connor baird will not (gotothesea) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-11-18 21:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | garrus vakarian, tali'zorah, thane krios |
Who: Garrus, Tali, and Thane
What: Running around Omega, looking for Shepard, getting in firefights. The usual.
Where: Omega [Mass Effect Door]
When: Recently
Warnings/Rating: None!
Garrus was still trying to get used to all this. Winnie wasn’t the worst person to be paired with, but she had that clean-cut, optimistic rookie thing going that he knew wasn’t going to last very long. He remembered a time before this Reaper crap when he believed in C-Sec and wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, but all of that was pretty much gone right? That’s why he was standing on the streets of Omega, streets he thought he could keep clean with some renegade vigilante action, looking for the one person who flew through red tape and restrictions without turning into Saren or the Illusive Man. Shepard.
He stood across from the club Aria had set up her own personal throne complete with loud music and overpriced drinks. Vegas, with its bright lights and neon, felt like it was a part of Omega, but there were cops like Winnie at least trying to keep the peace. No such luck in here. Everything was under Aria and she was more than happy to let the gangs have their little wars, even at the price of civilians. It made him sick to think about it, so he started going over the information he passed over to Thane and Tali while they were en route.
A Salarian dealer saw Shepard ask a street rat for information on some new Cerberus technology down in the slums that had to do with detoxifying the body from all the urban junk that they breathed in. They were testing the prototype here on “willing” people looking for some extra money. Like everything Cerberus did, Garrus knew it wasn’t that simple. It was probably just an excuse to experiment on real people who weren’t already brainwashed. Just because Shepard trusted them, it didn’t mean Garrus had to.
Thane approached the entrance of Afterlife from the direction of the apartments and the slums. He'd given Omega a quiet once over before looking for Garrus and Tali. The city was much as he remembered it, dark alleys and destitute people, searching for whatever scraps they could forage. No one ever said that life was easy in the Terminus, but in Omega, it could be nearly impossible. Omega was empty so far as his line of work was concerned, and he didn't usually spend much time there. Too much misery, and not enough reasons to stay. It was difficult to find ways to help the people there, and even if that had been his goal, such efforts tended to be put down with force. Archangel was the exception, and his extraction hadn't been a simple thing, the way he'd heard it.
People in Omega didn't necessarily recognize Thane on sight, which was for the best, but a drell was not such a common sight anywhere. It took effort to pass under people's notice, but thankfully, the novelty of sighting a strange species passing in one's midst was disarming. The novelty distracted, and once it faded after a few seconds of observation, people went back to their work and forgot what they had seen as an inconsequential strangeness. And, of course, there was the fact that many of his enemies were dead, or feared him the way one fears a vengeful ghost - no one in the galaxy had a keen desire to be haunted by Thane Krios.
Thane’s short jaunt through Omega's alleyways was uneventful, and unfruitful. He heard smatterings of talk about Cerberus' presence in the area, but not much more. Hopefully one of his two teammates had better luck already.
Thane moved very quietly, and when he emerged from one of the thick shadows between the lights, it was almost without sound. Old habit, more than necessity. He didn't see anything to fear from Garrus, and was glad enough to see a friendly face that the sight of him earned a rare smile. "Garrus," he said. "Any news?"
A quarian on Omega was not an uncommon sight. This wasn’t the Citadel or Ilium, with important people who wouldn’t deign to bother with them or shops with high prices meant to steer away poorer migrant clientele. Omega was welcoming to her people, for better and... well, mostly for worse. One could try to carve a life out here but the work was rarely honest and few out of the flotilla were savvy enough not to get caught up in all the strings that the people here had to offer. It wasn’t her favorite place in the traverse, not by a longshot, but that moment she was glad she could slip through the port without much incident. A look or a sneer or a muttered jibe of suit rat she could handle for they were quickly forgotten as she made her way to Afterlife. She had much more important things to deal with than them.
But moving unobtrusively didn’t mean moving quietly. Unlike Thane, Tali’s footsteps signaled her approach, waving a three fingered hand in their direction for a quick greeting. She caught the tail end of Thane’s question and turned her attention to the turian. “Do we know where to start looking?”
Garrus nodded to them each as they arrived, selecting a map on his omni-tool before sharing it with both of them. “There isn’t a lot of information. Which means if Shepard was here, I’m sure sh-” He looked at Tali, “Or he is still here. The Shepard I knew had a way of blowing a hole through most of her problems. And, that used to include Cerberus.” There was something hopeful in his voice. Garrus really wanted Shepard to finally break it off with the Illusive Man, even if he had sank money on getting her back to life. This particular Turian got a bad vibe from that whole organization, and not just because half of the crew looked like they were going to release an airlock on one of the aliens. Probably Mordin first, then Grunt. Not that he completely blamed them on those two. Mordin was a little too comfortable with needles and Grunt was well...Grunt.
“My contact said that most of the humans in the slums live here, right in the Gozu District. Mordin used to have a clinic around here. Trust me, the place is a complete dump. If they were really testing anti-toxins for humans, it would be here.” He highlighted the area for them. “I’d be ready for anything.” Garrus tapped his visor and started walking. There wasn’t a reason to bring out weapons yet. But, he was glad he packed his rifle, just in case.
Thane inclined his head to Tali when she approached before listening to the information Garrus had managed to scrounge up. It was good to see them both, reassuring in the midst of all this chaos to have some familiarity in good company.
"It's logical that they would station themselves in a location people have already come to trust, even if those they trusted are gone," Thane observed, when Garrus mentioned Mordin's old clinic. His secondary eyelids blinked, and he added, "If a tad diabolical." But that was only to be expected of Cerberus, if their reputation held any merit. Those onboard the Normandy had been of a different mien, but they had also been serving under Shepard. She hadn't allowed them to behave with any less respect to the non-human members of the team, and they had all been of a starry-eyed, species forward attitude, the kind that blissfully ignored things like the horrors Cerberus might be capable of, even to their own kind. "Of course," he said. He had come armed, since this was Omega and such things went without saying, but he also didn't necessarily need the gun. The streets of Omega tended to create close-quarters combat spaces, which suited him well. He stepped into line behind Garrus, adopting the same cool demeanor of business that he always did when there was any kind of danger, remote or close. His fingers ghosted across the extra heat sinks at his belt - everything was in its right place.
His eyes scanned across the people around them for anything strange. Only then did he ask, voice as gravel-low as always, "What does Shepard look like, Tali?" He had been considering the question for days, and it might become relevant shortly. It was going to be a little difficult to provide a physical description of Shepard to an informant when the three of them all seemed to imagine someone else.
Diabolical, yes. But this was still Cerberus, and Tali’s expression showed much what she thought of the organization. Well, as much contempt as the squint of luminescent eyes covered by a violet mask could convey. Shepard had managed to sway much of the ship crew and turn the opinions of the Illusive Man’s top operatives on his ground team, but Tali hadn’t forgotten Cerberus’ dealings with the Migrant Fleet before she reunited with Shepard on Freedom’s Progress. Her trust in them was always dependant on the Commander, and since he wasn’t there...
Thane’s question startled her out of her fleeting daydreams of how best to deal with Cerberus. “Oh! Uh. Well. Shepard is...” Her hand touched the edge of her mask helmet in mild embarrassment, resisting the urge to wring her hands nervously like the young girl she once was. “He’s a little taller than you, Thane. Muscular. He’s an Alliance soldier. Dark hair. He said he probably needed to trim it before he went back to Earth. Blue eyes. He’s got some scars from the Lazarus surgery. Most have healed over but not all.” It was strange to talk about him, not only because he wasn’t there but because of who she was speaking with. Garrus and Thane were much as she remembered them, but having to speak of Shepard - her Shepard - reminded her that these weren’t exactly the men she had served on the Normandy with. Very close, if their earlier conversations were anything to go by, but still an unnerving concept.
“What about you two?” As they walked she felt the familiar weight of her gun pressed against the small of her back and took small solace in that. A quick flicker of her omnitool and she was checking to make sure everything else was in order, her suit, her drones, and the scan of the area as they walked. “What does she look like?”
Garrus recognized a lot of the regulars on Omega. The dealers, the bums, the swindlers. Some of them gave him information, some of them had to have it beat out of them. Those were good times until everything (sort of literally) blew up in his face. “Short red hair, green eyes. Got a better medbay so she could fix the scarring. As time went on it got-” Garrus turned to look at them. Yes, to a human he might have been an ugly son of a bitch, but the more people Shep pushed out windows, the worse her face got. “Real bad.”
"Red hair," Thane rasped in agreement, after a moment's silence. "And blue eyes. The Shepard I know didn't have scars anymore, by the time the mission was underway." There was a moments' distraction as his thoughts slipped into memory - A slim arm around his waist, soft curves beneath, curiously smooth skin, 'be alive, tonight' and then returned again. "Doctor Chakwas offered an upgrade to the medbay to her, but she never invested the resources to build it. There was no need." How strange to think of her as a man, or scarred so heavily. Doctor Chakwas had said acts of aggression might aggravate the problem. He wondered at what that said about the Shepard Garrus had known.
“Hmmmm,” was all Tali said, her tone trying to convey what her covered expression couldn’t. So similar and so different, temperament bleeding into their physical descriptions, literally. Shepard had mentioned something about stress and hostility deepening his scars more but both of them thought Chakwas had been joking. From Garrus’ descriptions of the woman he knew, it seemed not. “So we’re looking for a human female with red hair.” She didn’t bother to look to see if there might be protests. She merely shrugged as she looked around as they walked. With two descriptions so similar, Tali’s male version of their commander seemed the least likely to be the one that was found. “Think she would be here alone? Or with some of the others? If not the Normandy crew, our other friends? Wrex? Kaidan?” Neither of them had joined up with their mission with Cerberus, for very different reasons. But stranger things - like differing universes - had happened.
Garrus was starting to get a little weirded out, especially by Thane, but he held it in. It wasn’t his Shepard (a phrase Winnie did not like), so why did it feel like they all had gotten close to the Commander? She wasn’t exactly friendly with most of the crew, not even Jacob who seemed so eager to please. “Kaiden? Wrex?” Garrus turned to look at Tali, his mouth slightly open in incredulous shock, the scarring around the side of his face now more obvious. “They’re both dead. And, even if they weren’t she’d-” He stopped himself, realizing all too quickly he was falling back into the my past is more accurate than yours sandtrap.
“Anyway. It doesn’t matter what Shepard it is. She or he would have asked me for help first.” There was no Shepard without Vakarian, after all. Even if there was a little doubt in his voice. This wasn’t his universe and even if they did find Shepard down there with Cerberus, it probably wouldn’t have been the one he fell in bed with. He didn’t really want to talk about it anymore. He just wanted to find Shepard and get back to kicking Reaper ass. Because, if Shepard didn’t show up soon, they wouldn’t have a chance against any space squid invasion.
Farther down into the district, Garrus could tell something was wrong. There weren’t any people milling about in the streets, no panhandlers, but most alarming, it seemed very quiet. It reminded him a little of a defunct Cerberus base from his first mission with Shepard. Or the colonies after the collectors attacked. Garrus brought up something on his visor and scanned the area. “Search for anyone who can tell us why it’s so damn quiet here.”
"I have met Wrex," Thane offered, as a counterpoint. "While on Tuchanka. He's made major strides with the clans there. More than anyone would be inclined to hope of the Krogan." Thane personally didn't feel strongly one way or the other about the Krogan, any more than he felt strongly biased about any species, aside from perhaps the Hanar (the Collectors and Reapers were, of course, in a class of their own). The Krogan had their faults, but they had also been pitted like gladiators by various galactic forces against their enemies until they outlived their usefulness and became a danger themselves. He had seen Mordin struggle with the conflict of how best to deal with the threat they posed and the potential they held. Such decisions were not meant for men who lived in the shadows, as he did.
Garrus' surety that Shepard would have asked him for help earned him a glance from Thane, interest, and as unreadable an expression as usual. "We have all been gone," he pointed out, looking over at Tali. "All three of us. She might have looked for her team, and found the Normandy empty." Who knew if the rest of the team was even here? They hadn't appeared with individuals in the desert on the other side of the door. So where were they?
When the streets became quiet, though, Thane's attention moved from the subject of Shepard to their immediate surroundings. Something wasn't right. He scanned for movement, for light, eyes tracking across the long street ahead.
There was sound, suddenly, and a black blur went flying through the front window of a shop. It hit the ground, rolled across the street, and then began to stagger up, try to get away. Behind him, voices called out, and people moved swiftly through the window and out the doors, swarming after him. They were shouting after the man, who was still trying to escape. They spoke of gods, those that still spoke intelligibly at all, sacrifices to great teeth. When their intended prey began to escape, they turned and looked up the street for better prospects. There was little intelligence left behind their eyes, so far gone down the slippery slope of indoctrination that the orders, the commands, were their will.
They began to run for the trio. Further down, still more began running out of doorways and spilling from the edges of alleys, overwhelming the fleeing man who had almost, almost escaped. Thane pulled the SMG from his side, swiftly activating his shredder ammunition and moving for cover. "Amonkira reveals them," he said, definite, and began to fire. If they did not cut their ranks, they would be overwhelmed - these people were little more than husks, now.
Tali glowered quietly as she scoured the area, her fingers finding solace in the familiar weight of her shotgun. She was finding solace in the familiar, for Garrus had a knack for reminding her that everything was different now. Their Shepards were clearly different and of different temperaments. But the idea that the universes had changed so drastically – Wrex, dead, Kaidan, dead, who knew who else – unnerved her. But for all that was strange, this was still Garrus. Miranda might have been the official XO but she was still Cerberus, and still human. If there was someone to take charge in Shepard’s absence, it would be the turian, and like times before Tali didn’t miss a beat to follow him when he stepped up.
Husks, or those well on their way to them, fell right into familiar categories. The sound of unceasing footsteps and Thane’s assessment made her spin. A second later it was the crack of her shotgun piercing the air and the sound of falling bodies crumbling to the ground as the few stragglers ran for safety. “It isn’t Shepard,” she mused, her voice tight with concentration as she sent another shot into rushing crowd, the recoil of her gun making her grunt faintly. “But we found something.” Somehow the idea of a missing commander, mentions of Cerberus, and stumbling on a bum rush of indoctrinated humans didn’t surprise her. With each loud shot she took a few steps forward in the direction most were stemming from, taking point to move in close and let the enemy bear the full brunt of her gun. “I can’t believe they’re still trying this. After all this time, back to experiments.”
“Looks like they started the party without us.” Garrus shouted over the familiar howl of indoctrinated humans sounding through the ward like an echo chamber. He backed up behind the two of them, the rifle on his back clicking open in his hand as he scoped the last line of the rushing mob and took them down one by zombified one. Like Tali, he wasn’t surprised, but extremely disappointed. He knew Cerberus was shady, but more than that, they were ambitious and that tended to lead down the road of trying harness unknown power like the Reapers. If this was his universe, Shepard’s mistake would have made this much worse.
He made a mental note that some of the indoctrinated were nearly husks, which meant whatever Cerberus used to turn these humans was powerful. Once the first wave had been easily taken down by the three of them (just like old times), Garrus signalled behind a building so they wouldn’t be in plain sight. “I say we try to find whatever Reaper tech caused these people to turn and then get out of here. I think we just kicked the hive.” He turned away from them, his visor picking up signals that seemed very Cerberus. Garrus moved around the corner and surveyed the farther end of the ward. Men in white armor started popping down through vents and out of windows.
The creatures that had once been humans were easy prey from a distance, as pitiful as they were dangerous. In the moment, there was no time to have sympathy for them - only to gun them down. Thane took out three with a long, carefully aimed spread of bullets, each falling in their turn. Their bodies seemed almost brittle, and Thane wondered if the process to turn them into husks had already begun, though they still looked organic. Unimportant now - now, they were dust, no matter what they had been before. They were little more than bodies. Their souls had long since gone to the sea.
"Agreed," he said, simple and sure, to Garrus’ statement of their aim. Thane knew as well as the other two that whatever had turned these humans had to be powerful enough to change them swiftly into the beasts before them. "Whatever did this might not be adequately contained. The Cerberus agents themselves may have been affected, if the indoctrinated are on the streets. The effects could widen, reach the rest of Omega if the technology they stole is powerful enough." Another burst of fire and down went another indoctrinated human, shrieking like nothing sentient ought to. Thane had heard many screams in his life. As the human went down, it cried out like little more than an animal. “Or if they want to use the rest of the station as a control group.” A brutal thought, but nothing he would put past Cerberus, from their reputation.
Thane turned to follow Garrus after another burst of suppressing fire behind them, but they had neatly disposed of the initial rush. The sight of white-armored Cerberus agents ahead was not unexpected, just another added obstacle between them and their intended object. He slid swiftly into cover.
“We’re always kicking the hive,” Tali muttered from under the glass veil of her helmet, but there was an undercurrent of amused fondness there. If there was something they could always count on, it was making Cerberus’ life more difficult, even if it meant it was turned around back on them. Just as she was about to agree with Thane – Cerberus using the rest as a control group was a smart idea, albeit a terrible one – they were rounding the corner and the sound of Cerberus agents hitting the ground near them pulled at her attention.
Her gun she momentarily lifted, favoring her left and giving her omnitool her attention. A slight wave and a squeeze of her fingers was the only impending signal before the first row of Cerberus agents had their shields dropped, in time for one of them to meet a hard blast from her gun and drop to the ground in a heavy heap. She smirked from behind her mask, the expression settling into her stance as she reloaded her gun and her shields picked up with the extra energy. As unwelcome as the agents were, she was a lot more effective against them than the screaming indoctrinated masses. “Come on,” she said, firing another burst to their weakened enemy, sending one sprawling into a pillar and blowing a hole through their line with another shot. “I can’t line them up for you forever.” Snipers. Always needing the conditions to be exactly correct.
Garrus gave a dry laugh, raising his rifle up to his eye and locking in on a Cerberus helmet that looked like a tiny white bubble on the glass of his scope. “Just making sure you still know how to fire a gun, Tali.” Boom. The Cerberus agent crumbled unceremoniously before he locked in on another. Boom. Click click. Boom. From the back of their little line, there wasn’t much noise from Garrus, not to them, but the rhythm of his rifle zeroed in his focus. Reminded him why he liked being out here going renegade instead of sitting behind a desk.
Still, it didn’t feel right without Shepard. While he scoped in on a Cerberus sniper, he could just see her charging through the line, arm cocked back ready to punch the living shit out of some mook. Boom. “Damnit!” Garrus stumbled back, holding his shoulder as he reached for a quick medi-gel pack. “Cover me.” If a Turian could sound embarrassed, it echoed in his voice as he kneeled and patched himself up. That sniper was about to get a special bullet delivery once he got back to his feet.
Or so Garrus thought. Suddenly, the ratio of Cerberus versus them was at least ten to one and they all seemed heavily, heavily armed. Garrus, angry at himself for being sentimental in a firefight, started dropping as many agents as he could. But, it wasn’t enough. He backed up, taking two more shots before hiding behind a crumbling pillar. “There’s too many of them!” Garrus called over the gunfire.
Thane had been picking off Cerberus operatives one by one as they made their way toward them. In one case, he eliminated them in a rather larger group, dealing a precision blow with a metal crate and a heavy shove with his biotics. It knocked a group of operatives over, scattering them like so many toy soldiers, cracking skulls and shattering rib cages.
Being out in the field reminded Thane of why he had come to care so deeply for Shepard. Without her here, fighting at his side, even the companionship of his teammates was not enough to draw him out of the easy, honed motion of his body, happening practically without his consent. That distance between body and soul could not prove a good thing in the long run. It was an indulgence he could afford on the battlefield, but later, when they left it, he feared that emptiness would return, the same living death that had been his life for ten long years.
There was not much time to think in a fight, though, and particularly not when there was a sudden rush of Cerberus toward their position. Their plan might not prove as feasible as previously hoped, it seemed. Thane fired off another long burst of fire from his SMG, and with a crackle of blue energy, he tossed a warp at the closest advancing agent, detonating the other man's barrier with devastating effect. "Suggested strategies?" he called, ever calm, even in the thick of what was swiftly proving to be a very dangerous situation indeed.
Tali didn’t have time to reminisce about her lost Shepard. Between shield monitoring and shooting and making sure to avoid any chance of suit tearing, she couldn’t spare the Commander any stray thoughts and she knew he wouldn’t want her to. Garrus’ grumble made her turn her head slightly just to catch his crouched form out of the corner of her eye. Cover him she tried but the sudden wave of new agents made her fire worthlessly and her feet were taking her back toward her fellow crew members.
“Retreat,” she replied tightly, the grimace easily heard. It wasn’t the most brash or courageous option but at her core she was quarian. Falling back to regroup wasn’t something to be ashamed of. If the battle couldn’t be won in one manner she would try a different strategy, a smarter one, but she needed to live to see that day first before returning to the firefight. “We have a start. We have something to go on.” Not much but her thoughts were cut short as bullets pierced her shield, pulling it down with a loud crash and sending her diving for cover before they hit her suit. “Keelah, we won’t last out here.” She nodded back to the way they came before she edged around her cover, firing angry shots at the one who dared to drop her barriers until she dropped him.
“Copy that.” Garrus agreed, extending his arm to overload the nearest wave of grunts and started the retreat back. Cerberus obviously was very aware of the situation they had caused down here and the Turian feared that it would only spread to other sectors until Omega would become some messed up Reaper experimentation hole for the terrorist group. It didn’t surprise him that they would do this to their own people, that the Illusive Man was enchanted by the Reaper power instead of focusing on how to destroy the Reaper threat.
Cerberus wasn’t stupid enough to follow them back into the other alien controlled wards. Omega believed in territories and even Cerberus didn’t have enough men to fight Aria’s gang. And, sure enough, the farther away they got, the more the grunts backed off. Like varren on a chain. Once they were clear, Garrus exhaled sharply. He checked his rifle and then collapsed it to put away. “I can leave a message for Aria. I don’t know if she’ll listen, but the sooner she stamps out this problem, the better.” His eyes unfocused for a second. “There’s still good people on Omega. Even if it was just gangs and mercs, I wouldn’t want Cerberus to infest it.” He looked up to Thane and then Tali. “Damn it, I guess I never really believed Shepard was going to be down there.”
They cleared the band of operatives with surprisingly little trouble, but Thane didn't holster his weapon until they were completely out of danger. Garrus was right, of course - the odds of Shepard actually being down in the depths of Omega had been slim. "A cold trail is better than nothing at all," he offered. "And it wasn't without usefulness." Now they could tell Aria about the problem. If she didn't handle the situation, they would undoubtedly find a way to deal with it themselves. The disappointment of not finding Shepard didn't sting very deeply, mostly because he hadn't expected to see her there. It was felt, though, even dull as it was.
The slump in Tali’s shoulders was easy to see, though it was more for the sense of finality that permeated the air around them. The odds of Shepard, any of theirs, being down there were slim, even if the Commander had a habit of making miracles happen. But quickly she was straightening up, nodding at Thane as he spoke and slipping her gun away. “We have something. That’s better than nothing.” Idleness never really suited any of them and there was some strange comfort in that despite all the changes, at least some objectives hadn’t changed. There was always work to be done and enemies to fight.
“Aria will listen. She’ll do something.” It was a balance keeping everyone in line and under the asari’s thumb and even Tali could see Cerberus would only upset that. Maybe not for more altruistic reasons, but the outcome would hopefully be the same. “In the meantime we’ll... figure this out.” This. Cerberus. Their lost Commander. Their strange human counterparts. She gave a half shrug, her hand gesturing almost helplessly in an idle swirl towards the rest of Omega. They had encountered strange things before and they had all survived for some time without Shepard, somehow. They would simply have to do it again.
Garrus checked communication routes with Aria, figuring sooner rather than later would be the best time to tell her. “I’ll get on it. After that I’m thinking of going back to Palaven. I have a feeling blindly searching the galaxy for Shepard isn’t going to get me anywhere.” He seemed a little disappointed on that front, especially since going back home meant facing a lot of what he had seen and done over the past couple years, but Garrus knew it was the right thing to do. “If either of you need help or a bullet through someone’s head, I’ve got your back.” Garrus nodded, then unceremoniously walked towards Aria’s club.
There was no option of going back to Kahje, not for Thane. The others could return home, wait for signs of the Reapers or more work to do, but he did not have that luxury. Nothing awaited him there. He could go to the Citadel, though - see if his son was there, and spend some of the time he had left with him. He watched Garrus leave, just as decisive as always, and turned to Tali. "Will you go back to the Migrant Fleet?" he asked. It was possible, though he doubted it somehow. Tali, in his opinion, seemed most content when out doing work for the fleet, or for Shepard, rather than staying on one ship.
Tali shook her head immediately, breaking her stare as she watched Garrus go. She turned to Thane as if to speak but soon paused, as if thinking better of it. She had tasted too much freedom now, or at least in the style of the Normandy. Though there was no Shepard, returning to the Migrant Fleet, with their political bickering, didn’t sit well with her. “Not… permanently.” Concern over Cerberus on Omega was still at the forefront of her mind, but she couldn’t help but recall the work she did before she boarded the Normandy. “I had thought about returning to my research from Haestrom. Shepard was…” She shook her head again. Leaving Shepard had been a reason not to dwell on the data she left behind but he wasn’t a factor any longer. “But I won’t be staying with the Fleet, I think. I might see if Liara is back on Ilium.” Even as she said it, she realized how slim of a chance that sounded. “Or visit some contacts back on the Citadel. How about you?” Talk of the Citadel reminded her about Thane’s son and she couldn’t help but ask, “Going to look for Kolyat?”
"I think I'll do just that," Thane said, "Yes." He had been right in his guess about Tali, then. He was gladdened to think that she wouldn't stay with the fleet forever. Shepard might not be here, but that didn't mean they ought to give up the idea of doing any good as a team just yet. "I'll meet you there, when you've met with your contacts?"
Tali nodded quickly, a moment of small happiness that they weren’t all going to drift aimlessly and apart without the Commander to steer them. “I’ll see you soon,” she promised before giving him a slight wave and heading out, fingers pulling up her omnitool as she made contact with the rest of the Migrant Fleet.