Chapter 22: Chasing leads – part 3
A couple of hours later, Jane is in the captain's quarters on the Normandy reading through the lengthy reports that the various governments have given her on Saren.
As the door pings, she turns around and looks up, "Lt Presley. Take a seat."
Presley sits at the table, "You asked to see me captain?"
Jane nods, "I want to make you my Executive Officer."
Presley looks down, "I'm honoured captain, but…"
"Shouldn't Captain Anderson be here instead? It's complicated, as there is a conflict of interests with the IHA. Suffice to say that as a Spectre, two thirds of the investors in this ship felt I should have an independent command. This is on top of Captain Anderson's new role as the military liaison between the Systems Alliance and the IHA militaries. For things like joint patrols and the renewal of citizenship with the Systems Alliance."
Presley looks up, "Citizenship sir?"
Jane nods, "Nobody that left the Systems Alliance ever had their citizenship revoked. However, all restricted equipment that is to be taken outside Systems Alliance space must be blooded. Regardless of PS or magical status."
Presley nods, "I'll let the crew know."
Jane smiles, "While you're at it, let them know that there will be turian and quarian crew members. At the same time, let them know that, I'll also be updating the crew manifest once we're under weigh, just in case there were any mistakes made by the IHA you understand. If I come across any names that aren't present, I'll assume it was a clerical error."
Presley looks at Jane for a long moment before nodding, "Understood captain. When are we leaving?"
Jane waves at the data slates in front of her, "As soon as I've finished going through all of this, so call it 24 hours. Oh, and my apprentice, Tali, will be acting as my aide so ensure she goes on the ship's registry as such."
Presley makes a note on his own datapad, "Understood captain."
Two hours later, Jane storms up to CiC, "Lt Presley, notify all crew, we are leaving in 1 hour. One of our assignments just became time critical. Notify the docking authorities to take down the names of anyone that arrives after we leave. They will still be registered crew members when we return, and they'll be on duty during the next shore leave."
Presley nods, "Captain, should I also arrange for each shift to have staggered shore leave?"
Jane nods thoughtfully, "Agreed, I'll leave it to your discretion."
As the Normandy pulls out of the dock under Jokers skilled touch, Jane switches on the ship-wide intercom in the CiC.
"This is Commander Shepherd, Spectre and captain of the Normandy. Most of you were there when Saren attempted to kill Nihlus, and those who weren't were at his trial. Each and every one of you chose to join your respective militaries to make a difference in the Galaxy, and you were chosen to join this crew, my crew, because you are the best there is. We have been tasked by the Citadel Council to track down the Ex-Spectre Saren and stop him and his plans.
"I won't lie to you, this is a dangerous mission. You all saw the ship that stylised itself after a Sleeper, that is what we're facing. That is what we have to stop, that is what we are up against. We are the line in the sand that says no more.
"On a lighter note. The Systems Alliance has provided a new training cabinet on the hanger deck. We also have a modified set of guidelines for cabinet use on the ship. They are only off limits to all personnel for 30 minutes either side of a relay jump, or approaching and leaving planetary orbit. While we are under weigh, marines will be stationed outside each cabinet to provide a warning if we enter an engagement. Lt Presley, you have the bridge. Tali, Wrex, Alenko, Williams, and Garrus, meet me in the briefing room."
Switching off the comms, Jane looks down at Presley, "Set course for the Artemis Tau cluster."
Her orders give, Jane turns around and makes her way into the communications room.
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Standing by the three holo projectors, Jane looks around at the five people here with her.
Clicking a button on her omni-tool, a miniature map of the galaxy opens up, before zooming into the Artemis Tau cluster, "This is a Search and Rescue mission. Our target is Liara T'Soni, Benezia's daughter. In human terms Benezia is Liara's mother. This mission became time sensitive when I received reports of Geth activity in this cluster. It hardly seems like a coincidence that they've appeared given the fact that our target is considered to be the foremost expert on the protheans. I don't know what we're going to find there, but reports say that the planet she's on is undergoing total tectonic collapse. Emergency portkeys are non-optional for this mission. Any questions before I give out squad allocations and objectives?"
Wrex nods, "Yeah, what are emergency portkeys?"
Jane looks at Ashley, "Williams, give everyone a crash course on the portkey writer and insignia once we're done here. Oh, and while I remember, I have ordered a turian and krogan I5 suit for each of you. Once they arrive, I'll be expecting you both to wear them 24/7 while you're working for me. If for no other reason than the face plate will… Well, you were around when Williams took a bullet to the face. Any other questions?"
When nobody answers Jane nods, "Very well, Wrex, Alenko, you're squad leaders. Williams, you're 2ic for Wrex, Garrus same for Alenko. Tali will be with me. You'll each have two marines backing you up. Alenko, you'll be securing our landing site and providing a fall back position. Wrex, you're on fast response. My squad will be on point and I'll provide portkey coordinates when I need you. ETA is 72 hours, so get some rest and get your gear sorted out."
Kaiden raises his hand, "With all due respect Ma'am, would I be able to have someone else as my 2ic?"
Jane shakes her head, "No can do, Garrus has excellent scores for sharpshooting and spotting, ideal for maintaining a fall back position. Suck it up soldier and get to know your squad mate."
As they're all starting to stand up, Jane lifts up her omni tool to check something when it reminds her of the tacnet. "One last thing. Does everyone know how to use the tacnet?"
Ashley shakes her head, "I still haven't been trained on that."
Jane nods, "I'll hold a class on Alliance ship doctrine, the TacNet and porkeys tomorrow at 1340 in the hold."
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A short while after the briefing, Tali is nervously sitting in the captains quarters trying to read her primer on runes. In the bottom right of her vision is the particulate graph she pinned in place after checking it as part of her suit checks, after she was jostled into a crate earlier.
At the sound of the door opening she looks up from her book, only to pause when instead of Jane, Lt Presley pokes his head into the room.
"Ah, Miss Zorah. I have you down as the captains aide, so I need to show you to your berth."
Tali looks around the spacious room, "Um… There is so much space in here, can I not just stay with Captain Shepherd?"
Presley looks down at his data slate, "Right, aide. I should have guessed, well it takes all sorts. I'll update the roster."
Tali stares at the door as it swishes closed again.
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After a long shift on the bridge both familiarising herself with the ship and crew, as well as dealing with the headache of only having one and a half shifts worth of crew instead of the full three shifts of crew she's supposed to have; Jane finally makes her way into the captains quarters, only to stop when she spots Tali sitting in the corner with a couple of cables coming from her omni-tool to the service port on the back of her suit.
As she touches the privacy button on the door, Jane calls out, "Tali. Tali! Are you alright?"
Tali jerks from her frantic diagnostic of her suit, trying to track down the error that's causing the spike in the particulate count. "No Captain, I think there's something wrong with my suit."
Jane walks over to Tali and crouches down next to her, "Tali, talk to me. What's the problem?"
Tali punches a couple of controls on her omnitool and enlarges the graph that she's been staring at all shift. Shakily she says, "This is wrong. I think one of the filters has been dislodged and is letting in bacteria. But I can't find out which filter, and the ships doctor was no help."
Jane stares at the display with the unfamiliar notation, "Tali, is this being displayed in Quarian?" Tali nods, "Ok, let me attach my own diagnostic cables and I'll run the Alliance diagnostic tools."
After a couple of minutes, Jane has a similar graph open along with a tabular format of the data. "Ok, this is the same data as your graph, and I can see a spike at the 20nm to 100nm range. That's to be expected as that's probably the virus that causes Prothean Syndrome. I'm surprised that you've got so little between 100nm and 10µ, I'd expect most humans to have a fairly level chart across those ranges unless they're ill."
Weakly, Tali says, "Nanometer?"
Jane looks at Tali sharply, "Tali, why are you using the Quarian language interface on an Alliance isolation suit?"
When Tali just stares at Jane, Jane puts the heel of her palm against her face plate, "Tali, have you used the language crystal yet?" As the silence drags on, Jane finally says with a sigh, "Tali, I know you're scared. We live with the same fears."
Tali shakes her head, "How can you say that. It's not like a suit rupture would kill you."
Jane leans her head against the wall for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she opens a recording of a photo of her mother and grandmother waving at her. "Tali, my mother was a squib, as was my grandmother. My grandmother was one of the diplomats during the initial trade negotiations with the citadel races. During a negotiation with the Salarians she suffered a tear in her positive pressure suit Hazmat suit."
Jane pulls up a picture of a Hazmat suit, "We didn't have anything better at the time as we'd never needed them. Once they discovered the tear she went into quarantine, and a few weeks later she was dead. My mother risked her life every time she visited me on Mindoir as she's also a squib. Until I went to Sandhurst I lived in this suit just like you live in your suit. Though I was terrified that I would have a suit failure around a magical or a squib, and be responsible for their death. I know that most of the humans you've met, or were likely to meet in the areas of the Alliance you could travel to, don't seem like they care. But that's because they've mostly rejected the rest of Alliance society due to isolation and being treated like lepers."
Tali frowns, "Leper's?"
"People who suffer from leprosy, a mildly contagious disease that was incurable until the 20th century. They were generally excluded from society out of fear and disgust. When you have time, you should talk to Ashley about her own fears and worries, as she's only just become PS positive."
Tali shakes her head, "But you've already got a cure for this, why don't you just make everyone magical?"
"Because it's dangerous, and we couldn't teach everyone the skills they needed to survive with magic levels that high. The people who could teach those skills don't want a massive influx of people disrupting their own culture. That's also not counting the fact that Humans are massively prone to being combative, and if we had an entire population of Sidhe level magicals, those humans that hold views like Human First would have almost certainly consigned at least one populated world to the void. I'm not including Torfan in that, as that was an object lesson to the rest of the Galaxy. One that nobody involved wanted to be part of, but it was the only way to prove that Human First was attempting to erase important parts of Systems Alliance history. The new IHA isn't much better, but at least there are now public records of sleepers. That's by the by, and you'll have first hand experience of those dangers before your apprenticeship is over. Before we get to that, you need to learn English, and the only reliable way to do that is with that memory crystal."
Tali unplugs her suit and hugs herself, "I'm not sure how to do it, and I'm scared."
Jane pulls up a picture of a leather cap with a crystal mounted on the forehead, "This is a memory recorder, and there should be several inside your cabinet. When you find them, one of them should have a small brass plate on the inside just over your forehead. That version is also a memory writer, but it will only work if you blood it like you had to do with all of your other equipment. If you want to use the writing feature, you'll need to lift up the thin leather protector so that the metal sits flush against your skin, and then place the crystal into the mounting socket. As soon as you do, the memory will be pulled out of the crystal and put into your own memory. Technically speaking, they are called histories rather than memories. This is because they have been curated from multiple sources to minimise the possibility of personality contagion, and I'm waffling. Look, just set up your cabinet against the wall and spend the next few shifts exploring it so that you're confident that it's safe for you. Once you're sure it's safe you can work on removing your face plate. Also keep in mind that you need to be able to read English in order to truly understand the book on Runes that you're reading."
Tali nods, "I'll do that, and I'll translate the books so that runes will be my pilgrimage gift."
"So, what's a pilgrimage gift?"
Tali looks up at the ceiling as she thinks, "Amongst my people, we do not live on a planet, rather we live on a flotilla of ships, the last survivors of our war with the Geth. As part of becoming an adult we must leave the flotilla and explore the Galaxy learning new skills until we find a suitable gift to present to a captain. It has to be something useful to the flotilla though, as we only survive when we all pull our weight."
"What would normally be considered appropriate gifts?"
"Anything from new air or hydroponics filters up to a new ship. There are so many things needed to keep the fleet running that it's very difficult to find something that isn't appropriate to one ship or another. But there's also a level of prestige involved, as one of the older smaller ships might accept something as simple as air filters, but then you'd be living on a ship that needs more attention than the crew can really dedicate to it. On the other hand, hydroponics filters would likely see you living on one of the live ships, and they are overcrowded even by our standards."
Jane nods, "Don't forget that you're my apprentice, there are a lot of things you are going to learn that will change the way you see the world. But as your Master I will do my best to ensure you return to the flotilla with an appropriate gift for your new station in life."
Tali smiles, "Thank you Shepherd."
Jane gently thumps Tali on the arm, "Tali, just call me Jane. As my apprentice you're outside the normal chain of command, and we're going to be together for a very long time."
Tali shakes her head, "You're around the same age as me, and your records say you were training for less than a year. I think I can learn everything you can teach me in a similar timescale."
"Now make that calculation based on me living on Earth:15 instead of Earth:2 for that time. That will give you the upper bound for how long you'd need to be with me to learn everything I learnt during my training. Then remember that I'm still being trained myself."
Tali shakes her head, "I've run those numbers, and they're impossible. There's no way you survived that long, not even the Asari live that long."
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Tali, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Now go and set up your cabinet and start exploring, you've got 3 hours before we reach the next relay."
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During the middle of her sleeping shift, Tali shivers as she startles awake for the 5th time that night. Woken not by noise, but instead by the silence that pervades the entire ship. A soft snort has her turning her head towards the bed that Jane's sleeping on. After carefully disengaging the comfort mode on her suit she pushes herself to her feet and pads over to the bed, before lying down next to Jane. Over the rest of the sleep cycle she unconsciously moves closer and closer to Jane so that she can hear the soft snores that Jane makes.
