When the beam of light stopped, the wall of wind circling the structure collapsed, hurling the boulders away. It also left a vacuum behind, which, with a snap, sucked the air around the structure and inside of it, pulling anything not tied down...like Alec and Scott.
Scott yelled as the wind knocked him around. He used his jetpack to regain his balance, but it was too late; he hit the ground and tumbled. Momentum carried him forward until he felt something solid in front of him, then his visor broke. He felt pain explode as shards buried between his forehead and crown. In shock, he breathed in. Then everything went hazy as the poisonous air filled his lungs while blood trickled down into his eyes. He held his breath and searched for his omni-tool to fix his visor, but his hands kept slipping, slick with his blood. The lights went hazy, then brightened then dimmed.
His nose and throat began to burn and he grasped at his neck. He remembered Markus' warning about the air and so tried to hold his breath again, but his lungs hurt so much he was forced to cough. He heard himself wheezing as his body took control completely, taking in the air along with its poison. And as the poison sped through his veins, he lost his lucidity more and more.
A strange orange light was coming towards him.
"We need evac, now!" he heard it say as it came near. He squinted at it, until the mist parted and he realized the light was Alec limping toward him. He called out to him unintelligibly, then writhed on the ground as his blood filled with the poison.
"They're sending down a shuttle! ETA in twenty!" he heard Cora say from Alec's omni-tool.
"Scott!" Alec yelled as he scooted beside him. He turned him to the side as Scott heaved.
"Hang on! We're coming!" Cora promised, but Scott couldn't care anymore. The world turned hazy and he felt an incredible lightness, as if the mist was carrying him away. He turned to Alec's face, unable to speak. He felt an urge that he should say something to this person looking at him, hurting.
Ah, yes. He remembered. The word was "goodbye."
At this, Alec's face stopped looking pained.
"We don't have that long," Alec murmured. He ignored Cora asking for clarifications and reached up. "Deep breaths, son," he said, then he removed his helmet and put it on him.
Scott breathed in the clean air from the helmet and by degrees, his vision cleared. The world seemed substantial again, memories started flooding back and-he understood what just happened. Alec was holding his breath as he typed in his override codes.
"What…are…you-" he coughed at Alec. Alec ignored him until he finished, then looked at him as if he was sorry.
"Initiating transfer," SAM chimed.
Scott screamed as SAM flooded his brain. He did not feel his father hold him tightly as he thrashed. Through the haze, he saw his father hold him up and look at him with pride. "I love you, son. Tell Sara her father loves her too." He was saying something else but the pain in his head grew louder and louder until that was all he knew.
When he opened his eyes again, pain was all he knew.
-"He's having a seizure!"
-"The connection is overloading."
-"Quick! Get him to SAM node. It's the only chance he got."
He saw Dr Lexi and Dr Carlyle over him, shouting over each other, their hands moving in front of his body. He raised his hand feebly to touch them but Dr Lexi caught it and held it against his chest, without looking at him, intent on something beside him. He tried to turn his head, but the white-hot pain returned until he lapsed again into unconsciousness.
Scott opened his eyes and saw a white ceiling staring back down at him. He raised himself up and found he had been lying before SAM's node. The room was dark, half-illuminated by SAM's projection and he turned around. He squinted to see the AI's form; swimming, blinking lights, like fireflies, forming something like a brain, as he puzzled over why was he lying there instead of a more appropriate place like his quarters.
"Hey. You're awake," someone said hoarsely.
Scott turned to his side and saw Marcus emerge from the shadows. His face was bathed with orange light from his omni-tool as he informed someone on the other line that Scott was awake.
"What happened?" Scott asked. His throat felt dry. Marcus reached behind him and poured him a cup of water from a carafe and gave it to him. He took it and tasted lukewarm water. While he drank, he saw there was a cuff on one of his wrist and he picked at it, which sent the console beside him beeping until he left it alone.
Marcus examined him, gauging his reaction. He looked tired. His eyebags look bigger from the shadows cast by the half-light. "Do you remember us setting down in Habitat 7?" he asked him carefully.
Scott frowned and thought hard. Slowly, the memories came back fast and hard-the descent onto the planet, finding Greer, Cora Alec, then assaulting the alien base, Greer dying, reaching the tower while Cora and Marcus covered them, deactivating the tower, then getting sucked out of it and onto the cliffs below-
"I got thrown off a cliff then my visor broke. Then someone came for me," he said, then his eyes widened in realization and he yelled. "Dad! Where's Dad? Where's my father?" he asked. Fear constricting his throat as he remembered what happened before he fainted.
Marcus looked pained but before he could answer, the door opened and Dr Lexi and Cora walked in.
"I'm so glad you woke up," the asari greeted, going to the console at his side swiftly. "I thought we would lose you."
"Where's my father?"
Dr Lexi hesitated, her fingers frozen atop the console. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "He didn't make it."
His mind reeled. So, it was true. All of it. His father limping towards him as he gasped for air. Calling for help as he puked his lungs out. Then giving him his own helmet as he said goodbye.
Dr Lexi placed a comforting hand on his back. "He was very brave. What he did-what you all did saved us all. We managed to get away from the thing holding us back around Habitat 7."
"He sacrificed himself for me," he said, his tone hollow.
"Of course, he did. You're his child; he cares about you."
Scott was silent on it.
"Before he died, he transferred SAM to you," Dr. Lexi continued. She looked satisfied with the console's reports and moved to his side to take the cuff off. "That's why you're here. The connection was too much for your implant. You were convulsing when Cora and the rest found you. You died a couple of times on the way and during treatment, and we were running out of options so we put you here hoping that it will stabilize your connection. It did but something's different this time. The implant had overloaded and now, SAM was connected to you on a deeper level. SAM and your neural network had merged, and extracting it now will kill you."
"That was what I was going to tell you," Cora blurted out. "You're the new Pathfinder," she announced, drawing a reproachful look from Dr Lexi. But she could not take it back now. He needed to know this. They needed him to know this.
He went still, then stared at Cora.
"I thought you're next in line?" he asked her, surprised.
Cora's jaw hardened. "Yes. But SAM is needed for the Pathfinder and so it comes with the title. Since it can't be separated from you now, we have no other choice but name you the Pathfinder."
Scott stared at her and then dropped his eyes. Then he raised it again to hers. "I'm sorry, Cora. I didn't intend to be Pathfinder like this."
Cora pinched her lips together but she nodded. "If you're ready, Captain Dunn wanted to speak with you."
Dr Lexi intervened. "We understand if you need more time to think about this-"
"Is Sara awake yet?"
The three exchanged looks. Then Dr Lexi turned back to him. "Do you want to see her?" she asked gently.
Scott was sitting beside Sara's bed, watching his sibling laid on the bed, breathing softly, eyes closed, as Dr Carlyle was explained to him her condition. The turbulence had caused a loss of gravity in the med bay so her pod was thrown around, causing it to malfunction, interrupting her reawakening cycle which sent her into a coma. Dr. Carlyle informed him that her condition had not improved but from the signs, he was optimistic that she'd wake naturally.
Scott barely heard him. As Dr Carlyle prattled on, Scott took her hand and put it on his cheek. He wanted to let her know, in some way, that he was here and somehow, she'll understand what he felt and know she was not alone. As he did now.
"Thank you, Doctor," he said, for the doctor had generously allowed him some minutes in silence and ignored his lapse without offense.
"No problem, Scott. We'll watch over your sister and let you know about her progress," the doctor assured him.
Scott nodded and turned away where Marcus and Cora were waiting for him. He walked between them, leading them out and into the ark's main conference room. Inside, Captain Dunn was sitting alone at the head of the oval table, her mind on something, as stars flew on the screen on both side of the wall and their light reflected dimly on the table's fake oak finish. She had an apprehensive look on her face, which she smoothed away as soon as they entered.
"Scott Ryder," she greeted, rising from her seat. "I'm sorry about your loss."
He nodded. "I appreciate your concern, Captain," he answered.
She gestured to them their seats. As they seated themselves, she looked their new Pathfinder over.
Though she was truly sorry for Scott, she mentally rebuked Alec for putting him in this situation in the first place. There's a reason why the military don't let people from the same family together in a small unit like theirs and now they've ended up with this as predicted.
She did not show it however, by face or manner, as she took her place beside Scott. No need to destroy his morale when their lives depend on his untested shoulders. Though she has doubts of Scott's credential as Pathfinder due to his age and limited experience, she kept quiet about it. Unlike civilians, they assume competence in one of their own because they are one of their own. Only if there were doubts of his conduct on the job will she deem it the time to challenge him. But right now, he gave her no reason to ask if he was alright. Besides, time will definitely tell whether he was worthy of being Pathfinder... or not.
"We need to talk about your new role as Pathfinder, as I did with your father." She turned to Cora beside him. "I assume you've explained to him his primary duties?"
"We'd briefed him of the important parts on the way here," Cora answered.
"Good." She nodded at her then turned back to Scott. "Then I'll just skip to pressing matters. Right now, we're somewhere in the Heleus cluster. Habitat 7 is supposed to be our home, but it's too dangerous to return there now. Not with the thing hanging around it."
"Have you found out what it was?" he asked, with a glance on the fading bruise on her forehead.
"Some of our scientists are working on that and so far, we don't know much about it. It is invisible to our sensors until we hit it. Even so, we can only tell it by the distortion of star field. We've seen what happened in Habitat 7, but we reviewed the feeds again. Our analysts conclude that it did not originate from there, only that it reacted to the light from Habitat 7." While the Pathfinder Team was shutting it down, the Hyperion had managed not to get sheared off in half with some carefully managed wiggling. There were a lot of damaged sections because of it, but at least the ark was intact and ready to go FTL as soon as the away team were ready.
"What you did down at Habitat 7 managed to loosen its grip on us. We had barely enough time to wait for your team and go FTL before it seized us again.'' She glanced at the datapad where the reports concerning the incident were piled up. "I've read the report about what happened with your team at Habitat 7 and I want to ask about the tower causing it."
"It was doing something with the atmosphere so I think it's some sort of stabilizer? There were aliens around it too. SAM might tell you more."
"We think the aliens have turned it on, causing it to interact violently with the surrounding space and attract that thing," Cora explained.
She nodded. "Noted. So to continue, we escaped from Habitat 7. I've decided to look for the Nexus and had a team comb the surrounding systems. A few days ago, we picked up a faint exhaust trail, matching the exhaust from the Nexus drive. It leads to a system a few light years from us."
"So what do you need me to do?"
"We'll arrive at their location tomorrow," she said, putting away the datapad. "Prepare your team. After Habitat 7, we don't know what to expect."