In the back, of his mind, Alenko could still hear Shepard's teeth chattering as she reported the loss of the docking tube as an insertion point. He hadn't liked the idea of her trying to space-walk when she could barely look out a window into deep space, but he'd said nothing, knowing that she had to try for her own sake.
She'd succeeded in overcoming the psychosis, not knowing that although he and Joker were the only ones she could hear, Dr. Chakwas and the rest of the ground team had anxiously packed into the cockpit. He was proud of her for it. Nothing stopped Shepard. Not Cerberus, not Reapers, not a little jaunt through a compromised docking tube. Nothing. In the long run, it could only be good for her to have pushed past the terror to get the job done. Maybe it would be easier in the future. He wasn't so naïve as to hope it would never be necessary for her to space-walk again. He wanted to, though.
It was obvious behind her helmet that Shepard was drenched in sweat, her face flushed with distress. But in the few minutes between entering the geth vessel and linking up with the rest of the ground team shuttled in by Cortez, her voice had regained its firmness, the fear and tension—beyond what was reasonable for the mission they were on—dissipated.
But there was a haunted look in her eyes, and all he really wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and tell her it was alright, that she'd done well, until she believed him. Being unable to do so, he clapped her shoulder reassuringly, then turned his attention to the geth ship.
"Why aren't they swarming us?" Vega asked.
"We haven't tripped anything," Shepard answered. "Legion said, in places like this, unless they recognize us as a threat, they'll leave us alone. That means we're good until we run into the first platform. Then they'll be all over us, because I don't think we can isolate them behind firewalls like Legion could."
"It was pretty handy," Tali said, shaking her head.
"I thought you liked a shotgun for geth," Garrus mused.
Tali chuckled, holding up the pistol. "One of Xen's toys. Tailor-made for geth, so it's more efficient than the shotgun."
The architecture was strange. Alenko knew the profiles for the bug-like geth dropships, the equally bug-like cruisers, but he'd never seen the internal structure that yielded the bug-like shape. "Why like a bug?" he asked.
"I never asked," Shepard answered, shaking her head as she led the way forward. "I just know we don't need to worry about windows."
"This architecture is weird," Vega announced, running a hand over a nearby surface.
"Is it?" EDI asked, sounding surprised. "I find it quite comforting." Then, when several people regarded her curiously, "That was not a joke."
Shepard chuckled, shaking her head. "To each their own, I guess."
She seemed utterly unimpressed by the ship's design. Then again, she'd been on a geth space station before, so perhaps the only reason he found the structure fascinating was because he'd never seen anything like it before.
He didn't ask why there were no windows: what did machines need with a view?
The silence was eerie. "Where are all the platforms?" Liara asked edgily.
"Probably congregated near hubs," Shepard answered promptly. "Geth are software: they don't necessarily need to be walking around the ship. It's more efficient for them to commune in large numbers, control the ship as software, and split off into individual platforms only as needed for repair or defense. Legion said that until we tripped something, the geth might be aware of us, but only like we'd be aware of our own blood cells. We know they're there, we just don't pay much attention to the fact."
"I'm starting to feel a little jealous for missing those conversations," Alenko announced delicately.
"They were enlightening."
"If your machine was telling the truth," Javik interposed grumpily.
"He had no reason to lie, and a lot to lose if he was caught," Shepard answered.
"It was a machine, Shepard. Machines do not have 'tells' to let others know when they are lying. As to motive, who knows? Machines do not…think…as you or I do."
"No one thinks like Shepard does," Vega answered with staunch certainty. "Otherwise, the Reapers would've stayed in their dark space cesspit and left us the hell alone."
Several people chuckled at this, edginess over not having encountered any trouble—
"Damn," Shepard breathed as a door at the end of the room slid shut. "Okay. They've noticed us and decided to err on the side of caution…" she trailed off, looking around. "Unless…"
"Unless?" Tali asked.
"Unless they were eavesdropping and decided we're a problem because we're Legion's friends and not the Reapers'."
"Get ready to get swarmed," Garrus barked as the team dispersed.
Potentially energy hummed in Alenko's amp, dark energy tingling along his skin as his biotics flared. He hadn't encountered the geth in a long time, but he remembered how to fight them: with extreme prejudice. Don't give them time to riddle the team with bullets. They crunched like any empty beer can would.
It was too bad, in a way, Shepard's geth friend hadn't stuck around. Apparently, dispersing itself back into the Consensus hadn't done much to improve the geth's responses to organics—
…or was it simply because the geth were at war, and assumed all organics were going to be hostile? It was a war he had to admit they hadn't started. Would any other species do differently: shoot first, or take prisoners, and ask questions later?
It was a curious conundrum, asking whether the geth had the right to defend themselves when acted against.
There was also the Reaper signal. Did anything justify turning to the Reapers for help?
He didn't have any answers, so he did the only thing he could: he prioritized the safety of the team.