Walking inside Ark Natanus was like stepping inside a corpse.
Where they docked was being held together by a single support beam, some exposed, dying electrical wires, and a wish. Sara felt strangely buoyant as she struggled to keep her footing inside the quiet ark that now had more in common with the cold of space than any kind of living quarters.
SAM encouraged her to slow her breathing, because even if she wasn't gasping fast enough to hyperventilate, it could fog up her helmet. She nodded at the instruction, but continued to breathe loudly, if for no other reason than she found the repetition of sound soothing.
"Limited power, life support's busted," Avitus was saying as he scanned a terminal. "Surprised there's any gravity at all."
"Looks like it barreled through the Scourge by force," Sara commented. She couldn't imagine a pilot voluntarily doing so.
"Spooky," Peebee added. As she wandered through the dilapidated docking bay, she looked more like she was jogging through water than walking.
"I hope the main hull is more intact," Sara said. "There's no way anyone could survive out here without a suit."
"Everyone still in a pod should be fine," Avitus replied as he hastily punched authorization codes into the terminal. "So long as they still have power."
"Do they?" Sara asked. "We can reroute power if they don't."
The sound of Avitus scoffing popped over the radio frequency in their helmets. "Ryder, stop. If any of the pods have gone this long without power, the people in them are already dead."
"Okay." Sara sucked some air in through her teeth. "Guess we should hurry and see what's inside."
The hull looked surprisingly intact... until SAM- ray of sunshine that he was- rattled off its numerous flaws and injuries and thankfully stopped Peebee from opening a door that opened into nothing but the blackness of the entire Remav System. They tried to work quickly and reroute power from dead ends to necessary doors, while cautiously moving packing crates as delicately as if they were hallowed relics.
Once they breached the interior, they were gifted with the dim glow of red emergency lighting and the intercom crackled to life. "SAM?" The voice was deep and held that characteristic reverberation of a turian. "SAM, how're we doing?"
It stopped Avitus cold. "Macen!"
"SAM?" It repeated. "SAM, how're we doing?"
"Sounds like a recording," Sara said. "An audio log."
Avitus snapped his head around to her and she didn't need to see his face beneath his helmet to know he was glaring. He pulled out his omni tool. "Bring it back."
"SAM. How far to Avi's pod?" There was a tremor to Macen Barro's voice. His timbre sounded warmer and more congenial than Avitus, but he was also gasping and wincing through each word. "Three hundred meters? An easy stroll, then."
The recording continued, long enough to hear Macen's labored panting and the sound of a weight dropping to the ground. "Damn it. Maybe not so easy."
The intercom shut off and they were left with the echoes of silence.
"Where's the rest of it?" Avitus demanded.
Corrupted. Incomplete. "He was looking for your pod," Sara told him. She placed a hand on his arm only for Avitus to jerk away. "Do you remember anything before waking up on Havarl?"
"I told you, my first memory was clawing my way out of my stasis pod."
He was going to accidentally blow them all out into space if he couldn't calm down and focus. "Then we keep looking." Sara said. She nodded to Peebee who was wisely keeping her distance. "SAM node has to be close by."
"This way." Avitus didn't wait to see if they followed.
If Natanus was anything like Hyperion, then SAM node would be located in the safest and most stable area of the ark, the center. Sara tried not to get emotional over the realization that an AI was technically prioritized over everyone's cryostasis pods. The AI was what was overseeing and protecting those in the ark while they slept, they protected their SAM so that SAM could protect them.
Natanus was, if not exactly, then nearly identical to Hyperion as soon as Sara overlooked the debris, a collapsing wall, the eerie quiet. She quickly had her SAM reroute power from a cargo bay door to the SAM node to keep Avitus from beating down the door.
"SAM," he barked. "Where's the Pathfinder? Where's Macen?"
The turian SAM flickered blue and unfocused in the heart of SAM node. "Avi. Avi. Avi. Commence. Stars."
Avitus growled. "Macen is the only one who calls me that- you don't get to."
"Avi. Avi. Avi."
It was strange to hear another SAM. Stranger still to hear the voice aloud, booming through the intercom instead of circling in Sara's head. Something was wrong. She placed herself between Avitus and the turian SAM and allowed for her SAM to get to work. "Something damaged this SAM," she murmured. "Be careful; I don't want to lose him because we rushed for answers."
She allowed for her SAM to sync up with the damaged AI and waited. The blue form in the center of the node became less solvent and more defined.
"Avitus Rix," the AI echoed through the intercom. "Welcome home."
"SAM." Avitus pushed himself to the terminal at the front of the node. "Macen sent coordinates to this location. I need to find him."
"You are mistaken. I sent the coordinates."
Sara blinked. Avitus was frozen in his spot, his gloved hands crushing the main terminal. "Yup," Peebee breathed. "Definitely spooky."
"The Pathfinder ordered me to help Avitus find a home for the turians," the SAM AI explained. "I located our destination, H-047c, then sought out Avitus."
"Why would Macen do that?" Avitus demanded.
"It was his last request."
Avitus recoiled and headed toward the door. "This thing's still busted," he insisted, desperation making his voice peak. "It doesn't know what it's talking about."
The blue of the AI dimmed and an audio log began to play over the intercom. "Avi." It was Macen. "Whatever we hit, a piece of it shredded my suit. Stings like hell, but spirits, its beautiful." The Pathfinder's voice had taken on a rasp and he sounded sleepy. "I need you to go on, for the both of us. Don't let that temper get the better of you. SAM, commence transfer. Even the stars look brighter..."
"He died before the transfer was complete," Sara realized. "That must be the source of this SAM's trauma."
She hadn't known there was a delay when transferring a SAM. It made sense when she thought about it, but it also meant that her father had survived long enough to complete the transfer. Did that mean he had enough time to say goodbye, too? Much of that day didn't exist for Sara. She remembered gearing up for Habitat 7, and then feeling cold and sore while everyone walked on eggshells around her. Maybe she was better off not knowing.
Avitus seemed to be just as conflicted. He placed a hand on the door, then doubled back toward the AI, but stopped when he was halfway across the room. Peebee sidled up next to Sara, if for no other reason than to make room for the turian's erratic pacing.
"Why bring me here?" he asked, finally. "What was the point?"
"To complete the transfer. The turians need a Pathfinder."
Avitus stopped. "I can't."
"What do you mean?" Sara asked.
"I can't, no." He took a stumbling step backwards. "My whole career I've worked alone. I've never been a leader- I don't know how to be a leader, I don't want to lead people."
"But you're doing the work already..." If Sara was braver, she would have told him to go fuck himself. There were more than fifteen thousand pods still on Natanus, but Avitus Rix thought he was entitled to a meltdown because his boyfriend died? "Protecting civilians, finding this ark, you've been filling the role of Pathfinder in everything but title."
"A title that belongs to Macen!"
"And now it belongs to you, that's how it works." Maybe she shouldn't have snapped. "I didn't want to be Pathfinder, either, but when I woke up, I was. I can't imagine four thousand turians wanted their pods to be shot out all over Heleus. What do you suppose these remaining fifteen thousand want? What do they deserve?"
"Damn it!" Avitus's shoulders slumped, defeated. "I just... I don't want to let him down."
"Yeah, you can't fuck it up more than I have, already," Sara gave a derisive snort as she radioed the Tempest. "Hey, Cora? Let Tann know we've found the turian Pathfinder."
Sara was happy with a second Pathfinder; she would have thought more people would be pleased about it. It was the little things muddled in the details.
"While great news that we located Natanus, don't you think it was a little impetuous to complete the transfer on site instead of bringing the SAM node to a safe location aboard the Nexus?" She'd come to recognize Tann's steepled fingers as an attempt at intimidation.
Sara just stared at him. "No."
The salarian paused expectantly, and when she didn't elaborate, he blinked.
"What our illustrious leader is implying is that since the previous Pathfinder died without having passed on the mantle, he would have liked to assist in the selection of the new one," Kesh explained.
"Oh." Sara just bet he would have. Talk about really validating her earlier move. "That would have been a waste of time for the sake of ceremony. Avitus Rix was there and per Macen Barro's well-documented directives, he was the next in line for succession."
"True." Tann swung his hands around and pinned them behind his back. "But per Alec Ryder's well-documented directives, Cora Harper was to be the next human Pathfinder and yet, here you are."
It was a small comfort that based on previous speech patterns and knowledge of the subject that the AI in Sara's head was also suggesting, "fuck you" as an appropriate response to Tann. She was just disappointed she gave him the satisfaction of flinching.
"I have no insight into why Alec Ryder disregarded the established rank," Sara said through her teeth, "but as SAM is literally intertwined with my psyche now and would be lethal to extract, you are stuck with me unless you're suggesting that I should die so your lineup is more appropriate for bookkeeping."
"Now, I never said-"
Kesh's laughter cut him off. "It's done, and honestly we could do much worse than Avitus Rix," she said. "But in the future, it would be appreciated to be included in any major decisions."
"Particularly with the Nexus providing you with a ship and other resources," Tann added.
"I'll keep that in mind," Sara said without much intention to.
"Are there any plans for Natanus?" Tann asked.
"Avitus would know better than I," Sara replied. "I think he's working up a plan to secure all the remaining pods as we speak."
"But is there a plan on returning Natanus to the Nexus?" Tann pressed.
Sara frowned. "The hull wouldn't withstand another light jump, so doubtful."
"So there's no way to reunite the ark's power source with Nexus station."
So that's all it amounted to. Resources and how it benefited Jarun Tann. "Fifteen thousand civilians were discovered still alive that we need to deploy to Eos or Voeld, or store in cryo, but I can see why you'd be bummed your toy is broken. I'm sure we could send a team to strip the ark down to its steel girders."
"The Pathfinder did good, Tann," Kesh declared. She had already moved to the door to begin to usher Sara out. "You keep doing what you're doing with vaults and planets and we'll break Avitus in on how to handle Ark Natanus."
The krogan walked Sara out of Tann's office. "Drack tells me you're headed to Elaaden."
"That's the plan." Sara nodded.
"I have a contact there," Kesh said. "Jorgal Strux. You might find him easier to work with than Nakmor Morda."
"But isn't Overlord Morda in charge?"
"She is." Kesh continued to walk at a casual, meandering pace. "Which means her priority is what's best for the clans, not what's best for everyone. Certainly not what's best for an Initiative lackey."
Sara's eyes widened. "Noted."
Kesh huffed a small laugh. "Then note this as well," she said. "I want this all to work for everyone, we need it to. But if push comes to shove, I'm Clan Nakmor- Tann and Spender have guaranteed that fact. Use Strux to get a foot in the door, but do not forget who Morda is."
That wasn't threatening in the slightest. "Got it," Sara breathed.
"You'll do great!" Kesh grinned. "I know it."