Ch 38

Ghost

Normandy en route to Vetus System

As time seemed to go on, Shepard found himself struggling to make his normal rounds through the Normandy. What used to bring him a great sense of comfort and uniformity, now slugged along the lines of an unwanted hassle, as he dragged himself through the ship, making sure to acknowledge every crew member he passed, all the way from Traynor to Adams in engineering.

I just need some sleep, he thought to himself, desperately trying to improve his mood. But alas, he was striding through the med-bay, Dr. Chakwas was busy typing furiously away at her keyboard and did not notice his passing. Stopping at the AI Core room, Shepard waved away the security protocols, using his omni-tool to verify his own identity. A brief second passed as the computer lock processed and slid open the doors, revealing EDI's mechanical body sitting on the bench on room's far sided wall.

She sat there almost sheepishly, her legs crossed at the ankles, hands gripping at her knees with a kind of nervousness. Looking down, it appeared she was lost in thought, and for a moment, Shepard swore she was alive in her own unique way. If it hadn't been for her unnatural stillness, it would have been easy to have been fooled otherwise. It was only upon his entering did she finally decide to move.

"Shepard," she stammered, the synthesized voice glitching in the robot body. "I need your help."

Stepping forward, Shepard let the door close behind him, waiting a moment for the door to lock behind him. EDI shifted in her seat, uncrossing her legs and gripping the edge of the bench with her fingers, bending the metal slightly as she squeezed. Now, with both feet on the floor, she looked up towards Shepard anxiously, expressing more emotions behind her solid silver eyes than he had ever seen before.

"Something bothering you?" he asked, moving closer towards her. He stopped just next of her, using the wall to lean on for comfort. Looking down, Shepard could still watch her body twitch in nervousness, EDI's new physical avatar was showing emotion well beyond its base programming.

"I can still hear it..." she muttered, barely loud enough for Shepard to hear. Though it was blatantly obvious before, Shepard had hopped EDI was merely experiencing a minor glitch, when she was in fact dealing with something much worse.

Perking an eye brow up, Shepard eyed her carefully. "Hear what?"

"The Gravemind, it did something to me. I can hear it, the Forerunners, and the Reapers, like little whispers at the edges of my mind," again she paused, as if lost in thought.

Taking note of her wording, Shepard continued, "You are made from old Reaper tech, so that part makes sense. And you did spend enough time with the Halo array, I'd be surprised if you didn't get some kind of spy-bot from it." He shifted uncomfortably as the last thought popped into his mind. Only the pair of them and the Arbiter had experienced the Gravemind on their last Halo excursion, and being reminded of it wasn't exactly the most pleasant of thoughts. "What do you mean you can still hear the Gravemind? It was a plant?"

EDI's body adjusted again, now turning to look him in the eye. "I don't know how to explain it, Shepard," her voice cracked and her eyes wavered, flickering slightly as she spoke. "I'm scared. I haven't connected my memory banks back to the Normandy's AI core because I don't know what it will do. I think the Gravemind, the Flood, I think they're artificial. There's no way a creature made by natural means would be able to affect a machine like me."

Startled, Shepared shuffled his feet, turning to have his entire back rest against the wall as he rubbed his neck. "Maybe I should have kept Sparks instead of giving him to Hackett. He may know more about this."

A head shake was his answer, EDI looked even worse at the mention of the Forerunner AI's name. "I don't trust that thing, Shepard."

"Thing?" Now he was growing worried, never before had EDI been so agitated. Lowering himself, Shepard sat next to her on the bench, leaning his body forward slightly to be in line with hers. "EDI, what else is eating at you?"

This time she leaned back, craning her neck to look up at the lights, blinking rapidly like she was fighting back tears, despite her metallic eyes showing no signs of them. "Every example of synthetic life we've come across is dangerous, Shepard. What does that say about me?" Now she looked towards him, gazing at him with apparent pain in his eyes. "First it was the Geth, then the Reapers, now it's the Forerunners and the Flood. And the Flood may have developed a more organic shell, but make no mistake they are synthetic in their creation. What if I end up like them, or the Reapers, I see how synthetic life turned against the Forerunners. What if I hurt you, or the crew, or Jeff?"

Only able to blink, Shepard sat quietly, stunned by her question. The idea had never really seemed possible before. EDI was an illegal AI and if the galaxy had known of her existence, the Normandy crew would most likely be persecuted for it. But the thought of her actually hurting anyone on the crew seemed ludicrous.

"EDI," Shepard started, looking down at his hands as he slowly and methodically messaged them together. He wasn't entirely sure on what he should say. "Do you trust us?"

"Of course," she answered, not missing a beat.

"And we trust you. But if you can't learn to trust yourself, then ours will erode away." He looked her in the eyes again, struggling to express what he was trying to get across. This wasn't a normal situation for Shepard to be in. Encouraging a squad-mate on the brink was one thing, helping a synthetic with an existential crisis was another. "You understand what I'm trying to say?"

"I need to trust myself, before anyone else can?"

"Bingo."

Suddenly, there was a notable dip in the room's lighting, as the lights all around him flickered. The servers on the side wall grew distinctly louder, as the cooling systems started working into overdrive. Meanwhile, the temperature grew steadily, as the warming machines provided a new sense of heat for the room. Despite all of this, or more precisely because of it, EDI's body sat motionless. Her holographic visor was activated again, and a stream of code was rushing past it, quicker than Shepard had any chance to read. A minute later, and the lights returned to normal, the servers stiffened their earlier roar, and EDI started moving again.

This time a different surprise caught Shepard off guard, a sudden hug from EDI. She had moved so fast and precisely, he barely managed to return the hug. "Thank you," she whispered into his ear.

"Any time, EDI," he mumbled back, before the pair separated and Shepard stood up. Still sitting, EDI looked up at him, smiling now. "When you're finished here, meet me down in the hanger and gear up. I'm gonna need your help on this one."

"Of course."

Turning to walk out, Shepard stopped just short of the door, taking the second the lock would need to think to turn back around and face EDI. "Oh and one more thing, I want you to start talking to Dr. Chakwas. She's trained for this sort of stuff."

"I don't think I fall under her area of expertise, Shepard," EDI mocked, leaning back into the wall, much more comfortable than she was before.

"The entire crew has appointments with her, EDI," he said smiling, "You're part of the crew, that means you too." By the time his sentenced had finished, Shepard was already walking out of the now open door and stepping through to the medbay. "So stow the jokes for now and gear up. We're gonna go save an old friend."

Shepard waited for a moment while EDI stood up and followed him out of the room. She stopped for a second to talk to the doctor, which brought a small smile to him as he continued without her.

Continuing on his way towards the elevator, Shepard activated his omni-tool, scrolling through the intel Traynor had sent hi on Grissom Academy. He was careful to watch his step, keeping one eye on the path ahead of him, and he other skimming through the brief. It wasn't until he had reached the elevator itself, did Shepard fully focus on the device.

It had been surprising to find out that Jack, of all people, was now working for the Alliance. As a teacher no less. Shepard didn't believe it at first, thinking Traynor must have made some sort of mistake. It wasn't until his third read through of the brief, this now being his fourth, that he was sure it was no mistake. Apparently, she had been personally chosen to teach biotics by the school's Chief of Staff. Though she was a powerful biotic herself, the thought of Jack in any kind of leadership position, let alone with kids, just didn't seem feasible to Shepard. Whatever the reality, he would have to wait until they arrived to find out.

With any luck, he thought to himself, Tarynor's mystery signal will turn out to be a false alarm. As he finished his thought, the elevator door opened, revealing him to the CIC. Dropping his arm and deactivating his omni-tool, Shepard hurried to the War Room. He had been pushing off his conversation his the new Primarch for too long now, and the Turian's patience was growing thin.

Shepard entered the War Room to find Garrus, Victus, and the Arbiter had all gathered around the center of the room, pouring over the console in the center of the room.

"Have there been any signs of Reapers in your systems, Arbiter?" Victus asked, looking at the galaxy map that was projected in the center of the room. The Sangheili space was highlighted, taking up a small portion of the Orion arm, extending mostly into the Terminus system. This had been the first time Shepard had seen any semblance of the Sangheili's strenth and it surprised him. The data showed they only had a small number of planets under their control, not even a quarter of the number of Alliance systems. EDI had mentioned to him before that despite their impressive technology, culture and circumstance limited any Covenant colonization efforts.

"Our world's have remained well hidden from the Reapers, there is only the occasional Kig Yar pirate group," the Arbiter answered. He leaned over his console, hands pushing into the metal supporting him upright. "We have only kept a small flotilla to ward them off."

Garrus shifted slightly, he stood opposite of the Sangheili, though the distance did nothing to hide the size difference between them. "And your people have no problem leaving your world's so undefended?"

"Would you rather I return all of our fleets?"

Interrupting before he could respond, Victus spoke up, "What my colleague is trying to ask, do you feel comfortable supporting us with your homeworld at risk?"

Looking thoroughly at the map, the Arbiter took his time before he answered. "The Covenant is our prime concern. There is not a Sangheili alive who does not burn for a vengeance. For now, they remain almost exclusively over Earth with the bulk of the Reapers forces. Helping your mission only increases our chance of success. And I would be held in high shame if Truth did not die by my blade."

Now Shepard took he time to speak, having stood silently on the walkway as he watch the trio deliberate. "That works for us," he said, taking up position between the Primarch and the Arbiter. "Now Victus, tell me you can top that?"

Crossing his arms, the Primrach rested his elbow on his tucked arm, rubbing his fingers together just under his chin. "While the Arbiter's help is much appreciated," he started, "the fact is his scavenged fleet is far to small to be overtly reliable. It's best to keep them on scouting and low risk defensive measures only."

In response, the Arbiter lowered his head, as if shamed by the Truian's assumption. "It will shame a great many Ship Masters, but I must admit your consideration is accurate. We will do as you say."

"Unfortunately, that still leave Palaven," Victus started again. "I'm sorry Shepard, but I can't give you my fleets while our homeworld burns."

Frustrated, Shepard crinkled his brow as he glared at the Turian. "Without your support, we don't deploy the Crucible. And we can sit here and debate who's to blame while every planet burns."

"Shepard," Garrus mumbled, coming to the Primarch's defense. "We do have a plan to lessen the strain on Palaven."

"Well please do share, I'm all ears."

The two Turians looked at each other for a moment, both looking as unsure as the other. It took an almost awkward few seconds for Victus to turn back towards Shepard.

"We need the Krogan."