This is a little one-shot in which Master Chief ponders whether or not Cortana is a person or merely an artificial intelligence. Takes place at the end of the first Halo. Video game universe. I don't know all the time details and such, so bear with me, I'll be making a few things up.
"We'll be within com range of earth in four hours." Cortana said. "I've prepared a preliminary report for UNMC." It had been twelve hours since she and Master Chief has escaped the destruction of the ring known as Halo. The Spartan turned his head slightly to glance down at the hologram display that represented her. Her. He thought, reflecting. An artificial intelligence made of up microcircuits and silicon, and I think of it as a person. A woman. It was ridiculous when you thought about it. Learning-type AI's such as Cortana usually 'thought' themselves to death after a few years of service. Cortana was already six years old, though, and thus far she seemed immune to most of the problems that had erased her fellow AI's. She was not a person, though. Not by far. The AI'S knew that they were artificial.
Yet, she seemed to consider herself to be a person. It had stuck out in his mind, when he and the monitor had entered Halo's control room, and Cortana had narrowly stopped him from activating the ring and wiping out all sentient life. She had said that the ring didn't destroy the flood, it destroyed their food. What had her exact words been? "Covenant, Humans, we're all equally edible." We. She included herself in that group of living beings.
He didn't really know for sure. Did she qualify as a person? Or were her witty comments only the form in which the AI chose to most efficiently relay data? Did her caring, her concern for himself and the Marines, only equal a calculation by a computer interested in its own survival? Or was it a person caring about the well-being of her fellow soldiers? He lightly rubbed his forehead, trying to ease the aching pain from combat.
The small hologram display next to him rose to life. "Hey, Chief, you okay?" Cortana asked.
He didn't know if she was a person, or just electronics. Really, though, it didn't matter.
She was his friend, and she always would be.
Master Chief slowly nodded an affirmative. "I'm fine."
Well, there you go. I usually write pretty shallow literature, so go easy on me. In addition, I know I probably messed up on details. I haven't yet read the Halo novels, so, my apologies for inaccuracy. And, the Chief's helmet is off, as we saw him take it off at the end of the first game.
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