Mass Effect: Beauty and the Beast

Chapter 1: An Unlikely Prince

'Oh Keelah! I'm done for' is what the girl thought, she had only left home for two years and already she had gotten herself in a life-threatening situation. Her name was Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, a Quarian, from the Migrant Fleet; she is on her pilgrimage, and it was a rite of passage into adulthood for her people, but now it was a disaster. It started well enough, an odd job here and there, if she could get a job, Quarians weren't exactly looked upon with great respect by the rest of galactic community, in fact they were seen as less than trash. One day, she found a gold mine, an intact geth, synthetics created by her people who drove them off their home planet of Rannoch, the ones responsible for her people's humiliation, and extracted its memory core, before it could fry it. Now Tali wish she could be done with the damned core, because now she was being hunted down for the data in the core. The data revealed the betrayal of a council Spectre, an elite of the Citadel Council's military power, the Spectre was not happy about it, and set up a hit on her.

Now she is trapped, stuck in the corridors of the Wards, facing her three assailants, two salarians and a turian, she could fight back, after all she had trained with Migrant Fleet Marines, because of her father's position as admiral, but the fact of the matter it was still three against one. Was this it? Was she going to die here alone with no one caring? 'Looks like it, after all who is going to save a suit rat' she thought bitterly, but she didn't want to die, she was scared. She threw a proxy mine at one of the assassins, it had stunned them, but it had only delayed her date with death. She was behind a box, she knew she was done for, but she was not going to die quietly, she was going to take one of those bosh'tets with her, at the age of twenty-one, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya would soon be with her ancestors. She rose up to face the assassins only to hear a gunshot, she flinched thinking she had been shot, she didn't feel anything.

She then realized it had come from the other direction. 'Behind me!' she thought. In front of her was a turian in blue armor, C-sec armor, which was strange considering people from C-sec (Citadel Security), saw her people as criminals and their favorite punching bags. The other one was a krogan in red armor, large lizard like race, known for their violent tempers, but to see a krogan and a turian work together was rare and strange sight, the two races never had good relations, especially after the Krogan Rebellions centuries ago. Bringing up the rear was a human, a race she had little to no contact with, other than the doctor that treated her when she was wounded on the Citadel. 'Must be the leader' she thought. Before she could blink, the odd group took down the assassins quickly and easily.

Was this her lucky day? It seems justice can happen in this galaxy. The krogan began to speak. "Well that was boring, at least they didn't kill the Quarian," he said. Tali was angry, she had a name, being refer to as just the 'Quarian' didn't sit well with her, too many races refer to her race with contempt.

"My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, not Quarian; I suggest you get it right, Krogan," she hissed. The Krogan narrowed his eyes at the girl, but to Tali's surprise the Krogan started laughing loudly.

"You got a quad on you, kid, most would be dead talking to a krogan like that," he said with great amusement. The human gave the krogan a look, and stopped laughing. 'The human must be something to get a Krogan to listen to him' she thought. She looked at the human for a bit, of all the known race, she had little knowledge of humans, the recent addition to the galactic community. Unlike the doctor, this human was male also the human's skin was darker than the human doctor who had treated her; his eyes were hazel and slanted much like her own people, but his hair was whitish-blonde, which was strange, because the hair on his face was dark. Other than the legs and number of fingers (Quarians have three), humans looked remarkably like her people. 'he has hair, I always thought Quarians were the only one who had hair, guess I was wrong, he's kind of cute for an alien' she thought. She then heard him speak

"Hey rookie, got my data or what?" he asked impatiently. 'Cute, but rude' she thought somewhat annoyed. She didn't know if she could trust these strangers, but considering her luck so far she would take her chances. The human seemed more restless the longer Tali didn't give him an answer.

"Well? Do you have it or not?!" Shepherd said more forcefully. Tali took a step back, surprised, by his unprovoked hostility, and looked at him wearily. Then again maybe she was safer with Saren's men. Much safer….