Out For Karma: Mass Effect

[Book One] Chapter 21: Love and Conquest

Chapter 21: Love and Conquest

Liara was sitting at the mess’ table, looking absentmindedly at the hot coffee she had in her hands. She had not been ready to hear that story. If listening to it didn’t break her heart, the far away look and the dead eyes he had when he spoke about it with the silent tears falling down, certainly did. He didn’t explain to her why he was always wearing his helmet all the time now and not just during work hours but she understood through his tale. She wondered how could anyone heal from such a scar, how could anyone get past it and live a normal life after that? It was so much worse than just losing your spouse and a child.

She understood the man better now and was amazed that he immediately kept going instead of breaking down. Many others would have done so and no one would have blamed them. Rick Wald appeared as a cold, unfeeling man but she knew that there was some warmth in him, as he demonstrated every single time when they were together. Today she had witnessed a man who wasn’t unfeeling at all but instead was feeling too deeply and , since he didn’t understand them, buried them down so he could function more or less properly. Their talk just made them explode and made him drown in his own emotions, mainly by his guilt. If she hadn’t already been in love with him, his display of emotions certainly made it so. Her heart went out to him at that moment and she wished she could just take all his guild, all his pain and all his grief away. He was a good man and didn’t deserve that much suffering, not after the childhood he had. She did the only thing she could, she hugged him tightly and in silence, hoping that it would be enough to bring him some comfort. Was it five minutes or five hours? It was impossible to tell but when he pulled back from her. He silently wiped his tears and put his helmet back on. That was the moment Liara chose to give him some time alone. Standing up from her chair she gave him a one armed hug and left the room and ended up there.

“...Ra? Liaaaraaa?” came a voice by her side. Snapping out of it the asari turned her head to see Shepard speaking to her.

“Are you alright? You’re really… pale.”

“I.. I’m fine. The meld was just a bit… too much information and excitement at the same time. I just need to sit down a bit.”

“Don’t strain yourself, okay? Take as much time as you need.”

“Thank you, Shepard.” replied the asari with a small smile.

“Have you seen, Rick? I checked the cargo bay but nobody saw him since the end of the debriefing.”

“I… Is it an urgent matter? Because he wasn’t feeling well and he’s resting now.”

“No, it’s not but what’s wrong with him? He was fine the last time I saw him 3 hours ago.”

Goddess, Three hours?! Our talk didn’t last more than thirty minutes at best. Was I here lost in thoughts for the rest of the time?

“He’s…Hmm… He’s…”

She didn’t know what excuse to give the commander but the goddess must have been with her as the man in question exited the med-bay.

“Ha! Rick! I was looking for you! I have a job for you from Admiral Hackett but Liara told me you were not feeling well so it can wait.”

“I’m good. What does Stevie want my help for? Does he know I’m not cheap?”

There is no way that’s true! Were Liara’s thoughts but didn’t dare to voice them.

“I don’t know if Admiral Hackett knows or not but he’s at his wits end. His team of tech experts have been stuck on encrypted data far too long in his opinion and he thought maybe you could help.”

“The data must be really important if he asks someone who doesn’t have the best intentions at heart for the alliance to help.”

“I guess he thought it was better to have the information leaked than not having it at all.”

“I’ll take a look first then send him my price.”

“Good.”

Shepard turned around and went to her cabin. Rick followed her but stopped at Liara’s side. Removing the jaw part of his helmet, he kissed her on the temple, making her froze.

“Thank you.” was all he said before following the commander, leaving a very blushing asari behind on her seat.

That’s right, he loves me!

Remembering the one good and best thing of their talk, a small but happy smile graced her lips.

____________________________________________________________

“So the prototypes are a success.” Rick said, looking at the small container on the workbench with Tali by his side.

“The data said it would.”

“No. The data said it should. We may have made a mistake, forgot something or whatever else that could have given us false results.”

“Clearly, we did not.”

“That’s because we’re the best. But you know…”

“It never hurts to check.” Tali nodded in agreement. It was good to be confident about your skill but overconfidence was disastrous and something to watch out for.

“Now, I’ll just have to build a new gun to test its viability.”

“Actually…”

Without saying more he went to his corner of the cargo bay and opened a big metal box. From it he picked up a small pistol.

“You already built one?!”

“I wouldn’t say that. I mean, I looked at the type of container you were making and worked on trying to create this pistol to fit it in. It wasn’t easy but the weapons I salvaged from the geth were helpful.”

On their way to the Salarian camp in the Mako. Rick had picked up components as much as he could everytime they had to leave the vehicle to open the way. That’s why Tali had succeeded in creating some prototypes. Apparently he had also salvaged weapons.

Tali was having a closer look at the pistol and asked for the schematics which he gave her.

“At first glance it’s fine work. For someone not that good at hardware it’s pretty great.” she appraised.

“I had to step up my game. I couldn’t just give you the ideas and let you do all the actual work. It was tempting but I was both bored and curious so…”

“Thankfully the design sucks so I still have work to do.” she joked.

“What a back-handed way to point out that I will always need you.” answering in kind.

“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

“Be careful Miss Zorah, that cheek of yours may very well bite you back in your gorgeous ass.”

“As long as it’s not your teeth it’s fine.”

“What?!”

“I failed to follow your advice; Ashley talks a lot.”

“That woman and her mouth.”

“Are you referring to her talking or…”

“Both.”

“Too much information!”

“Once again, you asked!”

“I shouldn’t have!”

“And you said that again. Seriously Tali, there is nothing wrong with being curious or thinking about sex. I won’t think less of you.”

“I know! It’s just… such intimacy… that’s not natural for quarians. Not since we’ve been stuck in those enviro-suits. I mean, we do have sex this we’re still here but… it’s like an untold taboo for us. The closest to real sex we speak about is linking our suit to someone else.”

“Well, if you want to know more, there is always porn.”

“No thanks, I’m good.”

“Or you could watch Ashley and I.”

“What?!”

“I’m kidding! Though don’t say that to Ashley, she may take it seriously and go with it.” He said in a serious tone.

“Somehow, I do, picture her doing that.” she replied with a bit of dread in her voice.

Rick put his arm around her waist and pulled her close to his body.

“Or we could try it eh?!” He said looking down at her masked face.

“I have a gun in my hand, Rick.” she replied raising her hand with the said weapon while meeting his helmet face back.

“It’s not even loaded.”

Without diverting her gaze, she picked up the container on the table and put in the pistol.

“Shall we find out if it works?” she said in a threatening tone the gun under his chin.

“A woman after my own heart. Should I gather steel plates and you bring Shepard down?”

“Fine with me.” she said untangling herself from Rick’s embrace and making her way to the elevator.

____________________________________________________________

“That’s one nasty looking gun.” Shepard said, twirling the weapon in her hands.

“Not as much as your face!” replied Rick.

“What?!”

“He’s the one who made it. He did his best despite sucking at it.” Tali whispered in her ear.

“Oh!” Sheoard exclaimed in a low voice now understanding the situation.

“I mean, look at it! Very intimidating.” She said aloud trying to salvage the conversation.

“Just fire the damn gun.” Rick growled.

The commander took a shooting stand and was about to do so when Tali interrupted her.

“Wait!” she yelled, before going to one of the armor crates and came back with a pair of gloves. Shepard raised an eyebrow at her, not so sure she wanted to be the one doing the test anymore.

“It’s not going to blow up in my hands is it?”

“No. The container is safe, it’s..” she stopped her sentence, a bit embarrassed as to what she wanted to say.

“It’s the gun itself. I made it, so the chances of it working as intended are lower than if Tali was the one to build it. The data says it works though.”

“Since the gun is producing heat, should it not be dispersed into the container it’s the gun itself that will be burning hot. The gloves are for preventing you from getting burned if that happens.” the quarian explained further.

“So no explosion and missing fingers?”

“None.”

“I’m trusting you on that.”

Giving the gun to Tali she put the armored gloves on then took the weapon back. As she was about to shoot she was interrupted again, this time by Rick.

“Wait!”

“What is it this time?”

“I forgot to activate the shield.” he said as he walked hurriedly to the steel plate and activated the kinetic barrier.”

“Why a shield?” Shepard asked.

“Because the power of the gun is not what we’re testing here and neither is what we want to show you.” answered Tali.

“We want to test if the system works obviously, but more importantly to show you why, despite the fact that it seems a step back in technology it is actually better.”

“I doubt going back to ammunition is better than unlimited…”

“It’s not ammunition!” Rick said a bit too loud.

“Arlright, alright! Geez, relax!” she quickly said. She didn’t understand what the problem was but she was more interested in testing the gun so she dropped the matter.

“Remember, once you’re out of amm… shots. Once you’re out of shots...”

“I pull the top of the gun back and put a new clip in it then fire again as fast I can. I got it.”

“And when the shield fails, keep firing until you can’t anymore.”Rick added a last instruction.

Taking position for real the last time. She fired at her target. Every shot was stopped by the shield and when she was out of ammo, quickly did as she had been instructed. She pulled the top of the gun back and the container was ejected from it. Quickly reaching her side with her support hand she grabbed another container, put it in the gun and fired again. She did it one more time before the kinetic barrier failed but kept firing until she couldn’t anymore.

At that point she just looked at her target then her gun in silence. She didn’t need Rick or Tali to explain to her what just happened. Everyone in the room proficient with weapons knew. She had fired at a standard shield with a standard gun. So standard they were used for training by almost every army in the galaxy. They knew how much the shield could take, and how long it would last under the power of the standard gun.

The results were baffling. The shield was taken down way faster and with less shots than usual. Meanwhile the number of projectiles Shepard had fired in that short amount of time, would have taken way longer for the normal version of the pistol to reach. The reloading system was perhaps an inconvenience because of its limits of the number of shots but it was way faster than waiting for the weapon to cool down. That difference in time may very well be the difference between life and death. Shepard had doubted that the system would be better; she had been wrong.

“This… This is… I have questions.”

“Shoot.” Rick said.

“How come the shots are stronger?”

“That’s because there is no cooling system to limit the power as much anymore so the gun doesn't overload at every shot and produces so much recoil that it breaks your hands. With the heat being diverted we can raise the limit a bit.” Tali explained.

“Even with the shots being a bit more powerful the shield should not have failed that fast. Faster yes, but not to that point.”

“That’s because of how the kinetic barriers work. I’ll spare you the scientific babble and just say two immediate consecutive shots asked for more energy from the shield than two shots with a five second gap.” Tali explained.

“The energy drain is greater if you shoot faster, that’s what you mean?”

“Yes.”

“That’s… genius. How did you discover that?”

“Rick actually did.”

“I always wondered why the geths would use an older tech using ammunition. They would not do that if it wasn’t to their advantage. So I researched as much as I could and noticed that their opponents’ shields were failing faster. From there I studied the functionment of the kinetic barrier, found out why and that gave me the idea to adapt the tech.”

“So you stole geth tech?” Shepard asked.

“Hmmm… No? I took the principle and made my own version. Since the geths don’t feel the heat or the recoil they were only limited by the fire rate which was caused by the cooling system. They switch back to ammunition. I, instead, went for a heat sink conserving the power and speed of a projectile instead of lowering it. Increased them in fact.”

“The big brain at the alliance will keel over when they see that.”

“They will laugh first, then keel over.” Rick corrected her.

“Those guys have been working on bettering the cooling system for years!”

“Yeah well, they’re idiots and should be resigned to something else. I think they were so blinded by the unlimited use of the mass effect that they didn't even conceive that another solution was possible.”

“I suppose you’ll have no objection if I send a report to Hackett?”

“None.” Tali replied.

“Good.” She said as she handed the gun to Tali and removed her gloves.

“That’s not all though.” Rick said.

“You have something else?”

“Not to test but to talk about.” Tali explained.

“While the cooling system in a weapon is less effective, it is still useful.” Rick began.

“We intend to create a small portable one where we could place the used container in and make it cool down faster. That way you’ll never be out of… you’ll still be able to shoot.” added Tali avoiding the word ammunition.

“The problem is that you’ll have to pick up the container which is only really doable if you're behind some cover and the reusability is not limitless as the materials inside degrade with the heat. We think it can be used a total of three to four times at the very best.”

“Another thing, the container is supposed to be universal, meaning you could put it in a gun just like you could put it in a sniper rifle or a shotgun.”

“... The two of you are going to be the richest people in the alliance system.” replied why her mouth was slightly ajar.

“Meh, it’s just a step up for centerfold over here. She’s already the richest quarian. Give her a decade or two and she’ll be the richest in the galaxy.” Rick said, putting his arm around the shoulder of a very embarrassed Tali and pulling her to him.

“And after that it’s just world domination, I presume?” joked Shepard to tease the quarian.

“You got it. It will be weird to be ruled by a quarian, one younger than me at that, but I’ll get used to it.”

“As if anyone could rule over you!” Tali exclaimed, escaping his clutch.

“And while ruling the galaxy sounds nice, it would be too much boring work. I’m fine working on a ship.”

“The great Quarian Empress Tali’Zorah nar Milky Way.” he called her.

“Nar Milky Way?” Shepar asked.

“Of course I would own the entire Milky Way, so everywhere would be my home. I like it, maybe I should really go for it.”

“You may have created a monster. We may have to take her down.” the redhead said to the man

“First thing I’ll do is put a collar and a leash on you Rick so you can give me ideas after ideas to work on.”

“I stand corrected! All Hail the Quarian empress Tali’Zorah nar Milky Way!”

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