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Sabine had been surprised to find Kaetus and Sloane as well as half a dozen both at the entrance to the cave when they arrived.
She shook her head. “What are you doing here? Kaetus asked us to deal with this.”
Sloane laughed, a resonant chuckle. “I want to see how you work. Plus rumors were that there was a small army of kett down here. I’ve heard you’re good, Ryder, but not that good.”
Sabine smiled at the backhanded compliment. “Thanks for the vote of confidence– I guess.”
“Come on then. We’ve picked off a few here, if they don’t know we’re here, they soon will.” Sloane didn’t wait for a reply before her and her small group of Outcasts headed deeper into the cave.
Sabine shrugged at Liam and Vetra and they followed behind.
Pathfinder, a warning.
What is it SAM?
According to preliminary maps, this area is in a geologically unstable region. Arms fire might set of the surrounds.
Well, shit. I don’t think the kett are going to care.
If you turn your sensors on, I can monitor the situation whilst you assist the Outcasts.
Do it SAM. I’ve got some kett to kill.
Sloane’s information had been correct. A small army of maybe twenty-five kett had taken base in deeper part of the cave. However, their handful of eight, five outcasts and the three of them from the Pathfinder team, was more than enough gunpower. Only one injured and a whole lot of dead kett. Sabine had given Sloane the smuggest smile when the last kett fell, yet she remained passive and unimpressed.
The Outcasts began to move some of the more valuable kett provisions and Vetra and Liam scrabbled amongst the belongs to find things for themselves before asking Sabine if she needed anything.
Sabine shook her head. “Take what you can carry, there’s not much room in the nomad.” She watched as Liam took several items of armor and Vetra removed mods from several kett weapons. Both walked back to the cave entrance leaving Sabine behind. She turned to Sloane who was directing Kaetus and another Outcast member.
“Okay take that. Then we can go and bring back some more people to recover the rest of what’s here. Looks some good stuff.”
“Sloane, uh I’m going now.
Sloane nodded. “Okay then so.”
Sabine’s mouth fell open, and she scratched her chin, unsure what reaction she had really wanted from Sloane. Gratitude would have been a good place to start though. “Okay the–”
Pathfinder I am detecting a small tremor in the area can you–
The sound of thunder filled Sabine’s ears. Soil and rock debris flew in plumes around her, fine particles filled her mouth with dust and hit her eyes blinding her from her surrounds. She fell back, her ass hit the ground hard and a sudden sharp pain hit her hand before it reverberated up her arm. She yelped then let out a series of gasping coughs the grit coating her lips as it spluttered from her mouth.
When the dust cleared she looked down at her hand, her pinkie finger was bloody and the skin torn down to the bone. Just looking at it made her flinch. A few feet away she could see Sloane lying prostrate. Sabine’s heart leapt into her mouth, but then she saw her head move and a low groan emanate she made a deep sigh of relief.
Sloane moved to a sitting position as Sabine, walked towards her holding her injured hand against her.
“You okay?” Sabine asked as she looked down at her.
Sloane coughed and licked her lips then glanced up to her. “What the fuck?”
“It’s a rock fall.” It took a moment for Sabine to come out of a dazed state before she saw the bone sticking out form Sloane’s leg. “Shit you okay?” she said as she stared at Sloane’s wound.
Sloane followed Sabine’s glance down to her leg and let out a guffaw. “I guess not.”
Pathfinder your finger appears to be damaged, but not extensively. Also the entrance to the cavern appears to be blocked. I suggest contacting the Pathfinder team in order to find a way out.
“Okay SAM, was just gonna do that,” Sabine said aloud.
Sloane started laughing again then began to cough before staring up to the bewildered Sabine. “That thing in your head now too? I almost forgot.”
Sabine blinked not realising that she had replied to SAM verbally rather than just thinking. She squatted down beside the injured Outcast leader and placed her hand gently on Sloane’s knee. Where her pants were ripped, she could see Sloane’s skin was barely broken, with little blood. However, there was bone pointing through. She’d have to stabilise it and make sure Sloane didn’t go into shock before help arrived.
She pulled her communicator out and tapped on it. “Vetra, Liam, are you okay?”
Static filled the quiet space they occupied before Vetra replied. “Ryder, you’re alright?”
She looked at her hand then down to Sloane’s leg again. “Yeah I’m okay, but Sloane’s leg appears to be broken. Anybody else injured?”
“No. But it looks like you’re both trapped behind a wall of rock, we’re gonna have to dig you out. Kaetus wants to speak with Sloane. None of their comm device can get through to her.”
“I’m gonna dig up what I can in the way of medigel if it hasn’t made its way out yet.” She held out the comm to Sloane. “You okay to talk?”
Sloane nodded.
“Gonna go find some stuff. I’ll be right back. Gonna hand the comm to Sloane, Vetra.”
“Okay, we’ll get you out, Ryder, might take a while– save your energy– both of you.”
Sabine headed inwards to the small kett facility. Inside the base was a warren of rooms and stores. She remembered seeing what appeared to be a small medical area in the back. Inside the cupboards was everything she needed. Medigel and a kit with a mediblanket, makeshift splint material and a small handheld monitor that looked to be angaran. She poured medigel over her damaged finger, bound the joint to her index finger with a bandage and winced as she pulled it tight and fastened it securely.
Back near the entrance, Sloane had pulled herself against a nearby rock and was breathing heavy from the exertion of pulling herself. Sabine could hear a faint thud then a sound like a drill coming from the other side of the fallen rock. She said nothing as she knelt down and poured medigel on Sloane’s open wound, put the splint either side of her broken leg and bound and set it in place.
“Okay don’t move it.” Sabine grabbed the medical emergency blanket and made to place it over Sloane.
“I don’t need that,” Sloane said.
Sabine ignored her and draped the blanket over her lower half, whether Sloane wanted to or not she didn’t want her dying of shock and when she didn’t protest any further, Sabine tucked the blanket on either side of her legs.
“Kaetus says a couple of hours at least before they can get through. They’ve got mining equipment on the job already.”
Sabine gave a wry smile. “I can hear. Time for us to get to know each other better then, hey?”
Sloane snorted and bowed her head. “Sure. Got a pillow for my ass though?” She looked to be waiting for Sabine to reply but Sabine sat back quietly and said nothing. “Why did you come to Andromeda? Daddy make you?”
Sabine’s brow rose at the sudden interrogation. “Why did you come?” she said, ignoring the sarcastic tone of Sloane’s enquiry as she made her reply a question.
“I asked first, Pathfinder. I knew your father, he wasn’t an easy man.”
She nodded. “So you did ask first. And no, he wasn’t the easiest of individuals. Dad didn’t make us, if you must know. We wanted to come. Gabriel and I.” She sighed as thoughts drifted to her comatose brother still in the medical facility back on the Nexus. “Gabriel has a natural sense of adventure.”
Sloane spat out more dirt from her mouth. “Nice deflection. But I didn’t ask about your brother.”
Sabine huffed out a laugh. “Gabriel had– has– a sense of adventure, but I– I have sense of curiosity. I’m the kid who doesn’t leave a single rock on the beach unturned.”
“So you looking for something? Plenty of rocks here for you turn over. Beaches kinda suck though. I’m not one for bathing in water that smells like Satan farted in it.” Sloane nodded towards the rock wall and laughed.
Sabine let out an amused laugh. She hadn’t heard Kadara described quite in that way, and it was apt. “Well I’m looking for homes for everyone now. The habitats we’ve found really haven’t been any good.”
“But, before you were Pathfinder? What do you think you’d find under the rocks in Andromeda?”
Sabine bit her lip and shrugged. “I dunno. You found anything of note?”
Sloane shifted her weight. “Ha. Nope. And whatever the fuck I was looking for it doesn’t matter now. I didn’t fucking find it here in the Andromeda galaxy that’s for sure. Maybe I’m still looking.”
She tilted her head a one-sided smirk came to Sabine’s face. “Now who’s deflecting?”
Sloane laughed and coughed again. Sabine made to go to her but Sloane waved her down before she could get to her feet. “Give me some of that water, Ryder.”
“I really shouldn’t. You could have more serious–”
Just give it to me, just gonna rinse my mouth out – don’t worry, I’m not the kind to swallow,” she said and winked at her and laughed as Sabine passed her the small flask hanging from her hip.
Sabine felt a heat rise to her cheeks at the innuendo and gave a quiet laugh before looking away.
Sloane took a swig and spat out the contents before taking another and swallowing it.
“You lied about swallowing,” Sabine said.
Sloane shook her head. “It’s Kadara, Pathfinder. Everyone lies here. The difference between here and the Nexus– is you at least know that no one here speaks the truth. Anyway, I don’t make it a habit of lying. I don’t need to.”
Sabine nodded. “Well the lying part I get, but Reye–“
Sloane held her hand up. “Ugh don’t mention him. My Outcasts are going to hunt that bastard down and show him a thing or two.”
“What are you going to do? I mean–”
“It doesn’t matter, hopefully he’s been stabbed in the back somewhere and I don’t have to deal with his deception anymore. I’m gonna rip him to shreds otherwise, or a bullet. One or the other will suffice.” Sloane sniffed and pursed her lips she stared up the rock wall and away from Sabine’s gaze. “I came to Andromeda because of Jien. I would have followed her to the ends of the earth. I wasn’t an opportunist like Reyes.”
Sabine felt a chill run up her spine and dust fell from the rocks above as she could hear the drilling noise become louder. Obviously Sloane had a different idea of what an opportunist was, certainly wasn’t her current role one of opportunity? “You made it, though, we’re here at the ends of the earth.”
A sad smile washed across Sloane’s face and her features softened. “But Jien isn’t.”
She tapped her lips. Sabine knew little of Sloane before the Initiative left, even less of Jien even though her father was a good friend. She wanted to know more about it all, there were stories of what happened on the Nexus during the uprising– she’d heard one side, but not the other. She wanted to know more of Sloane, if for any reason it meant an alliance and goodwill towards the Initiatives new outpost. “You were close?”
Sloane shifted uneasily again and swallowed. “As close as anyone with initial involvement with the Initiative, your father included.” Sloane tilted her head at Sabine as though gaging her reaction. “You’ve got his eyes, you know. They’re as blue as the waters here.”
“But without the sulphurous fart smell behind it right?” she said and chuckled.
A wide grin surfaced on Sloane’s otherwise unrevealing face. “I’m not that close to your ass right now, I wouldn’t know.”
Sabine crossed her arms and put a mock indignant look on her face, it felt like a cover for an increasing nervousness and she hoped a light hearted response might ease the sudden tension she felt at what in any other situation would come across as flirtatious. “I’ll have you know, my farts have a wholesome healthy smell of someone with a good diet and who gets plenty of exercise and fresh air.”
Sloane started to chortle and hold her stomach. “One night eating Kaetus special bean dish made especially for humans would be the ultimate test of that– let me tell ya.”
Sabine felt her shoulders relax and she started laughing along with her. “You inviting me to dinner?” she asked.
Their laughter echoed around the cave only drowned out by the sudden sound of machinery on the other side of the fallen rock
Sloane’s laughter subsided and they both turned their heads towards the wall where the noise came from, expecting a breakthrough; however, the sound retreated again and when Sabine turned back, Sloane was staring straight at her, the soft look that appeared on her face when talking about Jien had returned.
“When next you come back to Kadara– I don’t trust the Initiative, but Jien trusted Alec, and I feel I have to give you at least some semblance of a chance. Yeah, come to dinner.”
Sabine’s mouth fell open then shut again. It was meant to be a joke, but here she was asking her to share a meal. Sloane’s invite came across more as an command than a request and Sabine knew she couldn’t refuse, any more than she could refuse to pay Sloane’s ‘protection’ for the Initiative outpost. However, there had been a fleeting moment of vulnerability behind Sloane’s eyes. You could ignore her heterochromia for the most part, but this was different. Sabine could take it as her current injured state and nothing more, but that moment, it made her heart pound and she felt like a startled deer in headlights of an oncoming truck.
A crashing noise of rock and dust came from the rock face that had fallen, the mining machinery had broken through in just under forty minutes. Kaetus was first through, blindly looking for Sloane before the dust had even settled.
Sabine stood as Vetra and Liam came through behind him.
Kaetus and another Outcast member pulled Sloane to her feet.
“Hey, be careful, her leg is broken,” Sabine said.
Kaetus waved his hand at her. “We know what we’re doing, Ryder. You can go.”
Sabine shook her head. “Well thanks for everything, Kaetus,” she said with a sarcastic tone to her voice.
“Stop. Hang on.” Sloane made them stop in front of Sabine. “You’re making this a habit, saving me that is.”
Sabine crossed her arms and nodded. “For all that’s had happened on Kadara, I’m not one to keep receipts, but maybe I’ll keep this one.”
Sloane smiled and bit her lip “You’re learning fast. You even sound a little bit like Alec. Maybe you’ll fit into Kadara after all.” She reached out with a grimy hand and touched Sabine’s face. Her thumb slid over her top lip leaving a trace of dust.
Sabine let out an inaudible gasp at the intimate touch, her heart rate increased and a flutter hit her belly. “I ah– I ah–”
“Farewell, Pathfinder. See you when you return.”
With that, Sloane was gone and Sabine stood dumbfounded.
Vetra placed her hand on Sabine’s shoulder. “C’mon, Ryder, let’s get back to the Tempest. Get Lexi to give you a once over. Jaal has apparently cooked something for us, if you’re up for a home cooked angaran meal after all this.”
Sabine stared up at the turian a dazed look in her eyes. “Sure, as long as it’s not beans okay?”
Vetra’s brow knitted in confusion. “What?”
Sabine shook her head. “I’ll tell you later, Vetra, remind me next time we come back to Kadara.”