It was late, very late based on how dark the room was, illuminated only by the lamp and the power LED on the soldering iron he was wielding. Every noise had him tensed and ready for discovery, but he kept his cool and finally the last component was secured in place on the circuit board. He couldn't help but sigh in relief that it was complete without any incidents, apart from a couple of minor burns on his fingers. After this he'd have to talk to Virgil about honing his soldering technique. For now John switched the soldering iron off and snapped the case shut.

He took a breath, his transmitter was complete, he knew he should wait and get some rest, but he needed to test it now. He opened a channel, and then paused, he was trying to make contact with the wider galaxy, how was he supposed to start? "Hello?" He asked timidly, quietly to minimise the risk of discovery. A silence hung in the air and disappointment started to settle in. "Can anyone hear me?" He added.

The communication array in front of him continued to blink the darkness, and John started to feel foolish. How could he believe he was capable of rigging this up?

"Keelah!" John snapped out of his headspace as he heard an accented, filtered voice from the speaker. "Hello?"

At least the translation software he'd hard coded was working. "Hi, my name's John." He greeted excitedly. "Are you quarian?"

"Yes! Tali'Zorah." She replied equally excitedly. "This is an odd frequency..."

"I just finished building a communication system." John explained. "I'm speaking to you from earth."

"Earth!?" Tali'Zorah asked incredulously. "But- that... How is that possible? Real time communication over such distances without QE tech..."

"You understand quantum entanglement?"

"You do?"

John was grinning wider than he remembered doing for a long time, his heart was hammering in excitement and he had completely forgotten his situation. He almost jumped out of his chair when there was a loud knock behind him. "John! What's going on in there?" His mother called through the door.

For a second John froze, thirteen years old and having just been busted by his mum after managing to rig up a communication array that reached further than even he had dared to think was possible. Then he recovered and instinct took over. "I gotta go! Can we talk tomorrow?"

"Sure."

With that he quickly turned the radio off and scrambled to the door.

~-x-~

John would always be grateful that it was his mum who'd knocked on his door to find out why he was up long, long past his bedtime. His father would probably have just smashed his prototype to pieces as a punishment. His mother was more forgiving and despite the fact that she still punished him - he spent a week covering his brother's chores - she still celebrated his achievement.

Naturally the following day he'd had to explain his abrupt disappearance to Tali'Zorah - though secretly he was more amazed that he was able to establish the same comm line a second time running - at which point they discovered that they shared so many similarities. They were both teenagers who loved science and tinkering away with their ideas and prototypes. They both had fathers that cast long shadows that their mothers got lost in. They both had a tendency to get lost in their heads when they got absorbed by an idea or a daydream.

However, there were some things that were very different.

"Five?!" Tali'Zorah asked as if such a thing were incomprehensible.

John laughed as he turned to his next set of maths problems, it was not unusual for them to study whilst they talked, often the other was able to help them through it if they got stuck. "No, I'm one of five. I have four brothers."

"Keelah." Tali'Zorah breathed. "I can barely imagine having one sibling, let alone four..."

"Is that so strange?"

"We have limited resources on the flotilla." She admitted, she had already explained that she was on the Migrant Fleet. "We have to control the population carefully, so there's a one child rule imposed currently. Most often really, sometimes there are times when that has to increase or decrease."

"So you won't even have a cousin?" John asked, unable to imagine such a limited family unit. His brothers drove him nuts at times, but he loved them all and couldn't imagine life without them. Even if, as a teenage boy, he rather wished them away some days.

"On the flotilla your crew is your family." Tali'Zorah explained. "Are you all alike?"

John laughed properly at that. "God, no." He replied. "I mean, sure, there's similarities, we have the same expressions, mannerisms and stuff... Some of us are good at similar things, I mean Virg and I are both good at fixing things, Gordon and Alan are both jokers - and cleverer than either will admit."

Tali'Zorah sighed. "I'd love to have someone I could be that close to, that even with differences you just know the other..."

"You want a sibling?"

"It gets lonely sometimes."

"Sometimes I get lonely with four." John admitted. "It's like being lost in a hurricane." Tali'Zorah chuckled to herself, that she could imagine. "Heck, we already adopted one sister, I guess I can adopt another."

"You'd be my brother?"

"Sure, if you want."

"I be the best sister you ever had."

"I dunno, I might have to tell Tanusha she has competition."

"I'll be her best sister too!" John laughed at Tali'Zorah's unabashed enthusiasm.

~-x-~

"Remind me again, why we're doing this?" Virgil asked as he and John worked together to modify the prototype communication array John had built.

"What do you mean?" John asked, not even looking up as he focused on what he was doing.

"I mean, this thing is revolutionary tech, and yet it's still your toy..." Virgil explained. "Why isn't dad throwing his weight around to get it recognised by the leading scientists?"

John shrugged, he hadn't pushed, he was quite and weirdly happy for this to continue to be his secret. His window into the galaxy, and his access to his best friend. "Does it matter? The longer I keep it the better I can make it before finally presenting it to someone."

"Uh huh." Virgil agreed.

"What?" John knew that tone.

"And it has nothing to do with your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend!" John corrected sharply, making his brother laugh, and John finally looked up to glare at him, making Virgil laugh more. "Because you have no female friends." He grumbled under his breath.

"C'mon, you know I'm just teasing." Virgil reminded him more seriously, finishing the rewiring he had been doing. "I'm glad you're making friends, even if they're on the other side of the galaxy."

"Thanks, Virg." John replied with a smile. "Done." He added as he finished his new code that would enable the new hardware to interface with the old.

"Well, let's fire it up then." Virgil prompted, and John gave a sheepish smile before reactivating the prototype. This time a holographic interface lit up as he opened the channel. Both brothers were almost holding their breath before finally a figure flickered into being in front of them. "You are a genius, little brother." Virgil grinned, ruffling John's hair as the younger boy batted him away.

"John?" Tali'Zorah asked, turning to look between the boys. "I can see you!" She exclaimed happily. "Can you see me?"

"Yes." John agreed. "There's some lag, but considering..."

"Perfectionist to the end." Virgil muttered, shaking his head as he slipped from the room to leave them to it.

~-x-~

"You'll never guess where I am!"

John turned as he saw Tali'Zorah appear on the holographic display nearby. "Don't tell me you're on the Normandy?" He asked with wide eyes as he glanced at the displays he was monitoring.

"How did -"

"You are?"

"The alliance asked Shepard - our captain - to help out with a VI on the moon. We've just finished securing the site." Tali'Zorah explained excitedly. "I'm actually stood on your moon!"

John couldn't help but chuckle, he remembered how excited he'd been when he'd first blasted off into space with Alan. They'd toured the moon and his youngest brother had been nothing but boundless energy and enthusiasm. "Surely you've visited more exciting places than that?" He teased.

"That's not the point." Tali'Zorah corrected firmly. John laughed. "We're trying to get Shepard to let us have some shore leave while we're here, I don't know if we'll succeed, we don't have time to waste really..."

"Tali, what are you doing?" John asked. "I thought you were on your pilgrimage."

"I am, and I've got my gift, but this... it's important, so I'm sticking it out." She explained. "If we do get time off, are you free? I'd like to visit you."

John smiled and glanced back at the situations he was monitoring and updating. Admiral Hackett had asked if he could monitor the space traffic to stop anything approaching the danger zone before it was fixed. He'd just sent a request for an official update after Tali'Zorah explained they'd dealt with it. "If I have time, and I can't promise that, yeah."

~-x-~

John decided he didn't like the citadel. It was too big, too bright and too crowded. Thankfully growing up with four brothers had taught him how to navigate between people almost effortlessly and he soon found himself at the cafe he was looking for. He looked around but couldn't see what he was looking for. "You're taller than I thought you'd be."

He turned around with a smile as he heard the familiar, filtered voice. "Tali." He greeted, noticing that she was of a slighter build than he imagined, even with the exo-suit. He couldn't see her smile through the visor but she jumped at him in a hug, years of long distance friendship finally coalescing into such a natural physical form. He caught her with a laugh, even though it was metal and plastic he felt beneath the loose wraps of fabric it felt no less familiar. "How have you been?" He asked when she finally let go.

There was a pause that she tried to hide by looking for an empty table. "Okay, I guess." She decided, a year after the Normandy exploded and she still felt the effects sometimes, but she was making progress. "And you?"

John shrugged. "Keeping busy." He replied, the one secret he kept from her was his job. She had never asked for more details once he told her it was classified, respecting that he couldn't tell her no matter how curious she was.

"I know the feeling." She admitted. They fell into easy conversation as they ordered their food and drink, discussing latest technological and scientific breakthroughs and gossip. Bouncing theories off each other and laughing at the misfortune of rookie mistakes they both witnessed. Not mocking, just amused, they both remembered their own mishaps from when they were learning.

Finally their lunch was over and their plates empty. "I have to admit, I have an ulterior motive for asking you here." Tali'Zorah admitted unhappily.

John wasn't sure if he felt disappointed or not. "Why?"

"I need a favour, but I'm not going to force you to get involved." Tali'Zorah assured him gently. "I'm glad to have finally met you, to be able to do this." She added indicating the cafe they were in. "So if you don't want to get involved, I won't mention it again."

John thought for a moment, Tali'Zorah couldn't lie, he'd known that a long time now. She wouldn't bully him into helping her if it was something he wanted no part of. "Okay, I'll hear you out, but I promise nothing more."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Okay." She leaned forward so she could lower her voice. "You know I'm here as an envoy for the quarian people, I've been requesting access to some routine research databases. But the council are stonewalling me at every turn, even the volus have access to these records, I don't know why they won't let me even look!"

"What kind of research?"

"Some of them are star charts and the astrological records of specific regions. A couple are archived research into VIs and AIs."

"You know AI research is illegal!"

"That's why I want to look at what is known!" Tali'Zorah refuted. "I'm not trying to build anything, I want to understand the geth, I want to help my people get home. To do that I need to understand how VIs and AIs evolve."

"You want me to help you hack into the database." It wasn't really a question.

"Yes." Tali'Zorah confirmed. "Two days. In two days the council give me their final verdict. I'm not going to do anything before then."

~-x-~

John could have walked away right then, Tali'Zorah wouldn't have held it against him.

But how could he not spend time with such an old friend? Or at least, that was how he rationalised it to himself. It would be rude to leave so soon and Scott had given him a full week off, so he had time to spare for her.

They spent the rest of the day together, as Tali'Zorah showed him all her favourite places on the citadel. Including the place she nearly got assassinated two years ago. "Wait, what?"

"I know! Someone thought it was worth killing me because I tried to expose a rogue Spectre!"

"How did you get away?"

"I used a tech mine to jam their guns and fled toward cover. Then an Alliance soldier swooped in and saved me, the rest is... what's that saying humans have? The rest is before?"

"The rest is history." John corrected gently.

The following morning they met for breakfast, both of them enjoying the rare occasion to take a break. She asked when his transport was and he admitted he wasn't booked on a specific one, so she challenged him to prove his worth in the arcade, John grinned and that was that.

Because it would have been rude to leave.

That afternoon he asked her if there were any zero-g spaces on the citadel, and he taught her how to play zero-g handball. Within an hour she was already besting him. He teased her about having a HUD overlay in her visor, she called him a sore loser.

He was still on the citadel by he time Tali'Zorah got a message to say the council were ready to see her. He wished her luck before they parted ways.

He was still on the citadel when she returned, because he wasn't the kind of man to sneak away when his friend was busy. He didn't even need to ask, Tali'Zorah was fuming, that was obvious as he spotted her from down a corridor. She didn't even see him until he caught her arm, she turned sharply before relaxing. "Don't. Just don't." She was despondent as she gently pulled her arm away and continued on her way.

He let her go, knowing she wanted a little space right now. She was probably worried she would do something stupid in the state she was in. Torn between wanting to follow her and wanting to respect what she wanted, he paused before walking in the opposite direction.

~-x-~

John woke to an unfamiliar chime, still half asleep but used to odd sleeping patterns around rescue operations he was already climbing out of bed, kicking something with his shin and realising he wasn't on Thunderbird 5. Realisation quickly came that he'd heard a doorbell.

He was greeted with a sheepish "Hey." from the quarian in front of him. "I'm sorry it's so early -"

John didn't let her finish but stood aside to let her pass. "It's okay." He assured her. He couldn't see the small smile Tali'Zorah gave him before slipping past him into the small suite he was staying in. "What happened?" He asked as he followed her.

Tali'Zorah couldn't help but look around the room curiously. "The council denied my request. Even the one for supervised access." She explained, finally turning back. "They said I couldn't be trusted."

"They actually said that?"

"Yes." She sounded close to tears. "They said that history has shown that quarians don't know how dangerous the boundaries between VI and AI can be, and that they would be foolish to ignore the lessons of history."

"I mean..." John trailed off.

Tali'Zorah sighed angrily. "I know, but why do they think they can learn from history but my people can't?" John couldn't argue with that. "My people cannot petition for proper representation in council space because we don't have a planet, but we can't reclaim our home world without help. I'm just asking for help that allows us to help ourselves."

It was John's turn to sigh, even before he had come to see her on the citadel he had been aware of how poorly quarians were treated by other species. The citadel had magnified that. "Then you're going through with this?"

Tali'Zorah nodded. "Yes. You don't have to help, but I would like you to."

They stood there in silence for a long moment as John thought. He'd been half thinking about this for days, though he'd been in denial - even to himself - about that. He wanted to help his friend - one of his oldest and dearest friends - and it wasn't like he hadn't skirted the law around AI before. He would feel like a traitor and a hypocrite if he didn't help, but he had responsibilities bigger than just himself. If they were caught it could have an impact on International Rescue, even if he was able to convince the GDF it was just him and left there would be far more restrictions on their operation.

"Okay."

For a moment Tali'Zorah didn't react, and John was stating to think she hadn't heard his quiet confirmation. "Really?" He nodded and she launched herself at him in a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

~-x-~

John decided that Gordon - and Alan - had been a bad influence on him. That was the only explanation as to why he was currently sitting in a waiting area in the c-sec academy, quietly monitoring the movement of officers, citizens and suspects alike as he tapped away at his wrist controller. If that was the reason he had helped form this plan, who the hell had been a bad influence on Tali'Zorah? She didn't have a mischievous younger sibling who routinely got themselves in trouble for their pranks. He blamed the would be assassins, a near brush with death must have tipped her over the edge into insanity.

Tali'Zorah was currently sat in a holding cell awaiting processing. It had been easy enough to convince c-sec to bring them in with a loud accusation about her stealing from him - there was a lot of prejudice against quarians they were using to their advantage. Timed with the usual late night antics that required c-sec's attention on the wards they had been brought in and then left to wait it out till someone was free to deal with such a minor incident.

John couldn't help but wonder why they didn't ban people from using their omni-tools or wrist controllers in the waiting area, no one was questioning what he was doing as he sat there nonchalantly hacking into c-sec's security systems. Then again, few people would probably be brazen enough to try it. Oh well, it benefitted them and soon enough he had full access with no alarms going off and no sniffer programs on his tail. He tracked the back of one of the security officers leaving the seating area and he stood to walk over to the walkway, pausing to look up and down as if he was lost. A bored looking desk clerk spotted him and honed in on him, John smiled and wandered over to ask for directions to the nearest bathroom. The turian instantly lost interest and gave him a couple of instructions and a wave of his arm in the right direction.

Gordon would be proud of him.

John followed the directions until he was out of sight, checking on his wrist controller before turning and making towards the holding cells. He quickly located Tali'Zorah who was leaning far too calmly against a wall for the fact that she was technically in a prison cell. He ducked towards an alcove and tapped a few more buttons. Seconds later a bulkhead at the other end of the row of cells blew a few fuses, but it was loud enough to make the single guard go and investigate. Once he was fully occupied Tali'Zorah waved her omni-tool over the lock on her cell, quickly checked her surroundings and hurried to join John as they both darted away from the cells and deeper into the c-sec building.

John had taken control of the security cameras whilst he had been waiting so no one would be able to see them if they bothered to check the feeds. Tali'Zorah quickly and quietly explained the data she'd been able to gather whilst they had been processing her as she led the way towards the computer terminals that would be theoretically deserted.

They were lucky that whatever office or computer bank room this served as was as empty as they had suspected. As Tali'Zorah quickly scanned the room John slipped into a chair, checking on his access into the security systems before turning his attention to the terminal in front of him. Tali'Zorah was soon stood behind him and following his progress through the systems, praising his ingenuity and offering advice in equal measure. Two expert hackers and it didn't really matter how good the system they were breaching was.

"There, that's it!" Tali'Zorah suddenly cut in as John located the last of the data she was interested in. "Here, I brought a data drive."

"Of course you did." John smiled as he took the offered device and quickly established a copy and download link. "Okay, this'll take time, how long do we have?"

Both of them glanced at the holographic displays on their wrists. "Not as long as I'd like." Tali'Zorah admitted, tapping away as John turned back to the terminal to do what he could to speed up the process.

The progress bar was about three quarters of the way complete when Tali'Zorah suddenly grabbed John's arm and yanked him down below the table, silencing him with a hand in front of her helmet as they crouched there out of sight from the door. John opened the display on his wrist controller again and saw one of the c-sec guards at the door, surveying the apparently empty room.

They held their breath as he took a step into the room, then another that was far enough for the door to slide shut behind him. John made as if to move but Tali'Zorah held firm on his arm to hold him still. Another step from the guard and suddenly there was the sound of an electric charge and Tali'Zorah responded by raising her omni-tool, lit up with a command. After a strange chime there was another buzzing sound, like the one that accompanies a static electric shock, before the room fell quiet again. Tali'Zorah relaxed her grip on John as she slowly raised to peep over their cover and John followed suit. "Well done, Chatika." Tali'Zorah murmured affectionately.

"What just happened?" John asked as he saw the small, spherical combat drone hovering over the slumped body of the guard.

"I laid a tech proximity mine that would overload the shields of anyone who got too close." Tali'Zorah explained. "Once it destroyed their shields I activated Chatika to stun the intruder."

"Technically we're the intruders."

"Pedant."

John smiled despite the situation and turned back to the terminal. "Only a few percent left. So long as he doesn't have friends, we should be okay."

"I've learnt to expect friends." Tali'Zorah warned as she moved to lift the guard into a chair and check on his pulse. As she anticipated he was just stunned with no other ill effects from Chatika.

The few remaining minutes passed by in tense silence until John confirmed that they had the data and quickly worked to disconnect the device, wipe their presence from the terminal and hurried to join Tali'Zorah by the door, handing her the data drive as he did. Both of them did a quick sweep with their security programs to confirm that the corridor was clear before nodding at each other and venturing back out into the corridors. They had a few close calls but they were able to get back to the main lobby without being spotted. Tali'Zorah was hesitant to walk straight back out the front door until John whispered that he'd already falsified her arrest records whilst they'd been waiting on the download.

When they stood on one of the bridges in the presidium, under the cold lights in the quiet of the night Tali'Zorah finally turned back towards the c-sec building, softly pressing her hand to the pocket that held the data drive as if she didn't quite believe they had pulled that off. "It's never that easy." She stated softly.

"Why? What normally happens?"

"Oh, you know, geth, mercenaries, krogran - sometimes they're the same actually -, corrupted asari, reapers..." Tali'Zorah shrugged, then straightened as she realised something. "You didn't hear me say that last one."

John raised his hands in surrender. "I literally just helped you hack into the council's records, we're bound by mutual misdemeanour."

"Good point." Tali'Zorah giggled, before sighing and leaning on the railing. "You should come on missions with me more often. You're a good asset and a good friend."

John shook his head with a smile. "Absolutely not. I prefer my missions to be less... clandestine." He paused. "And without people shooting at me." Tali'Zorah giggled.

"Sounds like a boring life."

John chuckled. "Oh, you've no idea."