The Lesser Evil (Part 1)

The Crew deck of the SR-1 had become something more than just a place to intake nutrients. It was a hot-zone of debate. With the nature of TF-40, the multitude of Aliens representing different galactic interests, and the numerous objectives that they had already completed, there was a fair bit of anxiety from even the best hand selected crew of the Navy and Marine Corp.

Some of these objectives were cutting it close; some people almost died even. Despite the Operation so far logging no recorded casualties, people on board began to question the validity of what they were doing. It was only human nature to do so, after all; it seemed it was also alien nature as well.

People's personalities and beliefs began to show. Second Lieutenant Alenko and Gunnery Sargeant Williams had a playful rivalry that spanned their backgrounds which was beginning to pick up in intensity. Really it was a way to distract themselves when they aren't performing occupational duties. Here they were at a single small table sitting on opposing sides, both with bandanas in a melodramatic kamikaze pilot fashion, with a plate of about six chicken wings to which the mess officer was able to accommodate for them, and covered in a red 'ghost pepper sauce' which they were lucky enough to run into a convenience vendor on the Citadel that sold such a thing.

They were using it to 'settle things once and for all' about who the 'bigger bitch' was: Raiders or Force Recon, Alenko the former and Williams the latter respectively. And in all honesty, they would both agree that Naval Infantry were 'bigger bitches' than either Marine; though they wouldn't say that to their N7 Designate Naval Infantry Commander. This show was being entertained by a group of sailors egging them on, also trying to momentarily distract themselves.

On the other side of the room was a more isolated group consisting of the Pilot, Joker, sitting from across Garrus, while Shepard had his face partially covered by a book, constantly reading and rarely socializing. This is what Tali saw as she approached the same table, baring in her three fingered hands a tube of nutrient paste, and a glass of some levo-amino based liquid, not for her of course.

Now this gathering is a bit awkward, given her and Garrus' recent history. When they first met, he had been especially discriminating of her, and she had to spit fire back. He once scrubbed the bathroom floors with a human toothbrush, but when it didn't stop, eventually both of them scrubbed the entirety of the crew deck with one toothbrush each. She was initially pissed that she was getting punished for his actions, but with how Garrus changed his attitude toward her seeing how both were caught in the same predicament, she couldn't help but note that it was Shepard's intention to force Garrus to see themselves on an equal level.

Now Garrus was just…awkward. He was silent, and didn't say anything to her; didn't try to discriminate and throw any snarky comments about how she was planning to steal anything from him. A part of it, she thinks, was also that Shepard forced the Turian to share his provisions with her, with the justification that it was being bought and paid for with the Commander's own credits.

As Joker was blabbering on about something, Tali approached the table, with the Turian giving her one quick glance, and then immediately avoiding eye contact. So this is the new norm? Very well. But Joker on the other hand, noticed her and quickly coaxed her in.

"Tali!" He said. He was so used to using first names with the Aliens, but they liked each other enough. "Come here! I need to ask you something." The Quarian was already on her way to said table, so she obliged and finished her way over.

"What is it?" She said, as she stopped right beside the Commander, handing over the glass. Without taking his eye off the book, he reached his hand out to accept it from her; a sign that this had become normal for them, as Tali, originally buried in her work, had come out of her shell the more intellectually stimulating conversations she has had with the Commander. Eventually, she found herself comfortable in his presence, outright preferring it over the other humans; his wooden voice and seeming lack of personality not being much of a bother. After taking it, Shepard said: "Thank you," and returned to his book. The direction of the conversation stayed on Joker, however.

"So…a transit has lost control and cannot stop. You are the conjunction operator. The transit approaches the conjunction splitting off into two pathways. One of them has ten people tied to it and they cant get out. There's too many of them to try to free yourself. The other pathway has only three people attached to it, but they are the Turian, Salarian and Asari Councilors on it. You can only choose one path to direct the transit, which would you choose?"

Tali was…confused. "What kind've question is that supposed to be?" She said, before taking a seat closest to Shepard.

"It's a moral question," Joker said. "When push comes to shove, who is more important to save? The ten civilians? Or the Citadel Council?"

"Uhh…" Tali went, trying to humor Joker, but the answer was not so obvious. "Hmm…" She brought her pointer finger underneath her vocalizer. "I don't know…"

"Obviously, the choice should be the ten people." Came Garrus. "That's more lives being lost, and they had nothing to do with whatever this predicament is."

"Ahh, but how do you know that?" Joker rebutted.

"The Councilors are more involved with politics, clearly whatever this is involves them more!"

"But what exactly?"

"Well…Terminus terrorists, Cerberus? I don't know."

"But what would they get out of randomly murdering 10 people or the Councilors?" Tali interjected.

"Political leverage, probably. We all know how terrorists are. They terrorize. All of known history when terrorism is applied, never once has it worked; this is just another case of that."

"What do you think Tali? Which do you choose?" Joker egged her on.

"…I choose to save the Councilors…probably."

"Seriously?" Garrus went. "The Council races can just appoint new ones!"

"True…but who knows the power vacuum that would cause? In the process of getting a new set of Councilors, it could enable a Council military junta to establish a Tyranny and permanently suspend Council appointment. Such a thing would then become more dangerous to Council space." Especially if the Council joint military command was a Turian, or worse, the Turian military itself decides to intervene, she said in her mind, but not out loud so the ex-Turian soldier would hear her.

"The transfer of power is too quick for something like that to happen," Garrus said. "Even then, the Council is not strictly a united government anyways. The Council races have their own governments to keep order in their spaces should central authority fail."

"But that's no guarantee of it. The Citadel Council has a military fleet attached to it specifically. Also there's the Spectre's. What would they do in that brief moment? Keep order or seize that power?" Tali argued.

"I don't know…but even if they did, the lesser governments would resist them."

"So you're admitting it would start a civil war? Wouldn't that then be the goal of the perpetrators? Cause chaos so that they could leave Council space vulnerable? Tali rebutted.

"It…" Garrus started, but he came at a loss of words, until he found it again. "The Hierarchy would fight against the Terminus systems."

"They wouldn't try to seize power first? Make the galactic Council …the Turian Council?"

"This again?" Garrus accused. "If we wanted to do that, we would have. But the Hierarchy deliberately partook in the Council and appointed a Councilor."

"And you're implying that wouldn't ever change?"

"I'm IMPLYING that maybe you're wrong about us Turians."

"Just as you were wrong about us Quarians being thieves?"

Garrus let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head. "I thought we were past that." But Tali wanted to say something, yet she knew he was right. She noticed from beside her how Shepard, the one who had been forcing them to get along, was deliberately eyeing the two in warning. Tali came up with a better direction instead.

"So it's just about numbers to you?" She said.

"Lives are lives," Garrus said. "and ten deaths are worse than three."

"I don't disagree…" she replied. "It's just…Keelah, I don't know."

There was an uncomfortable silence between the Turian and the Quarian on opposite sides of the table. The Turian seemed so sure of his answer, but Tali wasn't so sure. Joker eventually shifted the question over.

"What do you think Commander? What would you choose? The ten people or the Council?"

Shepard's eyes, which to them were only just exposed above the top of the book with the rest of his face being hidden behind it, had briefly shot up at him, giving an intent stare at Joker for that moment as a silent pause befell on them. It was a quick contemplation before Shepard's eyes returned to his book and he answered:

"I choose nothing."

This had elicited a perplexed stare from the three of them.

"Um…nothing? Like…neither?" Joker went. Shepard didn't take his eyes off his book this time.

"So…you wouldn't choose either as in…you don't operate the conjunction or…you're deliberately not answering it?" Garrus asked.

"That is my answer."

"I…wasn't expecting that out of you of all people, Commander." Joker said.

"Ask yourself, Joker. How often do you actually find your elaborately proposed hypothetical scenario in real life?" Shepard questioned, but Joker hesitated to answer. "Is there an abundance of moustache twirling villains tying dames to railroad tracks in your experience?"

"Um…when you put it like that…"

Garrus, however, wasn't content with such an answer.

"Well, you must've found yourself in such situations before, Commander. Just recently, haven't you?"

"Hard choices, yes. But not a choice between two evils. Reality is far more complex than what a hypothetical scenario entails. Sometimes there's two options, usually because the right choice is the obvious one. Many times there's an infinite number of choices resulting from how you rationalize a solution."

"But why not just humor this question? Really, what would you choose? The Council or the ten people?" the Turian leant in, intent on an answer. Clearly, he was frustrated with the Commander's rationality.

Shepard breathed in, and closed his book. "There isn't an option, not with the way the question is being presented. It only reveals two choices of the many that could be taken, so we are reduced to thinking of only those two choices. It presents a false binary, which is a fallacy, and often intellectually dishonest."

"But no-win scenarios do exist, don't they?" Tali asked.

"Typically those are a result of someone having no agency over the matter, take for instance the people tied to the tracks. Essentially they have no choice in the matter, their agency has been taken away from them. They are essentially at the mercy of the one who is attempting to save them. The conjunction operator on the other hand, has agency over the matter, and involves numerous outcomes."

"But there's only two options…" Garrus said.

"Not really. There's actually 4. Nothing is one of them. Doing nothing will result in someone dying. Doing something, whether that is direct the train one way or the other, results in someone dying. But wait for the right moment and shift the tracks at the right time and it could result in the train being derailed, and no one dies. It's a choice, yes. It may not work. But it's certainly not a lesser evil; rather a greater good you just haven't realized yet."

"But you DID originally choose to do nothing."

"And I changed my answer since you begged me to. I chose nothing knowing it was a faulty premise."

"What was faulty about it?" Joker asked.

"As I've stated, it's an impossibly hypothetical scenario. It's narrative is specifically constructed to ensure that whatever choice is made, essentially someone loses. Yet many scenarios one finds in real life involves choices in which one side wins and the other loses, or everyone loses, and what is often forgotten is that there are choices in which everyone wins. Not to brag, but I know this question innately. Human beings have been arguing it for centuries before space travel. At one point in our species' history, the 'trolley problem' became a popular debate within casual circles. It was supposedly meant to stimulate rationality on what choices would be made under the guise of moral complexity, but it was anything BUT complex. It was only reinforcing nihilism because it was positing a nihilistic premise. And the more it was asked, the more people began to believe it. This happened in the cusp of a general lack of civic participation, social unrest, and eventually it led to Earth's 2nd wave of totalitarianism, and culminated in the third world war. It's a classic example of distorted reality propaganda, designed to not have a satisfying outcome and to encourage helplessness."

All three of them were wide-eyed. In Tali's eyes, she was surprised he was a soldier and not an ethics professor.

"On top of the fact that with how our Quarian and Turian friends here rationalized it, the question ceased to be a moral question, and turned into a strategic one. 'What satisfies the longer term end goal of order and stability'? With how the question was being framed, it was supposed to be a matter of whose life is more important to save. Clearly bringing position in society is irrelevant because life is just life, those Councilors could easily have been other people and it wouldn't change the premise of the choice if truly were just two options anyways. But it's completely unrealistic, so you shouldn't fall for such silly discourse."

There was then a silence that befell upon them as they began thinking about his words.

"Any other questions, Joker?" Shepard said. "or can I go back to reading?"

"Um no, Commander, you can read all you'd like…" Joker replied. Shepard picked his book up again, and delved back into the words. Eventually, the silence culminated in the three of them just trying to eat in silence. Eventually, Joker said:

"Welp, breaks over…gotta go fly the ship…" Joker said before slowly getting up careful not to break one of his brittle bones, and hobbled away. This left Garrus and Tali alone with the Commander, and from the other side of the room, Alenko relinquished after the last chicken wing was consumed. Williams had won, claiming Texans were built for the spice.

Garrus shared a quick glance with Tali, but eventually, like before had ignored her, back to the new status quo. Though, she could tell that he was clearly sorry; she was too, but she didn't vocalize it; they just weren't at that point.

However, Tali smiled underneath her concealing mask. She thought that a soldier with such a belief Commanding them was a blessing. If he truly didn't believe in the lesser evil, then they must've been in good hands.

She will be reminded of this on more than one occasion.