Under the Surface (5/6), a Halo fic
Warnings and disclaimers in Part 1.
It was too damn hot, Cortana thought as she pulled her hair back in a ponytail.
Not that she, or any of the rest of the men in the group, had any say in it. They were there to find another artifact and nothing, including the oppressing heat and humidity that surrounded them, would stop them from completing their mission.
It was high noon and the sun was beating its relentless rays on the campsite. She turned the solar-powered fan towards the laptop in front of her, attempting to keep it cool from the intense heat. Sweat trickled down her temple as she shifted her chair, turning away as best she could from the sun. As the data trickled into her matrix from the M12 Force Application Vehicle, an earth-burrowing machine with two large "tusks" which had earned itself the nickname Warthog, Cortana had to wonder what in the world possessed the humans to use the Brazilian rain forest of all places to hide their technology nearly five hundred years ago.
It had been four days since they made camp -much too long to be considered safe- but Keyes had been insistent: they were not leaving until they found something. The Pillar of Autumn and the rest of the crew were safely hidden deep in the Andres, away from any Covenant in the area, while the four-man team led by Captain Jacob Keyes worked around the clock to discover the location of the Forerunner Artifact before the Covenant did.
Cortana had worked nearly non-stop since they arrived while the men cycled through scout duty. Once she located the artifact--failure wasn’t an option--they would proceed below the surface and extract the desperately needed data.
Silently, Cortana watched the video feed on the tiny computer as her matrix chip communicated directly with the Warthog. The atmospheric conditions were similar to the underground ruins where they had found other artifacts at previous dig sites which were a promising sign. She issued a burst of new commands to the Warthog as she heard unmistakable footsteps approaching from behind her position.
Part of her wondered why he was even bothering coming to her; if she found something, he would be the first person to know. No, she knew he was here to try to provoke her into producing the results faster which was a pointless endeavor. She was working as fast as she could.
She drew a deep breath, preparing herself for the confrontation. “Chief,” she greeted, not looking away from the screen. She could see his reflection in the laptop monitor. He pulled off his sunglasses and looked pointedly at her, ignoring her greeting.
"Did you find anything yet?" he asked stiffly.
The Master Chief leaned forward, putting his hand on the desk next to the laptop. Cortana fought the urge to turn the screen away as his dirt-smeared bicep came into view. But, she wouldn’t be petty; she wouldn’t give him a taste of his own medicine.
She turned slightly to face him before answering him. He had folded his camo bandanna over itself and tied it around his head, catching the beads of sweat that threatened to roll down his face. The humidity caused his olive green t-shirt to cling to his body. His duel holster was taut against his sides. He looked every part the Spartan that he was.
"Not yet, though we do have some encouraging data coming in," she replied, avoiding the piercing glare he was giving her. "Like the other sites, we’ve got plenty of dead bodies and no signs of radiation. But I haven’t found the database yet."
Cortana knew he wouldn’t be happy with the news. They needed to find something soon. After the takeover on Reach and the subsequent loss of the eastern seaboard of the North America, hope in the UNSC was starting to fade. They still held the majorities of the Americas and parts of Africa, but they were making no headway on reclaiming Covenant-occupied land.
He pressed his lips together as he scanned the trees around them, most likely looking for Elites hiding in the branches. "How much longer?"
"I don’t know, Chief.”
He looked at her suspiciously, as if he suspected she was keeping something from him and the others. It was a look that Cortana had, unfortunately, become used to seeing from him since her reassignment to the Alpha Team.
"If you have something to say, Chief, now would be the time to say it," she blurted out. How long was he going to hold onto the past?
"Just tell me when you’ve found something," he said gruffly, standing up straight. He nodded to Johnson who was leaning against a tree nearby before walking away.
"He still doesn’t trust me," she commented offhandedly, glancing at her friend.
Johnson set down the combat knife he had been cleaning on the desk and looked at Cortana. "It’s going to take some time for him to come around," he said with a sigh.
She laughed bitterly and shook her head, causing the ponytail to swish back and forth. "You’ve been saying that for weeks now and it’s not getting any better."
"Now, wait a minute, he’s been talking to you, hasn’t he? That is a hell of a lot better than the way he had been avoiding you," Johnson replied as he looked at the Chief making his way to the center of camp. "Reach is still too fresh in his mind."
Cortana rolled her eyes. "All of us suffered losses there, Johnson, and I don’t get the impression from anyone else in the UNSC that I am not to be trusted."
He reached inside his vest pocket and held out a cigar for Cortana. She shook her head, declining the offer. "But you know that he was Halsey’s favorite," the sergeant countered. "Her deflection to the Covenant..." He shook his head. "It’s damn near impossible for anyone of us to believe what she did. So you can sure as hell believe it‘s going to be hardest on him. And it doesn’t help that every time he looks at you, he sees her."
She had heard the same argument from him before and it still riled her up, just like it had every time he defended the Chief. "I can’t help that my core processing comes from Halsey’s cloned brain any more than you could change your genetic heritage," Cortana shot back.
"You know what I’m talking about. You look like you could have been Halsey‘s twin if she was about thirty years younger," Johnson said, slipping the cigar into his mouth.
And that was the crux of it all, Cortana thought with a wave of frustration. She would never be seen for who she was, but only for what her origins were. It wasn’t her fault that she was a fourth generation smart AI, the first of its kind with a human host and a matrix chip that acted as the central nervous system.
When she had first been activated, still limited in a holographic avatar on the Reach base, she had been given the choice of what she would want her body to look like. She remembered how, after accessing the DNA profile of Catherine Halsey, her creator, she chose to mimic the doctor’s genetic makeup. There were differences between the two of them; perfect cloning was still several years away, but there was no mistaking she was a Halsey.
That decision would haunt Cortana for the rest of her life.
"It’s not my fault she betrayed us."
"I know that," he said sincerely. "So does Hood or else you’d never be on the Alpha team. And, hell, deep down, the Chief does too, but," he said, gently placing a hand on her shoulder, "he’s as stubborn as you are. So for right now you‘re S.O.L."
Cortana turned back to the computer, frowning. "Thanks for the pep talk, Johnson. You sure know how to brighten a girl’s day," she replied dryly.
He grinned. "Just call me your personal ray of sunshine."
Cortana suppressed a sigh. She knew Johnson was right; John wasn’t going to change any time soon.
Maybe it was time to move on.
Maybe there would be no reconciliation between her and John.
Maybe it was really over.
o0o0o0o0o0o
John scanned the tall trees around them, looking for any unusual movement in the branches. The sun was beginning to go down which would make it nearly impossible to detect any Covenant forces, even with his genetically enhanced vision. So far, they had managed to avoid being found by the Elites, but John knew it was only a matter of time before their luck would run out and they would be discovered. Cortana needed to find something soon, he thought with a grimace.
As he turned to face camp, he saw Johnson standing next to his tent with an uncharacteristic frown on his face. "She’s been pretty upset today, you know."
The Chief knew exactly who he was talking about; there had only been one woman he had been concerned with since the fall of Reach. "If she’s too uncomfortable, then she could always request reassignment," John said evenly. He walked forward, not wanting to continue the conversation.
"She did. While you were on patrol earlier."
That caused John to stop and turn around to look at his friend. He wondered if Johnson was testing him, to try to get a reaction from him, but as he took in his grim look, he realized that Johnson was serious. "But, what about the link?" he asked, his hand subconsciously moving to the back of his neck and rubbing the neural interface.
Johnson shrugged. "She seemed pretty confident that she could find another compatible Spartan on the Beta team. Kelly, I think."
No, John thought as he turned towards Cortana who was too busy working several dozen yards away to hear their conversation, she wouldn’t leave the Alpha team. "She’s not serious about transferring," he declared. Though he still struggled with trusting the AI, he knew she was not a quitter.
Johnson lit his cigar. "Tell that to Keyes. When he found out, I thought he was gonna explode right then and there. Practically begged her to reconsider," Johnson replied.
"Did she?" he asked. He tried to come off nonchalant, but sensed an edge to his voice that was normally not there.
"Don’t know. She hasn’t said anything to me about it. She’s probably seeing if you’re going to continue being an ass to her or not. Hell, if it was me, I would have put in the request weeks ago," he replied, lighting a cigar.
John watched Cortana for a few seconds, still sitting in the same chair he had seen her in earlier in the day, staring at the computer screen. "You’re not her," he muttered.
His friend looked at him for a few seconds before finally saying, "No, I’m not. And she’s not Halsey."
John flinched slightly. Hearing the doctor’s name sent adrenaline coursing through his veins. Most people wouldn’t have dared to bring up her name around him, but, as John knew, Johnson wasn’t like most people.
"I know she’s not," he gritted out.
"Then act like it," Johnson demanded. "Alpha team needs the two of you on the same page so the sooner you accept that Cortana is not a threat to any of us, the better." He took a long drag from his cigar. "The two of you were one hell of a team and I can’t wait you two start working together again to start kicking the Covenant’s asses."
o0o0o0o0o0o0
“She’s in my mind?”
“That’s up for debate,” Cortana said, looking at him with a thoughtful look. “My subroutines will transfer your neural impulses and transfer them directly into motion. So, in that regard, yes, I’m in your mind.”
“But,” Halsey injected, “she will only be able to perform those actions when you are in your armor. When you are not in it, the shard will be no more intrusive than any other part of your neural lace.”
John shifted his gaze to Cortana briefly before looking back at the doctor. “I feel a hum in the back of my head. Is that normal?”
He didn’t miss the look of surprise that passed over Cortana’s face. Unlike Halsey, who had learned to keep her emotions well-hidden and in check, the Chief could easily read Cortana.
As he started to become concerned that something was wrong with their neural connection, Halsey shrugged off his question. “It wasn’t completely unexpected. Your body is ‘hearing’ the connection because you are in you are in your armor. When you’re not in it, Cortana’s chip will be nothing more than a hum in your subconscious, like your heart rate or your breathing patterns. It might take time to adjust, but soon you won’t even know she’s there.”
It had been one more thing Halsey had lied about, John thought as he scrubbed his face from his restless four hours of sleep. Even though he rarely had the opportunity to wear his MJOLNIR armor, he always felt Cortana’s presence in the back of his mind.
If it had ended there, John would have been able to ignore the constant hum in the back of his mind, but as their connection strengthened, more side effects presented themselves. After several weeks, when their PSI wave patterns had synced with each other, John found that he could piggyback off the link and “see” through Cortana’s eyes.
After Reach, when the techs at ONI attempted to disrupt the neural link between them, it was discovered that there would be no safe way to terminate the connection. Now, with Cortana’s apparent resignation, it seemed as though the AI had discovered a way around their link.
For some reason, John didn’t feel as relieved as he should.
"She’s not Halsey."
Johnson was right, John admitted grudgingly. Despite his efforts to prove to himself, and the others at the UNSC, that she was a threat, John had found no evidence of Cortana deflecting to the Covenant.
But, there had been no signs that Halsey was going to turn against the UNSC, were there?
It couldn’t have been coincidence that Halsey linked the two of them together just six months before her deflection to the Covenant, John believed. Cortana had to be some kind of plant installed from Halsey to collect sensitive UNSC information and send it to the Covenant. After the fall of Reach, Cortana had been whisked away by High Command and the ONI and run through every type of questioning imaginable. Tests had been run and rerun, assuring those in command that Cortana was no threat to the UNSC.
Three days later, she had been cleared and given her assignment on the Alpha team, much to John’s chagrin. His petitions to have her retested were denied by Lord Hood himself who, in a private meeting, had told him to take a step back from the situation.
"I’m afraid, Chief, that you have become emotionally compromised."
Hearing those words felt worse than getting hit with a needler round from fifteen yards away.
He was a Spartan.
He was supposed to be impervious to any strong emotions.
And yet, in the course of four months, Cortana had managed to infiltrate his stoic behavior and had, briefly, caused him to look away from his true goal: to defeat the Covenant.
It would never happen again.
After the meeting, he silenced his complaints and focused on his duties on Alpha team, attempting to ignore Cortana as much as possible. She might have fooled everyone else, John told himself, but he was not going to be so easily deceived.
But, as the weeks went by, he found himself reluctantly starting to believe he might have been wrong about Cortana. They had already found two databases while the Beta team was still trying to uncover their first relic. Over the past few days, John found himself, more than once, migrating to Cortana, despite his reservations.
If Cortana really was planning on leaving Alpha team because of John’s attitude, then whatever advantage they lost would be on John’s shoulders.
It was time to move on, he thought with a sigh. He closed his eyes and focused on Cortana, wondering if she was asleep.
No. The hazy image came into his mind: she was still working diligently at her laptop.
He wasn‘t going to be able to get to sleep, John conceded. He swung his legs over the side of the too-small cot and made his way outside. Harshly, he pushed the flap to the side, allowing himself to exit the tent.
It was still too hot, he thought as the humid heat surrounded him.
As he looked across the camp and saw Cortana sitting in the moonlight, he took in her appearance. Her ponytail had been taken down, allowing her hair to hit her shoulders. Her tank shirt and khaki shorts gave the appearance of innocence, but John knew about the pistol holster she had around her ankle. She was an even faster shot than he was.
While her eyes were alert, John noticed that her body was hunched forward. He had a feeling that Cortana hadn’t eaten the entire day. When she became focused on a task, she had a tendency to ignore the needs of her organic body. He rummaged around in his sack and took out an MRE.
He walked across camp and dropped the meal in front of Cortana. "I figure you hadn’t eaten anything today."
She looked at the package suspiciously until realization dawned on her. "Johnson told you about my petition to transfer," she concluded. "Well, you don’t have to worry, Chief, I changed my mind after talking with Keyes. Your position is safe."
His eyebrows furrowed. What was she talking about?
She laughed lowly. "Oh, Johnson didn’t tell you the whole story. Keyes offered to request Kelly to be assigned to the Alpha team in exchange for you going to the Beta team if I withdrew my petition."
John stood there, stunned.
"You didn’t really think Keyes was going to let me go so easily, did you?" she asked, seemingly amused.
"I didn’t think he would be so willing to transfer me," John replied candidly.
She shook her head, dismissing his idea. "He wasn’t, but he felt like he had no other choice. When it comes to hacking into Forerunner systems, there’s no one better than me. He and Lord Hood care more about the well-being of humanity that your hurt feelings," she said honestly.
"Here," she said, holding out his MRE. "I’ll get my own."
"You keep it."
Her eyes softened. Had it gotten to the point where even a simple act of camaraderie was seen as something noble? He shifted uncomfortably. "I owe you an apology for my behavior since your reassignment." It had been the longest sentence he had spoken to her since Reach.
His statement caused her to push away from the desk and look directly at him in disbelief. "I’m sorry, but I think I'm starting to hear things. What did you say?"
He should have known she wasn’t going to make this easy for him. After the past several weeks, he couldn’t say that he blamed her, but he wasn’t going to play the game with her. "You heard me."
She studied him silently for several seconds. "And this was prompted because of my request to transfer?"
she asked, raising her eyebrow.
He nodded.
"Damn, Johnson was right. I should have requested reassignment after we found the first Forerunner piece," she replied.
A not-quite uncomfortable silence settled between them until she reached out and touched his arm.
John looked at where her hand rested, but she made no attempt to move it away.
"I’m sure you know this, but there is no one who is harder on me than myself concerning Halsey. I should have seen the signs. I’ve reviewed her computer logs, her personal records and I still can’t figure out why she did what she did. And you know how much…" She yawned suddenly, pulling her hand away and covering her mouth.
"When is the last time you slept?"
Her eyes twinkled in the moonlight. "Don’t tell me you are suddenly concerned with my well-being."
"I always have been. You know that." He swallowed, uncomfortable with how much he had revealed in those two sentences. He should have never stepped out of his tent, he decided belatedly.
"You are full of surprises tonight, John," she said with a ghost of a smile on her lips.
A familiar yet completely unwelcome warmth spread throughout him at her use of his first name. She hadn’t spoken it since their confrontation on the Autumn. He pushed aside the emotion and refused to acknowledge how much he had missed her companionship. "Eat and get some sleep. If the Warthog finds any signs of the database, you’ll be alerted anyway."
She ripped open the bag and looked inside. "Yum," she replied with a grimace. But, John noticed, she started eating the food quickly.
He looked at his watch. "Keyes will be back from patrol in four hours. I’ll take watch until he returns," John said.
She stood up, taking the bag of food with her. "Thank you, John," she said sincerely.
"You need your sleep like everyone else," he said, suddenly uncomfortable.
"You know what I meant. Don’t make me start doubting your observation skills now," she shot back before walking away.
As he sat down and started watching the grainy feed, John knew Johnson was right: he and Cortana did make one hell of a team.
o0o0o0o0o0
As an AI, Cortana never was truly asleep; her subroutines were constantly working, her matrix chip constantly active. When she had first integrated into her human host, Cortana had been frustrated by the limits she faced when her physical body was asleep; all of the advantages to being a hybrid were lost. But, as the months went by, Cortana learned to appreciate the down time she had when she was "asleep". It allowed her to think over the days' events or issues without being distracted by the ever pressing demands from High Command. They seemed to believe that she was unavailable during her periods of rest and that was fine with Cortana.
Some days, she used the time to hack into low priority Covenant mainframes. Others, she accessed the UNSC databases to try to determine where the next piece of Forerunner technology was most likely located.
Tonight, it allowed her to think about John.
He had managed to surprise her tonight. She knew Keyes and Johnson would be upset by her reassignment request, but she never considered the idea that John would be so affected by her decision to transfer. While Cortana had hoped that her request were spur some kind of emotional response from the Spartan, she honestly didn't believe Johnson when he tried to convince her that John would be bothered by her request.
But, he had been affected. Since she had walked away from him and into the sanctuary of her tent, she had analyzed his actions repeatedly--the offering of an MRE, the reluctant admission of his concern for her, the apology--which led her to one startling conclusion.
She had underestimated his feelings towards her.
And Cortana hated being taken off-guard.
She shouldn't have been surprised, though. After everything that they had gone through, experienced together, she knew that she was closer to John than anyone, even his Spartan counterparts. That was why he had been so harsh to her, she knew. He allowed himself to be emotionally invested in her. And his punishment on himself for allowing that to happen had become her own.
But now, armed with the evidence of his recent actions, Cortana knew he was ready to move on. She didn't think things between the two of them were going to be smooth -and certainly nothing like they were before the attack on Reach- but she sensed the John was sincere in his desire to try to make things work.
That would have to be enough for now.
****************************
When her four hours of rest were nearly up, she rolled out of bed and quickly folded the blankets on the cot. She made the short walk across the tent and grabbed new clothes, grateful that Keyes was agreeable to the idea of them not having to be in standard uniform during the dig. As she was pulling her tank shirt over her head, the Warthog's sensors sounded in her matrix.
It had found something.
She quickly left her tent, grabbing her sunglasses on the way out. As she put them on, she saw Keyes walking in the direction of his tent. "We’ve hit the jackpot," she called out.
Cortana knew he was tired, but his exhaustion didn’t keep him from grimly smiling. "It’s about time."
The two of them walked up to the laptop. John quickly slid out of her way, allowing her to pull up the Warthog’s data so that they could see the information. The captain walked up to her, his shadow casting over the laptop screen.
"What have we got?"
"It appears to be another global database," Cortana replied as she accessed the data, excitement entering into her voice. "If the calculations from the Warthog are correct, it could be the largest data collection of Forerunner technology that we have found."
"Good work, Cortana," Keyes said sincerely. He turned to John who was waiting expectantly. "Suit up, Chief. Johnson and I will take care of camp. We’ve got some digging to do."
They were ready in less than an hour. Camp had been broken down, casual clothes had been exchanged for their formal uniforms, supplies had been stashed in the transport.
John approached the three of them, wearing his armor, holding his helmet in his hands. "I’m ready, sir," he said to Keyes.
He looked far more comfortable in the one-of-a-kind suit, Cortana observed. She knew if John had his way, he would always be able to wear his MJOLNIR armor. But, as she had repeatedly reminded him, the power demands were much too high for that to ever become a possibility.
"All right, let's load up."
Cortana looked at the Elephant with a frown. She hated deep underground travel, but it was the only way to reach the ruins while being undetected by the Covenant. She closed her eyes briefly before taking a step towards the ship.
The ship, made for a six-man crew, didn’t have much in terms of space. There was a small cargo bay which housed the Warthog, a small med bay and a bridge. As they stepped onto the bridge, she noticed with some amusement that John stood at attention until Keyes took a seat in the command chair.
"It's going to take ninety-five minutes to reach the LZ," Cortana announced as she sat at the tiny control center, pushing away the feelings of claustrophobia. She was fine. The oxygen levels in the transport had enough air for nearly two months, she reminded herself. She would not be buried alive.
Keyes nodded, pulling out his pipe. "Thanks, Cortana."
She nodded as she started the burrowing sequence. As the ship turned nose-side down and started digging, she silently said goodbye to the sun as the light faded away.
The first hour passed in relative silence; each of them was preparing themselves for the sight that was going to be waiting for them. They knew from experience that the ground would be littered with skeletons and debris, the walls covered in centuries-old blood and gore. No one knew what caused the near-worldwide extermination of the humans, the Forerunners, several centuries ago but Cortana was determined to figure out what happened.
"You doing alright?"
The question was barely more than a concerned rumble coming from behind her ear.
She turned to him, noticing the slight frown on his face. He knew about her claustrophobia, of course. "I'm fine," she softly reassured him.
It still seemed strange for her to sense concern from him after so long.
"Good," he answered, pleased. He studied her for a second before asking, "Did you take them yet?"
She knew exactly what he was talking about and she was not interested talking about it. "No." Her answer was firm.
"Cortana--"
She shook her head emphatically. "They slow me down too much. When we get to the database, I want to work as fast as I can. We were on the surface far too long already."
John, however, was unconvinced by her argument. "Blacking out because of a migraine will slow you down too," he countered.
Though she and Halsey had tried to determine all of the side effects the linking process between her and John would create, they hadn't been able to predict them all. When John was in his MJOLNIR armor for extended periods of time with the neutral link activated above fifty percent, Cortana suffered intense, debilitating migraines. Despite their best efforts, Cortana and the techs at ONI were unable to prevent the headaches from happening.
They did manage to create a drug cocktail for Cortana that limited the pain, but at a cost. Her neural link to her host body was severely diminished and her operating functions were only able to function at eighty percent of their capacity.
"Don't make me get Keyes involved."
She crossed her arms and glared at him. "I think I liked you better when you ignored me all the time." She noted his set jaw. He wasn't going to give in. She cursed his ability to be as stubborn as she was. "Fine, but I'm only taking a half-dose."
"That’s good enough," he agreed as Keyes made his way back to the front of the cabin. John nodded to his commanding officer before leaving the bridge.
"Do I want to ask what happened between the two of you?" Keyes asked, chewing on the end of his pipe. "I haven't seen him this talkative since your first mission on the Autumn."
"Were you eavesdropping, sir?" Cortana asked, slightly amused.
"It's my ship. I can listen in on whatever conversations I want," he replied.
"He apologized," she said simply. "And I think thanks to Johnson's meddling, he finally got the clue that I'm not going to turn on the UNSC like Halsey did."
She watched as he closed his eyes, as if trying to hide from her words. There was no mistaking the fact that Keyes took Halsey's betrayal as badly as John.
"No, you're not Catherine," Keyes murmured. "Though you certainly have some of her tenacity."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Cortana said lightly. It was a dangerous slope when people started talking about the similarities between her and Halsey. Most people assumed that because she was created from her cloned brain that Cortana would be exactly like her. But, as her matrix chip was being formatted, the inclusion of other outside influences such as the UNSC database, including all personnel logs and records, allowed Cortana to establish her own unique personality.
"Depends on who you ask," laughed Keyes uncomfortably.
"Here," John said, disrupting the awkwardness that threatened to settle over the cabin. He held out the syringe for her to take.
"Thanks," Cortana said dryly as she grabbed it from his hand. She pulled her hair away from the neural lace and injected the liquid in the back of her neck. "Happy now?"
"Yes."
Cortana felt her processes slow down as the medicine began to kick in. "Well, at least one of us is."
o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Thirty minutes later, Cortana landed the vessel at the entrance of the ancient base. Due to the instability of the structure, the ship was unable to go any further into the ruins.
After the Scorpion settled on the ground, Keyes stood up and faced John. "According to Cortana, the primary power supply is in the east quadrant. If she’s going to be able to access the entire database, we’re going to need it working. You need to get that up and running ASAP."
"Understood," the Spartan said.
He turned to Cortana. "After they get the power working, I want you to get that information as fast as you can. Once we activate the Forerunner systems, it will act like a beacon for the Covenant. I’d like to get the hell out of here before they show up."
The AI understood the risks. If the Covenant located them they would be outnumbered and outgunned, a dangerous combination, even for the Alpha Team. Cortana nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Johnson, you need to stay with Cortana while the Chief searches the area for any Forerunner technology that the boys back home can study," Keyes ordered.
"You’ve got it," Johnson said as he tucked a cigar in his vest pocket.
"Dismissed."
Cortana turned back to the console and tapped in a few commands. She had several subroutines monitoring the area with the Scorpion’s sensors. She did not want to be caught off-guard if the Covenant did manage to find them. Satisfied that with the data trickling into her matrix, she turned away from the controls and made her way to the back of the ship.
While the others had already disembarked, John stood next to the loading ramp with a flak jacket in his hand.
"Is this really necessary?" Cortana grumbled as she took the protective gear from him.
"Yes."
She knew that it was, but it didn’t mean she enjoyed the feeling of the restrictive vest over her body. Cortana slung the jacket over her shoulder and slid her other arm through. She zipped the jacket up and looked at John with a scowl.
He handed her the pistol and looked her over, apparently satisfied. The two of them started walking down the ramp together before he turned to her slightly. "Be careful."
She was tempted to tease him, but she knew he was being serious. Even without the threat of the Covenant finding them, being this far underground, in these ruins, was dangerous. They had already lost most of the Gamma team when the subterranean structure collapsed on them three weeks ago.
"You too," she said sincerely. As they approached the rest of their team, she opened a comm channel. "Don’t miss me too much."
He didn’t reply, like she expected. Even before Reach, he never acknowledged her unique way of saying goodbye.
She walked up to Johnson, who was carrying his assault rifle. "Ready?" she asked.
"I’m always ready," he replied good-naturedly.
She pulled out a wide-beam flashlight as Johnson turned on the small light attached to his rifle. Even with the extra light and her enhanced vision, they were going to have to be slow and careful when they made their way through the ruins.
"Good luck," Keyes said, watching the two teams make their way to the destination.
The two of them started making their way east, towards the Warthog’s location. The small of dust and death filled the air around them. It was expected, but it didn’t bother Cortana any less than it did at the other sites.
"You ever wonder what happened?" Johnson asked as they stepped around the remains of a long-dead Forerunner. "How the human population nearly was wiped out five hundred years ago?"
It was the one piece of the puzzle that Cortana was eager to find out. If only she could figure out what had happened to the Forerunners, then, she might be able to understand what happened and, maybe, use that to the UNSC’s advantage to fight the Covenant.
"Of course, Johnson," Cortana answered as she cautiously stepped over a large piece of rubble.
"You have some theories, don’t you?"
He knew that she did, but she suspected his interest in her ideas had something to do with the idea of keeping her mind off the fact they were, in fact, in a very narrow passageway nearly one hundred yards underground. She didn’t call him on his protectiveness, however. Over the past several weeks, especially since her reinstatement into Alpha Team, he had become a close friend to her.
"Well, I don’t ascribe to the popular idea that it was a nuclear war that destroyed humanity. None of the Forerunner sites have reported having any abnormal radiation readings. Something happened to the humans, but I think it’s something much more sinister than a few nukes," Cortana replied.
"Some people think aliens came to Earth. Nearly wiped people out," Johnson commented as they stepped through the hole in the wall the Warthog created.
Cortana snorted. "Aliens, huh? Now that’s an interesting theory." She grimaced as she saw the blood-covered wall in front of her. They were getting close to the center of the complex. "But, if it’s all the same, I’ll keep my ideas to myself until I have some data backing me up."
A silence fell between the two of them as the remains and the centuries-old carnage appeared with an increasing frequency. Whatever happened to the Forerunners had been brutal; all of the sites the UNSC had found had given a gruesome, silent testimony to the unknown past.
As they climbed a steep pile of rubble, she offered a hand to Johnson to help him up. The increased elevation allowed them to look at the expansive room ahead of them. "Damn," he muttered.
Cortana wordlessly agreed with his assessment of the view in front of them. In front of them were dozens of skeletons, each one armed with some kind of weapon, whether knife or gun. Several had killed each other; Cortana could see the blade of a knife embedded into the ribcage of at least three of the deceased Forerunners. Others, it seemed, appeared to be hiding. A group of seven skeletons were huddled in the corner, as if they were trying to get away from something.
"Come on," she said, leading them away from the gruesome scene in front of them. "We’re wasting time here."
Ten minutes later, after walking and crawling over the rumble, they reached the control room. The room had been abandoned, much to both of their relief. Clearing the Forerunner remains was not something Cortana wanted to do after the last site.
"Now we wait," she said, standing in front of a console.
"How’s the Chief doing? Sleeping on the job, probably," Johnson seemed more relaxed now that the horrific reminders of what had happened were no longer in his line of vision.
She looked away for a second as she boosted the neural link between her and John. "He’s almost there. Unfortunately, he ran into a couple of collapsed tunnels, so he had to backtrack, but he’s on course now. Once John accesses the console I’ll have to infiltrate the power grid and we’ll be set."
"Nothing like being in two places at once," he quipped.
She nodded, allowing herself a brief smile. "It does have its advantages," she replied.
Several minutes later, John reached the control room. She boosted the signal as she allocated more of her subroutines to transfer to John’s armor to hack into the system. The pressure in her brain was starting to build, but she pushed aside her discomfort.
Despite her effort to conceal her pain, Johnson stepped next to her. "You doing ok?" Johnson asked, concerned. "The Chief will kick my ass if you pass out on me."
Cortana nodded, dismissing his concern. "I’m fine. I’m sure you had a worse headache during your last hangover."
"Hey, no one told me how much alcohol was in that bootleg crap Buck gave us after the last mission," Johnson replied defensively.
"Trusting Buck was your first mistake," she said as her subroutines hacked into the system. She let out a long breath as the lights filtered on. "There we go."
She stumbled slightly as she transferred the subroutines back to her matrix. Damn, she thought, annoyed at her sluggish response time. The next time John pressed her to take her meds, she would show how him how stubborn she could be.
Johnson put his hand on her shoulder. "You alright?"
She nodded, her head clearing. "I’ll be fine." Without wasting any time, she walked up to the main console and transferred herself into the system. "Just watch my back," she said to Johnson via a comm channel.
"Yes, ma’am."
Immediately, she knew this database was different than the one they had found at the previous site. While the security system was nearly non-existent in that system, this one had several billion layers of encryption coding. It would take Cortana more time to get the data than she had anticipated.
Still, she thought as she sifted her way through the encryption, there must have been something here that the Forerunners thought was valuable.
It took her nearly three minutes to break through the security code, but when she finally had access to the data, she was not disappointed. There were several million quattuordecillions of files. She started running off several thousand subroutines to sort and filter the information that was pouring into her matrix.
There was enough information in there to keep her busy for weeks. She wanted to access all the files as they transferred into her data pathways, but she knew with her operating at lower levels, it would slow the transfer process too much. Only the files that her subroutines flagged as significant would be reviewed before they returned to the Autumn. The rest, she thought with a wave of frustration, would have to wait.
Nearly two hours passed and Cortana was finally nearing the end of the transfer. Just as she was about to access a secured data file called halo, the proximity sensors on the Autumn were activated.
The Covenant had found them.
Part 6: Full Circle (Part 2)
It was too damn hot, Cortana thought as she pulled her hair back in a ponytail.
Not that she, or any of the rest of the men in the group, had any say in it. They were there to find another artifact and nothing, including the oppressing heat and humidity that surrounded them, would stop them from completing their mission.
It was high noon and the sun was beating its relentless rays on the campsite. She turned the solar-powered fan towards the laptop in front of her, attempting to keep it cool from the intense heat. Sweat trickled down her temple as she shifted her chair, turning away as best she could from the sun. As the data trickled into her matrix from the M12 Force Application Vehicle, an earth-burrowing machine with two large "tusks" which had earned itself the nickname Warthog, Cortana had to wonder what in the world possessed the humans to use the Brazilian rain forest of all places to hide their technology nearly five hundred years ago.
It had been four days since they made camp -much too long to be considered safe- but Keyes had been insistent: they were not leaving until they found something. The Pillar of Autumn and the rest of the crew were safely hidden deep in the Andres, away from any Covenant in the area, while the four-man team led by Captain Jacob Keyes worked around the clock to discover the location of the Forerunner Artifact before the Covenant did.
Cortana had worked nearly non-stop since they arrived while the men cycled through scout duty. Once she located the artifact--failure wasn’t an option--they would proceed below the surface and extract the desperately needed data.
Silently, Cortana watched the video feed on the tiny computer as her matrix chip communicated directly with the Warthog. The atmospheric conditions were similar to the underground ruins where they had found other artifacts at previous dig sites which were a promising sign. She issued a burst of new commands to the Warthog as she heard unmistakable footsteps approaching from behind her position.
Part of her wondered why he was even bothering coming to her; if she found something, he would be the first person to know. No, she knew he was here to try to provoke her into producing the results faster which was a pointless endeavor. She was working as fast as she could.
She drew a deep breath, preparing herself for the confrontation. “Chief,” she greeted, not looking away from the screen. She could see his reflection in the laptop monitor. He pulled off his sunglasses and looked pointedly at her, ignoring her greeting.
"Did you find anything yet?" he asked stiffly.
The Master Chief leaned forward, putting his hand on the desk next to the laptop. Cortana fought the urge to turn the screen away as his dirt-smeared bicep came into view. But, she wouldn’t be petty; she wouldn’t give him a taste of his own medicine.
She turned slightly to face him before answering him. He had folded his camo bandanna over itself and tied it around his head, catching the beads of sweat that threatened to roll down his face. The humidity caused his olive green t-shirt to cling to his body. His duel holster was taut against his sides. He looked every part the Spartan that he was.
"Not yet, though we do have some encouraging data coming in," she replied, avoiding the piercing glare he was giving her. "Like the other sites, we’ve got plenty of dead bodies and no signs of radiation. But I haven’t found the database yet."
Cortana knew he wouldn’t be happy with the news. They needed to find something soon. After the takeover on Reach and the subsequent loss of the eastern seaboard of the North America, hope in the UNSC was starting to fade. They still held the majorities of the Americas and parts of Africa, but they were making no headway on reclaiming Covenant-occupied land.
He pressed his lips together as he scanned the trees around them, most likely looking for Elites hiding in the branches. "How much longer?"
"I don’t know, Chief.”
He looked at her suspiciously, as if he suspected she was keeping something from him and the others. It was a look that Cortana had, unfortunately, become used to seeing from him since her reassignment to the Alpha Team.
"If you have something to say, Chief, now would be the time to say it," she blurted out. How long was he going to hold onto the past?
"Just tell me when you’ve found something," he said gruffly, standing up straight. He nodded to Johnson who was leaning against a tree nearby before walking away.
"He still doesn’t trust me," she commented offhandedly, glancing at her friend.
Johnson set down the combat knife he had been cleaning on the desk and looked at Cortana. "It’s going to take some time for him to come around," he said with a sigh.
She laughed bitterly and shook her head, causing the ponytail to swish back and forth. "You’ve been saying that for weeks now and it’s not getting any better."
"Now, wait a minute, he’s been talking to you, hasn’t he? That is a hell of a lot better than the way he had been avoiding you," Johnson replied as he looked at the Chief making his way to the center of camp. "Reach is still too fresh in his mind."
Cortana rolled her eyes. "All of us suffered losses there, Johnson, and I don’t get the impression from anyone else in the UNSC that I am not to be trusted."
He reached inside his vest pocket and held out a cigar for Cortana. She shook her head, declining the offer. "But you know that he was Halsey’s favorite," the sergeant countered. "Her deflection to the Covenant..." He shook his head. "It’s damn near impossible for anyone of us to believe what she did. So you can sure as hell believe it‘s going to be hardest on him. And it doesn’t help that every time he looks at you, he sees her."
She had heard the same argument from him before and it still riled her up, just like it had every time he defended the Chief. "I can’t help that my core processing comes from Halsey’s cloned brain any more than you could change your genetic heritage," Cortana shot back.
"You know what I’m talking about. You look like you could have been Halsey‘s twin if she was about thirty years younger," Johnson said, slipping the cigar into his mouth.
And that was the crux of it all, Cortana thought with a wave of frustration. She would never be seen for who she was, but only for what her origins were. It wasn’t her fault that she was a fourth generation smart AI, the first of its kind with a human host and a matrix chip that acted as the central nervous system.
When she had first been activated, still limited in a holographic avatar on the Reach base, she had been given the choice of what she would want her body to look like. She remembered how, after accessing the DNA profile of Catherine Halsey, her creator, she chose to mimic the doctor’s genetic makeup. There were differences between the two of them; perfect cloning was still several years away, but there was no mistaking she was a Halsey.
That decision would haunt Cortana for the rest of her life.
"It’s not my fault she betrayed us."
"I know that," he said sincerely. "So does Hood or else you’d never be on the Alpha team. And, hell, deep down, the Chief does too, but," he said, gently placing a hand on her shoulder, "he’s as stubborn as you are. So for right now you‘re S.O.L."
Cortana turned back to the computer, frowning. "Thanks for the pep talk, Johnson. You sure know how to brighten a girl’s day," she replied dryly.
He grinned. "Just call me your personal ray of sunshine."
Cortana suppressed a sigh. She knew Johnson was right; John wasn’t going to change any time soon.
Maybe it was time to move on.
Maybe there would be no reconciliation between her and John.
Maybe it was really over.
o0o0o0o0o0o
John scanned the tall trees around them, looking for any unusual movement in the branches. The sun was beginning to go down which would make it nearly impossible to detect any Covenant forces, even with his genetically enhanced vision. So far, they had managed to avoid being found by the Elites, but John knew it was only a matter of time before their luck would run out and they would be discovered. Cortana needed to find something soon, he thought with a grimace.
As he turned to face camp, he saw Johnson standing next to his tent with an uncharacteristic frown on his face. "She’s been pretty upset today, you know."
The Chief knew exactly who he was talking about; there had only been one woman he had been concerned with since the fall of Reach. "If she’s too uncomfortable, then she could always request reassignment," John said evenly. He walked forward, not wanting to continue the conversation.
"She did. While you were on patrol earlier."
That caused John to stop and turn around to look at his friend. He wondered if Johnson was testing him, to try to get a reaction from him, but as he took in his grim look, he realized that Johnson was serious. "But, what about the link?" he asked, his hand subconsciously moving to the back of his neck and rubbing the neural interface.
Johnson shrugged. "She seemed pretty confident that she could find another compatible Spartan on the Beta team. Kelly, I think."
No, John thought as he turned towards Cortana who was too busy working several dozen yards away to hear their conversation, she wouldn’t leave the Alpha team. "She’s not serious about transferring," he declared. Though he still struggled with trusting the AI, he knew she was not a quitter.
Johnson lit his cigar. "Tell that to Keyes. When he found out, I thought he was gonna explode right then and there. Practically begged her to reconsider," Johnson replied.
"Did she?" he asked. He tried to come off nonchalant, but sensed an edge to his voice that was normally not there.
"Don’t know. She hasn’t said anything to me about it. She’s probably seeing if you’re going to continue being an ass to her or not. Hell, if it was me, I would have put in the request weeks ago," he replied, lighting a cigar.
John watched Cortana for a few seconds, still sitting in the same chair he had seen her in earlier in the day, staring at the computer screen. "You’re not her," he muttered.
His friend looked at him for a few seconds before finally saying, "No, I’m not. And she’s not Halsey."
John flinched slightly. Hearing the doctor’s name sent adrenaline coursing through his veins. Most people wouldn’t have dared to bring up her name around him, but, as John knew, Johnson wasn’t like most people.
"I know she’s not," he gritted out.
"Then act like it," Johnson demanded. "Alpha team needs the two of you on the same page so the sooner you accept that Cortana is not a threat to any of us, the better." He took a long drag from his cigar. "The two of you were one hell of a team and I can’t wait you two start working together again to start kicking the Covenant’s asses."
o0o0o0o0o0o0
“She’s in my mind?”
“That’s up for debate,” Cortana said, looking at him with a thoughtful look. “My subroutines will transfer your neural impulses and transfer them directly into motion. So, in that regard, yes, I’m in your mind.”
“But,” Halsey injected, “she will only be able to perform those actions when you are in your armor. When you are not in it, the shard will be no more intrusive than any other part of your neural lace.”
John shifted his gaze to Cortana briefly before looking back at the doctor. “I feel a hum in the back of my head. Is that normal?”
He didn’t miss the look of surprise that passed over Cortana’s face. Unlike Halsey, who had learned to keep her emotions well-hidden and in check, the Chief could easily read Cortana.
As he started to become concerned that something was wrong with their neural connection, Halsey shrugged off his question. “It wasn’t completely unexpected. Your body is ‘hearing’ the connection because you are in you are in your armor. When you’re not in it, Cortana’s chip will be nothing more than a hum in your subconscious, like your heart rate or your breathing patterns. It might take time to adjust, but soon you won’t even know she’s there.”
It had been one more thing Halsey had lied about, John thought as he scrubbed his face from his restless four hours of sleep. Even though he rarely had the opportunity to wear his MJOLNIR armor, he always felt Cortana’s presence in the back of his mind.
If it had ended there, John would have been able to ignore the constant hum in the back of his mind, but as their connection strengthened, more side effects presented themselves. After several weeks, when their PSI wave patterns had synced with each other, John found that he could piggyback off the link and “see” through Cortana’s eyes.
After Reach, when the techs at ONI attempted to disrupt the neural link between them, it was discovered that there would be no safe way to terminate the connection. Now, with Cortana’s apparent resignation, it seemed as though the AI had discovered a way around their link.
For some reason, John didn’t feel as relieved as he should.
"She’s not Halsey."
Johnson was right, John admitted grudgingly. Despite his efforts to prove to himself, and the others at the UNSC, that she was a threat, John had found no evidence of Cortana deflecting to the Covenant.
But, there had been no signs that Halsey was going to turn against the UNSC, were there?
It couldn’t have been coincidence that Halsey linked the two of them together just six months before her deflection to the Covenant, John believed. Cortana had to be some kind of plant installed from Halsey to collect sensitive UNSC information and send it to the Covenant. After the fall of Reach, Cortana had been whisked away by High Command and the ONI and run through every type of questioning imaginable. Tests had been run and rerun, assuring those in command that Cortana was no threat to the UNSC.
Three days later, she had been cleared and given her assignment on the Alpha team, much to John’s chagrin. His petitions to have her retested were denied by Lord Hood himself who, in a private meeting, had told him to take a step back from the situation.
"I’m afraid, Chief, that you have become emotionally compromised."
Hearing those words felt worse than getting hit with a needler round from fifteen yards away.
He was a Spartan.
He was supposed to be impervious to any strong emotions.
And yet, in the course of four months, Cortana had managed to infiltrate his stoic behavior and had, briefly, caused him to look away from his true goal: to defeat the Covenant.
It would never happen again.
After the meeting, he silenced his complaints and focused on his duties on Alpha team, attempting to ignore Cortana as much as possible. She might have fooled everyone else, John told himself, but he was not going to be so easily deceived.
But, as the weeks went by, he found himself reluctantly starting to believe he might have been wrong about Cortana. They had already found two databases while the Beta team was still trying to uncover their first relic. Over the past few days, John found himself, more than once, migrating to Cortana, despite his reservations.
If Cortana really was planning on leaving Alpha team because of John’s attitude, then whatever advantage they lost would be on John’s shoulders.
It was time to move on, he thought with a sigh. He closed his eyes and focused on Cortana, wondering if she was asleep.
No. The hazy image came into his mind: she was still working diligently at her laptop.
He wasn‘t going to be able to get to sleep, John conceded. He swung his legs over the side of the too-small cot and made his way outside. Harshly, he pushed the flap to the side, allowing himself to exit the tent.
It was still too hot, he thought as the humid heat surrounded him.
As he looked across the camp and saw Cortana sitting in the moonlight, he took in her appearance. Her ponytail had been taken down, allowing her hair to hit her shoulders. Her tank shirt and khaki shorts gave the appearance of innocence, but John knew about the pistol holster she had around her ankle. She was an even faster shot than he was.
While her eyes were alert, John noticed that her body was hunched forward. He had a feeling that Cortana hadn’t eaten the entire day. When she became focused on a task, she had a tendency to ignore the needs of her organic body. He rummaged around in his sack and took out an MRE.
He walked across camp and dropped the meal in front of Cortana. "I figure you hadn’t eaten anything today."
She looked at the package suspiciously until realization dawned on her. "Johnson told you about my petition to transfer," she concluded. "Well, you don’t have to worry, Chief, I changed my mind after talking with Keyes. Your position is safe."
His eyebrows furrowed. What was she talking about?
She laughed lowly. "Oh, Johnson didn’t tell you the whole story. Keyes offered to request Kelly to be assigned to the Alpha team in exchange for you going to the Beta team if I withdrew my petition."
John stood there, stunned.
"You didn’t really think Keyes was going to let me go so easily, did you?" she asked, seemingly amused.
"I didn’t think he would be so willing to transfer me," John replied candidly.
She shook her head, dismissing his idea. "He wasn’t, but he felt like he had no other choice. When it comes to hacking into Forerunner systems, there’s no one better than me. He and Lord Hood care more about the well-being of humanity that your hurt feelings," she said honestly.
"Here," she said, holding out his MRE. "I’ll get my own."
"You keep it."
Her eyes softened. Had it gotten to the point where even a simple act of camaraderie was seen as something noble? He shifted uncomfortably. "I owe you an apology for my behavior since your reassignment." It had been the longest sentence he had spoken to her since Reach.
His statement caused her to push away from the desk and look directly at him in disbelief. "I’m sorry, but I think I'm starting to hear things. What did you say?"
He should have known she wasn’t going to make this easy for him. After the past several weeks, he couldn’t say that he blamed her, but he wasn’t going to play the game with her. "You heard me."
She studied him silently for several seconds. "And this was prompted because of my request to transfer?"
she asked, raising her eyebrow.
He nodded.
"Damn, Johnson was right. I should have requested reassignment after we found the first Forerunner piece," she replied.
A not-quite uncomfortable silence settled between them until she reached out and touched his arm.
John looked at where her hand rested, but she made no attempt to move it away.
"I’m sure you know this, but there is no one who is harder on me than myself concerning Halsey. I should have seen the signs. I’ve reviewed her computer logs, her personal records and I still can’t figure out why she did what she did. And you know how much…" She yawned suddenly, pulling her hand away and covering her mouth.
"When is the last time you slept?"
Her eyes twinkled in the moonlight. "Don’t tell me you are suddenly concerned with my well-being."
"I always have been. You know that." He swallowed, uncomfortable with how much he had revealed in those two sentences. He should have never stepped out of his tent, he decided belatedly.
"You are full of surprises tonight, John," she said with a ghost of a smile on her lips.
A familiar yet completely unwelcome warmth spread throughout him at her use of his first name. She hadn’t spoken it since their confrontation on the Autumn. He pushed aside the emotion and refused to acknowledge how much he had missed her companionship. "Eat and get some sleep. If the Warthog finds any signs of the database, you’ll be alerted anyway."
She ripped open the bag and looked inside. "Yum," she replied with a grimace. But, John noticed, she started eating the food quickly.
He looked at his watch. "Keyes will be back from patrol in four hours. I’ll take watch until he returns," John said.
She stood up, taking the bag of food with her. "Thank you, John," she said sincerely.
"You need your sleep like everyone else," he said, suddenly uncomfortable.
"You know what I meant. Don’t make me start doubting your observation skills now," she shot back before walking away.
As he sat down and started watching the grainy feed, John knew Johnson was right: he and Cortana did make one hell of a team.
o0o0o0o0o0
As an AI, Cortana never was truly asleep; her subroutines were constantly working, her matrix chip constantly active. When she had first integrated into her human host, Cortana had been frustrated by the limits she faced when her physical body was asleep; all of the advantages to being a hybrid were lost. But, as the months went by, Cortana learned to appreciate the down time she had when she was "asleep". It allowed her to think over the days' events or issues without being distracted by the ever pressing demands from High Command. They seemed to believe that she was unavailable during her periods of rest and that was fine with Cortana.
Some days, she used the time to hack into low priority Covenant mainframes. Others, she accessed the UNSC databases to try to determine where the next piece of Forerunner technology was most likely located.
Tonight, it allowed her to think about John.
He had managed to surprise her tonight. She knew Keyes and Johnson would be upset by her reassignment request, but she never considered the idea that John would be so affected by her decision to transfer. While Cortana had hoped that her request were spur some kind of emotional response from the Spartan, she honestly didn't believe Johnson when he tried to convince her that John would be bothered by her request.
But, he had been affected. Since she had walked away from him and into the sanctuary of her tent, she had analyzed his actions repeatedly--the offering of an MRE, the reluctant admission of his concern for her, the apology--which led her to one startling conclusion.
She had underestimated his feelings towards her.
And Cortana hated being taken off-guard.
She shouldn't have been surprised, though. After everything that they had gone through, experienced together, she knew that she was closer to John than anyone, even his Spartan counterparts. That was why he had been so harsh to her, she knew. He allowed himself to be emotionally invested in her. And his punishment on himself for allowing that to happen had become her own.
But now, armed with the evidence of his recent actions, Cortana knew he was ready to move on. She didn't think things between the two of them were going to be smooth -and certainly nothing like they were before the attack on Reach- but she sensed the John was sincere in his desire to try to make things work.
That would have to be enough for now.
****************************
When her four hours of rest were nearly up, she rolled out of bed and quickly folded the blankets on the cot. She made the short walk across the tent and grabbed new clothes, grateful that Keyes was agreeable to the idea of them not having to be in standard uniform during the dig. As she was pulling her tank shirt over her head, the Warthog's sensors sounded in her matrix.
It had found something.
She quickly left her tent, grabbing her sunglasses on the way out. As she put them on, she saw Keyes walking in the direction of his tent. "We’ve hit the jackpot," she called out.
Cortana knew he was tired, but his exhaustion didn’t keep him from grimly smiling. "It’s about time."
The two of them walked up to the laptop. John quickly slid out of her way, allowing her to pull up the Warthog’s data so that they could see the information. The captain walked up to her, his shadow casting over the laptop screen.
"What have we got?"
"It appears to be another global database," Cortana replied as she accessed the data, excitement entering into her voice. "If the calculations from the Warthog are correct, it could be the largest data collection of Forerunner technology that we have found."
"Good work, Cortana," Keyes said sincerely. He turned to John who was waiting expectantly. "Suit up, Chief. Johnson and I will take care of camp. We’ve got some digging to do."
They were ready in less than an hour. Camp had been broken down, casual clothes had been exchanged for their formal uniforms, supplies had been stashed in the transport.
John approached the three of them, wearing his armor, holding his helmet in his hands. "I’m ready, sir," he said to Keyes.
He looked far more comfortable in the one-of-a-kind suit, Cortana observed. She knew if John had his way, he would always be able to wear his MJOLNIR armor. But, as she had repeatedly reminded him, the power demands were much too high for that to ever become a possibility.
"All right, let's load up."
Cortana looked at the Elephant with a frown. She hated deep underground travel, but it was the only way to reach the ruins while being undetected by the Covenant. She closed her eyes briefly before taking a step towards the ship.
The ship, made for a six-man crew, didn’t have much in terms of space. There was a small cargo bay which housed the Warthog, a small med bay and a bridge. As they stepped onto the bridge, she noticed with some amusement that John stood at attention until Keyes took a seat in the command chair.
"It's going to take ninety-five minutes to reach the LZ," Cortana announced as she sat at the tiny control center, pushing away the feelings of claustrophobia. She was fine. The oxygen levels in the transport had enough air for nearly two months, she reminded herself. She would not be buried alive.
Keyes nodded, pulling out his pipe. "Thanks, Cortana."
She nodded as she started the burrowing sequence. As the ship turned nose-side down and started digging, she silently said goodbye to the sun as the light faded away.
The first hour passed in relative silence; each of them was preparing themselves for the sight that was going to be waiting for them. They knew from experience that the ground would be littered with skeletons and debris, the walls covered in centuries-old blood and gore. No one knew what caused the near-worldwide extermination of the humans, the Forerunners, several centuries ago but Cortana was determined to figure out what happened.
"You doing alright?"
The question was barely more than a concerned rumble coming from behind her ear.
She turned to him, noticing the slight frown on his face. He knew about her claustrophobia, of course. "I'm fine," she softly reassured him.
It still seemed strange for her to sense concern from him after so long.
"Good," he answered, pleased. He studied her for a second before asking, "Did you take them yet?"
She knew exactly what he was talking about and she was not interested talking about it. "No." Her answer was firm.
"Cortana--"
She shook her head emphatically. "They slow me down too much. When we get to the database, I want to work as fast as I can. We were on the surface far too long already."
John, however, was unconvinced by her argument. "Blacking out because of a migraine will slow you down too," he countered.
Though she and Halsey had tried to determine all of the side effects the linking process between her and John would create, they hadn't been able to predict them all. When John was in his MJOLNIR armor for extended periods of time with the neutral link activated above fifty percent, Cortana suffered intense, debilitating migraines. Despite their best efforts, Cortana and the techs at ONI were unable to prevent the headaches from happening.
They did manage to create a drug cocktail for Cortana that limited the pain, but at a cost. Her neural link to her host body was severely diminished and her operating functions were only able to function at eighty percent of their capacity.
"Don't make me get Keyes involved."
She crossed her arms and glared at him. "I think I liked you better when you ignored me all the time." She noted his set jaw. He wasn't going to give in. She cursed his ability to be as stubborn as she was. "Fine, but I'm only taking a half-dose."
"That’s good enough," he agreed as Keyes made his way back to the front of the cabin. John nodded to his commanding officer before leaving the bridge.
"Do I want to ask what happened between the two of you?" Keyes asked, chewing on the end of his pipe. "I haven't seen him this talkative since your first mission on the Autumn."
"Were you eavesdropping, sir?" Cortana asked, slightly amused.
"It's my ship. I can listen in on whatever conversations I want," he replied.
"He apologized," she said simply. "And I think thanks to Johnson's meddling, he finally got the clue that I'm not going to turn on the UNSC like Halsey did."
She watched as he closed his eyes, as if trying to hide from her words. There was no mistaking the fact that Keyes took Halsey's betrayal as badly as John.
"No, you're not Catherine," Keyes murmured. "Though you certainly have some of her tenacity."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Cortana said lightly. It was a dangerous slope when people started talking about the similarities between her and Halsey. Most people assumed that because she was created from her cloned brain that Cortana would be exactly like her. But, as her matrix chip was being formatted, the inclusion of other outside influences such as the UNSC database, including all personnel logs and records, allowed Cortana to establish her own unique personality.
"Depends on who you ask," laughed Keyes uncomfortably.
"Here," John said, disrupting the awkwardness that threatened to settle over the cabin. He held out the syringe for her to take.
"Thanks," Cortana said dryly as she grabbed it from his hand. She pulled her hair away from the neural lace and injected the liquid in the back of her neck. "Happy now?"
"Yes."
Cortana felt her processes slow down as the medicine began to kick in. "Well, at least one of us is."
o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Thirty minutes later, Cortana landed the vessel at the entrance of the ancient base. Due to the instability of the structure, the ship was unable to go any further into the ruins.
After the Scorpion settled on the ground, Keyes stood up and faced John. "According to Cortana, the primary power supply is in the east quadrant. If she’s going to be able to access the entire database, we’re going to need it working. You need to get that up and running ASAP."
"Understood," the Spartan said.
He turned to Cortana. "After they get the power working, I want you to get that information as fast as you can. Once we activate the Forerunner systems, it will act like a beacon for the Covenant. I’d like to get the hell out of here before they show up."
The AI understood the risks. If the Covenant located them they would be outnumbered and outgunned, a dangerous combination, even for the Alpha Team. Cortana nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Johnson, you need to stay with Cortana while the Chief searches the area for any Forerunner technology that the boys back home can study," Keyes ordered.
"You’ve got it," Johnson said as he tucked a cigar in his vest pocket.
"Dismissed."
Cortana turned back to the console and tapped in a few commands. She had several subroutines monitoring the area with the Scorpion’s sensors. She did not want to be caught off-guard if the Covenant did manage to find them. Satisfied that with the data trickling into her matrix, she turned away from the controls and made her way to the back of the ship.
While the others had already disembarked, John stood next to the loading ramp with a flak jacket in his hand.
"Is this really necessary?" Cortana grumbled as she took the protective gear from him.
"Yes."
She knew that it was, but it didn’t mean she enjoyed the feeling of the restrictive vest over her body. Cortana slung the jacket over her shoulder and slid her other arm through. She zipped the jacket up and looked at John with a scowl.
He handed her the pistol and looked her over, apparently satisfied. The two of them started walking down the ramp together before he turned to her slightly. "Be careful."
She was tempted to tease him, but she knew he was being serious. Even without the threat of the Covenant finding them, being this far underground, in these ruins, was dangerous. They had already lost most of the Gamma team when the subterranean structure collapsed on them three weeks ago.
"You too," she said sincerely. As they approached the rest of their team, she opened a comm channel. "Don’t miss me too much."
He didn’t reply, like she expected. Even before Reach, he never acknowledged her unique way of saying goodbye.
She walked up to Johnson, who was carrying his assault rifle. "Ready?" she asked.
"I’m always ready," he replied good-naturedly.
She pulled out a wide-beam flashlight as Johnson turned on the small light attached to his rifle. Even with the extra light and her enhanced vision, they were going to have to be slow and careful when they made their way through the ruins.
"Good luck," Keyes said, watching the two teams make their way to the destination.
The two of them started making their way east, towards the Warthog’s location. The small of dust and death filled the air around them. It was expected, but it didn’t bother Cortana any less than it did at the other sites.
"You ever wonder what happened?" Johnson asked as they stepped around the remains of a long-dead Forerunner. "How the human population nearly was wiped out five hundred years ago?"
It was the one piece of the puzzle that Cortana was eager to find out. If only she could figure out what had happened to the Forerunners, then, she might be able to understand what happened and, maybe, use that to the UNSC’s advantage to fight the Covenant.
"Of course, Johnson," Cortana answered as she cautiously stepped over a large piece of rubble.
"You have some theories, don’t you?"
He knew that she did, but she suspected his interest in her ideas had something to do with the idea of keeping her mind off the fact they were, in fact, in a very narrow passageway nearly one hundred yards underground. She didn’t call him on his protectiveness, however. Over the past several weeks, especially since her reinstatement into Alpha Team, he had become a close friend to her.
"Well, I don’t ascribe to the popular idea that it was a nuclear war that destroyed humanity. None of the Forerunner sites have reported having any abnormal radiation readings. Something happened to the humans, but I think it’s something much more sinister than a few nukes," Cortana replied.
"Some people think aliens came to Earth. Nearly wiped people out," Johnson commented as they stepped through the hole in the wall the Warthog created.
Cortana snorted. "Aliens, huh? Now that’s an interesting theory." She grimaced as she saw the blood-covered wall in front of her. They were getting close to the center of the complex. "But, if it’s all the same, I’ll keep my ideas to myself until I have some data backing me up."
A silence fell between the two of them as the remains and the centuries-old carnage appeared with an increasing frequency. Whatever happened to the Forerunners had been brutal; all of the sites the UNSC had found had given a gruesome, silent testimony to the unknown past.
As they climbed a steep pile of rubble, she offered a hand to Johnson to help him up. The increased elevation allowed them to look at the expansive room ahead of them. "Damn," he muttered.
Cortana wordlessly agreed with his assessment of the view in front of them. In front of them were dozens of skeletons, each one armed with some kind of weapon, whether knife or gun. Several had killed each other; Cortana could see the blade of a knife embedded into the ribcage of at least three of the deceased Forerunners. Others, it seemed, appeared to be hiding. A group of seven skeletons were huddled in the corner, as if they were trying to get away from something.
"Come on," she said, leading them away from the gruesome scene in front of them. "We’re wasting time here."
Ten minutes later, after walking and crawling over the rumble, they reached the control room. The room had been abandoned, much to both of their relief. Clearing the Forerunner remains was not something Cortana wanted to do after the last site.
"Now we wait," she said, standing in front of a console.
"How’s the Chief doing? Sleeping on the job, probably," Johnson seemed more relaxed now that the horrific reminders of what had happened were no longer in his line of vision.
She looked away for a second as she boosted the neural link between her and John. "He’s almost there. Unfortunately, he ran into a couple of collapsed tunnels, so he had to backtrack, but he’s on course now. Once John accesses the console I’ll have to infiltrate the power grid and we’ll be set."
"Nothing like being in two places at once," he quipped.
She nodded, allowing herself a brief smile. "It does have its advantages," she replied.
Several minutes later, John reached the control room. She boosted the signal as she allocated more of her subroutines to transfer to John’s armor to hack into the system. The pressure in her brain was starting to build, but she pushed aside her discomfort.
Despite her effort to conceal her pain, Johnson stepped next to her. "You doing ok?" Johnson asked, concerned. "The Chief will kick my ass if you pass out on me."
Cortana nodded, dismissing his concern. "I’m fine. I’m sure you had a worse headache during your last hangover."
"Hey, no one told me how much alcohol was in that bootleg crap Buck gave us after the last mission," Johnson replied defensively.
"Trusting Buck was your first mistake," she said as her subroutines hacked into the system. She let out a long breath as the lights filtered on. "There we go."
She stumbled slightly as she transferred the subroutines back to her matrix. Damn, she thought, annoyed at her sluggish response time. The next time John pressed her to take her meds, she would show how him how stubborn she could be.
Johnson put his hand on her shoulder. "You alright?"
She nodded, her head clearing. "I’ll be fine." Without wasting any time, she walked up to the main console and transferred herself into the system. "Just watch my back," she said to Johnson via a comm channel.
"Yes, ma’am."
Immediately, she knew this database was different than the one they had found at the previous site. While the security system was nearly non-existent in that system, this one had several billion layers of encryption coding. It would take Cortana more time to get the data than she had anticipated.
Still, she thought as she sifted her way through the encryption, there must have been something here that the Forerunners thought was valuable.
It took her nearly three minutes to break through the security code, but when she finally had access to the data, she was not disappointed. There were several million quattuordecillions of files. She started running off several thousand subroutines to sort and filter the information that was pouring into her matrix.
There was enough information in there to keep her busy for weeks. She wanted to access all the files as they transferred into her data pathways, but she knew with her operating at lower levels, it would slow the transfer process too much. Only the files that her subroutines flagged as significant would be reviewed before they returned to the Autumn. The rest, she thought with a wave of frustration, would have to wait.
Nearly two hours passed and Cortana was finally nearing the end of the transfer. Just as she was about to access a secured data file called halo, the proximity sensors on the Autumn were activated.
The Covenant had found them.
Part 6: Full Circle (Part 2)