The audience at the Council had left some strong impressions with Tali. Not so much the whole rituals, or the Spectre ceremony, though that had clearly and naturally meant very much to Commander Shepard. That all she still found gaudy and overblown. However, only the facts, stripped away from all decorum had been quite amazing themselves: The evidence she had provided to the humans had vindicated them and left the Council dumbfounded. The human ambassador had dared to shout at the Council. And he had been successful enough with it, and now suddenly Commander Shepard was a Spectre! The first human Spectre, too, tasked with bringing Saren down. Him, and his pet geth.

I hope he spreads as much destruction among them as possible. It was good to see that her data had finally come to some good. The Admiralty Board back home maybe would not see the value, of course, but now it had been used to foil some geth plans. Or at least some plans involving geth. It was nothing she could bring home to end her pilgrimage, of course, but that merely meant she had to look on. Give her pilgrimage a new direction. Of course, whatever she were to do now would seem somewhat insignificant, at least in her mind.What use would even a new ship be for the Flotilla, when the our arch-enemy, the geth, are on the move?

The arrival back at the human embassy disrupted her thoughts. Commander Shepard was hardly inside the building when he was already greeted by his superior officer, what was his name? Anderson, right. Captain Anderson. "Congratulations, Shepard", the man said "Humanity's first Spectre."

Strangely, the ambassador, Udina, seemed much less enthusiastic. "We've got a lot of work to do," he said "You're going to need a ship, a crew, supplies... Anderson, come with me, we will have to coordinate all this." Practical. He would also not be out of place as a Flotilla captain. No time to lose with celebration, there's always enough work waiting.

Though Shepard himself, funnily enough, seemed to not quite know what to do now.

Maybe I should also think practically again. There is also still work cut out for me.

"Hm," Wrex interrupted the situation, once the two human officials had left. "So you are a Spectre now? You don't look much different since you left. I could still take you on."

"Yeaaah, comforting thought," Shepard answered. He didn't seem fazed by the remark at all, though.

Had the krogan joked or not? It was hard to tell with that race.

"Nothing like some stabilising continuity," Shepard's male crew mate, Lieutenant Alenko said, now without doubt in jest.

"Especially as it looks like you'll be on the move again soon, sir," that single human woman continued. Hers was the only name Tali did not know.

"Sure looks like," Shepard replied. "Udina looked like he won't be wasting any time." He turned to Tali. "Well then, Tali, as I'm surely soon recalled on short notice, and you're certainly anxious to go on with your pilgrimage thank you again. Without your evidence this all would not have been possible. Where will you go now?"

Now is my only chance. "That... depends," she began to answer, unsure still how to best continue. Just like spy games, rhetorics never had exactly been her strong side. She knew how to talk and how to carry herself, but this was a rather extraordinary situation, after all. Not that there is any use in rhetorics, really. "I would be willing to offer my help to you in your fight," she hence continued. "You know I can handle myself, you saw me in the alley, and well, I could offer my experience and knowledge concerning the geth."

The Spectre did a visible double-take at that.

Maybe I should have used some rhetorics, or just have been less blunt.

"And what about your pilgrimage then?" Shepard asked.

She breathed out beneath her mask, knowing the others would be unable to see or hear this sign of slight insecurity. "Officially, so to say, I am on my pilgrimage from the time I leave the Flotilla to the time I return," she explained. "How we spend that time and how we try to find anything of value is up entirely to us. It would not interrupt the pilgrimage, merely changing its course for a bit. And through this rite we are expected to show our willingness to give for the greater good. Saren is a threat to everybody, including the quarians. This is how I feel I could best serve that greater good." This is what truly matters. No amount of resources would help us against Saren, and it is a chance to hit the geth were it hurts. Or where it would hurt if they were alive.

"I could use expertise on the geth," Shepard said, leaving Tali unsure whether he would approve or not. It would not be all too big a deal if he declined, after all she had hardly set out on her pilgrimage planning to join a Spectre. And Tali could also understand why he might reject her offer after all, she was hardly somebody special, and knowledge about the geth came simply with being a quarian. Still, she hoped he would accept. This was an once in a lifetime chance not for her personally, but to do something for her people. "All right," he answered in the end. Tali's muscles and nerves relaxed, relieved. "You made your case, and you are right. Welcome in the team. And thank you."

He thinks I can handle those matters. Wanting to do a hundred things at once, and being suddenly unsure herself whether she could, her body moved nervously. I certainly will do my best. "No," she said finally, "thank you for giving me this chance."

Wrex had the final word in this, though: "Touching", he said.

Of course, even though she now seemed to be at least semi-officially part of a Spectre entourage did not mean she could immediately go out and shoot geth. As was quite clear, and as the ongoing conversation showed, currently neither Shepard nor anybody else present had any idea where to go. It was clear they had to preempt Saren, but unfortunately had no idea just how to do so, where to look for this fabled 'Conduit'. Ambassador Udina was named as one information source, the Council as another, and some C-Sec officer named Garrus Vakarian as a third option. She sighed thinking about it. This all was doing nothing good for the fabled aura of mystic and aloofness Spectres normally possessed. As it seemed, they did not even necessarily have a good information network!

That was why Shepard decided to heed Lieutenant Alenko's proposal to see how far Officer Vakarian had come. It made sense, or so Tali thought. Udina and the Council would release information at their own speed. Garrus Vakarian was the only information source they could actively use right now. And Shepard's choice to bring her and Wrex along had made sense, too. He seemed somewhat abashed about it, but he was right that the embassy personal had given them strange and unsure looks. And since there was nothing she could do about that except leaving, leave she would. At least for now. The reason why she was always given such suspicious looks, that being the underlying racist assumptions about quarians, annoyed her, even embittered her to a degree, but she could not fight them all, not alone. She just had to deal with them.

Despite their authority and responsibility, and despite their high and mighty nature as an arm of the Citadel Council, C-Sec really was not any better in that regard. Worse, even. Quarians were always under special scrutiny by C-Sec officers, no matter what they had done or rather, not done. It seemed most C-Sec officers believed that it would always only be a matter of time until a quarian would attempt to steal something. And yet, C-Sec rhetorics were always so thick about their mandate and their responsibilities and all that. It was hypocritical. Consequentially, Tali did not like C-Sec at all. And yet it was the C-Sec Academy, the institution's headquarters for all concerns, where they were going to.

I can already imagine how everybody will stare there, Tali thought, before realising something: It's actually somewhat funny. Shepard is a Spectre, so they cannot do anything about him bringing in a quarian and a krogan. That should be a nice little shock for them. And it was. It seemed as soon as the trio had entered the Academy, dozens of eye pairs followed them everywhere, talks ending abruptly when they came near. Under different circumstances, Tali might have felt insulted, but knowing that C-Sec could nothing about this made it somewhat enjoyable even. She was surprised herself at this pettily vicious streak of herself, but decided that no harm would come out of it, so it was okay to indulge in it for now. It was almost a little sad how fast they reached Officer Vakarian's office.

The C-Sec agent was working on some console, quickly typing commands, and so only noticed them belatedly. "Commander Shepard," he greeted, "I have heard the news about your appointment as Spectre. Congratulations. The Council seems to have made a fine choice, for once." He eyed the two people trailing behind the human. "So, that is the quarian?"

"Yes," Shepard answered and introduced the two to each other: "This is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Tali, this is Officer Garrus Vakarian."

"Nice to meet you," Garrus answered, only to immediately completely ignore both her and Wrex afterwards. "What will you do now, Commander... well, Spectre that is."

"I am still a Commander in the Alliance Navy, in fact," Shepard replied. "For now, I am trying to gather information. Have you found anything?"

"Remarkably little, but that was expected. The Council not only keeps very few records of its Spectres, it seems they also go out of their way to hush matters up. I found some stuff on watchdog and conspiracy sites, though, which I was able to collaborate with C-Sec data. It seems Saren has always been a loose cannon. His death count of innocent bystanders must be in the hundreds, but he got results, so the Council always suppressed all information even about alleged massacres. All the while C-Sec drowns in bureaucracy and red tape."

Shepard tensed at that reply, as Tali could see. Human expressions, both facial and bodily, were wonderfully varied, which allowed a relatively easy reading even for aliens. Not like quarians or turians with their rather limited variance, or salarians with their very strange signals. No, humans, like asari, were reasonably easy to read, and Shepard looked... uncomfortable. The tension, the frown on his face... He does not like the agent's comments at all.

"Yeah well, I prefer red tape to massacres," he finally answered.

"Oh, no doubt about that," Garrus answered, seemingly unaware of Shepard's cues. "Spectres are a great idea in general, but Saren was given entirely a too free reign by the Council. He was seen as its top agent, but now I rather believe he should have served as an example of a rotten case even before he went rogue. He seems to have been really quiet the last five years or so, though. No big operations, no hushed up scandals, nothing, or so it seems. My bet is he has been rogue for at least that long." He moved his arms in a gesture that, as Tali knew, was equivalent to a human shrug. "In any case, this made finding up to date information on him somewhat difficult."

"But you sound like you did find something," Shepard commented.

"I did indeed. I had to use hack into some official databanks, and even that way I had to use my C-Sec authority to be able to do so. Economical registries, mostly. It seems in the same five last years, Saren has become a major trader and economical investor, without anybody really realising it."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at that. "That is... interesting," he finally commented. "Quite unexpected. What exactly did he do? And why did nobody notice?"

"He organised cargo runs into the Terminus Systems, mostly. The Council actually did know about that, but Saren justified it. Posing as an independent merchant allows him to go to anywhere, or so he claimed. However, I think he was just playing a role in front of the Council as well, to justify his tours into the Terminus Systems."

"A speculation," Shepard analysed, "but that makes sense. And where better to build up hidden support bases than there? Going double undercover would work great in allowing him that."

"If he has shifted supplies for so long as we assume, then we might be in trouble. It seems Saren has quite a head start in preparations as well as in knowledge."

"He did not only shift supplies," Wrex suddenly announced, surprising everybody. He had been entirely quiet so far, seemingly disinterested in it all. "He also engaged in piracy. I was hired by him for such a job once. All over the edge to the Terminus Systems."

"Wait, you had been hired by Saren at one point?" Shepard asked. "Why haven't you told us?"

"And how come Saren was able to openly hire mercenaries?" Garrus asked.

"He never worked openly," Wrex replied, "Knowledge of the job only came by word of mouth, and Saren probably had everybody he did not like killed. That's why I also only ever saw him one time. Rest of the time, he worked through intermediaries. And I got a really bad feeling the one time I saw him. We had been raiding ships in the area for months when we took out this massive cargo freighter. Our biggest haul yet. I was on board, checking bodies for valuables, looking for some extra credit. That's when I saw him."

"And it was Saren?" Garrus asked.

"Yes. Not that I knew back then. I only knew it was the boss, and that he never showed up at all, usually. But at that day he was walking through the ship. Never talking, ignoring everybody. Just watching and giving icy glares. The moment I saw him, all my instincts warned me about him, and I got the hell out. Didn`t even wait to get paid. And I was right: All those mercenaries were dead afterwards, within a single week. Every last of them."

"Well, that settles it then," Shepard announced "Saren had been rogue all that time, and he surely was not only posing as undercover merchant for some mission."

"We could look at records of pirate attacks," Tali suggested, "trying to find a muster, a region where Saren was active."

"Tracking pirate attacks at the edge of the Terminus System in a time period longer than five years?" Garrus asked, in a tone suggesting 'How could anybody have such a stupid idea?' "There are so many pirate attacks we would never be able to isolate the one instigated by Saren!"

Feeling both a bit embarrassed and angry, Tali let her head hang low. Come up with something better then! she thought.

"So this information could have caused Saren's downfall earlier, but doesn't help us now?" Shepard asked, somewhat bitter, before catching himself again: "Not that you did not do great work, Officer Vakarian, but it just seems this will not help me greatly in my hunt for Saren now."

"Probably not, no" Garrus admitted. "However, there is more information. As said, Saren also was busy as a financial investor. That is actually pretty easy to hide, if you have enough shell companies at places with ridiculously strict privacy laws, and if you remain a silent investor as Saren did. Mostly silent, anyway." Shepared gestured him to go on, and Garrus did: "He had a pretty big interest in several human companies, actually. Ironic, given his views about your race, Commander. Most interesting is investment in Binary Helix, a company involved in biotech and genetics. I did some further digging, and it appears Binary Helix has some major laboratories on Noveria. Now, that planet is always trouble."

"I heard something of it, little. It's not really part of the Alliance, right?"

"And not really part of Citadel Space, either, though by agreement they allow Spectre authority there. It's a corporate planet fully and officially owned and run by certain human corporations. They use it to do research illegal in Citadel Space. For that reason, they also value secrecy, but I was able to hack into some of their systems. C-Sec gear and programs is great for that."

Shepard laughed at that. "You seem to play a dangerous game."

"It's no game," Garrus replied heatedly. "Saren is a danger, to all of us. And whatever he plans, Noveria must be an important part of it. Matriarch Benezia seems to check these laboratories regularly. Nobody knows what's in there, probably not even the corporate board of Noveria itself, but we know Benezia is Saren's ally. There is something important there."

"That's definitely a lead," Tali commented.

"It is," Shepard agreed. "Thank you, Officer Vakarian."

"Just Garrus is sufficient, Commander. We turians usually use personal names, unless title or rank is also used," Garrus answered, giving Tali a slight feeling of deja vu. "And frankly, after this hacking session I am not quite sure how long I will be a C-Sec officer any more. Misuse of C-Sec property and authority, they will call it." He raised his hands before Shepard could protest. "It was worth it. Saren needs to be brought down, and I was not really happy with C-Sec any more anyway. It just means I might have to look for a new position."

"He could join my collection of aliens," Wrex suggested, making Garrus look quite nonplussed, which in turn caused Shepard to laugh.

"He's continuing a joke, Garrus," the Commander explained. "He meant joining well, uh, I guess you could call it my Spectre's entourage. Which is growing quickly in the mere hours since my appointment anyway. I cannot promise anything, though. Ambassador Udina has said that he will take care of getting me a ship, crew and supplies, and until I have that I cannot tell if there is place for one more person."

"This... this would be great, Commander!" Garrus exclaimed. "I understand you cannot make promises, but I can assure you that I would be very much willing to join your team, and would make sure not to disappoint you."

"I'll contact you as soon as I know about my state of equipment. Then I can tell you, one way or another. Until then I can only give you my thanks. You have really helped me even if the Council and the Alliance were unable to come up with any information now, I have at least one place to go to now. So, thank you."

"Until then, Commander. I will just wait here for Executor Pallin's inevitable fury."

"Good bye, Garrus," Shepard finished the conversation and walked out of the office again, followed by Wrex and Tali.

...

"That went surprisingly well," the Commander said outside the Academy, more to himself than to the two persons walking besides him.

Nonetheless, Tali mentally agreed. It did not matter now whether the Council could provide new information, or not even whether the Alliance could provide a ship; Noveria sounded like a planet to which certainly many trade lanes would lead to. Everything seemed to be in order now. She was actually part of a Spectre's entourage, she would have a chance to hit the geth hard, and now they knew where to start.

Everything is in order now.

This thought made her feel light-heated, as if everything else in the world did not matter anymore. Unfortunately, the world moved on while she was not aware of it, and she nearly stumbled and had to lean at a wall for support.

"Everything all right?" Wrex asked, though his voice held few real concern.

"Yes. I'm sorry. I have no idea what this was." Tali replied, quite truthfully.

Shepard narrowed his eyes, another one of those thankfully easy to read human cues, even though Tali had no idea what it meant in this situation. "Nothing probably," he commented, though with a calculating tone in his voice. "No matter, we'll soon be back at the embassy anyway. Though, that reminds me, Wrex, if you're coming with me, should you not properly end your deal with the Shadow Broker? Get paid, at least?"

"Everything is already arranged," Wrex replied matter-of-factly, but continued after a noticeable pause: "But the Shadow Broker is not somebody to be trifled with. Maybe I should give Barla Von a full debriefing." And with that he simply turned and went.

A short grin flashed across Shepard's face, before he turned to Tali. "So, you are really okay?" he asked.

"I already told you..." Tali began with rising anger. Damnit, I can take care of herself.

"...probably the same shit I told my superiors back then," Shepard interrupted her and continued the sentence his way. "After my first battle."

This had Tali be taken aback. What is he talking about?

"You held up yourself up well," he continued. "But nobody is that calm after a firefight unless he or she has seen quite, quite many. And you have spent too much of your life on the Migrant Fleet for that."

Oh, ancestors. Now he thinks I'm weak. Hopefully he will not think over his decisions to take me along just because of a stupid stumble. "It's not like that", she hastily began, only to cut herself off this time. What is it like, then?

"Well," Shepard replied, "You did better than me in my first battle." He looked kind of abashed as he said that, and leaned with his back against the wall.

"Oh," Tali only made, still unsure what too say. If that is true, the Commander must have come a long way.

"You had enough will power to hole it all up until everything was taken care of," Shepard continued. He looked down, though Tali could see an ironic grin on his face "That's... quite commendable, actually. Me, I became shell shocked. Not after the battle, during the battle itself. It's... not something I'm proud of, but it can happen to all of us."

"You are right," Tali replied, slowly and with regrowing certainty. "On the Flotilla, we are usually safe from such things, but our marines do have a service taking care of any psychological stress or damages that may accumulate. Of course, such things are not available during our pilgrimages..."

"Yes, the Alliance military has institutions for that as well. It's a common enough problem, even if most soldiers wouldn't admit to it"

"Really? And yet you had no problem telling me this?"

"Well, not exactly no problem," he replied, and that was true enough. He still seems somewhat embarrassed by this whole conversation. Of course, it was him who started it. "But in any case, yes, I am not 'most' soldiers. There are some really stupid elements in military culture... ah well. Guess I shouldn't talk too negatively about it."

An uneasy silence fell on the two, before Tali asked: "What happened at your first battle, then?"

Shepard shrugged. "It was nothing big. I was fresh out of boot camp, a rookie marine. Our navy is basically constantly in action engaging raiders and pirates, of course, but most of it is ship to ship combat. Marines are only called in for rapid reinforcements on the ground, or for long planned counterstrike on pirate bases, usually. However, our ship, the SSV Tehran, had managed to trap a pirate frigate on the ground, and we were pretty sure it was a brand new deliverance from the Batarian Hegemony, so our Captain decided to have it captured intact, for reasons of military intelligence. So, the Teheran's marine detachment stormed the ship on-ground. There was some heavy resistance by the pirate crew, but nothing that couldn't be handled." He paused, and smiled ironically. "Of course, for me things looked different. I... Ah, let's say, I had been in tense situations and even combat situations before, but never in an all-out firefight. I... just froze up. Stayed in my position behind a rock and just kept firing towards the ship. Hell, I even thought that would fool my superiors, since in a way I still did participate in the battle. Of course, I was wrong."

"So what happened?"

Shepard made a dismissive hand gesture. "Eh, the usual. I got some counselling, and over time exposure to combat situations did the rest. However, everybody has to start somewhere, has to start with a first fight, so..." He did not get to end his sentence, as his omnitool activated itself, telling him he had a message. "Hm." the Commander made. "Udina seems to want to meet me at Dock 422. Says he has everything taken care of. I have to give it to him, he's fast. And thorough, he mentioned you and Wrex should come, too. Hm, that's Normandy's dock, do I get to hitch a ride on her? That would actually be kinda nice."

"Well, then we should go," Tali commented and started walking again, feeling relieved to get out of the conversation the easy way, but feeling somewhat guilty about that relief as well. Before Shepard could reply to her, she turned back and said, with a softer voice: "Thank you, Commander. Of course, it was not my first fight. There at least was also the geth patrol I had tracked down. But I know what you mean."

Shepard laughed, though again more ironically and for effect than truly humorously. "Then you are a better learner than most people I've met," he commented. "Yes, let's go."

Dock 422 was privately owned by the System Alliance's embassy on the Citadel, or so Shepard had explained her during the elevator ride to it, allowing some ships of special importance to come and go as they pleased. And after the Eden Prime mission, so disastrous on some level and yet so successful on others, the Normandy had apparently been deemed important enough for use of this dock. The view the dock offered, after leaving the elevators and passing some storage crates, was in any case amazing: Open to the Wards, the arms of the Citadel, one could see the entire length of them, glittering in the darkness of space. However, Tali was of course more interested in the view of the ship docked here. A frigate, of course that was one of their great advantages: While they had not much firepower, not even compared to a cruiser, they could land and dock just about everywhere. The Normandy looked fine enough on the outside from what Tali could see, elegant yet strong, but that after all was not what was important. She was not proud to even mentally admit, but some quarians knew very well how to make a ship look to be in pristine condition even when it was not. The stereotype of sleazy quarian used ship salesmen had some base in truth, even if it was wildly exaggerated.

She wondered how live would be on that ship. She knew that every ship and every ship crew had its own character and own odd quirks. In the Migrant Fleet, they even formed own cultural spheres to some degree, one important reason why it was deemed necessary to have one's ship allegiance be included in a quarian's name. Of course, not having finished her pilgrimage, Tali did not yet have a ship allegiance, she was merely nar Rayya, born on the Rayya, and of course things would not be so extreme with the humans. Still, she was very curious what would await her. With some luck she would even be able to take a look at the ship's technology. Human ship technology would be an interesting new field for her.

And on what odd ways my pilgrimage has taken me so that I could come here she thought, amazed. The news about geth activity, the geth patrol she had tracked down, the hunt of Saren's agents, her escape to the Citadel, the contact with the Shadow Broker, the fight in the back alley, her rescue by human soldiers, her audience with the Council, and now part of a Spectre's team and soon on board of a human military vessel. At the very least she could now already claim to have experienced quite more on her pilgrimage than most quarians, no matter the outcome that would await it.

Thinking that, she noticed there were several people standing in front of the Normandy. Shepard's two crew mates, his Captain, Ambassador Udina and even Urdnot Wrex were all gathered there, obviously waiting for the Commander and her. Udina especially gestured Shepard to come nearer. He seems to be on a rush of energy and activity the entire day, Tali thought amused. I wonder what he has now.

"Shepard," the Ambassador greeted the Commander, "I have big news for you. Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy. The ship is yours now. She's quick and quiet, and you know the crew. Perfect ship for a Spectre." That surprised Shepard visibly, and it also greatly surprised Tali. Ships were the Migrant Fleet's most important resource, and the position of its Captains, its commanding officers, was highly important in the social and political structures of the Fleet. Even the Admiralty Board would face great difficulty simply replacing a Captain. Yet, that seemed to have happened here, despite the formulations of 'stepping down'. It appeared things were very different with the humans. At least, to a degree, since Shepard did not receive the news well:

"So, forced retirement, huh?" he asked. "This isn't right, the ship belongs to you, Captain. Since when have you buckled to the politicals?"

"It's not just politics, Shepard," Anderson answered, almost pleaded. "You needed your own ship. A Spectre does only answer to the Council itself, not to any superior officer. And the Normandy just is the best choice, by all measurements."

To a degree, Tali understood now. It was in a way about a more efficient distribution of limited resources, and that was something most quarians understood. Still, she could even more so understand why the humans present, maybe with the exception of the Ambassador, looked rather uncomfortable, probably judging the entire situation to be rather awkward. It would have been that at the very least on the Migrant Fleet, too. Shepard's two crew mates especially looked uneasy, but did not say anything. Shepard however did. "And that all there is to that?" he asked.

Anderson made a grim face, looked down and shook his head. "Look, Shepard," he said, "I was in your shoes twenty years ago. They were considering me for the Spectres. But I failed. I blew the chance, my test mission. Saren made sure of it. Now it's your chance, and all there is left to do for me is to step aside for you."

A practical, non-self centred position, Tali thought, and it seemed to convince Shepard as well, if grudgingly, as he answered: "It still doesn't feel right, Captain. I understand you, and I might need it, so I'll take it, but by all rights it should be yours."

"You surely will need it, Saren has his geth scouring the entire Traverse for the 'Conduit'," Anderson in turn answered, "There have been sightings of them everywhere. You'll need to go to wherever they are, to make sure you find that artefact first. That requires a ship, a fast one with stealth capabilities." The Captain's last sentence was spoken softly, nostalgic for the bygone opportunity of commanding the ship. Then he went back to a sharp business voice again: "The most troubling geth sighting comes from Feros. We have a small colony there, but the entire planet is ruins of a globe spanning prothean city. Perfect place to hunt for a prothean artefact. And shortly after the sightings, the colony went dark. No communications any more. Most likely, it is under geth attack."

"There is also a second lead for you," Udina chimed in. "Matriarch Benezia, Saren's ally, has a daughter, a doctor of archaeology specialised on the protheans. Her name is Liara, Dr Liara T'Soni. I am not sure whether she will be able to give you informations on her mother, but it might be worth a try. We have reports she was exploring an archaeological dig somewhere in the Artemis Tau cluster, but we have not been able to get a more exact location."

"The prothean expert for my collection," Wrex quipped, in the same monotone voice as always, leaving Udina and Anderson looking confused.

That damn joke again, Tali thought. Shepard however seemed only partially annoyed, despite him rolling his eyes, as he also had to stifle a laughter. If probably more about Udina's and Anderson's faces than about the joke."Actually, he said, "you might be right. She is Benezia's daughter, and that makes her dangerous, but if we could somebody get access to her professional knowledge, then that could be useful on Feros, if it's really that full of prothean ruins. Maybe I should start looking in the Artemis Tau Cluster then."

"It's your ship now, Shepard," Anderson answered. "And your decision."

"Keep in mind that you are the first human Spectre, though" Udina commented. "Your actions will always reflect on humanity as a whole. You make a mess, and I get stuck cleaning it up."

"That's not my intention," Shepard replied, sounding slightly annoyed. And Tali assumed he had every right to be: Cleaning up such messes was after all the ambassador's job, and he really should not complain about having to do his job. "But I will do whatever it takes to keep our colonies out there save, at the very least," the Commander continued, "And ideally also prevent the return of the Reapers."

"We still do not even know whether they exist," Udina said, "It's a possibility, but I have come to see it as too far-fetched. For now, you should focus on getting the Conduit, and through him Saren."

"I will," Shepard answered, ice in his voice. Battle ready, most definitely. "He won't get away this time."

oooooo

As an example of what I meant in the introduction: I always found it odd how Shepard simply let a random C-Sec officer tag along, and likewise also odd how there were supposed to be geth sightings around Noveria, yet for everybody there it is a surprise. So, I combined the two as an alternate approach. As said, just as example of what I meant. Also, you can see the scene between C-Sec and Dock 422 as a reference to Sticki's Meetings, with greetings to him ;)