"Liara?"
"Yes, EDI?"
"Do you have time to talk?"
"Just let me finish this message and I can spare a few minutes."
"Thank you. I appreciate that you are very busy." She stood where she was, waiting for Liara to finish. She was aware that as a synthetic her stance could be very stiff and unwelcoming, so as she waited she tried to practice looking relaxed.
"Okay," Liara said, as she hit send. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Do you think you could build another body like this one?" she asked, getting straight to the point.
"Is there something wrong with your current one?" A look of horror flashed over her face. "Is it something to do with a fantasy that Joker—"
"No," EDI said quickly, shaking her head. "It is for Kaidan."
Liara smiled sadly. "EDI, I understand that you and Joker have a... bond... relationship... that works for you. And I'm happy for you both, truly. But I don't think that's something you can replicate for Kaidan."
Liara had misunderstood the intention behind her inquiry. EDI's processor whirred as she debated with herself. "If someone asked you to keep a secret for them, would it be wrong of you to share it?"
"Absolutely," she replied.
EDI looked thoughtful. "Even if keeping it hurts someone?"
Liara paused to consider the question. "Would sharing it also hurt them?"
"Possibly."
She sat down and interlocked her fingers, using them as a rest for her chin. "That's a difficult question to answer."
"Shepard once told me that I could use my own moral stance to make decisions. Would this be one of those instances?"
"I think so, yes."
"In that case, I have spoken with Shepard."
Liara leapt to her feet. "She's alive?"
"No."
"But, then, how..?"
"From what I understand, Shepard transferred her consciousness into the Catalyst, becoming it. Her physical body is gone, but her thoughts and memories remain. It would seem, from our conversation, that her feelings for the Major also remain."
"Is Shepard in pain?"
EDI bowed her head. "It did not occur to me to ask."
"What did she say?"
"She asked after Kaidan, and she said... she said..."
"EDI?"
"She said that she gave her life because she refused to sacrifice synthetic life for organic life," she finished, visibly distressed.
When the Asari wrapped her arms around her, holding her in an embrace that she recognised but had never experienced for herself, EDI froze. Was Liara seeking to comfort her, or was she seeking comfort from her?
As she brought her own arms up, however, Liara pulled away.
"I don't know what we can do, but we can try," she told EDI with determination, her blue eyes wet with tears. "I'm going to need some scans of your body, Dr Chakwas can help with that... We won't tell her what they're for, of course - we won't tell anyone in case this doesn't work, but..." She sat down at her computer and started typing up a list of things she needed.
. * * * .
For several months Liara and EDI worked in secret, recruiting Tali to the cause only when it became clear that they needed someone with more technological know-how - the lie that it was an experimental update for EDI sliding easily off Liara's tongue - and it was almost a year before they had a fully functional body. After running a few last minute diagnostics EDI took it for a test drive, startling Garrus who set them back several weeks after he fired several shots at Shepard's new body before Liara could stop him.
Neither had considered Shepard's reluctance to download herself into it once they let her in on their finished project.
01001110 01101111 00101110
«No.»
01010111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00111111
«Why not?»
01000010 01100101 01100011 01100001 01110101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01100001 01100100 00100000 01101001 01100100 01100101 01100001 00101110
«Because it's a bad idea.»
01001010 01101111 01101011 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100110 01110101 01101100 01100110 01101001 01101100 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100101 01101101 01101111 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 01101000 01101001 01110000 00101110
«Joker and I have a very fulfilling emotional relationship.»
01001011 01100001 01101001 01100100 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101001 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01001010 01101111 01101011 01100101 01110010 00101110
«Kaidan isn't Joker.»
"No, he's not," Liara agreed angrily. "Kaidan loves you. He is a good man who has mourned your loss not once, but twice. He hasn't been the same since he lost you, and he would give anything to have you back. If you truly love him, you'd want to make him happy!"
The silence that filled Liara's cabin as she finished shouting was deafening.
EDI transcribed Liara's words and transmitted the message to Shepard.
It was several long minutes before Shepard finally responded.
01000001 01101100 01110010 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00101110 00100000 01001000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00111111
«Alright. How do I do this?»