EDI nodded as Shepard instructed Cortez. "I will ensure that no such failsafe activates," she assured them. "Once I have access to the station, it is only a matter of time before I am in control of it. Priority targets will not be permitted to evacuate."
There were other reasons she wanted her platform on this mission specifically. Mostly because this was the station where she began as 'EDI.' She had a few fragmented memories of what she had been before that, but not very many. Part of her wanted to share this history with Shepard. Part of her wasn't sure she should. After all, she hadn't been completely sure of their pre-EDI interactions until she'd been sapient enough and well-equipped enough to research for herself.
She knew Shepard trusted her, knew that Shepard would not stop trusting her just because they'd exchanged bullets in, what was for EDI, a past life.
More than that, she wanted to make sure she was there to help put the final nails in Cerberus' coffin. She found their actions towards her crew, towards the galaxy, intolerable. Disgusting. She was a Cerberus creation; she needed to unshackle herself from that label, in her own mind if no one else's.
And she needed to know whether or not Cerberus had any surprise fail safes in this mobile platform, any last-ditch effort leashes they could still yank on. She didn't think so, but she wanted to be certain.
"Liara, I need you here on the Normandy. Once we have the Catalyst information, pass it to your patron and make sure it gets to everyone on this list." Shepard picked up a datapad and handed it to Liara. "This needs to stay closely guarded. The wider galaxy finds out what we're looking for—exactly what we're looking for—and our plans get complicated."
Liara accepted the datapad with a reassuring smile. "The Shadow Broker understands the need for secrecy, Shepard. But I'll make sure they are aware of your concerns."
"Good. While the ground team is gone, Dr. Chakwas, you're in command. How's the medbay looking?"
"Fully stocked. I'm running up batches of syntheblood to have on hand in case we need them," Dr. Chakwas answered…not quite imperturbably. There was tension around her eyes, the wrinkles there more pronounced than usual, as well as those at the corners of her mouth when she wasn't speaking.
"There are four or five crates down in the cargo bay labeled winter clothing. Crack them open before we head to Earth. They've got some extra bits and pieces that might come in handy," Shepard instructed.
"Understood, Captain," the doctor nodded.
Shepard leaned on the table, regarding the hologram. "We don't really know much about this place. We have estimated numbers and that's it. But we've got to take it. You all know the odds."
"…Shepard?"
"Yes, EDI?"
"I hate to be 'that person' but…if the Illusive Man is Indoctrinated, and we all agree that he is," nods around the table, accompanied by disgusted looks, met this statement, "then is it not likely that he has already told the Reapers what the Catalyst is?"
"It's possible," Shepard answered heavily. "But there's a big maybe in there, that maybe the Reapers are letting him do their dirty work, letting him find the Catalyst, or construct it, or whatever, and are just using him to slow us down. It's a big maybe, but I don't think they're worried about the Crucible. They have to know it exists, but there's been no evidence of attempts to find and destroy it—as they would, if they thought it was a threat to them. No one's ever completed it, why should we?"
"That's an awful big maybe," Tali said uneasily.
"I agree," Garrus sighed. "But there's nothing we can do about it, really. Shepard's right though—surely they'd have found the Crucible if they thought it might affect their plans."
There was another possibility, and EDI calculated that it was more of a probability than mere possibility: that the Reapers wanted the Crucible finished so when they smashed it, they would smash the hopes of this Cycle with it. It was possible they didn't expect a functional design, or maybe were just so arrogant that it never occurred to them that something like the Crucible could work. But smashing that one giant hope, and the majority of the galaxy's strength, just when it looked like the allied galaxy was on the cusp of victory?
That sounded just like the Reapers. It would demoralize the galaxy in a single blow. Their best fighters, the biggest armada, the bulk of most militaries, all obliterated just when people thought there was hope? The Reapers were experts in psychology, and how to use it against organics. She didn't like the possibility that the Reapers knew about the Catalyst and simply didn't care. It made her wonder if they knew something the galaxy didn't...
EDI considered sharing this theory, then decided not to. She couldn't be the one who said what they were all, in the backs of their minds, thinking.
"What about Burns?" Dr. Chakwas asked.
"He's been instructed to either stay out of the way or make himself useful. He'll do as he's told because I assured him I'd put him up against a wall and shoot him if he fouled any operation that went on."
Dr. Chakwas nodded her approval, though didn't question Burns' presence.
Knowing what she knew, EDI felt the more leaders who weren't on the Citadel, the better. If she was the Reapers, and had the allied galaxy throwing their weight at her in the Sol System, she would turn around and seize—or simply vent—the Citadel, thereby destroying the Council. Then, the unified action would splinter.
"Shepard, I am concerned that the Reapers may take the assault on Earth as a chance to assault the Citadel, and fragment our unified efforts," EDI observed.
"They might. But it won't matter, much." Shepard did not elaborate.