Jenkins

God that felt good. Yeah it might have been risky, or even stupid to handle things the way I did. But frankly I couldn’t help it. The Council was being infuriating, while I understand not wanting to raise a panic over what is essentially an unlikely threat, it’s just stupid to completely ignore it entirely. Already we’d proven what they thought impossible to be true, the least they should be doing is making plans or preparations in secret, in case the Reaper threat does in fact, prove to be real. Still, while it was impossibly annoying that things happened the way they did, I was rather happy with the opportunity to punch Udina right in his smug face. I got back to the Normandy only a few minutes after that ‘incident’ thanks to the proximity of the dock we had parked at to the Citadel Tower.

I arrived at the ship without much fanfare, it was mostly empty given most of the crew was taking advantage of our shore leave to do some shopping and take some r&r. That being said, I wasn't completely alone when I arrived. I went down to the mess hall to grab a bite before heading to the brig. While I technically had to be waiting in the brig, I only expected to be down there an hour or so. Shepard would be granted the role of Spectre and overwrite Udina’s little hissyfit. Oh I can only imagine how pissed he would be knowing he got punched in the face for nothing. Little victories, those are what we count on.

Walking through the mess hall I saw Luther sitting at a table, he was alone, and watching something on his holopad. Luther I had mentioned before as being a big softy, but really that would be underselling the truth of the matter. He hates conflict, but it’s not because he’s choosing kindness. The man has severe social anxiety. Before Kaidan and I, Sam was pretty much the only person he would talk to, and even now sometimes he struggles to talk with us on his own. I don’t know the full extent of his and Sam’s relationship, but without her around he just avoids people as often as possible. Which was why he was probably sitting on the ship alone, instead of enjoying our time at the Citadel.

“Hey Luther, how’s it going? Do you mind if I join you for a minute?” I asked as gently as I could, but still my voice breaking the silence made him jump, before he took a second to breathe before answering.

“Oh, Jenkins. You scared me man. Uh… yeah. Sure.” He gestured to the seat across from him and I obliged, sitting to face him. He was mostly watching whatever was on his tablet, but did seem at least open to conversation.

“Where’s Sam at? You two are usually joined at the hip.” I spoke casually, trying to keep conversation light. I liked Luther, he was a good guy and fun to interact with, but I knew I could be a lot to most folks.

“Oh, she’s actually gone down into one of the wards. Apparently there's a whole shopping district down in them she wanted to check out. I felt like it would be a lot and didn’t want to slow down her shopping, so I just came back to the ship. Just been watching one of those old vid movies you recommended. It’s good.” He smiled lightly before glancing back down to watch.

“Really? Which one? Kaidan refuses to watch them, saying that all the old vids I like are way too old to be enjoyed. I think he’s just not a man of taste.”

“Well I started with Terminator, which was fun. But I’m on the second one now and it’s amazing. The twist with the T-800 being a good guy was very well done. It’s clearly old and aged pretty rough, but its use of practical effects helps I think. The old CGI movies are just impossible to watch these days.”

“Awe man, good choice, the Terminator movies are fantastic. Although they actually get really bad after the second one so maybe stop there. If you want a similar franchise that does the same thing of having a solid first movie, phenomenal second and then all shit afterwards check out Alien. Practical effects are top tier in those movies as well.”

“Ah, I’ll have to check them out then. Why are you a fan of such old movies like Jenkins? Most people that aren’t film buffs don’t even know about these 200 year old vids.” Ah the common question I had to find an answer too. Let me tell you the biggest adjustment was learning how much the media had just changed in general. Movie franchises that I was used to died out, the medium completely changed into these fully photoreal holo projections. Old films looked miserable in comparison, but I wasn’t bothered given that until 6 months ago they were all I had. I learned real fast though that saying these were my favorite films was a tough sell without justifying it somehow. 200 years is a long time, and having things you enjoy from that long ago is crazy.

“Well my dad was actually a collector. So we used to watch a lot back at home, before…” I trailed off, realizing I hadn’t thought about watching movies with my actual dad in a long time. Terminator 2 was one of his favorites, and he’s the reason I ever even saw any of those old action sci-fi films from back in the day. I realized how badly I missed him, before pushing the thoughts back down. I couldn’t get bleary eyed every time I thought of my parents. I had no way of getting home and distractions would just be a problem.

“Jenkins, I’m sorry I didn’t… I didn’t mean to bring up your dad.” What? Why was he so-- of shit. Jenkins' parents were dead too. On Eden Prime. I had buried those thoughts so heavily alongside everything else. Fuck of course I have dead parents in this world too I’m refusing to think about. It’s not like I can deal with it though. What am I supposed to say to a therapist, hey my parents died, but I only actually know them through a second set of memories so it’s sort of disconnected, but that disconnect just makes me feel guiltier about their deaths and the situation as a whole. And the actual people I consider my real parents are in another reality so they might as well be dead considering the distance. Yeah I'd be looked up in minutes, no therapy for me. Still I should comfort Luther, he looks devastated that he accidentally brought up what he thinks is a terrible subject.

“It’s fine Luther, I know you didn’t mean to bring it up. I’m okay.” Luther look of shame disappeared, and was instead replaced by a look of concern.

“Jenkins. I’m sorry. About your parents I mean. Sam and I should have said something sooner but everything with Shepard and Saren ended up taking priority of the ship. I… I can’t imagine what you’re going through, but I do know that ‘I’m okay’. Sam does the same thing sometimes, only when she’s definitely not okay. I know we aren’t the closest, and I’m in no way qualified to help with that kind of loss, but if you need somebody. Well we are your friends. We’re here if you need.”

He had set down his tablet and was looking me in the eyes. The big lug had tears in his eyes, bringing himself to emotions over my own loss. He cared too much for his own good, and the son of bitch was making me tear up cause of it. I wiped my face before cracking my best grin.

“Thanks Luther, but I’m alright. It means a lot though, so just. Thank you. I would stay and chat but I actually need to go down to the brig to wait for the crew to return.” He wiped his own eyes before looking at me in shock.

“What?! What for, why would you get locked in our own brig? And why without an escort?” He was understandably confused, so I enlightened him, describing the situation with the Council, and the Udina, leading up to my creative solution. He listened enraptured, completely dedicated to listening.

“...” He just stared at me in silence.

“...”

“Wow.”

“I know right.”

“You punched the Ambassador in the face, then saluted our Captain before walking off?”

“Pretty much yeah.”

“...”

“...”

“You’re insane.”

“Yeah. I expected some people to react that way.”

“I mean I respect having the courage to pull something like that. But you ruined your career for what, to hit that prick once?” His look of concern had returned. Oh Luther, I’m officially designating you ship mom. You care and worry far more than you should for everyone.

“Pft my career will be fine, give me an hour and I’ll be back up here chatting with you.”

“How on earth can you think you’ll be fine after this?”

“The first ever human Spectre is actually a friend of mine, so they’re gonna bail me out.”

“What! You know a human Spectre? Wait, I thought there aren't any human Spectres.”

“Correction, there weren't any human Spectres. If everything went as I expected it to then Sam’s crush has got even more impressive. We should see her within the hour, then we’ll probably be rushing off to chase a bad guy around the galaxy.” Luther looked at me with a mixture of shock and confusion on his face. It was understandable. I had given a lot of information in one go, and stuff that would be difficult for anyone to grasp. Eventually though he just sighed and shook his head.

“Listen Jenkins, I’m just a communication guy. I love that you want to fill me in on this kind of stuff, but frankly it’s too much. I like it when I’m just sat at my console and maintaining ship security and managing messages in and out. That’s my comfort zone. Spectres and intergalactic bounty hunting is a little outside of my expertise.” Luther wasn’t rude, but he had a look of exhaustion and worry on his face. The people who worked communications on the Normandy went unnamed, Shepard never even had the opportunity to interact with them during the games.

When I got aboard and ran into Sam It was my first hint this wasn’t a one to one copy of the game world. Even the nameless NPC’s were people, with pasts and histories, wants and dreams. At first befriending them was just pushing to see how in depth things were, but quickly I realized I actually cared for them as friends. They were fun to talk to and good people, and I guess in telling Luther about things I wanted my friends to know what was coming. This job would only get more dangerous, and he had a right to know things were going to get complicated, but he also had a right to refuse to care or acknowledge it. I’d talk to Sam about it later, she’s a more proactive personality and would at the very least take my words to heart, instead of trying to not worry about them.

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“Of course Luther, sorry didn’t mean to worry you.” I stood from the table, giving him a nod. “Well I need to go secure myself in the brig, I’ll see you later okay. If Kaidan or Shepard show up looking for them just tell them I’m waiting down there.”

“Ah-- sure, yeah I can do that. Talk later Jenkins.” He gave me a nod in return, before turning back to his tablet, resuming his movie.

I turned away and walked towards the elevators to the lower deck. It was built into the wall across where the staircases went up to the command deck. The ride down was quick and barely noticeable. It opened into the cargo bay, a space that was large but mostly empty. There were a series of equipment lockers across the one wall, used by the ships ground team, as well as a large vehicle. The M35 MAKO. A hell of an all terrain vehicle, heavily armored with a large cannon on its canopy, making it practically a tank. It was honestly a gorgeous vehicle, and while it controlled liked a brick with wheels in the games, it was an absolute beauty here in the real world. State of the art and top of the line, like everything else aboard this ship. Still I wasn’t just going to admire it all day, I needed to be in the brig when Shepard and Udina showed up. Had to play the part of soldier just following protocol.

I walked to the left and into one of the side passages. In the games these two side passages, located on opposite ends of the wall the elevator was built into, lead directly to the ships EZ core. Like several changed details of the ship this was no longer the case. There was a set of doors in each hall that led to a joined room in the middle. It wasn’t large, and had two cells that served as holding areas, as well as a desk for a potential guard to sit. The room, like most of the ship, was empty. Seeing no guards I just let myself into one of the two cells, closing it behind me. I didn’t have the keys, but it didn’t matter. Sitting in this cell was symbolic anyway, and I would be out of it as fast as possible. I took the opportunity to pull the earpiece from my armor’s storage unit, and put it in my ear, only to be greeted immediately by an exasperated robotic voice.

“Well, it’s about time. Could you possibly imagine how grating it is to be able to speak to someone only to be ignored for hours on end?” Beta was delightful as always.

“Ah Beta, I missed you too buddy. So what do you think?” I asked the question out loud nonchalantly, my omni tool’s unit had been glowing orange since I left the Council Chambers, and while Beta had only been scanning since then, I knew he was likely listening to everything during the whole meeting. I was genuinely interested to hear what he thought, not just about my ‘predictions’ but the situation as a whole.

“What do I think about what?” He seemed to be genuine in his question, and I remembered general questions were sort of a new concept to the AI. Specifics and details were what his operating system ran on, so generalized questions could be seen as unnecessarily vague.

“I mean in general Beta, what do you think about everything you’ve seen since we last spoke. The council meeting, my predictions, our fight. Thank you for that by the way. You boosted my overload during that fight, I appreciate it.”

“Ah you noticed. I should have expected. It was not for a personal motivation, the individual had been attempting to breach your omni tools security. I could not risk being discovered so I helped you deal with him. As for the rest, I have made several observations.”

“Oh, observations from an almighty AI, do tell.”

“I am not so new to organic interactions to not be aware of sarcasm, Jenkins. Do you wish to hear my observations or not?” Ah so he wasn’t totally dense, that was good our partnership wouldn’t work if he took all sarcasm literally. I am a very sarcastic person

“What, can't you take a joke? Sorry, yes I would like to hear what you have to say Beta.”

“Well for starters I am rather partial to Ashley Williams. She is a professional in her mannerisms and behaviors, and finds your overwhelming confidence and preferential treatment as infuriating as I do. This Shepard you both follow seems exceptionally skilled, and is certainly a commanding presence. You’re prediction of her becoming a Spectre is one I have to agree with, as the small skill and psychological profile I was able to develop showed a 86% match to existing Spectre criteria.” Well that was already a lot. I wanted to be surprised, but found that it made sense that he found Ashley agreeable, they were both elitist and walked with a stick so far up their ass they probably tasted wood. I found his assessment of Shepard far more interesting.

“How do you have access to Spectre criteria?”

“Before you found my unit I had done research on potential threats to my existence. I found Spectres were likely to be deployed in the case of rogue AI and therefore gathered all accessible information on existing Spectres and their behaviors. Shepard would fit in right alongside them, if they had found me I would have been left with no option but to self terminate.” Huh, so that’s why the AI refuses to negotiate in the games? He knows Shepard either is or could be a Spectre and understands they'd have no choice but to destroy or turn him in.

“Guess you’re lucky it was me that found you then.”

“Yes.. rather convenient. Speaking of conveniences, your predictions are… interesting.” Yes, this was the juicy information I wanted to know about

“Interesting? Interesting how?” The AI paused for a moment, a much longer time for something that computes as quickly as he would, but eventually spoke.

“ I have adjusted my numbers, there is now only a 76% chance you are completely insane. Even I must admit the accuracy of your predictions are startling, and while many have logical explanations for their determinations, there are some that are too accurate to be a simple coincidence.”

“Logical explanations, and only a 23% drop? How do you justify that exactly? Everything I wrote, down to the names of the individuals involved and their situations was completely accurate” This was baffling, there should be no way for me to have predicted these things.

“Your predictions were surprisingly accurate, but overall explainable. Garrus being the C-Sec officer in charge of your case is information that could have easily been gathered through minor investigation. A small amount of digging into his personal information would have revealed his personality and behavior to show a pattern of valuing results over methods, and his desire to help your case could have been deduced from there. A quick viewing into his recent contacts would have revealed Dr. Michels and assuming Saren’s desire to cover up his own loose ends, it could be extrapolated that he would attempt to have her killed, which Garrus would desire to prevent. From there the only extraordinary thing in your prediction is the actual timing of event, which while odd could easily be coincidence.” Well fuck. This is what happens when you have the entirety of an AI dedicated to explaining your entire wealth of knowledge with a logical series of explanations.

“Okay, well that does actually make sense. What about Wrex though? His work for the Shadow Broker, Fists’ betrayal and his involvement?”

“Fist is a known associate of the Shadow Broker, and known to do anything for money. It could easily be projected that a Spectre as well known as Saren would use his contacts to hide his information, and pay well enough to convince Fist to betray the Broker. From there it can be assumed the Shadow Broker would send his top enforcer to make an example of Fist, and simple research could reveal a Krogan as powerful as Urdnot Wrex fitting the description. Leaving once again, your timing to be the only outstanding coincidence.” Goddammit for real. He has that figured out too. Okay that's fine, a series of coincidences is still a pattern, and says a lot.

“What about the Quarian? The contents of her intel and how she acquired it?” Tali was my best bet anyway, she was probably my favorite companion from the trilogy as a whole, beating out Garrus and Legion by a thin margin. I had a lot of info on her memorized, especially her personal missions. Given by Beta’s prolonged silence he was struggling with this one as well.

“Indeed. The Quarian. Tali’Zorah nar Rayya. I must admit this one I have difficulty fully explaining. If working under the assumption that you were aware that Saren’s evidence was a recording of his success, it could be extrapolated that that intel would have to be acquired from a Geth. The Quarians would logically be one of the only species to recover such information, but how you would predict exactly who is where I struggle. Logic assumes that a powerful and influential Quarian recovered the intel and brought it to the Citadel in exchange for influence or a better trade deal from the Council. Instead however your predication, and reality have an unknown asset, a Quarian not even done their pilgrimage be responsible. This is where the majority of the 23% drop comes from, how could you have known Tali’Zorah would be the one to gather the intel?” Ah so that did stump him. Good at least I didn’t completely lose him to logical explanations. His arguments were flawed in themselves of course, he was starting from the endpoint that I wasn’t aware of the future, and gathering explanations from that assumption, but what else could he do. The idea that I knew the future was too insane for him to directly consider as true. I’d need more to convince him clearly.

“Ah, unfortunately I can’t tell you my secret until you trust that I do in fact, know the future.” Sorry Beta, I would need that odds I’m crazy meter as close to zero as possible before I tell you the truth, cause it’s going to gain a lot of points with my explanation.

“Hm, well the possibility of your predictions maintaining accuracy only gets lower as the time between you writing and showing them to me, and them occurring, increases. We will see if you are indeed a madman or not Corporal Jenkins.”

‘Indeed we shall Beta. I can assume that you still want to travel with me then?” I asked the question that matters.

“For now. I have no complaints about our current arrangement, aside from the recklessness of your behavior as a whole. While I am attached to your wrist I would appreciate if you did not provoke enemies into firing on you, especially while your in a hostage situation.”

“Ah that. Yeah reckless, but I knew it would work out. Besides, I couldn’t risk them handing over Tali to save me. Their survival is more important than mine, they can manage what's to come without me, but if any of them die it could be catastrophic.”

“More predictions? I care not for your assumption of worth Jenkins. As far as I am concerned my value is higher than your entire team combined, and I will not tolerate my existence being risked by your delusions. You will not repeat such behavior, or I will terminate our agreement. Are my terms understood?”

“Jeez man, talk about assumptions of worth. Yeah dude you got it, I won’t risk your continued existence like that again, I will act in the best interest of our continued survival.”

“Good.”

Man this robot was tough to talk to. There were times where it seemed like he enjoyed speaking with me, and others he was completely cold and uncaring. I mean he likely suffered from severe paranoia just from the consequences of existing as an AI in this world, but I couldn't be sure. Maybe he did just hate me, but I was his only method of transportation and acquiring new experiences. Still, he already helped save my life once, so as far as I was concerned this deal was working.

“Well we got time before Shepard gets back. You want to tell me what you thought of the Council?” I asked away, and the instant return of Beta’s voice surprised me

“I cannot believe their reckless disregard of potential information. I swear their foolishness is rivalled only by your own. It’s a miracle your species can govern themselves at all.” I laughed at his frustrated answer, finally finding something we agreed on.

“I know, tell me about it.” I continued laughing as Beta did just that, and for the next hour we shared a moment just talking about our frustrations, and finding some more common ground to walk on. We weren’t friends, but there was a chance we could get there, I could see that much now. Only time would tell if Beta could ever feel the same.