Summary:
Cora retreats to where she's most comfortable, Sarissa finds her there.
Reference:
Part of Andromeda Futures (Along with Hope for the Future)
Cora looked up, startled, a book in one hand and a spoonful of soup in the other.
"What?" She regrouped. "No. Yes. That is, I-"
"Calm down Lieutenant," interrupted Sarissa Theris in a soothing tone. "I'm just curious. You do stand out, after all."
Cora looked around the mess hall, this being one of those, by custom and convenience, dedicated to asari members of the Initiative. There were perhaps seventy-five individuals present, and she was the only non-asari.
"I guess I am the only human in here."
"I was referring to the coffee," said Sarissa, lightly teasing.
She placed her spoon in her bowl to buy herself time. "This is the only place I can get a decent bowl of soup," she replied, not meeting Sarissa's inquisitive gaze.
"I'm not judging you Lieutenant, but I-"
"Please…" Cora trailed off.
Sarissa gave the human a moment to continue before prompting her. "Please what, Lieutenant?"
"Please don't call me that. Don't call me Lieutenant." She sighed. "This is supposed to be a new start, right? My rank used to be important to me, what it meant. I worked hard for it, but let's be realistic. There's no Alliance here. Rank is meaningless now, really." She looked up, making eye contact for the first time. "Call me Cora, or if you're not comfortable with that… then huntress."
Sarissa cocked her head at Cora's disclosure. "You miss your squadmates in Talein's Daughters, don't you." It wasn't a question.
Cora placed the 'pad containing her book on the table as she turned her eyes upward in a 'Goddess, give me strength look' that Sarissa easily recognized. "I miss home. I didn't realize how much until after I'd annoyed everyone on the Tempest with stories about my time in asari space. Not only do I miss it, but despite growing up on ships, and my time in the Alliance, home to me is… Thessia." She shook her head. "What does it say about me? That I'm more comfortable being considered 'that weird human maiden' than I am an officer in the Alliance?"
"I believe that it means you've found your place in the universe, and that you are lucky enough to recognize that fact." Sarissa indicated the room around them. "You've been coming here for weeks now."
Cora nodded.
"Yet, you always keep to yourself. You are with us, but you do not join us." She waited for a reply before continuing. "Asari are a communal species, as you well know." She nodded to the tables around them. "Any number of these groups would welcome you as a dining companion, or perhaps… more."
"You eat alone," countered Cora. "Every day," she added somewhat defiantly.
"But not for long, I think." She continued at Cora's shocked look. "It has not escaped my notice that you have been selecting locations progressively closer to mine." She offered a hint of a smile. "Perhaps I can save us both some time?"
Cora started to rise "I never meant to-"
"What are you reading?" Sarissa interrupted as she reached for Cora's 'pad. The device activated with a touch, reverting to the title page after identifying a new reader. "Light From The Shadows? And in the original Attena? I'm impressed. An excellent choice, Lieu.. Cora."
"I've read it before," murmured Cora. "It was one of the first books Nisira recommended to me."
"And so it reminds you of home. Of Thessia." Sarissa looked up at her, waiting to see what she'd do.
The human inched back into her seat. "It reminds me of you," she confided.
"How so?" Sarissa sounded genuinely curious.
"When we met, aboard the Leusinia."
"Yes?" Sarissa's voice became a monotone.
"I felt betrayed. By your choice."
"And now you regret not informing Elonis of my transgression?"
Cora was impressed that Sarissa managed to not quite sound accusatory.
"I have regrets, yes." She put as much sincerity into her voice as she could. "I regret what happened. You were in a bad situation and I made it worse. I regret questioning you. I wasn't there. I didn't have any right." She looked down into her soup, cooling between them. "I regret that I gave you reason to resent me."
"I don't resent you, Cora. I… admire you."
Cora's head snapped up. "Admire…?"
Sarissa shrugged. "You did more to rescue the Leusinia than I was able to. You kept discipline when the huntresses around you were panicking. No one else could have turned those missiles back." Now it was Sarissa's turn for sincerity. "You saved my people."
"Our people," Cora added emphatically.
"Well yes," Sarissa corrected "We are all-" She cut herself off. "You mean the asari."
Cora remained silent.
"What happened to you out there, Cora?"
"I'm just more comfortable around asari, that's all." She started to rise for the second time. "They understand me."
Sarissa's hand shot out, catching Cora by the wrist, and both of them by surprise. "There's more than that. Tell me."
Cora looked down at her wrist, but didn't pull away. "It's nothing."
Sarissa just waited.
Eventually, Cora sat down.
"Go on," prompted Sarissa.
"I had no right to judge you."
"You said that already."
Cora took a deep breath as she tried to center herself. A huntress never lost control, but she was close, very close. Only a handful of people knew what she was about to say, and all but one of them were human.
"I was like you, you know. A pathfinder's second."
"I know," said Sarissa.
"Unlike you, there was never any chance that I would become pathfinder. I never had to face the choices you did. Dawn was the only option." She chuckled, belying the gravity of the moment. "OK, Scott too, but even Alec knew that Scott was a bit of a goof." She smiled. "Dawn has an intensity to her, you know?"
"The human pathfinder is…" Sarissa hesitated. "Capable," she finished weakly.
"She prefers 'small, but mighty,' just so you know." Cora shook her head. "When we met I thought she was fourteen. Now she's in charge of the whole damn thing."
"A role you covet," Sarissa nodded sagely.
"What? No!. Well, Ok, maybe a little, at the beginning. Besides, even if she weren't so damn nice, it isn't like it was her fault, was it?"
"No," agreed Sarissa. "It is only to be expected that Alec would act to save his daughter, and disregard the side effect of transferring the role of the human pathfinder to an ingenue."
"That's what they told everyone, sure." Cora lowered her voice. "But it wasn't a side effect. It was the goddess dammed plan the whole time."
"Alec always planned for his daughter to become the human pathfinder? I didn't know him well, but I would never have thought him capable of nepotism."
"Oh, his kids hated him too. That wasn't it. It's SAM. The human SAM. Even after Alec completed his work for the initiative, he kept modifying, kept tinkering. One more capability, one more feature. He ended up making SAM dependent on Ryder genetics for full integration."
"But that means, if the Ryder siblings were to die without progeny…"
"Yeah. No human pathfinder. Don't think that isn't causing a few people some stress." She chuckled morbidly. "I guess Alec shouldn't have gotten himself snuffed first mission out. N7s always were cocky."
"Is something being done?"
"Lots of things, but without our resident AI expert, who knows if any will work out. SAM's pretty worried about it though, so I know he's working on it."
"Your SAM is… worried?"
"He's not my SAM," Cora bit back before composing herself, "But yeah he's worried. With Dawn and Peebee joined at the hip, and Scott not exactly the most stable individual, he can see as well as anyone that his options are limited." She looked curiously at Sarissa. "Why do you think it's odd that he'd be worried?"
"I find it difficult to imagine the asari SAM as emotional. She's rather detached about most things."
Cora nodded. "I could see that. Like I said, Alec kept tinkering right up until we launched. He only found out about the genetic compatibility thing when he tried to link me up to one of his experimental versions of SAM. Turned out he'd already gone too far down the road of integrating to the Ryder genome." She sighed. "He was going to work on that once we got here, but he never really found the time," she said sarcastically.
"What is Director Tann's position?"
Cora snorted. "He doesn't know. We're not really advertising it."
Sarissa regarded her companion for a few moments. "But if this, compatibility issue, could be resolved, you would still desire to become the human pathfinder if the opportunity arose?"
Cora threw her head back and laughed, drawing attention from the asari around them. "Never in a million years. First, I'd never want anything to happen to Dawn. Second, I think the only reason that I was upset in the first place, other than being lied to, a lot, is that I saw it as my chance to be integrated with SAM again. His… sibling, was a good friend." Serenity settled over her features. "I'll help out on the team whenever they need. I like to be needed, but with Scott back on his feet, they're one man heavy. It lets me rotate out whenever I want, unless someone else wants leave." She chuckled conspiratorially. "But what's the likelihood of that? You can't pry Kallo, Suvi, or Gil out of the Tempest if you tried. I already mentioned Peebee and Dawn. Dawn likes the science work, but she likes exploring even more. Drack keeps an eye on Dawn, Lexi keeps watch on Drack, and that leaves Vetra trying to keep Scott, Liam, and Jaal from doing something stupid enough that it classifies as an interspecies incident."
"So, if you do not desire to be the next human pathfinder, what are your plans, Cora Harper?" There was an odd formality to the question.
"Find my own path, I suppose. That's why we're here, isn't it?"
"And," Sarissa hesitated. "Is there room for another on this path?"
Cora sat back in surprise. "What did you have in mind?"
"August Bradley has been having issues with Kett staging raids on Prodromos. There haven't been any causalities, but he believes that a show of force might act as a deterrent."
"And with the Tempest exploring Meridian…"
"It seemed an opportunity to be… helpful."
"I can't think of a better first date."
