I'm Reactivating the Geth
"Leave it there! You know what they are! If it gets into the Normandy's computers…" Tali tried to explain.
"There's no time to debate it, Tali. Come on!" Shepard said as he and Garrus grabbed the deactivated geth lying on the floor before them.
They were inside the corpse of a Reaper. For millions of years, the wreckage of the enormous, once sapient warship had been in orbit around the brown dwarf, Mnemosyne. But now with its mass effect core destroyed, which had sustained its orbit around the failed star for all this time, it would soon plummet into it and be destroyed. They needed to quickly escape, and Shepard decided that they would take the geth they found inside the Reaper with them.
They had come to the derelict Reaper for the purpose of acquiring an Identify Friend/Foe (IFF) device that would permit them to safely travel through the Omega-4 Relay, where the Collector homeworld awaited on the far side. Along with the IFF, they found numerous unusual things within the dark and ominous, almost organic looking interior of the dead Reaper. They stumbled across various vid logs of the previous Cerberus team, which indicated that the remnant of Reaper's indoctrination field had driven them to insanity. 'Dragon's Teeth' devices with impaled bodies, oriented in bizarre patterns as if for the purpose of worship. And many, many husks.
But the geth they now carried was the most bizarre discovery of all. All other encounters were no real surprise; they knew that contact had been lost with the previous Cerberus team, and seeing hordes of twisted abominations was always common when dealing with Reapers and their servants. This lone geth, however, was very unusual. Everything about it was an enigma. Not only was it alone, which is unheard of with the geth, it could speak and knew Shepard by name. It had a piece of N7 armor strapped to its body, and stranger still was the fact that it actually assisted Shepard and his team during a battle.
All of this was enough to pique Shepard's curiosity, and lead him to decide to bring it back to the Normandy, despite Tali's logical objection.
. . .
Hours passed since their mission on the derelict Reaper, and Tali stood at her work console in Engineering, performing routine maintenance on the Normandy's systems. While lost into her easy yet mundane work, she heard the door behind her open. She kept typing into her console, not bothering to turn around and see who it was. Ken and Gabby often came and went through the area, and Shepard liked to visit her often during the day. If it was him, she knew she'd soon feel a pair of hands on her body, caressing her and utterly interrupting her work; which, of course, she wouldn't mind.
Instead, she heard unusual footsteps. A type of clanking noise, as if metal impacting the metal of the floor. She stopped typing. Along with the strange footsteps, she also heard a familiar sound, which had long elicited emotional responses of hatred and abhorrence within her. It was the subtle whirring and humming of the internal mechanisms of a synthetic creature. There was a geth behind her. The geth.
Tali turned around, and as if she were in a bad dream, her eyes instantly met with the emotionless, brightly glowing optic sensor of a geth, staring right at her. Its head flaps spread out ever so slightly, and it made some extra, subtle mechanical noises as it focused on her.
"Creator," it said in its synthesized voice, "Tali'Zorah."
After a short period of no response from Tali, it said, "We wish to study the Normandy's systems. Shepard-Commander authorized us to explore the ship."
Without saying a word, Tali immediately walked away from her console, in a very fast and tense pace, and exited Engineering through the door on the other side; she did not want to walk by that thing. She took the elevator, and selected the top deck. She was absolutely furious, and couldn't believe Shepard had actually activated it. Worse still, he had allowed it to wander the ship. Her mind couldn't wrap around that fact.
Stepping into the cabin, she saw Shepard sitting at his desk, working at his private terminal.
"You activated the geth?" she asked in disbelief; her voice was livid.
Shepard sighed quietly, and calmly stood up. He had been expecting this. "Yes, a short while ago."
"Why, Shepard?" she asked loudly, but not letting him answer, "You know what those things are like! You know what they're capable of! How many times have you been shot at by geth? You of all people should know better!"
He responded, "You're right, I have been shot at by a lot of geth—I've been shot at by every geth I've ever encountered. Except this one. That's why I activated it; I wanted to learn why it's different."
"So you were curious? That's it? That's why you're endangering all of us?" she angrily asked. "It's a geth! It's a servant of the Reapers! How could you possibly bring that unto our ship? Just to satisfy your curiosity?"
"It's not serving the Reapers!" Shepard responded, raising his voice slightly. "I talked with it. It explained that a group of geth splintered from the geth collective—heretics, it calls them—and they're the ones that worship the Reapers; they're the ones we've been fighting all this time." He paused momentarily, and added, "That information alone made its reactivation worthwhile."
"Oh, so it's just one of the friendly geth that drove my people from our homeworld," she responded sarcastically. The news Shepard gave her was major, but she was still too worked up—too frustrated over that thought of a geth walking around the ship she called her home.
"Tali, I know your people's exile is a sensitive topic," he said, his voice calmer now, "but you know that the geth were only acting in self defense. The quarians were the ones who attacked first."
"No, Shepard!" Tali snapped in response, "What they did wasn't just self defense! Maybe at first it was, but it stopped being self defense when our armies were defeated—when our fleets were destroyed! It stopped being self defense when we tried to surrender! They killed everyone they found, they killed children and the elderly! Is killing defenseless noncombatants self defense? No!
"Do you know what our population was before the war? Eighteen billion. Do you know how many of my people got away? Seventeen million! Do the math, Shepard—it's less than point one percent! That's all that got away! We may have made a mistake and attempted genocide, but they're the ones that actually committed it! They were intent on our destruction; the only mercy we were ever shown, was that they didn't follow us outside of the Veil! Don't you dare tell me that what they did was only self defense!"
Shepard waited a moment, making sure her tirade was over. He then said, "I know how you feel about this, Tali, and I can't justify or explain what happened during that war. But you need to put aside your hatred of the geth. Don't you see? They actually oppose the Reapers; they can help us fight them! " He noticed no reaction from Tali, and also added, "Just think how much you can learn about the geth from it. They don't hate organics, Tali. We may be able to forge peace with them. For all we know… we may be able to find a peaceful way to get your people their world back!"
Shepard's words seemed far too optimistic. Far too impossible. Tali said, "I don't believe that. The geth have attacked everyone that has entered the Perseus Veil since our exile. They attacked any diplomats the Council sent to negotiate. In three hundred years, they've never once tried to tell the rest of the galaxy that they're open to peace with organics."
"Until now," Shepard said. "That's why they sent Legion outside of the Veil. To find me, and make contact with me. They wanted to inform organics that they are not our enemies."
Legion? Is that what he calls that thing? she briefly thought, and then said, "How do we know that it isn't some kind of trick? That it isn't working with the Reapers, and trying to deceive and manipulate you?"
"If that were the case, why didn't it just kill us back on the derelict Reaper? What would the point of 'manipulating' me be? It's not like anyone else is trying to stop the Reapers—it might as well have killed me when it had the chance. Hell, it probably saved our lives."
Tali couldn't find a way to property refute Shepard's belief. Growing frustrated, she just stated what she felt, "This—this is too much. I've worked with Cerberus, but this is too much. I do not want that thing on our ship!"
Shepard had been attempting to restrain his frustration with the argument, but he couldn't do it any longer; he had enough of this debate. "Look, I'm the one in charge of this ship, and this is my decision. The geth stays, and that's final."
Tali was taken aback by what he said. "So, that's it, then? You don't care how I feel about this? All that talk after my trial about me having a home here on the Normandy, and you dismiss my concerns, just like that? I'm vas Normandy, Shepard! This ship is part of my name! How can you not care how I feel about this?" she exclaimed.
"I do care! Don't say I don't!" Shepard shouted in response. With noticeable frustration he said, "Damn it, Tali, why are you being so stubborn about this? Why can't you just trust me? You're letting your hatred of the geth cloud your judgment! This is exactly why Koris was gunning for you during your trial! This attitude is what got you ex—"Shepard stopped, suddenly realizing the mistake in what he was saying. Oh shit…
"What?" Tali asked in disbelief. "How can you... how can you say that! How can you justify what that bastard did to me?" she yelled.
Shepard quickly tried to apologize, "Look, I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorr—"
"So you think his motivation was right?" she interrupted. "You think what he did was right? You agree with what he did?"
"No! Of course I don't!"
"That's not what I just heard! How could—" her voice broke, fighting back tears, "how could… just, just don't talk to me!" she shouted, her voice wavering. She stormed out of their cabin.
Damn it. Shepard slapped his hand on his desk, and sighed, shaking his head. What a fucking disaster. He couldn't believe what he had done; what he had said. He had been frustrated over her refusal in accepting a non-hostile geth, but now he only felt intense regret. Bringing up her trial—her exile—in a way that seemed to justify what had been done to her was a mistake. It was wrong. He shouldn't have let his frustration control his words; he shouldn't have brought up Koris.
After a brief period of standing in his quarters, his mind actively trying to figure out how to solve this problem, he left the room. He decided he was going to go see Legion.
He wanted to talk to it, and he desired nothing more than to find an excuse to throw it out the airlock.
. . .
Over half an hour had passed since their fight, and Tali sat in the starboard observation deck by herself. She sat at the end of the couch in front of the window. Her feet were up on the edge of the seat, with her knees folded up. Her arms rested on her knees, as she gazed blankly at the great, black void of space before her.
Her head hurt, and her eyes stung. The skin of her cheeks felt slightly sticky from now dried tears. She wished she could rub her sore eyes, they really needed to be rubbed, but that was yet another simple act that, as a quarian, she was deprived of.
As she stared out into nothing, her mind lingered on what had happened in the cabin a while ago. In the time that followed her storming out of the room, there had been intense anger and distress at what Shepard said. If he wants to debate over that geth's usefulness, fine. But how could he act like that? How could he say what he said, and bring up my exile? How could he mention the bastard who exiled me, as if what he did was right?
However, it didn't take long before her initial feelings of anger over their fight dissipated, and she found herself feeling grief-stricken and depressed, quietly crying to herself in the empty observation room. She hated that she had a fight with Shepard; it was something that had never happened before. They sometimes had the occasional disagreement, but it was never more than a minor argument or debate, which always quickly fixed itself. This relationship with Shepard had been the first one of her life, and thus, this was the first fight she had ever had with a significant other. Just as the first times they cuddled, kiss, and made love had been joyous beyond belief, the pain she now felt was utter torture.
For some time now, she had been feeling emotionally drained and weary; she simply felt exhausted and numb. As she stared out into space, she thought about what Shepard had said, not only in regards to the geth, but about her attitude toward them. She began to wonder if maybe she was the one who was wrong. Shepard seemed so sure that having that geth onboard was the right choice. He seemed positive that it could benefit them. I've always been able to trust his decisions. They have never let me down before. Maybe this is no exception, she thought to herself. She didn't know if she truly believed that, or if she just wanted to, just to have an excuse to make up and bring an end to her sadness.
Tali continued to reflect back on recent events, and as she pondered them, she started to wonder where Shepard was. Realizing that some time had passed since their fight, she suddenly felt saddened that he hadn't come find her and talk to her. She preferred to be alone, but the fact that he didn't attempt to talk to her and resolve the situation was very unlike him. When she left their cabin, she expected him to immediately follow her; it was his style to try and fix problems as quickly as possible by talking.
"EDI," she called out, which automatically activated EDI's nearby terminal. She never particularly enjoyed talking to the ship's AI, but she had grown to live with it. It at least spoke like a person, and was shackled and under restraint.
From the terminal, EDI's blue holographic projection emerged and asked, "Yes, Tali'Zorah?"
"Can you tell me where Shepard is?"
"Commander Shepard is currently in the AI core room. He is talking with Legion."
Tali exhaled through her teeth, suddenly feeling very disappointed. She shook her head; she couldn't believe Shepard had been talking with the geth all this time. That was the reason he hadn't come see her, and try and fix their current quarrel.
"Thanks," she said to EDI, so as to dismiss her. EDI's projection disappeared.
Tali returned to her depleted emotional state, now wearier than before, with the knowledge that Shepard was spending time with his new pet while she sat there, feeling miserable. It felt to her that he didn't even care.
A few minutes passed, and then the solemn silence that filled the room where Tali sat, thinking and unmoving, was interrupted by the sound of the door opening behind her. She could see on the reflection of the window in front of her that it was Shepard.
Shepard walked over, and sat down on the couch with Tali, but one seat over. He knew it was best to give her space. He sat leaning forward, supporting his upper body up with his forearms pressed against the top of his thighs.
A short while passed without either saying anything. Finally, Shepard said, "Do you remember after we left the Rayya, when I got so mad that I punched the airlock wall?"
After a brief hesitation, Tali answered in a quiet, somewhat curt voice, "Yeah." She shuffled slightly in her seat, folding her arms.
"I was this close," Shepard held out his hand, and did a pinching motion with his thumb and index finger, "to doing that to Koris. I was so tempted to run up to those admirals, punch Koris right in his face, and watch his mask shatter to pieces."
Tali didn't say anything.
There was silence as Shepard waited for some kind of response, which never came. Finally, he decided to continue talking.
"I mentioned that because… well, I guess I just want you to know how angry I was at him for what he did to you. I still am," he said. "What happened earlier… I was just so excited and optimistic about what I learned from Legion—about what it could all mean—and I got so frustrated that you didn't want to consider any of it.
"But… bringing up that asshole admiral's opinion and his motivation for exiling you was a stupid thing to do. You're the last person who should have gone through what he put you through. You're a hero, Tali. You've been such an important part in our efforts against the Reapers. Hell, the first time I ever even heard their name was from the audio recording you acquired. None of this would have been possible without you. You deserved better—you deserve better, than what I said, and… I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I dismissed your concerns when I said that this was my ship, and I'm sorry that I disrespectfully brought up your exile."
There was a long period of silence after Shepard's words.
Tali then said, in a quiet yet unhappy voice, "EDI told me that you were talking with the geth all this time. I sat here, feeling miserable over what happened, and you were chatting with it, instead."
She felt touched over what Shepard just said, and she really wanted to just hug him and end the bitterness of their argument, but it really bothered her that he chose to spend the time right after their fight, continuing to converse with Legion. He shouldn't have waited all this time to talk to her and say all this to her; he shouldn't have talked to it first, no matter how excited and optimistic he was over what it had told him. While she had been feeling angry, sad, betrayed, and miserable, he had been chatting with the damn thing responsible for all this.
After a brief interval, Shepard responded, "I went to talk to it first, because I was angry with it. I wanted to blame it for our fight. I went to it, hoping I would find a reason to grab it by its synthetic neck, and throw it out the airlock. I wanted an excuse to get it off the ship, and make you happy. I thought it would be the best way to fix what had happened."
Shepard paused a moment and continued. "I was really bothered by what happened in our cabin; by what I said. I regretted it deeply, and I still do. You mean so much to me, Tali. Just looking at you, and hearing your beautiful voice… it's the highlight of every one of my days. You're the best thing in my life. And knowing that one of my decisions caused you so much grief; caused us to argue and yell… I desperately wanted to find a way to undo it."
Some time passed as Shepard sat, looking at her, hoping for a response. Tali continued to stare straight ahead at the window. To Shepard, the wait for a response felt like an eternity. But, finally, she said in a very soft voice, "You should sit closer."
Shepard instantly felt intense relief, and a small smile appeared on his face. He got up, and took the seat that was between them; he was now right next to her. After a short wait, Tali tilted her head to the side, and rested it on his shoulder.
"Since it's still on the ship," she said, "I take it you didn't find a reason to get rid of it."
"No, Tali, I didn't," he responded, almost sounding disappointed, even though he knew it was a good thing. "But I found a lot of reasons to keep it. I learned more about the geth, stuff I never imagined. I know how you feel about them, but please, give Legion a chance. After talking with it, I genuinely believe diplomacy is possible with them… that they may actually be willing to return Rannoch to your people."
Tali's eyes widened; she felt very surprised—almost shocked—to hear that name: Rannoch. She knew Shepard didn't know the true name of her homeworld; the majority of quarians didn't even know it. It was a forgotten name. Shepard could only have learned it from Legion.
"Why would the geth give up their world?" she asked. "They took it over. They've had three hundred years to settle it. It would be like asking humans to give up Earth." She wanted to remain skeptical; the thought of the geth simply giving the planet back sounded too good to be true.
"That's just the thing," Shepard said, eager to explain what he had learned, "they don't use your world, at all. They don't live on it, they live on space stations. They don't even gather resources from it; they find it more efficient to mine asteroids. And get this, they've actually cleaned it—they've cleared the damage left behind by the war. They've acted as the world's caretakers. Tali, I know I don't need to tell you how significant this information is. No one in the Migrant Fleet—hell, no one in the galaxy—knows any of this, except us."
A period of time passed in silence after Shepard's words. Tali was in thought over what he said, and as she considered not only his words, but everything that had transpired earlier, she suddenly realized something important. Something she already knew, but never really considered during their past argument.
She lifted her head off his shoulder, and looked right at his eyes. "When I first joined this ship, I was really nervous. I remember when I first walked inside it, and saw the Cerberus insignias on the walls… it made me feel sick."
She continued, "In the past, the Migrant Fleet has been attacked many times by pirates and mercenaries. But no one had ever actually infiltrated it; actually gone into one of our ships and killed people. Until Cerberus. With what they did on the Idenna, they quickly became one of my people's most hated enemies. And that's where I found myself when I joined you after Haestrom: with Cerberus. I was in a Cerberus vessel, surrounded by Cerberus crewmembers. And it was purely because of you, Shepard. I joined this ship because of you.
"It was like… you were standing in hell, and you asked me to jump in with you. And I did. I listened to you, over everything my gut was telling me. I jumped into hell because I trusted and loved you… and it turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life. My trust in you was well placed, as it always had been before.
"And just now, I realized, that this is the exact same situation. I see you again, standing in hell—in a place worse than hell—and you're asking me to jump into it with you again.
"I grew up hating the geth; I was taught to hate them, especially by father, and I've always blamed them for the hardships my people suffer. I can't imagine my animosity toward them ever going away completely, even if everything that geth told you, turns out to be true."
Tali paused for a moment, and said, "So, my choice is… do I love you more than I hate the geth? Do I trust you enough to jump into hell with you, again?" She took his hand and held it with both of hers, as she stared directly at his eyes. "I do, Shepard… I trust you. I trust your judgment. I'll cooperate with Legion."
All Shepard could do was smile at her response, as he looked at her, feeling her hands squeezing his own. After a short interval, he said in low, soft voice, "I wish we were in our room, so I could take your mask off and kiss you."
With everything that had happened, and the sad, weary emotional state that only now had ended, absolutely nothing sounded better to Tali than for the two to reaffirm their love of each other with intimacy, such as kissing. She leaned in and quietly said, "Maybe we should go to our room, then..."
They went back to their quarters, sat on their couch together, and briefly continued talking. However, few words and little time passed before Tali's mask ended up coming off. Her exposed face quickly lead to their lips coming together, and it wasn't long before Tali found herself straddled on top of Shepard as he sat on the couch; the two of them eagerly embracing and kissing.
And even less time passed, before they ended up migrating toward their bed, desperately pulling off each other's apparel in the process.
. . .
It was the next day, and Tali stepped out of the elevator on the Normandy's crew deck, where she proceeded to walk toward the med-bay. She was sick and had a fever from the hours she ended up spending making up with Shepard the previous night, but that was not the reason she was approaching the med-bay. Her destination was the server room behind it.
She briefly greeted Chakwas as she walked by, and continued forward. As soon as she entered, Legion moved slightly, and focused its stare at her. She approached, but kept a significant distance.
"Creator-Tali'Zorah," Legion stated. Its acknowledgement of her presence was its way of greeting.
Tali hesitated before speaking. "You spoke with Shepard yesterday."
"Yes," it responded. An efficient, accurate response.
"You told him that the geth are divided. Some of you worship the Reapers, but most of you oppose them."
"Yes."
"And the geth who oppose the reapers—the ones you belong to—are the ones who have control of the Perseus Veil."
"Yes."
Tali found herself somewhat annoyed by its repeated use of the same word for its responses. It almost felt like speaking to a child who wasn't paying attention. "Is that word all you can say?"
"No. We judged it sufficient to accurately answer your questions."
Be patient with it. You told Shepard you would at least give it a chance. "Shepard also told me, that you said that the geth don't hate organic life. That you don't hold a grudge against my people for the war."
"Organic life act on emotions. We understand why the creators attempted to destroy us. We do not judge them. We have no animosity toward the creators. Our concern is that our existence is not threatened."
"So, you're saying that there can be peace between my people and the geth?"
"Yes. But both creators and created must complete their halves of the equation. The geth cannot solve for peace alone. Organics fear that which is different. This limits peace. It is a hardware error. A reflex of your flesh."
"That's not always true," Tali refuted. "Shepard and I are a different species, yet we don't fear each other, we—" Should I even tell it this? "…we love each other. What organics fear is what we don't understand, because what we don't understand is a potential risk. That is why my people attacked the geth. We believed them to be a risk. We thought an uprising was inevitable, and we wanted to stop it from happening."
As she talked, Legion's head flaps adjusted slightly, and it made some extra mechanical noises and clicks. It waited a period of time before responding.
"Clarification request," Legion said. "Creator-Tali'Zorah and Shepard-Commander are mated?"
Tali found its question odd. Not only did it seem like it missed the point of her whole statement, she wasn't even sure how to answer it. "Well, I… I guess you could put it like that." Not officially, but that's going to change one day…
"We do not understand," Legion said. "Organics form mated bonds for the purpose of ensuring offspring safety and survival. Yet your hardware is not compatible with Shepard-Commander's. Creating offspring is not possible. A mated bond serves no purpose."
This was the first time Tali had ever been told that she could never have children with Shepard. She knew it already, of course, as it was biologically impossible. But she had never really thought about it; whenever the thought entered her mind, she always chose not to dwell on it. Hearing it from someone—even if it was a geth—suddenly made her feel somewhat pensive, and sad.
"There are many reasons for two people to be together and love each other. We are not bound by our 'hardware' like you are," she responded. "But I don't want to discuss this."
"What do you wish to discuss?"
"I'll get straight to the point," Tali said. "My people need a world. The Migrant Fleet can't sustain us forever. We want—we need—our home back."
"'Home' is recognized patterns. Known spaces. Familiar thought processes of fellow sapients. It is belonging. A planet is an amount of material massive enough to collapse into a spherical volume. Rocks, ice, and gasses are not 'home.' Place of origin is irrelevant. Example: your origin is the creator fleet, yet you call the Normandy home."
"You don't understand," Tali said. "Our race can't continue existing in a fleet of ships. We need a world, but our immune system makes colonizing a new world almost impossible. We need our native environment back. Settling a new world is just too difficult. It would take hundreds of years for us to adapt."
Legion made a few mechanical noises as it processed Tali's words, but didn't respond. Tali then continued, "Shepard said you told him that the geth don't even inhabit our homeworld. That you don't use it at all."
"Correct. We are only caretakers. We live within space stations. Draw resources from asteroids. It is efficient. We maintain mobile platforms on your worlds to clean rubble and toxics left by the Morning War."
"That doesn't make sense. Why care for words you don't even use?"
"Organic races perform similar actions. You preserve land where your dead are buried. You do not use the land. Shepard-Commander explained that organics do this in remembrance of their dead."
"Yes, but geth don't die. Your memories are transmitted to server nodes and backed up."
"The creators died. Perhaps we do it for you."
There was a period of silence after Legion's words ended, and Tali thought about what it said. Cleaning worlds they didn't use had no logic to it. She had expected the geth to follow cold, machine-like reasoning. The fact that it said 'Perhaps we do it for you,' implied that the geth don't even fully understand their actions, themselves; as if they weren't bound to machine-like logic. For the first time in her life, the geth seemed more than just cold, emotionless, lifeless machines.
Putting her thoughts aside, she finally asked what was most important to know. "If you have no use for the homeworld… then what would my people need to do, for us to be allowed back?"
"We cannot answer that," Legion replied. "Consensus would have to be built by the entire geth collective. All perspectives must be considered."
"Can't you communicate with them?"
"Yes. However a single mobile platform cannot be used to negotiate entry into our space. It is a security risk. Our interaction with the Old Machines have made us aware that we are not immune to hacking and reprogram attempts. The Normandy would need to communicate directly with the geth collective."
"So we would need to go into geth space?"
"Yes."
Tali said, "But the geth are extremely territorial. They attack without attempting negotiation or offering the chance to leave. How will we know that the rest of your kind won't attack us?"
"This mobile platform can broadcast an Identify Friend/Foe signal that will allow the Normandy safe entry into geth space. However we cannot return until our tasks are complete."
"What tasks?" Tali asked.
"Collectors are servants of the Old Machines. Since making contact with Shepard-Commander we have built consensus that the Collector threat must be neutralized. But there is a more immediate task we must first complete. The heretics have developed a weapon to use against the geth. You would call it a virus. It is stored on a data core provided by Sovereign. Over time it will change us by introducing a subtle programming error into our most basic runtimes. It would make us conclude that worshipping the Old Machines is correct."
"So it would turn all geth into 'heretics'? How can we stop that?"
"The Old Machine datacore that contains the virus is physically isolated from the network. We would need to be escorted to it to access and destroy the data. It is located in the heretic space station headquarters."
"Have you told Shepard any of this?"
"No. We have only recently completed our analysis."
"I'm going to go inform him, then."