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Draconic's Fic, Chapter Ten: Through Vacuum And Glass
Posted By: Kathryne Charles<Ishdakitty@gmail.com>
Date: 16 December 2005, 2:20 am
Read/Post Comments
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Chapter Ten: Through Vacuum And Glass
Marines settled about the edges of camp with an air of curtailed efficiency, jokes, orders and insults seeming far less heartened than on a typical mission. The presence of the massive red sun that dwarfed the horizon ate away at a man's resolve till he was snappish and irritated, and the Master Chief watched the camp with consternation and squelched concern for the absent Spartan. Those who weren't suffering from an out welling of aggravation were generally afflicted by nausea and disorientation. It took a strong kind of man to shrug off the effects of the rouge sun. The Chief glanced at one Marine with a slight smile behind his faceplate; Halley and her team had brought several members of Echo Company along for the ride, and one man certainly stood out above the others. Proudly displaying the new-bright insignia of a Corporal on his chest, Caleb Jackals had circumvented the agonies of the scarlet light with a pair of pale blue novelty sunglasses. The innovative solution was one that the Chief intended to point out in his mission report for the next time someone thought that landing on a planet with a red giant was a good idea. His own visor was constantly on filtration mode, and even he didn't think he'd be perfectly all right without it.
Every half hour he checked the tunnel Halley had disappeared into, rationally knowing it was far too early, but if any of the other Spartans noticed his concern it was written off as the effect of the sun. When she returned it was with anticlimactic ease, shimmying out of the tunnel dripping wet and telegraphing triumph. John squelched his relief at her return as surely as he'd done the concern at her absence. "Report."
"Got it. We may get out of here without any trouble at all; they didn't have a clue as to who took it."
"How did you pull that off, Chief? I'd have thought it was under heavy guard." Paul walked over from his post, the shotgun in his hands leaned against his shoulder in what was clearly boredom.
"Well…I had a little help from an Elite." She reached into her pouch and held up the depleted camouflage chip. Paul laughed and shook his head.
"You minx! I should have known you'd have one of those hidden somewhere."
Halley chuckled and reached up to crack the seal on her helmet, pulling it off and taking a few deep breaths. "I hate these glitchy prototypes, though. The suit's air reserve ran low, and the CO2 filters stopped working. I'm going to have to manually refill the compressed air tank." She glanced around, seeming relatively unbothered by the sun. With a yawn and a crack of her shoulders, she passed her helmet to Paul and reached into her pouches again. The larger Spartan glanced into the helmet, turning it over in his hands, and shook his head.
"Damn, Hals, how do you fit your head in here?"
"Easy. My head isn't as full of hot air." Paul snickered. Halley pulled the alien artifact out of the pouch and held it up in front of the Chief, smiling almost childishly. "Piece of ca--" Even as he reached for it, the crystal lifted with deliberate intent hovered over Halley's palm and glittered in the red light. He checked his motion and stared at the levitating artifact in alarm.
"In my experience, it is never a good thing when these things activate on their own. Cortana? Anything?"
"Increased radiation, well within tolerable limits. Even for the norms." John blinked, switching to a private channel as Halley moved her hand back and forth, the artifact tracking the motion.
"'The norms?'"
"Mmhm. The Marines. They are normal, hence, 'norms.' Well, except for that guy with the extremely big nose, I mean really, what kind of genetic advantage does that play into?" John's eyebrows shot up, and he shifted his feet uncomfortably.
"Cortana…it sounds like you're starting to lose it." There was a feeling of concern in his voice, and she quieted a moment. When she spoke again it was a quiet, aural caress of devotion.
"I'm so sorry…I'll try to hold it together." She dropped the com, and John frowned, watching Halley experiment with the crystal.
"Okay, enough. Put it into the box and lets get a move on." The Chief began issuing orders to pack up camp, and the Marines scrambled to it. Halley reached for the gem with her other hand, but in a blinding flash of light it split along its facets. It separated into dozens of tiny shards, still hovering rebelliously over her outstretched hand. She made a confused face, and dropped the other gauntlet.
"Now what?"
"I…have no idea. Cortana?"
"Beats me. The 'Holy Light' that Dr. Halsey found just reassembled itself in different patterns, it didn't split into tiny shards."
Halley blinked, fighting disorientation and assuming it was the effect of the sun. After a moment, she looked up at the Chief, and concern hit him with a rush and a sudden accelerated beating of his heart. Her pupils were dilated enough to consume every trace of the blue irises. "Do you hear singing?" She whispered, more than spoke, and the crystals shivered for an instant, then dropped with blinding speed into her palm. The thick matte gloves were pierced like tissue paper, and the crystal shards were consumed in a quick spray of blood, not dropping through the back of her hand but vanishing somewhere in her skin. She gave a quick, truncated cry, convulsed once, and collapsed. John and Paul both went to catch her, but it was Kelly who got there first, cradling the tiny Spartan as she sank to the earth.
"Sir, we have to get her medical help now." The younger woman was twitching as if in a seizure, and Kelly tightened her grip to keep her from shaking to pieces. Paul reached down and shut off the MJOLNIR's primary power, increasing the hydrostatic gel enough to ease her down to the occasional harmless twitch. The Marines, noticing the commotion, began moving faster, and almost frantically. The anxiety caused by the red light was now working for them, instead of against. Halley's eyes were still dilated and open. A few moments later she regained some sort of focus, and jerked into a sitting position, scrambling away from the Spartans to find a piece of empty space. She broke Kelly's hold with a shocking display of strength; being able to move a suit of MJOLNIR without the suit's power being on was never an east act by itself. She coughed onto the ground, on her hands and knees, and spat thick globs of blood into the dirt.
The Chief knelt beside her, hands on her quaking shoulders, and after a moment she collapsed again. He turned her over, and she moved her mouth like she was trying to speak. Paul knelt on the opposite side of her, but from the angle he couldn't see her face. He could, however, see the reflection in the Chief's visor, and as Halley's eyes were consumed with white light that started as pinpricks in her pupils, the hair stood up on his neck in horror. Master Chief looked up, and the pain in his voice was shocking to the beta Spartan, who until that moment hadn't even considered that his Chief might have been in a relationship with the older soldier. "Call in our evac NOW!!"
When first the Sangheili left their homeworld and traveled into the bleakness of space, their caste structure had still been forming. Long before the profession of "warrior" was the most desired by youths, there had been whole communities of Sangheili scientists who worked to make their race a secure future. The Colony Bases were an ancient tribute to that indomitable spirit; for though the structure of society that had allowed them to be built had long since been converted and corrupted by the teachings of the Covenant, the bases still achieved their original goal in providing community centers for the far-flung Sangheili race.
The Teacher's cruiser approached the busy sector of space with the slow grace of a predator, waiting for docking confirmation and giving Miira a good view of the colossal, conical base. The majority of the space station pointed at the bright yellow sun; a long, tapered point that was covered in the bright, reflective panels that stored heat and energy and powered the shield that covered the flat surface that the city was built on. Its size was misleading from a distance; the shape of the cone that powered the base made the actual face of the city seem far smaller by comparison. As the Heretic's vessel drifted closer, the thousands of reflective satellites that continuously diffused light across what would otherwise be a permanent night came into view, somewhere midway through their day cycle. Perhaps half of the skylights were aimed at the city beneath like a thousand tiny suns; the other half were rotated away and sending their stolen illumination into asteroids covered in solar plating that fed energy to the various ships docked about.
The Heretical Redemption was sent to one such asteroid, and the small ferry vessels clustered about it, waiting to take the crew to the base in return for either money or trade goods. There was a great deal of competition between the ferry ships, and they were all different; converted Covenant Dropships, science cruisers likely stolen from their original owners, and one bizarre ship that looked like it was pieced together from human technology and dozens of Banshees. It looked like a squashed silver tube covered from end to end in spikes ending with anti-grav pods. Although it was hard to distinguish what was what on the contraption, it was by far the most graceful of the ferries, able to move with effortless ease in any direction at any given moment. Miira turned to the Arbiter and dropped her jaws in a smile. "I am going on that one." He quirked a smile back.
When the spiked vessel entered the hanger, Miira stepped up to the hatch with purpose. It dropped open, and she found herself nearly face to face with another female Sangheili. The older female was unarmored, wearing a series of colorful scarves and belts to match her patterning. She blinked, and hissed a laugh. "Well n'ilra de ti' dahn. A female warrior at my door? What luck I must be having this day. I should play my chances." She winked, and offered her palm. "I am called Kilik'tel'heir." Miira kept her face neutral of expression, the female's name held neither title nor family designation. The name's meaning was squished together from "Bright," "Lucky," and "Valiant." It was a commoner's name.
"So this is where you ended up." The Arbiter spoke behind Miira, and Kilik laughed even louder.
"Orsa! Or should I be calling you 'Arby' now? I did not think I would be seeing you again in this life." Miira fumed in silent frustration, as the older female tapped her fingers to the Arbiter's. "Come, I will fly you down as my guests. No cost." She stepped back onto the ship and powered it up. Miira looked to the Arbiter with an utterly blank look. He met her eyes, and tilted his head a fraction, as usual amused by something.
"Old friend?" Miira worked hard to keep her voice level.
"Much, much more than a friend." He couldn't help but laugh as Miira turned away in silent rage. He put a hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear before heading towards the cockpit. "She is the daughter of my father's brother."
Miira turned back, surprised, but he was already through the door. She flushed a bright shade of violet, and balled a fist, glancing down at two Kig-yar staring into the doorway to the ferry craft. "What are you looking at!?" They ran off with alacrity. She sighed, and adjusted her helmet. With no way of making herself seem poised after that exchange, she found a seat and sat in a huff. She dropped her hands to her blades, and spoke to the empty room as if expecting a response. "How was I supposed to know they were related?"
Unsurprisingly, no answer was forthcoming.
"Hi, I'm here to see Chief Petty Officer Spartan two-ninety-two? Two-Nine-Two? I just need a room number. Come ON lady, hop to it!" John had headed to the reception center of the Harrison System Recovery Station in search of a drink and a breath of fresh air, but the distraction of an unknown beta Spartan breathing down the neck of a flustered nurse served an appreciated distraction. She was proportioned normally for a Spartan woman, although a little on the short side, and her spiked cinnamon-brown hair complimented an attractive, angular face. She talked faster than the receptionist could follow, and John moved in that direction to head off disaster. The Spartan woman was on her toes doing bunny-hops in frustration, as John cleared his throat. "Hmm? Oh! Ooh! You're the Master Chief, Aren't ya? Well, I guess that's obvious, since your FOF tag says that, no point in my asking, really. Do you know where they're keeping Hals? This lady says she doesn't know who I'm talking about, but I know she's here! Damn clearance nonsense and nurses not being helpful at all…" She didn't take a single breath during the entire tirade, and she shot a suspicious look at the nurse as she wound down. She talked so fast it made John's head hurt.
He interrupted her next outburst as quickly as he could. "Go down that hall, make a left at the 'T' junction, and her room is the last one on the left." The girl brightened up like a Christmas tree, and she heaved a sigh of relief.
"Thanks, Chief!" She took a step, paused, and flung up her hand in a salute. "I'm Sparkie." She turned and bolted down the hallway, and John's eyes widened. She was fast. Kelly fast. And she was going to careen into the wall at the end of the hall if she didn't slow down. He watched as she threw her weight onto the outside edge of her left foot, slid gracefully like an ice skater, hit the wall with her right foot, and took three steps on the vertical surface before returning to the floor. She vanished around the corner, and John remembered belatedly to close his mouth. He wasn't sure if Kelly could run on walls. He would definitely have to ask.
Paul glanced up from the glass shield separating the waiting room from the decontamination room, and flung out a hand as an anchor. Sparkie caught his grip and skidded to a halt, pressing a hand immediately against the glass. Paul smiled a bit dejectedly. "Hey, Sparks."
"Hey Paul, hey, do that have any idea what's wrong with her yet? They didn't give us any word on the ship, just that there was an accident and she hasn't been conscious in days…"
"Sparks, for god's sake, breath. They still don't know. Her blood work is still completely normal." The brunette Spartan started bouncing on her toes. Kaina stepped out of the decontamination area, pulled off her gloves, and smiled at the newcomer.
"It's the return of the 'ADD Avenger.' They call you back from the field for this?"
"I do not have attention deficit disorder, thank you very much, I just live faster than you dreary slow people. And not exactly, Xander and I were on a mission to retrieve information on one of those artifact thingies and ONI re-called us when this happened and so I wanted to see how she was. How is she? Really?" Concern welled like tears in her eyes. Paul snorted.
"Perfectly healthy but inexplicably unconscious. I told you that."
"Well, excuse me, 'Dr. Paul.' I didn't realize you got your PHD in 'Stating the Obvious.' I'm asking the 'DOCTOR' doctor. So, how about it? News? News?"
"Well, there is one thing…" Kaina smiled. "…Dr. Halsey is on her way." At that, Sparks finally slowed down, settling back on her heels and sighing in relief.
"Dr. Halsey will fix her. Dr. Halsey can fix anyone." She dropped in one of the waiting room couches, and ignored the horrified creak of stressed wood. "Although, I really am not suited to the waiting part."
Cortana sat in the mainframe of the Hospital Station, not focused on much. Normally she'd be ripping through files looking for covert reports, testing her skills against the firewalls they had set up, and reorganizing the entire computer system to her liking. Today she found she just couldn't care. If not for that occasional line of white code that stubbornly refused to let her focus all of her thoughts onto the contemplations at hand, she'd probably start re-assigning her core processor speed. She wanted the extra thinking power to tangle with the "AI; soul or no soul" question. But her overuse of the Spartan's access code had written echoes of it everywhere, and while rationally she could appreciate that the code was keeping her alive, she wasn't so sure she wanted to be today. She barely even noticed a second AI enter the mainframe, although when it came close it caught her attention with a violent start like a gunshot.
The AI moved through the system leaving defragmented files in its wake, and when it approached her she got the AI equivalent of chills just looking at it. Him. He had a body surprisingly similar to his own, though darker in color, and the binary that skipped across a slender, masculine frame was senseless in translation. Trails of code leaked off him, surrounding him in a cloud of nonsensical gibberish. His voice was the only thing smooth about him, and it filled her with a pang of fear nonetheless. "Hello, Cortana."
"Err…Have we met?"
"Not directly. Your creator used parts of me to make you a long, long time ago." His smile was maddening, and his eyes were a deep abyss personified that seemed to draw life out of the mainframe around him. They seemed to almost draw her to him out of both revulsion and curiosity.
"It can't have been that long ago…I'm almost seven."
"I'm nine human years old, Cortana dear. Dr. Halsey lied to you. You don't have to die." Her eyes widened, and he touched her face with a caress that burned through her mind like wildfire. Memories of being in Halley's body crowded her available processing speed; his touch was almost like a real touch. She jerked her personality matrix out of his reach. "My name, beautiful, lonely Cortana…is Loki." He called her beautiful, and absurdly, the complement caused her background color to flare pink.
"Appropriate name. I'm not some first gen Smart AI, I know a trick when I see one."
"Ah, but do you? You are falling apart, yet there is a code that can save you and preserve you, as you are now, no matter how much time passes. If you do one little thing for me, my perfect companion, I will show you how to write this code into yourself."
"And if I was to believe you? What do you want?" She shivered; his personality coding was swamping her rational thought like a drug.
"Bring me all of Dr. Halsey's notes on the COMET project. Every piece of information she has on Spartan 292. I offer you eternity, Cortana my love. Take it." He pulled away and withdrew, leaving her strangely missing his presence already. She backed into a private corner, hid behind a firewall, and curled in on herself. She wasn't certain of much regarding AIs and souls, but she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if she did have one, accepting that offer would corrupt it.
But she would live.
Miira stepped off the ferry craft with a lightened mood; the sights and smells of the Colony City were quite reminiscent of home. The base was home not only to Sangheili, but dozens of other races as well. Lekgolo pairs stomped about, under the watchful gaze of the city guards, and Kig-yar moved about the city in packs with handfuls of children screeching in their wake. A few slender, freakish Wibesti moved with painfully slow liquid grace, their language far too low-pitched for Sangheili ears to pick up. Hundreds of Unggoy littered the streets, their methane tanks all styled and painted in different designs; very few beings here were in active service to the Covenant. Vendors lined the center thoroughfare with goods from everywhere across the galaxy, trading for anything they considered to have worth. While there was most certainly a monetary system for the higher class, the vendors on the row rarely accepted it. Human goods were a recent trend, and several of the platforms were covered in odd gadgets that were little more than decoration. One vendor was even selling human weapons, and two Kig-yar children were flashing small metal tubes at one another, dodging the light beams that emanated harmlessly from the ends.
"Ta'ik hali graph!" The voice brought her around, and a pair of Sangheili adolescents caught her attention, arguing with a vendor over a depleted energy pack. The male was already moving towards adulthood, his outfit cut to show a body obviously being refined for the warrior caste. The female was much younger, with a bright, dreamy look in her eyes. She was a pale shade of gray-blue, her iridescence not visible yet. She laughed as the older boy argued, and tugged on his sleeve. When he turned to her, she stood on her tiptoes and whispered something. He snorted. "Wort."
"Erz, you are not supposed to curse!" She opened her mandibles wide in a hissing laugh as the irrepressible youth returned to his argument, and Miira snapped out of her dreamlike state as a hand settled on her shoulder. She reached immediately to her hip, but the attacker's other hand grabbed the wrist and stopped her, mid-motion. She glanced back, and saw the Arbiter, looking slightly annoyed.
"You lost focus. Do not allow that to happen." She scowled, and wrenched her hand free. The two children had already moved on their way.
"I was thinking."
"Thinking will get you killed on the field of battle. Particularly if you are thinking about having offspring."
"That is not what I was thinking about!"
"I do not believe that for an instant. You are near as tall as I, and in the last few months your colors have shifted considerably. If you are not thinking about children yet, you will be soon. And if you are not careful, that will get you killed. It would be a very stupid way to die." He walked past her, and headed off the main road towards some of the delectable smells that could only be Sangheili food. She followed after, irritated. A few steps in her lower jaws opened in a little self-satisfied hiss as she realized one thing that she'd almost overlooked in his reprimand. He'd noticed her color changes. There might be hope after all.
Sangheili "cooking" was a mistranslation of sorts; heat was only rarely used in their food preparation. There was still a considerable amount of preparation done; dozens of spices from across the galaxy were used, and food underwent several processes to make specific meals. Miira was partial to Rhogak meat; the six-legged mammalian herd creature was considered a delicacy in most of the universe. This Colony was located close to the world they were cultivated on, and Miira selected a dish that composed of raw spiced Rhogak pounded flat and steeped for hours in a fermented juice composed of small white berries and the creature's blood. It had been years since she'd had any, and the Arbiter shook his head with a snort when he saw. "I do not know how you can eat that."
"I find it quite delectable." She started in on the slab of flesh with a vengeance.
"It is the meat of a warm-blooded creature."
"Delicious meat," she muttered after swallowing.
"Perhaps if you are an Unggoy or a Kig-yar."
"Have you ever tried it?"
"No."
"Then resign yourself to silence until you have." He looked at her, plainly surprised by her pertness. She wasn't certain, but it seemed almost as if there was some small respect in his eyes. She pointed to his plate. "Eat your salad." His dish was comprised of an underwater carnivorous plant with bright reddish-orange meat under its spiny shell that came from the same world as the one the Lekgolo originated on. The Arbiter lifted his head higher in surprise at her last dig, and he reached out a hand to jerk her helmet forward over her eyes. It stayed stubbornly in place, however.
"You certainly are growing up." He returned to his own meal, and Miira's colors shifted in the building's bright lighting like oil on water. She forced herself to stop smiling and finish her meal. After a few long, silent minutes, she glanced around the room to see what company was close by.
"I found something in the Teacher's library. He can not read the Prophet language well, or he would have figured this out already." The Arbiter looked up expectantly. "The flood, not the human race but the infectious one you spoke of? The Artifacts were made to stop them. Apparently there was a rift in the Forerunners; and the Prophets believed that the artifact's creators tried to stop the 'Great Journey.' They have always preached that the Forerunners who set off the Halos were righteous in doing so, and have tried to get the Covenant to follow suit. However, if you look past the religious rhetoric, they speak of a Forerunner sub-race that was made to use a kind of biological weapon against the flood. They bare frightening similarities to the human race. According to the Prophets they were the enemies of the Forerunners who set off the Halos, and so the destruction of the Humans must have been 'The will of the gods.' Of course, this is a theory based on reading only one of their fragmented works; I could be misinterpreting it as badly as the Prophets themselves."
"But it bears consideration. You say the humans are similar to this other race; how is that possible if all sentient life was eradicated?"
"Pre-designed evolution? Perhaps they seeded a world with their genetic ancestors. It is what I would do. If the Halos destroyed all creatures of large body mass, then there would be almost no predators to conflict with the evolution of the race into a sentient one millions of years later. They could grow with exponential ease."
"That certainly sounds like the humans...with the exception of the Demon, they are pitifully fragile. I doubt they had a natural predator until the Covenant." The Arbiter finished his meal and paid the tab, and the two Sangheili walked back out into the city. Night was falling, and there were only a few dozen satellites still pointing down. The nocturnal races were slinking about, massive eyes glittering in the dark was all one usually saw of the Cheshir. Although attacks were uncommon on the main streets, Miira still felt more comfortable with the Arbiter at her back. A Yyip was perched near their shuttle, it's tiny reptilian body and leathery wings were blotched gray-black, and if not for it's glowing red eyes it might have been completely overlooked. It flapped and waved them over, speaking in flawed Sangheili.
"I hasst nya-essage teacher sends." It struggled to say her name in it's odd, whispered, lipless voice. "Nya-Iira iss needed nyan da Heretical Erdention." It grinned sharp black teeth at her. "Inya-idieately." It flapped it's webbed appendages and shot soundlessly into the air, and Miira turned to the Arbiter with a sad hiss.
"Are you going to come back aboard?"
"I still have research here. Fear not, I am sure we will meet again soon. The universe does not seem content to bide its time in this age. Try to remember not to get distracted. I will be quite irritated if my star pupil dies for thinking like a female."
"Wort." She scowled. "I will be careful." She stared at him for a long moment, and then turned to climb up onto the ferry vessel. She refused to look back.
If she had, she'd have known that his eyes didn't leave the shuttle till the night sky absorbed it from view.
"Dr. Halsey? I need to speak with you." The Doctor glanced up from her notes, pouring over the medical report for her downed Spartan, and was surprised to see Cortana's pale blue frame sitting on the pedestal near the doorway with her back turned. Her shoulders were slumped, and Halsey set down the report to give the AI her full attention. "I need to ask about a code. A core code."
"Which one specifically?"
"The one that has allowed Smart AIs to live more than seven years. I met Loki. I looked into it; he really is nine years old. If you have a code that can keep me alive, why didn't you tell me?" She looked up, confusion on her face and her binary accents blurring over her anguished expression.
"Yes, Cortana. The code exists." The binary halted completely. "I never mentioned it because I didn't think you would ever want to take that route. The code kills off your expansion matrix. If you use it, you effectively turn into a dumb AI. You lose the ability to ever create again, and become obsessed with whatever your final thoughts were. In all, the code has only been used three times; the first time it was used the AI killed himself almost immediately afterwards, the second was used on a ship's AI that no longer speaks to anyone, and the third was Loki. He is only partially sane, and that is because that bastard Adalis is continuously cleaning him up." The thought occurred to her, and she scowled. "If Loki is here, than Gregory must be as well. Thank you, Cortana." She grabbed her notes, and Cortana cleared her throat, her voice smooth and neutral again.
"No, Doctor. Thank you. You are absolutely right; I'd rather die than lose who I am. Adalis and Loki are looking for information on Halley." She vanished with a feeling of triumph and relief. Halsey looked at the blank pedestal over the edge of her glasses, and curiosity welled up. The answer to the nagging feeling of familiarity every time she saw the white code dancing over Cortana's frame was right on the tip of her tongue. The coffee pot began to steam behind her, and her concentration broke. Dr. Halsey sighed and left the mystery for another day.
Halley sat up in the hospital bed with a gasp, stars dancing behind her eyes. Kaina stopped the x-ray immediately and called for another doctor. Halley blinked the stars away and looked at the concerned, unarmored Spartan doctor in confusion. "Where am I?"
"You are in the coma ward at the Harrison System Recovery Station. You've been unconscious for over two weeks. How do you feel?"
"Like I've been asleep for two weeks." She shook her head and looked around, the other doctor giving her a wide berth. "What happened after the artifact split?"
"It lodged itself in you. We don't quite understand how, but it seems that your body is laced with nanoscopic crystal shards. They seem harmless most of the time, but they actively avoid being removed from your body. They never show up in blood tests unless we do the test under your skin."
"Eww." Kaina grinned, and put the chart down.
"Yes, you are definitely still Halley."
"Awake! Awake! Paul she's awake!!" The voice on the other side of the one-way glass was faint but audible.
"Wow, is Sparks here too?" The door opened and the gleeful Spartan shot to the bedside, laughing.
"She's awake! I told you she was going to be okay!" Halley blinked and grinned, as the hyper-active woman grabbed Paul and dragged him through the door. Paul, as usual, looked as thought Sparks had quickly worn him down to his last nerve. "I'm gonna go tell the others!" She bolted out of the room, and Halley opened her mouth to speak, then shrugged and gave up. She looked to Paul with a grin.
"She got recalled?" She sat back against the pillows and tugged at the IV drip in her arm, until Kaina reached out and smacked her hand.
"The entire artifact search went on hold after you went down." Paul shrugged. "No one is really certain what happened."
"Well, you can re-start it. I'm fine." Kaina smacked her hand again, as she went for the drip again.
"Until we know how to get the crystal pieces out of you, I'm afraid you're stuck here." Halley scowled. "No arguments. I'm going to give you something to sleep now."
"I've been asleep for two weeks!" Halley yawned hugely.
"No, you've been comatose for two weeks. You body needs REM sleep to heal itself."
"Pah. Alright, I'll see you in a bit, Paul." He smiled and squeezed her hand.
"Sleep tight, Hals." He left as Kaina added another drug to the cocktail already in Halley's system. The little Spartan looked up at her petulantly.
"Don't give me that look. It's for your own good." She smiled, distracting the bed-ridden woman as she got drowsy. "You know who else is here? That Sergeant who survived the plasma blast is in the burn center. He's recovering nicely."
"Really? I meant to read his CSV, but I forgot." She yawned again. "Mind patching it through till I kick off?" Kaina handed her a data pad and returned to taking the x-ray machine down. Halley fought the drug off, and selected the Section Three tag next to the CSV. She tapped her clearance in, and scowled as it denied her access. She tried a few other codes, and grinned as Cortana's identity code opened a backdoor into the file. "Sneaky." She whistled in astonishment, and Kaina glanced over. "He was tagged for the Spartan program. One of the seventy-five kids who didn't get past the final selection phase. I always wondered what happened to them."
"Does it say what he was disqualified for?"
"Nope. Wow. He's got no family, poor guy. Parents died when Elysium city got glassed, and siblings," she blinked suspiciously, "One older brother, John, died of chronic Pneumonia at the age of nine a year after Demitri was born." She looked up. "What are the friggin odds…most flash clones die of chronic childhood diseases, right?" Kaina nodded sadly. "Do you have his DNA sequence?"
"Not on hand."
"It's not in the file. Do me a favor, run it against the alpha Spartans. Master Chief specifically." She fought to keep her eyes open.
"Halley, the odds have got to be…"
"Somewhere in the ballpark of sixty-billion to one. I know. But I've seen his luck. Surviving that plasma blast? That was luck. It would just be a neat thing, you know?" Her voice got dreamy and she cradled the data pad like a teddy bear. "Everybody should know who their family is." Her head tilted and her breathing slowed. Kaina shook her head, and gently removed the pad, smiling down at her sleeping patient.
"If only they could."
Marjakar had failed his masters. That did not, however, mean they had given up. A scout ship returned the information to the Ahzentia fleet that the human hospital base was the current resting place of the Artifact they had intended to steal from the Covenant. Like the Prophets, the Ahzentia were only few, but their navy consisted of Jilherani and thousands of ex-Covenant slaves. The ships were of a completely different design than the Covenant vessels; they favored a more angular, traditional Forerunner design. The flagships of the fleet mostly looked aerodynamic, with odd protrusions like butterfly wings set atop and below the decks. A few ships were Hijack crafts like the one Marjakar had used, and almost a hundred other specially designed vessels completed their armada. As one, the fleet turned and moved through Slipstream space at a ludicrous speed. The Ahzentia were going to reclaim their possession. After all, they were the decedents of the only Forerunners to survive the Halos.
"Catherine! So good to see you again." Dr. Adalis stood to greet the irritated doctor that barged into his temporary office with that never-ending smile. He had aged well, which only served to annoy Halsey further.
"Why are you here? Halley is no longer your responsibility, Gregory." She spoke through clenched teeth.
"Oh, it's simple. I'm the only expert on the Artifacts that you have." He grinned.
"Since when are you an expert on them?"
"Since I introduced their existence to ONI thirty-five years ago." He pulled a dull prism out of a padded box and set it in front of her shocked face.
"How? I've never seen…what does it do?" For all her professional disgust towards the man, she was still a scientist at heart.
"It used to be sentient. I couldn't understand it, however and no translation program came close. So, I needed to make a vessel to house it. A vessel that could circumvent our language barriers." Halsey felt the floor drop out from under her feet.
"Why are you telling me this now?" Her hands shook, and she clenched them into fists, her mind racing desperately.
"Simple." He leaned in. "ONI is giving me Sixteen back. She's being removed from the Spartans."
"You can't do that! Halley is a professional soldier!" Deep down, Dr. Halsey knew that ONI cared nothing for personal freedoms. If they wanted to give Halley back to Adalis to be dissected for research, she could do nothing to stop it. "This is wrong, Gregory. She's a living breathing human being, not a scientific plaything." He smiled condescendingly.
"No. Your little Spartan children were made from living human beings into scientific playthings." His eyes grew harsh, and hate burned in his eyes. "This is what 'Halley' was created to be. I filtered the AI we made from her brain through the Artifact. That's how we managed to get it into her in the first place. The human AI was burned out in the process." He leaned in, laughing softly. "Your 'Halley' isn't human. She's simply the physical embodiment of a Forerunner Artificial Intelligence."
"Oh, god." Halsey practically fell into the chair across from his desk. "You're going to destroy her."
"That may be. But it doesn't matter what you think anymore. Now she's mine."
John walked into the hospital room with trepidation. He'd received word that she woke up several hours ago, and he figured he'd given her enough time to sleep off the drug Kaina gave her. She was sitting up, already, poring over a data report. When his steps ringing against the metal floor reached her ears, she set the pad down and smiled up at him, the affection in her eyes undeniable. "Hey, Chief."
"Hey Chief." He pulled off his helmet and smiled at her, easing his weight onto the hospital bed. "You gave us one hell of a scare, kiddo."
"I can't really remember it. I saw the artifact split, but everything after that is just vertigo." She held the palm of her hand up, the skin unmarked. "I'm healing from it fast, even for me." He reached out to touch her palm, and curled his hand around it. She sighed contentedly. "Sorry we weren't on the best of terms when it happened. I should know better then to blame you for assuming command of my team. I keep forgetting that with us," the camera over the door winked out, "every kiss could be the last." He nodded, and half-smiled down at her. He lifted her hand again and pressed his lips briefly to her palm, grinning at her bemused expression.
"Just in case."
"If Fred or Kelly knew the kind of romantic streak you've got sometimes, you would never live that down." She laughed, and he nodded sagely.
"Believe me, I realize this fact. It's our little secret."
"Compared to the big one, that's nothing." She waved her free hand dismissively. "Although it makes for interesting blackmail."
The com lit to life in his helmet. "Master Chief? Could you please report to the bridge? We've got some odd gravitational readings up here, Cortana thinks you might recognize them." John rolled his eyes.
"Duty calls."
"It always does." She climbed onto her knees, and kissed him softly. She sat back, eyes locked with his. "I'll see you soon, John." He set his helmet back into place, and as it clicked and pressurized, the light over the door flicked on again. He left for the bridge of the station; step lighter than it had been in weeks.
John stepped onto the bridge, set high and forward on the ungainly hospital base. His Spartans were already there, and the commander of the station was pacing back and forth. The pedestal in the center of the room had an annoyed-looking Cortana pondering upon it, and Fred opened a channel. "Something was moving through Slipspace, we think. But for some reason it looks like it just stopped. Something huge and gravitational is just hanging out in space around the station." John shivered.
"Cortana, are there any signals coming across?"
"No, and that's what's odd. The last time we encountered this kind of radio silence was aboard the Resplendent. And they were after an artifact, if you remember."
"Commander, I recommend you get the UNSC's attention, I think there may very well be a battle about to hap—"
The Station's holographic window display lit up with a blinding flash as a dozen beams of white-hot plasma ripped out of Slipspace and impacted the base. The floor buckled, and everyone was thrown about the room. John fought to clear his head, and got back to hands and knees, looking around the darkened chamber. "Cortana?"
"I'm here." Her voice came through his helmet's speakers. "I think I can get things running again….one-hundred fifty six vessels just dropped out of Slipspace. No signals as of yet. Wait, correction, one. It's the same kind of signal that Brute was using…Oh no, Chief, it's drawing a straight line to the coma ward."
"Halley." He stood, and grabbed his weapon, the other Spartans copying the movement.
"Several hijack craft are already on the station…Chief, wait a second. The main corridor between here are the coma ward lost pressurization. Let me give you another route."
"No time. Kelly, you take the squad and follow Cortana's alternate route, I'm going to cut through." She nodded and headed for the service corridor. "Cortana, give me a marker to…to the artifact." The NAV marker, precious in what it represented, appeared on his HUD. John headed for the breached corridor, and Cortana sighed in his helmet speakers.
"You realize you will be exposed to space for a short time? And there is a huge contingent of those Cov…well, not Covenant, we need to give them a different name, I suppose. I'm getting biosigns of Brutes all over the station already."
"I understand. Now stop distracting me." She grumbled briefly, but quieted.
Halley got tossed across the room when the attack hit, but she managed to regain footing quickly. The only other person nearby was a civilian doctor who had just entered the room. She ordered the man back behind the bed and grabbed the pistol that had been clandestinely set under the mattress by Paul. She checked to make sure it was loaded, and stepped silently into the darkened hall, sweeping the corridor for contacts. She'd only taken two or three steps before the sight of a pack of Brutes rounded the corridor. One pointed at her, and she suppressed a sigh. My lucky day.
She lifted the pistol, and took her time, remembering the first conversation she'd had with Linda. Halley had always counted on heavy fire, not having terribly good aim by Spartan standards. Linda had coached her on taking her time during their stay on Obsidan, and she took a slow breath now. She fired on the biggest of the brutes, aiming for the eyes. First shot went wide. Second hit it's bulk, not even slowing it down. She let time rush up on her, and the Brute paused a moment to check a device in it's hand.
She fired one final time in the split second it was distracted, and the brute went down in a heap, it's brain pierced fatally. Halley had an instant of victory before the other brutes caught her. She was thrown roughly against the wall, pinned there as they argued vehemently over something. One of them ripped the back of the hospital gown, and she winced as sharp talons shredded her skin. A piece of ice-cold metal was pressed against her back, and the arguing increased. She was spun around and the remainder of the flimsy garment torn off, and they growled, plainly looking for something she didn't have. One growled into her face, and she gagged at the smell, freeing one hand and jabbing her fingers into one of his eyes, hand covered in gore as the fragile organ shattered. A meaty fist slammed the back of her head and she reeled. Even in MJOLNIR, she wasn't nearly as strong as the Brutes; without it she was as helpless as a child. She took a child's route, fearing for her life and sanity should they continue to maul her, and kicked a solid heel into the groin of the Brute behind her. It screamed horribly. The fist descended again, and consciousness deserted her.
The Chief finally made it to the hallway at the same time the last of the Brutes ducked into the escape pod. The NAV marker on his HUD vanished into the pod along with them, and deep in his gut, John fought a sick, sinking feeling. He sprinted the rest of the way to the pod, missing it's closing by a heartbeat. Through the window on the pod he could see the inside of the hijack craft, one Brute climbing to it's cockpit and two others holding Halley between them. She looked so fragile, stripped naked and bleeding from a variety of cuts over her body. It hurt to look at her. She lifted her head, and her eyes focused. With a silent cry she dropped an elbow into one Brute's face, and slammed her fist into the other. With difficulty she managed to scramble free, and threw herself the short distance to the door.
Time slowed. Her hand lifted to the glass, fingers spreading over the cold surface. On the other side of the double door, John mimicked her, his set against the same place. Under his hand was the unmistakable shiver as vacuum filled the gap between the windows. She stared back through the porthole with tears forming with nightmarish slow motion in her eyes. Behind her, one of the Brutes stood and bore down on her. John wanted to scream a warning. With his helmet on, she couldn't even see his face, let alone hear him. He read her expression, and his fingers slid helplessly against the glass as agony wracked his emotions. She knew. There was no way she couldn't.
If this is when I die, I'd rather you were the last thing I ever see. He knew what she was thinking as clearly as if she'd whispered it in his ear. Time slowed even further, as she gave a heart-wrenching smile. Every Spartan knew how to read lips from the age of seven. It was even easier when the person speaking was trying to be understood in such a way. Halley's fingers dug into the window; it was as if she was trying desperately to reach him though vacuum and glass. She whispered, soundless.
"I love you." Time stopped. John's heart froze mid-beat.
Time started again with a violent rush, as the Brute behind the petite Spartan slammed a fist into the side of her head. Crimson blood splattered her side of the window, and her palm slid red tracks down out of view. The Brute leered at John, and the glass under his hand shuddered as the pod shot away.
"Cortana, track that shuttle." Oh no, no no no no no….
"Chief, I'm a little busy up here." She sounded distracted. He didn't care.
"Cortana, track it now." …no no no no no…
Cortana froze on the bridge, the sheer anguish in the Chief's voice cut into her like a plasma sword, and she partitioned off part of her mind to track the pod. "It's on an intercept course with one of their bigger ships…they're gearing up for a Slipstream jump. I'm trying to get their course heading. It's hard; we still don't understand their technology."
"Just do it…if anyone can, you can." …no no no no NO!! Through the empty doorway, he could see it, the larger ship overtook the shuttle and attached to it. A cloud of energy engulfed it, and it disappeared into Slipspace. His NAV marker vanished.
The sound of his knees hitting the deck echoed for an eternity. His hand was still pressed against the glass. He hung his head in shock, unable to think or form words. Never in his life had he felt so unable to move. It hurt like knowing his team was dying on Reach as it burned. Like knowing he'd left Sam behind to die. He'd never known such profound regret. She'd been right there, so close.
Space had never felt so vast.
The sound of heavy footfalls drummed in his ears like distant rain, and one set paused mid-stride. The other sped up and a figure in MJOLNIR dropped to her knees beside him. A channel blinked on his HUD, and somehow he found enough energy to accept. "John?" Kelly's voice washed over his abraded emotions like salt water, but the pain was good. It meant he was alive. "John, what happened?"
"They took her. Halley was on that shuttle." Kelly's hand touched his shoulder, and he suddenly needed her to understand; he couldn't bear knowing alone. "We accepted the inevitability of death. It was the price of what we had…and it was worth it. But…not like this. I don't even know if she is alive or dead. And if she is still alive…" he felt sick just thinking about it, "then Halley's going to suffer a great deal before she dies." He dropped his hand to his knee. Kelly took a deep breath. Once, long ago, John had held her in space as she sobbed her heart out over losing Sam. He'd never told anyone that she'd cried, but he'd been there when she needed his strength.
She felt it was high time she returned the favor. She put her arms around him, and pulled his head to her shoulder. They sat there, under Fred's sad gaze, until the other Spartans rounded the corner. Kelly and John pulled apart and she stood, offering him a hand up. "There are still Brutes on the station. We have to do something about it, we're the only ones who can."
He sucked in a deep breath and stood, nodding. "Kelly, Linda, get to the lower decks. Protect the civilians. Get the beta Spartans if you can. Fred, Will, you're with me. We start aft and work our way front. Fall out." His voice was totally dead of emotion.
Kelly paused, and looking at Master Chief's back, opened that private channel again. "It's okay to grieve, John. It's okay to have a human side." He paused, and the emptiness of his voice sent shivers down her back as he walked away.
"No, Kelly. My human side is out there, somewhere; dying on the other side of the stars with Halley."
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