CHAPTER 10

Sara woke to a soft beeping and rolled into a warm body as she moved. For a moment she had forgotten where she was and that she wasn't alone in the bed. Alex was blinking sleepily then focused on her.

"SARA!" Alex sat up and wrapped her in a bear hug, "You're okay."

"I am thanks to you," said Sara hugging the asari back.

"I didn't know it would work," admitted Alex, resting her forehead on the young woman's shoulder as she remembered how afraid she was that Sara would die. The asari shuddered then pulled back, "I'm sorry about your dad."

"We… weren't close," said Sara quietly.

"He was still your dad. When mine died it tore me up inside….my mom and a...good friend helped me through it."

"What species was your father?"

The moment of truth had arrived. "SAM what were Alec's plans for telling the rest of the team about me?" Sara frowned at the asari's use of her dads first name. No one called him that.

SAM. "He was going to tell Lt Harper and he assumed that your friendship with Sara would result in you confiding in her."

Alex huffed out an irritated breath at that she could have told her friend the truth, "Then why did he tell me not to reveal my age?"

SAM. "Explanations would be difficult."

"That's just great," muttered Alex more to herself than her companion, Sara's opinion mattered, now was her chance to correct her mistakes and tell her the truth.

SAM. "Cora is asking to meet her on the bridge."

Sara sighed and she stood up, "We're coming up on the Nexus, want to come up to the bridge? I've only seen pictures of what it looks like."

"Yeah I guess it'll be like seeing a Mass Relay up close for the first time." Alex got out of bed and saw her footlocker, "As soon as we're docked and everything is sorted, we'll talk."

"I have access to my dad's files I could just read it for myself," said Sara as she hurriedly dressed.

"You could, but wouldn't you rather hear it from me?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Cora was almost tapping her foot as she waited for the new Pathfinder. She didn't expect Sara to show up with the asari in tow.

T'Soni had not slept as long as the doctor had ordered though Alex did look much better. "Glad you could join us. If Lexi asks you had more than eight hours."

Alex chuckled, "Will do."

"Good," Cora gave the asari a brief smile as she activated the door control. "I don't want Lexi on my ass."

"It's my fault," stated Sara, "I asked SAM to wake me and the alarm woke us both."

"It's fine I wouldn't want to miss this." grinned Alex heading towards Capt Dunn who was staring out of the forward viewing screen.

The Nexus was massive, it's structure mostly dark it's arms still a framework.

"It should have been finished by now," said Cora quietly.

"I detect damage," said the pilot, "I think they hit the same thing we did."

"I don't see any other Arks," said Sara swallowing nervously.

"Take us in," ordered Dunn, gripping the railing in front of her, "We're landing." They had no place else to go.

"Power readings?"

"It's localized."

"Looks like they're conserving power," commented Dunn. "The Hyperion can help with that. Pathfinder go to the air lock, we'll dock in ten minutes."

Sara nodded after a quick glance at Cora. "Come on guys, let's find out why there's no welcome mat."

"Or champagne, "added Liam joining them. "After the day we've had I bet we all need a drink."

Alex heard Sara sigh under her breath and acting without thought took hold of her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. The new Pathfinder was thankful for the ex Spectre's strength.

Things were even weirder when the exited the Nexus's air lock into pitch blackness. The only visible light was from a Avina VI hologram.

Cora headed to the VI, it had obviously been programmed before they left the Milky Way as the only correct info was the date.

Suddenly Alex flared blue as she heard a noise, "There's someone else here."

"I didn't hear anything," Liam raised his arm and activated his omni-tool, "I'm reading one life sign about two hundred meters straight ahead."

Now that they were aware that they were not alone Sara realized she could hear someone.

[SAM. I have enhanced your hearing.] Sara had almost forgotten about the AI's private channel and jumped.

"And Alex?" The asari looked over with a confused eyebrow.

[SAM. Her hearing was already enhanced."

That was another thing the asari was going to have to explain. Sara led the way and almost gave the tech guy who was working on a power relay a heart attack. He immediately started telling them everyone thought the Arks lost. The Nexus had been there fourteen months already. Everyone knew that the techie was leaving a lot out.

"Take us to your leader," said Sara ignoring the snort of laughter from Liam, even Alex grinned. "Grow up guys."

"Says the youngest person here," chuckled Liam until he heard Alex grow softly under her breath at him. Luckily no one except the team heard that last exchange.

Lights began turning on and a turian came to meet them. "Tiran Kandros. You're the first Ark to arrive. We'd given up and powered this section down. Follow me."

Activity started to erupt around them as their guide explained that they had hit the energy cloud that they had called the Scourge. How supply rationing had led to an uprising, the ones responsible, including the old security chief and any who chose to leave were now called Exiles.

"Where did they go?"

"A planet called Kadara it was one of the golden worlds," said Kandros, "But it's water is like acid and needs to be filtered, most of the krogan landed on Elaaden. It's basically a desert planet.

"Wait. The krogan left?" Alex didn't like the idea of hostile krogan, they packed hell of a punch.

"They spouted some nonsense about a deal of getting more say if they helped put the uprising down."

"Krogan don't usually lie," pointed out Alex.

Kandros twitched his mandibles, "We never found any documentation to prove their claim."

Alex was glad he'd not simply disregarded the krogan like so many were prone to do. The turian had a good head on his shoulders, "What's your job?"

"I run the militia, most are ex military. We've taken over station defense as most of Sloane's people followed her."

Which meant a number of the exiles had combat training and or experience.

"Had any trouble with them?" asked Cora slipping into Huntress mode.

"Not since they left. The first thing we did after being stranded was get the exterior weapons operational. It would be suicide to try to take this place with a few shuttles."

More conversation was stopped as they reached the Docking Bay tram line that connected to the various areas of the station.

The control hub was where the pathfinder team found themselves a little while later where they met Director Tann who was a Salarian, he had inherited the position when Jien Garsen and the senior staff had died in the scourge disaster. Superintendent Kesh, a female krogan who was in charge of the Engineering teams. Kandros they already knew and lastly Foster Addison the colonial affairs director or would be when they had colonies.

Alex really didn't like the tone Addison took with Sara. Almost the first thing she did was insult Alec and doubt that Sara would make a good replacement, Kesh on the other hand was one of the good guys for defending her and was prepared to give her a chance.

Cora silently observed the conversation, no matter what she personally thought she would support the young Ryder, she wondered if T'Soni realized how protective she was over the new Pathfinder. They all watched as the krogan linked the Hyperion's power to the Nexus. A whole section lit up.

"You need a ship," said Tann, "I'll make arrangements with your Second." As he and Cora left Addison told them about the failed attempts to settle Eos.

"What happened?"

"Some were lost to Radiation others to the Kett."

"Kett?" asked Alex, "Do they look anything like this?" She showed one of the scans they took on Habitat 7.

"That's them," confirmed the turian, "They attack without provocation and are interested in the strange tech scattered throughout this cluster."

"Let's go find Cora," said Sara, her confidence had taken a knock but she was trying to hide it.

As soon as they were out of view Alex gave her a brief hug.

"I've got your back."

Sara leaned back far enough to look into the asari's eyes, "And who exactly has my back?" Her blue eyes held a hint of challenge.

Alex glanced around, it was too public especially if Sara yelled at her which she probably deserved. "It's a couple of hours to this planet we're heading to. I'll tell you anything you want to know," vowed Alex.

"You promise?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die." Alex made a tiny cross over her heart with her finger.

"How do you know that?" Not knowing was driving her nuts.

Alex grinned a little. It actually proved a point that Councilor Tevos had made when she had asked why she was going on the Human Ark. Her reply was that if Alex were put in a roomful of humans most would think she WAS asari while if she were put in the same room full of asari they would quickly know that something was amiss. It didn't matter how many lessons Alex had, her mind was still human. "Let's go find your ship, Pathfinder."

TBC….

A/N. Hi guys. Thanks for reading :) The follows and favs are great :D I appreciate the reviews :) I hope you like this chapter. Hope you are all having nice weekends. Stay tuned. Have fun. T-Rex :)