A/N: I originally set myself the goal of getting this chapter finished before the start of 2024. That way, I would have averaged a chapter every two months for 2023 across all stories. I was on target to get this one out before the end of December… then life happened. I completely lost all momentum as a result, and it took me a while to get back into the flow of writing. Then as I went to upload yesterday… it turned out the site was having problems and new documents could not be uploaded.

But at last, here we are. Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 4: Introductions

Tali reached Alex just as the latter entered the vacant lift. Hurrying in after him and positioning herself over to the right, she was suddenly aware of how tight its confines were. The two of them were only a few inches apart, their arms almost touching as they stood next to one other.

The human did not so much as spare her a glance as he selected the ground floor. As the doors closed and the same intolerable music from before filled the metal box as it began to descend, Tali attempted to keep her gaze directed forwards, but found she could not keep herself from occasionally glancing at the man next to her. She could practically feel the anger and frustration radiating from him, and the resulting tension in the air was impossible to ignore.

"What?"

Tali jumped. Looking to her left again, she found Alex glaring back at her, which caused her to flinch slightly. In many ways, it was a ridiculous reaction for her to have. She had faced Fist's thugs not even twenty-four hours ago, not to mention geth earlier in her Pilgrimage. Yet, here she was, deeply uncomfortable being around a single human who, if truth be told, wasn't actually angry at her so much as he was someone else. If she had to guess, how close they were to one another was the primary reason. That and how she was just now noticing for the first time that he stood more than a head taller than her.

"I…" Tali began, before trailing off. Swallowing nervously, she tried again. "I'm sorry. It's just—"

"Just what?" Alex snapped.

Tali flinched again, but this time a rising sense of anger accompanied her unease. Pulling herself as upright as she could, even though she still stood much shorter than the lift's other occupant, she met his gaze unwaveringly. "I just wanted to ask if you were okay," she replied, silently pleased with how strong her voice sounded.

Alex shrugged, turning away from her to face forward again. "I'm fine," he muttered after a moment.

It took her a few seconds to realise she wasn't going to get any more than that. Crossing her arms as she faced forward as well, Tali found she could not stop herself from rubbing the area of each just below the shoulder as though she were cold. It might have been better if she were. That would at least have given her something else to focus on.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lift finally arrived at its destination. The instant the doors opened, Alex stormed out of them, forcing an asari who had been waiting on the other side to stumble awkwardly to the right lest he ram into her. Darting after the human, Tali then fell into step beside him, the two of them swiftly making their way through the reception area and reaching the exit in a matter of seconds.

The doors opened at their approach, and as they stepped outside, Tali released a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding. After the stand-off between Alex and Ralorn in the latter's office, and enduring a lift ride with the former, being out in the comparatively open space of the central compound could not have been more welcome.

For his part, Alex likewise seemed relieved to be outside, the human breathing in deeply, before exhaling loudly. Despite herself, Tali felt a pang of jealousy. That was one of the benefits to being outside that she could not experience for herself. Due to her suit's filtration system, while the scenery around her might change, the air was always the same. Warm, with a sterile taste to it. Unlike her, her companion was able to appreciate that the air out here was different to that in the building they had just exited.

In truth, it was something she had never really considered before leaving the Fleet. But upon meeting members of other species for the first time, she had almost immediately been struck by how they seemed to value the taste, temperature, and even moisture of air. She had quickly lost track of the number of times she had heard someone mutter that they "needed some air," or "could hardly breathe," or something else to that effect on the Citadel. More often than not, the person complaining had been human, so while the matter was not something confined to just one species, they seemed to be the most concerned about it on average.

Unbidden, her mind flashed back to a few advertisements she had seen in the Wards for holiday trips organised by human owned companies that promoted destinations all over the galaxy, many of which mentioned air purity or freshness as one of their selling points. Before she could consciously formulate it, a question left her lips.

"What is it like?"

Her companion turned to face her, his expression still one of irritation, but with a hint of confusion to it now.

"What is what like?"

"The air out here compared with in there."

"You don't know?"

The human looked utterly baffled now, as though the idea were completely foreign to him. Which in fairness, Tali supposed, it was.

She shook her head. "No," she replied.

Alex looked at her as though he didn't quite believe she was telling the truth before answering, his voice hesitant as he spoke. "In there," he nodded back towards the administration centre, "it tastes stale. You can tell other people have been breathing it as well. But out here," he gestured around them, "it feels cleaner, more refreshing. Newer, I guess."

Tali nodded as she digested the information. "Thank you," she said after a moment.

"For what?"

She met the human's gaze. "For explaining."

Alex nodded slowly, clearly unsure how to respond. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat. "We shouldn't waste any more time standing around. My shift starts in two hours, and I want to get something to eat and relax for a bit before it does."

Opening her mouth to reply, Tali found herself almost immediately closing it as the human abruptly turned his back to her and set off. Swallowing her indignation, she began to follow after him.

Alex set a quick pace, and the two of them quickly reached the gap in the wall she had entered through earlier. As they exited through it and she surveyed the prefabs that now surrounded her again, Tali couldn't help but notice how sterile and industrial they now felt. How unwelcoming. Whereas before they had seemed to represent hope and excitement, now they appeared as cold and lifeless as the metal they were made from.

Movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention back to Alex. As she watched, the human walked a few metres away from her, before indicating the colony around them with a wave of his hand.

"So, the grand tour. We use a few of the buildings for supply storage, mostly food and work equipment. Everyone heads over first thing in the morning to get what they'll need, then returns it once their shift has finished. Anything that's not food related has to go back into storage before we stop for the evening. No exceptions."

He pointed to a section of prefabs ahead of them and slightly to the right. With a pang, Tali noticed the Starstrider was parked just beyond them. It made total sense that the colony's storage facilities would be situated as close to its landing sites as possible. But seeing the ship that had brought her here now that she was beginning to feel distinctly out of place was enough to make her feel even more melancholy than she already was. Especially since she knew it would soon be leaving.

Alex seemingly didn't notice her drop in mood as he gestured to the rest of the prefabs. "The others are just what you'd expect; living quarters. We each get our own room, which is something at least, but the amenities in each building are shared. I'm guessing that was probably covered in your interview, though."

Tali nodded wordlessly, her gaze still fixed on the Starstrider.

The human made a noise of satisfaction. "Thankfully, the buildings allocated to the maintenance team are only a couple of minutes from the storage ones, as we need to be able to drop our equipment off with as little hassle as possible at the end of a shift. There's a spare room in my building at the moment, so we'll assign you that one. Let's go."

Despite the importance of what Alex was talking about, Tali had only been half-listening. Mentally chiding herself for her lack of focus as she noticed he had set off again, the quarian finally tore her gaze away from the Starstrider and once more hurried after him. After a few seconds, she had caught up, only to wince at the annoyed glance he sent her way.

Thankfully, however, Alex made no comment on the slip as they finally left the compound truly behind them and reached the nearest group of prefabs. Attempting to distract herself from the still-present tension in the air, Tali forced herself to examine the buildings more closely, hoping to discover something about them that she had missed earlier. Unfortunately, there really was nothing to them that she had not already noticed. The only new information she managed to glean was that sometimes the stairs and walkways that connected some of the ones taller than a single floor were bare metal and other times they were painted black. That detail only served to occupy her thoughts for a few seconds, despite her trying to think of as many possibilities as she could for the inconsistency.

Despite the hostility still radiating from her companion and what little else she had to focus on, Tali somehow still managed to somewhat ignore the man next to her as the two of them made their way deeper into the prefabs. Despite the veritable maze that they represented, Alex had no difficulty navigating, abruptly turning left or right and cutting between rows of them in a way only someone intimately familiar with their layout could. Tali followed him almost on autopilot, though she did have to backtrack several paces on one occasion when she realised belatedly that the human had made a particularly sharp turn and was no longer next to her.

In the end, it only took them a little over five minutes to reach their destination. Without warning, Alex suddenly halted, causing Tali to take several more steps on her own before she noticed. Wincing again, but also bristling slightly as the human rolled his eyes at her, the quarian then turned her attention towards the structure before them.

Hardly to her surprise, the prefab was just like all of the others in the colony. It was rectangular and two stories tall, with one of its long sides currently facing the pair of them. Six tiny windows were spaced equal distances apart on the upper floor—presumably each was for a different room. In contrast, there were no windows on the lower floor. Instead, there was a single door situated to the left. The only decoration came in the form of a large "41" stamped in peeling black paint opposite the door.

As Tali watched, Alex approached the door, before tapping the interface next to it. It opened a second later, and he motioned for her to follow him as he made his way inside.

Upon entering, Tali found herself standing next to the human at the foot of a metal staircase, with a wall immediately to her left and a closed door immediately to her right. As the door behind her closed automatically, she was left feeling as though the pair of them were standing in a tiny cubicle.

As had been the case in the lift earlier, Tali was acutely aware of how close she and Alex now were to each other. As a result, she couldn't help breathing a quiet sigh of relief as her companion began to make his way up the stairs, his work boots producing a muffled clang each time they struck the metal. Waiting until the human was almost half-way up, she then followed, her own footsteps making a similar, albeit quieter, sound.

As she re-joined Alex at the top of the stairs, Tali found herself standing at the end of a short corridor. Four doors lined each wall. Everything, from the floor, to the ceiling, to the windowless walls, and even the doors, was made of the same bare metal as both the stairs and the exterior of the prefab. Although that was hardly surprising given the nature of the building, that none of it was decorated still made it feel completely impersonal to Tali. While resources were scarce back at the Fleet, each ship was a home and possessed various touches to make it feel like one. There was none of that here. No personality, no warmth… no sign anyone considered the prefab a home in the slightest. Even the single light fixture half-way down the corridor that weakly illuminated it did not add anything in terms of atmosphere.

"Okay," Alex said, putting an end to her observations. "Your room is the third one on the right. We still have more than an hour and a half until my shift starts, so I suggest you settle in now and code the door to your omni-tool so only you can use it." His gaze dropped to her shotgun and pistol. "I'll come and get you when it's time for us to leave, but you'll have to leave those in your room. We're allowed to own weapons here, but we can't carry them in public. Now, do you have any questions about anything?"

Even though she had several, Tali shook her head firmly. The human's mood still hadn't shown any signs of improving, and the sooner she could get away from him, at least temporarily, the better.

If Alex suspected she was holding back, he didn't comment on it. "Good. I'll see you in an hour and twenty minutes, then. I haven't received any instructions for what to work on today yet, but we'll still need to drop by storage to pick up a tool bag and our food for the day before the shift starts."

Unsure what to say in response, Tali instead settled for nodding stiffly.

"Good. I'll see you later, then."

Without waiting for her to reply, Alex walked over to the second door on the left side of the corridor. Activating his omni-tool, the human then opened it, before stepping into the room beyond, leaving Tali alone without a backward glance as it closed behind him.

Tali stood there for a moment, acutely aware of how quiet it now was. She then slowly walked over to her own room. Activating her omni-tool, she established a connection between it and the door. Keying the latter to respond to only her device, she then sent a command to it, before entering the room as it opened, only to find herself stopping short at the sight before her.

The room was small, barely able to accommodate its furniture without the items touching. A single bed stood lengthways against the far wall, a small chest of drawers at the foot of it, the metal frame of the former and the black plastic of the latter less than an inch apart. A lone chair was situated just before the bed, made from the same cheap plastic as the chest of drawers. The floor, ceiling, and walls unsurprisingly consisted of the same unadorned metal as the rest of the prefab. The only thing of interest in the entire room was the single window built into the left wall, which was barely two feet wide and not much taller than that.

It was more than she had ever been able to call her own before. With space a luxury that could not be afforded back at the Migrant Fleet, having four walls to herself should have left her feeling overjoyed.

As she stood there, though, all Tali felt was loneliness. In truth, she had felt lonely ever since beginning her Pilgrimage and leaving the fleet behind, but this was the worst it had ever been.

The walls, floor, and ceiling all seemed to press in on her, making it difficult to breathe. Shaking her head angrily, the quarian cursed her ungratefulness. She should have been elated. But as she surveyed what she would be likely calling home for many months, she could not help but feel as though she were a prisoner standing in her jail cell.

The door closed behind her as she walked further into the room. Carefully stepping around the chair, she then sat down on the bed, wincing as a spring dug into her thigh. There was hardly any give from the mattress. She couldn't know for sure without comparing them, but she doubted sleeping on the floor would be much more uncomfortable. The bed was already made at least, even if the bedding itself was coloured a flat, dull white that had clearly seen better days.

With nothing else to do, Tali folded her hands in her lap and stared out the small window at the colony below her, simply waiting. As she looked down at the other prefabs and occasional pedestrian as they passed by, her vision slowly began to blur. It was with a shock that she realised what was happening, and the revelation only caused her misery to worsen and the blurriness to get worse. In that moment, everyone she knew; her father, her Auntie Raan, everyone else back at the Fleet… they had never seemed further away.

Angrily blinking her eyes clear of their unshed tears, Tali took a deep breath to steady herself. Digging her fingers into her thighs so hard it was almost painful, she then forced herself to focus. Breaking down would not make the current situation any better. What she needed to do was take her mind off things for a bit by doing something. Something more productive than just sitting around.

An idea suddenly occurred to her. Hesitating for a moment, Tali then activated her omni-tool. Opening a new window in her Extranet browser, she began to enter a query into its search bar.

The half an hour or so before these calls was always the worst part.

The calls themselves were stressful enough, but at least he was actually doing something during them. They were a quarterly occurrence, but he was somehow always able to largely push the next one from his thoughts until the day it was scheduled for. From the start of that morning until the call began, it became harder and harder to concentrate on anything else. For the last half an hour, it became essentially impossible to do anything whatsoever, meaning he typically found himself simply sitting at his desk, waiting for the appointed time to arrive. All of this was made worse by the fact the calls only ever took place at 11.00 p.m. Citadel time, which forced him to stay at work until then. Going home for a few hours and then returning to the office, while incredibly tempting, would arouse too much suspicion.

Time crawled by, one agonisingly slow second after another. When it finally, blessedly, reached 11.00 p.m., Malcom opened the drawer next to him. Pushing aside the pile of datapads on top of his target, he then removed the sleek black terminal he had exposed, before closing the drawer again. Placing the terminal on the desk in front of him, he then tapped its screen once, before waiting impatiently as the boot process began.

After a few seconds, the screen lit up a bright red, and a Weyland-Yutani logo appeared in its centre. Suddenly aware his mouth was dry, Malcom took a moment to wet it as best he could, moving his tongue around its confines, before tapping the screen again. It flashed once in acknowledgement, and a quiet beep issued from the terminal at almost the same time.

Forcing himself not to blink, Malcom stared directly at the centre of the top edge of the screen as a pale blue light appeared there. A second beep reached his ears after a few seconds, and a line of white text appeared on the screen just below the Weyland-Yutani logo.

Retinal scan complete.

Nodding once to himself as the blue light faded, and fighting back a yawn he could feel coming on, he tapped the screen for a third time. Yet another beep filled the air as a small image of a microphone replaced the white text. Clearing his throat before speaking, Malcom kept his voice as measured and calm as he could.

"Malcom Benning, Code Lambda 427-639."

A fourth beep sounded as soon as he had finished, and the image of a microphone vanished. Breathing out slowly, Malcom watched as the Weyland-Yutani logo expanded to fill the entire screen. A second after it had, a green circle appeared in its top right corner, signalling that a connection had been established between the terminal and another presumably identical device somewhere else in the galaxy.

"Report."

The voice always made him shiver. Even though it was filtered and distorted to the point that the species, gender, and age of its owner were impossible to guess, there was always an undercurrent of menace to it.

Malcom cleared his throat again. "The vacancy has been filled," he said, speaking as evenly as he could. "The new recruit should be on Mallas-4 as we speak."

"Would you care to explain why there was only one vacancy?"

The voice's tone was accusing now. Despite the fear it induced in the pit of his stomach, Malcom still found himself bristling in indignation. He focused on his anger. Being angry was an improvement over being scared, if only slightly.

"I told you last time," he retorted. "C-Sec know something is up. They've searched our offices here twice in the last six months, and they've already pulled as many records as they can in regards to Odin's Eye and its operations. I can't risk advertising more than one or two roles a quarter if we want to avoid even more scrutiny." He paused to catch his breath. "And I only managed to find a suitable candidate today. That's how careful I'm having to be. That's how close it was to no one being sent to the colony this quarter."

There was silence from the terminal. Ten seconds crawled by. Then twenty. It was only once the better part of a minute had passed that the voice spoke again, its tone thankfully more neutral than before.

"Describe the subject."

Subject. Never "employee," or anything like that. No, always "subject." The possible connotations of that word had kept Malcom awake long into the night on many occasions, his mind racing as he tried to work out just why it was the one the voice used. Try as he might to come up with positive, or at the very least benign, reasons for it, he always failed.

"Well," he began, acutely aware of the sweat rolling down the back of his neck, "she's a quarian. A relatively young woman by their standards, and I assume human ones as well, not that I can say for certain. She didn't mention any health conditions, but it's safe to assume she has a weak immune system like the rest of her people. However, there's always the possibility that—"

"The subject is a quarian?" the voice interrupted. "Confirm."

Malcom swallowed at how interested it now sounded. "She's a quarian."

The earlier silence returned. This time, it lasted barely more than ten seconds before being broken.

"The usual acquirement fee has been wired to your private account, along with a fifty per cent bonus."

"Bonus?" Malcom's eyebrows rose in surprise. That was a first. "What for?"

"Because the subject is a quarian."

"But why is that—"

He was cut off again as the green circle abruptly vanished, signalling the call had been cut from the other side. Shuddering in relief now that it was over, Malcom leaned back in his chair, before running both hands down his face. Internally, he reminded himself that he had made his decision more than a year ago, when he had been promoted to head of recruitment on the Citadel after his predecessor had unexpectedly retired. A couple of days after he had moved into his new office, the terminal had mysteriously appeared in his desk drawer. Upon curiously switching it on, the voice had issued forth from the device and given him a choice; do as it said and earn more money than he had ever dreamed was possible, or don't and continue to earn his current salary.

Even though he had already just received a bump commensurate with his new position, his curiosity—and more than a little greed—had won out, and he had chosen the former option. And while he had initially still had plenty of misgivings, especially after learning the extent of the security measures he was required to add to the terminal, the money had been as good as advertised, and that had been enough to keep his questions and doubts largely in check. All he was required to do in return was give the voice an update every three months about who he had recruited to work at Odin's Eye during that quarter. The voice never asked about anywhere else, just that one colony. And it had only given him two stipulations when it came to recruitment; as wide a variety of new employees as possible, with as few links to the wider galaxy as possible.

Whatever the voice's interest in the new hires was, it had something to do with their physical traits. Primarily, their gender, age, and most of all, species. That was all he knew for sure. And despite his curiosity, admittedly, that was all Malcom truly wanted to know. Anything else, he feared, would just make it even harder to sleep at night.

The battle was about to be lost.

Another horde of ravening monsters charged the perimeter defences. Automated turrets mowed down dozens of the creatures, but one by one they were overwhelmed and destroyed, in many cases before they ran out of ammunition. The last attack had been a close run thing as well, but the turrets had just about managed to keep the enemy from reaching the fortified wall behind them. This time, however, a few of the creatures were already almost at the foot of the wall, and there was no end to the wave in sight.

It was hopeless. There was no chance of victory.

"Fuck this."

Alex closed the game angrily, the orange glow from his omni-tool vanishing and leaving the room lit only by the morning light streaming through the window behind him. Leaning back in his chair, he breathed out slowly, pinching his nose between his thumb and forefinger as he did so. It was just a game and not worth getting upset over. But then again, he knew that had the difficulty of the level he was currently on been the only thing bothering him, he wouldn't have been getting nearly so aggravated at his inability to beat it.

Not for the first time since he had sat down, he turned to glance at the door a mere metre away to his left. It wasn't her fault he had been stuck in a maintenance tunnel all night long. It also wasn't her fault Ralorn had decided to saddle him with the responsibility of looking after her. Ralorn himself should have been handling that, but due to the management structure on Mallas-4, the salarian was able to run the entirety of the maintenance team however he pleased as long as the colony continued to tick along without any major issues occurring. Maintenance, despite how vital they were to keeping the whole show running, seemingly weren't considered important enough to warrant any form of external oversight, something Alex attributed to them not being in a position to know much in the way of sensitive information.

Almost without thinking about it, he had found himself booting up Colonial Defenders 3: The Last Outpost in an attempt to kill some time and distract himself from how thoroughly ticked off he currently was with Ralorn. But despite his best efforts, he just hadn't been able to get into the game, even after fifteen minutes of trying. Instead, upon loading into the level that had been frustrating him for the past week, he had found himself issuing a few commands and building a couple of turrets, before glancing at his door. The same cycle had repeated itself multiple times since then, with Alex attempting to immerse himself in the game, only to find he was unable to ignore how guilty he felt.

As tired, frustrated, and angry as he was, there had been no reason to take it out on her. From a purely logical standpoint, her disliking him would only cause problems when it came to the two of them working together. And from a personal one, well… he had acted in a completely unacceptable way to someone on their first day, and that just didn't sit well with him, no matter how bad a mood he was in.

Letting out a groan of frustration at how embarrassed he knew he was about to feel, Alex ran his hands down his face, before rising from his chair. Nudging it away from him with a foot, he turned towards the door before squaring his shoulders. He then stood there for a moment, before rolling his eyes at his own hesitation.

"Grow the fuck up," he muttered.

Marching towards the door, he then opened it with his omni-tool, before stepping out into the corridor beyond. It only took him a few strides to reach his new co-worker's room, meaning he didn't have time to realise he didn't actually know what he was going to say until he was standing before it. For that matter, it wasn't until he had knocked that he remembered he didn't even know her name. All Ralorn had told him was that she was a quarian, which had admittedly been enough to arouse his curiosity at the time, despite his anger. He'd never met one in person before, much less spoken to one, and knew very little about them as a species.

The door in front of him opened with a quiet hiss, shaking him from his thoughts as he was met by the room's rather surprised looking occupant. At least, as far as he could tell. With only her body language and the silvery glow of her wide eyes behind the deep purple visor she wore to go off of, he could very easily have been wrong.

"Hi," he began, internally wincing at how clumsy and awkward the word felt as it left his mouth.

"Um, hello." If anything, the quarian seemed just as uncomfortable as he was. Alex winced internally again. A lot of that was on him, potentially even all of it.

"I was just…" he began, before cutting himself off. Saying he had just been thinking about her would sound strange, to say the least. "I just wanted to apologise," he said, deciding to tackle the issue head on. "For being rude earlier, I mean. You didn't deserve that."

The quarian seemed to relax a little, her shoulders lowering slightly. The dark purple material of the hood she wore rippled as if affected by a gentle breeze in response to the movement, the lighter swirling patterns on it appearing almost white wherever the dim light of the corridor caught them. "Oh," she replied. Whatever she had been expecting, it clearly hadn't been that. "That's okay. I guessed you were angry at Ralorn, not me."

Alex was shaking his head before she had even finished. "That's true, but it still doesn't make how I acted excusable," he countered. "Just because I had a rough night and Ralorn was being Ralorn, I still shouldn't have let any of that affect how I acted towards somebody else. Especially someone new here."

The quarian held his gaze without saying anything, and for the first time Alex was aware of how much taller he stood than her. That wasn't to say she was short, but there was at least a foot difference in height between them, possibly more. Her eyes had widened again, which left him feeling confused. If anything, she now seemed surprised that not only was he apologising, but that he was also making an effort to appear genuinely remorseful. He took the opportunity presented by the lull in the conversation to rack his brain for everything he knew about quarians. They almost all lived as part of one giant fleet and were rarely seen outside it. They had to wear enviro-suits for… some reason, he couldn't remember what exactly. And they were often mistrusted by members of other species, though once again he was unsure as to why that was the case.

"Thanks…" the quarian finally replied, her voice cutting through his thoughts and returning him to the present. She was clearly still not entirely at ease, but he couldn't shake the feeling she was now smiling uncertainly at him. "What…" she paused for a moment before continuing. "What happened last night?"

Alex sighed before replying. "To cut a long story short, I was in a maintenance tunnel with someone else yesterday evening when the wind picked up just before the end of our shift. By the time we found out, it was strong enough that it could have caused serious injury. So we couldn't risk leaving until it calmed down, which was only about four hours ago. I'd barely had any time to sleep when Ralorn decided to call me in early to help you get settled in."

"Oh." The quarian was no longer able to maintain eye contact, continually glancing away from his face, then back at it, then away again. "I'm sorry that I made things more difficult for you."

Internally, Alex swore at himself. Just as it had seemed like the woman opposite him was starting to come out of her shell, he'd managed to make it sound like he actually did partly blame her for the current situation. Had he not been so tired, he doubted he would have worded his explanation so clumsily.

"Like I said," he tried, "it's not your fault. I'm just annoyed at the lack of sleep and Ralorn." He paused for a moment. "But mostly Ralorn. He's always been a prick."

"A… prick?"

Clearly the term hadn't translated. For all of the sophistication and accuracy of modern translation software such as that which came as standard on omni-tools, slang remained a barrier it could not always overcome.

"He's… always been difficult to deal with," Alex elaborated, deciding to avoid actually explaining what the insult meant. "Rude, hostile, uncompromising… all of the worst qualities you could ask for in a boss."

"So he wasn't like that earlier because I'm a quarian?"

Alex shook his head. "I don't know if he has a specific problem with quarians on top of it, but he has a problem with everyone, as far as I can tell." He shrugged before continuing. "So you won't be surprised if I tell you the rest of us on the maintenance team have a problem with him as well."

The quarian laughed, and she finally seemed to relax completely. "No," she replied, and Alex got the distinct impression she was grinning now. "Definitely not."

To his surprise, Alex realised he was returning the smile. The mood of the woman opposite him was infectious. "This is a bit awkward of me to ask now," he began, "but what's your name? Ralorn didn't tell me what it was earlier."

The quarian seemed to beam as she replied, her eyes forming crescents behind her visor. "It's Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

Alex felt his smile widen. Instinctively, he held out his hand, only to realise as he did so that the woman opposite him might not understand the gesture. Just as he was about to withdraw his arm, however, Tali hesitantly extended her own, taking his bare hand in her suited one before shaking it. The act felt a little awkward, and not just on account of them having a different number of fingers. If Alex had to guess, he would have said that while she did grasp the nature of the human custom, she had not had much practise at it.

Nevertheless, his smile didn't waver. "Pleased to meet you, Tali," he said honestly. "I'm Alex."