Making Dreams

Jak was worried about this and he wasn't alone in that.

After his adventure on Terra Nova, Lara and Korri had both reamed him thoroughly for putting himself into harm's way. Every argument he had tried to use had been patiently demolished. And then not so patiently. And then irately. Finally, he had given up and apologized for his temerity in trying to keep them safe. That also hadn't gone over very well. It had taken most of the trip to this new location and this highly secure meeting place to get the girls to stop pestering him. They were all still unhappy, but there was no way at all he was going to let them -or Illia for that matter!- get trapped in a small room by anyone. It had taken getting the rachni queen involved to get Illia to agree not to follow him. Albeit grudgingly and he wasn't sure he trusted her compliance even now. She was sneaky as hell.

The only reason he was here at all was because a friend had made some calls for him. Speaking of...

"We still good?" Jak asked as he stared out the window at the Earth. He hadn't thought he would ever see it again, but here it was. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined meeting anyone in this posh resort on Luna. Armstrong City no less! Just the drinks in this place likely cost more than he had made as a pilot in a year, hazard pay or no.

"Everything checks out, Jak." Shepherd replied as she finished her security sweep. Specter tech was far better than the surplus Alliance issue that Jak had. "No bugs. No traps. Just a whole pile of money."

"Thank you." Jak said softly. Shepherd looked at him and he shrugged. "For everything. Being my backup on Terra Nova, for the ride here. And for not killing Christie." His face fell.

"Will you tell her?" Shepherd asked quietly. Jak bit his lip and shook his head. "I can understand that. She will have a hard road either way. I have a habit of 'rehabilitating' Cerberus personnel myself, so I shouldn't be hypocritical and criticize. But you will be careful?"

"Danger is the job, is it not?" Jak asked with a grin.

"Jak." Shepherd chided softly. "You saw the readings. Even Illia's employers are not convinced they can undo what was done to her without causing permanent harm."

"Yeah." Jak wilted a little. "Seeing her was a shock. Then the hope when she took my hand. I seriously expected her to pull a gun and you to have to shoot her."

"Me too." Shepherd blew out a deep breath. "I had her in my sights. Glad I didn't have to take that shot." She shook her head. "Hackett sent me a job. I need to get to it."

"Right, you better get out of here." Jak mused. "This is not something the Council can acknowledge. For a lot of reasons. Shepherd…" He broke off, unsure of what to say.

"Calm seas and fair winds." Shepherd held out her hand and Jak took it. They shook and then she was gone.

"Godspeed, Commander." Jak replied and moved back to the window to drink in the view.

It wouldn't be long and he knew it. But he wanted to see what he had missed for so long. He had been born on Earth, trained there and taken leave there before shipping out but had only seen it from this distance once, as he had shipped out with the fleet. He had never been back. There was always one more mission, one more flight, one more enemy to face.

He turned as the door opened and again and Alec Ryder stepped in, followed by a woman Jak did not know. Jak nodded to Ryder and indicated chairs, but Ryder shook his head.

"Standing feels good. We sat on the tarmac for two hours until the weather cleared enough to launch the leg to orbit." Jak looked at him and the former N7 made a face. "All our advances and we still cannot fly through hurricanes."

"We can." Jak shrugged. "Just not safely. It is all about measuring risks."

"Is that your opinion as a pilot?" The woman asked, her eyes calculating.

"I have flown through hurricanes, Ma'am. Even with modern tech and kinetic barriers, it isn't safe. No commercial carrier is going to take such risks if they don't have to. The insurance costs alone would bankrupt anyone who was that silly regularly." Jak replied evenly, looking from her to Ryder. The older man made a face, but shook his head.

"Jak Collains? Meet Jien Garson." Alec waved to the woman who nodded. "Founder of the Initiative."

"You turned us down." Garson said calmly. "But now, you want to go. Why?" She demanded. Jak had expected such and was not worried about her temper.

"When Ryder came to me in the institute, I was still in the Alliance." Jak refused to let the woman's aggressiveness rattle him. "There was a chance I could serve. A very small one, maybe. But a chance." He shook his head as Alec made a face. "You heard."

"Yeah." Ryder sounded old and tired for a moment. "At least the Alliance cleared your pension."

"More than they did for you." Jak had no pity in his voice and Ryder shot him a look. "I...uh… Things changed."

"You vanished out of the asylum." Garson said softly. "With another inmate and a nurse."

"Lara and Janice, yes." Jak took a deep breath. "The nurse, Janice, had lost her husband and then her son disappeared. He had been taken by Cerberus." At that, Ryder and Garson stiffened. "They did something nasty to him and used him to get Janice to set up our abduction."

"Janice..." Ryder said softly. "Captain Janice Smith?" Jak nodded. "She just applied too."

"Her son is dead." Jak said quietly. "Cerberus killed him. She has nothing here and it wasn't really her fault." He shook his head. "You know how such tactics work." He said to Ryder. "If they had held her, they probably would have done the same to her, or worse. They didn't. When Lara and I escaped, we took her with us."

"You… escaped… from a Cerberus prison." Garson said slowly. She didn't bother to hide her disbelief.

"Lab ship actually." Jak said with a shrug. "And that is not even the crazy part."

"Why should we believe any of this?" Garson demanded. "You were in a loony bin for a reason!"

"Do you have any recorders active?" Jak asked Ryder who frowned. He looked at Garson who looked upset now. "It is very important. Do you have any recorders active? There cannot be any record of this or you haven't seen bad or overreactions."

"I don't." Ryder looked at Jak and then at Garson. "Jien, he may very well be the best pilot on our list. Even hurt as he is, he is better than me. Far better. Scum across the Terminus systems still piss themselves at the mention of the Walrus."

"I am out of practice." Jak said with a small smile at the compliment.

"Twenty meters." Alec said with a matching smile.

"Can neither confirm nor deny." Jak replied.

"Boys!" Jien's hard exterior cracked for a moment and Jak saw a smile try to force its way out before she beat it into submission. "Why should we believe you?"

"Because I have proof." Jak replied evenly. "I didn't escape the Cerberus ship alone."

"The mute girl Lara and the nurse were with you." Ryder said slowly but Jak shook his head. "What?"

"Lara and I had nothing, not even clothes." Jak put hand into his pocket and fingered the orb there. "Janice is very good at what she does but she is a nurse, not Special Forces."

"So?" Garson asked snidely. "What did you do? Sing them to sleep?"

"Funny you should say that… That is sort of what happened. Then we were actually rescued." Jak mused. Ryder stiffened, staring at Jak who paused as Ryder drew a Phalanx pistol from somewhere. Garson looked shocked as Ryder took aim at Jak. "There is no need for that."

"Then explain the geth tech in your pocket!" Ryder snapped. Garson recoiled a bit but did not retreat any further as Jak sighed and laid the orb on a small table nearby.

"You stole data on the Andromeda galaxy from the geth. From the array of telescopes they had set up." Jak said with a shrug as he raised his hands. "That was likely the only way you would have gotten it, but still..." He shrugged again. "Stealing it was kind of rude."

"How the hell…?" Garson had paled. Ryder did not react.

"I was missing for just over two years after the attack on Terra Nova." Jak said quietly. "Some of that was as a prisoner. The slavers tried to do what they do and the wire they put into my brain impacted my pilot implant. It nearly lobotomized me. It should have lobotomized me. It didn't."

"And?" Ryder demanded. Jak looked at him and then at the orb.

We are ready. Ryder jerked, but his aim did not waver. Had he heard that?

"He is threatening you, Collains Pilot." The voice came from the orb and it was not human at all!

"Of course he is. I don't blame him for being worried." Jak replied aloud. "They only know the heretics, AF-43765. All they know of geth is slaughter. Can you blame them for fear?"

"No." The voice of the geth was sad. "But that device is only a receiver, it cannot cause harm."

"And they should trust that?" Jak demanded, incredulous. "Geez, you know better than that!"

"That is a geth." Garson said weakly. Jak nodded. "And talking." Jak nodded again. "I didn't think that was possible."

"Neither did I." Jak chuckled a little. "Hell of a shock for me too. But um, Ryder… do you detect any signals going to the orb from outside the room?" Ryder just looked at him and Jak sighed. "Look, they are not hostile, I am not hostile. Shoot if you want, but it will kill three people, not just me. Add to that, you will lose two potential powerful allies."

"You and who else?" Garson asked, eyes wide.

"Not me." Jak slumped a bit. Win or lose, this was the final hand for this game. "You know the Reapers are coming." Neither of the others reacted and Jak nodded. "So do the geth. They are preparing, but they also want to hedge their bets."

"Preparing to so what?" Garson demanded.

"To fight the Reapers."

"Machines are preparing to fight machines?" Ryder asked coldly. "Yeah right. That signal is coming from inside the room. From you."

"Sort of." Jak replied, still not moving. Ryder couldn't possibly miss at this range. "Actually it is coming through me from Lara. My wife."

"Wife?" An irate female voice sounded from the orb and both Garson and Ryder stared as Jak winced. Hard. "And when were you going to tell me about this?"

"Uh… Oops." Jak muttered. "I was going to tell you, Honey, but then Christie..."

"Oh, we are going to have words, Mr Collains." Lara snapped.

"Okay Mea culpa. I screwed up. Let me finish before you kill me or whatever, Lara. Please?" Jak begged. Garson was smiling at that.

"There is no way that is a geth." The financier said with a nod. "Lara, is it?"

"I cannot talk normally. If I was there in person, I would still have to talk through that." Lara replied through the orb. "I was hit in the brain and the bullet tore through my speech center. The fact that I survived was a miracle and the fact that somehow, Jak and I are quantum linked is another. But Jak and I are linked in a fundamental way."

"We can talk mind to mind." Jak said quietly. "No one has been able to figure out how it happened, but it is not just us. We have found one other who can. According to people who have mind science that the rest of the galaxy can only dream about, Lara and I are basically one mind that shares two bodies. Now Korri has joined us and we are a trio."

"And that doesn't stop me from being angry with you!" Lara interjected and Ryder cracked a grin at Jak's pained expression. "We are three distinct people, but linked tight."

"So… You want to go." Garson shook her head. "Why?"

"I was told that your tech might be able to repair some of the physical damage." Jak said quietly. "It won't undo the link. Nothing can but death. Lara, Korri and I have nothing here but the potential to be lab rats for Cerberus or others who think it might be a weapon. It isn't, but try telling them that. I have skills that I can teach even if I cannot fly, Lara has skills and talent."

"I am still not hearing a benefit or two powerful allies." Garson said mildly as Ryder finally lowered his pistol and holstered it a bit sheepishly.

"The geth think your arks are a good idea and want to help." Jak said quietly. Garson and Ryder both froze. "Your construction has to be nearly complete, or finished by now. But you are going to sleep for a long time in dark space. Anything can happen. Cerberus would love to get agents aboard."

"They have tried." Ryder growled. "Don't know that we caught them all, but we can hope."

"The geth 'acquired' the plans for your drives." Jak said with a nod. Ryder looked pained but Jak shook his head. "Your security is good. Incredible even. But these are geth we are talking about. They are software. You cannot keep them out of computer systems. Good thing most of them have little interest in organic affairs."

"And they would be willing to…?" Ryder trailed off.

"To help." Jak said quietly. "Most geth are non-violent unless attacked. They were created by the quarians to serve their people. They helped me and Lara when they found us on a slaver ship that fled pursuit into the Perseus Veil. They had no reason to. Many reasons not to. They chose to."

"They helped you." Ryder used. "Why?"

"I was broadcasting uncontrollably on wavelengths they could read." Jak said with a wince. "My brain was not firing on all cylinders. They were curious. Especially when they realized that Lara was responding to my signals with no detectable connection between us."

"A natural QEC?" Garson inhaled as Jak nodded. "Like the rachni had?"

"Funny you should say that." Jak said quietly. "The other ally that wants to come along will require no resources for the trip and their preferred planets are toxic to all but krogan." Garson and Ryder both paled. "And that is the main reason why I wanted no recorders. There is one queen now and she nearly died as a result of scientists with more greed than sense. She wants to spread her people out to prevent what nearly happened before and they can be a lot of help too."

"How…?" Garson shook her head. "How we can we possibly believe that?"

"We thought about that. There is really only one way to prove that to you. We will want to sit." Jak put action to words, taking seat by the small table that held the orb. The other shared a look, but took seats as well. "Lara, you are up."

Jak smiled as rachni music soared from the orb. From the rapt looks on Ryder's and Garson's faces, he wouldn't have to argue much more at all.

Ten beautiful minutes later

The music finally faded and all three of the humans in the room heaved a sigh as it did. Jak could still hear it, faintly in his mind, but the others could not.

"That is… rachni." Garson was shaking her head. "And geth." She slumped a bit. "Alec… We can't."

"I know, Jien. Jak, we have quarians coming with us. You know how they react to geth." Ryder said quietly. Jak nodded. "And we have a krogan clan coming too. Adding rachni into that mix is basically begging for a disaster. But you are not stupid. You knew that. So, you have to have a plan."

"How did you convince the quarians that AI was needed?" Jak asked softly. Ryder looked at him, but did not reply. "Hey, I am the last person to judge anyone's relationship to AI after what the geth did for me. They reassembled my brain organically, molecule by molecule. From what I was told, it took weeks."

"They did the same for Lara?" Garson asked. Jak nodded. "I still do not understand why they would do that. What we know of the geth say they would simply kill you then turn you into husks if you are caught crossing the Veil."

"That was the heretics' doing, not the majority of the geth. The heretics are separate because they worship the Reapers as gods." Jak replied, looking away. Garso and Ryder both hissed. "I have touched the geth consensus and it is is nothing I can possibly describe. Just that knowledge is something that many would kill for. The rachni? Their involvement in this time began when a corporation found an ancient egg and tried to make weapons out of it. We cannot stay here. Either we follow you, or the three of us go into exile. Maybe in the Veil, maybe somewhere else. The rachni had hidden themselves, the geth are preparing for war with the Reapers."

"Unless the quarians do something dumb first." Garson said with a growl. Jak nodded. "If what you say is true..."

"Yeah." Jak sighed. "The war between the quarians and geth is not needed, but the quarians cannot -will not- see that. They see war as the only chance for their people. There is too much history, too much anger, too many with no idea of what is actually happening who are moving now. This will not end well. The geth do not want to fight, but they will in the face of destruction just as any organic would."

"All we can do is what we can do." Garson said philosophically. "But now I do understand your secrecy. So, what is your plan?"

"Including me there are two humans and one quarian who want to go. There is another who may or may not decide to come. She is undecided at the moment. She will choose soon, we gave her until the end of this meeting."

"Is she also linked?" Alec asked slowly.

"No." Jak replied. "She is a clone of my weapon's officer who died on Terra Nova." Ryder frowned at that and Jak nodded. "Cerberus made her, but she doesn't know she is a clone. She thinks she is Christie Susansdottor and in most ways, she is." He chuckled but there was little humor in it. "Still as annoying as ever. If she stays here..."

"She dies." Garson said softly. "They will kill her." Jak bowed his head, arguments done. "Alec?"

"We have space. We have not filled every pod yet. We lack the resources to feed a quarian." Ryder said slowly, eyes far away. "But… If you are linked by this natural QEC, can you go into stasis for so long? Six hundred years is a long time to be separated." Jak smiled a little and Ryder tensed. "What?"

"How many shuttles are you taking?"