Chapter Text
Chapter 1: A Dead Dream
600 years ago, right before cryo deployment
Vetra Nyx was focused on hauling the last of the rations into one of the Nexus's many cargo bays when a familiar voice came from behind her.
"Having fun?" her sister, Sidera Nyx, teased as she gave her cowl a light punch. "You look like you're having fun."
Damnit, she stole my line, Vetra thought while groaning and laughing, turning around to face Sid. Her sister's mandibles were twitching in excitement.
After years of preparation, they were finally ready. In a few hours, the Nexus and the other arks would blast off away from the Milky Way into the great unknown, towards the Andromeda galaxy and a new life.
And away from all of this, both Nyx siblings had thought several times throughout the preparation for their journey.
"So, what are you gonna do when we wake up?" Sid asked excitedly, putting her hands behind her back and swaying in anticipation of her sister's answer.
Vetra double checked the fasteners on the crate quickly before turning to face her sister and giving her a teasing grin.
"Get away from you," she said in jest. Sid had given her similar answers whenever she'd asked her what she wanted to do in Andromeda.
Sid feigned a scoff in response, crossing her arms and giving Vetra a snooty look.
"You can't stay away from me; I might break something when you're gone. And we both know you can't let that happen."
She had to admit that the comment did sting a little bit, even if Sid was teasing. Vetra had been incredibly protective of Sid ever since Dad had disappeared. She was the only family that Vetra was aware of, and that had resulted in her treating her sister like she was made of glass. Part of her knew that would have to change at some point, as she was nearing fifteen after all, the same age Vetra had been when all this started.
"Yeah, wouldn't want you to crash the Nexus into an asteroid because you saw a constellation in the shape of a cat," Vetra teased, poking fun at her sister's sudden obsession with the strange Earth animal. A lot of the Nexus crew that Sid would be working with were human, not surprising given that a human was in charge of the project. Vetra was surprised by how well she got along with her clique of human friends. She was starting to act like one as well. It was strange, but Vetra would prefer that to her acting like another, "Yes, sir! No, sir! Tell me what to do, sir, I can't think for myself!" automaton like the bulk of Hierarchy turians.
"Hey! Cats are cool, it wouldn't be the worst way to go out," Sid replied while pouting.
"Yeah, but that's not the way I'd want to go out," Vetra said while shutting the door and dusting her hands off. "I'd rather die on solid ground."
"What? Invictus wasn't solid enough for ya?"
Vetra scowled. "No, it wasn't." The colony they'd both fled to after leaving Palaven was the source of some unpleasant memories. She was a little upset that Sid had brought it up.
As if reading her sister's mind, Sid's expression changed from smug to timid.
"Sorry," she whispered.
"Come on, cryo's waiting for us." She stated curtly, now ready for the journey ahead.
"Can I talk to Uncle Drack before we go?" Sid asked eagerly.
Vetra sighed, but smiled at the request. "Go ahead, I'll get your pod ready."
"Yay!" She chirped. "See ya in a moment!"
She watched her sister sprint off in the last known direction of the old krogan who, along with his granddaughter, had made her and Sid feel more welcomed than anyone in the Hierarchy ever had.
Vetra made her way over to their pods. She was scheduled to come out as soon as they arrived in Andromeda, and she'd asked Kesh not to let Sid out until the first colony had been established to give her sister a good starting point. She didn't tell Sid that, since she knew that she'd want to be the first one out, if only to beat Vetra to it.
For a few minutes, Vetra stood idly by Sid's pod, waiting for her sister and some of the Initiative personnel to arrive to put them both under.
She was ready to get out of the Milky Way; both she and her sister had been on the back foot for years. They'd stood strong against it all. But they were ready for a fresh start and a new life, one where they wouldn't have to scrape by.
Sid came over alongside a few of her friends who worked in the cryo wing. Vetra figured she'd goaded them into being the ones to put her in cryo. Vetra's heart swelled with a bit of pride at the sight of her with friends, glad that her penchant for connections had rubbed off on her sister.
"Come on, Sid!" she called out impatiently as her sister kept talking to her peers. Sid hurriedly ran over and jumped into the cryo pod. Vetra came over to her side and extended a comforting hand.
"You know, I want you to be the first face I see in Andromeda," Sid said while squeezing her sister's hand.
"Why's that?" Vetra stepped out of the way of the techs for a moment.
"Cause then I'll know we both made it," she softly said as she was fastened into the pod.
Vetra smiled and patted the sides of her pod before she took her spot across from Sid.
As Vetra was getting fastened, Sid called out again.
"You still didn't answer my question, by the way! What are you doing when we get there?" She yelled, possibly a little louder than she had intended.
"I'm going to get shit done!" She yelled back in earnest as the lids of the pods came over them both. Vetra was ready to work, ready to build a new life for her and Sid. Things were finally looking up for the two of them. Life had been difficult in the Milky Way: they'd been dealt a shitty hand, as the humans said.
Maybe now that could finally change, and things would be different, she thought as the frigid air of cryo blackened her mind into an idle sleep.
600 years later, in the present...
Losing power to another part of the Nexus meant a few things.
One: People could survive here for another few months.
Two: More people would be begging to be let back into cryo. Hoping they'd be able to sleep through this nightmare.
Three: Others would try to go to Kadara or Elaaden to eke out a pathetic existence.
Four: This trip was a bad idea. A terrible idea.
Vetra's mandibles twitched while she witnessed the last of the lights go out in the docking bay near Hydroponics. Power would still be routed to the latter, for obvious reasons. But all Vetra could see from the blackened, starless sky of what should have been the Nexus's Presidium was the sight of a dead dream.
A dream she had gotten her sister into on the promise of a better future.
Things had gone wrong immediately: the first thing she saw in Andromeda was her sister's face. Sid wasn't supposed to be out before her, and she'd been out for a few months. Worse, it was in the middle of the Uprising. One of the would-be outcasts, named Meriwether, had fetched her out to try and get her to smuggle weapons. Kesh scared her away, but to say it was a rude awakening would be a severe understatement.
Damnit, why me? She cursed herself while hauling a box of alcoholic beverages back into storage. This should have been what she'd drink after settling in, to celebrate having solid ground beneath her feet, and to cheer on a good life for herself and her sister. Maybe she'd even have gotten around to finding someone to share the galaxy with.
Not anymore.
Or, at least, not without a serious course correction. This was something she doubted Nexus leadership was capable of. Well, maybe, except for Kesh and Kandros. She hadn't much use for Tann and Addison: their reckless politicking had driven away the krogan after the Uprising. It had caused a schism amongst the survivors, with a large chunk leaving the station to scour the cluster for any semblance of hope.
Vetra kept in touch with some exiles. They'd apparently become the leaders of a rock called Kadara. They had solid ground, at least. Something that couldn't be said for her and her sister.
Sid's cryo pod had opened early, much to Vetra's dismay. She wanted to keep Sid in cryo until she was absolutely sure her sister would have a stable starting point. No such luck, unfortunately. She had to give her sister credit, though: despite all the shit that had happened, she was surprisingly well adjusted. Still, she could tell that Sid was barely holding it together. Every night when the inevitable blackout happened, in which all except life support and oxygen were turned off to conserve power, Sid would tremble, and Vetra would hold her to comfort her for the duration. It was a harsh reminder of times past, when they were younger. She had wanted to get Sid out of that life. And now, she was sure she had doomed her.
After putting the last of the cargo away, Vetra stole a flask of horosk and stared at it. If everything does go south, as the humans say, at least I'll have this. She thought grimly.
A pair of humans and a salarian walked up to her, cheering her up slightly from her bitter stupor: Suvi Anwar, Gil Brodie, and Kallo Jath. The three people she felt the closest to during these melancholic times.
"Hello, Vetra," the ginger science officer greeted her, in a voice Vetra was quite fond of. "How are you holding up?"
"Same as usual, Suvi."
"Not great, then?"
Vetra sighed. "You know it."
Gil came over; he didn't seem terribly fazed by yet another power outage, or at least he didn't show it. Vetra had a decent understanding of human body language, but Gil was a mystery to her.
"So, you three up for a drink?"
"What could we possibly be drinking to?" Kallo angrily interrupted. Vetra agreed with the salarian who, despite his pleasant demeanor, was even more of an enigma than Gil.
"Living another day," Gil replied, as if Kallo had asked him why planets were round.
"I appreciate the thought, Gil. But this isn't a good time," Vetra stated. "We got six months left, tops. After that, we'll starve, or worse."
"Hey, we got the Tempest." Gil tried to remind them.
"Which is grounded, per Addison's orders. Since, if you haven't noticed, we still don't have a Pathfinder since all the arks are gone!" Kallo spat.
"You two need a breather. There is no point arguing about it," Suvi interjected, putting her hands on both of their shoulders to divert their attention away from each other. She turned to Vetra. "You need to relax, too, Vetra. You can't be making deals and carrying crates all day."
The turian gave a resigned sigh. "I'll think about it, how's that?"
Suvi shrugged. "Think about it a little harder this time, yeah?" she stated with concern before chasing after Gil and Kallo on their way to the Tempest.
Vetra had been on the ship a multitude of times at this point. It was one of the only places on the Nexus where she could get a proper reprieve from everything. She had gotten Kallo some manifolds for the ship, and he had worked his way with Addison to allow her access to the ship as a quartermaster, at least until a Pathfinder showed up. If one showed up.
An announcement came over the intercom. Given the lack of power, it was a tad incoherent.
"All Nexus residents, please return to your domiciles for mandatory curfew as we check the integrity of life support," the unmistakable, grating voice of Director Tann nasally drilled.
Damnit. Vetra's mandibles twitched in annoyance; she didn't want to be cooped up more than she had to. She wanted to get things done, to do anything to improve the dire situation. I should check on Sid, though, she thought, turning away from her previous idea to hide in the Tempest from Nexus patrols. Despite thinking Kandros was a solid guy and one of the few reputable higher-ups on the station that wasn't stuck in cryo, Vetra still opted to make herself scarce around APEX teams. They were majority turian. Despite being turian herself, she hadn't gone to boot camp and was, by all accounts, an outcast. A few turians had given her snide looks of recognition, as if equating her to a barefaced member of the species. It didn't help that she had a checkered past, having done several things she wasn't exactly proud of to keep food on the table for herself and Sid.
Sid had avoided much of the scrutiny Vetra had gotten, given that she had only turned fifteen a few months ago. A hell of a birthday, waking up in a place like this. Vetra had no plans to enroll Sid in the program despite it being routinely touted as almost mandatory by the resident turians of the station. Millions of light-years away from Palaven, and some things hadn't changed. The last thing she wanted was for her sister to end up as yet another loyal Hierarchy stooge, even if the Hierarchy was 600 years away.
Vetra entered the tram and asked to be taken to Operations to hunker down with Sid. She'd snagged a bottle of Ryncol to pay off Kesh for keeping Sid out of trouble, even if the krogan had routinely told her it wasn't necessary.
Making her way up the walkway, Vetra took a hard turn left to avoid any interaction with the group of APEX soldiers gearing up for a patrol. She headed to Kesh's office and was greeted by yet another argument between Kesh and Addison.
"We need people on Eos. We can't just give up now!" Kesh shouted.
"Tann won't budge. The planet's irradiated to shit, and there's those kett who won't let us get a foothold. We need to accept that Eos is lost," Addison replied angrily.
Vetra grimaced upon hearing about the kett, the name given by APEX to describe the hostile aliens they'd encountered on all of the supposed 'golden worlds' the Initiative had scouted out before leaving. She remembered seeing images from the failed startup colonies on Eos, where half the colonists were dead, and the other half had disappeared.
"We've had this debate a hundred times by my count, Addison. There needs to be landfall somewhere. We have six months left til we run out of food — that's if we can ration it. You and I both know that won't happen."
"Are you saying there will be another Uprising?"
Kesh hung her head. "It's very likely. We need a plan. One that doesn't have us starving to death. I can't keep Hydroponics powered forever."
"What about cryo?"
"The best I can do is put about twenty percent back in. That will buy us more time, but it's not a solution. The cryo pods will run out of power, too."
"...I'll try talking to Tann again."
"Good luck getting Eight to agree with me on anything. You'll have a better time with Kandros."
"Talk to you later, Superintendent."
Addison turned and walked out, giving Vetra a neutral glance on her way. She watched the human walk out with a disapproving glare before turning to face Kesh.
"The usual, huh?" Vetra gestured to Addison's trail while approaching the krogan.
"Yep. Nothing new to report on that front." Kesh relaxed while Vetra placed the bottle on her desk. "You don't need to keep paying me, Vetra."
"It's the least I can do."
"The least you can do? If half my staff did "the least you could do," we'd already be settled on Eos. Give yourself a little credit."
Vetra pouted. "It's not enough; we're still stuck here. Sid's still stuck here."
Kesh leaned against her desk and gave her a sympathetic look. "I know it looks grim. And I won't lie to you, it is. If worst comes to worst, I'll pull some strings with Addison to get Sid back in cryo."
Vetra frowned in response, not entirely soothed by the answer. "And if there's still no solution... she dies alone. I'm a scavenger, and I can ration food; I've been there before, but if she ends back up in cryo, I won't be able to survive long enough to see her again." Her mandibles trembled.
The krogan sighed. "Something will come along."
One of Kesh's assistants came in. "Sorry, Superintendent! It's urgent, Tann needs you in his office right away."
"Well, time to deal with Eight again. I'll let you know if anything new comes up. Give Sid my regards."
Smiling a little, Vetra waved Kesh out. "Counting on it, Kesh."
Kesh left the room, with Vetra following her out before taking a turn back down the stairs. The APEX team was gone now. She saw Sid towards the back of the room, typing away at a terminal.
Vetra snuck up behind her sister and tapped her shoulder. Sid turned around and beamed at her, mandibles twitching in excitement.
"Oh! Hi Vetra! It's curfew time, isn't it?" She seemed to understand the situation.
"Yeah, it is. Let's get going." Vetra was straight to business, wanting to get the curfew over with as quickly as possible.
She grabbed her sister by the hand and guided her through the Operations center, then through a nearby door to the makeshift living quarters the crew had set up.
These were a series of crudely constructed walls in a narrow pathway, with Initiative sleeping bags on the floor and little else in the way of amenities; they couldn't risk much in order to conserve food, water, and power. This room had been meant to be an additional office complex for more of the Operations personnel, but they had renovated it into a dormitory of sorts soon after the Uprising happened.
Every day, there seemed to be fewer people. Vetra wasn't sure if they had died, or had gone back to cryo, or found a way off the Nexus to join the exiles, since at the very least they had solid ground. Although based on what she'd heard from her contacts, they were having their own issues with a power struggle and acidic water.
Vetra had to admit that she'd considered jumping ship a few times, if only to buy Sid and herself more time. But that came with its own issues, and she didn't trust Sid around a few of the exiles. It was easier to keep tabs on her in the Nexus anyhow.
Sid ran ahead of Vetra and opened the door to their room. It was two sleeping bags, a set of datapads, and a few half-eaten graxen boxes. Vetra had stored some of her keepsakes from the Tempest on the snowball's chance that something changed. Sid immediately flopped onto her sleeping bag and started her usual routine of browsing her datapad a bit before getting bored. Vetra kept watch, reminiscing about old times when it was just her and Sid trying to scratch out a living wherever they could. She almost wished to go back to that life.
"Hey! Come and sit down, will ya? No one's coming, you doofus," Sid begged.
Vetra turned around with a confused look before relaxing a bit. "Yeah, you're right. Still a bit on edge from the Uprising days."
"Ya gotta get over that."
"I've been watching my back for years, Sid. I'm not shaking that habit overnight."
"Well, get over it faster. You make me nervous with that serious look on your plates."
Vetra scowled. "Go to bed, I don't want to argue with you when I can't leave the room."
Sid flicked her mandibles in a signature turian taunt. "Only if you do, too."
"Ugh, fine!" she groaned in defeat, joining her sister in the opposite sleeping bag.
She tossed and turned for a little bit as she got as comfortable as she could. She'd rather have been sleeping on the Tempest. She normally would try to be awake during Sid's sleep shifts so she could watch over her and comfort her during her night terrors, before getting her own sleep on the Tempest, away from the catastrophe they were in.
Vetra lay restlessly in the bag, listening to the cold metallic thumps of the Nexus's various systems working in sync to provide power to the very few areas of the station that were guaranteed allocation. The silence didn't help her mental state; her mandibles and feet kept twitching as she subconsciously desired to be doing something.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sid trembling in her sleep. Without a word, Vetra slid out of her bag and took a seat beside her sister. She removed her glove and placed a hand on the back of Sid's head. Sid hated the silence almost as much as Vetra did; it reminded her of their poorer living arrangements back home, back when the Nyx siblings lived as spacers out of a small old freighter that Sid had jokingly named the POS Nyx. Vetra found the acronym amusing; less so the ship, which teetered through space in a way that made them both uncomfortable when the life support would slow down too much at certain intervals. The failing ship made Sid terrified of traveling through space and of being on any station besides the Citadel. This was half the reason Vetra hadn't wanted her to wake until they both had solid ground, even if Sid had fought her to the end to earn a spot as a communications intern on the Nexus staff.
"Shh, it's alright," Vetra whispered as she heard Sid sigh in frustration in her sleep.
Vetra didn't really need the sleep anyway, opting to keep watch over her sister until the curfew lifted.
"I'll make this right for us, I promise," she muttered. It didn't matter how bad things got; she was determined to build a home for her sister. If necessary, she'd blast off with Sid like the good old days. Kallo could certainly find a place for them all to live if the Nexus couldn't.
A few hours later, the announcement came over the intercom that the curfew was over. Neither Vetra nor Sid wasted any time bursting through the door and back towards Operations. Vetra put herself behind Sid to keep her from being trampled by the group of people also eager to get back to work.
"I'm headed to the Tempest. Come by after work, and I'll put on a vid for us to watch. You can meet Kallo, Gil, and Suvi."
Sid seemed excited at the prospect. "Sounds like a deal, sis! I'll catch you later!" She waved before heading back towards her position near where the science team stationed themselves.
Vetra smiled back, watching her sister reunite with her colleagues, APEX watching over her for extra safety per her deal with Kesh. With all that settled, Vetra took the tram back to the docks.
Walking down the silent street had, in a way, become somewhat comforting despite the desolation. There was almost no one but her and the crew of the Tempest on her walk to the ship, which meant she always got ample time to relax while still heading somewhere important. She was going to be on this ship no matter what. If there was anything that needed doing, either for the ship or the crew, she'd be the first one to help out; she wanted to do whatever she could to bring about a better tomorrow, not just for her sister, but for everyone else as well. A part of her smirked at the thought. It's a thought mom would be proud of, funnily enough. The smirk turned into disgust as she thought about her neglectful, ladder-climbing birth giver.
Her mulling over the past was interrupted by the sound of something big docking with the Nexus. She braced herself, ready to sprint back to Operations to get Sid if need be, but nothing happened besides the procedural creaking of metal. If only she could look through the dark skylight at whatever had just shown up.
Vetra stood at a crossroads, trying to decide whether to go back or to head to the Tempest, based on the building she was near: an abandoned prefab hotel. She was close to the ship and decided to head there instead.
Upon arrival, she got a text on her omni-tool from Sid.
Ark showed up!!!!!! Humans!
She wasn't convinced.
Better not be joking. I'm serious.
A few seconds later, Sid sent a photo that made her mandibles drop.
It was blurry, but it was unmistakably an ark. Hyperion from the blue lights on its hull. Also in Sid's photo was a trio of humans dressed in the ark's jumpsuits. Two human men and one human woman.
The woman had what Vetra considered to be a pretty cool blonde haircut, combed over to one side of her head with the other side shaved. Her bearing was disciplined, from what she could tell, probably military.
One of the men had a darker shade of skin and a flurry of hair. He seemed impatient and ready to get things done as well.
The man taking point had a similar skin tone to the woman, a watch on one of his wrists, black hair well combed, and a pair of blue eyes that matched the contours of his shirt. He was getting a verbal thrashing from Addison by the looks of it. Vetra felt bad for him. Addison was probably blaming him for the ark being late, or some other bullshit.
Vetra gawked at the photo for several minutes as she kept processing what she was seeing.
Spirits... Is this real? she begged internally.
Her question was answered by the hum of power coming online, the black of the skylight turning warm and sunny, as if the doom and gloom of the past few months were suddenly washed away.
She collapsed on her knees and pinched herself. This was too good to be true, surely? She and Sid had a chance now.
As if on cue, Suvi and Kallo came over to her to check to see if she was alright. Vetra looked at them both, still stunned by what she had just witnessed.
Kallo extended a hand while Suvi smiled at her.
"It's real, alright." She said as Kallo pulled Vetra to her feet.
Shaking off the shock, she clasped both their shoulders and smiled, resolve completely renewed.
"C'mon, we got a lot of work to do!" She chirped excitedly before bolting onto the ship to begin the preparations for departure.
Vetra was going to make the most of this; she was going to tame this galaxy even if it killed her.