The first thing I remember about waking up in Andromeda is the dark and the cold. Yeah, I know, not the most pleasant of thoughts, but, to be fair, I was still in stasis. I became aware a few moments before the stasis wake-up sequence had completed. As I thawed, my mind began processing –– slowly at first, sluggishly almost. Looking back, it reminds me of those old fuel combustion engine vehicles that I had seen in some old vids from the 20th century. The ones that had been neglected for awhile and needed some extra patience to get started and running at top performance again.

It was a strange sensation, being aware but not being in control of my body. The cryo pod was performing most of my body's basic functions for me – like breathing and blood circulation. I've been told that the process of transitioning a body from stasis without sending it into shock was exceptionally delicate and, if interrupted or rushed, could result in an untimely death. Yeah, take your time, cryo pod. I choose life.

I was aware but I literally couldn't bat an eyelash. It was dark and I could hear the whirring of the cryo pod as it worked its magic that would restore full functionality to my body after a 600 year nap. It felt as though a deep coldness had permeated through my body to my very core, and I'd never be warm again. I suppose that was only natural, seeing as I had literally been frozen in cryogenic stasis for more than half a millennia.

My first thoughts were muddled, I could really only process what was immediately around me, like the cold darkness. As the thawing continued, I was able to remember why I was in that cold, dark place –– I was one of 20,000 humans who had embarked on an over 600 year journey from the Milky Way galaxy to the Andromeda galaxy, where we would find a new home to call our own. That thought triggered excitement. I had been looking forward to the adventure and discovering the unknown, to going someplace no other human had ever gone before. Were we finally there? Then came the impatience. When would this stupid machine be done? I needed to move, to see for myself that we had arrived. Come on guys! I've been lying around long enough. Could we get a move on? Please? Seriously, I haven't had coffee in 600 years, I think I'm going to die if I don't get some soon.

At that moment, the pod finished whatever it was doing. I heard the lid click and as it swung open, I could sense the flood of light on the other side of my eyelids. Just a few seconds later, the machine released my body from its control as my eyes flew open and I shot up into a sitting position, gasping for breath for the first time in what felt like 600 years.

It took a moment before I was able to really process my surroundings. The light was blinding at first and my sight was blurry. I could feel my heart pounding from the anticipation of the adventure set before me, I almost couldn't believe that I had been asleep for that long. It was the strangest feeling.

"We made it." I said in a whisper as I looked around the cryo bay, catching my breath.

My limbs felt a little stiff. I can't be sure but being frozen for over 600 years just might have had something to do with that. I was beyond ready to get up and move around, and I made a valiant effort to do just that. Until I stumbled and fell back onto the table I was sitting on. Two cryo technicians, a man and a woman who were overseeing my wake up process, caught me as I fell and encouraged me to take it easy.

"Guys, I've been taking it easy for 600 years." I was anxious to get moving, to where? I wasn't quite sure of that. I just wanted to go.

They checked my stats and discovered that I was on the pathfinder team. We joked around for a moment about pathfinders taking custom orders for colonists. Then the male technician became my best friend when he said, "How about we get her a cup of coffee first?"

Coffee! The nectar of life! I am a coffee fanatic. Before we left the Milky Way, coffee ran through my veins. I adore coffee!

They helped me up and half carried me and my clumsy legs into the med bay just outside the cryo chamber, and said farewell as they left me at one of the examination tables. Dr. Lexi T'Perro brought me that hot cup of coffee and explained that she was going to perform my post-wake-up physical to ensure that I had transitioned from cryo stasis properly. They needed to ensure that I was fit and able to fulfill my duties as recon specialist to the pathfinder mission team. By the way, in case you were wondering, recon specialist is a fancy title for a scout. Sounds impressive, right?

The physical was pretty standard. Dr. T'Perro checked my eyes, my reflexes, heart rate, etc… As she worked over me, I had the impression that she took her work very seriously.

"They make it sound so easy." She said in response to the information wall's optimistic chatter about finding the perfect homeworld, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

I thought to myself, Easy? Well, that's no fun, and responded, "I certainly hope not. I signed up for a little adventure before settling down!" Had I known how much adventure was to come, I might have changed my tune. Maybe.

"Well, buckle up. You're about to get your adventure." Dr. T'Perro mentioned that the adventure was about to start because my dad, the pathfinder, wanted his team ready to head out within the hour.

In spite of my earlier restlessness and readiness to get moving, I was pretty content to sit there with my cup of coffee for the duration of the physical. Coffee just had that effect on me. Though I was curious as to why dad needed the pathfinder mission team ready so quickly. I mean, we had just woken up from a 600 year nap for crying out loud!

Dr. T'Perro said that everything looked good and she just needed to run a quick diagnostic on my SAM implant. While she was prepping for that, I took a look around the med bay. I noticed several members of the pathfinder team who had just been pulled from stasis. Most I had met before leaving the Milky Way, but a few I had not. Directly across from me was a young man with warm, tawny colored skin and black bushy hair that sprung out from his scalp in all directions. He looked to be about my age. Our eyes met and he gave me little wave in greeting and flashed a cheeky grin as he mouthed, "Hello". I returned the grin with a raised eyebrow and crooked smile of my own. I mouthed, "Hi there!" My first impression of this guy was that he had a friendly look about him and I could see the two of us becoming good buddies in time.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard SAM speak in his formal AI voice. "Good morning, Sara. Are you feeling well?"

"I feel fan-freaking-tastic. Let's do this!"

"I detect increased adrenaline in your system but the neural implant seems to be functioning properly."

I laughed to myself, knowing exactly where that adrenaline spike was coming from. "Can't explore space without my coffee!" I said cheerfully, as I drained the last few drops from the mug and set it down. I got to my feet and turned towards Scott's cryo pot in anticipation of his wake-up call.

–––––

The ark was in chaos. We had just collided with who knows what, the gravity stabilizers had failed and restarted, and systems were going haywire all over the medbay.

Cora Harper, dad's second-in-command, had been the one to restabilize the gravity with her quick thinking and even quicker actions.

"Hey Sara! Seems like centuries since we last spoke."

"Ha ha ha! Right?! Long time no see, Cora! I knew I'd see you on the other side!"

Cora was fiercely dedicated and loyal to dad and our mission. She was a professional and played the part well –– most of the time. Oh, she had a sense of humor but most of the time it was buried beneath that professional facade of hers. I knew it was there though, and was probably the reason that we got along as well as we did. I preferred to look on the bright side and find humor in just about everything. Dad often said that I wielded sarcasm like a gun, though I could be professional and logical when absolutely necessary. Most of the time, however, the humor and sarcasm won out.

I could hear dad over the intercom system, announcing that he needed Cora and the Ryder twins –– namely myself and Scott –– to report to the bridge immediately. Cora and I turned to head in that direction when one of the cryo technician's voices rang out, "We have a problem here."

I looked to see him gesturing to a banged up cryo pod. "It's Scott Ryder."

My breath caught in my throat as I fought to control the panic rising up in me. I sprinted to where Scott's pod had landed after the gravity had been turned back on.

No, no, no, no, no! Not Scott! This can't be happening.

In desperation, I placed my hands on the pod, half hoping I could sense him inside.

Please Scott. You have to be ok, I don't know what I will do without you.

I stared at the beat up pod, my eyes lined with unshed tears. I could feel a knot in the pit of my stomach. What would I do without my twin?

Dr. T'Perro was already examining the pod and noted the wake-up sequence had been interrupted and that it was too risky to continue with the standard wake-up procedure in spite of the fact that SAM had declared that Scott's vitals were stable.

"I really don't like that sound of that," I said hoarsely.

"Scott will be fine. We will keep him in a low level coma for awhile and allow him to regain consciousness on his own," Dr. T'Perro calmly explained and, upon seeing my distress, reiterated, "He will be fine."

I felt a tiny bit better at her words. Cora said, "Please keep us posted." and directed me to the door that would lead us to the tram. We needed to meet dad on the bridge and –– though he probably already knew –– break the news about Scott.

As we headed to the door, I could hear my new friend –– who I still hadn't been introduced to –– muttering something about only being in Andromeda for five minutes and we're already crashing the car. I laughed quietly and stopped to check on him.

"Hey, you alright?"

"Hi there! Yeah, that was just a hell of a wake up call, huh? Didn't expect that first thing out of stasis."

He had a very distinct accent, I thought it might be a Londoner accent. Or Australian? I'm terrible at placing accents but wherever it had come from, it was easy on the ears.

"That makes two of us. Hang in there, ok?"

"No problem, thanks!"

I turned to continue on my way to the bridge and spotted Cora by the door, waiting patiently for me. As we passed through the door, things went from bad to worse. Seriously, as if things hadn't already gone to hell, another essential system in the cryo bay went haywire and threatened the sleepers still in stasis. Thankfully, my SAM scanner was able to detect the fault and I was close enough to the control panel that I could reset the system in time to avoid serious damage and save the sleepers.

First the collision, then Scott, now this?! There is not enough coffee in the galaxy to deal with this shit! If this is how things are going to be in Andromeda, I'm going back to sleep. Wake me in 600 years.

Once that crisis was averted, Cora and I boarded the tram that would take us to the bridge, where dad was waiting for us. Cora commented on the amount of scrambling we've already had to do in the first hour after arriving in Andromeda, a sliver of that humor peeking through her serious demeanor.

"The adventure begins!" I used my tried and true method of hiding my distress with humor and sarcasm. "That's what we all signed up for, right?"

"Not sure you're dad will see it that way," she said carefully, assuming her favorite military at ease stance, which was still closer to "at attention" than I ever stood.

Smiling to myself, I programmed the tram for its trip to the bridge, where we found even more chaos. Members of the flight crew were running around in a panic, reminding me a bit of that old saying, "like a chicken with it's head cut off." They were scrambling and shouting about power outages and drifting.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked out the window and saw a huge mass of dark...something surrounding the ark. It looked a lot like one of those thorn bushes you might find on earth. It was terrifying, but awe inspiring at the same time. I wanted to know what it was, how it worked and what caused it to be so solid as to cause a collision with the ark but look so ethereal at the same time.

I am fascinated with the unknown. It's something that dad, Scott and I all have in common. Even though I am Alliance military trained, I have a natural, insatiable curiosity. Which is why I decided to move on from the alliance to the security and defense detail for that prothean research team. Though I was technically hired muscle, I was able to actually help them discover the unknown and it was fascinating to me. This curiosity and fascination with exploring the unknown drove me to join the initiative. I knew that here, I would be exploring the unknown on a daily basis. Exhilarating!

I forced myself to focus on the present as I saw dad pacing the bridge, arguing with Captain Dunn and making a case for going down to explore the planet below us –– to see if it was truly a place we could call home. The captain was insistent that the crew focus on protecting the sleepers and stabilizing power in the ark. Dad wanted to find a safe haven on solid ground.

I could tell that Cora was torn between siding with her pathfinder and seeing where the captain was coming from.

I couldn't resist putting in my two cents. "I think she gets the final say. It's her ship."

Dad shot a stern look in my direction, "This is not about having the last word." Our eyes met and his look spoke volumes. He was not happy with my meddling.

I could see that Cora was still torn but she snapped to attention. "Yes sir!"

I kept quiet, sighing inwardly and turned my attention to the view ahead of me. Dad was exceptionally stubborn. It was a trait that ran strong in our family. Unless I was looking for a fight, I knew better than to argue, it wouldn't get us anywhere.

The ark was drifting aimlessly, the power being out. Suddenly, there was a break in the dark mass and a planet emerged.

"Is that–– is that habitat 7? The most promising home for humanity?" The planet was almost completely surrounded by that terrible darkness.

Dad had brought up a hologram that had been saved 600 years ago when the research team had received the results of their long range scans.

"It doesn't even look the same!" Captain Dunn breathed.

"We need to find out if this is a safe haven. What happens when our reserve stores and supplies run out?"

"What if it's not."

"Then it's my job as pathfinder to find a new one."

It was finally agreed upon that the pathfinder team would venture down to the planet surface on our first pathfinding mission.

–––––

As I stood in front of my locker, donning my armor for the first time since leaving the Milky Way, I couldn't help but notice the gaping hole in our team, in my heart. Scott was my best friend, my partner in crime. After mom passed away and dad became so distant and engrossed in his work with artificial intelligence, Scott was all I had. Yeah, we had separate lives and even worked in opposite ends of the galaxy, but we talked all the time and emailed even more. If he didn't pull through… No, I couldn't allow myself to think those thoughts. He would pull through. He would wake up because if he didn't, I was going to kick his ass.

"Scott is going to hate that he missed this."

I didn't realize I had said that out loud because Cora, who was suiting up next to me, snorted and said, "Are all Ryder's such adrenaline junkies?"

Smirking, I shot back, "I guess it just runs in our blood. You know, I am a whole minute older than him. And I never let him forget it…" I trailed off, gazing into the distance, as if I could see through the walls into the cryo bay.

Cora followed my gaze and, realizing that my mind wasn't completely in the room, approached and said kindly, "Don't worry, I'm sure Scott will pull through."

Shaking my head a little, I met her gaze and said, more confidently than I felt, "Yeah, and when he does, he's going to want to hear stories."

"So let's get out there and find him one."

I finished suiting up, found my helmet and my sidearm, and met Cora at the door to the shuttle bay. She flashed a grin and said lightly, "Just another boring day at the office."

I couldn't help myself, "Well, you know, I run into giant space cloud nebulas all the time, it'll be fine!" For emphasis, I waved a casual hand in the air at the word "fine".

That earned me a small laugh and a smile, "Keeps us on our toes, right?" She sighed and said softly, "You know, I always wondered what it was like when explorers crossed the ocean, nothing but stars and dead reckoning to guide them."

This gave me pause. I knew that Cora had a sense of humor buried deep underneath that protective armor of discipline and professionalism she wore, but I didn't realize that there was a romantic soul in there as well. Interesting.

I thought about that for a moment and said, "With a map that said, 'here be dragons'."

"Well if they made it, we can too. And maybe see a dragon along the way."

"You never know, let's keep an eye out," I said flippantly.

Another laugh, "And our distance."

At that, we entered the shuttle bay where the team was gathering. It looked like dad had snagged Dr. Carlyle for the mission, wanting to have a medic on the ground. Just in case. I could see why dad would want that, but I felt a little guilty taking him from the Ark med bay when so many people needed a physician after the collision.

Cora and I approached dad as he was checking his weapon. Cora stood at attention, and delivered a team status report. I just stood there. Yeah, I had some military training but the Initiative wasn't the military and this was my dad. I just couldn't bring myself to go all formal.

Once he had acknowledged his 2nd in command, Dad stepped closer to me and said, "I heard what happened. Your brother's strong, he'll make it."

For a second, I was speechless. Mom had passed away a few years ago and, in his grief, dad had become distant and a workaholic. Hearing that hint of concern in his voice nearly undid me. I replied, my voice thick with emotion, "He better. 600 year nap and he oversleeps."

"You know him, never was an early riser." I couldn't help but smile, tremulous as it was, at the quip. As quickly as it had come, the moment was over. Dad was back to being the pathfinder. "Don't let it get to you," he said seriously, "I need you focused on the mission. Keep your wits about you, we don't know what we will find down there."

Sighing inwardly, I nodded and tried to push the emotion to the back of my mind. He was right, I needed to be focused. I needed to be ready for anything. My team was depending on me and I couldn't afford to wallow in worry and depression. I squared my shoulders and steeled myself. I could do this, I was ready.

Dad stepped up into the doorway of the shuttle and motioned for the team to gather around him. He told us he hand picked each of us for his team for the simple fact that we were dreamers, we wanted to push the boundaries of the known and leap into the unknown. It was actually a pretty inspiring speech, I could see why he was an N7 in the alliance. He had a natural charisma, he was passionate about whatever he was doing, and he strived for excellence. I knew he was 100% committed to this mission and our team. I looked around at the faces of each member of the team and could see that each of them was excited to take this next step, they were inspired as I was by the pathfinder's moving speech.

"We only get one chance to be first. So, let's go make history."

The group dispersed and headed to their assigned shuttle. I stood there for a moment more, thinking about making history. We were going to do it. It almost felt like a dream. As I turned to head towards my shuttle, my eyes met with the warm amber colored eyes of my new, yet to be named friend. We exchanged cocky grins and he stepped past me to board, fist bumping my shoulder as he passed. I smiled to myself, thinking, This is going to be fun, as I turned to follow him onto the shuttle. It was time for us to head into the great unknown. And maybe go find some dragons.

–––––

The shuttle ride was pretty calm at the start. I will admit that it was unnerving to see the ark adrift in the middle of that terrible dark mass. I stood by the window, watching the tendrils of that dark mass spiral by. My unnamed friend stood nearby, commenting on the view.

"Wow, would you look at that!"

"Whatever it is, it stopped the Hyperion in it's tracks."

SAM piped in helpfully, "It appears to be an unstable mass of dark energy."

"If you say so," he said and then looked towards me, "We didn't get a chance to meet back in the Milky Way, the name's Liam Kosta. Security and response specialist."

Ah! So that's his name! My mystery friend, suddenly had a name to go with that face…and voice. And he was here to provide security for the explorers. We had more in common that I thought. My role here was recon specialist but in that previous life, I was the security and response specialist for the prothean researchers.

"Good to meet you Liam. I'm Sara Ryder, but you probably already knew that."

"Yeah, I could see the resemblance between you and your old man."

We both laughed at that. Liam continued, "Hard to believe we're really doing this."

"Yeah, after all this time, and all of that anticipation, I kinda feel like I'm dreaming. But, it sure beats reading the brochures!"

As the shuttle began its entry into the atmosphere, the ride got a little choppy but that was to be expected when you were literally a flaming mass hurtling towards a planet. Liam and I apparently were of one mind.

Alright boys and girls! Hold onto your helmets!

"Here we go!" Liam called out.

Once we got past the flaming atmosphere part, we were rewarded with our first glimpse of the planet surface. It was stormy and there were towering rocky formations as far as the eye could see.

"Doesn't look like much of a golden planet from where I'm standing," I couldn't help but comment.

"Umm… guys… the mountains are floating." Liam said flatly.

As the shuttle continued its approach to the designated landing zone, we spotted a tower that clearly looked have been constructed by an alien civilization. I'm pretty sure that wasn't there 600 years ago and just hoped that the aliens were friendly.

That was certainly not what I expected to discover in the great unknown. Perhaps we would find those dragons after all, I just hoped we would survive the encounter.

Suddenly, the shuttle gave an almighty lurch as it was struck by lighting. The pilot shouted that the controls had been fried and we were careening out of control. Before I could even process that, the panel that Liam and I were both leaning against broke away. I screamed as Liam was sucked out of the shuttle, though he managed to grab hold of the doorway. Grasping the doorway I had caught, I reached as far as I could, screaming, "LIAM!" He noticed and reached back, "RYDER!" Then the shuttle broke into dozens of pieces and, ready or not, we were both flung into the great unknown, plummeting like stones towards the alien planet surface a thousand feet below.