It was most certainly petty, but Sara wanted to know why Cora gave such a goddamn about the asari ark.

Would she have reacted in kind had it been Ark Hyperion? She had that overly saccharin, ingratiating smile when they'd located Natanus and she hadn't uttered a peep about Paarchero. She was definitely more invested in the Leusinia's whereabouts than Peebee or Dr. T'Perro... unless of course their centuries of lifespan made their agitation subtler.

Maybe Sara was thinking about it all wrong. The why's shouldn't matter, what was important was that they found another ark. With luck, it would be intact (or intact enough,) to dock at the Nexus and further solidify their foothold, here.

The stink of sex sloughed off her body with soap and hot water, she pulled on some clothes and hanked her hair back into a dripping wet ponytail. Perhaps the responsible thing would be to question Cora and see where she was at in all of this, but the Pathfinder's second had stationed herself in the bridge and had holed up in a seat that- dare Sara say it- should have been reserved for the Pathfinder. It was always easier to talk about people than to people, at any rate. It was why Sara discussed Drack with Vetra, and Jaal with Peebee, Liam with Jaal... there was a reason why she avoided Lexi. The good Dr. T'Perro would have a field day with Sara's psych write up, all avoidant behavior and unhealthy coping mechanisms.

So, the question wasn't how Sara could correct her obnoxious shortcomings, but rather, who to discuss Cora Harper with. Since Kallo was set to aim the Tempest directly into the Scourge, Sara went for the low hanging fruit.

"Are you nervous about seeing the Leusinia?" she asked as she let herself into the escape pod bay.

"What?" Peebee huffed an annoyed snort as she continued to circle her refabbed Remnant bot. "I'm more perplexed at the error message I keep getting when I try to access POC's memory core. Sand in the servos shouldn't do that. Why should I be nervous?"

"What if it's in shambles like Natanus?"

"Then that will suck for Leusinia." Peebee wiggled one of the bot's tentacle limbs, then flicked its chassis twice as if listening for something and finally with a sigh, sat down in the mouth of the escape pod. "You know I have no overwhelming loyalty to the Leusinia. What's this really about?"

"You don't, but there are people who do," Sara said.

Peebee raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh."

"What I mean," Sara continued while not precisely knowing what she meant, "is do you know if there's such a thing as a non asari huntress-commando?"

"You mean like in the vids?" Peebee asked, her nose wrinkling. "Sure, probably. But Blasto, the first hanar Spectre is way more popular."

"No, I meant for real. Like a cross species program-"

"Eh..."

"So there are..?"

"Short answer is no," Peebee eventually replied. "Asari were the original biotics. There will probably never be another alien race more powerful in that regard. It also doesn't hurt that we can live a millennia to hone those skills."

Sara squinted at her. "Is that the short answer? Really? Because you haven't answered anything, yet."

"Say there was an Alliance run, cross species program." Peebee waved a hand and began to speak in a dry, almost-recitation. "It would likely be that the individuals chosen were exceptionally powerful biotics by their specie's standards. Perhaps so much so that their own local biotic program was nervous and didn't exactly know what to do with them. Many asari inexplicably feel that it's their duty to mentor these fledgling races to 'better shape the galaxy.' So, they would be trained with the manuals and in the manner of our huntresses, sure, but I would think it's more of a... 'big sister' program. Our huntresses spend centuries on their craft and humans, turians, drell... you just don't have centuries, you know?"

"So what you're saying is that any Alliance cross species programs are a bunch of feel good, political showboating?" Sara frowned.

"Very likely." Peebee shrugged. "But my point was that it doesn't matter if a human was trained in the manner of a huntress, chances are, no asari would ever view her truly as such."

"Huh." Sara leaned back on her heels. "That's kind of shitty, Peebee."

"Mmm hmm," she agreed. "So ask me if I care about the Leusinia, again."

"Gotcha." Sara offered her a thumbs up and uneasy smile.

"Now if you'll excuse me," Peebee declared, hopping suddenly to her feet. "I really must continue to troubleshoot POC. I'm not sure if it's leftover sand from Elaaden, or if Kalinda left me a present before I could get this beautiful piece of tech onto the Tempest."

"Kalinda?" Sara asked. "You mean your ex?"

"I didn't realize she was my ex," Peebee retorted as she wrenched a back panel open on the bot.

"I mean, you were... lovers, right?"

"Everything's about sex to you, isn't it?"

"Just that it seemed a little contentious, is all."

"It would, wouldn't it?" With a frown, she yanked a couple cords out from the panel, then unplugged and replaced a circuit. "I'm sure you've been bored over a school break. Compound that by a couple hundred years."

"But you're not even two hundred, yet-"

"Good point." Peebee giggled. "How about we table this lecture until you've reached two hundred yourself and can share what infinite wisdom you've attained-? Aha!"

POC's visual receptors flickered to life and it stood there, frozen, as a message played from the audio banks.

"Hey, babe." The soft, throaty purr sounded like Kalinda. Peebee's thinned mouth confirmed it. "Sorry if I broke your toy. Tried to give it some versatility, but it couldn't keep up. Maybe I'll break your new toy next? Ta."

"Ugh." Peebee tossed her fistful of cords and slumped back down in the escape pod. "She means you, by the way."

"Me?" Maybe immediately feeling flattered was the wrong response, but it was a pleasant change up for Sara to be valued as more than a just pale imitation of her father. She tried not to preen. "Is she going to wind me up? Push all my buttons at once?"

"Not funny."

"...Maybe a little funny?"

"No." Peebee sighed and smoothed a hand across the top of her tentacles. "We were already kind of on that quarter century slump, maybe a new galaxy would spice things up, right? But Kalinda woke up weird. I don't know, maybe I woke up weird."

"Huh." Kalinda had mentioned something similar to Sara in their one and only meeting. Some kind of mystery illness that afflicted longer lived species. They couldn't be the only two asari struggling with such issues in Heleus. "So, you think there's some merit to these cryo sickness rumors? Or are you just on a break?"

"We've taken other partners before, if that's what you mean." Peebee frowned at her. "Little bit of variety here and there, sometimes we wouldn't let the third know that Kalinda and I knew about them for extra drama... different scenarios for different folks. This all feels off, though. There's a coldness to her. Maybe it's not the scenario and it's me she's bored with. I just don't trust any game she comes up with to be all in good fun."

"So I should not invite her to any movie nights is what you're saying?" Sara flopped down next to her friend.

"Depends. What movie are we talking about?"

Sara shrugged. "Don't know. I'm sure we could find a copy of Blasto somewhere."

She was rewarded with a groan.

"What?" Sara laughed. "It sounded like you were a fan!"

She may have legitimately offended Peebee. "You think I'd like something as mainstream as Blasto?"

"The elcor production of Hamlet, then?" Sara was going to get a cramp, shrugging like that. "I don't know!"

"Apparently not!" Peebee was back on her feet, dusting herself off and gesturing for Sara to do the same. "No movie, definitely not if dinner's involved- not even a quick trip to pick up a newsreel at the corner store."

"Peebee, I have zero interest in anything Kalinda," Sara laughed again. The other woman had been too refined for Sara's tastes. Not nearly smarmy enough. "Just wasn't sure if I needed to screen your calls or come running when her name pops up."

"No need for that," Peebee replied. "Kalinda knows the frequency of my private channel."

"Okay then." Sara lingered in the doorway and tried for a meaningful look, not that her eyebrows could decide on what direction to turn.

It made Peebee chortle at least, before she shut the door in Sara's face.

"Okay then," Sara repeated at the closed door, before turning and making her way toward the bridge.

Cora hadn't moved from Sara's seat, close enough for their pilot to feel every hot breath she hissed anytime he tugged on the yolk too sharply. Sara kept her distance and instead leaned toward the viewfinder and stared off at the cold blackness of space. "ETA?" she asked.

"Twenty minutes, as long as the coordinates hold up. And there's no unforeseen interference from the Scourge." The response was automatic and didn't even require enough thought for the salarian to glance away from his controls.

"Thank you, Kallo," Cora said. "You're doing fine."

"I am trained for it, after all," Kallo replied lightly, his tone betrayed by the downward twisting corners of his mouth.

Sara tried not to snort. Instead, she kept her eyes glued to space and attempted to stay casual. "You mentioned an important asari on the Leusinia, a... Sarissa Ther-"

"Sarissa Theris, yes," Cora said, not waiting for SAM's data banks to catch up to their conversation. "What about her?"

"You know for certain she was on the Leusinia?" Sara asked.

"She was working as the asari Pathfinder's bodyguard," Cora answered. "Her tiamna."

"So she was still active," Sara announced to the back of her second's head. "With the way you mentioned her training manuals, I wasn't sure if she'd gone matriarchal and retired. You know, write some books, collect a fat pension with some honorary 'Advisor' title."

Cora scoffed. "Why would I be trying to track down more dead weight when we have enough of that already? Of course Sarissa is still active."

"It sounds like you know her personally."

"Yes..." There was a hesitance, maybe Sara had stumbled onto something significant. Cora's head drooped. "Well, no. Not exactly."

"I thought maybe with the way you spoke about her, she headed up your commando unit," Sara commented.

"No, that was Nisira." Cora shook her head.

Sara shot a wistful glance at her occupied seat and ignored her dominant foot as it began to fall asleep. "Were you a huntress long?"

"I still am a huntress." It was a polite correction, but sharp enough to know the conversation could easily spiral in either direction. "But I get what you're asking. I spent four years in a commando unit called Talein's Daughters. Part of the Council's cross species military integration initiative."

"Ah." Four whole years tagging along with a species that lived a millennia. Did any of them remember Cora as vividly as she did them, Sara wondered. She cleared her throat. "It sounds like it was very formative for you."

"We did good work," was all Cora said. "Peacekeeping is a full time job, even in asari space."

"Sounds a bit more edge of your seat than poring over pottery shards and arguing with your colleagues about age and whether they were used to hold food, wine or perfume," Sara replied. "Do you miss it?"

Cora finally turned to look at her, a little bemused. "Well, do you miss your digs?"

"Absolutely." The problems and questions were boundless, but there was no timeframe. All the peoples from a site were long dead, so the only time Sara had to rush was when weather threatened a site or grant money was dwindling. She missed the freedom to breathe and examine the same problem from multiple angles over the course of months.

"There's your answer." Cora nodded her head.

"What was it like?"

"Janae and I were 'the youngsters." Tethys was our old lady sniper. Kalia patched us up and Valenza prayed between firefights." Cora let her head dip back against the seat, her look unreadable. Bittersweet, maybe? "Our CO, Nisira, led us all over the Athena Nebula and beyond. A huntress's work is never done."

"Were you the only human?" Sara asked.

"In my unit, yes," Cora replied. "There were five humans in total, two turians, a lone volus, and unsubstantiated rumors of a drell. The program was strict about ability requirements to purposely keep it a high asari to alien ratio so that it was as true to a traditional huntress unit as possible."

"Gotcha-"

"We're approaching the navpoints Cora found," Kallo interrupted. "Something's there. It might be an ark, but the damn Scourge isn't helping."

That ended their conversation as Cora's head whipped toward the viewscreen before them.

Not to be useless, Sara announced, "SAM, help out with sensors," as if the AI hadn't been doing that, already.

Cora didn't acknowledge it. She was too busy staring at the viewscreen. "Hard to believe the Leusinia could survive in all this," she murmured.

"Why would the asari ark be here?" was all Sara could think to say.

"Might be lost or looking for something." Cora shook her head. "Sarissa will have plans, she wrote the manual on crisis situations."

"Still believe she'll save the day?"

"Sarissa was a legend even before she was the Pathfinder's bodyguard," Cora insisted without hesitation. "She'll have a plan."

"Aha!" Kallo cried. "Detecting an Initiative vessel!" With a few expert taps to his controls, the Tempest slowed and their visual through the Scourge appeared to clear.

Cora was already at the sensors. "Reading life signs. And minimal power, multiple hull breaches... she's a wreck."

That wasn't entirely true. Wedged between the dark, static plumes of the Scourge, Ark Leusinia looked small. A life raft in the eye of a hurricane. Natanus had been a wreck, its precious cargo spread across the stars like confetti, but the Leusinia was more than life support sparking along the skeleton of a hull. She was damaged, but with her feeble shields and intact outline, she wouldn't necessarily disintegrate under the stress of FTL. The Leusinia might actually be salvageable.

"If she's space worthy and the crew's still alive, that's all we need," Sara said.

Cora nodded, her jaw clenched into a hard line. "Gear up."