Shovelbum
Notes and Notices
Prothean Disc Get! Technobabble! Please suspend your disbelief. (I've fudged a little on the main sequence F0 star and its CMEs. I… uh, don't math good, guys.) Since this is Tali's "moment to shine", I added some in-game dialogue to help keep Tali in character as best I can. I… really haven't been able to get in her head as well as I'd like to. Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Also, as a heads-up, there's a graphic depiction of fictional vacuum exposure. Because I love.
TEN DAYS TO MASS EFFECT 3 GUYS OMGWTFBBQ /FLAILS
Thank you, everyone, for the faves, reviews and sticking with this monster. We are approximately at the half-way point in the storyline.
(…and then there were crickets chirping…)
If Ashley's presence bothered Tali, who sat at the station to Joker's left, the quarian didn't voice it. Ever since Tali had discerned the signal emanating from the hunk of rock in space to be of quarian origin, she had been quiet. If Tali were anything, it certainly wasn't anything Ashley considered quiet. It put Ash ill-at-ease. Who knew what was in store for the recon team if Tali wasn't forthcoming with anything useful?
"Any idea how old that thing is?" Ashley asked, referring to the strangely-shaped freighter tethered to the asteroid.
She leaned over the console to get a better view of the asteroid field and their primary target. The asteroid looked like a gray, pockmarked sweet potato. Its rotation was haphazard, like something bigger had recently collided with it and knocked it around a bit. They couldn't see much from their distance. The erratic nature of the asteroid's spin and the constant bombardment of particles near it made it difficult for Joker to keep the Normandy in visual range of the ship any longer than the time it took the recon team to board. Shepard hadn't wanted to risk damage to the Normandy or the freighter's airlocks. She made it clear that if they couldn't board the ship, they would destroy the ship in the event of a pirate trap.
Ash had already gotten an ear full of Joker's complaints that it wasn't fair he couldn't stretch the Normandy to her limits. Shepard had merely taken the complaints in stride and remarked that until he got rid of the "hand-condoms" he was to maintain a distance of no less than escape velocity plus ten kilometers. Joker had shut up. Serviceman Jankovic hadn't finished with the work-around for the bridge crew yet. Ash didn't see what the big deal was. Interface gloves were a fact of life. No way was she getting implants just to operate a computer. The thought gave her chills. Computer operation was one thing, but that was a little too personal for her tastes.
Micro asteroids pelted Normandy's shields and distorted the view. "Compensating for micro asteroid collision," an ensign announced from one of the sunken stations along the gangway between CIC and the bridge.
"It's hard to tell how old it is," Tali spoke up when silence lapsed again. Ash hadn't really expected anyone to answer her question. She called up hi-res images taken by Chief Adams from their initial fly-by. The ridges of the pad of Adams' thumb were visible in the upper corner of the image. (How he managed to take holos of his thumb in every image given the equipment the Normandy used was a mystery to everyone.)
The vessel looked old. Micro asteroids and other debris adrift within the asteroid field had really done a number on her. "Some of our larger vessels date all the way back to our original flight from the geth," Tali continued.
Alenko gave a low whistle of astonishment. "Three centuries? That's a long time to keep a ship," he commented but amended, "Well… a long time to keep a ship up and running."
"They're constantly being repaired, modified and refitted," she explained. "They aren't pretty but they work. Mostly," she admitted. Her hands fluttered over the controls, a nervous tic Ashley had noticed early on. Tali didn't appear to know how to be still.
"We've tried to make ourselves as independent as possible. Grow our own food, mine and process our own fuel. A patch to maintain hull integrity requires materials we just don't have. This ship could have been out here before the original flight. Or it could have been an early attempt to harvest material from the asteroid. There's no way to be sure without boarding and having a look."
"Quarians endangered the entire galaxy when they let the geth break free," Garrus spoke up from near the airlock, and Ashley agreed with his statement. The geth wouldn't have slaughtered the 212 had the quarians not created the damn flashlight heads to begin with. "I hope your people are properly contrite, Tali."
Tali bristled visibly. "As the turians are properly contrite for releasing the genophage upon the krogan?"
"You're assuming that sterilizing them was a mistake," the turian said. This was an old, old argument. Ashley didn't want to be a part of galactic politics. Nor did she want to hear Wrex's point of view.
Again.
Neither did Shepard. "That's enough," she snapped, ending the dispute. "Both of you.
"How much longer do you need, Tali?"
"I'm done," Tali told her and stood. Her masked eyes glowed faintly in the light of the overhead bridge systems as they lingered on Garrus before she shook it off and walked to the gangway and stood next to Chief Adams. A small salvage crate lay at his feet. "No life signs. Only the signal."
"Sensors?" the Commander inquired.
"Scans aren't picking up any other vessels in the area, ma'am," reported the tech on duty. "Heavy radiation from the hypergiant though. Coronal Mass Ejections are currently coming off the star every thirteen minutes. We've arrived just in time for the solar maximum."
Ashley swallowed. They had only a minimum amount of time to get the freighter's shielding up before getting fried by the star's radiation or get bombarded by whatever other matter the high velocity ejection was throwing. Even with the shields in place, there was no guarantee they could deflect bursts of rapidly-moving protons. Only radshields or military-grade shielding and hull armor could do that. And, even then, there was a slight chance of exposure and radpoisoning.
The joys of working in space, thought Ashley morosely. The 'final frontier' was a deadly, cold bitch, uncaring of its inhabitants. God only knew why it was like that.
"Time before any CMEs hit us?" Pressly asked from CIC. The room was tense but controlled. Each of the technicians was an expert of his or her field, otherwise they would have been passed over during vetting. Captain Anderson only worked with the best, and he only put the best forward.
"Anywhere from a day to thirty minutes, sir," the tech said. "We've only got one-dimensional solar observational scanning. There's no real way to judge their speed once they're released unless we measure them from multiple angles. Or deployed sensor drones around the star."
"Anything on what they're comprised of?" Alenko asked. "Energy or matter?"
"Spectral analysis indicates a little bit of both," was the answer.
"Joker, take us in," Shepard said after a moment of consideration. Ashley turned to see her studying Phoenix's corona on the large display in the middle of CIC, one arm crossed at her middle, the other extended to her face. She scratched the tip of her nose in thought. "Tali, see if there's anything useful to our mission or better ways to control or disable the geth in the databanks while you're on board. If it's a trap, take care of it. Give the pirates something to think about."
"Right," Tali agreed. "First things first though. We need to restore power before we can do anything."
Kaidan tensed as Garrus and Lu took up arms at the airlock, training their rifles on the door as the recon team boarded the mysterious quarian-made vessel. They were there as a precaution. If the recon team met with resistance and failed to stop a boarding party, Garrus and Lu's sharp-shooting skills were Normandy's first line of defense.
Be careful, Ash.
The comm sounded: Incoming message. Kaidan's heart beat faster in apprehension, adrenaline kicking his senses. Was this part of a larger trap? They were only one ship. Advanced and deadly in a firefight, but only one nonetheless. Most pirates' ships were no match for an Alliance frigate; however taking chances got good people killed.
"Uh, commander?" Joker announced. "Incoming message from a Tonn Actus on the planet Tuntau."
"Good. I was expecting his call," Shepard said, surprising the hell out Kaidan. "I'll take it in the Comm Room. Have Wrex meet me at the Mako in twenty minutes. Tell him to bring his favorite gun and plenty of ammo."
She directed her next order to the recon team. "Tali, your timeline just decreased. Make it quick."
"Understood, Shepard," Tali's voice agreed over the ship's comm.
"Alenko, suit up and meet Wrex at the Mako in twenty."
"Aye, aye, ma'am."
Kaidan looked forward to some action. They hadn't been in a real fight in weeks, months really. Marines weren't born to sit still. Asses, especially those belonging to marines, weren't made to sit. They were natural extensions of the legs, and his ass was asleep.
He had no idea why Shepard had contacted the pirate ahead of time or what scheme she had up her sleeve. Leave it to Shepard to do something completely unorthodox to get the job done. He gave her a genuine smile as he passed her on the way to the crew deck. She seemed startled for a second, but then gave him a smile of her own. Immediately weak-kneed from the magnitude of her smile, he barely made it down the ladderwell to the crew deck.
Easy, marine.
"Damn this place is spooky," Hardy commented.
"It helps if you turn on your flashlight, Corporal," Chief Adams said as he keyed a command into the holographic interface of his hardsuit. The command turned on the flashlight embedded into the wrist gauntlet. Ashley still had trouble visualizing Adams as being able to do a recon mission. It was Adams. Engineers didn't do this sort of thing.
And he looked completely out of place in the lightweight Phoenix hardsuit.
Hardy, who was closest to the beam of light, yelped at the sight of the corpse and bounced away in the weightlessness, colliding with the nearest bulkhead. "Shi-it." He sounded ill.
"Glad you're here to protect us," Adams muttered drily. He passed a scan over the vaguely male body as it floated past.
"Is that… a quarian?" Ashley asked, curiosity getting the better of her. The body was not in an environmental suit. She studied the pale face, sunken and shriveled when all the moisture had boiled away with exposure to the vacuum. The eyes were gone as were parts of the mouth. Without looking, she knew the tongue – if quarians had them – would be a nothing but a useless, dried piece of flesh resembling jerky. She noted the alien shape of the head and what passed for ears and a nose.
"Yes," Tali confirmed. She reached out to touch the corpse but stopped just short of passing a hand along the patches of clothing. "This ship has probably been here since before our war with the geth. He more than likely didn't have time to get to the ship's radshield compartment before being bombarded by energy."
"Let's not follow his lead," Adams suggested. "Monitor your rad-levels. This poor soul was over-exposed."
Ash checked her omni-tool, the holographic interface flickering pitifully. Adams tsked. "When's the last time you gave that thing any love?"
She blinked. Love? It was an omni-tool. "I don't give anything 'love' without dinner first, sir."
"Have a heart, Gunny," the Chief Engineer said, sounding hurt. "It'll love you forever if you treat it well." He scanned her omni-tool briefly before adding, "I'll put in a chit for you a new one. And you'd better take care of it." His tone brooked no argument.
They pushed on, Adams pausing to scan different bulkhead and both Tali and Adams adding miscellaneous small equipment to Adams' salvage crate. The bridge, which looked mostly intact, was cluttered with floating debris and another corpse. This time female. Raiders hadn't looted the ship. The quarian wore simple jewelry with colored gem stones.
Tali was visibly upset. "There should be more crew. There should be bodies everywhere. The radshield compartment was empty." She shook her head. "They wouldn't have left these two to die." She seemed to be convincing herself. "They wouldn't."
"'Mom and pop' mining operation?" Ashley asked quietly.
Tali shook her head again. "You don't understand my people. They— "
"That's a lot of damage," Adams remarked as he scanned a console.
Okay, Ashley thought. Maybe the bridge isn't so intact.
This mission was definitely way out of her league. Between an alien culture she had no hopes of understanding and mechanical stuff that made her brain spin, she felt completely lost. It would be nice to just shoot something. She doubted the engineers would appreciate her shooting up the bulkheads though.
Not a damn pirate in sight.
"Tali," Shepard's voice barked over the comm, "your timeline just decreased. Make it quick."
Tali paused, looking at each of the team before she answered, "Understood, Shepard."
"Wonder what happened?" Hardy asked as Tali scanned each of the consoles.
"If they got better readings on the star," Adams trailed off.
"I really don't want to be haki suey," the Corporal commented nervously. He shifted his stance, rifle at the ready.
"Hackey what?" Tali asked as she and Adams found the central computer and opened it up.
"It's a Chinese dish made with an asari fish of some kind," Hardy explained. "Great when blackened."
"Asari blacken everything," Adams groused as he flicked open a panel and pulled out a strange-looking object. He turned it over in his hands.
"Not everything," said Hardy. "They've got something called 'azure' too. Haven't figured out what flavor it is yet though. I keep getting strange looks whenever I ask for it."
Adams shrugged adding the strange object to the salvage crate. "Probably pronouncing it wrong, Corporal."
"Or asking in the wrong establishments," Tali added, laughter in her voice. "Try Chora's Den the next time we dock at the Citadel."
Hardy glanced at her. "I... What?"