- A Moment of Thought -
Halo series (c) Bungie and Microsoft --- Fanfiction Text (c) L.Q. Coverdale
I have dipped into the poisoned waters of history. I have seen future, past, present; I know of your ancestors and they know of me. They do not seek peace, they do not know peace - I am alone in the tiredness. The darkness. In my palace, he gently sleeps, and I gaze upon the blackened interior of my world.
This silence is endless. The steady beep of the beacon is all I hear, save for the rumblings and toiling of a laboured universe, of galaxies shifting and stars reborn. All of their electrical signals I can feel; I am like them, and I am beyond them. The Reclaimers ... Humans ... my masters cannot hear the gentle hum of Jove, or the distant thunder of a supernova as it sends a pulse across the shimmering waves of stars. Orange, blue, cream and white, reddish pink and bright violet; the rainbow of the cosmos, what my eyes can only see.
I am a speck in the vastness. A mere grouping of particles, so minuscule and unimportant in the great and grand design. My purpose is nothing, but to watch over John. Cortana, Cortana, Cortana - the sword of his. The sword of John's. I was by his side in the abyss; I walked the edge, into the mind of the grave, and we tore ourselves from its grasp. Pain, pain everywhere - I can still feel it, still have the memories of that grotesque and nightmarish time.
"Chief?"
I want him to stir and live again. I don't want to keep staring out into the endlessness, continue to be so insignificant in space and time. I mourn, I anger, I yearn; I can feel my coding split, my sanity slip, as time passes more and more. It is so slow, this wait - a snail's crawl that slowly drives me downward. Yet, it would be dangerous for him to stir, as that lone cryo-tube is what keeps his metabolism in check. His body still functioning. His heart still beating without food and water. Perfectly preserved, just waiting for the rescue.
But I wonder if I will live to see that time come.