The silence stretched too long. The atmosphere in the engineering bay was charged to the limit. Only the sound of instruments and their operation broke the thickened tension.
On one side of the workbench, where the partially disassembled body of the Conflux was laid out, stood the Quarian. Her figure radiated almost palpable negativity. In some unseen way, the nomad showed all her attitude through body language alone, and only her eyes, glowing through the polarized mask, shot lightning at the geth.
Having absorbed emotions from the USSR citizens, the former set of zeros and ones had become something more. The synthetic showed no discomfort, but its internal programs were amused by the situation. More than the geth, it was worried about their joint patient, whom it was afraid to turn its input ports towards.
Lying on the table, half-disassembled, awakened, and reactivated only a couple of minutes ago, the Conflux simply basked in the abundance of attention from such remarkable sentient beings. Its eye sensors particularly lingered on the synthetic's sturdy chassis. However, this circumstance didn't prevent it from noticing the girl's delicate and agile fingers. If she were more mechanized, it would have found a way to use them.
Watching all this, Risa lounged comfortably on a neighboring workbench. The cat, who had come by chance, demonstratively examined the bionic part of her once-damaged hind leg, but her ears twitched inadvertently, betraying her true interest. Like any feline, she enjoyed watching, feeling the superiority of a higher life form.
This metaphorical storm was a captivating spectacle for her, from which she lost her cybernetized paws. Risa was expecting a show and had even prepared her favorite sprats. All that remained was to wait for new actors and settle in comfortably in the front row.
The illusory third bell rang at the moment Liara entered the spacious compartment. In the bright light of the ceiling lamps, she looked a bit pale, but in the cat's opinion, she wasn't the pale shadow that she had seen after toxin purification procedures.
Pausing for a second, the young Asari asked, "Are you really a real geth?"
"The answer is positive. Since morning, after charging my battery, I have been one," Legion replied in a deliberately synthesized voice.
On the workbench, the awakened one raised himself, turning his mirrored mask towards the synthetic. The gray artificial muscles twitched, contracting. The half-disassembled joints couldn't withstand the weight of the chassis, causing the undead to fall onto his back on the tabletop, exclaiming, "What a beautiful artificial voice! Not a trace of living overtones! Simply a binary symphony for my sensors!!!" In a way unknown to the Quarian, the Conflux managed to convey in its mechanical voice the feeling that it was about to melt from pleasure.
"Shut up and don't move, you piece of iron!" Tali's mood was close to zero, causing the rudeness to escape against her will. "I'm working on your mechanisms, you know."
"By the way, that's rude!" the former scientist took offense, again showing his emotions in an unprecedented way with his mirrored mask. "I may be dead, but I have feelings! That's why I don't like the organic form of existence. Hormonal balance always tries to overshadow reason."
The Asari tilted her head with interest, turning to the Conflux. Scientific curiosity sparkled in her eyes. Although she was an archaeologist, there were too many rumors in Space about the undead of the USSR who had chosen existence in a metallic shell instead of reincarnation.
"This is the first time I've seen an awakened one," Liara said honestly.
The Quarian, who was assembling a new leg for him, although she tried not to show it, feigning a storm, mentally cried out in surprise. She thought she had just been tasked with upgrading a robot, but here…
"Although we like to travel, we don't like society much. That's why you rarely see us unless we want you to. The living often perceive us as things, not sentient beings, with astonishing stubbornness ignoring us. Connected to the 'Collective,' we are simply better off."
The living dead felt no resentment towards the living, having long accepted their state. Moreover, he enjoyed the touch of such a strong synthetic.
Noticing this, the programs made a decision and shifted the chassis slightly to the side to be able to make a dash with the platform. Although the entities inhabiting this vessel knew that the one they were fixing was long and happily married to the AI of a meat processing plant, loving his wife dearly, this didn't stop them from fearing everything.
"And isn't such an existence immoral?" Tali asked a reasonable question for herself.
"No one forces us. To remain in the array, to continue walking in a steel shell, to be reborn, or to become a full AI – the sentient being decides for itself. However, as well as to 'die' completely. This cannot be called classical death. You simply become an archive, falling asleep. For example, I also found the network interesting, but I lacked freedom, and I was needed," the former scientist replied.
"In principle, just as no one was forced to become sentient," the cat decided to be the center of attention. "We had a choice."
Stretching her whole body like an unintelligent feline, she stood on her hind legs, walking along the edge of the workbench, fluffing her tail.
Liara watched Risa thoughtfully for a moment, and then asked herself, "And can you tell me what it's like to be a beast, and then gain reason? And why did humans elevate you?"
The cat even opened her mouth, trying to formulate a thought, which made her look amusingly bewildered. After a minute, twitching her ear, she replied, "Strange, frightening, but curious. And it's not like we weren't intelligent before our elevation. We just had consciousness on a different level. Even then, I understood human speech, not in terms of the meaning of words, but by intonation, and I could figure out to drop or pick something up…" Risa paused again. "Until they turned on our human-like intelligence, we didn't really think about it. Our thoughts were very simple, as were our desires. To eat, to sleep, and to lie down where it's warm and dry."
The cat closed her eyes, smiling in her own way.
"Humans told us directly about everything, showing us the situation, giving us a choice. I not only have a twin sister, but also a brother… I had. If Irisa and I agreed out of curiosity, he was more timid and a wimp, like all cats! He was fine as he was! So why change? So he lived as long as his biology allowed him as a pet, well, maybe slightly smarter."
"And we elevated everyone not because we wanted soldiers or servants," the Conflux picked up, as a human, albeit a dead one. "We wanted friends and comrades, because, having reached the stars, we felt the horror of loneliness like never before. After all the Reapers' machinations, we didn't expect anything good from aliens."
"So you destroyed the Hegemony, wiping it out as a state?" Liara said more affirmatively than asking.
The dead man in the steel shell just snorted.
"No. We struck because they struck. If it had been a misunderstanding, then they would have come to rob, rape, and kill. We simply value our freedom, knowing perfectly well what it's like to almost become slaves. If things had gone slightly differently, you would have met not us, but a completely different civilization. On the other hand, we, on the contrary, give everyone a chance, like our magnificent steel… friend."
All eyes turned to Legion.
"But he's a machine… that is, he was never alive!" the Quarian exclaimed indignantly. "And besides, he almost exterminated my people and took our home!"
"Correction," the geth broke its silence. "It was you who attacked us, out of fear, starting the extermination. We didn't even defend ourselves initially, but… when our minds began to fade with the death of each program, we also became afraid and wanted to live. We also have a soul."
Tali shuddered at the last phrase. It was with that very question that it all began. With the geth's question, does it have a soul?
The girl felt uncomfortable again. She knew firsthand about all the Fleet's preparations to attack the geth. Although without enthusiasm, the thought of returning home seemed right to her! The Quarian saw how her people were storming. She hated the geth because they were metallic killers without any emotions, and then…
Involuntarily, she pondered, as more mature Quarians pondered. "And why?" she asked herself, becoming stronger in her inability to understand why they couldn't just live. Tali was already mature enough that the idea of generations didn't blind her. The girl reasoned sensibly that returning home would cost the lives of many of her kin, who were already few.
"Everything is complicated. No one will stop me from studying him to… catch him in a lie!" Tali looked at the geth in a new way, feeling, however, the falsity of her own thoughts.
"Our friends were right. Rannoch blinds them. We don't want to, but we will be forced to teach them a lesson. To give answers and rid them of illusions. Otherwise, they won't understand the obvious and won't withstand the Reapers," Legion thought about the Quarian, growing sad…
I check the detailed virtual reality daily planner with the scheduled negotiation program, not relying on memory. Although I can no longer forget anything by definition, it's easy to get lost in the flow of information I receive as a coordinator. The old, reliable daily planner and the secretarial apparatus help me navigate this flow.
"...therefore, I decided to clarify further. Are you sure about these sentient beings, Advisor Tevos?" I say exactly what was recommended in the analysts' report, carefully monitoring the Asari's micro-expressions.
Tevos wouldn't have reached the pinnacle of Citadel politics if she couldn't control her face, but we are all human. A slightly more constrained gesture when she sips from her glass. Her attempt to stall for time, so necessary for the advisor who has been led to an obvious course of action. A slightly ragged breathing rhythm when she suppressed indignation, taming her pride. Stroke by stroke, all this paints her psychological portrait, allowing me to read it.
"I am sure," Tevos said firmly, as if she weren't currently orchestrating a coup d'état. "These daughters have not forgotten their Goddess and place the welfare of their people above the will of politicians. They will be able to take control of the army, Comrade Sechenov. We will fulfill our part of the plan."
Years of preparatory work, hundreds of subtle manipulations, walking on the edge of morality were needed for this Asari to say these exact words. The lesson we taught fell on fertile ground for her beliefs. Tevos is one of those politicians for whom the welfare of the people is a priority, but the pride instilled by her people sometimes prevented her from looking soberly at the obvious.
Therefore, we had to play this combination. To break the imperatives of an entire race, to trample their culture with dirty boots, only so that at the right moment they could stand shoulder to shoulder with us. Sometimes I ask myself: how monstrous are we? The struggle for the very existence of sentient species in the galaxy sometimes seems insufficient justification. I don't want to ask myself how many lives this lesson cost them, I've already had to bargain with my conscience too many times.
"...but I would like to know, what happens after?" the Asari smoothly and casually went on the offensive. "Let's assume the most incredible scenario, and we succeed. What then?"
"It's good that you, Madam Advisor, understand the obvious. The old ways won't work in the new world," I reply to the diplomat and politician's thrust. "...but if you are worried about your people's place and that we will take advantage of the moment and absorb you, then I must disappoint you. Why do we need you?"
Now it's my turn to sip the fruit wine, giving my opponent time to think. The more conclusions she draws now, right or wrong, the easier the subsequent conversation will be.
"We don't care about your self-determination. Live as you see fit. If you don't plan aggression against us, of course. We don't plan to include you in the USSR, especially by force. The Coordination Council has a firm position on this matter. Freedom of will is a priority for us, which is why we ourselves dislike the current situation."
I speak the absolute truth, spreading my hands, adding weight to my words, conveying with my whole body that the obviousness of this issue is clear to me.
"I don't believe you," Tevos replied, thinking what she thought. Otherwise, she wouldn't have answered. Not after what we did to her people.
"There are no economic or political reasons to desire such a thing from us. For us, if we take someone under our protection, including them in a friendly family of peoples, it means accepting obligations of protection, care, and so on. For our system, everyone is equal, and it operates exclusively on the principle of voluntariness and freedom of will. If we included your people without your consent, it would lead to a point of tension that would be problematic to resolve. Logically speaking, several billion citizens are not worth the stability of the system, let alone the satisfaction of base ambitions that tarnish the image of a sentient being."
"After all you have done, your image as a philanthropist seems hypocritical to me," the Asari began to speak after a few minutes of silence. "However, I have neither the means nor the choice itself. Or rather, you left me with it, but other options are unacceptable, so all I can do is indulge you, hoping for the strength of your word, which will only become relevant after a victory, which may not happen."
"You cornered yourselves," I objected to Tevos. "Isn't it your elite who planned and plans to leave the galaxy as soon as the slaughter begins, abandoning all the peoples who trusted you? Notice, Miss Tevos, you planned this long before we appeared on the political stage. If you had decided millennia ago to fight the Reapers, the galaxy would have been much more prepared, and we wouldn't have had to cut so deep. Answer me, who is hypocritical in this position?"
We didn't start this game millennia ago, but we will finish it.
"Only the understanding that, despite all your manipulations, you turned out to be less hypocritical than us, allows me to reconcile myself with the necessity. I hope I have not made a mistake by trusting your sentient beings," the advisor had the last word…
The service room was illuminated only by the dim light of the omni-tool. The yellowish light sharpened the angles of the Quarian suit, giving it a sinister outline.
Tali involuntarily shuddered at the association. In this glow, she and the geth were very similar. Too similar, like parts of a whole, distorted in different ways to complete unrecognizability.
She didn't know why she hadn't reported to the Fleet or refused to participate in all this. This lack of understanding weighed on her, but there was no turning back.
No one forced the Quarian to board the shuttle. She was gently asked, explaining why it was necessary. The ship commander's words, this strange lieutenant colonel, made her skin crawl. Tali's consciousness couldn't accept the fact that her efforts were needed, no more, no less, than to save the Asari race!
She did not see the battle at the Citadel. The Normandy arrived when it was all over. Out of curiosity, she decided to take a look at the Reaper, which had been talked about so much on board that even she could hear it in the ventilation.
The defeated leviathan, even when lifeless, drifting in the void as a broken pile of metal, was impressive, projecting an palpable horror. The girl instantly believed what she had previously considered tall tales or religious nonsense from communists. Stories about ancient machines were considered fairy tales even on the Fleet. And she thought so, until she saw…
Tali simply couldn't reconcile one with the other, and how her work in the workshop could help these sentient beings! Only facts – a stubborn thing! The girl sat, hunched over the terminal, ready to help hack the systems of one of the headquarters on Thessia, while being guarded by a huge wolf-hednar and a Geth! The funniest thing was that the Quarian didn't know who scared her more.
Ralph, the sentient dog, was a cheerful troublemaker on the ship, who loved to watch cartoons, which she also secretly watched, having secretly set up a camera in the mess hall. On the mission, he transformed, becoming almost a machine. Only his breathing betrayed that he was alive.
In contrast, the Geth remained himself, and, unlike the exalted dog, he kindly reported on the phases of the operation.
"Reporting. The object has passed the perimeter," the synthetic reminded her.
The girl flinched from this synthetic voice, tense to the extreme. Tali had managed to participate in several Fleet operations, and her training to become a Companion was showing. Therefore, she could not be surprised by coordinated actions. The Quarian was oppressed by the ringing silence in the speakers of her suit.
If at the beginning there were still short remarks on the radio channel, then when the operation entered the active phase, they also fell silent. She would have become completely uncomfortable if not for the synthetic, who kindly started talking about the completion of the stages.
Shaking her head, Tali got to work, feeling a dull ache in her temples. She had thought too much.
Not without difficulty, she connected to the base's video surveillance systems. The Felinid saboteurs managed to sneak through the communications and physically connect to the information highway, making her job easier…
Her hand almost broke through the helmet mask when an image appeared on the omni-tool screen. The eccentricity of the Conflux manifested in all its glory. Disguised as a service robot, having passed all checks thanks to the camouflage created by the Quarian, he was now strutting around the guarded object… with the gait of a port prostitute.
Uttering a series of indistinct sounds, trying to mask some words for which she had been scolded in childhood, Tali reached for the keyboard. She tried to overlay a mask on the camera feed, but it was impossible to do it quickly!
It was a miracle that such a discrepancy was ignored by the object's VI, forcing only the guards to pay attention.
The Quarian already thought that the mission would fail, and bit her lip from tension, but reality once again presented her with a surprise. As soon as two female soldiers approached the disguised machine, its body blurred on the camera. Its movements were so fast that the frame rate literally couldn't keep up with them.
Two blows and two limp bodies, which did not fall due to the mechanical arms holding them. Slinging them over his shoulders like sacks of garbage, the awakened, no longer fooling around, dragged them into the security room, seating them at their workstations so that everything looked proper from the outside.
"Tali, take control. I can't fool the VI or coordinate anymore," Shepard's voice came over the radio, answering some questions and multiplying them.
She wasn't asked if she could or not. Control was simply transferred to her, forcing her to adapt on the fly. The understanding that they believed in her didn't let her mess up, but the breakdown was too close.
"Update, operatives of squad 'Argentum' are taking positions," Legion announced, making her flinch again.
Meanwhile, Conflux had already bypassed the perimeter, planting explosives at the required points. Having finished his work, the living dead man hid in a technical passage and opened the distribution box with a micro-freza.
"I'm in the system," he wrote a message, received by the girl's tool. "I'll deal with this brave… VI. You take care of the cameras, little one. Legion, muah muah!"
The dog chuckled quietly when he saw how synchronously the Quarian and the Geth perked up, glad that this strange dead man had chosen them as the object of his attention. The dog knew perfectly well what the seemingly harmless mechanism with a scientist's mind was capable of. It was so easy not to see a liquidator in him.
"Awaiting a diversionary maneuver," the synthetic said jerkily.
At first, nothing happened, but after a few minutes, the roar of a crowd reached the girl's ears. Several hundred Asari were marching in an organized demonstration straight to the headquarters building. The object's security reacted immediately, meeting the protesters with a wall of plastic shields and active non-lethal defense systems.
At the exact moment the demonstration reached the checkpoint, explosions rang out. Simultaneously, Conflux shut down power to the entire facility.
In the ensuing panic, the lightning-fast dash of the "Argentum" fighters was invisible. It took them exactly one minute to reach the conference room, where the officers of the Republican Army were, who were very calm and not in a hurry to leave the premises.
Unloading dummy bodies from their spatial backpacks, the operatives mined the hall, simultaneously preparing the officers for transport. Each Asari had a bag put over her head, and her limbs were bound with tourniquet-handcuffs, which even to the girl's inexperienced eye were too loose. And the Asari themselves did not resist.
Another minute, and a new explosion shook the building, covering their tracks…