|Date: 11/02/2184|
|Location: Aboard the Neema|
|Time: 0600, local standard time.|
The alarm on her small nightstand started ringing.
Her eyes, tightly shut from her long night of sleep, bead open slowly to get a look of the time.
"Ugh..."
She hated that alarm. Most annoying goddamned noise that'd ever graced her ears, if she told the truth.
0600 she read on its little display.
She heaved a dark and tired sigh. She didn't like to keep up with dates and times.
Just work.
Nothing else.
Keeping up with dates and times meant keeping up with things she'd much rather leave behind.
A way to keep the tragedies she'd experienced exactly where she wanted them to be.
Forgotten.
And at the bottom of her thoughts.
She knew she could try. But it never really worked.
The alarm yelled for her attention.
She gave the thing an acrid and groggy looking glare before turning it off and wrapping herself deeper into the bed's sheets.
Wow. She really didn't want to get out of bed.
Tali heard her neighbor, the one right above her, Enyah, step down her small flight of stairs before exchanging some pleasantries with Tali's other neighbor, Olasie. Tali yawned, massaged her temples, or as much as she could with a helmet on, and sat up at the side of her bed before slipping on her omni-tool and getting a look of the day's schedule. Best if she got started with the day if the others were.
Amazingly enough, after she'd logged into her profile, she realized the maintenance roster hadn't assigned anything to her for the day.
Odd.
She started skimming through a bulleted list of the Neema's itinerary, hoping to find something to work on.
Nothing available. Incredible. That never happened.
She finished browsing through the Neema's catalog and grumbled.
She wasn't just going to sit by and surf the extranet all day. Ordinarily, Tali would have taken the lull in maintenance as an excuse to head to her lab and mingle with her projects. But she didn't have anything to do in her lab anymore. Any project she'd been working on had been quickly transferred to Daro'Xen and her father for immediate oversee. Tali assumed it was for the best. The fewer ships with geth parts, the better.
She huffed to herself and finally got up before opening her drawer and putting on her realk and clip-on pockets.
She might as well wander around at least. If she was lucky, she'd find something to do.
And if worse came to it, she could always look around the trading decks for stuff.
She always liked doing that.
Flattening out the wrinkles in her realk, she cracked her back and yanked the curtains aside before walking out.
|0800 local standard time.|
"Tali!"
Tali's narrowed glare, hidden under the visor's ever subtle visage, turned to watch a young pair of girl's approaching her flank in the mess.
Great.
Her teeth gnash a mutter of slurring words to stem the lack of tolerance she had for these two.
How they managed to find her as often as they did was remarkably abnormal. Especially in the Neema's beset hallway of busy flurrying people.
At first, she considered her veil's brilliant violet and pale white swirls to be an easy symptom of detection. Not to mention the unique medallion centered right above her breasts.
But Tali was starting to feel a little suspicious that Juel was probably the one telling them where she was whenever they'd ask him.
Then again… she did run on a fairly linear schedule… so…
"Hi, TalTals!" Chilo's congested voice rang through the commonplace.
A nickname, one that she wasn't particularly fond of, was spoken loudly to gather the attention Tali didn't want from anyone passing by.
"What's up?" Siv asked as she picked at the frayed piece of cloth at her thigh.
"Hi, Chilo. Hi, Siv." Tali omitted the common honeyed tone she typically carried in her voice.
If the two small girls had noticed the elder quarian's lack of airy disposition, they paid it no mind.
"Whatcha doin' today?"
"Working. You two should be in school."
"Can't." They both exclaim merrily.
"Our Yulah is very busy. We got off early today!" Chilo fist pumped the air.
Keelah. These girls were immature.
Siv was quick to add more. "We're going to spend our time at the trading decks to—"
Chilo gutted Siv to shut her up and stop her from saying any more.
"SHH!" Chilo hissed angrily while staring down at Siv'Miah. Siv reeled at her slip up and gave half-made apologies to her friend, "You can't say anything, Siv!"
"What are you doing at the trading decks." Tali asked with a glare.
Tali's rebuke forced their mouths shut.
"Girls? I'm waiting for an answer."
"NOTHING!" They both run off in a fit of moronic giggles before disappearing behind a corridor.
Dealing with them almost made her sympathize for her father, to a degree. If she'd acted like that all the time, she wouldn't have wanted to spend much time with herself either.
But she didn't act like that… so the point was moot.
Tali considered chasing after the two children for a proper disciplinary action, but she'd be lying if she hadn't felt a twinge of apathy and more importantly, laziness, over the issue.
Her head fell back slowly as she let the umpteenth sigh pass her lips.
Fortunately enough, a shipment of Edict-40 pipelines arrived at her workstation. At least she could steal herself in the satisfying company of basic assembly.
Maybe listen to some music too.
|0930 local standard time.|
This is exactly why she didn't want to keep up with the time.
Minutes ago, when she was focused on installing a small pipeline for ERCXeSS Coolant (Which always seemed to be in short supply on the Migrant Fleet's reserves), her omni-tool chimed.
It was the anniversary day of Ilos.
The anniversary of the Citadel's Attack and in equal measure, its liberation.
The anniversary of the Council's spared lives.
The anniversary of the countless souls that had given their lives away in the face of ignorance—an ignorance of a looming gallow that many paid dearly for.
The day that had determined the fate of the Milky Way and the inhabitants within it.
Tali considered giving Garrus a call.
Maybe even Wrex or Ash.
...But why though?
The others were, undoubtedly, reflecting in the same way she was.
Well.
Mostly, anyways.
She dropped her wrench right back into her tool-box, sat down on a crate, and felt a small smile creep at the corners of her lips.
Past the pain of Ilos, Tali recalled the days just before the culmination of Saren's doom and the Reapers' delay. The memory was mundane and plain, Tali would admit. There wasn't anything particularly special about it. But, in a way, it was.
She leaned back and sighed.
It was incredible, really. The amount of time that'd passed since then—was too long. And short. Her smile waned slightly as she thought about how bitter her life had become since John's death. It was a miracle how she'd managed to make it this far on just her legs alone.
"Ilos." She muttered quietly, gracing the rusty walls across from her with a distant stare. Her smiled turned somber.
"Hey John." She rasped with a low whisper, "I feel… so… stewpid for doing this…"
She swayed her feet and ogled them for a while. "...Guess I just wanted to say hi. And that I love you."
Dry and repetitious vibrations from the Neema's engine from somewhere far off answered her muted voice.
"I wish I could see you again, John…" She said, her smile fading ever so slightly before scoffing, "I'd eat a vorcha if I had to…"
She stared into her hands for another moment and shook her head, "eh… maybe not… But, you know what I mean."
She listened desperately for a reply she knew wouldn't come.
"Look at me… you're not even here and I still feel like babbling."
She waited again, and still, nothing came. Her stare turned docile and glossy.
"You know… I think it's impossible for me to ever really move on from you." Tali said before crossing her legs and looking up to the ceiling thoughtfully,"To think it was going to be a human... a Spectre in the Alliance, no less."
Her lip trembled.
"I want you here, John." She murmured, tears welling in her eyes, "Because deep down… I'm hoping you'll still come back to me…"
Please John.
Come back to me.
|Date: 11/02/2184|
|Location: Omega Nebula/Sahrabarik System/Omega Space Station|
Garrus' talon hovered hesitantly over the send button.
He stared at his omni-tool worriedly and finally shook his head and deleted the email.
Sending a message to Tali wasn't going to do her any good.
This somber anniversary was time to remember and to reflect on history made galactic.
Earlier this morning, Garrus actually sat down and watched the vids while he ate breakfast.
He flipped through some of the channels before finally coming across a news anchor mentioning the Citadel and the geth attack exactly one year ago.
He watched the rest until his meal was cold and finally shook his head.
The details the anchor provided were shotty at best.
But at least they got the gist of it.
It was obvious to anyone that Commander Shepard hadn't acted alone in stopping Saren's "coup" attempt.
It took the team of one turian, one quarian, one krogan, two humans, a council-spectre (Also a human) and a detachment of Alliance marines to stop Saren and his geth.
If one believed in miracles, surely they would have pointed out this one.
Garrus would be quick to agree with them.
It really was a miracle straight from the spirits that they'd survived that many firefights, traps, and explosions.
The best one had to be that IED Saren had the pleasure of surprising them with on Ilos.
Or how their M35 LAVs were, quite literally, hyper-spaced into the presidium's lakes…
Sixteen more firefights on their way up to the council chambers…
The team's exhaustion was so beset on their psyche; the crew had nearly overdosed on stimulant packages to keep their peek endurance for the remainder of the mission.
Garrus even remembered both John and Tali sipping on energy drinks every time they'd take a break from shooting at the pro-reaper asshole.
Not that he was blaming them. He'd scarfed down multiple biscuits on the elevator ride up to the council chambers.
Though, it was a shame he had to trash the food when Wrex had decided to barrel through the lift's pressurized glass so they could make the rest of their way there by foot.
As a matter of fact, Garrus was pretty sure he still had a recording of that shitty day.
"Replay log seventeen: recording two, VI." Garrus said silently.
—{Yes, Archangel. Replaying.}
"—h shit. Saren cut off the elevator controls..." a marine from behind Garrus said.
Though it was a little hard to hear the soldier since Garrus was chewing loudly on his food.
"Any ideas? We sit here any longer and the Geth are going to laze us." A marine spoke up from somewhere outside of the camera's field of view.
Another scrounging bite gorged the camera's speaker when Garrus fumbled with the wrapper.
"I've got one." Wrex said as he pushed his way up to the elevator's glass, "Everyone's helmets secure for vacuum exposure?" The giant dinosaur grinned madly at John and Tali.
"What's your plan, Wrex?" Another marine asked as he took a position beside the krogan.
"We're going out there." Wrex said punctually by loading a concussive round into his gun.
"Waitwaitwait." Garrus took another mighty morsel of cracker into his mouth before tossing the rest on the ground, "Littering on the presidium is illegal in at least thirty six ordinances and regulations on the Citadel." Garrus specified sarcastically before smirking.
Just to be ironic, he stepped on the biscuit and felt it crumble under his boot.
"They'll be pissed when they see that." A marine said.
Anyone who had the energy to chuckle did. The rest just smiled.
"Pretty sure the groundskeeper ain't gonna care."
"How many regulations against breaking vacuum sealed presidium elevators?" Wrex asked as he watched the turian fasten his helmet while chewing.
"At least two… but since that's pretty much committing suicide… You'd be filing for your own verdict. In the case you do survive? ...two months of backbone community service and a quarterly of doubled income tax. Maybe even a year or two in prison. No parole."
"Harsh." Shepard replied with a tight smile.
"It is what it is." The turian shrugged.
"And the guns we'll be taking inside the chambers?" Tali queried before looking at her shotgun.
"Four hundred thirty-one regulations that specify or in some way prohibit the handling or discharge of firearms in or near the presidium commons or chamber. Twelve-kilometer diameter minimum. But they do have a conceal carry permit program for those who apply. Turn down rate is exponentially high, as expected."
"Little odd knowing that much about laws isn't it?"
Garrus just shrugged.
"You'd think one law would be enough." Liara mentioned tersely. Before the turian could offer a curt reply, the krogan released a salvo of fire into the lift's glass composite.
Just as the turian had suspected, the glass shattered and threw forth thousands of shards out upon the vacuum of space.
A marine with a broken arm, with the name of Jason Holley, stepped forward and leaned out to get a better view of the long spire.
He took a deep and pained breath before speaking. "Quite a ways…"
"Twelve hundred twenty-two meters to be exact." Pete Stacker mumbled from somewhere behind.
"Holley. You've been relieved of command." Shepard spoke aloud for everyone to hear across the COM (considering there wasn't an atmosphere anymore), "Chief Williams will be your new Actual, Bravo Team." Everyone in the elevator clambered out of the claustrophobic space before leveling out across the miscellaneous placing of cover.
"Copy, Commander. What should I do instead?"
"You'll be covering our rear. Copy?"
"Copy, Sir."
"End Recording, VI."
—{Yes, Archangel. Categorizing.}
Garrus, standing inside a broken and destroyed lounge, sighed before ejecting a thermal magazine from his rifle.
The past days had been absolutely numbing, but he and his team had accomplished more than their usual fare of missions.
"Not like you to take a break in the middle of a heist, Archangel." Lantar Sidonis had motioned from behind his turian cohort as he ruffled through a crate that had survived the deafening blast.
"I wouldn't call it a heist… just… a rightful reallocation of goods to those in desperate need."
"You're playing Robin Hood, Angel." Gregg Folly joined Sidonis in the casual rummaging of supplies.
"You're right. I am playing Robin Hood."
"I'm surprised a turian would know what that is." Folly shrugged as he tossed a dozen or so parcels of food into a container behind him.
The turian's voice glowered. "When you've live on an Alliance vessel for a year with a full human crew, you learn a lot."
"That you do."
A batarian, with the name of Jugath Ishvak, reared the corner and grumbled. "Enough talking, Folly, let's just get the supplies and leave."
"What's wrong, quad-eye? Afraid our bomb attracted too much attention?" Folly snickered as he continued his aimless scavenging. When the human finally pulled out something that looked even remotely useful, the Batarian explosive expert snatched it out of his hands.
"My bomb. And yes, I am. I nearly leveled the whole goddamn building." Jugath glanced at the thing he took from Folly before giving it back to the human.
"He's right." Garrus said, "Maws tight and lips sealed. Got it?"
"Okay. Fair enough." Folly said with a show of hands, "Back to it."
"Good… because it looks like the Suns just found out what's up." Garrus punctuated his words with the flicking safety of his weapon. He continued to watch, through his vantage point, at the fair sized number of Blue Suns carefully moving up to their position.
Sidonis looked up from his box. "What? We got contacts?"
Garrus nodded. "Yeah. Just wait and I'll tell you what to do."
Garrus waited for several seconds before giving his batarian explosive expert a stare.
"Jugath. Wait for them to trip the claymores."
Then he pointed to Folly and Sidonis. "You two? Keep the perimeter intact. Link up with the others and keep the evac clear."
"Right."
"Got it."
The two men stand up and hurry out of the room.
"Come on, Jugath. With me."
The batarian smiled brutishly before settling down in his own perch to get a clear view of the squad of Suns.
Garrus had to give it to them. The Blue-Suns knew their stuff. They were keeping rank and checking their corners methodically.
But it wouldn't help them.
"Switch to thermal optics." Garrus ordered, "Check your fire until I give the order everyone... And keep your head cool. We have them."
Garrus settled into his stock and got a bead at the two soldiers on point.
"Get ready," Jugath warned, "They're about ready to cross the trip wire."
When the Blue Suns finally passed the road's small crossing, a shaped EMP charge had, quite literally, fried the Blue Sun's onboard computers suites.
And more importantly, their kinetic barriers.
Following that, two claymore charges had enveloped the mercenaries into a 50 meter box of improvised perverted steel.
The damage was, as Garrus had expected, minimal.
But the men and women who'd foolishly decided not to wear full-bearing ballistic helmets were, as an ill-fated effect, crippled from gouged eyes and ripped cheeks. Those closest to the blast fell from the explosive trauma and inadvertently shielded their fellow soldiers from the shrapnel.
But the trip wasn't finished.
Two smoke grenades broke out and engulfed whoever was left.
"Exercise discretion." Garrus murmured through the radio, "Kill shots only."
Cautious and calculated semi-automatic fire rang out through Archangel's small and effective firing line.
Sixteen shots rang out.
All of them hit home.
Archangel's opposing force never had the chance to return fire.
"Now that's a record." Garrus said proudly, "Wrap it up here. Get our things and move. Regroup at Thaxton-one."
"Copy. We're withdrawing. Meet you at the safe zone."
Garrus gave himself a grim smile.
He had a great team.
If they kept this up, Omega would be nothing but a goddamned wasteland.
|0930 local standard time.|
|Date: 11/02/2184|
|Location: Aboard the Neema|
"Tali?" Juel called out as he walked down the hallway, "You there?"
"Here." Came a small and feeble reply.
Juel rounded the corner and saw Tali sitting on top of the only crate in the engine room.
"Hey." He greeted quietly before grabbing a stool and dragging it over to sit next to her, "...you know you're not supposed to be alone here."
"I know." Tali said with a hushed sigh before finally looking to him, "...Am I like this all the time?"
He shook his head and played with some of the fraying fabric on a piece of his suit. "Nah." He forced himself to say, "Not usually."
Tali didn't have to push the issue any farther. She knew he was lying.
"I've noticed you haven't been eating at the mess lately either."
He pointed to the food bladder in her hands and glanced at the wastebasket full of the things. "You've been eating here instead, I've noticed."
She squeezed the pasty concoction and gave it a distant look. "Yeah..."
Juel crossed his arms and tried to smile. "Want company?"
"Yeah." She nodded slowly, "Sure."
He crossed his arms. "So... What are you thinking about?"
She gave the wall next to her a long sideways glance. "Ilos." Tali said quietly.
"Ilos?"
"Today's the anniversary." She whispered.
Juel's bit his lip and nodded.
Over the year, Juel had learned bits and pieces of Tali's adventure with John... and whatever she would leave out, either purposefully or not, he would research on the extranet.
Other than the raid on Eden Prime, John being appointed Spectre, and the attack upon the Citadel, the details were vague.
"You know you never did finish that story for me." Juel said.
"Oh yeah. That's right." She said with a tired smile, "Want to hear it again?"
"Of course."
"Well…" She began, "It all started when the Normandy got impounded by Udina. He's an asshole."
"The guy's name alone sounds bad. Why'd the ship get grounded again?"
Tali snorted.
"For several reasons, the council would say. But they were tired of John's warning of the reapers..." Tali said as her eyes lulled out of focus, "...We just couldn't convince them they existed."
"But you obviously escaped the impounding. How'd you do it?"
"David Anderson."
"You mean the councilor we saw on the Citadel. The dark looking human?"
"Yes. Him. He was the Normandy's Captain. Previous to John. He came up with a plan to get the Normandy out to stop Sovereign." Tali explained, "So, John and I met up at a club with him and said he'd go into Udina's office and lift the impounding order."
"Was Udina in there at the time?"
She laughed hoarsely. "Mhmm. I saw the footage too after. The bastard got a winged punch right in the jaw. Knocked him right out. What a pussy."
"Pussy?"
"Human talk."
"Right."
"And we were off to save the galaxy." She looked up at the ceiling.
"With John Shepard at your side." Juel said.
"Yes. With John at my side." She repeated, "Well. More like, me at his side."
"You gonna tell me the rest?"
"I suppose." She shrugged, "I guess I'll start right after we left the Citadel."
|Chapter 15|
|A Long While Ago|
|DATE: 11-1-2183|
|Location: Serpent Nebula/Aboard SSV Normandy|
|En-route to: Pangaea Expanse /Refuge System/Ilos|
John laughed at her poor joke and downed whatever was left of his drink in a hasty gulp. "Christ Tali. That joke was so stupidly not funny it made me laugh."
Tali shrugged and giggled a little. "I was never good at telling jokes anyways." Tali relented after sipping a little more of her soda.
"Nah, you're just fine. The punch line saved it." John assured her.
He set down his glass and pointed to the other side of his room.
"Look there." He said, pointing to a briefcase resting comfortably in his lounge chair, "There's something there I want to show you. Got it yesterday. "
She turned around to get a look at it.
"What is it?" She asked before standing up to fetch the briefcase.
"Got the stuff right before we got impounded." John explained as she set it down on the table next to him, "Thought we could use them against Saren when the time comes."
She unclasped the buckles that lined its seal and opened it up.
"Wow…" She slurred.
She picked up a pouch of incendiary rounds and played with the weight before smiling.
And it wasn't just incendiary ammunition. There were shield capacitors, technical scramblers, lock integrators, Frictionless materials...
oh...
And what's this?
Right next to several of John's new ammo blocks was a black brushed aluminum case.
She cocked her head to the side and picked up the box and couldn't help but think how out of place it was next to all this military equipment.
"What's in here?" She asked before trying to pry open the box.
Shepard, having been engaged with looking over his own handful of stuff, caught up with Tali's unintended meddling and got a heart attack. Right before she could open it, he snatched it frantically from her hands.
"Not yet!" He exclaimed through a flimsy sounding yelp before opening up his nightstand and shoving the box into it.
Tali's stared at him like he was a freak.
"Not yet? What?"
"Not yet." He breathed.
Smooth John.
Fucking smooth.
John felt a lick of sweat dampen his back.
In that little black box, the one Tali had almost opened, was a medallion he'd crafted for her.
And it was for after they'd defeated Saren, stopped Sovereign, and the geth.
"What's in it?"
"Nothing."
"Why won't you let me see it?" Tali prodded before letting her stare linger on his nightstand a little longer.
"Because. I said so." He said complacently to try and hide the blush that rose on his cheeks.
The idea of giving Tali something that practically amounted to a wedding ring for quarians was something he was going save for when he would finally get the balls to finally ask her out.
Well.
It was more like skipping the 'going out phase' to 'We're engaged'.
Don't get him wrong, he wouldn't have minded calling Tali his fiancée.
But that would probably scare Tali just enough to have her high tail it out of the Normandy back to the Flotilla.
The details were a little messy, admittedly. He'd work out the kinks of how it would all work later.
But in all seriousness, he couldn't deny it. The woman in front of him made him the happiest man alive.
He was madly in love.
"Will I ever get to?" She asked quietly before crossing her arms in defeat.
"Maybe. Not sure." He gave what best amounted to a smile before sifting through more of his purchases in an anxious effort to move on with the conversation.
"Fine…" she pouted with a mumble.
She gave his nightstand another disappointed look before reluctantly prying her gaze back to the items that didn't seem to interest her anymore.
"What else did you get?" She placed a finger over a product with a label she didn't bother reading.
"Lots of stuff. Garrus and Wrex are going through what I brought them down in the lower decks..." He mumbled before sitting back down and ruffling his short hair, "I doubt they could go through all their stuff before we get to Ilos..."
"What about Liara and Ashley?"
"Not quite sure. Probably with the crew or getting something to eat. Why?"
"Just curious. Didn't see them anywhere." She leaned into the table and squeezed the ends, "Oh. I got something for us too while you were 'meeting' with the Council."
"Really?" A genuine look of surprise came from Shepard's face, "What is it?"
"I thought we could use this to—uh, relax, you know? Like you said. And it didn't cost too much, either... just, uh, a couplehundredcredits..."
"Oh my god. A couple hundred credits." John said sarcastically, "I can't believe you'd do something like that."
Tali rolled her eyes.
"Tali... your pay is good." John added, "You probably got like, eighty grand sitting in the bank."
"Well… not exactly." Tali corrected.
"Oh… What have you been using your money for?"
"Oh... you know..." She waved him off, "Basic field maintenance kits, food, sterilizers—things like that." Her arm absentmindedly makes its way to squeeze the other in embarrassment.
"Tali." He shook his head before pinching the bridge of his nose, "That's what our LOGPACs are for…"
He couldn't count the number of times he had told Tali this.
It was cute, in its own right, but seriously? He snorted sarcastically and put a smile on his face.
Quarians.
What could you do.
"What...? What are you laughing for?" She puffed eccentrically before pointing accusingly at him, "Do you want to see what I got or not?"
"Yes! Okay. Come on. Show me." He sat back down and pushed the items to the side for more room.
"Good. I'm not sure if you'll like it… I do still have the receipt just in case." She said before her expression went blank, "Well—not that it'd matter." She kept rambling and fetched for the toolbox she'd placed near the foot of his bed. "It's something we can shar—"
As Tali talked, John turned around just in time to see her bend over. He couldn't help himself but look at her beautifully round—
"John?"
He lulled back into focus. "Huh?"
She turned back around to face him. "...So?"
"Say what…? Say that again?"
She gave him an odd look. "What were you staring at?"
"Just my lovely quarian." He gave her a lopsided grin.
She shook her head and he knew he'd struck home.
"Well, I asked you if you wanted to try this with me." She finally knelt down to retrieve her expensive purchase.
Another beautiful view of her perfectly round ass.
He felt like a god-be-damned highschooler again.
He almost forgot to answer her question again. "Of course… but I still don't know what it is yet."
"It looked so awesome, John… I just couldn't pass it up. Especially when I found out it was multiplayer!"
"…what?"
She pulled out of her bag two virtual headsets and set them on the table.
"It's even compatible with Sense Stimulation!"
He furrowed his brow and grabbed for one of the headsets. "You know, I've always wondered what these could do."
"Did I mention multiplayer John?"
"I remember you mentioning sensory, uh… stimulation."
That didn't come out right.
If she caught the unintentional innuendo, she paid it no mind.
"Yeah!" She shook his shoulder briskly to further grab his attention, "I saw the demo and everything. Already installed the SenseStims to my suit."
She could hardly contain her giddy excitement.
"How do I get that?"
"What?" She whirled around with her own simulator in hand.
"The… you know… nervous stimulators." The graceless way he cleared his throat did well to compliment the bad combination of words he murmured into a sentence.
"That's what these stickers are for. Follow the instructions. You put them on your skin."
Her visor disappeared under the clunky headpiece.
He quirked a brow when Tali started giving out ooo's and aah's to the miniature hologram projected in front of her.
"Oh my gosh, John… this is amazing." She squealed elatedly while pressing a hand against herself, "There's a whole menu of places to go to and things to feel... the list doesn't end!"
He gave her a hidden grin before finally strapping on the awkward headset and sticker-leads.
"Well then, it looks like you and I have a bit of exploring to do, huh?"
"Keelah John, absolutely! Let's see how well they remade the Normandy, yeah?" She approached from behind John sitting in his char before placing both hands on his shoulders.
He gave the woman a delightful sigh before replying nonchalantly. "I have a feeling you're going to give me the grand tour of the service ducts...along with her static attenuators, ME-50 Rheostats, and… EX-TAT Propulsion preservation stabilizers."
Tali gave John an all knowing laugh; a laugh John had come to fall absolutely in love with.
Looming death or not, John felt happy.
And what better way to spend it with his quirky quarian?
He settled in and readied himself for the coming storm.
There was no way the virtual Normandy on here would even compare to the real one.
|Present Time|
|Date: 11/02/2184|
|Location: Aboard the Neema|
"So that's what you did before a suicide mission." Juel said with a sad smile, "No anxiety. No stress. No sense of impending doom?"
"Yeah." She nodded sadly, "Oddly enough. Just John and I and that silly little game."
And that's when Tali realized the box John had hidden away from her all that time ago before Ilos was the pendant she was wearing now.
She cradled the little piece and gave it a sad and loving smile before rubbing a thumb over its engraving.
She couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to her earlier.
"I wish he didn't die, Tali." Juel whispered, "Ancestors know you don't deserve this."
In spite of the Neema's loud working engine, the silence between them was suffocating.
She nodded absently before finally removing herself from her perch.
"I... I miss him, Juel." Her voice broke for the second time that day.
She fell into Juel's arms and wept into his shoulder.
Hot streaks of tears well in his own eyes. "Tali…" His voice died and his trembling lip frowned deeply.