After Captain Dunn was done speaking to Kesh, Sloane and Addison, Scott and his team decided to talk to them also. They chose to start with Addison, who seemed more pleasant than the others. Not only do they look forward to talking with her, it was also smart to start the day pleasantly so they could survive the unpleasant ones later which they suspect, from Sloane's reception of them, that it was bound to happen.
They were led into a tiny office, which was full of stacked crates and looked frankly untidy. Piles of datapads was stacked on the desk and the console on the wall was filled with persistent blinking lights. Addison rose from her seat, ignoring it and asked them to take their seat.
"Sorry about the mess. I haven't got the time to tidy up," she said sheepishly. She carried some of the datapads off her desk and put it somewhere behind her so they could see her. They later heard the sound of a stack tumbling over. Tlack, Tlack, Tlack.
Addison let it tumble until the last one stopped and then she spoke. "So, what can I do for you?"
"We were just curious about what you do here and what happened after the Nexus arrived," Scott said, the two nodding.
"Ah. I think we'll be talking for a long time," she answered then pushed a button on her console. She instructed her assistant to get them some coffee. "Now, where to start?" she asked softly, casting her eyes around the room as she twiddled her thumbs. "I'm supposed to be the Colony Director of the Initiative, but in the death of our leaders and the failure of our colonies, I'm tasked as the administrator of the Nexus. Sloane handles the security while Kesh handles logistics. I handle everything else: operations, personnel management and comms sometimes."
Her assistant appeared holding a tray and offered them all a cup. They did not speak until after he went out. Addison downed hers as soon as it was put on her table.
Scott thanked her, holding his mug while Marcus sipped at his. He wasn't a coffee drinker but he thought it impolite to turn it down.
"How bad is it?" he asked, not only due to her report at the first meeting but also concern for her. There were fine lines on her face, almost as if she lost weight, and her eyes have dark circles underneath them. She was also sliding her fingers on the teeth of her jacket's zipper absently.
"For specifics in our living conditions, you need to ask Kesh. But honestly, it's bad. Most of our equipment were scrambled and we haven't replaced the drive we've detonated. Critical people are missing so we have to make do with their replacements who may not be trained in the job we need. Basic necessities are available, but we might need to ration soon if we don't scavenge, even with our lab grown food." She looked down sadly at her now empty mug. "We're using the recyclers now."
Marcus spat out his coffee. The other two stared at him as he coughed.
"Marcus, they would have filtered all the impurities out of that coffee before allowing anyone to drink it," Cora informed him when he calmed down.
"I know," Marcus answered, wiping his mouth. After a slight pause, Addison continued on without comment, but Marcus never touched his mug again for the duration of the interview and tried hard not to stare at the used mugs scattered all over her office.
"How are the people?"
"They've been through a lot of tough times. Tempers are frayed, and morale is still low. A lot of people have already lost hope in our mission." Suddenly, Addison adopted a long-suffering but brave face, like the kind seen when rallying people to a lost cause. "But we know we mustn't lose hope. We should continue to persevere. The only way around our problem is through."
They stared at her. She caught herself and coughed. "Sorry. I forgot you weren't of the Nexus. Months of desperate living and you resort to jingles to keep the morale up. I've done it so often I could do it in my sleep.''
"Can't you just make a VI of you saying those things?" Scott suggested carelessly. He haven't really thought deeply about it, just his tongue overtaking his brain as usual.
Addison stared at him, not speaking for a few minutes. Her bleary eyes struggled to focus on him, as if he had offered a lifeline she struggles to grab. "I haven't thought of that," she said at last. "Yes, it would have made my work easier." Her shoulders relaxed as she leaned back in her seat and sighed. "I could laugh if I wasn't so tired."
Scott looked at the two. They had no further questions and, pitying Addison, decided to let her rest. "Well, there's that. We won't be keeping you. Thank you for all the information, Addison. "
Instead of answering, Addison stared into space. Then she looked up at them, her eyes hopeful. "Just...tell me one thing. Alec-he had a plan, right? He had a plan for all of…this."
Scott looked at her with pity. "I'm sorry. I can't answer that." He glanced at his companions but they all looked as lost as he is. "If he did, he didn't share it with me."
Addison went still then she sighed. Her head dipped slightly, then raised with her face, smoothing it with the same cheerfulness the first time they met her. Even if it was forced.
"Well, then. We can't do anything about it now." She rose up, her face looking like she want them out and be alone. "Come see me if you need anything." She led them to the door but before they could step outside, she said, "One last thing. Don't forget to talk to Sloane Kelly. She'll explain to you why."
They found Sloane hunched over her desk. "We need to have those sensors working," she barked at someone on the other line, one hand resting on her cornrows, the other extended, her fingers on a lot of blinking lights in front of her. "We're lucky it's the Hyperion who just swanned in, but if it's something else, we're dead. And someone get to Raj Patel and investigate why our wirings keep blowing up? I need to finish this damn murder case."
Scott leaned against the side of the door and crossed his arms. "Busy? Addison said we needed to speak with you."
Sloane looked up from her desk to glare at them. Then she sighed. "We'll talk later," she said to the other line and cut it off without waiting for an answer. She waved at them to take their seats. "Let's get this over with.''
They took their seat as she looked them over with distaste. "I handle the security around here. It wasn't supposed to be the case but here we are," she said briskly. "Now, the reason why Addison directed you here is because there is something important you need to know before you go out there. If you value your life."
They weren't looking forward to spending any more time with Sloane but they sat up attentively when she said If you value your life. Sloane tapped on a console and there was a clicking noise as the door locked. Then white noise started filtering from a hidden speaker.
"We told you that Jien Garson was killed when we arrived here at Andromeda. That…wasn't exactly true. Jien Garson wasn't killed when the Shroud hit the Nexus. It was long after. She died due to cardiac arrest caused by a nanobot."
They gaped at her. "So…you're saying she was murdered?" Scott asked.
Sloane nodded. "It was professional. Almost clean, if I hadn't seen it before. It was made to look like her heart gave out due to stress. I don't rule out the mutineers completely but I suspect they had nothing to do with this. It's too silent and stealthy for them. They have nothing to gain by her death and if they had, they would surely have bragged it to us by now. No, we're dealing with professional assassins here," she stressed. "And I'm open to the possibility that the same happened to the other Pathfinders who were missing."
She reached out to a stack of datapads, opened them and gave it to them. "Here's dossiers of the missing leaders. For your eyes only."
Scott scanned them and found that the missing pathfinders came from extremely skilled backgrounds. Blackwatch. N7. STG and Huntresses. All of them knew how to survive on alien worlds. All of them would be extremely hard to kill, if their suspicion of internal sabotage was correct. If they were all dead, it would mean that something more powerful than anything their galaxy has to offer had come with them. And that something was still at large.
But why? Why travel all the way to this galaxy just to kill them as soon as they arrive? And who would be spiteful enough to chase them here when they're millions of light-years away?
"Captain Dunn decided to keep it internal for now. We tried our best to find them but so far, no luck. And with our current problems now, this is not going to be followed up soon. But maybe I'm wrong and you'll come across the senior leaders when you go out there. But keep your eyes and ears open. You'll be meeting exiles and aliens. Maybe you'll meet the killers there. Or here."
Sloane handed another datapad to Scott. Scott read the autopsy of the Initiative leader and read that they recovered a nanobot that ended her life. Though it was unlucky for the Initiative leader, lucky for them, it was ensconced in the clot that stopped her heart.
"A nanobot?" Scott wondered. "Who would be sophisticated enough to make one?"
Sloane made a sharp snort of irritation. "Didn't your Daddy tell you? The Initiative is full of tech breaking countless Council regulations which would damn the Alliance a million times over. AI? Cloning technology? Arks the size of destroyers? Jien Garson made all this, foreseeing anything that we might need here. She may be crazy, but she was damn prepared." Her tone softened. "But it's also not impossible that someone may have done the same thing."
He was grateful for the information but he did not like her tone so he didn't answer back. He studied the dossiers again. Some of the other Pathfinders were familiar to him, because some of them were acquaintances of his father. There was Aelus Abrudas, Alec's rival. They have met during the First Contact War when the Alliance went to retake Shangxi from the turians. Even after the dust cleared and the misunderstanding was resolved, the wounds sustained by both races still hasn't healed. The turian hated his father's guts, but curiously, he accorded him respect, although grudgingly. It was born from their mutual experience during the war. Alec repaid it in kind. The combination of this and hatred seems like an odd friendship to those looking from the outside.
He flipped over the next. Jurdern Silben, a retired STG operative. Tevana Iallisir, a former huntress. Both with decorated records. He flipped to the last one and stopped dead.
Looking at him was a face of a family friend. Arthur Bentham.
An N7 like his father, but he wasn't part of Jon Grissom's team who went through the Charon Relay. He fought in the First Contact War, but he did not distinguish himself like his father did. Later, he fought during the Skyllian Blitz but he was pulled out early due to grave injuries. After that, he has no notable achievements for an N7. Perhaps because the chance of glory has passed and he missed it.
But Alec have welcomed him into their home. He also friends with his mother. Scott remembered the three of them talking late into the night. As a child, Scott slips out of his bed just to hear them talk. He isn't gifted in the sciences like Sara but he was fascinated by it, even when hearing the three of them talking about it sound like alien gibberish to him. Then Bentham slipped out and found him on a darkened corner, listening to them talk past his bedtime.
His features have nothing noteworthy with them. Dark eyes, Dark hair and pale skin. the face you can see in any crowd. But he was kind and mild-mannered. Bentham looked at him then back at the kitchen where his parents are talking. He turned back to him and smiled, putting a finger to his lips. The he ruffled his hair as he passed.
Bentham was very fond of them, even though he never had children of his own. Scott and Sara thought of him as their eccentric "uncle." Sara may have thought no more of him as just that, but to Scott, he was his favorite. Because Ben never saw him as anything other than himself. Certainly not someone to establish a Ryder dynasty, as others had. Everyone must cast their own shadow, he once said to him, and this advice he took to heart.
It was also from him that Scott learned the skill of being perfectly insulting while being perfectly polite, a skill no one of his family had ever learned. It was a small thing, but to Scott, who had long been overshadowed by them, it gives him a great deal of satisfaction.
He knew he had come too, which made the thought of going here at Andromeda bearable but he expected him be here. Not missing.
"Now do you have further questions?" Sloane asked, interrupting his thoughts.
"Any leads?"
She frowned at him. "That is the least of your priorities. Worry about getting us a home Pathfinder. I'll worry about this one."
Scott handed the datapad back to her. "We won't keep you," he said and rose from his seat.
Sloane nodded and led them out. Before the door, she said to him, "Good luck out there, Pathfinder. You're lucky you're not cooped up here." Then her tone shifted in the jeering one that lied underneath her words when they first arrived. "Prior to your arrival here, I was assured by the captain of your qualifications as a Pathfinder. Experience is...minimal but I'm sure your training under Alec is enough to make up for it," she said to Scott, sounding like she wasn't least bit reassured. "However, I'm curious to see if you can fill your daddy's shoes."
"I'll spare you the worry, ma'am, and tell you directly that I wouldn't be able to. Because Dad has big feet," Scott answered, his tone neutral.
She looked at him for a while, narrowing her eyes, unsure whether he was mocking her or not. But his face stayed perfectly placid so she let them out without a word.
The door of Sloane's office closed behind them and they were back on the operations deck. They only need to talk to Kesh now.
"What the fuck is her problem with me?" Scott asked irritably, nodding back at the closed door as they walked underneath the ops center to get to the other side. "It's like she never heard of field promotion before."
"Let it go, Scott. Nothing we can do about it now except prove her wrong about you," Marcus advised with a glance at Cora. She was silent, but her lips were thin as she looked at their surroundings. He wouldn't spell out the truth, even if it was too obvious for it to need to be spelled out. Not in her presence.
Scott wasn't mollified yet. "Do any of you have intel on her?"
"She's former Alliance," Cora finally spoke in a quiet tone. "A biotic trained under BAaT program. She also is a recipient of L2 implants. She had a near perfect record in the Alliance until her discharge. CAT6."
Scott raised a brow at her at hearing the Alliance term for dishonorable discharge. "Near perfect?"
"There were complaints of a violent temper. Her last record was an altercation with an officer and her fellow Alliance soldiers which also involved a turian soldier. It had caused a scandal in the leadership and raised tensions between the Alliance and the Hierarchy. She was sent to court martial then found guilty of aggravated assault. That maybe explains why she's here." She paused and when she continued, her voice was soft. "I've heard children sent to BAaT-Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training- don't come out right and the L2 implants were known to make you crazy. Still, all of it would not have convinced the Alliance to let a biotic like her go, unless she cost them too much to keep."
He glanced at her curiously. "Did something like that happened to you?"
"No. The Alliance and I parted ways amicably. They were very convincing in trying to make me stay and I'm grateful for everything they have done for me but..." Cora looked away into the distance, "let's just say I thought my future didn't lie with them anymore."
Scott decided not to press her and so looked forward, his thoughts swinging back to Sloane. He reviewed again her past and nearly smiled smugly. "Guess I don't have anything to prove to her," he muttered. With that, he put Sloane out of his mind and prepared himself to meet the last of the Nexus leaders.
They reached the door to Kesh office. Kesh opened it for them and beckoned them inside leading them to their seats. Her office was cramped with crates but she moved nimbly among her things to make them comfortable.
She sat opposite them and introduced herself. "I'm Nakmor Kesh. I'm part of the original team that built the Nexus and the arks and now I'm supervising the logistics and maintenance of this station. If you need equipment or anything built, repaired or maintained, come see me."
"You're not what I expected of a krogan," Marcus murmured, in surprise and awe.
Kesh made a deep, exasperated sigh. "Yes, Krogans are such mindless brutes they cannot do anything other than kill, crush and roar." She roared the last part, a loud roar that reverberated against the walls, pinned them against their seats, and made them remember why krogans are so feared. She coughed and asked in her usual calm voice, "Now, am I krogan enough for you yet?"
They both nodded, Marcus swallowing rapidly.
"Now that I proved I'm krogan, can we now talk about important things?"
"We meant no offense. Marcus was just surprised at seeing female krogans. We never see some of your kind much," Scott explained hurriedly.
Kesh noted that he only deflected from the real issue but let it pass for now. "I don't blame you. We females stay home in Tuchanka trying to make sure our race doesn't go extinct while the males are off fighting their stupid wars, spreading their idiocy all over the galaxy. That's why I'm here. I thought the history of the krogan is beyond hope that starting all over again in the Milky Way is impossible. "
"Do the other krogans think the same way?" Cora inquired.
"Unfortunately not, as the uprising has proven. Some of us intend to carry on their grudge, not realizing that their prized history of wars do not matter here anymore. I fear we're going to repeat the same mistakes we did during our wars but this time, it may be the end for us. We need each other, now more than ever, and brute strength is not enough."
"I agree," Scott said enthusiastically, trying to make up for the blunder earlier. "About the uprising. Addison said you managed to convince Nakmor Rusk to spare all of you? Just like that?"
"Despite our reputation, some of us are capable of reason," Kesh said, with a little stress on their reputation. "Rusk does. Besides, we are clan-mates and family is important to us. But after Tann denied him, Rusk lost hope on the Initiative to the point that he won't kill us personally. "You'd die on your own, with or without me," he said. I feared he was right...until you came." She looked out the window, where the power from the Hyperion drive had made some essential functions online and managed to make living in the Nexus a little less dire. "And for that, you have my vote."
"Thank you. But I'm wondering about your future. Last I heard, the genophage still hasn't cured. Is that going to affect your species?"
"Oh that. Some of us hasn't spent the journey here in cryo like you do. Some of us has started gene therapy as soon as we're out of Council space. And some of them developed a mutation that allowed them to circumvent the virus. We've raised our fertility rate to 4%. It's not much, but it's enough to ensure our species' survival."
"I assume the other races have something to say about that?"
"The therapy was done under their supervision, of course. And help, particularly from the salarians. They won't offer a formal apology for the genophage and never will, but surprisingly, they were willing to help us. They never gave their reasons of course, but I've thought of it as their way of atonement. Or by knowing how it is done, they could undo it, giving them control should the krogan rebel again. You can never tell with a salarian."
"Is there going to be a problem between your species and theirs?" he asked, worried about a possible conflict and planning ways to head it off.
She snorted. "There's always going to be a problem between species, not just ours and the salarians."
Scott was puzzled. "I…don't understand."
She gazed thoughtfully at him. "You really know nothing do you?" she said softly. Scott was about to ask her to elaborate but she waved it away. "I think you need to see it and believe it," she said. "We've talked enough, I think. People are going hungry the longer we keep chatting. So, back to more important business. I have your ship stocked, fueled and ready to go. It's at the docking bay. I was also told you needed some people. I can recommend some to man your ship." She handed over a datapad.
Scott looked at the list. He read bios on a salarian pilot and engineer, a woman xenogeologist and a human engineer. They look capable enough. Then he came to the end of the list. "A turian smuggler?"
"Try not to say that out loud. A good smuggler isn't a known smuggler. I don't know what you'll face down there, but you'll need someone who can get you what you need before you even think of needing it. By unexpected ways and unexpected places, if need be. We've worked together before so I'll vouch for her."
Scott looked at the list again, his eyes skimming over their designations. They lack so many personnel that he had to make do with a crew that serve double functions. He had nothing more to ask from Kesh so he rose to say goodbye. "Thank you for your time, Kesh."
She nodded. "We krogans don't believe on luck, but I'll say it anyway. Good luck out there. You'll need all the help you can get."