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Senna stuck his head out of the first officer’s quarters He saoman sink to her knees with her child in her ar nightut and made his hair stand on end But he couldn’t let his on the macro level—the ship, the mission, the whole situation But the micro level would drown him—aelse instead: the two green woreen anymore—Anax in her custom volus suit

“Therion!” Senna’Nir hissed “Ferank! I need you!”

The drell snapped to attention They ht? Are you seeing this? That’s a quarian child There’s an extreoing to say soht better of it “She’s supposed to be safe Her suit and her,” the detective whispered helplessly, her voice thick with far too nored that, too He could only do what he could do and what he could do was this

“Yes,” he said tightly “It’s absolutely the worst thing I can iine and under no circumstances should it be within the realht now I need your help”

“Sure, boss,” said the batarian, her voice all silk and ice, still looking backward over her shoulder at the sobbing mother

“How many VIs would you say are on this ship?” Senna asked

“What? Who cares?” Borbala said

“Total?” asked Anax Therion

Senna shook his head “No, just the independent or mobile ones Self-contained VIs with their oer sources VIs that were never hooked up to the mainframe; discrete units”

The drell rubbed her long“There’s the krogan ht educational VIs to help with the colonization, entertain One of my sets of armor utilizes VI components”

“Mine too,” nodded Borbala coh the two of them had just discovered they liked the same perfume

“And then there are the Pathfinders,” Therion said hesitantly It was the third rail None of the the Pathfinders for a little technological help felt like giving up on finding a ho Andromeda before they ever arrived

“No,” said Senna’Nir, very loudly “We cannot wake theh the access hubs They’ll be the last ones affected by any malfunctions”

“My wager would be in the hundreds, then People bring the strangest things across the universe,” finished Therion “More importantly, have you seen any hanar since we talked last?”

“No, none, why do you ask?”