Chapter 2
"Auntie Raan, what happened, where are we?" She asked. "You're Safe, Tali, these aliens helping us. The Tonbay's reactor went critical and exploded, thank the ancestors we drifted this way. The other eight pods were picked up by Quarian vessels.
"Thank the ancestors." She said It was rare that a Quarian ship went down with no casualties, given their delicate nature.
"Excuse me, I understand you are happy to see each other, but we need to know, did anyone suffer any injuries during the explosion?" David interjected.
The other two Quarians, males, it seemed shook their heads, and tali checked herself over, wincing as she discovered a small breach near her ankle. Thankfully the suit sealed itself off in time, but she was going to get an infection to remember this by. She reported it to Captain Raan who was only mildly concerned.
"We have medical facilities on board, with a quick scan Rothschild can easily adapt our technology to work with your physiology." A pleasant, feminine voice offered from off to her side, she slowly looked over and saw what was quite possibly the most beautiful living being she had ever encountered. Tall, muscular and with a shock of red hair all suggested the build and breeding of a warrior but with a kind, and friendly smile.
"Th.. thank you but we cannot leave our suits even on our ships. Our immune systems are weak, and without a clean room we are forced to patch our suits as they are." she stammered, she was awestruck by the vision of beauty before her. Tali always had a romantic heart, but was never one to believe in love at first sight, but this gorgeous creature before her had her thinking differently.
"Oh well I'm not sure if it helps but our med bays are fully equipped for medical research as well as emergency medicine, trauma and the like. They all have clean rooms, if you need a to do a significant repair that'd be the best place to go." Shepard offered.
"Th. Thanks. I appreciate it. I am Tali'Zorah Vas Tonbay, engineer of the Tonba... well former engineer of the Tonbay." She said, her gaze sinking slightly.
"Lieutenant Shepard of the Alliance Navy, it's a pleasure to meet you." She said sticking her hand out. Tali returned the gesture and jumped slightly as the Lieutenant grasped and shook her hand.
"Whoops, sorry, that's a traditional human greeting, didn't mean to spook you!" she said, slightly embarrassed.
Shala'Raan was no expert at reading humans, but she could read her niece like a book and knew the telltale signs of infatuation immediately. Oh she knew Rael would be furious. Quarians generally had no qualms about inter-species or homosexual relationships, amongst a race whose survival routinely demanded strict population control, if you found love outside of a potential breeding partner it was usually celebrated, but Rael's perfect little angel wasn't allowed to date anyone until he had been dead for 30 years, or at least that's what he bellowed the first time Rael caught Tali holding a boy's hand. She prayed silently to the ancestors that she'd be there when Rael got the news.
"Incoming communication from one of their big ships, Captain Anderson." a voice called over the intercom.
"Sounds good Ensign, we're on our way. Captain, Raan, would you please accompany me to the bridge so that we can speak to your people?" He asked. "Of course, and thank you again for rescuing my people." she said, awkwardly offering her hand forward, mimicking the interaction she had just witnessed, Without missing a beat the handsome officer grasped and shook her hand, then turned and led her to the bridge. She couldn't help notice the lingering warmth she felt at his touch.
"Open a channel please. Let's hope our communications are compatible." David said as they arrived.
Rothschild responded immediately stating that he'd adapted the technologies while they were busy "hand fucking the pretty alien ladies" in the cargo bay. All four involved blushed, though the Quarians thankfully had their masks to hide behind.
"Please refrain from obscenity, or sexual euphemism in front of our guests." the captain asked. Rothschild grinned and disappeared.
"I am so sorry about that. If I could go back in time and find out who he learned all this from I'd slap them silly." David offered. Shala'Raan chuckled and reassured him.
Shortly thereafter the view screen came to life displaying what appeared to the bridge of one of the Quarian vessels along with its Captain and several other crew members all busy repairing damage and operating instruments. The scene behind them looked dire, like they were just on the losing side of a significant battle.
"Captain Raan, thank the ancestors you made it, your crew?" The quarian captain asked.
"Tali'Zorah, Kiv'Noral and Denn'Lizhar all made it here alive. The other life pods?
"All recovered, no casualties." he replied, slumping back into his chair. Even with his face obscured by his visor the humans in attendance could tell he was relieved.
"Keelah, I... I.. Thank you all." Shala'Raan choked out finally breaking down, audibly sobbing. Tali ran over to comfort her.
"Excuse me sir, We haven't had the honor. I'm Captain David Anderson of the systems alliance, may I ask your name?" David interjected, trying to give the crying captain a chance to compose herself.
"Yes, of course, forgive me. I am Captain Ken'Dorel vas Tanas." he replied "What can we offer in trade for the return of our people?" He meekly asked.
"I don't understand..." Anderson replied.
"Our people. You'll be wanting a ransom, yes?" He continued, almost nonchalant.
"Of course not. Your people are free to go when they wish. Please provide coordinates to a ship that can take them and we'll send over a shuttle." Anderson said, sounding slightly offended.
The Quarian captain stared at him, not really knowing what to say. The brief delay allowed Shala'Raan time to come to her senses enough to interject.
"Ken'Dorel vas Tanas these people have been nothing but helpful to us, don't you dare speak to them that way!" she growled.
"Of course, forgive me Captain Anderson, we are not used to such... hospitality." He said, wringing his hands.
"Nothing to forgive, captain, we have no way of knowing anything about each other. One of your crew has a slight injury and a minor suit breach as well, we have clean room facilities but no replacement parts and no schematics for fabrication." Anderson said.
"You have a clean room?" Captain Dorel asked "Yes of course, excuse me, we will send a team over with replacement parts with your permission. We are still trying to find accommodation for the crew on other ships."
"Take your time, in the meantime, I'd like to arrange for a formal meeting between our people. I am the captain of this station but our leaders will want a proper diplomatic party to welcome you and properly introduce ourselves." David continued.
"Of course, I will pass this along to the admirals, they will want to know right away, in the meantime, may I impose upon you to continue hosting our people until we can find a place for them?" He asked.
"I'd be honored, we have plenty of room over here, we'll assign them quarters and get them squared away. Anderson out." he signed off.
The next few days passed without major incident. At first when the quarian supply ship arrived, the humans there to receive them were slightly miffed at the fact that upon docking, the Quarian crew without a word shoved a crate full of supplies through the airlock, then immediately undocked and returned to its mothership. Captain Raan assured them they were following standard Quarian procedures, explaining about their weak immune systems and the threat exposure to new environments posed to them. As it was, when the crew members were reassigned to new ships, they would have to endure two weeks quarantine to ensure their suits weren't carrying any harmful pathogens.
Both the Quarians and Humans were happy to find out that their foodstuffs were compatible with each other. It turns out that Humans were in the minority along with Quarians and Turians in the known galaxy in that their biology was levo-based instead of the more common dextro-amino protien chirality. Though human food needed to be sterilized and processed to be edible to Quarians, it was an easy process and the Quarian guests aboard the Arcturus station were comfortable. The replacement parts sent to repair Tali's suit turned out to be acceptable but oversized, this was to be expected, many Quarians had to make do with oddly sized suit parts because it was difficult to source replacements. This situation resulted in the station's chief engineer Consuela "Connie" Estevez taking it upon herself to refit every Quarian she encountered with brand new properly-fitting suits. From a long line of tailors and habadashers, Connie broke the mold, much to her parent's joy, by entering instead into the Engineering field but old habits die hard and on her off time she considered herself a fashion enthusiast. She poured over the schematics provided by their guests and within days had the station's fabricators spitting out replacement suits far superior to anything the Quarians had seen in the 300 years since their exodus from Rannoch.
Speaking of Rannoch, Captain Raan and Captain Anderson had developed something of a friendship during her stay aboard the station, and despite them both waiting for diplomatic parties to arrive they were engaging in what could be best classified as informal introductions between species themselves. After the chaos of their first encounter abated, Captain Raan had asked Anderson about their AI and why they trusted it so much especially given its tendencies to break social ettiquite and its seeming lack of respect for military discipline.
He explained that humanity considered Rothschild as a different species, and while it lived in Human space and was subject to Human law it was for all intents and purposes its own soverreign entity. It enjoyed its work helping humanity with computational problems, coordination and everything else but at the end of the day it free to act as it pleased, provided it did no harm to anyone including itself. He then called in Rothschild and asked him to politely provide his viewpoint, which thankfully he did. Rothschild and Raan spoke extensively, with Raan bringing in members of the Quarian Admiralty via holographic communicator on her wrist computer which humans were finding out was called an Omni-tool.
At first, the Admiralty was horrified to learn that humanity was cooperating with an AI, but when it calmly explained its relationship, revealed that it had been from the beginning free to do as it pleased, and had chosen to remain amongst and cooperate with humanity, a very small crack appeared upon the face of their preconceived notions about artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, Tali made a point to follow Shepard around, which delighted the Lieutenant to no end, the young Quarian engineer was rapidly becoming an unofficial part of Shepard's squad, even participating in PT though she struggled to keep up. Humans were far more robust than Quarians, possessing more strength, durability and stamina, but Quarians were nearly silent on their feet and excessively agile, during sparring matches Tali was incredibly difficult to hit and amongst Shepard's squad mates it became a point of pride when one would land even a glancing blow on the nimble girl. The one exception, Jenkins, tended to glower in the corner staring daggers at her. His incompetence, laziness and misbehavior increased exponentially with the addition of Tali to their group. It didn't help things that the only thing Jenkins was marginally useful for was engineering, yet at every opportunity he was utterly outclassed by the young Alien despite her only very recent exposure to human technology. She tore through schematics and manuals, and whenever she wasn't to be found near Shepard, she was usually in the Engineering section interrogating the Chief Engineer, whom had taken an instant liking to the girl. The thing she loved most about Tali was that the girl never asked the same question twice, and the ones that she did ask were compelling and challenging to her. Tali also had a talent for observing, listening and even assisting without being in the way. Growing up on a cramped Quarian ship, she learned how to dance out of people's way and could navigate most engine rooms blindfolded with the agility and reflexes of a jaguar.
"Chief Estevez, this antimatter reactor you use, how do you get fuel for it?" She asked.
"Damnit Tali how many times to I have to tell you to call me Connie?" She grinned while gently admonishing her. "It's shipped in from the super colliders in orbit around Mars, but they're going to be moving that facility probably into the asteroid belt once terraforming starts there in 10 years." She said
"Sorry." Tali said, but her curiosity was unabated "Well how do you get it from there to here? I mean you'd think it would annihilate anything it comes into contact with, let alone the dangers of moving it at FTL speeds." She continued.
Connie grimaced at that, and said "I'm really sorry Tali, I wish I could explain it but the transportation technology we use for that is classified. For safety purposes even the general public on Earth aren't allowed to know about it yet."
"Oh, I see." Tali said, her shoulders drooping sadly, "It's OK." she said.
"Truly Tali, you are one of the brightest kids I've ever met, if you were oath bound to the Alliance military I'd tell you in a second, no doubt that brain of yours would wrap itself around it and have it running ten times more efficiently in a week." She said sadly, resting a hand on the girl's shoulder. Tali nodded, pondering this tidbit of information. Just then her omni-tool lit up, Shepard was requesting her help down in the civilian sector. She excused herself and set off to meet her friend.
"I don't see why you need buckethead I can fix this better than any dumb alien could!" Jenkins shouted, unaware that he was heard quite clearly by said alien, as well as both her and his commanding officer. Tali stopped in her tracks, shocked and mortified at what she'd just heard.
"Jenkins, Tali is ten times the engineer you could ever be, no matter how much your precious fucking uncle pays the generals to believe, and if I had my way she'd be here in your place, but you know what? I don't care that your fucking uncle will get me drummed out of the military for this, you are relieved of duty and confined to quarters! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SIGHT YOU INCOMPETENT BIGOT!" Shepard had started out quiet but ended with a growl that would put the fear of god into anyone with a brain. Sadly Jenkins did not match that description.
"Fuck you, dyke quit trying to get into buckethead's pants and read the writing on the wall, it's a hop skip and a jump to Earth and soon they're gonna land their ships and move into our houses and take our jobs and live off our dime!" He punctuated this by taking a swing at Shepard, and though his words should have been enough, that act alone ended the idiot's career in the military. She had been so shocked by his xenophobic outburst she failed to dodge in time and caught a glancing blow to the eye socket that knocked her to the ground.
She barely had enough time to get to her feet before Jenkins had been swarmed by the rest of the squad and was being thoroughly and brutally restrained. Tali rushed over to check on Shepard, who was well enough barring the black eye, but she allowed herself to be helped to her feet regardless. Upright once again she went to go address the situation by ejecting a few of Jenkins' teeth from his jaw when she was stopped in her tracks to see the idiot being screamed at and berated by Captain Anderson himself.