//------------------------------// // CHAPTER 6 // Story: Those Who Live On // by SpartanD014 //------------------------------// CHAPTER 6 Princess Luna dove off of her bedroom balcony, spreading her wings wide and taking to the sky. The wind blew through her ethereal mane and tail, causing them to fly behind her like the trail of a comet. She allowed herself a few minutes of aerobatics before getting to her nightly duty of entering the Dreamscape. With a spark of her horn, the princess flashed a brilliant blue, and then ceased to exist in the physical world. When her spell was complete, Luna was still flying, though she was in a vastly different location. Beneath her appeared an apparition of Equestria with every single detail, down to a blade of grass. Luna rose higher into sky, getting a good view of the land which she called her own. The dreams visible to her appeared as small clouds, each one a different color. They belonged to the ponies of Canterlot, many of whom were the elite of Equestria. Luna never concerned herself with their dreams, as to them, a nightmare was scratching a hoof or stepping in dirt. Instead the princess angled herself towards Ponyville, flying at speeds that no pony could ever achieve outside of the Dreamscape. The princess reached the small town in only a few minutes, and looked at the clouds that represented individual dreams. Most were colorless, which relieved Luna, for that meant that the dream was good. Luna spotted a few blues, indicating a very good dream, and one or two yellows, meaning less-than-good. There were fortunately no nightmares, which pleased Luna. Only a few years before, nightmares seemed to run rampant. But now that she was back in control of the Dreamscape, nightmares were more difficult to find. Suddenly, the princess felt a strong tug at her mind; a feeling like something far off was calling to her, warning her of something. Choosing to follow the feeling, Luna soon found herself flying over the Everfree forest. A few moments later and she was above the crash of the Normandy. Looking at the ship, Luna saw several dreams. Most were colorless, a few were yellow, and a few others were orange. But there was one that caught her eye, and it was obvious to Luna that this was the one she had felt. It was a dark red, the worst kind of nightmare. Feeling pity for whoever was burdened with such a dream, Luna angled down towards the cloud and flew into it, entering the mind of the dreamer. There was a bright white flash, and when it faded Luna found herself in the middle of a warzone. Explosions rocked the ground beneath her hooves, and the sound of screaming filled the air. Then Luna heard a very familiar sound, one that frightened her to her core. Turning around, Luna craned her neck and found herself looking at a massive Reaper. It was taller than the one that had attacked Equestria, and seemed also to be missing the center leg. On the machine were six glowing golden eyes, and a loud noise filled the air, coming from the Reaper. Several beams of red destruction fired from beneath the demon, burning scars into the earth beneath it. Next to the Reaper was a tall spire, in the center of which was a glowing blue beam that shot up into the sky. Several soldiers ran towards it, but were obliterated by the Reaper before they even got close. Looking behind her, Luna saw two familiar figures running for the blue beam. Garrus and Tali followed behind a third figure, this one human. She did not know why, but her mind immediately labelled him as ‘Commander Shepard’. The three ran for the beam, following behind several vehicles on wheels and flying machines. The air vehicles were dispatched easily by the massive Reaper, and the wheeled ones followed shortly after. Still around a hundred meters from the beam, a wheeled vehicle in front of Shepard was hit by the Reaper. It flipped backwards, nearly crushing the commander, though he was able to dodge it. Turning around, the human looked to his two companions, waiting for them to catch up. Before they could reach him, another wheeled vehicle was hit, this one flying over the wreck of the first. It landed vertically in front of Tali and Garrus, before it suddenly tilted down and began falling for them. Just before it hit the two jumped out of the way, only to be caught in an explosion from the vehicle. Shepard leapt up and vaulted over the wreck, landing closest to Garrus. He approached the turian, but was waved off as Garrus stood up on his own. Turning around, Shepard ran to the fallen body of Tali, whose beautiful suit was coated with blood. He helped the quarian to her feet and escorted her to the wreck of the vehicle, setting her down once she was in relative safety. Then he lifted a hand to his ear, and spoke. “Normandy, do you copy!?” Luna heard the human ask. “I need an evac, right now!” “We’re taking heavy losses up here!” the princess heard Joker say from an unknown source. A moment later the Normandy flew down, coming to a hover above the surface as a ramp lowered from beneath the ship. Shepard picked Tali up and quickly helped her to the ship, handing her off to Garrus as soon as he reached the ramp. “Here, take her,” Shepard said, stepping away from the ramp. “Shepard…” Tali began to protest, turning around. “You’ve got to get out of here.” “I can’t stay behind,” Tali said, desperation in her voice. “Don’t argue with me Tali!” Shepard said, determined. “Don’t leave me behind!” Tali cried with ever more desperation. “I need you to make it out of here alive, Tali,” Shepard began, stepping up onto the ramp. “Go back to Rannoch… Build yourself a home…” “I have a home…” Tali choked out, looking sorrowfully at the human. “Come back to me.” She reached out as Shepard stepped off of the ramp. “Go!” Shepard yelled, turning around and continuing his run for the beam. The ramp closed, cutting off Luna’s view of Tali. The princess of the night had seen enough. This was tormenting the poor quarian, and it was her duty as princess of the night to end it. Sparking her horn, Luna watched as the dream began to collapse. A moment later she was blinded by a bright light, and the nightmare ended. Tali’s eyes quickly shot open as her body lurched forward, and she groggily looked around at her surroundings. Finding herself lying on the cold metal floor of the engineering room, Tali slowly came to her feet and looked around. Adams was standing in front of her, concerned, while Gabby and Ken were nowhere to be found. “Morning, Tali,” Adams said, his face sporting a look of worry. “Good morning, Adams,” she reciprocated. “What time is it?” “Still early, only around eight,” Adams answered, offering his hand to the quarian. She took it and stood up, putting a hand to her head. “You sound tired. You sure you don’t want to go back to sleep?” “I don’t think I’d be able to get back to sleep after that…” Tali said, sighing. “Bad dream, huh?” “More like a memory…” Tali replied. Looking for a way to change the subject, her eyes passed over Adams’ station, which had a diagram of the Normandy up on it. “What are you working on?” “Well Legion has been instrumental in helping with smaller things, but that leaves the bigger stuff to us,” the engineer explained, crossing back over to his station. “I’m just mapping out damage across the ship’s power grid so we know where we need to focus our repair efforts. I have Gabby and Ken outside crawling around on the hull checking external power relays. They should be done soon.” “Has any progress been made on the engines?” Tali asked, stepping up to her station and bringing up a schematic of the ship. “Not since you went to sleep last night,” Adams replied. “You know those things better than anyone, it’s better to let you handle it.” Tali nodded, knowing the engineer was right. Since returning to the Normandy, she had made numerous upgrades to the engines to increase everything from power efficiency to thrust output. Nobody knew those engines better than her. Bringing up a diagram of the engines, Tali began to examine the extent of the damage. It was nothing too bad – the worst of it was the burned out thruster modules. Other than that, the fuel injectors were operational and most of the power relays were online. The thruster modules could easily be repaired with a few spare parts and a nice cleaning. The real difficulty would be finding the time; between the other repairs that were required, and the presence of the ponies, Tali knew she would be hard-pressed to find the time to make the repairs. The machinist was interrupted from her examination of the diagram as the door slid open, and two talkative engineers entered the room. “Did you see Traynor when we were walking through the CIC?” Kenneth asked, grinning at his partner. “The way she was bent over that relay node…” “Kenneth, how many times do I have you tell you?” Gabby sighed, slapping the back of Kenneth’s head. “She’s not your type.” “Yeah, right… Maybe we should mention her to Rainbow Dash, then?” “Dash is already pissed at you for that comment you made about her flank yesterday,” Gabby reminded, sighing yet again. “If you tried hooking her up with Traynor, I don’t think James could keep her off of you this time.” Kenneth did not respond, instead choosing to grin mischievously. “If you two are done, did you finish checking the power relays?” Adams asked, shaking his head. “Yeah, most of ‘em are okay,” Gabby reported, handing the chief engineer a datapad. “The few that are damaged should be relatively quick fixes, except for one. That one got hit by a bit of debris at some point and is beyond our ability to repair, we’re gonna have to wait for drydock.” “One broken power relay isn’t the end of the world,” Adams decided, handing the datapad back. “But if we’re ever under heavy load, we’ll need to monitor that section of the ship carefully.” “We will be able to do this easily, Engineer Adams,” Legion said, a hologram of the geth flickering in on a small pad. He turned his virtual head to Tali, the flaps on it expanding slightly. “Creator Tali’Zorah, Alenko-Major is requesting your presence in the meeting room.” “Thanks, Legion,” Tali said, shutting down her station. She turned and exited the engineering room, immediately entering the elevator and heading up to the CIC. From there it was a quick walk to the meeting room, where Tali found the rest of Shepard’s squad (including Traynor, Cortez, and Joker) already waiting. Kaidan nodded his greetings as Tali entered, and the quarian squeezed into an empty spot at the table. “Alright, now that everyone’s here, we can begin,” Kaidan started. “I just got off the QEC with Admiral Hackett. The Sol Relay is operational, and he has begun sending portions of the fleet to other major systems. The fleet sent to Palaven has already reported in, they’re confirming that the Reapers are dead. Primarch Victus is being put onto a ship, and he’ll be here with the other dignitaries tomorrow.” “That was fast,” Garrus observed. “No word from Sur’Kesh or Thessia?” “None yet,” Kaidan answered. “We all know that Thessia was taking a huge beating, it’s probable that the planet was lost. Sur’Kesh should be fine, however. But for now, it’s our job to prepare for the negotiations. Tali, quarians aren’t a council race so you’ll be presiding over them. Garrus, I’d like you to organize security. As safe as this planet is, I don’t want to risk anything. Understood?” “Got it,” Garrus nodded. “Cortez, you’ll be flying us to Canterlot in the shuttle,” the major continued. “The council race dignitaries will be arriving in their own shuttles tomorrow morning, and we’ll all be landing in a secluded area at the back of Canterlot. How’s our shuttle?” “Our main shuttle got trashed during the Hammer invasion on Earth,” Cortez reported. “We still have the one that James crashed into that Cerberus shuttle on Mars, I should be able to get it into flying shape by tomorrow.” “Do what you need to do,” Kaidan ordered. Next, he turned his head to Traynor. “Traynor, I want you to record everything that happens at the negotiations for the records. Got it?” “Yes, sir,” Traynor nodded. “Good. Everyone, dismissed.” Tali stepped away from the table and began to join the crowd as it filtered out of the meeting room when she was interrupted by a call from behind her. Turning around, the quarian found Kaidan beckoning her over. Tali jogged over to the human, coming to a stop just in front of him. “So Legion tells me that you had plans to build him a new body?” the major asked. “Yes,” Tali confirmed. “Using some of our omni-gel, we should be able to build most of a mobile platform for him. Everything else will have to be salvaged, but we have the parts.” “How soon do you think you can get it done?” Kaidan asked. “The ponies have experience with Legion, they feel comfortable around him. I’d like him to be at the negotiations, and not just as a hologram.” “Legion should be able to generate 3D models of each component fairly quickly, but the conversion from omni-gel to actual armor could take a while,” Tali answered. “Once that’s done, I have no idea how long it will take to put together. I’d have to know how many pieces there were.” “There would be several hundred, Creator Tali’Zorah,” Legion said, a hologram of him popping up on the meeting table. “Most are very small internals. The outer shell is made up of fewer components, all of which are larger.” “How soon can you get 3D models done?” Tali asked. “Stand by…” Legion began. “… Complete. Downloading data to your omni-tool.” “I’ll head down to the hangar, then,” the quarian decided. “I’ll need the space. While the omni-gel works on converting the 3D geometry into actual physical components, I’ll work on repairing some of the Normandy.” “Keep me updated,” Kaidan requested. “I’ll be in the QEC almost all day. Hackett will be sending some cruisers our way later this afternoon to get to work on repairing the Relay, and there’s a bit more I need to do to prepare for his arrival. Dismissed.” Nodding, Tali turned and exited the meeting room, once again stepping into the elevator. She pressed the button for the hangar, and brought up the 3D schematics for Legion’s new body. As soon as the hologram came up, she noticed an obvious difference. “There’s no hole in this one,” she noted. “Correct,” Legion said. “While the hole was mostly patched with a piece of Shepard-Commander’s hardsuit, there was still a large amount of space showing. We are taking this opportunity to fully repair that section of our platform.” “There’s still an N7 logo on it though,” Tali noticed. “Why is that?” “… It is for organic convenience,” Legion said after a pause. “So that our platform is easily recognizable.” Tali nodded, but was not entirely convinced. Even when Shepard had asked the geth why he used a piece of his armor, Legion’s response had been ‘there was a hole’, followed by ‘no data available’. Tali was beginning to believe that not even he knew why he did it. The door slid open, and Tali stepped out into the expansive hangar of the Normandy. Cortez was at the far end where the second shuttle was secured, working on repairing it after James had crashed it. The lieutenant himself was at his station, working on cleaning a stripped-down assault rifle. He turned around as Tali approached him, jerking his head back in greeting. “James, may I ask for your assistance?” she asked. “Sure Sparks, what’s up?” “I’m going to be building Legion a new body, and I need some help getting our omni-gel into the center of the hangar,” Tali explained. “The omni-gel is in the crates at the back corner of the hangar.” “No problem,” James said, stepping away from his station. He followed Tali to the corner, then gripped a box in his hands, carrying it away with ease. It took Tali a fair bit longer to get a grip on the heavy container, and even when she had finally lifted it, she was still shaking while walking to the center of the hangar. “Need some help there, Tali?” James asked, carrying his second box past the struggling quarian. “I’ve… almost… got it…” Tali let out a heavy sigh as she dropped the box next to the first one that James had placed, then straightened her spine and turned around to grab another. As she slowly walked back, James fell into step beside her. “So… any word on Shepard?” he asked. Tali shook her head somberly. “Admiral Hackett doesn’t have the manpower to search what’s left of the Citadel right now…” she whispered. “I don’t know if he’s alive, or if he’s…” “Yeah…” The two continued transporting the boxes in silence for close to an hour, until finally they all were in the middle of the hangar. Their contents had been unloaded, and the solid omni-gel rested on the deck of the hangar. Activating her omni-tool, Tali once again brought up Legion’s 3D models and imported them into the omni-gel program. Immediately many blocks of solid gel converted into a molten state, and slowly they started to reshape themselves into the components that would become Legion. Stepping away from the omni-gel, Tali decided it would be best to do something else while the components were formed. There was much to do in terms of repairs, so Tali stepped into the elevator and hit the button for engineering… Princess Luna landed wandered through the hallways of Canterlot castle, on her way to her sister’s office. Ever since she happened upon Tali’s dream, the princess of the night had been thinking about what she saw. If her nightmare had been an accurate depiction of the Reaper war… Equestria was lucky they had only been attacked by one. Stepping up to the door to Celestia’s office, Luna knocked and stepped back. “Come in!” came the voice of the solar princess. Luna complied and opened the door, immediately stepping inside. She closed the door behind her, and wandered up to an empty chair in the office. “Luna, it is good that you are here,” Celestia began. She was about to continue when she saw the expression on her sister’s face. “Is everything alright, Luna?” The princess of the night sighed, looking down. “Last night, I…” she started, trying to decide how to explain it. “I came across a dream from one of the Normandy crew. It was Tali’s… Though now that I think about it, it felt more like a memory than a dream.” “What was the dream about?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow. “It was on an alien world being attacked by the Reapers,” Luna continued. “There was a large spire, with a Reaper standing next to it. Tali, Garrus, and the Shepard human were running for the spire when Tali was very badly wounded. Shepard called in for assistance, and was forced to continue on without her… I believe that she holds a large amount of guilt for staying behind, even though it was not her fault.” “And they do not know if Shepard survived…” Celestia nodded. “Perhaps she needs someone to talk to.” “If I can get her alone when I go back later today, I will try speaking with her,” Luna decided. “You are going back?” Celestia asked, receiving a nod. “Very well. But first, we have much to cover.” “What is it?” Luna asked, confused about what transpired. “Twilight and her friends just returned to the Normandy minutes ago,” the princess explained. “She sent me a letter saying that the dignitaries from the alien races will be arriving tomorrow morning. We need to prepare.” “Do Malkia and Proudwing know?” “I only received the letter a few minutes ago, I have not had the chance to inform them.” “I see…” Luna frowned, nodding. “This is very short notice, but it is all we have. What are our plans to prepare?” “Four ships will be coming here tomorrow morning, one from the Normandy and the rest from space,” Celestia began. “They will be landing in the loading docks, where Legion used to land. From there they will be brought to the meeting room, and we will begin the talks. You and I shall represent Equestria, while Cadance will prepare an address to our ponies. Twilight will be writing all that she has learned into a book that we will make available shortly.” “And what of the dragons and diamond dogs?” “Our messengers dropped their messages off successfully, but we have yet to receive a reply,” the solar princess answered. “I doubt we will get one. Even though the dragons are an intelligent species, they are far too fragmented to make a reply that represents every one of them. And the diamond dogs hate everypony on Equis, they will never cooperate.” “We will have to mention this to our new friends,” Luna stated. “Perhaps they will have a suggestion.” Celestia nodded in agreement. “That is all for now,” she said. “If you are going to the Normandy, you should go. I will need you later tonight to finalize all preparations.” Nodding, Luna stood from her chair and exited the office. As soon as she was outside, she lit her horn and, with a bright flash of light, disappeared… Tali slowly crawled out of the maintenance duct and dropped to the floor of the engineering room below, dust caking her environmental suit. She came to her feet and immediately crossed to her station, bringing up a diagnostics screen as soon as she arrived. As she had hoped, her efforts in the cramped engineering spaces had paid off, and three more power relays were once again operational. Only a few more remained, most of which were the damaged ones on the hull. “We’re down to only a few more power relays to fix,” she reported to the other three engineers. “Gabby, have you finished the parts list for the thruster modules?” “Almost done, Tali,” Gabby replied. “We should have most of the parts. If we’re missing any, maybe we can borrow them from the other ships when they arrive.” Tali nodded, and turned her attention to the second ex-Cerberus engineer. “Kenneth, how are the damage reports coming along?” “Both starboard thruster modules have been fully mapped,” Kenneth answered. “Starting on the portside modules now. The damage doesn’t seem too bad, it’ll only be a few days’ worth of work to repair them.” “Good,” Tali said to herself, turning back to her own station. Before she could do any more work, the door to the engineering room opened, and Tali heard hoofsteps behind her. “And this is the engineering room,” came the voice of James. Tali turned around and found Princess Luna standing in the doorway, examining all of the technology. James was behind her, giving her the grand tour. “Hello James, hello Luna,” Tali greeted, stepping up to the two aliens. “What’s up?” “Well, Princess Luna missed the last tour because of the talks with all of you,” James explained. “So I’m giving her one now.” Tali nodded in understanding, and crossed back to her station. “Well if you need any explanations of the tech in here, I’d be more than happy to give them,” she offered. “Thank you, Tali’Zorah,” Luna said in awe as she looked at each piece of technology. “Though I doubt I would be able to understand any explanations. All of this is so far beyond us… I hope we have no troubles fitting in.” “That’s how it is with all new species,” Engineer Adams spoke up. “When humanity joined the galactic community, sure we had some advanced tech, but it paled in comparison to the tech used by everyone else. You’ll adapt quickly enough.” “That is good to hear,” the princess said, stepping further into the engineering room. She stepped up behind Tali, clearing her throat to gain the quarian’s attention. “Tali, may we speak privately?” Confused, Tali turned around and nodded. “We’ll be in the lower section if you need us,” she said. Tali led the princess out of engineering and down the flight of stairs to the bottom of the engineering deck. When they had reached the center of the small area, Tali turned around and stared at the princess. “What is it?” “I…” Luna faltered, looking down. “As princess of the night, I have the… ability… to see into the dreams of other ponies. This ability seems to extend to aliens as well, and…” “And you saw my dream last night…” Tali sighed, looking down. “I thought something felt odd about that dream…” “Tali, I know dreams better than anypony alive,” Luna continued. “I know how it made you feel. It was tormenting you, tearing you up inside, filling you with guilt. You clearly need somepony to talk to. Let it be me.” Tali sighed, and considered Luna’s offer. The princess was right, the memory was affecting her. And with a mission as important as theirs… she could not risk being distracted. “Okay…” she whispered, nodding. Luna grinned, and sat down on the cold deck of the ship. “In your memory, Commander Shepard had to leave you behind to complete his mission,” the princess began. “The man you love had to continue on, alone, to save the galaxy. And now that you do not know whether or not he survived, you feel guilt. Guilt that you were not there to help him. Guilt that you could not be with him. But Tali, this was not your fault. He continued on because he loves you. Because he knew that if he did not complete the mission, he would never see you again. You cannot burden yourself with his decisions. All you can do is continue to love him, and keep up hope for his survival.” Tali was silent. Sadness filled her eyes as she contemplated what Luna had said, finding all of it to be true. She had loved Shepard will all of her being, and he loved her back. If she was to make this victory worth it, she needed to stop feeling guilt. But even with Luna’s wise words, Tali was not sure if she could… “You’re right…” the quarian choked out. “But I just don’t know if I can let it go so easily…” “Nor should you,” Luna continued. “To feel guilt is to be alive. Giving it up so easily destroys that which makes us good. It will take time, but as long as you continue to maintain hope for Shepard, you will be fine.” The princess stood up, and placed a comforting hoof on Tali’s shoulder. “And you are not alone. You have your friends aboard the Normandy, and you have friends in us ponies.” “Thank you, Luna,” Tali said, bowing her head. “I should get back to work.” “And I should get back to my tour,” Luna said. “This ship is quite fascinating.” Nodding, the two went back up the stairs to the main section of the engineering deck. Luna left to continue her tour with James, while Tali returned to her station to continue going over the ship repairs. “So what was that all about?” Adams asked curiously. “It’s nothing, she just wanted to talk,” Tali replied. Nodding, Adams turned his head back around to face his own station. As silence embraced the engineering deck, Tali continued her work… Kaidan sat down at a computer set up in the mess hall, looking over his plans for the next few days. Admiral Hackett had put him in charge of making sure the talks with the ponies went off without a hitch, and the major was not one to disappoint. His plans were basic, but they did account for a few possible negative scenarios. One was the possibility of a dragon attack, which would be countered by a wing of turian fighters on standby in the upper atmosphere. A diamond dog attack would be eliminated by asari commandos who would be accompanying Matriach Lidanya, and any sort of smaller attacks would be repelled by standard security. Other than those few things, Kaidan did not see any threats that could hurt negotiations. A sudden beeping from his omni-tool drew Kaidan’s attention away from the computer, and the major looked down at the holographic device. A timer was going off, alerting Kaidan that it was time to check back in with Admiral Hackett. Disabling the alarm, Kaidan stood form his chair and exited the mess hall, then entered the elevator and set his destination for the CIC. Once the elevator had completed its ascent, Kaidan made his way to the QEC where Admiral Hackett’s hologram was already waiting for him. “Major, report,” the admiral ordered. “Have there been any developments?” “No, sir, no developments yet,” Kaidan responded. That had been the answer he had given the admiral the last time he had checked in, but Kaidan knew that Hackett was just being cautious. First contact could go wrong in all kinds of ways, but they had been lucky so far with the ponies. “That’s good to hear,” Hackett said. “I have some news for you. I’m sending you a dreadnought and four cruisers to begin repairs on the pony Mass Relay. The dreadnought, the SSV Royale, will drop a comm buoy not far off the Relay so we can try and pinpoint your exact location in the galaxy. This will also allow us to communicate without the need of the QEC, so other ships can contact you as well.” “Understood, sir,” the major nodded. “And what of the other races? Has contact been made with Thessia or Sur’Kesh yet?” “Sur’kesh responded not long after your last check-in,” Hackett answered. “The salarians will be sending one of their higher-up government officials by the name of Jedin Polban as their representative. He’s ex-STG, so keep an eye on him. As for Thessia, comms are still shaky. They took very heavy losses, almost on par with Earth.” “I’m sorry to hear that…” Kaidan said. “I’ll have to tell Liara…” “Have the princesses been preparing for our arrival?” the admiral asked. “I spoke with Princess Luna not too long ago, they’re doing a lot to make sure this all goes well,” Kaidan reported. “I’m not too sure about the other races, but they seemed excited for this opportunity.” “That’s good,” Hackett said. “Keep me in the loop, Major. We’ll check back in four hours. Hackett out.” The hologram of the admiral flickered away, and Kaidan was left standing alone in the alcove of the war room dedicated to the QEC. Sighing, the soldier turned around and exited the room, ready to continue his planning… LATER The elevator doors opened, and Tali stepped out into the dark and quiet hangar. Looking around, the quarian found the large room to be almost completely devoid of life. James was nowhere to be seen, and the other crew members who usually worked down on deck 5 were absent as well. The only sign of life came from the end of the room, where the occasional flicker of light from a welding tool lit up the otherwise dark space. Crossing over to the source of light, Tali found Cortez crouched over the damaged shuttle, still working on the repairs. “Cortez, it’s two in the morning,” she said, startling the lieutenant. “What are you still doing up?” “I could ask you the same thing, Tali,” the human countered. “I’m just working on the shuttle. We need it ready by morning.” “Well don’t stay up all night,” Tali said, stepping away and closing in on the center of the room. “I’ll keep that in mind. What are you doing down here?” “Just checking on the omni-gel for Legion’s new body.” Tali crouched down by the omni-gel, finding that most of it was now in the shape of various parts that would go into Legion’s new platform. “It looks to be almost done. I’ll be able to put it together tomorrow morning.” “If you need any help, just ask,” Cortez offered. “I think the other engineers and I can handle it, but thanks.” The quarian stood up to her full height and stepped away from the omni-gel, allowing it to continue changing its shape. “Legion, wake me up as soon as the omni-gel is done, okay?” Tali asked. “Acknowledged,” the voice of the geth said from the ceiling. “That will be in approximately four hours. But what about the components that could not be made with omni-gel?” “We have some parts lying around that I can use,” Tali replied. “Don’t worry, you’ll be back in your body before the negotiations begin.” The geth did not answer, but Tali hoped that he would be pleased. “I’ll keep an eye on them as long as I’m down here,” Cortez said. “Thanks, Cortez,” Tali said, stepping up to the elevator. “And remember, don’t stay up all night.” “I’ll keep that in mind.” Tali stepped into the elevator, setting her destination for the engineering deck one floor up, where she normally slept. As soon as the door opened, Tali entered the engineering room and curled up against the wall by her computer station. With a sigh, Tali closed her eyes and embraced sleep… Doctor David Foster stared at the map of Equis, his eyes never leaving the single bright spot that represented the Reaper. It was not often that he was up this late, but there were a number of reasons why he was. One was that the first part of their plan was being put into motion. Their prisoners had been released, and very soon their influence would grow. And with the current state of the griffon nation, their subterfuge would go completely unnoticed. Another reason was far more troubling to Foster. Their long-range scanners had picked up some activity around the Mass Relay. The scanners were a fairly basic system, as they did not want a massive antennae sticking out of the ground, so they were unable to determine exactly what had come through. But it was certainly not Cerberus. If it was, then Foster would have been warned. It was possible that the scanners were receiving false readings, but considering that a Reaper and an alliance ship had come to Equis in the same day, that did not seem likely. Finally tearing his eyes away from the map, Foster decided to get some sleep. The first effects of their plan would be seen tomorrow, and he wanted to be well rested to see if it was successful or not. Turning around, Foster exited the command room of his facility and entered the elevator, hitting the button for habitations. Their plan was unconventional by Cerberus standards, but if it was going to advance the cause of mankind, then it was worth it. The elevator door slid shut, cutting off Foster’s view of the world that they had chosen to fulfill their goals. As the elevator began its ascent, a smile graced the doctor’s lips. When the results of their plan were unleashed on the rest of the galaxy, none would stand in their way. Humanity would become the new apex race, and they would have Foster to thank for it…