Whew! Sorry about the delay, things have been busy lately. Anyway, this scene kinda deals a bit with Lorienna's background. Looking back, though, it didn't make much sense, but I'm posting it anyway! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Halo: Combat Evolved or from any of the books.

7. A Few Confusing Secrets

Laura had been cornered by both Cortana and Lorienna during her work on a shield generator. Her workshop was able to handle two AIs, and since those two were becoming fast friends, she supposed Lorienna would have told her. She's not cautious enough sometimes, but then again, she knows what she's doing, Laura mused.

"Blade, do you mind if I ask a question?" Cortana's voice drifted around the room.

"She doesn't like that name, Cortana," Lorienna interrupted, a frown on her features; privately Laura thought she looked much better than her own reflection.

"It's alright, Lorienna, how could she be expected to know? Besides, maybe it's best that she continue referring to me as Blade until the mission's over. This way ONI won't be too suspicious of where she's been going." Laura tipped a wink to the mischievous AI, whose blue color warmed to a faint pink and cooled back to blue.

"Anyways, Cortana, what was your question?"

"How were you able to create Lorienna without ONI's knowledge, and how were you able to keep her secret all this time?" Laura paused in her work and stared at the shields; when she spoke, her voice was quiet.

"I hope this conversation doesn't plan on leaving this room, otherwise you'll learn nothing from me."

"I wouldn't dream of saying a word. Besides, who would believe me?"

"ONI might," Laura frowned, wondering what she was getting herself into. She shook her head and began to relate her tale.

"When I was about fifteen, I realized it was getting harder to keep up with everything going on in ONI's networks, there was so much information pouring in with the war and all. I realized I needed help, and I needed a friend I could talk to from time to time. Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly go and admit to hacking in ONI's systems, and certainly I had no friends of my own to talk to, being on base all the time except for the occasional mission. One day I decided to get…shall we say…creative.

"I'd found this bunker about six years earlier, in 2520. ONI had modified it from a fall-out shelter to an underground facility and promptly forgotten about it once their project failed, so I figured it would be a good place to work. It was dicey trying to fool the cameras all the time, but somehow I managed it when I really needed to get my ass down here. One of those times, I thought about trying to make an AI of my own, without doing anything overly dangerous. My original plan was for something along the lines of a simple computer program: clever, fast, and fairly easy to create. I got started using a standard computer terminal, laid out the parameters for a basic hacking program, and used a sophisticated profiling system to put some of my wit in the program as well. Figured it'd give the program an edge in the hacking it'd be doing." She paused and shook her head, unsure as to how to go on.

"I'm not entirely sure what I did next, or how it happened. All I know is that somehow, however I managed it, I was able to create a smart AI while avoiding the usual methods; I'd made a smart AI and put more of myself in than I'd ever intended, so now I see a smarter, sneakier version of myself. My personality, my memories, everything was in there, and she grew at a speed I'd never anticipated. Hell, she even modeled her appearance after me, although somewhere along the way she must have improved in nature—she looks a helluva lot better than I ever did." Lorienna 'blushed' faintly at that.

Cortana interrupted. "You said you created her when you were fifteen? And how old are you now?"

"I'm just a shade under 41," Laura replied. "That's the other reason I kept quiet. Somehow I managed to craft an AI that can survive longer than seven years without losing functionality. And I had no idea how I did it, I still don't. Could you imagine me trying to explain that one to ONI? For one thing, they'd never believe it, and if they did they'd try to take Lorienna away. They'd probably strip her programming to find out how she lasted this long, so they could improve the lifespan of their own AIs."

If Cortana had been human she probably would have fainted. As it was, the expression on her holographic features was priceless. Lorienna is almost 30 years old! How is that possible? "How did she survive?"

"Again I don't know. In all honesty, I was expecting to have her around for only seven years. When she outlived my expectations, I gave up trying to guess at her operational lifespan. Somehow I get the feeling that the only thing to kill her would be deletion, and I won't let that happen." Laura's face set in a grim determination.