*VIRMIRE, SALARIAN RECON COMPOUND*
*Boom* *Boom*. Deafening shotgun blasts reverberated off the surrounding seaside cliffs and competed with the dull, ever-present roar of waves crashing against the rocky shore nearby. Tali was no stranger to the sound of gunfire, and in that one respect had an advantage over her non-suitbound counterparts. She could simply turn off her auditory inputs and go effectively deaf to the outside world. *Boom* She unconsciously flinched again like she had for every round fired previously. The noise didn't bother her, but the intent behind the action most definitely did.
For the past month, she had enjoyed inclusivity and camaraderie like none she'd experienced before. The team meshed almost perfectly together, and even seemed to enjoy one another's company. It was expected that being cooped up on a small ship for extended periods would help to catalyze new relationships, but the sort of bond she'd witnessed was something else. Maybe it was the seriousness of their mission, or the unity of purpose. Whatever it was, something special had been created. Humans openly accepted, and socialized with a Turian. That same Turian somehow forged a somewhat combative friendship with a grizzled Krogan. Even she, a lowly Quarian, had been welcomed with open arms.
Engineer Adams seemed genuinely enthusiastic about her inclusion into the engineering team, while simultaneously taking her on as something of an apprentice. Normally any species would have expressly forbade her from having access to any vital systems or indeed anything that wasn't nailed down. However, on this boat, old grudges and biases seemed to be mostly non-existent. This was all thanks to the man who acted as the glue that bound them all together.
He was eccentric, hot-headed, and suffered from an unbelievably short temper. He also used the strangest phrases to describe what was happening or what he wanted, and seemed to be utterly dumbfounded that no one ever understood his obscure references. That being said he was remarkably compassionate, had an undeniably good, if a little dry, sense of humor, and prized the sake of his crew above all else. That was never more evident than during the events of the last two weeks.
First, he had gone with Garrus to eliminate a Salarian Doctor-turned-organ-harvester psychopath. Next he'd followed up on Wrex's request for help in finding a piece of family history. He'd followed the Krogan to some backwater planet infested with trigger-happy mercs in search of a set of outdated Krogan armor. He earned two cracked ribs and a torn bicep for his trouble. Then, as if all that hadn't been enough, he'd run off to answer the call of his Alliance higher-ups by investigating heightened Geth activity in the Armstrong Cluster. They'd cleared outposts on nearly a half dozen worlds by the time they were done. They'd had to fight through waves of massing Geth, which he was never very keen on to begin with, but it was only made worse by the injuries he'd sustained previously and during the campaign. Despite that, he'd still managed to think of his crew's interests. Specifically hers.
Only a day later, she'd arrived at her station in engineering to find an unassuming OSD attached to a small note waiting for her. He said he'd found something strange on Solcrum, and thought fast enough to download what he'd found. He figured it might be something she would be interested in, and so made a copy for her. She assumed from the wording in his note that he didn't know just how significant the data he'd found actually was, nor how immeasurably much the gesture meant to her.
Things could scarcely have been going any better. She was starting to feel completely at home aboard the Normandy. Perhaps even more than she did among her own people on her birth ship, the Rayya. At least on the Normandy she didn't have her perpetually-disappointed father looking over her shoulder. Somehow she'd found a small measure of bliss traveling with complete strangers hunting for a psychotic megalomaniac through the stars.
*Boom* That bliss had abruptly disappeared upon touching down on Virmire. The Commander had dropped everything else upon receiving word from the council that a Salarian STG team had gone missing in the area, and that Saren might have been involved. Without wasting any time, they'd located the Salarian commandos and regrouped on the planet's surface. At that point the commando's ranking officer, a Captain named Kirrahe, had briefed them on the situation and the complex they'd been running recon on. Wrex had immediately taken a keen interest when it was revealed that the facility was a biological testing ground for eradicating the Genophage and breeding an army of Krogan.
He had not been so keen when Shepard had agreed with the Salarian Captain that the facility needed to be demolished. She wasn't close enough to hear exactly what was being said, but the shouting match that ensued between Wrex and Kraven left little doubt as to the nature of the disagreement. Both had stormed off after that. Shepard to one of the STG team's tents, and Wrex to the beach. The Krogan now stood alone in a brooding silence, occasionally firing clouds of shot into the surf. No one dared approach him lest he turn the muzzle of his weapon on them instead.
*Boom* She jumped from the sound, and jumped again immediately after when a hand landed on her shoulder. To her surprise, the hand belonged to Gunnery Chief Williams. "Ashley?"
"It's going to be fine. The Commander said he's got a plan to calm him down." Ashley said in a surprisingly soothing tone.
Tali wasn't at all convinced. "How's he going to do that?"
Ashley shrugged, and dropped her hand to her side. "He didn't say. I'm going to keep my gun close by just in case, though."
"That makes two of us." Kaidan chimed in as he walked over to join them. "Hopefully the Commander can talk some sense into him before he does something he regrets."
"I haven't heard of many Krogan that harbor regrets." Tali observed, watching their stewing squad mate carefully.
*Boom* *Boom*
She jumped again, but not from the echoing reports. "Don't you all have gear to prep?" Shepard asked sharply as he stalked past their gathering toward Wrex.
All three immediately stood at rigid attention. "Aye, Skipper... We'll get right on it." Ashley offered quickly.
They all lapsed into a tense silence to watch what was almost certainly going to be a huge shit show. None, however, were willing to interpose themselves between what amounted to a dispute between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. Kraven, the force, stomped up to Wrex, the object, and punched his shoulder to get his attention. Wrex angrily turned with the shotgun still in hand, and not entirely pointed in a safe direction. The three observers gasped as the Commander drew his sidearm, and shouted something at the hulking Krogan. Wrex spat into the sand, and brought up his sawed-off death-dealer to point squarely at Kraven's chest. The Human spat back, and kicked sand at Wrex before throwing his gun into a dune.
The observers had to work to keep from laughing despite the situation as the Commander took a step forward and bashed his unprotected forehead into Wrex's cranial plates. The Krogan staggered back more from the shock Kraven's actions caused, and less because of the strength of the blow. He then pitched his weapon to land beside Shepard's and stepped forward to take a vicious swing at the Human's somewhat drunkenly swaying face. Kraven was at least partially feigning dizziness as he slid beneath Wrex's right hook to deliver a quick uppercut to his larger opponent's jaw. It was nothing more than a token hit since his torn bicep robbed it of any real force it might have had.
The Krogan bellowed with rage as he attempted a left uppercut of his own, which sailed through thin air as Shepard sidestepped to deliver a quick left jab into Wrex's ribs. Wrex swung his right fist in a vicious backhand faster than the Commander could react. He managed to turn away from the worst of the blow, but still took a grazing knuckle across his right temple. He spun with the momentum of the strike to carry himself out of the Krogan's kill zone before doing what absolutely no one expected him to. He shouted like a madman as he vaulted forward to shoulder check the lumbering mountain in front of him. He might as well have tackled an Alliance Dreadnaught for all the good it did. Wrex snagged Shepard by the back of his armor's collar before ramming a massive knee into his midsection.
The air left Kraven's lungs in a rush, but he still managed to break the Krogan's grip before another hammer blow could impact his healing ribs. He shoved Wrex away with his left hand then jumped to deliver a drop kick to the massive alien's face. Shepard hit the sand a couple heartbeats before Wrex did. The Krogan scrambled to his feet relatively quickly, but the Commander was very slow in getting up. Wrex angrily stomped over with blood pouring from his right nostril, and roughly grabbed Kraven by the collar to hoist him up. He drew back his left fist in preparation of sending it sailing through Shepard's skull as the Human defiantly raised both hands in one-finger salutes.
The trio of observers, now joined by Garrus and Liara, started forward to stop Wrex from killing the Commander. Wrex said something to Shepard, and Shepard said something back, although none of them could hear what it was as they ran through the mire of fine sand. As they reached the two combatants, Wrex lowered his left hand, and hauled the woozy looking Shepard to his feet.
"Glad you saw it my way... didn't have time to bury your ass out here anyway." Kraven grumbled sarcastically which elicited a grudging chuckle from the Krogan. Wrex heartily clapped the reeling Human on the shoulder and mentioned something about having a quad the size of a Tomkah.
"Are you ok, Shepard?" Tali worriedly blurted out hurrying over to him as Wrex gathered up his weapon and walked away. The rest of the team stood by ready to rush in to help if need be.
He waved away their concern. "Sunshine and rainbows."
His wobbling stance robbed his words of credence. She dutifully stepped up before any of the others could react to sling his arm around her thin shoulders. "Keelah, Shepard. What were you thinking? Doctor Chakwas is going to kill you." She scolded as she led him away.
"About which part? Picking a fight with Wrex or head-butting him?"
"Pick one." She said sternly.
"You're right… how much will it cost me to keep this quiet?"
She thought for a moment while she helped him to one of the Salarian's tents to sit down for a moment. Her feminine intuition told her that both Ashley and Liara were staring daggers at her, but she didn't mind in the least. "How much you got?" She asked mischievously.
That caught him off guard. He had no doubt assumed she would have responded in her customarily shy manner that she didn't want anything. She usually only engaged in playful banter when they were aboard the ship. It took him a minute in his extremely addled state to formulate his response. "I… um. I'm not really sure what I have that I can actually give away. Most of it belongs to the Alliance or the Council."
She gingerly lowered him onto a cot. "Dinner and a movie will do, I suppose." She said before realizing what was coming out of her mouth. She raised her wide eyes to meet his, hoping against hope that he was still too loopy from another possible concussion to catch her meaning.
Those hopes died a slow death as one of his eyebrows elevated incredulously. He started to open his mouth when the Salarian Captain barged into the deserted tent. She latched onto the distraction like a dying Varren sinking in slip sand.
"Oh, excuse me. I hope I wasn't interrupting anything." Kirrahe apologized, starting to back out of the tent.
She shook her head, and made to leave. "No no I was just, um… I was heading over to check on my uh… I was just leaving."
She rapidly scurried from the makeshift building as fast as she could, utterly grateful that no one could see her face turning a deep shade of violet. She could just hear the Captain congratulating the Commander on his unorthodox method of calming his Krogan squad member, but didn't hear Shepard's reply. She prayed to every deity her father had taught her about that Shepard would forget what she'd said during the mission to come. If he didn't, she had no idea what she was going to do.
She recalled one of Shepard's inexhaustible idioms of being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. She didn't have the slightest idea of what either of those things were, but Ashley had graciously explained what the saying meant. She was now stuck with an unbelievably uncomfortable dilemma. Should she play off her request for a date as a silly joke, or should she confess her feelings and suffer the embarrassment of rejection. 'Maybe Saren's goons are good enough shots to put me out of my misery.' She thought grimly.