The next weeks went amazingly for the new couple. They had their fair share of insufferable "I told you so"s the worst of which coming from one Prime Minister Admiral Hannah Shepard. They were surprised by the lack of, well, surprise. Not only were they a same-sex relationship, but an interspecies one as well. Apparently back on Earth there were a number of human/quarian relationships developing since the two species were so attractive to each other. A biomedical corporation based out of New Jersey had announced its intention of exploring a solution to the problems with the Quarian's immune systems.
The Quarians themselves had devoted some resources to researching a solution, but resources on the flotilla were limited, and none of the other races were willing to commit time or money to what was viewed as a quarian problem. The alliance was one people of three species, of course it went all in on helping them out. Rothschild particularly was devoted to solving the issue, since it represented a worthy challenge to his significant intellect. Within days of the project being initiated, Rothschild was devoting half of his processing power to protien folding simulations and more than a million Quarians had volunteered as guinea pigs.
It was discovered early on that Quarians reacted positively to human medigel, and only required slight modification to be effective. A side effect of using medigel on injured Quarians was a long-term resistance to certain earthbound toxins and microbes. Quarians recovering from suit breaches when treated with medigel were back on their feet in half the time. This confused the newly minted xenobiology departments on Earth's universities, since all they knew of alien biology from Quarian databases suggested that while Asari, Salarians, Krogan, Vorcha, Batarians, Elcor, Volus and Yahg all had wildly different biological configurations, and their systems were extremely incompatible with each other, Humans, Quarians and Turians were so closely matched that blood plasma could be shared between them, and with future development perhaps organ transplants. Earth, Rannoch and Palaven are so far spread out over the galaxy that the likelihood of Humans, Quarians and Turians having similar origins was minuscule. Each could safely eat the other's food, temperature and air pressure tolerances were similar, and the atmospheres of the three planets were virtually identical. They were currently working with Quarian xenoarchaeologists on seeing if there was some link between the three worlds, but evidence was scarce.
Tali had only suffered a minor fever and a bout of congestion as a result of her kiss with Shepard. She was so happy with the recent development she'd easily been able to ignore it and both were back at work the next day. Shepard was over the moon, happier than she had been in a long time. Confessing her feelings for Tali had lifted a huge weight from her shoulders and she felt like she was floating in the air. Even the annoying complaints from the civvies about supply shortages and traffic james failed to sour her mood. Besides, it sounded soon like the whole squad was going to be reassigned because it was decided that the civilians were more than capable of managing themselves, and that military resources would be better directed elsewhere. They'd been given no indication as to what their next assignment would be, but Shepard was hoping it would be aboard one of the new joint human/quarian warships. She'd been itching to get back out there since her assignment to the station, though in retrospect she was beyond grateful that she had been.
"Keelah that's great news! When can we visit her?" Tali said into her omnitool.
"They're going to run some tests but they're optimistic. It's a miracle she's alive let alone waking up." Admiral Raan's voice could be heard saying from the omnitool.
"Do they know if there was any permanent damage?" Tali asked?
"Not yet, that's why they need to run the tests. If they clear her would you like to come with me to see her?" Raan asked. "You can bring Shepard." she added, sweetening the deal, but also with a mocking tone of voice.
"Yes, Auntie..." she said, irritation apparent, "I will ask her, thank you. Zorah out." She said disconnecting the call before she had to listen to her aunt laughing at her. Shepard looked around to make sure nobody was around, then walked up behind Tali and wrapped her arms around her, interlocking above her stomach and leaning her chin on her shoulder.
"What was that about?" Shepard asked.
"Oh hi Jane. Shit. I mean Lieutenant Shepard." She said.
"Relax nobody's around that's why I'm hugging you." Shepard teased.
"Right, sorry, still getting used to being a part of your military." Tali said.
"Our military." She corrected.
"Right." Tali said smiling. "Shuuv'Dunal, the medic from the Tonbay just regained consciousness. She's doing well as far as we know, but she'll need to be brought up to speed and Auntie Raan and I thought seeing a few familiar faces, so to speak, might help." Tali explained.
"Oh, that's great! Wow It must have been strange waking up in a hospital bay surrounded by such a strange species." Shepard replied.
"Yes, you are very funny looking." Tali teased. Shepard responded by a light pinch on her shoulder eliciting a yelp from the young Quarian.
"So we're going to see her after our shift?" Shepard inquired.
"Yes, if that's OK." she said, turning around still encircled in Shepard's arms, she leaned her helmet in close to Shepard's ear and continued, "I've been meaning to go there anyway to pick up some immuno boosters." Shepard shuddered in excitement. Tali then reached her hand back to grasp Shepard's and guided it downwards so that it rested on one of her ample buttocks.
"You're killing me Tali, but damn what a way to go." Shepard responded giving it a gentle squeeze before they broke apart and went back to their tasks. Several hours later a special transport arrived, and Admiral Raan stepped out.
"Lieutenant Shepard, Ensign Zorah, are you ready to depart?" She asked. Shepard and tali ran over and saluted, both reciting "Yes Admiral!" at the same time.
"Excellent, let's get going." She said, returning to the back of the transport. Shepard and Tali followed, buckling into seats next to each other and across from the Admiral. She informed the driver they were ready to depart. Raan then raised the privacy shield between the driver and passenger compartments and smiled under her helmet.
"So how are my two favorite lovebirds?" Raan asked. Shepard and Tali both blushed, while extremely happy they were still new to this relationship and were still reacting by blushing adorably when people called them on their sappiness. Tali thankfully was hidden behind her helmet.
"Oh you know, living the dream." Shepard said, more confidently than she felt, and reached over to hold Tali's hand.
"I'm so happy for you both." Raan said sincerely, however couldn't resist slipping in a friendly jab at the end "Just try to behave yourselves around Shuuv, she's quite fragile." Raan said, pausing to take a drink from a hermetically sealed water pouch. Sick of being the recipient of this treatment, Tali answered.
"Of course Auntie Raan. So, speaking of 'lovebirds' how is Captain Anderson doing?" Raan spit the contents of her mouth out surprised all over the inside of her helmet, coughing loudly. A human spit-take was funny but a Quarian one was priceless.
"Keelah Tali who told you about us? Did you hack my personal messages again?" Raan Accused, tali giving up the battle to keep her composure and laughing with Shepard.
"You just did Auntie Raan. I was only speculating until now." She added, Shepard laughed harder at that. Raan responded by draining the excess liquid from her helmet via a small port at the base, then crossing her arms angrily.
"Why won't you ever let me have any fun." Raan replied, holding her pose until the insincerity of it was given up by her shaking shoulders as she burst out and joined them in laughing.
"We're happy for you too, Auntie Raan." Tali said.
"Yeah, Captain Anderson is a great man, there's no way I'd be where I am without him." Shepard said.
"David is indeed a great man, but make no mistake Shepard, I've read your service record. If you served in the Migrant Fleet you'd be in early preparations now for your own command. A commander that can follow orders is valuable, but one that refuses to follow foolish ones is priceless. Your actions saved lives, and the fools that reprimanded you should be ashamed." Raan said.
"Um. Thank you ma'am" Shepard said, shifting awkwardly.
"You never told me this story, Jane." Tali said.
"It was a long time ago, before I was assigned to Arcturus. I uh, kinda hit Captain Anderson with a wrench." Shepard said, embarrassed.
"You WHAT?!" Tali shrieked. Raan interrupted what was likely to be a lengthy tirade.
"She saved his life, he was about to act like a fool and run off to his death. She incapacitated him and stuffed him in a life pod." Raan explained.
"Oh, well that makes more sense." Tali said. Quarians were expected to hold the welfare of the fleet and their crew above orders. Shepard smiled at Tali's seeming 180 degree shift in opinion.
"So how is Ms. Dunal doing?" Shepard asked.
"Well enough, her memory appears intact, and aside from significant muscle atrophy and a persistent headache she seems to be no worse for the wear. A little rest and rehab and she'll probably be reporting for reassignment." Raan explained.
"Good, I was so worried about her." Tali said, she didn't know the medic that well but she was a member of her crew, they were all important. There was a brief silence in the vehicle until Tali saw Raan scratching at her neck, realizing the suit made it useless and forcing her hand back down to her lap.
"Auntie are you alright? Did you have a breach?" She asked gesturing at her hands. Raan's shoulders tensed, shed' hoped Tali had missed that.
"Um, no. Not exactly. I'm... I volunteered for immune system research. David donated some plasma and I received it with their experimental drug cocktail yesterday. So far I've had a small fever and a couple of rashes." She said.
"Oh I read about that, At first they think they will be able to come up with a treatment to get Quarians used to Earth using human antibodies along with a booster drug cocktail and human plasma, the combination is supposed to accelerate the acclimation process." Shepard observed.
"Yes, I don't know all of the science behind it but in a week we're going to try a controlled exposure of my left hand. We'll seal the junction around my wrist and remove the glove for ten minutes, then observe for a week. If that produces no reaction, we'll try the same with my mask." Raan said. She was clearly excited about the possibility of leaving the confines of her suit. Tali was strangely quiet about this, and remained so until they arrived.
They left the vehicle and checked in through security, slowly making their way to the Quarian impatient ward. Before entering the airlock, Shepard had to put on an enviro suit, so she excused herself to a private dressing alcove while Tali and Raan talked.
"Again, Tali, I am so happy for you. I'm just sad that your mother wasn't here to meet her. Also it's disappointing that I won't be able to give her the angry aunt 'don't hurt my niece' speech. I'm fairly certain she would murder me in a fight." Raan said.
"Thank you auntie, it really means a lot. Part of me was afraid you weren't going to accept us being together." Tali said.
"Tali you had no reason to fear. If you'd brought home a Krogan I'd have been just as happy for you. Love is the most important thing in the universe. It's truly the only thing worth fighting for. Don't forget that." Raan said. Tali nodded. Any retort she may have had died at the tip of her tongue as Shepard emerged from the dressing alcove. Tali had the sudden urge to find and thank the person responsible for designing the Envriosuit made available for Shepard. The suit was made of a thin latex-like material that clung so tightly to her toned form it appeared to have been painted on. A small gasket fit around the neck and attached to a spherical transparent helmet that did nothing to hide her face, unlike the traditional Quarian suit design. Tali's eyes involuntarily raked up and down her girlfriend's body trying desperately to burn the image into her luminescent retinas.
Tali could feel her heart beat throbbing all throughout her body and words completely abandoned her and just as she thought she was about to pass out, Shepard discovered that her left boot was improperly secured, so she turned her back to Tali and bent over to fix it. A small quiet alarm went off on the audio receivers of her helmet and a flashing "cardiac alert" indication blinked on the suit's HUD. It felt as though Tali was about to die of a heart attack, and if that were the last thing she saw in this life, she'd have died with a smile on her face.
"Like what you see?" Shepard asked, looking behind her with her back still arched slightly, obviously putting on a show for her love.
"Auntie Raan, does that program need any more volunteers?" Tali asked, causing both Raan and Shepard to laugh. They moved on to the decontamination chamber and were sprayed all over with antiseptic chemicals, which were blown dry off their suits immediately after. Once declared decontaminated they entered the ward and made their way to Shuuv's room. When they arrived, they were met with a Quarian in a bed, desperately reaching her arms out to embrace her former crewmates.
"Keelah I thought we were all going to die. We didn't know anything about the humans, and the Tonbay was in such dire condition." She dissolved into tears, quaking while sobbing into the shoulders of the Quarians.
"It's alright, Shuuv We're all safe." Raan reassured her. "Everyone made it, and we have new friends who share their world and their resources with us."
"Our world." Shepard corrected from behind them. "Earth is home to more than just Humanity now."
"Keelah I'd read the reports, but to hear one of you saying that. I can't begin to thank you for all you've done for my people." Shuuv said.
"Not at all, Ms. Dunal." Shepard said. With this her PDA lit up and when she checked it was a call from Ash labeled Urgent.
"Shoot, sorry guys I need to take this. I'll step outside so I don't interrupt." Shepard said, walking outside the room and closing the door.
"Keelah are all the humans as beautiful as her?" Shuul asked,
"No, nobody comes close to my Jane." Tali said, possessiveness apparent in her voice.
"Good catch Tali!" Shuuv said, happy for her friend.
"Thanks! She's amazing." Tali said. She then began regaling her friend with stories about the red-headed N7 standing outside the door. Meanwhile Shepard was growing concerned.
"Do we know for sure?" She asked.
"Negative, not confirmed but those ships don't match anything in our database, and the quarian ones haven't been made available to our section yet." Ash responded.
"Ok, I'll let Tali and Admiral Raan know. Thanks for the heads up." She said.
"Hurry Shep, I've got a bad feeling here." Ash said. They disconnected and Shepard knocked before re-entering the room, interrupting what was probably an embarassing story for Tali because she 'eeped' as soon as she heard her girlfriend enter. She immediately sobered at the sight of he expression.
"Admiral Raan, Tali, we need to get going. Unidentified ships appeared in the system, not through the relay. They don't show up on the old Alliance databases we have but they're cross referencing against Quarian databases as we speak." Shepard said.
"Do they have any information about size, shape, weapons or anything?" Shuuv asked from her bed.
"Reconnaissance suggests five ships each equivalent to your cruisers in size, their hulls are painted black and instead of a main gun the hulls are peppered with smaller mass accelerators." Shepard explained.
"Keelah, Batarians." Shuuv observed. Raan was already typing furiously on her omnitool, and Tali walked over to Shepard.
"Jane we need to get back to base now. That is a Batarian raiding party, they don't know anything about your people and will attack the station to try to take it over." She said. Shepard nodded, and rushed out the door, stopping only to grab her PDA and leaving her BDU behind. They made it out through the airlock, and into a transport. Shepard utilized her military authority to bypass civilian traffic and during the trip she alerted the rest of her squad, ordering them to begin preparing for a lock down and making sure the civilians were safe. She received acknowledgments moments before they arrived at her barracks.
"Tali unlock the weapons locker and get into your armor, I've got to go authorize the auto defenses." She said, Tali nodded pulling Shepard into a hug.
"Be careful, Jane." She begged.
"I promise. You too Tali." She said, squeezing her back. They rushed to their tasks and began preparations for a possible attack.
Private Abby Jameson was already in her BDU preparing to enter the training room when she got the call, she immediately rushed back to the nearest civilian housing unit and began ordering civilians to close their doors and keep their heads down. The Quarian civilians having had to deal with Batarian raiding parties knew the deal and began advising their human counterparts on methods for staying off their radar. Since hiding was frequently the only option when you were outgunned, standard operating procedure was to sedate young children and place them in escape pods, but since moving off the fleet they did not keep carefully measured doses of sedative around, plus the escape pods were too far from the domiciles to leave unattended children in.
In a streak of ingenuity that showcased the quick-minded resourcefulness that had landed her in this job to begin with, she instead gathered all children, human and Quarian and barricaded them up with several adults in a local radio broadcast station. The station was used to record station-wide announcements, and was physically large enough to handle a couple of dozen children, and thoroughly soundproofed to avoid ambient ship noise from appearing on the recordings. This would protect the children in the case of one panicking and crying from giving their position away.
Adults with applicable skills were drafted into shoring up defenses and evacuating families with children and the infirm, and everyone else was advised to shelter in place. Doors were locked and metal shutters were drawn. All across the ship this was happening the civilian population was locked down and safe within 30 minutes of the alert going out, 5% faster than had been projected during planning meetings of the security council.
With her job done, Abby returned to her barracks and met Tali who immediately handed her an assault rifle and heavy pistol along with a pack containing survival equipment, a first aid kit, two quarts of medigel and a quart of water.
"Abby we need you to go secure the kids in the sector." Tali said.
"Already done Ensign Zorah. I saw to that before I reported here." Jameson replied.
"Excellent! Where did you put the kids?" She said
"The recording room at the radio broadcast center, it's soundproofed so when they freak out they won't be heard." She responded, clipping her packs on and holstering the sidearm.
"Well done, Private, can you get back there so you can defend the kids if something goes wrong?" Tali very gently ordered.
"Yes Ma'am." She said, saluted and rushed back to the recording studio. Shepard at this point had activated the area auto defenses and programmed their targeting computers with Batarian bio markers as provided by the Quarian captains. Strict care had to be taken since Batarians resembled humans so closely. After settling the defenses she rushed back out and headed to the barracks.
"Lieutenant, you're the last one." Tali said, handing Shepard her trusty assault rifle and shotgun.
"Can you give me a status report?" She asked. Tali responded,
"Jameson is holed up with all of the children in the soundproofed recording studio in the radio center, everyone else is armed, supplied and at their posts." She recited.
"Excellent. Nothing left to do but monitor comms and wait." She said, so they did that, monitoring the communications network onboard the ship as well as video feeds of the areas near the section airlocks especially around the recording studio. She brought up a communication channel used by her squad and gave orders.
"Listen up, guys. We're not 100% sure these Batarians are going to attack but we have every reason to believe they will. The Quarians have a long history of hostile encounters with them. We've got several capital ships inbound including the Mayhem, but they're at least two hours out, and without a ship escort this station is not equipped to prevent these bastards from docking. However, according to what we've learned from the Quarians, their tactics and equipment suck compared to ours, and their troops should be disorganized, stupid and extremely violent. Our number 1 priority is to keep them away from the radio center, next is the civilian centers, and last we need to prevent them from gathering any of ours or the Quarian's technology. " she said, and received more than a dozen "Yes Lieutenant's" in response.
"Some of us have experience in actual combat, some of you are green. Well that ends today, if you remember your training you will survive to see tomorrow. Aim for the head, don't be stingy with ammo, and give them hell. Shepard out." She said, her squad yelling enthusiastically in response. She sat at a desk and activated a monitor near the radio center when suddenly the ship shook violently.