Chapter 8: Brother's Keeper.
The darkness settled upon the nerves as cement, heavy and unmoving. The only illumination came from the green emergency lighting, flickering on and off. Occasionally a spark would sputter from a defunct malfunctioning tapari vending machine nestled in the corner of the lobby.
Passing as if it were nothing of consequence Shepard paused midstep as a warbling voice solicited the sports drink then sputtered and changed into that of Archer. She gave a glance to her companions before turning back to the machine. This was not the 'good' doctor trying to reach them. These words were archived notes.
'Archer log 155.2. For many years, my brothers' condition has been a handicap. That changed today. His autistic mind is the breakthrough I've been looking... he can communicate with the geth! Such a tremendous grasp of the mathematics! It seems serendipity is alive and well in the 22nd century.'
"I don't like where this is going." Jack muttered glaring at the scrap of metal as if the thing was deliberately targeting her.
"It appears this AI...this DAVID is passing information that he deems necessary for us to hear." Samara explained. "Context for what is to come."
"Yeah? Well still creepy as fuck."
To this the Justicar only nodded in agreement. They all did, yet no one spoke even as the team passed the lobby was a very small narrow ominous hallway.
There were three doors: one directly before them, the other two on opposing walls facing one another. The left and right opened to fairly spacious rooms and given their proximity to the lobby and glancing through the window the room seemed to be a kitchen or break room-respectively. That is to say the right room did so. The bleak hollow darkness lying beyond in the left room made it impossible to see beyond the glass of window.
The door on the left was sputtering with electrical wiring dripping from the ceiling like inorganic intestines. Even if DAVID hadn't locked it, getting through it without the brute strength of a krogan would not have been impossible. And even if Grunt were to bash his way in, there was no guarantee the passage on the other side was a way through the station.
As the group approached the door on the right, it slammed shut and locked. DAVID's digital face appeared as a phantom upon window of the right side. Growling at them in binary, howling-like a living thing in agony.
"Looks like he doesn't want us going that way." Garrus said.
"Clearly." this came from Miranda.
"This is just like the Prometheus Station." Tali pointed out. "He's herding us."
"Yes, but where?" questioned the Spectre. "I mean other than the obvious straightforward route."
Their imaginations prickled with conjured horrors Cerberus called science. Those that had been with Shepard in the very beginning recalled the labs had had tried to bend rachni, husks and thorian creepers to their will. They recalled too the mangled body of Admiral Kahoku or rather what was left of him after the rachni drones had torn the man apart.
No one had an answer to the Spectre's query and she didn't truly expect one. Whatever, DAVID wanted - needed to show them it lay deeper within the complex. Deeper in and down.
Jack was right, Shepard decided she didn't like where this was going. She turned facing her team, addressing them, keeping her tone confident and sharp.
"I want you three," Shepard pointed to Grunt, Massani and Thane "to remain here. So far this is our only access point. Keep the way open however you have to. This AI/VI thing is most definitely herding us but that doesn't mean we have to trap ourselves in here like rats in a maze. Comm-checks every five minutes."
"You got it boss." Massani agreed. His aged face held the expression that he most certainly didn't fancy going deeper into the bowels of a Cerberus facility filled with crazy-ass clankers. He'd rather be bored off his useless tits sitting guarding a fucking door than wade ass-deep into enemy territory where he couldn't lay the bastards in the ground or shoot the bloody hell out of them.
This type of battle was all on the techies shoulders. This was there playground, because he sure as hell didn't have a horse in this race. At least holding down the fort or so to speak Massani felt like he was actually doing something—productive. No doubt that was why Shepard made the decision to leave her tanks as well as one of her best sharpshooters behind to watch their six.
The remaining team-members pressed into the darkness, ears pricked, every sense on high-alert. Once past the threshold of the only open avenue it was very clear to see why DAVID had prohibited them from going into the right-most room. The joining passage was blocked with crates and bodies of geth and Cerberus agents alike.
The only way forward was down. The walls here along the stairwell were heavily scarred by carbon scoring and deeply pitted pock-marks that revealed a very telling story. The battle was swift, deadly with no survivors. Bodies both organic and synthetic littered the hall—both were only hollow shells now. The human corpses had cooled and rigger set in. and the platforms of the defunct geth still sparked and sputtered but they were just as dead. The coagulated blood mixed with the whitish-coolant that passed for plasma in the synthetic platforms, creating pink stains along the grout in the grooves of the black tiles.
As soon as the team descended the last step in the oppressing dark they could just make out another trio of doors. Whist there was no outward damage to them they all swooshed shut. Then...like a quasar machine the doors' locking mechanisms blinked on and off— and Shepard could have sworn the VI was playing with them as the sound coming out of the speakers was indeed the little jingle the slot machines tinkled out as the dials spun random numbers.
"This is seriously pissing me off." Jack growled kicking the door closest to her which happened to be the left. Almost instantly it opened. "God damn VI is trying to fuck with our heads."
"I would say it is succeeding." Kasumi said with no malice in her words. "This is really staring to creep me out. Can I just say for the record I was never a fan of horror vids. And now we're in one."
Weapons raised, fingers flagging the triggers. Shepard glance in saw there were no geth and signalled for the rest of the team to enter. "Garrus, Jack keep watch." she instructed. "We don't know what other tricks DAVID is playing at."
Garrus nodded. "Got it. " He had no desire to linger in the humans' lab longer than absolutely necessary. Nor did he like being ushered into very obvious bottleneck holes. This was a death trap if there ever was ever one.
Jack gave one glance to a Cerberus shmuck who had his brains coating the back of a counter where his body lay slumped against and nodded. She wasn't one for a queasy stomach nor did she feel any remorse over the dead Cerberus asshole but she was happy to step out side the room. The smell of stale blood and burnt flesh wasn't on her list of things she wanted to keep inhaling as QOTGS had a look see.
"Tali...Kass..." Shepard was stopped from issuing any further orders as yet another log from Archer's past came playing out of the laptop that was on the counter near the man who had lost half his head.
'Archer log 157.8: Unless he sees results, the Illusive Man is shutting us down next week. I have no choice. I'm going to tap David directly into the geth neural network and see if he can influence them. The danger should be negligible. David might even enjoy it.'
"Fucking asshole! It's just like Teltin!" Jack shouted from the hall. "Not getting results fast enough so they take fucking shortcuts. I want to pop Archer's head like a zit. Spread his god damn brains all over the wall like his buddy on the floor."
"Ineloquently put. But I can agree to the sentiment. Knew Cerberus took great risks for scientific progression. Willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve end results. Desperate. Sloppy." Mordin chastised the dead staff. He lifted is larger dark eyes, blinked once and inhaled deeply as he looked to Miranda as if he half expected her to have an explanation for what Archer had decided to do. She of course did not. Nor did the former loyalist have anything to add to the conversation." Very sloppy."
"Lets keep moving. Kasumi, Tali take a look at the computer banks down by the elevator. See if you can't get it back on line," Shepard ordered.
"Presuming of course DAVID lets us." groused the thief.
Shepard turned to her team; more specifically towards the two she had left guarding the door. "You two know the drill, I need this area guarded. But you may need more than your overload skills, Garrus. Mordin stay with them. Jam any tech you can, however you can if needs be. But make sure we have out exit strategy."
"Don't need any tech-tricks if you can rip a clanker in half with a singularity." Jack smirked.
A smirk Shepard returned. "Indeed."
"Arriving at level two." the tinny voice of the female VI announced after Tali hit the call button.
Nothing happened.
"Okay that didn't work." Kasumi said. "Let's try something else."
She reset the elevator coded punched in a new code from a laptop located on the second tier. Again the voice called out that the lift was now on level three.
"Really?" Shepard sighed and shook her head. "For someone trying really to get us to go some place and hear your story you are sure making us jump through a lot of hoops." she lifted her head towards the CCTV camera that had been watching their every move and issued a force-ten glare that would have wilted any cadet to their marrow. "I don't do hoops. DAVID, get that elevator up here now." A simple command that could not-would not be disobeyed.
There was an immediate response:
"Arriving at level two. Arriving at level four, arriving at level six, arriving at level five. System error. Arriving at level seven."
The doors of the lift glowed white-hot then blue as if someone were using an acetylene torch to pry them open from the inside.
Not a half-breath later, Shepard issued silent commands for her team to take positions. Whatever was coming through that door wasn't going to be a friendly.
Kasumi and Tali both commanded their omni-tools to pull up, activated the bowcasters app and shot guai snare wires at the threshold and lintels of the elevator, creating an orange 'spider's web' of monofilament explosives.
Tali did more than that. Another swift tap into her omni tool and both of her drones fizzled into existence. And from one of her many pockets she took out a small disk and tossed it at the stairwell a level above her. A small almost geth-like turret unfolded itself and spun its double barrels at the elevator.
For the biotics—their bodies hummed with dark energy as all of them pulled the natural eezo brimming in every nerve ending. Biotics were living weapons. They were gravity bound by will. Asari knew it best, but the younger races were catching up in the full understating just what mass effect could do. Organic and synthetic power fused and honed to their pinnacle.
Samara, Shepard, Jack and Miranda, became a barricade all on their own. The four together could rip the very foundation of this station apart if they so chose. The enemies coming through the lift doors would not stand a chance.
Three geth hunters and a goliath sized Prime spun around and abruptly stormed the chamber. They clearly had not expected the explosive-netting blocking the threshold or the sudden waves of dark energy swirling about their chaises tearing apart kinetic shields and armour with biotic waves of a combined warp-singularity-flares. The three biotic powers fused creating a rash of primed eezo and exploded –destroying two of the three hunters even before they took offensive positions.
From the speakers rose an almighty roar of digital anger and pain. DAVID was clearly not happy with being ordered about or his geth being torn apart. From the top tier of the room Garrus and Mordin opened fire with a barrage of cryo-enhanced ammunition. The slugs pelted hard into the platforms pock marking the chassis with great gaping holes destroying the last hunter and obliterating the already weakened Prime.
Shepard surveyed her team and found them all hale and hearty. Satisfied she moved towards the lift. Fortunately the brief fire fight had not damaged it-much. It was still functional for the most part.
"We still have active geth about. We cannot allow DAVID to try and establish a foothold here. Garrus, Samara, Mordin establish a picket line and keep watch. The rest of us will continue down."
Garrus nodded, clearly not liking being separated from his wife or his best friend, but he was turian and one of the things turian did well since swaddling was to take orders and follow them. It was ingrained. Service to the team, service to the ship, service to the unit, service to Pavlon. Garrus once joked he wasn't a very good turian, as he rebelled against following orders when he was in C-Sec. He had failed in his duty. It was something his father never let him forget, not that Garrus would have ever denied it. But he had never failed Shepard. Never would. He was her Trusted after all. He followed her orders.
"Aye aye, Commander." he said. In those three words he let the Spectre know while he didn't like being left behind; he'd do as she commanded. "We'll maintain position."
Shepard nodded. In that was an answering unspoken 'thank you.'
"Go with care." Samara said, "DAVID followed your command this once. However, I highly doubt that will happen again."
"Noted." Again there was an extremely slight smile tugging at the Commander's lips. She was surprised herself that DAVID had actually complied with her orders. Perhaps it was something out of reflex, perhaps it was simply Shepard. Right now it didn't matter whatever it was that caused the AI to heed her orders, only stopping him. Stopping his torment. No one had imagined the screams from before. DAVID was screaming out. 'Please stop this.'
The Spectre turned back to the remaining members of her team. She kept a sharp watch on the now empty lift, the only sign the geth had been in there was the walls within were splattered with the white-'blood.'
Just before she entered the elevator the comm earplug crackle with an asthmatic rattle of static. Five swift clicks. Massani and the others were checking in just as they had been ordered to. Five short clicks meant everything was five-by-five, military speak for everything was fine. Shepard signalled back using the same Morse code:
'Roger that. Progressing to lower levels: G / Smr / M remaining to keep watch in lift room. Geth still on the premises, eyes sharp. Keep frosty. CDR Shepard out.'
Filing in as one into the elevator was Shepard, Jack, Kasumi and Miranda. Not a single one of the women dropped her guard or biotic barriers, save of course for Kasumi who vanished from view after activating her stealth generator.
They were ready for an ambush, not for the elevator to suddenly drop from under their feet! The metal grated against metal, the tinny woman advised that she smelled smoke and all cigarettes had to be put out as this was a non-smoking facility.
The elevator plummeted then stopped just as suddenly as it had fallen. The metallic screeching drowned out the worried cries from above from their companions. Those trapped in the 'vater felt as if their bones were shaken out of their skins. Teeth clattered together and Jack swore as her teeth slamming down came down upon the fullness of her bottom lip.
The fall ended as abruptly as it began. With a clang and a ping and a thump. It was amazing the four kept their feet.
"Everyone okay?" Shepard asked shaking the jolting sensation of sudden freefall from her mind.
Jack absently rubbed the back of her hand against her bloody lip and gave the minor wound no further thought. "Just freaking great."
Kasumi was rubbing a bruised elbow and looked sourly at the elevator but she was otherwise sound.
There were choruses of yesses from the others and they were repeated again when Garrus's hurried voice crackled over the comm.
When the doors opened they were welcomed by a quartet of geth. Shepard shoulder rolled forward, sent a biotic push into the cluster, a body fell. Using the training garnished from hours of playing the Echo Game, Shepard raised her N7 Eagle pistol and fired at a second head, spun around in a ballet-like turn and sent a warp into a third body with her off hand moving as fluidly as an asari huntress.
The geth chittered in binary pain and fell to the ground. Only a second later had the Spectre realized the geth troopers were clustered together not as an assault force to greet them but locked into a data alcove. The clankers were unmoving—inoperative. It didn't stop the Spectre from destroying the last.
"I have to say Shep that was impressive." Kasumi said from her hidden shadows. "You may not have rhythm on the dance floor but you sure can move on the battleground."
The Spectre turned her gaze to the shimmering barely perceptible distortion and knew where the thief was, and cocked a cheeky half-grin.
'Archer log 168.4: I'd be lying if I said no harm could come to David. His autistic mind is alien to me as an actual alien. Anything could happen if we plug him in. But I have to try. Don't I?'
"Can I just say I really really hate this guy?" Jack said looking accusingly at the computer terminal that had issued the latest of Archer's journals.
"It sounds as if Archer was having doubts." Miranda offered. She held her held up stopping the storm of words ready to bubble out of Jack's mouth. "I'm not defending him. Clearly Archer's second thoughts were utterly ignored, or we would not be here. I agree with you Jack, this man needs to answer for what he did to his brother. To pray upon the vulnerable is deplorable." The look in her grey eyes going serious. "As deplorable as setting up a biotic death camp for children. An elder sibling should be looking out for their younger brother or sisters, protecting them. Not deliberately pushing them into harms way." and for once the hand did not reach the collarbone.
Jack only offered the merest sliver of a smile. The other women pretended not to see the exchange as they busied themselves in destroying the inactive geth one after the other.
"Warning. Detector offline. Serious injury may occur." Piped the now familiar female AI from one of the cameras. In response Tali simply shot it down with a slight indifferent shrug to her thin shoulders.
Kasumi had already scoped the room of anything of value, found a few trinkets that made their way into hidden pockets without word. It was simply part of the thief's nature. Shepard knew if Japanese catburgler found of anything the team could use against the Collectors it would be surrendered upon their return to the Normandy. Or more appropriately simply appear in the research stations-schematics ready to be fabricated as needs be.
No one took any note when Kasumi hacked into a computer. Only when the door opposite the lift opened did the Spectre turned to the black hooded woman. Of course there was no response a Kasumi slipped back into old habits and activated her stealth generator.
"You don't mind if I let you take the brunt of any fire coming our way?" Kasumi's voice whispered into Shepard's ear.
The Spectre chuckled. "And here I thought Jack was our biotic tank."
"She might be, but you...you Shep will take a bullet for me. Jack's right about that. You are the Queen of the Girl Scouts. And, I know what you can do. Jack's the tank that rolls over anything and everything. You see her coming. You, Shep you're the sniper. Pinpoint death. That's a lot more dangerous." this was whispered so quietly Shepard knew only she would have heard it.
And she didn't offer protest. It wasn't the first time Shepard was given such a comparison. The asari huntresses that had served with her on the Victory had often compared the raven haired Spectre as a ray that lurked in the bottom of the ocean floor and struck its prey with stealth. Of course those same commandos had named Shepard a shark as well.
However harshly spoken about their resident ex-con Kasumi was more than correct. Jack would fight for them, but taking the brunt force of fire for anyone of them—that was more than unlikely. Still Jack was warming up to the idea of teamwork and trusting those she served with. It was a very slow process, but—there-it was-Jack—Subject Zero was learning to trust. It was progress. Damn that. It was a lot of progress.
The narrow corridor beyond the chamber with the defunct geth was a mirror of the others they had passed through: a door to the right and left and one directly ahead. Shepard moved toward the door at the far end half expecting the guai lock to turn red.
It didn't. It moved. How could it move? Not just along the door and up but along the wall to the latch onto the left. Then it came to the Spectre she had not seen locking mechanism on the other doors before now. In fact the door across the hall remained shut fast and looked more like the bulkhead than an entrance to a laboratory.
The team flanked either side of the door, scanning for threats. When none presented itself, the women moved lockstep into the chamber that looked more like a hanger than a lab. Central within the room was a massive computer terminal. Shepard trained eyes took in the five desks half of them covered in paperwork and there were more than one of the utilitarian chairs tipped over. That was not unexpected; the owners of the chairs most likely bolted to their feet causing them to topple over in haste to flee to perceived safety.
"It's a VI server console." Tali said as soon as she clapped eyes upon the silver and blue construct. "Larger than the one on the Normandy for EDI of course. If DAVID is anywhere...it will be in there."
Shepard frowned. "His mind maybe...but where is his body?"
To that the quarian had no answer. None of them did.
"One way to find out." Shepard decisively moved to the terminal's controls, her fingers hovered over the panel "Be ready. Don't be surprised if this button summons a Reaper." She depressed the central battle on the glowing holographic interface, almost as soon as she did her body stiffened.
Shepard had come out of the Citadel in critical condition. Four days of surgery had left the Spectre with a body that was more than thirty-seven per cent synthetic. Microfiber weave laced her muscles, more than half of her major organs had been replaced by cybernetics and bio-synthetics. Her touch with Cyan Syndrome, left Shepard with multicore implants and extensive lattice work that connected the Alamari crafted biotic amp to her nervous system. A nervous system that now felt it had gone on fire.
Her body was not at her command, Shepard could feel DAVID's influence over synthetic parts and her saw a milky-green balefire glow swarm over her body. Even her eyes had the glowing sheen not of dark energy but that same eerie green. Her omni-tool sputtered to life as DAVID took command over it as well.
"Shepard!" Tali yelped grabbing a hold of the older woman's arm but was shoved aside by the human. The young quarian stumbled into Miranda before she found her balance. She ignored the offered violence knowing it was not her friend or Commander that had pushed her. "Shepard!" she tried again.
Shepard didn't seem to hear. Puppet-like she stumbled on unsure feet to the door and walked out of it. It slammed shut behind her and DAVID had sealed it. Tali banged on it, uselessly. She tried to hack into the systems with her omni tool and found that just as useless. Angrily she turned to the biotics. "Open it. Blast that thing apart!"
Jack made no hesitation to make use of her power. She pulled in the mass effect energy and slammed a ball of power directly into the door. It bulged, but the doors didn't open.
Rage filled the quarian woman. Without thinking she raised her Carnifax pistol and fired on the VI server console. "You will give her back!" she commanded shrilly. "You hear me bosh'tet? Give her back!"
The familiar green digital face appeared over the server console and growled. Yes growled.
Another shot from the Carnifax flared, this time it was directed at the face that hovered before them like some great and terrible wizard in a fantasy book written for a human child.
"Damn it!" Tali snapped coldly. Just wait until she found the bosh'tet lurking behind the curtain. The moment DAVID took her commander, all sympathy for him leaked out of the young engineer as swiftly as air out of a hull breech.
Jack and Miranda looked at one another and pelted the door with warp-singularities and at last they were successful and the door gave way.
MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME.
The world had turned to amber. She could feel the coalescing world assemble itself in a digital world of virtual reality. Shepard saw bodies of men walking before him. One was Gavin Archer the other a very young man who was bald. Shepard recognized the man-boy from the picture on Archer's desk. This had to be David. The third man was also recognized as he was the man whose skull was cracked open and brains splattered along the desk.
She followed the hall to a door; she opened it and took the stairs down to the corridors that snaked around a massive circular chamber which was dark and impossible to see into. DAVID screamed. "Make it stop!"
Whether it was intended or not, controlled or not, Shepard found herself taking fire from geth. And it took a second for the Spectre to realize that this was the wetwear geth, not their physical platforms. Shepard darted to cover, finding it in a half wall.
Out of pure instinct Shepard struck out at the geth with an explosive weave of dark energy. It popped apart in small green cubes. Shepard darted forward taking cover behind yet another quarter-sized bulkhead. Anther geth shot out at her with a VR version of a pulse rifle but it hit against tightly held barriers. She raised the Kassa-Locust and fired. The 'chassis' erupted into cubes of green that provided Shepard with more proof that the geth she fought here were the indeed the software that Tali so often told them that the geth were not the platforms they were so familiar with.
A third fell as swiftly as it had appeared. Shepard pressed forward. Along the left walls interceded with windows Shepard could actually see the face of David that had haunted their journeys. DAVID.
Pressing onward Shepard saw more bodies lining the walls, all of them wearing Cerberus uniforms. Shepard didn't give them a second glance. They were utterly unimportant. She continued down the circular halls firing swiftly upon geth popping it seemed out of the very walls. Indeed it was quite possible as they were programs, and Shepard knew part of her body was in the real world but her mind had been pulled into a virtual reality.
The hall led Shepard into a lab or at least Shepard believed it was so. It was difficult to tell given that the world was generated out of green building blocks that reminded the Spectre of a vintage arcade game from back in the twentieth. In the center of the room were three white figures. All three very recognizable, Gareth Archer, David and a geth, the latter was strapped to an examination table.
David was sitting on the floor with his arms folded over around his knees which were pulled in close to his chest. It was he that was speaking. "Square root of 906.01 is 30.1...the square root of 912.04 is 30.2."
As he rattled out the numbers, Archer looked at a data pad he was holding in his right hand. "Time on this project is running out. There are no options left. How to get the geth's attention?" he suddenly dropped the pad and covered his face with his hands either out of grief or pain.
Even as he did so David rose to his feet mimicking the sounds of the geth's digital chatter. And to Archer and Shepard's utter astonishment the geth spoke back. Archer turned staring walleyed and mouth agape.
"The robot says hello." David translated.
Archer clapped a hand upon his brother's shoulders. "Eureka!" he tossed his arms up in glee. "David you're a miracle worker"
The green world turned to amber and the growling of DAVID returned. just past the table where the geth had been strapped was a glowing ball of green energy. And there was another such disturbance on the other side of the room. Shepard approached the one closest to her. She went to touch it and even was she did the world once again sizzled into the balefire green.
A new memory.
This time both the brothers were standing looking directly at a geth hunter suspended by mechanical arm, at their sides were two other men. One was clearly the corpse of the lab technician in the other chamber. Shepard had nicknamed the tech as Scarecrow on account as he had no brains left in his head. Or rather Scarecrow's corpse didn't. The last was a man from Cerberus Engineering who was busily inputting data on a pad.
"David, I want you to order the geth to take a step forward." Archer said.
As if it were a game, David did just that, once more mimicking the geth-chatter. And the hunter obeyed. It puzzled Shepard and the technician just how the young man was able to do that.
Archer had a ready answer. "David is a mathematical savant. His autistic mind can interpret the geth language at the most basic form and mimic their phonetics. With his photographic memory, cross-referencing the meaning is a snap. He's literally a human computer.
"Is that even safe, Doctor?" The Engineer asked.
"I see no harm in finding out." Archer answered.
The room went amber once more and there was a distinct sound of frustration from DAVID's tone this time. If Shepard didn't know better she could have sworn the deep digital tone was just on this side of being sarcastic. Clearly the good doctor was wrong.
Examining the second disturbance revealed a very nervous sounding David. His recitation of mathematics was rushed—hurried—frantic.
"Square root of 906.01 is 30.1...square root of 912.04 is 30.2..." the wringing of his hands equally as frantic.
In this memory Archer's back was to his brother. Frustration balled as rebars in concrete within Archer's shoulders. Slowly the elder brother turned and pointedly ignored the younger man-boy's unease. "David can you repeat my notes from Thursday's experiment?"
"Square root of 918.09 is 30.3."
"David please pay attention!" Archer snapped.
David covered his ears, "Loud! It's getting loud in here."
This time Archer took a moment to comfort the distressed young man. "I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that. Would you mind repeating my notes from Thursday's experiment?" This time his voice was much softer, gentling David's hand wringing.
Log 137.3. The experiment yielded no dissemble patterns of geth obedience. End dictation now, David. Hell the Illusive Man will have my head for this." The hand wringing turned to bobbing back and forth.
Archer kept his tone soft when he spoke next. "Thank you. And how do are you feeling today?"
Bobbing and hand wringing, David's answer was numbers. "Square root of 924.1 is 30.4...earplugs would be good."
The amber world had returned as did DAVID's geth-growls Shepard turned from the table as she did so she happened to look across the lab into a window that looked out in to another very larger room. What drew her attention were the glowing green platforms of geth troopers. It was a geth hub.
There was no hesitation. The Spectre let loose a barrage of fire in small contained bursts from the SMG. The warp-rounds shattered the pane of glass separating the rooms, ripped into the shielding of the hub. In a very satisfying explosion the four geth were knocked prone and before they could rise, Shepard released another volley destroying two of them.
The one on her left managed to get to its feet and return fire. Fortunately Shepard's hardsuit kinetic shielding and biotic barriers took the brunt of the attack. She turned and using a combination of lift-throw destroyed her assailant, by tossing it into the last remaining trooper, critically damaging its own kinetic shielding. Allowing Shepard to drop three quick shots into its flashlight head.
She used the window ledge to leap up and over into the hub room. She glanced around quickly before proceeding out the door back into the circular hallways. From here there were more windows looking out into a vast cylindrical chamber that the massive green head that was DAVID was begging—pleading
"PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"
"I'm trying David. I promise you. But you have to help me help you, okay buddy?" Shepard responded softly, knowing she was talking to a terrified desperate young man who was in a lot of pain.
Carefully the Spectre moved along the corridor and stopped at a locked door. There upon the locking mechanism following the wiring was a VI connection node.
"So that's how you were doing it. You used the wires to travel and manipulation all those locks." She nodded as if appreciating the ease of how he was able to seemingly move a guai lock from one door, along a wall to another door.
He hadn't actually moved the lock at all. It was more akin to the blinking of Christmas fairy lights or more appropriately the flashing lights of marquee that blinked on and off so rapidly it gave the appearance of movement.
The large pulsating node then was a hint. Destroy it and the door would unlock. She did so, and it did. The door swooshed open. Pressing forward Shepard found herself in yet another lab which looked an awful lot like the elevator room in the lounge area one floor above them.
A quick scan of the room bore no deistic pulsing green disturbance. The box half filled with thermal clips left conveniently by Cerberus Security came in handy. Pocketing them as well as a few med-packs from a first aid kit along the wall Shepard pressed on.
Just was she was about to activate the elevator controls for the lift she noted in the centre of the room was another one of those VI hubs that had dumped her into the VI world in the first place. Projected from the centre was a very familiar ship.
"No." Shepard said very firmly knowing David could hear her. "You are not taking my ship, David. That's not going to happen, Buddy. You understand me?" She moved back to the window and looked directly as the massive green head. "I won't let you have her. So just get that very idea out of your head, right now Mister!" It was as order as much was it was a statement of fact. "You make a try for the Normandy and you and I are going to have some real issues. So let's not go there."
A desperate man in pain was a dangerous creature, especially if he were terrified. This was going to get messy. If she had to destroy David to stop him, goddess curse her, she would. But there was no way Shepard was going to allow the AI/VI part of David to have her baby. It struck the Commander then just how much this new Normandy meant to her. She wasn't just another ship, she was home. And no one, not the Council, not Cerberus, not the Collector and sure as hell not the Reapers were going to take this one away from her.
The Commander's hand hovered over the controls of the lift then she withdrew it. Knowing from experience that as soon as she summoned the 'vater DAVID would have geth troopers waiting for her. It was how she had separated the minds there was the human man-child David and then there was the AI DAVID malware.
Planting a singularity at the centre of the lift and then withdrawing the SMG, Shepard ordered the lift come to her floor. Almost as soon as she did, Tinny, (the female AI) issued a warning that the maximum weight the lift could carry was exceeded.
The floor-doors opened trigging the singularity to expand and explode directly the hunter and three troopers. She fired upon their spinning forms that were careening in a micro orbit around the biotic mass effect field. They had not even gotten a shot off before they disintegrated into small green cubes.
Once Shepard was positive no more were to follow she moved the elevator and commanded to descend to the ground floor of the main hub.
Here the green head was even greater in size than Shepard had anticipated, DAVIDs entire head was made up of those same small green cubes. Millions of them. But as she approached there was another memory playing this time it appeared to be just Archer and Scarecrow.
Once more David's voice was filled with panic and fear. "The square root of 906.01 is 30.1...square root of 912.04 is 30.2 "
And once more Archer was pointedly ignoring the terror in his little brother as was Scarecrow. "We're ready. Open a connection to the geth network."
Scarecrow complied causing DAVID to scream. "MAKE IT STOP!"
The memory room filled with geth troopers armed with pulse rifles and all pointed at Scarecrow and Archer.
"David! NO!" Archer shouted. "Tell the geth to stand down!"
"PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"
There was the sound of glass shattering. And suddenly all the memory evaporated as the DAVID's green head reappeared before Shepard hovering just like the flaming green head of the Wizard of Oz had before Dorothy—great and terrible.
Tinny announced that the Normandy SR2 was within range.
"Like hell it is." Shepard snapped. If the nodes were how DAVID controlled the locks and revealed memories, it was now he was how he was going to try and take over her ship. And if they could be destroyed on the doors, they sure as hell could be destroyed right here on the hub that generated them.
Rapid fire with warp rounds quickly obliterated one such node casing DAVID to screech out angrily that the data stream had been interrupted. A force field around the center of the hub fell away revealing a pulsating black orb not unlike the center of a biotic singularity. If that could be neutralized then David would be freed.
Shepard opened fire, directly at the center of mass. All too soon the shielding returned and over the comm-system Archer's voice, still a memory called out. "Pull the plug! Tell Vulcan Station to cut all power!"
"It's too late!" Scarecrow responded, equally desperate. "We've lost control."
The big giant head returned as well, it was almost as the small human part of David was trying to communicate because it looked directly at a moving node then to Shepard. Then it looked at another section of the room and another tendril. So there were going to be two nodes this time.
"I got it Buddy. Good to know you're still in there, somewhere." Shepard said then opened fire on the little green ball. It was moving fast along the massive tendrils of wires that stuck out from the big green head as if they were Medusa's serpents.
"Attempting to establish uplink." Tiny announced placidly.
The node was far too close to the hub for Shepard's liking before she managed to destroy it. Unlike the first time however the shielding around the centre did not fall away. Instead at the very spot where David had looked, geth poured out, all armed with pulse rifles. No doubt they were same ones that had plastered Scarecrow's brains in the lab.
Shepard swiftly shifted back trying to find cover and fire at the clankers at the same time. She cast a very quick look behind her to see where the node was. She had a second—maybe...
Her armor's shields dropped below the threshold the Spectre was comfortable with. Turning her attention back to the geth, Shepard used a biotic flare and a slam taking out the geth assailants, the combination caused a dark energy explosion that took out the clanker behind the trooper.
The Spectre spun on the ball of her left foot Echo-Game style and opened fire on the node that was by now half way to the access point. When it blew the shielding around the hub imploded as before with the distinct tinkling of glass shattering.
The Commander expended one clip firing into the hub's core and then slammed another clip into the SMG and nearly had that one emptied before DAVID restored the protective barrier around the center.
The frantic voice of Archer's memory warbled out of the speakers: "David you have to stop this!"
"DAVID DOESN'T WANT TO BE HERE!" His voice was mechanical as if a geth platform were speaking in basic English rather than the binary chitter.
"Attempting to establish upload link." Tinny said over memories.
In hearing it, Shepard took a half a step back hoping against hope that organic David would once more help her by turning DAVID's big giant head to the next point of node generation. She was not disappointed. Once more the head looked at two points: one directly in front of Shepard and the other adjacent to it.
Once more the first one moved swifter than the second. It shattered by fire causing Tinny to proclaim that link was lost Shepard didn't take time to breathe before she targeted the second VI connection.
It was nearly to the hub before it was destroyed only by moving forward did the Spectre realize there was yet another node moving for the centre. Thank the goddess this one was not as fast as the first one or the Normandy would be in very real danger. Urgency provoked the Commander's actions. The thermal clip was once more depleted, the nanosecond it took her to slam a new one it was precious but the third node explode just as the others had.
The shattering of glass, signalling the shielding around the hub had fallen a third time leaving the core vulnerable.
Breathing hard, the Shepard spun once waiting for the telltale sign that DAVID was calling more geth. Not wasting the valuable moment opened to her the Spectre once more fired upon the core's armor and flung warps for good measure. The warps actually did more damage then the SMG. Why she hadn't thought of it before the Spectre had no time to speculate. But she hit it again and again with biotics.
The past came out of the speakers once more. "David! Calm down! I can make this all go away if you'll let me!"
"QUIET! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"
Damn! The shield was back up. The armor was very nearly destroyed too. There would be four nodes this time. Shepard was sure of it. And there was Tinny once more announcing that DAVID was attempting to establish upload uplink.
The commander was right. Directly in front of her generating at the same time were two nodes and the sparking near the ground that forewarned geth were coming to the party.
One down.
"Connection lost."
There went the second. Run, forward shoulder roll take out a third. Shepard mind was on pure high-octarine automatic now just as it had been during the Blitz and her desperate fight with the Saren-husk.
Ping—ping—ping. The shields were still holding the barriers still in place, both could take another hit or two. Third. Lost shields. Find cover. Target the geth. Warp-similarity. Flare-slam. Snap out slash-wave from the sword. Shadow-strike, target fourth node. Down! Warp the armor around the core.
DOWN!
DAVID screaming, "QUIET! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"
In a sudden explosive flash that caused the Spectre to shield her eyes the core was suddenly gone. the amber / green world began to melt away.
There in the centre was a spectacle of ghastly torment that whisked the very breath from the battle hardened N7 warrior. There was David, his arms stretched out from his body like the Vitruvian man ...no like crucifixion.
Cables ran through the meat of his arms and were bolted in place. a metal halo centred around his head that connected to mesh collar around his throat and clavicles forcing him to keep his head in place. Worse still were clamps that draped like claws from that same sadistic metal halo along David's bald head and peeled back his eyelids, so that he might never blink. And yet his eyes which were surely dry wept.
If that was not bad enough two hoses were crammed in the young man's mouth, far too large to be anywhere near comfortable. They almost looked like refrigeration hoses. What they were pumping into the boy be it air, food or water or all three Shepard could not have guessed.
From the speakers came the pleading tones of a lost child. "Quiet. Please make it stop."
Shepard's heart shattered. Carefully the approached, her voice as tender as she could make it "I promise you David, I will. I will make it stop. I'll get you out of there. I promise."
From behind her another voice. "Wait! Commander!"
Archer! Shepard never had so much loathing for one man not even Udina as she had for this motherfucking monster. "I'm begging you! Don't do anything rash!"
"Rash?" she growled. "Like forcing your brother into an experiment?" her blue eyes filled with cold-fire. She took no notices of her teammates that came out of the same hall Archer had. All other ready for war, but when they saw David all the anger they had for the VI/AI washed away. Instead all their faces including Grunts held wrath for the elder brother.
"Keelah..." Tali gasped. Her vow to save David renewed. She was not alone in that.
"My God!"
"By the Goddess."
"Shit."
"I'm going to tear you apart!"
"By the Spirits!"
"Not even Okeer did crap like that and he was a sadistic bastard."
Archer had the balls to actually look ashamed. He covered his face with one hand "I know how this must look, but I never intended any harm to come to him. Believe me!"
"Harm!" Jack railed incredulously. "Never intended any harm? Look at him, you sick fuck! You got him pinned up...like...like...FUCK!"
Archer looked at the very pissed off heavily tattooed very angry biotic woman and took a step back from her. He knew enough to know the humming blue glow meant he as in very real danger. Hopeful Shepard had a heavy leash on her. But he saw the same gathering light swirling around the Spectre. And...and...Lawson. A loyalist to The Illusive Man if there ever was one. Only the asari wasn't glowing but at a glance he saw the same cold fire in her eyes that burned in the Commander's. He had to defuse this and quickly.
"It's not like I planned this. It was an accident. Seeing David communicate with the geth...it all seemed harmless."
"No!" Lawson scoffed. "An accident is. 'Oh crap I stepped in varren shit.' This isn't harmless. How can you possibly think doing that to your brother was harmless?"
"Can we just kill the human?" Grunt asked pointing his shotgun at Archer's head.
Shepard shook her head causing the very large krogan to lower his weapon. "They have a point this wasn't harmless, Archer. You were running your own private hell."
"I had no choice!" Archer became defensive. This time he turned his gaze to Miranda. She had to know what it was like. She faced the same sort of pressures just as much as he had. "The demands were incredible. The Illusive Man doesn't broker failure. You of all people know this to be true Operative Lawson." he then gave a very pointed stare at Tali. "Any war we fight with the geth will be bloody. I was asked to find a way to avoid that."
"And how many lives have already been lost for this project?" Shepard shot back.
Archer looked to the floor, "More souls than will ever forgive me. But I won't apologize for my radical ideas." he looked to David, a hand resting upon his chin as if in thought. "If my work spares a million mothers mourning the loss of a million sons my conscience will rest easy."
"Apparently a million daughters lost is okay though." Garrus hurumphed not impressed with the human's metaphor. "Daughters like Shepard or other women here don't count? Or the fathers losing their children?"
Shepard wasn't impressed either, not with Archer's dismissive attitude or the metaphor. She pointed to the young man. "Look at him—your brother will never be the same."
"The damage may not be permanent. He might recover some of semblance of his mind." Archer said far too easily for anyone's palate even the krogan's or the hardassed crusty old merc who had been willing to sacrifice a dozen slaves just to get his revenge on Vito.
"Cerberus will never leave him alone" Shepard's voice became a very dangerous growl. "Your brother will always be a lab rat."
"But a well cared for lab rat. At least he'd still be alive."
"So you'll sacrifice your brother's happiness for your own ambition?"
"Unfucking believable!" Jack snarled. She had a point and that was exactly what Shepard was screaming in her own mind. "You're a real piece of shit you know that? God! Look at your brother you miserable dickhead! Look at him!"
Archer did. And then saw; truly saw the horror of what he had done to David. He grimaced and shook his head.
From the speakers David's soft voice issued forward. "Square root of 906.01 equals..."
"30.1" Archer gently answered. "What I did to David is unethical. If he dies it's unforgivable. Let me take care of him. Please."
"Quiet—please make it stop."
"I think that's a no." Miranda said.
"That is a no. I've seen enough of your cruelty to know he'll never be free from it here. I'm taking him away." Shepard's no nonsense tone brokered no room for negotiations.
"NO! Leave him! He's too valuable!" Archer shouted and actually fired on Shepard. Yes he had fired on her. He had to be insane.
Shepard was fast. She darted forward her own N7 Eagle in hand and backhanded Archer hard enough to smash nose and lip but not so hard to have broken his jaw. He hand shot up cupping the wound and realized that had a hell of a lot of guns pointed at his head. His Carnifax dropped to the floor with a clatter. Why he wasn't dead, he didn't know.
"You even think of coming after your brother and this bullet will be waiting for you. Then we'll see who is valuable." Shepard pointed the muzzle of her own pistol at his nose. "Garrus get on the horn tell Dr. Chakwas we needed her down here, ASAP. Mordin, see what you can do to start getting David down off that thing."
"Absolutely Commander. Right away." the Salarian breathed in deeply. "Will need help. Wait with more vital areas until Dr. Chakwas comes. Samara could you possibly help? As well as you Tali. Closer inspection of some of these devices appear to be Geth."
"They are." The young Engineer confirmed.
"Where will you take him?" Archer's voice was much more contrite as he watched three of Shepard's people start to undo the damage he had inflicted upon his brother.
Shepard was half tempted not to tell the man. "Grissom Academy. They can help special cases like David, minus the torture." Shepard turned to the rest of the group. "The rest of you return to the Normandy. Tell Joker to contact Grissom and inform them we have somebody that needs their help."
"Aye aye commander." Came a chorus of voices.
"Just like that?" Jack didn't like it. "We're just going to leave this asshole? He needs to answer for what he did!"
"He will." Shepard said as her eyes rested upon Lawson. "He most certainly will. And the Illusive Man can bitch at me if he doesn't like it."
From the speakers came the thin voice of a very weary David. "Square root of 912.04 is 30.2...it all seemed harmless. Square root of 912.04 is 30.2...it all seemed harmless. Square root of 912.04 is 30.2...it all seemed harmless..."
Miranda watched as David's eyes continued to weep. She turned back to Archer with a snarl. "Harmless." she seethed. She shook her head. And took a step towards Archer. And then another causing him to back up, his hands raised in the universal signal of surrender as he was forced to take more steps backwards.
"Ca...ca...Commander...?"
Shepard pretended not to hear the plea in the man's voice or the fact Miranda and Jack were all but forcing Archer out of the room with a little help with their biotics. Instead she focused her attention at David.
"David, we're going to get you out of that thing. Focus on me. Alright? Just keep looking at me." She said softly.
"Yes Quiet. Square root of 912.04 is 30.2...it will be Quiet."
"That's right, Buddy."
Miranda had Archer well away from David by now. Each step as accented with a small flare of dark energy at his feet. "You're the older sibling. That gives you one job with your brother. Just one. You look out for him. Protect him. Keep him safe! You do whatever it takes to insure that. If you have to sell your soul to the Devil to make it happen, to work as his right hand you do it! You are your brother's keeper!"
In hearing this Jack did not disguise her surprise in the admission. She knew the cost Miri had to pay to keep Oriana safe, she just never expected to hear her ...her what lover?... (had they gone beyond hate-fuck-buddies?) to admit it.
Miranda stretched out her hand but her fingers never took hold of Archer's flesh. All the same he felt as if they had wrapped around his neck. Tendrils of dark energy coiled around his throat, cutting off his air supply. He toppled to his knees gasping, desperately clawing at the invisible fingers strangling him.
"You sicken me." she hissed darkly. "You are everything everyone who isn't with Cerberus believes of us. Vile, evil. Degenerate. Caring nothing for the lives you destroy and all for what for progress? For power?"
Archer's face was turning blue. Jack was grinning like a fool.
"I know what we tell ourselves to ease that nagging doubt, to silence that thing called a conscience. I know the words as well as you do. 'Obedience breeds discipline. Discipline breeds unity. Unity breeds Power. Power is life. Life is humanity's survival. Survival is Cerberus. Cerberus breeds obedience.' And I know The Illusive Man is very fond of telling us over and over again that sacrifices are necessary…"
Archer was near to passing out, Lawson let up on the pressure, but only just enough to allow the man to take in very greedy gulps of air. "But how many sacrifices does it take for the conscience to simply die? I know The Illusive Man no longer has one. It's too inconvenient.
"In my earlier days of service, back when there wasn't a Thing, back when pure unquestioning loyalty meant true unadulterated power, TIMmy once told me' the conscience is a sign of a weak mind and an even weaker will. Cerberus does what it needs to do to insure humanity's survival. So that Shanxi never happens again. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the end justifies the means. Sacrifices will always be needed for the greater good. Chagrining in like a white knight brandishing honor as if it were shield was surest way to cripple humanity.
"Oh he painted a pretty picture of humanity standing as pound and tall as any of the aliens. That we must become power to be reckoned with and we most certainly could. But only if we were willing to set a side the baser instincts of integrity and instead embrace the cold analytical necessity of progression. And like a fool I swallowed it.
"I bought it because I had to believe it was worth it. Worth the price of murdering my conscience to keep my baby sister safe. I am her keeper. And I will do anything and everything to keep her safe, happy, protected. You had the same privilege! But you….you tossed it aside."
Archer was still grasping for air, Miranda offered him just enough to keep alert and aware of his surroundings. "Shepard has a bullet waiting for you. And she will use it. Mark my words. I don't. I have something far more dangerous." She looked to her lover and grinned like a tigress. "I have a Jack."
The smile on the psychotic biotic grew wider as she cracked her knuckles.