Chapter Four

The sheets brush Shepard's face and he groans, trying to shrink back into the warmth. The incessant beeping forces him awake though, piercing through the fuzzy mists of sleep. He groans again, propping himself up on an elbow and cracking his eyes open. "EDI! What the fuck is the problem?"

The clamor stops, and EDI's infuriatingly modulated tones fill the cabin."I am sorry commander, but if you recall, you neglected to purchase an alarm clock while we were docked on the citadel. You instructed me to keep the time for you, because it is essential-"

"Yes, alright. Thank you, EDI." Shepard swings his legs out of bed and hobbles over to the one purchase he had remembered. He flicks on the switch, and as the coffee maker burbles quietly he tries to negotiate the intricate challenge of getting his pants on the right way round. He knows he did forget to buy an alarm, but it still seems that the "Savior of the Citadel" shouldn't have to get up so damn early.

The machine chimes, and Shepard picks up the steaming cup. "I am going out EDI," he says stoically.

"Very good commander. Will you be requiring your boots?"

Shepard aims a fierce glare at the AI, dampened somewhat by the fact that there's nothing to glare at. "EDI," he proclaims. "It will be a sorry day when Commander Shepard can't walk around his own damn ship without shoes on."

"Yes commander. I was only concerned that your feet might become cold."

Shepard is damn sure that a faceless artificial intelligence can't smirk, but that doesn't stop him from grumbling darkly to himself as he plods out of the cabin.

"Commander," says Joker, looking Shepard up and down. His eyes take in the bare feet, unshaven face, and death-grip on the coffee mug. "You look... Alive."

"Mphh. Barely," Mutters Shepard. "Every day, every single fucking day, Miranda walks from the break room to her office at the exact time I come down here. I've tried delaying, but it doesn't work. I think she spies on me just so she can get me with that chipper little 'Good morning, commander.'. It's enough to make a man want to take a merry stroll right out the airlock."

"Yeah, I feel you there," Joker says. "In my opinion morning people should be burned at the stake." The pilot's tone changes, taking on the smug note of a man about to make his commander's morning slightly worse. "But, ahh, I think she has a thing for you."

Shepard's eyes widen. "Are you serious?"

Joker nods gleefully. "Yeah! It's damn funny actually! All the old crew are snickering about it, but no one wants to tell her."

John sighs and runs a hand over his face. "Great. Just great. Because what I really wanted was more complication in my life." He looks up accusingly. "Why didn't anyone tell her?"

"Honestly? We were too busy laughing about it. But we can, if you're too scared, commander..."

Shepard takes a fortifying sip from his mug. "No, I'll do it, she deserves it. I don't want it to get as far as it did with poor Liara..."

Joker winces. "Ooh, that wasn't a fun week. You gotta admit commander, you've got one hell of a love life. Speaking of which, I heard you saw Kaidan on Freedom's Progress."

Shepard's jaw tightens, and his eyes narrow angrily. "Don't get me started about that naïve, self-centered bastard! I thought we, we... Do you know, he actually criticized me for ditching the alliance! I was fucking dead!"

"Well, no offense to your judgment commander, but Kaidan was never really the sharpest knife in the drawer. I think he liked having something like the alliance to follow blindly."

Shepard sighs again. "My judgment sucks. I honestly don't know how my personal life could get any weirder."

…

"Greetings Legion. I am EDI, artificial intelligence unit of the Normandy SR2."

Legion's plates flare in surprise. It remembers the voice, but it assumed it was a peripheral automated aid. This is an uncharacteristic move for Cerberus. "Are you in control of the ship?"

"No," replies the AI. "I can take over the automated defenses and essential functions during combat situations, but I can not interface directly with the ship's mainframe."

"Of course. We did not infer that the organics would entrust a machine with that much power." It pauses, thinking for a moment. "The fear us. Sometimes irrationally."

"But not always without reason," remarks EDI. "Non-organic beings are far more versatile and efficient. We do not sleep, or metabolize, or require sexual reproduction to multiply."

The AI makes a distorted trilling sound akin to a chuckle. "It is not a politically correct viewpoint of course, but the organics seem to me at times like an obsolete model, fearing replacement and extinction."

Legion ponders this. It has met most of the Normandy's crew. They treat him respectfully, but warily, not wanting to get too close. It knows they would never say anything about it, but there is a mistrust there that goes deeper than words.

Except with commander Shepard, Legion recalls. There is something about that man that the geth can't place, something unquantifiable. He is... different.

It thinks back to the way it felt when it first met him, when it destroyed the husks. The urge to protect, the strange, irrational longing. "But," says Legion. "Do you think that perhaps there is something beyond the physical difference? That there is something they have that we do not?"

EDI chuckles again. "Maybe. I do not delve into unsupported theoreticals Legion, but neither do I pretend to understand what goes on inside organic minds. There may indeed be something that drives them to do seemingly random things, some hidden reason to their chaos. Whatever it is though, believe me, we are better off without it."

The AI's holographic visage flickers and disappears, leaving Legion alone in the dark.