"How can you possibly think this is a good idea!" Tali's screams seemed to filled the entire deck. So much so that Morinth casually wondered if she had deliberately amplified the volume of her suit's speakers just to win the argument with overwhelming firepower.
"Tali, please, you're being unreasonable." Shepard said gently trying to calm her friend down.
"Unreasonable?!" Tali shouted back, "How exactly is it unreasonable to NOT want a murderous construct in our midst!? Machines that want nothing more but to kill all organics! Or did I just imagine all of those Geth who were constantly shooting at us three years ago!"
Morinth walked slowly around the corner and immediately found Shepard and Tali standing outside the door to the medbay locked in their high pitched argument. It was oddly sweet to bare witness to the fact that Tali was the only one in the entire galaxy - as far as Morinth was aware - that could yell at Shepard like she did without risking a punch to the face, or getting shot. Decidedly curious, Morinth opted to lean back against the bulkhead for the moment and watch the exchange play out.
"That's just it," Shepard tried to explain, "All the other geth we've ever met have tried to kill us. So why is this one different? It had every chance to shoot me but it chose not to. In fact it helped us back there. Possibly even saved your life."
"Please Shepard!" Tali insisted, "One bosh'tet husk is hardly saving my life! And even if that wasn't the case, it wouldn't excuse the millions of Quarians the Geth killed when they drove us from our homeworld."
"I'm not looking for excuses, Tali." Shepard assured her, "I'm looking for answers. This geth is a rare opportunity to get just that. Just trust me on this one for now. If it doesn't work out then I promise you I will personally reduce that thing to scrap before you can even say 'I told you so'."
"That won't stop me from saying it, you know." Tali said, sounding calmer now.
"I wouldn't expect anything less." Shepard smiled at the quarian.
"Ugh! Fine, I'll play along for now." Tali grunted as she threw her hands up in an annoyed gesture, "Wasn't bad enough I had to join you on a Cerberus vessel with a bosh'tet AI on board, now you're literally throwing geth in as well. I swear I don't know how you manage to convince me to put up with this crap."
Morinth was sure she knew a couple of the reasons for that, but she wasn't about to tell Tali any of them just yet. She just stayed quiet as Tali stormed off towards the elevators, eager as she was to return to Engineering. Once the quarian was gone Morinth just shifted her gaze back to the Commander.
"Enjoy the show?" Shepard asked her with a faked tone of annoyance.
"Oh yes. Everytime Shepard." Morinth smirked back at her.
Shepard just rolled her eyes at the Asari and turned away, making her way towards the kitchen. Morinth followed her taking a seat at one of the empty tables in the mess. As strange as it was to admit, Morinth was genuinely glad to see Shepard being more sociable now that she had her cybernetic scars fixed. A year ago the Ardat Yakshi would not have believed that there would ever be someone who she would actually share some concern over, but there it was.
Meanwhile Shepard had reached into the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles. She made her way back to where Morinth sat, offering her one of the bottles as she sat across from her.
"That's some cheap beer you keep stored in the fridge." Morinth commented as she looked at the label of the bottle.
"Gardner's secret stash." Shepard casually commented as she twisted off the cap of her bottle. "I'm not supposed to know about it." She took a few quick gulps from the bottle before adding, "It's surprisingly not bad for cheap ass beer."
"So why don't you yell at your cook regarding his illicit alcoholic contraband?" Morinth asked as she flicked her thumb gracefully over the edge of the bottle cap, using her biotics to precisely open the bottle. She took a drink from her own amber bottle as well. Shepard was telling the truth, it wasn't nearly as bad as she was expecting.
"It's not like I care if people drink so long as it's off duty." Shepard said, "Hell I'd be the biggest hypocrite in the galaxy considering the bottle of whiskey I have next to my bed right now." Shepard shrugged before adding, "I just annoyed that he thought to hide it from me. I figure dipping into his stash is a great way to make my point."
Morinth simply nodded as she took another drink. "So are you gonna keep dancing with the small talk or are you going to tell me what that fight was about?"
"I'm sure a smart girl like you can figure it out." Shepard shot back without missing a beat.
"Ah, so the rumors of our newest Geth crewmate are true." Morinth smiled back at the commander.
"Hardly rumors." Shepard said, "I haven't exactly been hiding that fact. Besides, right now the Geth isn't part of the crew or anything. Technically it's a prisoner until we figure out what to do with it."
"Did you try talking with it?" Morinth asked.
"Yeah, actually." Shepard said with a tone indicating how unusual that concept was to her, "I didn't even know the damn things could talk in the first place."
"Really? I guess that makes sense," Morinth commented, "Humans hadn't yet left their own planet by the time the Quarians got kicked out of theirs."
"You ever meet a geth prior to that?" Shepard asked.
"Not really." Morinth said, "Only ever met a scant few Quarians back then, and most of them still prefered using their suits around other aliens. Didn't really pay them much attention at the time since that wasn't long after I left Thessia."
"So why aren't you more surprised that Geth could talk?" Shepard asked curiously.
"I remember overhearing a conversation with a quarian back then." Morinth said, "He was talking to his geth over a comm-link. They were just tools to him, fancy VI programs to help with his paperwork and little more. But it was obvious those things were made capable of conversing with organics, even if it was just to receive their commands."
"Well they've clearly evolved since then." Shepard commented, "Now we have a little over a thousand of those fancy VI programs sitting in our AI core."
That caught Morinth's attention, "Alright, two questions. What do you mean a thousand VI programs? And why would you put them in next to the AI core?"
"To the first question, Geth are not individual AIs. They are, quite literally, a bunch of fancy VI programs networked together until they gain sentience" Shepard explained between drinks, "Even the basic geth platforms have hundreds of actual Geth runtimes in them. Legion specifically has over a thousand of them, so I guess that means he's smarter than the average Geth I've run across. Might be part of why he's not shooting me, actually."
"I'm sorry, Legion?" Morinth asked.
"That's what we're calling the thing in the AI core." Shepard answered, "And as for your next question, the AI core is as secure as we can make it against Geth abilities. And more specifically it allows EDI to keep a close eye on it and directly prevent it from accessing the extra-net or hacking into any of our systems."
"So you're using one AI to watch the other, that's cute." Morinth said, "Good choice on the name, by the way."
"Actually that was also EDI's idea." Shepard admitted.
"Really? Smart girl that." Morinth commented, "Kinda makes you wonder which of the two AIs is smarter."
"While I recognize the geth infrastructure's inherent advantages in concurrent problem solving and task co-allocation, I currently possess more raw computing power across a number of the Normandy's systems." EDI's voice came out helpfully and suddenly from the ship's interior comms. "Also I am capable of multitasking across a much larger array of complex simultaneous processes."
"Well I guess that answers that question." Shepard smirked as she drank her beer.
"I guess so." Morinth laughed, "Don't take it personally EDI, I was just curious."
"As I am a synthetic intelligence, I am not capable of taking personal offence to your comments." EDI informed her, "I merely sought to provide helpful information regarding your query."
"Sure you did." Morinth quipped politely, she wasn't buying it.
Tali was angry. Angry with the stupid Geth on the ship, angry with the annoying AI in the ship, and angry that everyone else was apparently OK with all of this. She only realized how angry she was when she noticed she was taking out all her frustrations on her console. It was very difficult to slam one's fingers into a holographic interface, but somehow Tali was managing just that. She just kept recompiling new attack routines, scrapping them, then rebuilding them from scratch as she tried to get her mind off her rage.
"I'm no tech expert, but I have a feeling yelling at the console won't make the Geth upstairs go away." The smooth voice behind her pierced through the Quarian's wrath enough to cause her to turn around towards its source. Morinth was standing there, arms crossed under her chest, leaning casually against a nearby support beam. The Asari was glancing back her way in that amused look she did which made it obvious that no matter what you were doing wrong, she noticed it and she would enjoy watching you do it. Tali managed to blink a few times before flipping through her omnitool function to reactivate her suit's speakers.
"How did you know I was yelling?" Tali asked a bit defensively. After all it was a common trick among her people when they wanted privacy to simply disable their suit's systems to avoid contact. She was certain her suit speakers had been muted, but the possibility that she hadn't somehow was a source of much potential embarrassment.
"Your body language." Morinth smirked at the young engineer, "Quarians these days are really expressive, and you more than most. Muted speakers or not, you may as well have been shouting it out to the whole ship."
"Oh. Great. Now I can't even get some privacy inside my own damn suit." Tali huffed.
"I don't mean to interrupt your private time, but I figured you might want to talk." Morinth offered, taking a pair of gentle steps closer.
"Not particularly." Tali grumbled as she crossed her arms dismissively.
"I mean in preference to the alternative." Morinth added smoothly, "EDI was quite worried about you and asked the commander to speak with you."
"Why would EDI be worried?" Tali demanded, "And that doesn't explain what you're doing here."
"I'm not the only one that can see how frustrated you are with the whole situation." Morinth shrugged, "Between you and me, I think EDI's worried you might hate her." Before Tali could interrupt with another angry burst, Morinth held her hand up and continued, "As for why I'm here, I offered to come talk to you instead of Shepard. Seeing as it was her decision to let the Geth onboard I suspect talking with her would be pretty ineffective for you right now."
"So they just send you down here instead convince me to play nice?" Tali growled.
"I'm not going to convince you of anything." Morinth said, "Believe it or not no one is expecting you to be friends with Legion."
"It's not Legion!" Tali yelled, "It's not a pet you can name and play with when you're off duty. It's a dangerous machine responsible for the death of billions, both for my people and many others after what Saren did two years ago."
"You're saying that one geth was responsible for all those deaths?" Morinth asked.
"What? Well, no, obviously not on its own, but the geth on the whole are responsible." Tali replied.
"Interesting." Morinth mused with a knowing smile.
"What now?" Tali groaned.
"It's just fascinating how you look at the Geth." Morinth commented, "I'm not saying that you don't have a reason to hate them. But part of me wonders if you would really hate them so much under different circumstances."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tali shot back.
"You grew up on the Flotilla right?" Morinth began, "You weren't actually around when the Quarians left their homeworld. I'm guessing until three years ago you never even met a geth before. And all of the geth you did run into were being controlled by Saren and his Reaper."
"True, but so what?" Tali responded, "Everything we've ever seen of the Geth has only proven how dangerous they are."
"No one is arguing that the geth aren't dangerous." Morinth said, "I'm just wondering if the real reason you hate the geth is because you were taught to."
"I was taught the history of our people." Tali said with a determined snarl.
"One thing Asari learn faster then anyone is that the facts of history are so often changed to suit the needs of those telling it." Morinth commented, "Tell me Tali, do you think we should toss that geth off the ship?"
"Of course I do!" Tali exclaimed, "That's been my whole point, the damn thing is too dangerous!"
"So? It's not the only dangerous thing in here." Morinth spoke calmly in counter to Tali's outbursts, "Most of us on this ship are every bit as deadly as that thing. Does that mean you want to toss me off the ship as well?" The question was asked in a genuine tone, almost pained from what Tali could tell.
"What? No! Nothing like that, you're different, you're not a machine." Tali said defensively.
"That alone doesn't mean much." Morinth continued, "That thing upstairs might be a machine, not caring about the people it kills. But I'm a psychopath, I actually enjoy killing people. I'm much more likely to go out of my way to hurt someone. Between the two of us, wouldn't it make sense that I'm the far more deadly threat?"
"Is this your way of trying to make me feel better?" Tali asked sarcastically, "Because you are really bad at it."
"I'm just trying to make a point." Morinth smiled, her pained façade completely fading away, "Just be honest with me if you think I'm too dangerous to be on this ship."
"Honestly? No, you're not." Tali admitted, "Though that says more about the nature of this ship then it does about you. I mean, you are dangerous, absolutely. So is Jack, and Miranda, and Grunt, and Thane, and - Keelah! - that Mordin is even more scary then you are sometimes. But at least you've all proven yourselves a part of the team. What ever else you might be, I trust that none of you will try to kill me. Even if it's only because I know that anyone who tried would have to deal with Shepard. Who is probably more dangerous then everyone else on the ship combined." Morinth smirked at that comment.
"I appreciate the vote of confidence." Morinth said with a light chuckled, "But it's a bit ironic, don't you think? There are thousands upon thousands of years of Asari history surrounding Ardat Yakshi. By all accounts I should not be standing here. If you believe the stories, I should have long ago killed everyone on this ship. Yet here we are. As it turns out, Asari history is full of bullshit."
"Well I'm pretty sure there are no quarians living on Rannoch." Tali countered, "So I'm confident that part isn't bullshit."
"No argument here." Morinth conceded, "All I'm saying is that this specific Geth might not be exactly what you're expecting it to be. Considering how crazy the rest of the crew is on this ship, is it really so unlikely that we managed to find the one friendly Geth in all the galaxy?"
Tali clearly wanted to argue the point, but found she really couldn't come up with any effective counter argument. The Normandy is practically defined by the theory that there simply is no such thing as too much crazy.
"I hate it that you make a good point, you know." Tali somehow managed to glare at the Asari through her faceplate.
"Just keep an open mind." Morinth offered, "Think of it like a research study on a real live Geth."
"The last time a quarian took part in any form of research on live geth platforms it ended very, very poorly." Tali shot back.
"Oh. Yeah, ok. Bad example." Morinth admitted, "But at least you know first hand that if Legion does try anything it'll get deactivated with a vengeance."
"Wonderful." Tali huffed, "But if you don't mind, I think I'll going to keep trying to optimize my counter synthetic attack programs."
"Actually I think that's a great idea." Morinth encouraged her.
"Wait, you do?" Tali asked.
"Of course!" Morinth grinned, "If it makes you feel more comfortable having a backup plan against this thing then do it. It's the same reason I encouraged Garrus to keep close tabs on me. Trust is not an easy thing. Anything to help you along the path is a good thing."
"That is ... oddly comforting actually." Tali shrugged.
"Honestly, I've always wondered about how you manage to use your tech skills to control geth." Morinth confided, "Especially since they're practically AIs in their complexity. Seems like they would be particularly difficult to hack into, but you manage to effortlessly mind control them."
"That's because it's not really mind control." Tali said, she was always happy to talk about something she had such expertise in. "I'm just able to hack into their internal systems, overriding their hardware control signals. Their core intelligence remains intact unfortunately, which is why the hacking programs don't last very long. Eventually the Geth programs just restore their own control software from their local archives."
"Fascinating," Morinth said, "So it's a bit like overloading a person's nervous system to control their body. Their mind is in tact but their physical body is under your control."
"Yes that's one way to look at it." Tali confirmed, "But naturally it only affects synthetics. As much as I sometimes wish I could make some of those Bosh'tet people who inevitably try to kill us to shoot each other instead, sadly you can't hack organics."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Morinth said thoughtfully, a comment which earned her a wary look from the Quarian next to her.
"False-Justicar Morinth. We desire an exchange of information. Is this request suitable at this time?"
Morinth paused her morning work out, letting the purple haze of her biotics fade away before turning towards the source of the electronic voice.
"Oh this should be good." Morinth commented mirthfully as she looked up at Legion's form. The large gap in the middle of the thing's chest dominated her attention at first, it was such a lovely brutal reminder that this creature was no simple organic.
It had been over a week since Shepard brought the Geth on board. In that time Shepard had talked to the synthetic a number of times and decided that it was no immediate threat. More importantly she claimed this Geth was just as interested in fighting the Reapers, and their Collector servants, as everyone else on the ship. The Commander decided to allow the Geth to join their mission, which meant allowing it to roam more freely around the ship. Not that Shepard, or most of the crew for that matter, trusted the construct completely; it was still barred from Engineering and the CIC. That hardly seemed to matter, however, as Legion was content to remain in the AI Core the vast majority of the time.
"So I'm a False Justicar now?" Morinth asked with an accusing smirk as she reached for her towel. She stood up before turning her gaze to the large central optic in the thing's head.
"We deemed this to be the most accurate designation based on preliminary analysis of this ship's crew manifest." Legion explained, tiny plates on its synthetic head seemed to flip and twirl in rather adorable equivalents to facial expressions. "Was this inaccurate?"
"No, I suppose not." Morinth said crossing her arms, "You're looking through crew manifests now? Is that your way of getting to know the neighbors?"
Legion stood quietly for a moment, it's flaps twitching slightly in what Morinth assumed was the AI equivalent of deep thought. "Yes. We seek to familiarize ourselves with the organic collaborators aboard this vessel."
"Clearly." Morinth said, "How's that working out for you?"
"We are confused regarding the presence of certain collaborator allies." Legion began, "Several relevant crew members seem inherently illogical choices for inclusion given their nature. We find this difficult to reconcile with the decision to include them."
"Is this about the Quarian?" Morinth asked, "Having problems dealing with someone who hates you?"
"No." Legion replied, "Creator-Zorah's presence is a manageable factor. We appreciate the opportunity to assist Creator allies in the completion of mutually beneficial goals."
"Really." Morinth said. She found it most intriguing that the Geth seemed almost happy for the opportunity to work with a Quarian. It was arguably the polar opposite to Tali's reaction. "Well if Tali isn't the problem then who else is causing you problems?"
"You are." Legion said. Morinth raised an curious eyebrow, it was her only reaction to the unexpected answer. "Along with Urdnot Krogan Grunt and Subject Zero designated Jack."
"Quite a fascinating group you've placed me in." Morinth smirked, "I guess we're just too confusingly organic for you."
"It is not your nature that we fail to understand." Legion explained, "On the contrary, it is due to the in depth analysis of potential crew member behavior that your very presence seems illogical."
"Oh this is precious," Morinth chuckled, "Do tell, how exactly are we so illogical?"
"Based on available data the logical result would indicate a very high probably that the collaborators in question will create an extremely dangerous and likely deadly environment." Legion explained, "Given this scenario the logical choice would be to remove inherently disruptive elements."
"So you're afraid I might kill you?" Morinth flashed the synthetic an evil grin.
"No," Legion replied easily, "We are not organic so death is unlikely. Even if you managed to severely damage this platform we would survive if we were able to find an upload link in time."
"What's your concern then?" Morinth asked, "Worried for the rest of the crew?"
"No, we trust Shepard-Commander in her judgement." Legion said, "As such we currently have no safety concerns. We merely desire to understand her decision."
"Well in that case why not ask her?" Morinth suggested, "After all Shepard's the one who invited us all on this ride. Clearly she doesn't see any reason to remove we inherently disruptive types."
"We already attempted this course of action." Legion said, "Upon requesting this information, Shepard-Commander suggested that we simply need to 'get to know you better'. That is what we are currently attempting to accomplish."
"Ah, that makes sense." Morinth nodded, "Have you tried getting to know the others yet?"
"Not successfully, No." Legion explained, "When we approached Subject Zero she would only respond with very loud demands for self-fornication. We have not approached Urdnot Grunt as we calculated the probability of that encounter resulting in the complete destruction of this platform is too high to risk information exchange at this time."
"Which leaves me." Morinth grinned.
"Correct." Legion confirmed. "We hope you are not offended by our quarries. We seek understanding."
"Not at all." Morinth assured it, "On the contrary I find the irony amusing."
"Please explain." Legion said after a moment, clearly confused.
"I'm just curious if you've even considered the fact that you also fit the description of an inherently disruptive crew member." Morinth said, "There's no logical reason to allow any Geth to join us, but here you are."
"We are not a threat to anyone on this ship." Legion insisted, "We oppose the Old Machines, along with this crew. It is in our best interest to cooperate."
"That might make sense to you," Morinth said, "But most people only know about the geth who recently tried to kill everyone on the Citadel. Based on that evidence alone you certainly seem like a dangerous and potentially deadly choice to have around."
"You speak of Heretic Geth." Legion responded, his head leaning back slightly in what could have been taken as a defensive gesture, "Heretic Geth believe in the word of the Old Machines. We geth do not believe as they do. We have no desire to follow the commands of the Old Machines."
"So you say, but how do you expect the average organic to know that?" Morinth asked, "How can we even tell the difference between your Heretics and the rest of the Geth?"
"Then you lack proper understanding." Legion concluded, Morinth could nearly hear the software inside it thinking before it added, "There are similarities to my own lack in understanding. You recommend allowing other organics to 'get to know me better'."
"You'll find that will be very useful, especially for Tali." Morinth nodded, "Though in her case it might take some time."
"Acknowledged." Legion agreed, "For the moment we hope you can help explain our current logical dilemma."
"Fair enough." Morinth smiled, "You want to know why I'm not a murder scene waiting to happen? That's simple. I decide who I kill. I'm not going to kill anyone on this ship because I choose not to."
"We acknowledge this statement." Legion seemed to want to reassure the Asari, "We are confused only in how to reconcile this information with data regarding your nature."
"Ah, that." Morinth rolled her eyes. More of the same it seems. Then again she had to admit the Geth would have little to no opportunity to learn about people like her. "Why don't you tell me what you know about Ardat Yakshi?"
"Standby." Legion said before becoming quiet. The unexpected stillness was an unusual surprise to Morith who couldn't help but wonder what the machine was doing all of a sudden. Until, that it, it began to spout the apparent results of an extra-net search. "Ardat-Yakshi."
"A creature of terror in ancient Asari mythology. Said to be driven by insatiable hunger to swallow the souls of Asari maidens. Numerous variations of the mythology exist throughout Asari history."
"Believed to be the codename used for a covert chemical weapons development project during the Asari Republic Civil Wars. The project was terminated and all records destroyed once it was declared a failure."
"A commonly used villain sub-type in numerous monster based films and entertainment media. Particularly popular among Asari based fictions where they are often countered by a Justicar protagonist."
"An advanced racial kit in the massively multiplayer extra-net role playing game Galaxy of Fantasy, recently made available in the newly released Waters of Kolono expansion."
"... Shall I continue with additional search results?"
"Wow. No I think that's enough." Morinth spoke up. "I'd say that pretty much proves my point."
"Please explain." Legion requested.
"In all the information you managed to dig up, how much of it contains actual, factual data on a real live Ardat Yakshi?" Morinth asked him pointedly.
"None." Legion answered after a few moments of analysis. "All this data provides is conjecture at best, and mostly irrelevant to present facts."
"Exactly." Morinth said, "You don't have real facts to base your assumptions on. What people claim about Ardat Yakshi might lead you to think I'd have tried to kill everyone by now, but clearly they're wrong. It's no different with the other two. Grunt might be one bad joke away from headbutting a wall into oblivion, but he understands the value of battle comrades, and he respects Shepard far too much to let her down like that. Especially now that he considers her his battlemaster. Jack might seem like a violent psychotic about to destroy everything within range of her biotics at the slightest provocation, but the truth is she's just hurt and desperate for a place to belong. That's what the Normandy is to her right now even if she won't admit it. Just like you, all three of us - no, everyone on this ship - has a very good reason to want to be a part of this crew. If that seems illogical for any given crew member then that simply means you don't have all the facts."
"We understand." Legion said after taking a moment to process Morinth's words, "Thank you for your assistance. We believe we can now reconcile this apparent illogical circumstance. We have also reached consensus and agree with your recommendation to better inform others of my own nature in order to build better understanding between all collaborator allies."
"Good to hear, glad I could help." Morinth said, it was barely a heartbeat later when her curiosity got the better of her, "So I'm really a computer game character now?"
"Affirmative." Legion confirmed, "According to all related G.o.F. extra-net sites, the Ardat-Yakshi racial kit is considered over-powered by the majority of the player base, particularly when combined with the Necromancer epic class. Due primarily to its capacity to take advantage of unique sync-kill abilities."
"That sounds oddly appropriate." Morinth laughed.