The small hours of the morning slid onwards, and as activity picked up, Skywalker's energy waned. He had seemed mildly surprised at how understanding Shepard was at his need to meditate, and she in turn seemed somewhat curious about his request that they keep on talking due to his preference for the friendly chatter of others.

If anything, Shepard seemed to have forgotten about him completely, as she started on her third cup of coffee and talked with Chakwas.

"...We haven't even done anything!" She shook her head, laughing. "I swear. Honest! I don't know why everyone keeps thinking that."

"Probably because you two had a romantic dinner and he didn't come out until late," Chakwas teased.

"All right, all right... you want to know what happened? I bawled like a little baby, then we got drunk, and I decided that I had to make him watch The Sound of Music right then - you know, that old vid, one of the ones with all the singing - the songs get stuck in my head something fierce. I forgot how long the thing is, you know? But then I found that brandy I stashed up in my cabin..."

The doors to the medbay slid open, and Garrus piped up, teasing: "I think that was about when you decided you needed to explain to me how it's always okay to shoot Nazis."

She twisted around, greeting the turian with a hug, and Chakwas smiled at the two of them. "Yeah, it was a great history lesson. I'm a fantastic teacher," Shepard teased before Garrus gestured to Skywalker, sitting a few beds down with his head bowed and breathing even. "Oh, yeah, the new kid. He's great, you'll like him. Hasn't even tried to kill me once yet. Scout's honor!" Garrus rolled his eyes, but Luke fortunately was already drifting out of his meditation with a deep sigh. "Garrus Vakarian, meet Luke Skywalker."

"Good to meet you," Luke said pleasantly, shaking Garrus' offered hand. His tone was still a little distant and drowsy, though gentle and calm.

"Likewise. ...You know, I wasn't quite expecting such a warm reception. Most humans are still a little suspicious of turians."

It was the first time Shepard had seen him even closed to offended. "I'm no racist, if that's what you're saying. I don't buy into the Imperial propaganda about how humanity is the best. I even took Yuzzem in school for my foreign language when everybody else was busy taking Twi'lek to chat up the dancing girls -"

He paused, blinking a few times as if finally remembering where he was. "That... didn't make any sense to you, did it?" Shepard and Garrus both shook their heads, and he mumbled an apologetic "Sorry."

"It's fine, kid." Shepard smiled broadly. "We're probably going to get stuck talking nonsense to one each other. Don't worry about it. - See, Garrus? Good kid."

"Shepard -" His tone was polite, as usual. "I was wondering something...?"

"Sure, shoot." Garrus stood back, watching in interest.

"Uh..." He turned, gesturing to the doorway at the far side of the medbay. "What - exactly - is in there?"

"Oh! That's the AI core - mostly our pet geth."

"...Geth?"

"Well, it's... I'd better start at the beginning." Shepard scrunched her nose, looking back to Garrus. "Do you think Tali would kill me if I made some little finger puppets for explaining the Morning War to people?"

"Yeah, just a little bit," Garrus said, grinning.

"All right, all right. Short version this time. Geth are a form of synthetic life." Although his eyebrows knit in immediate confusion, as if Shepard had just spouted the worst of oxymorons, she blithely continued. "Most of them that we encounter, we shoot. I've spent most of my time fighting them off. But those - they're crazy cultists, more or less. Legion's on our side. Of course, Legion still has orders to not wake me up in the middle of the night or else I might shoot 'im in the face and then cry about it, but, you know..."

"Synthetic life?" He finally repeated the words, incredulous.

The display next to Chakwas' desk flickered on, a glowing blue hologram appearing there. EDI's voice, smooth and calm as always, piped up: "I believe I may be able to more accurately describe -"

The AI didn't get farther than that, because Skywalker jumped like a cat thrown into a pool, flailing and startled. He managed to fall backwards off the cot he had been sitting on, almost immediately giving a muffled "I'm okay! I'm okay!" even as Garrus and Chakwas rushed to help him.

"My apologies. From your father's reaction, I assumed VI interfaces were standard in your universe," EDI explained calmly. Shepard winced sympathetically even as Luke gave a few more addled, reflexive apologies.

"I didn't know synthetic life could... happen." Luke shook his head before giving a small smile. "That makes it... make sense, I suppose."

"It can here, at least, for good and for bad." Shepard smiled, and Garrus gave a low chuckle.

"I'm going to go..." Garrus leaned in for Shepard to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah, yeah. Calibrations. I'll see you at lunch." Shepard grinned before turning her attention back to Skywalker. "You either look like you're about to sneeze, or you're trying to figure out how to not sound crazy while explaining something."

Luke laughed. "The second part, I guess. It's hard to explain, I mean - what I felt while meditating..."

"If you're nervous about religious things, kid, don't worry." Shepard shifted her broken leg with a grunt, fluffing up an extra pillow and propping it up. "I'm not one of those hardass captains who thinks we killed God with the spaceship. So go on, don't worry about speaking freely."

"It's - well." He gestured with his hands, looking at his fingertips as he thought. "The universe is all connected by the Force - it binds together all living things - it surrounds us, it's part of us." He looked up to Shepard a moment as if expecting her to come back with some comment about hokey religion and preferring a blaster at her side.

Instead she gave a slow nod. "Sort of like the Asari, then. Yeah, that makes sense."

"When I was meditating, that's what I... listen to. Or feel." From the way Shepard's eyebrows knit, Luke could tell he was quickly losing her confidence. "There's so much life behind that door - I couldn't tell what it was. I hadn't really felt anything like it since finding a nest colony of Jubba birds on Dagobah."

"Aahh... that'd be Legion. The thing about geth - well. Honestly most of the time I think of Legion as a bunch of tiny aliens piloting a great big mech. But one geth - it's just one little part. Legion is... several thousand of them, all in a mobile platform. Hence his name. ...its name. Their name. ...And I'm sure that EDI's pleased as punch about being counted as part of that life bindey forcey thingy."

(The holographic representation of the AI did, in fact, look pleased.)

"And don't worry, kid." Shepard gave him a lopsided smile. "I don't think you're crazy. Not yet, anyway."