2185
Normandy SR-2
Shepard sighed as she walked out of the briefing room, leaving Miranda and Jacob behind. As soon as the door closed, Tali was there, falling in besides her. "Shepard," she began.
"Tali, that geth is wearing N7 armor," Shepard replied, setting a brisk pace towards the elevator, through Mordin's lab. "That can't be a coincidence. I want to know why."
"Who cares why? Shepard, the geth tried to wipe my people out three hundred years ago," Tali said, as they entered the lab. "You have to destroy it."
"I've never talked to a geth," Shepard said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mordin and the Doctor looking up at them. "It could've started shooting at us. Instead, it said my name. It was going to talk to me before the husks overwhelmed it." She shrugged. "I owe it the same courtesy."
"It's a geth," Tali spat. "It doesn't deserve courtesy."
The Doctor strode forward and put a hand on Tali's shoulder. "It's a sentient being," he said. "It does."
Tali shrugged off the hand and turned around to look at him. "Because of the geth, if I don't wear a helmet in my own home, I die. A single kiss could put me in the hospital. A simple suit tear will do as much damage as a bullet. They did this to us. They forced us off our home and into the flotilla, put us in a position where we're looked down on by the rest of the galaxy." She turned to face Shepard. "And they worked with Saren. Tried to bring back the Reapers. They don't have any respect for organics."
"Right now, it's powered down in the AI core," Shepard said. "This is the perfect chance to interrogate it. Get some answers about what they were doing with Saren - what it was doing on the Reaper today." She fixed Tali with a firm gaze. "I'm starting it up. You are welcome to come and watch, but I decide what happens to it. Understood?"
Tali sighed and dropped her shoulders. "Understood, Shepard. I'll come. I … feel like I should be there."
Shepard heard the Doctor clearing his throat and sighed, turning to look over her shoulder at the expectant Time Lord. "You can come too, Doctor."
"Excellent," the Doctor said, striding forward. Shepard decided to quit while she was ahead and leave the tech labs before Mordin decided he needed to come too.
Shepard lead them down to the Crew Deck and through the Med Bay. Without looking up, Chakwas commented "Are you changing the guard yet again?"
"No, it's me," Shepard replied with a wry smile. "Not getting much work done today, huh?"
"Shepard. No, no, I'm not," Chakwas said, raising her head and giving a large sigh. "I'm just glad none of you came back with serious injuries, or I would have to raise a fuss over this."
"Don't worry," Shepard said, grinning at Chakwas. "The guards will be out of your hair soon, one way or the other."
They passed through into the AI core where a pair of guards were keeping watch over the inert geth. They saluted her as she walked up.
"I'm turning this thing back on. Be ready," she told them, and took a minute to study its form. She'd never really gotten the chance to be this close to a geth without being shot at … which weren't the best circumstances to notice the little details. Part of her wondered why it didn't look more like a quarian. If anything, it reminded her of Saren.
She looked over her shoulder to see that Tali and the Doctor were hanging back, thankfully. She didn't want Tali to try anything reckless - and she still couldn't read the Doctor with any level of confidence.
Shepard put that aside and lifted her omni-tool, activating a force field around the geth.
"I have isolated our systems and erected additional firewalls. I am prepared to resist any hacking attempt," she heard EDI say over the intercom.
"Thank you, EDI," Shepard said. She took a step closer to the edge of the force field, feeling her heart start to beat faster.
She tapped her omni-tool again and saw the geth come to life, sitting up and starting to take stock of its surroundings. The movements were surprisingly fluid, like from muscle and bone instead of wires and cables. Standing upright, it fixed Shepard with a steady gaze from its flashlight head.
"Can you understand me?" she asked. It seemed like a silly question, but it was best to get things straight from the beginning.
"Yes." The geth's voice was not unlike the sounds she'd heard geth making previously, in what she had assumed was a language the translators couldn't process. Had it been a language? Some sort of code? Or had they just not been able to translate it previously?
Maybe Tali will have some idea about that. Later. Focus, Shepard. "Are you going to attack me?"
"No."
"That's reassuring," the Doctor muttered. Shepard resisted the urge to turn around and shush him.
"You said my name at the Reaper," Shepard said slowly. "Have we met?"
"You are Shepard. Commander. Alliance. Human." Interesting how the geth started from the individual and then identified each broader group that she belonged to. "Fought heretics. Killed by Collectors. Rediscovered on the Old Machine." Events from her life, in order, that apparently had significance to the geth. They were certainly significant to her. Except she wasn't sure she fully understood everything it had said.
""Old Machine'? You mean the Reaper?"
"Reaper. A superstitious title originating with the Protheans. We call those entities the Old Machines."
Okay, that made sense. She recalled that the geth had worshipped Sovereign as a god, though it had been insulted by those attentions for reasons no one had understood. Apparently this geth didn't view Sovereign the same way.
"You said heretics?" the Doctor chimed in from behind her. "Does that mean you have … a religion?"
"Geth build our own future. The heretics asked the Old Machines to give them the future. They are no longer part of us. We were studying the Old Machine's hardware to protect our future."
"Ahh, discordant beliefs, but not necessarily with a religious context." Out of the corner of her eye, Shepard could see the Doctor nodding. "Continue."
Shepard resisted the urge to sigh at the Doctor's interruption. It had been a minor one, all things considered. Turning her attention back to the geth, she considered her next words. She was starting to notice a pattern in its speech - concise, not adding any extraneous words or descriptors. It was stating the facts - a way of explaining its behavior? So, the best bet was to continue to be straightforward, herself. "Are the Reapers a threat to you too?"
"Yes." There was so much more that Shepard wanted to ask, based on that answer. If she could believe what it was saying, not all of the geth had chosen to join Saren. That was both encouraging and worrying - there had seemed to be a never-ending supply of geth two years ago, and the idea that there were even more out there didn't sit well with her.
But the others might be friendly. This one appears to be.
"So. … you aren't allied with the Reapers?" Shepard asked, stepping forward to the edge of the force field.
"We oppose the heretics. We oppose the Old Machines," the geth said, taking a step forward to match hers. "Shepard-Commander oppose the Old Machines. Shepard-Commander opposes the heretics. Cooperation furthers mutual goals."
"You can't be serious!" Tali exclaimed. Shepard wasn't surprised by the outburst, and tried not to wince. Tali was her friend, but there was a big blind spot where the geth were concerned - one she suspected many quarians shared.
"Tali, in case you've forgotten, it helped us on board the Reaper," Shepard said. "In all of five minutes it's been a lot more forthcoming than some of the organics on board. People aren't exactly lining up to help us on a suicide mission. I'd say I'll take help where I can get it."
"You can't trust it, Shepard," Tali insisted. "What if it decides to start killing us all in our sleep?"
"We would not do that, Creator Zorah," the geth said.
Tali recoiled as though the geth had tried to hit her. "How do you know my name?" she demanded.
"Extranet data sources. Insecure broadcasts. All organic data sent out is received. You stood with Shepard-Commander against the heretics." The whole time it was speaking, the geth maintained a calm posture that an organic could never have hoped to match in its position.
"It probably knows everyone else that was with us on the first Normandy," Shepard said, trying to calm Tali.
Tali shook her head. "I was wrong, Shepard. I can't be here for this." She turned and walked out of the AI Core without ever looking backwards. Shepard turned to see the Doctor shaking his head softly - at Tali, presumably, since he wasn't moving.
Shepard sighed and turned back to the geth. "Do you still want to join us?" she asked it.
"Yes," the geth said.
"Then… what should I call you?" Shepard asked, lifting her omni-tool to dismiss the force field.
The geth stayed put, its flashlight head still focused on her. So it hadn't just been a ploy. As weird as it seemed, the geth truly did want to join her. "Geth."
Shepard sighed. Not this again. "If we are to work together, I need something more specific than 'geth' to call you. I need a name for the individual in front of me."
"There is no individual. We are geth," the geth replied. "There are currently 1,183 programs active within this platform."
"Okay, I need a name for the platform," Shepard said.
She felt an electric hum in the air as EDI manifested the image of herself. "'My name is Legion, for we are many,'" the AI quoted.
"Christian Bible, the Gospel of Mark, chapter five, verse nine. We acknowledge this as an appropriate metaphor." Shepard couldn't be certain, but she thought she saw the geth's stance shift slightly. "We are Legion, a terminal of the geth. We will integrate into Normandy."
"You do know that refers to a bunch of demons possessing someone, right?" Joker said. "Kinda creepy."
"Do you wish to suggest an alternative, Mr. Moreau?" EDI asked.
"How about Robby the Robot?"
"Forbidden Planet. 1956 CE. This metaphor does not serve as well," the geth said.
"No one ever takes my suggestions," Joker complained.
"If any of your suggestions were actually useful, I might listen to them," EDI said.
"Hey, at least I gave up on suggesting a mute button."
Shepard shook her head. Turning her attention back to the geth in front of her - Legion - she acted on an impulse and extended her hand out. Did geth even shake hands?
Legion looked down, and then grasped her hand with its own. The hand was cool to the touch, colder than an organic's would have been, but smooth.
"We anticipate the exchange of data," Legion said, the geth equivalent of "glad to be here" or "looking forward to working with you", Shepard guessed.
Shepard nodded as she dropped her hand. "If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go speak with Tali," she said with a long sigh.
"And I'd like to speak more with Legion," the Doctor said brightly.
"Why," Shepard said dryly, "does that not surprise me in the least?" She took a step closer and said under her breath, "I want to know what it says. Anything of interest."
The Doctor nodded his agreement and headed towards the geth. "So," Shepard heard as she exited, "you really have 1,183 programs on that platform?"