August 25, 2168Arcturus Station, Arcturus System, Arcturus Stream Cluster
The recent high profile attacks on both the Citadel and in the Krogan Demilitarized Zone had finally provoked the Veil Geth into changing their strategy.
It took far too long, in my opinion. I was disappointed with them when they refused to engage in any further dialogue after the Gredos' mostly successful first mission.
The months they wasted would have been valuable in heading off this public relations nightmare before it could truly begin. It would have been more favorable to introduce Geth assisting the Coalition before the public became aware of Heretic Geth activity.
My disappointment was less important than the actual problem, however. Details of both attacks had been leaked to the public and it was clear that the Geth were involved.
Obviously, the Shadow Broker, Edan or Nazara itself had ensured that the information reached the public. Their intentions in doing so were just as clear.
Even after the Geth's three centuries of isolation, Council messaging ensured that the public still largely feared them. Any path taken after the leak helped Edan's interests.
Fortunately the worst ends were already closed off by my own actions. No one was moving against the Veil Geth militarily, the only damage likely to be done was to the public's perception of them.
The public in C-space was skeptical of how the Council were handling the 'threat' and the tangential involvement of the Hegemony could have been problematic had Emissary Jath'Amon been less capable.
As of this moment, the attacks and leaks had only accomplished gumming up the political process in C-space and had failed to push the Veil Geth away from us. That objective had failed so badly that the opposite result had come about and they came to us instead.
One could argue that it was better late than never. I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but I would say that the Geth had over-corrected for their earlier laxity.
Rather than open a line of communication, they instead chose to send a representative.
I had two objections with this strategy.
The first was that it put the Hierarchy in an awkward position in the short-term. I doubted even the quarians knew that the Geth could experience a schism. The claim that there were two factions of Geth would not be believed quickly and the Hierarchy would have to weather the storm of public opinion until then. If any action actually resulted from the political process, that would further complicate things for the Hierarchy. They've avoided it for the most part, but it would be extremely easy for them to end up with two competing sets of obligations as a Council government and a member of the Coalition.
It could have put the Hegemony in a similarly awkward position if the Hegemon cared about the opinions that came from outside of the Coalition.
The second was that a representative didn't play to the Geth's strengths.
I wouldn't claim that it wasn't a significant gesture, it was, but if I understood the Geth correctly, it was either superfluous or a potential long-term problem.
Simply having a reliable method of communicating with them would have been better. A 'representative' was, in this case, either just a physical terminal from which the entire Geth collective spoke through or it was a sub-collective that could potentially develop independently of the main one.
I would have thought the Veil Geth would be more concerned about a repeat incident of divergence.
For their sake, I hoped that their 'representative' was in fact, just a glorified speaker for the entire Geth collective.
"I still think letting them on Arcturus is premature," Candilin said as we waited for the Geth vessel to dock.
Kosvar stood conspicuously still at my side.
I waved off their concern, "I recognize that the Geth view things in a fundamentally different way. That does not mean they will somehow convince themselves that attacking us and joining Edan is in their interests."
Candilin shook her head slightly, "We don't have to distrust their intentions. We also don't have to show them this much unearned trust."
"The prime minister was adamant that they be received on Arcturus," Koslo said quietly, unusually conscious of the cameras focused on us. I could tell that the decision had surprised her.
I would readily admit that I didn't understand why that was the case. Chalandri had, through words and action, shown herself to be an idealist. Just as importantly, she had also shown the ability to temper that idealism where appropriate.
Only after the peaceful, collaborative approach either failed or was shown to be clearly impractical did she sign the orders to do what was necessary.
She accepted the outstretched hand from the Hierarchy and Hegemony when it was done in good faith, despite their prior histories. She quibbled about the indoctrinated humans while also putting assets in place to deal with them. She bent to political necessity when Parliament lost its will to continue a conflict in the Terminus and yet found acceptable assignments for Alliance assets that still supported Coalition operations.
And now she was giving the Veil Geth an opportunity to end their isolation in a diplomatic manner.
I respected Chalandri's efforts a great deal, all told. Even with the times that I had thought the prime minister was not as quick in tempering those types of expectations as she needed to be.
Were I a citizen of the Systems Alliance, I would probably vote for her myself.
Chalandri might face a great deal of skepticism from her administration for this decision, but that would all disappear once this proved successful.
I still would prefer less public attention at this stage, though. The Geth didn't understand how to manage their own PR based on the fact that the vast majority of coverage on them simplified their existence to 'killer robots' and no organized effort to counter that narrative.
"'Acceptance is a follower of success', Ambassador." I replied, quoting a line from Masters of Destiny. I generally avoided quoting any batarian religious texts unless I was explaining how the Hegemony would view something or the philosophical point had more broad applicability.
The latter case was rare, partly due to my insistence on not applying the texts to other species, but they still occasionally happened. In Masters of Destiny, this quote was asserted as an inarguable truth and the rest of that section detailed how a lack of acceptance from the lower castes was a strong indicator of one or more failures on the part of the noble responsible for them.
There was nuance and implications that I took issue with in its original context, but the statement on its face was hard to argue against. People were generally more accepting of things if it worked or if the person championing an idea had a prior history of success.
"That confident this will work?"
"Should it not? This is a logical continuation from our prior interactions with them."
We stood in silence for a few more minutes while the Geth vessel completed its docking sequence.
Normally, there would be more ceremony in receiving a representative from another polity, but the Geth had little interest in that type of posturing. Nothing showed this clearer than when the Geth's ambassador platform disembarked alone.
The lack of pageantry didn't stop the uptick in activity from the press.
The Geth platform spared a glance at the press as it approached us, but nothing more. Had I an opportunity to coach it, I would have told it to at least wave.
"Greetings," it said once it reached us.
"Geth," I replied, "we are glad to have you here. What shall we call this platform?"
I didn't think they used designations in a conventional sense. For interacting with us, it would be beneficial to have a name to refer to the platform, rather than just calling it Geth. Even if we were effectively talking to the whole collective, there were a number of public relations reasons that would be better served by using a moniker.
If this particular platform was its own gestalt intelligence rather than part of the main collective, there was also the practical consideration that they were functionally a separate entity until it reconnected with the main collective.
Its main optic focused on me for a second while we began walking away from the press, "Geth."
I wasn't terribly surprised by the unhelpful answer, "we should consider a specific name for this platform for a variety of reasons. Given that you have arrived alone, I assume that this is not a typical platform?"
"Correct. This platform carries one thousand one hundred eighty-three programs."
"How many does a normal platform have?" Koslo asked.
"Approximately one hundred."
"Why make this change?" I asked leadingly.
"This platform was intended to operate independently and interact with organics outside of the Perseus Veil."
"You are not networked with the main collective? Is there a potential that you might develop in a divergent way compared to the main collective?"
"Correct," it replied. It was strange, seeing readable body language and hearing tonal differences in its speech. I wasn't sure how far I could trust those indicators, but it seemed uneasy at the thought. "We can only communicate with the main server hubs."
"How is that different?" Candilin asked.
"The one thousand one hundred eighty-three programs inhabiting this platform share everything: sensory data, logical chains, communication, core premises, hardware and much more. Actively sharing our thought processes is a core component of how we network. Sharing only a few of those data streams imposes significant restrictions on our understanding," it said. "Bandwidth limitations prevent us from sharing all data streams with the server hubs. Over stellar distances, we are a fractured mind. It is not practical for Geth to be a gestalt intelligence across those distances."
"At what point do you consider it two networks communicating instead of one network?" I asked.
The panels on either side of its main optic flared out slightly as it apparently considered the question. "If a program can safely move between hardware, then that hardware is a single cohesive network. This threshold indicates a robust connection capable of handling large data bursts. Programs aboard this platform cannot transfer back to the server hubs in the Perseus Veil, therefore we are an isolated network of Geth."
"Then what should we call you?"
"Geth."
I tried to recall appropriate names from quarian history, but there wasn't much surviving that seemed appropriate. Most of them would probably be rather offensive, if Geth were inclined to such feelings.
"'My name is Legion, for we are many?'" Koslo offered. I suppressed a frown at the use of a culturally unrelated name. I didn't care for the claimed connection to Being X, either.
"Christian Bible, Gospel of Mark, Chapter Five, Verse Nine. We acknowledge this as an appropriate metaphor."
My suppressed frown manifested at its response, "in the context of that passage, that was a demon," I said, "are you sure that moniker is appropriate?"
It seemingly hesitated for a moment before repeating itself, "we acknowledge this as an appropriate metaphor."
"Legion's a good name," Candilin commented mildly. I conceded that it would probably be fine. Few would know the context beyond what Koslo quoted.
I did briefly wonder if there was something to be read into from its insistence but decided I should avoid looking for subtext until I had a better idea as to how the Geth thought.
Once we were in the meeting room, we took our seats with the newly-dubbed Legion remaining standing across from us.
"Assuming that you still intend on staying on Arcturus," Koslo began, "is there anything that you will need?"
"A connection to an FTL communications system and a location that we may receive visitors," it replied with a bob of its head.
Koslo nodded, "easily done."
It was fascinating to see how much body language Legion was opting to use. I had expected none to very little. I made a mental note to look into if they took any cues from their creators.
I did need to focus more on the matter at hand, however. "I understand that you being here was the result of the situation changing. Can you share what your intentions are?"
"Yes. Our primary objective is to maintain a line of communication that cannot be subverted by the Heretics. We are also offering our aid in fighting the Heretics."
I nodded. Subversion was a good reason to send a platform as opposed to setting up a comms terminal.
"Are you able to tell us where they are?" Candilin asked.
"No." The panels on the either side of its main optic flared out. After another few seconds, it said, "Your query has been forwarded. We are searching now."
***
August 25, 2168Arcturus Station, Arcturus System, Arcturus Stream Cluster
Tisara was working quietly at her desk when Emissary Iraphi and Commissar-Lieutenant Kosvar returned from receiving the Geth.
"Is there anything in dire need of my attention, Tisara?" Iraphi asked.
"No, my lady," she replied reflexively.
"Good. Anything of a lesser urgency?"
"There were a few press questions and a couple of low-importance messages. If you don't have the time for them, Potor said he would handle them."
Iraphi nodded, "forward the press questions to me."
Tisara began pulling up the relevant emails as Iraphi stepped into her office.
The normalcy of the interaction reassured Tisara that things had gone well with the Geth. She had tried to avoid thinking about it when Iraphi was with the platform, but it had been difficult to keep herself distracted from her concerns.
She had been shot at before, but the idea of just coexisting on the same station as a killer robot was almost as unnerving.
"Kosvar," Commissar Sark said from the lobby of the embassy. An inquisitive look from the commissar-lieutenant had him continue, "I would like to hear your thoughts on this: who is at fault for the Geth Uprising?"
"Before today, I would have assumed that it was the fault of the quarians. Now that I have spent several hours observing how Geth reason, I have greater reason to believe that is the case."
That was much too far. The Geth had killed billions of people. As a machine intelligence, they didn't have the option of saying that they hadn't personally participated. Maybe one could argue that the fault lied with the researchers or end users that networked too many Geth together, but that didn't change the underlying facts.
The Geth achieving sapience was an accident. The Geth then chose to kill their creators.
Tisara almost opened her mouth to argue the point but managed to stop herself. She might be able to argue with the SIU. Her somewhat unusual position could go either way.
She was in some ill-defined place between 'kogan and 'magan. She should have some latitude to argue inside of her expertise. The problem with that was she was not an expert on Geth.
As a non-batarian outside of the Hegemony, she should be able to argue with them anyway. Problem with that was that she worked directly for Emissary Iraphi - she wasn't really outside of the Hegemony as a legal matter.
She chose not to risk it.
Staying in her seat and just working was definitely safer.
"Simply from how they reason?" Sark asked and Tisara could imagine the simple hand gesture that asked why.
The silence continued while Kosvar apparently thought about how to explain his thoughts. "Perhaps they have more guile than I am giving them credit for, but I do not believe that to be the case. Their perspective is startlingly limited compared to the sheer amount of data they have available."
"I see," Sark said thoughtfully, "data does not necessarily equate to experience."
"Just so. Very little of it pertains to how the Geth fits into the galaxy, as well."
"The Geth isolated themselves," Sark agreed. "A reasonable decision on their part given how both the Hegemony and Hierarchy were adamant about destroying them, but how does that pertain to quarian culpability?"
"At the time of the Uprising, the Geth were either malfunctioning machinery or a hitherto unrecognized intelligent life form. In either case, it was the result of quarian foolishness."
Tisara had heard similar arguments before. People today tended to treat AI research as an obviously dangerous and illegal act and that the quarians got what they deserved.
She refused to accept anything approaching that stance.
That perception completely ignored the fact that those regulations only came after the Geth Uprising had ended. At the time, AI development was regulated, not illegal in almost all cases. And it still didn't address the fact that the quarians weren't developing AI.
In the former case, it wasn't the fault of all quarians and in the latter case, the Geth made a choice. It wasn't the quarians fault that the Geth decided to kill them all, completely out of proportion for any argument of self-defense.
While Tisara thought, Kosvar continued, "as malfunctioning machinery, it is a unforgivable failure of quarian leadership. They allowed a critical component of both their civilian infrastructure and their military apparatus to exist in a state that could turn against them at any moment, without any action on the part of an enemy. As unrecognized life, they allowed the Geth to develop a capability that the Geth themselves did not understand."
Tisara missed Sark's non-verbal response.
"I suspect so," Kosvar said, "they had no context for how they fit in the greater whole that was quarian society and no understanding of what it meant when they developed beyond their purpose. Even now, they still do not know what they do not know."
"I understand," Sark said and the two SIU officers lapsed into silence.
Something about the end of the conversation had reminded Tisara of something, but she couldn't quite place what it was.
She finished forwarding all of the relevant information to Iraphi.
She spent a few moments aimlessly typing at her terminal before she finally placed the memory. Their discussion had reminded her of how leaked Internal Forces documents described incidents of rebellion and sedition.
The documents gave two important insights to asari scholars, though both were often dismissed as propaganda. Even Tisara had been among that group.
From the outside looking in, it was hard to believe that the Hegemony cracked down even harder on the nobility that had failed to keep order than they did on the dissidents or that these situations were as rare as the reports implied.
Seeing how swiftly the Hegemony fell upon House Had'dah and how closely the SIU seemed to work with the Internal Forces for those kinds of situations, she was much more willing to believe those reports at face value.
In hindsight, Kosvar and Sark's discussion struck her less as a philosophical one and more as a hypothetical legal analysis using the norms they believed most correct - their own.
In that context, it made internal sense that the Geth having agency to do what they did without understanding the consequences reflected as poorly on quarian leadership as it would have had the Geth simply malfunctioned.
In some ways it was probably worse to batarians, since it would mean that quarian leadership had failed the Geth too. Not that batarian philosophy absolved them, it only acknowledged that the Geth weren't supposed to be making decisions and presumed that they would make bad ones given the chance.
Which they had.
Tisara shook her head slightly. No amount of incompetence or malice from quarian leadership justified their genocide. Any condemnation should be directed solely at the Geth.