"Good afternoon. Please state the purpose of your visit."
"Business meeting."
"You…"
I didn't let the girl at the reception desk finish and showed my ID badge on my omni-tool. She went a little pale.
"Mr. Shepard… It's a great honor to see you in our branch office. Shall I inform Director Smirnov that you've arrived? Though… he has a client right now…"
"I know. That client is exactly who we came to speak with. So tell Alexei that I'm here and that I have guests with me. And if his client still isn't free, have a table set for us. Nothing extraordinary—just drinks and some snacks…"
I looked at the girls with me with a hint of doubt.
"Yes, and no alcohol."
Jane answered for everyone, and I gave the girl a brief look—asking without words, "Understood?" She didn't disappoint me and nodded quickly.
After that, everything took less than five minutes. She told Alexei we'd arrived, let us inside at once, explained how to get to his office, and then drinks and snacks were brought in.
"And this is nothing extraordinary?"
Rebecca surveyed the snacks and drinks with mild surprise.
"Well, I assume they brewed the drinks just now. I don't deny my representatives small weaknesses. They like quality, expensive drinks? Let them drink. For the corporation budget, ordering the best asari tea for every branch is nothing—at least compared to our usual orders. Though sometimes the reps do get carried away…"
I took a sip of tea, hiding a toothy grin behind the cup.
"…And then their fate is extremely sad."
"Hm…"
Jane shot Rebecca a menacing look, and she fell silent.
"Jane, no need to worry that much. I don't punish people for questions, and if any of you touch on something serious, I'll say so outright: corporate secrecy. So stop scaring Rebecca with your 'I'll rot you in the brig' stare."
"See? Heard that?"
Rebecca stuck her tongue out at Jane.
"So what does your corporation even do? I mean… I've heard rumors—weapons, shipbuilding… colonization… but that seems like too much. I don't really understand corporations, but… you can't be professionals at everything, can you?"
"You've gotten close to a forbidden topic… but you still haven't crossed the line. And answering your question—yes, you can and should be professionals at everything. After all, it's not me developing all this. It's the specialists I hire."
I took another sip of tea, popped a small sweet into my mouth, and closed my eyes in pleasure. Asari not only love and know how to wear indecent outfits—they also make food that's more than excellent. That pleasant edge of sweetness, where it feels like one more step and the dessert will become cloying, but it never does.
"Now, producing everything on an industrial scale—yeah, that's not an option. No amount of investment would be enough. If I sold the controlling share, like my father did once, then I could start producing not only weapons but other equipment too. Maybe I'd even have enough for industrial shipyards. But I put so much effort into buying back the controlling share…"
More precisely, Aria did. Not effort in the sense of buying it back, but effort in the sense of birch rods across my ass whenever I couldn't absorb one lesson or another. And afterward, I applied those lessons to buying the controlling share again—and it turned out surprisingly easy.
"…that I have zero desire to repeat that experience."
Yeah, because Aria would show up, pull out the birch rods, and hammer knowledge into me through my rear entrance. Honestly, I don't understand how she ever could've lost Omega in canon. She's not an ordinary asari—she's worth an entire battalion by herself!
"So my corporation mainly sells weapons and handles colonization. Those two can be combined, because we don't mindlessly send colonists 'somewhere out there'—we deliberately build defenses for the planets and systems under our control. Everything else we do only for personal use. Though we do sell some patents."
"Got it…"
"Apologies for making you wait."
Alexei walked into the office, and behind him stood a girl in a standard quarian enviro-suit.
"And this is the guest you wanted to meet."
"Tali'Zorah…"
Tali squeaked her name softly, and I couldn't help being charmed by her. One of my favorite canonical characters—Tali'Zorah! I remembered that when I played the first game, I regretted so much that I couldn't romance her, and in the second—
Whew.
"John Shepard, owner of this modest corporation."
I allowed myself a smirk.
"So, Miss Tali, you said you have important information you'd like to sell?"
"Yes… honestly, at first I wanted to sell it to the Shadow Broker, but… at the last moment, I remembered your branch office is on the Citadel, and that for the last ten years your corporation has helped my people a great deal. So it was obvious who to sell it to."
"It's nice to hear my efforts haven't gone to waste and that quarians think of my corporation when they have something important for humanity. So?"
Under my steady gaze, Tali started fiddling with her fingers in embarrassment.
"Still, first I think it'll be more comfortable if you sit."
I gestured at an empty chair, while my representative calmly went behind his desk, turned on the computer display, and started working.
"Y-yes… thank you…"
Tali sat down, but the embarrassment didn't go away.
"…But I want to clarify the payment. I'd like something I could present to the Fleet as proof that my Pilgrimage was successful."
"And considering you're an admiral's daughter, they expect something incredible from you?"
"Well… yes…"
She nodded, clearly embarrassed.
"Let's do it this way. If you brought truly important information, we'll think together about what you could present to the Fleet. If it's something less important and I can prove that to you, you'll get a cash reward and an offer to work for me. And if it's something that humanity's survival depends on…"
I looked intently at Tali. She seemed to tense up at those words.
"…then you'll get a frigate. Not the newest, of course, but as you understand, corporations like mine replace ships periodically—not because the old ones became unfit for service. So I'll transfer one of the decommissioned but still serviceable ships to you. And to avoid any questions, you'll evaluate the ship's condition yourself."
"Really?!"
"Yes."
I nodded briefly, barely holding back a smile, because Tali looked so inspired right now… damn it, I think if I said that, in addition to the info, she'd have to sleep with me, she'd forget her embarrassment and only ask what position. And that's not me inventing something—she was genuinely showing it in her voice and body language. Which was understandable: the Migrant Fleet doesn't often get a chance to acquire a relatively modern ship, even a small one.
"I…"
Tali took a few deep breaths to calm down, but her voice still trembled with excitement.
"…I—well, we—when we were flying to the starting point of the Pilgrimage, we detected a geth ship, and that was very strange. So we decided to follow it. Unfortunately, my group died, but… they managed to destroy the geth, and I managed to pull an information package from one of them before the damaged geth self-destructed."
"Wait…"
Chifuyu raised a hand, stopping Tali, and Tali shrank in her chair.
"…I'm not a pro, but don't geth destroy all data when someone tries to extract information? Some kind of complicated security system… I read about it when I was interested in the geth and your conflict with them."
"Yes…"
Tali nodded, and it was clear she was extremely surprised that someone had taken interest in her people's history.
"…That's true, but I'm a very good technician and hacker, so I managed to bypass the issue. Anyway, the data I wanted to sell is a short recording I extracted from the hacked geth."
She activated her omni-tool, and we immediately heard the recording.
"'We achieved a major victory on Eden Prime. The beacon has brought us one step closer to the Conduit.'"
It was Saren's voice, and he definitely said "Conduit" like a proper name. And honestly, I was ready to jump like a little girl at a rock concert. That was the canonical recording! The very one that got Saren stripped of his Spectre status!
"'And one step closer to the Reapers.'"
The recording ended, and we sat in silence, thinking. I had a lot to think about, because the second voice clearly didn't belong to Benezia.
"What is this Conduit?"
"Not a conduit—a Conduit. Saren clearly wasn't saying a common word; it's a name… and I think it's something related to transportation."
"Transportation?"
Everyone looked at me, including the quarian.
"Yeah. A conduit… it usually connects things and you move through it, right?"
"Well… theoretically…"
Jane nodded doubtfully.
"…And considering the beacon, that means it's some kind of Prothean technology. So it's their transportation system?"
"Most likely."
I nodded.
"And the Reapers?"
Rebecca said the name thoughtfully.
"Well… considering Jane's visions after contact with the beacon, the Protheans wouldn't call anything good 'Reapers.'"
"So the recording was useful?"
Tali asked in a very quiet voice, drenched in embarrassment.
"Hard to say…"
I glanced at Rebecca, and she fell silent. Smart girl—she understood.
"The recording was useful, but… it's not very informative. You see, not long ago Saren attacked Eden Prime—the same place mentioned in the recording. And he attacked alongside the geth."
"The geth?!"
Tali was shocked—outraged, even. She didn't hold back, and anger slipped into her tone.
"Yes. And after that it was already clear something was going on. From your recording, it became clear that it's something very bad—but what exactly? Who is it a threat to? It's hard to draw any conclusion from this recording. If it included the next point on his route, or explained who the Reapers are, that would be different—but it doesn't."
Tali lowered her head.
"Hey, don't worry. Like I said, even though it's sparse, it's still useful. And while I can't offer a ship for it… maybe I can offer something else?"
"Something else?"
Tali looked at me with interest.
"Yes. I know most of your ships are very old…"
Tali clenched her fists, apparently taking that as mockery. It wasn't.
"…and that they need repairs. No…"
I raised a hand, not letting her speak.
"…I'm sure brilliant technicians can keep your ships operational for a long time. But without space docks, it's extremely difficult. And my corporation has shipyards. Of course, I can't provide all of them, but…"
I looked carefully at Tali.
"…I'm ready to allocate two shipyards for the quarians, so you can use them to repair your ships."
"What do you want in return?"
Tali immediately understood I wasn't offering it for nothing.
"I want your pilgrims—and any quarians who want it—to work in my colonies, and especially at the shipyards. Not for free, of course. They'll be paid a fair wage."
Tali froze…
Truthfully, I could have done something like this long ago—I even planned to—but the life-giving birch rods stopped me. Aria spent a long time telling me that cards like these are best kept up one's sleeve until the last possible moment. And that it would be the simplest and most effective way to recruit Tali. Not just recruit her—make her my most loyal follower.
When I cautiously said they wouldn't have time to prepare, she simply said we didn't need them to. We needed the quarians to feel indebted to us—so that when the Reapers came, they'd defend our systems instead of fighting the geth. And the only way to achieve that was to offer them meaningful help, then provide everything necessary for a comfortable life.
In short, she did a lot back then to keep me from contacting the Migrant Fleet the moment I had the chance. Instead, I built relations through good working conditions for quarians.
"This… this… this…"
Tali's voice trembled.
"Thank you so much!"
She dropped from the chair to her knees and bowed low, hitting the table with her helmet. The table jolted and the dishes clinked.
"Alright, get up."
I tried to make my voice strict.
"There's nothing to thank me for yet. This is an offer you must relay to your father, the admiral. If everything goes well and he agrees, then I'll pass the instructions to the shipyards and the colonies. And if he doesn't…"
"He'll agree! He'll definitely agree!"
At that moment, my omni-tool signaled an incoming call—it was Anderson.
"Excuse me, I have to take this…"