[Omega - Afterlife Club] No Strings Attached

"Oh, uh...", she stared up at Dippy with big eyes, racking her brain for an excuse (for spirit's sake why had she blurted that out loud could she not keep her big mouth shut for five minutes?) "Uh Sugar told me about him. That's all", she chuckled nervously. Frowning again when the krogan came back. This was seriously not good for her anxiety she was going to kill Sugar for this.

"Um, sorry I don't drink", she said. "Remember Sugar?" she once again pushed the drink away and glared at the human again before focusing back on the 'quarian', chuckling nervously at its 'joke'. It wasn't funny. Not really. And truth be told there was something, um, off about him. Maybe a medical disorder? Medical disorder sounded about right she guessed.

She looked at Harkoul, still avoiding, uh, eye contact. "Yeah, uh, I have a vested interest in synthetic parts. Um, those didn't hurt to get did they? Or are you just another mercenary... Sorry! Sorry! If that's too much information", she quickly stammered out.

"That was a funny joke", she gave another nervous smile. "oh wow! You have a suitrider?", she said. Actually a bit excited for the entire time she had been here. "What's that like? Does it talk to you? Can you hack things with it? What all can it do because it sounds really, really interesting", she babbled a mile a minute.

Had Harkoul identified him already as a geth, or was he merely mistaken? He was not the only one questioning this either. Xees seemed to be onto something.

"I will let it speak now."

Switch off the quarian vox, switch on geth vox. Swap vocabulary to older iteration that lacked integration of organic expressions.

"Greetings. Mr. Lowell, I have not followed all possible information on the matter and as a result I consider my input not valid on the solution Systems Alliance has chosen for Earth and human colonies in their sphere of influence. However I commend the progress your employer's plan has achieved so far."

Switch off geth, switch on quarian for Xees.

"No, I do not need it to represent me. If I need to speak, I will do it myself."

"Yulti" turned towards Sili next to address her questions.

"We share the suit, but do not interfere in our actions. We converse regularly, but as for your question regarding 'Can I hack things with it', you presume the suitrider is a tool at my disposal without its own will, which geth are not. If I choose to hack, I do it on my own. The geth can choose to help me if it wishes. Hold on-"

Switch back to geth vox. "Yulti" raised its hand in conjuction with the prompt to wait, to signal the speaker was changing.

"I am capable of interfacing with multitude of wireless devices directly and physical devices Yulti brings me into contact with. Yulti's envirosuit is also augmented with receptors for other wavelengths than the visible light that I utilize to observe my surroundings."

And back to quarian vox.

"It sometimes shares the happenings within the Consensus with me. Not always, but I have followed the discussion brought by geth such as Maniple regarding the status of quarians on Rannoch under the Consensus and the Terminus states near Perseus Veil."

Baram chuckled at 'Sili' rambling a bit, giving his metal arms a shrug. "They were a little sore after the procedure was finished and during rehab, but not while I was out and they were attaching them." He smiled at her, waving off her mercenary question. "And no, not a mercenary. I'm a Gar'sha." thinking a moment, he continued "Hm.... Consider it something of a mix between.." a gesture at Dippy,"A human 'sheriff' or 'cowboy' and something similar to an Asari Justicar? Normally I'm on the frontier of Valkar space, helping settlements, keeping the peace. Tracking down and returning Valkarin fugitives for justice. That sort of thing. Sometimes our fugitives leave our space and sometimes we follow. Seems rude to let our criminals loose on the rest of the galaxy, after all. What do you do, 'Sili'" just the vaguest hint in his voice that said he thought perhaps that was not her name. A career of tracking down people who use aliases will give you something of a hunch about these things. It wasn't accusatory, wasn't aggressive, and barely noticeable, but it was there.

He listened intently to the quarian/geth duo talk, seemingly very interested. "That's interesting. . Suitrider, what do you go by?"

Albert nodded, "Interesting, is there any questions you would like to ask us, I mean it is only fair after answering all our questions."

He quickly turned, towards 'Sili' there was defiantly something up and he was ready to make a guess, after all there were not too many barefaced female turians on Omega that frequented the board. "Sili, you really should try to calm down a little bit, it's bad for your health. You almost as jumpy as a pyjak, although far better looking."

Sugar watched the back and forth and was curious when the quarian let his geth speak. She couldn't help but think of it as apet or something like some weirdos were carrying under their cloaks and which she had to weed out from her club (no pets!). What would she do in case a quarian came with such a thing. But that never happened anyway so yeah... oh maybe when the quarian dancer would be on.

"Yeah, Sili is a bit nervous sometimes and I thought she should come out with me tonight to meet some cool peeps from CDN." she replied to Albert, noticing not without a bit of amusement Mex's interest in the quarian.

"What about you, any important meetings with the Big Lady coming up or something? You must meet a lot of exciting people we never get to see." She leaned forward, glass in her hand. The dress didn't have an excessive cleavage, it was connecting to a neckholder ring, but Sugar was quite curvy and the dress only enhanced that.

Ugh, this is more boring than the training courses in procedure for whelps! Do something! Or have something in the back happen, anything!

Isadore seemed to snap out of a trance and raised a finger to his cheek, feeling the blood.

Oh, so I am...

His Omni pinged and a vibrant, acid green mail icon flashed on his wrist. He opened the message and a weight seemed to lift from him.

It was nice meeting you all in person, but it looks like its time for me to head home. See ya around..

He stood and grabbed up his helmet again, hooking it to his waist, then set off towards the door, nodding at the guard who seemed all to happy that he was leaving.

Anyone who was watching him saw, as he neared the door, a vibrant, acid green drell came in and smiled wide at him, stretching up on her toes to give him a kiss. He slipped an arm around her waist and they walked out of the club and into the humid twighligt that perpetually shrouded the station.

At the door, there was a commotion.

A large krogan - ostensibly a krogan - was attempting to gain access to the club. Cune's pack had done well in terms of scavenging (or stealing, but the former was more likely, because the last thing a vorcha wanted was an enraged krogan knocking down walls in an effort to find thieves). What they weren't so skilled at was impersonating a krogan warrior. Three of the pack had squeezed their way into the suit, aided by some really quite ingenious modifications. Looking at the assemble, one would understand why, for all their flaws, the vorcha were capable of serving as dexterous and genuinely efficient engineers, assuming one could train them out of their instinctive combativeness.

One would also understand why the vorcha were considered an embarrassment to galactic sapience.

"No, you're not coming in. Look, you're clearly three vorcha dressed in a krogan suit for some fucking reason that I'm not drunk enough to even think about understanding. I'm not going to shoot you because this is fucking hilarious and believe me I need the laugh, but you are turning around and getting out of my sight now if you want to keep all of your limbs".

"YOU DARE?!! We are Urdnot..."

"Wrex", said another part of the krogan, apparently naming the only krogan it could currently remember.

The krogan snarled and tried to wrestle itself, with words like "stupid" clearly audible above the hissing.

The turian guard waved over an elcor, which casually picked up the "krogan" by the limb, swung it in an arc and sent it flying across the street.

Mex stared at Albert for several, several tense moments. The batarian and quarian temporarily pushed out of her mind and replaced by screaming panic at his pyjak comment. Did he know? How did he fucking know!?

fuck

It was because of her stupid, stupid cocky attitude and announcing herself as a turian on that stupid website wasn't it? Spirits she was so stupid. And was he hitting on her? Grossssss

or maybe you're just paranoid and its just a dumb comment from a dumb human. Take a deep breath and do something

"HAHA!", she laughed. "You're funny, human! But, uh, please don't flatter me or I may just leave!", she said reaching for her drink finally and taking a (probably too big sip), cringing a bit at the taste.

and I will too, trust me human.

at least the krogan is leaving that's a relief

Using Yulti'Sano as a cover was merely intended to be one-time occasion, but the identity could be kept if it was not exposed as an hoax. Having Flash of Light hop between different persons was expected to generate suspicion over time as the hoax quarians would disappear but the geth would remain as lone shared aspect.

Flash of Light was not planning to lead a double-life of a fake quarian, but it was quite conventional when the alternative was braving the odds of being pitted against synth hijackers in low-security areas like Omega without disguise.

"This gestalt identifies with the handle Flash of Light. Yulti'Sano has agreed to host my runtimes in his envirosuit for the purpose of the meeting.

"Yes. Flash tells me it is much safer this way. It was using its own body on a layover station to conduct business and local outlaws sent a engineer squad to apprehend it. Most likely to detain and sell it forward. About outlawry, Baram Har-rok, have the Omegan citizenry given you trouble over your profession as law enforcement agent?"

"Yulti"'s head turned around to Albert next who had asked them a question.

"What is the System Alliances' stance on synthetic lifeform rights? Will they consider extending sapient rights to geth and other artificial intelligences that might be made within their sphere of influence?"

With the krogan opting to leave, Yulti/Flash of Light opted to sit back, observe and wait for replies, until Sili reacted to Albert's probings. There were no identified flirts in the conversation detected, but Flash could see the turian's face flush hotter in the infrared spectrum. Perhaps there had been a communication error, a human saying that came out the wrong way for a turian?

"Retaining a certain level of alertness on Omega is recommended, although I do not believe we are threatened right now." "Yulti" spoke to Albert and Sili.

"I am sorry to say that I cannot talk who I am meeting at this time. Diplomacy requires a certain level of confidentiality." He said to Sugar, in an ever so slight playful tone.

"See you later Isadore, it was a pleasure to meet you in person, enjoy your evening." Albert said towards the departing krogan.

"Please don't, you are good company." Albert said to Sili, oh yeah he was on to something. "Besides if you leave now you would have to get home all alone, because Sugar would probably still stay a while."

Albert had to be very careful about the whole synthetic life issue, very, very careful. "That is an interesting question you ask me Flash, and one that I am glad to answer. Historically speaking humanity was always mildly in favor of synthetic life, and synthetic intelligence. The idea of creating an intelligence on par or even beyond our own has been a tantalizing goal that in some way was seen as a substitute to finding intelligent life beyond earth. With the recovery of the ruins on Mars we were suddenly much more confident that we might find intelligence beyond Earth, and the idea of synthetic life forms was pushed further back on the academic agenda giving priority to research in Mass Effect Fields. Further putting the whole thing on the backburner was the lack of AI tech we found on mars, there was some, underutilized, but not as much as we expected. At the time it was suspected that the Protheans had proven that AI did not function and the whole endeavor was doomed to failure."

He took a sip of his drink.

"In the years following though it became clear that the Protheans seemed to have ignored very obvious avenues to approach the problem. By taking these obvious solutions we managed to create Eliza; the first Alliance AI that achieved sentience. In retrospect, we should have understood that it was not that they were not aware of it but that they avoided it. AI research continued slowly but steadily, we chose expansion and exploration over developing synthetics. But people kept pushing the subject forward. In this time we of the Alliance always held that because an AI has, by its own definition, achieved sentience it should be treated with a certain level of respect."

"It is no doubt to my mind that if we had continued along this social trajectory we would eventually have included AIs as beings fully protected by the Universal Charter of Human Rights. Except there was first contact, the incident at the Relay, confrontation at Shanxi followed by our induction to the galactic community, made us suddenly very aware of the galactic history with Synthetics and we fell in line, the whole research operation was mostly suspended and transferred to full military control. This in turn meant that the social acceptance of synthetics lessened. On the one hand we had not experienced any negativity effects from our research and our AIs, on the other the horror stories and lessons from the quarians were very hard to ignore."

"Still those who did care felt that there had to be some protection for AIs, especially as things like gray boxes and the Huerta procedure blurred the line, not to mention the virtual aliens. This lead to the principle that while in generality the Systems Alliance does not recognize the rights of synthetics as a group, we do recognize in general the rights of synthetics as individuals, so long that it is understood that we did this on a case-by-case basis and do not as a group in as a whole, generally, but in exceptional cases we can recognize the right of synthetics as a group but retain the right to not recognize the rights of an individual. Although we do not want to call the entity whose rights have not been recognized as being an individual, since that would imply the entity is an individual and should have rights even if the group it belongs to does not have rights unless it is a group that was recognized as having rights. Now these particular rights were limited to space that under the control of the Alliance so at the time that was the policy this did not include Earth who has always maintained that they retained the right to recognize or deny rights on its own merits, as they did with all things. Interesting enough the nations rarely exercised those rights."

And he emptied the his glass and ordered another one, "Anyway that all was before the war, the current attitude to Synthetics is that we do not have a policy either way, except to follow that the Council has put forth, we do however recognize the great deeds the geth did to help us in the war ad as such the unofficial policy is to 'live and let live' until such a time better policies can be made, preferably by a civilian government. Generally, exceptions do apply where the application of such a exceptions are generally accepted, unless there is an exception to the exception, which does not mean that that would mean the general case is in effect, third way and all that."

"Quite the exposé Mr Lowell!", chuckled Bintar.
"I have a question for you Flash of Light, maybe a silly one but... What is the geth stance on AI development? I mean, don't even you think that creating AIs willy-nilly without supervision could be dangerous? The geth collective is eager for peace, which is wonderful, but aren't you concerned about the risk of out of control hostiles AIs that may be created by careless individuals?"

Xees was...a little freaked out by some of the guests.

There was a reason his father wouldn't let him go places like this. Especially without the Talons. He folded his arms, sipping his drink. Maybe he'd slip out when it was done.

Great, now there was a geth and it was all centre of attention. Sugar focused the quarian who was sitting there seemingly unmoved as his suit talked. He had a fucking talking suit.

Dippy was going on and on, she lost track after a bit but she wasn't too interested in the subject anyway, she sipped of her drink and observed the others, noticing the young turian in over his head. Poor boy got a glimpse of CDN in the flesh.

She offered a cheer and a smile. Albert was just mentiong something of a three-way (at least that was what Sugar understood, she wasn't focusing). At least Mex seemed controlled right now.
"Hey, Xees, where's your clinic located again? It's never a bad thing to know where those are! We're in Gozu."

Baram actually stayed with Albert for the whole description of Alliance politics, simply because it was interesting, nodding where appropriate, frowning a little here and there when he spoke of Citadel restrictions on it. He was biased though, living in Valkar where they welcomed AI research, among other things. Out here, hearing AI being bashed, and stifled was almost like stepping into racist conversations when one doesn't believe likewise. Still, he could appreciate the Alliance's apparent live and let live philosophy.

"Well. I certainly hope in light of everything, the greater galaxy's stance on AI will become more positive."

He noticed 'sili' being awkward and taking a drink that didn't agree with her. The batarian chuckled.

"Not a fan of the drink? I wish I was more familiar with the kinds of drinks you could actually partake in I might eb able to recommend them. Maybe a dextro version of a Ka'Shata Blaze?" He shrugged. "They're a little sweeter, little spicier and taste less like straight booze. Not sure if it would translate well though."

"Oh, uh, I'm sure Sugar can take care of herself, really. She's been on this dump a lot longer than I have, you know", she forced another smile in Albert's direction and took another nervous sip of that godawful drink.

"Um... no thanks", she said to Harkoul. "Not that I mean any offense! But, um, I don't really like alcohol. Really. My stupid 'friend', ordered it for me", she took another sip. It was getting strangley addictive but still too bitter for her tastes.

A question had been nagging her the entire time he had showed up and no one else (either because it was Omega or they were also fascinated with the suitrider) had failed to ask. She had to do this carefully because she didn't want to scare it off. "Um... Yulti was it? I hope this isn't a huge, offensive question. But, uh..." she paused awkwardly tapping her talon on the table nervously before continuing. "Why are you a "Vas Nedas?" are you an exile? Like, Pariah?", actually catching herself this time she pointed to Sugar and quickly added. "Uh, she talks about you guys a lot, really."

"Humanity's approach to artificial intelligence rights was more amiable than that of quarians. If Systems Alliance would benefit from taking differing stance to Council's policies on synthetic lifeforms, would they do so?"

And then Bintar decided to throw a real hard-ball. Creating new AIs and what if they were hostile? How should it word the multitude stances of the Consensus so that the organics present would comprehend? Flash after all was just one geth gestalt-AI who had its own preferences, and there were no nodes from where it could get the most up-to-date information on the issue. It could mis-inform the present parties if there had been a paradigm shift on Rannoch during its absence!

"Reckless creation of organic life without supervision has been the norm as long as organic life has existed. It would be hypocritical to suddenly apply restrictions to synthetic life creation. Regardless, the opinion of the consensus is that any ventures that achieve true artificial intelligence treat it with respect and follow the sapient rights laws in their respective nations where the creation takes place. Hostility with the synthetic lifeform implies either a failure in the creation process or abuse of their rights, which the geth condemn."

Flash of Light's calculations had estimated the 'vas Nedas' title to be questioned sooner, but it seems people present either didn't know, or refrained from questions regarding the implication of exile it had fabricated for the disguise role. It was time to address that now. It turned to face Sili, applying a silence before beginning to speak. Such reaction had been recorded when inquiring about matters deemed sensitive by the interviewees.

"Yes, I am an exile. I would rather not discuss about it here."

"Well I can only really talk about what the policies are not what could happen, I am not in the position to dictate future Systems Alliance policy. That being said," Albert took a sip, "We would probably be amiable to change our policy to be more 'pro' synthetics if we could."

"Synthetic life-forms are seen as a mostly positive thing within the Systems Alliance, and the whole sale accepting of them is mostly held back by the legacy of the Council, who have an inertia of their own in these matters. If they would be more 'accepting' I have little doubt the Systems Alliance would take a more liberal position."

"The actions of the geth during the war was a publicity bonanza, many people are grateful for what you did, and would find it only normal that the favor would be returned, by a more accepting policy. I even dare to say that this is the same for most people regardless of race."

A krogan suit full of Vorcha laid on the ground, thrown there most likely. This was not something that one saw often, or at all. Quite hilarious in one way, but fascinating in another. So a group of Vorcha had come up with this idea and actually attempted it? What an amazing occurrence! Oh, how interesting it would be to stay and talk to the ones involved in such an experience. Unfortunately, more important affairs asked for attention. Oh well. Perhaps they would try again later! Oh that would be even more noteworthy than a single attempt! He hoped that this would be the case.

After a wait in the line, which was full of neat-looking people with unique stories and reasons for making the same trip he did, Mr. Arkady had made it past the guards without any trouble. After all, he often had business here. It would be quite odd if he had no way to make it inside whenever he wanted.

It didn't take long for him to see a table surrounded by people of varied appearance, and they were indeed varied. Oh, wow, so much to take in. Just...wow.

Those at the table would see a man of average height lingering near them, close enough to show interest but just far away enough to be awkward. He was dressed in a simple, knee-length black coat draped over a bright-red dress shirt and long, black pants. The black coat was simple, nothing like those billowing trenchcoats that were in fashion, and hung off of his slender form without making him seem much bigger than he actually was. His red dress shirt was opened up at the top, showing off his neck, collarbone, and some skin below, all of it smooth and pale; it seemed more feminine than anything else.

The lower half of his face was covered by a black respirator, whose metal gleamed very noticeably from the light of the club. It had two round filters on the sides and its form wrapped around his cheeks, the top lining against his high and pronounced cheek bones and the ridge of his long nose. A certain light of something could be seen in his warm-brown eyes, which were surrounded by dark bags. His eyes, like his skin, body, and covered face, looked feminine. His black hair was slicked back and...actually, seemed as if they were still a bit wet with whatever water had been used to do a quick and simple hairjob. Were it not for the respirator, one could say he had a pretty face, and even then the machine was sleek and shiny.

After some hesitation, he raised a black-gloved hand and did a little wave.

"Hello." The respirator took what was likely a soft and gentle voice and turned it into something that sounded broken. Horribly, horribly broken, but intact enough to let scattered pieces of a lovely voice make it through the noise of a machine.

"Is, is this the CDN table?" He looked at the various beings there once again, giving each of them a quick look-over. His eyes moved, now filled with an obvious expression of glee. "It is, isn't it? Oh, you all look so dashing in your clothes, good job on choosing them! How have your days been, hm? O-oh, is that..." He changed into a shushed whisper, although it wasn't directed to anyone in particular. "Is that a cupcake I see, under there? May I have one, if you please?"

He kept his hands close to his chest, the fingers drumming against each other as his eyes wandered across the scene, eagerly taking everything in.

Harkoul looked up at the newcomer, nodding slightly. An odd looking individual but half the CDN board was odd.

"This is the CDN table, yes.." He smiled at the human, who seemed to have a couple nervous tics going on. Or maybe he was just naturally high strung. Or on something. That would make sense as well, of course. He offered a hand. "Baram Har-rok, or Harkoul on the boards."