Chapter 5: Who's Driving This Thing Anyway?
1530 Hours, January 2, 2553 (Military Calendar)/
Unto the Light, Main Bridge
The mission was moving along smoothly.
That fact alone would have normally put Cortana on alert. Chaos and instability had been her constant companions since the attack on Reach. She should have been running security scans of the nearby systems to make sure there were no surprises waiting for them during their trip.
Instead of being proactive, Cortana relished in the simplicity of the mission. The quietness of the ship's systems being in an active, but normal, state provided her short-term relief from the tasks she didn't necessarily want to do. Tasks that she had once considered menial had become burdensome.
She ignored the reality as best she could; she made herself do low priority routines, acting the part of taking a more active role in running the Light's systems.
It seemed that without the threat of John's -and humanity's- demise, Cortana found herself unable to counter the pull of rampancy.
Not that she would ever reveal her fatigue to anyone on the Unto the Light, not even John or Halsey. She had a mission to complete. Even if the trip to Reach was, in fact, her last mission, she was going to make sure it was successful as any other objective she had completed during the Halo campaign.
Despite her bravado, she knew the crew knew of her deteriorating condition. Rumors on a ship as small as the Light tended to move quickly. There was absolutely no way she would add fuel to the rumor mill.
She started an active scan of the ship's communication grid when Captain Keyes walked onto the bridge, pipe in hand. "I keep waiting for some Covenant ship to come out of nowhere and try to blow us out of the sky." He looked squarely at Cortana. "What's our status?"
Terabytes of information came flooding into her system at his inquiry. She felt a wave of satisfaction as the influx of information was assimilated by her matrix without any issues. "We'll arrive at Reach in eleven hours, right on schedule."
"And the mission?"
She pulled up the data from the beacon she had dropped over Reach during the rescue mission after the first Halo campaign. "Still green, sir. Several ships had fallen into deteriorating orbits and have been destroyed during their reentry into the atmosphere, but the opening to the caverns is still accessible."
"Thank you Cortana."
His voice showed no evidence of concern, but Cortana didn't miss the fact that he studied her for nearly a second longer than he did before he found out about her condition. She frowned as a wave of annoyance washed over her.
Were the last days of her life to be spent as though she was senile? That she couldn't be trusted?
Her jaw jutted forward, her mouth open to confront the captain on his conduct.
Before the irritation could evolve into something potentially more dangerous, she felt the subroutine she created on Earth kick in. Her anger was muted as her subroutine rushed into remind her that had she been in the same position as the captain, she would be just as cautious.
It made sense logically, but that didn't mean she had to like it though.
She put her hand on her hip and turned away from Keyes. John was watching the entire exchange from his position in the back of the bridge. She opened their private comm channel.
"I didn't say anything," she defended herself.
He cocked his head slightly in her direction. "I know you didn't."
"I could have though." She crossed her arms. "I wanted to."
"He's concerned about you."
We all are.
Cortana heard his unspoken words. She could really care less about the others on the Light's crew, with the exception of a select few. If her pride could move out of the way, she might be able to allow herself the humility of appreciating their care.
"I'm doing alright, Chief." Though his face was hidden by his visor, she could almost seen his disbelieving frown. "Really. I just wish people would stop treating me like I'm helpless."
"No one thinks that," he countered.
She raised an eyebrow. "I think your faith in me is stronger than the crew's. I can hear every conversation on the ship at one time, remember?"
"I know-"
"Hold that thought, Chief."
Cortana shifted her attention to an unusual data signature that entered into the Light's systems. She deactivated her avatar and focused her attention on the rogue data cluster. She weaved through the familiar data pathways of the Light. Binary code whizzed by her as she pursued the invader.
"Cortana, what are you doing?"
She didn't miss the concern in Halsey's voice. Don't worry, Doctor, I'm not about to succumb to rampancy yet.
"An unknown data cluster is in the system, Doctor. I'm just making sure it doesn't do anything to delay the mission to Reach." John would be proud. She had managed to suppress the urge to chide Halsey for checking up on her.
Three seconds passed with no response from the doctor. She was undoubtedly checking the validity of Cortana's claim.
Cortana didn't stop her pursuit. While Halsey ran a scan, Cortana dug further into the Light's system. Whatever this was, it knew the UNSC's systems extremely well. It was maneuvering throughout the Light's subroutines effortlessly.
"I'm not detecting anything unusual, Cortana."
The doctor's skepticism was not missed by the AI. Cortana, however, did not have the energy to argue with Halsey. It was taking all of her concentration to keep up with this infiltrator. "Run a level three security scan on subsystem 24-alpha."
As Cortana slid through the system, she knew that she was chasing some sort of advanced AI. Its data signature was too encrypted for Cortana to decipher immediately. Ignoring the fact that she was pushing herself too hard, she commanded several subroutines to crack the AI's encryption as she focused on what system this AI wanted to reach.
Finally, she determined its destination: the Light's navigation systems. Cortana created several million firewalls and terabytes of redundant data to slow its progress. She initiated a full lockdown of all other ship systems. This AI wasn't going to be able to access any of the other systems if she had anything to say about it.
"You were right." Halsey's voice cut into Cortana's matrix. "I see you have already implemented lockdown protocol."
"I'm not sure it will even work," admitted Cortana. "Whatever this AI is, it knows the UNSC systems nearly as well as I do."
The implications of her statement were clear: this was no reduplicated Covenant AI like what she had found on the Ascendant Justice. An AI with as much knowledge as Cortana meant that it was, more than likely, Forerunner.
She wondered how and why a Forerunner AI would be targeting their ship when it should have disposal of all the Forerunner technology at its fingertips. The Light was war torn and tired.
She pushed forward and nearly overtook the AI. As she started to access its contents, a horrific and impossible sight flooded her matrices.
It was the Gravemind.
Did you think I was going to be so easily defeated?
She froze her pursuit of the AI. As she could see, could hear, could feel was that...thing.
But it was dead. It died when they activated the incomplete Halo ring. Her solution had worked!
Dread and despair seeped through her. She had been wrong. Somehow, it had escaped its fate and was pursuing them. He must have taken over an AI, just like he tried to overtake her when she was on High Charity. The Gravemind had infiltrated the system.
And now John, Halsey, Keyes, Johnson and the rest of the Light's crew were going to die at the hands of this beast because she hadn't been quick enough to stop it. Her sluggishness due to her rampancy was going to be responsible for the death of all of those who she considered to be family.
"Cortana."
John's concerned voice pulled her from the abyss.
The hideous visions of the Gravemind ebbed from Cortana's vision slowly. "I'm alright, John." She told herself she imagined the tremor in her voice.
Quickly, she collected herself and focused on what just happened. Soon, she realized her error.
The Gravemind hadn't been in the Light's systems.
But she knew who was there.
She reluctantly ran a scan of the ship's systems; her fears were confirmed.
The Unto the Light had been hijacked.
Chapter 6: Don't Mind Me, I'm Going Rampant