Getting To Know You...

Though the recovery of the Ark's location cut down the travel time considerably, the voyage there was still taking a considerable amount of time. The crew was kept busy at all times, doing everything in their power to keep the ship's systems working properly. The spare parts that had been recovered from Halo 05 helped somewhat, but the loss of the more valuable pieces was a blow.

Even with the work he was putting in, however, Alan had not had a peaceful night's sleep for the past six days. Every night since his unwanted reunion with King Ghidorah, he had been reliving the events which had brought him to this point, including once again witnessing the atrocities that the golden demon had committed. On the seventh day it happened again, and Alan awakened in his cabin, panting, his face streaked with sweat. He moved his legs over the side of the bunk, rubbing his temples. He let out a low groan. Every time he woke up like this he was never able to get back to sleep. He knew he should try; he had a long shift coming up in the hangar that day. There didn't seem to be much point, however. He checked his chronometer and saw that it was still very early. As he contemplated the idea of trying to sleep again, a voice came through on the ship's intercom.

"Captain Tyler," Joli's voice said, "His Excellency wants you to report to his cabin ASAP."

Alan shook his head in disbelief. He had no idea why Telek would want to see him at such an awkward hour. When he thought about it, he had to wonder how Telek knew he would even be awake. What also surprised him was that he and Telek had hardly seen each other since the mission to Halo 05; apparently Telek had not seen any reason to have him around until now.

Full of apprehension, he dressed, grabbed a mug of coffee and made his way to Telek's cabin. As the commanding officer on the ship Telek's cabin was a considerable distance away from the crew's quarters. Alan tried to remember where it was located; he had not visited it before and could only vaguely remember the directions given to him. Telek had been right; the ship was like a maze, and though he had grown more familiar with it over the past week some parts of it were still a mystery to him. When he was sure that he had finally reached the right door he knocked on it.

"Come in," Telek called through the door as it opened. He swung his chair around, his face stern. "Alan, glad you could make it."

"Um," Alan began. "You wanted to see me?"

"I did," he replied. "Dunkelzahn told me you'd be up around this time, so I'd reckon it would be a good time for us to chat."

Alan shuffled himself across the floor, confused as to why Telek would want to speak to him.

"Have a seat, captain," Telek said. "You and I have much to talk about."

Telek leaned into the smaller being before him and grinned a toothy grin.

"I've been wonderin' about you these past days, kid," he said. "Dunkelzahn told me that you seem to be having some problems sleeping."

"He has been watching me?" Alan asked.

"You know how he is," said Telek. "He senses things, and he's been sensing your distress. Now, because of your lack of sleep, you haven't been pullin' your weight around as well as the others. I'm concerned. You need your rest, you know." He leaned back and crossed his arms. "Your problems sleeping seemed to have started ever since we left the Library—ever since you saw King Ghidorah. I asked how it is that the three-headed menace knew you by name. So far, you haven't told me. I figured perhaps now would be a good time. So tell me, what's up?" He spoke a little louder. "What's been goin' on? Time to get it off your chest. Something tells me you need it."

Alan sighed. He had wanted to avoid this moment, but now that it was here it seemed that it was best to just get it out of the way. Telek wanted to know his history with King Ghidorah, and it seemed clear that he wouldn't take no for an answer.

"The first time I met King Ghidorah," he began with a heavy voice, "was back in 2005. Back then, he used to arrive on Earth, hidden inside these meteorites. One landed outside Newcastle, and from there he systematically wiped out the entire country. I got caught up in it all when he destroyed my hometown. He slaughtered everyone there, including my parents.

"Back then I used to follow monsters like him and gather data on him. Call me bloody stupid - I sure do in retrospect – but I followed him all the way down to London, just as he was laying waste to it." He paused for a moment to look down at his grey-scaled, animalistic claw. "I was still mostly human back then, but King Ghidorah knew what I was as soon as he clapped eyes on me. Maybe he felt like torturing someone with Godzilla's blood some more; he'd killed most of Kiryuu's family billions of years before. He... he tortured me and toyed with me. He would have killed me if Mothra hadn't shown up and driven him off. He was cocky then; he didn't reckon on Mothra still being around and the napalm cannons that the soldiers used. He buggered off back into space to lick his wounds for two years.

"The British and American governments tried to sweep it under the rug. It turned out that their scientists had a hand in calling him to Earth, and they were afraid that piece of news would get out sooner or later. Kiryuu helped me get the evidence I needed to tell the whole story. That was the first time we crossed paths. I couldn't stand the bastard, especially after I learned what he really was. I thought even less of him when the trail he put me on led me to the truth about the CCI's experiments. It wasn't until recently when I came to terms with the idea of him being family; I mean, there's no point denying it now, is there?"

"He can still be family and you can still not like him," said Telek. "Who said you have to like family?" Alan chuckled slightly before continuing.

"Anyway, King Ghidorah attacked again two years later, in Knoxville, Tennessee. I headed there to find out what he wanted from that place. I saw the rise of the Mountains of the Phoenix, and how he turned several states into a volcanic hell-hole for a long time. Manda put me on the trail of something under Knoxville. It turned out to be some kind of massive Technomantic cannon, which one of King Ghidorah's Liches was trying to power up. If anything went wrong when its master confronted Kiryuu, it would use it to just wipe Kiryuu out of existence. That was when I first learned of how he's able to possess people; even just a piece of his skin will suffice. As I remember, his Liche ended up looking a lot like him." He sighed again, a look of revulsion on his face. "I saw King Ghidorah die. Kiryuu had promised me that he would never build another Oxygen Destroyer, but he did so to kill that monster, or at least his body.

"You've probably already guessed that that wasn't the end of it. We crossed paths again in the year 2071. The company that had been contracted to dispose of King Ghidorah's remains held onto them and studied them. Don't ask me how it was possible, but the cells from the Oxygen Destroyer coupled with the skeleton allowed him to come back as this swarm of parasites. He tried to resurrect himself through using another. Alistair mentioned the gargoyle called Demona. She was infected with the queen parasite by a scientist studying the parasite, and she ended up getting possessed by King Ghidorah. He told her that he could help her to destroy the human race that she hated so much. She went on to infect nearly all of the population in Manhattan. They were a lot like the Flood, in so many ways, all mindless, savage creatures that followed King Ghidorah's will. I barely managed to stop Demona and destroy the parasite. That was the night before my mutations got out of control, and I had to go into cryo-sleep, and... Well, no doubt Cujo's told you the rest."

Alan stopped here again. The memories of that time were too painful for him to recount. Going into cryo-sleep meant that he had to leave someone very special to him. He didn't know what had happened to her in the end; he had not had an opportunity to find out. He shook his head, looking back over at Telek.

"Ever since I saw him again in that Library," he said, "I've been seeing it all again every night. Only now it's much worse. Now I see him with all the Flood under his command, swarming everywhere, possessing people left and right..." He looked away from Telek, his eyes tightly shut. "I keep seeing them... The faces of everyone I've ever cared about... I watch them get infected and turned into Flood right in front of my eyes. I can't get their faces out of my head... They all become servants of King Ghidorah, and there's nothing I can do to stop it..."

He broke off, leaning forwards in his chair as if trying to hide his face from Telek.

"I've seen the Flood possess the people I love," said Telek. "You only have dreamt what it would be like, to lose friends to the Flood—I have actually lost them. The first one I lost was Jacob Keyes. He was the captain of the Pillar of Autumn. The second was Tekn 'Morud, my second in command on board my previous ship Shade of Darkness. Not only that, but I lost the entire ship and most of her crew to the Flood! I had to destroy her in order to keep the Flood from using her. I've seen what it looks like for people to be possessed by that virus. They stop being your friend, the person you knew, and they start being something else. Back then, we didn't even realize that it was King Ghidorah who controlled the Flood—not until we got to the Ark. He revealed himself to us as if he knew he was going to triumph. And you know what? Despite the fact we blew up the Flood-infested hive of High Charity, he did win. He took everything we cared about.

"This monster has no solid motive. We don't know exactly what he wants. From what I've seen, all he wants is to consume all knowledge, all individual thought, all emotion, and the very essence of life itself into his being. Why, I don't know. He never made it clear for us. He's a foe we cannot predict, we cannot really understand so therefore how are we expected to defeat him? He can control people, and even machines. He even possessed me."

Telek sighed and leaned back against his chair again.

"I'm gonna tell you something that no one else knows except for a certain, trusted few," he began. "You already know that I was once possessed by King Ghidorah. But I will tell you why. How could I come in contact with him in order for him to take hold of me? Well, I was 'bitten' by a Flood Infection form back on Halo 04. The little critter injected its retrovirus into my system. Only because of ethanol poisoning, it could not mutate me into a Combat Form. But that didn't mean King Ghidorah couldn't control me. And he did. He almost made me kill my friend and teacher—the Arbiter Otto 'Gamam. But here's the killer. I still have his cells inside of me. Kiryuu says that King Ghidorah can't possess me again, but I don't know. He's in me, in my blood and I fear every day that maybe he'll get at me again. That's why I can sense him. But sometimes it's not me I fear him getting, but others too because I'm always around them, and he's in me. I'm always on my guard." He leaned back in closer to Alan. "The Flood is King Ghidorah's Wild Card. Anything else created is nothing compared to them. They can spread so quickly over a short period of time. Now, I just hope that Kiryuu is alright. Though I hate the guy, even he doesn't deserve King Ghidorah's torment."

"No-one does," Alan said bitterly, shaking his head. "I wouldn't wish him on my worst enemies." He paused for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts.

"I wish we could get to the Ark sooner," he said. "Kiryuu was in a bad way when I saw him in that dream-world. King Ghidorah's really done a number on him. I'm not sure he's been able to hold on for this long." He rested his knees on his legs, clenching his fists together. "All we can do is hope for the best, and prepare for the worst."

"Yeah, that's right," said Telek. "Well, I suppose that's it for now."

Telek finally got up and Alan followed him.

"You are dismissed," he said. "I suppose you might as well get an early start on work. I have to go listen to some gripes from Swifty for not letting Shri make off with the good stuff. He just doesn't get it mostly because Hurogoks aren't Flood compatible. I should make him go fish for his own damned parts on a Flood infested Halo if he's gonna be so snide about it."

"I'll go see what needs doing in the hangar then," said Alan. "From the looks of that place, we'll be clearing parts in there until we reach the Ark."

Just as Alan was about to leave Telek's cabin, the big Elite stopped him.

"Just a moment," he said. "I want to inform you that I'm not letting you or your crew off the hook for what you did back at Illium. Just because we're focusing on getting to the Ark, doesn't mean I have forgotten about it. But I'm not one to mix business with my own personal grudges. I need you for various tasks, but don't think I've forgotten and decided to be all buddy-buddy with you."

"I'm not expecting friendship," Alan said, in perhaps a colder tone than he had intended. "I expect you to be the Supreme Commander; nothing more, nothing less."

Alan then left Telek's cabin, somehow feeling worse than he had done before he went in.

0

Alan could not say for certain how much time passed during the voyage to the Ark. The days of hard labour and odd jobs all seemed to become a blur, until Alan couldn't tell whether weeks or months had passed. The longer the journey took, the more anxious he became. He was getting increasingly worried for Kiryuu, and feared that the time they had spent on this voyage had doomed him, especially as a nagging doubt in his mind kept telling him that they were going in the wrong direction. Neither the Serenity crew nor the Shadow of Darkness crew saw much of him; he spent most of his free time in his cabin, reading through the notes that Kiryuu had left him on his commlink, though he had the horrible feeling that not even Kiryuu could have adequately prepared him for whatever lay ahead.

At last, after what felt like an eternity to Alan, the news he had waited for reached his ears; the ship was slowing down, dropping out of slip-space.

Telek was on the bridge, standing up on the central platform near his command chair. His arms folded behind him as he viewed the image in the holographic screens. Alan and his crew finally walked in, already summoned to the bridge. Telek turned just slightly in away to acknowledge their presence, but then returned to facing the screen. There in the large screen was an image of wreckage. The Ark, or what was left of it, was shattered. Around the Ark itself were pieces of the fragmented Halo 04 Beta left over from when it was activated to destroy the Ark in order to get rid of the Flood. Telek glanced around, keeping his eye out for possibly any fragment of High Charity that could potentially contain Flood. The last thing he needed was for the fragments to impale into the hull of his ship and infect it. He could not afford to lose another ship to them.

"Scan the area for any UNSC beacon that might have been dropped," said Telek. "Cujo, Mitsu, Tulsa, Wago, Tom! Spread out and begin your search. Scan for UNSC beacons. One you've found it, inform me and I'll bring my ship over to bring the missing fragment of the Dawn inside."

"Yes, Excellency," said Mitsu.

"Beginning wide search now," said Tulsa.

"Is it possible that they may have dropped out of Slipspace after the portal closed on them and they're a little bit closer to our galaxy than we thought?" asked Wago.

"Just search, Wago," said Telek. "We've made it out this far and I'm surprised we did it so swiftly. It took us nearly a month to get to the Ark and that was with the spacebridge. I'm surprised I managed to do it in under two."

"Yes, Excellency," said Wago.

"We'll report in when we find something," said Tom.

"Hey, Telek, it may be a good idea to have Alan and his crew get in the Serenity and help in the search," said Cujo. "An extra pair of eyes is always a plus."

"I suppose it would," said Telek. "Not like they can go nowheres now that we're out of the galaxy itself."

"I wish you wouldn't treat them like prisoners, Telek," said Cujo. Telek just scoffed.

He turned back to Alan and pressed a button his chair. The view on the screen panned over from the Ark to another object in the empty, black space around them. There, Alan saw what looked to be an enormous spiral galaxy with a glowing bar at the central bulge. Telek sat in his chair.

"I'd say you ain't goin' anywhere," he said. "We are currently 65 thousand light-years into pretty much bum-fucked-empty space. Two to the eighteenth light-years from galactic centre. Nothing but vacuum separating us, the Ark, and the Milky Way Galaxy. So, I'm sure I can trust that you will help in the search."

"We're not your prisoners," said Alan.

"Of course not," said Telek. "If you were, your home would be the brig."

"We want to help you find Kiryuu," said Alan. "That's why we're here."

"Well, get in your little ship," Telek began. "And start helping us search. However, if you do find the Dawn, let me know. I want to bring it on board so we can quickly interface with Cortana and hopefully revive John and Kiryuu. Then, I can finally end this crazy quest. Though, I'm not so sure if I could ever go home."

"That makes two of us," Alan said quietly. Even if Kiryuu was found, Alan doubted that Telek would let him go after the trouble he caused on Illium.

He and the rest of the crew worked their way back down to the hangar, and within minutes had boarded the Serenity. Now that he was back on the ship that had served him so well, he no longer felt so anxious. He had a job to do, so they would get on with it. When he went down to the engine room Rachel was already there, and the drive core sprang into life. Seeing that there didn't seem to be anything here that required his attention, he left, though he overheard Rachel say "I missed you too, girl."

The Serenity flew as well as she had before, and Bishop was soon smoothly guiding her out of the hangar. The spectacular sight of the whole Milky Way galaxy awaited them, shining brightly in the void.

"I'm beginning my scans for any UNSC frequencies," Bishop said. "The rest of the fleet is spread out in a wide pattern; I'll find a gap in their search pattern that we can fill."

"Right," said Alan. "Try to keep a fix on their locations too. Remember we have no star charts out here; the last thing I want is for us to get lost."

"Even so, we should search as far as we can," said Bishop. "The destruction of the Ark could have thrown the wreckage a great distance."

Time passed, and as the hours wore on Alan felt waves of doubt washing over him. One by one the other ships slipped out of their scanner range; it was hard to tell just how far they were all travelling. They tried to speed themselves up a little by firing up the old fusion drive, which they had retained when only quick bursts of speed were required, but out here it seemed to make absolutely no difference. Alan was on the point of telling Bishop to turn the ship around and try to relocate the Shadow of Darkness, when a faint blip suddenly appeared on their scanner.

"Captain," Bishop said, "I'm picking up a distress beacon. The frequency matches known UNSC parameters. It's very faint, perhaps as a result of the signal losing strength over time."

"It has to be them," Alistair shrugged. "How many other UNSC ships could have made it out here?"

"Can you get a fix on its position?" Alan asked.

"I can," said Bishop. "It's not far from here; we should have a visual within the next few minutes."

"Take us in closer," said Alan. "Let's make absolutely sure before we go bothering Telek."

They glided in the direction of the beacon, and ten minutes later they saw the source. It was the entire aft section of a UNSC frigate, including the main engines and the cargo bay, floating serenely in the void. The tear which separated this part from the rest was very neat, as if the ship had been slashed neatly in two by a gigantic sword. José had walked onto the bridge to see the ship for himself, and his mouth fell open.

"Caramba..." he breathed. "Telek and the Arbiter must have had a rough ride. They would only have had the retros left to get themselves to Earth!"

"I'm not picking up any active life-signs, Captain," Bishop said. "It looks like they still have power on the vessel though; enough to sustain the cryo-tubes, at least. If there are any survivors on board, they'll be in cryo-stasis."

"Kiryuu had better be on there," Alan muttered. "I really don't want to tell Telek that we've been going the wrong way."

"Hey, there should still be two out of three, right?" Alistair chimed in. "Better than a poke in the eye, if you ask me."

Even with this more optimistic outlook taken into account, Alan still couldn't help but feel a great deal of apprehension as he sat at the co-pilot's console and hailed the Shadow of Darkness.

"Shadow of Darkness, this is Serenity," he said. "We've found them. Repeat, we've found them."

"Excellent," said Telek's voice over the radio. "We'll be heading for your ship in just a little bit. Do not enter that ship. I don't know what sort of damage it has, or what has happened to it during the time it's been out here. I don't want you all to cause any further damage. If Cortana is in there, she won't recognize any of you and if I am correct, in her current state—that is bad. The last thing we need is a rampant AI harming innocents."

"Understood," Alan replied. "We'll sit tight until you get here." As Alan closed the channel, he turned to Bishop. "Did he say what I thought he said? This Cortana isn't a person at all?"

"Your hearing has not suddenly become impaired," replied Bishop. "Artificial Intelligence has come on a long way since you were in cryo-sleep. I myself am an example, and all of the large UNSC frigates have an advanced AI on board. To tell you the truth they have become so advanced that they threaten to outmode androids." Alan thought he saw a flicker of resentment cross Bishop's face. "To my credit, at least I can leave my assigned vessel without needing to be downloaded to someone's commlink."

Alan couldn't help smiling. He never thought he would find himself encountering the concept of machines becoming jealous of each other.

"Why can't we go over to the ship, boss?" José asked. "She looks safe enough."

"Hasn't your time on board Serenity taught you anything?" Alan retorted. "Appearances can be deceptive. We don't know what sort of state the integrity is in; I'd rather not risk it collapsing and taking any of you guys with it."

"But if we just took a little peek..." José began, but Alan cut him off.

"No," he said firmly. "Besides, even if it is safe, I don't want you giving Telek an excuse to toss you in the brig, or worse. We'll do a few laps around the ship while we wait though; get a good look at it from every angle."

After several minutes spent flying around the ship and examining it from every angle, Bishop concluded that there didn't seem to be anything untoward with the wreck. For all the damage that had been caused he was surprised at just how intact this section of the ship was. Clearly Lofwyr had built these ships to last. Eventually they found themselves peering right into the cut-off section of the ship. It was a bizarre sight, as if they were looking at a set of very detailed blueprints.

"Is there any way we can get a good look inside?" asked Alan. "Without having to go out there, I mean."

"We could try sweeping the floodlights in there," said Alistair. "They're supposed to be for night landings, but we hardly use the things these days."

Alan nodded, and Alistair began manipulating controls on the co-pilot's console. Two spots of light began to sweep around the cross-section, peering into every silent deck. Bishop moved the Serenity around to get a better look. However, at this distance it was too difficult to see anything clearly. On one deck Alan thought he saw the shadow of a figure cast onto the back wall, but decided that it could just as easily have been a trick of the light.

"Captain," Bishop suddenly said. "I'm getting an inbound ship on the scanners. I think it's the Shadow of Darkness. They're hailing us."

"Let them through," said Alan.

"Serenity," Joli's voice said over the radio, "take your ship clear. We'll attempt to tow the wreck into the hangar using our gravity lift."

"Roger that," Alan replied. "We can't find anything to suggest compromised hull integrity, but be careful all the same. Getting split in two's bound to have weakened it."

Moments later the Serenity glided clear of the sad remains, and the crew watched it being enveloped in a soft violet light. Slowly the wreckage moved towards the gaping hole which lead into the cavernous hangar, finally coming gently to rest on the floor. When it was safe for them to do so, Bishop followed the remains back into the hangar and landed smoothly on the floor. The crew stepped out to get a good look at their find. Now that they were so close to it, Alan saw just how large even this section of the ship was, though even if it was whole he was sure that it would still look absolutely tiny in comparison to the Shadow of Darkness.

Immediately, Telek had made his way to the hangar. He paused when he finally saw the severed aft end of the Forward Until Dawn resting in the centre of his hangar. The Serenity crew had already stepped out of their ship. Telek held up a gloved hand, signalling that they should not approach it. He took in a sniff of the air, making sure that the Flood was not around. So far, so good, no Flood.

"Alright, let's go," he called to his Sangheili warriors. "Make your way into the cargo bay and into the cryo-bay. Hopefully all three of them will be intact."

Swiftly, the Sangheili began to crawl into the cargo bay of the UNSC frigate. Telek followed after them, holding up a light as he went, winding himself in and out of fallen debris inside the ship itself. What seemed almost an eternity, the Sangheili finally came across the cryo-bay and a single cryo-tube was lit. Frost still covered the class casing. Telek gasped, his brow furrowed when he saw the tube. He pushed some of his Major Domos and Minors out of the way, coming to stop next to the tube itself. He glanced around, but found no sign of Kiryuu Knight.

"The President isn't here," he heard one of his Majors say.

"Search the frigate!" Telek barked. "Everywhere. Leave no stone unturned. Find him!" He finally turned to a holotank in front of the tube itself. "Cortana. Cortana, answer me. Cortana!"

The holographic image female human form flickered on over the holotank. She was kneeling down and she slowly lifted her head up. Her eyes widened with shock and disbelief when she saw Telek slowly lower himself to her.

"A—Admiral?" she asked. "Telek?"

"Hey, princess," Telek said with a smile. "You didn't think I'd come back for you, did you?"

"You—came all this—way?" Cortana asked. "How—how did you…"

"I voided the warranty on my damned ship," he replied. "Had Swifty upgrade the fuck outta the engines. But it doesn't matter. I'm here, you're here. The Chief's here. Where's Kiryuu?"

"He—I—don't…" Cortana curled up. "He—left. Something…I called out to him. I screamed! He left me—alone."

"Something took him?" Telek asked. "Who?"

"Something—gold—three heads…" Cortana replied.

"Gravemind?" Telek asked.

"I think," she replied. "I—I thought it was a nightmare. I'm having nightmares!"

"Easy!" Telek called. "Easy, sugarplum. Are you well?"

"No," she replied. "After—all this time. After spending time—in the Core at Halo 04 and what Gravemind did—to me. I…"

"It's okay," he said. "You don't have to say. How's the Chief?"

"Still alive," Cortana replied.

Telek walked over to the tube and inspected it. He noticed some parts of the tube were damaged and he was afraid to even attempt to remove the Spartan from his sleeping chamber without properly repairing the tube.

"Okay," he said. Telek pulled out a data crystal and lowered it to Cortana. "You're gonna stay with me until we fix the Chief. Okay?"

"Yes," Cortana replied, nodding. She vanished and her conscious was transferred over into the chip. Telek opened a slot in his own armour and slid the chip in. For the first time a UNSC AI interfaced with a Sangheili's armour.

"How's it feel in there?" Telek asked.

"Alien," Cortana replied. "But—I'm not alone."

"Don't worry, pumpkin, I'll take care of yah," he said. "Okay, all of you, disengage the cryo-tube, keep the auxiliary power going for the tube, and move it to the infirmary. Swiftly, I want you to report to Doc Erin at the infirmary to help in repairing the tube and then resuscitating the Chief."

He heard a whistle for a reply. Telek and his warriors filed out of the frigate. Right behind him, some of the Sangheili were starting to detach the cryo-tube and carry it out of the hole. He walked over to Alan and his crew.

"Kiryuu was not inside," he said. "He was nowhere to be found. Cortana said he was taken by Gravemind—of all the bastards in this universe."

"Son of a bitch!" Alan snarled, at no-one in-particular. He ran a claw through his hair and shook his head, pacing feverishly. "I knew it was too good to be true!"

"Well, looking on the bright side," said Rachel meekly, "we got two outta three. That's better than a kick in the teeth."

"That's what I said, more or less," Alistair muttered.

"Admiral," Cortana began. "Who—who are they?"

"Cortana, this is Alan Tyler, Captain of the Firefly-class transport ship the Serenity," said Telek. "And his crew. They are—acquaintances at the moment, helping us in finding you, the Chief and Kiryuu."

"How—how do they know Kiryuu?" Cortana asked.

"That's a little hard to explain, sugar," said Telek. "And in your condition, I don't want you to fret on it too much. You just take it easy." He turned his attention to Alan. "Cortana is currently in a data chip inside my armour, if you are wondering. However, her time interfacing with the Forerunner technology of Halo and also being tortured by King Ghidorah seem to have sped up her life. In other words—she's dying. I kinda had a feeling that was happening to her when the Chief got her out of High Charity. UNSC smart AIs only have a lifespan of 7 years. After that, they fail. I can see if Swifty can do something for her, but the only real person who might have a chance of saving her is Kiryuu Knight. All smart AIs were built on the schematics of Kiryuu's own AI. So, finding Kiryuu is not only an important factor for me, but it could very well save Cortana—give her back those 5 years that King Ghidorah took." He turned back to the cryo-tube being hauled up a ramp. "And that is Master Chief Petty-Officer John-117. He's a hero, a big hero. From what I heard, Alan, you already know what a Spartan is."

"Yeah," said Alan. "One was sent with Cujo and I when we went to Chicago. Nice lass called Nicole. I wonder what she's doing these days."

"Well, John is another Spartan," said Telek. "He's the quiet type, though, he doesn't like to say anything much. If he says something, it's usually one or two words. Cortana mostly does the talking for him when she's interfaced with his armour. And he practically lives in that armour. So, you probably will never see his face. Hell, I've never seen his face. I heard he's a blonde, though. I don't know. We don't want to take him out of the tube just yet. If we do that, we might harm him, or even kill him. So, probably for most of the ride back to our galaxy, we'll keep the Chief in his tube. I don't know how long it will take for us to get it working properly so we can revive him. I just hope he ain't brain-dead. Lord Hood will have my ass if he is." He placed a hand on his chest. "For now, Cortana will remain with me. Cortana, do you know where King Ghidorah took Kiryuu?"

"No—no," Cortana replied, her voice almost becoming a horrified whisper. "I—I don't."

"Just rest, princess," said Telek. "You don't need to think anymore about if you don't want to."

"Y—yes, sir," she said.

Telek sighed: "Trust me, she wasn't like this before. King Ghidorah did a number on her."

"A—Admiral, it's good—to hear a friendly—voice again," she whispered.

"It's good to hear your voice too, sweetie," said Telek with a soft smile.

Alan had a claw held up to his chin. He had expected something like this, but after all this trouble he was sure that Telek would not want to hear what he had to say.

"Do you wanna tell the puto, boss, or should I?" José suddenly said, peering at Alan.

"Tell me what?" snarled Telek, now glaring at Alan with narrowed eyes. Alan threw a similarly frosty glare back at José before addressing Telek.

"I wanted to tell you before we set out for the Ark," he said. "We didn't know for certain until now, but we think we know where Gravemind's taken Kiryuu."

"Oh no..." Rachel sighed, remembering what they had discussed after leaving the Halo. "You don't mean..."

"I'm afraid so," Alan said gravely. "We've got to go back to Pandora."

"How d'ya figure that?" said Telek sceptically. He remembered his conversation with Rachel and Bishop and that somewhere named 'Pandora' had been mentioned.

"Remember what Gravemind said on the Halo?" Alan asked. "'Three seats but one bare'... This is what he was talking about! He also said 'I know one of you does not wish to again dirty his socks, but be careful when you come across Pandora's Box'. He was talking about me! He knew I'd been to Pandora, and that's where he's stashed Kiryuu! I can't think what else it might be!"

"Bullshit," snorted Telek. "It's too obvious."

"That's what I thought as well,' said Alan. 'Maybe that's the point though. He's got something waiting for us on Pandora that involves Kiryuu, and he wants us to find it. He wants us to fly straight into whatever trap he's got set up. I know it's hard to believe, but I'm sure that's how it is." Alan paused here, pacing again. He knew that Gravemind had pointed them towards such an obvious trap, but he couldn't see how avoiding it was going to help Kiryuu.

"Admiral, it could be a Flood trap," said Cortana.

Telek growled and folded his arms in thought: "I hate King Ghidorah."

"The feeling is mutual, mate," said Alan.

"Cortana, we have no choice," said Telek. "We have to save Kiryuu. I'd be wasting my time being all the way out here if I didn't get Kiryuu too. Better to die at the claws of King Ghidorah than wasting away at a penal mining coloney."

"Penal mining coloney?" Cortana asked. "You've gone rogue again?"

"Yup," he said. "I have. I guess it is selfish, wanting to put my life and the lives of my warriors on the line to save you, the Chief, and Kiryuu. But—I did give them all a chance to leave and I would go on alone. You know what they said? They said they wanted to come."

"Thanks, Admiral," she said. "But you shouldn't have."

"Well, I knew you'd miss me if I didn't," Telek said with a smile. "Alright. I'm afraid I have never been to this Pandora. I heard it was a mining coloney for the UNSC before the UNSC/Covenant War."

"Correct," replied Cortana. "The resource that was found by Omak Technologies and Magical Research was a substance called Unobtanium. Soñador Malcho was ordered to mine and process the mineral for the Insurrection Civil War—the war that happened prior to the first contact with the Covenant. However, mining was slowed due to the indigenous aboriginal species known as the Na'vi. And then mining stopped completely. It was never reported to ONI as to why. It seemed Malcho kept some information from the UNSC."

"We know why," said Alan.

"Sí," said José. "That idiota Jake Sully. A Marine who betrayed us and helped the Na'vi chase off the miners over 30 years ago."

"I see," said Telek as he started swiftly for his bridge. "You can fill me in on the way."

"You got it," said Alan, as he and the crew ran to catch up.

"Captain," said Bishop, "if Cortana will allow me, I may be able to make some modifications that will increase her lifespan slightly. I have experience in interfacing with ship AIs, and while I'll never be able to permanently restore her, I believe I can give her some more time."

"If she doesn't have a problem with it, I don't," Alan said. "Make sure you ask though."

"Pandora..." José snarled. "I can't believe we're flying back to that shit-hole."

"Yeah," said Alan with a sly grin. "The Na'vi won't be happy."