The Firefly (Mass Effect Andromeda)

Chapter 11

It had taken some persuasion to get Scott to leave. After Lexi had given something to take the swelling down on her knee, she'd gone up onto the bridge, finding Scott standing there. He'd looked at her almost calculatingly. And honestly, she would have loved to get him involved, have him help her friends, but she couldn't. He was the Pathfinder! He had far more important things to do.

"Whoever killed that asari could be after you next." He had pointed out.

"And you have bigger fish to fry. I'll be fine." She told him, "I'm on the Nexus for the foreseeable future doing work anyway. You need to go to that cold planet and help the Angaran Resistance, like you told me. Save the Moshae and gain us some much needed allies."

"Promise me you'll be careful." He'd said, his hands on her arms, staring into her eyes like he'd forgotten that Kallo and Suvi, two of his crew were right there.

"Promise." She'd murmured.

*

"How was Eos?" Harry asked as soon as she walked into the med bay.

"Fun." She replied, "My reports are being edited for broadcast as we speak."

"I'm glad you're staying safe." Her mother wandered in, "I heard a rumor that you'd flown in with the Pathfinder."

"Ryder helped me out on an investigation." Olivia told her, a little stiffly. "He dropped me off on the way back to Voeld."

"I missed you." Laura said softly. "There's been a breakthrough in your father. Harry thinks he'll be awake within the next week."

Olivia's jaw dropped a little, her eyes welling up. "Dad's going to be okay?"

"We think so." Her mother replied. They chatted for a little while, her mother talking about her job in Hydroponics and how there had recently been a problem where protesters took over the area, demanding their families be woken from status. It was nice to just talk for once without jumping down each other's throats, Olivia thought. "Actually Liv, we need to talk to you."

"Is everything alight?" Liv frowned. She was impatient to be on her way. None of her friends had been answering her emails or calls about Pavara and so she was planning to head to the lab and see them.

"Your friends...those scientists..." She looked uncomfortable, "They're missing. HNS mentioned it on the news this morning."

"What?" Her mother flicked on the screen.

"Authorities remain concerned about the whereabouts of Initiative Scientists Dr Lyora Gaari and Dr Nunok Calon as well as Nexus Security Officer Veratana Octatus following a fire at Gaari's lab. Forensics indicate that no one was killed in the fire, which destroyed the entire laboratory. The cause of the fire remains unknown." David Qaar's voice said.

Olivia stared at her mother and Harry, her mind racing. It was too much of a coincidence. Had they run or had they been taken? Why had the lab burned? After Pavara's death, this was just too strange.

The lab doors were open and marked up with holographic police tape. There was a smell of smoke, acrid and bitter. She could see inside, the room where she'd spent so much time with her friends, gutted by flame, the walls scarred and blackened. The furniture was twisted in melted lumps. Tiran Kandros, the head of the Nexus Militia appeared beside her, "You were friends with them?"

"Yes." Olivia nodded, "Do you have any leads?"

"Their apartments are empty, they've been ransacked." Kandros said. "A flammable substance was poured all over the lab, an accelerant. The fire wasn't natural. Someone was trying to destroy it."