|Chapter 5|
|Date: 2/4/2184|
|Location: Hades Gama/Migrant Fleet/Ships Pending Depletion of Charge Saturation|
The last part of her trip had been the quietest. She was fortunate enough to have come across a ship rental at the last port and did what any sane quarian would've done if they had a lot of money. She rented one.
She could see them out in the distance now. A cloud of ships stretched out further than the eye could see. After skimming over the data on the ship's crowded bundle of dirt encursted screens, she reclined the chair back as far as it would allow and absorbed herself with the disc she'd been holding in her hand.
One long year out on pilgrimage and all she brought back was this and a broken heart.
She pocketed her gift and sniffled.
Funny how something so small could change so much.
John told her it was history in the making.
Too bad he wouldn't be around to see it.
"User," The VI spoke to her through the ship's PA, "…Hailing Frequencies have been intercepted. IFF is activated; we are being targeted."
Tali sat up and accepted the hail.
"Fleet control to Foreign Vessel: maintain your current heading. Do not deviate."
Tali gave them a quick reply. "Copy fleet control."
There was a long pause.
"Foreign vessel, state your purpose and content for approach, how copy?"
"This is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya; Requesting permission to dock with the MFS Rayya. I return from pilgrimage." Tali said calmly.
There was another long pause on the end of the traffic controller. No doubt the guy was getting his electronic list of passphrases for quarian pilgrims.
"Please verify." The air traffic controller replied.
"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust…" She paused, "…I will return to where I began."
"Welcome home, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."
She imagined that he was smiling.
"I'd like a security and quarantine team to meet me, the ship isn't clean." She got up from the chair and started pacing around the helm chair.
"Understood. Please approach the right starboard interior docking bay four. An escort will help guide you. Sending trajectory coordinates to your ship's VI now."
"Thank you."
It was all exactly how she remembered it.
One year and six months and the tiny dripping leak just next to door number six to biomass inductor one was still there.
And the pipe above temperance duct number eight just down the hall still rattled from two missing U-bolts.
And it still looked like the little gray-blue tarps covering doors two, eight, and nine for biomass examiner two and three were still there.
She sighed and took it all in.
"Still the same as you left her, Tali'Zorah." Dohn'Sai said as he caught notice of her before waving.
"Disappointing, Dohn." Tali called out with a forced smile, "I told you to fix the leak on door number six before I left."
"The replacement part's been back ordered for a year." He said before waving her off and turning down a hallway, "Nice to see you again, Tali! It's good to have you back!"
"Yeah." She muttered lamely under her breath, "It's good to be back."
Tali's forced smile fell right off her face, and, for some odd reason, the Normandy and her crew echoed through her thoughts ominously.
She made her way to the clean room to get her suit set up for mandatory examination propriety.
Tali loved being naked.
Obviously.
Any time spent out of her prison would be a good one.
Her robe, which she'd discarded long ago, lay on the bed, sulking as she checked over every stitch and fabric on her enviro-suit. She sat down on the cold metal chair and draped both sleeves over her thighs while carefully feeling for any micro tears or thinning imperfections.
The last time she had released herself from prison was in her room back on the SR1.
That was nearly 3 months ago.
On the Normandy, she'd be outside of the suit every day of the week. That luxury ended when she had to return back to the Flotilla.
She even had the luxury to sleep with nothing on. Which she'd done a lot on the Normandy.
With a forced sigh, she continued her long and mundane examination.
"Tali'Zorah? Just checking up on you. Are you okay?" A voice had croaked through the clean room's PA.
Interrupted from her thoughts, she gave the speaker a curious look.
"I'm fine. Thank you." She replied flatly. Her eyes fell back to looking over her sleeves.
"Good. Make sure you give yourself a physical to find anything out of the ordinary." The disembodied voice said.
"Thank you..." She mumbled, "Is this Khato'Laksva?"
"Indeed, Tali! I'm a doctor now."
"Congratulations." Came Tali's reply, "Though I have to ask, I don't remember this being part of the propriety when coming back from pilgrimage."
"Just recently, Tali. It's a precaution that was deemed fit for the safety of the crew." Kahto answered over the PA, "We had someone come back from her pilgrimage... she had malignant tumors in her breast. Somehow she'd contracted radiation poisoning from some odd jobs she had. I'll spare you most of the other details." The quarian doctor gave a bleak sounding sigh, "Point being...she had lost more than just a breast. The cancer metastasized and spread to her other organs. She died. Afterward, we deemed it necessary that we incorporate more caution for our pilgrims and people returning from travel duty."
"...was she your patient?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"I'm sorry, Kahto."
"Yeah...you and me both, Tali. She's in a better place now, I hope."
Catching the awkward silence that would have ensued afterward, she spoke.
"What's up? What did you need me for?"
"I need you to step into that little room next to the bed there, Tali. It's a sensor suite to scan your guts."
"...interesting." She mumbled when she walked to the small sliding door.
"Go ahead and take your robe off and step inside."
"Already off." She mumbled before stepping inside the confining space. Fluorescent lighting enshrined her body.
"See the plates at your side? Go ahead and rest your hands on them please." His said calmly, "Thank you."
She did as instructed.
"Great. And we'll begin." The light was blinding and she squeezed her eyes shut.
"Be as still as possible. This will only take a moment." A glowing film of blue had scanned her body from her vertical and horizontal planes. Then the machine powered down after the test.
"Thank you, Tali. I'll forward you your results to your omni-tool as soon as we're done examining. Enjoy the clean room as long as you need to Tali. But don't forget to check your body and report anything suspicious."
"Thanks Kahto."
"No problem, Tali. See you around." The PA clicked off.
Tali stepped out of the machine, hung her suit onto a hanger, and decided to take a nap. Slipping herself into the bed's comfortably warm sheets, she sighed and closed her eyes.
"Dim lights."
The lights dimmed. Suddenly, a festering blister of guilt had crushed Tali's little heart.
She was laying comfortably in the safety of a bed while whatever remained of John floated in vacuity.
A throbbing pain twisted deeply in her throat while her eyes burned from tears. She sobbed bitterly and her chest trembled in mighty heaves.
Six hours later...
"Damn. That's a lot of stuff you stole."
"You think?"
"13 terabytes? I can't even imagine what's inside all that." Mima's head had sunk forward to emphasize the surprise in her voice.
"A means to an end, hopefully. But I doubt it. It's probably nothing but junk code." She chortled lifelessly as her hands wrung anxiously at her waist.
Mima gave Tali a disbelieving look. "Don't downplay yourself so much. You could dangle this off the end of a stick and have captains punching each other in the face for their chance to have you."
Mima handed back the disk as she kept staring at the screen in front of her.
"I know. You're right." Tali murmured, pocketing the stick, "...so you'll help me pick a ship?"
"Of course," Mima answered, bringing up the roster, "We'll narrow it down to something you like."
A moment passed and the list started compiling. "How many ships?
"350. A bit too much still."
"A research lab would be nice." Tali mentioned, "Anything that doesn't belong under Xen specifically?"
Mima typed up some keywords and nodded. "You're down to 25."
"Anything tailored for my degree of research?"
"Just five left." Mima said, getting up so Tali could get a better look, "If you don't like any of them, we can go back to the bigger list."
Tali looked briefly over each ship. The name of the second ship hit home.
It had meaning. Something Tali liked.
The Neema—Remember your past with reverent eyes. We must carry on.
The festival's livelihood had lightened Tali's mood. She wondered how something as simple as music and laughter could make her feel better, if only a little.
Though, after everything she'd been through, it was a lot less exciting than she'd originally imagined.
The finale of the celebration ended with presenting her gift to the Neema's captain. Holding the gift with both his hands, he accepted with a single nod.
"Welcome aboard, Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya. We are honored to have you as a part of the crew and family." The captain bowed his head and followed it with a prayer on behalf of the ancestors for having kept Tali safe and sustained until her return.
She knew the prayer was mostly a formality. The captain was doing it more out of tradition than anything else. But it still forced her to frown. The only thing that had kept her safe on the Normandy was luck and ammo. Only the luck had run out for pretty much everyone.
At the prayer's conclusion, the crew cheered and went about their mingling again.
Tali shook hands and made acquaintances with many of the crew. They were all polite and happy. Tali kept her forced smile up and pretended to be delighted.
Then Shala'Raan vas Tonbay arrived.
"Auntie Raan!" Tali shouted as she weaved her way through the crowd to meet her beloved family friend.
"Tali'Zorah vas Neema! Oh my child! I am so proud of you!" Shala's hands reached forward to hug the newest member of the Neema. Tali had returned the favor with a little more force than what was deemed necessary.
The vice around the admiral had nearly knocked the air out of her.
"I missed you so much Auntie." She whispered into Shala's ear.
"I can say the same for you. though I can't say the same about those strong arms of yours." She parted from the embrace, her hands now grasping Tali's.
"How's dad?" Tali asked as she watched Shala compose herself for an answer.
"He's busy." She murmured before gripping Tali's sagging shoulders, "As always."
"Too busy to even see her daughter return from pilgrimage?" She asked bleakly before staring at their hands.
"He'll see you soon, Tali." Shala raised her head with a hand, "I'll make the Bosh'tet. I promise." They embraced once more.
CODEX ENTRY: Via Mass Effect Database.
FTL Drive: Drive Charge
As positive or negative electric current is passed through an FTL drive core, it acquires a static electrical charge. Drives can be operated an average of 50 hours before they reach charge saturation. This changes proportionally to the magnitude of mass reduction, a heavier or faster ship reaches saturation more quickly.
If the charge is allowed to build, the core will discharge into the hull of a ship. All ungrounded crew members are fried to a crisp, all electronic systems are burned out, and metal bulkheads may be melted and warped together.
The safest way to discharge a core is to land on a planet and establish a connection to the ground, like a lightning rod. Larger vessels like dreadnoughts cannot land and must discharge into a planetary magnetic field.
As the hull discharges, sheets of lightning jump away into the field, creating an aurora of displays on the planet. The ship must retract its sensors and weapons while dumping charge to prevent damage, leaving it blind and vulnerable. Discharging at a moon with a weak magnetic field can take days. Discharging into the powerful field of a gas giant may require less than an hour. Deep space facilities such as the Citadel often have special discharge facilities for visiting ships.