Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: This episode was already a fully-fleshed out story-board at around the time I was writing episode four, it was kind of the going to be in season 1, from the get-go.
Episode 17: We, Geth
The Normandy was on its way back to Arcturus the next morning. Shepard spent the night in her quarters working on her report and trying to find her personal equilibrium. A good night sleep meant that the former was still not finished, but she was well on her way to achieving the latter.
When she emerged for breakfast, Shepard was not surprised that there was a plate of her favorite scrambled eggs waiting for her. Matthews did not say anything, but by the care he showed pouring her coffee Shepard knew something had gone around. No one said anything to her, they would not dare question their commanding officer, but she noted the upswing in formality and rigidity. It really seemed like everyone decided to be on their best behaviors.
She was stopped from beating a hasty retreat to the OD by Dr. Chakwas, who wanted to cover all the bases, having already cleared the marines after the mission. Shepard was in and out of the medbay in fifteen minutes. There were no physical injuries, and she had no sleep difficulties to report, at least none past the usual post-operation-residual-adrenaline trouble lapsing into sleep. She knew what this was about; the doctor was on the watch for the on-set of PTSD. Shepard had spent a year like that after Elysium, with her councilor regularly checking for symptoms, it was an old song and dance. For Shepard it all boiled down to one thing, it was her choice to kill. On Elysium she chose to shoot the batarians, and now she chose to shoot Haliat. As far as she was concerned, maintaining control was key.
As a result, Shepard barely had the time to finish her report before the Normandy arrived on Arcturus; still it was done and sent before the Normandy docked. Thus once they docked, she got in touch with the crew in charge of their missing shuttle. Once Shepard confirmed that the craft was repaired and would be delivered, she gave everyone down-time, starting with those people whose down-time she had to cut into, it seemed only fair. The ship was a ghost town within the hour of the leave schedule being handed-out.
By evening Shepard had heard back from Admiral Hackett. He would send another ship to mop up the mess now that stealth was no longer as necessary. The probe still had to be retrieved and taken apart physically before it would be stricken off the list. The Admiral did not comment on the fact that she chose to kill everyone who might know about it, or that she killed Haliat, still, she caught something in his tone. Like everyone else, the admiral was worried about screws coming loose in her head. She appreciated the concern, but wished it would stop. She had been through all of this before, why should she have an issue now, when she had no issue seven years ago? Nevertheless, the Normandy was effectively laid up at Arcturus; she could see the admiral's hesitance to assign a new job. Like everyone else, he thought she needed some breathing room.
At the very least Nihlus did not put her on some watch too. It helped that he was in the dark about the details of what went down, though he still picked up enough know that something must have gone down. What surprised her was that instead of pressing her, he brought his research up to the OD to distract her. Shepard spent the whole first day they were laid up just looking over the information he obtained. It was a welcome restoration of normalcy. Shepard did not appreciate being treated like a ticking time bomb.
The next two days were no better, research work, errands, and handling every manner of task she really ought to have had an XO for. It was just before dinner hour on day three, the rare moment when almost everyone was on board when EDI told her she received a message containing orders.
Shepard was mildly surprised that Admiral Hackett did not contact her via the communicator, as was his norm, but when she sat down at her terminal in the OD and opened the message, she knew why. She relayed the relevant parts to the bridge and left the OD to return to the mess hall. She would let Joker eat, but then vacation was over, they had a job to do.
An hour later, with Joker back in his favorite seat, Shepard gathered a choice few individuals in the OD for a preliminary briefing. She sat down at the head of the couch and cleared her throat before looking over everyone gathered. It was not a difficult decision of whom she wanted to take to what would start as recon. If things came down to shooting, she could call for backup.
"I assume you got orders?" Nihlus breached the silence.
"Indeed. We are off to the Shadow Sea, Iera system, Horizon." Shepard replied. "Someone out in a fringe settlement there reported seeing a robot in the woods. These days that automatically means Geth." She was taking this very seriously. Last time they investigated strange sightings they indeed proved to involve the Geth, as unlikely as the location had seemed. Apparently Admiral Hackett was not taking chances on this being a false report after that.
"Horizon… a human colony?" Garrus asked.
Shepard nodded her head, "Yes, established in twenty-one sixty-eight. It is on the edge between Alliance space and the Attican Traverse, formally part of the latter," Shepard explained. What she did not say was that most colonists there chose it as a little bit out of the way haven where Citadel laws could not tell them how to breathe. They were not fans of Alliance restrictions and oversight either. "The four of us will form the investigation team." Shepard went on.
"Commander, what kind of colony is Horizon?" Tali wondered as she shifted from foot to foot.
"According to what I got, it has a population slightly over six hundred thousand spread over a number of settlements. Their biggest exports are grown food-stuffs and consumable products." Shepard explained. Fact of the matter remained that humanity only left the Sol system in the last thirty years. The majority of manufacturing still happened on Earth, with Terra Nova second. The other colonies supplied raw materials and living space for an unprecedented population boom. Earth was in the midst of a galactic colonial period. It might be decades, if not centuries, before colonies would form their own distinct cultural identities. Humans did not yet have anything quite like the Turians or even the Asari.
"Does Horizon have Prothean ruins?" Nihlus wondered.
"That's the thing, none have been found so far." Shepard replied.
Nihlus hummed.
Shepard knew what he was getting at. The Geth wanted Prothean tech, they went after Eden Prime's beacon, and then Daiwi's mine computers. Horizon did not fit the pattern.
"If the Alliance or Council knows of no Prothean ruins on Horizon, we cannot assume the geth are working off what they appropriated previously," Garrus noted. "That means they are either after something else, or they have a source of information we do not."
"That's assuming these are indeed geth," Tali stated.
"Who else could it be? How many more synthetics are there in this galaxy?" Garrus replied.
Nihlus hummed again, which made Shepard spare him a glance. She still suspected he knew of at least one more synthetic, other than EDI of course.
"I took apart the units we brought up from the mine. The black one is definitely not a geth. I agree with the Commander's theory that there is someone or something controlling it." Tali said, fingers already wringing as she spoke. "I have a theory…" she mumbled, quieter now. "I do not think the geth would ever work for an organic. Perhaps… now this is probably a silly thought, but it fits… maybe there is another synthetic involved."
Silence reigned in the room after Tali spoke. Even Shepard could not say a word.
"It would be possible for an AI bound to a powerful quantum computer to remote control the black platform, like a child's toy drone." Tali went on, sounding ever more nervous.
Shepard mused it would have to be a very scary child's even scarier toy drone.
"Can you trace the signal?" Nihlus asked.
"Ah… no. The operating software is... I can't make sense of it yet. Even then, I need to be near an active, functional unit to trace its signals."
Shepard knew it would not be possible to capture a functional, connected black unit. Not only was the thing highly dangerous, but there would be nothing to stop the puppet-master from disconnecting, leaving them with nothing.
"How long would you need to trace an active unit?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard raised an eyebrow; was Nihlus considering the idea of dancing with a black unit until Tali could trace it?
"That… I don't know. I'm sorry." Tali replied.
Shepard shook her head; she would not have let Nihlus do something that dangerous anyways. She would not have attempted it herself. "Tali, you have nothing to be sorry about; we already know a lot more than we would have otherwise."
The quarian looked up, her hands dropped back to her sides, "Thank you, Commander."
Shepard nodded and turned to the others in the room, "Even if we are dealing with another artificial intelligence, it does not change our end-goals. If the geth choose to become a hazard to the galaxy... I do not discriminate. Where they go, I will follow. We'll get them."
Nihlus folded his arms as his mandibles gave a flicker of amusement.
"We will be ready, Commander," Garrus said.
Shepard nodded, "Good. I think we're done here. Take the time to get ready; we will be on Horizon by morning."
Tali took that as a dismissal, turned, and exited the room, the first to make a hasty retreat. It was not difficult to see how nervous the young Quarian was around people who held a higher position to her. She seemed to expect always being told she was doing something wrong.
Garrus was second to turn, Shepard still needed to talk to him, so she got up from her seat. "Garrus, there is something I wanted to ask you, regarding the ordnance," she explained as she followed him out of the room. "I was curious about how the work is coming along." Shepard continued as they stopped in front of the elevator. She suspected that Garrus would not want to talk about his work in front of Nihlus.
"Well…" Garrus began, but paused to clear his throat, "Truthfully, a little slow. The Alliance's system is new to me. It would be faster if I could rewrite portions, but…"
"It would ruin our little masking trick?" Shepard asked.
"Yes. It would also render the guns inoperable while I work. I did not think you would appreciate me putting the ship at risk."
"We do have disruptor torpedoes, and they are powerful enough, but yes."
"I will figure things out, Commander."
The elevator opened. "Thank you, I really appreciate you putting this much effort into it," Shepard said.
"You are welcome." He replied as he stepped into the cabin.
Shepard did not follow, she did not have to. Right now she had what she needed. Garrus would figure things out as a matter of personal challenge and responsibility. In time the Normandy would have a bite arguably nastier than a dreadnought and as precise as her sniper rifle.
Shepard was in armor and on the bridge when the Normandy made asynchronous orbit over Horizon. There was no need to delay things, as their traverse allowed them plenty of time to prepare supplies and Horizon was not an inhospitable, un-breathable environment. In fact, the planet was as green and blue as Earth, with the surface temperature at an average 13°C, atmospheric pressure at 1.68 atm, gravity at 0.7g, and the day lasting 37.8 earth hours. She could definitely see why Horizon ended up chosen for colonization, on paper it sounded like paradise.
She left Joker and Kaidan with full instructions before she took the elevator down the shuttle bay. Nihlus, Garrus, and Tali were already waiting. With some parting words to ameliorate Wrex, who was a little stung that he was not coming down with them, they took the repaired Kodiak down to the surface. The thick atmosphere was a good way to test the fit of the new thermal plates.
The orders she got from Admiral Hackett directed them to a specific settlement on the largest continent of the northern hemisphere. Apparently the man who saw the robot was a former Alliance captain, now retired and turned to wine-maker. There was some below-the-table dealing there with how quietly the Normandy was deployed, but Shepard knew it was not her place to question it, and no one would benefit from a panic.
The Kodiak flew over kilometers of dense lush forests. Seeing all those trees made Shepard appreciate just how big a haystack they had to search. Horizon really showed its relative youth. To make matters worse, EDI has not picked up any obvious geth signatures, not even weird EM anomalies that might point to a dampening dome. Shepard could not imagine where the geth could hide a dropship without disturbing the forest or being seen. They could not have blasted a clearing, doing so in an environment so rich in oxygen would have triggered a massive fire, the very anti-thesis of going incognito.
The forest eventually gave way to open country of rolling hills, with a town of no more than a thousand settlers nestled in the middle, an island of habitation set amidst crop fields of every imaginable variety. The forest resumed some kilometers away, even thicker as it undulated across more hills that seemed to gather toward the mountains further west. A river undulated between the hills, moving lazily toward the big lake south-east of the town.
It was another five minutes before the Kodiak landed in the large paved yard of a vinery, surrounded by cream-painted, red-roofed pre-fabricated buildings, machinery, and vast fields of grapes growing in ruler-straight evenly-spaced rows over gently undulating hills.
Shepard was the first one to exit the shuttle and look around. The terrain here was not friendly to stealth, open ground with elevation changes, no large ship could land without being seen. The geth had a modicum of stealth, but some of it relied on a cold environment to leech away engine heat, Horizon was not cold enough for that. If they landed a ship somewhere in the open they would have been spotted with a pair of functional eyeballs.
"This is… beautiful," Tali murmured, awed.
"Yes it is." Shepard agreed. They put these sorts of vistas on the covers of brochures meant to entice prospective colonists to take the plunge.
"How close is this to Earth?" Tali wondered idly.
Shepard glanced at the pre-fabricated structures and grinned. Cream colored walls with red roofs? The owner went through a lot of trouble for a little slice of home. "Pretty close if you look up images of the Tuscan countryside in Italy."
The door of one of the pre-fabs opened and a figure in overalls appeared. He was an older gentleman in his sixties. He paused mid-step when he saw them, brown eyes keen, Shepard could figure why. He called the Alliance; he got one human, two turians, and a quarian. It was like the set up for a bad joke, or an incident, depending what side of the post-FCW debate he stood.
"Captain Fabri?" She asked as the man drew near. "I am Commander Shepard, SSV Normandy. These are my contractors, Nihlus Kryik, Garrus Vakarian, and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. I believe you contacted Admiral Hackett regarding some strange sightings?"
"Yes, that's me." He replied. "Pardon me Commander; I expected more… marines. Well come on in." He motioned behind him to the living structure. Shepard followed. The prefabricated building they entered had long ago been rendered much homier with the addition of stucco onto the walls and what looked like imitation stone flooring. Thought the shape of the structure was unmistakably pre-fabricated, the Tuscan vibe carried through it quite well, even if it seemed anachronistic and somewhat out of place. Shepard felt even more out of place in her full armor, webbing, and arsenal.
The retired captain led them to the living room of his abode and sat in a plush chair. Shepard detached Vincent from her back and perched on the edge of the sofa opposite, feeling more out of place by the minute. What caught her eye was the large milky-white crystal on a felt coaster that sat as a centerpiece on the coffee table. It was the size of a loosely closed fist, roughly polished, transparent in parts, translucent in others, with bits of other rock at its base. It looked roughly plucked out, cleaned up, and displayed as a novelty.
"Lovely isn't it? My grandson found it about ten years ago when we just arrived." The captain explained with pride in his voice.
Shepard smiled. "It is. I don't want to take much of your time, I imagine running this winery is a full time job, can you tell us about the robot you saw?" she breached.
"Ah of course, of course. It's like I told Hackett, I first saw it three Horizon nights ago. Night here is long, sixteen hours even in the summer. So I was in the kitchen making coffee and happened to look out my window, and there it was. Humanoid shape, about level with my vine rows, light for a face, just strolling through the west field."
Shepard blinked. That was rather specific a description. How many more synthetics had a lamp for a face? She glanced up at Tali, who nodded.
"It stopped, must have seen me looking from the window, turned around and walked back toward the forest. I contacted Hackett in the morning, Arcturus time."
"I see. What color was it, or maybe its light?" Shepard asked.
"It was white all over, with a blue light."
Shepard hummed. Well at least it was not one of the black units. Still, she could not remember seeing any geth she could call white, especially in the darkness.
"Saw it again the next night," he went on.
"Same robot? Just one?" Shepard cut in.
"I think it was the same one, same white one, unless they're all like that. I was working in the winery when I saw a light out the window. Found it messing with the comm tower I have in the back. I was thinking… its just one robot, so I grabbed my shotgun, sneaked up on it, as close as I dared, and fired. The thing's shield blocked it all, but it turned around with this surprised look, just holding the tower's control unit," He looked around as he said that. "It was armed too; I thought I was in trouble, but next thing I know it just walked off! Took the unit with it. I didn't follow, didn't want to press my luck."
"How does one of them give a surprised look?" Garrus wondered.
"Can't they all? It had these flaring flaps on its head," The man explained, "Looked surprised to me."
"That's… not typical geth hardware." Tali noted.
"So it was a geth?" the captain asked.
"Sounds like it, Captain." Shepard replied.
"You said it did not draw its weapon?" Nihlus asked.
"No. Just took the control unit. Still, my tower provides a comm buoy uplink to my neighbors. I told them my grandson damaged it with our tractor, didn't want to cause a panic, but if possible I'd appreciate you bringing it back. My grandson is in town to order a replacement, but it might be weeks."
Shepard hummed; well this was rather an interesting turn of events. She supposed the geth could have intentionally disabled the only way these people could communicate off-world, maybe to disguise their presence. However, for a malicious synthetic race that normally had no reservations about shooting, this did not fit a pattern. "Captain, do you know of any alien ruins in the forest? Maybe some of the local kids have gone hiking and found something artificial out there?"
"No, nothing of the sort. We have caves, but the only notable things there are those," he motioned to the crystal on the table.
Shepard glanced up at Nihlus and then Garrus. "Well thank you. We will definitely investigate the matter. May we go onto your field?"
"Of course, but please do not bruise the grapes, they're a few days from picking."
Shepard nodded, got to her feet, and slipped Vincent behind her back.
They were out of the house and in the sunlight in seconds. Shepard turned toward the west field. "Let's see if we can pick up some tracks or something." While the field would be the starting point, she knew they would likely have to go into the woods. The geth had to have come from there. It would have been spotted readily out in the open. The forest formed a solid line of black and green that seemed to go on forever. Still, Shepard could not imagine how trees could conceal a geth ship from EDI's scans.
At the edge of the field she stopped and looked back toward the winery. The comm tower was no more than fifteen meters tall, a simple rectangular metal frame crowned with three radomes. She mentally tried to think what sort of route the geth would take from the other side of the field to the dish, probably the shortest line its mechanical mind could figure out.
"You think it would leave an actual trail?" Garrus asked as he stopped next to her.
Shepard blinked, and turned to look back over the field. "Maybe. The geth are not light, can't imagine one could just walk over soil without leaving a mark." The soil felt soft even under her boots. "I would love to have something to follow, otherwise…" she spared Garrus a glance, "that's a huge forest."
"Yes. And not the only one here."
Still, the soil was not wet enough. Her boots hardly left a mark. A few dozen extra kilograms would not make a major difference. She had to reason through things, find another way. When she glanced back at the tower a thought hit her. She raised her hand to her comm, "Normandy, this is Shepard, come in."
"Reading you loud and clear, Commander," Joker replied.
"We have a bit of a roadblock here, all reasons to suspect a geth, but no idea how to track it. EDI I need you to try something."
"Awaiting instructions, Commander."
Shepard glanced at the others who had gathered around her, curious. "The farmer we contacted told me that a geth stole the control unit of his comm tower. EDI, check for a comm tower uplink west of my position, within I'd say… ten kilometers out?" Shepard was guesstimating how much a geth could walk over uneven terrain in a given number of hours.
"Moving the Normandy is required to perform scans in the area indicated."
"Do it, Joker." Shepard replied.
"Aye, aye, ma'am."
"Alright. EDI, contact me when you finish with those," Shepard replied.
"Of course, Commander."
"Shepard out," she tapped at the link to close it.
"What are you thinking, Shepard?" Nihlus wondered.
"The Geth might want to use our technology for their goals. That control unit can process signals from comm buoys while appearing as a human-built comm tower. But it really does not matter what they want with it, what matters is if that control unit is powered up we can track it. It's a long shot, but… it does not hurt to try." She looked toward the trees, if EDI failed to pick up on the signal then what else could they use to track it? Waiting in a stakeout was not an option. The day cycle was nearly 38 hours, and the geth might not even come back.
"Come on," she called as she walked onto the field, eyes down, on the lookout for tracks. The west yard straddled a hill, and was quite large if what was visible on this side of the rise was equal to the other. This cross-country hiking in full gear was going to be a joy; it has been a while since she had to do some.
Nevertheless, she knew what she was looking for. The Geth had an odd foot shape, three toed, with two long toes, and a shorter thumb toe only half length on the foot. If the geth left prints, they would be rather distinct. On this side of the hill its arrival prints would be more complete, with all its weight coming down over the foot. The return prints would probably be only heel impressions.
Garrus walked next to her, his eyes on his omni-tool, Shepard was not surprised that he kept the C-sec-issue scanner program. Well she would let him work the tech angle; she preferred to rely on her eyeballs.
"I am seeing a lot of human prints, but nothing strange." He announced after a minute.
Shepard hummed to show that she heard him, but continued to scan the path in front of them for something peculiar. Garrus said no more, but kept his eyes on his scanner.
When they crested the hill, Shepard got a very good look at the surrounding countryside. The forest was probably a kilometer away now, if her eye was as good at measurement as she thought. There was a creek here, meandering amidst the hills from the forest to join up with the river they had seen from the Kodiak. She continued down the hill, watching her footing all the way.
"Good thing we did not bring Wrex," Nihlus commented.
"Yes. Nothing to shoot out here," Garrus agreed.
Shepard ignored them, she spotted a semi round depression with a very pronounced side toe, but no front toes. "Found one. Definitely geth, coming up toward the farm." A faint glimmer in the print caught her eye. Shepard crouched to get a closer look. There, at the bottom of the print, ground into the soil where the heel had come down, were chunks of crystalline matter, large enough to catch and shimmer in the sunlight. Crystalline powder was also ground into the earth around these bits. She pinched at it and rubbed her fingers together, it felt rough, granulated, and crumbled readily. "Interesting." She hummed.
"What is it?" Tali asked.
"Our thief's footprints are laced with crushed quartz." She replied. "It must have spent time where there's a lot of it, enough for its feet to track it all the way here."
"The captain mentioned caves," Tali murmured.
Shepard glanced at the others and smiled, "Ladies and gentlemen I think we just got lucky." Sure it might mean spelunking, but it was a lead. The proverbial haystack had just gotten a little bit smaller.
She heard a scratch on her comm, "Commander, EDI has your scans," Joker announced.
Shepard raised her hand to her comm unit and opened the link, "Go on, you two."
"I was unable to detect any comm tower signals; however the area has a few locations my sensors cannot penetrate." EDI announced.
"EDI, you took a topographical scan, correct?"
"Yes, Commander."
"Can you relay the scans to my omni-tool?"
"Right away, Commander."
"What's going on?" Joker wondered.
"I found tracks," Shepard replied. "There's quartz in the footprints, and I have it on local authority that there are quartz caves in the area. Factor in EDI's sensor dark spots, and I think I know where the geth are hiding." Shepard explained as she glanced at the others, they could hear the whole conversation too.
"Clever bastards, aren't they?" Joker mused. "Should I send down the backup?"
Her omni-tool pinged, a data transmission coming through. "Not yet, I want to confirm things." Shepard replied.
"Roger that."
"I'll keep in touch, Shepard out." She tapped the link again to close it and glanced at the others. It was a few moments before her tool pinged again, indicating download complete.
Shepard turned on her tool and with a few taps she had the chart. The topographical map showed a swatch of territory west of them, starting from the farm and going into the woods. It became quickly apparent that the forest was thick and near continuous, only a few small bald patches on the top of the biggest hills, yet these patches were not big enough for a ship the size of the dropship. Most were also rocky and uneven, the sort of unpleasant terrain even their Kodiak would have trouble landing on. Another couple taps overlaid the map with an image of the sensor dark spots, places that interfered with the scanners.
"The creek vanishes in a sensor interference zone." Nihlus said as he peered at the chart over her shoulder. "It could be an entrance into a cave system."
Shepard hummed. She would ignore the invasion of her personal space in the interest of professionalism. Nihlus also had a point. The creek also fit the bill. The just-arrived settlers would have used it as a landmark, and if there was a cave system at the end, all the better. "Alright, we might be able to take the Kodiak to this hilltop south of where the creek vanishes. Think you can make the landing, Nihlus? It's a bit rocky."
"Might have to land it on the incline, but it should be possible." Nihlus replied.
"Good. Well, let's move out!" She turned and led the way back toward their shuttle.
Nihlus landed the Kodiak on the hill's slope just short of the peak which was too rocky and uneven for the shuttle. From the peak it did not take long to find their bearings. The forest and the hills gave way abruptly; the creek flowed through a sun-lit ravine at a leisurely pace despite the mossy rocks that dotted its course. Once they found a way down to it, they walked upstream along the bank, ascending all the time. The rocks strewn all around grew progressively larger, the ravine steeper, and the geological strata more visible. The trees hung precariously ever-closer to the edge, valiantly trying to form an unbroken canopy of green and banish the sunlight.
Eventually the ravine closed entirely, revealing where the creek emerged into the open with an abrupt transition. Here the rocks strewn in the water's path were largest, the erosion line marked with a number of long-dead tree-trunks covered in mushroom-like growths and moss. Their position hinted that they had fallen from the top when the erosion took their support. The cavern beyond was dark. Shepard was the first to venture inside. She did not turn on her helmet lights just yet, but there was a rather promising crunch under her boots, and the walls glittered even in the faint flickers of light reflected by the creek.
She passed her fingers across the power switches of her guns and moved deeper inside. Other whines and clicks behind her assured her that the others had followed and were watching her back. It was only then that she reached up to tap the side of her helmet to activate her lights.
Inside the cave, the creek formed pools as the sedimentary rocks eroded away. Her light beams reached all the way to the bottom through the water, but otherwise the water looked dark. All sunlight was banished from reaching into the cave. Shepard hummed, if there was a geth here, they should have seen the ghostly flickers of their lights. So either the geth were much deeper in, hidden by bends they would not see until they were much closer, or they were not in the right place. Shepard did not want to think of the latter option. If this was not the place, they had little else to go with.
She raised her omni-tool and set her personal scanner to map their path, lest they get turned around or side-tracked by the cave, and proceeded ever deeper inside. Tali now fell in-step with her, shotgun light active and omni-tool glowing.
"How deep do you intend to go?" Nihlus asked.
"A while. This is the only lead we have right now." Shepard replied. "How are you three holding up?" Shepard was acutely aware that she would likely be called freakishly resilient. She ran five kilometer marathons as a workout. Hiking of this sort, as a semi-leisurely pace, did not wind her.
Nihlus stopped suddenly, Shepard noted because the sway of his assault rifle light stopped. He was otherwise nearly invisible in the gloom with his dark colored armor. "What is it?" Shepard whispered.
"I heard something echo from further up." Nihlus replied.
Shepard hummed; she could hear the faint echoes of their footsteps, the water dripping from the cavern roof, the faint gurgle of the creek along whose course they walked, but little else. The cavern took a slow meander to the right, heading northwest if her internal compass was not thrown off already. Shepard chanced to look up, and then she saw them. Quartz crystals studded the cavern's roof like nature's chandeliers, throwing refractions when hit by light. It was not hard to see why someone would want to chisel one out and take it home.
They must have walked another hundred meters following the cave's course before Shepard saw sunlight. It fell like a curtain across an opening in the distance. The cavern seemed to widen there. Shepard had noted a depression on the scans EDI gave them, now she thought this must be it. Coming at it from outside would not have given them anything; the scan indicated a precipitous drop, no way to approach except rappelling down, and not large enough for a ship the size of a frigate. It seemed like it was actually a collapsed section of this cave system. The sunlight that pierced through moved with the shifting of the trees above.
As they approached and the angle shifted, Shepard stopped dead in her tracks. Sitting right there, part on the bank and part in the creek, was a small silver craft shaped like a wasp without wings. It was probably no more than twenty meters long, and another five wide. Shepard looked up; it must have landed vertically through the roof, which was indeed a collapsed section of the cave system. The cavern around them broadened, and the rocks grew thick with moss where the sun could reach them. Two little creatures, looking like a mix of a grey squirrel and a ferret, had clambered on top of the ship, and were now sunning themselves happily. The collapse had happened long before the geth chose to use it as a hiding spot, and the ship had been here a while if the wildlife had returned.
"What are we looking at, Tali?" Shepard asked as she drew her guns.
"I am… not sure. The geth use rather uniform designs, but… I've never seen one this small. Be careful, Commander. The ship is likely aware of our presence. Geth do not use pilots. Their ships are operated by hundreds of runtimes installed into the ship's mainframe, essentially they are geth."
"You're saying that thing is aware?" Shepard asked.
"Yes."
Shepard froze, that ship was probably staring at them, proverbially speaking. Their element of surprise had just gone out the window. "Keep an eye on it, if it powers up any sort of weapon, I want to know." Shepard said.
"Yes, Commander." Tali replied.
Shepard climbed over some of the collapsed rocks and approached the craft. The ship gave no obvious sign of awareness, no shudders, no whines of some weapon powering up, no hint of thruster activity to indicate it might take off. On closer inspection she noted dark scorching along the craft's belly and leading surfaces, it fought to descend into the atmosphere. There was also bad discoloration on top of the craft's back, complete with pock-marks, and a few small holes.
"Look, those holes on its back are not atmospheric friction, it looks more like impact damage." Shepard noted. She moved aft along the craft's body, hand on Sin. Yet the ship remained completely still. This was the closest Shepard had ever gotten to a geth craft, and if it was self-aware, it showed so sign of aggression so far. She wondered if it could hear and understand their conversation. "I think it is here because it needs repair."
"You are correct," a mechanical voice replied.
Shepard whirled and whipped out Sin.
A figure rounded the back slowly, its hands hanging down its side. "We mean no harm. We are here to repair damaged hardware. When repairs are complete we will depart." It announced.
"Keelah…" Tali breathed.
This geth was not as massive as a prime unit, and definitely did not have the frightening visage of the black unit. It had a single central face light and four smaller ones over where its temples ought to be. Unlike the black one it had just one thick antenna behind its left shoulder, and its coloration was a silver-hued almost bare brushed-metal look that diffused and scattered sunlight in an almost ethereal manner. It was armed as well, an assault rifle at the small of its back, and something bigger tucked behind its right shoulder
Nihlus and Garrus were at her sides in an instant, assault rifles raised and pointed at the platform. The unit tipped its head to the side, the aperture shutters built into its face-light constricted, narrowing the beam. The flaps on the top of its head twitched, but its hands remained at its sides.
"Hold your fire!" Shepard ordered as she lowered Sin.
"Shepard?" Nihlus asked.
"It knew we were coming, and did nothing. I… don't want to start anything."
The geth's flaps flared and then Shepard knew what the captain meant by the machine giving him a surprised look. The six major flaps surrounded its head like eyebrows and extended down the sides of its head to about where the chin ought to have been on a humanoid. Each seemed to have its own little actuators and delicate-looking struts, capable of moving independently. When it popped the ones on the top of its head up all the way, it looked comically surprised.
Nihlus slowly lowered his rifle, but his finger remained on the trigger guard. Garrus was even slower at lowering his.
The geth did not seem bothered, its light focused on her, and the aperture shutters unwound, widening the beam. "You are Shepard. Commander. Alliance. Human. Hero of Skyllian Blitz. You fought geth on colony-Eden Prime."
"You know who I am?" Shepard replied.
"We know about Shepard-Commander."
"I know about you too."
"We never met." It argued. "The probability of meeting Shepard-Commander was calculated to be ten percent." The machine said. "We understand Shepard-Commander opposes geth who attacked colony-Eden Prime. We attempted to prevent a meeting by not causing harm to humans on colony-Horizon. We request Shepard-Commander let us finish our work so that we can depart."
"You said the ship is damaged?" Shepard wondered.
"Affirmative. Our vessel sustained impacts from space-borne micro-debris. This resulted in damage to vital communication hardware. We are here to repair. When repairs are complete, we will depart."
Shepard blinked, "You took the tower's control unit for spare parts?"
"Affirmative."
"Commander, you can't possible believe it! It's a geth!" Tali protested.
"We are here to repair. We mean no harm." The machine reiterated.
Shepard hummed, well if it meant harm, it could have landed right on the vineyard, killed everyone who came to investigate, and fixed its ship there. It would not have bothered to make such a complicated landing here and then walked kilometers to the vineyard. It would not have bothered to turn back and return the next night when initially spotted.
"You think we will believe you are not a scout for a future attack?" Nihlus wondered.
The geth's flaps widened as far as they would go and began to shudder. "We understand concern for colony-Horizon. Shepard-Commander faced the Heretics on colony-Eden Prime. Heretics are geth, but not all geth are Heretic. We did not attack colony-Eden Prime."
Shepard blinked; the way it talked made it tricky to follow, but underneath there was something else. "Are you implying that the geth we faced on Eden Prime were… different?"
"Affirmative. Heretics attacked colony-Eden Prime. This unit is not Heretic. We mean no harm." It repeated.
Shepard hummed again, would a machine lie? Tali would say it would. An organic individual facing four armed people would probably say and do anything to avoid being shot. Still, there was evidence to back its words. It had free rein before the Normandy arrived, and yet it did nothing more than steal. They had not encountered any scouts on Daiwi, so maybe the geth did not bother with scouts. This geth did not even mention Daiwi, did it know about it, or was it simply omitting? "If you mean no harm, what brings you out of the veil? How many platforms are outside the veil?" Shepard wondered.
"The actions of the Heretics have led to a new consensus within the Geth. This unit was sent to collect information on organic understanding of Heretic actions. To that end, a single platform was deemed adequate. We wish to observe, not incite."
"A spy." Nihlus rumbled.
"Incorrect. We do not infiltrate. Your communication over open channels is adequate for observation."
"You have access to the comm buoy network?" Shepard wondered.
"Affirmative."
"Keelah." Tali breathed again.
Now it made sense why it would go for a comm tower control unit. Integrating such a part into its system would mask its access to the comm buoy network. Shepard suspected that this was not the first time the geth stole such technology if they knew how to operate the galaxy's communication technology and had an understanding of how people communicated. They were not the simple artificial intelligences that Tali said they were.
More than that, if this geth's kind were still cloistered in the Perseus Veil, their access was probably sporadic. The comm buoy network in that cluster was inadequately maintained at best, destroyed at worst. An advance unit sent into the more habitable regions of space, and indeed human colonies in particular, made some sense. This of course, assuming this geth was not lying to her face.
"We estimated the probability of meeting Shepard-Commander to be ten percent." It repeated. "Nevertheless, we achieved consensus that in the event of contact we would attempt to exchange data with Shepard-Commander."
"You want to talk?"
"Affirmative. The preceding data exchange has been invaluable. We have a new consensus. We wish to demonstrate to Shepard-Commander that her enemies are the Heretics. At this time the Geth mean no harm to Shepard-Commander and Earth Systems Alliance."
Shepard hummed, 'at this time', a curious turn of phrase. That implied that there was a vague possibility of the decision changing. "What of your mission to observe?" she wondered.
The geth's flaps twitched again, moving sporadically as it remained silent for a long moment.
To Shepard it almost seemed like someone at a loss for words opening and shutting their mouth, uncertain what to say.
"Shepard-Command will continue to pursue the heretics." It stated. "We predict that we can meet both our goals, to quantify organic response and convince Shepard-Command of our intentions, with the integration of this platform with the crew of the Normandy."
"No! Absolutely not!" Tali protested. "Commander, you can't let it do that!"
Shepard's only paid attention to one crucial point, how did it know the name of her ship? "Tali, we are just talking. No harm in that, is there?"
Tali looked away, but it looked like she might have wanted to say something edgewise.
Shepard weighed the pros and cons; she had a state of the art cybernetic warfare suite guided by an ever-vigilant AI. What would be the harm of letting a single geth aboard the ship? Had she not told Garrus and Nihlus that she would give the geth a chance to tell their side of the story? This was indeed a strange coincidence, but it was also an opportunity. If the geth was lying, they would find out. The amount of damage it could cause to the ship was limited, and shutting it down permanently would be easy enough. However if the unit was indeed truthful, and she told it no, she might give up something important, something that no one in the galaxy had ever pursued, a genuine dialogue with the Geth.
"I know that look, Shepard," Nihlus said.
"Commander, you can't!" Tali protested, more impassioned than before.
The geth tipped its head to the side again, its light beam focused chiefly on her.
Shepard glanced at Nihlus; she knew he would remain largely neutral. The situation probably did not bother him one way or the other. Tali was obviously against the whole thing. There would be tension on the Normandy between the geth and quarian, but there was also tension between Wrex and the turians, and that was under control. "What do you think, Garrus?" she wondered, turning to the quietest member of the team.
"Well, if you ask me… which you did…" he paused, hummed, "The Normandy is your ship, your command, and its crew is your crew. You decide who to bring aboard. But I remember what we talked about in the library on the Citadel. If you feel like giving the geth a chance…" he said.
Shepard smiled, had she not just thought that same thing? She turned back to the geth. The flaps on its head rose, its light beam widened, as if it was happy. "I am willing to further our contact. Perhaps aid you in your… studies."
"Acknowledged."
"I do have a question." Shepard added.
"Specify."
"What will you do with this craft?" Shepard asked as she raised her hand and passed it along the ship's side. It was a test of sort, what would be the geth's reaction to her touching one of its kind. The hull of the little ship felt cold, cold enough that it seemed to seep into her bones despite her gloves.
"The geth runtimes that assist us in operating the craft will return to the Perseus Veil." It replied without hesitation.
Shepard hummed, so the ship would fly back home. She supposed it made sense. "Fair enough. I asked because we could not bring it along." There was no room in the Normandy's shuttle bay for a craft of this size. "Alright then, but there is something I want you to do, a token of goodwill if you will. The control unit you took, the farmer needs it back."
The geth's flaps twitched again.
Shepard was not going to bow down; this was a test. If the geth was not willing to compromise on this, it would probably not compromise on anything bigger.
"Acknowledged. As per Shepard-Commander's request, we will return the component we took to its original location."
Shepard smiled and approached the geth, "Well then. We have an agreement."
"Acknowledged. We anticipate a continued exchange of data."
"I'll be watching you, geth." Tali murmured.
The geth spared Tali a look and cocked its head, "Acknowledged. We will be observing the creator as well."
Tali sputtered, turned, and stalked off. Shepard caught her calling the geth a 'bosh'tet', the translator did not provide a translation, but it was not needed. Shepard got the distinct impression that the geth did not quite understand that Tali had been threatening it.
The geth produced the control unit without much fuss and elected to carry it as it joined them on the trek out of the cave, matching pace with Shepard as it walked at her side. No sooner were they at the cave's entrance than a deep, thunderous rumble resounded from deep within, echoing off the walls and roof. A few seconds later, the geth craft rose into the air over the forest, turned on the spot, pitched up, and began to climb into the sky.
Shepard was none too surprised when there was a scratch in her ear, "Normandy to Shepard, come in, Commander!"
"Shepard here. I know Joker. I'm watching it take off."
"Alright, I'll bite… why?" Joker wondered.
"It's complicated. I will explain everything when we get back, for now… let the ship go, it is leaving the system."
"Yes, ma'am."
"We'll talk later, Shepard out." She tapped at the comm again to close the link. Somewhere in the back of her mind she hoped she was doing the right thing, but there was no going back now. She turned and resumed walking. The trek back to their shuttle was slow, made slower by the fact that they had delicate equipment to walk up a rather steep incline. Once they reached the vehicle, Nihlus flew it back to the farm.
Their return landing was noticeable enough, and Shepard was not surprised to see Captain Fabri emerge from the winery, still wearing his work apron.
"Commander, you're back." He called. "Is there something you needed?" he wondered.
"Actually, Captain… we're bringing back something you needed." Shepard replied with a smile. She knew the moment the captain laid his eyes on the geth by how quickly he stiffened.
"We mean no harm. We wish to return the hardware we took."
"Yes… yes. Alright. I suppose I should… thank you."
"Acknowledged. Shepard-Commander, we will now restore the tower to operational condition."
Shepard was honestly surprised. She had thought that the geth only agreed to return the hardware, but it seemed like they meant 'restore the tower to operational condition' literally.
"Thanks… and I am sorry for that shot I took at you." The captain sounded dazed.
"We understand the intent behind the action. Given previous geth actions on colony-Eden Prime, you perceived this unit as a threat. Your response was within predicted parameters."
"I see…" The captain sounded more confused by the second.
The geth turned and walked off, rounded the winery, and vanished from view. It was then, with its back turned that Shepard really saw the other weapon it carried. With a shock Shepard realized it was a large sniper rifle. The size of the weapon screamed anti-materiel caliber.
"Is it the only geth on Horizon?" the captain wondered.
"Yes. It apparently wanted the unit to fix its ship's communication gear. It's not staying on Horizon either."
"Will others come?" the captain wondered.
Shepard paused, it was a good question. She could not say that they would not without lying, or worse, instilling false confidence. If the geth was truthful and the so-called Heretics were a different faction, she could not guarantee they would not attack Horizon.
"You are uncertain." The captain noted.
"The situation is complicated. This geth does not speak for all geth. I understand that it's not something one would like to hear, but in all fairness, I simply cannot guarantee that others won't come."
"I understand, Commander. It is a good thing I kept its presence a secret. I can keep this to myself. I assume Eden Prime was bigger than the media led on to believe?"
"I cannot discuss Eden Prime in detail, but… it's complicated."
"I'll take that as a yes," the captain said.
Half an hour later, the geth was back. Shepard and company lingered only long enough so that the captain could double check that his tower was operational. After that, they said quick goodbyes and were back on the Kodiak and heading off-world.
Their return to the Normandy was heralded. The marines were down in the bay, and Wrex was leaning on a pillar, arms folded, clearly less than pleased.
"Shepard," he said as soon as she stepped off the shuttle.
"Wrex," she replied.
The geth stepped off the shuttle, and Wrex pushed off the pillar and dropped his arms to his sides. Ashley reached for a pistol, Kaidan's biotics flickered, and Jenkins outright flinched. The geth's head flaps flared in surprise. Shepard would have laughed if she did not realize this situation had the potential to turn ugly.
"Alright people, settle down. Yes, it's a geth. There is much I have to tell you, or better yet, let…" Shepard paused as a thought hit her. In all the hub-hub and suddenness of meeting a friendly-seeming, rather talkative geth, she never questioned what to call it. It certainly did not seem particularly interested in names itself. Yet it was an AI, it had some sense of self. EDI was an AI, and she adopted a name. It seemed remiss not to ask the geth its name. "You know," she turned to face the unit. "In all of this, I just realized I never asked what should we call you?"
The flaps moved as the machine tipped its head. "Geth." It replied.
Shepard, "I mean you. Specifically."
The flaps twitched, "We are all Geth."
There was miscommunication there somewhere, and in the presence of her whole ground team it felt kind of weird. "What is the individual in front of me called?" It felt even weirder being so cold, but if it misunderstood the query, perhaps clinical terms were needed.
The machine cocked its head ever so slightly, "There is no individual. We are Geth. There are currently one-thousand-one-hundred-eighty-three programs active within this platform."
"Keelah!" Tali breathed, shocked. "Commander-"
Shepard spared the quarian a brief look, everyone around them had gathered closer. Jenkins' jaw was halfway to the floor and Ashley still clutched a pistol.
"My name is Legion, for we are many." EDI cut in, piercing the sudden silence.
Shepard hummed, "That seems… appropriate." Perhaps not for a certain couple negative connotations she was not fond of, but they could not very well call it 'Bob', could they?
The geth seemed to think about it. The flaps positively danced; widening and narrowing in turn. Well, being a synthetic intelligence, as far as Shepard was concerned, it had the right to refuse the suggestion and propose its own name.
"Christian Bible, the Gospel of Mark, chapter five, verse nine. We acknowledge that this is an appropriate metaphor." It stated as its light narrowed slightly, the lamp's angle flicked around. "We are Legion, a terminal of the Geth." It turned its head and glanced at the others, "We anticipate the exchange of data."
Wrex snorted, "If I knew you were looking for a pet, Shepard, I would have suggested a Pyjack." He said, turned, and walked off to his corner of the shuttle bay.
"Let me make this clear, geth, I don't want you anywhere near me." Tali stated.
When the geth said nothing at all, the quarian turned and walked off.
Wrex making jokes was one thing, but Tali's unabated hostility was something else. Shepard sighed, there was nothing to it. Rome's bridges were not built in a day. They would have to be carefully constructed over time if they were to stand at all and not be prone to igniting.
"With all due respect, ma'am, we would like to know what is going on," Ashley said.
Shepard sighed, "Legion, how about you help me explain, I want you to meet everyone proper."
"Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander."
Two hours later Shepard had made due introductions and settled Legion into a berth of sorts. EDI had volunteered to keep an eye on it, and thus Shepard showed Legion the access door through medbay that led to the server room, after Legion also went through a decontamination cycle, as its feet still shed powdered quartz with each step. It baffled Shepard where all that powder was retained. Doctor Chakwas was very amused to meet the geth as well; it seemed like everyone who saw it was curious. Legion was also shockingly polite when it fielded questions.
The last place Shepard got to was the bridge, Joker was still holding them in orbit around Horizon as she had not issued orders otherwise.
"Hey Commander. I was listening to that talk in the shuttle bay, so… a geth?"
"You have a problem with that?" Shepard wondered.
"Well… you know me, I was not a fan of EDI, but EDI's proven useful… but really, a geth? This one even comes with one-thousand-one-hundred-eighty-three voices in its head for that even better chance of killing us all."
"Joker."
"No, I get it, but really… Wrex was right."
Shepard crossed her arms. Of all the people on the ship, she never would have expected to get the third degree from Joker. Even Tali seemed to back down a little, though clearly very displeased. Perhaps the difference was that Tali took her authority seriously, while Joker was prone to borderline insubordination. She did not have to explain herself to her subordinates, but Shepard was never the one to pull rank. She would not start now.
"You did not see what I saw down there. Our contact shot at it. Legion just… walked away. That's before it even knew the Normandy was coming. It does not seem like a violent geth."
Joker met her gaze. "I hope you're right, but the crew will be locking their doors when they sleep for at least a while."
Ah so that was the angle. Joker would know what the crew was apt to do. "I am willing to give Legion a chance. If it disappoints…"
"It'll cross this crew's overprotective mama-bear. I know. It does not stand a chance." Joker smiled.
Shepard rolled her eyes. She did not say it, but she had a good feeling about Legion. It would not disappoint her.
Author Notes: Here's Legion, the third member of "The Sniper Three".
General Notes:
Episode Title – It is an intentional nod toward the 2004 Will Smith movie "I, Robot", only because Legion is adorable, and I love my dopey robots. The initial idea was "We, Legion" but I decided that since all the other character intro episode titles didn't hint at who would be introduced until they were (with the sole exception of episodes 2-3, because they had their own thing…) a change was necessary. Unfortunately, I really didn't have the material to give Legion a two-part episode like everyone else, and I did not want to force it. EDI suggesting a name for Legion was taken almost verbatim from ME2, I felt the scene translated easily, and I could not improve on the concept, I merely changed the setting and made it more communal.
Chapter Notes:
Shockingly… none.