Any other time, Sara would have left Cora alone. Their two personalities had a way of grating against one another, so Cora Harper retreating after too much quality time was usually viewed as a victory and Sara would privately breathe a sigh of relief.

It occurred to her that up until that point, they hadn't really worked together. And up until that point, they'd stepped on toes and bickered sure, but they had never directly defied each other. Sara wanted to forget the whole thing. The problem was, the goddamned asari Pathfinder had been watching.

Sarissa Theris's words echoed in Sara's ears as she placed her helmet in her locker and slowly removed her gear. "You would be wise to keep an eye on the lieutenant," Sarissa had told her after Cora stalked off. "We all disagree with our superiors now and again, but to knowingly and deliberately disobey orders is dangerous. You need to be able to rely on your crew."

Dangerous. Disconcerting. Not to mention disrespectful, but since Sara barged into Cora's little sanctuary inside the biolab with, "Cora, what the fuck was that?" perhaps respect had gone out the window long ago.

Cora looked up from all her plants, a watering can in hand, her lips pulling back at the sight of Sara. "I don't know. Can I just do today over again?"

"Starting with what?" Sara wanted to know. "Being louder about Sarissa Theris? Or just not stepping foot on the Leusinia to begin with?"

"No, just..." Cora shook her head and sighed. "Maybe not toppling a hero in front of her entire ark? Just everything."

"Wait." Sara squinted her eyes at the other woman. "Now you want to agree with my decision that you completely disregarded in the moment?"

"No!" Cora scoffed. She yanked at a yellowing leaf on a seedling and inadvertently uprooted the entire plant, damp soil spattering across the floor. "But I want to know why you stayed silent and forced me to make the right decision, Pathfinder."

"Because it wasn't the right decision, you stupid-!" Sara slapped a hand over her mouth. Sharing their sparkling opinions of one another wasn't going to help. She tried again. "I don't expect you to fully understand what's happening on your first op out, but that's also why when I say something that could impact the entire Initiative, you had damn well not contradict it. Especially not in front of your superiors!"

"My superiors?" Cora propped the seedling back up in its container and pushed fresh soil around its damaged roots. "I put so much faith in Sarissa. But the asari were just as lost as we are. I can see now why they'd believably ignore my years of experience in favor of some twenty-two year old kid!"

It was like that, was it? Sara felt her mouth twist down into something ugly. "This twenty-two year old kid has been uniting an entire fucking sector while you've been doing inventory and up until now, you've been perfectly fine with it-"

"I have not been fine with it!" Cora laughed suddenly. "I was under the impression that you had some semblance of capability! That you were following some hidden directives your father tucked away into SAM or that fancy Citadel education of yours gave you a shred of intelligence- not that you've been bumbling through all of this entirely by happenstance!"

"I'm sorry, is there something in one of your manuals that covers terraforming a system while avoiding total annihilation?" Sara growled.

If she hadn't been staring Cora down, she'd have missed the flash of blue light over the other woman's hazel eyes. There was a creak of metal and Cora blinked, her attention on the now imploded watering can in her hands, water spouting out all over the floor. She coughed politely and set what was left of the watering can back on the shelf next to the row of plants. "Can't tell if they have enough water, or too much," she muttered, before darting past Sara and escaping the biolab.

Stunned, Sara stood there a moment, listening to the drip of water from the shelf, unsure of what to do next. Had she made any headway with Cora or had she only further kicked open the divide?

Following would probably be a bad idea. Sara needed to touch base with the Nexus about the Leusinia, anyway, if Cora hadn't already fed them her version of events. It would probably also be wise to check in with Jaal. Tentative plans decided, Sara slipped out of the biolab and ran directly into Liam.

"Hey, I was just... How are you doing?" He had a nervous energy about him and she supposed given their last encounter, she couldn't blame him. He kept bobbing his head from side to side, and vacillated between relaxing his shoulders and snapping into restless, twitchy movements. "I'm... great. Just..."

"Cora's not in there," Sara offered. "She just left, I'm not sure where."

"Right, right." His head nodded madly. With a glance first over her shoulder and into the biolab and then back over his shoulder, Liam finally let his gaze rest on her. "I told you I'd screw up and I have."

Sara could only blink. While she was inclined to agree with him, it was a rather vague statement. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said.

"Remember Verand?" He took a few steps back and waited as if anticipating her to fall in line with his step. When she didn't, he slung an arm around her to lead her onward. "My contact in the angara? She's gone. Her whole group is gone. Sudden. So, yeah. Up for a rescue? Because if we don't, we could be next."

He still wasn't making any sense. "You seem pretty sure this is your fault, but I'm not hearing why." Sara frowned and removed his arm from her body. "Maybe she just ghosted you?"

"Ghosted? No." Liam shook his head. "It's because I gave Verand Nexus data and nav points."

Sara felt her heart skip a beat. Strange that she was beginning to associate the scent of his cologne with existential dread. "Why would you do that?"

"We need to know how to live here," he said. "I tried asking, I tried taking. No one would help 'outsiders.' So I took initiative. Gave her data and tech so she could mod it."

"No, no, no, that's not what I was asking..." But her voice was getting buried beneath his bullshit.

"Verand was... she is a good risk," Liam continued, seemingly oblivious to the way her head was spinning. "But if pirates interrogate her or... barter her to the kett... it's our heads."

"...Our heads?"

"I got a lead from a trader," he insisted as he walked. The bridge. He was headed toward the bridge. "A grainy visual. We find the system, we find our bad guys. I... also asked Bradley from Prodromos for people to help intercept. I thought they might want to pitch in."

"How are a bunch of settlers supposed to help?" Sara demanded.

"That's what he said." Liam finally stopped in front of the doors to the bridge and clapped both of his hands on her arms as he shot her what she could only assume was his version of a sincere expression. "We're on our own."

Sara paused, frozen as SAM doubled down on trying to make sense of all the garbled information thrown at her. "Let me get this straight," she said softly. "You gave highly sensitive and confidential Nexus intel to a buddy of yours-"

"My contact," he corrected.

"Who is good."

"Yeah."

"Because Liam says so." Sara's voice began to arch louder as it grew ragged and angry. "Well, this must all be true, because Liam has proven himself to be of sound judgment and mind in the past!"

"Look, I get that you're angry, I already told you I screwed up-"

"No! You get nothing! That you're still talking proves as much!" She looked to his hands, still resting on her upper arms. "Get your fucking hands off me."

Liam gave her arms a final squeeze, before he relented sullenly. "I said I'm sorry and I am, but we have to act and we have to act now to fix this. I'll let you scream at me for years to come, cross my heart."

"I'm going to scream at you now, thanks." Arms free, one hand came instinctively up to jab a finger into his chest. "That information was classified for a reason-"

"I know-"

"It was a matter of the Initiative's security-"

"Believe me, I know-"

"It wasn't meant to be doled out willy nilly on account of what you and you alone thought-"

"I know!"

"Apparently you don't, because if you knew all that and then did it anyway, I'd have to assume you acted maliciously instead of just being an absolute fuckwit!" Intercoms be damned, they were screaming loud enough for the entire ship to eavesdrop whether they wanted to or not. Sara took a breath, inwardly pleased that Liam actually appeared to be taking her seriously instead of running his mouth with whatever nonsense he thought would silence her. "The only thing I'm going to fix is you on my ship. You like Prodromos so much, we can leave you there. I don't want you anywhere near the Nexus, their records and data, the Tempest or anywhere else you could make a mess of things."

"Sara, you don't mean that..."

"How did you even get access to that to begin with?" she exclaimed. "I would have never authorized clearance for you!"

"I authorized the op." The doors to the bridge slid open and Cora stood there, statuesque with her feet perfectly shoulder length apart. The only evidence of their recent argument was a barely detectable vein throbbing along her temple just beneath her fringe of blonde hair.

"Are you out of your mind?" Sara's finger fell away from Liam's chest as she spun to face Cora behind her. "Of all the things you could have done, you chose to listen to Liam?"

"Told you she wasn't going to handle this well," Liam commented to the breeze. His gaze softened as he shot Cora what could only be called a commiserating look.

Whatever sympathies she may have had, Cora ignored him. "Liam had a point," she told Sara. "Our relations with the angara were stagnating and no one was willing to make a move one way or the other. It wasn't just us sending them data, it went both ways. It was a risk, but it seemed... sound."

Sara took a step back. "There is nothing about Liam that is sound."

Cora shook her head. "I understand your feelings about him are... complicated given your history-"

"There is nothing complicated about- that." Sara waved a hand in his direction. "That's about the only thing he's good for! I figured out early on he wasn't to be trusted with any sort of meaningful decision."

"Ouch," Liam murmured, crestfallen. "You're something else when you're cross."

Sara craned her head toward him and punctuated every syllable with the acid she felt. "You don't have to worry about that, because as soon as we land on Prodromos, you're gone."

"Ignore her, Liam," Cora said. "She's tantruming, because it's all she has left."

"Yeah." He nodded, though his face didn't entirely agree.

"Any of the proper channels would have nixed this," Sara insisted. "Tann, Kandross- you know Addison would be shitting herself over something like this!"

"Like they approved of you singlehandedly choosing the next turian Pathfinder?" Cora asked. "Or what about giving a colony of recently hostile krogan an incredibly powerful drive core? Maybe they liked it when you skipped out of a briefing to get drunk at a bar?"

"I didn't get drunk!" Sara protested, knowing full well how incredulous that sounded. "And Tann joined me!"

"You take risks all the time," Cora decided, her voice raising in volume to match Sara's. "Reckless and dependent upon your every whim. As noble as it may seem to you to bed the entire Outcast population in order to bring them back into the fold after they revolted against Nexus leadership, it's a little impractical."

"Sloane Kelly wasn't interested, anyway," Sara sniped, her hands balling into fists. "Maybe you're more her type if you're up for giving it a go."

Whatever glimmer of rage that flashed across Cora's features was pushed away with a shake of her head. "Look, we all know why you ended up as Pathfinder. It wasn't what you wanted and you're not meant for it, but it's what you got stuck with, I get it."

"I don't think you do." All that screaming had made Sara suddenly hoarse. She took another step away from them, all too aware of the eerie calm now emanating from them both. "This isn't just a title that can be handed off at will... removing SAM will probably kill me."

"Sara." Why did it always sound so patronizing whenever Liam used her name? "We're trying to protect you."

"No one's trying to remove your SAM. You've done a lot of good in your position," Cora told her, struggling to regain her even tone. "But you've been shouldering too much of it on your own. Making too many decisions by yourself."

"I'll take that into consideration," Sara said a bit sharply.

"No." Cora shook her head again, a sad, little smile touching her mouth. "I'm not offering you a suggestion, I'm explaining what's happening."

"Oh?" Sara heard herself growl. "And who put you in charge?"

"You did," Cora replied. "When a leader turns off all communications and vanishes, people look for someone to fill that void."

"People?" Sara scoffed. "You mean you and Liam? What does everyone else have to say?"

Cora inhaled before deliberately ignoring that comment and continuing. "Now, I promise to let you know the next time we're approaching a vault, but until then, I'm revoking all of your bridge privileges."

Sara couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You can't do that," she spluttered. "You have no authority to do that!"

Cora glanced behind her. "Kallo? Suvi? Pathfinder Ryder is not allowed to enter the bridge until I say otherwise."

When Sara caught the salarian pilot's eyes, he quickly turned away to stare at the viewscreen before him. Next to him, a mousey looking human with auburn hair nodded slowly, the corners of her mouth wrinkling with an uncertain frown. Sara realized then, that if that was Suvi, she had never spoken a word to the woman once, despite however many times she'd been on the bridge.

"You've got to be shitting me," Sara breathed.

"Are you done, Ryder?" Cora sighed.

"Not even remotely." A chill settled across Sara's insides as a thought occurred to her. With nothing left to debate, perhaps it was time to lash out with the truth. "You were never going to be Pathfinder, you know," she said. "In all of SAM's directives, contingency plan after contingency plan, your name isn't mentioned once. I don't know what my dad was thinking, but it definitely didn't include you."

There was a flash of teeth and maybe had it been just the two of them, she would have gotten a genuine reaction. Instead, with an audience looking on, Cora smoothed the anger and hurt from her face and exhaled her emotions away. "You know, I didn't expect even you to resort to flat out lies," she said finally. "It's beneath you."

"You can't keep me from doing my job," Sara called after her. "There's too much riding on it."

"Oh, don't I know it-"

"Cora-"

"I'll send you some manuals," she said snidely, "since you're so interested in them." Cora turned her back to Sara and stalked back into the bridge. The doors shut in Sara's face as Cora barked, "No one is to let Ryder on the bridge. Anyone who does will answer to me directly."

Sara shook her head in disbelief and began slapping at the closed door before she thought better of it. The last thing she needed was for the ship's security to get a record of her crying ugly tears of frustration.

"Be mad, Sara," Liam told her. "But maybe someday you'll understand."

Sara didn't even dignify that with a response. She stormed past him down the hallway and spotted the door to Peebee's room open. Sara stumbled in as she scoured Sam's databases for a solution, her entire being brimming with indignation.

"Hey there," Peebee began, hopping away from her Remnant bot. "So..."

"You heard that, did you?" Sara exclaimed. The wave of adrenaline engulfing her made it impossible to stay still.

Her friend laughed nervously. "Pretty sure the whole ship did."

"She has no idea who she's messing with," Sara insisted, willing her voice to stop quivering. "I'll revoke everyone's privileges to SAM...! except for navigational equipment so we don't crash. Or critical systems because we need stable gravity and O2..."

"Uh huh." Peebee shut the door. "While all of that sounds fantastically knee-jerky, how about you have a sit down? Catch your breath and we can go from there?"

"No! Because the longer I sit on my ass, Cora gets more comfortable in my chair!"

"She wants you angry Ryder, because the longer you're like this, the longer you're not thinking clearly." Peebee nodded to her sleeping bag laid across the seats of her pod. "So let's have a seat and get our shit together."

Sara made a face as Peebee continued to usher her toward her bed. "I have my shit together!"

"You need to find a way to calm yourself down..."

"What? I told you I hate the zero G isolation tank- it makes me feel nauseous."

"Mm hmm." Peebee sat Sara down before taking the seat next to her. "You might want to secure your safety harness."

"What?"

Peebee didn't reply. Instead, she lowered her own harness and reached across Sara to hit the escape pod's release.