Chapter 25
"Got a job for you." Harry said into his omnitool.
"Ooh what kind?" A woman whose face and voice were obscured electronically said.
"Infiltration with a side of grand theft starship." Harry said with a grin.
"YES!" The voice cried enthusiastically.
"I haven't told you the details..." Harry said.
"Can I keep the ship?" the voice asked. Harry shrugged.
"Sure, I'm more concerned with Cerberus not having it. Bring a team, you know better than I do that Cerberus doesn't fuck around." Harry said. The woman nodded.
"Of course, I have a few in mind already." the voice said.
"How much is this gonna cost me?" Harry asked.
"If I can keep the ship then nothing. I owe you, Harry..." The woman said, her voice turning serious.
"Stop that. We've been over this, you owe me nothing. At least let me pay for supplies." Harry insisted.
"That is acceptable." the woman said. Harry tapped a few commands on his omnitool.
"20,000 credits?! That's way too much!" The woman said
"No takebacks!" Harry said, cutting the connection. He grinned, before standing up and stretching.
"What are you up to this time?" Shepard asked, looking at him suspiciously.
"Some morally grey shit that would never fly if I were still commissioned." Harry said with a laugh.
"Don't ask. Got it." Shepard said with an exasperated sigh. Harry patted her knee.
"So Virmire?" Harry asked.
"Ten hours." Shepard said. Harry nodded.
"I've been reading up on STG, not a lot has changed sicne first contact. This guy Kirrahe is interesting." Harry said, bringing up an image of the STG Captain. Shepard leaned forward and inspected it. As the three dimensional still image of the Salarian rotated a bulleted list of points of interest scrolled underneath him. Shepard whistled loudly.
"Damn, all that and he's what, 9 years old?" Shepard said.
"10 this year. Even for a Salarian he got an early start. Look down at the next section too." Harry said. Shepard grabbed Harry's arm, holding it still and scrolled, her eyes widening.
"That's a lot of reprimands." Shepard said. Harry nodded and grinned.
"A lot of reprimands, all for challenging his superiors. That says two things about him. One is that he's good enough that they don't want to waste him by demoting, firing or executing him, and two is that he thinks for himself. I'm anxious to meet the guy." Harry said, turning off his omnitool.
"So..." Shepard said, fidgeting nervously. Harry grinned.
"Yeah, Weird, innit?" Harry said. Shepard nodded.
"We've known each other your whole life, and we serve on the same ship. This was never going to be a 'normal' relationship." Harry said as he stood, took his chair and walked it over to her, sitting in front of her. He took her hands and smiled kindly.
"How about a movie? I downloaded a whole bunch of shitty 20th century action movies!" Harry announced
"Woo hoo! You got Predator?" Shepard asked, getting up and walking across the room to start making popcorn.
"I got ALL the predators!" Harry said, punching commands into his omnitool.
*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*
A few hours later, Shepard was sleeping but Harry found himself restless and decided to wander about. He'd never been able to rest adequately before a big mission, and this was no different. He was not surprised in the least to see that many of his colleagues were having similar troubles. He made his way down to Engineering and snickered as he noticed Tali slumped over a desk with several datapads splayed about around her. He looked over at Adams who grinned and Harry pressed his finger to his lips, getting a nod that acknowledged Harrys' request for him to remain quiet.
"Sleeping on the job, Zorah?" Harry bellowed in an uncharacteristically authoritative tone of voice, one honed by decades of command.
"No sir! I mean Sorry, Sir! I mean... Wait, where am I" Tali said, scrambling to her feet and looking around in confusion. She stumbled over her seat and went to fall, her momentum stopping abruptly as the glass of her helmet was centimeters from shattering from the deck plating when Harry caught her with his magic. Tali shrieked when she recognized the danger she was in.
"Ok, that was my bad." Harry said, levitating her back to a standing position.
"Keelah! Don't scare me like that! Do you realize what would have happened if I'd hit?" Tali cried. Harry nodded, looking sheepish.
"Sorry, I never meant to really scare you that much. What are those visors made of anyway?" Harry asked. Tali, unable to resist any conversation surrounding technology or engineering, immediately switched gears.
"It's laminated glass, reinforced by ultra-thin titanium filament so tiny it doesn't obscure our vision." Tali explained. Then her shoulders slumped.
"Of course mine is a higher grade model than most Quarians have. Perks of being an admiral's daughter I suppose." Tali said, remorse in her voice. Harry grinned.
"Don't worry so much about that. One of the few legitimate things binary helix was researching was extremely tough polymers for drop-ship windows. They were easily adaptable to Quarian suit masks. At the end of the next quarter the fleet will receive the first shipment." Harry said.
"I don't think we can afford that, Harry." Tali said. Harry laughed.
"I sold them at cost. Also I've hired the Quarian fleet to take up shipping on several of my agricultural interests, because Fuck the council embargo. This time next year all of your faces will be bullet proof." Harry said. Tali wrung her hands.
"And the admirals accepted?" Tali asked.
"It wasn't charity, Tali. There are five worlds that my companies operate on churning out some of the best agricultural products in the galaxy, but shipping it for processing offworld is a bitch because of Council taxes, fees and paying for security against pirates and raiders. I pay you guys twice what I would for regular shipping services and I'm still making a killing. Every Quarian on those ships is an engineer and a marine. Quite frankly you provide a better quality service than the ones burdened by council regulations. Selling you guys better suits at cost is an investment in protecting and moving my products." Harry said.
"Wait, I though it was just the masks." Tali said. Harry grinned and beckoned her to follow.
"Go ahead, Tali, I got this." Adams said. Harry wordlessly lead her over to the cargo hold where the armory and lockers were situated. He pressed a button on a storage cubicle and it extended outward, allowing him to extract what looked like an expensive suitcase. He lay it on the ground and opened it. Tali gasped when she looked inside.
"Your aunt gave me your measurements, I had this fabbed and delivered before we left the citadel. It's the latest Quarian design, with a few... advanced features." Harry said with a grin.
"Keelah how much-" Tali asked before being cut off.
"Not your concern." Harry said.
"Will you help me?" Tali asked. Harry hesitated.
"Uh, wouldn't you prefer Karin help you?" Harry asked.
"She's asleep, and I know for a fact your magic can create a sterile field." Tali said. Harry gulped.
"Ok. Let's at least do it in the infirmary, just in case." Harry said. Tali nodded and followed him. They opened the door and made their way into an isolation room off to the side, and both underwent a surface sanitation. Once completed, tali put her hands up to the sides of her head and hesitated.
"Um.." Tali said.
"Having second thoughts? We can wait." Harry said.
"No. It's fine. I just. Nobody has seen me since I was a child. Just.. don't make fun of me please." Tali said.
"Of course not." Harry said. Tali undid the latches on her helmet and removed her facemask. Harry stared, gobsmacked at Tali's naked face.
"Um... Harry?" Tali said, feeling extremely self-conscious.
"Beautiful..." Harry simply said. A deep purple flush appeared on Tali's cheeks as she gave him a shy smile. Tali's face was a pale shade of lavender, and almost perfectly symmetrical. She entered some commands on her omnitool which translated them to the suit's onboard electronics and with a hiss the seals on the rest of her suit popped open and various components simply fell off to the floor. Tali removed the remainder of her helmet and shook her head, her short, bright blue hair bouncing as she did so. Harry waved his wand over himself, re-sterilizing himself and approached her, reaching a hand out and cupping her face. She closed her eyes and smiled.
"You are absolutely beautiful Tali. It's a shame the universe can't see that yet." Harry said.
"Thank you... wait. You said yet..." Tali said. Harry grinned but said nothing else. He turned away to preserve Tali's modesty while she stripped out of the rest of the suit.
"Keelah this is so much more comfortable!" Tali commented.
"Can I turn around now?" Harry asked.
"Yes, and thank you." Tali said. Harry turned and smiled, approaching her again.
"Mind if I make a few adjustments?" Harry asked. Tali nodded and Harry started expertly tightening and adjusting different parts of the suit. When he was satisfied he conjured a full-body mirror and held it for her.
"Keelah, it's beautiful!" Tali said, turning and inspecting the back of it.
"Not too tight, is it?" Harry asked. Tali stretched and wiggled around, testing the flexibility.
"No it's perfect. That suit is one of my moth-... My mother's." Tali said, looking down at the old garment.
"No reason not to hang on to it. It's good to have a spare. I'll clean and sterilize it and package it for transport for you." Harry said. Tali sniffled and nodded.
"Ok, so about the upgrades..." Harry said. Tali's mood improved immediately.
"The suit itself has improved environmental controls. This way you won't always be overheated in the engine room, and you really need to let us know when you're uncomfortable by the way. You're lucky Adams is such a good judge of body language." Harry said, gently admonishing her. She looked sheepish but nodded.
"It's a lot more durable, so stumbling down a hill or bumping into corroded metal debris isn't automatically life-threatening. Also.." Harry said, picking up her new helmet and setting it on a shelf., Tali was mortified when he conjured a steel pole, wound up and smashed the glass with what looked like all of his force.
"Harry!" Tali cried, but paused when she noticed there was a tiny scuff on the front of the mask. He handed it to her and she nearly dropped it in shock when after a moment the tiny abrasion on the glass healed itself.
"It's an experimental polymer, hypoallergenic and surprisingly cheap to produce. Extremely damage resistant, it can handle high temperatures, blunt force trauma and limited direct exposure to plasma. It's also more radiation resistant than your old suit. Also check this out." Harry said, tapping some commands into his omnitool. Tali smiled as she saw the nearly opaque visor become completely transparent. Then her eyes widened as the rest of the helmet turned transparent.
"You can choose who to show yourself to. This obviously allows for improved visibility." Harry said, returning it's standard configuration. He handed it to her and she held it for a moment, before placing it on a table and walking back to Harry.
"Before I put it back on, do you mind?" Tali asked, taking his hand. He smiled and nodded, and she placed his palm against her face.
"It's been so long." Tali said, reveling in the physical contact of another being. After a few moments she put the helmet back on, but immediately turned it transparent, enjoying the increased field of view.
"So that's the standard loadout I'm going to be providing to the fleet. Now, as long as you don't mind being my guinea pig, there are a few goodies I'm including in yours specifically." Harry said
"What is a guinea pig?" Tali asked.
"It's a small Earth mammal we used to do medical and other experiments on to prove them safe for humans before animal testing was outlawed in the mid twenty-first century." Harry explained. Tali nodded. She found the practice of animal testing barbaric but her own people only survived their exile thanks to technology and medicine that only existed thanks to it.
"OK, I'm going to simulate incoming weapon's fire." Harry said. Suddenly an energy shield sprang to life, and a HUD appeared on the inside of her visor with a complete rundown of her current health status. It showed her suit at 100% integrity, her blood was saturated with oxygen and free of toxins, no inflammatory response was detected which meant no injuries were detected and internal temperature was within tolerance.
"Keelah!" Tali said. Harry nodded.
"Right now you're the only one that can see what that says, however a field medic or Karin can get it on their omni tools. Once that one's ready for production it will be provided on the standard suit as a firmware patch since all the hardware is in place. Parents will also be able to access the health status of their children from anywhere on the fleet, or any Alliance world, outpost or ship. I thought about making it available to c-sec, but honestly every c-sec officer I trust is currently aboard this ship." Harry said.
"Also..." Harry continued, taking Tali's hand and placing on top of his head. Her eyes widened.
"Improved tactile sensors. They can translate sensory information far better than your previous suit. Texture, hardness, heat all of it. They're still working out the bugs on this one though, which is why it's not standard. Your input will be invaluable in finalizing it." Tali said. She smiled brightly as she ran her fingers through his hair.
"Ok these next ones I need you to keep secret. They're not entirely... legal." Harry said. That piqued Tali's interest immensely. Harry held is hand out, pointed at her.
"Stupify!" Harry said, a flash of light left his hand and crashed into her suit, very slightly knocking her back but otherwise leaving her untouched.
"That.. What was that?" Tali asked.
"The inside of the suit has some rune patterns of my own design. Your suit can withstand moderately powerful magical assaults, while allowing healing, resuscitation, and any beneficial effects through. We're not supposed to apply charms or charged runes to alien tech, at least not yet. You're unlikely to run into a human that would attack you on this ship, but I've had more than enough missions go south thanks to the unexpected appearance of Human blue suns mercs, and a lot of them use magic." Harry explained.
"I don't want to get you in trouble..." Tali said. Harry grinned.
"My godfather put it best. What's life without a little risk?" Harry said.