He quite lost track of time. Dinnertime slipped past. It was late into the night before he seemed to notice what had happened. "How much longer until he's stable?"
Mariah couldn't sit there and do nothing, so she scribbled schematics on paper the Overseer had provided her. Her eyes were still suspicious as he worked, but slowly she relaxed as the time went by and concentrated more on her own work, only speaking to fire off rapid instructions.
She was no easier to get along with than she had been at the asylum, and became frustrated easily if he made a mistake-which was not often, and were not major in any way, much to her surprise.
"We're eighty-seven percent done," she said, scribbling something on the paper. How she figured that was a mystery. "Probably late afternoon, tomorrow. You should sleep."
He took a deep breath. "If I do, you do, and ve need to find a safe place to store zese components until ve can continue vork on zhem." He gently pulled away from the brain and set his tools aside, casting about for something.
Standing still all day hadn't done anything to improve his limp. "Hmm. "You are sure zis facility is one hundred percent clear of dust and contaminants, Overseer?"
"Yes. The only contaminants present are those shed by the human, and they are well within tolerance level to delicate machinery." Not, ironically, though, to a delicate immune system…
"Vell. I suppose he vill be okay here zhen…" But Ahera sounded only partially convinced. He might have been safe, but it felt curiously wrong to just leave him there like that…
"I left everyone's brains on the table," Mariah said, not finished with her own work. Then again, she was never finished. "He'll be fine. Trevor will watch over him. Go to bed."
"After you, of course," he replied stubbornly. "If I rest, you rest. And you should eat somesing first, as vell." He didn't plan on her arguing with him, because she should have known by then that such was fruitless.
It took quite some time, as usual, to pry her away. Interestingly, the thought of going to bed didn't seem as upsetting as moving from one workspace to another. Even so, it was another half-hour before they had eaten and tucked themselves away in their respective beds.
Ahera found himself in a surprisingly good mood, given the circumstances, but he suspected that being mobile had a lot to do with it. He had paced back and forth in his room before going to bed, enjoying the simple pleasure of walking smoothly and steadily, which was something he'd taken for granted until he'd lost his leg.
The next day was nothing interesting of note. Both robots and Mariah watched intently as Ahera worked on Butler's brain. Mariah had her IV hooked up around midday, allowed for a very small meal, and got back to work.
Much of Butler's body was built by the time Ahera sealed up the brain-case. Pieces of it were scattered across the desk, and Mariah was busily working on something long and hinged that looked like a head. She looked up, studying the case, then offered one of her rare smiles and told him to run the programs through the computer to make sure nothing was overlooked.
"Go ahead and hook it up to the console where I can keep a look at it," she said. "I don't care if the geth read the programs."
As he finished up Butler's brain-case, he hesitated. "Hmm. Vell, I know zhat you don't mind, and zhat I do, but vhat about him? Do you think Butler vould mind?"
"Asked him. He said no. The computers here are more sophisticated, anyway; if there's an error your omni-tool can't pick up, it will." She pointed to a console on the other side of the room and bent over her work again.
Tad trotted over to it and waited, finding the hooking up of its sibling's brain to be more its business than anything else.
It waited for him, triple jaws hanging open slightly. It had a new feature it wanted, for lack of other phrases, to show off.
Ahera nodded and carried the brain-case over. Trevor made Ahera nervous, and he was fond of Butler, but he didn't have much of an opinion on Tad. The (now) gold-plated mech had never had much to do with him.
He began to carefully attach Butler to the console. "Somesing I can help you vis?"
"No," Tad replied-its voice had gone from flat and robotic to clipped and metallic. "I wish to try something. Please move to the side."
It stepped up to the console and opened all of its jaws.
From the depths of its throat came a mass of black cords that looked like tentacles. In the ends, however, there were what were unmistakeably data ports. They attached themselves to the computer and (after silently sending a wordless query to the Overseer) activated and began the runtime test.
"Do they work?" Mariah called.
"Admirably," Tad replied, retreating swiftly from the mainframe.
"Good."
The Overseer allowed Tad access to the mainframe. Even if it was only a fragment of the full intelligence of the geth, it estimated that it wouldn't be too difficult to subdue this alien presence if it needed to. When Tad retreated, the Overseer went back to silent observation until Ahera asked it to check on Butler.
The whole process was over in the blink of an eye. "Everything appears to be in order. There are small errors present, but we believe these to be inherent to this synthetic's design, so we did not alter them."
Ahera gently unhooked Butler and turned to Mariah, giving her a thumbs-up, which was a human gesture he'd learned years ago. He had been startled by Tad's nightmarish mouth-tentacles, but had hid it admirably, and now adopted an air of nonchalance.
"Tad, could you download those errors please? Butler asked to see them," Mariah said. Tad turned to the computer and once more called up the tentacles, attaching them to the terminal and swiftly doing as asked.
It trotted back to Mariah and sat next to her, absently placing its golden head on her lap.
"Excellent. Now all I have to do is-" a loud snap signaled the break of something rather large. Mariah's shaking hands had applied too much pressure, and destroyed a component of a leg.
The air filled with expletives.
As soon as Ahera had carefully sat down the brain, he went to her side and put a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her a bit. "Hey, it's okay. I can help you fix it. It is only a minor setback."
He knew how difficult Mariah was to deal with in this state, and that he might very well get cursed out for his efforts, but he accepted it. She couldn't be held accountable for her behavior in this state.
That didn't mean he wouldn't try and soothe her. "Let me help you vis zhe body. I have nozzing else to do tonight, so! I vill finish him for you."
"No, damn it! I can't have you finish everything just because my hands can't fucking stop shaking!" She knocked his hand off, white faced and furious and snarling curses down at the delicate thing that had dared break on her. "Stupid fucking pieces of shit why is the human body so fucking inefficient it makes no goddamn sense how the hell did we manage to survive long enough to make fucking tools?"
Trevor stepped over and put its large head down, nudging her with it questioningly. Tad reared up and placed its paws on her lap, pushing its own "nose" against her neck in what could only be described as a nuzzle. Neither of them liked seeing their mother so upset.
Ahera let her rave for a few moments, hoping she'd work it out of her system, but she seemed to be making herself more agitated. He began to worry that she would hurt herself, so he reached forward and forcibly grabbed her shoulders.
"Mariah," he said, a little of that sternness he'd used on her back at the asylum creeping back into his voice. "Stop. Calm down for a second. Zis is a fixable problem."
His fingers dug tightly into her shoulders. "But first you must calm. Down."
" Get the fuck off me."
Trevor reared its head back, rocked onto its hind legs, and grabbed Ahera around the shoulders much the way he was currently grabbing her. In this case, however, it forced Ahera's shoulders to hunch and his hands to release Mariah. Then it lifted, picking Ahera clear off the floor and dumping him near the door.
"You will not touch Mother," it said, and though its deep voice had no inflection, it had an ominous tinge to it.
Mariah was pacing furiously, but seemed to be calming down on her own, snarling to herself and muttering all sorts of angry insults. But she seemed to be calming, even so.
Ahera merely shook his head, and began, a touch more gently, "Mariah-" but by then he was being grabbed by a robot and manhandled out of the room. "Let go of me, you bosh'tet!"
He was too unsteady on his feet to retain his balance when he was dumped, and ended up in an ungainly heap by the door. He scrambled to his feet. "I am trying to help her!" He shouted, his anger making him fearless in the face of a robot that could literally rip him into two pieces if it chose.
"You were not helping." Trevor placed its body between them, crouched into a springing pose. "Do not go near Mother without her express permission."
Mariah was still grumbling behind him, either not noticing what was happening or not giving a shit.
Tad followed her back and forth along the floor, but simply was not in tune with her enough to speak to her as Butler did. It did what it could, though, and in the end its concern wore through. Mariah began grumbling at it instead into nothing.
"Look, you cannot just pretend like she is not ill. I know you are concerned for her vell-being, Trevor, but she is sick, and she needs help. I am trying to help her!" He stepped up to the robot and crossed his arms, his stance firm, even if he was quite intimidated under his visor.
"Please. Step aside, and let me try and calm her."
"No."
It was a potentially explosive situation. Trevor did not want to disobey its mother, but at the same time would not allow Ahera to move any closer. If he tried, Ahera would be knocked around more until his own temper flared, and then...
Trevor's logic was simple: Ahera had grabbed Mariah far too hard. There were other, better ways to calm her. It did not like the way Ahera manhandled Mariah, and would not stand for it.
Mariah continued to pace.
Ahera was in a bad situation. He didn't think that Trevor would seriously hurt him, but he didn't want to get into a fight with a machine any time soon. At the same time, standing here, just watching her pace, alone, upset him. He couldn't go to her and he couldn't just stand there. In the end, he had to weigh the consequences.
Would he rather risk getting punched in the gut by a robot, or risk leaving Mariah alone in a time of need?
Well. That made the decision easier.
He shook his head and made to step around Trevor. "Mariah…"
Bad move. Trevor pulled back slightly as Ahera made his way around it, and something in its programming made a definite switch.
Trevor was angry.
It would likely not know what these new thoughts meant for quite some time. As of now, however, it could only muse as it reared up, its paws sliding into full-sized claws. Then it knocked Ahera aside, just gently enough not to cause serious damage to him or his suit, but enough to send him careening backward into the hall.
"Do not attempt that again."
Ahera only realized what had happened after he hit the floor. He blinked at the wall for a moment. Oh. That was…
He pulled himself to his feet, his entire body (well, his entire body was not a mechanical leg) tense with rage.
He wanted to pull up his Omni-tool, to put Trevor in it place, but he knew that Mariah would be very upset if he accidentally damaged her bodyguard. "Trevor-" he began testily.
A pale blur suddenly shot out of the hallway, leaping from the floor, to the wall, and then over Ahera's head and past Trevor into the room beyond. It was the Overseer, inhabiting the body of a Ghost.
Unless the bodyguard was able to interrupt its blinding speed, it skidded to a halt and scuttled over to Mariah, rearing up in front of her and fixing her with its flashlight eye. "Be calm." It instructed flatly.
The sight of the geth moving towards Mariah had set Ahera in a panic, and in the confusion, he ran after it, once again trying to get past Trevor.
Trevor whipped around, saw that the Ghost was not touching Mariah, and in what seemed like the same instant grabbed Ahera and pinned him to the floor with both hands, utterly immobilizing him.
Mariah jerked to a halt. Her glazed-over eyes stared up at it, then in half-hearted confusion she tried to go around it to keep pacing.
Trevor watched quietly as she once again found the Ghost in her way. She frowned, looked up at it again, then studied it from head to toe and said, quite calmly, "You never cease to amaze me."
Ahera, of course, struggled-insofar as much as he could, for Trevor's gabbing him and knocking him to the floor had winded him-but by the time he caught his breath to speak again, the Overseer was doing it instead.
"That is why we chose this platform. You expressed interest in it earlier. We have observed you, and have hypothesized that the best way to combat your illness is simply to draw your intellectual attention." The Ghost shifted its weight, easily, lithely, the small gesture displaying a masterwork of engineering so advanced that even Ahera was transfixed by it for a moment. "Is it effective?"
Mariah didn't answer right away, simply studying the form in intense interest. "...Yes, yes I do believe so. Does it have a spine? How do you go from four limbs to two so-" She paused, looked over at Trevor and Ahera, and barked, "Trevor! What are you doing? Let him up right now!"
Trevor obeyed.
"...so fast?"
"Our programming is highly fine-tuned. We were developed for labor over years and years, and many intelligent quarian-creators contributed to our makeup." The Overseer turned to regard Trevor and Ahera. The quarian was pulling himself to his feet and staring, not going any closer to them, but clearly not quite relaxed about the geth being so near Mariah.
"We will begin to gather the materials necessary for your implants," the Overseer said, and with that, simply turned to leave. It was easier for the Ghost to scuttle along the floor, so it did, and Ahera dumbly watched it go.
It was impossible to tell what Ahera was feeling. Anger at Trevor for being handled so roughly? Shame for not being able to calm Mariah? Despair over her different reactions to his presence and the presence of the geth? Perhaps.
But if he felt any of those things, it wasn't obvious, because he simply said, "Keelah, I can't believe zat vorked."
"Yes, well." Mariah had turned back to her table, where she sat, and Tad sat next to her and put its head on her lap as if nothing had happened. She paused, thinking, and finished lamely, "The geth are just smart, I suppose."
She got back to work. Trevor retreated to its place behind her and lay down in the position it had been before.
"Get me the extras of the parts I ruined, would you Tad?"
Tad obeyed.
Ahera watched her, unsure of what to say. He knew he had upset her, and he wasn't sure if she'd simply forgotten about him, or if she was ignoring him because she was still angry. He hesitantly drew closer to her, keeping a wary eye on Trevor. "Miss?"
He once again settled into a state of anxious suspicion. He didn't care what he had to say or do to earn her favor again, as long as she let him stay close, just as long as she didn't leave him-"Vill you… vill you need any more help?"
Mariah gave him one of her usual cursory glances. "If you could weld this in place for me."
Ahera nodded and silently got to work. He only spoke to ask what Mariah wanted him to do best, apparently feeling that treading lightly and simply rolling over for her was the best course of action. This attitude stuck with him over the next several days. If Ahera was aware of how pathetic he was, it apparently didn't bother him. It was still better than being alone.
The Overseer silently marked this change in his behavior. The quarian was openly defiant to deadly things, such as itself and the guard machine, but when it came to the woman, he was positively timid. It was bewildering and interesting at the same time.
Three more days passed before the supplies arrived. A healthy amount of drugs to keep Mariah calm during her recovery (they weren't antidotes for her condition, but just sedatives), as well as a bit of extra food for both her and Ahera, and some medical supplies. The quarian was in for a pleasant surprise. The Overseer had obtained a healthy shipment of purified turian food.
It had been roughly fourteen years since Ahera had been able to eat anything except nutrient paste. The Overseer overlooked the significance of how having real food to eat would affect Ahera and as such, did not alert him immediately of it.
It was just as well, because Ahera's attention was now zeroed in on Mariah. The knowledge that her surgery would be soon had caused him to shed his submissive air. "Now, you are going to be out of it for a good vhile, so you had better let me know just vhat needs doing vhile you are recovering," he was saying, following her around her workshop.
"I can deal with pain," Mariah replied dismissively, looking over a page full of nearly-indecipherable scribbles of equations and notes. "As long as I'll be able to work."
"Are you going to be able to tear yourself away from the workshop, Mother?" Tad asked in its clipped voice, trotting primly alongside her. Though Tad's body was more like a dog (Mariah had described it as a "whippet"), its attitude was much more like a cat.
"Yes, I think so. It's like going to bed, only better. What I'm going to be doing will facilitate my ability to work, so it's not hard to tell myself what's going to happen." She grabbed a stylus and crossed something out. "Or at least, that's what I'm trying to tell myself."
"This surgery vill be incredibly delicate, miss. It is unprecedented, and it vill be replacing your hands, vhich are very delicate and complex. Especially yours, vis all zhose fingers. So! You vill take it easy, if I have to strap you to zhe bed myself," Ahera replied. "It is not about pain; it is about injuring yourself furzzer. I have seen you do it. Don't pretend like it cannot happen."
"I've already made the hands themselves ready. They have the programs, every muscle is accounted for, and they will mesh seamlessly with my nervous system. The only thing I have to worry about is infection, and that can be dealt with using antibiotics." Mariah scowled at him half-heartedly. "And in any other context I'd say you'd want to strap me to the bed anyway."
It took Ahera a moment to get it.
It wasn't as if he were an innocent, or anything-he was over thirty years old-but those sorts of comments just so rarely involved him that his mental filter simply didn't click for them.
He blinked. He realized. He began to stutter. "Vait! I didn't-you know very vell vhat I meant, miss," he said, clearly more than a little flustered, not just because of embarrassment, but because, well, you couldn't acknowledge a comment like that without certain mental images.
"Look, there will still be wounds. My leg still gives me problems, and it's been a very long time since it vas attached-and it vasn't even as integrated as your hands vill be!" He, of course, had kept these problems to himself before now, and quickly skimmed over them. "So. No arguments. You vill take it easy."
"It's been a week. I hardly think that means 'a very long time.' Will you stop hovering? I am not a child!"
"Vell," Ahera conceded. "It seems like a long time. And I'm sure it vill seem twice as long for you." He shook his head. "I am not trying to treat you like a child. I am trying to treat you like an irresponsible person, because zhat is how you are behaving."
"When did the Overseer say they were going to intiate the surgery?" Trevor asked.
"When it's ready. It'll tell us when it's ready. It might not be for days. Go away." She turned her back on Ahera in her typical irritation, annoyed at being bothered while working.
Ahera seemed to have grown at least half a testicle since their last confrontation, because he rolled his eyes behind his visor and replied, "No. Vell. I von't be able to convince you now, but at least I can help you vis Butler."
"The surgery will take place tomorrow," the Overseer suddenly interrupted. "We have prepared the room and will have all supplies set up in fourteen hours."
"You're not touching Butler," Mariah replied firmly. She glanced up at the intercom, nodded once, and returned to work. "I have everything the way I want them. You'd just fuck it up like you did Trevor."
"What did Mr. Ahera do?" Trevor picked its head up.
"The idiot decided to go above and beyond what I told him to do," she replied, eyes narrowing at the memory. "Fucked up your body. I had to redo everything. Everything."
Ahera didn't try to defend his actions. He just took the abuse. What was left of his courage seemed to dwindle under the harshness of the assault. He didn't blame her, of course. The disorder made her this snappish. Still, it did hurt.
"Vell. Okay." He lingered for a few moments longer, as if he wanted to say something more, before he slunk off and left her to her work. Maybe it was best just to leave her alone for a while.
The basic body was finished. It was very long and had double shoulders, with an extremely long tail.
"Oh yeah," she said suddenly, looking around. "Butler showed me what he wanted. Didn't say it out loud because he was scared you'd get... mad, or something. He wanted me to make him able to defend himself." She picked up the lower jaw and held it up, pulling at something inside. A long cannon-shaped device unfolded. "It's a standard laser weapon. Don't worry, I'm keeping it uncharged. No power inside. Not until we leave here."
She put it down. "Thought you might want to know."
"We do not feel anger," the Overseer assured her. "If you wish to make the weapon functional, you may. It is not cause of concern to us, and it would be more efficient to possess a functional weapon once you leave this station than to have to build it when you leave."
There was a pause. "Was the AI seeking to defend itself from us, or the quarian-creator?" The Overseer had an agile, lightening-fast mind. It didn't take a genius to figure out that this weapon might be the ramifications of the conversation they had engaged in earlier.
Mariah shrugged. "Just making sure."
To the next question, she shrugged again. "He didn't say. Only said it was to defend himself. Why?" She frowned. "Why would he want to defend himself from Ahera? Ahera loves Butler."
"We had a conversation that covered many topics earlier in your stay, and one of these topics was the duplicitous nature of our creators, and how they destroyed some of the geth during the Morning War under false pretenses. A logical mind would know that defense against us is futile on this facility."
It went on to say, "We could be in error about this conclusion. It is possible that this request is simply foresight on the part of the AI. Your lives are dangerous, and self-defense is necessary."
Mariah was still for a rare moment before cursing.
"Fucking quarians... figures. Well, I'll ask him when he's online again."
Short pause. "Is going offline like sleep?"
"We do not know. We have never experienced sleep," the Overseer explained. "However, you do, and it is our opinion that you engage in this as soon as you are able. Tomorrow is going to be stressful for you."
"I'm not done."
It was basically what she said every single time. This failed to measure any sort of significance with her.
"If you would like, we could continue construction for you. Leave instructions, and we will follow them. You will engage your sleep process within three hours. You may either attempt to finish in that time, reach a stopping point, or detail our instructions."
Mariah hunched her shoulders.
"I'll... try," she allowed.