He'd been dragged here in the middle of the night for an interrogation. An interrogation. Him. His bunk had been tossed, his locker's contents strewn across the hallway, his comrades searching for something, anything, with no luck. Now, Scott Ryder stood here in front of his commanding officer, the artificial night of the ship guarding the Mass Relay having wrecked his senses – it was a tactic to get him when he was weak, he knew that, and he refused to let his tiredness show an inch.
The thing was, though, he had absolutely no idea what any of them were talking about. They could tire him out all they wanted, but he couldn't provide information he simply wasn't aware of.
"Do you or do you not harbour any kind of Artificial Intelligence aboard this ship?" His CO repeated, Scott standing at attention looking directly into the mans eyes.
"No." He snapped again, hands shaking in both anger and exhaustion from the repeated questioning. It was 0200 hours, they'd been at this for forty five minutes now with no change, no information as to why he was here. "And I have a right to know why I'm being interrogated like this!"
Finally, after regarding him once more, his CO rested his hands on the desk. "Your father has been charged with the creation of an AI and dishonorably discharged from Alliance service. It is my job to determine if you assisted him, so now is the time to confess to me, son. Do you have on your person research of or an active Artificial Intelligence?"
Had Scott not been standing tall and trying to look as strong as he could, he might have just fallen over. Alec Ryder, the N7, one of the Alliance's best soldiers that had settled nicely on the Citadel, had been discharged from the Alliance.
It was impossible.
And discharged over an AI?
His father was a brilliant man - Scott knew that. He may not have known him on a personal level overly well, but throwing himself into the territory of AIs? Alec knew it was illegal, and as brilliant as he may be, Scott had never considered the man to be insane. Had this been why his mother was short with him during their last call together? Had Ellen known and just not said anything?
What about Sara? Did she know about this? Or was her science team doing the exact same thing to her at this very moment?
Voice shaking, Scott addressed his CO after a few moments of silence. "I do not know or, have research of, or harbour an active AI."
"Are you sure-"
"Yes I'm damn well sure!" Scott snapped. "This is insane! All of you know that I barely speak two words to my father and you think that I'm in cahoots with him? The Alliance, this Mass Relay – this is my life! Why would I jeopardize that for an AI?"
Scott had thought that he was close to his squad, that they trusted him with their lives, and that he could trust them with his. But being treated like a common criminal?
When his CO finally allowed him to leave, Scott had been required to return to his locker and pack up what his squad had tossed around, put it back in its place – his bunk, too. This in itself was a punishment, just for being related to Alec Ryder. Tagoman had tried to lend a hand, being the only member of the squad that had bothered to come and check up on him, but Scott pushed him away. The following two days were riddled with uncertain glances in his direction, his captain watching over him as he cleaned his sniper rifle. Because Alec Ryder was a traitor, and the Ryder clan were suddenly geth sympathizers.
On the third day, Scott shoved his resignation into his captain's chest, packed his bags, and got onto the next ship to the Citadel. Not a single person on his team tried to stop him.