Chapter Text
There’s something almost magical about the moment of a breakthrough.
It’s the intoxicating thrill of discovery, the final click as puzzle pieces slide into place. It’s wires connecting and gears turning and a drone humming to life. It’s chemicals and compounds mixing and bonding to form the exact combination needed to make something entirely different. It’s a Prothean dig site, full of information and technology and a culture that nobody has understood for thousands of years. It’s seeing, experiencing, knowing something that before had been unknown.
Andromeda is, without a doubt, the biggest breakthrough Becca has ever been a part of.
Her thoughts are echoed by the large holographic presentation, which plays a running loop of the Initiative's pitch. It seems a strange formality to Becca; anyone who has made it this far, to the medical station where they will be put into stasis, has surely made up their minds. Becca herself can recite the presentation from memory, having read every briefing about twenty times. But it's possible other volunteers may be plagued by second thoughts, and in that case Becca can see how the assurances and information might be comforting.
But for once in her life, Becca is positive that she's making the right decision. She's on her way to a new galaxy, new worlds, new things that no person here has ever seen. And while they may be leaving a lot behind, there’s not a single doubt in Becca’s mind that it’s worth it.
Of course, that could just be the Ryder blood in her coming through, she thinks as a picture of her father, lined up with others who have made this entire expedition possible, flashes across the screen. Alec Ryder is nothing if not relentless, and he's been pushing for the Andromeda Initiative's success since the very beginning. It's his vision, his passion, the only thing he's been able to focus on since Ellen died.
And maybe that plays another part in Becca's conviction; she knows her mother would never want the family to be separated. That, Becca thinks, is the final point that convinced Scott to come. He put up more of a fight against the idea at first. Scott may be a Ryder through and through, just as Becca is, but in his case that means he's stubborn. He's barely spoken to their father since their mother died, and even now obviously resents the idea of joining a project with Alec Ryder's name on it.
Of course, even he can't run from the Ryder drive for discovery. Scott is always on the lookout for the next big adventure, and he can't deny that Andromeda is the biggest adventure they're likely to ever come across. Especially with Dad turning our family into Alliance pariahs, Scott would add bitterly, to which Becca would reply that the Alliance isn't likely to send them as pioneers to an entirely new world. Still, Becca knows that no small part of his agreement to the idea is the fact that he can't stand the thought of her leaving without him, just as she can't stand the thought of leaving him behind.
He won't regret it, of that Becca is sure. Scott is a brilliant field agent, a master of biotics. He may not be appreciated in the Milky Way, but he'll have time in the spotlight in Andromeda. Meanwhile, Becca will have her hands full with new ecosystems and lifeforms to study, a whole universe of potential breakthroughs to be made. And Alec, of course, will create a new legacy for himself, one unburdened by his expulsion from the Alliance- the legacy of the first Pathfinder.
Maybe, Becca hopes, this new world will even bring her entire family closer together, back to something like they were before Ellen's death. They were never a perfect family, she knows that. Scott and her father never saw eye to eye. But they used to have something more than silence and resentment and blame. Keeping the peace between them is hard in the Milky Way, where their past hangs like a shadow; Andromeda, Becca believes will be different.
It's an entirely new horizon, after all, and anything is possible. There are infinite breakthroughs yet to be made, and Becca is in the perfect position to make them.
“Rebecca Ryder?”
Becca blinks, torn from her thoughts, and turns away from the presentation board. The asari scientist who called her name smiles at Becca and waves her over. “You’re in the next group heading to the cryo-pods. Are you ready?”
Becca grins, unable to contain her excitement. “You have no idea!”
She’s more than ready. More than anything, she’s here because she knows that Andromeda holds the greatest opportunities she will ever encounter. It’s going to be beautiful, and there’s no way she’s going to miss that.