A/N: So, I was replaying ME1 earlier this year (pretty sure this was my fifth play-through) and I noticed for the first time that while it is possible to not recruit either Garrus or Wrex, there is also an option for Shepard to try and turn down Tali's help. While choosing it doesn't actually stop everybody's favourite quarian from joining the crew of the Normandy, it occurred to me that I've never found a story where Tali doesn't join the hunt for Saren.
Over the next few months, I kept coming back to that particular premise, the idea evolved, and this first chapter is the result. I'm not sure how frequent updates will be as I have a couple of other ongoing stories, but I couldn't get the idea for this one out of my head and just had to make a start on it.
Anyway, if you can spare the time, please let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Opportunity
I think this is more than you can handle.
The same sentence had been running through her mind constantly for the past hour, tormenting her over and over again. Despite how many times she had mentally replayed that single crushing event, where hope and excitement had turned into all-consuming disappointment in an instant, it had yet to get any easier to bear.
One moment she had been presenting a recording of Saren to the human ambassador here on the Citadel, and the next she was being told gently but firmly that she wasn't capable of helping to hunt the rogue Spectre down. Commander Shepard, the red-haired human woman who she had fought alongside only a matter of minutes before, along with her krogan and turian companions, had turned down her offer of assistance, even after she had reminded the commander of what she had accomplished so far and the skills she possessed.
For a few seconds, it had seemed as though Ambassador Udina would intervene. The… somewhat old human—Tali had not been around enough of them to feel comfortable guessing his exact age but knew greying hair was something humans developed as they got older—had opened his mouth as if to say something, only to then close it with a shrug.
The gazes of those within the office had then become impossible to bear. Despite that, Tali had stood there in stunned disbelief for what felt like minutes, unable to comprehend just what was happening, until the krogan had grunted loudly, causing her to look at him.
"Probably best if you go now," he had said, shrugging even more dismissively than the ambassador, the gesture nearly unnoticeable due to the immense suit of red armour he wore.
In a complete daze, Tali had barely managed to nod in reply before turning towards the door that led out of the office. Each step had seemed to take an eternity before she finally reached it, the door opening automatically to reveal the corridor beyond. It had then closed behind her the instant she was outside, leaving her completely alone.
So now here she was, wandering the Presidium aimlessly as she tried to figure out what to do next. With how little Tali was paying attention to where she was going, it was a small miracle she hadn't walked into anyone yet, not that the bustling mass of individuals around her needed a reason to dislike her. Seemingly every other person she passed muttered an insult or spat the name of her people as though it were one. Quarian. Bucket. Suit-rat. Thief. All of those and more issued from the throats of members of every species on the station, all of them, despite their differences, united in their distaste for her.
If anything, that was probably why she hadn't walked into anyone yet. Practically everyone in her path began shifting away from her as she drew closer, each person then checking their pockets for their credit chit as they glared at her suspiciously. Despite being surrounded on all sides by the crowd, Tali had never felt more alone.
Suddenly unable to stand the stares and mutters for a moment longer, Tali glanced around for a few seconds before spotting an unoccupied bench ten metres or so to her left. Hurrying over to it, she sat down with a small sigh of relief, glad to be out of the stream of people, if only temporarily. Thinking for a moment about what to do next, the quarian activated her omni-tool. Checking to make sure it was connected to the Extranet, she then opened a new browser window in her preferred search engine.
With Fist dead and Saren's treachery about to be exposed irrefutably to the Council by Commander Shepard thanks to the recording Tali had shared with her and the ambassador, she was confident her life was no longer in danger. The councillors would have no choice but to strip Saren of his Spectre status, and once they had, the only reason the turian had for wanting her dead would be gone. However, that would still leave her on her own with only a finite amount of credits to her name and a Pilgrimage gift still to find. That meant her top priority had to be to find a job as soon as possible, unless she wanted to start going hungry once the money she had been given before leaving the Fleet ran out.
The two fingers of her right hand moving dextrously over the orange haptic surface of her omni-tool, Tali entered a simple job search query into the search bar at the top of the window. In the time it took her to blink, a results screen appeared showing a list of openings from companies with a presence on the Citadel. Scanning for anything she was qualified for, Tali smiled for what felt like the first time in weeks as she saw an advert for a ship mechanic that was only a couple of days old. Tapping it to bring up more information, she began to scan the description provided, only to freeze as she saw the company was unwilling to employ quarians.
Closing the pop-up with a hiss of anger, Tali tapped the next job in the list, only to find that it too was off-limits to quarians. The same turned out to be true for the job after that. And the next one as well. Resetting the window and tapping the search bar once it reappeared, Tali re-entered her original query, but added the words "quarians permitted" to the end of it before confirming.
A paltry dozen or so jobs stared back at her, none of them appealing. All of them were for positions as either a dancer or waitress at various gentlemen's clubs. Although Tali didn't know for sure what a "gentleman's club" actually was, she could hazard a guess as to what it might be. Shaking her head in disgust, she raised a finger to close the window, only to pause as she noticed the job at the very bottom of the list, which had initially managed to escape her attention.
Seeing it was tagged as being related to machinery, her heart started to race as she tapped it hurriedly, the quarian beginning to bounce up and down on the bench slightly in excitement. Forcing herself to calm down a little as she read the description of the job so quickly she didn't understand one word of it, Tali went back to the start before reading it again more slowly.
Could you be our newest employee? If you have a background in engineering or maintenance, then we'd love to talk to you about an exciting opportunity that has recently opened up at our colony on Mallas-4!
Please visit our office here on the Citadel (you can either make an appointment or drop by and wait to be seen), to discuss the role with one of our representatives.
While our colony, Odin's Eye, is home to a majority human population, please do not feel discouraged from applying if you are not human. We're looking for the best and brightest to join our staff there, regardless of species.
We hope to hear from you soon!
Despite her initial eagerness, Tali found herself frowning. Below the description was a map of the Citadel showing the location of the company's office, detailed written directions to it, contact information… and that was it. There was no additional information about what the job being advertised actually entailed, the hours on offer, or even the level of pay. And then there was the travel consideration. While an Extranet search would reveal the location of Mallas-4 in only a few seconds, actually getting there would be another matter entirely. She only had a few hundred credits to her name, meaning passage aboard a ship, assuming she could even afford it, would leave her funds dangerously low, possibly to the point where she wouldn't be able to buy herself more than a few meals worth of food after arriving. And if the job only paid on a monthly basis rather than a weekly one...
Mulling over her options silently for a moment, Tali shrugged before rising to her feet. As lacking in information as the advert was, there was no harm in visiting the company's office. After all, it could be that the organisation had a very good reason for being so tight-lipped about its business, such as wanting to give as little away to its rivals as possible. If that was indeed the case, she wouldn't be surprised if she was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement of some kind once someone at the company had explained to her what exactly it was that the opening entailed.
Pushing down her rising feeling of unease as her mind began to consider other, less pleasant reasons the company might have for being so guarded with its information, the quarian shook her head before examining the attached map and directions. Fortunately, the office was on the Presidium, and looked like it would only take her twenty minutes to get to if she walked quickly, which thankfully meant she wouldn't have to make the trip via skycar. The Citadel being the Citadel, she was sure that even a short journey via taxi would cost her an outrageous sum of money.
As she reread the directions in an attempt to memorise them, Tali noticed something she had previously missed. Right at the bottom of the advert, beneath the map, directions, and contact information, was what had to be the company's logo. It consisted of what she recognised as two human letters, the larger of the two being positioned in front of the smaller, causing the latter to be divided into three segments. The larger one was also coloured a bright yellow and the smaller a comparatively boring white. Above and below the symbol was some text in the same human language, though her suit's translation software was able to process the words into Khelish just as easily as it had the rest of the advert.
"Weyland-Yutani," Tali read aloud. "Building better worlds."
"Try harder."
"I can't. If I put any more force into it, the locking mechanism might break."
"It's already broken. That's why we're down here."
His hands still holding together the two halves of the plain metal casing that contained the ventilation fan's delicate circuitry, Alex turned from where he was hunched over in front of the fan itself to glare at the man behind him. "You know, Nalarn," he hissed, "this is exactly why no one in the galaxy can stand you salarians. You think you're so much smarter than you actually are."
The green-skinned alien sniffed indignantly at the insult, the barely functioning red safety light above the two of them rendering him nearly invisible. "Rather tone-deaf coming from a human," he sneered. "The turians, the batarians… is there any species in the galaxy you apes haven't fought a war with aside from my own?"
One of the casing halves began to slide out of place before Alex could reply. Quickly returning it to its former position before it could detach and drop to the floor, he shook his head, making sure to exaggerate the motion so his companion could see it in the darkness. "Technically the turians started it as they fired first," he countered. "And as for the batarians, are you really going to take their side? They smell even worse than you do… and no one likes the Hegemony anyway. What with the whole slavery thing."
He could hear the grin in Nalarn's voice as his fellow engineer replied. "Well, if we're allowed to use technicalities, then it could also be argued that since it was your people who attempted to reactivate Relay 314, you provoked the turians to war."
"We didn't know it was illegal, and they started shooting instead of trying to contact us to explain the situation!"
"Only because your species is so ugly."
Alex rolled his eyes, though he knew the gesture was too subtle to have a prayer of being seen. "Then for your sake, it's a good thing it's so dark in here," he retorted. "Now, get your scrawny arse over here and help me with this. I only have two hands."
Nalarn's footfalls echoed loudly through the cramped tunnel as he approached. Pressing himself against the wall to his left as much as he could, Alex still winced as the salarian squeezed past him, the large pack the other man wore catching him in the side. Salarians were naturally taller than humans and the fan spanned the entire width of the tunnel, meaning Nalarn was forced to drop to all fours in order to crawl between two of its blades so he could access its centre from the other side. Waiting until the other man had risen back to his feet and dusted himself off, Alex then raised an eyebrow.
"Enjoy your exercise?"
"Fuck you."
"Stealing my expressions now?"
"Piss off."
Alex shook his head again. "Some friend you are."
To his irritation, Nalarn ignored him, instead activating his omni-tool. Instantly, the tunnel was filled with soft orange light. Now turning his attention to the casing Alex was still holding together, the salarian began to tap a long finger against his chin. Despite how tempting it was to interrupt his friend's musings, Alex forced himself to remain quiet. The sooner they fixed the fan, the sooner they could get out of the tunnel. Being hunched over for as long as he had meant his back was beginning to cramp. As a result, compared with the thought of being able to stand up straight again, the idea of ribbing Nalarn further wasn't as compelling as it normally would have been.
After the better part of a minute had passed, the salarian finally shook his head before removing the strap of his pack from his shoulder and allowing the bag to drop heavily to the floor of the tunnel. There was a muffled clang as it struck the metal surface, the sound sending small vibrations up Alex's arms that made it even harder for him to keep his hands steady. He watched as Nalarn then opened the pack before rifling around inside it for a moment, the other man eventually producing a battered looking welding tool.
"You really think this is a job for Bessie?"
He didn't bother to hide his grin as Nalarn let out a longsuffering sigh. "Why you humans insist on nicknaming even the most mundane items, I will never understand."
"Nice try, but last I checked, the salarians named their ships as well."
"We don't give names to our tools, though."
"Is that a fact?"
"Yes."
"Hmm. Are you sure this is a good idea? At best, it will buy us six months, then the weld will fail. I still think we need a replacement locking mechanism, if not an entirely new casing module."
Nalarn shook his head. "I completely agree. But we have no idea when the next shipment of parts will come in, or whether it will even include one. And we won't get paid if we don't get this fixed now, even if only temporarily."
Alex found himself nodding in agreement, although knowing they were unable to do a proper repair job was something he found incredibly frustrating. That was the issue with Mallas-4 being a world right in the middle of the Terminus Systems; Odin's Eye couldn't reliably get deliveries of the essentials. Well, that wasn't quite true. They could get the essentials consistently enough out here, but anything even slightly less important usually required either a lot of paperwork, plenty of luck, or a large bribe to obtain. And sometimes all three if you were really unlucky.
That was the worst of the many downsides that came with working for Weyland-Yutani. Even though they owned the colony, the higher-ups back on Earth seemed perfectly happy to only pump in just enough investment to keep the compound at its heart running. Even so, the various buildings that comprised it were still slowly falling into disrepair. The residential prefabs that surrounded the compound and made up the rest of the colony were in much the same condition. Presumably, the bulk of the money the Company provided went to the laboratory situated underneath the compound itself.
Not that Alex had any idea just what the scientists who worked there actually did that necessitated such an arrangement. Despite signing a nondisclosure agreement before being hired eight months ago, he had yet to see anything he would consider top secret or even sensitive. That being said, there were all kinds of rumours swirling around the colony as to just what the laboratory was actually for. Some residents thought new weapon prototypes were being developed down there, though Alex had never heard so much as a single gunshot during the time he'd been on world. Others theorised it had been set up to research cures for various exotic and rare diseases, though that raised the question of just what the hell it was doing out here in the Terminus Systems and not on a planet like Earth or Thessia where it would be much easier for the Company to obtain lucrative government contracts.
Not for the first time when considering that particular theory, Alex shivered. The main reason he could see for the compound and especially the lab itself being located on Mallas-4 was that if a disease somehow escaped, the entire colony could easily be locked down. That would prevent the infection from making it off world, but trap all of the colonists in a biological death-trap, himself included.
Nalarn suddenly thumbed the activation stud on the welder, causing Alex to snap out of his thoughts as a tiny tongue of bright blue flame burst from the blackened end of the device's nozzle. Despite the heat resistant gloves he wore, he couldn't help feeling slightly nervous as the salarian began to weld the two halves of the casing together as he continued to hold them in place. Although he knew the thick material encasing his hands would prevent his fingers from feeling anything more than a slight warmth, there was still something that didn't sit right with him about having a flame positioned mere inches from his skin. Some primitive instinct all creatures back on Earth possessed that told them to steer clear of fire, not to remain still and let it approach.
Pushing down his understandable yet completely unnecessary discomfort, Alex allowed himself to zone out again as Nalarn worked, already thinking about what he would do once they were finished. It was nearly the end of their shift, meaning it would soon be time for him to unwind. A couple of drinks at the only bar in the colony sounded like a good idea, followed by something to eat, a brief period of browsing the Extranet, and then sleep. Hardly adventurous, but then he had chosen to come to Odin's Eye in the first place because it had seemed like a quiet and peaceful place to live.
It was bigger than she had expected.
The office building could not have been more than a few years old. Like practically every other structure on the Presidium, it consisted of walls of gleaming metal, each polished to almost a mirror shine. A dozen stories tall, it had to house at least two hundred employees by her estimation, possibly more. The Weyland-Yutani logo was displayed proudly midway up the structure, two stories in height, its yellow and white sections equally unblemished by age or any other form of damage.
Tali had been standing twenty metres or so across the street from the building for the past two minutes. The instant she had left the previous street behind and emerged onto this one, thereby laying eyes on her destination for the first time, she had somehow managed to feel even more like a trespasser than she normally did on the Presidium. Unsurprisingly, the abuse she had endured since arriving on the Citadel had resumed the moment she had left the bench behind and re-joined the crowd, but try as she might, she hadn't been able to ignore it. As a result, she felt distinctly out of place being so close to such an obviously new and expensive building, as though she were a beggar or vagrant of some kind waiting for someone wealthy to emerge so she could ask them for money.
"No," the quarian muttered to herself. "You're not. That's what everyone here thinks of you. It's how they want you to think of yourself. But you're not what they think you are. You have a right to be here."
Pulling herself more upright and squaring her shoulders, Tali took a deep breath before striding purposefully towards the office building. Despite her best efforts to hold onto it, her newfound confidence didn't last long, and it had practically disappeared by the time she reached the polished glass door that led into the structure. Seeing there was no intercom button, the quarian raised a hand to knock, only to find herself blinking in surprise as the door slid open of its own accord, leaving her standing there with her hand still in position.
"Can I help you?"
Grateful for once that her purple visor hid her face save for her eyes and the tip of her nose as her cheeks burned with humiliation, Tali turned to her right to find an asari sitting behind a standard metal reception desk. The blue-skinned woman was smiling at her politely, her hands clasped together next to the terminal in front of her.
"Er… Hi," Tali managed awkwardly as she walked over, still trying to regain her bearings. "I've come to see someone about the… the job advert…" She fell silent for a moment. "The Extranet one," she finished lamely.
"Ah, of course," the asari replied, chuckling quietly, which only caused Tali to feel even more embarrassed. She turned to her terminal before beginning to type at its orange haptic keyboard. "This is the one at our colony on Mallas-4, yes?" she asked, looking back at the quarian before returning her attention to the terminal as Tali nodded. "Wonderful. What's your name?"
"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," Tali replied, silently proud of how confident she sounded. After what had happened with the door, she wouldn't have been surprised if she'd somehow managed to get her own name wrong.
The receptionist's hands danced over the keyboard again and the terminal then made a quiet beeping sound. "Okay, your arrival has been logged in the system," the asari said, shooting Tali a smile so perfect she could have been cast as the lead star in a high budget entertainment vid and not looked out of place. "Recruitment is located here on the ground floor, so someone will hopefully be through in just a minute to talk to you about the role and your previous experience." She pointed at something behind the quarian. "In the meantime, though, please feel free to take a seat."
Noticing for the first time as she turned around the three comfortable looking grey chairs that surrounded a low table on the opposite side of the room to the reception desk, Tali nodded her thanks to the other woman. Approaching the nearest chair, the quarian struggled not to let out a groan of satisfaction as she sat down, completely blindsided by just how comfortable it was. Compared to the battered, barely functional seats she was used to on the Rayya, the one she found herself on now could not have been more different.
"They're good, aren't they?"
Her eyes drifted back to the receptionist as the asari gave her another perfect smile. "They arrived from Thessia just last week," she explained. "You're one of the first people to make use of them."
The idea was so alien that Tali struggled to come up with a response. Back at the Fleet, everything had been used, reused, broken, repaired, and used again so many times that she could count on her hands the number of truly new things she had seen before leaving for her Pilgrimage. Even Pilgrimage gifts themselves, despite being obtained outside the Fleet, were almost always second-hand, especially if they took the form of ships or other equipment.
"It…" she began. "They… Well, it definitely shows."
"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya?"
Tali jumped as a third voice entered the conversation, though thankfully her enviro-suit did a good job of hiding it. Turning to her left, she found an older dark-skinned human man standing a few metres away from her. He was dressed in an expensive looking and immaculately clean suit, there not being so much as a single speck of dust present on any inch of the black material. His hair, cropped short, had presumably once been jet black, but now only showed traces of its former colour, being coloured almost entirely light grey with a few darker patches here and there. He was of average height, or at least what Tali had inferred from her limited interactions with humans to be average height for their species, at least as far as the men were concerned. From what she had seen, as it was with quarians, it seemed the men tended to be taller than the women on the whole.
Realising the man was waiting patiently for her to reply, she hurriedly rose to her feet, nearly tripping over in her haste. "That's me," she said eagerly.
"Excellent." The man turned to gesture towards a long corridor behind him, which Tali belatedly realised must have been where he had come from. "Please follow me to my office. It's just this way."
Moving to follow the human as he began to make his way down the corridor, the quarian found herself catching the receptionist's eye as she passed her. The asari gave her another vid star smile, her pearly white teeth on full display.
"Good luck!" she whispered, her voice just loud enough so that only Tali could hear her.
"Thanks!" Tali whispered back, her own voice equally quiet despite the excitement she felt. Turning away from the asari as she entered the corridor, she found herself stopping in her tracks a second later, her mouth falling slightly open at the sight before her.
The floor was made from panels of some kind of expensive looking dark wood she had never seen before. At intervals of around three metres along the polished metal walls there stood doors of a different, lighter type of wood that she doubted was any cheaper, their design so archaic they had brass handles and were mounted on matching hinges. Between the doors there hung incredible works of art from what she guessed were creators from every species in Citadel space. An extravagant crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling half-way down the corridor's length, filling it with light that while obviously artificial somehow seemed almost natural. Against the odds, the old-fashioned furnishings somehow managed to mesh seamlessly with the gleaming and modern nature of the building overall.
It was more wealth that she had ever seen before in such a confined space. Despite not having expensive tastes in the slightest, something that came with the territory of being a quarian, Tali still found herself completely blown away by the display before her. It was certainly impressive if nothing else.
"Tali'Zorah?"
The sound of her name pulled her out of her thoughts. Blinking several times as she attempted to get her bearings, Tali saw the human was standing at the far end of the corridor. He was holding a door on the left side open for her, a look of concern on his face. Mentally chiding herself for losing her focus when she was trying to make a good first impression, the quarian hurried over before thanking the man as she stepped through the door and into the room beyond.
She now found herself in a private office that was no less luxuriously appointed than the corridor she had just exited. It had the same dark wood flooring, and the walls were hung with art just as stunning as the pieces she had passed by only seconds before. Well, that was the case for two of the walls. The other two were made of glass rather than metal, and they allowed for a stunning view of the Presidium in all its glory. From where she stood, Tali could just about make out the statue of a krogan in the distance, the one that had been erected in commemoration of the species' contribution during the Rachni Wars. Far easier to see, however, were the dozen or so lakes and gardens she had walked past to get here, each of them perfect down to the last detail.
Keelah, it's beautiful.
The sound of the door closing caused Tali to jump slightly as she remembered she wasn't alone. She turned back to face her host as he sat down at a large and ornately carved desk of light brown wood positioned on the opposite side of the room to the glass walls, the black leather of his chair making a quiet creaking noise as it took his weight. "Please," the human said, smiling as he waved a hand at a matching chair on the other side of the desk, "have a seat, Tali'Zorah." He paused for a moment. "Forgive me, I should have asked earlier, but are you okay with me calling you that? I'm not too familiar with the structure of quarian names and what each part represents and don't wish to offend you or make you feel uncomfortable, but your full name is rather long by human standards." He smiled again, before shrugging self-deprecatingly. "And remembering names has never been my greatest strength. Sadly, I seem to have become even worse at it recently, much to the annoyance of my grandchildren. Part and parcel of getting old, I suppose."
Although the man's tone had been polite, Tali's muscles had still tensed while he had been talking, the quarian expecting some sort of barb or criticism to make an appearance at any moment. It was only now that the human was looking expectantly at her for an answer that she realised no such insult towards her people was coming. Silently ashamed that she had assumed the worst of someone she had only just met, Tali cleared her throat before walking over and taking the offered chair, its own leather creaking as she sank into it. Somehow, it was even more comfortable than the one she had used in the reception area.
"Tali'Zorah is absolutely fine," she replied. "The other part, 'nar Rayya,' isn't needed in normal conversation as it's my ship name." She paused for a moment, wondering if she should stop there. "You can also just call me Tali," she continued. "'Zorah' is my clan name, which is equivalent to what I think humans call a surname."
Despite how tedious she feared the explanation had sounded, the man opposite her had seemed to remain genuinely interested throughout. "Thank you for clarifying, Tali," he said, giving her a polite smile. "My name is Malcom Benning. But please, Malcom is fine. I'm in charge of personnel recruitment for Weyland-Yutani here on the Citadel." Malcom cleared his throat before continuing. "So Alana," he nodded in the direction of the reception area, "mentioned you came here hoping to find out more about one of our job openings advertised on the Extranet? The one on Mallas-4?"
Tali nodded, struggling to keep herself from bouncing on her chair excitedly. "Yes," she replied enthusiastically. "It certainly sounds intriguing, but there wasn't much information in the advert itself." She paused, wondering whether she should actually voice what she wanted to say next. "I'm guessing you didn't want to give anything away to any rivals your company has?" she asked finally.
Something passed through Malcom's eyes, and for a second Tali feared she had offended him. Whatever the emotion was, though, it vanished so quickly as he laughed heartily in response that the quarian found herself wondering if she had imagined it. "Very astute," the human replied, still laughing. "Yes, it's quite true that Weyland-Yutani has its competitors. It comes with the territory. Especially considering…"
Malcom trailed off, his mirth gone in an instant, before opening a draw in front of him. Tali tilted her head in interest as he withdrew a datapad from its depths before placing the object in front of her. "Forgive me, Tali," he said, "but I shouldn't continue unless you're willing to sign this."
The quarian eyed the device's blue screen cautiously. "What is it?" she asked, keeping her voice level despite the knot that had formed in her stomach.
Malcom sighed heavily, leaning back in his chair as he explained. "A nondisclosure agreement. I hate that we have to make use of them, but as you've deduced, we have rivals who are determined to find out everything they can about our activities, no matter how mundane they might be." The human stopped to catch his breath before continuing. "If you sign this," he tapped the desk just above the datapad for emphasis, "then you are agreeing that you will keep all information pertaining to Weyland-Yutani business that you learn past this point strictly to yourself. That means no telling the media, anyone you pass on the street, or even your friends or family. The one exception is fellow Weyland-Yutani employees, should we decide to employ you, and even then, only with the explicit permission of your line manager."
Malcom sighed again. "I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about the position we have open unless you agree to those terms, Tali. You certainly don't have to if you feel uncomfortable with signing a legally enforceable document, but there's no possible way we can consider you for employment unless you do."
Behind her visor, Tali found herself biting her bottom lip. Although she had anticipated she might be presented with a nondisclosure agreement and couldn't see the harm in signing it if it really was as benign as Malcom had just claimed, her instincts told her it was still not something to be done lightly. Glancing up from the dozens of lines of small white text in front of her and at the face of her host, she took a deep breath.
"Could I have a moment to read it, please?"
Malcom inclined his head. "Of course," he replied. "Please, take all the time you need. If anything seems either amiss or unclear, I'm more than happy to clarify it."
Silence fell in the room as Tali began to scan the text. After a couple of minutes, she had reached the end of the document without finding anything that appeared odd in any way. Scrolling back to the top, she ran her eyes across each line again, her unease now fading with each second that passed. Even after a second read-through, there was still nothing that seemed concerning. The content of the nondisclosure agreement was exactly what she had expected, nothing more. All it asked of her was that she keep all information relating to Weyland-Yutani matters to herself from here on out, as Malcom had said, regardless of whether she learn it through being told or via unforeseen circumstances, such as an administrative error. The potential punishment for not complying was listed as anything from a salary deduction to dismissal from the company, should she end up being employed by it. "Appropriate legal action" was also a possibility, regardless of whether she became an employee or not, if the information shared was particularly sensitive.
Satisfied she knew what each sentence meant, the quarian signed the agreement with her finger, writing her full name on the screen on a dotted line just below the main body of text. In response, Malcom smiled widely at her, taking the datapad back and returning it to its draw. He then looked back at her.
"Thank you, Tali. Now that's out of the way, we can talk about the role properly. What would you like to know first?"