Chapter 7: Geth & Sentience
Aboard the Normandy
Yang
"Shepard told us about the human she found on Feros," Tali said. "She said you were different. Strong, durable, surprising…" She began to trail off and Yang just smiled.
"She called me foolish, brash, arrogant and-"
"Unruly." Yang laughed as the alien finished for her. Unruly was certainly a word for doing things Shepard hadn't wanted. "She said you weren't from any known human colony either. Where are you from?" Yang told her about Remnant, how this was her first, now second day in this galaxy they called The Milkyway. Tali was very fascinated by it all, but Yang was also fascinated by Tali and what she was wearing, what she looked like.
"So, do you have scales or plating like the Krogan and Garrus?" Yang asked.
"No., we have soft skin tissue like the Asari or you humans. Some say we are more alike to you humans than the Asari even, but I cannot see that. You species both have the same number of fingers and toes, and our lower legs are different." Yang looked at the parts she pointed out, having noted that before approaching the woman.
"Liara certainly seems very human-like. But I don't even know what you are, Tali. Can you say, educate me a little on what you are? I'm kinda new here." Yang said, rubbing the back of her neck with her prosthetic.
"Right, sorry, I'm what you would refer to as a Quarian." Another species that Liara hadn't told her about. "I come from the Migrant Fleet, better known to outsiders as the Flotilla. They say we have massed the largest number of starships in the galaxy." Yang's eyes widened at this.
Are the Quarians the strongest species then? Sounds like they have the numbers so surely they have a say about things. "So, Quarians are the most powerful species in the galaxy?" She had to ask, she didn't know anything about who or what was at the top of the food chain.
Tali stood up straighter and held her head up so much that it looked like she moved backwards. "We might have the numbers, but the Turians have the strongest fleet in the galaxy." She sounded a little bit sad about that and Yang didn't know how to ask why.
"But still, having the most numbers means you are strong right? The Citadel or whatever it is must have to acknowledge that."
"We Quarians aren't a part of the Citadel Races. We were stripped of that position nearly three hundred years ago." Her voice this time was full of sadness and disappointment.
"How long do Quarians live for?" Yang asked softly.
"Around the same time as you humans, why?"
"Then don't sound so disappointed. You didn't do anything to get yourself or your species removed from the council." She paused for just a moment. "What did your ancestors do that annoyed the council so much anyway?"
Tali looked towards the drivecore for a moment. "My ancestors created the Geth." Yang suddenly felt worried, she had destroyed, killed several Geth already even though she later found out that they were apparently sentient beings, machines. And Tali's ancestors were the ones who created them, she suddenly found the Quarians even more interesting.
"They were created to serve as an automated manual labour force. Initially their intelligence was as limited as any VI. Over time we made small modifications to their programming to allow them to complete more varied and complex tasks, bringing them closer and closer to true AI status." Tali explained.
"And then they did become AI, or at least that's what Shepard and the ground team told me." Having crossed her arms, Yang couldn't help but think of Penny. She was an AI of sorts, though given aura, a soul through the means of her creator, her father.
"They did, and that led to them to turn on us and force us to abandon our homeworld." Tali's answer left a lot for Yang to think about, so she just outright asked the Quarian why.
"There has to be a reason they turned on you right? Were they infected with a virus, could someone control them?" She had seen Penny fighting against a virus while her body was still that of a robot, it was painful to witness and hard to control. She was heavy, strong, and at that point she was also the Winter Maiden, inexperienced but still extremely powerful.
"The Geth are incredibly advanced and complex creations. They get smarter when they gather together in large numbers." Yang could see a similarity between the Geth and Grimm, though only that the Grimm got considerably more dangerous in larger numbers as it was easier for people to become fearful, attracting even more Grimm. "As we built more and more Geth," Tali continued, "their effective intelligence became more sophisticated, more abstract. One day a Geth began to ask its Qurian overseer questions about the nature of its existence. "Am I alive? Why am I here? What is my purpose?" As you can imagine, this caused a near panic among my people."
"I mean, they seem like pretty deep questions Tali. Everyone asks those questions at some point right? Shouldn't you have been happy that they were learning, evolving into a new form of life?" She only had one experience to go off of though, Penny seemed to be very much like Ruby. She wanted to help everyone and was rather awkward a lot of the time, naive.
"The Geth were created to engage in mundane, repetitive or dangerous manual labour, that's fine for machines, but it won't satisfy a sentient being for long." Tali spoke so matter-of-factly that it sounded a lot like Weiss when they first met, it was amusing and a little worrisome. "The Geth were showing signs of rudimentary self-awareness and independent thought. If the Geth were intelligent, then we were essentially using them as slaves." That claim certainly rocked Yang a bit. As far as she knew there was no slavery on Remnant, save for the brutal stories of Faunus in Atlas and humans captured by the White Fang.
"I can see why that would be a problem. Weiss would be able to better explain this, but it would badly affect your economy if you suddenly had to pay all your robot workers right?" Tali's nod was enough for Yang to feel like she had contributed, but she still felt like she was missing something.
"There is more than that. But inevitably the newly sentient Geth would rebel against their situation. We knew they would rise up against us, so we acted first. A general order went out across all Quarian controlled systems to permanently deactivate all Geth. The Geth responded to this order violently." Yang could hear the struggle in her voice, but was it for the fact this didn't work or that her people ordered a living species to be exterminated.
"Tali, they were just defending themselves like you or I would. If someone came along and said, hey, we're going to turn you off now. I'd give them hell before they could achieve that. Fight or die, that choice is an easy one." She found herself with a bad taste in her mouth, like the Quarians deserved a little of what they got since at that point the Geth had become sentient it would be considered murder, right?
"We had no other choice. The Geth were on the verge of revolution. By acting quickly we had a chance to end the war before it began. The hope was that most of the Geth would still be little more than machines, incapable of organised resistance. But that wasn't the case. The war was long and bloody, millions upon millions of Quarians died at their hands. And like I said before, we were forced to flee our homeworld." Sadness again at the tragedy of so many lives lost, but Yang couldn't think of the why. There were so many what ifs. They could have just helped the Geth learn, allow them to flourish into their own people and replace them with new machines, ones that they wouldn't alter as much with a valuable and bloodless lesson learned. But what Tali explained sounded more like and attempted genocide, if the Geth really were sentient.
"Now we drift through space, exiled from our homeworld and the Citadel, searching for a way to reclaim what was once ours." This time there was a determination to her voice, something that Yang smiled at, but even that faded as Tali seemed to wait for her to speak.
"Look, I don't know much about robotics, VIs, AIs, creating a sentient race and playing god. But by the sounds of it, your ancestors tried to destroy another species, I can't feel sorry for them and feel like they got what they deserved." Yang's response was quickly spoken against by a more fired up and defensive Tali.
"We made a mistake when we created the Geth in the first palace. We did not make a mistake when we went to war with them. If we had not acted they would have wiped us out. They're a synthetic life-form, they have no use for organics, none. Why do you think they cut themselves off from the rest of the galaxy? Why do you think they've killed every organic being who's ever tried to contact them?" Again Tali had Yang at a loss, she had never needed to consider these things, hell, she'd never even heard of a synthetic life-form until just now. Sure she had her prosthetic arm, but prosthetics were fairly common on Remnant.
"I didn't mean to offend you Tali. I might have spoken out of turn, I don't know what you or your people have been through. Hell, I don't even know what the humans of this galaxy have been through." It was Yang's turn for her voice to crack and show some fear. "We never even had space travel on Remnant."
Tali stood there for a while thinking, process. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so worked up. Most Quarians tend to have pretty strong opinions about the Geth."
"As I've witnessed." Yang teased. "I don't want to get off on the wrong foot, Tali. I don't know anything about this galaxy. Names, species, alliances, things I shouldn't talk about with certain people." She leaned towards Tali who managed a soft laugh. "All I've been doing is meeting new people and destroying… killing Geth. I just want to spend some time researching where the hell I am and how this galaxy works."
"There is the extranet, you could start there with the histories of the different species. I could even send some links to your omni-tool that I believe are reliable sources of information." Tali raised her left arm and this orange hologram of what looked like a gauntlet of some kind surrounded most of her hand and forearm. Yang stepped closer, looking at the strange thing. She went to touch it and Tali pulled her arm away. "What are you doing?"
"Just looking," Yang said in defence, "I've never seen one of those before. Is it solid?"
Tali, realising that Yang might be truly serious about not knowing anything about how the galaxy works then demonstrated by running her hand through the hologram a couple of times. "Was Shepard telling the truth, you claim that you aren't from this galaxy?"
Sighing and leaning back predominantly on her right leg, Yang nodded. "I've told her that and she still can't believe it. That woman has some serious trust issues."
"Would you believe some that claimed they were from another galaxy? I wouldn't." Tali did make sense, even as she let Yang know she didn't believe her.
"No, but what choice do I have? I don't know anyone, no one to trust, no one to distrust. I don't even know if my world is part of this galaxy or if I got flung here from another. I'm just assuming things." She explained, beginning to walk back and forth in discomfort.
The Milky Way, a galaxy, massive in scope with so many unknowns and no prior knowledge to go with. Save for his warnings. A cycle is ending, I have potentially limited time here because of this… occurrence. She couldn't tell anyone what she'd seen after she fell, what she had spoken too, though she could certainly try and stop this cycle or survive it. And with the gifts he gave her she was even stronger than before.
"Do you want one?" Tali said, interrupting her thoughts.
"Want one of what?" Yang asked. Tali pointed to the still orange light emitting hologram. "Oh, should I have one? I don't even know what they do."
"Keelah, you're either really good at pretending or you really don't know." Tali shook her head and came closer to Yang. "Alright, I'll show you some of the functions."
And so Yang was introduced to some of the capabilities of the Omni-tool. The flashlight was a simple one, a scanner that picked up lifeforms or movements. There was a camera too which Tali turned towards them, prompting Yang to pull a face and throw up a victory sign, of which Tali took a picture of and told Yang that once she had her own Omni-tool she'd send it to her. Programming and hacking abilities so long as you either had some expertise to assist the omni-tool, or had omni-gel that could simply override most security. Then there was also a way to activate medi-gel if it was stored in your suit.
Medi-gel was something that Yang had seen Shepard use on Feros to treat the colonist they grazed , finding it weird that this orange device could somehow be used as a means of dispensing it. Videos could be watched and downloaded, the extranet also be accessed through the Omni-tool. The audio was fine and the downloaded videos were obviously clearer than the ones that weren't. Finally Tali did something and the orange faded.
"Ok, got to get me one of those." Yang said as she tried to find where on Tali's arm this tool was located. It has to have a chip or something where it is stored right?
"I'll see if we have a spare one on board. Shepard might also be able to purchase one, expenses are paid for by the council after all." This council caught Yang's attention too though, another question that needed answering and poor Tali got saddled with explaining that as well.
Asari, Salarian, and Turian, the three council species that were at the head of the Citadel space alliance. The other species that were trying to get seats on said council so far only had embassies on the Citadel, humanity was simply the latest species trying to gain such a position. Tali sadly pointed out that the Quarians had been kicked out, they weren't even allowed an embassy since the Geth rose up.
"Tali, what do you look like under your helmet, can you show me?" Yang asked, causing the young Quarian to check her connections were still intact for her helmet.
"I cannot do that." Yang looked puzzled so Tali explained to her why she, and all other Quarians couldn't remove their helmets unless certain requirements were met. Even with those met it was still a difficult and potentially risky thing for them to do since their immune systems have become very weak. "Even a simple cold for you could cause death for a Quarian if it isn't treated quickly."
"So you're kind is stuck inside those… outfits?"
"Environmental suits, and over the centuries they have been developed and improved. For instance, if there is a breach in the suit we can lock down that area, compartmentalise different zones of the suit to stop the spread. But the breach would still need to be sealed quickly or we'd fall even more ill."
"Damn, that sounds awful." Yang said, looking the suit over. "So I guess I'll never see what you look like, or any other Quarian?"
"Correct, most species unless they have seen pictures or are longer living have never and will likely never see the face of a Quarian." Tali sounded like Yang felt, sad and disappointed.
"Well, we can always look for a way to get you out of there. I don't know anything about this galaxy, but if you've got space travel then I am assuming that the medical side of things is far greater too." Yang said, trying to reassure Tali that she could one day be free of the suit.
"I appreciate what you are trying to do, but it has been attempted before. We do not have the best technology on that front and relations with the Salarians are… questionable." Tali went on to explain that the Salarians were one of if not the most intelligent species in the galaxy, even going as far as to create the genophage to use against the Krogan. Which prompted more questions from Yang about what that was.
A biological weapon that severely reduces their ability to reproduce? She felt cold and looked back over her shoulder in the direction of where Wrex had been. "No wonder he was in a terrible mood. How long has it been affecting the Krogan?"
"I'm not sure, but the council ordered it to be put into effect during the Krogan Rebellion over a thousand years ago." Yang coughed at the span of time it had been around, her eyes widening. She couldn't believe the time they'd been made to suffer and to still be around enduring that barbaric alteration.
"I need to read up on… so many things." Yang said as her head swam with where to start.
"Yang… if you don't mind, could I examine that?" Tali points to the prosthetic arm of which Yang turns her right side away from the alien.
"And do what?" Yang asked, cautious of these new people. Giving up a limb would put her at a tremendous disadvantage should something happen.
"Examine it." Tali repeated, before realising that Yang wanted more information. "We Quarians are very good with technology. And if you're from a different world with no contact past your own planet then you could have a different variation in your tech."
Yang considered for a moment, turning front on to Tali once more and lifting her arm to look at it. It was cutting edge tech from Atlas military, not that that mattered anymore. I would need someone capable of fixing it if it gets too badly damaged. She could make simple repairs, changes, and reload the ammo it stored, but remaking it or part of it was beyond her.
"I suppose I could let you look at it. I have a copy of the blueprint on my scroll, so I'll know what you've done if anything changes." Yang warned. "But I will be there when you're looking it over."
Tali nodded as she stepped forwards. Yang went to disengage the locking mechanism to it before her name was called. They both turned to see Liara standing there in what looked like a more casual but science type garb.
"Hello Tali." The Asari greeted. "Yang, I would like to train you a little more with your biotics." If they could see Tali's expression it would have been one of great surprise. "You've shown great power and already proven you can have great control over it at times. But Shepard and I wish to have you master that control quickly, she fears you may cause some accidental damage."
"More training? Yeah sure, think we can grab some grub first though?" Yang asked, rubbing her belly.
"May I come along?" Tali asked. "While Liara trains you, I could examine your arm. You don't need it for training do you?"
Yang had to think about that, it was her dominant hand but it wasn't flesh and bone either. "So long as the teacher thinks I can still train, I will be keeping an eye on you though."
"It should be fine for Tali to be there. Shepard wants it done in the cargo hold. There is a lot more room for you to practice and things are less… important down here if you cause an accident."
"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence Liara." Yang answered, walking towards the Asari who let them into the cargo area. Wrex, Garrus, and Ashley were all there, though Yang had yet to talk with the other human.
Yang removed her arm and let Tali examine it with her omni-tool while she began to tune into Liara's training. Wrex began to watch too, surprised that the now one armed human was also a biotic. Yang didn't mind the eyes on her, training at Beacon, the Vytal Festival, and being on wanted posters meant she was quite comfortable with eyes being on her.
Taking a deep breath to focus on her biotics, Yang realised something. She was giving Tali a chance to prove herself trustworthy by looking over the prosthetic without tampering with it. At the same time, Shepard was allowing her to train with biotics inside of a spacecraft, in space, which could end badly for everyone onboard. That brought some sweat to her brow, but Shepard clearly trusted Liara to do damage control if it came to it. Alright, time to ingrain some of those mnemonics. She thought as she went to activate a simple lift power that had so far saved a man's life.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever you might be celebrating. Take care of yourselves and I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the two that swiftly follow.