Tali nervously walks into the upmarket emporium in the presidium with Ashley by her side. The items Jane's asked her to sell enclosed in a hastily constructed omni-gel box.
Hanging over her shoulder is a battered leather bookbag Victoria gave her that is probably worth more than the fabric items she's selling, simply because it's an artifact from before the human Sleeper War. Let alone the fact it's made from dragonhide.
Beside her, Ashley asks, "How do we know who's selling clothes and the like?"
Tali shakes her head, "I do not know, but I think those are holographic sales displays around the edges of the hall."
Ashley shakes her head, "How would they work?"
"I don't know. But we could either talk to the hanar in the middle, or try our luck with the displays around the edge."
"Hanar?"
"The pink, floating person with tentacles hanging down towards the floor."
Ashley blinks, "That's a person?"
Tali nods, "They are indeed."
Ashley shakes her head, "Well, that will teach me to assume everything has arms and legs."
After being directed to an asari shopkeeper, Tali and Ashley walk away with a down payment of 10,000 credits, and a contract to sell the items at 20% commission.
While they make their way into the wards, Ashley touches Tali on the arm, "Tali, are you alright?"
Tali shakes her head, "This is more money than I have ever held in my life."
Ashley nods, "And that's just the down payment. She thought she could sell those things for far more than that. Well, we have instructions to 'buy some civilian clothes', so let's go somewhere much cheaper than around here."
Tali shakes her head, "You won't really find any cheap places on the Citadel. You'd need to visit planets for that."
Ashley pats Tali on the shoulder, "I know, it's like living in a big city. But I'm sure we could head out on one of the arms and find communities where their clothes are more reasonable than the high-end stuff here."
Tali nods, "Well, that limits us to human, asari, and for me salarian communities."
"What about a quarian community?"
Tali shakes her head, "There are none outside the flotilla. My people were expelled from the Council hundreds of years ago, and we have not been able to develop communities since then."
Ashley stops to stare at Tali, "What, not even on your homeworld?"
Tali looks down, "We lost our homeworld to the geth, that's why we were expelled from the council."
Ashley shakes her head, "That doesn't make sense, why wouldn't they have just helped you against the geth?"
"Because it's our great sin, we created them accidentally."
"You created genocidal robots accidentally?"
Tali shakes her head, "No, they were helpers and automated workers, and we kept improving their processing and communications ability so they could do their jobs better. Then one day they gained sentience, and we found we'd accidentally broken one of the core Citadel laws."
"And they kicked you out because of that?"
Tali shakes her head, "No, they kicked us out after we lost our planet, because we hadn't destroyed the Geth."
Ashley shakes her head, "That makes me even more grateful I'm not a Council citizen. We are definitely going to have to talk about that with the ambassador."
Tali shakes her head, "Why would that make any difference?"
Ashley shakes her head, "I don't know, but it should."
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Jane walks into Chora's Den once more and stops to look around as the place seems short staffed.
Shaking her head, she walks around the bar looking for a turian that looks out of place. It doesn't take long to find one that has intricate facial markings, most of which she doesn't understand.
Slipping into a chair at their table, Jane removes her faceplate, and puts it beside her hand.
Speaking in Hierarchy, Jane says, "Honoured Hunter, would this Hunter be able to speak with you?"
The turian looks up at her, "Who are you?"
Jane inclines her body, "This Hunter is Jane Shepherd."
"Ha, it appears news only travels slightly faster than you. I had heard of a human fledgeling that had been recently found, and here you are. I'm General Septimus. What brings you to my table?"
"You use a human rank?"
Septimus takes a drink, and slams it back on the table, "Might as well, they're all over the damn place now."
Jane chitters angrily, "I came to talk to an Honoured Hunter, a Hunt Leader, on behalf of an asari named Sha'ira, but I have instead found a human. This Hunter will continue their search."
As Jane starts to stand up, Septimus slams his fist on the table, "How dare you call me a human!"
Jane deliberately looks around, "You are in a human bar, where most of the clients are human, and you claim to be a human general. What else could you be?"
"Spirits damn it, I am a turian!"
Jane sneers, "Doesn't look like it from my vantage point."
"I could have you dragged to the cells."
"And I could demand a test of Honour. Something neither of us will do because I speak truth. You were an Honoured Hunt Leader, that brought order and stability where it was needed. Now what are you?"
"I am a…", Septimus trails of into a soft chittering of his mandibles.
Softly, Jane says, "Human's don't seek the higher ground, they don't look to those who have climbed the peaks before them. Humans live on a world of soft heights, and hidden threats. They are not like us by nature. To them the sky is a welcoming thing, the light an aid for hunting, caves and forests a place of hidden dangers, and a refuge from the predators of the open spaces. For us, shade is life and the day is death. We have no fear of caves because they are simple and make sense. Do you see a world full of hidden dangers, a place where you have to search out safe places to sleep, and walking over the horizon is the only way to find your next meal. Or do you see a world where a good vantage point will net you a meal far faster than walking around and making noise?"
Septimus grumbles, "When I was a Young Hunter, it was always the older hunters that had the better view points. Even when we ventured to climb as high as them."
Jane shakes her head, "I have climbed many peaks, both human and turian. I have seen the peaks the goblins, dwarves, and asari, climb, and I have taken my first steps to climb the asari peak. What peaks have you climbed?"
Septimus drinks for a few minutes before looking up, "What do I do?"
Jane shrugs, "Are you a Hunter, Speaker, Nest Lord, or human?"
"I'm a Hunter damn it."
"Then you do what we always do, seek to see more."
"But she is my mate, there is no other for me. But she won't…"
"You say won't, but have you climbed to stand next to her, to even see what she sees. Would you expect an Honoured Nest Mother to leave her nest to join your own?"
Septimus shakes his head, then pauses and gives a turian negation, "No, that would endanger the fledglings."
"Exactly. What of Sha'ira? If she was turian, would she be an Honoured Nest Mother?"
"I don't know. I'll have to find out."
"You can't do that if you are laying false trails and hiding pitfalls. How can she trust your honour if she steps in a trap that you said is safe?"
"I will do as you say. You say you have stepped onto their peak, what does their vantage look like?"
Jane thinks for a moment, "I think their elders see patterns in the prey's movement, and direct the younger to take advantage of them. But I have only stepped on their peak, I have yet to climb any distance."
Septimus looks down at his drink, "Then it looks like I'll be plotting my own climb." He looks up, "This time I will do it knowingly, and I will not forget the peaks I've climbed to get here."
Jane smiles as she stands up. As she's about to leave, Septimus taps her arm with the side of his hand, "Young Hunter, there is one false trail that needs to be cleared before I can begin to make things right. Give this datapad to the elcor ambassador. Tell him that I tracked this information down myself. Sha'ira didn't tell me anything."
Jane shakes her head, "Where would I find this Speaker?"
"Their embassy is next to the human embassy."
Jane can't help showing confusion in the human way as her eyebrows scrunch together, "Out on the petals?"
"No! The one on the presidium."
Jane thinks, "Do you mean the Speaker for the IHA?"
"Yes, the humans."
Jane shakes her head and switches to English, "They do not speak for the Systems Alliance. Arch-magi Victoria Black is the Ambassador for the Systems Alliance. You would do well to remember that humans are as happy to live in forests as they are on plains."
Septimus growls, "Then why is their embassy so far away?"
Jane laughs, "Because they are not part of the Citadel Council races. They are a separate galactic power. As our own history books record, or do you not remember how Selene dragged a dreadnaught out of the sky?"
Septimus picks up his datapad and looks up that particular time period, before sitting back as a video starts to play.
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On her way out, Jane spots the human woman that caught her eye the first time she came to this bar. This time, there's no volus to confuse things, and she fair screams nervous to Jane's eyes.
Walking over to sit in front of the woman, Jane pulls a sheet of parchment off her endless pad, and begins to make a flower, with magical assistance, while she's waiting to be served.
A few minutes later, the woman has finished her current drinks and comes back to Jane, "What can I get you?"
Jane smiles, "What do you have that's light on the alcohol?"
"Lots, but they'd still kill you. Not all species drink alcohol."
"Then get me something fruity with an obnoxious paper umbrella and a straw."
The woman chuckles, "You want Flux for that sort of drink."
Jane nods, and pulls out a portkey programmer, "Then maybe I could just have a chat with the prettiest girl behind the bar, and you charge me for something I could drink, in theory."
"What's your angle?"
"Me? Just chatting to a pretty girl, and maybe getting their number." Jane touches the programmer to the flower at the same time she turns it into a portkey to the Embassy foyer, "Here, I made this for you to remember me by."
The woman looks down at the flower, "Look, don't take this the wrong way, but you're not my type."
Jane shrugs philosophically, "Oh well, keep the flower anyway." Her voice drops down quietly enough that only the woman will hear her, "And if you crush it, it will take you straight to the Systems Alliance Embassy." More loudly Jane adds, "Charge me for that drink anyway, take it as an apology."
The woman shakes her head, and rings up a drink, that Jane taps with her omnitool before standing up and walking out. On the way out, Jane sees the woman place the flower into a pocket.
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With a musical hum, Jane makes her way to the mass transit, and then the consort. From there, she heads over the bridge to the small block of embassies.
As she gets closer to the desk, Jane pauses and checks her occlumency and the asari that was handling the desk then. Curiously, Jane walks over to the desk and waits patiently for them to finish their current task.
Eventually, they look up, "Good afternoon. Can I help you?"
Jane smiles and answers in asari, "Maybe, I noticed that you're not Nyaraphria, though you look very similar."
The asari nods, "You are very observant for a human. She is at the Qhicon, Shusenesh, and Ecerine embassy today."
Jane nods, "Interesting, I assume their closer to the petals their species tend to live on?"
The asari nods again, "Very astute. If there's nothing else, I do have work that needs doing. Looking after trillions of lives isn't exactly simple."
Jane nods, and speaks Hierarchy, "Just one thing, I need to visit the Elcor embassy. Would you be able to direct me?"
The asari pauses for a couple of seconds before nodding, "Certainly, if you follow the stairs to my left, they are through the far door to the right."
Jane shakes her head as the asari looks back down at her display, and just heads to the embassy.
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Several days later, after Jane has been co-opted by the Spectre investigating C-sec about shuttles and equipment being impounded illegally, Tali is bent over what should be a priceless treasure, a book on the subject of arithmancy, on her new datapad she has a couple of more scientific books on the underpinnings of aether science.
"Physics doesn't do that!"
Behind her, Victoria smiles at a complaint she's heard so many times. Leaning over Tali, from the side, Victoria picks up the book and props it at an angle in mid-air. "There that's better, we don't want you developing a crick in your neck."
Tali stares at the book, then looks up at Victoria, "Why did you do that?"
"First, you really do need to get up and move around. Second, you need a constant reminder that you're not just dealing with realm:2 physics, those books and papers are also taking into consideration magic. Finally, a relay ship brought your new suit, cabinet, an English language memory crystal, a pistol, and a stylus of all things. Though the letter says that the cabinet is only temporary while Selene finds time to make a proper cabinet for a new apprentice."
Tali stands up eagerly, and then pauses, "Memory crystal?"
Victoria nods, "You need to know how to read and speak English, as there's a lot of ambiguity that you can't afford to have while studying magic."
Tali frowns, "But, those books make frustrating but perfect sense."
Victoria sighs, "Tali, my husband's name isn't Stoic."
Tali sounds surprised, "But…"
"He's named after a star visible on Earth. The dog star, also named Sirius."
"Hey! That's not what he called himself."
Victoria nods solemnly, "I'm afraid it is, I had to ask for help working out how to say that. It's something about indicating that something is a name."
While Tali is digesting that, Victoria walks over to Jane's cabinet, and unshrinks the new cabinet next to it. Opening the door, she looks inside before looking back at Tali, "Tali, I know why the cabinet came so quickly now."
Tali looks up from her musing, "What? Sorry, why's that?"
"This is one of the new troop relaxation cabinets. I guarantee that it's completely sterile inside, as they get a thorough decontamination to clear out anything between 20nm and 100µm as we don't want to run the risk that PS negative troops could contract PS."
Curiously, Tali walks around to see the inside of a decontamination chamber, "Huh? It's smaller than I thought."
Victoria laughs, "Grab your datapad while I unshrink the rest of your package. Next time I see you, you better be wearing your new suit, or telling me that it's not sterile in there."
Tali looks at Victoria in panic, "You want me to do what!?"
"I want you to change out a suit that could fail at anytime when it's exposed to large amounts of magic, into one that won't fail, and also doesn't need recharging. Ideally, you should also blood the cabinet and use the memory crystal. But your suit is the most important part of it."
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Tali walks out of the decontamination chamber into a large sitting room that has dozens of comfortable chairs with a view of one wall. In front of that wall is a low wooden cabinet with a pyramid on top of it.
Flicking on her omni-tool, she starts scanning the atmosphere for gasses and particulate concentrations down to 1µm. When the particulate count comes up as zero, she frowns, and puts her bundle of stuff on a chair as she starts to move around the room, testing every surface.
When she comes to the first door, she pulls it open to see a long corridor running to the left and right, in front of the door is a set of stairs going up.
Slamming the door closed, she leans against it hyperventilating.
"I can't check all of that!"
Cautiously, she walks over to the second door, and pulls it open. With a sigh of relief, she walks into a small waste management room, with a sink and a water filled waste receptacle. The walls themselves seem to be made from ceramic tiles.
After thoroughly inspecting every surface of this small room, Tali gets her new suit and covers the door with omni-gel so that there is no way for any contaminants from outside to come in.
Anxiously, she takes off her faceplate and shivers as she sniffs the air, trying to detect anything the omni-tool missed, before putting the faceplate back on.
A few minutes later, her heart rate has slowed down slightly, and she takes the faceplate off again.
Slowly, Tali goes through the process of removing her suit, until she's standing, shivering, on the cold tile floor.
Snatching up the new suit, she hastily shoves her feet into the legs, and starts the process of seating all the plumbing correctly.
Tali's just about to put the faceplate onto the ill-fitting suit when she remembers that she was supposed to blood the suit. Her shoulders sag, and she retrieves her omni-tool to start absorbing the omni-gel needed to open the door and get the datapad with the instructions for blooding the suit.
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Jane, Tali, and Ashley all find themselves navigating a C-sec station 12 degrees round the presidium from the tower spur where the consorts chambers and Citadel tower are located. Jane can clearly see signs for the turian and hanar embassy's leading to a large lift. Their own destination is the Hierarchy and Systems Alliance docks.
As they enter the lift that will take them there, Ashley asks, "Why are the Systems Alliance docks with the turians?"
Jane shrugs, "I have no idea, because we first made contact with them for all I know."
Tali doesn't even look up from her datapad to comment on the conversation.
At the bottom of the lift, Jane and Ashley walk out, and Jane turns around, "Tali, we're here. You can put the datapad away for the moment."
Tali looks up and whines in English, "Do you have any idea how important this could be for the flotilla? Imagine if we used this information on the inside of a live ship, we could have a home again. One that could never be taken away from us because we could take it with us."
Jane shakes her head, "Tali, you will have plenty of time to read and study later. Victoria and Oriana are waiting for us."
Reluctantly, Tali puts the datapad in the pouch that Jane made for her, before walking out of the lift.
Ashley shakes her head, "I can't understand how you can both do so much studying, it makes my head hurt just thinking about it."
As the three of them approach Victoria and Oriana, Victoria asks, "What was that about the flotilla?"
As Tali looks down, embarrassed at being heard, Oriana shakes her head, "It's a sad story, the short version of it is that the quarian people were expelled from the council when they accidentally created the geth. As they've lost their homeworld, they've been wandering from relay to relay in a vast flotilla that contains their entire species and any flora and fauna they could scavange while they fled."
Victoria shakes her head, "Why haven't they just settled on another planet?"
"Like turian's, they have dextro proteins, so planets that developed like that are in short supply. Every time they've found such a planet, someone already has a claim on it. They tend not to like my species, as the Hierarchy fleet is the one that normally has to move them on."
Victoria sighs, "Looks like I've got a new mountain of work to do, as Alliance space has a few planets that are predominantly dextro life. But they are all several days from the nearest relay by aether ship."
With a hopeful tone, Tali asks, "How long is that by eezo drive?"
Jane puts her hand on Tali's shoulder, "Tali, the SAAS Agincourt could do 200ly a day. I don't know what the limit on eezo…"
She cuts off as the Normandy flies through the atmospheric shields to dock at a nearby docking arm.
Oriana shows amusement at Jane's reaction, "This is what has been occupying the time of both Victoria and myself recently. The Systems Alliance now officially has four docks, one of which is shared with the Hierarchy."
Victoria takes over, "As the joint majority backers of the Normandy Project, our governments are proud to sign over command of the ship to the Council's newest Spectre. A person who has shown she epitomises the traits we both hold up as ideals in both societies."
Oriana gestures to the ship, "Spectre Shepherd, the Normandy is now at your disposal. Your turian mentor is on board with their partner. They are replacing the old quartermaster, but they are merchants so they expect to have plenty of trade opportunities during your travels."
Victoria adds, "Tali, we have been able to have your shuttle moved to dock 3, though I'm sorry to say that they weren't able to locate your personal effects, or the geth core."
Jane shrugs apologetically, "Sorry, the other spectre is still looking, as they believe that locating the geth core will uncover some of the underworld contacts that have thus far evaded identification."
Tali shakes her head, "This is already more than I ever expected. It is a common story for those on their pilgrimage, and the reason why so many are reduced to working on ships for their passage. If it didn't happen here, it would have been somewhere else."
Jane nods, "I am honoured that you have allowed me this command, what of the IHA?"
Victoria hides a smile, "The IHA Navy has agreed to the reassignment. The government, not so much. Captain Anderson will be busy for the foreseeable future as he settles into his new role as military liaison. Admiral Hackett is to be your primary contact in the IHA Navy as you don't have any official authority there."
Jane nods again, "Have the Alliance or Hierarchy managed to turn up any leads? Or am I going chasing geth blind?"
Oriana says, "The IHA have provided one thing, a rumoured sighting of Saren on their Feros colony. They have confirmed the presence of geth there. The Hierarchy have traced Matriarch Benezia's family, and we've located her daughter. Finally, I've heard rumours that the council have located Benezia herself, though obviously I don't have access to their files."
Jane sags in relief, "At least I have a starting point. Starting from Eden Prime would be problematic."
Victoria nods, "That reminds me, The Assembly have decided to open up the Eden Prime mass relay. Their report suggested that the local governor had already been using it, and was planning on seceding the colony to the IHA. That means that you can access it through the Exodus Cluster. Nova Prime, the official home planet for the IHA is in the Asgard system in the same relay cluster."
Jane laughs, "Victoria, do you even know what a relay cluster is?"
Victoria shakes her head, "Nope, I'm just reading what they wrote. I understand that the Hierarchy want their engineers to go bow to stern to ensure the IHA hasn't left any surprises, or removed anything vital. The Systems Alliance also has something coming. The details will be in the captains quarters once it arrives, as they don't trust me with that information."
Tali dryly comments, "It's more likely they don't trust Stoic not to mess it up somehow."
Oriana nudges Victoria, "She's only been living with you for 8 days, and she's already got him pegged."
Jane turns to Ashley, "There's a place in my crew if you want it. Otherwise, I'm sure the Alliance Engineers will be happy to return you to Alliance Space."
Ashley shakes her head, "I might be able to see my family sooner if I head back now. But without you, I wouldn't be able to see them at all. I'm going with you."