Prolog – The Pathfinder

The first things Sara remembered, was that she lied down. She started to cough, realizing that her helmet window was broken. She gasped for air, but only the one of the toxic atmosphere reached her lungs, letting her cough even more.

The next thing she remembered was how her father limped to her, calling for an emergency shuttle, before realizing what was happening to her.

The world around her started to fade away, while she still saw, that he put her helmet away and then put something on her head instead. "Everything…will be okay…", he whispered to her, breathing hard as well now. And then everything turned black.

Mother…flashes passed her mind…father…Scott…, her breathing increased, Is this me? I look so young…a child…, she started to hear voices, familiar ones, Lexi? Is that her?, and she felt pain, No mother…father don't go!

And then she woke up, her eyes opened widely. She started to breathe rapidly, looking around. She was in some kind of dark chamber, recognizing nothing.

"Welcome back.", the not so monotonous voice of SAM said into her head.

Sara forced her body to get up, while she murmured: "What happened?", which gave her a headache.

"You were clinically dead for twenty-two seconds.", SAM replied sounding casually. She looked back to see the holographic projection of SAM hanging down from the ceiling. Am I in SAM Node?, she started to realize her location, after seeing several technical gadgets around her and his projection, which looked awfully close to servers.

Another thought crossed her mind. "Did the rest of the team make it?", she asked worried.

"Hey.", a voice from the front replied and she saw that it was her brother, sitting and probably earlier sleeping on the ground, "You're back, Sara.", he quickly rose to his feet sounding happy, but also really, really relieved, "I already thought that I would lose you."

Sara smiled warmly, while he came closer to her, sitting down on a free spot of the 'bed' she was occupying and hugged her tightly. "So bad, hm?", she replied, not being able to prevent herself from crying, after seeing the tears on her brother's cheeks, "I am ok…I think…", before starting to focus on her body and feeling no pain – Good or Bad Sign?

"I better go get the others…", Scott said stopping the hugging and wiping away the tears, trying to look as brave as always, "Doctor T'Perro will want to check you for sure….", and he stood up already.

"Wait…", Sara grabbed his arm, "Wait…Scott, what happened?"

Scott looked down at her and he didn't look very happy anymore. "Your helmet broke.", he said straight ahead, "Father found you and gave you his…he wanted to save you and…he did."

Sara looked at him, the realization hitting her face. "Is he…is he…?", she tried to ask, but failing.

Scott licked his lips, before answering: "He is alive…for now.", he replied, "He got the same toxic atmosphere into his lungs as you, but much more of it and it already almost killed you.", he looked back, looking behind her at the projection of SAM, "God alone knows how he survived, but SAM here was the reason you did.", he looked back down, "The implant…it seems to able to do more things, than we imagined."

"Is he…in coma, like I was?", Sara asked, still not knowing how she should feel.

"Sort of.", Scott replied, still looking as if he didn't want to talk about it, "They couldn't help him like they did with you. There was still too much toxin in his body, killing him slowly. So…they put him back into stasis. He is in a pod again.", he took a deep breath, "Dr. T'Perro hoped that it could bide us more time to find a solution…and it did – his whole metabolism is slowed down to almost death-like, so is the effect of the toxin. But being in stasis doesn't mean…"

"He is safe...", Sara put the rest together, "…but could still die…does Lexi know a method to cure him?"

Scott's face told more than any answer. "They still don't know…", he finally replied, sounding miserable.

Sara looked down, trying to hide her fear. She has lost her mother once, losing her dad now…"He will be fine.", she decided, looking back up, "He is an N7 and a Pathfinder – he survived more than any of us could think off. He WILL survive.", nodding unconsciously.

Scott's face changed a little. "Let's hope that.", he replied, before turning around, "I get Dr. T'Perro inside to check you out now."

It didn't take long till the Asari came inside, along with Cora, Captain Dunn and Scott in the end. The Doctor executed some simple tests to check out if her brain was working and the results were promising. "You seem to be back with us.", Dr. T'Perro finally said, "Thank the Goddess for that."

Sara looked up to the other members of the Pathfinder Team and Captain Dunn. "So what will happen now?", she asked curiously, but also sounding tired, "Is the Ark still drifting?"

"Nope.", Scott replied, before anyone else, "Whatever dad did with that tower, it saved the day. Some sort of atmosphere scrubber."

"The energy cloud thinned out.", Captain Dunn joined the conversation, "We're on our way to the rally point now. Should be at the Nexus soon."

"And…", Sara continued looking up to Cora, "…Cora is Pathfinder now?"

Everyone looked not so sure. "We didn't expect to lose Alec…at least for now.", Captain Dunn explained, crossing her arms at the back, "We discussed the situation and decided that you, Scott and Cora should lead the Pathfinder Team for now, Cora as Acting Pathfinder, you two as her lieutenants, till we find a more permanent solution…or Alec can be woken up safely.", she sighed, before adding, "I hope for the latter."

"We all do.", Cora said, doesn't sounding so happy about the said things, "What do you think, when you'll be ready again?"

"She needs to rest first.", Dr. T'Perro answered this question for her.

"We'll be at the Nexus in the next six hours.", Captain Dunn informed the rest, "At least according to our telemetry. Will this be enough?"

"She has to.", Cora replied this time for her, "Don't know what will await us there.", before turning her head towards Sara, smiling in an appreciated way, "Hope that will be enough.", she turned towards Scott, "We'll need to prepare some things, let's go.", and so the two left.

The other two left as well, before SAM said something again, sounding rather emotional for his manner of speaking: "Your father is strong – I am helping him with that."

"What do you mean, SAM?", Sara asked confused, before adding, "And you sound…different than usual…"

"This is our private channel.", SAM explained, "Till now I shared it only with your father, but he lifted my restrictions, before he lost his consciousness. He wanted that you and your brother experience what he has experienced for a while now – even when not the same in total."

"He never mentioned anything about that.", Sara replied, sounding confused.

"It allowed me to know him better.", SAM replied, sounding almost living, "Alec wouldn't want us to lose sight of the goal. So instead of him, I will help you two to reach it now. I promise you that."

"Mass Effect Andromeda", all copyrights reserved for Bioware and Electronic Arts

But the changes are mine.

Author's comment:

And these are the second, the third and fourth major changes I am doing to the story: first, Alec Ryder doesn't die…at least for now. But he is incapacitated like the Twin is in the actual game, because I think some kind of bigger sacrifice needed to be made in the end of the prolog. And also, Alec Ryder was shown quite OP in the game as well like in the chapter before this one, so removing him from the picture, at least for now, will help with the Ryders' growth from here on, without making it too easy.

The second change was with SAM: in the actual game SAM's circuits melted together with Ryder's brain, creating a symbiotic connection between these two, although it was executed rather in a bad way. I did something similar, not identical – I don't know how you feel about that, but knowing that a robot was inside my head, having even control over parts of my brain, isn't a thing I feel comfortable about – but still something allowing the bond between SAM and the Ryders to grow as well – and I hope I do a much better job than Bioware Montreal did in the game.

The third and last thing I changed in this rather short chapter was the new Pathfinder. In the actual game Ryder becomes the new Pathfinder after his father passed away, completely ignoring the fact that Cora was his second-in-command, his lieutenant, the one trained for this position and with the actual experience to do this job. Considering the fact, that these guys were still in a rather dangerous situation, thousands of lives at stake here, this was quite a dumb decision and one nobody would never ever do in such a situation – except for a game designer, who wanted to make the player the most important role in the whole game. Quite a lazy decision, not made the first time in RPG-history. So my change: Cora is Pathfinder-Surrogate and Scott and Sara are her lieutenants – although I didn't add a hierarchy between these two for a reason. If this situation will stay this way, I haven't decided yet – the best thing about not having all details planned out yet, is that you still can fix things, which didn't develop as good as you wanted to.

So stay tuned till the next chapter.