1145 hrs, January 17, 2553 (Military Calendar)

remains of UNSC Frigate Forward Unto Dawn

Above unknown alien world

All pressure doors were sealed. Angle of approach was well within safety margins. The ship was turned so that the damaged portion faced away from reentry heat. All was ready.

Nothing moved in the passageways of the aft end of the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn. It was, in every classical sense of the term, a ghost ship. Within its wiring and computer systems, however, things were a completely different story. UNSC MILSPEC AI Cortana had been hard at work for months, working with the pitiful remains of the Dawn's computer systems, and what little control she had over the remaining navigational thrusters and sensor network. After Spartan-117 had been placed in cryo stasis, it had taken a week of hard work under these conditions for Cortana to even notice that they were in orbit above a planet. After that it had taken a month to determine their current orbit, .01 microseconds to extrapolate the rate of orbital decay and determine that the ship would crash long before even the most optimistic rescue could arrive, and another three and a half weeks to get the Dawn ready to land as safely as possible.

Cortana had done a spectroscopic analysis of the planet's atmosphere, and found that, against all odds, the planet was habitable. Oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, trace gases well within acceptable limits, pressure looked close to Earth standard, and there was evidence of organic matter in the lower atmosphere. Using the available optics, she also found what looked like an abandoned city, and had arranged to put the Dawn down as close to it as she could. The architecture looked Forerunner, but she couldn't be sure with the equipment at her disposal.

As the reentry window arrived, Cortana activated the holotank in the cryo bay. From there she gazed at the frozen figure of Spartan-117. John. In her opinion, he was the best of the Spartans. Certainly he was the luckiest. In the last year the two of them had been through so much together- fighting off the hordes of Covenant forces above and on Halo, finding, fighting, and running from the Flood, and everything that had happened between those fateful days and the events on the Ark. With all of those hardships behind them, the AI had grown to respect and even admire the human. He was strong, and swift, and brave, and despite what the newscasts tended to insinuate, he was also highly intelligent and resourceful. She rechecked her calculations again. She didn't want to take any more risks with his fragile human life than she had to. She didn't want to lose him.

"Wish me luck," she said to the frozen figure. Then the window arrived, and her hologram disappeared, devoting all of her run time to setting the crippled ship down safely.

1600 hrs, March 23, 2553 (Military Calendar)

Unknown Forerunner structure

Within Forerunner construct known as shield world

Spartan-058, Linda, looked out of the highest window in the highest tower of the building. As with most Forerunner creations, this building did not think small. Its footprint easily covered a square quarter mile, was made up of three lower levels, two basement levels, and three towers arranged in a triangle formation. The two smaller towers both rose fifty meters above the top of the building, with the third tower rising seventy five meters. Bridges at the top level of the smaller towers connected them to each other, as well as to the larger one. Brilliant azure energy beams descended from the top of the large tower to the top of the smaller towers, and because of similar beams found on each of the bridges, Dr. Halsey had hypothesized that they somehow took the place of suspension cables.

Dr. Catherine Halsey. The founder of the SPARTAN-II program, the woman who was responsible for everything that Linda and the other Spartans were capable of. It was at her insistence that they had remained camped in this structure since they discovered it three weeks ago, and it was only because of its strategic value that Fred had agreed. For her part, Linda didn't know what to think. Did Dr. Halsey really have their best interests in mind, as she so often claimed? She kept so many secrets, even of things that didn't seem to hold relevance to anything. The woman never really explained her theories until it was obvious that she'd get no help if she didn't, and that was an occurrence that was becoming all too common.

They had been stuck in this "Dyson Sphere" for more than four and a half months, and while she didn't do anything to impede their search, Dr. Halsey had demonstrated no interest in leaving the Forerunner construct. Linda didn't understand it. Why wouldn't she want to get back to the fight? Even if the Doctor didn't want to go back herself, being a civilian, why did she appear so intent on keeping the Spartans from going back? Wasn't that why she had started the SPARTAN project? So that they could fight?

It was all so confusing, and though Linda would have preferred not to think about it, she and the others were left with so much down time these days that it was hard to find enough other things to think about. They'd secured the structure weeks ago, and had been maintaining patrols out to five miles ever since. This was the first structure they'd found, and other than a few alien animals, there was nothing out there but foliage.

There was a soft sound behind her, and Linda turned to find Spartan-G185, Mark, ascending the last of the stairs. Behind her faceplate, the barest hint of a smile tugged at Linda's mouth. That was another thing they'd been doing. Teaching the SPARTAN-III's all the things that you wouldn't get in a normal training environment. Lieutenant Commander Ambrose, or Kurt as Linda still thought of him, had done an outstanding job of making sure Gamma Company was prepared for field work. The young Spartans knew the tactics, the hand signals, the covering and fallback theories, everything that could possibly keep a soldier alive when push came to shove. Now it was just a matter of showing them the nuances of what it meant to be a professional super soldier. What it really meant to be a Spartan.

For her part, Linda had been taking time to teach Mark the finer points of sniping. He was already an excellent marksman, and she had seen first hand his uncanny skills with an assault rifle when things started to get ugly. Still, it was when he was in no immediate danger and he had to back people up that his accuracy began to suffer. He tended to think too much, cluttering his mind with vectors, speed, acceleration, and other ballistics mathematics that only distracted him from the truth of marksmanship: You've already trained your body and mind to shoot, now let it do its job.

Thus, as Mark approached, Linda handed him her sniper rifle, and took his assault rifle from him. She didn't need any particular weapon in order to do the drills, but it would help her younger counterpart. Mark sat down next to her, and together they sighted their weapons out the window.

"Now," Linda said, "Don't pick any particular target. Just let your eyes take in your firing arc. Your body knows how to fire the weapon, and your mind knows how to find and select a target. Relax, don't think; let your body do its work…"

Three hours later, Linda descended from the tower. Mark was getting better at conscious meditation, and the Zen no-thought state that helped increase the speed and accuracy of most combat snipers. At the end of the week, Linda planned to have a live fire exercise with him, at least if Dr. Halsey managed to come through with her theories.

Stepping into a large storage room that the Spartans had converted into barracks, Linda noticed Spartan-087, Kelly, Spartan-G099, Ash, and Spartan-G201, Olivia spending some off duty time together. Each of them was still mostly clad in their respective armor systems, though each had removed their helmets, gauntlets, and boots. The younger Spartans sat directly across from Kelly, looking at a field map, made up of items familiar to their current environment. There was a large building on the map, depicted by an empty canteen, and was the obvious focus of the model. There was also a fence made by a piece of string, bullets set up to represent guard towers, and random pieces of small equipment representing various outbuildings. Kelly was just explaining a tactical situation involving hostages, in which the primary objective was to destroy the installation, without undue civilian casualties.

Ash looked hard at the map for a moment, and then said, "I'd have someone blow up the southwest guard tower as a distraction, and then have Mark snipe the guard on the northwest side while I took the one on the roof. Then Olivia would stealth her way in through the opening in the northwest perimeter, neutralize the prison guards, and free the hostages. Mark and I would move in and provide cover for her withdrawal. If I had a fifth man, then he'd be waiting for us back in cover and provide long range support."

Olivia thought for a moment, and then nodded her agreement. Kelly nodded.

"That's good," she said. "Now, what if the guards were arranged…"

They went on like that for a few more minutes, each time the two members of Team Saber would solve the puzzle, Kelly would congratulate them, and then change the scenario slightly, calling on her years of experience and personal creativity, and presenting increasingly challenging situations, either by taking away one of the troops Ash had to work with, or making them standard Marines rather than Spartans, changing the numbers and placement of the guards, and then the kicker…

"One last one. Same scenario as before, but what if the hostages don't want to move?" she asked.

Ash and Olivia both furrowed their brows in confusion, and thought hard on the situation.

"I give up," Olivia finally said. "How would you get them to move? And why wouldn't they want to leave?"

"The why is easy," Kelly said. "We understand that death is a possibility. Civilians don't, or won't accept it. They may have been threatened by their captors, and if a hostage has already been executed as an example, then it may have scared the others into staying put, even when faced with the chance of escape."

For the first time in the training session, Linda spoke up.

"Knock one of them out," she said. "Then throw him over your shoulder, tell the others to move, and then go. Your objective is to destroy the base with as few casualties as possible. If the civilians don't move, then you've at least saved one, and to waste any more time could jeopardize your primary objective."

Kelly nodded in Linda's direction.

"Linda's right," she said. "Never let a secondary objective get in the way of your primary mission. If there're twenty hostages, and the continued operation of the base could mean the death of thousands, then nineteen civilians may become a necessary, if unattractive, sacrifice. Usually, however, after you knock one out, the others will follow your direction out of fear, but then they become disorganized, and you may lose a few in your withdrawal. It should only be used as a last resort."

Ash and Olivia looked at each other, nodded, and then nodded their thanks to Kelly for the lesson.

Leaving them to digest the new information, Kelly stood up and walked over to Linda.

Taking on a less instructive tone she said, "What's up?"

"Nice lesson," Linda replied. "Côte d'Azure?"

"Yep," Kelly replied.

Linda removed her helmet, her piercing green eyes and short red hair becoming visible.

"How's Dr. Halsey's project coming?" she asked.

"Slow," Kelly replied, "but she thinks she should be ready to test that scanner thing by tonight."

"Good. I think I'll go see how it's coming."

"Alright. I'll catch up to you later."

With that, Linda slipped her helmet back on and left the barracks. She had just wanted to check in with Kelly to make sure that the Doctor hadn't become overly involved with her research before she was disturbed.

From the Barracks, Linda entered a large entry room at the front of the building. Then she turned left and moved down a hall into one of two very interesting research laboratories that they'd found. Across from the door she found Dr. Halsey, her clothing looking threadbare and slightly torn from the months of wear outdoors. Currently the Doctor was hunched over a metal desk, sitting in a rough wooden chair that the Spartans had made for her to ease her back. Halsey wasn't as young as she had been at the beginning of the SPARTAN project.

To the left of the desk there was a device that looked shockingly similar to the shield testing station common in UNSC armories, at least the ones equipped to deal with Spartans and their unique needs. To the right of the desk was a hermetically sealed door, leading to an empty room roughly ten feet wide by eight feet long. Set into the wall above the desk was a window looking into that empty room, and a holographic readout projected just in front of it. There was a holographic terminal hovering just above the surface of the desk, too, and that was Dr. Halsey's current focus.

"Doctor?" Linda asked.

Halsey looked up, then turned around to face her.

"Linda, just the person I wanted to see," she said. "Do you still have a round for your sniper rifle?"

"Just one," Linda replied. "I had a spare when I was filling my magazines before the battle, and forgot I had it." She removed the lone bullet from her belt and handed it to the doctor.

Halsey took the proffered bullet and placed it on the floor in the middle of the two pronged "shield station".

"What is it?" Linda asked.

Halsey replied, "It's a scanner. At least that's the closest I can come to understanding it. This whole room seems to be for the purpose of scanning and replicating objects, or for designing whole new ones and building them in real time. If I've got this console figured out right, then I should be able to scan your sniper bullet into the Forerunner system, and build exact replicas of it in that room. Hold on a moment."

Halsey turned back to the holographic console and began manipulating symbols. After a moment, the two pronged scanner began rotating, and a ring of yellow light move up and down over the entire space between the prongs. This process continued for roughly five seconds, then stopped. On the display above Halsey's desk, a three dimensional image of the bullet appeared and began rotating. The doctor then manipulated a few more symbols, and the light in the room beyond the window intensified to a white glare for a moment, then faded. There, sitting on the floor in the exact center of the room, was two identical copies of the original bullet. Halsey smiled.

"Success."

1000 hrs, August 15, 2006

Atlantis Control Room

Atlantis

Doctor Elizabeth Weir looked down upon the Stargate, marveling at the feat of technology, and thinking about all the other accomplishments that were attributed to the Ancients. No matter how long she was in this galaxy, and on this world, it seemed, the Ancients would always continue to amaze her. Their one downfall appeared to be their arrogance and faith in their own technology's infallibility, as she had seen for herself with the recent return of the Ancient warship.

She was taking this brief respite to look at the Stargate in wonder, refreshing her resolve and reason for being here before the next crisis arose. She knew that all too soon she would be pulled away from her personal musings to give attention to something of the utmost importance.

"Dr. Weir!" came an annoying and all-too-familiar voice. It never failed. Still, she was capable of handling these things, and that was why she'd been placed in command of the Atlantis Expedition, and maintained control for the past three years.

Turning, she replied, "What is it, Rodney?"

Dr. Rodney McKay rushed down the stairs at the back of the control room, holding a portable electronic notebook above his head as though it contained the secret to life itself.

Halting in front of Weir, a grin plastered across his face, he said, "This morning I was searching through the Ancient database, looking for anything that might be of interest; you know, weapons, useful technology, maybe the location of a Zed-PM,…"

"Rodney," warned Dr. Weir, her irritation rising at his delay. McKay shook his head and got back on topic.

"Right, right," he said. "Anyway, while I was looking at a sub-file detailing Ancient allies, I came across mention of a group I'd never heard of before. At first I thought it was maybe another name for the Asgard, or even another race within this galaxy that were subsequently driven extinct by the Wraith, but that's not it at all." He now looked Weir directly in the eye, his excitement evident in his gaze. "The race mentioned in the archives are, if anything, even older than the Ancients themselves, and from the file, it looks like they might still be around!"

That one statement manage to take Weir's breath away.

"Oh my… Wait a minute," she said, her wits finally coming back to her. "If they're still around, and in this galaxy, why haven't we noticed them before?"

Rodney grinned, tapped at his notebook, and said, "Ah, that's because they were isolated from the rest of Pegasus. Even the Ancients had to go through certain channels just to contact them. Now, I don't know what those channels are yet, but it's only a matter of time. The Ancients were nothing if not thorough in their documentation. I should be able to bring up the rest of the information within a day."

"Good work, Rodney," Weir said, smiling at last. "What were they called?"

McKay's smile dropped slightly as he thought.

"Well, honestly, the database didn't actually mention a name. It just listed them as the, ah, 'Forerunner to Great Things'," he said.

"Alright," Dr. Weir said, "see if you can find a Gate address, and when you have the rest of the information on how to contact them, we'll discuss a mission to go look for this race."

"Right. Right! I-I'll get right on that," McKay said, moving back to the stairs, his mind already light years ahead of his feet.

1830 hrs, January 17, 2553

UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn

Unknown Alien World

Consciousness returned slowly to John. How long had he been asleep? Had the UNSC found them? He had no immediate answers to these questions, and knew better then to dwell on them.

Opening his eyes, he found that the Dawn's cryo bay was still dark, with Cortana's hologram being the only source of light. That could only mean one thing: something was wrong, and Cortana needed him awake.

"What happened?" he asked, stepping out of the cryo tube, surprised for a moment to find himself standing on the deck instead of floating above it. The AI looked at him regretfully.

"I didn't notice it until after you went into cryo stasis," she said, "but when we emerged from the portal we were in a decaying orbit over a planet. I managed to plot a safe reentry and used navigational thrusters to get us in position and set us down."

So, they were on a planet. That explained why the Spartan wasn't floating anymore, but it didn't explain Cortana's expression.

"So, what went wrong?" he asked.

Cortana replied, "Unfortunately, because of the necessary orientation of the ship during reentry, the emergency beacon's transmitter was burned off by friction. We've stopped transmitting. I'm sorry.

"However," she continued quickly, "the planet we're on is habitable, and I managed to land us roughly 150 kilometers from the remains of what looks to be a Forerunner city. I was able to take some aerial scans on the way down and extrapolate a map. If it is Forerunner, then there's a chance you could find a beacon or transmitter there powerful enough to reach UNSC space in a fraction of the time it would take for them to have heard the Dawn's beacon." The Master Chief nodded.

"There is… one other thing," she said. "As you know, a 'smart' AI like myself has a pre-determined lifespan of approximately seven years. The more data we collect, the less room we have for the normal processing required to continue functioning. Due to the added processing requirements of collecting the massive amounts of raw data from the first Halo, High Charity, and then the Ark, my own lifespan has been considerably shortened." This gave John pause. Cortana was going to die?

"How much time do you have left?" he said at length.

"Impossible to say," she replied, her tone subdued. "Best guess? A couple of months, no more."

"Then we'd best get started," John said, removing the AI memory chip from his helmet and holding it close enough that Cortana could transfer herself to it. She did so, the holotank going dark, and removing the last of the light from the Dawn's cryo bay.

John put the chip back into its slot in his helmet, and felt the familiar sensation of mercury flooding into his mind. Then he activated his helmet light and turned towards the weapon rack to retrieve his rifle, his mind racing. He was determined not to lose Cortana. They had been through so much together, even in the short amount of time since she'd been assigned to him, that it would be akin to losing another Spartan. That was something he wouldn't allow.

There had to be a way. The Forerunner had a way, of that he was certain. The Forerunner construct Mendicant Bias had survived for millennia, and even though it had gone rampant, it had still been there to offer its help on the new Installation 04. That meant that there was a solution to the limitation of the AI lifespan. He just had to find it.

"Hey," Cortana said, her voice once again light and aloof, "What'cha thinking about? You're thinking as hard as I've ever seen."

"Nothing," the Spartan replied. "Let's get moving."

0855 hrs, March 25, 2553

Unknown Forerunner structure

Within Forerunner construct known as shield world

Doctor Halsey was the happiest she had been in months. She had new clothes, courtesy of the Forerunner replication device, and even though they were exact copies of her old clothes, just having something clean to wear was refreshing. The Forerunner machine was even smart enough that it had automatically fixed the rents and holes in the garments. Halsey had also done the same for Senior Chief Mendez, as his attire had been, if anything, in worse condition than her own, despite its more robust nature.

In addition, the replicator also allowed the Spartans to refill their magazines, and provide them with an indefinite amount of ammunition. It had only taken a few hours for Fred to get the Spartans started on construction of a firing range and converting another of the rooms into a makeshift armory. That was helpful, as it meant that the Spartans weren't bothering her or interrupting her research nearly as often. They hid it well, but they were becoming increasingly restless as long as they didn't have anything useful to do, or the facilities in which to continue training.

The replicator gave them one other advantage, as well. Halsey hadn't told the others about it, and would continue to wait until she was certain she could do it. She had already tried to make Forerunner artifacts using the machine, but without a 'smart' AI like Cortana present, she had no hope of ever learning all of the machine's functions by trial and error. She had, however, learned to integrate the designs of several objects that had been scanned into the database. She was fairly sure she knew how to integrate things without causing malfunctions or other issues. Ready enough, in fact, for the first test.

Rising, Doctor Halsey left the room to go gather her Spartans.

0800 hrs, August 16, 2006

Main Conference Room

Atlantis

John Sheppard and his team filed into the briefing room and sat down, talking quietly amongst themselves about various issues, from the trivial to the important. Dr. Weir had scrubbed their next scheduled exploration mission in favor of the one that Dr. McKay had proposed the day before. John himself had some misgivings about searching for missing allies of the Ancients, but there was always the possibility that they might actually find something useful.

Elizabeth Weir entered the room a few minutes later, and the briefing began in earnest.

"As you all know by now," she said, "yesterday Dr. McKay found evidence in the Ancient archive of a race of beings equal to themselves. From the information gathered, Rodney believes it would be possible for us to make contact with these aliens if we follow the proper protocols. Rodney?" She sat down, and McKay stood up, still tapping at his ever-present notebook. Satisfied, he looked up.

"Alright," he said, "once we arrive on planet, the database specifically says that we need to locate a particular doorway embedded into the face of a mountain. Thankfully, the Ancients included the coordinates of the mountain in question, so we won't have an entire planet to search- I suggest we take a jumper so we can triangulate our position immediately. Then, once we locate the door, we'll have to find our way inside. Apparently the door has some unspecified-but-nonlethal safeguards, so it might take some time.

"Once inside the mountain, assuming there isn't a computer with a map of the facility nearby, we need to locate a room with a specific machine. The archive file says that there will be a unique control crystal attached to the machine, and that the controls itself- get this," he said, smiling, "will be on a fully interactive, holographic projection! This machine is apparently either a communication device used to contact these 'Forerunners', for lack of a better name, or it's a transportation device designed to take us to them."

Ronon half raised a hand from his reclined position and asked, "What's that holo-projection-whatever mean?"

"A fully interactive holographic projection," McKay said, scowling. "It means that the controls will be holographic projections displayed in mid air, and whatever machine it's attached to reads the motion of the user's hands in the area of the projection, and responds accordingly, adjusting both the control being displayed as well as carrying out whatever command is input through the motion. It's just like any computer terminal, except you're using controls made of light instead of standard, old-fashioned buttons."

Ronon appeared unsatisfied with the answer, but said nothing more.

"So, this door," Sheppard said, "how will we know if it's the right one?"

"Ah, good question," McKay said. "Apparently, the door was built by this allied race, and while its architecture will be undeniably advanced, it should be unique enough that it sets itself apart from any other Ancient architecture that might be nearby."

"And it's built into the side of a mountain," Ronon deadpanned.

"Well, yes, there is… that, too," McKay admitted.

Weir looked up from the typed report detailing the briefing.

"Sounds simple enough," she said. "On the condition that you find this device, you are to activate the Stargate and radio in before attempting to turn it on or make contact with this new race. Understood?" She looked pointedly at McKay and Sheppard.

"Yes, Ma'am," Sheppard replied.

"Oh, um, sure, sure," McKay mumbled, his mind already moving on to other subjects.

"Rodney," Weir said.

"Alright, fine," McKay said, looking up from his notebook. "I promise I won't turn on any devices or try to contact any aliens without letting you know first."

"Good," Weir said after a moment. "John, you have a go."

1015 hrs, March 25, 2553

Unknown Forerunner structure

Within Forerunner construct known as shield world

Doctor Halsey sat in front of the replication device's terminal, manipulating Forerunner symbols, trying to make sure her integration would work perfectly. Behind her, Chief Mendez and the Spartans stood, watching with interest. Fred and Ash were dressed in replicas of Chief Mendez's uniform, which Halsey had managed to adjust to their individual sizes. Fred's MJOLNIR armor and Ash's SPI armor were both lying beside the replicator's scanning platform. Halsey had said that there might be a way to improve the current version of the MJOLNIR armor, and make enough for the SPARTAN-III's. The young Spartans were capable of wearing the advanced armor, but there had never before been funding or materials available for such a thing.

"Just about… got it," Halsey said, allowing herself to feel a moment of triumph. She then pressed the replication command, and the room beyond the glass brightened. When it dimmed, there was a complete set of MJOLNIR battle armor lying in the room beyond. Kelly and Linda immediately moved to retrieve it.

When they had it all moved into the scanning room, Halsey said, "Fred, let's get you suited up."

Fred moved forward, and soon he was again clad in the iridescent battle armor. It looked very similar to his old armor, but there was a new fluidity added to the design. It was slightly sleeker, and his motions appeared just the slightest hint more refined. Halsey looked at him.

"For the moment, I'm calling this model MJOLNIR Mk. VII. I've managed to integrate the best parts of the SPI armor into the standard Mk. VI shell. Your armor now has a limited form of active camouflage you can rely on. However, using this feature significantly weakens your shield, and I wouldn't recommend keeping it active once the time for stealth is over. It would have collapsed the shield completely, but the Forerunner computer apparently has certain specifications that it still adheres to. There's an energy conservation algorithm that was automatically added to the design as soon as it was scanned in. The result is that your shields are a little less than twice as strong as the old ones. There was another safety protocol enacted on the design regarding the rebreather system. Instead of the ninety minutes that the Mk. VI provides, this model should provide you with approximately three hours. I'm not certain of the exact time, as the Forerunner time measurements were slightly different, but your suit diagnostics should tell you. Finally, there may have been some slight modifications to the way you interface with the armor, possibly making your motions somewhat faster, but I can't say for certain."

Halsey then walked Fred through a standard MJOLNIR armor testing regimen. They even stepped outside and had Linda fire a couple of shots at him. Where once a single round from the SRS99C-S2 AM sniper rifle would have completely collapsed his shields and left him vulnerable, Fred was shocked to find that two of the powerful 14.5mm rounds only drained his new armor's shields to a little under a quarter. He reported as much to Dr. Halsey, and she smiled.

After the test, Halsey took the Spartans back into the structure and replicated enough sets of the armor for each of the Spartans. Soon, eight MJOLNIR-clad Spartans stood around Dr. Halsey and Chief Mendez. Kelly bumped shoulders with Ash.

"You really are one of us now, kids," she said. Ash looked back at her, and made the traditional 'smile' sign, indicating his pleasure at the praise. The other SPARTAN-III's didn't mimic the gesture, but they stood noticeably taller, and carried their heads just a slight bit higher.

Fred watched the display of camaraderie, and then looked at Dr. Halsey.

"Ma'am, with respect, why the need for the upgrade?" he asked. Halsey smiled.

"Because, Spartan," she said, "if my guess is correct, then the machine in the other room," she took a deep breath, "is a way off of Onyx."