[center][h3]Avatar, Voira, & Raa'Kina[/h3][/center]

It had been twenty-seven minutes since Avatar began searching for any of the planet's representatives that it might speak to, and a statistically improbable pattern had emerged among those it had found. All of the locals it found, whether they were a representative or simple security, gave common excuses meant to politely refuse conversation. Even accounting for normal variation in personal willingness to communicate with strangers, there was  a 12% chance that all of the excuses were truthful. Avatar concluded that the representatives from the planet were likely avoiding speaking with it, but it had insufficient data to determine the reason. Though, the two strongest possibilities were that the local inhabitants of the planet were distrustful toward the Geth or Council, or that they had been instructed not to speak to any Council representatives until the meeting itself. 

Avatar determined that its present course of action was unpreductive; however, it also could not determine a more productive use of its time with present information. As a result, Avatar elected to remain at its current location, near the end of a hallway on the top deck of the station, and perform extranet searches on the process of colonization until it found a more efficient use of its time. 

The halls were pretty empty when Voira and Raa entered them. It only took a quick glance around to note there was little to one walking them, mainly since no one save those who were chosen for the project were scheduled here, allowing Raa to feel a bit less nervous. Her pace quickened until she pulled ahead of her asari friend as she twisted back, her front facing backwards while she continued walking the same direction Voira was. She has had plenty practice to ensure she wasn't about to stumble down or trip over her feet whenever she walked this way.  
 
"Voira, you realize if I learn to defend myself than I wouldn't need you as my personal protection, right?" Raa teased, her hands folded behind her back and feet kept moving back. 
 
Her head tilted just in time to note how far before she reached the corner and kept track of distance in the back of her head. It wasn't hard to see she was trying not to think about her first day on the job, mainly since she had only met the supervision Quarian once during the whole time the pair had been here. 
 
Voira smiled as Raa walked backwards in front of her. It was a habit that had taken her several falls to get down pat, much to Voira's amusement. The Asari preferred the emptiness of the hall to the crowds she had expected. the quiet made it easier to notice any suspicious sounds, like a gun being loaded or steps coming to quickly behind them. Granted, they hadn't made any enemies recently(at least not to Voira's knowledge) and it was doubtful that anyone would want to kill them, but it never hurt to be careful, right?
 
"We'd still stick around. After all, we've been making sure you stayed out of trouble for so long, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. And besides, you'd miss our fussing and overprotectiveness. Not to mention, we still need to teach you how to shoot and that seems like a process that'll take decades." Voira smiled gently to take any sting out of her teasing.
 
As they rounded the corner, Voira only had time to notice that the Geth was there and not a threat before Raa crashed into Avatar, stumbling a few steps forward. "We think we're safe from you getting rid of us. After all, who would protect you from running into Geth?" She commented to Raa, catching the Quarian before she fell helmet first into the ground, then introducing herself. "We are Voira Sirosi. Our friend, who is about to be profusely apologizing to you, is Raa'Kina Nar Rannoch. We are here to protect her, while she is here to fix...things, or so we assume. A pleasure to meet you." She extended her hand to the robot.

Avatar detected the footsteps coming from around the corner, though it did not anticipate the Quarian to round the corner backwards and run into its platform. As the Asari introduced herself, the panels surrounding Avatar's eye shifted inward in a way that mimicked curiosity, as it noted that she seemed to be referring to herself in plural form. Curious, Avatar searched through the personnel files for the entry on Voira Sirosi. For this operation, most personnel files were brief, and focused primarily on their skills, but the "comments" section of the file did note her peculiar style of speech. It also mentioned that she was reluctant to go into detail when asked, so Avatar elected not to mention it. 

Avatar shook Voira's hand, being quite familiar with the custom. "I am Avatar." It stated. There was a time when its greeting was more complicated, as it explained that the name was an identifier for the convenience of organics. However, as time had passed and its individuality had become more developed, Avatar had started to think of itself less as simply "Geth." It recognized that it had changed measurably as a result of its time apart from the Geth's primary hub above Rannoch. Based on historical data of other Geth programs, it recognized that it now drew different conclusions on some topics and situations than what most other Geth would have before and shortly after the Reaper War. As an organic would describe, it had a personality. 

"It is also a pleasure to meet you." Avatar said, in order to fulfill expectations of politeness. "Your personnel file states that your role in the project is a technical advisor, Creator Raa'Kina. I am here for a similar purpose. My role is to ensure the establishment of Geth servers, and represent general Geth interests in order to ensure optimal cooperation with Creator colonists. However, the local representatives have denied all attempts at communication which I have made. It is possible that they have been instructed to refuse communication with us until the officially scheduled meeting."

Raa'Kina expected to crash into the ground, the sting would've lasted only a few minutes, but instead she felt Voira's hands reach under her arms and stop her fall dead in her tracks. The Quarian had been surprised she didn't manage to hit the hard floor and crack her helmet when she heard Voira speak to the Geth. Gently, she was settled firmly back on her feet before she spotted her friend pull out her hand for a gesture adapted by many cultures. More carefully than she had been when she carelessly walked into the Geth, Raa twisted about to face him and as Voira predicted, had been about to stumble over her apologies. 

Instead she was caught off gaurd by the Geth addressing her as Creator, her nose scrunched up and head tilted at the curious title. Even if she was part of the origin race that made the Geth, she never liked whenever the other Geth had referred to her in that manner. Her hand came behind her helmet to rub the surface, a habit she picked up from other species, when he stated his problem. 

"I prefer Raa to be honest. Considering my earlier actions, I don't think I'm fit for that title or anything fancy really." She said bluntly, hoping he would understand, and added. "I'm very sorry for crashing into you, it wasn't my intention really. I'm not the most observate of my surrounding most the time so I didn't see you there. As for representatives, have you tried everyone? Is there someone in perticular you need to talk to or contact?" 

"Acknowledged." Avatar answered with a confirming nod before moving on to her question. "No. My reason for seeking them was only to gain more data on the current situation. It was a non-essential task. Currently, I am performing extranet searches for the process of colonization, and Turian culture. However, the extranet connection speed in this system is only 5.23% of the speed on Rannoch, or 0.64% of the speed on the Citadel. It seems that a more efficient use of the remaining time until the meeting would be to meet with other members of the Council delegation, such as yourselves." 

RK, familiar with the slower speed, materialized and started to weigh in her thoughts. It was likely the Geth had already tried them but it was worth a shot. "Tried accessing it from another area within in the station? The lobby area usually increases extranet speed. Though I can't fully assess what you've tried, namely on lacking information, though despite the lengthy process, organic's method of trial and error works well enough to be worth note." 

Raa nodded while she frowned at the Geth's response. Truthfully  she only knew a bit about the current project and that was the basics, anything related to her current task. "Well, I'm afraid I can't give you anymore information than what I was given, Avatar. Though if your task is similar, we could likely end up working side by side during the system checks."

Avatar looked to the holographic projection. Raa'Kina's personnel file, though brief, did mention that her suit contained an artificial intelligence by the name of "RK." Although, considering that it was an AI, Avatar considered it curious that it did not possess its own personnel file. "That was a considered possibility. However, the queries I am performing are non-standard searches, and therefore not cached in local networks. Common searches are downloading at 78% of Citadel extranet speeds. The communications buoy  in this system may be using inadequate technology, or in otherwise poor condition."

Shifting its focus to Raa herself, Avatar nodded once more. Its use of nonverbal body language was actually notable compared to other Geth. All Geth had access to information on organic interactions and customs, but not all had adapted said customs into their programming. "If your work involves the construction or programming of server infrastructure, that is possible."

"Part of it does, other part deals with the mining and farming machines as well as the support systems to substain the other living organisms on the colony surface. Pointless to have a base colony if the air filtering system doesn't clean out the impurities and instead, kills those who breath it, isn't it?" Raa commented while RK flickered outside the corner of her mask, the young Quarian struggling not to jerk her head around to stare at the AI. She knew RK was up to something but what, she wasn't sure. It wasn't until she spoke did Raa's curiosity cease. 

"The signals are of poor quailty, though if you readjust and bounce off key statelites than the singal strength becomes stronger." She looked at the Geth a bit, her shoulders cocked as she tilited her head. "Raa, your first and main project is to ensure the programming of the server infrastructure works properly with most Qaurian and other organic systems which from the sounds of it, you'll be working with Avatar often enough. As well as will our supervisor." 

Raa nodded, her shoulders slumped a bit at the thought. It made her nervous, the longer she thought of it, the worse it become though there was little she could do about it. It likely was also to keep an eye on RK though Raa had tried to ignore the few dirty looks that were directed at both of them, pulling Voira from attempting to break their faces in. Last thing that would do was to have her personal body guard becoming over zealous in her duties else the asari might've been ejected from the project and force Raa to complete it alone and exposed.

"I have already implemented your recommended solution, but it is only effective for locally cached files. Files stored out of system must be acquired via FTL download links by the communications buoy. This process cannot be accelerated without improving the buoy's hardware, or using military priority clearance. " Avatar answered. 

Before Avatar could say anything further, a set of footsteps drew close enough to confirm that they were approaching. Around the same corner from which Raa had accidentally ran into its mobile platform, a group of five individuals, all Turian, approached. A few of them glanced at the trio as they walked past, but for the most part, the group ignored them. They were not members of the council delegation, and were all armed and armored, which likely meant they were a part of the local representatives' security force. The armor they wore was not uniform in model or design, bearing no identifiable markings that would link them to established groups. This would support the conclusion that they were from the planet itself, but Avatar noted that their weapons and armor were all uncharacteristically new for a planet with below-average galactic trade. The weapons in particular were al recent models, created within the last five years by Devion Industries and Ekloss Combine. The group stopped for only a moment as one of the Turians seemed to recieve a communication through his earpiece, to which he responded with a simple "Yes ma'am," and prompted the others to increase their pace. Avatar made no comment yet, instead standing silently as it performed a number of calculations on the probabilities of different scenarios created by its observations.

Voira paid just enough attention to the conversation to understand it was still about technical details that didn't really concern her. She scanned the hallways, watching for anyone who might be suspicious or hostile to Raa(yes, this included anyone giving the Quarian dirty looks). She wouldn't try to break their faces with her fist, just talk to them and make sure they got the message. If they happened to land face first on the ground, then that was just a coincidence. Her attention was drawn to the five Turians, her curiosity piqued by their rapid pace, lack of emblems, and shiny new guns. As they kept moving by, Voira spoke to the Geth. "Avatar, has the planet recieved a shipment of new weapons and armors recently? If not, RK can you run their faces through your recognition software? We're curious who these Turians are. If they're a represenative's security, they should have something marking them as such. If they're planetside, they should have something marking that as well." In preparation for something nasty, Voira put a barrier around Raa. Better safe than sorry.

If the group of Turians noticed anything Voira was doing, they did not show it. Instead, they hurried on their way, heading towards the door at the end of the hall. Avatar judged that they were not likely interested in their group at all, though their behavior was still of interest. Upon Voira's question, Avatar looked to her to acknowledge her. It quickly scanned all of the files on the planet it had access to (a process which took a total of .43 miliseconds), but found no results relevant to her question. "No data available on local imports. No conclusions can be drawn from the quality of their armaments."

RK's eyes glossed over in the image, her mind quickly gleaming whatever she could from every data cashe and nook she could access. Though it was mostly limited which proved rather insufficient. Even when she narrowed down gender, height, ratio for weight (allowing a bit of breathing room) and possible age estimations still only lowered it down to about a billion and that was just registered in the Citadel, which didn't make this search any easier with the slower speed. It was like beating against water from what she recalled Pai'Seef's description to be. 

"Having a slower time here, Voira. Speed is completely inferior compared to better designs and I've been able to scrap up a billion or so files. None are matching up so far which isn't lowering the odds of trouble." RK stated bluntly as she continued to try to hasten her search abilities. Part of her was considering hacking into the server, overriding the authority and trying to gain greater permission but that wouldn't go over well for Raa.  At best she would've been ejected off the project and at worse, imprisoned and dealt with by the local authorities.  Neither was a option in this situation that RK was willing to accept. 

Raa, on the other hand, looked from Voira to Avatar than to RK. She looked at a lost for words as she had a bad feeling where this was going to lead to: complete and total trouble. "Voira, what are you going to do?" Her voice was worried, her mask turned to the asari, likely guessing what was about to happen. 

Voira nodded ,knowing as well as Raa what was likely about to happen, before glancing sideways at the Quarian and speaking in an innocent tone of voice. "What? We're not going to do anything more than just go introduce ourselves! With Avatar, because he can get their personnel files from just their names. Come on Geth, we have suspicions to ease.  Also, Raa, you're staying right here." She prepared to leave.

"Warning: this course of action is inadvisable. The current probability of conflict with this group of Turians is negligible. Accounting for common personality types of mercenaries and soldiers in the Attican Traverse, if you elect to confront them, that probability increases by a factor of approximately 36." Avatar warned. It was not willing to assist Voira in confronting the Turians, as it had judged the risk associated with following them to be greater than the potential gains of information. 

Before Voira could reply, RK piped in with a logic even she couldn't argue with. "You've  overlooked something important, Voira. If you happen to approach, engage and provoke them into a confrontation than there's a 98% chance it will end up affecting Raa. Mainly because she chose you as her personal gaurd and that will reflect back on her logic abilities. Avatar can research the legal actions should you carry out your actions to ensure my following findings are accurate. My hypothesis is simple. The mildest sentence would be ejection from the current project and since she spent about 700 credits, it would end up hurting both her reputation and risk starvation until she can acquire another project. The worst possiblity is imprisonment, trial and prosecution for the murder of 'innocents' for both of you. Not a logical or worthy risk for her well being, is it?"  

Voira's retort to the Geth was ended before it could even begin, as RK piped up and shut down anything she might have said to convince the reluctant Avatar. She sighed in defeat, removing the barrier from around Raa. "Fine. But if they turn cause trouble or sabotage anything, we will only let you know it was both of the AI's fault for about a week. You stopped us and they did something they shouldn't have. Hopefully we're wrong." She grinned at Raa and Avatar. "But if we're right, this job might suddenly become a lot more fun than we originally thought."

"I hope not." Raa said, softly, worried she might've gotten into something she wasn't aiming on. Her mask watched the small Turian group depart and shortly vanish around the corner. She bearly noticed her hands started to wring each other, nervous about the outcome and her new task. It wasn't her first. She had done many like this and worse, yet that unsetting feeling something was going to happen hung over her. Before the the Turians, she managed to ignored and now... it was much harder.