"Pathfinder," Kandros greets Scott as he and Sara enter the command room for the station's security. Drack had Spender with him in Kesh's room, news didn't need to travel that the Nexus traitor was back.
"Kandros, thank you for seeing us," Scott says with a smile. Sara looked around at the workers, making sure no one was too close to hear their conversation.
Kandros leans against the console behind him. "Yeah, well. Reyes makes it very hard to say no to him," he scoffs. Sara smirks at him, no truer words spoken. "What did you need to see me about?"
"We have Spender with us," Sara bluntly explains. Scott looks at her with narrowed brows, she could have said it with some professionalism. Kandros stood straight as a board, his mandibles going tighter than possible into his cheeks.
"Get him off the station at once. He is exiled for a reason," he growls. Scott waves him to calm down, seeing some of his workers looking over at the rising voices and subvocals of the Turian.
"Calm down," Sara hisses in reply. "We brought him back because he has evidence and a full statement for what Tann has been doing behind all our backs. He's been working with exiles along with Spender and threw him under the bus when I caught him. SAM has found all the evidence."
"Dammit," he snaps. "We don't need this right now. Are you sure Spender can be trusted with this? How do you know if he's not playing us all again?"
"Trust me, Kandros," Sara calmly says. "I know he wouldn't lie on this. And it would explain why Tann was never around when we caught him out and exiled him." Kandros seemed to finally understand, nodding with his talons to his chin.
"Alright, I trust you both. Please don't screw this up. I will have Tann brought to Kesh's office for questioning." They all agreed that was the best plan and split up to implement it. Sara called Reyes, letting Scott go on ahead of her.
"Hello, dove. How's it all going?" Reyes asks as his face fills her omni-tool.
Sara moves to the far corner by Addison's station, sitting under the stairs for some privacy. "Good, Kandros listened to us and Tann is being brought in for questioning."
Reyes smiles, happy to see the plan was going ahead. "I knew Kandros would help you. He didn't make it easy for me to force into meeting you, however."
"I know, he said the exact same thing about you," she laughs. She looks up at the station, seeing the bustling life around her. It was mostly full of workers, running the main parts of the Nexus at their own consoles and stations.
"Are you okay, dove?" Reyes asks, moving forward to see her facial expression change.
"I'm not sure if I want to be Pathfinder anymore. Even after all this. I love being on Kadara with you, but I also want to keep helping the Initiative settle here." Reyes raises a brow, clicking his tongue as he considers her words.
"I understand that. Give it time and just see what cards are dealt to you." Sara nods, getting back up when she sees Tann being dragged along by a Salarian and human soldier. He was far from happy, his eyes digging dagger into her when they met gazes.
"I need to go, I'll call you after." She doesn't look down at the call as she ends it. She needed to get in there. Kandros and Addison are standing by the doors waiting for her to join when Tann is forced to sit in a chair in the middle of the small room. Kesh stood in front of her desk, tapping her heavy foot into the metal flooring.
"I demand answers, who said you could do this?" Tann shouts in anger. Kandros stands at the left of his chair and Drack is at the right. Spender is sitting behind him, not yet seen by the Salarian.
Scott walks forward, standing just a few feet from him. "You have been working with exiles during the uprising. You were using your powers to boost your own position. Even roped in Spender to do your dirty work. Only when it's Sara finding the truth, you hide behind him. Letting him take the full blame for it all."
"You have no proof and no witnesses of this. Do you really think this is all legal?" Tann looks up at Kandros. "Let me go at once," he says, fighting against his restraints.
"Actually we have all that," Sara slyly says. She waves Spender to come into the open. Tann's face fell from confidence to pure fear when he saw him.
"Spender?!" he asks in disbelief. "You're alive?"
"Yes, and I am done hiding what you did to me. You made me do so much that was against protocol, I had no choice but to do it or you'd make my life hell." He passes Kandros the datapad, containing all the deleted messages SAM was able to recover from the transcripts between him and Tann.
"This is unbelievable," Kandros whispers as he passes it to Addison and then Kesh. "Why did you use Spender for this?"
Tann sighs, closing his eyes for a brief moment. "We were at war. I could not sustain this station on my own. There were things that needed doing that only Spender could do without being caught."
"Did you also need that help when you were forcing the research teams to dismantle the Remnant station and use it for our own gain? You didn't want to tell Evfra, however." Tann snaps his head to Scott, almost insulted that his Pathfinder would speak to him this way.
"You do not know what we needed to do to survive here," he snaps in reply.
Sara laughs out loud. "Does that also include trying to separate me and SAM?" Tann shakes his head, seeing he was losing this battle against them all.
"We need SAM, you cannot have it just for your own use." Sara's omni-tool activates.
"Director Tann, I analyzed the technology found from the Remnant. Whilst it would not separate me from Sara, you would kill her and render myself processors unusable," SAM explains in a calm voice. Sara wondered if he was just as angry as she was. Her own director wanting to practically kill them both just to use SAM for his own gain.
"I..." Tann stumbles over his words. His scientist was far from wrong in their findings. SAM was not someone he could argue with about sciences. The AI was just too powerful, he looked down at his feet. Fully defeated at this point.
"How do you answer all these accusations?" Kandros asked. His voice was rough and hard, he knew the political fallout from this would be absolutely huge. His job would be tested than it ever had before.
Tann can only shake his head, he knew he lost and he had no reason to try to defend himself. "Just make your decisions," he whispers. Sara moves closer, kneeling in front of him to catch his saddened wide eyes.
"Just answer me one question... why?" she mumbles to him. He closes his eyes as he answers.
"We had no hope when we arrived in Andromeda. Jian was dead and our best Pathfinder was presumed dead before that became a fact." He opens his eyes, looking directly at her. "You gave us a small bit of hope, even with SAM by your side. But it wasn't enough, there was so much work and not enough people to do it. Using Spender was easier than giving the jobs to multiple people." He then looks to Addison, she was the quietest of them all, still shocked Tann of all people could be so corrupt. "You argued with me all the time, it was tiring. I had to do something, Spender did well getting... under your skin."
"You're something else, Tann," Kesh growls. "Kandros get him out of here. Put him in jail for now," she orders. Kandros nods, pulling Tann aggressively to his feet. The room was silent as he was dragged out.
"What now?" Addison asks. "Do we exile him?"
Scott steps forward, rubbing his hands nervously together. "Actually," he whispers. "For us to get Spender here. We had to see Morda, she had him as their prisoner. I had to... make a deal with her."
Kesh already knew of the deal, it was Addison's stiff look that worried her. "What deal?" he asks with furrowed brows.
"She wants Spender back and... Tann." Addison's eyes open wide, her mouth falling open.
"We can't allow that. He will be tortured," she shouts.
"How many have been tortured because of him?" Sara shoots back. Addison stiffens up, holding her hands out in agitation. "How about we vote?" Everyone looks at each other before nodding in agreement.
"Alright," Kesh says. "Raise your hand if you think Morda should get him?" Everyone besides Addison raises their hands. Even Spender shoots his hand up quickly enough for it. "Sorry, Addison's. He deserves it. He will go with Pathfinder Ryder to Elaaden, along with Spender."
"Fine, what is to be done with his job? We need someone to take over." Sara scratches the back of her neck, she was glad this was being dealt with, but knowing another will be taking his place nerved her. What if they are the same as him? Or worse?
"Who is next in line?" Scott asks. Drack had decided Spender was now hearing too much, he puts his hand under the human and pulls him out. Returning to the Tempest to wait for them to depart.
"We don't have anyone in line after Tann. We did not expect to need this many directors," Kesh answers.
Kandros had returned, replying to the countless emails he already had from the sight of Tann being arrested quickly spreading throughout the Nexus. "We need someone who people will respect and who has experience."
The room fell silent to Addison's words. She didn't want the job, she hated her own as it was. Never would she want something higher that would cause even more stress on her already heavy shoulders.
Scott seemed to click on something when he gawked at his sister. She notices, moving her hand from her lips to her hip. "What? Have I got something on my face?"
Scott chuckles, shaking his head. "We need someone who has done the one job we all couldn't do: make Heleus a livable home." He looks at Kesh, she nods in agreement.
"Wait what?" Sara asks, now panicking as everyone in the room looks at her.
"Sara Ryder," Kesh says loud enough to startle her. "Would you be the next Andromeda Initiative Director?"
A/N: Going to end that here, the next chapter will take off straight from this one. Do you think Sara would make a good director? Or could her relationship with Reyes make it complicated? Until next time.