[Rannoch] Little House on the Homeworld (closed)

(Continued from previous thread)

The Riett household was immaculately clean and organized, yet another hold over from Migrant Fleet life where an object out of order could be disastrous.

"Its not big I know", Ragia said as the group entered the living area. "But it beats sleeping in a cubicle doesn't it?" she then looked at Atingo holding the sleeping Tualni and smiled. "I'll put her to bed Atingo", she said gently taking the child out of his arms. "You can show Preeya her 'room', okay?"

"Of course", Atingo said as Ragia left thee room and then looked at Preeya. "You'll be staying in an extra room Ragia has been using as a 'sewing room' its to the left over there", he said as he began to lead his guest.

"Not big? This does not look like not big to me." Preeya answered as they entered the house of Ragia and her family. It in fact was bigger than Preeya expected, almost a little bit too big for her personal taste, but perfectly suitable for three people.
She turned around on her own axis, taking a quick look and getting a first impression of her new place to stay.
Preeya tilted her head and invisibly smirked a little as Ragia took Tualni and brought her to bed. Whether she liked it it not, Preeya realized that she grew fond of children more easily, ever since she actually forced herself to get over her fear of contact.

As Atingo started to explain where her room was, Preeya instantly nodded, followed him and answered with a polite. "Of course."
Again taking a look around, she finally added. "Thank you very much. It is a beautiful place you have here. How long did it take you to build it? Obviously you put much effort into it."

Atingo paused for a bit before speaking. "It was... refurbished and preserved by the geth", the tone of his voice giving the impression he was not altogether too happy about that. "The building itself dates back to the Morning War... I think you know what probably happened to the previous owners", he said. It was something he tried to not think too hard about himself. But it was true. His home belonged to a family that was probably long dead, killed by the geth. And their house kept standing by whatever geth platforms stayed in the area.

Preeya nodded at Atingo. That was indeed a good idea to bring as many housings to people as soon as possible, and she had to admit, that she did not have that idea before.
Maybe because in her own imagination Rannoch still was more a vast wasteland than anything that could (still) hold housings at all.

Yes, of course Preeya had some ideas of what might have happened to the previous owners of this house. Most likely killed or escaped...
She however preferred not to think about matters like these by herself too much. Not because it would have made her feel uncomfortable or because she faced difficulties when thinking about the bloody history of her planet.
It was more because she happened to be a person mostly focused on present and future instead...

"Most likely they were either killed or left the planet centuries ago." She however truthfully replied.
Of course this was not exactly the most diplomatic reply and very probably not what anyone else would have said, but it was typically Preeya'Lem...
However realizing that this might sound rude, she tried her best to ad a sentence to make Atingo feel better within his current housing.
"In both cases you do not have to worry about their opinion on you three living here. This is your place now. At least until you decide to occupy another property."
She did a polite nod towards him and suddenly realized that quickly moving her head made her slightly dizzy...

Atingo wasn't as observant as Ragia so he didn't notice anything wrong with Preeya at all as he continued. "Its almost certain they were. Unless they were exceedingly lucky. Which I doubt they were", he also said it bluntly. Seeing no point in really avoiding the subject anymore. "How do you live on the Citadel now, Preeya?" he asked, a bit of curiousity in his voice. "How do you live in a place that, knowing what we know now, was a place where genocide has probably been carried out on a grand scale so large that it is unreal?"

He paused, staring at her for several moments. "How do you trust a machine not to do that again?"

Looking up to Atingo Preeya remained silent for some seconds.
This has not been the couple of questions she expected someone to ask her.
Even a bit surprised - even though she had no idea of how to express this - she thoughtfully raised one hand towards the height of her mouth.
Usually Preeya never thought about matters like these. Maybe because she was extremely focused on present and future, maybe even because she subconsciously did not want to confront things that might have forced her to judge by emotion.
"I am not sure..." She began calmly. "...I assume from a sociohistorical point one place is equally positive or negative than any other random place. I do not allow myself to be influenced by past aspects or emotions. As long as I can be useful somewhere I do not even care where I am.
Even though I admit, the contact and traffic on the Citadel is pleasant."
She stopped for a second and leaned against a wall before she continued. "Makes me... Feel as if I had a place I belong." She finally said.
Judging by the fact that this very probably was one of the most personal and even emotional things Preeya ever revealed about herself, she said it in a surprisingly calm and functional tone. Recognizing this herself she stopped for another second, just thinking, before she finally forced herself to answer Atingo's second question.
"...How can I trust anyone not to retry past crimes?..." She shortly asked. "It does not matter what someone is. The sort of creature acting does not make it's committed actions better or worse."

She was strange, Atingo thought. Very strange. He hadn't met many quarians that could thing so... robotically about things. She was quite like a geth in a lot of ways. And he couldn't deny that it made him very uncomfortable. "Machines are different, Preeya. They don't think like you or I", well he guessed she might understand them better from some of her comments. "What if, at some point in the future, they grow dissatisfied with our current relationship? Would they evict us from our own planet? Try to reach a compromise of some sort? Or would they decide the third time's the charge and start trying to kill us all, all over again?"

He wondered what her response would be.

Meanwhile, having put Tualni to bed (the child had fallen asleep almost immediately) Ragia began making her way towards the location of Preeya and Atingo.

Looking at Atingo Preeya leaned against the wall behind her. Why was he saying this to her?
If her face would have been visible, he very probably now would have seen a young - usually emotionally neutral - woman with a face growing more and more utterly confused.
"If you are pointing out the difference between synthetics and organics, we very probably soon will end up pointing out the differences between several individuals of the same species.
Everyone is different: Mentally, culturally, physiologically. Acknowledging that fact is absolutely necessary for providing things people require customized to their individual needs.
But I do not see why the difference between organic and synthetic life forms is more important to you than the difference between two different organic species or two different individuals regardless their species."
She tilted her head, listening to him and wondering what he might have thought about her and her personal point(s) of view.
Preeya knew, that many of her views were not exactly popular amongst other people - Especially amongst certain fellow quarians.
As he finished his second question, Preeya remained silent for some seconds trying to figure out whether this was a general question or whether there was any sort of hidden "affiliation test" within this...
"...You are relying to the possibility of another war between geth and quarians, right?" Preeya thoughtfully mumbled.
"Do you consider such a chance to be... Inevitable?" Many quarians did, and even though Preeya was none of them she was quite used to face discussions like this.
"...From everything I have seen so far both species do not wish to be forced to fight.
I consider chances for the geth evicting the quarians from Rannoch to be minimal. They do not even require this planet since they use space stations mostly, so there would be no need for them to take actions like this... Unless..." She stopped for some seconds, becoming more hesitant. "Unless quarians decide to run another attempt on... Wiping them out..."
As Preeya spotted Ragia joining them again, she gave her friend a polite nod.

"Yes... yes of course", he said rubbing the back of his helmet. "Everyone is different"

Atingo was getting annoyed now. She just couldn't seem to get it. Couldn't she see what he was trying to say? She really was like a geth he thought to his dismay. Now thinking carefully (he didn't want to upset) her he tried to respond.

"Yes... but. I know there is no reason for them to want to attack us now, it wouldn't benefit them and would probably turn everyone against them. But...", he paused. "But they could be planning something, you know? They live in stations as you said and have no use for this planet. Why don't they just... leave?" he felt awkward saying that, like a small child. But continued nonetheless against his better judgement. "We can't wipe them out, Preeya. That would be... wrong, I guess. Especially after all of this. So... why can't they just leave Rannoch for their stations and servers?"

Ragia entered the room then, smiling and nodding at both of them and Atingo felt glad she had interrupted them.

"Hello!", she said. "Atingo I trust you have shown her everything, yes?"