Chapter 6
"Damn she's on to me!" Jane smiled, snapping her fingers in feigned dismay, They both smiled and hugged, happy to see each other for the first time since Jane made it out of N7 and was assigned to the station.
"You're still too skinny, kiddo." Hannah said looking her daughter over.
"Mom, stop!" She said, a faint flush tinging her face.
"So who's your friend, sweetie?" She asked.
"Mom, this is Tali'Zorah vas Tonbay. She's been here since the explosion. Captain Anderson approved a semi-permanent assignment as our engineer since the Jenkins incident.
"Oh yes, that lovely boy. I had a heart-to-heart conversation with his beloved uncle on the way here. I wouldn't worry about seeing or hearing from either of them ever again. Unless you are assigned to guard duty at Levinworth." she growled, tilting her daughter's head to inspect the bruise.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. , I mean Prime minister , I mean..." Tali stammered
"She's a retired Admiral too" the younger offered.
"Not. Helping. !" Tali growled.
"Which one of us are you talking to this time?" Hannah said
"Oh Keelah now I know where she gets it." She muttered as she stomped off.
"We shouldn't play with her like that." Hannah observed stifling a laugh.
"No, we really shouldn't." Jane agreed, still giggling.
"So. Any new girlfriends I should be worried about?" Hannah asked.
Jane's face glowed bright as her eyes involuntarily followed the retreating Quarian for a fraction of a second before she protested,
"No mom, and don't try setting me up with one of your interns again, Melissa was creepy." She said, desperately hoping she hadn't noticed.
"Yeah she was, what was up with her anyway? Didn't she have like 90 cats?" The Elder replied
"It was 17 and eww. I like cats as much as anyone but there's a limit." said.
"Well let's find out how many cats Tali has." She replied.
"Goddamnit mom." She said.
After an hour or so, Tali forgave Jane realizing that they were being playful, and not trying to hurt her which is good because they had an enormous task ahead of them. The Quarians were not needy in the slightest and were eager to do for themselves everything they possibly could, but putting 1700 people into homes and setting them up with medical care, food, communications etc is a lot of work.
"So we can just move in." A quarian citizen asked Jane, this was not the first time she'd had this conversation.
"Yes, feel free to decorate as you wish. Please alert your block's superintendent before modifying anything to avoid damaging a vital system." She said.
"O, where do I Report for work?" He asked.
"Excuse me?" Jane asked
"Work, Surely we can't live here for free." the quarian asked.
"Oh, well if you want to help around the station there are plenty of departments that could use a hand." She said, still confused.
"And we can stay as long as we keep working?" he asked.
"Access to living quarters, food and medicine is available to everyone, regardless of employment." She said.
"Oh, OK. Thanks." He said, seemingly shell shocked as he turned around and returned to his dwelling.
It would turn out that the others in the squad were also having conversations like these regularly. Quarians not believing they were welcome without anything in return, expecting to be worked, genuinely out of their element really. Work was life on a Quarian ship.
"Tali, a lot of Quarians are asking about work, even when we tell them they don't need to. Hell we don't have enough work to go around." Jane said to Tali.
"Since birth it's drilled into Quarian children that work is life, and that to survive and to keep their families alive and shipmates alive they must work. It's hard to just shut that off." She said.
"Huh. Well maybe we should find stuff for them to do. If we do though we need to emphasize that it is completely optional, we aren't helping you guys because we expect something in return." Jane Continued. Tali reached out and placed her hand on Jane's a gesture which Tali quite liked when showed to her by Jane, which she's come to emulate.
"Your people are so kind Jane. We aren't used to it. Everything comes with a price tag where we're from." she said "Give us time, and in the meantime don't be shy about asking for volunteers."
"Well one thing I think we could use, anyone with experience studying or teaching languages other than Kheelish, or even anyone curious about language. We'd be pretty shitty neighbors if we didn't try to learn each other's mother tongue, right?" she said. Tali nodded emphatically and keyed a message in to her omni-tool. Then she stretched her arms behind her and yawned.
"Ugh yeah it's about quitting time isn't it?" Jane said, failing to stifle her own yawn. "You got your place sorted out?" She asked tali.
"Oh, um. I forgot to requisition a domicile. Shoot the office is closed now isn't it. I can just sleep in the barracks again." She said.
"Nah, that place sucks it's the wrong kind of noisy. You can crash at my place tonight, my apartment has a spare room." she said
"Oh, um, OK let me just gather my things." She said suddenly very nervous and not sure why.