The Doctor and the Geth
~ by Nerdiant ~
1
Staring out towards the Flatlands, the mask-less quarian took in a deep breath. She had been waiting there for days and yet she had not seen any movement. She knew that given enough time, the geth that were located in the area would make their move, but she also knew that they were hiding. Hiding from us and what we will need to do, she thought grimly.
The geth that stood beside the quarian peered out across the lands in silence. He would only speak if she asked him a question, and lately she hadn't been too talkative. All she needed to do was say a command and the geth trooper would carry it out. Even though the geth down in the Flatlands were once connected to the same network as he was, the geth trooper knew that renegades had no place here on Rannoch.
After minutes of silence she spoke to her geth companion, "Legion Five, are you sure that they are there?"
Legion-V answered with a brief nod, "Yes Creator Zela'Raan. Geth troopers along the border of Qwib Qwib captured movement and identified the signatures as those who disconnected themselves from our network six months ago."
Zela'Raan vas Neema let out a long sigh and kept her eyes fixed on the camp. "Very well, inform the Admiralty Board, specifically Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Rannoch, that we are in need of assistance. If we have renegade geth loose near Neema, she will want to know."
Legion-V nodded again and stepped away from her, connecting his comlink to the Admiralty Board in Rannoch, the capital city.
Zela'Raan sighed once more and secured her breathing mask around her face. Even though the quarians had been back on solid land for more than a year, it would still take some time for her and her people to get used to breathing in the dry air. It would only be a matter of time before her people could leave the masks off permanently, but for now Zela'Raan had to secure the mask before turning away from her scouting post. She knew that once Admiral Tali'Zorah knew of the location of these geth that there would be a plan to take these geth and shut them down.
2
"Perhaps I am not making myself clear!" The Doctor exclaimed as the angry batarian charged towards him, the batarian's four eyes burning with a kind of anger than the Doctor only knew too well. "I had no idea that the asari I was speaking to was your mate!" The batarian swung his left arm towards the Doctor and the Doctor dodged it deftly, his back ramming up against the wall. Holding out his hands, the Doctor pleaded his case, "I was only asking where the restroom was!" The batarian, his mind clouded by a jealous rage took no heed to the Doctor's pleas. The asari in question stood by and watched, an amuse look on her face while the rest of the crowd cheered on the batarian and the Doctor.
The batarian made on more lunge toward the Doctor before falling to the ground, his face writhing in pain and his hands holding his head. In the Doctor's hand he held out his sonic screwdriver, the instrument making a silent noise that only affected the batarian's L5 biotic implants.
The crowd soon became silent as they watched the human take down the batarian. Whispers echoed through the club as silent hands exchanged credits. Within a minute, two turian C-Sec officers made their way through the crowd and called for order. The Doctor retracted his sonic screwdriver and placed it back in his top coat pocket and watched as the batarian grunted and shook his head to clear the ringing.
The lead turian, clad in the standard blue C-Sec uniform, looked at them both and said sternly, "I will ask you both to desist and to move along peacefully. The Dark Star Lounge is a place for civility and if you cannot conduct yourself appropriately then we will have to take you in." The turian turned his gaze to the Doctor, "Even you, Doctor, regardless of who you know on Palaven."
The Doctor smiled slyly, "Of course, of course! Nothing to see here! Just making myself at home here on the Citadel and making new friends. I always like to make new friends in the places I visit." Giving the batarian a healthy pat on the back, the batarian grunted once more, a look of pain etched in his face as the ringing began to dissipate, "Right, friend?" The batarian nodded weakly as his asari mate came and knelt beside him, quietly chiding him for losing to the human. "All good friends here!" the Doctor exclaimed happily before leaning over to speak to the turian, "Now, could you direct me to the restroom?"
3
Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Rannoch was worried. It had been six months since the renegade geth had made a run for the vast Flatlands without any indication of where they were specifically heading. She had ordered scouts of both quarian and geth to search the hills and the rocky terrain. She knew that they would find these geth eventually, but she was concerned about whether or not they would be hostile. These geth had left no word as to why they had disconnected themselves from the greater network, and Legion-V assured her that these geth were not servants of the now dead Reapers. Still, even with all these reassurances, she couldn't trust these geth completely.
I wish my friends were here, she thought as she slumped in her chair, pushing aside all the reports that had been sent to her regarding the geth. They would know what to do. She bit her lip and picked up a data pad. These geth were out there somewhere.
As she began to read a message beeped on her comlink. Hitting the switch she answered, "This is Admiral Tali'Zorah. Legion Five, please give me some good news."
On the other end, she heard the familiar and comforting robotic voice and for a second she felt a pang of sadness, "Creator Tali'Zorah, Creator Zela'Raan and I have located the renegade geth. They are located about twenty miles miles outside of the Neema border. Creator Zela'Raan is requesting further assistance."
Tali'Zorah breathed a sigh of relief and responded, "Of course! We will send reinforcements right away. Give me your exact location."
4
Commander Bailey looked at the Doctor over the data pad in his hand. The Doctor, his face a calm, unreadable mask looked at Commander Bailey and began to quietly whistle. Standing up, Commander Bailey adjusted his uniform and dropped the data pad on his desk. Coming around the desk, he motioned for the C-Sec officers who had escorted the Doctor to go away. Once they were gone, Bailey looked at the Doctor, impatience filling those battle-hardened eyes.
"Doctor, my patience is wearing thin. You've been here for three days and I have seen you in my office more times than I've seen the usual riffraff." Crossing his arms, he continued, "I am beginning to miss the usual riffraff, Doctor. Now tell me, why have my officers brought you in to see me?"
Adjusting his bow tie, the Doctor squirmed a bit under that icy-blue, steel gaze, "Well, you know me. I like to get to know people. Unfortunately," he said as he clasped his hands in front of him, "some folks here are not very talkative. You wouldn't believe how many people like privacy. Except for the volus, have you ever seen them dance?" Commander Bailey shook his head, and the Doctor took that as an invitation to go on, "Lovely people the volus! And the salarians! I feel a kindred spirit with them. Fast talkers, brilliant minds, all those thoughts rushing around," the Doctor said gleefully as he made weird hand motions, "I mean the ideas they have! It's all so very exciting!" The Doctor took in a breath, a sign that he was getting ready to go on, before Bailey cut him off.
"Doctor, I understand that leaving Earth can be seen as an adventure and sometimes a little overwhelming, but let me remind you that there are rules and regulations here. Some human idiosyncrasies are considered rude to other races. Like asking too many questions!" Before the Doctor could respond, Bailey held up a hand, "I am not going to warn you again. Please take some time to read up on the different races here and don't let me see you in here again!"
The Doctor nodded once and spoke plainly, "I understand Commander, I really do. But this place! These races! They are new to me. They are different than anything I have ever seen before. So many races, so little time! I have so much to learn and see and do." His voice rose up in his excitement as he clapped his hands, "Now tell me Commander Bailey, if you were me, what would you do?"
Commander Bailey thought for a moment before responding, "If I were you, Doctor, I would stay clear of the batarians and the vorcha. However, you seem to have a knack for attracting their attention." Reaching behind him, Commander Bailey took hold of a data pad, and skimmed it quickly. "Actually, Doctor, I think it would be a good idea if perhaps you visited the homeworld of some of these races. I understand that you have been to Palaven and Menae." The Doctor nodded. "Then maybe this homeworld would be to your liking. The race that originally inhabited the world has just started to settle in again after years of war with their creations. I think you would like it," handing the data pad over to the Doctor, Commander Bailey concluded,
"How does Rannoch sound to you?"
5
"Kal'Reegar, come in!" Tali called through the comlink as she waited for his update. Pacing back and forth through her office, she wanted to hear his updates on their advancement. He had been sending her updates every few hours, most of it location updates of his squad and of the renegade geth. Tali knew that this lull would be short lived once the geth found out that the squads were there to capture them. Or worse.
"Kal'Reegar here, Admiral," the old marine responded, "Sorry, Admiral, for the delayed update. We were traveling through some heavy terrain to get a better view of the entrance to the geth hideout. So far we have not seen any of the geth patrols, but we have seen some evidence that they have been out patrolling this area. Judging by the tracks they haven't strayed far from the entrance. They seem to think that they're safe here, ma'am."
Tali remained silent as she thought about their next course of action. They could storm the entrance, but knowing the geth they would have it rigged to explode, or have some sort of mechanized protection unit there like an aperture. Having the marines enter the base single file would be disastrous. Approaching a panel she began to call up the physical maps of the area outside of Neema. The Flatlands being the perfect descriptor for the area, it wasn't without its hills and sharp drops. In truth, the Flatlands were called such because it they were at the top of a vast mountain range, the peaks whittled flat by strong winds or crushed by celestial debris.
No, Tali thought, we cannot approach them through the entrance. That would be suicide. We must find another entrance to these caves. Looking at the map, she began to click points along the squad's path, determined to find the perfect entrance. Suddenly the answer appeared before her and as she clicked her comlink to speak again to Kal'Reegar, he contacted her,
"Admiral! You're going to want to see this." Tali quickly looked to the screen beside the map and in the viewer she saw something she had never seen before.
A big, blue box appearing out of thin air.
6
The Doctor landed the old girl with a thud. Looking at the screen in front of him he realized that he had missed a sharp drop by at least 300 meters. "Taking a bit of a gamble are we?" he asked the empty control room. Straightening his bowtie and jacket, he moved the viewer away from him and made his way down the ramp to the door. Before he opened the door, he took a deep breath as an attempt to calm down his feelings of excitement. With a child-like grin he opened the door and stepped out.
Holding a hand to his face, the Doctor shielded his eyes from the light of Rannoch's orange sun. As his eyes quickly adjusted, he realized that he was not alone.
Kal'Reegar was the first to point his M-76 Revenant assault rifle at this strange human and his squad quickly followed. Quickly putting up his hands, the Doctor made no sudden moves. Now, would not be a good time, he thought wryly, his eyes darting between the quarians and their mechanical friends the geth. Time at the Citadel had paid off as he now knew every council race in this strange galaxy. Of course, this wasn't the time to reminisce. He had other things to take care of.
Kal'Reegar hit the comlink again and spoke to Tali, "Admiral, we have a situation here. We have a human visitor in an oddly shaped vehicle. Can you see him on the vid?"
Before Tali could respond, the Doctor smiled widely and decided to start up a conversation despite the danger of doing so, "Why hello there! Good to see everyone! What a nice planet you have here. Newly arrived, so I hear!" Spinning around, he came back full circle to look at Kal'Reegar, "I see you have a gun, a big, huge gun. A big huge gun could only mean that I have arrived at a bad time!"
Kal'Reegar slowly reached up to touch his comlink again, "Admiral?" The rest of his squad and the geth looked at the Doctor curiously. The Doctor only smiled at them and waited to hear the voice of this mysterious Admiral on the other end of the channel.
Tali had been hearing the human's seemingly excited and enthusiastic voice, "Kal'Reegar, ask him his name." She suddenly had a hunch. If Garrus' stories were to be trusted.
Keeping his assault rifle fixed on the Doctor, Kal'Reegar spoke slowly, "What is your name?"
The Doctor reached out his hand, "I'm the Doctor!" he said with a big smile. "Quarians, are you? And geth? I have heard so many stories!"
Tali touch the comlink again, "Stand down Kal, he's a friend." Nodding to the order, Kal'Reegar lowered his rifle and took the Doctor's hand. "The name's Kal'Reegar vas Tonbay. Sorry for the rifle, Doctor, but we have to be cautious." Shaking the Doctor's hand briefly, he let it drop and waved a hand to the rest of the squad, signaling that they could also stand down. "Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Rannoch says that you are a friend."
Upon hearing the name, the Doctor clapped his hands as a broad, eager grin crept up, "Tali'Zorah! Garrus' friend! Oh I have heard so much about her. Expert of the geth and the Reapers. Tech genius, and one of the youngest Admirals the quarians have had! Oh her reputation does proceed her!" He would have gone on had Kal'Reegar not put up a hand to stop him.
"Yes sir, the very same. Now if you wouldn't mind telling me why you're here. As you said, you have arrived at a bad time."
Looking around, the Doctor could not deny that statement, "Yes, a bad time." Looking passed the armed force, knowing that something existed beyond his line of sight, "Were you planning to attack something?" His tone turned serious and the joviality of the situation quickly dissipated.
Holstering his assault rifle, Kal'Reegar confirmed the Doctor's suspicions. "You could say that, sir, but I would rather leave this information to Admiral Tali'Zorah. If you will follow me, I will take you to a more secured location." Looking at his squad, Kal'Reegar made one more quick motion and soon the marines and the geth began to move away from the Doctor. Placing a hand on the TARDIS, the Doctor said his quick goodbye and followed.
7
The trip to the secured location was a long one. Located well away from the geth hideout, the quarians had brought enough supplies with them to last months. Standing in a small pavilion, with a steel roof over them and only one wall behind them, the Doctor found himself looking at a map of their location. He could see the Flatlands and was amazed by the sheer size of the region.
Kal'Reegar was pointing to the place where the Doctor had landed, and there on the map the Doctor could see a blip on the screen indicating the TARDIS. Kal'Reegar had been explaining what they were doing in the region when the Doctor arrived.
"By gathering information on what these geth are doing, we will be able to plan a proper course of action." Moving his finger along the ridgeline of the Flatlands, he continued, "Along this ridge is where we think there might be another entrance to their hideout, but the entrance could be thousands of meters down. This is unexplored territory for us as our people have deemed the Flatlands uninhabitable." Tapping the map, Kal'Reegar zoomed in for a closer look and scrolled to a location that looked like a small town, "Here is Neema, the closest town to these geth. We are here to protect them at all costs." The Doctor nodded and looked at the map, his thoughts jumbling together in a big rush of ideas and plans and solutions. It was times like this when he wished his mind could sort through them faster as clever as he was, but he was up for the challenge of picking a solution he knew to be the right one.
"So tell me, Kal'Reegar, once you find these renegade geth, what do you plan to do them?" He asked as he looked up to meet the masked face. The Doctor already knew the answer, and it filled him with a deep sense of dread.
From behind them a slightly distorted, female voice responded, "We will do what is necessary to protect the people of Neema, Doctor." Tali said as she walked up the ramp of the pavilion to meet Kal'Reegar and the Doctor. Extending her hand, she greeted him, "Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Rannoch. I have heard a great many stories about you Doctor, though I am not sure which ones were real."
Taking her gloved hand, the Doctor shook it firmly, "Believe them all." he said with a great deal of confidence, "Our friend Garrus is not one to make up stories. Or blush, I've noticed. I've tried." He motioned to the map and changed the subject, "If you are willing to do whatever it takes then is saving them an option?"
Situating herself between Kal'Reegar and the Doctor, Tali dismissed the idea, "It would have been an option had they not been upgrade with Reaper code. We do not know why they disconnected themselves from the geth collective network, but that Reaper code makes them a threat." It was then that a quarian female and a geth trooper approached the pavilion. Pointing to the two, Tali introduced them, "Doctor, this is Zela'Raan vas Neema and Legion Five. They were the ones who tracked these geth here." The quarian and the geth both greeted the Doctor before Zela'Raan spoke, "Admiral, all preparations have been made. We are ready to move on your order."
Tali nodded in confirmation and looked to the Doctor, "Believe me Doctor, I have weighed all the options and this is the best decision for the safety of the people in Neema and for the geth collective. It was not a decision I made lightly." With a look to Kal'Reegar she gave her order for them to move out. With a quick salute Kal'Reegar motioned to his forces and soon the camp with bustling with geth soldiers and quarian marines preparing for an all-out assault on the geth hideout.
Shaking his head, the Doctor moved away from the commotion and watched them. There has to be something I can do, he thought to himself, if I can just convince them. As the squad began to move, the Doctor was right behind them with a plan formulating in his mind.
8
The second entrance to the geth hideout was a difficult one to get to. Moving through the Flatlands was not easy since they needed to avoid detection from any patrolling geth forces. This proved to be a challenge when the land had very little in the way of protection, but the squad of quarians and geth made good use of the random rock piles and dried-out ravines.
At the entrance, Kal'Reegar gave his final orders to the squad and led the way into the entrance. Tali was the last one in, her pistol at the ready.
Making their way through the winding passages and more hazardous areas of these caves, Kal'Reegar soon began to hear what could be the mechanical steps of the geth. Holding up a hand, he stopped his squad and they quickly pushed themselves up against the cave walls. Crouching, Kal'Reegar made his way to Tali and spoke quietly to her, "Admiral, I believe there is a small group of geth heading our way. I suggest…"
"Geth incoming!" a quarian marine shouted as he aimed his assault rifle and fired. Before Tali or Kal'Reegar could stop the actions of the rest of the squad, the renegade geth had already begun to fire away. The shots began to ring out through the cave as rock debris, dirt and bullets began to fill the small enclosure. Kal'Reegar quickly moved away from Tali and began making his way back to the front of the line, his assault rifle now firing at the geth he saw. The rest of squad dispersed and began shooting in the same general direction. The geth soldiers that had discovered them had also spread out, their shields absorbing most of the shots that Kal'Reegar and his squad were firing at them.
Tali pushed off from the wall and looked behind her to warn the Doctor to take cover. Her eyes widened when she saw that he was no longer with them. "Bosh'tet!" she cursed as she turned back around and started firing at the first geth trooper she saw. There was no time to worry about him.
Their first skirmish was a short one as the last geth trooper fell to the ground. Tali looked around and took a count of the numb er of wounded they had and to her surprise her people and the accompanying geth were unscathed. The geth who had attacked them had not been prepared for their numbers, as only five geth lay on the ground. "A small scouting party," Kal'Reegar surmised and Tali could only agree. That meant that the main force was still ahead. And the Doctor was gone.
Kneeling, Tali called up her omni-tool and did a quick scan of the geth remains. The information gathered from her tool began to show on the small vid screen and she quickly learned the location of the rest of the forces and their size. "Geth primes, geth hunters, and geth troopers," she said to Kal'Reegar, "at least twenty-five or so." Then thinking about the Doctor, she added, "And I believe the Doctor is heading right to them."
9
The Doctor had moved away from the group before the started making their way to the second entrance. If he could not convince Tali that the geth soldiers in that hideout were worth preserving, then perhaps he could convince the geth soldiers in the hideout. It's risky, the Doctor thought as he made his way to the main hideout entrance, maybe too risky.
As entrances to hideouts were concerned, this one was nothing more than an entrance to an abandoned mine shaft it seemed to the Doctor. The fact that there were no guards protecting the entrance led the Doctor to a couple of conclusions, either the geth did not think that they would be found here, or they wanted and welcomed visitors.
With his sonic screwdriver out and scanning, the Doctor made his way through the passage. He saw no patrols and he saw no detection systems of any kind or gun turrets. Strange to have a hideout with no security, he thought as he made his way, carefully watching his steps.
After a while the sound of geth footsteps made him stop in his tracks. Scanning the area, he picked up more than two dozen individual signatures in a cave to the left of him. Quietly moving towards that direction, he saw that the path he was on rounded a corner. "This is it!" the Doctor said to the rocks around him, "Let's see these renegade geth!" With that he made his way around the corner and into the center of the geth hideout.
10
Kal'Reegar stopped the advancement of the squad and started forward on his own. After their skirmish, they had been traveling through winding passages for a good part of an hour. They had not encountered any more geth patrols and to Kal'Reegar and Tali's surprise, they did not find these caves to be as heavily fortified as they thought.
As Kal'Reegar made his way through the passage and stopped as he came upon a heavy steel door. Turning he sprinted back to the group and reported his finding to Tali, "Admiral, I believe we have made it to the geth hideout. There is a door further along the passage. Steel and locked. It shouldn't take too long to hack it but we will need to be ready."
Tali thought for a second and nodded her agreement, "Okay, let's go. Be quick and be silent. We need the element of surprised on our side." Kal'Reegar saluted and made his way to his squad, giving out the orders to proceed with caution.
Tali moved up to join Kal'Reegar at the head of the squad. Looking behind her, she addressed the marines and the soldiers, "We cannot give the geth time to adjust and defend this hideout. Once they do, we will be outnumbered." Looking forward, she began to move to the steel door.
11
The Doctor sat quietly before the geth prime leader with two armed geth soldiers standing on either side of him. He had used all of his charm to keep these geth from locking him up, but this particular geth prime was proving to be an extraordinarily stubborn.
"It is clear that you are not understanding me," the Doctor said with a sense of urgency in his voice, "there is a squad of quarians and geth coming this way and they are seeking to exterminate you. You must convince them that you only want your independence!"
The geth prime leader, towering above the Doctor, looked to its other geth. The geth troopers, geth hunters, and geth primes all shook their heads in unison, their decision was made.
Slamming his hands on the side of the crate that he sat on, the Doctor's anger started to rise. "Don't you see? You can stop this! You don't have to fight them! I can stop them. I can talk to them. No one has to die today!"
The geth prime leader turned back to the Doctor and its deep, digital voice resonated in the large open cave, "Doctor-human, if they attack us, we will attack. Our will is to survive. That is our consensus."
Standing up, the Doctor walked up to the geth prime and looked up at it, "If that is your consensus, then you must trust me. If they come here start firing upon you, you must not fire back. They will see that you mean them no harm and they will stop! Please! Listen to me!"
At that same moment, Tali placed her hand upon the steel door, her omini-tool hacking through the locking mechanism. With her right arm raised to the squad, she held them back until she was sure the door would open. With one final whirl of the orange light, the door unlocked and she quickly moved aside. As the doors whooshed open, Kal'Reegar was in and so were the rest of the squad.
The first geth troopers were down before the geth prime leader could give any orders. The commotion of the surprised attack plus the shouts coming from both quarians and geth created an atomosphere of complete and utter chaos. The Doctor dropped into a crouch and ran for cover, feeling the bullets fly by him in all directions. Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Extending it, he raised it above his head.
And the bullets ceased to fly.
Tali had been shooting from cover when the pistol blew from her hand. Reaching behind her, she retrieved her shotgun, but found that the trigger would not work. Slamming her shotgun into the ground, she got up angrily and walked into the center of the cave.
"Doctor!" she said exclaimed as Kal'Reegar and his squad moved up to join her. "What the hell are you doing?"
The renegade geth had also been shooting from cover and the moment the bullets stopped, they automatically set aside their weapons and stood up from their cover. The geth prime leader flanked by two hunters and a trooper approached the middle of the cave to stand before Tali and her people. The Doctor, giving a kiss to his screwdriver, came out from behind the crates where he had been hiding approached them both, his hands raised up above his head.
"Tali, I need you to listen to me. I need you to ask your people to stand down and listen to me." Coming before the both of them, the Doctor chose to stand in front of the geth prime leader and his backup. Keeping his hands in front of him, the Doctor tried to calm the enraged Tali and Kal'Reegar.
Despite the Doctor's efforts to calm Tali, she had no intention on listening to him, "Doctor, you were supposed to be a friend! Garrus trusted you enough to vouch for you! You have betrayed my trust by protecting these renegade geth! Why are you doing this?"
The Doctor slowly lowered his hands while extending one hand behind him to hold back the geth prime leader, "Tali, I understand that you are upset, but you have to listen to me. These geth are not your enemy, they never were." Placing a hand on the geth prime leader's chest, the Doctor continued, "These geth, the renegades you call them, want nothing more than to exist. You have no right to deny them that."
Tali pointed an accusatory finger at the geth prime leader, "But they are a threat to my people, Doctor! They disconnected themselves from the geth collective network. They are upgraded with the Reaper code! Who is to say that they will not one day seek to attack the people of Neema, or Tonbay, or Rannoch?" Kal'Reegar nodded in agreement as did the rest of the quarian forces. Their geth allies remained silent as they looked at those that were once a part of their geth network.
The geth prime leader looked down to Tali and spoke, "Creator Tali'Zorah, we do seek to destroy the creators. We seek existence. We seek to learn. We seek independence from the geth collective."
Tali looked at the Doctor and then back to the geth prime leader, "Independence? I don't understand. The geth are interdependent. They share data amongst themselves. Why would you seek independence from the geth?" She placed a hand on her head and tried to sort through what she had just heard, "You cannot tell me that you want independence. That is not a concept that the geth truly understand."
The geth prime leader nodded once and continued, "The idea of independence was acquired by our observations of the creators and of the allied races of the creators. It is something that we seek to understand. Nazara – Sovereign – told us that we were a nation. Within a nation there is independence."
Tali shook her head, "I can't believe that. I can't. We faced independent geth before, the Heretics. They built a consensus to leave the geth and join with Sovereign. And look at what happened! No, I cannot allow you to exist here with the Reaper code upgrades and this idea of independency."
The Doctor held up a hand to Tali, "Tali, I know that this is hard and I know that you want to do what is right for your people, but what about the geth? These geth here," he motioned to the geth behind him, "have made a decision. A decision that only a sentient being could make. A decision to explore an idea. To learn." Turning to the geth and then back to Tali he continued, "If these geth wanted to harm the people of Neema, wouldn't they have done so by now? They ran and hid here for six months. The passages we went through, there was no security! What does that tell you, Tali?"
Tali looked back to Kal'Reegar and the geth standing behind her, turning she faced the Doctor and the renegade geth, "I know, Doctor, but you were not there when we faced the Heretics. You were not there when we had to rewrite them."
The geth prime leader responded, "Creator Tali'Zorah, the Heretics were slaves of the Old Machines. We are not slaves of the Old Machines. We are geth. Our consensus is to exist among the creators and the geth. Our consensus is to evolve and explore independence."
The Doctor approached Tali and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Tali, I have known you for only a day, but you have to trust me. These geth are not a threat to your people."
Tali sighed deeply and nodded, "Doctor, Garrus trusted you explicitly and I trust my friend." Stepping around the Doctor, she approached the geth prime leader and spoke to it directly, "I acknowledge your independence from the geth collective. We will leave here peacefully. However, as you exist here on Rannoch, you are subject to our laws. Is this clear?"
The geth prime leader paused for a second while the geth communicated amongst themselves, with a nod the geth answered her question, "Creator Tali'Zorah, we accept your laws. We will remain here. We will create a new communication network with the greater geth collective and we will share data."
The Doctor clapped his hands and was quickly patting the shoulders of Tali and the geth prime leader. "This is how peace is made!"
12
It was late evening by the time the Doctor emerged from the geth hideout. The Doctor, Tali, Kal'Reegar and the rest of the quarians and geth had stayed with the new geth collective to talk about the next steps and how these new independent geth would be accepted by both the greater geth collective and the quarian people. In all, it was a satisfying meeting of two sentient races. It reminded the Doctor of the time humans and Silurians almost made peace with each other. At least this one was a success, the Doctor thought as he started to walk in the general direction of his TARDIS.
"Doctor!" a voice yelled out. Stopping the Doctor turned and watched Tali approach him. "Doctor, I wanted to thank you." The Doctor held up a hand to stop that from happening, "There's no need Tali, all in a days work!" If Tali was smiling under that mask, the Doctor was unsure, but he could tell that her voice was tinged with amusement, "Yes, Doctor, I'm sure. But I really wanted to thank you. If you had not stopped us from eliminating those geth, we would have lost so much. Now, we are able to see the next steps in geth evolution. Can you believe it? Artificial intelligence exploring the idea of independence! We have seen such before, but for them to make a conscience decision. It's unbelievable!"
The Doctor smiled broadly in agreement, "It is, isn't? New geth conscience. Just think of the possibilities!" Throwing his arms out he gave Tali a hug, "Oh you new races! So resilient and brilliant!" Holding her out in front of him, "I have learned so much!" Letting her go, he spun around and started making his way to the TARDIS. "But there is much more to learn!" As he started walking, Tali was close behind, "Are you going to you big, blue box Doctor?"
"Yes, yes, the TARDIS. Did Garrus tell you about it?" He quickened his pace as he could see it in the distance. He was getting eager to move on to another adventure.
"Yes, he did. He also told me what you did for him." The Doctor stopped and walked back to Tali. Stopping a few feet in front of her he looked at her curiously, "Did he know? What did he tell you?"
Tali responded quickly, "He told me that you took him into the past. To see Shepard."
"I did." The Doctor nodded and eyed her closely," So tell me Tali'Zorah, is there someplace you would like to go?"
To his surprised, Tali shook her head. "I believe that the past is best left in the past." Tapping her head, she continued, "I have my memories. And the future I would like to keep a surprise." Reaching out, she took the Doctor's hand, "But thank you Doctor, for what you did for him." Shaking it a bit, she let go and took a couple of steps back. "And thank you again, Doctor, for what you did for us."
The Doctor smiled softly, "You're welcome, Tali'Zorah vas Rannoch." Turning he began to walk towards the TARDIS again.
"Though," Tali said quickly, "I would like to see the inside of your TARDIS. I hear it's bigger on the inside!" The Doctor turned his head to look at her, "Well, come on then!" he said as he waved her along.