video; 01/04

[keelahselai]

[It's basically the middle of the night cycle when you might notice - or be woken up by - the sound of the engines starting to fade down to almost nothing. Machinery usually powerful enough to reverberate - albeit very softly - throughout the ship goes still. It's just about completely silent when the MID broadcast goes out.

Tali's isn't a face - or mask, right now - that's seen on the network much, but here she is anyway. There's a slight air to her of having prepared this in her head.]

If you just noticed the engines shutting down, don't be alarmed. They're just in standby so I can do some maintenance. [Her eyes are only just visible as glowing points behind the opaque visor, but her whole head moves to pay attention to something below the MID - and there's the sound of her keying in commands one-handed.] I'd like to tell you it's routine maintenance, but tiny bots eating into the manifolds isn't routine in most places I've been.

It'll be done in a couple of hours. [...Pause.] I don't think I need to tell you that life support's still running... Do I?

[Well, she just did. She's about to sign off when--] Oh! Almost forgot.

I asked the captains a while back if I could start doing some research into the Ingress. How it works, what's wrong with it... Anything we can use, anything that might help us repair it, or...or something. [This is clearly not rehearsed.]

It'll be slower work on my own, so I'd really appreciate some help looking into it - and anybody who works with the Ingress probably knows it better than I do right now, too.

Let me know.

Comments

Phone tags so no formatting!

[keelahselai]

[Maybe it's a point she'd have taken on board if she wasn't getting a distinct hint of the condescending here. Either way, as always with her, her sarcasm is something that sounds completely sincere.]

Sure! You arrange with the metal-eating robots to give me some warning before they get into the engines and I'll put the maintenance window on the calendar.

And you can help with the repairs if you want. [She can't resist the next sentence, also so very sincerely (Tali's totally mature):] Just try not to get in the way, OK?

[peridork]

[Peridot is far less subtle: She bristles, glowering at the camera.]

Don't you patronize me, I know what I'm doing. I was literally made for this kind of work. In fact, if I didn't have my hands full with so many other things around the ship they probably would have put me in charge of the engines!

[keelahselai]

Then don't patronise me.

[The point has apparently sailed right over her head. If Tali had a quicker/meaner mouth, she'd make a quip about artificial intelligence usually involving intelligence. But she doesn't.]

I might not have been literally made to do engine maintenance, but I've built FTL engines, so I can probably keep this one working, too.

[peridork]

[Wow Tali she's not an AI don't be racist

Still, Peridot... Well. She's kind of realizing that she may have been a bit rude just now, judging by the Quarian's reaction. She looks like she's going to retort, but then she hesitates and starts to look more embarrassed, aware that she maybe made a mistake heading into this conversation the way she did.]

Nnngh. Look, I'm... sorry, if I offended you. I'm just trying to offer my assistance, if you should require it.

[keelahselai]

[That apology sounded genuinely painful. And more organic than she'd have expected, given what the...alien? Synthetic? Just told her.

Tali has no idea what's what anymore. That's all she knows at this point.]

It's fine. [She sounds quieter now - weary, even.] I'm sorry for reacting like I did. And... [Furious battle between wariness and the fact that she will genuinely need extra hands on deck.] I could use the help down here... Peridot, right?

[She's reading it off the display, so it may or may not be mangled a bit in pronunciation.]

[peridork]

[If she does butcher the pronunciation, Peridot doesn't call her on it. She nods curtly, affirming that information. She smiles weakly, bordering on a grimace. The grimace of someone who very unaccustomed to admitting that she's wrong and still being friendly about things after the fact.]

Yes. Give me five minutes, I'll be down to help out wherever I can.

[keelahselai]

[It's still weirdly interesting to watch just how hard this whole conversation just turned for Peridot. Apparently the hardest part of talking to her is...being civil? She's not sure.]

Sure, see you when you get here. [She's not quite sounding warm, but professionally neutral's a good start, right?] There's a pretty long list of jobs I could give to anybody who knows what they're doing right now.