What happened next was important. Not in the rhetorical all life is important sort of way, but significant enough that SAM chose to store it as an eidetic memory. So, no pressure, likely just integral to all existence in Heleus.
Jaal was back, and more importantly Sara had returned to the Tempest. Try as she might, she couldn't think of any other detours or distractions. All the vaults within her grasp had been activated to the best of her ability and her crew had either been utilized or strategically removed from their service (good bye and don't stop to write, Kosta.) That meant all of SAM's available processing speed could finally be applied to the kett transponder. No matter where the kett went in the universe, physics still had to apply and there were only so many ways of communicating across space, right? They were going to track the Archon down, intentionally board his ship and steal that artifact.
With stakes such as these, Sara couldn't help but miss all the murderers on Kadara.
She had Cora meet her in engineering along with their tech officer. Maybe it was because she knew he constantly butted heads with her pilot, but there was something about Officer Brodie that rubbed Sara wrong. Cora seemed to share her distaste, if for what Sara could only guess were wildly different reasons.
Gil Brodie's ambling gait was too stiff to be truly casual, and the way the collar of his uniform was left with precisely three buttons unfastened was as intentional as the meticulously maintained scruff on his face. For a Pathfinder who so desperately wanted to be viewed as professional and respectable while smelling of Kadara sulfur water and wearing three day old underwear, Sara just had a hunch that she and Gil were built to be at odds with one another.
That became even more evident when he tossed her the transponder without any further instructions. Apparently, she should have had a basic working knowledge of what was going on, as well as his function and what he did aboard the ship. If she did, perhaps Sara would have realized that it was incorrect to assume that by handing her the transponder, he meant for her to activate it.
Almost immediately their com frequency was filled with the guttural grinding of kett language.
"Shit! Turn it off!" Brodie lunged at her, fumbling the transponder out of Sara's hands in the process. With a glare, he shut it off. "Careful! That is a direct line to people who want to murder everyone on this ship."
"Maybe let's start with that next time?" Sara snapped. Before she said anything else, she was stopped by Cora's hand on her arm. Sara rolled her eyes, but took a breath. "SAM?"
It worked, at least. SAM was busy relaying coordinates in the Tafeno System to Kallo. Sara nodded to excuse herself, Cora trailing at her heels as she left.
"You sure we want to do this?" she asked.
"Not at all," Sara replied. "Do you see any other option?"
Cora heaved a begrudging sigh. "It's going to be dangerous."
"Only if we die," Sara shot back.
Instead of groaning, Cora paused. "You've done that once already," she said. "So, I guess you're the expert on that."
"Yeah." Sara nodded. "I guess I am."
With their course set, all that was left was for an itching, restless boredom that ate up the hours between arranging a strike team and the panic-filled, sleepless nights. She couldn't pretend like Cora, who had holed herself up in the meeting room as she worked on countless imaginary contingencies for an enemy ship they'd never seen nor set foot on. Sara resigned herself to eat, drink and be useless until they were close enough to glean any fresh information, so when Jaal invited her to the tech lab for lunch, she was all too happy to oblige him.
"Hey, any more spicy dishes to melt my face?" she greeted as she came through the door.
"Something like that." He was wearing gloves and holding something in his palm.
"Jaal, is that..?"
"A glass star? Yes." He held it out to her and smirked. "You told me once you and your people would willingly eat this poison for mine and since we just left Havarl... well. It was an opportunity. Are you interested?"
"Well, that depends. SAM?" Sara brought her omni tool toward the large purple bloom with its five pointed petals. Once the AI gave her the go ahead, she grinned. "Looks like it won't kill me. I'm game."
She plucked the flower from Jaal's outstretched hand and with a shrug, popped it into her mouth. It was, for lack of any better words, a flower. She probably should have clarified that Jaal had washed it first- the mound of pollen tickling the back of her throat told her it was unlikely- but it wasn't bad. Not at all like the grape candy Sara had hoped it would be reminiscent of, more like a sweeter, almost medicinal cucumber, but certainly not inedible.
"Tastes like it belongs on a salad," Sara told him. "We should have done this in front of Baranji."
"Because intimidating him by eating poison will make my brother dislike you less?"
"Hate," Sara said. "Let's be clear on that. He hates me not because he knows anything about me, but because I'm human."
"He's an adult." Jaal looked down and began to delicately remove his gloves. "As much as I don't like it, scolding or lecturing him would only anger him and strengthen his resolve."
"So bring him back home where he can radicalize your other siblings," she muttered.
He tossed the gloves in the trash. "You've been thinking about this."
"Yeah. Haven't you?"
"I'm glad he's back home," Jaal sighed. "But I'm not entirely sure how to proceed. Boiling water softens vegetables, but also hardens eggs. I'm hoping our mothers will be wiser in directing Baranji than I."
"So your plan is to just back off and let someone else deal with it?" Sara asked.
He shrugged. "Either that, or I could try punching him again- you saw how effective that was. He'll have time to think about things clearly this way, away from Akksul's lies."
Sara had the feeling he might also have the time to double down on some of his beliefs, but it didn't seem like anything particularly constructive to say. Instead, she plopped down on the floor and began to parse through the food items Jaal had set out, careful to ignore any kaerkyn jerky. "What made him turn to Akksul and the Roekaar, anyway?"
"I would guess for the same reasons that Akksul turned from the Resistance and created the Roekaar," Jaal replied. He joined her, rifling through the food, albeit far less discriminantly.
"Yeah, you said you'd tell me more about Akksul when we had time, too," she reminded him, taking a bite out of something that looked like fruit leather. "All I've got is time now, pal."
That got a laugh, but Jaal nodded. "Akksul was captured by the kett. He spent a year in a forced labor camp before he managed to escape."
"Forced labor? But I thought the kett only used angara for exaltation."
"Maybe they need to weaken them and wear them down first before they can..." His mouth soured and he quickly stuffed some food into it. "I don't know, that's something you should ask the kett."
"Yeah, I don't think I will," Sara said. The flavor wasn't bad, but she really had to work her jaw on the dehydrated rind. "I totally get why he'd want to destroy the kett after that, but why didn't he just join the Resistance?"
"Akksul's not the type to follow orders." Jaal sat quietly chewing after that, mulling over his words. "And I think he was bitter we weren't able to rescue him."
"So he formed the Roekaar." It made sense, in a way.
He nodded. "We didn't give them much thought. But, since your people arrived, his cause has grown."
"We are pretty likeable, aren't we?" Sara chuckled.
"Humans could have been perfect and still change is hard," Jaal said.
"Does it help that we're not?" she asked.
He snorted and nearly choked on his meal. "I think so," he managed finally.
"You've got to be kidding me," she said. "I was joking."
"Your jokes are awful," Jaal replied. "But you always try and mean well despite being constantly reminded how unfunny you are. Cora will smother people and do too much out of concern, Liam was shallow and fun."
Sara made a face. "Liam is fun, but my jokes are awful?"
"Yes."
"My jokes aren't that bad."
"They're worse than bad." He popped a piece of whatever he was eating into her mouth to silence her. "The more I interact with you all, the easier it becomes to individualize you. Just like you've seen the differences between myself and Evfra, the Moshae and Akksul. I think we need that. To remember we're all more than just the assholes governing us."
"Even when we're working for those assholes," Sara sighed. "This is pretty good. What is it?"
"Quilloa." Jaal smirked. "Adults typically ferment the fruit, but our children like them wrapped in pastries."
Sara snatched another from his hands. "The kids are right."
"Probably so," he chuckled. "You should contact the Moshae when you're done here. She has firsthand knowledge of the Archon's ship."
"Right." She reached for what looked like tiny balls of candied fruit and Jaal slapped her hand away.
"Don't touch those."
"Why?" Sara asked. "Capsaicin?"
"No." He grinned, collecting them all, one by one, "they're my favorite."
As they neared the Tafeno System, Cora finally managed to corner Sara. "Look, I know you don't like any of this," the lieutenant said. "That's why I started doing all of it, so we don't go in blind. There's only so many entry points on a ship-"
"On a Milky Way ship, yeah," Sara interrupted. "We've only seen kett freighters or smaller ships. This is the Archon's flagship."
"There are certain assumptions we can make," Cora insisted. "They'll be adjusted when we see the schematics, definitely, but it's easier to adjust than to start from scratch."
"Okay, fine. What have you got?"
"Right. So, I was thinking-"
"Ryder." It was the science officer over the intercom. "We're getting a lot of kett com chatter."
"Keep us stealthed, Kallo," Sara announced to the entire ship. "No sense picking a fight just yet." She shrugged at Cora and nodded toward the bridge. "Sounds like we're close. I hope the schematics match your outlines."
Through the viewscreen on the bridge, Sara could see just how congested space was around them. "Well," she laughed uncomfortably, and gestured at the kett armada surrounding them. "Now we know where the kett have been hiding."
She tried to assure herself that they were stealthed. Still, it would have been easy to hear a pin drop on the Tempest's bridge.
Kallo cleared his throat. "Pathfinder, sensors confirm the presence of the Archon's ship."
"I'll be damned," Sara breathed. "It worked."
"But there's something else-" Her pilot frowned as he reduced engines and allowed the Tempest to drift through the heavy traffic toward their destination. As the Archon's ship appeared on the viewscreen, Kallo verified what the sensors had been telling him. "That's an Initiative ship tethered to it. It's- Ark Paarchero!"
SAM confirmed it, not that he had to. The vessel filled with twenty thousand salarian lives dwarfed the ship that had taken it prisoner, its three-pronged silhouette unmistakable.
"How long has it been there?" Cora murmured.
Too long. What could the kett possibly want with twenty thousand sleeping salarians? The thought made Sara shudder. "This certainly changes things," was all she managed to say.