Out For Karma: Mass Effect

[Book One] Chapter 10: R&D on the Normandy

Chapter 10: R&D on the Normandy

After coming back from Admiral Hackett’s mission. It has been decided that Feros would be their next stop with how close it was. A day of FTL travel at most. It was about time they investigate the place they’ve been delayed for more than a month thanks to Shepard prioritizing the admiral request first. To be fair, Zhu’s hope, the human colony on the planet had already gone dark before the attack on Eden Prime, so everyone was probably already dead. That has been the commander's reasoning to which Rick agreed.

The latter had already his research report ready for her and was currently in the cargo bay, watching Ashley cleaning his shotgun at the workbench.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at you polishing a gun. I should stop though.”

“Work?” She asked, handle the pumping part of the weapon.

“Yes and no. Yes, because I need to have a talk with Tali on a new reload method between shots for the shotgun, one which could be done one handed, and find a way to upgrade the cooling system. Unlimited ammo is nice but if I have to take cover every six shots it’s useless. No, because seeing you pumping things is diverting most blood into my lower brain instead of the upper one. God knows you’re good at that.” he replied making Ashley grin and proud of her skills and herself.

“Give me a minute and I’ll give you a first hand reminder of how good I am at it.” she joked with a smile

“Yeah, I don’t think I would stop at a simple demonstration, so I’m going to go. After Zhu’s hope?”

“It’s a date.” she replied, slapping his ass as he walked away toward the engineering.

He immediately went for Tali who was focused on a terminal. So focused in fact that she didn’t even see him standing next to her. To catch her attention he slightly bumped her hip with his.

“Hey, centerfold! How are you doing? Busy?”

“You and your nicknames.” she muttered.

“It’s a way for me to show I care.”

“You have plenty for Shepard and you hate her.”

“...Not all care is positive.” he has been speechless for a moment there at her retort.

“What do you want?” Tali asked impatiently.

“Spend some quality time with you.”

“Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know, because you’re my friend, because you are one of the rare people on this ship I enjoyed the company of, because I love talking with you, because I have an idea for a new one handed reload method for a shotgun and possibly an upgrade of the cooling system, because…”

“Alright, alright, I get it.” the quarian stopped him knowing he would go on and on forever but secretly glad for a break.

During his convalescence after Therum, she had made the first move and went to talk to him. She had many reasons going for her. The first one was, she was simply curious, he had shown good knowledge about her people and her culture, not many did, since the quarians have been exiled from their homeworld, Rannoch, by the geths. The second reason was related to his hacking skills; his display on Therum had left her speechless and she wanted to know more or even better, learn from him. The third reason was the saddest of them all; many in the crew didn’t like aliens. While none were openly hostile and mostly respectful, she did feel excluded, Chief Engineer Adams being the exception. That left her with only the ground team to talk to but only Rick shared any of her interests, though she would not hesitate to go see Ashley for “girly” subjects, seeing the human woman as some kind of big sister. At the end of the day she loved spending time talking with Rick about nothing and everything; he always had questions or ideas that popped out of the blue which they would discuss at length, whether they were serious or not. She quickly understood that, just like her, he was a genius. A different type of genius, as she was oriented on the hardware and him on the software part of technology, but a genius nonetheless. They complemented each other well and she was quite happy about it as she didn’t feel alone anymore.

The only thing that really bothered her was… He was too rational, too logical in the way he approached things, especially social interaction. She had the same problem concerning them because she was shy, but for him it was because, she believed, he was suffering from alexithymia, she had to search the extranet to know that word, a condition that posed a problem to the ability to express, feel or even identify emotions, our own or others. She knew that if she had an emotional problem he wasn’t the one she should go to for support and make her feel better. No, she should go to him after for a solution to the problem, once she had dealt with how she felt even if she knew he would have tried his best to do that. 

There was a very small perk however; he was blunt and dealt facts. When he explained that he called her “centerfold” because she was beautiful she… Well first she was embarrassed for the whole conversation and the day after, then she realized that he meant it. Before she left to undertake her pilgrimage some males had complimented her in all kinds of ways, but she knew they did just so they could get under her suit. That wasn’t a bad thing in itself as some wanted a real relationship but sadly for them she wasn’t interested. Either way they had a motive behind their words, sex or love? It didn’t matter. But when Rick said it, the way he said it, the tone he used, it was like he was stating a fact, an universal truth, like a law of physics, of nature and they were all dumb for not knowing it. There was no agenda on his part. He wasn’t flirting, nor making fun of her or insulting her, he was just making a statement. And that; made her feel good about herself. Her, the little quarian, a space rat, a beggar of the galaxy and who knows how many more insults most species called her and her people to bring them down, felt good about herself. To be recognized with no negative connotation gave her a bit of confidence and made her stand a bit straighter. She would not give up that “small perk” for anything in the world.

She followed him to the elevator, not knowing what their destination was. When he went straight to a familiar door she protested in worry.

“Rick! This is Shepard’s cabin!”

“Yes, so?” he said as he opened the commander’s quarters door without a care in the world and went inside leaving her at the entrance.

“We can’t be in there!”

“Why not? She’s not here, and it’s the only quiet and secluded place where we can work in peace.”

“But…” she was about to interject but stopped. He made sense, they would not be interrupted and they would be free of the crew’s stares. Making her decision she joined him inside and closed the door.

____________________________________________________________

“The ETA is one hour, commander.”

“Thanks Joker, do you have the coordinates of the colony?”

“Right there.”

“Good. Warn me if you can land or dock the Normandy and if it’s safe when we arrive. We’ll take the Mako otherwise.”

“Understood, commander.”

Leaving the cockpit, she went to the back of the bridge and took down the stairs towards her cabin. Rick had probably sent her his report of Zhu’s hope and she had one hour to read it. When she opened the door she was surprised to see that her room wasn’t empty.

“Tali, Rick? What are you doing in my room?”

“Shepard! I… We…” the quarian had been surprised and if she didn’t wear a mask the commander would have been able to see the face of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Isn’t it obvious? We’re having se…” He was immediately cut off when an elbow found itself smashed against his side.

“We’re not!”

“Don’t worry we didn’t snoop around. Not like we’d be interested anyway. The only thing here is your clothes and no one is interested in your Alliance’s underwear.”

“Rick!” Tali exclaimed in indignation.

Shepard just closed her eyes and took a deep breath, counting backwards from ten until she reached zero and exhaled.

“Let’s start again. You’re in my personnel cabin because?”

“We’re working on a new project. A new kind of fast reload for a shotgun one handedly.” Tali explained, gathering her wits.

“And you couldn’t do that elsewhere?”

“No, this is the only place on the ship which is quiet, secluded and where the crew won’t stare at Tali intentionally or not. Honestly, I thought of the briefing room first but it’s not adapted as it has no table and the chairs are fixed. I don’t know who designed that room but he should be fired or sued, or both, because it's a painful waste of space.” answered Rick.

The redhead looked at the two for a moment, not quite knowing what to say. It was an invasion of her privacy but Rick had been right. She had nothing personal here but her clothes. There was her personnel terminal, true, with plenty of Alliance information along her private mail but she knew neither of them needed to be there to hack into it and have access to those. She thought about the part concerning the stares Tali got from the crew. She didn’t like that one bit and will have a talk with the quarian later about it later. In the end… There was no reason to be mad at them, especially when they were working and she wasn’t using the room, beyond the fact that on principle you don’t intrude in someone's private quarters.

“Shepard?” Tali asked tentatively.

“Yes? Sorry, I was thinking for a moment. I need the report on Zhu’s Hope and what was that about a new kind of fast reload for a shotgun? ”

“The report is there.” Rick said, turning halfway and extended his hand to grab a datapad on Shepards desk.

“As for the fast reload part…” he added, giving the redhead the datapad then signaling Tali to show what they did and explain.

“It works like that.”

Shepard sat down next to Tali and looked at the design she was showing her.

“It’s based on an old human rifle design that Rick showed me, where the loading of a new bullet was done with the hand pulling the trigger and not the hand used for stability. Of course no one uses bullets anymore but we still use projectiles, multiple at the same time in the case of a shotgun.”

“Okay, so far I understand, reload with the trigger hand instead of the support hand.”

“With a modern weapon there is a small chunk of metal inside of it, every time you pull the trigger it chips a small part of it, the side of a grain of sand, that it propelled at sonic speed via the use of electromagnetic field and mass effect or something like that.” Rick picked up the explanation.

“Yes, though the propelling part is more complicated but it doesn’t matter here.” Tali commented before adding the rest.

“When you pump a shotgun it does three things. One: you chip more than one grain but several. Two: load those grains into the barrel chamber. Three: use your support hand.”

“So, your new design only does the first two, freeing your support hand to do something else, is that right?”

“Yes!” Tali exclaimed.

“But I don’t understand how you reload with your trigger hand, don’t you still have to pump? Isn’t it impossible one handedly?”

“Not if you use it smartly. Come on, centerfold, show her.”

Nodding, Tali activated her omni-tool and quickly searched for the video Rick had shown her earlier. It was a sample of a movie where the protagonist did what Shepard was concerned about. Finding what she was looking for she showed it to the redhead and played it. The video was clearly from a very old movie as a man was riding a motorcycle, the kind they used until the mid 21st century, working with fuel, holding the handlebar with his left hand and a shotgun with his right. When he fired, he just spun his weapon in a circle then shot again. Shepard asked to replay that part three times, to understand correctly how it worked.

“That’s… an interesting reloading method, a bit acrobatic but interesting.”

“It’s not without flaws though.” Tali confessed.

“Yes, the reloading time can be slightly longer if in the hands of someone untrained which is the second flaw; you can’t give that reloading system to someone not skilled. The third flaw is that your arm is taking the recoil, not your body. That can be fixed easily though.”

“Yes, I think so with some shock absorbent vambrace on the trigger arm.” replied Tali.

“Finally, you’ll have to aim again but it’s a shotgun so in most cases it should not be a problem since a shotgun is not made for accuracy to begin with.”

Shepard's eyes were locked onto the design, thinking of the pros and cons in a fight.

“It’s clearly not from every fighting style but I see the value in it.”

“Actually…” began Tali.

“The fast reload is not but the design is, as we put the two methods in the design.”

“That way, depending on the situation you can switch from one to another, smart. Won’t the… handle be a nuisance for the people not using it though?” Shepard commented.

“Not at all, since the handle can be removed or possibly even better put back inside the stock. I’m still working on that.” Tali explained.

“So it wouldn’t change a thing… Did you think about adapting to other types of weapon?”

“We were when you came in.” the quarian said.

“The sniper rifle is the type that could profit from it the most. Instead of pulling back the loading bolt removing your hand from the trigger, you just pumped down. No hand fumbling during a stressful moment.” detailed Rick.

“Honestly? I’m impressed! I could send it to Admiral Hackett if you want, he might be interested.”

“Really?!” exclaimed Tali in surprise.

“Sure, having a hand free to do something else is worth it in my opinion.If that’s the kind of work the two of you do when you sneak in here, then sneak all you want.”

“We need to work on it a bit more though.” announced Rick.

“Change the design a bit to be more ergonomic and pretty to the eye. See if we can adapt it to all types of shotguns or create a new type.” Tali began listing the tasks still needed to be done.

“Then do the same for the sniper rifle. That way we send everything in one go.”

“Make prototypes and record their working, because the video I showed you is very very low quality.”

“That’s not surprising, it’s nearly a two hundred years old movie.”

“Then there are the blueprints of course.”

“And the royalties after we get the pattern recognized.”

“Royalties? What Royalties?” Asked Shepard suddenly confused.

“What? Did you think we’ll give our work for free to the alliance? By the way, centerfold, I’m good with a fifty-fifty split between us.”

“Deal!”

“Wait a second! I can’t promise you any money!”

“Of course not, but Hackett could present our work to people interested  and with the means, then the cash would flow. That would help centerfold a lot with her pilgrimage.”

The commander didn’t know what to say. She alternatively looked at Rick and Tali for a moment but she snapped out of it.

“I’ll talk to Admiral Hackett about it later, I have a report to read.”

____________________________________________________________

Shepard had chosen to take Rick, Ashley and Tali with her to Zhu’s hope. It was a new thing, a four person team. It was Rick that advised her to change from a three one. That way if there is a need to be separated one member will not be alone. The idea had merit and she went along with it.

Joker had found and accessed a landing zone for the Normandy. A barely standing dock bay in truth but it was enough. They didn’t go farther than twenty feet when a human male welcomed them. That is, if telling them to go see a man named Fai Dan which was apparently their leader, can be considered a welcome. No “welcome to Zhu’s hope”, or no “ Hello”. Straight to the point. He was talking about the geths when Rick pushed him backwards behind some cover.

“Geths!”

Immediately the team sprang into action and took cover too as no sooner they were fired upon. Thankfully the terrain was advantageous,  it was a one way corridor with plenty of boxes, crates and containers on the side to take cover. The problem was, it was advantageous for both sides.

Rick picked up his sniper rifle, with the geths playing hide and seek, he couldn’t do a biotic charge; making using his shotgun a bit useless, but since the corridor was rather long and he was well hidden it was perfect for sniping. It was actually the first time he was using a sniper rifle on the field. He had been trained to use pistols, shotguns and assault rifles but not a sniper one. After discussing at length with Garrus, who was an ace at it, and some training, he was confident he wouldn’t do too badly. He was right to be. He killed three geths including one by headshot.

The more geths they killed the more they advanced until they arrived at a stairwell. Looking at his radar, there were some red dots moving around. Considering the limited space, it only meant one thing.

“You remember those assholes that jumped everywhere on Therum?”

“The small, lithe ones?” asked Ashely.

“Yes, them. I can count at least two in that stairwell.” he announced, switching weapons for his shotgun, his sniper rifle being completely useless in such a tight space.

They entered the staircase and moved slowly, when specks of stones fell from the walls, they fired with everything they had, transforming one of the stalkers into Swiss cheese. The other thought it was smart and came from above behind them but crashed into the biotic barrier Rick created immediately after the fall of the first geth. Tali’s shotgun disintegrated his head, making an end to the threat.

“I hate those things.” Ashley said, kicking the body at her feet.

Shepard opened her omni-tool and looked at her radar. The coast was clear. As she began to move towards the colony, Tali brought her to a stop.

"Wait?! What about that guy?"

"What guy?" replied Shepard, confused.

"The weirdo I got out of the way. I knocked him out in accident." said Rick, making the commander make a face he couldn’t understand.

"What is it?"

"Nothing! Just…The pot calling the kettle black."

Rick turned to face her and paused. Slowly he looked at her from head to toe, inclining his head as his gaze lowered, then raised it back up to look again at her face and let out a snort. He resumed his advance, taking the lead, ignoring Shepard’s question of “what did that mean?”.

They arrived at what seemed to be the heart of Zhu’s Hope. Everyone  except Tali had a feeling of déjà-vu. Debris everywhere, things burning, wounded. It was Eden Prime all over again in some ways. No colonists were lazing around, they either had a weapon in hand guarding the accesses or a tool, fixing something. All were exhausted. Asking around they got their leader’s, Fai Dan, position and went to talk to him. The talk was interrupted by a geths assault. Fortunately this time there were no stalkers so they were quickly and properly dealt with.

Apparently, Saren had showed up with his army of geths, looking for something. What? Nobody knew but it was in the Exo-geni company’s quarters way above the skyline. It was from there that the geths came pouring down on the colony. They’ve been resisting for nearly three months now but were at their wits end. They needed food, a new source of drinkable water, energy cells to power what was necessary. Having a look around, the team began to talk.

“Honestly I’m surprised they are still alive.” said Ashley.

“Me too. Looking at the place though…” Rick didn’t finish his thought.

“Only two entrances, well covered with enough debris. Good installation, sleeping quarters, mess, infirmary and with the personnel to make it work.” Analyzed out loud Shepard.

“What do we do?” Tali inquired.

Taking a moment to think she considered all the options she could think of. They had to help the colonists but also get rid of the Geths. That would take time. That is if they stayed as one team. She looked at Rick for a moment who seemed to have understood the plan and sighed.

“This is not why I pushed for a four person team but good decision.” he said walking away into the tower.

“Where is he going?” asked the quarian, confused, so was Ashley.

“Find what the colony needs. We… are going to that Exo-geni facility, deal with the geths there and find anything that could lead us to Saren.”

Ashley looked with worry at her lover’s back disappearing farther ahead. Something that Shepard didn’t miss.

“He can handle himself. Besides, he’s going to the sewers. I doubt there is anything dangerous there, especially geths.”

Grouping up, they made their way to their destination.

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