"Jeff?" EDI's voice cuts through the comfortable silence, pulling Joker from his thoughts. He blinks his eyes a few times to regain focus. Sometimes he can get lost in the swirl of space that flies past the Normandy's windows. It made the upcoming mission to the Omega 4 Relay a little more bearable.
"What's up, EDI?"
"There is something about Commander Shepard's behavior I'm having trouble processing," she says in that oddly soft voice of hers.
"What is it this time? Is she eating all weird again? Dancing to music in her quarters?"
"She is with Mr. Krios," EDI says.
"And? Wait, EDI are you spying on them? Do I even want to know what they're doing?" Joker asks, only half uncomfortable. EDI instead answers with a question of her own.
"Why pursue a relationship with Mr. Krios?" Joker coughs, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I'm not really the right person to ask about this. What is it you don't understand specifically? Is it the inter-species thing?"
"No, I understand that. She values Mr. Krios' company even though there is no chance of viable reproduction. She doesn't seem the childbearing type."
"Yeah. Why pop out kids when she has a whole ship of them at any given time?" Joker teases.
"Why pursue a relationship with an individual who is dying?" Joker winces at the wonder and almost pain in EDI's voice. There you go again, Joker. Assigning your own emotions to a machine. Because despite all of her words and all the time they sent together, EDI is just a machine. Questions like this always seem to bring this fact painfully to life.
"Well, she loves him." Joker says and the answer sounds flat and unconvincing even to him.
"Love? I do not understand." Joker sighs.
"Damn, this is worse than having 'The Talk'," he says. "Listen, you just said that she values Thane's company even though they can't have children, right?"
"Yes," EDI says like a child in a classroom.
"Okay, and we know that Thane is dying. And that is what is tripping you up?"
"Yes. It is illogical to put such a deep investment into someone who has so little time left. Does she not know that she'll be worse for wear when he passes? Why put herself through that kind of emotional trauma?"
"Shh, shh. I'm not there yet. She's with him now, right?"
"Yes."
"Take pictures for Fornax. We'll get a shit ton of money."
"Jeff, this is serious," EDI almost sniffs at him and he can imagine her turning her nose up at him. If she had one.
"I know, I know. Sorry. Listen, love isn't something you can't really explain. Obviously, Shepard isn't stupid. She knows time is short. And she's with him anyway. Because she loves him."
"Inadequate answer." He sighs again.
"It isn't about how much time he has left, EDI. It's about how they feel about each other. It's about how they spend that time."
"That isn't logical," EDI says and Joker takes in a deep breath to keep from snapping at her. She is, after all, just a machine.
"It isn't about being logical or reasonable. It's about feeling, EDI. It's an organic thing. If you don't get it by now, you probably never will." There is a long silence between them-too long, thinks Joker- and he's worried he may have upset her.
"This requires further study," she says in that unnervingly soft voice again and the light representing her flickers out, leaving Joker alone in the cockpit. He shakes his head, moving his eyes back to the stars.