Commons
When I saw Scott in his damaged cryo pod – it broke my heart. We said goodbyes six hundred years ago, not knowing if we would make it to Andromeda. If we didn't, we wouldn't see each other again, and I found solace in the idea that we both would be dead, drifting through dark space. But then, I was awake, and he was still on ice. He could've very well died, and, while I didn't know at that time, then I would've been the last from the family. Mom died back home, finally succumbing in to her illness, and Dad died soon after what happened to Scott, on Habitat 7.
Habitat 7. Just the passing thought conjures up nightmares. I thought I would die, falling through the sky of the planet, amongst debris from the shuttle. But I survived, while others from the shuttle did not. Just as I survived after my visor got cracked. I overheard Cora mumble during her routine maintenance of the Nomad that I could've just repaired my visor again. But I ran out of omni gel the first time I did just that.
But we got on better terms now. After our investigation into the Asari ark, I found out that she's just as human as we are. She has her faults and weaknesses, but also great strengths and intelligence. She isn't just someone doomed to be the Pathfinder's second in command, but a daring and brave soldier, who would give everything she got for what she believes in.
And what do we all believe in, anyway? Some, like Liam and Scott believed in the Andromeda Initiative. We all read the brochures, where they had artists' representation of the golden worlds. Habitat 1: desert, with underground rivers. Habitat 2: mineral-rich moon of a gas giant. Habitat 3: Lush jungles and rolling hills. Habitat 4: Lakes and rivers as far as eye can see. Habitat 5: Perfect for Turians and Quarians. Habitat 6: Oceans, and a temperate climate.
Others, like Suvi and the Asari Pathfinder Vederia Damali, believe in a higher power. They are firmly rooted in their faiths, and that gives them solid ground, whatever happens. Suvi is a woman of science and faith. She embodies that everyone, regardless of what they believe in, have a place in our universe. I admired her because of it.
"How are you holding up?" a voice so familiar, yet so distant asked. Scott walked up to me, and leaned on the handrail overlooking the Tempest. "It's one thing to hear about Dad dying. It's a whole other thing to experience it firsthand." I snapped out of my trance, and glanced at his scruffy face. Six hundred years of cryo and a month in coma does that to your face.
"I'm okay." I lied. I could always share my feelings with my brother. Feelings and thoughts that I hesitated to share with Cora or Lexi, the latter was even there to help us with these kinds of things. With his arrival on the Tempest, I had a chance to reconnect with him.
"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. We all need our own ways to cope with loss. I… I had time while I was in coma." It wasn't that I didn't want to talk about Dad's death. I wanted to talk with Scott in private, on my own terms. "Okay, let's change the subject."
"Oh? To what?"
"I heard you recruited more people to the pathfinder team. I hope I'll get my own bunk, and won't have to share."
"I guess that would depend on who you would be sharing the bunk with, huh?" I said playfully. I remembered that Scott hit it on with Cora before we left for the Ark. They were inseparable, and were pretty much a couple without ever admitting that to each other. Like husband and wife married for 50 years, they spent most of their awake time talking with each other.
"If a certain Ms. Harper is still on the team, then yeah."
"Well, you're in luck. You don't have to sleep in storage. Partly because Liam claimed that room with an ugly old couch, and because most of the crew sleeps in various other rooms, but the bunks."
"So… who's on the team?"
"Well, you know Cora, she's still here. I don't know if you met Liam before we boarded the Ark, but he's on the team as well. He's from crisis response, and he has cool dual-wielding omni tools. We have an Angaran crewmate, he's our… liaison to the Angara. His name is Jaal. On Eos, we met the Asari Peebee, and a Krogan who's probably older than everyone else. The former is quite the character, while the latter sometimes acts like he is your grumpy old grandpa. The last one is Vetra Nyx, a former Turian smuggler. She can get you anything you want."
"That's quite the list," Scott said. "But is that enough to fly that ship? I mean, I don't have piloting qualifications."
"That's not all. There's Gil Brodie, our chief engineer, Kallo Jath for pilot, Dr. Lexi T'Perro, the Tempest's medical doctor after Harry stepped back after the events on Hab-7, and Dr. Suvi Anwar, our cute redhead science officer and Kallo's de facto copilot."
"Sis…" I've never seen Scott more serious than when I looked at his face. He was looking at me, scanning my face, as I did his. "Did you finally found the one?" he asked softly, leaning closer a bit.
That was the perfect occasion to bond with my brother. I knew about his romantic endeavors – he was always so eager to tell it to me. Thing is, he couldn't tell it to anyone else. Others at the station either already knew, or didn't care, and Mom and Dad were not the ones to talk to about so personal matters. While he was quite the womanizer, I could've count the times I fessed up to someone else.
"Yeah, uh, the thing is, she doesn't know about it…" I said, and stayed silent for a beat. "Yet?"
He dropped his serious act and smiled at me. He dragged me into a big hug – I may be a minute older than him, but he could always embrace me like a bastion. "That's your problem, sis." He patted my back, then broke away from the hug. "You never had the balls to declare your love. Remember that guy in high school? Your drooled over him for weeks. Then that chick you told me about from college. How time flies."
"How about we talk about my private life on the Tempest?" I suggested. "Some are awfully eager to meet the brother of the Pathfinder."
"Ouch," Scott said, "I wonder what my role will be in your legacy."