Finding a way: Mass effect 3

Tuchanka

The next morning, he grabbed a cup of coffee from the mess and headed up to the war room for the mission briefing. As he stepped off the elevator and rounded the corner into the hallway leading there, he looked up to see the cold metallic eyes of the android from Mars.

"Shit!" he said, dropping the cup to clatter on the deck, pulling his side arm and bringing up a barrier at the same time. Not that either had helped much on Mars, he thought.

"Is something wrong, Major?" the android asked.

Just then, the door behind him slid open and Aubrey walked in. "Whoa! Stand down, Kaidan," she said quickly grabbing his arm, lowering it along with his weapon.

He glanced quickly between her and the android. "What the hell's going on?"

She looked at him somewhat sheepishly, "Kaidan, meet EDI. The Normandy's....AI," she paused before admitting that, visibly nervous as to how he would react.

"AI? The Normandy has an AI?" he said, trying to keep his voice calm through the rising panic. AI's were illegal in Citadel space. History had shown repeatedly that synthetic life would always try to overthrow organic life and they had been deemed too dangerous to coexist with. The Geth uprising against the Quarians should have been proof enough from more recent history.

"Yes. My reaction time and ability to multitask make me ideal for operating the Normandy's electronic and cyberwarfare suites, as well as coordinating the ship's electronic defense matrix," EDI said.

"EDI was one of Cerberus' upgrades to the ship. She, uh...kind of repurposed the body of the android from Mars," Aubrey added. "Having her both in the ship and in the field with us has been really handy."

"I engaged the body's previous host in cyberwarfare and...obliterated her," EDI explained, pausing to find the word she was looking for to describe the outcome of her battle. "Jeff said that makes me a badass," she said proudly.

"It most certainly does, EDI," Aubrey said smiling at her.

"You obliterated the Collectors, Shepard. You are also a badass."

"Damn right I am."

EDI turned her gaze back to him and the bemused expression he had on. "I am sorry that my current appearance was upsetting to you Major Alenko."

"That's...that's okay, EDI. Just promise not to throw me into any bulkheads and I think we'll be fine," he replied, finally holstering his weapon.

Her expression turned thoughtful. "I do not know that I can make such a promise, Major. If you threaten Commander Shepard, or our mission, I will not hesitate to terminate you."

He noted with some interest that Aubrey came before their mission as he let the words sink in. He then dared to smile wolfishly at her, saying, "Same, EDI.... same."

She smiled back at him. "Then I think we have an understanding, Major." She extended her hand and he shook it.

Aubrey turned to him as EDI entered the war room. "I'm sorry. I should've warned you."

"It's alright," he said, tucking stray strands of hair behind her ear and trailing his fingers down her neck, watching her eyelids flutter closed and her breath quicken. "I, uh... really like the shorter hair."

She smiled at him, but then looked pensive. "You, um...didn't come up last night."

"Yeah, sorry. I had a bit of a migraine," he said lamely, knowing now wasn't the time to confess about Rahna.

"Okay," she said, letting it drop.

He followed her into the war room where James, Liara, Garrus, and Wrex all stood around the table. Another Turian that he assumed was Primarch Victus and a Salarian that was likely Dr. Mordin Solus were also present. Wrex's eyes slid between him and Aubrey and then a sly grin spread across his face.