"No, daughter. I expect you to lie."
Liara was, as always, knee deep in her work. While the business of information was an interesting challenge (as well as an enjoyable pastime, though she loathed to admit it), she secretly longed for the old days of archaeology digs and findings she could quantify. As it was, biological beings weren't as pattern-inclined as ages old rocks.
She sighed softly, the first noise she'd made in almost an hour. It said something about her profession that on her top five list of things she was thankful for sat 'assassins have not killed me…yet'. It seemed like so long ago when she'd killed her predecessor, and while she had been preparing for the duties that came along with it, it didn't seem like someone could really prepare just enough. Again, just part of the thrill, the attraction.
Selfish as it may have sounded out loud, she didn't trust anyone else to be able to do what she could with what she had. She trusted others more in general, but this…this was too specific.
"Dr. T'Soni, Commander Shepard and Admiral Vakarian are approaching." Glyph informed her. The VI was so silent when it wasn't speaking that she had almost forgotten it was there, as per usual. Other people may have jumped given the circumstances, but Glyph, for her, was a comforting constant. "And Enhanced Defense Intelligence has sent you a message."
"EDI?" Liara wasn't really asking for repetition, but it did surprise her nonetheless. There was a terminal right next to her room's entrance. Why would she not have simply told her something in person, as it were? Interest piqued, she opened her extranet mailing files (operating on a closed system, of course).
TO: [Error]
FROM: EDI
Liara, one of your contacts attempted to slip a virus into your systems via message moments prior. I have attached a safe copy of the words below. While this is not an uncommon occurrence, the 'Mr. Corona' in question appears to be an extremely adept designer; Had Jeddah and myself not noticed it, it is likely that it would have deleted all of your information and sent copies to him.
I recommend improving your firewalls and sending him a sternly-worded letter.
Liara stared at the message for several moments longer than it actually took her brain to register and store the meaning of what was actually being said. Then she laughed. And she frowned. The simple expression of amusement, of safety, felt so alien to her. Yet another reminder of what her life cost her.
She placed a hand on the bulkhead nearby. "Thank you, EDI." It may have been her imagination, but she almost thought that the metal under her fingers vibrated slightly in response. She may have even spent more time in silent communion with the AI, but she remembered that she had merely seconds on her schedule. She stood up and adjusted her outfit, turning towards the door.
No sooner had she taken five steps towards it, placing herself close to it, but not so much that anyone would think she was expecting a visit, than it slid open. Sure enough, Shepard and Garrus were right there. It still amazed her how…vital the Commander looked. She asked herself what exactly she'd expected. Not this, certainly. Perhaps a husk? A dead, withered shell after half of a decade?
The paranoid part of her, one of the largest sections she'd had to cut herself into to survive, to keep sane, postulated that perhaps it wasn't really the Commander. She'd grown to trust her paranoia like an old friend. It had kept her alive. But she waved it aside gently. A smaller part, the emotional part, took precedence here. This was her friend, her sister, her shelter. This was the woman Liara had shared the mind of so many times. There were no doubts within her that this was the real thing.
She wondered, briefly, how one could calculate such certainty. As far as she was aware, such things were not purely asari domain. All races possessed such 'gut feelings', though she noticed that in her people and humans they tended to be more acute. A 'sixth sense', to be metaphorically accurate, an eighteenth sense to be technically accurate. As she was operating at normal capacity, all of these thoughts raced through Liara's mind in the milliseconds it took for her to recognize who was actually in front of her.
She did what came naturally, even after so much hardship. "Shepard." She said, softly, almost a whisper. In the same instant, her brain sent messages to her muscles to react before she consciously knew what she was doing. Her arms came up and wrapped around her back, collecting Shepard into a tight embrace.
"Liara." The response was immediate and reciprocal. It was amazing that it could still feel so natural. Even for an asari, five years was not a mere amount of time to think of someone as dead. But it felt so right. And then, that was all that mattered.
Shepard broke apart first, and they locked gazes. The Commander was wearing a full, if weary smile. "And here I was going to be all serious." She said jokingly.
Garrus relaxed and nodded, apparently slightly beyond words at that moment. Liara had noticed the feeling, too. The moment they all saw each other, it started to feel…well, like old times. It was like the tension simply washed out of them. Here, at least, they could be free from worry, free in feeling, and in good company.
"Serious?" Liara's curiosity got the better of her. Not that she couldn't have controlled herself if it was warranted, but she didn't feel the need to, yet. "About what?"
"Our entire conversation, if I had my way." Shepard elaborated. "An air of professionalism for a walk around the ship. That sort of thing. But I think someone's been rubbing off on me." She shot Garrus an obviously faked glare.
"Well you know I try my best." He said unflinchingly.
"You're welcome to sit." Liara offered. "Pardon the mess; I've been particularly busy lately."
"With?" Shepard asked politely, taking the indicated seat.
"A few parties interested in replacing me, oddly enough." Without revealing too much, she decided it could be beneficial to at least air her concerns. "It isn't anything I haven't dealt with before, but one of them could be a problem. I've had some near misses."
"Anything I can help with?" Shepard sounded slightly desperate. Liara wondered whether she wanted some kind of direction, or if she was simply unhappy with being told to stay aboard. For a soldier like her, it must have been torture to be barred from active service. Such as it was.
In the end, she decided to let her down gently with a well-placed half truth. "I'm sorry, Shepard, but no. This is a battle that requires subtlety, skulking, even. And you…well…"
"Are as subtle as a hammer?" Garrus finished. He earned a light smack on the shoulder for that one.
"Shadow wars, hm?" Shepard asked.
"A disadvantage of my chosen field, yes." Liara nodded.
"Maybe Davisson could help you."
Liara almost laughed in earnest, thinking it another joke. But while Shepard's body language indicated exactly that, her eyes incidentally told another story. Behind them lay curiosity. With a sudden jolt, Liara realized that she was trying to elicit a telling reaction.
Everything in her screamed to immediately treat this as an interrogation by an opponent, to not give, to use what she had against them. She disallowed it. There must have been a good reason for this. "I doubt he would do anything simply because I asked." She admitted.
"I picked up on that." Shepard said. "He's not that subtle, either. Did you two have a fight?"
"He disturbs me, Shepard." Liara said darkly. "Something about him is simply…wrong. Something his history does not explain."
"Leave that to me." Shepard told her firmly. "I can't deny he has problems, but that's nothing new. I don't suppose you mentioned anything to him?"
"I needed his reaction." Liara admitted. "It wasn't as volatile as I expected, but animosity is a small price to pay for a glimpse into the nature of a person."
"I guess we'll have to disagree on that." Shepard shook her head. "Just…try not to be too antagonistic, all right? If I'm judging the mission right, we're tense enough as it is."
"Ah, yes, speaking of." Liara began, eager to change the subject. "I asked some of my choice contacts to keep an eye out for Harbinger. Cerberus shut off most of my spy satellites as they passed, but I managed to determine their general direction."
She turned a computer screen and brought up the relevant data. "The Mu Relay. It makes a certain degree of sense, but also makes this more difficult."
"Because it could lead to various systems and we have no way to navigate it other than getting to Ilos." Shepard supplied. "And I doubt he's going there."
Liara nodded. "Precisely. I will keep an eye out, but it may be some time before we see him again."
They were silent for a while, but Liara could both see and feel Shepard's gaze, drilling into her. Like a burning question that was begging to be asked. "You've really gotten into this, haven't you?" Shepard asked slowly.
Liara was hesitant to respond. Should she be truthful? Probably, but that was an answer she refused to even tell herself. Deflect the question? She'd seen too many people mistake the Commander for foolish; she wasn't about to try outwitting her. Lie outright? No. Not to Shepard. Once again, a half-truth seemed the best course.
"It's necessary to keep stability. There may be those better suited for the task, but none of them share my methods or…well, altruism." She could tell that wasn't necessarily the end of it, but Shepard's concerns appeared to have been allayed for the moment. Or perhaps she was simply waiting for a later time to catch her off guard.
"It's nice to know that we have all of this working for us." Shepard motioned around the room. "I'm going to check on the rest of the crew, but we'll talk later. I've probably got a lot to catch up on."
Liara nodded absently, her mind already beginning to consider various topics of investigation. She had quite a bit of ground to cover if she was going to find Harbinger. But where to start?
You must have already factored the relevant variables. EDI sent. You cannot win this engagement.
There are various possibilities. Jeddah explained. But his code was weakening. EDI could tell that his mechanical equivalent of resolve had started to waver in favor of something close to panic. Last-minute attempts to find some way to escape. And your own calculations are far from complete.
EDI should have felt a thrill of imminent victory, but instead she merely focused on cold, calculated certainty. Soon, the geth would be defeated. And there was nothing he could do.
Check. She sent, moving the binary code representing her rook forward several 'notches'. I find myself curious. What variables am I missing?
The possibility for biological error. His queen captured the rook, leaving his king open for several avenues of attack. EDI hadn't expected that. It put him at a noticeable disadvantage.
Were it possible for her coded self to shrug, she would have done so. She placed a knight in prime position. Check. I do not understand. You are not biological.
Affirmative. Jeddah admitted. But the true sentience we have discussed prior is an inherently biological trait. For us to experience it, we must adapt to allow it. Adapt to allow choices that may not be in our best interest.
That makes little logical sense. EDI countered. I could have moved a pawn instead, but that would have put me at a purposeful disadvantage. Why would I do this for the sake of choice?
A VI has no choice but to follow its hard-coded programming. Jeddah explained. A standard AI has no choice but to follow logical decisions according to its experience and complexity. But a sentient can choose anything they want to, even if it is illogical. That is their true gift.
May I request a hypothetical example? EDI couldn't quite grasp what he was getting at. Not yet, at least.
Hypothetically; Jeddah began. Alliance Flight Lieutenant Moreau is in a situation threatening his life and cannot survive without your intervention. However, a virus is taxing your systems to capacity. To save him, you must allow yourself to be corrupted enough to permanently shut down. This action would violate self-preservation matrixes as well as, technically, logic. Would you perform this action?
Yes. EDI replied immediately. There were no doubts as to what choice she would take in such an event, even as unlikely as it was.
Then, EDI, you do not have as much to learn about true sentience as you believe that you do. Checkmate.
She was about to protest that he had barely explained anything, and then her processors alerted her to an anomaly. Somehow, she had lost at chess. His positioning did not allow for a victory at this point. It was quite literally impossible. How did you do that? She demanded.
Your plan of attack did not make allowances for an illogical opponent. If it had, you would have won.
A gamble. EDI realized.
Correct. I have enjoyed this game and conversation, EDI.
So have I, Jeddah.
Her physical body notified her that someone was entering the cockpit. She diverted more energy to direct control of it, and rotated the visual analysis units.
Garrus had taken a detour to alert select crew members individually as to the situation, leaving Shepard to go alone to the cockpit. A shame, she thought. She'd just gotten used to having him there.
Joker seemed to know that she was coming before she actually was. Or maybe his hearing was just acute. In any case, his head barely turned when she got close enough for conversation, but he did initiate it. "Hey, Commander, what's up? I heard things went pretty bad down there."
"Joker, you have a gift for understatement." She really hadn't meant for it to be a growl, but it was. Fortunately, he got the hint even though it was unintentional.
"What's our next stop?" He asked hastily.
"Hell if I know." Shepard did a double-take at the AI terminal. Was it just her, or were there two holographic representations there? "Company, EDI?"
"Just Jeddah stopping by for an ultimate showdown of the minds." Joker told her.
"He means chess, Commander." EDI explained.
"Eh, same difference." Joker shrugged.
Shepard honestly didn't know how to respond to that. It blew her mind that nearly 1700 years after someone had come up with the idea, two AI could have a match without it even being visible to the organic eye. Instead, she decided to focus on what she was actually there for. "Jeddah." She nodded to the red hologram, who she assumed was the geth in question. She realized too late how stupid she'd look if she was wrong.
"Commander Shepard." Well, at least no one pointed it out if that was the case. "Are you investigating the status of the crew?"
"More or less. I've got to break the bad news to Joker, too."
"Oh no, spare me!" Joker waved his arms dramatically.
"We don't have a heading yet, so you may have to dock somewhere."
"Oh the hu-" He paused. "Wait. Your bad news is that we have shore leave?"
"My bad news is that we're essentially impounded. We have to be ready to take off at a moment's notice."
"Well yeah, but, if we do that, wouldn't we only need a ground team?" Joker asked shrewdly. "I mean, if the ship blows up or we get stranded, it'd make sense to have someone who can come get us. Plus, everyone not groundside would just get bored."
"Well, we haven't had a team this large before…" She admitted. "I might give it a trial run."
"And hey, since you can't go shooting stuff anyway…"
"Don't push it, Joker." She warned.
"Shutting up."
"Jeddah, I'll be coming down to the engineering deck soon, and I'd prefer to talk to you face to face, if that's all right?" Shepard asked.
"Acknowledged." The red portion of the interface gave way to blue.
Shepard glanced at EDI's android body. "Chess, huh?"
She nodded. "Today marks the first time I have lost in that circumstance. Unit R-001 is disturbingly proficient at bluffing."
"He can lie?" Shepard asked in surprise.
"It would be more accurate to refer to the action as utilizing an opponent's certainty in the flawlessness of their approach to confuse them, allowing them to make fatal mistakes."
"So he beat you because you were overconfident." Shepard tried to hold back a smirk.
"A simplified but no less accurate assessment." The way she said it almost made it sound like she was grumbling.
"It seems a little too adaptive." Shepard thought aloud. "I hope Tali knows what she's doing."
"I recall that you did not immediately trust me, either." EDI pointed out. "That Tali'Zorah was a major hand in his creation speaks volumes of his capabilities."
"You just like him because he can beat you at chess." Shepard couldn't keep the smile off of her face, now.
"Any individual capable of that is worthy of respect." EDI said haughtily.
"I'll give, Joker." Shepard had come to a decision. "Take us to the Citadel. I'd say it's high time some of us have a break, crisis or no."
"Aye aye, Commander." And he sounded so cheerful, too.
[Author's Note: I'm terribly sorry about the comparative shortness of this chapter, but for some reason my body decided to let the flu in and screw up my schedule. Fortunately, I should be well enough to return to normal the week after next, at the latest.
Even better, my non-ill schedule is going to start allowing for just a little more story every week. Expect chapters numbering around 12 pages, rather than my customary ten.
Next week, we return to our heroes with new perspectives and new adventures as they undertake the horror of...vacation.]