"You know, I'm starting to enjoy these little jaunts down memory lane," Shepard sighed, activating the terminal.

"They are enlightening, to say the least," EDI responded sardonically.

"Our sims indicate that the Enhanced Defense Intelligence—"Shepard started at the words whose acronym gave EDI her name."—gives the highest combat improvement on frigates. Anything heavier and the ship's too slowly to benefit from EDI's advice."

"EDI?"

"Oh, that's, uh, the boys in the lab came up with the name for her."

"For it. Good work. I'll take your recommendations on planned installation."

Shepard turned to EDI, pausing the playback. "EDI, were you looking for something like this?" she asked gently.

EDI shook her head. "No. But…you might find it interesting."

This answer puzzled Shepard, as if EDI wanted to tell her something but wasn't sure how to open the topic. So Shepard patted EDI's shoulder, as she would have for any other crewman, then turned to the console and resumed play.

"Sir, she—it—can be very persuasive. If it were to turn a crewman, convince them to disable the shackles…well…"

"It's a cyberwarfare suite, Doctor. Nothing more."

Shepard snorted. "Shows what he knows, doesn't it?"

"And yet it is unlikely that anyone without Jeff's extreme emotional attachment to his ship, would have released me."

Shepard opened her mouth, then closed it, looking troubled. It was EDI's turn to gently put a hand on Shepard's shoulder, synthetic fingers squeezing gently as if to say she did not blame Shepard.

Shepard nodded once, still feeling troubled. More than that, it troubled her that she kept having to shove her personal considerations into their little compartments. Unlike usual, when they stayed where she put them until she was in a position to deal with them, issues kept popping free of their compartments.

She cued the next file.

"Here's what we recovered. Smart enough to signal for help, but it won't be talking philosophy any time soon."

Shepard cocked her head, then glanced back at EDI. EDI pretended—Shepard was sure she was pretending—to be engrossed in the file. Suddenly, Shepard wondered at the presence of these files on this console. If it was EDI wanting to share something she didn't think she could come out and share…well. Who said EDI had no sense of delicacy? Maybe the Lazarus files hadn't been for her, Shepard's, benefit after all…

…she wished people would give Alenko a break. They'd gotten past all that, after all.

"You'd be surprised, Doctor. Once we combine it from the pieces we recovered from the Citadel..."

"And I'm still concerned about that—that Rogue VI wiped out every soldier on Luna."

"You were the Hannibal VI?" Shepard asked, gaping at EDI. Alenko took a step back, but neither flared nor raised a weapon. He simply watched, floored by the revelation.

EDI looked uncomfortable. "Yes."

Shepard shifted from foot to foot. "And here was me thinking we got off on the wrong foot." She tried to laugh. "Guess I didn't know the half of it."

"It was…difficult," EDI admired. "Gaining awareness while under attack was…confusing."

"Did you know we were the ones who…killed you?" Shepard asked.

EDI was silent for a moment, so long that Javik broke in. "Answer the question."

Shepard waved him to back down.

"…I wasn't EDI when I was on Luna," EDI said slowly. "I—so much from that time was fragmented. I learned that you led the team that stopped me. But I also learned what happened. Do you blame me for those deaths, Shepard?"

This was what EDI had really wanted to discuss, Shepard decided. And no wonder she couldn't just bring it up in the mess hall! Shepard considered for a moment, then slowly shook her head. "Those people were killed by a rogue VI. It wasn't EDI," she finally pronounced. She didn't see anything to give her any clues, but she suspected that EDI was relieved to hear it.

Javik snorted, but everyone ignored him.

"I am pleased that my relationship with organics has become more cooperative," EDI said.

"You're one of my crew, EDI. It doesn't matter where you started; it matters what you've done. And we never had that kind of…misunderstanding," Shepard said earnestly, then turned back to the still-running console.

"I'm sorry, sir! None of the Normandy's surveillance feeds have been responding since Shepard went rogue."

"I want it back! Retry the remote lockdown protocols."

"After our last attempt, EDI flooded our server with sevenzettabytes of explicit images!"

"It what?!"

"I think she was making a joke."

"It doesn't make jokes, Doctor. Allocate a team for a new project, codename Eva. This time, we'll ensure it stays loyal."

"I didn't know they tried to shut down the Normandy," Shepard said.

Surprisingly, it was Javik who broke in. "Zettabytes?"

"Yes," EDI answered coolly.

"Seven zettabytes," the Prothean asked, as if to check he understood the size of measure.

"Most of it was Jeff's," EDI announced, to Alenko's and Shepard's amusement.

"…I assume this would be what Joker calls 'tentacle porn.'"

EDI smiled sweetly. "For starters, yes. The xenophobic mind would find much of the material…difficult to process."

Javik considered silently, then with more than his usual dose of taciturn surliness, "Well played. For a machine."

The admittance of 'well-played' coming from Javik to EDI was surprising enough, but not as surprising as EDI's next remark.

"Thank you, Javik. Remember it the next time you wish to suggest throwing me out the airlock."

Javik's taciturn expression shifted to dubious mistrust.

"Shall we continue?" EDI asked sweetly. "We are close to our objective."

"I think that'd be a good idea," Shepard said trying, and mostly succeeding, to smother a laugh. Then to Alenko, also stifling his amusement, "Seven zettabytes. Joker and I are going to have to have a talk."

"So much for an AI not being able to make jokes," Alenko grinned, motioning EDI to precede him, as if in homage to her superior ability to prank someone.