Maybe the correct emotion for the situation would have been embarrassment. Still, as Sara walked in on the heated voices of Evfra and the Moshae, her mouth curled upward instead as a sickly glee slithered from her guts and fluttered across her chest. She wiggled her eyebrows at Jaal, who apparently had a more refined and less macabre sense of humor as exhibited by his overwhelming confusion and worry.

"I deserved to be told," Sjefa was saying. "You had no right to keep it secret from me!"

"It's an ongoing investigation, I meant no disrespect."

"Did Jaal know?" she demanded, her chin pointed to him in emphasis as they entered.

Sara glanced to Jaal a second time. He looked just as befuddled as her, albeit without the perverse amusement.

"Of course not!" Evfra's voice spiked as he struggled to maintain control. He swung a dismissive hand in Sara's direction. "Neither did the human."

Both intruders acknowledged, it meant whatever window into their working relationship Sara and Jaal had been gifted was closing. Sara shrugged and attempted to stay casual. "What exactly didn't we know?"

"It's not your business!" Evfra snapped.

"It is now," the Moshae replied. In their presence, she began to regain the strength necessary for etiquette. Her back straightened and her voice cooled, but her eyes didn't leave Evfra. "We need to find the kett command ship. Tell them the truth about my capture!"

"Moshae, please!"

"It may be the only route to the Archon."

Sara looked to Jaal, yet again. Evfra had seemed like a man used to being listened to, but between Sara constantly tripping over angaran customs and Sjefa who clearly couldn't give a shit, he was more exasperated at present and barkless than anything else. SAM was pinging in her ear about the electrostatic energy that encircled the two arguing angara like a vibrant cloud. Now certainly wasn't the time to ask about that, but at least Jaal's wide eyed blinking confirmed that he and Sara were on the same page.

Evfra sighed and finally granted them the courtesy of a look. "One of my men helped the kett take her. A Resistance commander named Vehn Terev."

That was a name. Sara decided to start simple and not poke at a rachni nest without first knowing numbers. "Was there a motive?" she asked.

"I don't know." His annoyance was veering towards petulance, but he was answering her questions so Sara would let him have his moodiness. "That's why I kept it quiet. I'm working to capture him, make him pay for what he did."

There was a gleam to Sjefa's eyes that Sara would never have attributed to a venerable elder. "You know where he is."

"Kadara Port," Evfra replied with a shrug. "My contacts are hunting him."

"Contacts?" Sjefa scoffed. "You can't trust anyone there! They deserted our cause, our people."

"And now they're ruled by exiles, from your galaxy." The comment was a bitter throwaway and Evfra refused to even shoot Sara a glance as he said it. The only thing that kept her from walking out until 'Mommy and Daddy' had finished their squabble was how coldly the Moshae flexed her obvious authority over the Resistance leader.

"Vehn may know how to find the Archon and his ship," Sjefa said with a derisive wave of her hand. "We can't leave this to a pack of renegades and outlaws."

"Kadara Port?" Sara's voice was soft as it drifted through the heavy air of the room. It sounded like Tann had a lot to answer for. But then, that meant she would have to speak with Tann, again.

"It's a trading outpost," Sjefa explained. "We abandoned it when the kett invaded."

"Some of us went back," Evfra grumbled as he made his way to the window. Away from Sara. Away from the Moshae. "Deserters, scavengers. They don't support Aya."

It still didn't add up. "How did exiles from the Nexus wind up there?" Sara asked.

"Bad luck for everyone." That wasn't an answer. Evfra was going to make her talk to Tann, wasn't he? Going into situations blind to save bureaucrats some embarrassment was getting real old, real fast.

"Should I bring a jacket for Kadara?" Sara drawled. "Pocket change?"

Evfra refused to acknowledge her. He locked eyes with the Moshae, instead. "I don't like it."

"I don't care." Sara could only hope to be like Sjefa when she grew up.

Evfra was attempting to pretend he hadn't just had his ass handed to him as he stalked over toward her. "I'll transmit my files on Kadara Port to your ship."

"Thanks," Sara managed, though she was unsure as to how thankful she actually felt.

Evfra just looked past her to Jaal. "You're here for your reassignment, Jaal?"

"I need to stay with the Pathfinder." No shake of his head, no regret, only a matter of fact crispness to Jaal's voice.

"Of course you do," Evfra said with the beleaguered exasperation of someone who's had this conversation numerous times before. "I see the benefit. Request granted."

"I'll file a mission report-"

"You can file it remotely," the Moshae interrupted. "Evfra, I am not done with you yet."

If Jaal had something else to say, it died on his lips. They abandoned Evfra to the Moshae's fury and headed back to the ship.

"What was all that?" Sara said as soon as they were out of earshot. "If you don't mind me asking."

"The Moshae and Evfra both are accustomed to being in charge," he said. "They do respect each other a great deal."

Sara shook her head. "No, not that. I meant the energy. The readings were off the charts. I've noticed it before with other angarans. It's not something that humans are capable of."

"Oh." Jaal blinked. "I don't know. Maybe, talk to one of our doctors?"

"That'd probably be smart, anyway," she replied. "Dr. T'Perro is good, but she's never dealt with angaran physiology before. I'd hate for her to misdiagnose or misjudge the severity of your injuries if you ever needed some battlefield medicine."

"Or maybe I'll be skilled enough to never require it." He wore a smug, little smirk.

"Maybe." Sara exhaled a quick laugh. "I know of species emitting pheromones to assist with communication and mating, you think it's something like that?"

"Anything is possible," Jaal replied. "Just because I am an angara, it does not make me an expert in every facet of the angaran species. I do not presume that you know everything about humans."

"Thank God for that," she agreed.

It was good that they were headed back to the Nexus. That was Sara's "official" stance, anyway. Every time they returned, it was different. More corridors alight, more nonessential processes functioning, more people out of cryo. It was proof that all of her fumbling and not-dying was paying off.

But the Nexus also meant Tann. It meant speaking in tones foreign to her to get necessary supplies and permissions. It showed just how gray and unclear everything truly was.

Vetra vanished almost as soon as they'd docked. The turian disappeared into a crowd and was gone by the time it dispersed, seemingly nowhere and everywhere all at once. She liked that; anonymously chatting with her "back channels" to secure what was needed. Let others claim the credit, Nyx just wanted shit done.

Sara couldn't blame her, they all had their priorities. Drack was hovering by Kesh, Jaal was haunting the Visitors' Center and Sara was certain that she had no interest in what Liam could possibly be up to. It was Peebee, perched outside the door of the Hyperion med bay, impatiently waiting for Sara to complete her pilgrimage that was unusual.

"So, my apartment," Peebee began.

"That you're trying to lure me to," Sara remembered.

Peebee nodded. "Because of the project I'm working on."

"And absolutely no ulterior motives whatsoever," Sara agreed.

That got her an eye roll. "My ulterior motives are to relocate all important items back to the Tempest."

Sara paused her casual rambling. "Yeah? Just like that? What changed?"

"The Nexus," Peebee replied. She nodded her head at everything as she led Sara away from the Hyperion and into the Nexus proper. "You're doing good things, Pathfinder, but part of why I ducked out on the whole rebellion and was exploring Eos when we first crossed paths was because I was thawed ahead of schedule and perhaps without all the authorizations?"

"Okay..." Connected to Peebee by a hand, Sara kept bumping her hips and elbows into other pedestrians. Gracefully, of course, in an attempt to keep up. Meanwhile, her asari friend flowed effortlessly through the traffic, lacing in and out of the milling crowds of people.

"I've been off the grid, so to speak," Peebee explained. "Which was a simple thing when the Nexus only had enough power for basic life support. I set up shop in a random closed apartment block close enough to hydroponics to still be oxygenated."

Sara couldn't help but smile, chagrined. "So, you've been squatting?"

"If that's what you want to call it."

"I do."

"Laugh it up, Ryder, but if some contractor opens it up for housing and gets eaten by my security system, you'll have to explain it to Kandros," Peebee called over her shoulder.

"Excuse me, what?" Sara spluttered. "Why would I be stuck explaining your screw ups?"

Peebee shrugged. "I'm still technically in cryo, right?"

"Peebee-!"

"Let's just get my place cleaned out," she continued. "Fix it before it becomes an issue, right?"

Sara shut her mouth after that, because why not? She let Peebee drag her past the mezzanine overlooking the docks and toward the humid air of hydroponics. The asari was muttering obscenities beneath her breath, of which Sara declined SAM's offer to amplify. It was obvious enough to see that there was only a fraction of the traffic and activity along this path the last time they were on the station.

Caution tape and plastic wrapped blockades aside, thankfully the apartment Peebee chose to shack up in was still beyond the encroachment of the awakening Nexus. The hallway was dim with nothing but emergency lighting, and the row of apartment doors were indistinguishable from one another beneath the red glow.

Sara was quietly impressed at how Peebee could still pick her apartment out of the stretch of corridor with blank placards above the mail slots, but only managed to say, "I always imagined your place to have more wall art."

"What? Me?" Peebee laughed at the spartan furnishing littered with schematics and empty cans of energy drinks. "You can't pick up and go at a moment's notice if you have too many valuables. Anyway, that's not why we're here."

"Yeah... why are we here, anyway?"

She shook her head. "Don't move! Just wait right there, I want to see your face when I unveil it." Peebee scrambled ahead of Sara and dashed out of the living room through the adjoining doorway.

Sara frowned as she inched toward the door. "Peebee?"

"Ta-da!" her friend exclaimed. "My project."

Peebee waved a matching pair of jazz hands before the Remnant Observer that floated behind her. Metallic tentacles glinted green as they drifted about, docile. She gave Sara a satisfied grin. "She is complete."

Sara squinted at it. "She?"

"Looks like a 'she' to me," replied the monogendered asari. Excitement for the tech overtook Peebee's amusement and her speech took off in a clip. "Just a proof of concept. I stripped out its Remnant command prompts to see if I could power it up myself. It worked! Now I can build a field model with combat protocols that fights for you."

Sara just stared. It was likely a better reflection of Nexus security than Peebee's skill that she'd gotten something so large on the station unnoticed. She wiggled her brow ridge and her grin stretched just a smidge wider. "So... uh... what do you think?"

Sara thought a lot of things. Most of which weren't relevant. She supposed it was harmless enough. "That's pretty freaking cool," she said finally. "Does she do party tricks? I kind of want to see her behind a bar."

"I mean, I was thinking of retrofitting her with weaponry for when I can't save you," Peebee chuckled. "But sure, I'm sure she could whip up a cocktail to die for."

"Call it 'The Pathfinder' and we've got a deal-"

The lock to the apartment door clicked and the door slid open. Shock sent Sara's back rigid and she eyed Peebee for clues.

"My, my Pelessaria... didn't know you were still using this hole." The husky voice wasn't Nexus security, so that was a plus. Maybe. A very attractive asari with tattoos that ran thin white streaks across indigo skin all the way from the apples of her cheeks to the tips of her ridged tentacles walked through the door. She looked almost bored. "Who's your friend?"

Peebee sighed and rolled her eyes. "Kalinda, this is Ryder-"

Kalinda scoffed. "Oh, everyone knows the human Pathfinder. I meant who's your Remnant friend?"

"None of your business, Kalinda."

"Of course it isn't. That's what makes it so interesting." There was a glint of something as Kalinda smirked. Like the two asari were the only ones in the room. They'd done this before.

The women fell into a fit of giggles as Sara silently gawked, confused.

"Why the hostility, babe?" Kalinda snickered.

Sara scratched the back of her head. "So... what's going on, babes?"

"Oh, Kalinda and I go way back," Peebee assured wiping at tears of laughter.

"The centuries we were in stasis don't count as 'way back,' Pelessaria!" Kalinda scolded. "But yes. I'll gladly take the blame as to why she's here."

"Yes, yes, I'd still be in cryo if not for you." Peebee began to wave the other woman away with her hands. "I'm grateful, really, but shoo. I have work to do."

Kalinda extended an arm to Sara. "Walk me out?"

Peebee had already turned her back to them and was making a show of toying with the Observer bot's control panel. Sara shrugged and took Kalinda's offered arm. Up close, the asari smelled faintly of something floral overcast with spice. Not to Sara's taste, but there was a proverbial laundry list of grievances she could claim already on account of such taste.

Kalinda was not what Sara would have imagined as a friend of Peebee's. The immaculate hygiene and stiff posture was wildly different from the gregarious personality they'd left in the apartment. Kalinda kept her eyes in front of her as she spoke. "I'm not sure what Pelessaria's told you-"

"Not a lot, actually," Sara said quickly.

"Figures." Kalinda huffed a quiet laugh. "She's right, though. We do go way back. And I did pull some strings to get her out of stasis early. Do you remember anything about being in stasis, Pathfinder?"

Sara frowned. "That's an odd question."

"And that's not an answer," Kalinda replied. "I suppose you wouldn't."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you're human and cryostasis would effect you differently." She looked at Sara and her face softened. There was a troubling weariness to her dark eyes. "Some of the longer lived species have been struggling when they wake. I suspect that if something similar happened to a human or salarian, the person in question simply wouldn't."

"Are you saying something happened to you when you went into cryo...?" Sara asked. "Or Peebee?"

Kalinda laughed softly, again. "Maybe both. Maybe neither. Maybe I never really knew who she was to begin with. Just, keep an eye on her for me, will you? In case I'm right."

"Or wrong." Sara dropped the other woman's arm.

"Exactly!" Kalinda agreed. "Thanks for your time, I'm sure we'll talk again. Ta-ta."

"Ta-ta," Sara found herself mimicking beneath her breath with a tiny, imitation of the queen's wave aimed at the woman's back.

So, everyone was going to be weird and mysterious, now? This was precisely why she hated returning to the Nexus.