"Wait. Wait, wait!" Scott stopped spinning in his chair to stare her down. "You have access to Dad's memories?"

Sara shrugged. "It's only like a handful."

His dark eyes narrowed to points. "That's really fucking important to mention, don't you think?"

"It's all important," she countered. Sara gestured wildly with her arms for emphasis, despite knowing it would have no effect. "While I was flitting about, talking about embassies and pretending I was first contact, Clan Nakmor had already set up New Tuchanka on Elaaden. And that's completely unrelated to Kadara!"

"Yeah, yeah, Pirate Queen of Kadara," Scott scoffed. "Were you just planning on keeping the fact that you have Dad's memories in your head to yourself?"

"Well, I just told you now, so I guess not."

"Well?" he demanded. "Let's see them."

Sara shifted uncomfortably on the bed. "No."

Scott recoiled like he'd been slapped. He hopped out of the chair. "What the fuck, Sara?"

"You're going to wake up Peebee!" She pointed to their friend who was face down on a pillow and snoring softly. "Just because I have access, it doesn't mean I've viewed them."

"You're kidding, right?" He began to pace, his fingers drumming agitated little patterns into his palms. "You've got to be. That's the first thing I would've done!"

"It just didn't feel right!" It was the truth. Kind of.

"He left those for a reason, you know he did. "

"There always is a reason, " Sara replied with a sigh.

Scott huffed a sharp breath through his nose before he dropped down next to her abruptly. He looked at her with a furrowed brow. "You seriously haven't looked at the memories, yet?"

"I seriously have not," she insisted. "Those were private memories. What if one was of him and Mom getting freaky?"

"Ugh." Scott's nostrils flared. "Why'd you have to bring it there?"

"But that's just it," she told him. "I don't know where it would bring us."

"And that's why we should see them," he replied.

"But..."

Sara highly doubted any of the stored memories would be of her parents "in flagrante." Despite her father's numerous failings, that seemed beyond even the scope of his taste. It still didn't mean that Alec Ryder's memories would be pleasant or that she would enjoy witnessing them.

What made Sara hesitate, was the suspicion that she or Scott would be featured. That perhaps she'd get some undeniable insight into how their father viewed either of them. How he felt. Sara wasn't certain how she'd handle knowing her brother's constant declarations of them just being tools for their father to use was true. Or worse, what if Alec did love them? Random hypotheses followed by eternal "what ifs" with no way to verify any truth was just easier.

Scott must have seen her troubled expression, because he nudged her gently with his shoulder. "I would like to see them," he said. "So let me know if you ever do."

"Thanks."

"So..."

"Not this second!" She rolled her eyes.

"I just meant Aya's vault!" he laughed.

"Right, I believe that," she drawled as she nudged his shoulder back.

It was beautiful. No life threatening factory reset, no attacking Remnant, just dark space humming with silence. The Moshae beckoned to her as the entrance opened wide just for them. The walls shut out the chaos of the outside world and in that quiet blackness there was always a moment of doubt. Was Sara stepping into a vault, the void itself, or being opened to the large expanse of the universe?

Lights began to dot up, in constellations of blue surrounded by more of that green, indecipherable script.

"I haven't brought anyone here in over twenty years." The Moshae spoke and broke through the silent awe.

"Thank you." Understatement of the century. Six, even.

"There's always been an active display for Aya," Sjefa murmured. "But we could never affect it."

"Let's see what we can do." Sara stretched her arm out towards the seemingly endless nothing. "SAM?"

The AI eagerly set her arm alight as it began to interface. An orange sphere of energy circling Sara's forearm faster and faster until it dissipated into the dark and merged with the green light. The script disappeared in a zip of electricity that directed her gaze to a forming map.

"Yes!" The Moshae centered herself in the middle of the vault, her head tilted upward to take it all in. "This is new. Is it similar to the vault on Eos? Tell me, what do you see?"

Stars, planets, the microcosm of a galaxy. Sara saw it all. Strange to be so small and nothing, but in the middle of everything simultaneously. SAM wasn't affected by the magnitude of the moment and flooded her with data. Eos, Voeld, Havarl...

Sara could barely manage a whisper. "If I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing..."

"It's a network," the Moshae realized. "Only not connected to each other." She pointed to the dead center of the map. A triangular centerpiece surrounded by planets. "But to this place. This image was on a relic the Archon showed me. He called it Meridian."

Of all the active vaults, Eos, Havarl, Voeld... Aya appeared to be the only one fully connected to Meridian. Eos was pinging, changed, but any gains were modest and trivial. Aya was terraforming the way it was meant to.

Sara had her conclusion, but it felt rude to just blurt out. "What do you think, professor?" she asked.

"I think that Meridian is the control center for all the vaults."

So they were in agreement. "If we can get to Meridian," Sara said, "maybe we can turn everything on from there. Make Heleus live."

That stopped the Moshae's reverie. No longer an intellectual discussion on theorems, the conversation veered toward real life applications and repercussions. "Wait, Ryder." She turned her gaze from the map and to Sara. "The Archon knows where it is. He's already been there."

"He's been to Meridian?" It made an awful sort of sense when Sara thought on it. Why else would he have kept the Moshae alive and whole for so long?

"Of course!" Sjefa exclaimed with a shake of her head. "That's why he tortured me. He thought I could help him use it."

"Because he can't." So much sense. It made a vein in Sara's temple throb.

"Such power in the hands of such evil could mean the end of your people and mine."

"No one will be safe as long as he's on this hunt," Sara agreed.

"You're going to need that relic I saw," Sjefa decided. She placed a hand on Sara's shoulder and directed her toward the vault's exit. "The Resistance might have intel on the whereabouts of the Archon's ship. I'll talk to Evfra and secure his full cooperation. Meet me there."

"Sure thing. When-?" Sara's comm was pinging and she opened the frequency as the Moshae led her to their transport.

It was Cora. "Have you seen Peebee?"

"No..." Sara frowned. "But she's literally the only asari on Aya."

"Yeah." Cora's voice was clipped. "And missing. She's not at any of the bars or dance clubs. We can't find her."

"I'm sure Aya has more to offer than bars and dance clubs."

"Yes, but we're looking for Peebee-"

"And you're looking for her in the wrong places," Sara replied. "I'm leaving the vault now. If I can't find her when I get back, I'll let you initiate whatever lockdown procedure you have on standby."

"It wasn't a total lockdown-"

"Uh huh." She couldn't help but snicker. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

Cora was right. Peebee wasn't at a bar. She wasn't at a dance club. Maybe given Peebee's loud personality, it would have seemed strange at first to find her in a museum surrounded by dead things and silence, but for those who knew her, it was the only sensible place to look.

She was still Peebee. No less loud or brash as she draped herself along a display of stone tablet reproductions. Sara noted the perplexed curator glaring daggers at the other woman. Despite the curator's fury over Peebee using her body as an additional decoration, Sara knew that look. It was the cold realization that as annoying as the current disruption was, Peebee could potentially move on to the more valuable pieces tucked behind glass cases if she were to be chased away from the reproductions.

"Getting acquainted with our new neighbors?" Sara called out as she stepped between the fuming angaran and her friend.

Peebee's head snapped to attention, a bit suddenly. "Sort of." She slid off the display and stood upright, too meticulously to be normal. "All this... stuff! The angara sure do have a rich culture and blah, blah, blah."

Sara recognized the body language. It was interesting to finally be on the other side of such interactions. She tried to keep a straight face. "You're sauced, aren't you? What's your poison?"

Peebee scoffed with a petulant wobble of her head. "I visited that cafe the angara consider a bar." Her tone was conspiratorial and not at all in line with the volume she was projecting to every patron of the museum. "Asked for their hardest stuff. It was weird, which I like, but it had almost no punch. Lightweights!"

Right. Lightweights. As Peebee thrust her chin into the air in what Sara assumed the asari thought was a show of confidence, the rest of her body followed her crown of tentacles, tipping backward. Peebee flailed and windmilled her arms as she overcompensated to regain her balance. She shot Sara a smug look as she propped an arm along the top of a display case as she attempted to look cool leaned against it and certainly not clinging to it for dear life. "Whoa..."

Sara tried to just stare, but could feel the corner of her mouth curving upward. "Steady now."

"That stuff must have a slow absorption rate," Peebee muttered, more to herself. "Whoops."

She turned her attention to Sara and pouted. "Oh, Ryder! It's just this museum reminds me of being on Hyetiana as a student." She pushed herself back up to gesture at the numerous exhibits, seemingly oblivious to how the display next to her rocked as she bumped her hip into it. "They even have a whole section on the Remnant. I didn't come to Andromeda to follow in someone else's footsteps!"

"It didn't occur to you there'd be intelligent species here?" Sara asked. "Sentients with a rich history, leading full lives?" She shot an eyebrow up for added effect.

"I guess."

Sara squinted at her. "When have you ever followed in someone else's footsteps?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"Peebee." It was hard for Sara to speak plainly without laughing. "Of course the angara would be interested in Remnant. Of course they would have it in museums. Of course they're going to know things that you don't." Now that her friend was almost completely crestfallen, Sara softened her tone. "But your brain is different. You'll see things and make connections where they won't. Learn what you can from them and then maybe you'll show them a thing or two. It goes both ways."

That smug look returned. "Bet nobody here has ever outrun an ancient vault purification field." Peebee was attempting to make her sulking sound thoughtful. It almost worked. Progress!

"Sure."

"Or spat in that Archon's ugly mug and lived to talk about it!" She snickered, perhaps a bit too loud. Peebee paused and tipped her head toward Sara. "That was nice work, by the way."

"Thank you." Sara used that as a cue to sling her arm around the asari's shoulder and lead her- casually- out of the museum.

"I don't know why all this is crawling under my skin," Peebee admitted as she swayed against Sara. "Just, I've been working on something special and I know I'd be gutted if someone else had beaten me to it."

"Something special, huh?" Sara raised an eyebrow.

"Back in my apartment on the Nexus," Peebee told her. "Waiting for that final touch!"

It was too much. Sara broke. Peals of laughter started in her chest and escaped through her nose. "Yeah? And you're not just trying to lure me back to your place?"

"Ryder! I'm offended! ...Would that work?" Now Peebee was laughing in earnest as well.

"Peebee! I can't sleep with you!" Sara declared. "I don't sleep with people I like!"

"Aww!"

The curator was glaring at them both, now, and very relieved to see them go. Outside of the museum, Peebee wrapped her arms around Sara's waist and squeezed. "You're delightfully damaged," she told Sara.

"I'll take that compliment," Sara drawled as she hugged her friend's shoulder. "Come on, before Cora deploys search and rescue protocols for you."

"For me?" Peebee snorted. "Yes, yes. Rescue me from tropical paradise."

Sara stopped and glanced at her. "You want to be left here? It strikes me as a little safe for your style."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll tag along with you a bit longer," Peebee agreed. "If for no other reason I have to show you my thing on the Nexus."

"Your thing?"

"Project! I'll be sober by the time we get there! I think?"

Sara chuckled. "I'll ask Kallo to take the long way back."