The Firefly (Mass Effect Andromeda)

Chapter 5

She was sitting alone, on the floor, legs tucked up against her chest when Harry found her. "Liv, I've been looking everywhere for you." He sounded relieved.

"I just needed some quiet for a while." Olivia sighed, "What do you need? Is it my father?"

"No, he's stable. About what Ryder said to you...he didn't mean it. He wanted to take the words back I think."

"I know." Olivia shrugged. She didn't trust herself to speak. He just looked at her. He had known her since she was a little girl, had helped her parents with Nina when her biotics manifested. He was the one trace of home she had left right then. "It should have been me!" She wept suddenly, uncontrollably, burying her head in her hands. "I should have been in that pod. It should be me with brain injuries." Harry reached for her, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her close as if he himself were her father. "Ryder was right! If I had been the one to be hurt perhaps my dad could have saved people."

"Do you know why he calls you Firefly?" Harry asked her.

She stared at him in shock, the sound of her father's nickname for her on someone else's lips somewhat alien. "Because I'm a redhead?" She answered bleakly. "I don't know. How do you know he calls me that?"

He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "When he talks about you at work, you're always Firefly." He chuckled. "You were so young when Nina's biotic abilities emerged, and I know you were neglected at home."

"She needed them so much more. All their time and money." Olivia shrugged at the years of hurt. "I managed."

"He said you always shone, despite everything. You were a little light in the darkness. You gave him hope when he felt sad. You were his firefly, Olivia." Tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks. Her hands trembled.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"You'll do fine, I promise. I'll make sure you're taken care of until your family are woken."

Several days passed. She stayed on the Hyperion, working with Harry. Lexi had gone, taking his place aboard the Tempest, the ship given to the Pathfinder. With a doctor down, she was kept busy, and her knowledge of her father's work made her useful. Most people were still being kept in cryo, until they had some kind of settlement to expand into. The funny looks had stopped. Apparently the story of the Pathfinder verbally attacking her had been gossip for a while, some of the nastier gossipers saying she should be put back into cryo and stop taking up space.

"Liv!" Harry called out to her. She had been wandering a section of pods, checking the readings. Some of them had been fluctuating since the day they had struck the Scourge. She turned, seeing an uncharacteristically excited expression on his face.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Director Tann wants to speak with you. His assistant just called asking for you to come to his office immediately."

"Why?" She asked, instantly alarmed. The Director of the Initiative asking for her personally did not seem like a good omen. "Is it about my dad?"

"His assistant promised that it was 'nothing bad'." Harry told her. "We can spare you here...go!"

*

Stepping off the tram, she collided with a young Asari, her skin the colour of an Earth sky, dressed in the Initiative uniform like everyone else there. "I'm sorry." Olivia said, expecting an insult.