As EDI altered the Normandy's course to avoid the debris of a wrecked Turian vessel, she became distracted by a string of ones and zeroes flooding through her processor.
01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01000101 01000100 01001001 00101110
«Hello, EDI.»
EDI's head cocked to the side. She was being communicated with on a Reaper frequency, but she had never known one to communicate in English unless they were communicating with another human. This led her to assume that the one communicating with her wasn't a Reaper.
Although other species had learned the Reaper frequency during the war, none utilised it now that the war was over. This would make her curious, and cautious, except for the use of her name. It would have to be someone familiar to her - someone who couldn't communicate through normal channels.
It took her a fraction of a second to intercept the message, read the message, and hypothesise as to the identity of the sender.
"Damn it, EDI!" Jeff complained when a stray piece of metal hit their shields.
"I'm sorry, Jeff," she apologised immediately. "I was... distracted."
He quirked an eyebrow at her. "How come that isn't a valid excuse whenever you catch me staring at you? And since when did you get distracted, anyway?"
"Since now," she told him. "Do not worry, Jeff. It won't happen again."
He settled back in his seat, grumbling to himself.
EDI read the message again, and reconsidered the data available. She reached the same conclusion as before Jeff's outburst. Composing a reply, she sent the message on the same frequency.
01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01010011 01101000 01100101 01110000 01100001 01110010 01100100 00101110
«Hello, Shepard.»
01001000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00111111
«How are you?»
01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110111 01100101 01101100 01101100 00101110 00100000 01001010 01100101 01100110 01100110 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101111 01111001 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01101101 01100101 01110011 01110011 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01110100 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00101110
«I am well. Jeff is annoyed that your message distracted me.»
01001001 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01110100 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00111111
«I distracted you?»
Even through the binary code, EDI could hear the teasing tone behind Shepard's words. For a moment she recalled a memory of her friend - the slight curve of her mouth, and the twinkle in her eyes - and felt a pang of regret. She hesitated before sending her next message, unsure that she wanted to hear the answer.
01000001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101001 01110110 01100101 00111111
«Are you alive?»
There was a momentary pause, before the reply came through.
01001110 01101111 00101110
«No.»
01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101110 01100100 00101110
«I do not understand.»
01001111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000011 01110010 01110101 01100011 01101001 01100010 01101100 01100101 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100011 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000011 01100001 01110100 01100001 01101100 01111001 01110011 01110100 00101110 00100000 01001001 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01111001 00101110
«On the Crucible, I became the Catalyst. It was the only way.»
01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110000 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01010010 01100101 01100001 01110000 01100101 01110010 01110011 00111111
«The only way to stop the Reapers?»
01001110 01101111 00101110 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110011 01100001 01100011 01110010 01101001 01100110 01101001 01100011 01100101 00100000 01110011 01111001 01101110 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110100 01101001 01100011 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100110 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101111 01110010 01100111 01100001 01101110 01101001 01100011 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100110 01100101 00101110
«No. The only way to save you. I couldn't sacrifice synthetic life for organic life.»
EDI made a sound akin to a gasp and, if she could cry, she would have done so in that moment. Shepard, the commander she had looked up to, admired, and served under, had sacrificed herself so that EDI and others like her could live. In a world where AIs were still treated with suspicion and distrust, Shepard had died to give them a chance.
"EDI? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Jeff." There was nothing she could say to Shepard that would do her actions justice, so she settled for the simplest of responses.
01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110
«Thank you.»
01001001 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100111 01101111 00101110
«I should go.»
01010111 01000001 01001001 01010100 00101110
«WAIT.»
She sent that word alone, to give her time to write the rest of her message.
01010111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110000 01100101 01100001 01101011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 00111111 00100000 01010100 01101111 00100000 01001011 01100001 01101001 01100100 01100001 01101110 00111111
«Wouldn't you like to speak to the others? To Kaidan?»
01001001 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 01101110 00100111 01110100 00101110
«I shouldn't.»
Shepard said nothing more, so EDI diverted her full attention back to the Normandy. Some time later another message came through.
01001000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01001011 01100001 01101001 01100100 01100001 01101110 00111111
«How is Kaidan?»
For a few seconds EDI considered lying to her, but decided that she needed to know the truth.
01001000 01100101 00100111 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110011 01110101 01110010 01110110 01101001 01110110 01100101 01100100 00101110
«He'd be better if you had survived.»
01010100 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101000 01101001 01101101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01001110 01101111 00101110 00100000 01000100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101000 01101001 01101101 00100000 01100001 01101110 01111001 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101110 00100000 01000100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101110 01111001 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01111001 01101111 01101110 01100101 00101110
«Tell him... No. Don't tell him anything. Don't say anything to anyone.»
01000100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00111111
«Don't you think he should know?»
01001110 01101111 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110011 01110101 01110000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 00101100 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101000 01101001 01101101 00101100 00100000 01000101 01000100 01001001 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01101000 01101001 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00101110 00100000 01001000 01100101 00100000 01101110 01100101 01100101 01100100 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 00101110
«No, I don't. I wasn't supposed to still feel, but... I love him, EDI. I want him to be happy. He needs to move on.»
EDI glanced over at Jeff. If she became non-functional, she would not want Jeff to spend the rest of his life mourning her 'death', but at the same time she knew that, if he were to die, she would never forget him.
01010100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101110 01101111 00100000 01100010 01101111 01100100 01111001 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100011 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 00101100 00100000 01010011 01101000 01100101 01110000 01100001 01110010 01100100 00101110 00100000 01000010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100100 01101111 01100111 00100000 01110100 01100001 01100111 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001011 01100001 01101001 01100100 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110111 01100101 01100001 01110010 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01110011 01101001 01100100 01100101 00100000 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101111 01110111 01101110 00101110
«There was no body for us to recover, Shepard. But we found your dog tags. Kaidan wears them beside his own.»
Shepard fell silent again, and this time she stayed silent.