Chapter 5: Tali'Zorah vas Neema
Migrant Fleet, 6 months after the destruction of the Normandy
"Ma'am, Sergeant Kal'Reegar reporting as ordered."
The voice shocked Tali out of her reverie. One of the new Marines assigned to her for her upcoming mission, 'Reegar came highly recommended from the Admiralty Board.
"Thank you, 'Reegar. And please, call me Tali." She hadn't originally intended to be so informal, but when she had thought back to how Shepard used to run his team, she realized that he had always been fairly informal as military customs went, especially when it came to the non-humans on the ground team, and... well, the results spoke for themselves.
"Begging your pardon, ma'am?"
Tali laughed in spite of herself. "I mean it. I want you to call me Tali, or Tali'Zorah if it's too informal for you. I may be in charge of this mission, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to get to know you and the others as people and not just potential statistics in case an operation goes south."
"I'll do my best, ma'am, uh, Miss Tali'Zorah, but habits die hard."
"Thank you, 'Reegar," she laughed. A sudden thought gave her pause. "You don't mind me calling you that, do you?"
"Miss Tali'Zorah, you're the commanding officer for our task force, so you can do whatever you damn well please. My job is to provide you and the other technicians overwatch security for this mission. I'm here to serve."
"Oh."
"But," he said in a more conciliatory tone, "you're welcome to call me 'Reegar. Kinda like it, in fact. Don't think anyone's called me that before."
"Well I'm happy to be the first, 'Reegar."
"Tali'Zorah."
She smiled behind her mask. Maybe I'll be able to lead this team like Shepard led us after all. He had given her the geth data module - so valuable to her people - for her pilgrimage, and he had been a true friend to her at a time when she had none, but now Tali began to recognize the other intangible gifts that Shepard had left with her: the tools to be an effective leader herself.
As the two quarians started discussing the details of the upcoming operation, Tali realized that her knowledge of squad tactics, simply from fighting alongside Shepard and seeing how he handled various combat situations, was considerably greater than what Kal'Reegar was expecting from her.
"Tali'Zorah, you're hands down the best non-infantry tactician I've ever met. Where did you learn all this?"
Tali was thankful that her faceplate prevented 'Reegar from seeing her blush at his compliment. "On my pilgrimage. I... Commander Shepard was the first human Spectre, and he let me accompany him on his mission, so I got to experience it all firsthand." She smiled in recollection. "He taught me."
"So the rumors are true?" He must have noticed from her body language that the question made her uncomfortable, because he continued. "Sorry, ma'am, I just meant that there's rumors going around the Neema - around the whole Migrant Fleet, really - that you were with Commander Shepard at ground zero fighting a battalion of geth infiltrators when the Citadel was attacked all those months ago. They say that the geth were following a rogue Spectre. There was also something about the krogan rebellions starting back up and getting quelled again, and a massive dreadnaught taking out a large chunk of the turian fleet. I didn't really pay much attention to rumors myself, ma'am, but I heard 'em."
"Well, the rumors are mostly true, in that case," she replied, choosing her words carefully. "There was no second krogan rebellion." Not exactly, anyway. Her mind went back to the confrontation between Shepard and Wrex on Virmire and the science labs they'd found. Liara in particular had been disgusted by the experiments taking place. "In fact, a krogan battlemaster was with us when we fought our way to the con- to the Citadel. And it wasn't just the turian fleet that was decimated by Sovereign." 'Reegar cocked his head sideways inquisitively. "Sovereign was the name of the dreadnaught," she explained. "But Commander Shepard was amazing. I don't think it even entered our minds that we might not succeed when he was leading us. He just had a way of... making you believe that anything was possible, that there was no way we could fail. It was inspiring. I've never met anyone like him before or since."
"Must be one hell of a CO."
Behind her mask Tali blinked away her tears. "Yes. He was."