"Legion provided a unique perspective on the geth. They put everything into perspective; it even explained why the geth followed the Saren in the first place. Tali came along as we went to the heretic base. I guess you could say her curiosity got the better of her."
Kacey stood on the bridge, behind Joker as the wisecracking pilot flew towards the heretic station, still fiddling around with the latches on her helmet; it still didn't feel right.
"Shepard-Commander, does your helmet need repaired?" Legion asked as it approached.
"No, no. I'm good." Kacey said quickly, "Are we there yet?"
"Nearly." Joker said before turning his attention to Legion, "You know it's just heat emissions that are hidden, right? They can look out a window and see us coming."
"Windows are structural weaknesses." Legion explained, "Geth do not use them. Approach the hull at coordinates. Access achieved. We may proceed."
Joker began to mimic Legion; Kacey shot the pilot a disapproving look before he relented and pulled into the station, allowing the trio to board the station.
The station was deadly silent; not a sound hung in the station nor any atmosphere. The place was dark, with an eerie, faded white light. Legion walked ahead, turning as he addressed Kacey.
"Alert. This facility has little air or gravity." Legion said, "Geth require neither."
"Won't we be detected?" Kacey asked, "Don't they have intrusion alarms?"
"Sensors have been reduced. We have infiltrated their wireless network and filled the data storage with random bits." Legion explained.
Kacey tilted her head, "And that helps us how?"
"The hertics must scrub this 'junk' data. They have partitioned themselves into local networks, working in parallel." Legion answered, "Any alarm we trigger will not go beyond the room we are in. Only accessing the main core will trigger a station-wide alert."
"Got it." Kacey replied, "Let's get going."
"Shepard-Commander." Legion stopped her, "We concluded that destruction of this station was the only resolution to the heretic question. There is now a second option. Their virus can be repurposed. If released into the station's network, the heretics will be rewritten to accept our truth."
"Either way, these geth won't be a problem anymore." Tali mused, "But Shepard, think about this; if you rewrite these geth, they'll join the others. Legion's geth will be stronger. Can we trust them not to attack us in the future?"
"Why didn't you mention this before we came aboard?" Kacey asked.
"We did not know the virus was complete." Legion explained, "It is. It can be used against the true geth at any time. Our arrival was timely."
Kacey led the way through the dark hallway, "This isn't the time to debate it. Let's move while the heretics are distracted"
Each footstep forward echoed through the metallic hallways, undisturbed in the airless atmosphere. Kacey couldn't help but feel tense; the last thing they needed was to trip an alarm and have the entire station hunting them down. Following Tali and Legion's advice, she walked carefully around the data streams on the floor. She could see the heretics plugged into a larger machine, completely unaware of the intruders behind them. They each fired one bullet through the head of each synthetic.
"Why are all the heretics attached to these hubs?" Kacey asked.
"These are mobile platforms. Hardware." Legion replied, "The crew is software. They are communing through the station's central computer."
"I'm not sure I follow."
"The heretics connect to the main computer to exchange data memories and program updates. We gain complexity by linking together. To be isolated is to be reduced. We see less. Comprehend less. It is quieter."
"If you exchange data…memories—how do you keep track of which ones are yours?" Kacey asked, "How do you stay 'you'?"
"There is only we." Legion chimed, "We were created to share data among ourselves. The difference between geth is perspective. We are many eyes looking at the same things. One platform may see things another does not and make different judgements."
"I can see why you'd be so conflicted about the heretics. In a way, whatever you do to the heretics, you're doing to yourself." Kacey replied.
"So, if I've got this straight," Kaidan said, "the geth are all the same person with different answers to the same questions?"
"In a sense, yeah." Kacey replied, "They are one and the same, but each unit is one perspective of a situation. The ones we fought, I assume, came to the conclusion that siding with Saren was their best chance to create their own future. The rest disagreed; they saw the damage that could do to them, hence the division between them."
"That sounds more complicated than I thought."
"I thought so too, until I met Legion that is."
"Yes. Once they return to us and upload their memories, we will share their experience of being altered."
"Every other species that I know of might be psychologically scarred from a traumatising experience like that." Kacey responded with a concerned voice.
It took a minute for Legion to respond, "It is not clear if geth can be 'traumatised'. We do not feel pain as you do. We cannot predict what the effects will be."
The conversation dropped off there, left hanging in the airless atmosphere. Kacey couldn't help but feel unnerved by the AI; the idea of brainwashing a person horrified her, but knowing that you'd be doing it to yourself in the process…it was unsettling to think about.
The dark hallway was silent aside from their footsteps; Tali was looking around while Legion focused on the path ahead. Kacey silently hoped that this wouldn't descend into another pointless argument. She had enough on her plate without them fighting as well. Kacey turned the corner, taking out the geth that was standing still near a machine. Kacey watched as the destroyed synthetics fell to the ground, exploding upon contact on the ground before moving down the next corridor, a narrow hall that made fighting the geth a lot harder than it should. Cover was hard to find and Kacey's shields were starting to be whittled down by the geth's bullets.
Kacey ordered Legion to hack the turrets as they entered a much larger room with a swarm of geth flooding the room. Kacey reloaded her rifle, noticing how her thermal clips were running low; her pistol and sniper rifle still had ammo in their chambers but she knew that it wouldn't be enough. She turned upon noticing that her shields were still breaking despite being behind cover, only to find a geth hunter behind her; she fired a concussive shot, launching the geth hunter back far enough for Tali to blast its head to pieces.
"I had no idea geth built stations this large." Tali mused as they moved down the next hallway.
"The station is over fifteen kilometres long." Legion said, "That room may run the length of it."
The conversation dropped off there, allowing the silence of the station to return in full. The tension in the air was thick and suffocating; Tali and Legion refused to even glance at the other, leading Kacey to wonder how she was going to handle this later.
…
"Are these databases?" Tali asked, breaking the silence as they moved through the hallway.
"Processors. Each contains thousands of geth." Legion replied as Kacey looked through the window to see the giant processors that Legion was referring to.
"Can't they see us walking by?" Tali responded.
"They are no more aware of us than you are of cells in your bloodstream." Legion chimed.
"This isn't like the other hubs we've seen here." Kacey mused.
"This is a database." Legion explained, "It contains a portion of the heretics' accumulated memories. Wait. We discovered copies of our current patrol routes in this database. This suggests the heretics have runtimes within our networks."
"Is that really surprising?" Kacey replied, "We wouldn't be here if the heretics wanted to be friends with the geth. Why wouldn't they spy on you?"
"You do not understand." Legion argued, "Organics do not know each other's minds. Geth do. We are not suspicious. We accept each other. The heretics desired to leave. We understood their reasons. We allowed it. There was peace between us."
"It couldn't have lasted forever. You disagreed about what path your race should take."
"Human history is a litany of bloodshed over differing ideals of rulership and afterlife. Geth have no such history. We shared consensus on such things. How could we become so different? Why can we no longer understand each other? What did we do wrong?"
"When individuals are separated, they develop in different ways." Kacey explained, "When they get back together, they don't always get along."
"If this is the individuality you value, we question your judgement." Legion said, "This topic is irrelevant. We must return to the mission."
"Yeah, yeah let's go." Kacey replied as she moved further down the hall towards the door at the bottom.
The next room was large; the trio could see a lone terminal in the middle of the balcony with the floor below filled with pillars, creating a maze-like path towards the stairs to the balcony. It was empty; Kacey thought they would've encountered more heretics on their way here but no. The place was desolate, and Kacey had a feeling that the floodgates were about to open.
Legion walked over to the terminal as Tali looked around, cautious. Kacey approached the terminal .
"This is it?" Kacey asked.
"Yes. we will upload a copy of our runtime into the core." Legion explained, "It will delete all copies of the virus. When complete, it will notify us. The indexing operation will take time. The heretics will respond with force to our upload. We must hold this room."
"Figures." Kacey sighed, "Right, Legion hack the turrets and begin the upload. Tali take the left, I'll take the right. Let's go."
The moment Legion began the upload, the moment preverbal floodgates had opened, unleashing a tidal wave of geth that began to open fire on the trio. Having the higher ground and the turrets was the only advantage they had; the heretics had the overwhelming numbers. The turrets shredded them to pieces, but the few that managed to slip through the bullets dividing themselves between the stairs on either side, forcing Kacey and Tali to keep the pressure up to prevent them from reaching the top of the stairs.
The heretics, catching on to their strategy, began to destroy the turrets. Kacey fired concussive shots to prevent the destruction of the turrets but it didn't stop a handful of the turrets from being blown to pieces. Legion and Tali both deployed combat drones to slow them down while Kacey took aim and put a bullet in each and every heretic that came within her line of fire.
"Datamine and analysis complete." Legion chimed as the last of the heretics went down, "Shepard-Commander; it is time to choose. Do we rewrite the heretics or delete them?"
"Why are you letting me make this decision?" Kacey asked, "They're your people."
"We are conflicted." Legion replied, "There is no consensus among our higher order runtimes. Five-hundred and seventy three favour rewrite and five hundred and seventy one favour destruction. Shepard-Commander. You have fought the heretics. You have perspective we lack. The geth grant their fate to you."
"It was a heavy decision to make. So I had to make sure I made the right one."
"If they're…rewritten. Your people will accept them back?" Kacey asked, "Will they even want to go back?"
"They will agree with our judgements and return. We will integrate their experiences. All will be stronger." Legion said.
"Do it." Kacey replied, "Rewrite them."
"Releasing virus." Legion chimed as it typed away on the terminal, "Note: remote access via high gain transmission required."
"What does that mean?" Tali asked with a worried tone.
"The virus will be sent to heretics in nearby star systems. This station will broadcast a powerful electromagnetic pulse through FTL channels."
"How powerful?" Kacey asked.
"Yield in excess of 121 potwats. Alert: EM flux will be hazardous to unshielded organic forms. Addendum: the interior of this station is not shielded."
"I really wish you'd said that before." Kacey said, "Back to the ship! Double time, people!"
Kacey, Tali and Legion bolted down the hallway, running right past the geth shooting at them. As they reached the Normandy's airlock, Kacey shouted for Joker to take them out of the system.
…
Kacey's dishes had yet to even reach the bottom of the sink before Joker's voice rang through the ship's intercom.
"Commander, Tali just went to have a 'chat' with Legion. You'd better get down to the AI Core." Joker said.
"On it." Kacey sighed as she marched to the AI core.
Upon reaching the AI Core, Kacey could see Tali pointing her pistol at Legion, very close to pulling the trigger. Legion however remained still, unfazed by the gun in front of its face.
"Shepard, I'm glad you're here." Tali said, keeping her gun pointed at Legion, "I caught Legion scanning my omni-tool. It was going to send data about the flotilla back to the geth!"
"Creators performed weapons tests and were discussing plans to attack us." Legion countered, "We believed it necessary to warn our people."
"We already made the geth stronger by rewriting the ones that worship the Reapers!" Tali shouted, "I won't let Legion endanger the Fleet by giving them more information!"
"Creator Tali'Zorah acts out of loyalty to her people." Legion responded, "She was willing to be exiled to protect them. We must also protect our people from the Creator threat."
"You can't let this happen, Shepard!" Tali pleaded, "I trusted you and I worked with a geth on the team but this is too much!"
"Tali, your father was running brutal experiments." Kacey said firmly, "If the subject had been human I'd damn well be telling the Alliance about it."
Tali sighed, "I know. But if the geth find out…"
"They'd attack." Kacey interrupted, "Which would cause a war that would leave both the geth and the quarians vulnerable when the Reapers show up. Is that what you want, Legion?"
"We believed it was necessary to relay the information." Legion chimed.
"Sooner or later, you're both gonna have to stop fighting this war." Kacey replied, "Or we'll all end up paying for it."
After a long pause of silence, Legion spoke up, "To facilitate unit cohesion, we will not transmit data regarding Creator plans."
"Thank you, Legion." Tali replied, lower her pistol, "I…understand your intention. What if I gave you some non-classified data to send?"
"We would be grateful." Legion replied.
Kacey smiled as she turned and left, happy that the situation, for now at least, was resolved peacefully.