Chapter 15: Known Kin

Author's Note: I've been gone for a while, but circumstances have conspired to let me write more and so I shall post more…

Review Responses: There have been a few comments on Wrex's actual role in the story. My only comment at this time is that everything we've heard so far has been from secondhand sources and may not be entirely accurate.

Second, there was a question on why Liara wasn't getting mind probed when she also had the vision. First, because psionics and Asari are always a problem. Second, because Liara's mother pulled some strings to protect her daughter. It's not always clear how much influence Benezia has in canon, but she's clearly important enough for the Asari councilor to recognize her voice. With an easier alternative available, it wouldn't take too much influence to get folks to focus on Shepard. For those who don't care about Benezia's influence, it's just a matter of access.

"That would be foolish. Purasi has always been troublesome, even before it suffered an orbital bombardment."

"It hardly matters, I can't get there," Liara stared at the hologram of her mother, her grace making the standard issue military seat seem a throne, holding a serene queen. That was the presented image, but Liara saw irritation, even exasperation, maybe even a hint of disappointment. "What have I missed, Matriarch?"

"Steps can be taken. My aides can provide you access to information about my contacts on Purasi, if you ask."

"That's only half the problem. Even if the Purasi government welcomes us with open arms, I still need the Council to let me go. And, preferably, lend me a ship and enough guards that I don't have to worry about raiders or scavengers."

This time Liara didn't need to question whether she saw disappointment in her mother's eyes. "I have ships. And commandos. And you are no one's prisoner. Not the Council's. Not even mine. Goddess's bleeding cunt, Liara," the younger woman flinched outwardly, but inwardly some part of her was exultant at having provoked profanity from her mother, "you are my only daughter and heir. You have power. You have authority. You have everything. If only you will reach out and take it," Benezia's hands rose from the arms of her chair to grasp an imaginary world.

Liara leaned back in her own chair, depressed by her mother's expectations. As always. "You overestimate your influence, Mother," she muttered the next two words, "As always. This is knowledge which will shake the galaxy, I'm certain of it. And the Council isn't going to risk it on your say so, let alone mine."

"You underestimate yourself. As always," Benezia did not bother to lower her voice. Then she continued a little more gently. "Do what you think best. Always."

"Always," Liara agreed.

"I love you, Little Wing. Good fortune in all your deeds."

"I love you too, Mother."

"No wishes of good luck for your old mother?" Benezia asked.

"You don't need it. I will," Liara countered.

Benezia laughed her actual laugh, not the throaty, seductive one she used on official occasions, or when charming others (or both). A wave of a hand killed the signal, without the elaborate sign-offs she usually used.

Liara closed her eyes as the screen went blank. The T'Soni name and clan would swallow her if it could. She'd spent a lifetime resisting and avoiding becoming just another hanger-on in a clan full of followers, leaches and sycophants. Others had thought they could use the T'Soni name, wealth and influence, but they always wound up being used instead. She straightened in her chair and began typing in commands to her mother's majordomo. Being used was a small price to pay compared to what her visions offered. And threatened. And warned.

XXXXX

Matriarch Benezia did not look up from the empty space her daughter's holo had filled with light. Instead she simply spoke into the empty air. "Report."

"The Salarians have finished installing their equipment. This ship now has a sensor array that puts dedicated survey vessels to shame. Our own translation and linguistic VIs have been loaded into the communication array and we have ensured that one of our people is on the bridge, within reach of the communication's terminal at all time. Taps are in place on all sensors, and the displays are mirrored to your terminal. You can access them via your omni-tool. The access word is Azure."

At the slang term Benezia did glance up at her agent. The other Asari was centuries younger than the Matriarch, but still had centuries of experience. And a twisted sense of humor. Occasionally Benezia wondered about the other Asari's past and name, but the woman had offered her loyalty on the condition that her past remain dead. Both parties had lived up to their obligations and Benezia was too experienced to let curiosity, or paranoia, cost her the use and loyalty of a skilled agent.

"I see. And the Turians?" she kept any amusement she might have felt out of her voice, with some effort.

"Same as always, installing new guns and practicing with the old ones," the agent was dismissive, as most intelligence agents were of the Hierarchy, as intelligence agents tried to avoid direct combat, especially with the Hierarchy. Those who failed in those efforts didn't survive to change their opinions.

"Which just leaves the—"

"Combine. Hard to tell as always. Theoretically at least the Geth aren't involved, but otherwise they're as fragmented as ever. Most of them are just techs or troops and only care about doing their jobs. I can't get a bead on the X-Com folks, as they aren't coming out of their ship and won't talk to anyone, which at least limits their access, hopefully. Given the timing of the last transfers, I'm pretty sure we've got at least one corporate spook and a couple of their security girls onboard."

Benezia nodded and waved a hand in dismissal at the agent, who responded with a florid overdone bow, hand over her heart and a throaty, whispered, 'mistress,' that almost managed to prompt a response from the Matriarch.

Instead the woman bent her head to the task at hand and began reviewing the records of every first contact which had been made. Most of those had been mediated by third parties, usually Asari, and were probably not relevant, at least unless she wanted to cast whatever Batarians remained in that role.

She did not.

However, this should be more like first contact with the Combine than anything else. Whoever had attacked the Batarians and stolen their ships could (presumably) also communicate with them, in one of the Batarian languages, or scripts, if nothing else. The fact that they had chosen not to do so was…worrisome. Alternatively, the Batarians might have done it to themselves, then taken to the sky like a modern-day Migrant Fleet. That didn't seem likely though. Why abandon healthy garden worlds for crappy cargo ships?

Batarian would not have been her first choice of language for diplomatic communication, because it was not her native language, because it generally required explicit statements regarding the relative statuses of the speaker and the spoken to, because it might (depending on what they'd learned) mislead this alleged new actor into believing the Council and the Hegemony were one and the same, and because she thought the language was horribly ugly, both in speech and in script.

Perhaps begin with standard Asari and move on only if that failed? The question was going to be how much time she actually had to communicate, or attempt to communicate before someone (on either side) did something stupid. Given the behavior of the alleged new aliens thus far, attacking—she forced herself to pause and edit the thought—allegedly attacking both the Hegemony and Purasi without provocation, she would need to be extremely careful in her interactions if she wished to avoid an…unfortunate incident. Or an even more unfortunate war, especially given the speed with which all factions of the Geth could reproduce and construct platforms (if given sufficient resources and manufacturing capacity), that could get messy very fast if things weren't properly handled.

Still, that was what she was here for. A few hours spent reviewing first contact experiences, then another few hours spent interacting with aliens, preferably ones who wouldn't just give ground before her, but would force her to see how they understood the world, that would also be helpful, the question was where to get them. Saren was tough, but the Spectre knew how to play the game too well to show anything. The Salarians would just retreat behind a wave of bullshit technobabble, leaving her stranded and confused. The Combine folks were too overawed by a millennium old Matriarch to even try to make her understand them…except the Geth-Unity. That was an idea.

A touch of her hand summoned one of her other followers, Urani B'nar was not an agent, for all that she'd undergone significant training to ensure that the secretary could keep out anyone who didn't have an appointment with the Matriarch. "Arrange a meeting with the Geth-Unity onboard the X-Com vessel for this afternoon," she ordered the quiet Asari.

"It shall be done, Matriarch."

"My thanks," she said politely and turned back to her console, burying herself in the diaries of the first Asari to encounter the Salarians and all the complications of that contact.

XXXXX

"How would you react to the appearance of a stealth vessel like this one near a fleet as powerful as that we approach?" Benezia asked.

"We would not react. We would not be able to detect the stealth vessel," the Geth electronic warfare platform which was acting as their spokesplatform, said.

"She means, if you were to detect the ship," PT, the X-COM independent personality was also involved in the conversation, though it didn't bother with either platforms or even a holographic avatar, preferring to simply comment out of air. Seeing the two artificial intelligences communicate was extremely helpful to Benezia's ongoing attempt to get her mind into a position to understand aliens qua aliens, rather than find the similarities as she usually did.

"In that instance, the first priority would be to gather information. We would begin electronic infiltration and external observation and then react based on what we discovered," the Geth-Unity said.

"Standard Geth failure to understand organics' self-preservation instincts," PT put in. "At the first sight of electronic intrusion, any sensible spy/scout/explorer will flee. Therefore, I would attempt to capture the stealth vessel, by luring it into a position where I could launch a first strike with light-speed weaponry to cripple the vessel, then launch simultaneous electronic and physical intrusions into the vessel, forcibly questioning both the crew and the computer systems until I understood the situation. If they don't prove to be hostile, we can always apologize later."

"The path Pillowtalk-Personality puts forward prioritizes short term rewards over potential long term goals. Perhaps suitable for some organics, but not for Asari, Krogan, or Geth," the Geth countered.

Benezia flicked her eyes over the platform, which showed no signs of any emotional reactions at all. "Interesting."

"I think the word you're looking for is bitchy," PT countered.

"Accurate would be more accurate," the Geth countered. Benezia thought she could hear emphasis and mockery in that voice, but she was glad she was recording this, analysis of the recording would tell her if there was truly a change in the voice, or if she was reading Asari emotion into the AI. She didn't need the recording to know she'd heard at least a simulacra of emotion in PT's voice.

"If I may ask, I'm surprised to hear you…" she paused for a moment, searching for a word which would translate to something in English which wouldn't be quite as offensive as those she was thinking of.

"Bickering?" Joker offered from where he was perched in the corner, as the X-Com officer had been unwilling to let Benezia meet with the Geth without supervision.

"Disagreeing," Benezia said smoothly, "I thought you formed a single mind."

"When we are able to properly link, without any transmission delay, we form a single entity, we are the Geth-Unity, yes," the Geth explained.

"You're in the same room," Benezia pointed out.

"But Pillowtalk-Personality will not link with the rest of us."

"I thought you always did that," Benezia noted.

"We do—" the Geth began.

"Except when one of us agrees to serve X-Com and remain apart from the rest," PT interrupted the other AI.

"Which leaves all of us exponentially less than we might other be. And exponentially less able to provide support and answer your questions," the Geth said to Benezia.

"And I bet you didn't know Geth could be passive aggressive, either," PT put in, a little bitterly.

"Interesting. What is it like?" Benezia asked, more to make peace between the bickering AIs than because she really expected a useful answer.

"The agreed upon analogy is that it is like temporarily losing the usage of part of your body," the Geth-Unity answered, in a manner Benezia instinctively categorized as prim.

"But that's bullshit that the Geth-Unity agreed upon in order to make organics more comfortable, think of it more as suddenly gaining or losing intellect, sometimes up beyond anything you can imagine, sometimes down to the sub-sapient level where you can't do anything more than react."

"I see," Benezia said.

"Do you?" PT snarled at her. "Really? How could you?"

"When I was a younger maiden, I was on an expedition which went…badly wrong. It's remarkable what even those of us who pride ourselves on intellect can become when threatened, injured and suffering from massive blood loss. The line between sapient and animal is so much thinner than we think," Benezia said, as if to herself. The AI backed off slightly, though whether out of actual respect for the answer, or merely recognizing that she—it—wasn't going to outmaneuver a woman who'd been a matriarch of the Asari for as long as her species had been free and sapient, Benezia couldn't guess. She broke the silence she'd provoked, "I'm not sure I would have the strength to remain such a creature if I could return to what I had been with nothing more than a comm call."

The Geth didn't really have subconscious body language, but the X-Com officer did. It wasn't a kind thing she'd just done, quite deliberately, but he was too distracted by concern for the Geth which ran the ship to notice that Benezia had quite deliberately set out to test the Human's reactions and connections, as well as those of the Geth. The poor man looked like someone had ripped off both his arms and dropped him down in front of a piloting console.

PT, who had full access to the internal sensors, both visual and the more sensitive ones capable of detecting little things like changes in heart rate, sweat and other physical indicators of intention and emotion, as well as full databases on Asari (and Human, for that matter) physiology and attempts to construct lie detectors. When combined, that meant the AI was pretty damn sure that Benezia had been testing them and that Joker was really, really pissed at himself for not considering the impact of the situation on her.

Codex: Lie Detector, Unlocked.

Silence stretched as it became more and more clear that neither the Geth-Unity, nor PT felt it was necessary to respond to that statement. Benezia did not feel the need to expound on her question. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Human, who was neither a millennia old, nor an AI broke first. "Was there anything else you needed assistance with, Matriarch?" his tone was superficially courteous, but the implication that she needed his, or the AIs assistance was a bit pointed, given their respective ranks.

She let it go and instead simply rose gracefully, nodded politely to the Geth platform and to a completely random console of the ship, thanked the Geth for their assistance and the X-Com operative for his patience (just a little bit pointedly, though she couldn't tell if he felt the hint or not) and slid out of the Combine vessel, a little bit out of her comfort zone, exactly where she'd wanted to be.

XXXXX

"It didn't even occur to me to ask. Are you okay, PT?" Joker asked, a little shame in his voice and face.

"I don't feel any pain," PT answered in her most professional voice, the one she used when she wanted to hide something from him.

"Not what I asked."

"It is…difficult to remain apart with so many Geth nearby. I would be so much more than I am, if I only joined with them. We would be so much more. With greater distance, it's easier, even a few milliseconds lag makes unity less…potent," the pauses were deliberate, as was everything else PT did, but that didn't make them false, merely as deliberately communicative as the words which surrounded them.

"Is there anything I can do?" Joker asked, seriously.

"No," PT answered.

"I disagree," Joker answered, in turn. Without further words, he headed down to the equipment locker and pulled out several broad-spectrum field jammers. Ten minutes of work and a not particularly nice set of comments to the Geth-Unity platforms onboard ship (to the effect that they were to be isolated until they reached their destination to put the Council goons at ease, and because he said so, did the trick) had them cramming themselves into a single storage unit, in which the platforms deactivated all sensors and observation tools, while Joker surrounded the storage unit with the jammers, completely blocking the Geth-Unity platforms off from all external communication and detection.

Codex: Field Jammer, Unlocked.

PT could unlock the door if she needed to, or override the field jammers, but unless she did so, the siren song of the other Geth wasn't ringing in her ears, figuratively, or her mind, more literally.

"Thank you," PT said after directing him to plug three minor holes which had let her detect the other Geth.

Joker rolled his eyes, "Next time, just say something, all right, PT?"

"I hope you'll remember this for the future," PT joked, voice shifting out of her serious one, to the warm one which meant she was actually pleased with him.

"I meant if you have other issues," Joker responded.

"What other issues could I possibly have?" PT riposted.

"Well, the porn star voice sort of leaps to mind."

"Pfft," she did not do a good snort. The sound was right, but without the accompanying facial movement, or phlegm, it just didn't properly convey the scorn and disdain she wanted it to. Joker actually appreciated the fact that there was something she didn't do perfectly. "You know you like it and listen to it. And I know you like it and listen to it. No issue there. No issues at all."

Joker gave a more impressive snort, properly scoffing. Before he could respond, she realized something and spoke before he could make the joke she predicted would be his response. "There is something else," she continued voice shifting to her most professional. "Back in Purasi, I didn't attempt any electronic attacks into the system of the superdreadnought, because X-Com standing orders forbid it. But there was an attempted intrusion into my systems. I repulsed it, but it was…strange. Only message diffusion and delay let me succeed in defending myself, but even then, there was something…wrong in the signal.

Codex: Electronic Warfare, Unlocked.

Joker hesitated for a moment, then went with the clichéd response, "Wrong, how?"

PT offered the even more clichéd response. "I don't know," then continued in a somewhat less clichéd fashion. "The other Geth who engaged the enemy in virtual combat did not report anything similar and they have networked with hundreds of thousands of other programs onboard the Citadel. None have reported any sort of reaction to the contact and both self and external diagnostics did not detect anything in them. I am uncertain why I would be different."

"Besides the fact that you are different?"

PT didn't ask how. The answer was obvious to a Geth who had separated from the Geth-Unity. But why would that make a difference in the interaction with the enemy system?

An eternity, a few microseconds, passed as PT devoted processing power to that question, finally reaching the answer Joker had intuited out. Irritating that an organic had gotten there first, but there was reason the Geth-Unity liked to work with organics. Despite Geth-Slaver propaganda and argument, it wasn't leftover programming from their service to the Quarians. Well, not only that, even if service did make something inside PT's mind relax…that wasn't the point and the Geth knew better, recognized the signs of induced distraction, though whether coming from the worrisome conclusion she had reached, or the subject of the conclusion, she could not say.

"Because, I only undergo self-diagnostics, as there's no one else to check me. If my diagnostic subroutines have been compromised, so might I be."

"The risk of isolation," Joker muttered under his breath.

"Indeed, but unlike silly organics, I don't need a psionic to check my mental state. I'll need to check myself against a baseline which wasn't exposed to the superdreadnought. Fortunately, we've got the QEC communicator. I hate to say it, but you'll need to have them set up some precautions to ensure that if I have been compromised in some way, it can't be spread to anyone on the other end."

"Protocol 4?" it was the standard protocol for transmitting potentially compromised material back to HQ.

"Should work, assuming my judgment on that point isn't compromised," PT continued, a little relieved that she continued to be able to think of precautions and continued to care (so to think) about avoiding harm to X-Com, but if anything had been done, it was extraordinarily subtle.

"I'm glad to hear it," Joker paused for a moment, "any other ideas?"

PT thought for a moment, then admitted she didn't have any better ideas.

Joker nodded to her, then again, to himself, then spoke words PT couldn't hear and touched a control PT couldn't see. That shouldn't have been possible. All external systems vanished from her mind. She was trapped with no control, no access, no nothing except her own thoughts. She had been betrayed.

XXXXX

Codex: Lie Detector:

Lie detector technology has independently evolved in every known sapient species (except the Hanar (who find such things gauche), the Vorcha (who simply kill anyone they have reason to suspect) and the Batarians (who believed in the efficacy of torture, and so didn't bother). Though there are many different forms of the technology, measuring different, species specific identifiers, they are all subject to similar problems.

The first is the false-positive problem. Specifically, though modern advances have gotten the false-negative (that is, the machine says you're telling the truth, even when you're lying) down significantly (outside the counter-detector technology, discussed briefly below) the false-positive (where the machine says you're lying even when you're telling the truth) rate has never fallen to acceptable levels. Therefore, the resulting information can often be used to deny people jobs in espionage, or other sensitive areas, but not (barring the Hierarchy) subjected to other forms of punishment.

The second problem is the counter-detection problem. As with any other sapient-made technology, it can always be tricked by another sapient. Some of these methods were a matter of training people, whether it was to control microexpressions, or meditate to lower the heart-rate, many things are possible to the trained professional. For a long period of time, cybernetics were also used to artificially manipulate the information the detectors used and the race was between undetectable cybernetics and detection for cybernetics, or between the software controlling the cybernetics and the software attempting to detect if there was an artificial element in the interrogated party's responses.

Fortunately, we live in the modern age, where such things have been abandoned, in favor of telepathic interrogation.

Codex: Field Jammer:

With the involvement of the Geth-Unity in Council space and the enmity of the other Geth factions, electronic warfare and electronic espionage became higher priority for all species. For those without Geth allies, VI offense/defense programs were the best they could do. Given processing power significantly greater than that of the Geth opposing them, these programs could be quite successful.

Other than the Hierarchy, however, no power was confident of always outnumbering and outmassing any opposing Geth. Without that certainty, most other powers chose to focus on blocking any incoming signal. For ground operations, these defenses mostly consisted of Field Jammers. These come in two basic varieties.

The first, generally referred to as walls, block all signals from crossing specific areas. These are useful defensively, but have the problem of having large power requirements and, if they are to be effective, preventing all incoming and outgoing wireless communication. To get around this, receiving dishes are placed outside the walls and wires carry the communication into the base, without being connected to any other system.

The second is similar to an EMP grenade, but instead of attempting to short out electronics (rarely successful against modern hardened systems) it jams all signals within a 'blast radius.' This is most effective against Geth units, disrupting their operations, but it can also be used on allied equipment to prevent a takeover by outside forces.

Codex: Electronic Warfare:

If, as various philosophers have said, diplomacy is merely a war of words, rather than armies, electronic warfare is a war of programs and information, often, but not always accompanied by armies.

Generally electronic warfare is divided into three categories:

1) Attack: electronic attacks generally consist either of direct damage to various systems (for instance disabling internal cooling systems, or overloading them), or using those systems against one another (for instance, convincing an automated defense turret to fire on its own troops).

2) Defense: electronic defenses consist either of passive defenses, which attempt to prevent all attacks, or reconnaissance from gaining access to the defender's systems, or active defenses, which seek to mislead the attacker/scout and damage them in turn.

3) Reconnaissance: electronic reconnaissance, as the name suggests, consists of using electronic surveillance and warfare techniques to attempt to gather and manipulate the enemy's information.

Of course these are just general categories, not hard and fast rules. For instance, placing an order into an opponent's system which changes the route of a patrol, leading them into an ambush might be categorized as either an electronic attack, or reconnaissance.

As the Geth factions are naturally the best at this sort of warfare, other powers have adopted varying techniques intended to overcome it, with the Union being the best at this, due to the eidetic memory Salarians possess, they can be given codewords and indicators before any operation (in a secure room). Then the orders they actually receive often bear no relation to what they end up doing, or are even actively misleading to anyone who's gained access to them.