This was it then. He had his own ship now, even though Shepard was not really happy with the situation. Of course, he was a military career man. He had planned on being a ship's CO eventually. He did not consider himself to have the abilities of an admiral, so a Captain's rank and a ship's CO position would most likely have been the crowning high point of his career. Of course, now he was on another career path all together anyway, so to say. He was a Spectre now, and in a manner of speaking he thus outranked even the highest Alliance admirals. And to make it all perfect, he even had his ship now. Still, it just did not feel the right how that vessel had been taken from Captain Anderson.

Not that it mattered now. Dwelling on that instead of going after Saren would merely make Anderson's sacrifice go to waste. He needed to focus on the hunt now. So he already had become active: His 'Spectre's entourage', that is Wrex, Garrus and Tali, had for now been sent to the cargo bay, to make themselves at home there. Eventually, more permanent arrangements would have to be taken, but there would be time for that en route to their targets. Navigator Pressley had been ordered to find information on the Artemis Tau Cluster, and, of course, plot a route to there. And Doctor Chakwas had been informed to perform checks on them as soon as possible, to clear their medical status. Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, just called 'Joker' by everybody, had brought the Normandy into the air and leaving the Citadel, towards one of the innumerable mass relays surrounding the station, and Navigator Pressley had officially been confirmed as the Normandy's new XO. And a meeting of the ship's leading officers had been set to commence shortly Captain Anderson's presence on the ship was missed, but things nevertheless went smoothly. They all were military professionals, after all.

Of course, crew morale was still something to be considered, and it was usually considered traditional that a new commanding officer would give his or her new crew a speech. Truth be told, Shepard did not consider himself any bad at giving them, or at rhethoric in general. Thus he had come to the cockpit, to use the ship's intercom from there. He breathed out, gathered his thoughts, and activated the system:

"This is Commander Shepard speaking. We have our orders: Find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to you, crew: This won't be easy. But we all know what happened on Eden Prime. We saw the destruction, we saw the bodies, we saw what Saren did. And we will make him pay for that. Wherever he goes, we follow. Whereever he searches for the Conduit, we will be there. If necessary we will hunt him to the very ends of the galaxy and bring him down! This is the most important mission any of us have ever been on. Saren's AI allies, the geth, already nearly wiped out one sentient species. They won't be given another chance for that. The fate of humanity, and of the entire galaxy is at stake here, and everybody counts on us the Alliance, the Citadel, even the other races. Let's show them what humans are made of! Saren and his pet geth must be stopped, and I promise you we will stop them."

He breathed out again, feeling relieved. Not bad, if I may judge so myself. Not bad at all for an impromptu speech. Joker seemed to agree, saying: "Well said, Commander. And true. The captain would be proud of you."

"Captain Anderson gave up everything so I could get that chance," Shepard answered harshly. Of course, he was not annoyed at Joker, if at all at Udina and those damn backroom politics, but it was still in any case a sore point. "We can't fail him. Unfortunately, fancy speeches alone won't help in that."

"Yeah, the Captain got screwed," Joker commented. "But it's not like it's your fault. Don't be too hard on yourself, Commander. And should fancy speeches ever help against Saren, we now know we have the right man on board!"

Shepard chuckled at that, releasing some tension. Somehow, Joker always semed to know the right thing to say. Unfortunately, as the Commander had already come to learn, even also when it was something highly inappropriate. "What can I say," he replied, "it's a highly talented crew. Including a multi-talented pilot who apparently can also double as comedian."

"Yeah, I know, right?" Joker played along. "Lousy audience, though."

"Is that a proper way to adress your commanding officer, Flight Lieutenant Moreau?" Shepard asked in a serious voice, though not really meaning it. Joker stuttered something in reply, but he ignored it and went on: "Thus hurt to the bone, I will now take my leave of your cockpit, and trust you have more flight skill than sense of hierarchy." Joker muttered something inaudible when Shepard left the cockpit, a grin on his face.

Behind Joker's domain lay the CiC. With all the holographic lights of the control stations, and the large map of the galaxy in the centre it was quite a sight to behold. Nonetheless, Shepard was still unsure about its layout. Seeing as the Normandy was an experimental vessel, the brass had decided to also use it to test alternate approaches to command structures on it. Specifically, instead of the usual human CiC layouts, where the commanding officer was in the centre, surrounded and easily reachable by the station crews, the Normandy used the turian layout, where the Commanding Officer was at the back of the room, to thus have the entire crew of it in his or her view. Shepard found this just silly. He trusted everybody here to do their work, without any supervision needed by superior officers. And to have the commanding officer be, so to say, at the middle of all data input seemed much more reasonable to him. It just looks wrong. Definitely not what I'm used to. No matter, though. Nothing that could be changed now, and the alternate layout is functional as well.

Making his way through the CiC, he reached the comm room, which now also served as a sort of conference room. Chief Navigator Pressley and Chief Engineer Adams were already there, as the Normandy's two highest ranking officers, as was Lieutenant Alenko, 'representing' so to say the ground team, to which the three new non-humans on board would surely be assigned. The room had a circle of chairs in the middle, and the three were already seated there, patiently waiting for him. Of course, that is the privilege of the superior officer.

"Commander," Pressley greeted him, "We heard the speech. Fine choice of words. And if anybody has to take over for Captain Anderson, I'm glad it's you."

"Thanks," Shepard answered, seating himself, too. "I hope it will help crew morale, but for now we have more tangible things to worry about. Did you find any information about the Artemis Tau Cluster? Any recommondations what to do?"

"It's a very far off location, sir. No major shipping lanes lead to there, and it's a cul-de-sac in the mass relay network. It does have prothean ruins and remains. Unfortunately for us, it has quite many of those, meaning there are quite many sites for an archaeological dig. And human presence there is minimal. We do have a minor colony there, though. Proteus, the world is called. The colony is little more than ten thousand people, but maybe somebody there knows more. Otherwise we will have to search planet after planet by hand, so to say."

"Hardly an ideal prospect, especially as time stands against us. You are right, Pressley, let's make Proteus our first location in the cluster."

"Speaking of which, sir if I may ask, is it wise to search for that asari first? Feros after all might well be under attack."

"Believe me, I have considered that. It's no easy decision." And it indeed wasn't. Had this gone on longer for one really crazy day, he had no doubt he would lose sleep over it. After all, it was not like the fate of the colonists on Feros did not matter to him. But there just was more to consider. "There are several hundred settlers on Feros, or so I understand. They should get help, yes. However, our primary mission hinges on understanding prothean remains, and Feros is full of them. We need some expertise when we go there, and Dr T'Soni has that expertise."

"If we can trust her," Pressley commented, and his voice let no doubt that in his opinion, they could not. Which was understandable the other reason they went after T'Soni was after all that her mother had allied herself with Saren.

"Yes. If not, well, then we will have to make do. Still, we can at least give it a try. We after all do not know for sure wether she has been part of Saren's conspiracy. We will know once we have found her."

"Understood, sir. This leaves the other obvious point of this meeting: The non-humans on board. Frankly, sir, I do not know wether it is a good idea to have them here. After all, this is prototype ship of the Systems Alliance. Human cutting edge technology. A primary espionage target, hence."

"I understand," Shepard answered. "However, what's the chance any of the three are agents of intelligence services? And for that matter, what intelligence services would a krogan and a quarian even report to? And if they are not actually agents, they lack both the training and the contacts to actually spy on us. I appreciate there is a risk, Pressley, but it seems like a minimal one to me." Pressley nodded, but did not seem happy about it. Something still bothered him. "You can speak freely, if there is anything else," Shepard hence continued.

"It's just... Saren attacked one of our colonies. This makes it a human problem, and so far we have always handled our own problems. We should be the ones to stop Saren, and we don't need any outside help in that."

"Maybe," Shepard replied, somewhat surprised by such an attitude. That's just... impractical. "It sure doesn't hurt, though. Humanity has achieved much in the not even thirty years since we have entered the galactic stage, but no matter how strong one is, allies always make one stronger."

"I suppose," Pressley answered and sighed. "I guess, maybe I'm just stuck in the old ways of thinking. Dont worry, though, Commander, this won't be a problem. So what will happen to them now?"

"If the time schedule is held up, they should currently be checked by Dr Chakwas, which is the reason she isn't here. Afterwards well, it seems de facto they are an additional Marine detachment of the Normandy now."

"I must admit, I really cannot see Wrex in any other role than as warrior," Alenko commented. "In that role he is great, of course. And I don't think people would welcome a turian like Garrus in the role of a ship's security officer or something similar."

Shepard grinned, soon followed by Pressley. "In that at least they would be entirely justified," Shepard answered. "It does seem they have no real use as long as they are on board. No matter, that is after all not why I dragged them along, anyway. However... Maybe some data console can be cleared or installed for Garrus? He proved his worth finding information on Saren, and I doubt this will be the last time that we'll need additional info."

Pressley nodded stiffly, taking over the question in his role as XO. "I'll see what can be done," he answered.

"That leaves Tali, the quarian. Truth be told, I am not entirely sure about her skills. I suppose I will have to talk to all three, anyway. Job interviews, so to say," Shepard commented with a thin smile. "And I guess somebody should show them the ship. Wouldn't do to have people on our side get lost on it."

"No, sir," Pressley agreed. "Anything else"?

"I don't think so. Not until we maybe get more information from Proteus, at least. Dismissed," Shepard ended the conference, and turned to leave the comm room.

Making his way through the CiC again, and then towards Doctor Chakwas office on the second deck of the ship, Shepard encountered Tali sitting in the crew's mess. The way she aimlessly looked around suggested she had currently nothing better to do, and maybe felt a bit lost. Again, of course, that was hard to tell with her face hidden beneath the mask. Guess I'll have to look up informations on the quarians. I have no idea what's up with that suit. Generally, Shepard considered him relatively well educated. Probably as well as anybody growing up on the streets of one of Earth's megapoleis could be educated, even. Reading up things far away either by location or by time was one of the few things back then that had allowed him to escape the harsh realities of his life. And while a soldier's training really focused on other things, it did give him at least the chance to further broaden his knowledge's horizon. He thus considered him well-informed about most races in Citadel Space. The quarians, though, had been as he had said nearly wiped out. Their entire race numbered fewer people than the colony of Elysium had, just about half as much. There hence was simply few information about them upon which Shepard could have stumbled. Definitely a hole in my knowledge right there.

Stopping at the chairs leading down to the deck, Shepard took a closer look at Tali, so far apparently unnoticed. Whatever it was with the suit, he had to admit it fit in all the right places, stressing her curves. He grinned. Probably designed by quarian males. Can't say I blame them. Though it probably also allowed her far more flexibility and agility than any envirosuit of the Alliance would permit its wearer. And Tali herself truly had proven her abilities. On whatever godforsaken planet she had acquired the data, on the Citadel, and also with what grace she had carried herself afterwards, as if she had never been alone on a geth world, on the run from Saren's agents and shot at by Fist's thugs. If Spectres are really 'embodiments of self-reliance' as the Asari Councillor has said, then maybe there should be some quarian Spectres, Shepard thought ironically. Then again, he doubted just any quarian could have done what Tali had. Or, at least, the thought of seventeen million such people would be kind of frightening.

He smiled, and approached her. "Already finished with Dr Chakwas examination?" he asked.

As she still not had spotted him, her head whirled around quickly, though it would be unfair to say she was startled. "Ah... Commander Shepard, it's you. Actually, not really. There were some complications, due to my suit, which held up the entire process. Dr Chakwas then decided to first check Garrus and Wrex. I was quite surprised of her broad knowledge of non-human physiology."

"Heh, yeah. She is certainly well-trained, and experienced. I guess that comes with being a military medic; eventually you just have seen it all. How was your suit a problem, though?"

"It is not medically possible for me to remove it outside a fully decontaminated room, and it is fully air sealed. Otherwise, there would be little purpose to it. Those two things combined make checking my health status from the outside practically impossible."

"Why can't you..." Shepard began, but then caught himself, and again mentally cursed his lack of knowledge about the quarians. He had no idea if this was not private, or maybe even involving a cultural taboo. At least among humans, such an intimate medical questions would be delicate at least. "...uh, that is, if it's not too private a question."

"Why I cannot remove my suit?" Tali answered. There was some sort of weariness in her voice, but she did not seem to take offence at the question. "It's all right to ask. It's common knowledge. Well, common if one does extranet queries or the like about us. And you have a right to know my capabilities and limits. To be precise, I could remove my suit, however I would practically certainly get an infection. I can tell you biological details later if you want, but the summary is that quarians always had a lesser developed immune system than other species anyway, due to different evolutionary demands on our homeworld. Then came our exile, aboard sterile spaceships, and our immune systems totally atrophied. Which means every contact of our bodies to the outside world is dangerous for us, in the worst case lethal."

Any contact is potentially lethal? That is, also any suit brech? Dear God, how could I then allow her into combat situations? That's... Those worries must have been clearly visible, since Tali hastily continued: "It's not as bad as you might assume. I cannot fully remove my suit, but if every little breach killed us already, there would certainly be no quarians alive anymore. And our suits are actually highly technological designs every breach gets automatically sealed. I need to take care, but I'm not fragile or overly vulnerable."

"I...ah, I'll keep that in mind". When she did not reply and merely lowered her head, Shepard went on: "No, really, Tali. If you say you are ready, then I'll trust you on that. You do not have to worry again about appearing weak on the mission." Was that just the usual crew morale blah blah, or the truth? Because there does seem to be a risk with her. Still, it's her decision, and she seems to be well aware of the risks.

Tali chuckled unsurely. "I should keep the unnecessity of that in mind, yes. In any case, Dr Chakwas tried to access the internal diagnostics of my suit, but so far to no avail. She is after all a physician, no electronics expert. She said that those attempts will be continued later. For now she is working on Garrus and Wrex."

"Good. That means I can catch them here, too. So, Tali... ah, besides your medical status I wanted to ask about, well, you. What did you do before you left the Migrant Fleet?"

"Me?" Tali asked in return, now clearly surprised. "There is not much to say about me. Like any quarian I was born aboard one of our ships, in my case the Rayya, hence that part of my name. The only extraordinary thing about me is probably my father, who is part of the Admiralty Board. As we are still technically under martial law, the Admiralty Board is our highest decision making organ, so he is a man of many responsibilities." Pausing, she continued after a gesture by Shepard to go on. "That also was visible in my upbringing. He pushed me hard as a child. Back then I often thought he pushed me too hard, but now I appreciate it. The universe doesn't owe you anything, and if you want something from life, you have to earn it. He understood that, and made sure I got a sound military and technical training."

This explains much. Very much. Shepard himself never had had many experiences of family, but he did not quite like the opposite extreme, either. Not that it was his place to judge now, and that was not the purpose of the conversation, anyway. "You do seem to have much knowledge about engineering," he said, bringing the conversation back to its desired path.

"It comes with being a quarian. Some of our vessel's date back all the way to the Geth War, and yet they are our home. They hence need to be constantly repaired, which in turn requires that all quarians have some skill in that matter."

"And going by how you extracted that geth data, most likely you have some skill with electronics, too, no?"

"Not enough to have helped Dr Chakwas in her endeavours," she replied dismissively, "though that was mostly due to electronics incompatibility."

"Hmhm. Do you think you could make yourself useful in Engineering then?"

"Oh, of course," Tali replied, surprised but yet in a steady voice. "I certainly should not simply hitch a ride on this ship for free."

Shepard chuckled. "Don't worry about that. I think we will stumble over geth soon enough, and then you can earn your ride. So to speak. However, even aboard we could use every help we get. I wouldn't call our engineers overworked, exactly, but more rest periods is something that can always help with readiness."

"Of course, Commander, no need to explain. Efficient use of resources is also something every quarian knows about, and idle I would be an unused resource. A waste that would make me feel uneasy anyway, truth be told."

Something about the way she told this bothered Shepard. He tried to put it in words: "That doesn't sound right. You're really selling yourself under value. Just a resource to be used, really?"

"It's not, I wasn't saying... Not just a resource. But also. Me, you, Lieutenant Alenko, everybody on this ship represents labour resources, after all."

Well, true. Still... it sounds kinda depersonalising. But I guess I can't argue with her logic. "Well then..." Shepard stopped, looking to the door to the medbay, which Garrus was just leaving. Shepard stood up to walk towards him, but turned again to Tali: "Well, then, I had planned to show you and the other two the ship, where you need to go and all, once you are all ready. I suppose until Chakwas is also finished with Wrex, you do need stay idle for a bit" He grinned at her, and then turned towards Garrus.

oooooo

Tali'Zorah definitely liked how Commander Shepard handled himself, or at least what she had seen of it so far. Despite ship command being thrust onto him all out of sudden, he had wasted no time to get the crew organised and the ship running. And what was more, he also seemed to have a way of communicating with and motivating the crew. His speech had been magnificent, and he had shown himself been understanding, yet firm in the personal talk with her. He is not yet a full Captain according to human traditions, she thought, but he will make a damn fine Captain one day. Maybe even Admiral. Though I had not planned to mention my father. She had just wanted to be able to answer him at all, after he had spoken so eloquently. Then again, her parentage was hardly a secret. She just hoped he would not judge her based on it, like most people aboard the Flotilla seemed to do. But then he does not appear to be the type to do so. She could already imagine what he would say to reassure her of that, and smiled. No need to bother him with that.

She watched the Commander walk towards Garrus. In all the upheaval of the day she had not really been able to take a good look at him. Human, male, military those short facts had to be enough. And she hadn't seen many humans before on her pilgrimage. The first thing she noticed was of course his non-quarianess, and that even though compared to some other races, humans were anatomically very similar to quarians. They carry themselves so rigidly, though. With turians that's understandable, what with their plates and all, or the massive elcor, but one would think people from middle values gravity worlds without dermal plating would be a bit more flexible, like us, or the asari, or even the salarians with their soft bones. Of course, the asari are practically blue quarians anyway. It also does not help that human faces are so broad. It makes them look somewhat brutish, especially the males. She sighed inwardly. I really have to remember not to apply my own ingrained standards on another species. Fortunately it's not so bad with Shepard. He walks with a certain style, a certain dignity and gravitas. And his face is okay, in a rugged, rogue like way.

As for Garrus, turians were an established, common sight on the galactic scene, and looked different enough to be beyond summoning up pre-formed notions. He spoke now, in this oddly resonant voice of most turians or rather, that oddly resonant voice most translator interpreted turian speech as: "Ah, Commander. I wanted to thank you for bringing me aboard. I'm looking forwards to working with. I know it will be better than my work at C-Sec."

"Ah, really?" Shepard replied. "Have you worked with a Spectre before?"

"I know what they're like," Garrus claimed. "Spectres make their own rules. You're free to handle things your way. At C-Sec, you're buried by rules. The damn bureaucrats are always on your back."

There was it again this tension in Shepard's body when Garrus spoke about too much regulation. "There is a reason for most of those rules," he replied, voice getting colder.

"Well, yes," Garrus admitted, apparently in an argumentative mood. "I am sure there once were honourable reasons for most of them. But most of the time I have the feeling they are simply used now to stop me from doing my work. From trying to take down a suspect, it shouldn't matter how I do do it, as long as I do it."

"No matter how? That could include brutality. What makes you better then than those suspects?" Shepard replied, now with a sudden icy politeness in his voice. Oh keelah, that's not good. He must have had bad experiences with out of control police in the past. That would also explain why he has always reacted so hostile to Garrus' complains about regulations. She felt a bit uneasy at the situation, though not overly so. Quarians had little private space on the Flotilla; experiencing arguments and awkward situations of others was hence something they all had plenty of experience in even already at young ages.

Garrus seemed to come to the same conclusions as Tali, as he replied after some stunned pause: "It would be very difficult to become worse than certain criminals. Like Saren. His case at C-Sec was just typical. People like him will always have an advantage if they are not bound by rules while police forces are."

Shepard held his voice on the same level of cool consideration as before, clearly holding back verbally. "But if police forces are not bound by those rules," he said, "if they think they can make their own rules and enforce them, then they are just any other street gang. Just one with better guns and flashier authority."

"Do you really believe that, Commander?" Garrus asked, clearly surprised. "You are a Spectre now. You do not only think to be above the rules, you are."

Shepard sighed, gathering himself. I wonder what he would like to say without constraints. When he spoke, his voice had turned from ice to giving a lecture: "Granting me Spectre authority is the only thing the Council was willing to do about Saren, and the only thing they were willing to grant humanity in our fight against him. Given that, that we receive no other resources from the Council, I will use my Spectre authority if necessary. However, in general I find the whole system a bad idea, rotten at the core. If I can help it there won't be any innocents endangered or prisoners brutalised, or whatever else you may have been thinking. Is that clear, Vakarian?"

"I wasn't... yes, Commander. Understood."

Shepard nodded, and continued his voice changing again, adapting to the situation. It was again warm and personal, almost soft at times: "You have contributed to this mission, and having read the reports on you I am sure you further can. Your handling of all kinds of rifles is impressive, as are your skills with various mechanical equipment. I am glad to have you on the team, but I want to see your skills used for good. To turn your arguments around persons like Saren will never help people. So somebody has to. And that would be us, the good guys, if you will. And not endanger them, intimidate them, or whatever crooked method you sometimes in your desperations about red tape may think of." I don't think he had intended to make this a lecture from the beginning. Not with how much anger he had held back in the beginning. He somehow managed to turn himself around, and make an impressive on-the-spot lecture out of it.

"I... see what you mean," Garrus replied. "I will think on it."

...

And so he had. Wrex had come out of Dr Chakwas office soon enough, slightly annoyed at the 'needless poking of him', and Commander Shepard had shown them the key points of the ship. Wrex had not looked particularly interested in the tour, but had tagged along anyway. And the Normandy had proven to be an absolutely amazing ship even from the inside. The command deck array was a bit unusual, and crew quarters were a bit crammed (though of course not more so than on a quarian ship), but everything displayed an overwhelming level of technology, from the communication and command technology at CiC over Dr Chakwas office to the state of the art sleeper pods. However, the most amazing thing she had found at the heart of the ship the Tantalus Drive Core at Engineering. She would never had thought that such a large drive core could be fit into a ship that small. The control electronics keeping it in check must be amazing! her thoughts had been as she had first seen it. Or the energy supply, I can't understand how they did it. No wonder the humans are so successful! And what was more, she would work here, at this wonderful piece of technology.

She had now for two days, being introduced into the ship's engineering section by Chief Engineer Adams. It had been just as she had hoped, her being able to learn so much about technological novelties of a newcomers race. Her thirst for knowledge and understanding of the machines before here had been unquenchable. Looking back at yesterday, she feared she might have pestered poor Adams a bit too much with questions, out of sheer excitement. She would have to learn to reign that in; after all not all races were as sociable creatures as the quarians were, and even by quarian standards her nagging, she could see no other way to describe it, could have been considered annoying.

The humans trusted her, though, apparently, or at least the officers. At her introduction, and the day afterwards, she had only been granted partial access to the systems. While she had no intention to in any way damage the technology, or as some feared steal it, she could nonetheless very well understand the precautions. This was after all a warship, and apparently the Alliance's most advanced one, too. Security precautions were simply a matter of sound military counter-intelligence. However, she now had full access to all engineering systems, something requested by Adams and approved by Shepard. Fortunately, my nagging does not seem to have made too bad of an impression on Adams. Truth be told, she was not quite sure if so quick trust was a good idea in general, but as she herself had no intention to abuse it, she could hardly complain about that.

And so she had set out to work. While the ship systems were a marvel of technology, there was always some things that could be modified and optimised. After all, without skills in that, the quarian people would never have been able to keep their ships in shape for three hundred years, and that had always been utterly necessary for survival. Of course, not all quarians excelled at that, but as for her, she did consider herself not too bad in it. Already yesterday she had found a way to make the energy supply slightly more efficient not much, but every bit of spared resources helped, whether on the Flotilla or on a warship that could well be outside properly chartered space for months. And she had suggested some ways to better the control interface, though Adams had commented on the need to mull that over first. Looking back, she did feel a bit self-conscious to have spoken up on such matters like she were some sort of authority, even though she was a newcomer, but during her work she had spent little thought on that: The suggested improvements had simply come to naturally to her, and she had been too absorbed in her work too notice that she may stand out of line. Fortunately, Adams seemed to understand it, and had not raised the issue. A good man. But then, from what he has said, he has seen just about everything in his career. Of course an over-eager quarian alone would not faze him. Speaking of which, there he is. Does he want something?

"Hello, Tali," he greeted, approaching her. "Knowing you, you probably have already found half a dozen ways to improve our systems yet again, keeping the rest of us busy with doing the modifications." There was good natured humour in his voice, and she knew he was not serious. It had been quite enough that she had constantly apologised about giving offence the day before when she had in fact not, so she had learned her lessons.

"Chief Engineer," she replied, nodding her head. "Well, one thing. The power supply again. The way single sections of the machinery request energy leads to redundancies. Not overly wasteful, but something to look at. Maybe. If, uh, your engineers are not busy with something else. And if you think it's feasible."

"I'll have a look at it. Don't worry, your suggestions so far have been sound, no reason why this one shouldn't."

Tali smiled beneath her mask, but nonetheless decided to voice her worries: "Not that I complain, but you seem very accepting of the suggestions of a nosy newcomer in the engineering section."

Adams shrugged, saying: "This is a prototype warship. It got pressed into combat service a bit earlier as planned, due to the Battle of Eden Prime, and now again when we got assigned to Shepard, but it also still does serve to gather technological data, and convince everybody on the values of its technological improvements. Meaning that we take whatever further improvements somebody can come up with, so that we can test that as well. And of course so that we can generally be the fittest ship of the Fleet." He smiled as he said so and continued: "But that's not really why I'm here. Whatever you're doing must pause for a bit. Commander Shepard wants to see you. We've reached Proteus, and you are to accompany him to the surface."

"Of course." That after all was her primary duty here, not so much supporting the ship crew, but rather to support directly Shepard as a Spectre. "Then I better do not leave him waiting."