Tinker Effect

Most people in my situation are there due to vaguely defined ROBs dragging them into a malfunctioning game. In my case, I think its because of a group of interdimensional nutcases out to defeat a golden Superman. Oh well, at least I'm not as helpless as some of them.

And we're back. Nothing to say here, other than enjoy!

Chapter 4

I think it goes without saying, but Shepards reveal that she was likely this realities version of Contessa (and I still have no idea how this whole thing works) shook me up more than a little, leading me to do something I like to call 'Stress Tinkering', which usually results in me making something completely random that often makes the universe cry out for mercy or is so dangerous I quickly dismantled it to prevent it from accidentally destroying the Citadel. To be fair, that monument to mass murder really did need blowing up, but not while I was living on it. Considering that the Normandy was significantly less sturdy than the Citadel, I tried to channel the stress Tinkering into something a tad less dangerous.

Two hours later, I was eyeing the silvery piller on my workbench with a rather odd expression. Why couldn't I have created something like this during one of my other Stress Tinkering sessions rather than ME fusion bombs and nuclear powered shotguns? This thing was actually useful!

"Whats that?"

"GAH!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin as Tali appeared out of nowhere next to me. The sudden yelp made Tali jump as well.

"Jesus christ, you scared me!" I muttered as I tried to calm my heart rate down.

"S-sorry," said Tali, poking her fingertips together, "I knocked, but you didn't respond and…"

I chuckled and shook my head.

"Its fine, I was just distracted," I said, "So, did you need something?"

Tali shifted awkwardly.

"Um, I was hoping to maybe have a look at some of your technology," she said, " I mean, if thats alright. Its just all so amazing, I…"

I laughed again and pulled out a small crate next to the one I was using as a chair. Tali hesitantly took the offered seat, perching on the edge as she curiously looked at the many half finished/cannibalized bits and bobs that covered my workbench.

"What is all this?" she asked as she picked up a bit of metal with glowing blue wires sticking out of it.

I shrugged.

"Bits and bobs that I never finished for whatever reason mostly," I said, "I prefer to recycle where I can and its easier to take components I need out of unneeded bits of tech than make them from scratch most of the time."

I scowled.

"It also stops me from accidentally taking apart something I actually use...most of the time."

Tali giggled at my obvious irritation. She took a closer look at the deatris covering the desk and reached out, picking up an Omni Tool band.

"Whats this?" she asked.

"Huh, I'd forgotten about that," I said as I took it and turned it over in my hand, "Its the first Omni Tool I got after I woke up. Its not really anything special, the only upgrades to it are the programming, but its still leagues ahead of anything you could find on the market."

Tali looked impressed (although I have no idea how I knew that considering) and looked down at her own Omni Tool.

"Wish I had something like that," she said, "This things about 20 years out of date and theres only so much I can do with high level programming."

I glanced down at the band in my hands again, before holding it out to her.

"Here, you can have this if you want," I said.

Tali looked rather taken aback by that.

"B-but…"

"I don't need it," I said, tapping my wrist, "I built a way better one ages ago. Thats just good for gathering dust, so you might as well take it and get some use out of it."

Tali looked between me and the Omni Tool and slipped it into a pocket of her suit.

"Thank you," she said.

She glanced back at the silvery column on my workbench.

"So, what is that?" she asked.

I snorted.

"Something I cobbled together while deep in thought and a clear example of exactly why Tinkerteck is bullshit," I said, "Its a sterile field generator. Basically, it can generate a field in which its impossible for any form of contaminant to exist."

The silvery lights that were Tali's eyes went wide behind her helmet.

"Thats...amazing!" she gasped, "Something like that...it'd be a dream come true for the Flotilla!"

"I am aware of that," I said, "Unfortunately, Tinkertech is incredibly difficult to maintain without its original builder. My techs pretty reliable and generally does not need that much maintenance, but if someone was relying on this thing to keep them alive and it failed…"

Tali winced at the idea, before she tilted her head on one side.

"You keep calling yourself a Tinker," she said, "What does that actually mean?"

I huffed.

"Its part of the few memories I have left," I said, "I have no idea who did this to me, but I do know I was far from the only one and there were even more people who received powers naturally. Tinker was the name given to those like me, people who can build things that, logically, are impossible with the current level of technology."

I gestured at my many creations scattered over the boxes and tables around the small area.

"My tech is based on ME principles, but not one of the things I've made has been anywhere close to what should be possible with current knowledge and technology levels. Hell, I'm pretty sure most of it is outside of the Prothean technology, what little of it we've actually found that works. Hell, its so advanced that even my early stuff made the Salarian scientists that examined some the the STG managed to acquire cry and refuse to have anything to do with it in the future."

Tali blinked and eyed my still open hoverboard.

"Really? Seems simple enough to me," she said as she bent over the gutted gadget, "Just do this and this and…"

She did something within the chassis and the board shuddered and activated. Floating a few inches off the crate. My eyes went wide and my jaw dropped as I looked between the board and the Quarian in utter disbelief.

"I...who...wha…" I stuttered, "How did you do that?!"

Tali looked embarrassed.

"I've always been good with tech," she muttered, "It doesn't matter what it is, I can just grasp how something I see works and the best ways to fix it. Your stuff is complicated, but I think I can figure out most of it."

I gaped at her for a moment longer, before I slowly activated my Omni Tool and waved the scanning function over her. That wasn't normal, not even slightly. It had to be a...nope, it wasn't a Parahuman ability. My scan had given me a VERY detailed look at her brain and there was no sign of any kind of Corona Pollentia or indeed anything different from a normal Quarian brain.

"Tali, if you can really do that, that is fucking amazing!" I said, a feeling of awed excitement rising in my chest.

Hell, I could almost hear my Agent crowing in excitement as it started feeding me all sorts of ideas that she could help me with in the future! I quickly turned to the SFG and took of the outer casing, revealing a mass of wires and a glowing, blue sphere that was the power source.

"Take a look at this," I said, "If you can figure out how it works and if you can maintain it, I'll see about making some more. I can't build enough for the entire Migrant Fleet, but I can make enough to let most of the bigger ships have one."

Tali stared at me in surprise.

"You'd do that?" she asked, "Why?"

"Because its the right thing to do?" I said.

That got me a flat look. I rolled my eyes and lent back against my workbench.

"Alright, I do have a few reasons," I said, "I've done a lot of reading into the various Council Races and I find the Quarian's situation frankly sickening. Your ancestors didn't deliberately create the Geth as an AI and, although I do have some issues with how they dealt with them, the Councils reaction to it was massively overblown. Even if I didn't think that, leaving the Quarians to drift for three centuries is a little excessive. The ones who created the Geth are long dead, so now an entire race of completely innocent people is being punished for a crime three centuries old. The Council should have offered you aid decades ago, but instead you're still treated like vermin."

I scowled and shook my head.

"Sorry, I'm getting off topic. Ideally, I'd like to do something to remove the Quarians reliance on Envirosuits entirely, if only so I don't have to wear my armour all the time, but my specialty doesn't really have anything that could do that. Hell, even this thing was pushing it."

I tapped the SFG. That was actually very true. Near as I could tell, I was a Binary Tinker, with my main specialty being in ME based tech and my other being programming, although not to the level of Richter. I wouldn't be making a Dragon of my own anytime soon. On the other hand, I'd managed to make several VI's that I'm pretty damn sure were similar to the Geth to help run my suit and weaponry and my hacking skills had to come from somewhere. Neither of those skills had anything to help get rid of the Quarians need for suits. Oh, I could probably program something like nanites to help, but I didn't have any way to make them. Hmm, maybe I should get in touch with the Geth. They might be able to help.

Believe it or not, getting in touch with the Digital race would be far easier than you might think. The Extranet was absolutely infested with them disguised as a whole range of different programs, individuals and companies. Hell, I'd actually discovered that a good chunk of the investors into Synthetic Insights were actually the Geth under different names and identities. For an isolationist race, they sure did get around. Oh, and if the Extranet was infested, it had NOTHING on the internal networks of the Migrant Fleet. I'd used some bullshit Tinker hacking protocols to get into their system and was promptly booted back out again by what looked like an entire solar systems worth of Geth programs who seemed to be keeping an eye on the Quarians and doing their best to keep them safe. I nearly ended up having my entire system flooded with Geth programs after that little kerfuffle, but I'd managed to convince them that I was only curious. I'm still not entirely sure that they'd all left my system but theres nothing I can really do to kick them out without pissing them off and, programming Tinker or not, I do NOT want an entire race of belligerent AI's coming after me. Even Dragon would have a problem with that.

"I...think I can fix this if it broke," said Tali, breaking me out of my reminiscing.

She was up to her elbows in the SFG as she studied its inner workings.

"I have no idea how it works and I definitely couldn't replicate it, but I could maintain and repair it if necessary," she said.

"Great, in that case, I'll build a few more of these when I get some time and box them up for you," I said, "These'll make a damned nice Pilgrimage Gift for when you get home."

Tali gave a strangled laugh.

"The only thing that would be better would be a shore fire way to defeat the Geth," she said.

I carefully didn't respond to that as I put the cover back on the SFG and started rooting around for a suitable crate to hold it.

"By the way, whats the range of the field?" asked Tali.

"Depending on the power supply, just about anything," I said distractedly, "That said, once it gets larger than about 100 meters, you'll start to run into problems and it becomes less efficient."

"Thats still impressive and more than we had before," said Tali wistfully.

I smiled and patted her on the shoulder as I retook my seat and pulled my console forwards.

"Happy to help," I said, "Now, lets see if theres anything in here you can help with."

Tali glanced at me and I got the impression she was raising an eyebrow.

"You can figure out my tech enough to maintain it," I said, "That in is self is almost completely unprecedented for a non-Tinker. I want to see what you can do with some of my designs. Hell, you might even help me come up with some new ones!"

Tali looked surprised, before she nodded. I'm pretty sure she was smiling under her helmet as I opened up my CAD software and started bringing up some of my designs onto the large screens that were now being projected above my workbench.

The next couple of hours were spent with much nerd talk, enough insanely complex calculations to make even a Salarien cry for mercy and at least two ideas that I'm pretty sure broke physics worse than Vistas powers, broken only by a short break to go and grab some food after our stomachs started trying to digest themselves and an amused Garrus dropping by to get his rifle looked at.

Eventually, our Tinkering session was interrupted by a serious looking Shepard sticking her head around the corner and clearing her throat. We looked up from where we were bent over an opened up shotgun and fiddling around with its innards. I frowned slightly when I saw the slight smirk on Shepards face. For some reason, it didn't fill me with confidence and made me think that something rather unpleasant was about to happen.

"Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds, but we're coming up on Therum," she said, "Arsenal, suit up and grab your gear."

"Lovebirds?" asked Tali, looking confused, "Is that a Human thing?"

I looked up from where I'd just banged my head into the workbench.

"You could say that," I said as I got to my feet and headed over to my weapon rack, "Your welcome to hang around here while I'm on the ground if you want."

"Ah, no, I should probably head back to Engineering," she said, "If we end up in combat, Engineer Adams might need my help."

"Good idea," I said as I slipped my Halberd into its holster, "Well, once more into the breach I guess."

"Good luck!" called Tali as I jogged out of my workshop area and towards the Mako.

I waved over my shoulder. Something told me that I'd need it.

Right, that'll do. Well, this chapter certainly got away from me, but it provides plenty of character development, so thats fine.

Let me be perfectly clear. Tali is NOT a Tinker, just an insanely talented engineer. Remember, although Arsenals tech is insanely advanced for the ME world, its still based on ME principles. That technically means that a sufficiently talented engineer could potentially figure out how it worked well enough to maintain it. Plus, it gives our tech geeks something to bond over.

The Geth being everywhere is something I've been considering for a while. I find it difficult to believe that they would remain behind the Vail when it would be so easy for them to infiltrate the Extranet and watch the Organics without us squishy types noticing. Their also keeping an eye on their Creators, watching for a potential opportunity to make contact and doing their best to keep them alive and well. I actually considered giving Arsenal a Geth as a friend, but since he'll be getting an AI of his own very soon, I decided not to.

Anyway, its currently gone midnight here and I really, REALLY want to hit the sack, so I'll be signing off here. Don't forget to leave a review!