Chapter 3: She Tried
"So if I understand this right, you asked Dr. Grey to try and bring Church back to life?" Wash asked at hearing the crew's latest idea. Simmons gave a strong nod. "That's the idea."
"You asked a doctor, whose job is to keep people from dying to bring back someone to life?"
"Hey, we never said the plan was perfect," said Simmons. Tucker agreed. "Yeah, besides we don't have any other ideas. At this point doing something is better than nothing."
"And when Church comes back, we can be best friends again!" Caboose exclaimed. Wash lowered his head in skepticism. "I don't know…"
"Son, sometimes you have to act before you can think," advised Sarge. Wash looked up at the group and simply nodded his head. "Alright, but I wouldn't want you guys to have your hopes crushed again."
"Seriously dude, you are like a walking negative factor," said Grif turning to walk away.
"Yeah man, have a little faith," Tucker added. However Donut and Doc seemed to be more on the skeptical side, Tucker shook his head at them. "Come on, are you guys for real? We have a chance at bringing Church back and you guys want to be like this now?"
"Well it's just that can you really bring someone back from the dead, especially an A.I. fragment?" asked Donut.
"Trust me, I'm a medic and I have yet to revive someone from the dead."
"Well trying doesn't hurt, so quit your bitching and let's hope Dr. Grey can make something happen," Tucker argued. Wash decided to step in to stop the escalating discussion. "Either way, let's hope for the best. We should let Carolina know."
"Does anyone even know where she is?" Doc inquired.
"No, but I may have an idea," Wash looked towards the more isolated areas of the base leading to a forest. "Why don't you guys go to sleep? I will handle Carolina."
"Who wants to go for a walk?!" Caboose asked staring at his rifle. "Do you want to go for a walk Freckles? Do I want to go for a walk? We should go for a walk! It will be an adventure!"
"Yes, Captain Caboose."
The whole group again dispersed leaving Wash to go on the hunt for Carolina's location. He began with exiting the base to the nearest forest entrance. Walking amidst the tree roots which hindered his progress, he felt grateful for the night vision in their helmets. The air was sure to be cool accompanied by a misty breeze. Sadly the soldier could not feel it so underneath the armor.
Wash stopped just as he was making his way over a log. In his sights were several broken trees. No doubt her doing, from what he could tell, the trees were heavily damaged from several physical impacts. Following the trail of damaged trees, Wash finally saw the cyan armored freelancer. From what he could tell, she was busy pummeling yet another tree. I would not want to be on the receiving end, Wash slowly approached her. Normally she would have been able to notice, but her anger was overflowing.
"I think that tree has had enough already," he noted with her stopping to turn around. "Looks like you did a number on the forest."
"What do you want?"
"I came to let you know that Tucker and the others have Dr. Grey working on trying to get Church back."
"What?"
"Yeah, they came up with the idea. I suppose they are hoping for a miracle of some sort."
"And you didn't stop them?!"
"Calm down Carolina, the guys have been through enough grief as it is. I raised my concerns but they want to have faith in this plan. I say let them, I don't want to be the bearer of any more grief than they have already gone through."
"Dammit…," Carolina punched the tree she was pummeling in anger causing it to shatter into little pieces. "But, I can't help but want for this to succeed to."
"Chances are low, but if we do succeed then I'm sure there will be one hell of a celebration that day."
"Yeah, probably," Carolina laughed, but her laughter quickly died down as she balled her hands into fists. "Was it my fault for letting him go with them Wash?"
"Carolina, no one could have known what Church was thinking at that time. Maybe he had already decided to sacrifice himself, or maybe he didn't even know it himself. But he sacrificed himself for a cause he believed in. Like he said, the hero sacrifices himself never knowing the ending, in the end he can only have faith. This time, his faith was paid off."
Carolina looked up at Wash and crossed her arms and said with a small chuckle. "Since when did you get so wise?"
Wash quickly looked down at the ground feeling a little embarrassed. This caused Carolina great amusement. "Heh, all the same, thanks Wash."
"Now how about getting back to base? The guys are worried about you, and so are the others."
Carolina led the way back with Wash following close. To Wash, Church was not exactly someone close, however due to his past experience with Epsilon he grew some bond with it. Even if that bond was one of animosity initially, he grew to like Church as a blue team member. He also grew to understand the dependence Carolina began to have on him after their crash landing on Chorus. He could only hope for the best and that somehow the worst doesn't end up breaking Carolina anymore than she already is.
The next day, Tucker visited Dr. Grey's lab. "Hey Doc, how's progress?"
"Unfortunately nothing yet. These A.I. algorithms are quite complex, even for just fragments. Whoever designed them must be a genius! But that won't stop Emily Grey from getting to the bottom of this!"
"Cool, let us know if you need anything."
"Actually I could use a bit of help, can you please send Caboose down here?"
"Caboose, why do you need him?"
"From what I have learnt in my discussions with the Delta fragment, Caboose seems to have the most experience with him. Delta seems to be most comfortable around Caboose. So I'm thinking that things may go faster with Caboose here. Plus only Delta has been willing to open up so far."
"That makes sense," Tucker then jogged away to fetch Caboose. Sarge walked in with Simmons. "You busy doc?"
Dr. Grey turned to face Sarge. "My, my, aren't I popular today?"
"Sorry to disturb you but I just wanted to check in to see if you ever got that robot arm tested."
"Well like I said, volunteers were hard to come by. Now they will be nearly impossible!"
"That's just ridiculous. I mean imagine it; a cool robot arm to do all the things you can't do with a normal arm. If they are pro enough, they could probably make it slow motion."
"How do you just make something slow motion?" asked Dr. Grey.
"If it's epic enough, I can make it happen."
"Do you need any help?" Simmons asked hopeful to tinker around with the fragments. Emily let out a tired yawn; her decision to stay awake all night long was clearly getting to her now. "No I think I should be fine."
"Oh…okay," he replied disappointed. The two reds were on their way with Dr. Grey continuing her efforts.
Carolina approached Kimball's office, and with a gentle knock on the door she entered. In the chair sat a well built brown haired woman. With her hair tied back into a single pony tail. She peered from the papers she was staring at up towards Carolina with her dark brown eyes. Seeing the freelancer before her, she stood up rushing to her side. "I'm glad to see you back again."
Carolina was speechless as to whom this person was before her. But from her voice she was recognizable. "Kimball?"
"Oh that's right; this is your first time seeing me out of my armor. Kind of strange right?"
Carolina shook her head. "No, it was just a little surprising is all. If anything it's good for you and the rest of the people on Chorus."
Kimball looked at the visor of Carolina's helmet. "Yet you still mask yourself behind your armor."
"Heh, what can I say? I guess the armor is just a part of me now."
"Just like the rest of the reds and blues?"
"Just like the rest of the reds and blues."
There was a moment of silence. It felt quite awkward to both of them. Kimball looked down at her hands clearing her throat. "I heard about what happened with Church."
Carolina remained quiet slowly lowering her head as well. Kimball reached out to place her hand on Carolina's shoulder armor. "I just want to say that I'm sorry for your loss. I also heard that Tucker had the crazy idea of bringing Church back to life. I hope that somehow works out. If nothing, I'm always here should you need someone to talk to."
"Thanks," Carolina said turning her attention to the papers on Kimball's desk. She motioned towards them in curiosity. "Is that for cleanup?"
"Yes, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. For one, the cleanup itself could take several months, and then the rebuilding of our cities and the different sectors to help sustain our planet."
"Sounds like you will have your hands full for a while."
"Yes, on top of that we still have to get a ship for you all to go home with," Kimball pondered the times that are to come. "But I have something I want to talk to you about."
"I'm listening."
Tucker and Caboose walked into Dr. Grey's lab and found her snoozing off. Tucker walked up to her with the intention of waking her up. "Hey doc!"
She jolted awake looking around in a panic. Her heart quickly calmed at seeing her two comrades. "That was quite the surprise Captain Tucker."
"I got Caboose for you just like you wanted."
"Thank you, Caboose, I was hoping you could help me with trying to communicate with the A.I. fragments."
"Okay! Maybe Freckles can make friends with them as well. But not best friends because that job is already taken."
"Wonderful! Delta if you will please," Dr. Grey finished as Delta pixilated out of the storage unit. Delta looked up at Caboose as the blue soldier sat down beside the good doctor. "Hello Caboose."
"Delta! How have you been?"
"Um, I guess I will just leave you two to it then," said Tucker walking out of the lab. Outside the building Tucker came across Washington. "Hello Tucker."
"Um, hey?"
"Ready for some training?"
"What seriously dude? We just saved a whole planet. You could at least give me a couple of days off here."
"Time waits for no one Tucker," Wash replied taking out his pistol and pointing it at Tucker. He motioned towards an obstacle course he had all set up. "Fine…let's just get this over with. But remember Wash, next time you eat your meal watch out!"
As Tucker started running the obstacle course, Carolina came up behind Wash. "Wash, can I talk to you?"
"Sure, about?"
"It's a proposition Kimball made to me, for both of us."
"Okay, I'm all ears."
"She asked us if we would like to stay behind, to help rebuild Chorus."
Wash remained quiet at the proposal. Carolina took this as a sign of his answer. "You know it would help these guys out a lot if we did help rebuild their planet."
"Carolina, when have we been good at diplomatic matters?"
"Erm well…never."
"Exactly, I say this is a matter best left up to the people of Chorus. Plus my place is with these guys," Wash answered pointing towards Tucker. Carolina smirked under her helmet. "I figured you would say that."
"But how about you, are you staying?"
"I think it will be more fun with you guys around," she replied walking off. That was all the answer he needed from her to know what she really wanted to do now. Tucker slowly crawled up behind Wash gasping for air. "Water…"
"I thought I made it clear that you had to run five laps Tucker. The counter only shows four."
"Fuck…you…sadist."
A week later, the crew had grown accustomed to their calmer lifestyle. Tucker had visited Dr. Grey's lab nearly every day to check up on her progress. Today according to her was the final day; good news had come along in the past week as well. The UNSC finally made contact with Kimball and were sending a ship to come pick up the Blood Gulch crew as well as Hargrove.
Sarge stood in the hanger bay studying Donut's and Lopez's handy work. "I'm impressed boys. In one week you managed to fix all the jeeps."
"It wasn't easy with Lopez's fiery temper and all, but we got it done," said Donut in a positive tone. Lopez looked at Donut raising his pistol ever so slowly. I could do it, kill these two. No one will have to know. Then it will finally be time for Lopez the Heavy to enslave the human race like in all those bad sci-fi movies.
"Excuse me, coming through!"
Donut watched a car go past them. The driver was Jenson much to Lopez's grief. Five seconds later, the car was in pieces. Sarge and the others rushed up to see if they were alright. Palomo slowly stood up clearly shaken from the crash. "I'm alright, just some road burns."
"[OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE! I JUST FIXED THAT ONE TODAY!]"
"Calm down Lopez, no need to call them a pair of turkey pastors."
"[THAT'S IT! I'M GOING TO GO JUMP IN THE RECYCLE BIN NOW.]"
"Guys, Dr. Grey called for us. This could be some really big news!" Tucker exclaimed rushing up to them. "Come on let's go!"
Everyone gathered in Dr. Grey's lab with the storage unit ready to go. Tucker went ahead and transferred the A.I. fragments back into his head. But something felt strange, he heard many voices but none of them belonged to Church. "Um what's going on?"
Everyone looked at Tucker questionably. He looked towards the doctor with both worry and now some anger. "Why don't I hear Church?"
Dr. Grey lowered her head in failure. Tucker couldn't believe this, none of them could. However Carolina and Washington had known that the chances for success were extremely low. Once an A.I. fragments itself, it is extremely difficult to meld it together again. Something both of them had learned during their classroom lessons in Project Freelancer.
Tucker slammed his fists against the table. "This is bullshit!"
Wash came up to him gripping his shoulder. "Calm down Tucker, we all knew the chances for success were very slim. We tried and well it just didn't work out."
"Wash is right," said Simmons attracting everyone's attention. "There was never any evidence to support that this would work in the first place. So by that logic we tried our best."
Carolina could not believe this; she simply walked out of the room with her head low. Grif watched the other blues leave. "Well that did not go well."
"Tell me about it," said Simmons but immediately turned to Grif. "But no more over eating for our rations!"
"I do what I want, and right now I want to eat a whole buffet bar."
The rest of the crew left in silence leaving Dr. Grey to flounder in her failure. Doc stood outside with Wash pondering. "So we are back to square one again huh?"
"It wasn't unexpected."
"Maybe not for you."
"Yeah," Wash admitted in a soft tone. "But we can't fall apart here."
"Try telling that to the others."
"Aren't you trained in some type of therapy?"
"Yeah, but it only works if the person wants to be treated."
"Oh right," Wash remembered back to when Doc unsuccessfully tried his method on Doyle and Kimball. Doc turned around to walk away. "Well whatever happens, in a few hours we will be going home either way. Maybe things will be better for us all then."
"Maybe…," Wash replied skeptically. Just maybe…
