Finding someone willing to sell was easy. Rela, one of her mother's oldest friends, often complained about the lack of space, about the accumulating junk, about the lack of buying offers, about the lack of money. Riah knew most quarians, most stupid quarians, kept every single piece of junk they ever got their hands on. It was a habit bred into their minds by the Migrant Fleet, a collection of junkyards strapped with engines floating out in space, to keep every piece of equipment in storage, waiting to be fixed and put back into use. A fine practice often taken to absurd extremes. This was one of those extremes. Riah looked over Rela's apartment, her eyes wandering all over the accumulated hardware her mother's friend had hoarded over the years. Much of it was useless, but here and there she spotted somethings that could fetch a loaded credit chit to the right buyers. Like the old Boro Fabrication units before her. An old C-9200 model. If Riah remembered correctly these were collector's items, sought after by fans of the famous volus engineer Han Kolklan who designed them before passing away. It was damaged and Rela had admitted it didn't work, but Riah guessed that this machine would easily sell for a couple thousand credits on a collector's market.
Santi was going to buy it for less than a thousand.
Technically, they were buying everything in here for around a thousand, which meant they were buying that valuable collector's item for around 24 credits.
Riah honestly didn't feel bad about this. While 24 credits for an old C-9200 was a complete steal, Rela could never realistically count on selling it for the hundred or so credits it was worth, much less the thousands of credits some collectors were willing to pay. It was the same story with the other junk here. Maybe someone on station would offer reasonable prices for an individual piece of garbage here, or maybe Rela would finally buy a replacement part, or buy a patent-breaker to micro-fab a replacement out of omni-gel. But all of that took time, hunting for deals and haggling. Riah and Santi were offering 1,000 credits here and now. Rela's apartment would look so much nicer without all this junk taking up most of the space.
"I'll take it." Rela declared.
Ah, there it is. She thought. A sale based on desperation.
Still, she didn't feel bad. Now they had material for the golem and Rela had money. Everyone wins.
We just win more, Riah thought as Santi handed over a credit chit.
"Riah," the woman spoke up as Santi started loading things up into his cart, "Could we talk in Khelish for a bit?"
Riah nodded, switching on her omni-tool's translator's privacy setting.
"What is it?" she asked, noticing Santi look over his shoulder at them.
"He's the human who made that robot for the volus fellow up on 8th?" she asked in a voice that sounded much more wonderful than the machine translated basic. "Are you sure he's not doing anything dangerous?"
"I'm making sure he isn't. Don't worry Rela, our Ancestor's shame won't be repeated by this ignorant child." Riah knew she had to really sell the safety of their operation. If a single quarian started a rumor that Santi was building AIs… well, Varlus was right to fear the boot the top floors would bring down on the two of them. "He is only using old security drone VI software and the only modifications he makes to their software falls under the Citadel's VI Modification Laws." Of course this is all a lie. Riah had no clue how Santi was actually programming the golems, this is just what she assumed he was doing.
Rela scoffed. "The Citadel's VI laws, what would they know?"
"Well," Riah began, "He claims to come from a long line of human drone makers." Another lie. "And humans have several millennia of experience on robot VIs." Santi had told her so, but she wasn't sure if she believed it. Didn't matter though, Rela had to believe it.
"Mmmh," her mother's friend murmured, "I suppose that will have to do." She hummed as she uploaded the credit chit's contents to her bank account. "What are those humans like? You've spent time with them; you must know the boy since you are business partners."
Riah fidgeted in her spot, finding the question odd and disliking the implication that she is close to the boy. "They are poor and have odd beliefs. Their homeworld is nothing but rubble. Like krogan."
Rela nodded. "Like us you mean."
"Alright, you're installing the ERCS into the head…" Riah narrated into her omni-tool, recording the entire procedure.
"Why are you recording me?" Santi shot a dirty look over his shoulder.
"Because I need to know our product," Riah shot back, "How can I convince my people that you aren't building AIs if I can't answer basic questions about these things? Also… maybe I'll learn enough to help you build these things. And renegotiate my cut."
"Ha! Ghouls will sooner rebuild their nation." Santi laughed as he went back to his tinkering.
Riah scowled at the human, insulted that he'd claimed she couldn't understand his craft. "Just keep working," she said as she aimed her omni-tool at his work, recording everything she saw. They sat in something approaching non-awkward silence as Santi continued working, though as the minutes turned into hours Riah noticed that Santi's work was making less and less sense. It had started logical enough, working with the skeletal frame he had already started when she'd returned from Varlus' shop, but then he began adding parts in a haphazard manner, connecting parts to other parts for no logical reason.
"Why are you putting that part there?" she asked, unable to hold back her curiosity any longer.
"Because it's heavy." He answered flatly.
"That's a temperature controller for cars, what does it have to do with the arm assembly of a robot?"
"It's heavy," Santi said, "That means it'll make this guy punch harder."
That makes perfect sense. Riah thought. "Are you telling me that you are just using these parts as filler?"
The boy shrugged, "I'm working with what I have. You could make a much higher quality golem with a body that makes physical sense, if I had an old security droid this thing could be of much higher quality." He made a face as he seemed to think of something. "Even a skeleton would be better than this. But!" he exclaimed, temporarily drawing Riah's attention away from his skeleton comment, "this'll do. And yes, I am just using the parts as filler. Anything to make this heavy and durable before we wrap it up in armor casings. Wards and kinetic barriers will give it the extra protection it needs."
"I'll pretend I understood any of that and I'll pretend that you know what you're doing so that this doesn't turn out to be a huge waste of time." Riah sighed, leaning back in her chair before carefully taking out one of her favorite sweets and attaching it to her helmet's port, a small straw extending to her lips. She spent the next few minutes absentmindedly going through several sweets, occasionally moving her arm to adjust her omni-tool's camera of Santi and his work.
"Are you overweight for a quarian?"
"What?" Riah hissed.
Santi pointed to all her discarded sweets in her lap. "Your mom mentioned that you're watching your weight, and that those aren't doing you any favors. But…" Santi made a face as he put down the blowtorch he was working with. "I really hate to say this, but you look fine. You aren't any bigger than Katja, my mother. And she's a nice looking lady too."
Riah wasn't sure where he was trying to steer this conversation. "See I see your perversion extends to your "mother", tell me if all humans are incestuous perverts?"
"What?!" Santi yelled, his face contorting in anger, "It's not-"
"What's your point?" Riah cut him off, "Why do you care? I thought you didn't want to talk to me, you called me a bitch."
"I was just trying to make some conversation." Santi ground out, his grip tightening on the blowtorch. He turned away from her and continued working. Riah noticed he seemed to be taking out his anger on the piece of metal he was carving symbols into.
"So your idea of conversation is insulting a woman about her weight?" Riah jabbed back, happy that she was able to upset him so easily. "And whatever thoughts you think about your mother's figure, if she were a quarian she'd be a bit on the thicker side. Same as me. But that's not the same as being overweight."
They sat in silence again, the only sounds coming from the blowtorch in Santi's hand.
"You're right." The human said, drawing Riah's attention to him again. "Your mother is very slim and hippy."
Riah wasn't sure she appreciated his comments. "I'd prefer if you weren't looking at my mother like that," she began, "though yes, my mother is admired among our little quarian community on station."
Another long stretch of silence.
"Christ, I expected you to be a lot friendlier after I paid back your mother. I thought the only reason you were this much of a bitch to me and my mother was because we were living off of your generosity. But you still haven't changed. I have no clue how you're your mother's daughter. She's so nice and you… Christ, I've met nicer succubae."
"Yeah," Riah agreed, finding his anger enjoyable, "but at the moment you need me and unfortunately I need you. Why? Money. Lots of it."
"I have half a mind to give up on this deal of yours and try to strike it out on my own. Varlus didn't seem to be worried about any potential AI scare once I explained how it works to him. But our mothers are friends with each other, hell I'm friends with your mother too! We'd rather not lose that friendship." He finished with carving the symbols into the plates scattered around him, and pointed off to another tool beside Riah. "Hand me that."
"No please?" Riah asked, grabbing the tool in question and handing it to him.
"No." Santi shrugged as he began to attack the carved pieces of plating, tiles and other pieces to the body of the machine, forming a salvaged armor of sorts.
"Why my mother likes you so much is beyond me," Riah muttered. "A boy who doesn't even say please and thank you when a lady hands him something."
"When you stop being a bitch and turn into a lady I'll give niceties."
"Ah, I see you two are getting along wonderfully." Katja called from the door, neither of them having heard her come in. Riah straightened up as the woman walked in with that elegant walk of hers, she didn't care what the boy thought of her, but it was true that his so-called mother and her own were good friends. "Almost done with this one?"
"Yeah." Santi replied, stepping away from the golem and admiring his work. Riah thought it didn't look as impressive as the one Varlus had. In fact, it seemed quite flimsy. "It just needs some Anima and boom, we're ready to sell."
They both turned to Riah, who raised an eyebrow at them, "Alright!" she cheered, eager to finally be done for the day. Work was exhausting. "So let's do this thing and let's get to making money."
Santi shrugged, while Katja turned to talk to her. "Dear," she began with her infuriating nickname, "It's just that an Anima infusion is… well, it involves blood. Are you sure you want to stay around for this?"
Riah considered the woman's words. It was true that the so-called "blood magic" had startled her when she first saw it and she'd rather avoid any further experiences with the Gaian magic, but what if they were lying to her? She checked her recording on her omni-tool, 4 hours of recording. Riah admitted that most of it seemed useless since Santi's construction of the golem had seemed to be without any logic but she did want to keep it fully intact. Maybe she could sell the information one day? More importantly it was true that she needed to know her product to sell it properly, that wasn't a lie that she told Santi. No matter how much distaste she held for the two humans, she was taking this seriously and wanted to make money.
And Gaian magic was interesting.
She could admit to that. Getting past all the Gaian pseudo-religious nonsense that permeated all of the scant information found on them in the extra-net, it was clear that Gaian magic actually had some power behind it. It wasn't biotics, or so the speculation was starting to suggest.
And she didn't want to seem like a scared little girl running at the first sight of blood.
"I can handle a little bit of blood," Riah stated.
Katja looked to Santi, who shrugged and began to take off his shirt. Riah refrained some asking what he was doing and instead noted how Katja stood behind him and held on to him and lowered her head to whisper something into his ear. Sant grabbed one of Katja's hands and replied something in a hushed voice. The scene before her caused Riah to look away, her helmet heating up. She was sure that they were lying about their relationship unless human culture really was as perverted as she'd suggested to Santi.
"Alright," Santi's voice drew her eyes back to him, still held by Katja. "This will get bloody, try not to freak out. In fact, go stand over there," he pointed off to the far end of the room," if you have to stay. Everyone ready?"
"Of course dear," Katja answered.
"Yes, let's get this over with," Riah said once she'd reached the spot where Santi had pointed to.
Then Santi's wrists exploded.
Riah jumped in terror, quarian curses leaving her tongue as a torrent of blood sprayed all over the prone golem, Santi's face contorting in pain as Katja held on to him, her own hands glowing where they touched Santi's skin. Riah asked what was going on several times, though when neither of them answered she gave up trying to find answers. She tried to calm down but the sight of so much blood shooting out of the boy's two wrists was making her head spin and stomach churn, she felt the sweets she had earlier rise up in her throat. She could hear the blood spraying out of his body. She saw the holes in his hand widen and widen, slivers of skin being shredded off by the force of the torrent and hitting the golem. Just when Riah thought the boy would die from blood loss the stream of red liquid stopped abruptly. Before she could stop herself she ran over to the two humans, spurts of blood still falling from Santi's hands.
"Keelah! What was that? Is he alright?!" she asked, real terror in her voice, her eyes drawn to the wounds on Santi's arms, to the skin knitting itself back together.
"Shhhhh," Katja whispered, cradling a pale Santi in her arms. "Let me concentrate dear." Her hands glowed as she gently rocked Santi back and forth.
Riah jumped again, another curse from her mouth as the golem next to her growled. A low rumble coming from its chest as it stood up to its full height. Blood dripped from its body; small scraps of flesh fell off of its chassis. Riah looked down and saw a giant puddle of blood and gore on the ground; it was warm against her feet. She yelped, all pretense of looking brave before the humans failing. and jumped backwards, landing on the couch she had been sitting on and lifting her feet off of the ground.
When she looked back over to Santi she saw his eyes flutter open, the color returning to his body and his wounds nearly sealed up. "Oh, you got some on your feet," he whispered and gestured with his hands, all the blood that clung to Riah's feet flying off of her and splashing back into the pool of blood around Santi and Katja.
"Are you ok dear?" Katja asked, a second passing before Riah noticed she was talking to her.
"Me? What about him!?" she pointed where his wounds should be.
"He'll be fine," Katja said, playing with Santi's hair, "He's just exhausted, just needs to sleep for a bit. But are you fine? Do you need to lay down?"
"No, no, no." Riah shook her head. "No, I'm fine." She finished the recording program on her omni-tool, "I'm alright. Ha! Keelah, I'm so alright. But if you don't mind," she gestured to the couch she was on. "All this hard work is exhausting, can I just nap here for a bit?" she asked.
Katja smiled warmly at her, "Go ahead dear."
Riah fainted.