"So, good news: it's going to be really easy to board the Archon's ship!"

Sara's joke landed flat in the silence of the bridge. Kallo sat in his seat, his large black eyes taking in the ark. She felt her mouth move, like the motion could somehow jump-start the formation of any suitable words.

Cora cleared her throat. "I'll adjust my game plan," she said quietly. "You can look it over as soon as I'm done." With a wave of her finger, the schematics above her omni tool vanished, and the lieutenant hurried down the steps and to the door.

As she exited, she bumped elbows with Drack who came crashing onto the bridge. "We've found the salarian ark?"

As Sara glanced back at the krogan, she saw Vetra on his heels and Jaal. She shook her head; word traveled fast. "SAM, tactical?" The viewscreen lit up with the blueprints of Ark Paarchero along with a mock-up of the umbilical that attached it to the flagship. She waved an open palm, presenting the image to everyone.

"What's the plan?" Vetra wanted to know.

"I'm working on it." Sensors indicated that the ark was on standby with only its stasis facilities online. Whether the salarians were onboard- awake or asleep, alive or dead- was anyone's guess.

Sara exhaled. One thing at a time. Baby steps. "SAM, connect me to the Moshae."

The image of the ark vanished and soon was replaced with the Moshae blinking back at them all. "Ryder, it's good to see you again."

Sara offered a tight grin before she went straight into it. "We've located the Archon's ship. It's more complicated than we thought, so I wanted to make sure we knew what we were looking for."

"It was a large Remnant relic depicting Meridian," the Moshae said. "It's in his private chamber- his sanctum, he called it. He's very proud of that relic."

Look for the big, heavily guarded Remnant piece in one of the most heavily guarded rooms on the ship. Sara nodded. "That's what we needed. I appreciate it."

The Moshae nodded back. "And I appreciate what you're doing for all of us. But be careful," she warned. "I've seen the Archon's cruelty. I hope you don't."

"That makes two of us," Sara replied. "Thank you for your help, Moshae." She cut the feed and clapped her hands. "Okay! We play this right, not only do we get away with the relic, we save the salarians. I say we get onto the ark, assess the situation, then sneak onto the kett ship through the tether."

"You heard the Moshae," Drack announced gruffly. "The Archon hurts people. It's all he does."

Sara had thought that went without saying. Of course, now SAM was helpfully chirping theories in regards to the lack of biodiversity in the whole of Andromeda and how odd it was that there was only a single sentient species to be found in an entire galaxy. How long had the kett been utilizing other species for reproduction? She shot the krogan a look. "If he's done anything to those salarians..."

"Ryder." Kallo's voice cut through her cynical wonderings. "Whatever you need. Those are my people."

Whatever Sara was thinking, she was certain her pilot had already imagined it or worse. "Yeah." She tried to give him a comforting nod. "Let's make this one count. Okay! Let me reconfigure strike teams with this new information. Make your peace, make your lunch, and meet me back here in an hour starting now."

And by "her," Sara actually meant Cora. Sara stormed from the bridge, ideally fast enough so that anyone on her heels couldn't hear the stream of obscenities falling from her lips. She made a beeline to the bio lab.

"This is bad," she announced the second the door shut.

Cora nodded and opened the blueprints of Ark Paarchero again. "It's risky," she agreed. "But in some ways it's easier than if we were boarding the Archon's ship blind."

"A hell of a lot of complications for ease of entry," Sara replied.

"One step at a time, Pathfinder," Cora murmured, rotating the blueprints with a finger. "Let's focus on what is, before we wonder about what's possible."

"Right." Sara slumped down next to her. "So, what step is panic attack?"

"I try to save that one for last," Cora's chuckle rolled into a sigh. "We know the arks; all their layouts were intentionally identical. We know the closest docking bay to that tether."

"Forget the tether," Sara said. "Let's get to the ark's SAM node or their cryo facilities. We need to see who's left onboard and if it's enough to get it out of here."

Cora frowned. "But what about the relic?"

"The relic is a shot in the dark," Sara replied. "That ark is twenty thousand people. I want to say let's do both, but between them, the priority is clear."

"Okay." Cora zoomed in on a central docking bay. "This goes belly up, it's really going to mess up our relationship with the angarans, but here's the best point to enter Paarchero for what you want."

"Right. I go in there quiet with a small group and assess." Spoken coldly like that it sounded sensible. After all, Sara had been doing this long enough to be the expert. She wouldn't trip or set off an alarm or fart loudly while wandering down a spooky corridor. "We check for kett presence, alterations done to the ark and salarian pods. If feasible, wake a skeleton crew to fly it out of there and then continue on up the tether to the Archon's ship for our previous mission. Simple, easy-peasy."

"So who's on our strike team?" Cora asked.

"'Our?'" Sara's eyebrow shot up.

"Please, Ryder, I've seen you fight." The blueprint vanished and she was instantly eye to eye with her second. "I'm the only one I trust to get you out of there in one piece."

"I just thought it would make more tactical sense for us to be split up in case things really do go bad..."

"Not happening, not up for debate." Cora shook her head like it was all settled. "Who's our third?"

"To come with us or replace us if we simultaneously die?" That earned her a look, so Sara just pressed on. "If you're with me, Jaal and Vetra should stay on the Tempest. They're both pragmatic and Jaal's the closest thing we have to a kett expert."

"That leaves..." Cora made a face. "Drack or Peebee."

Sara sighed. "Drack it is."

"Drack? For an op to save the salarian ark?" Cora said, staring at her.

"Can you imagine how much that will piss off Tann?" Sara snorted. "Yeah, Drack. Peebee's creative, but I feel more comfortable with a tried and true war vet, because we can't afford anything going wrong with this mission."

"All right." Cora accepted that with a nod. "Let's go tell everyone their assignments."

Spoken as such, it seemed a done deal. However, if assigning the strike team was any indication to the success of their mission, they were all doomed.

"Wait. So I'm expected to sit patiently aboard the Tempest while someone else secures a priceless Remnant relic?" Peebee finally decided to grace them all with her presence. "No. Nuh uh! No way."

"Maybe show up next time when we all draw straws," Sara deadpanned. "Moving on-"

"She has a point," Vetra said. "You I get, but the first leg of this op is scouting and stealth. What about Drack and Cora strikes you as subtle?"

The krogan chuffed, "I can be quiet."

Vetra didn't even dignify that with a response.

"It looks to me like Ryder is going in expecting the worst," Jaal commented.

"I'm not expecting the worst, it's called being practical-"

"I don't blame you." He shrugged. "You should."

"It doesn't matter," Sara insisted. "I wasn't looking for opinions, I was telling you all what's happening."

"Seriously?" Peebee still looked disgruntled, her nose wrinkling as she flung a hand on her hip. "Remnant is my life- you know I have to be there!"

"Yes, seriously," Sara said, dragging a hand through her hair, "because-"

"This is because I tried to sleep with Reyes, isn't it?" Peebee asked suddenly. "It didn't work."

Sara blinked. "...Yes?"

"And... you had no idea about that," the asari realized as she glanced around at their audience on the bridge. "Shit!"

"Not quite so explicitly, no, but I could read between the lines," Sara drawled. She raised her voice to address everyone while staring Peebee down. "We can agree this situation is delicate and everyone has a role to play whether they're on Paarchero or the Tempest. That relic is important, but not before we've secured the salarians.

"Vetra, I want you relaying pertinent intel back to your contacts- the Nexus, exiles, whoever- so that in the instance things go really south, they know what's happening. If things go bad, everyone is to listen to and respect Jaal's expertise on kett formations and firefights, because he's probably the only thing that will get you out of here alive. We'll have a direct radio frequency to the Tempest, so you'll all know exactly what to expect as the situation develops. Got it?"

There was a slight murmuring that Sara decided to take as assent. She gave them all a final nod before blowing out of there- to comm Kadara, maybe, or just scream into a pillow until she felt human enough to gear up- and scrambled towards the Pathfinder's cabin.

"Ryder, wait!" Not fast enough, apparently, since Peebee practically stubbed a toe on the back of Sara's heel when they both screeched to a halt. "Just hold on a second!"

"What?"

"Well, you said everyone has a role to play," Peebee said, taking a step back. "What's mine? You can't expect me to sit back and twiddle my thumbs when you've got a beautiful piece of Rem-tech- I don't twiddle."

Sara couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. "I was hoping you could prep SAM node to better process this relic when we get it," she told her. "Do you think you can pull your shit together long enough to do that?"

"Really? Yeah, I can most definitely do that!" Peebee's nodding turned into a frown after a moment. "So hey, about that hiccup with Reyes..."

"No."

"I just-"

"Not doing this right now." Sara clapped a hand on the other woman's shoulder. "I don't know what to think or feel at the moment, because there are way too many other imminent things to focus on. Get your shit together and prep for the relic. We'll talk when I get back. Or I'll be dead. Either way, it'll get sorted." She barked a sharp laugh, "Hope I don't die."

So, that solved that, then. Sara felt the need to brush her hands clean, but went to her locker instead. She suddenly no longer had the urge to contact Reyes for any messy confessionals and just wanted to live long enough for a well deserved breakdown after she was back onboard the Tempest.

She pulled on her suit and stepped into her boots- wriggling each foot to make sure she hadn't absentmindedly forgotten a wadded up sock in the toe- and placed her helmet over her head last. Cora and Drack were ready and waiting for her by the gang plank.

"You ready?" Cora asked.

Sara shrugged. "Probably not, but we should go, anyway."

"Fair enough." Her second nodded toward the exit. "Let's go, Pathfinder."