Glad You're Feeling Better
A pair of hands landed on Tali's body as she lay sleeping on Shepard's bed. As soon as they made contact with her, they began to sensually caress her breasts, abdomen and thighs, which woke her up. She immediately knew whose hands they were, and after a short while of lying there, unmoving and just enjoying his touching, she eagerly turned around to greet him.
She saw Shepard's face as she flipped over. Without saying a word, he reached up and unlocked her mask, removing it and exposing her face. She didn't care at all about the dangers of having the mask removed. As soon as it came off, she just wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him on top of her, eagerly kissing his lips.
Her hands excitedly grasped at his upper back as she passionately kissed him. She loved the feel of his body weight on her while she lustfully sucked on his lips. Their mouths were making love to each other as their hands explored each other's bodies. Tali's moans and heaving breathing filled the air, in sync with the escalating passion.
Tali's eyes suddenly opened as she awoke. She was in Shepard's bed, by herself. All that had happened was just a vivid dream.
I can't believe I actually dreamt that, she thought to herself, as she rolled to her back and stared up at the ceiling. She noticed her breathing was heavier than usual. The dream had been very vivid, and left her actually feeling slightly stimulated. It was the type of dream that felt more like a memory of a real event than a dream.
Despite her initial thought, it really didn't surprise her that she dreamt what she did. Just like it didn't surprise her that in the dream, it didn't bother her that Shepard removed her mask. Part of her wanted what had occurred in the dream. All it did was support what she already knew; she was developing strong feelings for Shepard.
How could she not? Shepard was a dashing commander, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere and rescued her from assassins. He pulled her from one of the most desperate moments of her life, and whisked her away to safety, and then to adventure. Not only did he let her join his crew, he also constantly showed concern over her needs, and always treated her like an equal.
Adding unto all he had done for her, he was also a skilled warrior with seemingly unlimited bravery. Shepard was a famous figure of authority—he had a powerful, advanced ship and answered to no one but the Council itself. Tali couldn't deny that these qualities were appealing and exciting to her as an adventuress, young woman.
Tali sighed. Just as she was aware of her feelings for him, she was also aware that they could never be together. How could he ever want her as more than just a friend? How could he see past her suit; past her mask?
Don't kid yourself, girl. Despite how well he treats you, you know he wouldn't be interested in you as anything beyond a friend. Why would he want a quarian whose skin he can't feel and whose face he can't even see, whenever he wants? You're the last woman on this ship he'd want. And besides, even if by some miracle he were interested in you, would you really be so selfish as to keep him, knowing you could never make him happy like he deserves?
Tali sighed again, louder than before. She didn't want to think about these negative things right now. She lifted up her arm and activated her omni-tool to see the time.
"Oh Keelah, I've overslept by so much. Why didn't he wake me?" Tali quietly complained to herself as she sat up on the bed. She quickly scanned the room to see if Shepard was there.
She saw him. He was sitting on one of the two chairs around the circular table in the middle of the room, asleep. He sat low on the chair, in a relaxed pose. His feet were on top of the table, and his hands were together, resting on his laps, while his head was turned to the side slightly.
Tali instantly felt bad upon seeing him sleeping there. She knew if it weren't for her, he would've been able to sleep on his bed. She then got up and approached him, but was unsure if she should wake him. After hesitating for a bit, she decided to do it—maybe he'd want to continue sleeping on the bed?
She gently placed her hand on his shoulder, and his eyes instantly opened. His fast reaction to stimuli while sleeping made it obvious he had spent a long time in the military; he had to always be alert. He looked up Tali and smiled when he saw her, relaxing his guard as he assessed that what had woken him wasn't a threat. He then yawned.
"Good morning," he said as his yawn finished.
"Hey Shepard," Tali greeted in return. "Why didn't you wake me if you were tired? I feel bad now, that you had to sleep on that chair."
You looked way too cute for me to wake you. "I figured you needed a good sleep," Shepard answered. "But don't feel bad, I'm actually very comfortable. I may sleep like this more often." Shepard joked as he closed his eyes and tilted his head back to the side, as if trying to go back to sleep.
"Hey, get up!" Tali said in a playful voice, "Didn't you want to do some mission in that ground vehicle today?"
"Yes, but we won't be in Maji's orbit until about twelve-hundred hours," Shepard informed, using Alliance military time. He kept his eyes closed.
"It's eleven-hundred hundred now."
Shepard opened his eyes. "Oh. Damn, it is late." Shepard then stood up and extended his arms outward as he stretched. After he finished, he smiled at Tali who was standing right in front of him and said, "That's the nice thing about FTL travel—not much to do around the ship, so we can get away with sleeping late. But anyway, did you sleep well?"
"Yes I did. I slept great, thank you." I had a wonderful dream, too.
"I'm glad to hear it. Well, I'm going to go take care of some things before we arrive. Get ready and meet me by the Mako in an hour."
"See you soon."
. . .
With the Normandy now in orbit around the planet, Tali stood next to the Mako, waiting for Shepard. She took a moment to analyze the armored, human-designed vehicle, now that she was up close to it. She noticed it had thick plating, and all the wheels had independent suspension. After a short while of looking it over, she heard the elevator door open, and saw Shepard step out.
He approached and asked, "Ready, Tali?"
"Yes, let's go. This thing looks like it'll be fun to ride in," Tali answered enthusiastically.
Shepard activated the door that was located on the left side of the Mako, and it swung upwards as it opened. Shepard grabbed a handle located on the top of the Mako's interior, which he used to help pull himself up as he stepped in. Staying crouched due to the cramped interior, he moved over to the driver's seat and sat down.
Tali followed him inside, and sat down in the chair next to his, where the engineering terminal was. As she got in, she took a moment to notice that the Mako's interior had two rows of seats, two seats in each row. The first row was for the driver and engineer, and the second row was for the passengers. After they were both sitting in place, Shepard pressed a button on his control panel and the door closed by itself.
As soon as the door sealed shut, the interior lit up with a dim light. Shepard then flipped a switch, and a holo appeared before them, showing a vid display of the outside, which acted like a large window at the front of the Mako. Currently, all they could see was the docking door of the Normandy. The display had a heads-up display, which included a radar, a damage indicator of the Mako, weapon indicators, and various other elements vital to combat.
Shepard turned to Tali and said, "First thing you want to do is put on your security harness." He put it on right after his comment. Tali did so as well, and noticed it seemed unusual that a ground vehicle would have a harness that wrapped both horizontally around the torso, and vertically over the shoulders. It secured the passenger completely in place.
After their safety harnesses were in place, Shepard reached over and pressed a button in front of Tali, and a small holographic display appeared before her. "This is the engineering console. There's a manual for it… somewhere around here—if you want to look through it before we get going."
"Please Shepard, I'm a quarian. It'll take me less time to learn this by playing with it, than it would take me to read a manual."
Shepard chuckled lightly at her response, "I should have figured."
Tali began to look through the various menus and options on her display. They showed her technical data of the Mako, in-depth status on the various systems, options for rerouting power, and many other engineering options.
"This looks pretty straight forward. I shouldn't have any problem figuring this out," Tali commented, continuing to dig through and look over the console.
"We're approaching the drop zone, Commander. Opening the bay doors," was suddenly heard through the Mako's communicator; it was Joker.
Right after his message, there was a quiet rumbling as the doors in front of them opened. They were still several hundred feet above ground level, so all that was visible through the opened bay doors was Maji's red, hazy atmosphere and the subtle twinkling of stars behind the thin clouds covering the sky.
Tali looked up from her console, and saw how high they were. Having never ridden in the Mako before, she was completely unaware of its standard rapid deployment method. She looked at Shepard and asked, "So, I guess Joker will land the Normandy and we'll drive out?"
Shepard was staring straight ahead. As soon as he heard her question, he started to laugh in a playfully sinister way.
"Nope."
He then shifted into drive, and accelerated forward. The Mako shook lightly as it moved, approaching the opened bay door. Tali felt a split-second of vertigo as the Mako rolled down the ramp, and the ground of the planet hundreds of feet below came into view.
"Wait, what are you—KEELAH!" Tali yelled as the Mako drove off the ramp and plummeted downwards, completely surprising her. There was sudden rush of negative g-force from their freefall. Tali clutched Shepard's forearm with one hand, and the top of the Mako's interior with the other. Shepard just laughed as they rapidly approached the ground.
The feeling of weightlessness from the negative Gs was abruptly replaced with a feeling of heaviness as Shepard initiated the Mako's thrusters, which quickly slowed down their descent and exerted positive Gs on their bodies. After a few seconds, the Mako came to a hard stop as it landed on the ground. The vehicle's suspension absorbed most of the impact, causing it to rock up and down for a brief moment.
Tali was still clutching Shepard's arm. She then suddenly let go. "You bosh'tet! Why didn't you tell me that's how this damn tank got on the ground?"
Shepard covered his face with his palm and continued laughing, louder than before. "I'm sorry Tali. it slipped my mind that you didn't know the Mako was designed for rapid insertion."
"It slipped your mind? Is that why you were laughing the entire time we dropped?" Tali folded her arms, looking forward; away from Shepard.
Noticing his laughter was just making her upset, Shepard forced himself to stop, and then quietly sighed. "You're right, I should have said something." He paused for a moment, "You have to admit, though, that drop is pretty fun."
"I'm sure I would have thought so too, if I had any idea it was coming…" Tali responded in a snarky way. Thinking back to it, it was kind of fun, but she wanted to give Shepard a hard time.
"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to hear the end of this for a while?" Shepard mumbled.
"Hey Commander," Joker interrupted them through the communicator.
"What is it Joker?"
"We were in FTL for a while and the drive core needs to be discharged. Want me to fly up to the planet's north and discharge into its magnetic field? You know, while you're on your joyride date with Tali?"
Shepard shook his head, "Yes, Joker. Go discharge while I'm surveying minerals with crew member Tali'Zorah." He was well aware Joker was just teasing, but he felt the need to stress that they were on the planet for a legitimate reason.
There was a short period of awkward silence after Joker's comment. Neither was sure what to say about it. Shepard decided to just avoid bringing it up. "Well, I guess we should get started," he said as he pushed down on the accelerator, causing the Mako to begin moving.
Now that they were on the ground and moving, they were able to get a good look at the planet's surface. Maji was a very red planet, and its surface was barren and uneven. It had a constant wind that pick up some of the silica and sodium dust that made up its ground, causing a subtle haze. Various hills, mountains, and rock formations littered the landscape, but Maji's most striking features were the two suns in its sky. Vamshi-A, a small, hot, blue star. And Vamshi-B, an aging red giant.
"This planet is not suitable for life, but this view… it's so beautiful," Tali commented as she stared at the vid display, admiring the stunning vista of the two contrasting suns in the sky. "That blue star and that red giant. They're so different, it's almost like they're opposites. Yet look how amazing they are together. They complement each other so well."
"They really are a stunning sight. The fact that they're different stars is what makes this binary system unique, too. If they were both white dwarves or both red giants, it wouldn't be nearly as special."
Tali turned her head and looked at Shepard as he faced straight ahead while he drove. There was something special about his words.
. . .
Shepard and Tali had been on Maji's surface for a while, and had successfully surveyed a few thorium, beryllium, and magnesium deposits. While they travelled between deposits, Tali carefully studied the Mako's systems through its engineering console. A few times Shepard initiated the micro-thrusters to their point of shutdown, as well as fired the machine gun enough to cause it to overheat, in an attempt to replicate some combat situations for Tali's benefit.
Tali quickly figured out everything there was to learn about the Mako's systems, and with nothing else to learn, she had just been engaging with Shepard in conversation for a while now, as he drove.
"Wait, so even though you work for them, you still have to buy your own weapons?" Tali asked, in regards to their current conversation about his Spectre status.
"It's pretty messed up, isn't it?"
"It doesn't make any sense. You'd think the Council would want all their Spectres to be as well equipped as possible. On the flotilla, the admiralty always ensures that our marines, especially those in strike teams, are properly equipped."
"Sounds pretty nice. Maybe after this mission against Saren is over, I'll go back to the flotilla with you and join Migrant Fleet Marines," Shepard chuckled quietly at his joke.
Tali laughed and played along, "Hah! I can take you back as my pilgrimage gift. No one's ever brought back a Spectre as their gift before."
They both laughed for a brief moment, until Shepard suddenly noticed something on the radar.
"That's odd, there's an anomaly on the side of that mountain," Shepard said, pointing at the indicator on his radar, "No wait, make that anomalies," he quickly added as more appeared on the radar as they got closer.
Shepard stopped the Mako, and carefully looked at the small mountain chain with the vid display. There was a winding trail going up to its top, and a few dark dots were noticeable along it. He zoomed in on them, and instantly recognized what they were: geth heavy turrets.
Well aware that they fired long range missiles, Shepard immediately shifted the Mako into reverse, and backed behind a small, nearby rock formation that blocked line of sight with them. He expected to see rockets impact the location where they had just been, but none did. This let Shepard know that they hadn't been detected.
"Those are geth turrets on that mountain!" he said.
"Geth? What are the geth doing out here?"
"That's a damn good question, and I want to find out," Shepard replied and then looked at Tali. "So, think you're ready for some combat in the Mako?"
"I'm always ready to blow up some geth," Tali replied in an eager, confident voice.
With just a smirk as his response, Shepard then slammed his foot on the accelerator. The Mako immediately took off from behind the rock formation. As soon as the distant geth turrets were visible again, Shepard fired a blast from the Mako's powerful 155mm mass accelerator cannon at the nearest one. Its shields flashed for a split second, showing that they had absorbed the attack. Quickly approaching the mountain, he began to pepper the geth turret with shots from the machine gun, wearing down what was left of its shields just in time for another blast from the main cannon. The turret exploded, sending pieces of debris rolling down the mountain side.
Shepard drove in a zigzagging style as he approached the mountain, in order to dodge the rockets raining down around them from the turrets. Missiles impacted all around them, causing clouds of dust to suddenly erupt and send pieces of rock and dirt everywhere; Tali and Shepard could hear the explosions only as muffled rumblings from within the sealed Mako. Despite his ability to dodge most of them, the Mako still took some hits, which removed a large percentage of their shields. As Shepard drove, Tali kept typing into the engineering console in order to maximize the Mako's shields.
After a while of frantic driving and a heated uphill battle, they were near the top of the small mountain. All the heavy turrets along the path to the top had been destroyed. The Mako's shields were just over fifty percent. As their ascent concluded and they reached the top, they found themselves on a small plateau of flat, level terrain. And there was an entire geth outpost on it to greet them.
Geth snipers shot at them from their sniping posts, while troopers fired with assault rifles. The first sniper post that came into view was hit by a blast of the Mako's main gun, which instantly killed the geth sniper and caused the post to collapse. The closest one was then sprayed with rounds from machine gun, the impact force of the rounds caused geth sniper atop it to get thrown off. The remaining geth snipers were taken out as Shepard interchanged the Mako's main cannon and the machine gun.
The snipers posts had all been destroyed, but then a group of geth troopers amassed near the entrance to the outpost, continuously shooting at the Mako with their assault rifles. Tali and Shepard suddenly began to hear a terrifying noise: the rapid ping ping ping of rounds of ammunition striking the Mako's exterior. Their shields were completely gone.
Fortunately, it wasn't long before Shepard heard the particular sound he was waiting for, the mechanical clunk of the main gun being armed and ready again. He aimed right at the foot of the group of geth troopers that had bottlenecked at the gate of the outpost, and fired. A large plume of dust and dirt rapidly sprung upwards, and flaming geth bodies and pieces went flying in all directions, eventually raining back down.
After taking a second to absorb what had happened, Shepard cheerfully said, "Damn, that was close."
"I tried to keep the shields up as long as possible, but the Mako's fuel cell can only output so much power."
"You did great, Tali. Having you micromanaging the Mako's systems absolutely made a difference. The shields lasted much longer than I—oh shit! Hang on!"
As they were talking, a geth Colossus—the most powerful of all geth ground forces—had just been dropped in by an overhead geth drop ship. It landed in a huddled position about fifty feet in front of them. As soon as it had landed on the ground, it stood upright and turned its head towards the Mako. Immediately, a blue siege pulse was shot from it, which Shepard narrowly dodged by using the thrusters of the Mako to 'hop' over it.
"Damn it! The thrusters used up the energy I was going to reroute to boost our shields up!" Tali yelled out while frantically typing into her console.
"I didn't have a choice! It was either that or get hit, and we can't take a hit without our shields!" Shepard responded just as he blasted the Colossus with the Mako's main cannon, which only managed to remove a portion of its shields. The Colossus then launched another siege pulse, but Shepard was able to dodge it this time just by driving out of its way.
"We don't stand a chance without our shields! What are we going to do?" Tali asked.
"I have an idea, hold on! This may hurt," Shepard responded, his eyes glued to the vid screen, awaiting the familiar blue flash of another unleashed siege pulse. As soon as it appeared, he hit the accelerator and just barely dodged it. But he kept accelerating and moving, right towards the Colossus; he was going to ram into it.
"Oh Keelah!" Tali exclaimed when she realized what Shepard was going to do.
"Hold on!" Shepard yelled just before they collided.
The Mako crashed against the Colossus just before it could unleash another siege pulse, and both Tali and Shepard were harshly rocked forward. The Colossus instantly collapsed and went limp from the impact, but the momentum of the Mako kept pushing forward, grinding it against the ground. Shepard kept pushing it, and then slammed the brakes a short distance before reaching the edge of the plateau of the top of the mountain. The Mako skid for several yards, and stopped just short of going over the edge. The Colossus was not as lucky.
It got pushed off the edge, and went rolling down a particularly steep side of the mountain. Bits and pieces of it broke off as it went tumbling down. About half way through, an entire leg got ripped off, and at a quarter of the way left to the ground it hit a large rock, which sent it into the air for a second. Another leg broke off as it fell back down, and it just slid the remainder of the way. By the time its momentum had ended and it was no longer moving, all that was left was a twisted, mangled mess. It was dead.
Both Shepard and Tali were able to see the Colossus tumble down the mountainside to its destruction, from their position on the edge at the top. After seeing it was completely disabled, Shepard started to laugh quietly. Tali just stared in somewhat disbelief at the dead Colossus.
"I can't believe that worked. Just… ramming it like that."
"Sometimes it pays off to be aggressive. You know, 'grab the bull by the horns,'" Shepard commented as he put the Mako into reverse and drove away from the edge.
"The 'bull'? What's that?"
"Oh, sorry," Shepard said with a quiet chuckle, "It's really easy to forget you're a different species."
Tali felt a burst of joy within her from hearing him say that. She was proud to be a quarian, of course, but hearing Shepard acknowledge that he so easily saw her as one of his own—that effectively, he saw past her suit and saw her for who she was—meant a great deal to her. She didn't show it, but she was overjoyed with his statement.
Shepard then explained, "Bulls are these large animals on earth. They walk on four legs and are bigger even than a krogan. They grow these horns from their head, and they attack by charging and goring their enemy with them. Taking initiative and grabbing their horns instead of running is where the expression comes from."
"They sound terrifying," Tali commented, somewhat disinterestedly. Her mind was still thinking about his previous comment.
"Commander, do you read me?" was suddenly heard over the communicator and interrupted them. It was Joker again.
"I'm here, Joker. You'll never believe what we ran into."
"Geth?" Joker guessed.
"That's right. I guess you saw one of their drop ships?"
"No, but while discharging the drive core we received a message from Admiral Hackett. They've gotten reports of geth throughout the Armstrong nebula, setting up outposts in many of the systems. He forwarded us the details, and wanted you check it out."
"Thanks Joker. Get ready to pick us up, we're done here."
"Copy that, ETA two minutes."
As soon as Shepard's talk with Joker ended, Tali looked at him and asked, "More geth in this part of the galaxy? That doesn't make any sense. Why would they be setting up in this area?"
"They could be preparing a major offensive, maybe even the first wave of an invasion."
"Are we going to investigate it?" she asked.
"Yes. The geth are allied with Saren, and I want to know what they're up to. Maybe we'll find something useful while checking this out."