"Good day, please state the purpose of your visit."
"Business meeting."
"You..."
I didn't let the girl at the information desk finish and showed an identification mark on my Omni-tool that made her turn slightly pale.
"Mr. Shepard... It is a great honor for us to see you at our branch. Shall I inform Director Smirnov that you have arrived? Though... he has a client right now..."
"I know; we've arrived for a talk with that client. So tell Alexey that I've arrived and that I have guests with me. And if his client isn't free yet, have them set a table for us. Nothing extraordinary is needed, but drinks and some snacks..."
I looked with a hint of doubt at the girls accompanying me.
"Yes, but without alcohol."
Jane answered for everyone, and I cast a short glance at the girl to ask her that way: "Did you get everything?" And she didn't disappoint me, nodding quickly.
The rest didn't take five minutes. She informed Alexey of our arrival, immediately let us inside, and explained how to get to his office, after which drinks and snacks were delivered to us there.
"And this is nothing extraordinary?"
Rebecca inspected the snacks placed before us, as well as the drinks, with slight surprise.
"Well, the drinks, I assume, were brewed right here; I don't deny my representatives their little weaknesses. They like high-quality and expensive drinks? Well, let them drink them; ordering the best Asari tea for every one of our branches costs nothing for the corporation's budget, at least compared to..."
with our usual order. Although sometimes representatives do get carried away...
I took a sip of tea, hiding a toothy grin behind the mug.
"...and then their fate is extremely sad."
"Hmm..."
Jane glared sternly at Rebecca, and she fell silent.
"Jane, there's no need to worry so much. I don't punish for questions, and if one of you touches on a serious topic, I'll just say so—corporate secret. So there's no need to scare Rebecca with looks like: I'll let you rot in the guardhouse."
"See, heard that?"
Rebecca stuck her tongue out at Jane.
"So what does your corporation actually do? It's just that I... heard some rumors, weapons, shipbuilding... colonization... but that seems like too much to me. I don't understand much about corporations, of course, but... you can't be professionals in everything, can you?"
"You've come close enough to a forbidden topic... but you haven't crossed the line yet, and answering your question... You can and must be professionals in everything. After all, it's not me developing all of this, but the specialists I've hired."
I took a sip of tea, popped a small treat into my mouth, and closed my eyes in pleasure. After all, the Asari love and know how to do more than just lewd outfits; their delicious food turns out more than excellent. Such a pleasant boundary of sweetness, where it seems just a little more and the dessert would be cloying, but it never quite becomes so.
"Now, producing everything on an industrial scale—that's a no-go. No amount of investment would be enough. No, if I had sold the controlling stake, as my father once did, then I could have started producing not just weapons, but other equipment as well. Perhaps there would have even been enough for industrial shipyards. But I put so much effort into buying back the controlling stake back then..."
More accurately, Aria put in the effort. Not effort in terms of buying the controlling stake, but in terms of rods to my backside when I couldn't absorb certain knowledge. And only after that did I apply that knowledge to owning the controlling stake again, and it turned out surprisingly easy.
"...that I have no desire to repeat that experience."
Yeah, because Aria would show up immediately, pull out the rods, and beat the knowledge in through my rear end! To be honest, I don't understand at all how she could lose Omega in the canon. She's not an ordinary Asari; she's worth a whole battalion on her own!
"So my corporation is mainly engaged in selling weapons, as well as colonization. The latter can be combined with the former, as we don't mindlessly send colonists out somewhere, but purposefully build up the defenses of the planets and systems under our control where they are located. And everything else we do only for personal use. Although we do sell some patents."
"I see..."
"My apologies for keeping you waiting."
Alexey entered the office, and behind him, a girl in a standard Quarian enviro-suit could be seen.
"And this is our guest whom you wanted to meet."
"Tali'Zorah..."
Tali quietly squeaked her name, and I felt a wave of affection for her. This was one of my favorite canon characters! Tali'Zorah! I remember when I played the first part of the game, I deeply regretted that I couldn't romance her, and then in the second!
Whoa!
"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... to be honest, initially, I wanted to sell it to the Shadow Broker, but... at the last moment, I remembered that you have a branch on the Citadel, and also that for the last ten years your corporation has been helping my people very much. So the choice of whom exactly to sell to was obvious."
"I'm pleased to hear that my efforts are not in vain and that the Quarians remember my corporation when they have something important for Humanity. So?"
Under my intent gaze, Tali began to bashfully poke her fingers together.
"However, first, I think it would be more comfortable for you to sit down."
I gestured with my hand to a free chair, while my representative calmly walked behind his desk and, turning on the computer screen, began to work.
"Yes... thank you..."
Tali sat in the chair, but her embarrassment didn't go anywhere.
"...but I would like to clarify about the payment. I would like something that could be presented to the Fleet as proof that my Pilgrimage was successful."
"And considering you're the daughter of an Admiral, they expect something incredible from you?"
"Well... yes..."
She nodded bashfully.
"Let's do this: if you've brought truly important information, then together we'll think about exactly what you could present to the Fleet. If it's something not so important and I can prove it to you, then you'll just receive a monetary reward, as well as an offer to work for me. But if it's something on which the survival of Humanity depends..."
I looked intently at Tali, who visibly braced herself at the last words.
"...then you'll get a Frigate. Not the newest model, of course, but as you understand, corporations like mine periodically replace ships, and not at all because the ones we use have become unfit for operation. So I will transfer one of the decommissioned but serviceable ships to you. And so there are no questions, you will assess the ship's serviceability yourself."
"Really?!"
"Yes."
I nodded briefly, barely managing to hold back a smile, because Tali looked so inspired right now... damn, yes, I think if I had said that in addition to the information she would have to sleep with me, she, forgetting her embarrassment, would have only clarified in which position? And this wasn't something imagined; she truly demonstrated it with her voice and body language. However, it's understandable, since the Migrant Fleet doesn't often have the opportunity to get a relatively new ship, even a small one.
"I..."
Tali took several deep breaths to calm down, but her voice still trembled with excitement.
"...I, or rather we, when we were flying to the starting point of the Pilgrimage, detected a Geth ship, and it was very strange. So we decided to track them. Unfortunately, my group perished, but... they were able to destroy the Geth, and I was able, before the damaged Geth self-destructed, to extract a data package from one of them."
"Wait..."
Chifuyu raised her hand, stopping Tali, and the latter shrank into her chair.
"...I'm no pro, of course, but don't Geth destroy all data when someone tries to extract it? There's some kind of clever security system... well, 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 was interested in the history of her people.
"...that's true, but I am a very good technician and hacker, so I was able to bypass that problem. In short, the data I wanted to sell is a short recording I managed to pull from the hacked Geth."
She activated her Omni-tool, and immediately we could hear the recording.
"We have won a major victory on Eden Prime. The Beacon has brought us one step closer to the Conduit."
It was the voice of Saren Arterius, and he definitely pronounced the word Conduit with a capital letter. And honestly, right now I was ready to jump like a little girl at a rock concert. This was that very canon recording! The very recording thanks to which Saren Arterius was stripped of his Spectre status!
"And one step closer to the Reapers."
The recording cut off, and now we could sit in silence and think. And I had plenty to think about, because the second voice clearly didn't belong to Matriarch Benezia.
"What is this conduit?"
"Not a conduit, but the Conduit. Saren Arterius was clearly not just saying a common word, but some kind of name... and it seems to me it's something transport-related."
"Transport-related?"
Everyone, including the Quarian, looked at me.
"Well, yeah... a conduit... it usually connects something and things move through it, right?"
"Well... theoretically..."
Jane nodded doubtfully.
"...and considering the Beacon, it turns out it's some kind of Prothean technology. So it's some kind of their transport system?"
"Most likely."
I nodded.
"And the Reapers?"
Rebecca spoke the name in a thoughtful voice.
"Well... considering Jane's visions after contact with the Beacon, the Protheans didn't call anything good 'Reapers.'"
"Does that mean the recording was useful?"
Tali asked this in a very quiet voice, filled with a sea of embarrassment.
"Hard to say..."
I glanced at Rebecca, and she fell silent. Smart girl, she understood everything correctly.
"The recording was useful, but... not very informative. You see, not long ago Saren Arterius attacked Eden Prime, which was mentioned in the recording. And he attacked in the company of Geth."
"Geth?!"
Tali was shocked and even outraged. She couldn't restrain her voice, in which angry notes also flickered.
"Yes. And after that, it became clear that something was being plotted. Based on your recording, it's clear that something very bad is being plotted, but what exactly? Whom does it threaten? It's hard to draw any conclusion from the recording. No, if there were a next point on the route here, or say, it revealed who the Reapers are, but that's not here."
Tali lowered her head.
"Hey, don't worry, I'm telling you that despite its scantiness, the recording is useful. And while I can't offer a ship for it... perhaps I can offer something else?"
"Something else?"
Tali looked at me with interest.
"Yes... I know that most of your ships are quite old..."
Tali clenched her fists, apparently taking these words as a taunt. But they weren't.
"...and that they need repair. No..."
Raising my hand, I didn't let her join the conversation.
"...I'm sure brilliant technicians can keep the ships in working order for a long time. However, without space shipyards, it's extremely difficult to do so. And my corporation has such shipyards. Of course, I can't provide all the shipyards, but..."
I looked intently at Tali.
"...I am ready to provide two shipyards for the Quarians so that you can perform repairs on your ships there."
"What in return?"
Tali quickly realized I wasn't offering this for nothing.
"I want your pilgrims, and just Quarians who want to, to work in my colonies and especially at the shipyards. Naturally, not for free, but receiving a decent wage."
Tali froze...
In fact, I could have pulled something like this off quite a while ago; I had even planned to do it, but the life-giving rods stopped me. Aria T'Loak had spent a long time explaining then that such trumps are better kept up one's sleeve until the last moment. And that this would be the simplest and most effective way to recruit Tali. And not just recruit her, but make her my most loyal follower.
And to my cautious remarks that, well, they wouldn't have time to prepare, she simply said that we don't need them to have time. We need the Quarians to feel indebted to us. So that when the Reapers come, they defend our systems instead of fighting the Geth. And this can only be achieved if we extend a significant helping hand to them and then provide everything necessary for a comfortable life.
In short, she did a lot back then to ensure I didn't immediately contact the Migrant Fleet as soon as I had the chance, but only established relations with it through good working conditions for Quarians.
"This... this... this..."
Tali's voice trembled.
"Thank you very much!"
She plopped from the chair onto her knees and bowed low, her helmet hitting the small table, making it shudder and the dishes on it clatter.
"Now, stand up!"
I tried to give my voice a tone of strictness.
"There's nothing to thank for yet; this is a proposal you must pass on to your father, the Admiral. If everything goes well and he agrees, then I will pass this information to the shipyards and colonies, and if he doesn't agree..."
"He will agree! He will definitely agree!"
At that moment, a call signal came to my Omni-tool; it was David Anderson.
"My apologies, I must answer..."
***
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