Shepard looked at the prisoner sitting on the brick's bed. Dr Wayne, former Alliance scientist. At least, officially. In truth, he had been a Cerberus scientist conducting unethical and murderous experiments. It had been Cerberus who had sent an entire marine platoon to their death, just so they could watch how Thresher Maws fought. There had been only two survivors, and one had later been driven into suicide. Sarah Schäfer, at that time Shepard's girlfriend.
So now Shepard wanted the truth. The truth, and revenge.
However, an inner turmoil dominated his thoughts. He wanted revenge, he wanted to simply hurt the bastard in front of him - but this would go against all his convictions, all he ever argued for, all he had scolded others for. He had met both Garrus and Alenko on his way to the brig, and neither meeting had been coincidental. He did not quite know what he could say to them if he now broke his convictions.
Still - he just had to find out the truth. He still did not quite know what to do.
He shook his head, scoffed and began: "So, tell me about Cerberus!"
Wayne looked up, the first time since Shepard had entered the cell. "You have no idea with whom you're dealing!"
"Indeed," Shepard agreed, "That's why I'm asking you. And I will get those answers."
"Nothing you can threaten me with can be any worse than what they could do to me!" Wayne claimed.
"We'll see about that," Shepard threatened and walked towards Wayne, "I will get the knowledge I want, I..." He stopped and breathed out. He would get that knowledge, yes. Eventually. Wayne was his prisoner now, and eventually he would talk. Shepard realized that what he wanted was not Wayne talking, but him talking now. He was about to do matters quickly and carelessly. To cut corners.
He breathed out again and turned his back to Wayne. "I will to whatever it takes to make you talk," he stated.
"And Cerberus will do whatever it takes to keep me quiet, or to make an example out of me if I talk!" Wayne exclaimed.
"That's why you get for working for such an organization," Shepard said. "However, I'm not in a hurry. Be glad I'm not." He turned around to face Wayne again. "You have two choices: You can talk now ad in the next conversations. Everything will be civilized, a normal interrogation. But, if that doesn't work, if you really keep your mouth entirely shut - then eventually I will force you to spill everything. With rather uncivilized means." I won't cut corners. But I will do what's necessary. However, it just isn't necessary yet. I won't do this sloppily. I won't commit crimes myself. Not if I don't need to.
"What, already shying away from harsh measures?" Wayne mocked. "Your threats are hollow,"
Shepard's first instinctive reaction was anger coming up, but he suppressed that very quickly. Wayne was his prisoner and utterly powerless now. Mockery was all he had left. It were in fact his words which were empty. "Believe what you want," he told the doctor, "as long as you talk." He turned towards the door. Before opening it and leaving the cell, he said with his back to Wayne: "You know your two choices. Choose well."
000000
Zhu's Hope did not look any nicer on a second look. There simply was no way one could call prefabs crammed together like that any aesthetic, not even by quarian standards. Which was a pity, because the surrounding ancient Prothean towers could look very impressive from the outside. However, Zhu's Hope was located in the inside of one such tower, an entire settlement on a skyscraper level, and hence ugly, grey walls of concrete surrounded the already bleak looking settlement.
At least nobody is shooting at us this time. That's an improvement. And without Thorian spores controlling them, the inhabitants are much nicer, too. Too bad they don't have the means to make something better out of this place. That was a situation Tali could sympathize with, though.
It was the only settlement in the entire cluster, and hence despite all its faults the Normandy had returned here, together with most of the 4th Fleet of the Alliance Navy, which had gathered to make a further concentrated effort to push the geth out of the Armstrong Cluster. An armada to take the war to the synthetics.
Tali was glad that she could be part of that endeavour, especially as part of the crew of the Normandy, the central ship in the war plans. The 4th Fleet had already tried once to dislodge the geth, and failed. Now, they would try again, but with a change of plans: All those ships would now merely serve as a distraction for the geth, to draw their ships away from their outposts. The Normandy would then use its stealth abilities to slip past those battles and drop its ground troops on the contested planets. Which then would take out the outposts. Or at least, that was the plan.
It was ironic that a small frigate would be the central element of the war effort, but Tali certainly enjoyed the fact. The ship's crew, including her, would deliver the most critical contribution, which meant she could make a real difference in the fight against the geth - and she certainly enjoyed fighting the synthetics. It was not a hot burning rage; after all the quarian exile had went on for centuries even before she had been born. However, it was a cold hate in the back of her mind, something she had grown up with and had absorbed with every fiber of her being.
The command staff of the 4th Fleet had built up a strategical command centre in one of the towers neighbouring Zhu's Hope. Shepard was there most of the time, taking part in making plans, coordinating efforts, establishing time schedules. He was very busy, and Tali only saw him rarely.
While that was understandable, Tali had the feeling the Commander also intentionally avoided her. Ever since the Normandy's departure from Earth, he had been hardly approachable, if at all. And whereas the two had regularly spent a considerable part of their free time together before, she had talked hardly a dozen sentences with him since Earth.
She knew what it was about, as she had witnessed what had happened on Ontarom. She could hence understand Shepard's state of mind. However, she wished she could help him. She was by now good enough at reading him that she could see when his hard and grim face was just a facade and in those moments she longed to reach out to him, to support him. However, she knew she could not force the issue. She could talk to him once he would be ready to talk again, and it was not like she could reach out to him in any other way, as much she would have liked to.
She was worried about Shepard, but there was precisely little she could do. So, instead she had made use of her free time to walk around Zhu's Hope. Garrus, Liara and Alenko had joined her, as they all currently had nothing to do. With the Normandy still docked, there were not many pressing duties aboard. And walking around a container village surrounded by ugly concrete was still preferable to doing nothing at all.
"It seems all effects of the Thorian's mind control have disappeared, fortunately," Liara commented when the group halted just outside the settlement proper.
"Hopefully this gives the colonists a new chance to make something better out of this place," Alenko added.
"They certainly are already well organised," Garrus commented, "Considering how few time has passed since we defeated the creature. Martinez has proven to be a competent new leader."
Arcelia Martinez, originally just a 'cop-for-hire' on the colony, had officially taken over leadership of the colony after Fai Dan had died during the battle against the Thorian. However, Tali was doubtful how much it was her merit that reconstruction efforts already had started: "From all I've heard, the colony would be considerably worse off if it weren't for Shiala. She seems to be running things here."
"It is good then that they've found such competent help," Liara said, "It's not easy for them, after they lost the financial support of ExoGeni,"
"The Commander was still right in pursuing them," Garrus replied firmly, while Alenko nodded fiercely.
"Besides, depending on how the trial goes, they might get financial compensations," Alenko said. "Another matter Shiala is taking care of."
"So I've heard," Garrus agreed, "She's on Earth now, isn't she?"
"Indeed," Liara confirmed, "She's no legal expert, especially not concerning human law, but then she doesn't need to be. Anita Goyle is organizing everything. However, the colony just needs a competent representative at the trial. Hopefully, if there are any compensations they'll arrive quickly. It looks like the colony could need them."
"Knowing our legal system, I wouldn't bet on it," Alenko commented gloomily. "This is a big issue, so the trial will probably take years."
"That's just not how things should be," Garrus argued fiercely, but then caught himself and continued almost sheepishly: "But I guess there are many issues in turian society humans would find objectionable, too."
This was followed by an uneasy silence, until Liara spoke up: "If they even have years. I mean, if any of us still has years."
"If we don't catch Saren we most likely won't," Alenko replied, "However, we'll just have to have faith that we'll catch him and ward off the Reaper threat. Until then we carry on and do what's right."
That statement was followed by an even more profound silence. Liara is right. For all Shepard did right here, will it even matter if the Reapers manage to return?
After a while, Liara tried yet again to restart the conversation: "I understand the Commander has given you a new task, Garrus."
"Yeah," the turian answered, "I'm in charge of interrogating our newest prisoner."
"Given what Commander Shepard said on Ontarom, that's probably a good thing," Liara commented.
"I can understand him, I really can," Garrus stated, "But he's just too involved in this case. Besides, I have experience in such procedures."
"I saw him on the way to the holding cell," Alenko said quietly. "I think... I think he was this close," He held up index finger and thumb of his right hand and kept them very close to each other, "To doing something he'd regret later."
"He didn't, though," Garrus answered. "In the end he showed a sufficient degree of self-control, and didn't compromise his principles." The respect in the statement was evident.
Tali had not heard of that incident, and even though it had apparently all ended well, it made her feel even more worried about Shepard and his current state of mind. She had witnessed the scene on Ontarom. She could understand Shepard's anger and hate. It was not just his righteous fury as displayed against ExoGeni or Udina; this issue was personal for him. On the one side she respected that, but on the other side she hoped that Shepard would not do something he would later regret, as Alenko had formulated it.
"Does anybody know what will happen with the prisoner now?" she asked
"That's difficult," Alenko explained, "Shepard is unwilling to hand him over to the Alliance, considering what influence Cerberus seems to have over it. Which is a scary thought all in itself. I think the Commander is right in that, but that means nobody quite knows what to do with Wayne now."
"For now, we interrogate him," Garrus continued, "If we have gotten all useful information he has - we'll see then. The Commander has mused about turning him over to the Council, but I'm not sure they'd be interested in it. It appears to be a human problem, after all."
"And yet Commander Shepard would be willing to get the Council involved," Liara said, "to drag inner-human problems into the open."
Alenko smiled faintly. "That's just the way he is. Justice at any price, even if it means the Alliance will get embarrassed."
"Another shouting match with Udina in the making," Tali commented.
"It's a moot point for now," Garrus pointed out, "Since we have nothing to get the Council interested in Cerberus. But I'm sure the Commander will find a solution. He usually does."
That was something all four could agree on.
…...
Tali was nervous.
Normally that was something she could deal with fairly well. Both her training and her recent experiences enabled her to put such emotions aside and focus on the work at hand. At the moment, however, there was no work to be done.
She stood at her terminal in Engineering, but it did not display the Tantalus Core's statistics, or power supply peaks or other related things. Rather, it showed a schematic map of the ships surrounding the Normandy. It was the battle fleet assembled to deal with the geth in the Armstrong Nebula, and at the moment they were preparing to jump into that cluster.
Standard doctrine for trans-relay assaults was to have the assault fleet jump as one formation. This could lead to the attacking unit ending up vastly wide away from the intended target, but at least it would stay in formation. Since it was expected that battle would break out nearly immediately once the fleet had jumped into the Nebula, this was an important point. Besides, the fleet jumping in one go would mean the geth could not tell how many ships were involved, which would keep the Normandy hidden from them.
The ship and her ground team would play an important part in the operations, and most likely this would include Tali. Right now, however, all she could do was to wait for that to happen, with nothing else to do. All systems ran smoothly, and hence she had nothing else to do than to watch the fleet get into formation. That wait made her nervous.
"Preparing for jump," Chief Engineer Adams announced. The great moment was upon them.
A single ship using a mass relay already was quite a spectactle of light and energy being released. A whole fleet using a relay at once was on another level all together. Enormous flashes of dark energy swirled around the ships, surrounding them. The Mass Relay connected with its counterpart in the Armstrong Cluster, opened a mass-free transit corridor - and accelerated the fleet.
As a quarian, Tali was used to this process. The Migrant Fleet was so large that it could not jump in one go, and relay transits often took days - days full of such scenes, one jump of hundreds of ships after the next. So she was somewhat jaded to the sight. Her mind was much more occupied with what they would encounter on the other side.
The jump was surprisingly exact. The fleet ended up in the outer fringes of the Hong system, and immediately set course for their intended target: The moons of Theshaca. Since Theshaca was a gas giant in a mass relay system, it was commonly used by spaceships to discharge their drive cores. Unfortunately, this could include pirate ships, as well. So in 2178 the Alliance had set up a series of covert sensing devices on the planet's moons to record the pirate's FTL exit vectors. Over the course of six months, this had allowed the Alliance Navy to track down and destroy eight major pirate bases.
Since then, no ships from the Terminus Systems had been reported from the Hong system anymore – but now it was in geth hands. Practically all devices had been destroyed by the synthetics, but they could never be sure of it. An Alliance raid to protect remaining sensors, or download data from them, would hence make perfect sense.
However, that was just a distraction.
"You better get to the Mako now, Tali," Chief Engineer Adams ordered.
She nodded and turned to go – because the real reason that this massive fleet had been set in motion was the Normandy and only the Normandy. She would slip past the geth under cover of the chaotic battle and her own stealth systems, and would drop a ground team that then would take out the system's geth outpost. At least that was the plan, and Tali would be part of that ground team. A major military operation, just so that I and four other people get a chance to shoot geth. I better don't screw this up.
She ran most of the way, and found most of the selected squad already seated. Only Commander Shepard himself was still missing. Besides her, Garrus, Wrex and Williams would accompany him.
Shepard came running to the Mako only some seconds after Tali and took the driver's seat.
"We're right above Casbin now," he explained. "Drop in a minute."
The hangar doors of the cargo bay opened slowly. Tali could see the ground below them, which meant the Normandy already had entered the planetary atmosphere.
"Starting orbital insertion... now!" Shepard announced and sped up the Mako.
This was the sixth time that Tali was inside an orbital inserted vehicle, so she was already used to it. There was still some drill to it, to fall towards a planet from incredible heights, but it was actually quite safe due to the Mako's element zero core. It reduced the tank's mass, so that supported by its thrusters it could land quite comfortably on the planet.
Casbin was a "pre-garden world". It was barren, but not as barren as most planets. A thick layer of green lichen covered most of its ubitiquous rocks and stones. Green and gray stretched as far as Tali could see.
"Checking our position," Garrus said, and after a pause announced: "According to the Normandy's orbital scans, the geth oupost is north-east of here, not far away. Close enough that they've probably discovered us as well."
"Then let's not waste time," Shepard replied, and accelerated the Mako.
They dashed through a mountainous area, which surely would have been inaccessible to them were it not for the Mako's special abilities. Its element zero core, its thrusters and its automatic self-stabilisation systems allowed it to find a way even through the most forbidding surroundings. It was not a pleasant ride, but everybody already was quite used to that – there were no such things as pleasant rides in the Mako. At least so far nobody was shooting at them.
"Picking up geth communication signals," she announced.
"We're closing in to the suspected location of the base," Garrus confirmed.
And indeed Tali could after a short time already see it on her seat's screen. Amidst the vast lichen fields stood a metallic construction. Its architecture positively oozed geth style. It's a blight on this world and it will be eradicated. Tali rarely harboured such hateful or theatralic thoughts, but in everything concerning the geth that was another matter.
"Entering firing range," Garrus commented, but he did not even get to finish the sentence before Shepard already had fired the first shot.
The geth reacted quickly, and a hail of bullets and rockets came towards the Mako. The Commander fired a further cannon shot, and then retreated. He made full use of the Mako's manoeuvrability. The Mako was directed into the most inaccessible parts of the mountains surrounding the base, which granted it a superb cover.
A shooting match ensued. Several geth units were destroyed, while the Mako was hardly ever hit – nothing the shields could not take care of. However, the geth improved – more and more of their units fired ever more exactly at the vehicle's position.
"Goddamn!" Shepard cursed after a particularly bad hit drew a large part of the shield's power supply.
"We should go into the offensive, sir," Williams adviced, "Take them out before they get too organized!"
"I don't..." Shepard began.
However, he was interrupted by Garrus: "Incoming enemy reinforcements!"
Above a mountain peak at the other side of the base a geth drop ship rose. It headed right for the Mako's position.
"We need to call in the Normandy!" Williams said.
"No!" Shepard disagreed, "We can't give away her position." He breathed out. "Everybody dismount. Should any geth come this way keep them in cover, use suppressive fire. I'll try to take care of that ship in the meanwhile. Go!"
With a tank? But Tali did as Shepard had ordered. Decisive orders were always better than no orders, and he had been right: If the Normandy were to reveal her position, it would immediately be beset by further geth ships. She was impressed with how Shepard kept oversight in the battle and quickly reacted to new developments, but on the other hand she had almost come to expect that of him.
The geth ship dropped several units on the slope leading to the Mako's position. Light bi-pedal units, no tank-level platforms. Thank the ancestors! She positioned herself behind a rock, and everybody else in the team sought and found a place with good cover, too. And then, following Shepard's order to stop or delay the geth advance, she simply fired in their general direction.
Few shots hit the geth, but that was not the point. Those units could be easily dispatched by the Mako; but the Mako's gun was busy with another target at the moment. It thundered right above her, its mas effect fields accelerating a slug right at the geth ship in the sky.
A geth bullet grazed her shields. The synthetics now went into the offensive and mostly ignored the suppressive fire. They were after all protected by their own kinetic barriers. In fact, their own fire now kept the squad in their covers.
"They mustn't reach the Mako!" Williams shouted. "Garrus, with me! Wrex, Tali, keep your positions."
With bullets and rockets flying past her, Tali had no intention of going anywhere. She just hoped Williams knew what she was doing. The geth came ever nearer, and the team's defensive power had just been cut in two.
She managed to get some breathing space by hacking a geth shock trooper and sending it against its companions, but nonetheless two further ones were advancing right into her direction.
What more can I do now then to simply shoot and hope for the best?
She did just that, but her shield power was dwindling and her shotgun overheating fast. She managed to down one enemy, but feared to be overran. Just as she considered using her remaining shield power to fall back to the Mako, the geth lines came into disarray. Tali dared to take a closer look, and she could see Williams and Garrus storming at the geth, from the side. Their flanking maneuver apparently had succeeded.
Tali used the enemy disorder to retreat slightly and search a new cover. This helped to alleviate her precarious situation, but the geth soon re-ordered, too. She feared the next attack wave and prepared herself from it - and then she heard the Mako's cannon again. However, it did not fire at the sky any more. Rather, it hit one of the geth charging to her position.
"The geth ship is gone," Shepard announced via the communication system, "Fall back to the Mako; it can take care of the remaining geth."
Tali was only too happy to oblige. As soon as she saw all geth in her vicinity either destroyed or distracted, she turn and ran towards the vehicle. Several shots hit her, and her shields faltered. Some more shots pierced her envirosuit. She had already expected that to happen. She just hoped the suit would seal off any breaches promptly enough.
She reached the Mako considerably later than Wrex. Shepard accelerated the vehicle even as she was still getting seated.
"Garrus and Williams are still pinned down," the Commander explained, "We're taking the offensive."
The Mako rushed down the mountain's slope, towards the geth base, either firing at or ignoring all geth units in its path. Its strong shields and armour made it safe enough to drive right into enemy light units. Tali was relieved. This all could have gone way worse. However, now it seemed the mission would end in a success. The Mako took down the remaining geth, and Williams and Garrus soon joined up again.. So Tali felt victorious rather than shocked. Never a dull day with Shepard.
When the Mako finally entered the geth base, no more resistance was encountered. They did not find any useful data or hints about the geth's intentions, but at least a start was made. One of four known bases of the geth in the cluster had been destroyed.
…...
A small red sun shone on the Normandy. The system it currently resided in, or rather hid in, was so insignificant as to not even have a name, only a designation: ARM-4476a. Two small rock planets and a very small number of asteroids orbited closely around a dull red dwarf. The Alliance battle fleet had gone on in its counter-incursion into the geth-held cluster. Their next target was a science facility taken over by the synthetics in the Rayingri system. Eventually, it would be a target for the Normandy as well, but for now the battle fleet only tried to draw all geth ships in the cluster to that system. In the meanwhile, the Normandy would lay low, and then attack another outpost, which hopefully would then be without or with lessened naval defence.
Tali hoped that attack would go better than the last one. The ground team had successfully destroyed the base on Casbin, but it had been a close call. Tali's enviro-suit had been breached at several points. Fortunately, none of those breached had been large, and they all had been sealed off correctly by the suit. Unfortunately, this apparently had not always happened in time. Ever since Casbin, she had an annoying skin irritation, which most likely was an allergic reaction to outside contamination.
Currently she was on the second deck of the ship, thecrew deck, which contained the mess, the sleeping pods, the crew's personal belongings and the captain's cabin were all there, as were the escape pods and the sick bay. People went there to sleep, to eat and to socialize in their off-duty time. Tali had gone to there to get a nutrient tube.
Absent-mindedly she went through her belongings. Most likely she would take the tube down to Engineering and chew on it while going through some diagrams. It was not really satisfying, but she had nothing better to do. Everybody else from Engineering was either on duty or in a sleeping period, she hardly knew anybody outside Engineering and the ground team, and Shepard had taken to spend his off duty time exclusively in his cabin. After Ontarom he had taken command of the ship again, but his off time consisted of going to the mess, taking some food, and then disappearing into his cabin.
Tali was a little bit disappointed with that. Not in him, personally, but in the situation. She had always enjoyed her time with the Commander. To the point that she had developed a crush on him. He seemed to have enjoyed the time spent together, too, but now he did not seem to care about it any more. The news that Akuze had not been a disaster but a crime had hit him hard. From what the Commander had said on Ontarom, Akuze had driven somebody very important to him to suicide.
Tali could understand him. It had sounded like a horrible story, like a story that could hurt a person terribly. However, she also knew that just brooding alone over it was not healthy. She really wanted to help Shepard, but she just was in no position to force the issue. It would be quite inappropriate if I just stopped at his cabin, and I -
She stopped her thoughts. As fate or coincidence would have it, Shepard came walking into the mess. He looked around in the room and saw her. He nodded as greeting with a faint smile on his face. However, all in all he looked gloom.
That was really more than what was acceptable. Tali did not know what possessed her, but she laid the nutrient tube she already had in her hand back and walked right towards the Commander.
"Shepard," she greeted him.
"Tali," he greeted back. He was just finished with loading food on a tablet, and turn to go again.
"What are you doing all the time in your room anyway?" Tali asked Shepard, or rather asked his back. She tried to keep the question as innocent sounding as possible.
Shepard stopped. He chuckled lightly, but that was easily missed. "Brooding, I guess," he answered.
Good. At least he's still honest with me. That thought shortly gave Tali pause. Still honest with me? Odd how I've come to expect that from him... She quickly dropped that line of thought and instead offered: "How about you brood here then, and I join you?"
Shepard turned around. "It's a bit difficult to brood when not alone," he answered and grinned lopsidedly. "Especially when you're around."
In reaction to that Tali's stomach felt a little bit as if a tiny starship made FTL jumps inside it. "I, ah..." Her voice stumbled. It was a noticeable insecurity, but then she caught herself. "That sounds like a good reason then for me to be around you," she continued, only to become very self-conscious about whether this had been too direct.
Shepard appeared uncertain about that. He looked towards his cabin, where he had wanted to go to, then back to Tali, then all around. Finally, he sighed and answered: "Okay, I guess. Why not? We haven't talked in quite a while..." He paused. "Okay, granted, that's been my fault. So I guess, yeah, why not spend our meals together again now."
"Great!" Tali answered. She tried to keep her enthusiasm down, but did not quite know whether she had managed to.
She walked to her belongings again, grabbed a nutrient paste, and got seated at the mess table, where Shepard already had begun to eat.
"Are you okay, by the way?" Shepard asked, "You seemed to have gotten hit on Casbin."
"My suit was only minimally breached," Tali answered, "so my reaction is far less worse than after Therum. It's annoying, a sort of skin irritation, but nothing I'm not used to."
"Given that reasoning, I'm not quite sure whether I should find this good or bad to hear," Shepard stated.
Tali shrugged, a gesture very similar to the human one. "It's just how it is," she replied, "Honestly I'm more annoyed how close a call the battle was."
"Yeah, that really needs to be better in the next battle," Shepard answered darkly.
"I'm sure it will," she reassured him, "It shouldn't have been so close, but we got to fight and destroy geth, so it wasn't all bad."
"Military operations are often a close thing," Shepard said, "But, I, ah, must admit I'm feeling a bit bad about sending you into the crossfire like that. After all, I take a young quarian on pilgrimage aboard, and all she sees is battle after battle. I feel like I've conscripted you or something."
"Is that the pilgrimage discussion again?" Tali asked, half serious and half mocking.
"No... well, not really," Shepard answered. "It's just - the crew are professional soldiers. Garrus has military training, at least, and Wrex is a seasoned mercenary. You, though - and Liara, too, well..."
"I'm a soldier, too," Tali claimed, "I got military training. Father made sure of that. He expected that I'd come into such situations."
"Of course, your father," Shepard replied. "You know what I'll answer to that of course, don't you? Forget about a father for a moment, do you really want to stumble from one battle into the next?"
Tali could guess just what was on Shepard's mind. "I may be young, but I'm not some fragile mind to be protected. I volunteered. And yes, I want to be part of this mission. What better way to search for a pilgrimage gift? And I get to fight the geth." And Shepard. He's definitely a third reason. Not that I could say so.
Shepard sighed. "Yeah, I guess. Maybe it's really just my reservations about the pilgrimage tradition, that you have to search for such a gift at all. Hopefully, you'll find one during our engagements in this cluster."
"That would be ideal, of course," Tali answered, "But there's more to it. We help to foil a major geth plan. That's good all in itself, even if we don't find anything."
"You seem to cherish every chance to fight them," Shepard said.
"They drove my people into exile," she said, "Our current living conditions, everything from living in those overfilled ships, to the lack of resources and the need to wear these envirosuits, it's all due to them. So yes, I do." She spoke with confidence. That at least was something she was very certain of, her hate against the geth and her justifications for it.
"I see," Shepard answered, "Yeah, I do understand. Just firing away at those bastards you hate so much..."
Tali's voice became quieter, understanding and serious: "That's what you hope to do after this mission, too, don't you?"
"I do," Shepard replied firmly. "I know we're on a mission to hunt down Saren, and I'll do so, but my gut tells me to rather go hunt down Cerberus now."
Tali searched for words to make the conversation go on. She wanted to help Shepard, support him. Yet, saying that was difficult for her. She gathered courage and after a pause said stumbling: "You know... you know you can count... I mean, of course I'll support you in that. If necessary."
"I... I know, actually," Shepard said. He sounded a bit surprised himself at that. "You always have so far. Including now, I guess. So... thank you."
The fluttery feeling in Tali's stomach grew, but she pushed on: "I can understand your hatred. But you should keep that hate for them, and not burn yourself with it." She had picked up that association of hate and fire in her extranet searches about human culture, it was not a quarian expression. "You're not hurting Cerberus, and you're not helping yourselves by locking yourself up in your cabin."
"Ah, my chaperon again," Shepard said with a faint grin. Then his facial expression darkened, and he sighed. "You're right of course, but I... I mean, those revelations, they totally changed... not that you..." His arms moved in agitated gestures. "Well, to hell with justifications. You're right. Ah... sorry."
"No, I..." Tali began, surprised at that apology. The conversation was not easy. Now that Shepard actually was talking to her she wanted to use that, tell him she would be on his side, and tell him what she had at good advice - but all those attacks of insecurity did not help in that. "You don't need to apologize. I understand. It's just..." I worry about you. "It's just some advice."
"I see," Shepard said. His voice sounded oddly distant. What's going on in his mind? Then it softened: "Then not sorry, but - thanks. I'll reserve my hatred for Cerberus now."
"You really do, don't you?" Tali asked. "Hate them, I mean."
"You've seen and heard what atrocities they've committed," Shepard answered. His voice became dark: "And they've killed..." He stopped and clenched his right hand into a fist.
Tali did not quite know from where she got her courage, but her own hands, three-fingered and gloved, picked up that fist. Surprisingly, it began to relax. "Tell me about her," she said, and let go of Shepard's hand again.
And so he did.
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Husks. Why did it have to be husks?
Shepard was in his cabin, where he removed his armour piece by piece. He would later take it to its correct equipment storage, but at the moment he was too exhausted for it. The Normandy's ground team had just raided and destroyed the geth outpost on Rayingri, a former Alliance science facility the synthetics had taken over – and had it found to be defended by the former scientists, turned into techno-zombies.
It had been a marvelous maneuver on the strategical level: The Alliance battle field had entered the Gagarin system, Rayingri's system, and drawn the geth fleets to there. This had allowed the Normandy to raid the enemy outpost on Maji in the Vamshi system without much in the way of naval opposition. And after the Alliance fleet had left the Gagarin System again, and when hence the geth fleets there had dispersed, too, the Normandy had entered it, slipped its ground team through all sensors, and had it attack the Rayingri station.
On the tactical level, though, directly at the front, the fight had been brutal. There was something deeply unsettling about husks, and the fact that they once used to be human just made it worse. Shepard would have much rather dealt with any other kind of enemies than husks. At least the battle had been a success. The geth presence in the system had been cleansed, and the infrastructure the geth had installed in the science facility had been taken over.
There had been hopes that Rayingri would be the cluster headquarters of the geth. It certainly had been the most extensive of their outposts so far, but still the hope had proven to be futile, and there was only one further outpost known in the cluster. However, from the data captured on Rayingri Tali had been able to deduce the geth's communication system. This should enable the Normandy and its team to track geth communications. When they would hit the fourth and remaining base, on Antibaar in the Tereshkova system, then hopefully they would be equipped to catch and track back geth communications. Either Antibaar was the geth's headquarters, or it would lead them to the there. If everything went according to plan.
Another thing Shepard had to thank Tali for. Besides coaxing him out of his isolation inside his cabin during the last days. Looking back, his behaviour had been a bit immature. Understandable on an emotional level, maybe, but immature. And Tali took me out of it. She had pushed that point on, to his and as he suspected also to her own surprise.
He shook his head, stripped down and went to his cabin's shower box. Small as it was, on a warship it was an incredible luxury. The hot water running down his body washed the thoughts about the battle away for now.
While he dressed himself again, his thoughts wandered back to Tali. It was not like she had really snapped him out of anything, but it had been close enough. He wondered why she even put up with that, and the countless other episodes where she had been at his side. He wondered how she had managed it at all, why he had simply followed what she had said. And he wondered why he had taken her support for granted.
Tali certainly had become special for him. Important to him. Special...
Ah, Jon, really? You goddamn idiot.
The answer to all of those questions dawned on him. He sat upright on his bed and stared into nothing. He did not move for several minutes.
But... how? She's an alien for god's sake! That's just...
And yet it seemed he had developed a more than just friendly attachment to her. That seemed to be a simple matter of truth. The reason why he had always reacted so positively to her presence, the reason why she had been able to reach out to him in his self-isolation, probably even the reason he had been so enchanted by her dance in Chora's Den.
He scolded himself an idiot to have not realized it. But even more he felt to be an idiot for having those emotions at all. Human-asari relations, that was something humanity had become accustomed to already. But – A quarian? Or rather, a non-asari alien. Fine to build friendships with of course, even close friendships, but anything more? Not a chance.
And then, out of all people, Tali. Not just an alien, but a dextro-amino alien stuck in an environmental suit, who was only away from her people due to a rite of passage and would soon enough return to them. Really, you're such a fool, Jon.
He had not even seen her face yet, and neither would he ever have the ability to. He had looked up images of quarians on the extranet. Their faces seemed very human-like - less broad, with less extensive jars, and some odd things at the side that might pass for ears or not - but they were still very clearly alien. Not as much as turians or salarians, but considerably more so than asari, for example.
Besides, he on his part was hardly the ideal partner, either. A battle hardened veteran, still mourning over a love five years dead. Yeah. Perfect relationship material. It was ironic, in a way: People had told him, and he himself had told him to move on for years now. However, Tali really was not the right 'target' for that. Even the idea was ludicrous – She's an alien! He had not even seen her in such a way before. Well, except at Chora's Den... oh, damn.
He sighed and finished dressing. It was a pipe dream if there ever was one, but on the positive side that meant he could ignore it. Eventually Tali would return to the Flotilla, and that would be that then. He valued her friendship, and he hoped they could spend enough time together until then. Any ideas of more would have to be stuffed back into the darkest corners of his mind. It was impossible anyway for practical reasons, and also a bit disturbing. A xenophily fetish? Who would've thought...
He had seen mags and vids about such topics, like Fornax. And he heard stories about such couples. Personally, it did not faze him much, that was their business. But he himself? He shook his head. That was clearly something to just forget about.
After he finished dressing, he grabbed the nearest report datapad to occupy his mind. He did not really care what the report was about, as long as it would focus his thoughts on another topic. This worked well enough for half an hour or so.
However, the universe seemed to have a dark sense of humour. When he finally got his mind to concentrate on the datapad, the door bell chimed, and his communicator was activated. It was Tali's voice speaking from it: "May I come in, Commander? There is something I have discovered."
Ah. What perfect timing of her. Of all the people who might want to speak with me right now, it had to be her... She had addressed him as 'Commander', though, not Shepard. At least it seemed to be an official matter.
Shepard opened the door, and Tali entered. Seeing her only confirmed his dawning realization about his feelings for her. He had to admit he always had been fascinated by her graceful gait, even though it was so alien. He pushed that thought away. She's here on official business, most likely. "Tali," he said, "what can I do for you?"
"CIC received the daily information update from the battle fleet an hour ago," Tali explained, "And for some reason, a carbon copy was sent straight to my work station."
Shepard raised an eyebrow. That was interesting, but he could not yet see what it had to do with him. Tali continued: "I noticed that the file was several times larger than it should have been, so I became curious and analyzed it. There was a second file embedded with it, an audio file. I think it was sent to my station because people figured I'd be able to discover this." She paused. "The audio file is addressed at you."
She rose her omnitool and typed on it. A voice began to fill the room: "Shepard, this is Admiral Kahoku. Admiral Hackett informed me about what you've found out on Ontarom, and I made some inquiries regarding 'Cerberus'." He paused, and then continued in a desperate tone: "Damn, I hope you get this message." He composed himself again. "Hackett's hunch was right. It was them who set the trap for my men. I had never heard of them, but apparently they used to be Alliance. An Alliance black ops organization. Top secret, highest level security clearance." His voice became more desperate again: "But they've gone completely rogue, Shepard. They're conducting all sorts of brutal experiments, trying to create some kind of super soldier. Akuze was one of those projects. I don't have any proof," He sounded insecure there, but caught himself again: "But I found the coordinates for one of their research worlds. They're also embedded in the same data file. They're completely out of control. Somebody needs to stop them. I've done my part. Now it's up to you. I will just try to disappear. Cerberus is after me now. If they find me... I can't let them find me!"
Shepard remained silent, stunned by the message. Tali did not say anything; she appeared to wait on a cue from him. Eventually, after a pause, Shepard said: "We have our enemy, we have its background, and we have its locations. Good." He sighed. "I just hope Admiral Kahoku got away. But there's no point worrying about that." He grinned, but it was a hard, harsh grin. "We'll defeat the geth, and then we'll annihilate this 'Cerberus'."
A surge of certainty and sureness passed through the Commander. After all the struggles of recent times, he finally had a clear cut enemy in front of him again.
Tali at first remained silent. She seemed to watch Shepard, and his head was slightly tilted. Shepard wondered what went through her head. After a while spoke up softly: "We still have to defeat the geth. That's not finished yet."
"Don't worry," Shepard reassured her. "I have not forgotten that. Our next target is Antibaar."
"I didn't think you'd have forgotten about it!" Tali replied hastily, and went on somewhat insecurely: "It's just... it's very important to me. To have the geth defeated, I mean. They already nearly wiped out my race, and they shouldn't get the chance to do more harm."
The geth did. Wiped out nearly her entire race. That makes my own feud look almost petty in comparison. However, as if to counter that thought, Tali went on: "And once we've done that, we'll deal with your enemies." She paused. "I mean... you can deal with them then. That is, you will. It's just - you know you can count on my support."
"I know, Tali," Shepard answered softly, "I know."
The quarian had sounded very nervous. And in fact it had not been the first time she had been nervous in his company. And she had been in his company a lot in recent time. Even when by all rights she should not have put up with him.
His facial expression became softer. Ah, Tali. We're both fools, eh? It did not change anything. Any idea of relationship was still a pipe dream. But it was nice to know that one was not alone in being foolish.
Tali had not answered, so Shepard continued. If nothing else, he wanted to at least tell Tali that he appreciated that she had so far always been there for him. "We'll both defeat our enemies. And I know you said I don't need to apologize, but - well, I did avoid you those past days. I shouldn't have. I had my reasons, but that's no excuse. After all, you always put up with me, and then I thank you by just vanishing. So - sorry for that."
Tali held arms at her waist, and had her fingers fiddle with each other. Her feet shuffled, and she appeared to be very nervous. Shepard suppressed a smile. Sorry, Tali. Should've known. He had the urge to grab her hands, to help her ease her nervousness, but he suppressed that urge, too.
"I..." Tali began, "You're always concerned about bad things happening to others. Like when we talked about the pilgrimage. Or worried about what has happened to others, like with Lieutenant Alenko. Or with the colonists on Feros. You may... sometimes that's a bit overdone, but I think you also have the right to be worried about yourself. I think enough bad things have happened to you, too."
Shepard smiled softly. "Maybe. Not only bad things, though. I mean..." I met you. But that would have been too cheesy, too direct, too misleading. Still, he could not just stop his sentence there. "I mean, sometimes also good things happen. Like meeting people to talk to. Forming friendships in the middle of space."
"Friendship. Yes, that's good," Tali said, maybe a little too hasty. She added with unconstrained enthusiasm: "I'm glad about that, too."
"So," Shepard went on, "I promise not to neglect our friendship any more."
This time, Tali was so visibly nervous that she did not manage to answer for some time. However, she caught herself again, looked right into Shepard's eyes and answered with sufficiently secure, yet humorous voice: "Good. I hope you remember that."
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The geth had chosen prudently in establishing their main base. An unassuming moon, one of many orbiting a gas giant - nobody would ever have come looking for them there. The only reason the Normandy had found them at all was because Tali's tracking device had worked on Antibaar. After the squad had captured the Antibaar outpost, it had been able to track back incoming communication signals.
Thus they had come to Solcrum, a moon of Notanban, in the Grissom system. It was a moon very similar to Luna, grey, rocky and dusty, with no distinguishing features at all. The Normandy had picked up low-level energy transmissions from one point at the surface, and the ground team had been dropped in the Mako to check them out.
This is it. The final battle.
Tali had absolutely no doubts at all that they would emerge victorious from this one, too. The geth incursions had practically already been beaten back.
She was interrupted in her victorious thoughts by Shepard exclaiming: "Damn!"
The Mako came to a halt. It had been in the process of climbing over a mountain peak, but was now sliding back again.
"Take a look at that," Shepard said, and pointed to the vid screen at the dashboard. It showed what the Mako's cameras had recorded at high magnification: The entrance to an underground facility, surrounded by several geth units.
"It looks like a human-built facility," Shepard continued. "Probably built by pirates or something, we have no records on anything being out here. This complicates matters. We don't know how deep underground the facility goes. Might be we'll have quite a fight on our hands."
"Good," Wrex commented.
Shepard paused. Then he grinned and said: "On the other hand, we don't need to deal with all the units on the surface. It's not like we need to keep secrecy any more." He activated his communication system. "This is Commander Shepard to Normandy. Do you copy?"
"We hear you, Commander," Pressly's voice answered.
"We've found the geth base," Shepard explained, "I'm uploading the location at the moment. Develop a firing solution for it and bomb the place."
Orbital bombardment? That's uncommon. Tali could see the use, though.
"May I point out that it may be wiser to capture the base intact, sir?" Pressly pointed out.
"Noted," Shepard answered. "It appears to be an underground facility, though. Just bomb us the way free, and we'll then capture it."
"Understood sir," Pressly confirmed. "Bombarding the marked location, aye."
"Orbital bombardment, sir?" Williams asked after the communication channel had been closed. "The Council won't like it."
"It's no garden world, so it isn't illegal," Shepard disagreed. "And I really see no point in having to fight our way through if the Normandy can clear it for us."
Pressly's voice cut in once again: "Orbital Bombardment, starting in thirty seconds."
"Get ready!" Shepard said, "We'll rush in once it's over. Before they can regroup."
It was a magnificent show of destruction - one moment, the defending geth units stood and watched their surrounding, and the next they were hammered down by mass effect accelerated rocks raining from the sky. Several of those hit, shook the ground and blew up dust. At the end, only small impact crater and scrap metal remained.
"Orbital bombardment completed," Pressly announced.
Without further comment, Shepard immediately accelerated the Mako to its highest speeds, only to make a total break in front of the damaged bunker entrance. Tali was rocked and shaken, but that was something she come to expect whenever Shepard was driving the vehicle.
The Commander left the vehicle and waved the others to hurry. "Go, go, go, into the bunker, before the geth can regroup!"
Tali ran towards it, followed by the others. Shepard was the last one to enter. What they found inside was a barren room which served as entrance area. It looked like a dozen others they had seen so far - which supported the theory that humans once had built the facility.
Shepard had not fully entered it when already geth drones came flying towards the squad. They were easily shot down, but it was clear the geth now knew about their intrusion. Tali readied herself and held her shotgun high, prepared to shoot at any moment.
Geth Troopers came running out of a door one by one. Tali did not think much, but simply fired, a reflex born out of her accumulating battlefield experience. The geth shot back, and the ensuing battle tested the squad's shield, but the synthetics still appeared unorganized - they came towards them uncoordinated, with no proper strategy. The squad could fight its way forewards to the door their enemies had come from.
Shepard ran across the door frame, fired into the room behind it - and was himself hit hard by several shots, which nearly depleted his shield's power. "Shit!" he cursed, "there's too many of them in there."
The squad positioned itself on both sides of the door frame. Tali managed to fire into the room several times, but like most of the team was mostly kept at bay by enemy fire. It was possible to expose oneself to enemy fire for a while; shields made that possible. This allowed the squad to open fire on the enemy. Unfortunately, that also counted for said enemy.
After a while, Williams commented: "It's getting less. We must have destroyed some of them. Keep it going, people!"
Tali had the same feeling, but still there was no way the squad could advance. Too many bullets were still flying in both directions through the door. From what she had seen, there was at least one Geth Juggernaut on the other side, some Geth Snipers, plus several Geth Hoppers and Drones. They all moved between several crates standing in the room, further reinforcing the theory that this once might have been a human pirate hide-out.
"Wrex, can you distract them for a while by drawing fire onto you?" Shepard asked.
"Always the best jobs for me," Wrex commented dryly. "Becoming a live fire training target has always been my lifelong dream. But yes, I can do it."
"Then please do so," Shepard requested.
Wrex stepped into the room, and immediately, all enemy fire was directed towards him. Given his shields, his armour and his krogan physiology, Tali had no doubt he could endure that for some time. It's a rather ruthless order by Shepard, though. But I'm sure he knows what he's doing. And sometimes, ruthless orders were just necessary.
The Commander used the distraction to enter the room himself. He ran towards one of the crates, but did not stop there. Some geth redirected fire towards him now. Several concentrated bursts broke the crate, but by then Shepard had already ran on. Right towards the Geth Juggernaut. The platform had removed itself somewhat from the other ones, and used several smaller crates as cover while keeping on suppressive fire at the door.
As best as Tali could see, now Shepard was reversing matters. He ran from crate to crate around it, and kept firing his shotgun at it. His shields were hit several times by other units, but a combination of good cover and a biotic barrier created by him kept damage to a minimum.
Tali was amazed at Shepard's bravery. She would also have been annoyed at the foolishness of this action, even though he was the commanding officer. Storming alone into enemy territory was usually a very foolish thing to do. However it seemed to work. Shepard appeared to have recognized a good position to remain in cover while taking out the prime enemy. And Tali could not well argue with success, not even in her thoughts. She was a bit worried about Shepard, but she fought that sentiment down. She had to remain professional.
Shepard's intrusion brought the geth fire into an uncoordinated disarray in any case. "The Commander has them distracted, go in and find cover!" Williams ordered. Rank authority below Shepard was a bit confused in a team mixed from his Spectre entourage and the regular marine detachment of the Normandy, but nobody was arguing with the Gunnery Chief. Instead, everybody rushed into the room.
Finding a good cover was more problematic. Most crates had been destroyed in the intense firefight so far. Most remaining cover, like still standing crate sides and the like, were only good for a temporary stay. Tali ran towards such a crate remnant, and then immediately ran on, towards a Geth Hopper. It jumped away after being hit, but Tali's reflexes were good enough to keep on: She jerked her shotgun upwards, following the Hopper's movement, and shot it down from the ceiling. Unfortunately, that had nearly overheated Tali's gun.
The squad's assault had completely broken up the geth organization, and uncoordinated as they now were, they were well beatable. More and more scrap metal littered the floor, and less and less shots came darting towards Tali.
"I think we got them all," Tali could hear Garrus after a while. She was behind one of the rew remaining crates at that point. When she came out of her cover and looked around, and indeed she could not see a single geth platform still standing.
The squad came moving towards the middle of the room. "Good work, team," Shepard said. His armour was breached near his left shoulder, but it did not seem to affect the Commander. He already has applied Medi-gel, Tali assumed. To her great relief, he seemed to be unharmed otherwise.
"Was that really their main base?" Williams asked. "Still seems a bit underwhelming."
"The geth have no great need for much infrastructure," Tali explained. "That's why most their bases were outdoors. Their platforms already are most the infrastructure they need. Mostly, they need well defensible places where they can stay together to strengthen the neural network."
"They seem to have some terminals here, though," Shepard commented. "So we'll see if that was their main base." He grinned slightly. "Tali, Garrus, you know what you have to do."
Tali did not need to be told twice. She was just as interested in what the terminals held as the Commander. Probably even very much more so.
And they proved to be veritable treasure troves. Most of the data was heavily encypted, but from what Tali could deduce it seemed to be a nearly encyclopedic collection of information about the geth themselves. Modern data about the geth, about how they had evolved since the time of the Geth War.
On the evolution of the geth.
Tali paused. Realization dawned on her. My pilgrimage is over. She had found what she had been looking for. That realization had a bittersweet component, because if her pilgrimage was indeed over, then she would leave the Normandy. However, then she realized something else: But not before Saren is caught. She would stay on the Normandy, and then afterwards have something to let her pilgrimage end in a great success.
With renewed vigor she began working on the terminals again.
She downloaded files from several terminals, until she came to one that was different. It's still operating! she realized. It was sending data. As her tracking device told her, data that went directly to the Perseus Veil.
The transmission was repeated over and over again. It seemed to be a small file, and it was not encrypted. She opened it - and nearly fell back from shock.
It was music. Quarian music. A song of lament, sung by a quarian without enviro-suit. Tali recognized her, she was a historical singer widely popular in the time before the Geth War.
What's the meaning of this? The geth were transmitting quarian music, quarian culture? Moreover a song that even had become associated with the loss and tragedy occurred during the war against them? Tali felt sick to the core. This has to be a psychological warfare trick. Something to destabilize any quarians coming across this... Only that the geth did not do psychological warfare. And they would not know that a quarian would find this. They had invaded human space, after all.
So it was not enough that they all but destroyed our civilization? Now they also have to mock what records are left of it? Rage boiled inside Tali, rage and sadness. The sung hit home, brought to mind just how much her people had lost. Due to the geth. And now the geth were desecrating what was left.
"Goddamn machines," Tali raged, "How... how dare they?"
She had been so focused first on her work and then on her shock and rage that she did not even realize somebody had approached her. She felt a hand on her shoulder. "Hey," Shepard's voice reached her, soft and understanding.
However, she still was too angry. She whirled arround, to only then fully realize that it was Shepard. Her shoulders slumped down slightly. "Oh," she made, "it's you. I, ah..." Between her ongoing shock about her discovery, and her reaction to Shepard's approach, for which she cursed herself, she could not find any more words.
"You seemed a bit disturbed," Shepard commented. "Is something the matter?" He sounded genuinely worried.
Tali told him. About what she had found, what it meant, how the geth were mocking quarian culture. How they dared to do so, 300 years after they had destroyed most of it. How after such an atrocity they could even dare to still use it. And then even a piece that was about loss and tragedy. She talked herself into a renewed rage.
"Hey," Shepard said again in a soothing voice, "Let them mock. It's all they can still do. I understand you, but see it like that: It's pathetic. We have defeated them here. We have foiled their plans. They are beaten back. We have hurt them - so how can any mockery of theirs still hurt us, still hurt you? Don't let it. We've won."
He's right, Tali realized. She had not seen it that way, but it was true. It was still an affront that the geth dared to use old quarian music, part of a culture they had destroyed, but it was nothing that really could still hurt her. Not if she did not let it. She had won against them here. She was the victor, not them.
"You're right," she said. "I just... I was so shocked..."
"I understand," he interrupted her softly. Again he laid a hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to explain. Just keep in mind that you've won against them."
"I think rather we have won." Tali replied. She tried to say it in her usual humorous voice, but it did not come out quite like that, rather unsure and shaky at times.
Shepard removed his hand from her shoulder and shrugged. "I'll let you have this victory," he joked, "I'll claim the next one instead. That one will be far more important to me anyway."
Tali realized what he meant. "So Cerberus is the next target?"
"It is," Shepard confirmed, "I just got a call from Admiral Hackett. Apparently he knows we need to go to the Voyager Cluster. The Cerberus base Admiral Kahoku found out about is there. Maybe Hackett got his message as well. In any case, he provided me with an excuse to go there. Something about an old Alliance probe to be recovered. Thus we won't go back to the Citadel just yet, but make directly for the Voyager Cluster,"
"Good," Tali commented decisively. Shepard had always treated her well. He always had been a person to turn to, and a person who despite his own problems would support her. He would most likely never return the feelings she had for him, but he did seem to value her as a friend. As a close friend even. That was already way more than she had dared to hope for. Thus, it was good if he could get his revenge now.
Shepard smiled. "Well, good to hear confirmation on that," he said.
"You've helped me to hit the geth here," Tali explained, "It was a repulsion of an Alliance space invasion, but it still meant a lot to me. And you even helped me convince how this was a victory. Now, I will help you to get victory." For once, she said so surely and certainly. No more "you can count on my support" or "if you need me". She would help him, end of story.
Shepard nodded. "I know," he said softly.