A/N: Well, it's time for Tali's loyalty mission. I chose a way to tell the story here in a way that might be a little controversial, and I certainly expect reaction like 'But I wanted to see Shepard yelling at the admirals during the trial!' First draft actually had that, but then I decided to try writing about the trial in reflection/banter, and I ended up liking this version better. But well, I'll let you be the judge of that. ;)
Chapter 26 - Treason
"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began."
The words with which Tali identifies herself to the Migrant Fleet, before they are allowed to dock on the Rayya where the trial will take place, are certainly poetic enough. But there is nothing poetic or even remotely decent about the complicated mess they are immediately dragged into as soon as stepping on board of the Rayya.
First of all, they find out about the charges brought against Tali. She is being accused of bringing active geth aboard the fleet, something she vehemently denies, insisting she only supplied her father's research project with shipments of inactive geth components.
Secondly, it turns out that if a member of the Fleet is accused of treason, their legal representative, a counselor, is their ship's active captain... which to Shepard's own great surprise and protests of many stuffy quarians, promotes her to stand in defense of the accused.
"Good job there, Shepard," Garrus comments, as they both recline against the wall in the corner of the large garden plaza of the Rayya where the first part of the trial has just concluded. The turian is the only one Tali has agreed to bring onboard with them, not knowing or trusting the others enough. "Think you managed to really work that crowd."
"I was just making it up as I went along," Shepard confesses, watching Tali deep in conversation with her friend Kal'Reegar and Veetor, the mentally scarred quarian from Freedom's Progress, both of them having traveled to Rayya to vouch for Tali's loyalty.
"Well, it seems to have worked," Garrus remarks. "At least they're allowing us to explore the Alarei. I know the odds are slim, but... no, who am I kidding, it has been too long for Tali's father to have survived, Shepard."
"Yeah," Morgan nods sadly. The Alarei is the laboratory ship of Tali's father, overtaken by active geth and presumably having killed everyone on board. Shepard has bravely, and possibly foolishly offered to try and retake the ship, hoping to obtain some evidence to prove Tali's innocence and possibly save her father, even if she can't imagine Rael'Zorah surviving this long on his own. "I sure don't have the heart to take that hope away from her."
"Agreed," Garrus says, sounding very much in need of shooting some geth. "Just rubs me the wrong way, the treatment she's been getting."
Shepard agrees full-heartedly as she stares at the gathering of the admirals on the other side of the plaza. "I know just what you mean. Starting with stripping her of the ship name. That's kind of like a quick sucker-punch in the gut as you're still getting ready for the proper fight."
"I think 'vas Normandy' is a better name than 'vas Neema' anyway," Garrus says. Then his mandibles twitch to form a grin as he looks at Shepard. "Though for you, I think another name would be even more fitting. Commander Shepard vas Qwib-Qwib."
"Hah! Speak for yourself, Garrus vas Iktome," Shepard laughs back at him.
"That actually sounds dignified," Garrus says, only succeeding at drawing more laughter from Shepard. "Oh wait... that's some kind of human specific joke that my translator just failed at, isn't it? Damn you, Shepard."
"Sorry about that, Garrus," Shepard finally recovers, now watching Tali speak with Admiral Shala'Raan, an old friend of her father and the entire family, but the conversation is not going very smoothly. Tali's posture seems full of anger and frustration as she speaks.
"For someone who claims to be a friend of the family, she sure set Tali up," Garrus speaks, giving Raan a none too fond stare. "I mean, not even telling Tali about her father before the trial when she had the chance to do so? That's... low."
"You know, I was just thinking how it reminds me of The Illusive Man, when he tried to justify not telling us about the Collector trap," Shepard says. "He claimed that our knowledge of the trap would have given us away. Raan claimed that Tali's knowledge of the events would have meant her reaction during the trial would not be as visceral."
"How do you decide to just... do that to someone you claim to care about?" Garrus asks.
Shepard shrugs her shoulders. "I think all these admirals are loaded full of shit. I'd like to think Tali's father was better, but... I don't know, questionable research on the geth, looking for something to give the quarians edge over the synthetics? Looks like he was very much in support of war with the geth."
"I can understand that, Shepard," Garrus says grimly. "How long can you just wander around the galaxy like this? You have Earth you can always come back to, for me Palaven is always there. But for Tali... going back to Rannoch is a distant dream."
"Yeah, I know... but with the Reaper invasion," Shepard muses. "I mean, sure, I can understand wanting, needing to have their homeworld back. But if they go and wipe themselves out against the geth, the galaxy might just be screwed. I feel that there soon will come a time where we will need these fleets against the Reapers."
"I guess you're right, Shepard. Kind of makes you want to hope that Gerrel doesn't get his way with the war. Even if it pains me to support that suit-wetter Koris, trying to make nice with the geth."
"Damned geth apologist," Shepard spits. "We should have taken him with us when we were chasing down Saren and his geth. Let's see how he would have liked those flashlight heads after all that."
Garrus laughs. "That would have made anyone into a geth hater, Commander," he chuckles.
"Still, with Koris and Gerrel you are pretty clear where you stand. Raan is on the fence, cautious, but I don't think she will support the war unless she is reasonably certain of their victory," Shepard says, looking at the last of the admirals, a quarian female with an imperious voice when she speaks, which does not happen often. "This Daro'Xen is the great unknown. Frankly, she scares me. I think she might do something crazy to start a war with the geth, if she believed she stood to gain something from it."
"I think she's just plain insane," Garrus shakes his head.
"Really... with leaders like this, I fear for the quarian people, I really do," Shepard sighs. "It might even be for the best if this Admiralty Board did something that caused them to step down."
"I think they're just being politicians, Shepard. Are they any worse than the Council? Or your leaders back on Earth? They certainly strike a note of resemblance with the turian hierarchy," Garrus concludes, watching as Tali approaches them again, having finished talking with Raan. "Anyway, I believe it's time we board the Alarei and shoot some geth. Just like old times."
The three of them take the shuttle from the Rayya to the Alarei, Shepard not risking any complications by suddenly demanding to be allowed to employ a larger squad. As suspected, the Alarei is swarming with geth, and the evidence left behind by Tali's father paints a very grim picture. There is very little left to interpretation, all facts seem to point to Rael'Zorah deliberately foregoing safety protocols and activating geth units to perform different tests on them. Such actions would be completely unacceptable to the rest of the Admiralty Board, and if Rael was still alive, it would likely lead to his own exile from the Fleet.
Shepard and Garrus know for certain that somewhere along the way, they will come across Rael's corpse, even if Tali still clings on to some slim hope for a happy ending. That hope is extinguished brutally when they come across a body, its suit ruptured by multiple gun blasts from up close. As Tali collapses over her father's remains, inconsolable, Shepard attempts to comfort her, putting her arms around her friend's shoulders and holding her tight.
This is the shittiest feeling in the world, she thinks, utterly gutted. You know what's coming, but you can't do anything to stop it. You can't do anything to protect her from the devastating blow.
"There's something here," Garrus says softly, picking up a datapad from Rael's limp hand. "Looks like your father left you a message, Tali."
Said message is anything but comforting for Tali to hear. It confirms everything she has been fighting to admit, the true nature of her father's experiments, his intent to work with Xen and Gerrel to take the war to the geth, asking, demanding Tali to hand over the results of his experiments to the other admirals.
"This is... terrible, Shepard," Tali sobs. "He did all this, worst crime possible for a quarian to commit, all in the name to one day give me back my homeworld? If I had known the measures he was willing to go to... I never wanted this, Shepard. Keelah, I never wanted this!"
"I understand. Instead of actually spending time with you and together doing something you wanted, he... threw himself into something like this," Shepard says, as Tali slowly moves away from the embrace.
"We cannot give the data to the other admirals, Shepard," the young quarian exclaims passionately. "I cannot bear to see my father exposed as a traitor! His name would be stripped off every ship manifest he ever served upon, he would become a monster in children's books to serve as an educational example! I cannot do this to him!"
Shepard is also considering other reasons why Rael's research should not be handed over to the other admirals, namely, they would immediately resume pushing for open war with the geth, this time having stronger arguments and likely winning more votes. But the fate of her friend is paramount in this decision. "That would also destroy the evidence we need to prove your innocence. You would... do this for your father, considering everything he did?"
Tali nods fervently, as Garrus shakes his head, muttering something about these damn quarians not being deserving of such sacrifices. Morgan is still not completely decided when they return to the Rayya, but as they approach the garden plaza and the trial, she can hear that the meeting is already in session. "Didn't they say they would continue only after our deaths have been confirmed?" she exclaims furiously, some of the things said making her blood boil, particularly Koris' suggestions to exile Tali posthumously. "Gods, I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!" Shepard exclaims, stepping through the doors and into the plaza to face down the surprised admirals...
Several hours later, part of the crew are sitting in the Normandy's mess hall, Tali, Kasumi, Joker, Jack, Thane, and a few others, listening as Garrus reads the entire recorded Shepard's speech to them. Morgan blushes a little, hearing her turian friend claim that her speech will undoubtedly become the stuff of legends amongst the quarians, even if she herself can't remember saying any of those things, too overtaken by anger and passion. But her crew certainly seems to approve, proclaiming her speech to be nothing short of epic.
"I really don't remember using this many swearwords," Shepard chuckles, feeling a little embarrassed.
"I think Garrus has actually edited out the worst of it," Tali comments, her voice grateful and pleased, despite the ordeal she has been put through.
"Way to go, Shepard," Jack comments, obviously Morgan's disregard for authority managing to score some respect points with the crazy biotic. "Maybe we should blow up one of their ships too, just so the pricks really get the message."
"Raise hands anyone who didn't think she was about to say something like that," Joker chuckles. There is no reaction, no arms raised.
"I'm sorry Tali, I should have been more considerate," Shepard says guiltily. "In retrospect, I can't believe they didn't exile you and threw us both off the Rayya. It was really thoughtless of me, screaming obscenities at them like that."
"Well, that wasn't all you did," Tali gently pats her hand. "You also said some… very touching things about me, Commander. I will never forget that."
"Shepard was right when she said those admirals were not fit to scrape the mud off your boots, Tali," Garrus says, looking at their quarian friend. "And all the other things she said about you… I'd sign under every word."
"Thanks, Garrus," Tali says, sounding a little overwhelmed. "Shepard, I think it worked because you managed to convince the crowd that the admirals were not actually interested in me or anything about the Alarei. They only cared to use me in order to advance their own political agenda. I think everyone in the room actually was aware of that from the beginning. But only you had the audacity to speak up, to throw it in their faces."
"Well, being angry like hell helped," Morgan admits sheepishly. "Seems like half of my speech consisted purely of swearwords, I'm usually a bit more eloquent than that. But if I could have reached that squirming, slimy little weasel Koris, I would have punched his lights out."
"I think he sensed that, Commander," Garrus adds. "You got him backing up worse than a krogan toilet."
"Any chance that would have worked with the Council, Commander?" Joker suggests jokingly. "You might want to try that the next time the asari councilor asks you to take out her trash, or whatever."
"That would never work, poor naïve Joker," Shepard says, shaking her head. "They are far too cunning to be put on the spot like that."
"I agree with Shepard," Tali says, nodding. "You won over the crowd, you rallied them to my support and you put the admiral's backs to the wall. Exiling me after all that would have lost them all the public support and put pressure on them to resign. So yes, I have your… fervent defense to thank for all that you have done for me, Shepard."
"It's alright, Tali, I was quite happy to yell at them for a bit," Shepard chuckles again. "Say… do you think they are the types to hold a grudge?"
"Not over this, Shepard, as strange as it may sound," Tali tells her. "Your thoughts and opinions are only peripherally interesting to them and they will forget about what happened soon enough. The geth are still the big issue. And that's not going away anytime soon."
The reminder of the geth, and the threat of another war breaking out brings a more somber note to the small gathering. "I really hope your people think twice before taking the fight to the geth, Tali," Shepard says, shaking her head, quietly hoping that the quarians will see reason and decide against going to war, even if her gut feeling tells her that it is too much to hope for.
"I hope so as well, Shepard," Tali agrees, grimly. "We will only have one shot at taking back our homeworld. One false step, one wrong decision… and it might spell the end of the quarian race…"