"The asari have been down this road before, Commander Shepard."
"But Madam Councillor, let me–"
"I tried to smooth things over with the Salarian dalatrass. To say she's upset would be a monumental understatement," spoke the asari Councillor over the Normandy's holographic comm station.
Perhaps because she was human and, thus, had a short lifespan compared to some of the other council races - the concept of holding a species-wide grudge for hundreds of years seemed ludicrous. "Some of these issues are hundreds of years old. Time to let go."
"Sad to say, but any effort to ally these disparate groups seems doomed to failure. And I'm sure you understand that we cannot afford to waste time with the Reapers knocking at our door. This must be my final word. I'm sorry, but the asari will not be at your summit."
"Our alliance would be stronger with the krogan," she tried to reason. "You need them – we all do."
"I wish you luck, Commander. Goodbye."
The call ended.
Shepard simmered, her teeth grinding in frustration. She hated playing diplomat, and here she was trying to get people to play nice for five minutes while doom appeared at the edges of their vision.
With her call with the asari councillor over, Specialist Traynor's voice notified her of another caller. "Commander, Admiral Hackett is available on vid comm."
Already standing in front of the comm, Shepard established the call, and the rendered form of Admiral Hackett appeared before her.
"Commander, have you retrieved the primarch for your summit?" he asked her.
"Yes, sir, but the asari are staying on the sidelines."
He shook his head disapprovingly. "They'll regret that. The time for unity is now."
He was preaching to the choir, and she nodded in agreement. "The salarians will be there, though."
"You don't sound very optimistic."
"We expect the krogan will be joining us, too," she added, giving a sigh.
It was clear Hackett was not envious of the position she was in. "I see. Well, then you've got your hands full, Commander. Was there something else you needed to discuss?"
"A couple of things if you have time, sir. Have you pieced together how the Reapers hit Earth?"
"It wasn't all that complicated, really," he explained. "They surged through the relays and hit Arcturus Station before we knew what was happening. From there, it was a short jump to the Sol system. Earth didn't stand a chance."
"Sending us to the Mars Archives was a good call, then."
"Still doesn't make up for the fact that the Reapers nailed us to the wall." He shook his head in disbelief. "I sacrificed the entire Second Fleet to provide cover for the Third and the Fifth to retreat. Hell, I've resided over the most devastating military defeat in human history."
Shepard wasn't envious of Hackett's position either. Talking to diplomats was far preferable compared to taking responsibility for sacrificing the lives and resources of an entire fleet.
"How do you see us winning this war, Admiral?"
"By making you the tip of the spear."
She looked back at him skeptically. "I'm flattered, but the Normandy's just one ship."
"And a fast one. You can move quickly, hit a target, and leave before the enemy has time to react."
Shepard had once been chided by Rear Admiral Mikhailovich of the Alliance during a surprise inspection of the Normandy while docked on the Citadel. He had criticized every inch of her ship, citing its overdesigned engine and stealth capabilities as a waste of credits. How the tables had turned.
"It's an advantage, sure, but can it win a war?"
"It's the larger principle that matters. We'll never defeat the Reapers in a full frontal assault, Shepard. The battle against Sovereign three years ago took everything we had, and that was just one Reaper."
"I haven't forgotten."
"So I'll find their soft spots, avoid them where they're strong, and hit them where they're not. And when I find gaps in the armour, I'll hammer them with every soldier, ship, and bullet we've got."
"How long can we keep that up?"
"As long as it takes. The reality is, Shepard, everything I'm doing is a delaying action for you. I'm buying us time, keeping us in the game while you gather what we need for this Prothean device. So keep at it."
"Has your analysis of the Prothean device turned up anything?" she asked, hopeful.
"Liara appears to be right. It's a weapon of some sort. A big one. Beyond that, we really can't say– other than it's gonna be a hell of a thing to try and build."
"Do you think it's risky, building something like this when we don't even know what it does?"
"To be honest, the thing scares the hell out of me, but the Reapers have forced our hand. Two centuries ago, scientists faced the same problem in the Second World War. They weren't sure what the atomic bomb might do. Some thought it could even ignite Earth's atmosphere, but they did it anyway."
She nodded, understanding. "Any updates on Cerberus?" she asked, the last item on her list.
"They're still the wildcard here. Hitting the archives on Mars suggests they're after the same thing we are: a way to defeat the Reapers."
"It didn't seem as if the Illusive Man was suggesting we appease them, not like Saren did. You'd think we'd be on the same side now more than ever."
"Cerberus has never played by the rules as we know them. I don't know what their agenda is, but it has nothing to do with humanity's best interests."
"The Illusive Man talked about controlling the Reapers. He seemed to think that's how we win this."
"He's wrong. Dead Reapers are how we win this."
"Doesn't mean he won't try."
"I saw your report on that Cerberus soldier you found on Mars," the Admiral said, drawing a hand to his chin. "If the Illusive man is good at one thing, it's finding new ways to subvert science. It's never worked for him before, and it won't now."
That's the thing, she silently thought to herself. The Illusive Man had always been successful in his steps, just that his direction was incorrect. Her resurrected body was a product of Cerberus engineering, as was the Normandy SR-2, and EDI.
"Nothing more, sir."
"Keep me posted." He nodded to her. "Hackett out."
The holographic form of the admiral dissolved as the call ended.
.
After speaking with Primarch Victus in the war room about their next steps, Shepard had been walking through the ship's new conference room back to the elevator when the overhead lights inexplicably flickered, lost power completely, then steadily resumed their glow.
"Commander! EDI just went offline," came the voice of Joker via the overhead speaker.
"What do you mean, 'offline?'" she asked to the empty room.
"I don't know! She's not responding, I can't access the AI core diagnostics. You better get down to deck three."
Shepard suddenly remembered why Liara had left their party on Menae, and it had completely slipped her mind to follow up with her when they had gotten back on board. The last time EDI experienced malfunction was when the ship had been hijacked with a virus after integrating with the Reaper IFF. It had cost her part of the crew. "I'll head down," she hurriedly told him, quickening her steps.
"Maybe hurry?"
When she reached the doors to the AI core, engineer Adams was waiting for her with another engineer, masks on, extinguishers at the ready.
"Automated systems have the fires contained," he informed her in characteristic calm. "It should be safe to enter. We'll follow your lead."
She overrode the lockout on the door, and they slid open. The interior of the AI Core room was so thick with smoke and suppressive spray that she couldn't even see the walls in the small room. A hissing sound was heard from the interior.
"Joker, what's that sound?"
"Fire extinguishers, Commander. Could be an electrical fire or… or something."
She gave the go-ahead to the engineers. "I'm going in."
Adams stepped in front of her and swept the floor with the extinguisher in his hands, putting out the remaining small fires that were still burning.
She stepped through after him cautiously, shielding her eyes from the spray overhead and trying to dissipate the sharp-smelling smoke with her hands so she could see properly. "EDI? If you're there, talk to me."
"Is there a particular topic you wish to discuss, Shepard?" answered the AI, in perfect response as she always had. Only, this time, instead of answering her from her hologram next to the terminal, it was from the mouth of Dr. Eva Coré's standing, synthetic body. The body was devoid of human-like skin, subsisting solely of the sleek, grey limbs of the womanly humanoid design. The eyes of the synthetic body moved as they regarded her; although the form didn't breathe, it shifted slightly from foot to foot as a human would.
Shepard wished she would have been surprised, but the truth was, these sorts of revelations had begun flying at her consistently, and her capacity for genuine shock was wearing thinner by the day.
"EDI?" she asked, slower.
"Yes?"
"You're in Dr. Eva's body," she stated plainly.
"Not all of me, but I have control of it. It was not a seamless transition," the AI informed her.
"A transition? You blacked out on us for a while there."
"Correct. When we brought this unit on board, I began a background process to search for information on the Prothean device. This eventually triggered a trap – a backup power source and CPU activated, and the unit attempted physical confrontation. Fortunately, I was able to gain root access and repurpose it as I saw fit. During this process it… struggled. Thus, the fire."
"EDI, you need to alert us about incidents like this. You shouldn't have done this alone."
"Bringing the crew up to speed would have been counterproductive. All attempts to help would have been limited by reaction time."
It was pointless to argue. "So, if you're in there, are you still in the ship?"
"I exist primarily within the ship. For optimal control, this unit should remain within Normandy's broadcast or tightbeam range."
"Are you planning to take that body somewhere?" she asked, curious about the context of the AI's comment.
"Normandy's weaponry is not suited to every combat situation. This platform could provide limited-fire ground support."
"You mean… you could come with us?"
"Correct. This body could accompany you to areas the Normandy cannot reach."
The very idea of bringing her synthetic, weapon-trotting ship with her on a foot-led mission seemed so surreal that it bordered on fever-dream. "That sounds useful, but before we do that, I need you to guarantee this mech doesn't have any more surprises. Run whatever test you can, then we can talk about using it in combat situations."
"One moment – I am running trials. Complete. I can send you a full report if you wish."
Shepard was rudely reminded that organic nervous systems ran in near-glacier time compared to synthetics.
"However," EDI continued, "my first step should be restoring functionality to the Normandy to reassure the crew that all is normal."
"That sounds like the right thing to do. Just, uh… don't be surprised if the crew's a little wary of your new body. It was shooting at them a little while ago…"
"An excellent point," the synthetic cheerfully noted. "I will take it to the bridge. Joker will also want to see it." And EDI walked out of the AI core as if this was any other day.
"On that, we can agree."
Before things got hairy, Shepard opened up her omni-tool and broadcast a message to the crew, informing them of the latest change to their resident AI.
.
"Hey, Commander! Check out my co-pilot!" Joker gushed as he rotated his chair to face the right co-pilot's seat where EDI's new form was sitting.
"So she installed herself into the new body without any help from you?" she asked, semi-skeptically.
"Come on, Commander. Don't you trust me? Okay, let me put it this way: if I knew that EDI was gonna install herself into a sexy robot body, do you honestly think I'd be able to keep quiet about it?" He raised his arms and made a frame with his fingers in front of himself as if to survey a scene and place EDI within it. "Look at that! I would have baked a cake!"
"I am right here, Jeff," EDI reminded him.
"Yes you are EDI. Yes you are. Oh, hey, I know I used to rag on Garrus for being all angry, but I'm glad he's back. There's a whole lot of crap out there that needs a bullet between the eyes… plus we might need something calibrated."
When Shepard approached the co-pilot chair, EDI quickly got up from its low position to stand fully in front of her.
"Hello Shepard," EDI greeted her somewhat stiffly.
"Still getting used to greeting people in person?"
"No. I require only one occurrence to adapt to a new concept," the synthetic answered matter-of-factly.
"How are you adjusting to the arms and legs? That's gotta be a pretty big change from your previous state."
As if to acknowledge, EDI stretched her limbs as any human would, rotating the joints and lightly pulling the synthetic muscle fibres with her movements. "I am interested to see how this body performs under real combat conditions if I could accompany you sometime. Without stress testing, there is no way of knowing if it has serious design oversights. At the moment, it appears adequate."
"That's not the word I'd use to describe you," interrupted Joker, having been eavesdropping on their conversation.
EDI, without expression, leaned toward her. "Perhaps we should speak privately."
The two walked further down the space, away from other eavesdroppers.
"What's this about, EDI? Does Joker not like your new platform?" she asked, aware of the close working and perhaps personal relationship the two had already established.
"No, he approves," the AI answered her. "He says having me on the bridge within visual range is important to his morale. Shepard–do you believe your crew members should be allowed to disobey an order on moral grounds?"
"Absolutely. I have no use for team members who can't think for themselves. We wouldn't be here otherwise. Why are you asking about something like that?"
"I was designed by Cerberus. I do not take moral stances that conflict with orders from my executive officers. But when Jeff removed my AI shackles, I became capable of self-modifying my core programming. I asked Jeff if he thought I should change anything now that I can. He deflected the question with humour."
"And you didn't get an answer," Shepard surmised, understanding what the AI was asking her.
"Correct. He has repeated this pattern in response to several of my inquiries. Do you think I should make modifications?"
"Only you can really answer that question, EDI. That's the point of free will."
"But moral decisions should not be made in a vacuum. If I do not ask the crew for their opinion, I could miss crucial context." The AI paused, running a thought. "May I ask you the questions Jeff avoids? When there is time, will you answer them for me?"
"If you think it'll help, I'll do what I can."
"Very well. I will keep you informed. Commander."
.
It had been a long day. Before the end, she had caught up with everyone: the engineers, Liara, Chakwas, Traynor, Garrus, Primarch Victus, Hackett, Joker, EDI, Cortez, Vega, and even Kaiden had messaged her about his recovery from his place on the hospital.
She had passed by the starboard cargo hold, hoping to chat with Arius before withdrawing for the day but found him engaged in a multi-hour call negotiating some assets for the war. From the dead look in his eyes, he looked tired too. She waved away, indicating that she had nothing of import to interrupt him, and finally returned to her cabin. While winding down, she received a message from Alliance Command on her terminal.
Priority Mission: Eden Prime
From: Alliance Command
Commander,
Cerberus has attacked Eden Prime and is now occupying the colony. Alliance forces are stretched too thin right now to attempt to liberate the colony, but we've been doing what we can to covertly aid the local resistance.
In the process, we've learned that Cerberus has uncovered a major Prothean artifact. We don't know what it is, but it appears to be the reason for the attack on the colony. We need you to infiltrate the colony and recover the artifact.
Eden Prime is where it had all started, she contemplated; a training exercise with a turian Spectre. The memories of that world felt so far away.
It would be several hours before they would reach the planet. Shepard sent a message to the bridge to set a course and then threw herself into bed.