Author's notes: OK guys, this one was a doozy. It wasn't terribly long, but I kept running into walls, and I've been busy, as usual. I was hoping the summer would see me less busy, but that has not turned out to be the case. Also, this chapter was somewhat more difficult to write for some reason. I can't really explain why. Anyhow, I hope it was worth the wait, so please, read and enjoy, and I'd love to hear your feedback, as always.

Incursion

John stood at his equipment locker in the cargo bay. He had gone there initially to gear up and get ready to deploy in the Mako. He had stopped, however, when he found a necklace that he had with him when he thawed. It was a necklace he had made for his mother when he was young, probably seven or eight, though he couldn't remember for sure. His mother had given it back to him before he crawled into the cryo pod, and he took it. When he thawed he never wore it again. It simply reminded him of too much. He clutched it now, palm closed. He took a deep breath, and opened his palm to reveal the crucifix that he had made two centuries ago. It consisted of two square nails to represent the nails used to crucify Christ. They intersected in a cross, and were bound together at the point of intersection by a copper twine. A simple leather string ran through a hole in the upper part of the vertical nail, allowing it to be worn as around the neck. As he looked upon the necklace for the first time in nearly seven years, his mother came to mind. All the times she'd scolded him, grounded him, held him when he'd skinned his knee, gave him advice about the first girl he'd liked. He thought of his father, the rest of his family, his friends. His cousin, who had been closer than a brother to him. Images flooded his mind of the crowd cheering when he made a big play on the basketball court, his friends, sitting around the table at Buffalo Wild Wings, laughing while the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat played in the background. Tears welled in his eyes, and he closed his hand over the cross again. He explosively threw the necklace back in his locker and slammed the door. The pain was too much. John clenched his fists and took a deep, steadying breath, trying to swallow the sobs. He ignored the looks he was getting from the others in the cargo bay. He took another breath. Move. Do something. He had to do something, or the sorrow would overwhelm him.

John strapped his breastplate on over his undershirt. He put his greaves on and slipped his gloves over his hands. Still blinking back tears, he made a mental note to buy some better armor next time they docked someplace with an arms dealer. He slipped his breather helmet over his head, and snapped his pistol to his hip and standard issue Hahne-Kedar Avenger sniper rifle to his back along with his Lancer assault rifle and Katana shotgun. He didn't particularly like carrying the shotgun, but Shepard liked for everybody to be prepared for anything. They didn't expect any combat, but Casbin's surface was uncharted, so anything could happen.

Having gathered all his gear, John moved to the Mako, where the others were waiting. Shepard nodded to him. John returned the nod. "Shepard," he said. "Garrus, Tali," he addressed the other two with a nod, which they reciprocated.

"Everybody ready to go?" Shepard asked. Everyone signaled an affirmation. "Alright, climb in then." Shepard opened the door, and John climbed into the front-right seat, which housed the engineering console, while Garrus and Tali climbed into the rear seats. John powered up the engineering terminal, bringing the diagnostics and comms online. "Get me the bridge," Shepard ordered. John obliged.

"Mako to bridge. Comm check. You read me, Joker?" he said into the console.

"I read you, Chief," Joker replied.

"What's our ETA to Casbin?" Shepard asked.

"About fifteen minutes, Commander."

"Understood. We're ready to go down here, Joker. Open the cargo door when you're ready to drop us."

"Aye aye. Bridge out."

John continued working. "Diagnostics come back clean, cap. I'm bringing the drive core online now." A faint hum built up in the back of the rover, where the mass effect core was located.

"Wait, a mass effect core? What's that for?" Garrus asked. John turned to look at him.

"You mean you guys don't know?" Garrus and Tali both shook their heads. John opened his mouth to tell them, but stopped as Shepard put a hand on his arm. John looked at him and saw a mischievous grin as he shook his head ever so slightly. John chuckled. "Guess you guys are gonna have to find out later," John said, turning around to face forward again. John took the remaining time to Casbin to show Garrus and Tali basic things about the engineering console; navigation, diagnostics, communications, drive core readings. "And all those gauges Shepard has over there," he motioned vaguely in the direction of the driver's dashboard, "you've got right here." He moved a swiveling screen that was attached to the ceiling into a position where they could see it. "Speedometer, tachometer, gas, temperature, and battery gauge." He pointed out each dial as he named it.

"Wait, a tachometer?" Tali asked. "So this thing runs on an internal combustion engine?"

"Yes, but it's cleaner than the ones you're thinking of. The old ones, like the ones old cars ran on back on Earth, were polluting machines and ran on non-renewable fossil fuels. This one runs on a much more efficient and clean horizontally opposed eight-cylinder engine and cleanly burns renewable fuel from a hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell." Tali nodded seeming to understand.

"Bridge to Mako," Joker's voice crackled from John's console, "Dropping the door now," The cargo door opened as Shepard ignited the engine.

"Copy, Joker," Shepard replied. "We're deploying now. Stand by for further orders."

"Shepard," Garrus said, fear lacing his voice, "what are you doing? How do we deploy in this thing?" Shepard just grinned as he put the rover in gear and rolled forward. "Oh, spirits help me," Garrus said just before the Mako plummeted from the ship toward the planet's surface. John heard Tali screaming, and laughed, despite the feeling that his stomach was in his throat. He was prepared for it. They weren't. He waited several seconds, and when they were about ten stories above the surface he engaged the mass effect core and fusion torches underneath the vehicle. The descent slowed, and the vehicle came to a safe, albeit rough, landing on the surface of Casbin.

The cabin of the Mako was silent for a long time. The only sound was that of Garrus and Tali's heavy breathing.

"You guys are assholes," Garrus finally said. John and Shepard looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Bosh'tets," Tali muttered.

"Why didn't you say anything, John?" Garrus asked.

"Orders are orders, Garrus," John replied through his own laughter.

"Assholes," Garrus repeated. He said some more things that John's translator didn't translate, presumably turian curses.

"You guys can be mad at us later," Shepard said, "but it was damn funny. And right now we have work to do."

They rode around for several hours. As Shepard drove, John would chart the navigational data and send it back to the Normandy, where he would catalog and archive it later. Every so often he would stop and explain something to Tali and Garrus, either about the console, repairs, or general protocol in the Mako. They stopped multiple times to survey and mark mineral deposits as well.

"Watch this hole here, Shepard. It's a doozy," John told Shepard, looking at the topographical scanner as they approached a deep pothole.

"What hole? Where?" Shepard said, unable to find it without the scanner.

"Right there." John pointed at it through the display window.

"I don't see- Shit, there it is." Shepard said as he ran directly over the hole. John heard a loud pop, and the cabin of the Mako began to rattle. "What's that?" Shepard asked. John already knew, but he started up a diagnostic anyway just to check.

"Stop the Mako," he said. Shepard obliged, bringing the vehicle to a halt. The results of the diagnostic appeared on John's screen. "Ah shit, I knew it. Blew the shock."

"Is that a problem? Can we ride with a broken shock?"

"Sure, but I wouldn't recommend it. Might damage the struts or sway bars."

"Damn it." Shepard sighed. "What other options do we have then?"

"Should be a spare in the cargo compartment somewhere. I can replace it here; I've got the tools I need in there too."

"How long would that take?"

"Uh… couple hours, maybe."

"Well the radar shows the next mineral deposit is only a couple of miles away. Garrus and I can go on foot. Tali can stay with you and give you assistance."

John's heart palpitated. "I don't really need assistance…" he began.

Shepard shook his head. "I'm not leaving you alone out here."

"Okay, fine. You guys go on. I'll get to work." John opened his door and hopped out of the rover. Tali followed. As Garrus and Shepard walked away, he moved to the back of the vehicle and opened the trunk. He located the spare shock absorber and a 12 millimeter ratchet. For all the technological advances, they still used the same damn tools. He pulled out all the tools that he would need and set to work. He used the floor jack to lift the Mako of the wheel with the bad shock. He took the wheel off using the lug wrench. He lay down next to the rover and rolled underneath it and began to take the bad shock off. He would occasionally enlist help from Tali, but mostly it was a one-man job. John tried to teach her about the rover, and she would sometimes ask questions about how something worked, and he did his best to answer them, though he didn't know everything about the Mako. He was trained for starship engines, not land-based rovers. He worked, sweated, swore, when something went wrong, and laughed triumphantly when he got around it. It reminded him of when he used to work on his car. Ultimately, the job took about two hours.

Finally, John tightened the last bolt into place to secure the new shock absorber into the suspension. He rolled out from under the Mako and scooped up the old shock. He went to the trunk, where Tali was standing, and tossed it in.

"Do you need help?" Tali asked.

"Yeah if you could just pick up for me, that'd be awesome," John replied. Tali nodded and moved to where John had been working. John stood for a moment at the trunk, trying to catch his breath. Working on the Mako, or any vehicle, really, always tired him out. He watched a bead of sweat drip from his nose.

At that moment, John heard an unmistakable stuttering sound coming from behind him.

Geth.

Recognizing the sound immediately, John turned around, pulling his assault rifle from his back as he did so, and, without even bothering to expand it, swung it with two hands like a club or a baseball bat. It connected with a geth trooper. The armor plating on its chest crumpled underneath the blow, and the unit fell, immobilized. He turned on a second geth unit, which had yet to pull its own weapon out. Apparently the geth weren't expecting hostiles. Still without expanding the rifle, he bashed the unit in the light on its head. He was rewarded with a crunch as the light was crushed and winked out. The trooper stumbled backwards, and John stepped forward, expanding his rifle and unloading on the geth. Its shields quickly failed under the hail of gunfire, and it was handily disabled. He turned around and walked up to the first geth, which was struggling to get up with its crumpled chest plate hampering the movement of its limbs. He put the barrel of his weapon to its chest, beneath its shields, and squeezed the trigger until the geth moved no more.

John let his weapon hang at his side. He stood there for a moment, confused. Why were geth here? What did they want? How had they found him? If they found John then… Oh shit! Shepard! Garrus! Had they found them yet? He had to warn them.

"Shepard do you read me?" John said loudly and urgently into his communicator.

An agonizingly long second bridged the gap. "I hear you John. What's wrong?" came the reply from Shepard. John exhaled a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding in.

"Shepard! We've got geth on this planet!" he answered as Tali rounded the corner of the Mako, shotgun out and at the ready. She balked at the sight of the geth bodies, and John held up a finger to indicate to her to wait a moment.

"What? Are you guys alright?" Shepard's voice crackled through the comm.

"We're fine. It was just two troopers. Looks like a patrol to me. Didn't seem like they were expecting hostiles either, but if they were linked with the other geth then the rest know we're here."

"Right. Hang on, we're coming back to you."

"The Mako is ready to go. I'll meet you halfway. Activate your transponder so I can see you on the radar.

"Copy. Shepard out."

Tali was still standing, dumfounded, where she came around the rover.

"How-? What the hell?" she said.

"No time! We have to get out of here." John replied, running to where the tools were. He scooped up as many as he could, then ran back to the trunk and dumped them unceremoniously into it. Tali followed suit. John frantically put the wheel back on the lug stems and tightened the nuts down on it. He lowered the vehicle off the jack, and then picked up the jack and the lug wrench and threw them into the trunk. He slammed the trunk door closed and climbed into the driver's seat of the Mako while Tali occupied the engineering seat. He fired up the engine and depressed the clutch pedal. He put the rover in gear then punched the gas pedal as he quickly released the clutch. The wheels spun for a moment before they caught traction and the Mako lurched forward.

John shifted into second gear, and allowed himself to relax somewhat. He had always preferred manual transmissions. He liked the control they offered over automatics. Or maybe it was because his first car was a stick. A five-speed 2.5 liter Subaru Impreza. That car ran like a champ. Either way, he liked that the Mako was a manual.

John geared down as he slowed. He rounded a hill, feeling the lateral acceleration pulling him toward the side of the Mako. After he came around the hill, he looked up from his tachometer to see Shepard and Garrus waving him down. He pressed the clutch and put the rover in neutral. He braked to a halt next to Shepard.

As John climbed out of the Mako, Shepard approached him. "What happened?" he asked, concern crossing his face.

"Two troopers appeared while I was finishing up. I took them down, but only because they didn't seem to be expecting me."

Shepard nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. "Okay, I doubt they're the only ones on this planet. They must have some kind of base of operations somewhere."

"Agreed. I'm pretty sure I picked it up on the radar. It showed an anomaly on the planet's surface. Not dense enough to be a mineral deposit, but definitely some metal."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it didn't seem important. The radar picks up anomalies all the time. It's usually bullshit stuff. I figured we'd get to it when we got to it."

"Okay, fair enough. No point in sitting around. Everybody hop in."

Nobody said anything as they all climbed into the Mako. John brought up the radar, paired it with the topographical scan he'd made when they first landed, and pointed out to Shepard where the base was.

"You see that hill over there?" he said, pointing to a wide hill in the distance.

"Yeah."

"That's a plateau. It's up there, on the other side."

"Got it."

Shepard put the Mako in gear and they began moving. Within minutes they were approaching the base. Shepard stopped the Mako at a safe distance.

"Should we take the Mako in, or infiltrate on foot?" John asked.

"That was the very same question I was asking myself, actually," Shepard answered.

Garrus spoke up, "Commander, I suggest the Mako. It's armored, and has more firepower than we brought with us to carry in as infantry. Plus John still needs to show us combat situations in the Mako."

"Good point, Garrus."

"I try."

Shepard nodded to him. "So are we ready to go? Weapons systems okay?"

John tapped a few buttons on his terminal. "Yeah weapons diagnostics come back clean. And that shock absorber seems to be holding up fine. We should be good to go."

"Alright then. Let's do it." Shepard began driving again.

The Mako approached the geth base. As soon as it was in range, the geth opened fire on the rover. John brought his hands to bear on the gunnery controls and returned fire. The base was set up as a semicircle, with a building in the back, where the half-circle ended. Metallic barriers and sniper towers reinforced the semicircle. Geth troopers, primes, and juggernauts could be seen in gaps between the barriers. A large lump lay in the middle of the semicircle, though John couldn't tell what the lump was.

John zoomed the optics in on a prime and fired the 155-millimeter cannon. The round hit the geth directly in the chest and exploded, destroying it along with a juggernaut and two troopers that were nearby. John grinned. As much as he loved his job in engineering, he loved the rush of the fight. The thrill of combat never got old.

The Mako rocked. He looked at the heads up display and saw that it had taken a rocket. Shields were at seventy five percent. He looked up at the nearest sniper tower and saw the rocket trooper that had shot at them. He aimed his targeting reticule at the tower and fired the cannon. It exploded in the sniper perch, and the tower toppled over on top of some troopers. "Convenient," John muttered to himself. His attention shifted when the large lump in the middle of the base started moving. He watched it shift and unfold, and his eyes widened when it revealed itself to be a geth colossus. "Holy shit!" John swore, firing a round from the cannon into it as Shepard swerved to avoid the missile it launched at the Mako.

"We have to get rid of that thing!" Shepard said.

"I know! I'm working on it!" John said, peppering troopers and juggernauts around the base with the coaxial mounted machine gun while he waited for the cannon to cool sufficiently to fire again. He glanced at the heads up display. Forty five percent shields. He fired another missile into the colossus and watched it flash as its shields went down. Shepard swerved again, but this time the missile he was attempting to dodge caught the back wheel of the Mako and sent it spinning. It came to rest facing the opposite direction from the colossus. John fought back a moment of panic when he saw that the Mako's shields were down.

"Damn it! No shields!" he yelled. Shepard stomped on the throttle.

"Hang on!" he said, turning the wheel. The Mako fishtailed as he turned it back the opposite direction to face the colossus and charged toward it. John immediately realized what Shepard was going to do and fired one last rocket into the colossus before bracing himself. Shepard drove the Mako at full speed toward the colossus and collided with it, knocking it back. It collapsed, and John fired a final round from the cannon to finish it off. It exploded, and John breathed a sigh of relief. It was short-lived, however, as he heard the telltale ping of geth rounds on the hull indicating that they still had no shields. Immediately John turned the machine gun on the remaining geth and opened fire. Trooper after trooper fell underneath the onslaught until the machine gun overheated. At that point, John used the cannon to blast the final group of geth to pieces.

John slouched in his chair, breathing heavily. He looked at Shepard.

"You're nuts," he said.

"Hey I didn't charge a prime on foot with nothing but a pistol!" Shepard shot back, smiling. John returned the smile.

"He has a point, John," Tali interjected.

"Maybe he does, but I didn't ram a colossus with nothing but a thin sheet of metal between me and getting blasted to oblivion!" Shepard laughed.

"Come on, we have to clear that building," he said, pulling up to the front of the building and opening his door. The rest climbed out. Shepard stood next to the door. "Standard stack and clear formation. Eyes peeled, people. We don't know what to expect. Garrus, you're on point." Garrus nodded and moved to the door. John fell in behind him, and Tali behind John. Shepard stood to the side. "Ready?" Shepard said.

"Ready," Garrus said.

"Ready," John said.

"Ready," Tali said.

"Breaching," Shepard said, waving his hand over the access panel of the door. The door opened, and Garrus moved through it. He began firing his assault rifle. John moved in behind him into a two-story atrium. It had tall crates, and pillars supported catwalks on the second floor of either side of the room. Garrus took cover behind the nearest crate. John sprayed his assault rifle at the geth in the room to give himself cover and sprinted for the nearest pillar. He leaned out from his cover and laid his finger on the trigger, giving Tali and Shepard time to find cover.

After he glanced over and saw that they were safe, John withdrew, leaning back behind his cover. He opened his omni-tool to look for heat signatures and assess the situation. He counted ten geth in the room. How they hell were they supposed to take down ten geth? Well, they did have Shepard, who was pretty much a tactical genius in a firefight. John looked around his pillar to see what they were up against. He saw seven troopers and three juggernauts, all behind various pieces of cover. Yeah, this was gonna be tough. He overloaded the shields of one trooper and watched it stumble as the electric pulse shorted out its shield battery. He disabled it with a burst from his assault rifle. Nine.

"Hey, John? Ready to charge another big-ass geth?" Shepard's voice crackled in his helmet.

"Hell yes," John replied.

"See the juggernaut behind the back pillar? Try to move up on it, flank it. If you can get rid of it, we'll have another- Damn it! Tali hack that trooper! If you can get into that position, it'll be a great firing position on the others. We'll give you cover. Wait for my go."

"Copy. Ready when you are."

"Wait for it… COVERING FIRE! Go, John!" Gunfire erupted from his squadmates, and John sprinted for the farthest pillar, where the juggernaut was hunkered down. He stopped behind the pillar, just around the corner from the juggernaut. He leaned his back against the pillar.

"I'm good, Shepard," he said into his comm. He reached around the pillar and grabbed the juggernaut by the top of its chest plate, where the gap in its armor was. He pulled as hard as he could, and the juggernaut fell over. It rolled over onto its back and pointed its weapon at him, but John kicked it and sent it skittering across the room. He turned his assault rifle around and bashed the juggernaut in its neck with the butt of his rifle. Its light flickered, but stayed on, and the unit grabbed John's leg and pulled it out from under him, making him fall over onto his back. John kicked at its head with his free leg, and this time the light on its face went out. He kicked at the arm that held onto his ankle and broke the elbow joint, but it still maintained a grip on his ankle. Desperate, he kicked at the other arm that tried to grab him. He shot a few rounds from his rifle at the broken elbow and planted his free leg on the juggernaut. He yanked his leg as hard as he could, ripping the geth's forearm free from the rest of its arm. He rolled over, coming to a kneeling position with the geth hand still gripping his leg. He overloaded the juggernaut's shields, then leveled his assault rifle on it and squeezed the trigger as it tried to get up. Rounds exploded from the barrel of his weapon, and he hammered down on the trigger in bursts until the juggernaut no longer moved. Eight. Only once he had lowered his rifle did he hear the voice in his helmet. It was Garrus.

"John! Are you alright?" John shook himself out of his stupor and took cover behind the pillar, where he had a fantastic flanking position on the rest of the geth.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just had a little trouble with the juggernaut."

"You mind giving us a hand, then?"

"Not at all." John popped out of his cover and overloaded a juggernaut's shields. He brought it down with a few bursts from his rifle just as he had done earlier. Seven. He looked around the room and noticed two extra disabled troopers. Six. Five. This fight was becoming less lopsided by the minute. Tali hacked another trooper, and Garrus took it down with his assault rifle. Four.

The remaining four geth were entrenched on the other side of the room, bunkered down behind chest-high crates that had been pushed over in between the pillars. They would occasionally expose themselves to fire at them, but they would quickly withdraw themselves before anybody could pop their shields with gunfire or drain them. John quickly realized there was no way they were going to take them down from their current positions. Shepard seemed to realize this too, as he moved out from behind his crate and began moving toward the geth's entrenched position. He indicated for John to follow with a jerk of his head. John obliged, cradling his assault rifle and moving across the atrium to the last pillar on the other side. He appeared around the corner of the pillar and saw three troopers and a juggernaut. He tossed a grenade at the juggernaut, which hadn't even seen him yet, and watched it explode, destroying the juggernaut. Three. The other geth turned to face him, then, and didn't notice Shepard appear around the far pillar. Shepard blasted the nearest trooper with his shotgun several times and it fell. Two. Disposing of the final two was simple enough. John overheated a trooper's weapon with a high voltage electric pulse. It didn't burn it, like it would an organic, but its weapon no longer functioned, which made it almost too easy for John to disable it. One. When it fell, John saw the final dead trooper behind it with Shepard, weapon still raised, standing by his pillar. Zero.

John stood upright and lowered his weapon. "Regroup in the middle," Shepard said. Tali and Garrus came out from behind their cover, and they all met in the middle of the room. "Okay, scout this place and look for any intel, tech, or anything else we can use. John and Garrus, you sweep the second floor. Me and Tali will take the first floor." John nodded, and he and Garrus moved to a staircase in a corner of the room and took it to the catwalk on the second story. The crossed the catwalk and entered a room that ran the width of the building. A terminal was mounted into the wall on the other side of the room.

"Definitely a geth terminal. I'll check it out," John said, stepping up to it. He began to sweep the terminal for any useful intel. He actually found a lot of useful intel; geth troop placements, information on the geth themselves, and what he suspected was the reason they were in Alliance space. It was all encrypted, though, so John would have to bring it all back to the Normandy to decode it. He transferred the data to his omni-tool and reported back to Shepard.

"Found a lot of useful intel in a terminal upstairs, cap," he said.

"Good. Bring it back to the ship," Shepard said. "I want it in my report."

"Yes sir."

"You're telling me that you found geth on Casbin, Commander?" Admiral Hackett's image spoke from the screen in the comm room on the Normandy.

"Yes sir," Shepard replied. "A patrol stumbled across my chief engineer while he was fixing our rover, and he found their base of operations. We infiltrated and eliminated all of the geth inside."

"Did you find any clue about what the hell geth were doing in Alliance space?"

"Nothing immediate, sir. But John, my chief engineer, he found some encrypted data in a terminal. He thinks it may have something useful."

"Get it to me. I want to know what the geth were planning."

"My guess is preparation for an invasion, sir."

"Let's hope not. But we won't know for sure until I see that data."

"John's working on decoding it now.

"Understood. Include it in your full report, which I look forward to reading."

Shepard saluted. "Yes sir."

The admiral nodded. "Hackett out," he said before the comm screen blinked out of existence.

Tali stepped out of the elevator onto the crew deck. She had no idea where John was, but she wanted to ask him about something. She searched the crew deck, but didn't find him. She saw Kaidan, though, so she asked him, "Have you seen John? I needed to talk to him."

"Oh, yeah he came through here earlier. Went up to the CIC, said he got tired of 'being in the freaking engine room' all the time," Kaidan responded, using his fingers to quote John. He chuckled, and Tali smiled.

"Okay, thank you," she said before turning on her heel to go up the stairs to the CIC. She ascended the stairs and looked through the CIC. She finally found John sitting in the copilot's seat next to Joker. "Getting tired of being in the freaking engine room?" she asked. He turned to look at her and smiled.

"Yes," he replied with finality. "You know how much I'm in there? And it's not cuz I love to be in there like you."

"Hey, you know how much I'm in this pilot seat? It's not cuz I wanna be here all the time," Joker chimed in.

"Bullshit, Joker. You love flying. I don't care if you got creaky legs." John said.

"Eh, granted," Joker conceded. Tali laughed at the banter. The cockpit grew quiet, and Tali decided it was as good a time as any to ask.

"Hey, John, can I talk to you?" she asked.

"Yeah sure," John replied. Tali hesitated.

"Um, in private?" John gave her a meaningful look. He moved to get up but Joker held up a hand to stop him.

"Hey, don't bother getting up. I gotta take a piss anyway," he said, gingerly pulling himself out of his seat before limping away. John stood up and faced Tali.

"What's wrong?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice.

"Oh, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to talk to you about that geth data you found on Casbin."

"Oh," John replied, seeming to grow uncomfortable. "Okay, what's up?"

Tali took a deep breath then took the plunge. "Do you think I can have a copy of it?" she asked. John blinked in surprise.

"What for?" he asked. Oh no. He's going to turn me down.

"Well, I was hoping I could use it for my Pilgrimage gift." John blinked again. "It would mean a lot for my people. It would help us understand the geth. I know it's classified military data, but… Keelah, John, it could even put us back on the homeworld." Tali's voice grew desperate as she tried to explain to John why she wanted it.

John was silent for a long time, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Tali," he began meaningfully, "I-"

"Shepard to bridge. Joker, do you know where the hell John is?" Shepard's voice emanated from the pilot's interface, cutting John off. John turned around.

"Joker had to take a leak, cap, but I'm here. What do you need?"

"John, meet me in the comm room, and bring whatever part of that geth data you have decoded."

"Yes sir," John replied. He reached over to the copilot's terminal, where he'd been working, and pulled out an OSD from its console. He turned back to Tali and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll talk about this later, Tali. Promise," he said before removing his hand walking away toward the comm room. Tali sighed. She stayed in the cockpit until Joker returned. She told him where John had gone, and then left to return to the engine room.