Chapter 27.5
Shepard flopped down in the seat next to Garrus, looking exhausted and flushed. He dropped his forehead into his hands.
"Having problems?" Garrus asked.
"That woman is the most hard-headed and stubborn person I ever met."
"Who?"
He pointed behind him, toward Miranda's office.
"Didn't realize that was up for debate. Pretty sure anyone on board could have told you that."
Shepard lifted his head and looked at his friend. "All I'm trying to do is get her to talk to the crew. Build a sense of community. But she's fighting me every step of the way."
"Well that's what you get for working for Cerberus."
"I'm not working for Cerberus, Garrus. I'm working with Cerberus."
"That's what I said."
"No, you said 'for.' I haven't joined them. I am just working with them until the Collectors are dealt with."
"I'm not seeing the difference."
Mordin, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, attempted to clear the confusion.
"Misunderstanding understandable. Turian equivalent of 'for' and 'with' same word. Early turian society heavily interdependent. Possibly appreciated sense of shared ownership over one another. Hierarchy's formation and chain of command did away with cultural trait, but lexical quirk remains."
The two men stared at him.
"When did you become a linguistics expert?" Shepard asked.
"Biological experiments take time to run. A lot of downtime. Very boring without much to do. Decided to study other fields beyond my own."
"Like what?"
"Anthropology, linguistics, musical theater. Even attempted cryptozoology and astrology. Found no basis for their assertions. Very unscientific."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Shepard said. "Back up. Musical theater?"
Mordin nodded. "As I said, boring while waiting. Found singing to be excellent at breaking monotony."
"This I have to hear."
He was never one to disappoint. "I am the very model of a scientist salarian, I've studied species, turian, asari, and batarian. I'm quite good at genetics (as a subset of biology) because I am an expert (which I know that is a tautology).My xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian, I am the very model of a scientist salarian."
Mordin cleared his throat as both men, again, stared. He hadn't done that in a long time.
Shepard was the first to break the silence. "It's official. You are my favorite person on the Normandy."
Garrus looked hurt. "Hey."
"Sorry, Garrus. Unless you're some kind of secret thespian or hardcore rapper, I don't see how you can beat that."