A New Frontier
Give Or Take 600 Years
Man it has been a while. Believe it or not I've wanted to write this chapter or a chapter like this since right after I wrote the last one. I started writing and erased it so many times I've lost count. But N7 Day provided me with some inspiration and here we are. I'm not sure if it's entirely what I wanted to get out of it but it's finished and that's more than I can say for a lot of my other attempts. I don't know how many people are even interested in Andromeda anymore at this point. Bioware certainly isn't and that's a shame. I don't know if I've ever actively not wanted to buy a game as much as I don't want to buy Anthem. Either way after I finish Red Dead Redemption 2 and mop up some stuff in Borderlands 2 I'm contemplating playing through all four games again. Maybe then I'll even have something for the original trilogy to put out there. I do love Shepard/Miranda and Tali/Garrus a lot and I'd also like to try my hand at writing Kasumi. I guess we'll see. I was listening to Monument by A Day To Remember while writing this. I hope you like it.
There were certain things expected of a first officer on a starship like the Tempest. There were certain things expected of a second to a Pathfinder in the Andromeda Initiative. These positions overlapped in some respects, but in an ideal situation would not be filled by one person. After reality's punch to the face on Habitat 7 they were nowhere near an ideal situation and both roles had practically fallen into Cora's lap, though one with certainly more elation than the other. Initially she still thought herself better suited for the role of Pathfinder than Sara. She was a seasoned military officer with years of experience and had had a trial run with one of SAM's prototypes. Sara wasn't a raw recruit by any means and it stood to reason that she too had experience with SAM, being Alec's daughter and all, but she was still so young and full of idealism. She wasn't Liam but the doubts had lingered in the back of Cora's mind all the same, as much as she hated to admit it even to herself.
Sara had more than proven herself capable in the time since those early days. They were taking the fight to the Kett and while it was still too early to say whether or not they were winning they certainly weren't losing anymore. They had several footholds throughout the Helius Cluster now where the Andromeda Initiative's true purpose could finally begin taking place. They even had burgeoning local allies in the Angara. All in all Sara had accomplished in a relatively short period of time what no one else, not even herself, could have. She was proud to be her second, someone she could vent her frustrations and doubts to without fear of reprimand as well as come to for advice. And Sara gave her all that and more in return. They were a team, the whole crew was a team, and she had no doubt that before too long they'd have the Archon on his heels.
The duties of a first officer on a starship however were far more concentrated. There were no grand scale galactic politics or military conflict to consider in the day to day operations of the Tempest other than how they affected said day to day operations. Resources required to keep the ship flying and the crew happy and healthy had to be acquired from The Nexus, Aya, and the scattered colony worlds that they had established outposts on so knowledge of the political landscape was something that needed to be consistently maintained and updated. Likewise if she wanted to ensure the safest journey through the Helius Cluster that was possible she needed to know the military situation to the best of her abilities. But there weren't any large scale moral or philosophical dilemmas to ponder during every action, just what information was required to give the crew the best environment to do their jobs and keep everyone alive. It was simpler in that way, but offered its own share of challenges.
For one the first officer was the one on the ground so to speak when it came to ship activities. That wasn't to say that Sara wasn't still in charge, but she had enough to think about without worrying about every little problem that came up over the course of an average day. They needed her at her best when the time came to make the truly world-changing decisions. She relished in the meticulous details of day to day ship life and so had no qualms about the work. And despite her awkward at best abilities when it came to most social interactions she also liked how it brought her closer to the crew, even and perhaps especially Sara. It also provided a series of unique challenges for her to solve every day which despite her appreciation for the rigid structure of military life was necessary for her mental health.
It started as a day like any other. An alarm from her personal terminal woke her up at 0500 hours and she proceeded to shower and get dressed with only minor protest. To her knowledge there were no grand scale plans on the horizon, Sara had yet to decide exactly how they were going to handle the situation with the Salarian Ark, though that could always change. She was ready to walk out the door and begin her early morning security walkthrough of the ship to check for any signs of infiltration or structural failure when another alert on her terminal pinged and caught her interest. She didn't get much personal correspondence and so she hesitantly made her way over to see what it was, the thought that it could somehow be a message from her father despite everything lingered in her mind. It wasn't a message at all, not really, just an automated alert reminding her that today was her birthday. She was officially thirty years old give or take 600 years of cryostasis.
Thirty. There had been a time in her life where she had thought that she wouldn't live long enough to ever see such an age. Of course there had been a time in her life where she hadn't even known her exact birth date to begin with. The number before her now was also only her age in regards to Earth years. She had spent the majority of her life on ships floating through space where time was relative and days and nights and weeks and months and years all sort of ran together. Earth was still her origin point as well as humanity's though so it made as much sense to base the number off of that as it possibly could make. She still wasn't completely comfortable with the celebratory concept that came with having a birthday and for a brief moment felt a surge of anxiety at the thought of the crew throwing some sort of surprise party for her but squashed it down as much as she could. The only people with access to her personnel file were Lexi and Sara and she knew neither of them would do that without asking her first.
With that comforting thought she pulled herself together and got started with her day. As she suspected it was a relatively mundane day by their standards. A quick visit to Kadara to further hash things out with Sloane Kelly in the wake of her cementing her hold over Kadara Port was the only real "adventure" as it were and she didn't relish in that one bit. Sloane Kelly was a powerful ally no doubt and she seemed to carry a certain fondness for Sara, but dealing with her reminded her too much of dealing with her father. Reyes Vidal had reminded her of Cerberus agents she had dealt with too so it wasn't like he would have been much better in that regard. It was a short meeting that she didn't have to personally take part in though so she wasn't going to complain. After that brief application of her role as her Pathfinder's second was over she happily thrust herself back into her first officer role until Sara made an announcement that they were changing course and heading for The Nexus.
She liked The Nexus well enough though most of the people there were either far too bureaucratic or far too idealistic for her liking. It was a safe harbor and home port for the Tempest in a portion of space that was still more mystery than home though and that was all she could really ask for. She prepared a priority list of things she needed to get done while they were there and was more than ready to go about implementing it after docking and disembarking, but before she could even move a few steps Sara grabbed her arm and gave her a conspiratory grin that did nothing to set her at ease. Sara pointed at The Vortex and made a drinking motion with her other hand. She tried to give Sara a serious look that told her she wasn't in the mood for games, but the other woman just shrugged and leaned forward to whisper in her ear.
"I know what today is," Sara said gleefully and with that Cora knew where this was going.
"I'm not really one for parties," she said quickly looking around to see if anyone else was within earshot.
"It's not a party," Sara said speaking normally now. "Just me and you."
She liked the sound of that but still said, "I don't know."
"I do," Sara returned her voice to a whisper. "I know who the birthday girl is and I'm going to make sure she gets a celebratory drink on this station even if I have to tie her down to do it."
She shivered at that despite her best efforts and only managed to breath out, "Okay."
"You won't regret it," Sara said already dragging her towards the bar.
The thumping dance music and multitude of people getting progressively more and more inebriated that made up most bars wasn't really her scene, but The Vortex certainly wasn't the worst place she had ever settled down to get drunk.
They were already several drinks in when Sara turned to her and said, "Thirty, you don't look a day over 25."
"With this hair color," she questioned.
"Well yeah of course," Sara said eyeing her hair earnestly. "That isn't old lady white, it's badass chick that could kill you with a soup spoon washed out blonde."
"And that style," she continued. "No way someone's confusing you for a grandmother with all that going on up there."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," she responded taking a sip of her drink. "I met my grandmother once and she had far more than just this going on."
"She was also a rich asshole though so you should probably take that with a grain of salt," she continued.
"I'm sorry," Sara said.
"Don't be," she said. "Like I said she was a rich asshole."
"And if she wasn't a rich asshole maybe I wouldn't be here right now," she continued.
"I guess you're right," Sara said downing a shot quickly.
"We're all an amalgamation of our experiences," she said. "And if you take any of those experiences away you don't end up with the same person."
"I'm proud of who I am," she continued. "And I wouldn't change that for anything."
"Yeah," Sara said solemnly. "Yeah you're right."
"We're not responsible for anything other than who we are and our own actions Sara," she said. "We should never put the actions of others, especially our family, on ourselves."
"Yeah," Sara said downing another shot. "With all that wisdom floating around up there maybe you are older than you look."
"Haha," she said taking a sip of her own drink. "Considering there was a time where I never thought I'd even live this long I'll take it."
"Hopefully we all live to see many more birthdays in this galaxy," Sara said.
"We will," she said confidently. "I have faith in you to see us through to the other side of this."
"We'll have the Archon on the ropes before you know it," she continued.
"He won't like it when we board his ship that's for sure," Sara said smiling slightly.
"That's the spirit," she said. "A few more hits proving to him that we're not simply a fly that can be swatted and he might even tuck his tail between his legs and head home."
"You always know what to say to make me feel better," Sara said. "It's one of the things I admire about you."
"Well," she said slightly flustered. "As your second in command it's part of my job to motivate you."
"You know that's not what I meant," Sara said and by the look in her eyes there was no denying what she meant.
"Sara," she said trying not to let her nervousness show. "That wouldn't be appropriate."
"It doesn't matter what's "appropriate"," Sara said. "I like you and you clearly like me, shouldn't that be enough?"
The thought that it wasn't enough for her parents briefly crossed her mind, but she squashed that down quickly.
"You know in ancient times units where the soldiers were intimately involved with each other were actually some of the most efficient and tactically brilliant to ever exist," Sara interrupted her train of thought.
And no she didn't know that because history was never really her favorite subject. Philosophy and engineering were more her style. History felt too tangible somehow.
"I," she stuttered. "No I didn't know that."
"I still don't know if we should really apply that logic to our situation," she continued. "We aren't just some individual soldiers, we're in charge."
"Look despite your confidence in my abilities we may all be dead tomorrow," Sara said. "And I don't want to die without you knowing how I really feel."
"But if you're not comfortable with it we can just go back to talking about your hair," she continued. "You are the birthday girl after all."
"I do like you too Sara," she admitted. "But I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to cloud our personal and professional relationships like that right now."
"Maybe when all this is over," she continued.
"Yeah," Sara said downing another shot.
"Anyways," she continued after a pause. "I think you could rock purple hair."
The conversation continued mundanely like that for the next couple of hours and by the end of it they were both too drunk to remember much of the earlier deep conversation. The next morning though when her alarm went off at 0500 again it hit her almost as bad as the hangover did. Sara had already been drunk at that point. Maybe she hadn't even really meant what she said. Even she knew that was a lie. And why was she so scared of taking their relationship to the next level? They had been flirting since Sara became Pathfinder, maybe even before that. Deep down she knew it was just her own trust issues rearing their ugly head again just like they had on countless occasions before. Sure there were pragmatic and chain of command reasons why they shouldn't become intimate like she said, but those were just excuses. No the truth was that she was just scared. Scared of what exactly? She wasn't really sure. She just hoped that she figured it out before "When this is all over" rolled around and that Sara would still be interested at that point.
"Best birthday ever," she grumbled. "Woo."
So I pictured Cora's birth year as 2156 in this. It makes sense if we're going with the she's the Illusive Man's daughter theory which I'm going to stick with until the end of time. It's one year before the First Contact War kicks off which is when the Illusive Man left his family to fight and it only makes her two years older than Ashley so it's not like it's that far out of left field in that respect. I thought about making up an exact day but that doesn't really matter here.