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It wasn’t that Vetra thought Ryder was an idiot. In fact, she found the little human to be quite intelligent and sharp witted. It was just that Ryder was… a little… goofy. In a very, very endearing way.
——————
The politics of the Nexus were not what Sara had signed up for. Dealing with Director Tann was bottom of her list of things she wanted to do. And dealing with Addison who out right loathed her? Well she’d dug under Tann’s feet on the list and slid Addison into that new spot.
She’d heard a rumor once that Commander Shepard threw a potted plant at a member of the Council. Maybe she should try that approach next time. Just to see what Tann did. He’d probably lose what last veneer of cool he was desperately holding on to.
So, when Tann gave her permission to leave the Nexus, she had all but sprang at the chance to see her new ship. She was sorry to leave Scott in his coma, sorry to leave her father’s room and memories behind, but there was a scaling itch under her skin that threatened to break out into hives if she didn’t move. Didn’t get away and do something.
Watching the Tempest soar into port reminded Sara of when she had been a child on the Citadel. She and Scott would sit for hours watching shuttles come and go. He knew most of their names and classes, she just liked to point out ones with pretty paint jobs.
As she approached the Tempest, Cora on her heels, she was struck frozen by the sight of the female turian sashaying down the gangway. There was an easiness to her shoulders and her swaggered walk that dropped like a stone in Sara’s chest. Her mouth felt dry, cottony, and she felt all together a little stupid for gawking. It wasn’t that she had a thing for turians specifically but she certainly had a thing for tall and confident women.
She was so enraptured that when the dock attendant came bustling up the steps, data pad waving in hand, Sara had nearly shrieked, “Wasn’t me!” It really wasn’t her, it couldn’t be her! She hadn’t touched anything. Yet.
The turian, -Vetra!-, shot her a curious stare, one browplate arched and mandibles fluttering in a suppressed laugh. Moving past Sara, her talons ghosted gently over her shoulder and the near contact alone felt like thunder on a quiet day. Sara watched in awe as Vetra said two words to the man and the man immediately got caught on her line. An expert angler, it would seem.
Attendant deterred, Vetra turned on her heel and walked back up towards the small human who was staring at her with the widest eyes she had ever seen. They were the prettiest shade of green, a complete color palette mismatch to the shocking periwinkle of the girl’s hair. How in the galaxy had the dye job survived a 600 year space flight? Had the silly human really been so vain as to touch it up as soon as she had come out of stasis?
Vetra watched as the girl’s mouth opened and closed before sound finally seemed to squeak out, “Hot-ow, How did you do that?”
“Do what, Pathfinder?” Her head cocked to the side, mandibles tight against her jaw. She tried not to preen at the obvious slip. So Ryder thought she was attractive? She could use that. She would use that. Not for anything nefarious, mind, but if she needed to weasel a few more credits out of the budget for important supplies, well… she suspected Ryder was going to be an easy mark.
To Sara’s immense relief Vetra did not react to her slip up. Vetra was, however, watching her with a keen flashing in her eyes that suggested she was well aware of what Sara was asking, “How did you convince him to look the other way so easily?”
A dual-toned chuckle filled the air, “I asked nicely.”
——————
Vetra showed Ryder around the main body of the ship and then deposited her in the cockpit to meet Kallo and Suvi. It was a relief when she felt the ship shudder awake and felt the docking feet fold beneath her in the cargo bay. The sooner and farther from the Nexus they got, the better.
She asked SAM to track Ryder’s moments through the ship so she could chime in over the intercom with helpful information as she entered each section. Every time, Ryder’s head swung around as if expecting to see her standing beside her. Vetra didn’t know what to do with the hint of sadness that seemed to shade the Pathfinder’s eyes every time she found the space empty.
So when Ryder finally made it to the cargo bay, Vetra made a show of wandering out into a central workstation, perfectly visible to the sad green eyes. She had not been expecting Ryder to vault herself off of the top level at the mere sight of her. Nor had she been expecting Ryder to be a biotic and for her to actually gracefully cushion the blow of the jump. There had been so little information about the older Ryder twin in their files. Not a lot of information on the other one either, but Vetra had no use for a man in a coma, so she hadn’t really looked.
“Vetra!” Sara released her biotic cushion and bounced up to Vetra’s workstation, “There you are! I’ve been looking for you.”
“Ryder,” Vetra leaned a hip against her table, and maybe, because she could, she let her harmonics slip a little lower than normal. She was rewarded with a fascinating blush from the grinning Pathfinder, “What can I do for you?”
Sara cleared her throat and ran her hand through her hair, “You’re our requisitions officer, correct?”
“Mmhmm.”
“I need a sniper rifle.”
Vetra blinked down at Ryder. Her brow plates clinched together in confusion, “You need… a sniper rifle.”
From across the way, Cora’s head shot up and she shook it ‘no’ just once. But it was Ryder with her big green eyes that won the war for Vetra’s attention. Ryder reached out, brushed her fingers against Vetra’s arm and then thought better of it, snatching her hand back against her chest. She straightened up, drew her shoulders back, and did her best to look authoritative, “Yes, I typically carry one, but my rifle appears to have gone missing in the last 600 years. It wasn’t with my things on the Hyperion.”
“We… we have one in the weapons loadout near your gear,” Now what on earth was Ryder, who barely came up to her chest, going to do with a sniper rifle? Surely this little ball of energy lacked the patience to use a scope. She assumed Ryder used a shotgun, an assault rifle maybe.
“Great!” Sara hopped up onto the edge of Vetra’s workstation and picked up whatever it was she had been working on, “So what are you doing?”
——————
Vetra was no stranger to healthy skepticism. Expecting the worst usually led to her being unsurprised. So she had expected the first mission with Ryder to be a disaster. She had almost tried to pretend she didn’t know how to shoot a gun just to get out of going planet side with Ryder and Liam. But then the Pathfinder had said ‘didn’t you sell yourself as a gunner?’ and Vetra knew her own game was being played against her.
Which was how she found herself stuck in the Nomad, desperately clinging to a handhold as Ryder used the vehicle to squish giant bugs in their path. Who had given this girl a license? Did she have a license? Despite Ryder’s lackluster driving, her leadership skills actually proved to be up to snuff. She had an easy way of talking to people, witty enough to put people at ease, sarcastic enough to prove she had a good bit of bite. Vetra was pleasantly surprised.
——————
But it was when Ryder finally pulled out the sniper rifle she’d insisted on bringing, that Vetra saw a glimpse of who Pathfinder Sara Ryder really was. She was cornered against the edge of one of the platforms inside the Vault, two observers pestering her until her talons barely had a hold on the floor. Just when she thought she was going to owe Sid an apology for dying, a blue light blazed above her, yanking the attention of the two observers.
Like twin lightning strikes, two bullets went through the observers roving eyes. The bots fell to the ground in heaps and Sara landed on her feet, still wreathed in the blue of her Charge. She turned to walk away but at the last second she turned and threw a wink over her shoulder, “Do be careful, Vetra, I can’t go losing my new favorite turian.”
“Hot-ow, how did you do that?”
A breathy chuckle filled the air, “I jumped.”