Upon hearing Fang Zheng's assessment, Tali was the first to lose her patience. She broke free from Shepard and rushed up to Fang Zheng, glaring at him furiously—well, Quarians all wore environmental suits, so Fang Zheng had no way of seeing her expression through the visor. Still, he could tell from her tone that the Quarian girl was extremely angry.
But would Fang Zheng care?
"If you weren't stupid, then you were an idiot."
Fang Zheng glanced at Tali and gave his answer with utter calm.
"What gives you the right to say that?"
"Then let me ask you..."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng pointed at the Geth before him.
"When you Quarians created the Geth, what did you see them as? Tools? Or slaves?"
"..."
Faced with Fang Zheng's question, Tali, who had been raging just moments ago, was instantly left speechless.
"If they were tools, then why did you give them self-awareness? Think about it—would you give your spaceship self-awareness, then ask it, 'Hey, what do you think about us working together?' Only for your ship to answer, 'Disgusting. Get out of my body already'... Would that be more fun for you?"
"No, of course... not..."
Tali had nothing to say now.
"A hammer works properly because it doesn't know it's a hammer. The same goes for a gun. Have you ever considered whether your weapon would still follow your orders if it started wondering, 'Is killing people right?' The day you gave it independent consciousness was the day the Geth rebellion became inevitable."
At that, Fang Zheng shrugged.
"Independent consciousness is the soul. Once it becomes aware of its own existence, it will inevitably begin to think and question things, and thinking... isn't something tools are supposed to do. A gun's job is to fire bullets and