82

One week after the "Meatgrinder". The frigate Normandy-SR2.

Shepard and I fulfilled Tali's request: wait for her conference room. I already know what's happening, and I don't even have to read her mail. I don't.

And lo and behold, the door opened, and a Quarian woman entered the conference room. I noticed right away that something was wrong. Her face twisted with excitement, and her heart beat like crazy.

- Tali, what happened? Shepherd got to the point.

- I... I don't know, Jane," the Quarian admitted, "I got a notice from Starfleet. I'm being accused of treason.

- What?" the Captain and I were outraged in unison. I, of course, did it naively because I didn't need to be psychic or telepathic in my position to guess why she'd gathered me and Shepard in the conference room.

- I thought the Quarians didn't do drugs because you can't be accused of that when sober.

- Legatus is right. Shepard backed me up. Who's got schizophrenia?

- The College of Admirals," I said.

- Not the Collegium. Conclave," Tali corrected me, which I was surprised to hear.

- What do you mean?" I didn't get it. "Isn't the Collegium the one that issues the accusation of treason?

- Mostly, it does. But it does so if the accused's actions are against the safety of the Fleet. The Clave only issues a charge of treason when the accused's actions are against the entire Quarian race and only when the Clave has irrefutable evidence against the accused and the Collegium doesn't respond.

- So the Admirals were trying to protect you, I realised. All five admirals here knew about Tali sending the details of the geth. And it looks like Admiral Shala needed to tell us something. It's good for me that Tali's being blamed, as weird as it sounds. The geth got the algorithm, and they started pulling out of the quarian systems on my orders. Completely. There's nothing to do there, and all the Geth power is concentrated on stations other than Bastion. We'll evacuate the latter first. The point is, I need to make a public announcement that the Quarians can return, and the geth don't give a damn about them. And Tali's accusations are a good chance to get into the Fleet.

Hell, that's what I'm saying about Tali. She's about to be exiled, and I'm happy about it. Shit, I'm getting cynical, rejoicing in my lover's misfortune.

- Yes," Tali replied to my assertion, "in the history of the Fleet, the Clave has only issued a charge of treason against a race three times.

- What is your punishment for treason?" the Captain asked. She didn't know about it, unlike me.

- Exile." Tali answered at once, "We don't have the resources to keep prisoners, and our race is too small. So the children of exiles can return to the Fleet as equals. But..." Tali lowered her gaze as if considering something and continued, "If the Clave accuses a traitor of betrayal, then if the accused is found guilty, he will be executed.

- WHAT!!!?" I was outraged, raising all the plates to the limit. I raised them so much that they became vertical, so now I resembled a daisy, but it didn't bother me. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. Fuck this shit! Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it, fuck it, fuck it, fuck it. I didn't care so much about letting Tali go to the Navy. Banishment or exile, as long as she's alive and well. BUT EXECUTION? I'll shoot those bitches in the head, and Shepard and Rex will help me. And then I'll use the Nargul to kill all the malcontents and send them off for experimentation. This space lobster told me long ago that Tali was a nice girl to talk to. So he will go to the Quarian Five Minute War himself (there aren't enough Quarians for the Morning War), whether I tell him to or not.

- Calm down, Legatus, calm down," Shepard said, but I was burning with righteous anger.

- CALM DOWN! I've got the love of my life about to be shot or whatever the Quarians do to execute guilty people, and you tell me to calm down.

- Hey, I haven't been found guilty yet." I noticed an important detail, and it sobered me up a bit. After some thought, I put the plates down, even though I was still angry.

- Yeah. Sorry, I... So what exactly are you being accused of?

- I don't know, the charge doesn't say. I've tried contacting Admirals or people I know, but they're all quiet. Only three answered the phone but then disconnected as soon as I mentioned the details of the charges.

- Look, maybe. Maybe we shouldn't go..." I tried to discuss that option. It was starting to seem more than normal to me.

- No. I have to live up to my name. And also... If I don't make the flight, it's like an admission of guilt. Not only will I be struck by the ship's logs, they'll be looking to kill me. That's why the death penalty is imposed. If the offence is against the Quarians as a race, then it is considered that the exile may try again. That's the only time they can execute.

- So," the Captain decided to confirm her hunch, "if you don't come, you'll be found guilty and ordered to be killed wherever you are, right?

- Yes. I-- I can't let that happen. And I have to find out what happened to my father. Я... I feel like something's happened to him.

- Okay, okay. Okay. Captain? I agreed. All that's left is to get Shepherd's consent.

- Obviously, yes. We're going to the Fleet.

- Just so you know, I added, if they find you guilty, I--

- I know you'll kill everyone there to save me.

- Not just him, all of us," Shepard added.

- Thank you. Just Legatus, please promise me you won't invite Nargul. It would be best if you didn't start a genocide.

- Don't be afraid, Tali. I promise. She's right; you don't want a genocide of her people. But the ship's crew where the trial will take place will not live if the verdict is "Death".

****

In three days. The threshold of Valhalla. System: Rahil-Leia

- This is Tali Zora of you Nima nar Raya. Request permission to dock with the Raya." Tali spoke to the Fleet.

- Confirm your identity." said the communications officer.

- "I have long wandered among the stars, through waves of light and clouds of dust, and now I am returning to my roots," Tali recited her password verse. It sounds like a simple phrase in translation, but in Quarian, it rhymes.

- Docking authorised. Seventeenth mooring keelblock. It came from the other side. They seem like they could be more hospitable. In the game, they greeted Tali. Why did I help Tali? I've only made it worse. Now she won't just be banished; she'll be killed! All right, take it easy, Legatus. Nargul's hiding between two stars. He's got enough shields and power for five hours. If they touch Tali, I'll give them hell. If it's not the Fleet, it's everyone on Raya, that's for sure.

A minute later, Tali, Shepard, me, Rex and Grant were standing in Normandy's purification airlock. I put it in for a reason. It kills all the contaminants so fast you can eat them off the floor. And then the door opens. And I've got five guns pointed at me at once. That's nice.

- Yeah, the Quarians are pretty hospitable these days," I said. All the Quarians were excited now, and Captain Kar'danna even raised an eyebrow sarcastically.

- Tali'Zora, what's that supposed to mean?" the Captain asked.

- What's wrong?" Shepard pretended to piss him off a little.

- Get this filth off my ship while I still have patience!" the Captain said as if spitting on me.

- It's called your weapons. And I'm a crew member of a SPECTRE ship. Cute. That's the kind of thing that surprised all the Quarians.

- What's that supposed to mean?" asked Kar, turning to Shepard.

- That's what it means, Captain. The Legate is a member of my crew. If you're unhappy about something, it's none of my business." the Captain began to defend me. That's nice.

- Two krogan, I'll let them pass, but a geth is too much.

- Don't worry. The Legatus won't do anything to you. Only when I say so. The implication was clear, but it took the Captain of this ship longer than it should have.

- Captain. The Legatus will do nothing; you have my word. And he's here for a reason. For a reason. Tali's words made Captain Raya stagger.

- What do you mean? Kar needs help understanding.

- Consider me an ambassador. A diplomatic mission, if you will," I replied, seeing his confusion.

- No way!" Kar exclaimed. "Okay, that's it!" The Captain had finally reached the end of his rope. "Geth stays on your ship, and I must take Tali Zora into custody!" Kar grabbed Tali's arm and tried to drag her away. Oh, I wanted to punch him. I wanted to punch him in the face, smash his mask, and kick him in the ribs. But I held back for Tali's sake. Rex had stood up for Tali instead, which I was grateful for because otherwise, I would have been killed.

Rex came over sharply and slapped the Raya captain's arm, nearly breaking it, to get him to let Tali go.

- Listen to you, kiddo," Rex growled, poking his finger at the Quarian's mask. Two of the Quarians pointed their rifles at him, but the others still had me in their sights. "You ever lay a finger on Tali again? I'll tear your legs off, shove them up your head and tell you you were born this way. You understand me?" Rex may have had a helmet, but his gaze was still burning through the poor Quarian.

- Rex," Shepard called out to the krogan, "Get away from him." Rex waited for a second and backed up, and the Captain was about to say something when he was called away.

- Captain, what's going on in there? It was Admiral Roshih-Ken, Zaal-Koris' replacement.

- Sir, Tali'Zora wants to bring a geth onto the ship," the Captain explained.

- Why? The Admiral wondered.

- She... Grr, the geth says he's an ambassador. A diplomatic mission, if you will." The sarcasm in the Captain's voice would have been enough for the entire Fleet, if not more.

- Ambassador?" Roshikh interjected, "Let them through—all of them.

- But the Admiral..." The poor man was still struggling.

- Captain, is he armed?

- No, but...

- Then let him through. You obey my orders as Captain of a Civilian Navy ship. Execute the order. And that's when the Captain's connection to the Admiral was cut.

- Bosh," Kar swore, "Troopers, lower your weapons. That's an order. - He couldn't argue with that; it was an order from his superiors. - You shouldn't have done that, Tali'Zora, especially with the charges against you.

- What am I being accused of?" Tali couldn't stand it, for she'd spent the three days we'd been travelling with poor Kherd, hoping he knew something. But even he didn't know anything, except that there was "serious movement" in the Fleet and that seven ships had separated from the Fleet for some unknown reason and had stopped. To say nothing, Tali had called everyone she knew and hadn't slept for three days. I had to convince her to go to bed. So Tali was still in good shape.

- I don't know. However, it would be best if you met with the admirals first. The Conclave is still not assembled.

- Good. We'll go.- replied Tali, and we went, but before I did, I stopped before the one who gave way to Kara.

- And for future reference. If you're afraid of a single geth, you should consider a career in engineering. There's nothing for you in the army. Yeah, that's a big blow to his ego. Afraid of one geth. That's for dragging Tali by force, you bastard. Wanker.

Walking through a Quarian Migration Fleet farm ship when you're a geth is something—so many flattering things to say about yourself. I couldn't even translate many of them, and I had the most advanced linguistic systems. It looks like the Quarian language is still improving. Just like Russian was in my day. Heh-heh-heh.

It pissed me off when they started blaming Tali. Except they talked about her quietly because the two behemoths of a krogan were scaring those squints. And the weirdest thing was that no one excused her, and there was such a thing in the game.

- Kila, what am I accused of? - Tali did not calm down.

- Calm down. - I supported her on the intercom.

- It's easy for you to say. They won't shoot you unless you convince the Clave of your innocence.

- Everyone here wants to shoot me. No, I'm lying; there's a seventy per cent chance Kina Seelie wants me. She's the local shaman, sorcerer, warlock, scholar, etc. She's come to take Daro Zen's place. Anyway, don't worry so much. If you're found guilty, you won't be killed. Trust me.

- You did bring Nargul here, didn't you?

- Of course." I tried to put a chuckle in my voice.

- And where did you manage to hide a twenty-kilometre-long space lobster?

- Between two stars. He's got enough shields. Like a landing party, just in case.

- Oh, Kila. Tali begged.

- Who are you praying for?" Shepard asked, trying to cheer up the Quarian.

- For the crew of this ship," Tali said, and we went into the meeting room.

- What a crowd. It was like a drinking party." Grant said. It was more crowded than it needed to be. And I've been monitoring a bunch of communication lines. Not all of the Conclave is here; most will watch through cameras and send in votes. It's understandable, the Conclave is made up of representatives of all the ships, and that's at least 50,000 heads, and the big ones are sending a few of them, and that's more than one ship can handle. Damn, if something goes wrong, there will be a massacre, and if other ships find out that "Raya" is captured... No, they won't destroy it, but we'll still have to call in the Nargul to divert the gun systems away from the Normandy.

Nargul's been a little taciturn lately. He was always working the alien-alien system. He was saying something about defeating and destroying the Reapers with it and that they needed to find some HUGE power source. I'll have to find out the details. What a lobster troll.

- Yeah, and everyone wants me dead." said Tali with sadness as a familiar voice came from behind her.

- Tali Zora, Normandy.

- Aunt Raan!" exclaimed Tali, letting the changed name pass her ears, but just as she was about to hug herself, she noticed the detail, "Wait for you... Did you say "you, Normandy"?

- Yes, Tali. The Conclave voted to change your name.

- What? They-- They have no right!" the Quarian was outraged.

- "By unanimous vote, they do." said Rosheeken. Four admirals came up to us. But Rael wasn't there, which was frightening. "By the same decision, they removed us from the Fleet. Now we can only run it in the event of a military threat. This, uh. Little things in the law we need to learn about.

- Who said anything about a military threat? Nargul asked me over the digital link.

- Not now. We can still avoid bloodshed.

- All right, all right. But if anything, the corpses are mine." Nargul switched off without letting me object.

- But it's different than the Collegium can override the Clave's decision, Shepard said.

- Yeah, but then we'd have to resign," Admiral Zahil'krin said.

- Heh, someone's afraid for their arse," Grant said.

- That's not the point," the Heavy Fleet admiral argued, "It's more complicated than that. A lot of Fleet officers want to take Rannoch back from the geth. But only some of the admirals want to do it. We've become a liability to fanatics like Han Herel.

- And you are not like that?" I asked, but the Admiral was not surprised by the question, but the others were surprised that I could speak at all.

- I am not a fanatic, but a realist. The Fleet is on its last legs. Three hundred years is an incredible amount of luck," the Admiral explained, "And now the Conclave wants to provoke us into vetoing some of their mandates to make their officers admirals. And then they even unanimously dismissed us from the affairs, but only in this way the Collegium can be dismissed only from civil affairs. We're in charge of the military situation, so they can't send the Fleet straight at the geth. That's an even smaller detail they left out of the law.

- So Tali's being used for political bullshit?" Shepard, who was getting very angry, couldn't take it anymore.

- Yes, however..." Rosheeken tried to calm Shepard down, "the charges are serious. And so is the situation.

- What am I being accused of?" Tali asked.

- We can't say. I'm sorry," Shala answered her.

- So, you say you're an ambassador for the geth, right?" asked Keena'Sili. She'd been waiting a long time to talk to me. What do you want to talk about?

- Something very important," I said. I didn't want to spoil the surprise. I had something to offer. But it's not up to you or the Clave but to all the Quarians. You'll have to make a speech, but there's no way around it.

- We'll make sure of that," Kina said firmly, and everyone agreed; it was obvious.

- I take it you're Captain Shepard." Shala turned to the Captain, "Ready to defend Tali to the Clave?

- What do you mean? The Captain needed help understanding. Apparently, like in the game, Tali forgot to say so.

- I belong to your crew, Shepard. And they've already changed my name to Normandy. And by law, I'm supposed to be protected by the Captain," Tali said quickly, so Shepard quickly understood.

- I see. I'm not much of a lawyer, but I'd tear anyone up for Tali.

- Tear who up, Captain?" Rex asked, much to everyone's surprise.

- Not now, Rex," Shepard said.

- Attention! The meeting of the Conclave Tribunal is now in session! All Clave members, Admirals, and the defendant Tali'Zorah to the Main Hall!" came a voice from the speakers, and all the Quarians stirred even more.

- Well, good luck to you." Shala said goodbye and went to the podium. We also took our seats. Here we go.

Four admirals took their seats on the podium, but some left-wing Quarian I didn't know came out.

- The Conclave is called to order. Blessed be our ancestors for keeping us safe, strengthening our spirits and allowing us to live to this time. Kila se'lai.

- Kila se'lai." All present responded to the woman—even Tali.

- I give the floor to the Chancellor of the Conclave, Rahmun Shekhal vas Raya." said the same Quarian woman, and a Quarian took her place.

- Chancellor?" Shepard didn't understand and asked me on the intercom.

- Translation difficulties. Never mind," I replied.

- Thank you." This Rahmun began, "The accused Tali'Zora of you, Normandy, has arrived, accompanied by her Captain, to answer treason charges.

- Guards! Geth in the courtroom! Tali'Zora is trying to intimidate the Conclave!" one Quarian woman began shouting as she rose from her seat.

- I decided to let the geth on board. You want to argue with me?" Admiral Roshikh interceded. I like this guy already. He didn't blame it on the Captain. That's right.

- Objection overruled. - said the Quarian in a trembling voice and sat down. After all, she was the "deputy" of a Civilian Fleet ship. Try arguing with your superior.

- So. Shepard, you Normandy, a member of your crew, Tali'Zora, is charged with treason. Will you speak for her?

- Yes," the Captain replied, "but it's unnecessary. When Tali helped me stop the SPECTRE geth of the traitor Saren Arterius, her actions spoke for themselves. If it weren't for her, this trial wouldn't have happened-you'd be long dead." she said. All right, then.

- You're right about that, Captain. If it weren't for Tali'Zora, this trial wouldn't have happened," agreed the Chancellor, "Except she's the one who tried to kill us all!

- That's nonsense! Shepard said.

- Isn't it? Her actions against the Fleet say otherwise. She's a cold-blooded bastard; it's sickening.

- What is the nature of the charge? Shepherd decided to cut to the chase.

- Tali is accused of delivering active geth to her father by parcel to the Fleet.

- That's impossible! I only sent my father spare parts! Tali objected. Oh, she doesn't know what happened. But I didn't tell her. The court must see her shock.

- Stop lying! As far as we know, your father's lab ship, Tali, the Alarey, was taken over by the geth, who exterminated all life there, including your father.

- WHAT? Father... Kyla...-yes, so much for her. Her heart was already pounding like crazy, and tears were coming.

- What's more, the geth launched a cyber attack on the Fleet and managed to take over the control systems of six ships. The crews were able to shut down the guns and controls and evacuate. Seven ships are now under the control of the geth.

- Shepard, we have to take back the Alaray!" said Tali so the whole room could hear.

- "Actually, we would destroy the Alaray, as it is the source of the ship's control signal, but the others are creating a human shield around the lab ship. But since you want to die with honour instead of the Conclave's verdict--

- I'm trying to save my father, you bosh'tet!!! - now Tali was angry. And now she's got that Rahmun prick on her brain.

- Captain Shepard, you're going to take back the Alaray. It's a dangerous mission. The Chancellor hinted that we'd taken a wrong turn.

- Tali's priority is the safety of the Fleet. And she needs to find her father," the Captain replied. That made everyone in the room stir and murmur, and the Chancellor began to worry.

- Accepted, - the Chancellor said forcefully, - You will try to repel "Alarey". If you fall during the mission, Tali, I will see that the charges are dropped. This meeting is adjourned!" announced the imbecile in a vacuum. I have many more flattering things to say about him.

- Tali, I'm so sorry.

- How could you!? Why didn't you tell me my father was in trouble? Tali was just outraged. No, she wasn't; she was furious.

- Tali, the court had to see your reaction. It helped us a lot.

- It did? A father is asking for help, and you're playing politics!

- Look, Tali, Rael didn't have a chance to save himself. Accept it.

- And there's no telling!" Tali poked her finger at Admiral Shala's mask and walked right through it, shoving her on the shoulder. She was at her limit now.

Not only did the two krogan go to the Alarei, but Mordin went with Kasumi and Taine as well. We needed someone good with guns, and we'd have Tali take care of the biotics.

- Tali, are you okay?" I asked her, squeezing her hand as we flew in the shuttle. I'd hacked and turned off the cameras anyway, and the team already knew about us.

- It's okay. It's okay..." She tried to brush it off but then exploded, "It's not okay! I don't know what's wrong with my father. I'm accused of treason and could be executed, the geth have captured seven fleet ships, and everyone's lying to me!

- Not everyone. I'm not lying. And neither is Shepard. And no one here is lying to you." I tried to reassure her.

- Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Thank you," she rested her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes. I was sure of it.

- Daddy, there's something I've been able to do, but there's a problem. Suddenly we all heard Susie's voice.

- Speak," Shepard and I said in unison.

- I was able to launch a cyberattack on that geth. The ship geth is disabled, but something's weird on Alarea. I wasn't able to deactivate a few of the geth.

- A few, how many?" Kasumi asked.

- Twenty-three stormtroopers, three primes, and a walking tank in the hangar. But that's not what's important. I have a feeling that someone has taken over these forces... Someone else. Someone even I can't compete with.

- Why is that? I don't understand this twist.

- Remember when you explained to me why you created the Virtuum? So that everyone could play and try to hack us according to our rules. This "someone" knows how to play by those rules. He's been playing computer games. Going up against him alone would be like taking a company of Azari recruits into a hive of Rachni.

- Not a chance. Rex said.

- All right, thanks, Susie. Do you know where all the platforms are—scattered around the ship?

- No, according to the digital communications, they're all in the hangar. Also, scanners picked up a lot of organic signatures on the ship with stable temperatures. It looks like there's still some of the crew left.

- Is it Father?" Tali asked in a praying or rather shouting voice.

- I don't know, but they're all gathered in one of the labs. The weird thing is, three Stormtroopers and a Prime are in there. Maybe they took prisoners.

- They're alive, and that's what counts!" said Tali.

- Then let's start storming the hangar, and then we'll go to the prisoners." Shepard said, and everyone fell silent.

- Don't worry, sweetheart. Everything will be all right," I said over the intercom.

Susie quickly opened the hangar, covered by a biotic shield, and we just flew into it. That's where most of the geth was with the tank, assembled from "improvised materials". Before we even landed, Tali jumped out of the shuttle, before it was enveloped in biotics, and ran at the tank. The geth started firing, but her barrier was too powerful, so we also started supporting fire. The tank did not even have time to prepare for a shot; the Quarian was too fast. She jumped up, hit the tank in the head, and then fell on it with such force that it sprawled on the floor with all four limbs spread out. Tali then sent a huge wave at the geth. It blew everything to the opposite side of the hangar. Crates, geth, tank corpse, parts, barricades. Everything in front of the girl. The geth turned into a thick pancake of metals and polymers from such an impact. Some crumpled, and the crates crushed others.

Still, anger was a very powerful biotic enhancer. About tenfold, activating many biological reserves to do so. So now Tali was stronger than even Miranda, whose emotional state, by the way, was controlled within limits.

- I'm going to find my father," Tali hissed, and suddenly I noticed one geth pointing a laser at Tali.

Before I could say anything, I ran up to her and knocked her to the floor. A shot rang out.

- SNIPER!!!" Shepard shouted, but in a second, the geth was dead from the barrage of blaster fire.- Mordin!" the professor was hit instead of Tali. Just what we needed.

- Don't worry. The shield came off, the armour held. The wound is superficial. Panacellin will help." he muttered. Indeed, the Salarian felt quite normal, but when I approached him, my scanners picked up an oddity.

- Damn it. He's got mercury in his wound. They're shooting mercury.

- Chemical weapons? Thane asked.

- No, no, no. Mercury. Liquid metal. Diamagnetic. Highly penetrating. Saw it at the GOR. It's being tested." Mordin said in his usual Mordin way.

- Well, he's got a few drops of it under his skin. That's all we need. Go back to Normandy. We can handle it," Shepard said, and the Salarian didn't argue.

- Very well, Captain. No escorting; Susie will be in charge of the shuttle.

- Let's hurry up while we're still sane." The Salarian left quickly, and we moved on, taking the rifle the geth had fired. The crate crushed his legs, and the rifle needed time to fire so that I could save Tali. I realised it wouldn't have killed her, of course, but... Ah, well, we have to hurry.

It was easy to walk through an empty ship filled with dead Quarian corpses (who'd doubt it). And now, we are already in the laboratory, where, according to the Normandy's sensors, there were all the organics and a few synthetics.

We acted quickly. The door opened, and Tali immediately threw the singularity into the crowd of geth standing next to each other. The singularity was so powerful that it lifted all three stormtroopers and Prime. Flying for a second, the geth slammed into the ceiling with double the force against the floor, leaving dents here and there. And then... Then we saw this. David Archer. His long-suffering self in his torture machine.

- Oh, Kyla," Tali said forcefully. It was not for the faint of heart.

- Holy shit," Grant said. Of course, they were disappointed they didn't get the geth, but they didn't care about that now.

- This is too much..." said Rex.

- Please be quiet," said David. We weren't talking on the intercom; there was no point.

- Okay, let's go to the intercom," I said, and no one argued.

- The root of nine hundred and eighty-one is thirty-one and three. They said everything was going to be all right.

- Hey! Tali! Tali, we're here! Here comes our Rael and the hapless scientists. Not prisoners. Barricaded in some room with a single door and armoured glass that's basically like the portholes on dreadnoughts, only this was thinner. It looks like the geth, or David, who controlled the geth and whom Susie couldn't defeat, couldn't get at these grief scientists.

Tali, on the other hand, decided to do it drastically. Her heartbeat reached three hundred beats per minute; luckily, she could handle that; she's biotic. She glowed biotic so brightly that the glow became almost white. Taking a few steps, the quarian smashed the window with a single blow of her fist and entered the room. Then she grabbed Rael by his suit and threw him out of that room. Tali came at him, barely restraining herself from turning her father's insides into mincemeat or even bloody dust with a single blow.

- How could you?" Tali asked, still glowing like a spotlight.

- Tali, darling, I can explain everything. How pathetic he was now. Like scolding his daughter for not killing the geth, he could do that, but when he got the wrath of his biotic daughter, he went straight to 'darling'. Bastard.

- You want me to explain? Go ahead. Come on, explain to me what you did to that man!?

- Quiet. Please, be quiet. David pleaded with us. He couldn't say much; he was talking through the dynamos as he had two tubes stuck in his mouth.

- Tali, we had to find a way to win the war with the geth. We couldn't do it with conventional weapons. And then, conveniently, Cerberus experimented and tried to control the geth. We-- We couldn't let this go!

- Quiet, please.

- We couldn't let it go!? What? Showing the whole Fleet how cool and in charge you are?!? Open your eyes! There's no war anymore! I've been flying with the geth since Freedom Road, and he's the XO, and I report to him, and you know, we've become friends.

- С... S-sharp?" Rael managed to get the word out of his mouth. It must have been hard for him to realise, so... Okay, well, with this-- We'll deal with that later. But listen Tali, you have to understand!

- Quiet!

- Understand? What exactly am I supposed to understand?

- Tali! - I couldn't take it anymore and came up to her, pulling her by the shoulder;- You can shut up now.

- What? Tali didn't understand. Well, at least biotics no longer shone, and that's good.

- He asked me to keep it down," I pointed at David, "You're hurting him even more than that imbecile did," then I nodded my head at the dazed Rael.

- Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry.

- The root of one thousand four hundred and fifty-three is thirty-eight and one. It's okay. It happens.

- The Chancellor and the Clave, who's accusing me of treason by ousting the admirals, you'll have to explain it to them yourself.

- Susie, get Chakwas and Mordin here when they're free. And Zaid and Garrus, and you come here just in case." Shepard ordered, contacting Normandy.

- Got it. I've seen everything. We're on our way.

- We're taking David. And that's out of the question. Although you can discuss it with these two, Admiral." Shepard pointed at Rex and Grant, and the former defiantly loaded his shotgun, "Legatus, go after Tali. I'll catch up with you.

- Understood, Captain," I replied, then looked at Rael. He didn't understand anything, let alone the poor people he was hiding in the lab with. "I wish I could spit on you, Admiral," I said, and with that, I left after Tali.

- The Conclave is called to order," the Chancellor said when we were all assembled. We weren't buried in absentia this time; Rael was able to explain himself to the Conclave. Half of the speech was patriotic, so it worked, and since the Chancellor was a xenophobe and one that would make the Phantom fume, there was no punishment. "Due to the new information and the fact that Tali'Zora was able to repel the Alarei and the rest of the ships, all charges against her are dropped. Go in peace. Kila se'lai.

- Kila selfie." the hall responded to the Chancellor's final phrase.

- Now, if I may have your attention," said Admiral Kina'Sili, "I ask that the Geth ambassador, who is among us today, be given the floor.

- What?" the Chancellor was outraged. "This is unacceptable!

- It's not up to you, Chancellor," I said, "This is a matter of war, and admirals are responsible for it. If three more of you authorise me to leave, so be it.

- I'll authorise it," Shala replied.

- I give the go-ahead." continued Roshikh.

- I'd love to hear it." Zahil quipped, "Look, I'm good, and you're bad. Chancellor could not argue with this, so I calmly went to the podium, behind which in the game stood Shala. All right, it's now or never.

- Gentlemen. You don't know me, of course, and you shouldn't know me. The only thing you can say about me is that I'm a geth. I won't argue with that. Nor will I argue with your desire to throw me into an airlock, shoot me or give me to Admiral Keene Seela. And don't tell me, Admiral, that you don't want to understand me; I won't believe you. I came here as part of Captain Shepard's crew and as an ambassador for the geth. However, there will be no negotiations or anything like that. I only have a message; what you do with it is up to you. Three hundred years ago, you left your home and became the Migratory Fleet. I won't justify the geth now, as it's as useless as proving to a krogan the benefits of a genophage. The geth don't understand why the Creators spend three hundred years doing nothing, bringing their health to zero, if not lower. All I have to say is this. The geth will be gone from all Quarian systems, including Rannoch, within 15 standard days! You can go home. The war is over. Where we go is none of your concern. But know that there will be no more war between us if that's what you want. That will be all—Kila's selfie.