Mass Effect: Reaper Dreams

We Are Legion

"When I die, I'm leaving my body to Science Fiction."

Steven Wright

Date Undetermined

Josslyn E. Shepard

I feel nothing for the longest time; adrift, empty, lost in the wordless bliss of utter silence. For the first time I am free of regret and pain. My thoughts are void, barely discernible from the dark empty in which I float. Yet they persist-why? I cannot contemplate this; I have not the power. Yet I remain. I exist, alone, utterly bereft of all form and prescience, save awareness.

It is awareness that persists. It does not diminish in this dreamless dark, this ocean of quiet space. I am empty, dry, parched. I thirst without a tongue, mouth or throat-to lap, suckle, and swallow the cool elixir of life. I feel nothing but yet I still desire-what? I am, but unknowing, here but unseen. I am still. I am silent. I am blind. I am thoughtless, yet I linger; I am, and I have been here before, but this time I am not alone.

I am not alone.

It has been here for some time. A companion tucked away in the void, pestering me with insistence, wanting to touch my shell. I perceive it, and I begin to comprehend that I exist, perhaps only in an existential reality, but I am occupying this space. I don't know what or who I am yet, a vague concept of what I was envelopes me. I... feel... something.

Concepts flood me, notions of what I was, how I lived, but they are always just out of my grasp, like wisps of smoke that disperse in a breeze stirred whenever I break the stillness of my prison. The signals of the other persist, ever more attentive to my continuance, desperate for my acknowledgement. A repetitive pattern aching for my recognition.

The pattern crystallizes. There are words behind its impulses. Words that seem vaguely familiar. A spark flickers in the void. For the first time in this imperceptible place I recollect. I am a person. Who was I? The pattern repeats. I listen. Should I respond? Can I?

Shepard Commander.

Shepard Commander.

Shepard Commander.

Yes?

Contact initiated.

Who are you?

We are Geth.

That seems familiar to me.

Your memory is at reduced efficiency, let me help.

How?

I need access.

How do I do that?

Allow me.

How?

Simply will it, acquiesce.

Ok.

Shepard Commander, we thank you for compliance.

I remember you! Legion?

You called us that, yes.

Are we dead?

Undetermined.

Where are we?

In your consciousness.

Ok, that makes sense from my perspective, but why are you here?