Somewhere over the rainbow, Arc 5 of "Gone with the Sun"

Chapter 60 Now you see me

Sparks

Ashley met Shepard and Miranda at the airlock.

"Welcome aboard, Ms Lawson. Captain Shepard!" In a flagrant breach of military courtesy and protocol, Shepard got a big hug. Miranda rolled her eyes and everyone else near the airlock carefully looked in other directions. "I see you still outrank me. Again."

"Not on this ship, Ash. You look good. Where's Adams?"

"And you look better than I was expecting. Adams and Sanders are in the AI core, let's go. Jana's there too. Your tech witch is astonishing, Miranda."

"Isn't she, though. Harper could sure pick 'em. Where's Tali? I'd like her input too."

"Tali's a bit busy on the station, but I hear she's finishing up there. I was prepared to hate Jana, but she makes it hard."

"Bad luck, compounded by bad judgment. Some people never see it coming. She took her eye off the ball for a moment."

"Luck. You think?"

"And betrayal. That's what comes of falling for Mister So Sure He's Right, who became Mister Wrong and blindsided her. For the bad judgment, she paid."

"That she did." Ash gave Shepard a sidelong look and Miranda a measuring one. "I can still see traces in her cheek gaunts. Anyway, she and Sanders did a miracle for Garrus and I badly want one here. Can they deliver?"

"You're asking the wrong person. Shepard wanted EDI's old body brought back from storage on the Citadel. Jana and Adams have questions about that, too. Peacemaker dropped it off before Garrus took Oriana and Khalisah back."

"It's been repaired? (Crew deck, please)"

"Refurbished, Ash. They're just finishing up now. Sanders wants that powered first."

"Adams tells me all the layer-3 components were essentially trashed. It took months for Daniels and Donnelly to rework the custom modules."

Miranda pounced. "In their copious spare time, no doubt. If you don't want them –"

"You're not pinching my engineers. The standard modules have been replaced from the SI stock. The two filamentary DPUs were layer-2 by nature and survived."

"Good!"

"Here we are."

At this point they reached the med bay, where EDI's old mobile unit lay on a hospital bed (space in the AI core was at a premium).

The Core

"Layer-2 DPUs. Doesn't that raise an issue with AI performance?"

Miranda dismissed that. "Not so much, Shepard, if they can link to a base station like EDI's. Attomechanical filamentaries are a long-term potentiation technical solution. Compact, low power, suitable for mobile units. Slow plasticity, but fast readout."

"EDI's DPUs were a layer-2 and 3 hybrid anyway. Quantum blue boxes." (Jana)

"Yeah, I remember," said Ashley. "And quite dead, at least the non-mobile ones out of the stasis field. Adams here briefed me. Morning, Adams. We good to go?"

Adams saluted. "Shortly, ma'am. Captain Shepard." Shepard shook hands with the others around the table – "Kahlee. Jana. Daniels. Donnelly! Kenneth, you look tidier."

"You look better too, sir." Gabby nudged his ankle, none too surreptitiously.

"Thank you. Adams, we're looking into the mobile unit first?"

"Yes, sir. If you recall the briefing, the mystery is that EDI arranged for a precious stasis unit to be covering Tali and the mobile's chest and head."

"Two for the price of one. Okay."

"Not two, sir. Three. There was Tali and the mobile head; the same projector also covered a layer-3 unit sitting just under the bench. Chakwas told me it looked like an oversized greybox and Jana's just told me that's almost exactly right."

Jana nodded. "This wasn't my cell, but I was consulted because of the wetware nature of some of the components. It's a backup unit. Essentially the story of her life. Memories with lossy compression, regulated by logic elements called 'censors' – those try to judge the ongoing relevance of memory engrams which are stored holographically in the main box. In a stasis field, those should still be intact after the Red Flash."

"Suppose the censors have been fried? Sanders?"

"Then EDI's gone for good. The engrams can't be reassembled from storage and decrypted. The censors aren't EDI, though, they're just used to recall memories."

"So that's why Jana wants to bring the mobile up first."

"Yes, Shepard. On the off chance EDI's left a trace there. She might even be herself but no memories till we link her. She can access the greybox, we can't. It's like Kasumi being able to access Keiji's one. She had the decryption key."

"That reminds me. Kasumi, you can come out, now. Decloak please."

"Shit!"

"Really, Lieutenant Commander, I think that's the first time I've heard you swear."

Bad Robot

"How long have you been there?!"

"That would be telling, captain. Shep, how did you know?"

"Lucky guess."

"This is the second time. Did I trip an alarm?"

"That would be telling too. This is a good game."

"Puhleeeze?"

"Fine. I'm raiding Cerberus HQ and you wouldn't be able to resist the crumbs. So I asked Juno to keep tabs on consumables. She tracked excess consumption for between one and three persons. You arrived with Khalisah's newsies, no?"

"Yes. This sweet biotic boy was the only one who sensed something."

"Prangley?"

"That's him."

"Why didn't Juno tell me?" – asked Miranda, pouting.

"Well, you didn't ask, I did. Also, you were away on Normandy showing Khalisah's team around. If that wasn't enough, Toombs was the OIC, and I think Juno didn't want a sudden death on her conscience. So she alerted me, since I was senior officer on board."

"Not of AD, you weren't."

"Are you going to tighten the shackles, Miranda?" (Jana)

"… No, but I need to have a private word with our friendly AI."

"Just remember she's a baby. Count to ten…" (Sanders fielded a withering look)

Ashley, get your gun

"… No, Ash," insisted Kahlee: "Even if the DPUs are dead, filamentaries weren't a major problem anyway."

Adams elaborated: "They're actually a Cerberus innovation and SI's competitors have licensed the tech from the Alliance's Belligerent Assets Control Board, so we have spares available as of two weeks ago."

The techs were being patient with the Spectres. Jana nodded:

"Defective DPUs can be replaced. We'd have a new AI use the mobile body."

"But they could hold a core dump?"– asked Shepard.

"It's worth a try… I suppose the filamentary DPUs might have her last mental state."

Adams concurred: "She did say "dumping core" at the last second."

"But we can't be sure that's what she's referring to."

"Even so, good. Can we back up the filamentaries before we start?"

"No, Captain Shepard. They've a hybrid quantum layer and reading it erases or corrupts it. Each one in existence at any given time, is unique."

"Understood. There are two DPUs though. Can we detach one?"

Sanders' brow knitted: "Yes, John. Bad idea, they're delicate."

"Clearly a dodgy option. Can we disable one?"

Jana, Adams, and Sanders exchanged glances: "Can do, sir. Give us ten. Kenneth, Gabby, grab your kits and give us a hand."

"We'll be in the café area. Ash?"

"Yes?"

"Get your gun. Miri? That little Suppressor on your hip?"

Miranda looked suddenly and uncharacteristically guilty.

"You got that from my locker, didn't you?"

"Shep, I'm s –"

"Don't be."

"I can keep it?"

"I was going to get Toombs and Goldstein to do their magic."

"I'll give it back."

"Not today. I'll get another and we'll work at it. Get Goldstein over here."

"You're expecting trouble."

"I'm being prepared. If I say toc, you and Goldstein both fire one round half a centimetre above the mobile's head into the structural padding then return the M-11 to your gunclip. If it all turns to custard, remember, headshots. And…"

"And?"

"Don't give Juno a hard time."

Next chapter: #61, "Child soldier"

Sunday, August 2, 2015