Most of the ride up to Denmark had been carried in silence. While Garrus and Chakwas had tended to Liara's wound, Wrex had settled into a corner while Tali and John had taken seats right next to each other.
She kept her hands in between her knees and stared blankly off to the wall opposite of her. John had been doing much the same.
"We still aren't out of this…" Tali murmured with her empty staring, "Not until we're far, far away from this place."
John turned to her and didn't say anything because he knew she was right. The collectors were on their way to intercepting the Denmark right now. And all they could do was sit and wait and hope they'd have enough time to FTL out before the collectors could make their swing.
The radio crackled on Gonzalez's radio. "SSV Denmark to Nimble-4 Actual, respond, over."
He grabbed the receiver. "Copy, Denmark, this is 4-Actual. What is it?"
"You need to hurry, 4. Our fighters just pulled out of the fight."
"What does that spell for us, Denmark?"
"Collector ship hasn't deviated from their course. If they're coming to engage, we have ten minutes until they're on us. Reinforcements are already en route, but they're thirty minutes out. I suggest you get here far before then… What's your ETA?"
"Five minutes at most; we'll be there before then, over."
"That's a solid copy, four."
"Denmark, you have anything on what's happening to Ullipses?"
"Negative, 4-actual. We're receiving seismic activity across the entire planet at magnitudes greater than anything we can measure accurately. All we can say is that Ullipses is literally shaking itself apart. Over."
"Denmark, are you telling me the whole planet is in an earthquake?"
"That's a yes, 4."
"Uhm… acknowledged Denmark. Anything else?"
"What's the status of the Normandy crew?"
"A lot of wounded. We're going to need Medevac ASAP when we pass the relay, over."
"Copy 4 Actual. We'll have 3rd send us ASEMS. Out."
As soon as Gonzalez hung the receiver, he faced the Commander and gave him a worried look. "When we arrive at the Denmark, the captain's gonna want that explanation of yours about those meteors you all keep talking about."
"We will," Tali answered for John, "After we're safe."
Gonzalez turned back around and kept flying.
Five minutes pass without incident and they made it to the Denmark. Gonzalez pulled into the cruiser's hangar and landed without any problems. As soon as the doors opened, the Denmark's crew immediately started helping the Normandy's wounded out of the drop-ship and onto surgical beds to get them taxied two floors above to an infirmary.
As the last of the people stepped out of the shuttle, Tali grabbed John to keep him from stepping off Gonzalez's ship.
"Hey. How're you feeling?"
John dipped his head low. "Not so well, Tali."
She knew what he was thinking about Knew that it was about the Normandy and her crew. Even with the crazy happenstance of the planet falling apart, it was just a planet. There were plenty of other insignificant rocks floating about the galaxy. Nothing could replace the souls they'd lost here.
"I know." She intoned as she placated him by reaching for one of his hands, "We've lost even more people. We'll honor them with all the dignity and respect that they deserve."
"Thanks for getting us off that rock, Tali."
"It wasn't a choice."
"Raiding a collector ship wasn't a choice, huh?"
"Not with you on the line."
He smiled at her. "My turn to ask. How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay." She said simply, "Better that you're here with me."
He reached for her hand and gave it a long and caring look.
"…I was thinking more about what you said." John started thoughtfully with a murmur, "About… you staying with me."
She slipped out of her pocket her pilgrimage gift. "You're thinking about what I'm going to do with this." She said before giving the OSD in her hand an apathetic stare, "…I can drop it off. Email it. Ship it if I have to. I want to be with you, John. This choice isn't off some stupid whim. You've opened my eyes to so much more and… I need to share that with you."
She stared solemnly at her feet. "I've done what's expected of me. I owe them nothing."
He dipped his head in agreement before patting her hand gently.
She took in a small breath and sighed.
"I imagine this is the part where we're supposed to kiss." She mumbled.
"Typically, yeah." He chuckled slightly.
She garbled something unintelligible under her breath and shook her head. "Sorry."
"Sorry? We can always save the kissing for later. Promise."
"Good."
They finally stepped off the ship and toward the elevator.
"Dr. Ulrich, prepare for triage." The Denmark's PA announced.
"Where do we need to go?" Tali asked as they stepped inside the lift with some of the wounded and medical personnel. Garrus and Liara were also inside.
"CIC. See what's going on." He answered when they started to ascend, "How's she doing, Garrus?"
"Better. She might not need surgery."
"You don't always have to speak for me." Liara said weakly before smiling at all three of them, "I'm sure I'll be fine."
The elevator doors opened and the nurses started rolling them out to get their newest patients into the infirmary. They all waved their goodbyes before the doors closed again to bring both John and Tali up to CIC.
When the doors opened, the captain's yeoman stood waiting. "Commander," He saluted, "Was just about to go looking for you. CIC's this way."
They walked down the ship's bridge and to the captain.
"Commander." The Denmark's captain stood squarely at his podium with his hands clasped behind his back, "A privilege to meet you. Wish it were under better circumstances."
More out of habit than formality, both Tali and John stood at attention and John saluted him.
"At ease." Captain Yale said before urging them both to stand next to him at the holo center.
A view of Ullipses materialized into existence, along with a blip of the Denmark's position.
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions, so I'll get you up to speed with what's going on. We're right here, Commander. But the SSV Basra is on the other side of the planet and won't be in contact with us until they come through to the other side. Typically that wouldn't be an issue, but Ullipses' magnetosphere is fluctuating rapidly. And because of that, it's disrupting any and all means of communicating with them. As far as I'm concerned, the Basra isn't aware of any of the events that have occurred since finding you."
"Where does that put us?"
"In a bad position. It means we have to wait."
"Sir, if we wait, we're risking engagement with a vessel easily twice the size of a dreadnaught."
"I understand that. They're also traveling three times faster than a frigate. Even if we run, even if we calculate an exit to FTL right now, they'll be here well before that. The only strategic advantage we have is our position, and I will not surrender that to buy us thirty seconds just to expose our engines to a line of fire."
"…How long until contact?" Tali decided to ask with slight dread.
"Minutes at most. I've already scrambled every available drone, fighter, and corvette to delay the attack. The only hope we have is to survive until 3rd fleet arrives.
"And how far out are they?"
"Twenty minutes." The captain answered.
"Captain," One of the bridge officers called out, "You need to see this."
"Bring it up on screen, Freeman."
"Aye, sir."
Readouts of the planet start compiling on the screen.
"What's this telling me, Freeman?"
Tali was well into reading the information when Freeman answered.
"Don't know how to say it. but Ullipses' mass just looked like it doubled."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" the captain said with a confused-looking frown.
Realization dawned on Tali and she felt a cold pit grow in her stomach as she kept reading.
Freeman was right. The mass of Ullipses just doubled.
And the atmosphere was heating up to levels uninviting for life while its electromagnetic field continued to grow and shrink all at the same time.
Years ago, back in college, her dissertation had been about black holes. She'd given a whole spiel about them. The biggest ones in the known universe. What made them. What was inside them. The event horizon. Time dilation. Its absorption and warping of light. She even touched up on what black holes the size of mere centimeters in diameter were capable of had they been tossed inside the cores of a planet no bigger than Rannoch. It was all theorized conjecture of course. She'd suspended the laws of hawking radiation and what effect the planet's angular momentum would have on an accretion disk.
But what they were looking at right here, right now, was the very model of what she'd written back in college.
And it didn't make any sense.
But lately, a lot of things this past year didn't make sense. More so these past couple days.
"…It means there's a black hole inside the planet's core." Tali said flatly.
"What? That's… that's impossible." Freeman fumbled, "That— the planet would've exploded had there been one inside. And you're asserting that one even exists without plausible reason."
"It's crazy." Tali agreed completely, "So unbelievably crazy. But you have to take my word for it. The things we've seen these past couple days can't be explained inside one conversation alone."
"Sir." Another one of the Denmark's crew said, "The Basra just surfaced from blackout. They're hailing."
"Put them on the line, yeoman."
"Aye sir."
"This is S̶̷̲̅S̶̷̲̅V Basra to Denmark, we're being e̴̻̾n̶̡̎g̷͆͜a̶̖̿ged, I̶̟͘ repe̶͈̍ḁ̶͊t, we are being ᴇ̶̷̲̅ngaged by s—veral capital class ships of unknoẃ̴̦n origin, how copy, over?"
The captain immediately frowned.
This was not looking good.
At all.
"We read you, Basra, pull out and get the hell out of there, over."
"Negative, D̷̤̾ę̷̋n̶̴̤͇̎͑mark, nega—"
"Basra..? Repeat last, over."
There was nothing but static to answer him.
"Basra..? Report status and repeat last, over."
More static.
The captain fixed his glare at nothingness before clenching both his fists and taking an unsteady breath. "…Damnit."
He turned around and faced John and Tali.
"Commander? I suggest you get your crew ready."
"For what sir?"
"…To abandon ship."
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The ride back down the elevator was quiet.
In minutes, they'd be at it again.
And Tali was so saturated with the fact, she felt tears streaming down her cheeks.
When was this going to end?
When?
"Okay…" John said, nodding to himself, "This is what we're going to do."
He faced her. "As soon as we get to the engineering deck, I want you to run and get that escape pod ready for us."
"…Which one was it?" Tali struggled to say, "Pod eight or nine?"
"Pod nine." John answered, "I'd rather the captain give us the one down in the hangar, but I'm not going to argue."
The elevator doors opened and Tali stepped out. John stayed behind.
"Go Tali. I'm going to get the crew."
"What?" She said, exasperated at the idea of him even considering the idea of separating, "John. No. We are not splitting up again. Not now."
He placed two hands on her shoulders to calm her down. "Listen to me. It's only going to take a moment. Get the escape pod ready."
"John. I— I can't." She trembled at the mere idea of separating after all this time, "I... won't— Can't..."
"It'll only be for a moment."
She took a hesitant step backward.
"Do your magic, hun," John said as he pressed a button for the hangar bay, "I'll be back before you know it." The elevator doors separated them and he made his way down.
John took in the deepest breath he could and held it.
Only for a moment, he reminded himself.
As soon as the lift opened up to the hangar, he walked out.
"Stacker!" John hollered, "Ash!"
"Commander!"
They both come running to him.
"Ash. Get your marines, Pressly, Joker, and half the crew to engineering. Help Tali prep pod nine."
Ash stared momentarily to Stacker in confusion before facing John again. "…What's going on?"
"There's a possibility we have to abandon ship." The faces he got was met with one of his own. "Go. We don't have time to talk about it." He turned to Stacker, "After the elevator comes back down, we'll go up and join them."
"Aye sir."
Marcus overheard and had to stifle a gasp. "You're shitting me, sir."
"No, Grieco," John answered sadly, "I'm not. Get your stuff together and move."
Ash, her marines, Joker, Pressly, and half the crew got into the elevator. It hardly fit them all.
"John?" Ash called, "Listen. Don't be an idiot. You come the hell up here as soon as you can. I shouldn't have to remind you this cargo hold is probably going to be right in the collector's line of fire."
"I'm aware, Ash. We're literally right behind you."
She nodded and bit her lip. "Good."
The elevator closed and carried them up.
"How long do we have, sir?" Grieco asked.
"I don't know. Not long."
"Then I guess we sh—"
Stacker didn't get to finish. A long beam of energy cut through the hangar bay floor and looked as if it split the ship right in half. As John grabbed a hold of something to keep himself from getting sucked into the vacuum of space, he watched, with terror in his eyes, people suddenly getting swallowed whole by blackness.
They screamed, but he couldn't hear them.
He couldn't hear anyone.
He could see the vastness of space behind and clouds of debris tumbling away from the Denmark's broken floor.
Another ion beam sliced through the Denmark again and John had to hold on for dear life to keep himself from falling out into the abyss.
Try as he did, his grip was beginning to wane.
And when the Denmark was struck again a third time, it proved too much.
His grasp slipped and he screamed.
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In a fierce scramble, souls began to pour into the escape pod, Tali desperately fanning her eyes to find him in the crowd. She caught Ashley in the fray and reached out to stop her.
"Where is he." Her voice clawed the air, eyes wild with fear, "WHERE IS JOHN."
"Tali—" Ashley's held Tali, her face stark and pale, voice a tightrope faltering over an abyss, "He's… I—"
Color drained from the world. Her heart fell. Her blood stopped. A sudden explosion robbed the hall of light and she spun on her heels to propel herself back to find him.
"We have to go back! We have to get him—!" she cried out, but her path was a tangle of arms and bodies as the crew went to restrain her. "NO! Get OFF! GET OFF ME!"
She fought and wrenched free, her arms and legs resisting their attempts to hold her down as she made her way to the hatch. But Pressly was there, his own desperation a match for hers as he caught her, halting her escape, "Tali, stop," he ordered, "He's gone. Now get in. Now."
His grip on her was unyielding and it carried her away from the Denmark as it succumbed to ruin. But suddenly, the XO was engulfed in a monstrous bloom of fire and his uniform melted to his skin. With what grace he could, he pushed her away to the safety of the pod as the flames spread before a strut overhead snapped and guillotined him to the floor. She scrambled to her feet and tried to reach out, but more hands pulled her back as she watched Pressly burn, her mouth agape and mortified but heart still relentlessly screaming to press forward.
Only fire and ruin lay ahead.
"GO." Pressly's voice cut through the flames and debris, "GO."
The doors slammed shut.
They jettisoned away to the safety of the void.
Silence save for the thrumming din of the cabin and the steady shudder of thrusters.
The world around her blurred. Faces dissolving away and devoured by darkness. Still on her hands and knees, the floor too, soon fell away.
Everyone and everything was gone and Tali lay upon an empty and stretched expanse of nothingness.
Her eyes were carved and hollow. She stared emptily to the chains now fastened to her. To the betrayal that suddenly gripped her.
"You…—" Her eyes dimmed, "you promised me…"
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𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦, 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯.ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ
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