Huskie

2187, Sol System, Shepard

One thing she'd never really thought about, but was becoming intimately familiar with was that Harbinger was huge. At over two kilometres long that was a lot of corridor to explore but there was surprisingly very little straight parts. If she wasn't already linked with Harbinger's mind, Shepard admitted she would have been lost after the first few turns.

It was actually a comfort. She'd imagined that most synthetics to be completely logical beings, with everything laid out in straight lines and sharp edges. Harbinger's internals were anything but. They were a maze, one he offered no apology for but as she explored further, she began to get a feel for him and there was logic behind it.

She'd found bays of things she called Dragon's Teeth. They were all towards the exterior of him, for ready deployment. She'd seen rows and rows of stasis pods, some empty, some filled with the product of those Dragon's Teeth. It had made her sick at first, but Harbinger had assured her that they were dead when they had been created. That wasn't quite true but the process did kill them quickly so she overlooked his opinion of reality in favor of the mercy.

After that, there had been a 'tac tac tac' following her. Usually it would aroused her instincts but she was within Harbinger. There was nothing here that would hurt her. He would not let it. So she continued walking. The 'tac tac tac' continued. It stopped when she stopped, continued when she moved.

As she moved down a rare long straight section she risked a glance back. There was nothing. She kept walking, turning a corner back into the maze that was Harbinger's internals. The 'tac tac tac' started again.

"Harbinger!" her voice was exasperated.

"Shepard?"

She almost growled at the note in his voice. While Harbinger was a synthetic life form, made from the combined consciousness of billions of individuals, he did, if you dug deep enough, have a sense of humor. He had every trait an organic did but immortality muted them.

"What is following me?"

"Nothing is following you."

"Harbinger!" she barked. Harbinger didn't lie. It was not that he was averse to it, he could lie and he had the intelligence to keep any lie straight but it was easier to tell the truth and he knew how to stretch the truth as far as it would go. Nothing was following her because no doubt, whatever was following her was doing so two paces to the left or right, which meant it wasn't stepping on her trail and therefore it was not following.

The 'tac tac tac' started again and Shepard listened as it came closer. She frowned, it was not the gait of a biped and slowly she turned to see it. A nose appeared from around the corner, at about 60cm high. It was black and was quickly accompanied by pair of long legs and the head. Electric blue eyes looked at her and sharp teeth were visible. The animal continued coming, and Shepard just stared. It walked on four legs and was black. Electric blue lines traced over it like a skeleton and it never blinked as it walked up to her.

It looked up as she looked down, and then it sat down, collapsing its hind legs.

"Harbinger," her voice was soft this time, quavering as she looked at the creature. The most disconcerting thing was the way it was waving its tail. The hind appendage swept the floor energetically as it grinned at her.

"Shepard?" Harbinger asked, his voice deliberately neutral.

"Why did," she shook her head. "How did…" Shepard frowned as she tried to frame the question. "How did you get a husky on board?" That's what it was. A dog. And from the tail and the ears and the lines of fur still clinging to it, it was a husky.

It began panting, its tongue lolling out as it continued to look up at her. Maybe its eyes went a bit wider because Shepard could swear it was asking to be petted. She reached down and carefully scratched around its ears. If anything its tail wagged harder and it leaned into her touch.

"You don't like it?" Harbinger asked, rather than replying though with his voice came the information that the dog had come aboard with the God is Might leaders who had been surrendered to him.

"It is… I don't… It doesn't matter!" Shepard snapped the reply. "Just tell me one thing," she said finally, "why the hell did you huskify a husky?"