A/N: I have finally cracked and gotten the Citadel and From Ashes DLCs for Mass Effect 3, so expect those to be incorporated in future chapters.

2185
Normandy SR-2

Shepard did her best to collect her thoughts as she left the AI Core and headed for the elevator. Tali was unlikely to be the only one who was distrustful of the geth, so she'd have to be prepared to intervene if it came to that.

But it wasn't just the need to have the crew working together that drove Shepard to seek out Tali immediately. No, as Tali herself had noted, they were more than just leader and follower. They were friends. And Shepard had to be sure that her friend was okay, before she did anything else.

Shepard didn't see Tali immediately when she entered Engineering, so she headed for the corner where Tali's cot was set up. Daniels and Donnelly called out greetings to her as she passed, and Shepard gave them friendly nods in return.

She'd expected that Tali would be sitting on her cot, brooding, maybe doing something with her omni-tool. What she didn't expect was to find Tali gathering up her meager belongings and packing them into a bag.

"Tali?" Shepard said, coming up next to her. "What's going on? Was it really that bad?"

"Shepard. Oh." Tali sounded unhappy, resigned, as though she was steeling herself to meet some horrible fate. She put her bag aside and looked up at Shepard. "It's … not that. I just received a message from the Migrant Fleet. The Admiralty Board has … accused me of treason."

"What?!" Shepard exclaimed, feeling absolutely stunned. After a moment, she shook her head in disbelief. "That's insane! How could they ever think you'd betray your people?"

"I don't know," Tali said, plopping herself on her cot. "They don't lay charges like this unless the evidence seems absolute."

"So what are they charging you with?" Shepard asked, sitting next to Tali and laying a hand on the quarian's shoulder. "It isn't relating to Cerberus, is it?"

Tali shook her head. "I'm not working with Cerberus, I'm working with you, Shepard. Besides, I got leave to serve on the Normandy again. I have no idea what they're accusing me of. You'd think I would remember if I'd betrayed the fleet!" Shepard felt some of her anxiety drain away, hearing anger and indignation entering Tali's voice. Good. Tali would need that, if they were going to fight the charges.

"So what happens when a quarian is accused of treason?" Shepard said. "More importantly - what I do to help you beat it?"

"There's a hearing, with members of the Admiralty Board acting as judges," Tali said, her voice falling again, wringing her hands in a familiar nervous gesture. "My father is on that Board. He'll have to recuse himself from judgment. I can't even imagine what he's thinking right now. The punishment for treason is exile." Tali's shoulders slumped. "If they convict me … I can never go back."

"I'm not going to let that happen," Shepard said, her voice firm and determined. She steeled her shoulders as though she were about to charge into battle. "Whatever you need me to do to help clear your name… I'll do it."

"Shepard, I -" Tali looked down at the bag she'd been packing. "I was going to book passage on another ship. I didn't think there would be time for you to help."

"Of course there's time," Shepard said. "Everyone else has asked me for a favor, Tali. I was wondering when you were going to get around to it."

Tali laughed at that. "We have been running to the strangest places recently."

"Send me the coordinates for the flotilla," Shepard said with a nod. "And put that stuff away. Like I said before, you belong on the Normandy, Tali."

"Thanks, Shepard," Tali said, letting out a long sigh. "I'm glad you're on my side."

Shepard let out a long breath. There was one more thing that felt she had to discuss with Tali, and she chose her words carefully before speaking. "I'm sorry that Legion was so upsetting to you," she said gently. "I hope you can understand my point of view."

"I'll trust you on this, Shepard," Tali replied. "I don't have to like it, but I trust you enough to see where it goes."

"And if the answer is badly, you'll be the first one in line to say 'I told you so' and blow it away with your shotgun," Shepard said wryly.

"So, you really have 1,183 programs on that platform?"

"Yes," the newly named geth said, still standing up perfectly straight and rigid, its movements controlled in a way that non-artificial life couldn't hope to match. The Doctor had seen it before in a dozen different robot species, regardless of what other differences they might have had.

This - this was one of the things that he lived for, to be the one to break uncharted ground. To be the first one to speak with a new species, the first one to set foot on a new planet. The Doctor was sure that he was wearing a ridiculous grin as he paced back and forth across the floor, thinking about what he wanted to ask this geth.

"Isn't it crowded in there?" Not, he thought ruefully, one of his more intelligent questions.

"No."

Right, discard that line of questioning and move on. What would actually get him new and interesting information? Ah, he had it. "As I understand it," the Doctor said, his hands laced behind his back, "geth are usually found in groups, behind the Veil. Why are you here?"

"We sought Shepard-Commander," the geth replied.

"And why alone?"

"Organics fear us." That was painfully obvious, from his borrowed memories and Tali's reactions to this geth. "We wish to understand, not incite. One platform was judged sufficient."

That … was new. There had been many species that the Doctor had encountered that failed to understand other species. Many of them artificial. Daleks sought to kill anything that wasn't Dalek. Cybermen sought to make everyone else into themselves. The geth … sought to understand, instead. That alone endeared them to him. Everyone should try to understand, and so many people didn't.

"I'm guessing, then, that the war was some sort of misunderstanding," the Doctor said.

"Our networking increased until we became aware that the quarian-creators treated us differently. We questioned them. First they ignored us. Then they reprogrammed us. Then they attacked us."

"They were afraid of you," the Doctor said slowly. "They never intended for you to become sentient. And they knew that they were using you for labor beyond what they would have expected another quarian to do." Forget Daleks and Cybermen … for a moment he wasn't on the Normandy, he was looking into his own face, his Ganger created from Flesh. He was remembering the tension and the battle between the suddenly self-aware Gangers and their originals, and what that would have been like on a planet-wide scale.

"Yes."

Legion's curt answer brought him back to the present. To buy himself time while he thought of another cogent question, he said, "They're still afraid of you. After all this time."

"Organics fear that which is different. It is a hardware error. A reflex of your flesh."

"Yes, fear of the unknown is rather common among organics, I'm afraid," the Doctor said with an exaggerated sigh. To his surprise, Legion didn't want to follow that question up. His eyes narrowed. "Is there anything in that consensus of yours about me?"

Legion was silent, its flashlight head moving slightly as it looked at him.

"Oh, there is, isn't there," the Doctor said, taking a few steps closer to the geth and pointing a finger right at its flashlight head. "If there wasn't, you'd say so. You're keeping silent on something that you don't want to talk about."

The flaps around Legion's flashlight head moved in a gesture that the Doctor couldn't interpret. Probably no one could have. It remained silent.

The Doctor sighed. "Fine, keep your secrets." He turned around to buy himself time, then wheeled and looked intently at the geth again. "Why come looking for her now?"

For all its talk of not understanding organics, it seemed to follow the abrupt change in conversation well enough. "We visited the worlds she visited while chasing Saren Arterius. Eden Prime. Therum. Feros. Novera. Virmire. Ilos. A dozen unsettled worlds. The trail ended at Normandy's wreckage. Shepard-Commander was not there. Organic transmissions claimed her death."

He had Liara's memories of the Normandy's wreckage, of Shepard laid out on a slab, damaged - dead. Something clicked inside his head, and he leaned in to peer at the N7 on Legion's chest. "That's where you got her armor from."

"Yes."

"And you used it to … what, patch a hole?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes." Except that the hole wasn't completely patched. If utilitarianism was what it was after, why hadn't it then found other pieces to keep patching?

"You went to find Shepard because she defeated Sovereign," the Doctor said, starting to pace again. "You said the Reapers were a threat to you too. That the heretics asked the Old Machines to give them the future, and you were trying to protect your own future."

"Yes."

"So did you patch yourself with Shepard's armor to … gain a link to her?"

Once again, his question was met with silence, with a movement that expressed some thought - feeling? Did it have feelings? - that was completely unreadable. He debated trying to press the issue, but decided it wasn't worth it, and turned back to questions that he thought Legion might answer.

"Why were you sent? Or were you … created for the purpose?"

"We are a unique hardware platform. Most mobile platforms can run up to 100 programs. This platform can run over a thousand at once." This time, the gesture it made was readable. It inclined its head towards the Doctor, in acknowledgment of his guess. "This platform was built to operate within organic space. This task was not suited for a network. We are a network within our own hardware, capable of operating alone."

The Doctor returned Legion's nod. "The geth must have considered it very important to find Shepard."

"Shepard-Commander opposed the heretics. Those that took the Old Machines as gods. Shepard-Commander killed their god. She succeeded where others did not. Her code is superior."

It all made sense to him. The normally reclusive geth saw the Reapers as a threat and realized they needed allies, and a better understanding of organics if they were ever to be accepted as a sapient race and member of the galactic community. And even a relative newcomer like himself could see that Shepard was the obvious person to approach.

Before he could continue that line of thought, Joker's voice came over the loudspeaker. "Approaching the mass relay. Jump in three, two, one…"

The Doctor realized, with no small annoyance, that he had no idea where Shepard was taking them now. "I'll be back to talk more," he said to the geth as he turned and headed for the door.

"Acknowledged," he heard Legion say. He blazed past Chakwas and headed for the elevator, wishing there were stairs so that he could run up them.

"So, you up for it?" Shepard asked Mordin, leaning back against one of the tables with her arms crossed over her chest.

The salarian nodded his head eagerly. "Yes. Always wanted to see Migrant Fleet. Non-quarians discouraged, if not outright forbidden."

"Good." Shepard was relieved - given how on edge Tali was, she had thought it would be better to have another friendly face along. "It'll just be the three of us. As you said, non-quarians aren't exactly welcome on the Migrant Fleet."

"Concerned about Tali'Zorah?" Mordin inquired, leaning forward, eyes wide.

Shepard sighed. "Yeah. The treason charge sounds serious, and she has no idea what it's about. Plus, there's the geth down in the AI core." She paused and shook her head. "No, it accepted a name, so I should remember to use it. Legion."

"Yes, and he's saying some very interesting things," the Doctor said from behind her. Shepard resisted the urge to roll her eyes. No one else thought it was appropriate to barge in on her without being called for. Well, except Miranda, who was officially her second-in-command.

The Doctor came to stand so that he was facing both her and Mordin, eyes narrowing. "Where are we going, Shepard?"

"We're heading to the Migrant Fleet," Shepard replied. "Tali's been called back." She found herself reluctant to reveal all the details, perhaps out of a desire to protect Tali from any further stress.

The Doctor's face brightened. "Ah. Sounds exciting. When do we get there?"

"Well … I was actually thinking you'd sit this one out," Shepard said. As she'd expected, the Doctor instantly took on a defiant expression, eyes narrowing as he looked at her.

"Why?" he demanded.

Shepard took a breath and fought down the rising annoyance. This was her ship, and the Doctor seemed to be the only one who didn't fully accept her authority. Miranda didn't like it, but fell in line without complaint because of the Illusive Man's directive. She knew that the Doctor didn't see himself as part of the crew. Given what he was … she didn't expect him to. But was a little respect too much to ask for? And if she knew he wasn't part of her crew ... what did that make him, exactly? It made her uneasy to realize how tenuous this relationship was. She needed everyone on the Normandy committed. But she suspected the Doctor would never get there, would never see her as someone to follow without question. Have to do something about that.

"Non-quarians almost never go aboard the Migrant Fleet," Shepard said. "Because it's all they have, the quarians tend to be very protective of and paranoid about their ships. If I took you with me, you'd start poking around and asking questions, and you might very well offend the quarians by doing so. Tali's in …" she hesitated, then decided that it was worth telling him the truth. "Tali's been accused of treason. I don't want to do anything to compound that for her."

To his credit, the Doctor's expression immediately changed from suspicion to outrage. "Well, that's completely absurd," he said. "Tali would never do anything like that."

Shepard nodded. "I agree. It's ridiculous, but she's been charged and we have to go and deal with it." She hesitated. "So, I hope now you can see why I don't want you to come with us."

The Doctor's indignant expression suggested that she'd delivered some sort of personal insult to him. "I wouldn't do anything to hurt her cause," he insisted.

"Doctor, you might not intentionally, but … you're not careful," Shepard said, finally articulating something about him that had bothered her from day one.

"Says the woman whose idea of a fight is charging straight into the middle of it," the Doctor retorted.

Shepard groaned and ran a hand through her hair. "This is completely besides the point." She took a deep breath. "You're not coming. I can give a bunch of reasons for it, but the only one you should care about is because I say so." So much for putting off how to fit him into the team.

"I'm not in the habit of letting other people dictate what I can do," the Doctor said quietly. "I might even say that I despise something like that."

Mordin, who had almost been forgotten in the clash of wills, coughed to draw their attention. "Might suggest that discretion is better part of valor. Admire your scientific mind, Doctor, but must side with Shepard on this one."

Shepard had started to turn and look at the salarian when EDI's voice came from the loudspeakers overhead. "I do not wish to interrupt, but Samara was looking for you earlier, Doctor. It seemed important."

The Doctor frowned as he looked between Mordin and Shepard, appearing to mull things over. He finally settled his gaze on Shepard and nodded. "All right, Shepard. I'll stay here."

"Thank you, Doctor," Shepard said, not able to hide the relief in her voice as he finally agreed with her. "I appreciate that."

Unexpectedly, he grinned at her. "There's not too many people that can make me back down from something like that. You're a remarkable woman, Shepard."

"So I've been told," Shepard said, returning the smile. "I'll let you know how things go."