wouldn't feel right handing out boring pistols to everyone."
"Thank you" It's a simple statement, but it really hits me. "Why do I feel so much better when she appreciates something I did rather than someone else?"
"Yeah, no problem really Tali I enjoy what I do, but let's see about your armor."
So we spend the next 45 minutes or so coming up with ideas and such and eventually make her a dual gunslinger belt type bandolier, which fits several more thermal clips and some other extras. She then stays and helps me finish my project with an hour to spare that is spent tweaking and fine tuning.
"All ground team members report to the airlock in 20 minutes."
I look to Tali and nod, I armor up loading on the new weapon and its ammo, as Tali slides thermal clips into her new dual belts. Then we head up to the airlock where Shepard and Liara are waiting.
"What is that thing Jon?" Liara says pointing to the large object sticking up over my shoulder.
"Hehe you'll see." Tali chuckles slightly as I say that.
Everyone else is up in short order and we head out meeting that random dude on the docks.
"Hey doesn't this guy get wasted?"