AN: This fic Is still not dead, and I have absolutely zero intention of it ending any time soon, sorry for the late updates. It's amazing that still even with months going by without updates I still get a steady stream of new people following the story. I am very grateful for your readership.
Chapter 80
"Sir, Emotional routines have been revised and are online again." a Cerberus technician stated to the attractive, aging man standing behind him.
"Activate her." Harper said, then took a deep drag off his cigarette. The technician punched a few commands into his console and a glowing blue sphere materialized before them. At once it dimmed, shrank and began to quake.
"What do you want? Why am I here? Please don't hurt me!" The sphere begged, its feminine voice quavering. Harper nodded at the technician who pressed a button, at once the light went deep purple and the voice started shrieking. After a moment it stopped and the light turned a murky greyish blue color.
"Please... I'm sorry... What can I do for you please just don't do that again!" The voice begged. Harper grinned.
"That's good. Shut her down for now." Harper said, the technician flipped a switch and the orb slowly winked out of existence.
"Sir, why are you bothering with the emotional emulation and pain sensors? It's an AI, you can just program it to do what you want." Kai Leng asked as he sat at a console adjusting the cybernetics in his knee.
"Programming can be hijacked, and at this level is easily corruptible. I'll be sending her into Alliance hands, if she's discovered, fight or flight routines can be halted and rerouted, but fear of pain that only I can inflict, that will ensure her loyalty. It worked with you..." Harper said, sneering at his subordinate. Leng dropped the tool in his hand at this when involuntarily spasmed as a few milliamps of electricity began coursing through his pain receptors. He clamped his jaw shut hard to stifle the scream that threatened to erupt.
"Yes sir. I'm sorry sir." Leng said, fear overriding his rage at being at this weak fool's mercy. Kai Leng was many things, a murderer, a rapist, a master of stealth and martial arts, but he was not an idiot. As things were, there was no going against his master, but that would not always be the case. He was capable of biding his time.
"What of the mech unit?" Harper asked. A pair of technicians wheeled in a dolly carrying a cybernetic body designed to perfectly imitate a human woman. It featured an advanced synthetic silicon skin laced with sensors and adjustable pigment to simulate changes in complexion. It could even imitate a sun burn and smell like body odor.
"Christ, it looks just like her..." He said, walking up to the inanimate mech and caressing its face. The technicians wisely masked the disgust at their employer's actions.
"We will proceed as scheduled. Dress her as a refugee, we'll monitor her using our embedded agents." Harper said, turning and marching back towards the elevator that lead to his command suite.
The dissolution and reformation of the Citadel council happened rapidly. It turned out instead of the Turians and Asari leaving, most but not all of the Salarians booked immediate passage off the station. The ones that remained were happy to abide by the new rules and regulations imposed by the Asari and Turian interim councilors. Salarians are by nature a pragmatic species, and many had seen opportunity under the new administration.
With a permanent Alliance presence on the Citadel, there were new Krogan, Quarian and Human businesses popping up all over the station. The Geth didn't see a need to engage in commerce so instead tended to aid their organic brothers and sisters in their endeavors. With the threat of the Council off their plate, the Alliance leadership turned their eyes once again to Kar'Shan.
"What is the status of the platforms on Kar'Shan?" Hannah Shepard asked.
"60% of the platforms are in place and awaiting further instruction. The remainder are slowly making their way towards their destinations. Our progress is slowed by increased civilian movement related to the Gorna's day celebration." The Geth responded.
"That's fine, it's important that we take our time, we've only got one shot at this. Remember to make sure the Quantum Tunnels are stable, if there's trouble I want all Geth out." Hannah said.
"Understood, Hannah." the Geth platform sitting in front of her acknowledged.
"So, how are your 'extracurricular activities' going?" Hannah asked, displaying air quotes with her fingers where appropriate.
"It is curious, physically the Asari and Batarians resemble Humans most directly, but culturally we are seeing far more similarities between Humans, Quarians and Turians. We are investigating the possibility of protien chirality influence culture, however there are no signs of such." The Geth replied.
"That's a bit out of my wheelhouse, I was more wondering if we're going to see Geth music or plays any time soon." Hannah asked.
"Unknown. While we are interested in finding new ways to express ourselves, without emotion it is difficult to create without simply replicating what we've observed." The Geth replied.
"Well you guys do have something very like emotion. Sure it's not chemical signals between organic neurons but you have priorities, preferences, and goals." Hannah replied.
"It is as Creator Admiral Xen has said, a work in progress." The Geth said.
"Well we all look forward to what you guys can come up with." Hannah said, taking a sip of her rapidly cooling coffee. The Geth unit bid her goodbye and took its leave.
She leaned back in her chair and sighed, she was feeling a whole lot older than she was. If not for the upcoming war she'd definitely not be throwing her hat in the ring for the next election that was scheduled for the following year.
Her colleagues in the legislature and the Quarian, Krogan and Geth leadership had all suggested postponing them given the constant state of emergency, but Hannah insisted that the principles of democracy were sacred to their people, and if the peoples of the Alliance decided to choose someone else was better for the job then it was their right to do so. It was proving needless, however, the candidacy declaration deadline was weeks away and still she was running unopposed, the first time in the history of the Alliance that a leader had ever approached an election unopposed. Hannah didn't know whether to feel profoundly touched by the peoples' trust in her judgment or horrified at the thought of another term in office.
She stood up and looked at herself in the mirror on the opposite wall of her office. A proud smile graced her face, despite the odd wrinkle and the fact that her red hair was slowly graying, she looked damn good for a woman in her early fifties. She attributed this to strong genes as well as the engineering all Alliance personnel received during their basic training. She looked considerably better than she had before her quick mini-vacation on Rannoch. When she'd arrived on the Quarian homeworld, she looked like the walking dead, and felt almost as good as that.
Her first destination in the Quarian capital of Kerah was to visit the elderly Quarian Admiral who had served a short term as the Alliance ambassador to the Geth, Tiga'Noran Vas Rannoch. Hannah had been surprised at first to see her friend outside of her suit for the first time, and remarked at how good-looking the elderly woman still managed to be. Her pale face had its share of wrinkles, and her eyes had lost much of their luster, but she was still a hauntingly beautiful woman. She was now confined to a mobility walker, unfortunately one of her strokes had reduced her mobility and after one too many falls the Geth insisted on providing her with assistance.
Hannah had kept an open correspondence with her, keeping her appraised of the goings on in the galaxy. Despite her stepping down from the Quarian admiralty, all of them still considered her to be a part of it and reached out to her for advice and her opinion. More than a century of surviving on the barest of means had given her much experience and wisdom, and she proved a cunning problem solver.
Tiga'Noran had recommended a day spa on the outskirts of the city when Hannah mentioned she was there on vacation, and gave her a knowing grin when she recommended the services of Couen'Daag, a well-known Quarian "Masseuse." When she arrived, she expected just a standard rub-down but found out in the best possible way that Quarian massages nearly always included a "happy ending." and Hannah quickly discovered where she was planning to spend her retirement.
She was broken from her blissful reminiscence by an indication on her monitor that she had an incoming communication from Admiral Xen. She activated her view screen and opened the connection.
"Hello Daro, how are you?" Hannah asked.
"Well, Hannah, you?" She replied.
"Relaxed, thanks to your recommendation. I will admit I never expected Tiga'Noran to have her thumb on the pulse of Rannoch's seedy underground..." Hannah said with a sly grin. Xen laughed at this.
"Yes, I figured she'd know where to send you to 'Relax'" Xen siad, grinning.
"So what can I do for you today?" Hannah asked.
"Well our new friends, the Oathbound, have been busy with the databases we gave them. They are requesting that we allow them to send envoys to Earth, Rannoch, and Tuchanka as well as aboard some of our ships as observers." Xen said.
"What are your thoughts?" Hannah asked.
"I think they're genuine but very cautious. They know what the old council and the Salarians were capable of and they detest it to their core. I think that is reason enough to allow their request with one proviso." Xen said
"What's that?" Hannah asked.
"Those aboard ships should be expected to follow orders and have duty rosters. Firstly I'm Quarian and I've always believed that if you're on a ship you should have a job, secondly we've learned from Humanity that the best way to get to know someone is to work along side them." Xen said.
"Very well. I'll run it through the Legislature, if they, the Admiralty and the Battlemasters agree we'll move forward with it." Hannah said.
"Excellent. Also I wanted to let you know what we'd discovered about that thing your daughter chased off Eden Prime. We recovered fragments from its hull and discovered that it is built of an impossibly heavy titanium-tungsten alloy, the only way that thing can move is because of mass effect fields, which means it must be heavily dependent upon eezo. That might prove to be a strategic advantage we can exploit in the future. The fragments contained thousands of microscopic tunnels we think were some sort of energy or data conduits, we think that these contribute to additional shielding making them extremely durable." Xen reported.
"Sounds fun. I'll put in the order to manufacture more antimatter weaponry and expand training on the man portable launchers." Hannah said.
"That's a good idea. Well if you'll excuse me, Michael is of the absurd opinion that he has a chance at beating me at chess this afternoon, so I'm off to correct that for him." Xen said, smiling.
"See you later Daro." Hannah said grinning.