Note: I don't often do this anymore but, given the significance of the chapter...Kevin & Casey by West Dylan Thordson for the second half. Let me know if you want more soundtrack stuff for particular chapters

Chapter 50: Ancestor AI

Kal flopped back onto the makeshift bed in the medbay with a sigh. Just seeing the flotila again let alone the Rayya had been harder than he expected. Despite all of the negative memories, it still had been home for his childhood. After returning to the fleet from his pilgrimage, Kal had made a few friends in his marine squad. They had dropped on Geth controlled worlds together and none of them had cared who each member of the team wanted to have sex with. Then, his Lieutenant had found some male centric Fornax magazines and Gerrel sent him to participate in the Blitz. At the time, Kal had been hurt his squadmate went straight to his father but, it was the best thing that could've happened to him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have met the love of his life, or Zero.

The ship shook slightly as it docked with the Rayya. He would have to deal with the inspection team as they came through to confirm no deadly viruses were aboard the Normandy but, that was ok. Kal would let them do their necessary work while he kept his attention on the screen displaying her vitals. Chakwas had assured him she would be notified if anything went below a healthy range, however, Kal felt like he needed to watch it as well just in case. If he had just killed Arnold in the estate instead of stalling, she would be walking around right now probably calling him an asshole. Zero was his responsibility now, and if she wasn't going to be able to walk again he was determined to take care of her. Kal wasn't going to abandon her at some facility like her parents, or his own mother apparently had.

A small groan from the bed made him jolt, "Remind me not to save your sorry ass in the future.. Comes with getting shot to hell and back."

Kal almost jumped off the bed and moved closer so she could look at him easier, "Keelah your awake! How are you feeling?"

Jack rolled her eyes giving him a sarcastic expression, "Never better, like I could run a marathon. Really. Where can I sign up for one?"

Kal laughed while trying not to cry, thanking Keelah she was her normal self, "Let me go get Doctor Chakwas, alright?"

She nodded and Kal left the medbay at top speed looking for where Chakwas could be resting. He didn't know how Jack was really doing other than the fact she wasn't screaming at the top of her lungs in pain. Kal had no doubt those screams of agony were going to stay with him in his nightmares till the day he died. Jack was too young to have to experience that kind of pain. The truth he didn't want to think about was the fact that she probably went through that kind of pain all the time on Noveria. Cora only had him for a day and he had wanted to die, he couldn't imagine what sixteen years in her care would've been like.

The mess hall was seemingly empty until a squad of Quarian scientists came through the elevator like they owned the Normandy. It was common practice for a team to decontaminate any ship docking with the fleet 'just in case.' What wasn't normal was the Quarian family of three following them and looking rather lost. A woman, man, and presumedly their daughter stepped into the medbay as if they were looking for someone. When he saw the girl's five fingers in a modified glove it clicked, it was Oriana. Had Miranda set up the meeting or had they come on their own? If the latter was the case, they might be disappointed to know Miranda didn't want to talk. He was about to point them in the right direction when Feron appeared and guided them towards her office.

Kal was going to ignore them and continue looking for Chakwas when one of the scientists stopped him and signed, "Excuse me sir, but I'm going to have to ask you to stay put until we've completed our sweep of the floor. Please don't make a scene."

His first reaction was rather surprised that the Quarian had addressed him at all given the fact he was an exile. Just pointing their weapons at him would've gotten the same message across. Then Kal realized the scientist had used Kelr'ya, the sign language must've been a loophole in certain situations. He wouldn't have been surprised if Gerrel had come up with that rule just so he could talk with him at some point. Since Jack was still stable and seemingly not in pain, Kal decided to follow orders with a tilt of his head. As long as the sweep was fast, Jack could wait a few extra minutes for Chakwas. If his father suddenly appeared out of the blue, Kal was going to have to rethink that strategy. Staying here also gave him the opportunity to watch Miranda meet her sister.

Miranda opened her office door looking at Feron, "We don't have anything to discuss Fer-"

Oriana hugged her interrupting what she was going to say, "Hey...you must be my sister! You look just like me, well older but still."

If looks could kill, Feron would've been dead on the floor, maybe even a puddle to be more accurate. Miranda was absolutely livid with rage just beneath the surface. Kal was somewhat confused, Miranda had spent her entire adult life with Cerberus protecting her and yet they hadn't actually communicated before. Why was she so angry Feron had seemingly arranged for them to meet for the first time? Then again, Miranda probably could've arranged a meeting a dozen times over because of her connections and had chosen not to. It definitely wasn't Feron's place to force this kind of meeting without talking to her first.

Miranda quickly regained her composure and smiled down at her, "Heh that's right I am. You probably don't remember me, the last time we saw each other you were just a baby."

Oriana nodded emphatically after she let their hug go, "Mom told me you saved me from my real father. I just wanted to thank you for that."

The Quarian woman stepped forward awkwardly having caught the glance between Miranda and Feron, "And...we wanted to thank you for giving us another chance. I can't have children of my own so..when Ori entered our lives..."

The man finished for her, "It was as though something clicked and we were whole again."

Kal had never seen Miranda so uncomfortable and out of her element, it was interesting to watch her so caught off guard, "I'm just glad your safe, it's all I ever wanted."

Oriana was already picking up Quarian mannerisms and was bouncing on her heels nervously, "Would you want to talk more sometime? I'd like to get to know you and where I came from..."

Miranda got down on one knee and frowned, "I'd love to now.. I just have really important work to do. It's to keep you and everyone else safe."

Oriana seemed somewhat disappointed but, the girl let it roll off quickly, "Yeah...I have homework with Veetor for tomorrow too... Have my omni tool number though. We can chat and watch a vid at the same time or something."

Miranda forced another smile and took the number, "I will, I promise."

Kal watched the two of them hug for a short moment before the family and the science team entered the elevator and disappeared into it. For anyone else in Miranda's position, the meeting would've been nice, a release of years worrying about their sibling. Miranda seemed to just be angry again, furious even that it happened at all. Kal only sort of understood where she was coming from. They were going on a suicide mission beyond the Omega-4 Relay and they might not get to come back. While he wanted to spend as much time with his family as possible before then, Miranda wanted to distance herself from that.

Miranda glared at Feron and turned towards her office, "Fuck you."

Feron's eyes widened and he followed her to the door, "I was just trying to help you."

The door closed and Kal had no interest in listening to the rest of the conversation. He went looking for Chakwas again now that the science team had moved on to the engineering deck below them. She wasn't in the crew quarters, or the private lounge, where could she be? It wasn't like Chakwas to just wander the ship and be unavailable in case of an emergency. Kal was about to go upstairs to the lab for Mordin, the Salarian didn't have a good bed side manner, but he was still a good doctor. He ultimately found her in Thane's room injecting his bare chest with a mix of medi gel and other drugs. The Drell clearly wasn't well, breathing from a mask and coughing. Was he going to be able to help them with the Collectors at all in this kind of condition? Personally, Kal was having his doubts seeing him like this.

Thane took the mask off briefly with a cough, "Kepral's Syndrome. Don't worry, it's not contagious."

Kal frowned having heard of the disease during his time on Dekuuna, "I'm sorry.. Jack's awake Doctor, I just thought you'd want to know."

Chakwas gave him a tired smile, "A Doctor's work is never done on this ship. I'll be right there when I'm done giving Thane his breathing treatment."

Thane shook his head quickly and pulled the mask off again to say, "Go take care of the girl Doctor. I can finish the treatment myself."

He gave Thane a smile that he probably wouldn't see as Chakwas reluctantly agreed and they headed towards the medbay. Kal was extremely anxious to find out how bad the damage Arnold had really caused. Would she be able to walk again? Could she even feel her legs after taking that many hits? The fact Arnold had chosen to fire on her instead of him made Kal more than a little angry. She was just a teenager for Keelah's sake, he should've been the real target. The fact she saved him from getting strangled to death probably made the Human switch targets. Maybe it would be a good idea to discourage her from saving him in the future, if she got to stay on the Normandy that is.

A rather regal sounding Quarian voice stopped him from going in the medbay, "Kal'Shepard vas Normandy, do you have a moment to talk?"

His shock only grew when he saw it was Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, the head Admiral on the famed Admiralty Board. Curiously, she had been the only Admiral to recuse themselves during his own trial. Not his father, who absolutely needed to recuse, but her. She hadn't even acted as a moderator and just sat in the audience while his father ran the show. Was she here to apologize for the circus his own trial had become? Unlikely, Kal didn't even know why she had recused in the first place. The real reason probably was Han couldn't dare face him personally and so, sent an aging Admiral on her way out the door to deliver whatever message he wanted to send.

Kal held up a finger to Jack and closed the medbay door, "If all your here to tell me is that my father is such a wonderful person and I just need to get to know him, don't bother."

Shala took a deep breath and sat down at the mess table, "I've known Han since before he was an Admiral. 35 or 40 years, I'd guess. He was a bosh'tet for the majority of that time."

Kal put a hand on his hip and tilted his head, "So you want to what...? Apologize for the trial? Don't bother, I've moved on pretty well."

She wouldn't look at him and fiddled with her hands, "I remember when you were born. Tali's mother and I had synced up our suits so she could be in the same open-air room for your birth. I was sick for months, but it was worth it."

Kal froze, her non answer threatened to crash his whole world. The implication to what she was saying made him want to cry, and hit her at the same time. Han had always told him that his mother had died from giving birth to him. That her death was one of the reasons he had to go through all of the experiments and medical treatments on the Alarei. So no other child would have to lose a parent to germs. If Shala was his mother, all of that was a lie. Even worse, she would've had access to all the terrible things he was doing and said nothing. She let her own son basically be tortured for his entire childhood. Then, she let his father exile him forever without advocating for her own son.

He took a shakey breath trying to not jump to conclusions, "What are you saying...?"

Shala looked down at the table avoiding his gaze, "She was the one to take you from me and put you in the bubble... You cried so hard..."

Kal was going to break any second now, "And you just...let him...I. Fuck you, you don't get to ask for forgiveness now. You weren't there, you have no idea what it was like in those labs! You...you just left me to what? Die? Did you even want me..? Was it your idea for dad to tell me you died?"

Shala stood up and faced him, "I was part of the experiments in the beginning. I thought I could control his worst impulses, be more gentle with you. By the time I realized I couldn't shape the research, he had become Grand Admiral of the military. I wasn't going to be able to take you away from him, and I couldn't watch what he was putting you through...so I left. I went to the Tonbay to, forget. I'm sorry."

Kal didn't start crying yet, she didn't deserve to see him upset, "You should've killed him. He tortured me for the fun of it, gave me injections of Keelah knows what, and ripped my suit off at will. Try to forget that you di'kut."

Shala watched as he started to go to the medbay again, "The Alarei is under attack by Geth Rael'Zorah unintentionally unleashed. I'm going to try and get your cyar'ika and Tali aboard, hopefully they'll find evidence of what happened and we can arrest Han. I know it's not...he's going to pay for what he did."

Kal left her in silence, Jack deserved his attention now instead of Shala. She may have been his mother by birth, but his Mom would always be an Elcor baker in a small village on Dekuuna.

_o0o_

Rael was breathing heavily from the gunshot wound to the side of his chest. It was bleeding everywhere guaranteeing the bullet had pierced a vein, he was going to die. The worst part was the bullet hadn't come from some activated Geth, or a pirate trying to raid the fleet for everything it was worth. Han'Gerrel had shot him with Jona's stolen gun so he could take the last remaining escape pod off of the Alarei. The Admiral was so afraid his own dirty laundry would be uncovered that he was willing to kill his own people. At least it wasn't a headshot, he was going to have time to plan ahead.

Legion half dragged him through the door to the bridge and closed it behind him, "I am detecting more Geth reactivations all over the fourth and fifth decks. It is unlikely we will be able to come up with suitable algorithms for your device in that time."

Rael pushed away from him and stumbled into a chair, "Well then, it looks like we're just going to have to make time aren't we? Jona, how are we doing?"

Jona was limbing towards him with a dome like device for his head, "Not the most illegal thing we've done today but, I think it'll work. I mean, it hasn't worked in three hundred years so I can't promise it'll work but, it's worth a try."

Rael had two problems coming straight at him and they were actively working against him. The obvious one was that he was dying, there was no way around it since they weren't on a medical frigate and Geth heretics were taking the entrances. His second problem was that he had been so close to breaking the consensus with Legion and potentially a breakthrough on how to defeat the Reapers. If Legion had been at full capacity he would've trusted the Geth to find the answer on his own, however, even with the few programs he pumped back inside he still only had one logic core. He needed a way to stay with Legion and work together past his own death. Luckily, their ancestors on Rannoch had the answer he so desperately needed.

Before the Morning War, it was common practice for Quarians to have their brain waves copied into a blank AI chip. Upon a Quarians death, the chip would be given to a living descendant for safe keeping. In theory, the AI was a perfect representation of the Quarian when the scan was completed. The reality though was that the ancestor AI was just a simulation of what the chip thought you may have done in certain situations. Since they were banned three hundred years ago because of a general fear against AI, Rael had no idea how accurate the simulation actually was. His hope was that even if he wasn't a perfect copy, he would be close enough to help Legion's one logic core on theories and equations.

He looked up at Jona as she attached the dome to his helmet, "We don't have much time, you should record a message for Senna."

Legion swung his rifle forward, making a show of it, "While I predict a mere twenty percent success chance, I will happily fight to protect you."

Rael's eyes widened, "No! Legion I need you to listen to me. When the heretics arrive, you will kill us and blend in with the crowd. It is imperative that you make it out of here, do you understand?!"

Legion's white flashlight eye stared at him and the metal flaps around it drooped, "I understand."

Jona took a few shuddering breathes before turning on her omni tool, "I locked down navigation. Weapons are offline too. Our mistake won't endanger the Fleet. Hopefully that'll be enough for Gerrel to not destroy the ship immediately. They're going to be burning through the door soon. I don't have much time. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Senna, if you get this honey, be strong for Dad. Mom loves you very much! I never cared about who you love! Ok? You hear me! Promise me you won't settle, leave the fleet and be happy! For me sweetheart."

Rael swallowed hard watching her collapse in tears as she ended the message, "I'm so sorry Jona."

She sniffled and removed his dome when it beeped, "It's ok, this is important. The Olam's will be known for helping to destroy the Reapers.. Legion, lay down."

He watched her start injecting Legion's optical sensor with his brain code and started recording his own message, "Tali. If you are listening, then I am dead. The Geth have gone active. I don't have much time. Their main hub will be in the technicians lab where we used to keep Legion. You'll need to destroy it to stop their AI processes from forming new neural links. Make sure Daro'Xen and Zaal'Koris see the data. They must-"

An explosion cut him off and everything went dark.