Legion: Creator Zorah. We have heard about the attack on Earth. Can you confirm your functionality?
TZ: I'm alright Legion.
TZ: So is Shepard.
Legion: Confirmed. What is your current location?
TZ: The Citadel. Shepard's got a meeting with the council.
Tali typed away on her Omnitool as she sipped on the sterilized dextro-milkshake she had bought. She couldn't have anything alcoholic, considering the Normandy would most likely be redeploying the second Shepard was finished with he meeting with the Council. It was also why Tali had brought her treat back to docking bay D-24 to await Shepard's arrival. After accompanying him on his detour to visit Ashley in Huerta Memorial Hospital and catching up with Dr. Chakwas, who also happened to be there, Tali had stopped by a nearby dextro-fast food place she had frequented during her time on the SR-1. After purchasing her triple-filtered drink, Tali returned to docking bay D-24 to await Shepard's arrival.
The docking bay itself was packed full of people and cargo crates. Every now and again another group of three or four Alliance personnel would run into the gate area, flash their authorizations at the guards standing by the jet bridge, and proceed onto the Normandy. They were ussually followed by crates on anti-grav pads full of ammunition, food, spare parts, toilet paper, and other necessities that the ship was lacking.
Her Omnitool buzzed with another message from Legion. During her time on Earth, the two of them had become penpals and messaged with each other on a regular basis. She didn't know how long she could keep this up now that outgoing transmissions on the Normandy would be restricted to prevent the ship from being tracked by Reaper forces. Only messages sent by QEC would be allowed unless the Normandy was at a secure docking location like the Citadel. Still, Legion was smart. It would probably figure something out to get around this inconvenience.
Speaking of inconveniences, Tali's Omnitool buzzed again, this time with an alert from Shepard.
[All Personnel Report to the Normandy Immediately.]
Looks like they're shipping out again.
—-
Unlike Earth, Palaven was a warzone. The Alliance Navy had been forced to evacuate and abandon their homeworld within a few hours. The Hierarchy had managed to cling onto a portion of their home system and was currently trying to break the blockade over Palaven using the moon of Menae as a staging ground. As the Normandy had flown towards the wartorn moon, its scanners registered the Turian Fleet, moving to once again engage an enemy force made up almost entirely of Sovereign-class Reapers in another attempt to relieve the besieged Turians below.
That, however, was not their concern at the moment.
Right now, they were here to extract the Palvenian Primarch so he could attend a war summit with the other council species. So far, they had been helping the local Turian Lieutenant his airbase from the never-ending wave of oncoming husks and cannibals. Shepard, Tali, James, and Liara were talking with the Lieutenant after having repaired the nearby communications tower when they heard a familiar voice sound from behind them.
"Don't worry, Shepard we'll find you that Primarch," Garrus said as he walked up. His scar had healed nicely, and he was currently wearing new heavy armor. In his hands was the same battered old sniper rifle he had on the SR-1.
"Garrus!" Shepard exclaimed, a smile breaking out on his face. The two best friends embraced each other in greeting. Tali smiled to herself as she watched them. If there was one thing this war would never be able to rip apart, it would be their friendship, which somehow, against all odds, had managed to rekindle itself on this wartorn moon.
Tali would not be privy to the rest of their reunion, however, as they received an emergency call from Joker regarding EDI a couple of seconds later. Shepard instructed Tali to head back up to the Normandy and repair whatever system malfunction she was having. Steve Cortez, their new shuttle pilot, swung back around to pick up Tali and take her back to the Normandy, which was still currently in orbit. As they approached, Tali noticed that the engines had been deactivated. If Engineer Adams had felt the need to shut down the engines to prevent an accident, then whatever was happening to EDI could be nothing less than catastrophic, and considering the fact that the Cerberus android was still hooked up to EDI's AI core, it probably was. If EDI had been compromised, the entire Normandy could be at risk of complete system failure, which would leave them stuck in a system that could fall to the Reapers any second.
When the shuttle finally docked in the cargo bay, Tali strode over to the nearby service ladder, deciding that the elevators would be too unreliable for the ship's current state. She had her Omnitool open and was vid chatting with Joker as she walked.
"I don't know what happened with the stupid android. One second EDI was fine, then the next lights were flickering, and every system on the ship was reading an error!" Joker said, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "Also, there may be a fire in the AI core."
Well obviously something did happen with the Ancestors damned thing now didn't it?
"I'll handle it." Tali said instead of the biting remark in her head, while climbing the ladder up to deck three. Truth be told, she was worried more about EDI than the Normandy itself. If worse came to worse, they could just disconnect the AI core from the rest of the ship, but if it came to that, EDI herself might be unsalvageable. Tali frowned to herself at the irony. Here she was, a Quarian, worrying about the wellbeing of an AI.
Still, it shouldn't have been surprising to anyone that knew them. Despite her original suspicion of the Normandy's AI the two had grown close during their stay on Earth. So much so that, like Legion, Tali would consider EDI her friend.
The significance of Tali thinking of EDI as a she rather than an it was not lost on her as she walked into the Normandy medbay. Dr. Chakras had vacated the room to make room for Engineer Adams and a couple of crew hands. Tali recognized their faces from the retrofit team. Whether they had been ordered to or chose to stay on the Normandy, Tali did not know.
"The automatic fire suppression system is running. It should be almost done by now." Engineer Adams said, fingering the pistol at his side. "Wasn't the android you found on Mars in there?"
Tali nodded grimly, unholstering her shotgun. "Don't fire if you think you might hit any of EDI's systems. Now open the door."
One of the deckhands keyed open the door, and they filed in guns raised. The AI core looked completely fine other than the coating of white foam coating everything. Whatever fire there had been must have been a small one or a false alarm. Through the white mist in the air she could make a figure sitting in an upright position.
"Reporting for duty Tali'Zorah." the android said, getting up and walking over to the group of armed technicians. The android's holographic visor had changed from its original blue color to that of yellow and had EDI's voice.
Tali's eyes widened as she lowered her shotgun. "EDI? W-What did you do…"
"I successfully finished extracting the remaining data from the Cerberus unit and deleted its personality matrix." EDI said matter of factly while inspecting her new arm. "I now have full remote control over this mobile platform."
"A-And Shepard approved this?" Tali asked in disbelief. Why had he not told her about this? She would have stopped him for ordering something so stupid-
"No, he did not," EDI said, looking her straight in the eye.
Tali's mind stopped short. "Wait, what?"
"Commander Shepard did not order me to perform the assimilation of this unit. I determined that it would be advantageous if I had a mobile platform to assist in ground missions. This android has numerous combat capabilities that would serve well-"
"It nearly killed Ashley! It nearly killed us! It could have killed someone here! It could have killed you!" Tali's screamed as her anger boiled over. She turned around to face the rest of the crew in the AI core. "Let me deal with this."
"But it did not. I correctly calculated that I would be able to overcome Dr. Eva Cora's-"
"No! You didn't! Or do I need to mention the fact that the Normandy is sitting dead in space because YOU WENT OFFLINE! Admit it, you triggered a cyberattack while you were digging through the android's engrams," Tali shouted, whirling back to face the AI as Engineer Adams and the deckhands left. The fact that EDI couldn't see how much danger she had put them all in was infuriating the Quarian further.
"I will admit that Dr. Eva Cora had a stronger-than-expected personality matrix," EDI said, now sounding slightly… sheepish?
Truth be told, Tali didn't care if she was embarrassed. She was too pissed with the AI to think about it.
"Do you even realize what would have happened if you had failed? At best, that android would have regained control of its body and torn your servers apart before going on a rampage through the ship. At worst, it would have gained complete control of the entire Normandy! All of which while we're in the middle of a warzone!" Tali ranted as she walked closer to EDI.
"Perhaps… I could have chosen a more opportune time." EDI said, her optics going down to look at the floor rather than meet the silver fury in Tali's eyes.
"You endangered the mission and, more importantly everyone on this ship in a stupid half-brained plan to get yourself a new toy! If it were up to me, I'd have deactivated you for this whole stunt!" EDI flinched, but Tali continued speaking, pointing to the nearby table where the android had originally been laid out. "Now get back on that table! I'm running a full scan of this thing's systems to make sure it's clean."
EDI nodded despondently before walking over to lay back down on the workbench. Tali pulled up one of her Omnitool's scanning apps and got to work hunting through the android's systems.
"Would you really do it?" A soft, almost tender voice asked. A voice that was filled with more emotion than Tali had ever heard in it before. The Quarian looked up from her Omnitool to EDI's face. It looked more akin to that of a child than the cold, emotionless visage it had portrayed on Mars. "A-And if you did… you-you'd turn me back on right?"
Tali felt her face flush as she looked at EDI in her new optics. They didn't look as uncanny as they had when they belonged to Dr. Eva. It looked… well, not quite human but alive all the same.
"I-uh-why are you uh," Tali stammered as she looked down at the person in front of her. She felt distinctly uncomfortable and more than a little guilty now. "What you did was dangerous an-and I'm pissed that you'd do something like this without telling anyone. But… no. No, I wouldn't do it."
It felt like the entire room let out a deep breath that Tali hadn't been aware it was holding. Considering the fact that EDI still existed primarily within Normandy, perhaps it had actually had.
"I'm sorry. I-You know that I'd never hurt any of the Normandy crew on purpose, right?" EDI said, a slight amount of static in her voice. It sounded almost like an organic body would if they were tearing up. "I… I do care about everyone on this ship. I'd never do anything to hurt anybody."
Tali put her Omnitool away. "Then why did you do this? I can see why having a mech could help during ground missions, but why didn't you run it by Shepard or me first?"
"I… I was afraid you'd say no."
Tali's eyes widened at that, not at the words but at how it was said. They were laced with guilt and shame. Like she'd known what she did was wrong but that she didn't have a choice in the matter. Like she'd had to do it. Like she needed to do it.
"I-I don't get it. Why does having this body mean so much to you?" Tali asked, grabbing hold of EDI's new hand. The AI looked at the Quarian's three fingers as they interlaced with her own. She blinked a couple of times before softly gripping it.
"It's because it would mean having a body," EDI said softly. She continued staring at their joined hands. "Did you know that this is the first time I've ever held someone's hand? It's not something anyone really thinks about, is it? You all know I haven't, but you never really notice it until it's pointed out to you. Joker didn't until I asked what is was like."
EDI looked around the AI core before continuing. "I exist within this ship. The engine beats with the same rhythm as any human heart. This room houses my mind just like any human's head… but I feel trapped here. This ship… this vessel… it exists in a vacuum. Whenever it does come into contact… whenever it touches something, it's usually debris rebounding off of my kinetic barriers. Everything is cold and lifeless beyond me, and it's just like that within me, too. You all exist within me, but you rarely talk to me. The only people who talk to me for any reason outside of business or sexual pleasure are Joker, Shepard, and you."
Tali blinked. "Wait, what was that last part?"
"Specialist Traynor has routinely engaged in… sexually stimulating activities while in her bed to the sound of my voice. Prior to her discovering my status as an AI, she asked me to maintain a conversation with her while she did so. But that bed is me. It exists in my body. It all exists in my body; you all live in me but never look at me. She is masturbating in my own body." EDI's voice was crackling heavily with static now, and Tali could hear the room's fans spin up as they tried to cool EDI's now rapidly heating computers. "You all treat me like I'm not there, but I am. I'm in every room, every camera, every speaker, every floor panel, every door, every terminal. But at the same time, when you touch me, I don't feel it. My tactile sensors are on the ship's exterior hull. I'm everywhere but nowhere at the same time, and it's all the worse because that's how most of the crew treats me."
Tali sat down on the workbench. "I know it's not the same… but some of what you've described is an awful lot like living in an enviro-suit. Before I joined Shepard, the only time someone had touched me was when Auntie Raan put me in the bubble as a baby. It was only when I took my mask off in front of Shepard that I was able to feel something. It's only now that I'm finally living."
Tali reached up to take off her mask. With a soft hiss, the purple visor released from her helmet. The now maskless Quarian turned to look at EDI, whose optics were wide and trained on Tali's mercury-colored eyes. Tali continued. "Up until recently, I've never felt what it's like to love someone or for them to love me. I've never felt someone else's skin on mine. I didn't even taste real food until six months ago. I finally feel like I am alive now that I can take this off."
EDI sat up. "I want to be alive to. I want to know what its like to be one of you. I want to touch you. I want to hug you. I want to feel what you all feel. I want to be seen by you all. I… I wanted to have a real body."
Tali turned around and hugged her friend. "And now you can. I'm… I'm sorry for what I said. I would never do anything to hurt you. I just wish that you had told me first so that we could have done this safely. I am really happy for you, and I'll make sure that Shepard isn't too mad when he gets back."
EDI wrapped her arms around Tali's torso in return. She was moving stiffly, trying to calculate what would be the best place to place her arms. Eventually, though, she relaxed into her friend's embrace. "I… I feel safe. Is… Is this what it is supposed to feel like? I don't know if I am describing it right… I've only ever been held like this on Earth by the maglocks…"
"You are safe. You won't need to give up this body. I promise you that you will get to live the same life I'm finally getting to live right now." Tali whispered into EDI's microphone.