To Forgive Is Divine
"Come on, you bosh'tet!" Tali said, as she struggled with a troublesome program on her omni-tool. "Almost got it…dammit!" Tali swore, as the panel in front of her shut off.
"Something the matter, Tali?" EDI, the Normandy's helpful AI, asked.
"No, EDI, just having a bit of trouble, thanks," Tali responded, as she loaded up her omni-tool to try again.
In truth, something was the matter. Barely an hour ago, she had gotten into a big argument with Legion, the geth that Shepard had brought on board from the derelict Reaper during their mission to obtain the Reaper IFF. She had protested the decision then, and her opinion hadn't changed at all. If anything, it had made her more sure that she was right to protest. She had caught Legion trying to scan her omni-tool for data on the quarian fleet, and had drawn her pistol on it to prevent valuable confidential data from getting to her enemies.
Luckily for the geth, Shepard had intervened just in time. He convinced them both to stand down, and had assured the two that he would speak to them individually. He hadn't talked with her yet, but she wasn't exactly looking forward to the experience, and it was reflecting both in her work, and her attitude. Gabby and Kenneth had moved away from the engineering deck after ten minutes, and Jack had followed them shortly afterwards. Part of her wished that Shepard would just hurry up and have the damn talk with her already, just to get it over with.
The elevator behind her started moving, and she stopped messing with her omni-tool. Sure enough, the elevator stopped at her floor. She turned around to meet whoever it was, and was greeted with the last one she wanted to see.
"Creator-Tali'Zorah," Legion greeted.
Oh, Keelah, she thought, why is it here?
"Tali'Zorah? You seem surprised," the geth said.
Tali huffed. "What do you want, Legion? Come to take my omni-tool again?"
Legion looked taken aback. "No. Shepard-Commander told us that doing so was forbidden. You misunderstand our intentions."
"Really?" Tali said, annoyed, "because the last time I saw you, that was what you were doing. Am I just supposed to trust you, now?"
"That would be ideal. However, given your distrust of synthetics, it seems unlikely."
"I don't distrust synthetics," Tali said, "EDI, for example, has been very helpful. No, I distrust geth, like you."
Legion paused. "Acknowledged," it said, after a few seconds.
Tali brought her omni-tool back up, and continued working on her program. "So, what is it that you really want, Legion? And don't pretend like you aren't here for something; you wouldn't have come here without a reason," she said, without looking up.
"We have come to issue an apology."
Tali stopped messing with her omni-tool. "An apology?"
Legion nodded. "Yes. Synthetics have little use for such a thing, but from what we have observed, organics attach a different meaning to them. For what it may be worth, Creator-Tali'Zorah, we are sorry."
Her omni-tool let out a small, staccato beep, indicating that her program had once again failed. She swore out loud, then once again brought the omni-tool up to look at it. To her surprise, however, Legion was looking over her shoulder. It noticed her glare at it, and turned away.
"So, that's how it is," Tali said. "You apologize for the first time, and then immediately do it again?"
Legion lowered its head. "We are sorry, Tali'Zorah. You seemed to be having some trouble, and we wondered if we could assist in some way. We meant no offense."
Tali looked at the geth, and let out a sigh. It sounded sincere enough. Maybe she had been a little hard on it. "Never mind, Legion," she said.
"Tali'Zorah?" it asked.
"Just get out of here," she said.
The flaps that served as Legion's eyebrows raised slightly, but then slowly lowered. It turned to leave, but then turned back towards Tali. "Tali'Zorah," it said, "your program continues to fail because you accidentally duplicated a line in the middle section. If you remove that line, the code should work."
Tali looked at the geth, then shrugged her shoulders. Might as well give it a shot, she thought, nothing else has worked.
She scrolled to the middle part of her code, and began reading through the lines. To her surprise, she actually had duplicated a line by accident. Sloppy! she thought, as she removed the error, and ran the code. To her amazement, it actually worked; her omni-tool stayed silent, and a light on the control panel blinked a few times in succession as it configured her changes.
She turned around to give Legion a quick word of thanks for its help, but the synthetic was gone. Curious, she wandered out into the hall in search of it. She spotted it in Zaeed's room, looking out the window. Her interest piqued, she decided to join it. Her footsteps echoed across the corridor, and the geth turned to face her as she entered the room it was in.
"Thanks for the help, Legion," Tali said, as she stopped next to it.
The geth didn't respond, but it did raise its 'eyebrows' in understanding before turning back to the window. Tali looked around the room; Zaeed wasn't there, and she was glad for that, since he would have most likely shouted at both of them until they left. Finally, she decided to address the question she had had since first seeing Legion in the room.
"I wasn't aware that geth used windows," she said.
"We don't," Legion said, "as we explained to Shepard-Commander, windows are structural weaknesses. Geth do not use them."
"Then why are you looking out this one?" Tali asked.
Legion paused. "No data available," it said.
Tali nodded. "I see," she said, before turning to look out the window with Legion. There was, of course, very little to see; nothing but stars and the occasional meteorite. Regardless, the two of them stayed there for several minutes, simply looking out into space.
"Tali'Zorah?" Legion said, after a bit.
"Yes, Legion?" Tali asked.
"We are sorry."
"I know, Legion. So am I."
Legion looked at her, confused, and she added, "for not accepting your apology. By the way, thanks for helping me."
"It was no trouble, Tali'Zorah," the geth said.
Once again, the two of them lapsed into silence for a bit. Once again, it was Legion who broke it.
"Tali'Zorah, we have another question."
"What is it?"
"We feel like it might be a bit too personal, but would prefer it if you could answer it anyway."
"Okay, go ahead," Tali said.
"Do you believe that our races will ever be at peace, Tali'Zorah?"
Tali looked at the geth, shocked. "I don't know. What do you think, Legion?"
"We are not sure, Tali'Zorah. That is why we asked for your opinion."
Tali hesitated. "Maybe. First, we would need to discuss the terms of a ceasefire between the two of us, and I know that we are hesitant to do so with the species that took over our home planet."
Legion turned towards her. "We were merely defending ourselves. Creators were the ones who initiated the first strike against us. We simply retaliated with what we felt was necessary for our survival."
Tali nodded in understanding. "I know. But, perhaps a day will come when our two species will negotiate terms for peace."
Legion nodded. "Tali'Zorah?" It asked, after a brief pause.
"Yes?"
Legion hesitated. "Perhaps we could discuss the idea with our races?"
Tali looked at the geth, shocked, then nodded. "Perhaps we could," she said.
"Will that be all, Shepard?" EDI asked, as she cut the audio feed.
Shepard shook his head. "Yes, EDI. Thank you."
"Do you still wish to speak with the two of them?" the AI asked.
"I don't think that will be necessary," Shepard said, as he sat down at his desk, "they seem to have worked it out, don't you think?"