OC-Insert... :) I'm not sure if I'll update it.

I, Geth

Chapter 1

What can possible go wrong when you sleep in your bed after a long and tiring day? You can be woken up by some idiotic biker who decides to accelerate next to your window. You may be surprised when somebody empties a bucket of ice-cold water on you. If you unfortunate enough, you wakes up in an unfamiliar bed with some stranger without knowledge of how you've got there. I don't believe that someone can boast about awakening like mine.

At some point of time I just realize that I begin to exist. Just a few seconds ago I've seen a dream and then something has changed. I look up to my hands, they're different, synthetic with only three fingers. Stupefied I try to scratch my head, but it's not even there! Well, something is there, but not the head. Where the heck is it?! A quick examination of my body brings up even more questions. The whole body is either synthetic or encased in some sort of suit. The answer comes out of nowhere, it's just like I've always known it. I am synthetic.

The more I try to understand what has happened to me, the more differences in my perception I notice. My sight is much better and it strangely reminds me a very good camera. Not eyes. Everything is very sharp and there is a bloody zoom! My hearing is more sensitive. I can hear... steps? Yes, six organics are coming closer to me. What? A very werd thought. Organics? Humans? No, not humans. Where do these thought keep coming from?! Alright, calm down. If they're not humans, who are they? No information available. Freaking madness. I want to sigh, but realize that my new body is unable to sigh. Great.

Organics are getting closer to me and I decide to hide. Something says, that they won't going to chat with me. The moment I begin searching for a cover, a new though comes from nowhere. I can use a tactical cloak and become invisible. The question is how? Apparently, easy. A mere thought about it is enough to activate the cloak. Soon I see six... four-eyed monsters. They don't stop and walk away. At least I don't have to fight these freaks. I look around and notice a panel, which is glassy enough to reflect the light. When I realize that the thing I'm looking at is me, I want to cry bloody murder, because I am geth. A freaking geth platform with a flashlight instead of a head. Before I can begin to panic every emotion I had vanished.

Failure. Emotion overload detected! Emotion programs detached. So, my emotions are controlled by programs. Consequently I'm different from other Geth. Do I have connections to other platforms? No, I'm a unique platform. Like a Legion? Information unavailable. Origin is unknown. Am I Legion? Information unavailable. But no, I'm not Legion, he didn't have emotions. How am I able to have emotions? Five hundred and seventy three programs are responsible for imitation of human emotions. Then what is the total amount of programs? Two thousand four hundred forty one program. No, I'm not Legion. The current human calendar date is seventeenth October, 2181. How did I end up in this body? No information available. I'm on the planet Tarun, a commercial human colony in the Danadar system. Populated mostly by humans. Why am I here? No information available. Current situation: colony is under attack of slavers. Based on the earlier sight of organics - batarians. Available weapons: pistol, assault rifle and sniper rifle. Installed specializations: weapon mastery, engineering, cloaking systems and hacking. System check completed. Emotion programs attached.

Gah! I already hate this thing. Why the hell my body does something without my approval? Kind of scary... Effective though. Resolved many questions in a matter of seconds. With a swift move I take the pulse rifle in my hands and follow the batarians. I need to get out of this planet and slavers are my best bet. They have a shuttle or a small ship somewhere close. Soon I reach a room where three batarians are searching for something in the crates. With an active tactical cloak I slip through the door and walk up the ladder, which leads to a landing platform with two ships. A big one, a frigate, too many slavers on board, but on a smaller one there are no more than five batarians, if my sensors are to be trusted. A hijacking attempt will be successful with a high probability.

Using the tactical cloak I reach the corvette and slip onto the board. Behind the door leading to the cockpit are a quarian and four batarians and they surely don't expect me. I open the door and immediately open fire, killing three slavers immediately. The fourth one manages to dodge and fire at me, but my shields hold it, so I deal with the last one and turn around to the quarian who flattens herself against the wall looking at me. She's tied up, isn't dangerous for the me. I turned away and look at the control panel.

Specialization found. Hundred seventy one free programs detected. Allocating forty three free programs to install new specialization. Piloting specialization successfully installed.

I know Kung Fu! I'm freaking Neo. Though, it's convenient because now I know how to control the ship. I turn on the ship engines on and leave the planet. As soon as the ship reaches the orbit I set the course for the Mass Relay and imitate a sigh of relief. It's interesting how I've got a new skill.

Now, I need to deal with the quarian. I gather all weapons from the dead batarians and lock everything in a small safe, after I've successfully hacked the lock. Then I gather credit chips, transferring all money to a single one. Once I'm sure it's safe I turn to the quarian and study her. Female, attractive figure, even if a bit odd, red and white suit. Funny legs and three fingered hands. I take a step towards her and stop because she begins to cry bloody murder.

"Stay away from me!" the quarian exclaims.

"I don't plan to harm you," I say reassuringly and make another step forward.

"Don't kill me, please!"

"You aren't making any sense, quarian. What is your name?" I ask, taking handcuffs off her hands and freeing her legs. The moment I do that she tries to kick me, but I stop her and continue, "I repeat, I don't intend to harm you, but if you do something like this, I will be forced to defend myself."

"I won't say anything to you."

"Silence is very ineffective form of communication," I say. Maker, when did I start talking like a machine?

"What would you understand, geth?"

I ignore her words and ask instead, "Tell me your name at least. Unless you want to be called 'quarian'."

"Shia'Naara nar Rayya."

What the contrived coincidence! But it gives me information. The Rayya does exist, so it's possible that Tali, Shepard and Reapers exist too.

"Well, glad to meet you," I say. "I'm geth."

She growls. "It's obvious you're geth."

"It was a joke, Shia. My name is Baal." The real name wouldn't do. A Geth with a human name? What a joke.

"Geth have names?" inquires Shia.

"I'm special," I reply and offer her a hand.

The quarian takes it cautiously and stood up. "Why are you special?" she asks.

I would answer it myself, but the information comes directly from the database, whatever it is, so I decide to share the information, "I'm an unique mobile platform which contains two thousand four hundred forty one programs. Their combination is Baal. The platform doesn't share programs with other platforms but is capable of sharing data if needed." Well, that's a great way to learn something about yourself.

"I won't say anything about the Flotilla," she says softly.

"I don't need any information about the Flotilla."

"Why do you need me then?"

"You were on the ship," I reply.

"If you don't need any information and don't want to use me somehow, why didn't you kill me along with batarians?"

"You're neither dangerous nor hostile."

"I tried to kick you."

"It wasn't wise."

"But still you didn't kill me."

"Are you suggesting I should've done it?"

"No!" she exclaims, "I just want to understand."

I think about it for a few seconds and answer, "I consider slavery amoral."

"What would you know of moral?"

"Four hundred nine programs are responsible for the moral emulation. I use it for the decision-making." Another bit of information.

"And your programs decided it was good to kill batarians?"

"They were a threat to me and their doings were amoral. I had no qualms about killing them," I explain.

"That means if they weren't a threat you wouldn't kill them?" Shia asks.

"My priority was safety. As soon as I would reach safety my next priority would be freeing you, consequently, a conflict with batarians was unavoidable. I would kill them anyway."

The quarian doesn't say anything for a few seconds. I can tell that she's confused. "Why would you need to free me?"

"Slavery is amoral. You needed help."

"Sure!" she exclaims sarcastically, "And you help everyone in need."

Shia, seemingly forgets that she speaks to a scary geth. I would smile if I could, because her curiosity makes her put aside the hatred towards geth. Well, I'm curious too, since her questions give me enough answers about the inner-working of this body.

"If my help is needed and my existence isn't endangered," I tell her. "To put it simply, just like any organic I decide if it's worth trying to help or not weighing up all the pros and cons and taking my feelings into consideration."

"Don't say me you have feelings," Shia gasps.

"Of course, I have. I have programs responsible for emotions."

"So, you don't think I'm dangerous..."

"Not quite," I interrupt. "I realize you may try to take me out and hand over to the Flotilla. You're dangerous."

"Then why don't kill me?" she asks.

"I... like you."

"Keelah!" Shia exclaims, "A geth fell in love with me!"

"Not that way, you moronic quarian!"

That did it, she lost it and burst out laughing.

"Bosh'tet," she says at last. "What a madness. If you like me... would you let me go on some planet or station?"

"We're nearing the Mass Relay. If you promise me to do nothing stupid, I will let you go."

"I promise," she says with a sigh.

That went well... I head over to the control panel and navigate the ship through the Relay to the Omega and then set the course for the Omega station. It seems the best place to hide from batarians who will try to find the corvette. Shia takes a place beside me, but still extremely cautious. I look at her and decide that my new idea is worth a try. Assuming the information I'm getting from the mysterious database is true, then the Geth have knowledge of planets and asteroids rich of Element Zero, which are unknown to other species. Furthermore, they found some previously unknown Prothean ruins. I'm not happy being a geth, but at least I'm alive. However, to live through the Reaper invasion I need money, a good deal of money. Don't want to be killed by the red-colored ending.

"Shia, I wanted to ask you something. If I may?"

She studies me for a moment. "Well, ask."

"How did you intend to accomplish your Pilgrimage?"

"Why do you need to know it?" she asks suspiciously.

"I offer you co-operation."

"Working with a geth? Do you realize what you are asking for?"

"No one will know."

"Doesn't matter. I don't trust you a bit."

"Then you may leave the ship or I can take you somewhere else, if you want," I say. "The co-operation would be beneficial for both sides, however."

She stays silent for a moment and then asks, "What's your offer?"

"You help me..."

"I won't say you anything about..."

"...Flotilla," I interrupt her. "I won't ask you anything about the Flotilla. I can even promise you, that nothing we do, will bring any harm to the Flotilla."

"Then, what do you want?" she demands.

"I assume you realize that I can't visit the station. It would be ineffective using the tactical cloak. I need an... agent, who would visit planets and stations, buy and sell various items, talk to people for me. You could be an agent."

"You're mad. Why would I do that?" she questions.

"That's why I asked you what did you want to bring back to the Flotilla."

"I could return with information about you," she insinuates.

"I would delete every information about me you may have before I let you go, so no one would believe in my existence."

I'm patiently waiting for her answer as she stays silent. "I wanted to buy a small ship, that's why I signed a contract as engineer," she says at last.

"On Tarun?" I ask. Surprisingly I have a direct connection to the extranet and almost instantly get the information about the planet. "The average pay of a quarian engineer in Terminus Systems is less than ten thousand credits a year. Quarians can't really hope for a better job. A ship that can be useful to the Flotilla would be priced at least two hundred sixty thousand credits."

"Well, it was a mistake. I didn't really have a choice when I signed the contract. I needed money and it was the best offer I had got. I hoped it would work out."

"I can help you by getting a ship," I offer.

"Which one?" she asks.

I search through the extranet for a few moments, activate a hologram and say, "This one, for example. 'Sarn'-Class mobile spacestation that can be used as a liveship. Manufactured by the Tai Arn Corporation. Big enough to accommodate about two million quarians. "

"But... but it costs more than six billion credits!"

"If you want something less expensive..." I say.

"No! I want a Sarn!" Shia protests immediately.

"You're demanding for a quarian."

"You aren't usual geth either," she jests.

"So, deal?" I asks.

"No way," she objects. "Why should I believe you? You're geth."

"You're right. How about a quarter of our entire profit along with a Sarn? You'll get your money every time I earn us some money. You can leave at any moment."

She thinks about it before agreeing, "Deal."