EDI hadn’t expected her to come back so soon. She had just sat to replay some of the conversation in her head. A habit that should have been considered unhealthy but heartbreak and stress didn’t threaten her as much as a regular person. She just wanted to learn what she could have done to avoid such and if she should make any modifications.
However, Shepard returned to her and EDI tilted her head at her words, “My position Commander?” She questioned before hearing what she had to say in response.
“A rank?” She hadn’t expected that. She was a co-pilot and AI; she expected nothing more. Not out of bitterness as she was content with her positions, “Did you have a rank in mind Commander? I feel like I will officially be part of the crew in that case.”
She received a lot of positive feedback, which balanced out the negative ones she had received, “Thank you, Shepard. I am pleased to see that you approve of my work to give me a rank, even if I am still the Ship’s Artifical Intelligence,"
“Well... we kind of need an Ensign, It felt weird having one after Presley died but I think that you’d suit that job that comes with it down to the ground? I need somebody to look after the ship and the crew when I’m not aboard, and who better than somebody who literally knows the Normandy inside out?”
She hoped that EDI was going to take it the right way, she didn’t want her thinking that this was a way to make it look like she was caring while actually not giving her anything. Her intention was to give her a promotion that would mean she was more involved, more respected as a valued member of the crew by others who still had yet to adjust to an AI moving around the ship unshackled. Of course it took a lot of getting used to, but EDI deserved better. She had emotions and thoughts of her own, and she needed to be treated as such.
“And how many times do I have to tell you... stop defining yourself as an AI and no more than that...”
She had to be even more careful with her words here. But this time it was because she wanted to put across just how much she meant what she was saying. It wasn’t just one of those sentiments that you threw at people with issues you didn’t really want to confront, this was something that Shepard felt passionate about, especially owed to the friendship that she’d built with EDI.
“Look, we’re all made somehow.. we’re all manufactured. We’re not even as different as biological and synthetic.. I’m probably eighty five percent cybernetics under here.”
A tap to one of her arms as a passing way of excentuating what she was trying to say. She often spoke like that, gesticulating almost an annoying amount.
“What I’m saying is... You’re a person, just the same as everyone else. You’re synthetic, yeah... it’s an attribute, like being black or white... tall or short. You’re as human as any of us. Stop putting up these barriers. Just live....take the Ensign position... live.”
