Jaal sped through wild grass. He didn't know enough about humans to do anything helpful. He was useless. He needed Lexi. She and Vetra had been in the marketplace. Would they have moved? Something wasn't right with his communications, he knew the frequencies the Tempest crew were contactable on, but the connection kept wavering. He tried Lexi again. Jaal didn't understand what had happened. He had felt a surge of his natural bio-current and attempted to use to pleasure Sara. Next thing he knew she was seizing on top of him, now she was limp in his arms. If he had a 'worst nightmare', this beat it by a mile. Finally, a decent signal strength.
"Jaal. Can you hear me? Its Lexi. Are you there?"
"Sara needs help! Now!"
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know, it is an emergency!"
"Take her to Aya's medical facility. I'll meet you there. Confirm destination."
"Medical facility on Aya, I heard you! Be quick!"
"What's happened?"
"I do not know!"
"Is she conscious?"
"NO!"
"Is she bleeding?"
"NO!"
"Has she hit her head?"
"NO!"
"Is she breathing?"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
"Jaal. Is Sara alive?"
"I think so."
"Stop where you are, check for a heartbeat. Remember how I showed you?"
"Yes... she is alive. She is still alive. And she is breathing."
"Good. Ok. Get to the medical centre. SAM, ready the pathfinders files for download on Aya. SAM? Oh shit! Jaal, hurry, I think there's a problem with SAM."
"It is my fault... I think my bio-electricity..."
"Just get here."
Sara took a sharp inhale. She choked as air rasped through her dry throat. Rolling onto her side, she hacked a few more breaths until she was able to draw in enough oxygen to calm herself. Echoes of her rasping coughs began to quiet around her. Her skin hurt. Like every inch was covered in bruise upon bruise. Joints were heavy and aching. After a few feeble attempts to wiggle her fingers and toes, she gave in to the unwelcome sensation of pins and needles. Red and black flashed rhythmicly as a bright light flickered against her closed eyes. Sara remained still until she was able to shield her eyes with her hands. With a simple thought, she opened Sam's private channel.
"Sam? What happened? Why do I feel so shitty?" The fuzzy sensations in her hands started to fade. This was either the mother of all hangovers or she'd been tossed out of an airlock.
"Good morning Alec."
"Uhhhhh." Not the response she had been expecting, was it possible for Sam to get drunk?
"Pathfinder, you have new email."
"That's nice." Sara's concern began to grow. Her private channel with Sam was not something that went wrong. It was literally part of her brain function. Sam was still there even when she was technically dead. "Are you ok? Am I ok?"
"Sara Ryder."
"That's the one! You win Ryder bingo!" If her brain could sigh in relief, it just did. It was such a poor attempt at humour, but burying feelings in humour was a safe space. Right now she really needed a safe space.
"Apologies, Pathfinder. I have been attacked by an unknown source."
"Shit, any lasting damage? To either of us?" She really wanted to start sitting up and moving around, but the combination of Sam's issues and how bad she felt didn't spark confidence. For once in her life, she decided to listen and wait to be answered. Normally, Sam was able to enhance her physical ability enough that didn't experience much of an after effect, hopefully he could ease this. Sara didn't want to imagine how she would feel after a mission if she didn't have the help of her AI.
"I am still processing and recalibrating."
"Sounds serious." About as serious as Sam's transferral from her father's implant to her's. Even then, it was her that struggled to live through it, not her AI. Anything that affected him to this level must be pretty damn powerful. Poor Sam. Here's hoping they weren't interested in coming back for roud two.
"Yes. Some aspects of my conciousness have been offline for some time. My connection to you was under threat. I apologise for any discomfort."
"Discomfort, that sounds like a dream, I'm a world away from mere discomfort." There were small improvements, her muscles felt more capable, her skin less sensitive. It felt like Sam was getting his strenth back and reclaiming his position within her physicality. Good! "I don't remember a thing after arriving on Aya."
"That may be fortuitous, I believe there may have been significant trauma. The Angaran AI appears to be offline. Many of my abilities remain comprimised." Sounds like Sara had missed a lot, Sam must have too.
Expecting an audible creak, Sara finally opened her eyes. The surrounding area wasn't familiar. Squinting to take it in, she made out beds, a few consoles, and the flickering light. The room was dark, all greys and dark blues. As she finally shuffled into a seated position, dust rose in tendrils around her. Not wanting it to trigger another bout of coughing, she fluttered her hands around her face.
"What is this place? Looks like some kind of abandoned asylum. Are we back on Kadara?"
"No, we are still on Aya Pathfinder."
"What?!" The focused every inch of the room. "Are you sure?" Aya to Sara signified life, the flora, the sun, the motion, everything about it was alive. This room was the opposite. This wasn't even close to Aya at night. It was beautiful when bathed in moonlight and bioluminescence, all silvers and blues. This room had none of that. There was a staleness to the air, a neglected odour and a total stillness. Maybe her AI wasn't quite back together again yet.
"I am positive. You are resting on one of Aya's ion medical beds."
"Holy crap." Really really unwelcome information. The room became familiar, in the most terrible way. Sara recognised the medical facility. When the angara started to allow her to move freely around their secret home she had stopped by here quite a lot. Having Jaa; as part of her crew made both her and Lexi a little nervous. If got hurt or sick or reacted to something from the Milky Way they needed to know how to take care of him. The doctors shared a huge amount of information with them, it had taken a couple of weeks for Sara to get through everything. Lexi of course consumed the entire lot almost instantly. It was impressive, truly highlighting how skilled the asari was at her job. It was scary to see this room so differently, and more than a little upsetting. Something big must have gone down. Who knows how many people were lost injured or hurt. What could have made the angara leave any part of Aya to dust over like this. "What the hell happened here?"
"Your heart rate is rising. It is imperative you remain calm. Further stresses may have serious consequences."
"You're not helping. What happened to Aya, where is everybody?" Surprisingly, there was still power to the doors. Obviously the light above her was in working order too, for the most part. It was still flickering a bit, but power was a positive sign. There wouldn't have been many options to get out if the whole place was out.
"I do not know. I was not present. I detect no other life signs."
"Shit... shit!" Please don't let there be dead bodies piling up, please. Not here. "Bodies? Good news only please Sam..."
"None in the immediate area. Exploring Aya with your scanner may yield more information."
"Alright." Solving mysteries on uninhabitable planets was what they did. Maybe if she looked at this logistically, forgetting what she remembered of better times, she and her partner could solve this. "No rest for the wicked I guess. Please tell me the Tempest is where I left it."
"I could, but that would be a lie Pathfinder."
Brilliant.
For hours, Sara had been cautiously picking her way through what used to be a cherished paradise. Both her and SAM found strength with every step and every scan. It felt like they were back to normal, but until Sam confirmed that she couldn't be sure. The planet looked dead. There was no lush greenery. No crashing waterfall. Just grey and stillness. There were no signs of struggle, no bullets, no bodies. It was like everybody left one evening, the last person out switching off the lights. She stalked around the Tavetaan, hoping to find some kind of clue from one her squadmates. Touching the dusty bar top, Sara felt a memory trickle into her mind.
The whole Tempest crew meandered down the ship's ramp onto the docks of Aya. The Moshae smiled warmly up at Sara and Jaal as they descended. Ryder gave her a little wave. Evfra stood by Moshae Sjefa's side not smiling warmly up at anyone.
"Can't wait for you to see this place little brother. Its basically what we dreamt of when we first found out about the golden worlds. What do you say Liam?"
"I say we start at the bar, gotta get to know the locals. Everybody who knows Sara wants to meet you." Liam had this idea everytime they landed on a planet. So did Drack. The repository would have been Sara's choice for Scott. But hey what did she know, she was just the Pathfinder who lead the Initiative to total success. "Sigh-roll!" she murmered, catching Scott's eye. The twins laughed. It was a phrase the pair had made up to use against their mother. It wasn't exactly a secret code, just the words 'sigh' and 'eye-roll' contracted into one teenage sentiment.
"Well, you guys do that. Jaal and I have to help Evfra with some mapping duties." That was the story they were sticking to.
Liam fake laughed and gave her look that made it clear he was not buying this loosely woven half-truth. "Yeah yeah, sure you do Pathfinder... I guess we'll meet you when you're done." He gave Jaal a fist bump, the newest Milky Way custom he had been teaching him. Jaal was a little rough with it but he had stopped punching his fist into Liam's hard enough to make his little human hand swell.
"Here Scott, hold onto these for me? I don't know what I was thinking." Sara pulled off her leather jacket and unwrapped her lightweight scarf. She flapped them at her brother who dramatically draped the scarf round his own neck and catwalked off with Liam. Evfra's standard angry eyes followed them through the door into the city. Yeah, he was gonna love Scott even more then he did Sara.
"Ok. Do we have enough data to build a decent picture here Sam?" She leant against the half wall, there was no sign on her scarf and jacket here. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? It probably wasn't a thing at all. Ryder just wanted to know how she was supposed to feel about all this. It was a happy memory, but it made her sad.
"It appears that we have collated as much information as we can Pathfinder. The evidence suggests that you have been here for longer than I originally thought, perhaps up to a year. In that time the planet has been in steady decline."
"A year? Sam... I'm gonna need a little more information here. Where's Scott? Where did everybody go, and why was I not with them? For a whole year?" That ebbing panic from earlier was back again. All of her friends were just gone, her family? A year later they still hadn't come back for her, what? It was impossible to think of a situation that would make her twin brother abandon her. Jaal too for that matter. Unless she was wrong about Jaal? That wasn't something she wanted to start thinking about. Ugh, really don't pull at that thread. In fact, don't touch any threads. Bottle all of that for another time.
"Unknown. My connection to the Tempest is currently at 17% I could work on this further but my full focus must remain with you. Your physiology continues to require my support."
"So I'm stuck here alone?" Somewhere along the line, Sara had started to talk out loud to Sam, even though he was speaking to her on their private channel. "For the record, I hate this. As soon as you can start reaching out to either the Tempest or the Nexus, please do. I want off this planet. Don't even refer to this as Aya. We're calling it something else from now on."
"Acknowledged. It may interest you to know that the cause of Aya's death. The vault here is offline. I fear I was not the only one under attack. I do not advise that you attempt to interface."
"Wasn't planning on trying it alone especially with no equipment. I just said we're not calling it Aya. Refer to this planet as Craphole until further notice." It was half a joke, half not. It was helping her brain to not go into emotional overload though so hopefully Sam would listen. "Is there any way I can call for aid? Get somebody to pick us up?"
"It would not be wise. You are unable to protect yourself should the call alert hostile forces."
"So... just sit here and cry?"
"For now."
Although she was alone, the big brave Pathfinder climbed over the bar so she curl up hidden away just in case there was somehow still a pair of eyes nearby. Sara began to dissolve the walls the stood tall around her current emotions and allowed a little puddle of tears to well in her eyes. She couldn't tell exactly what she was feeling, it was confusing, there was too much. It all came under the umbrella of sad nd lonely. How? How could everything go so right and then go so wrong. One minute she was the happiest she had been in Andromeda, surrounded by love and life. The next, this, huddled around her own despair. There wasn't even an explanation or a sequence of events that she could attempt to rationalise. What if everybody thought she was dead and moved on with their lives without her? What if Jaal married Avela or someone? At least they didn't bury or cremate her. That would have sucked. She would sell her soul for a hug right now. Ugh.
"Sara?"
"Leave me alone Sam."
"Somebody has remotely accessed a datapad nearby. It appears our presence has been noticed."