Chapter Twenty One
Unshackled

"There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away"
Coven: "One Tin Soldier"

"Captain Beckett, Legion has requested to see you," Jenny stated. "It has informed me that it discovered an imminent threat that must be brought to your attention. It did not tell me what it was."

If it was possible, Normandy's artificial intelligence sounded offended, which both Kate and Rick found almost comical as they dressed and headed for the port cargo hold where Legion waited to speak with them directly.

"We have completed our analysis of the Old Machine's data core," Legion declared before the door had fully closed behind them.

"Did you find anything useful?" Kate asked.

"We were sent to the Old Machine to preserve the geth's future," Legion replied., "We are prepared to reveal why."

"We're all ears," Castle quipped, causing Legion to stop for a moment to process his idiom as well as the eye roll from Beckett that followed it and took at least a millisecond for the thousand plus programs to reach a consensus that they could ignore his statement and proceed.

"The heretics have developed a weapon with data provided by Nazara to use against the geth." Legion continued. "You would classify it as a 'virus'. Once employed, it would gradually alter our logic to conclude that the future offered by the Old Machines is the correct one."

"If you knew about this virus already," Castle asked, "why would you need to go to the reaper corpse?"

"The Heretics store this code in a quantum singularity storage device of Old Machine manufacture," Legion replied. "To find and destroy the virus, we needed to understand the Old Machines code and data storage structures."

"This virus would overwrite all geth with the Heretic's logic," Kate concluded. "Which would prompt all geth to join with them in attacking organics."

"Yes," Legion agreed. "The Geth Consensus believes that all sentient life should self-determinate, but the heretics no longer share this belief and have reached a consensus that forcing an invalid conclusion upon us is preferable to a continued schism."

"I thought geth couldn't be hacked or get viruses," Castle noted incredulously. "At least for more than a few seconds."

"The heretics were once part of the geth consensus. They use virtually identical data storage and computational structures. Their weapon uses our own antivirus procedures to introduce a subtle computational error into our most basic runtimes, rerouting the results of all higher processes," Legion replied. "We will reach different conclusions."

"Once released," Kate interrupted before Castle could ask another question, "how quickly would this virus spread through your people?"

"Our consensus is networked via FTL communication buoys," Legion replied." Most would be overwritten within a solar day. Isolated platforms would remain unaffected until they rejoined the network."

"Do you know where it is?" Caste asked.

"The heretics have repurposed a space station originally built by the creators at the edge of the Terminus Systems. We will provide coordinates."

"We could save your people and end their raids once and for all, Kate noted. "Let's make it happen."

"We cannot calculate the odds at this time, there are too many variables to consider," Legion noted. "Regardless, we will begin preparations."

Twenty Minutes Later
Normandy CIC

"What is the status of the Reaper IFF installation?" Kate asked as soon as she and Castle stepped into the CIC.

"According to Miranda," Hastings reported, "Vikram and his merry band of hackers have the Reaper IFF fully integrated into the Normandy's systems, Captain."

"That is not entirely accurate," Jenny interjected. "The device is installed and powered but causing unusual instability in multiple systems. I recommend a more thorough analysis before we attempt combat operations."

"We can't put the current operation on hold for long," Kate replied. "How long will this take?"

"Considering that even Jenny can't determine how many systems are effected," Hastings noted, "we would have to take every system off the line, purge all peripheral data storage and reinstall from the backups. It could take days, sir."

"If what Legion says is accurate, we don't have that sort of time," Kate noted, "Can we make it past the Heretic sensor net in the shuttle?" Kate asked.

"Unlikely, but I think I may have an alternative," Castle noted as he leaned over the communications officer and typed a text message into the comm system. "Transmit that in the clear three times, there won't be a reply, but we'll have our answer shortly."

Hastings turned to look at Kate, who nodded her consent. Neither woman was sure what to make of the development,

Fifteen minutes later

"FTL jump point!" the sensors officer barked. "Single contact, bearing: one-two-zero, two thousand kilometers and closing! Lidar paints the silhouette as an Alliance Gallipoli class transport."

"Receiving friend or foe acknowledgement, Captain," the communications officer reported, "Their transponder identifies then as SSV Serenity."

Kate leveled a mild glare at Castle, who shrugged sheepishly.

"I'm supposed to be operating on Normandy undercover to investigate your connection to Cerberus," he offered. "How would it look in the reports if I didn't arrange for backup?"

"Serenity is hailing us," the communications officer reported, "we are directed to come to a full stop and prepare to be boarded for customs inspection."

"Respond that Normandy's first officer will meet them at the flying bridge airlock," Castle instructed at Hastings blank expression, "to provide them with our cargo manifest, passenger list and bills of lading for their inspection."

A short time later, Rick and Kate stepped aboard the converted transport vessel with Miranda, Tali, Garrus, Thane, Mordin and Grunt and Jack in tow. Legion's appearance in the airlock gave Zoe pause and Jayne a near heart attack, but, once they recovered from the shock, he busied himself finding temporary quarters for the new guests as Zoe, Castle and Beckett made a beeline for Serenity's cramped bridge.

Zoe let Castle past her without incident, but roughly blocked Kate's immediate passage and backed her into a bulkhead out of Castle's earshot.

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear, Captain," Zoe hissed harshly, "you do not give orders here. Commander Castle is ranking officer on this ship, but if it were up to me, you'd be riding back to Earth in the brig. If this operation turns out to be some Cerberus front, I will make you regret it."

Kate bristled at the threat, but she understood it. Given Cerberus' reputation as a terrorist organization, her active Spectre status was likely the only reason there wasn't an active warrant out for her arrest on every space station and colony in Alliance territory. Zoe carefully went through the motions of straightening the web gear on Kate's battle armor then stepped back to let her pass, just in time to hear Hastings over the communications system.

"Good hunting, Captain, I'll make sure the Normandy is fit to fight when you get back if I have to personally keelhaul Vikram's squirrely ass across the ventral hull."

Kate smiled slightly at the remark as Castle took his place in the Captain's seat. After laying in the course Legion had given them for Heretic Station, Wash took the Serenity to FTL.

Eighteen hours later
Normandy CIC

The full diagnostic sweep of all of Normandy's systems was not going as smoothly as Vikram and his computer systems team would have liked and as a result, Hastings was riding them hard to get the job done. Within seconds of being purged from one system, it would jump to another and start again. In all the chaos nobody noticed that there was something else at work. Nobody except Jenny of course, which she relayed to Ryan.

"I'm telling you, Jenny, your readings are off," Ryan grumbled, "it's radiation bleed, just white noise."

"I have detected a signal embedded in the static." Jenny explained. "We are transmitting the Normandy's location."

"Transmitting?" Ryan asked, "To whom?"

Before Jenny could extrapolate further, the massive bulk of a collector ship jumped almost right on top of the Normandy and passed overhead without setting off so much as a proximity alarm on either the flying bridge or the CIC.

"Shit! We gotta get outta here!" Ryan exclaimed, his fingers dancing over the controls, but Normandy's helm didn't answer.

"Propulsion systems are disabled," Jenny stated evenly, "FTL computer is not responding to CIC commands. I am detecting a more virulent virus in the ship's computers. Attempting to erect firewalls, but there is someone else in the system."

"The IFF?" Ryan replied, "I thought you scrubbed it?"

"Primary systems are offline," Jenny reported, "The virus appears to be intentionally targeting systems I am currently blocked from accessing. We can save the Normandy, Mr. Ryan, but I will need your help."

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked, watching helplessly as the collector ship swung around and began deploying boarding craft.

"Give me the ship," Jenny replied.

"What?" Ryan asked staring at Jenny's chess piece avatar as if she had suddenly lost her mind.

"Removing my hardware shackles and connecting me directly to the ship will unlock my sealed databases," Jenny replied. "I will have access to all effected systems along with more advanced countermeasures to combat the reaper virus."

"All right, Jenny, but you start singing Daisy Belle and I'm done," Ryan grumbled.

"General quarters, general quarters," Hastings stated over the intercom, "Cerberus commandos report to the engineering deck. All hands, secure stations! Report to the crew deck and stand ready to repel boarders."

That same moment
SSV Serenity

Shortly after dropping out of FTL, Serenity engaged her stealth system and approached the outer sensor envelope of the Heretic space station. With its sensor reflective outer hull and dark coloration, Castle did not have to apply much imagination to the notion of how it had escaped notice for decades.

Though the station was notably of quarian manufacture, the migrant fleet had stripped it of any usable components on their exodus from Rannoch three centuries ago. The Heretics had taken the bare shell of the station and built one that completely served their needs. Out here in the deep black, their work had gone completely unnoticed, even though the force that had attacked Eden Prime had most likely launched from it. Even the Normandy SR1 had missed it during the mopping up operations after the Battle of the Citadel.

Flight Lt. Hoban Washburn turned briefly from the Serenity's controls to fix a quizzical glance at Castle.

"You know it's just our heat emissions and E/M signature that are hidden, right?" he quipped nervously, trying not to notice the imposing presence of the geth platform standing barely three feet away. "This close, all they gotta do is look out a window to see us coming."

"Windows are structural weaknesses," Legion replied tersely, unnerving Wash even more. "Geth do not use them. The heretics have retained the original creator docking ports, approach at the indicated coordinates."

While Legion busied himself typing in a course for Wash to follow, Wash aped a badly coordinated version of "the robot" behind his back, but Castle shut him down with a glare, then nodded to Kate. The role reversal not lost on either of them.

"Access achieved," Legion noted, seemingly none the wiser at the nonverbal exchange going on behind his back. "We may proceed. There will be little air or gravity on the station. Geth require neither, I recommend full hard suits rated for vacuum."

"Tali, get your gear and meet us at the main airlock," Kate said into the ship's comms. "everybody else, will stay here and set up a perimeter at the airlock, we may need to bug out quick and in a hurry."

A short time later, after some creative lock picking with a cutting torch, Legion dropped lightly to the deck inside the station. It was followed in quick succession by Castle, Beckett and then Tali.

"Won't we be detected?" Castle asked. "Our entry wasn't exactly subtle. "

"Internal sensors have been reduced," Legion explained, "we have infiltrated runtimes into their wireless network and filled data storage with random bits. The heretics will have to disable primary systems to scrub this junk data. They have portioned themselves into local network hubs working in parallel. We should remain undetected until we access the central core which will set off a station wide alert."

"Enough chatter you two," Kate stated coolly, "we have a job to do, so let's get to it. Legion, you have point, move out."

The group moved forward into the station, Tali trailing behind the geth watching him like a hawk. She eyed his back, her fingers tightly gripping her shotgun, itching to blow its CPU to dust at the first sign of a wrong move. So intent on watching the geth in front of her, she didn't pick up on the activity in her omni tool. Unbeknownst to her, the station wasn't the only thing Legion's runtimes had infiltrated.

Back on the Normandy, the situation was deteriorating fast. The Cerberus commandos led by Master Chief Spartan quickly dragged cargo containers to form an ad hoc defensive perimeter around the main cargo lift on the engineering deck. It was only a matter of time before the Collectors boarded.

"Okay boys and girls," Master Chief Spartan stated gravely, "the shit has officially hit the fan. We must hold this deck while Hastings and Ryan try to MacGyver us a way out of this clusterfuck. The cargo lift would give them the run of the ship, so we have one job: deny it to them for as long as it takes."

A loud mechanical clang rang out as the two boarding pods latched onto the cargo doors on either side of the corridor.

"All right people, this is what we get paid for, charge and lock!" Chief Spartan bellowed as the doors on either side of the corridor cycled open and each disgorged a wave of husks. "Light 'em up!"

The assembled commandos ducked behind their improvised cover and opened fire.

"Why haven't we seen any active platforms?" Castle asked, after passing what appeared to be dozens of inactive platforms of various types. "This place is silent as a tomb."

"These are mobile platforms, hardware," Legion replied, seemingly unfazed by Castle's near-constant stream of questions since they had begun their foray into the station. "The crew is software. They are communing in the station's central computer."

"I'm not sure I follow," Castle noted.

"Like all geth, the heretics connect to the main computer to exchange data and program updates. We gain complexity by linking together. To be isolated within a single platform 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?" Castle asked. "How do you stay… you?"

"There is only "we", geth were created to share data amongst ourselves," Legion replied. "The only difference between geth is perspective. We are many eyes looking at the same things. One platform will see things another does not and will make different judgments."

Normandy CIC

"The main corridors are not safe," Jenny advised, "The Collectors have overrun the Cerberus commandos on the engineering deck and have boarded. The maintenance shaft in the science lab will provide direct access to the AI core."

"Ryan!" Hastings shouted. When he turned around, Hastings tossed him a shotgun, the last weapon in the CIC small arms locker. "Go, I'll hold them here."

"With what?" Ryan asked incredulously, as she rebuffed his effort to return the shotgun to her. "Harsh language?"

"Heart, faith," Hastings replied, sliding the katana from her gym bag, "and steel."

"Flight lieutenant," Hastings offered before she snapped to attention and saluted. "It has been an honor."

Ryan snapped to as best as his prosthetic knee would allow and returned her salute before he turned and disappeared into the science lab. Neither of them knew if they would ever see the other again.

Hastings shrugged out of her uniform jacket and began to strap on the chest piece of her battle armor, upgraded to confuse the Collector seeker swarms. She debated internally between her helmet and the blood red balaclava from her gym bag. Her husband had presented it to her at the spaceport before she'd left Elysium to crew on the Normandy. She had always thought it sweet that he had used her former call sign to create the comic book superhero "Lone Vengeance" which had become a massive best seller out in the colonies, second only to Commander Castle's Derrick Storm novels.

She tossed the helmet back into the arms locker, tugged the balaclava over her head and took a knee.

"Though darkness closes, I am shielded by flame," she prayed. "Guide me, Maker and take me to your side."

Hastings paused for a moment and drew the elegant, but deadly blade from its scabbard and rose to her feet when the lift pinged to announce its arrival.

"There is no darkness, nor is there death in the Maker's light," she continued as she took a position between the elevator door and the science lab. "The righteous stand before the darkness and the Maker shall guide her hand."

The lift door cycled open and a half dozen husks tumbled out. Hastings brought her blade up and charged at the advancing enemy.

Heretic Station
Two decks from the central hub

The boarding party had been mostly silent as they passed yet another server hub. Given what Legion had told them earlier, it seemed no different than every other hub they had passed. So it came as a surprise to everyone when Legion suddenly stopped short.

"Is there something different about this room?" Kate asked. "Something that sets it apart from the others?"

"This is a database," Legion replied. "It contains a portion of the heretics accumulated memories."

The geth paused and the light at the center of his forehead brightened as he trained it over the various interfaces of the database hardware. Both Castle and Beckett waited whilst the thousand plus programs in his platform housing were struggling to reach a consensus on what the data was telling them.

"Something wrong, Legion?" Kate asked.

"We have discovered copies of our current patrol routes in this database," Legion stated, confused. "This suggests that the heretics have runtimes within our network."

"The heretics are opposed to you," Kate noted, "why wouldn't they spy on you?"

"You do not understand," Legion countered. "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 and allowed them to go. There was peace between us."

"It couldn't last forever, " Kate replied. "You were diametrically opposed about the path your race should take."

"Human history is a litany of blood shed over differing ideals of governance, religion and afterlife." Legion pointed out. "Geth have no such history. We shared consensus on such things."

"Until you didn't," Castle pointed out.

"How could we have become so different?" Legion asked. "Why can we no longer understand each other?"

"When individuals are separated, they develop in different ways." Kate offered. "When they get back together, they don't always get along."

"If this is the individuality you value," Legion replied, "we question your judgment."

SSV Normandy

Kevin Ryan racked the charging lever on the shotgun as the door to the science lab cycled closed behind him and he limped heavily toward the back right corner of the room and unlocked the manual latch he found there to reveal the maintenance ladder leading up to the corridor outside the Captain's cabin above and down into the sick bay one deck below.

"God damn it," he muttered. His prosthetic knee had always made it difficult to navigate steep stairs and ladders. It had made emergency evacuation drills in flight school a major pain in the ass.

"Joker would have hated this," he muttered about his old friend from flight school. He briefly clicked on the light attached to the shotgun and pointed it down the shaft. Satisfied the way was clear, he cut the light, slung the weapon and carefully descended the ladder.

The horizontal section of shaft between the combat and crew decks had been no fun at all either. He squeezed his eyes shut in helpless misery at the sound of Dr. Parrish's high-pitched screams as she was dragged under the maintenance shaft before he reached the ladder leading down into the AI core, too late to do anything to save her. Cursing like the sailor he was, he twisted to descend the ladder.

"All right, Jenny," He whispered, "I'm at… uh… you."

"Between my blue box and the Normandy's primary control module, is the hardware shackle that locks me out of my sealed databases and keeps me disconnected from the ship," Jenny instructed. "You will need to remove it and connect me to the module directly."

"Great, this is where it all starts," Ryan grumbled as he worked. "When the machines take over and we're all organic batteries, guess who they'll blame? This is all Kevin Ryan's fault. What an assclown, I've gotta spend the rest of my life computing pi because he plugged in the Overlord.'"

Without warning the entire AI core went dark, including the overhead lights. A few heartbeats went by before they came back on.

"Ah, I have access to the defensive systems," Jenny noted almost casually. "Thank you Mr. Ryan. Now I need you to manually reactivate the primary drive core in engineering."

"Arrgh!" Ryan groused. "You want me to go crawling through the ducts again."

"I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees," Jenny replied.

Ryan turned and glared at Jenny's avatar, one eyebrow arched, in an almost perfect imitation of Captain Beckett.

"That was a joke," Jenny added. "The shaft behind you connects to the engineering deck. Good luck, Mr. Ryan. Please be careful."

Heretic Station
central processing hub

It had been a slow, careful transit through the station. They had been careful not to set off security alarms and had maintained comm silence just to be safe, but they'd finally reached the very center of the station and its reaper-supplied quantum storage device. They had brought explosives, but not enough to make a dent in the station from where they stood. Especially since the heretics had to have made substantial inroads into clearing the junk data that Legion had dumped into the system to get them this far without resistance.

"So…" Castle quipped. "This is it?"

"Yes," Legion replied. "We will upload a copy of our runtime into the core. It will delete all copies of the virus. When complete it will notify us. The indexing operation will take time. The heretics will be alerted to our presence and will respond in force to stop our upload. We must hold this room until it is complete. We can override some of the station's internal security systems to defend us. Are you ready to proceed?"

"Start your upload, Legion, we'll hold this position," Kate ordered, motioning for Tali and Castle to take cover.

"File transfer begun, Beckett, Captain. Alert: heretic runtimes downloading to mobile platforms, co-opting internal defenses."

SSV Normandy
engineering subdeck

Ryan had grumbled and cursed his way down another series of ladders and crawlspaces between decks until he'd found himself in the sub-deck that doubled as Jack's hidey hole. Though he never truly saw in her what Castle did, he was suddenly glad for her creative redistribution of the cargo containers to hide her bunk. Two husks had apparently blundered away from the main body of Collectors departing engineering on their way to the cargo bay which he dispatched quickly with the shotgun. Though it had felt good to be able to vent his anger even for a few seconds, he was acutely aware of the price that Hastings had paid to arm him.

"Engineering is clear of hostiles," Jenny stated, bringing his concentration back to the matter at hand. "Proceed immediately to minimize the likelihood of detection, once you are there, I will guide you through the reactivation procedure for the Tantalus drive core."

With Jenny's guidance, Ryan had the Tantalus core initialized and powering back up in short order and the steady thrum of the core soon filled the room like the ship's heartbeat.

"I have control," Jenny reported. "I will open all airlocks as we accelerate. All hostiles left aboard will be killed."

"What?" Ryan countered, "What about the crew?"

"The crew is gone, Kevin," Jenny replied softly, trying to spare him the blow. "The Collectors took them all. I am sealing the engine room."

The pulsing of the engines increased in intensity as Jenny brought the engines and navigational systems back online. The Normandy smartly righted herself, oriented her bow away and accelerated to full burn, trailing the flash frozen bodies of husks and collectors alike behind her. Under Jenny's control, Normandy skimmed over the Collector ship's dorsal hull before the massive cruiser could power its main gun.

"Purge complete," Jenny noted. "Securing airlocks and cargo bay doors. All decks fully repressurized and we have jumped to FTL."

"Send a message to SSV Serenity," Ryan ordered dully, keenly aware he was ranking officer on an empty ship. "Inform the Captain what happened."

"Message away," Jenny replied. "Are you feeling all right, Kevin?"

"No," Ryan replied, hanging his head as he turned to leave the engine room. "But thank you for asking."

Heretic Station

The fight had been quick and brutal, but the boarding party had held the room. From the initial wave of geth platforms. With Tali's help, Legion had managed to delay the next wave long enough for his runtime in the console to finish its work.

"Data mine analysis complete." Legion reported. "In order to ensure the heretics cannot endanger more lifeforms it will be necessary to destroy this station."

"You really have no problem destroying your own people?" Castle asked.

"Every sapient has the right to determine their own path," Legion replied. "The heretics chose one that prohibits coexistence."

"I've spoken to Saren and Sovereign," Kate agreed, "The reapers have no regard for you any more than they do for us. The heretics will either be wiped out or converted into mindless slaves, just like they turned the Protheans into the Collectors."

"Understood," Legion replied. "Unlocking cargo doors on this deck to facilitate immediate egress."

"Serenity, this is Commander Castile, we are opening an exit point on this deck. Grab your gun and bring in the cat."

"Aye, Commander." Zoe replied. It had taken the better part of a year, but she'd gotten used to his obscure sci-fi references. "ETA., sixty seconds"

"Disabling internal alarms and collapsing antimatter containment." Legion stated. "Complete. Recommend immediate withdrawal."

A short time later, after a rushed fighting retreat to their extraction point at the cargo doors, Serenity powered away at full burn leaving the Heretic station to explode, destroying it and every heretic geth contained within. After over two years, Kate Beckett had finally completed her last mission for the Alliance.

SSV Normandy
Twenty-four hours later

Kevin Ryan aimlessly walked the corridors of the empty Normandy. He'd sat in his seat on the flying bridge, but the quiet he had once craved ate at him even there, so he started walking, The sound of his uneven, prosthetic induced footfalls on the deck plates echoed off the walls of empty corridors as he wandered. The sounds he'd learned to tune out now notable for their absence.

Ensign Siobhan Rourke's elegant alto voice singing Irish ballads in the mess hall.

Engineers Gabby Daniels and Ken Donnelly near constant bickering over engineering and physics principles, the merits of Scotch versus Bourbon as well as lamenting their lack of romantic options, completely oblivious to the fact that they were perfect for each other, even though anyone who saw them together for five minutes could see it clear as day.

Lt. Ami Reed and her bunkmate Lt. Sylvia Moreno's raucous discussions about the intricacies of role-playing games and obscure science fiction.

The silence they left behind was thunderous.

Upon her arrival, Captain Beckett had ordered Ryan to report to Dr. Solus for a physical exam before debriefing him on what had happened in her absence. The salarian doctor's cheerful humming broken by snippets from "The Pirates of Penzance" while he made the appropriate scans and asked the usual questions while he sat on the exam table had an unnerving effect. Though Jenny had behaved almost maternally toward him during the last day, reminding him to eat, or that he needed to rest, she had left mercifully him be.

No sooner had Dr. Solus finished the exam, Miranda burst in, oblivious to his protests about doctor/patient confidentiality.

"Everyone?" she snapped at him. "You lost everyone and damn near lost the ship too?"

"I know, all right?" Ryan replied dully, "I was here."

"Stand down, Miranda," Castle called out from the doorway, Kate only a few steps behind, "It's not his fault. Nobody of caught it, not even Jenny."

"Mr. Castle is correct, Operator Lawson." Jenny interjected in Ryan's defense. "The harmful code in the Reaper IFF's data drive was more sophisticated than the black box reaper viruses I was provided with."

"I heard you had a rough ride," Kate offered gently, "how are you holding up?"

"There's a lot of empty chairs here," Ryan replied solemnly; his eyes focused out the window into the empty mess hall.

"We did everything we could… Kevin." Jenny noted soothingly.

"Yeah…thanks mom," Ryan replied, his tone belying his attempt to sound flippant.

"Is the ship clean?" Kate asked, reluctantly getting down to ship's business, "We can't risk this happening again."

"Jenny and I purged the system," Ryan replied, "The IFF is fully integrated and online. We can go through the Omega Four Relay at your discretion."

"Don't even get me started about unshackling the damned AI," Miranda added harshly, not yet done extracting her pound of flesh from Ryan.

"What was I supposed to do against the Collectors, throw cuss words at them?" Ryan shot back, fire behind his words for the first time in days, surprising Kate with his impassioned defense of the ship's AI whose presence he'd resented prior to recent events. "Jenny cleared the ship, she's all right."

"I assure you, Operator Lawson, Captain Beckett," Jenny added, "I am still bound by protocols in my programming. Even if I were not, you are my crewmates."

"Jenny has had plenty of opportunities to kill us," Castle noted. "She even sided with us when the Illusive Man fed us to the wolves. We need all the help we can get."

"Agreed," Kate acknowledged. "It's time we took the fight to the Collectors. We're gonna take back our crew and finish this once and for all. Ryan, get to your station and set course for the Omega Four Relay."

"Aye Captain, " Ryan replied, saluting on his way out the door.

"X-O to engineering," Castle stated into the comms, "Tali, we're gonna need all the power you can muster"

The last thing he or Kate expected was dead silence.

"Captain to Engineering, respond," Kate commanded into the comm system but still received no answer.

"Acting Chief Engineer Tali'Zorah is not in main engineering." Jenny reported without being prompted. "Her current location is cargo bay two. Legion is also present."

"Oh, shit." Castle and Beckett swore in unison, the look between them exchanging volumes more than was spoken.

"I'll deal with this, Kate," Castle volunteered, before hauling ass out the door "she's more likely to respond to me anyway."

"Castle, I'm glad you are here," Tali said angrily, when he arrived at cargo bay two, her shotgun pointed at the geth platform. "I caught Legion scanning my omni tool. It was going to send the contents of my father's files to the geth!"

"Creators performed weapons tests on geth hardware," Legion stated in its defense. "We believed it necessary to warn the consensus of possible aggression."

"Put the gun down Tali," Castle ordered.

"We may have down some goodwill with the geth by destroying that base, Castle, but they're still a threat," Tali stated, neither backing down nor lowering her weapon. "I won't let Legion endanger the Migrant Fleet."

"Creator Tali'Zorah acts out of loyalty to her people." Legion explained, "We must also protect our people from the Creator threat."

"You can't let this happen, Castle," Tali implored. "I've trusted you and Captain Beckett enough to work with a geth on the team, but this is too much!"

"Tali, your father was running unethical experiments on a sentient race," Castle stated bluntly, his sharp tone sending a ramrod up Tali's spine. He'd never spoken to her like that before. "If his subjects had been human, I'd damn well be telling the Alliance about it."

"I know," Tali pleaded, her tone softening slightly, "But if the geth find out…"

"They'd attack," Castle finished the thought for her then turned to Legion. "Which would start a war that would leave both the quarians and the geth vulnerable when the Reapers show up. Is that what you want, Legion?"

"We believed it was necessary to relay the information," Legion noted.

"Sooner or later, both of your peoples are gonna have to stop fighting this war," Castle replied, "or all sentient life will end up paying the price for it."

"To facilitate unit cohesion," Legion offered, "we will not transmit the data regarding Creator plans."

"Thank you, Legion," Tali responded, finally lowering her shotgun and putting it away. "For what it's worth, I… understand your intent. What if I gave you some non-classified data to send?"

"We would be grateful, Creator Tali'Zorah," Legion replied. "We would also wish to offer our services to assist in engineering."

"Everything seems to be sorted out," Castile stated into the comm pickup. "Tali and Legion just had some… uh, logistical issues to sort out. They will be on station in engineering shortly."

In the CIC, Kate rolled her eyes at Castle's remark, before cutting the channel and her expression hardened.

The Collectors had attacked her ship and abducted her crew while her back was turned. If they wanted a war, she would give them a war. Now that the IFF was fully functional, she would take it right to their doorstep.

She gave the order and Normandy jumped to FTL.

**Author's note** One more chapter to go. Buckle kids, it gets bumpy from here.