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The Moral Redemption of Dr. Halsey (Part 3)
Posted By: Ross Becalick<rbecalick@hotmail.com>
Date: 4 April 2004, 10:58 AM
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343's ocular lens pulsed erratically, delving back through eons and eons searching for the Forerunner. So many times had he done this, and his hope had never diminished that his ever-adapting cataloguing program would unearth the data he longed for. Countless billions of years is a long time to hope, and such hope can drive even the most infinite mind into a surreal state of disillusion.
He sighed.
A curious thing to do, he had no lungs after all. Did the Forerunners sigh? Yes, perhaps that was where he had inherited the trait. He stored this scrap of speculation in his memory. His knowledge of the Forerunner was painfully scant, yet anything about them was important.
"Yes..." 343 said sadly, "My records contain very little on the creators of this facility."
Dr. Halsey scowled,
"Nothing? They are your creators... you know nothing?"
343's lens flashed angrily.
"I know nothing." He confirmed.
Dr. Halsey took her spectacles off and tapped her lower lip with them thoughtfully.
"The Flood..."
"Yes?"
343 asked eagerly, happy to be asked about a subject he was well versed on.
"The Flood," Dr. Halsey asked, "Where did they come from?"
343 froze.
All throughout the yawning expanse of his existence, never once had he wondered that. Like a child never questions why they are on the ground until someone mentions the concept of gravity, as long as 343 had existed- the Flood had been contained on Halo. His purpose it had been to contain them.
343 paused for a few seconds. To the brain of a human this was nothing, but to the endless processing speed of 343 it was a near-endless cyberfuege of confusion and loss.
"I... I don't know..." 343 said painfully.
"You don't seem to know anything at all." She observed candidly.
The words ignited within 343 an explosion of anger, the most powerful he had ever felt. It shook him, he felt his core-programming as it decayed even further.
Ocular lens now glowing ember-red, he descended down on the doctor.
"I have existed since before your furthest ancestors were base elements." 343 hissed.
Dr. Halsey stood level with the construct, nose inches from 343.
"I KNOW MORE THAN ANY SENTIENCE IN THIS GALAXY!" 343 roared.
The sound resonated and amplified by the chamber around them.
Dr. Halsey felt her legs tremble involuntarily, she continued to stare back into the monitor's fiery ocular.
A metal slug struck the side of 343's chassis with a resonating 'CRACK!'
343 turned to look at the other human; Kelly.
Pistol levelled, wisps of smoke issuing from the barrel, Kelly stood motionless and poised.
343 scolded Kelly.
"Such strange and erratic creatures your species are. Even the Reclaimer is now distracted and inexplicable."
"Who," Dr. Halsey asked gingerly, "Is the Reclaimer?"
Finally a question 343 knew the answer to.
"A human." 343 said, " The one who activated the Halo last; eight billion six hundred and fifty five million eighteen thousand two hundred and eighteen 'Earth-years' ago. That same Reclaimer came very recently to installation 04 once again." 343 sighed, "But this time to destroy it, I was terribly bemused."
Dr. Halsey stared at 343.
"You must be mistaken, homo-sapiens have only existed for around three million years."
If 343 would have had a mouth it would have been smiling wryly.
"Please observe." He said.
*******************
"Chief? Come on Chief! Say something!"
The Master Chief knew he was walking away his last footsteps. He had known death for a long time. Yet he'd always thought death would catch him in the heat of a battle. Never like this.
"What should I say, Cortana?"
Cortana sounded as close to emotional turmoil as the Chief had ever heard her. As far as the Chief could remember he'd never cried. Not when he'd been taken from his parents- not ever.
He didn't intend to now. There would be no long farewells, no touching last words. His life had a purpose, he was now going to fulfil his purpose, his duty.
He refused to mourn over doing what he was meant to do.
"How about 'Goodbye'?" Said Cortana desperately.
The Chief stood before the holo panel; he had seen it before.
"Are you ready Reclaimer?"
John knew that voice too; 343 Guilty Spark. This was not the giggling, humming version of eight billion years into the future. At least the monitor wasn't being emotional. He accepted the Index.
The Master Chief looked at it, watched the phosphorous threads of lightening deep in its super-dense crystal structure.
The Chief had killed, he had killed many. Always for the greater good.
Dr. Halsey had told him before she had left that perhaps it was wrong to sacrifice the lives of the few for the many. The Chief was going to kill again, but this time, he wasn't certain what it was for. All he knew was that he wouldn't be taking the lives of the few; it would be the lives of the many, nearly all life in this galaxy.
He hesitated. He'd known he would ask this question, but now he knew he truly needed to ask, even if he already knew the answer
"Would you do it?" He asked, gravely, weighted down with resignation.
343's paused.
"There is no choice... we must activate the ring."
The green shaft slid into place.
The holo-panel came alive with activity, holographs swirled about the Chief and the whole chamber resonated with energy.
"What have you done John?" Cortana murmured.
"Everything." The Chief replied.
Then he was gone.
Kelly was quite compelled by what she'd just seen, but Dr. Halsey was unconvinced.
"What's that supposed to prove?" She asked sceptically.
"That one of your species activated the Halos over eight billion years ago." 343 replied.
"Why would you show us that?" Dr. Halsey countered calmly, "Why should I believe that wasn't just holographic rendering?"
343 chuckled and swooped down so he was level with Dr. Halsey. Slowly he floated towards her.
"Because it is irrelevant whether you believe me or not. However you are going to help me. This is why you are here."
*****************
343 told them all about the events that had happened on installation 04.
*****************
"I watched with such interest," 343 said wistfully, "However it was when I discovered a small record of precious data on one of your ships that I came to an exciting conclusion."
343 giggled.
"I am of course, well aware of how far back human history spans back in time, I have scrutinised and understood every second of your recorded history and every cell in your bodies. I knew immediately upon discovering this information that when the Reclaimer activated the Halo eight billion years ago, he must have come from the future."
"Time travel?" Dr. Halsey repeated hollowly.
343 sighed.
"Time travel... only... I don't know how..."
It pained every subroutine and matrix in 343's core to admit it,
"I conjecture that it is almost certainly Forerunner technology that the Reclaimer used... but I have no knowledge of such technology."
Dr. Halsey nodded, she was beginning to understand why 343 knew so little about the Forerunners. God knew how long the monitor had been left to go insane. Dr. Halsey knew if she had been his creator, she wouldn't have given him full knowledge of a stapler, let alone time travel.
A rampant AI with plenty of knowledge was the most potent force for chaos the Doctor knew. It also made sense that 343 needed outside help to activate Halo, instead of having that ability himself. It made perfect sense.
Dr. Halsey asked very carefully,
"So why do you need our help?"
343's lens flashed.
"Time Travel is a subject I have theorised over many times. Going back in time counters dimensional flow, and so doing such means one must rip a seam in all parallel universes, and containing that within a field of the time that you wish to go back by."
Kelly didn't pretend she understood, but Dr. Halsey recognised what 343 was saying from unpublished ONI theoretical papers.
"If the Reclaimer has activated the Halo in the past, then whatever we are doing now is leading to the event that will require him to go to that point. There is no question that if the Reclaimer had not activated Halo eight billion years ago, you would not be here. The fact that you are means that the events happening now will certainly lead to the Reclaimer activating the Halos eight billion years ago. However we must assume that only by doing everything we can to ensure this will take place that it will.
I need your help to ensure that the Reclaimer goes back in time to activate the Halo eight billion years prior to now."
343 paused.
"Of course, because the existence of all life as you know it depends on this event taking place in the past, I am assured I can depend on your full cooperation."
Dr. Halsey was quiet. In moments everything had been turned upside down.
Suddenly the human-covenant war was irrelevant.
The coming of the end she had been dreading had suddenly collapsed in on itself and she was now bound into something far more influential.
Now they had a new priority.
Dr. Halsey didn't have the faintest inkling what she was going to need to do, but she did know she'd need the help of her Spartans, and apparently an ancient and insane alien artificial intelligence.
****************
The Divine Prophet of Truth, hovered silently. One might have thought he were a being of serenity, on appearance. The mind within however had watched hundreds of worlds burn, heard the seared screams of countless billions of human lungs as they filled with Covenant plasma.
In his chamber, hovering an inch above his throne, three hundred honour guard stood resolutely still. The Prophet's very presence paralysing them in respect and fear.
The Prophet closed his eyes. He was the one. He would touch the hands of Gods, fulfil a destiny he had been born to bear.
The game was already well at hand. His mind alone knew where all the pieces were. His mind alone held the strategy. The humans were just another obstacle to overcome.
He would see it happen a hundred times without a fiber of his essence twitching. None of this will matter soon, for soon he would be a God.
They had all the keys. They knew where the gate was.
The humans held the Holy Light, but that did not matter. The fact that the humans had it assured the Prophet of Truth that soon that Gates would be open.
The Prophet gave a rasping laugh.
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