Chapter Eight: Transgression
UNSC Soberg, in slipspace en route to Earth
October 10, 2552
0100 hours, recalibrated military time
A re-purposed ONI stealth ship, the Soberg was not built for comfort. With two cabins and four bunks between them, the six people on board had taken to sleeping in shifts, and with its slipspace drive partially disabled, power consumption on the ship had to be reduced to a minimum over the course of the return trip. The crew of the Soberg had been very accommodating to their new guests, going so far as to synchronize the interior lights with the time zone they had been accustomed to. But it was not jet lag that kept Maria Cortez awake.
You're out, she reminded herself. Just four more days to Earth.
Earth. She closed her eyes and tried to picture an open blue sky over her head and solid earth beneath her feet, but the image would not come. The claustrophobic accommodations on board the Soberg were little different than the Hall of the Mountain King had been, and the oxygen recirculator in the ship's life support systems sounded just as decrepit. When she closed her eyes, the illusion was complete. Sitting up, the private looked out the tiny viewport in the wall and immediately regretted it. The viewport betrayed no sign of a universe beyond the ship. No stars shone in the blackness. There was only the infinite emptiness of slipstream space. It looked like a wall pressing against the ship from all sides, imprisoning them.
A sudden noise overhead snapped her back to reality. On the upper bunk, Dr. Korpijaakko let out a loud snore at irregular intervals. He seemed to have no trouble sleeping at all. Shaking her head in frustration, she pressed a hand against her right temple. The dull throb which had been there since the day before was growing stronger. She had to get out of this ship. But it would have to wait.
"Four more days," she muttered, standing up.
The corridor outside her shared cabin ran the entire length of the ship. It was shorter than the hallway which had been outside of her old apartment. At one end, Miranda Keyes and Jason Morelli were in the bridge. Though the door was half-closed, Maria could see that he had placed a comforting hand on his commander's shoulder, and although her head was down, the Keyes was gripping the corporal's other hand tightly. Maria had gathered that Miranda had received some very bad news shortly before they met, but had the good sense not to ask about it. It came as a surprise to see this degree of intimacy between them, but strangely, it made Maria feel that much more alone. Not wishing to disturb them, she quickly shuffled off in the other direction.
A short climb up a ladder delivered her to the ship's tiny galley. She felt a sudden searing pain in her temple as the motion-activated lights dazzled her, and was quick to dial them down. After dry-swallowing two painkillers, Maria Cortez had to feel her way out of the tiny galley to keep from knocking things over. But as she was about to return to her quarters, she recognized a dim light coming down the hall. The door of Murdock's shared cabin was partly open. Standing in the darkness of the hallway, Cortez cautiously looked through the door to see Murdock staring at the tiny framed photo of Corporal Morelli's wife and son.
"I can't see her," he said without turning.
Cortez wordlessly entered the room and sat on the cot beside him.
"We fought the last time we spoke to each other," he continued. "The last time we spoke in person. Now I can't remember her face. When I think of what happened... I don't know how I could have dismissed her like that. Now it's too late to take it back."
Murdock gently set the photograph back on the shelf and folded his hands, looking wistfully at his wristwatch.
"I had promised her that my last assignment would be the end of it," he continued. "Working on Earth. We were apart for so long... it was dangerous business and she knew it, even if I could never tell her what I did. She always asked me what drew me back there... and I still don't have a good answer."
"Why did you do it?" Cortez asked.
"I thought I was making a difference," Murdock said. "Working for Section Zero. I thought I was making a difference for the war. But all of it... all of our little games... none of it could save Coral. I told her that I loved her... and I gave her up for them."
Cortez took his hand.
"The game isn't over," he said, facing her. "It's never going to stop. A world is dead now because of them. They can't have that exposed. As long as we're alive, they will never stop hunting us."
As he spoke, her expression changed from one of sympathy to a sadness so deep that he wanted to look away. It was finally hitting her that, after all they had been through, even now there would be no going home. Her family, whom he would never meet, could not even be informed that she was still alive. Was this the freedom they had attained? With a pang of guilt, Murdock tried to pull his hand away, but Cortez gripped it tightly, wiping an eye with her other hand and taking a breath before responding.
"Then I suppose it's for the best that we're not," she said.
Murdock nodded, resisting the tears that now fought for his eyes. Cortez pressed tight against him and he wrapped an arm around her, staring blindly at the wall as they gently rocked together in the dim light. He cried, and she cried with him. They held each other for a long time.
# # # # # # #
Undisclosed Location
Undisclosed System
October 22, 2552
Hearing footsteps echoing down the hall, two ODSTs standing guard at the door snapped a quick salute to a man who approached alone. The colonel presented his identification to one of the men as the other stood by warily with an MA7B assault rifle. Nodding, the first ODST raised a small red light and flashed it in the colonel's eyes. The colonel did not blink.
The ODST glanced at the readout and nodded.
"You're cleared. Welcome back, sir."
Tapping a key card against a titanium-encased scanner which seemed quite out of place, the housing opened to reveal a holographic control panel encased within it. The ODST triggered the controls, and after a few seconds the door between the two armor-clad soldiers opened, and the colonel stepped through. Stopping in the center of the octagon-shaped platform, the colonel touched another hologram and the door sealed shut behind him.
The elevator shaft flew by at a dizzying rate, polished blue walls decorated with intricate geometric patterns. The man on the platform straightened the collar of his black dress uniform as the floating platform slowly drifted to a stop on a wave of inverted gravity. Glancing briefly up the octagonal shaft into the far-off darkness, the colonel stepped out onto the deck. Tapping his identity card against another scanner, he waved a hand through the hologram it opened to reveal, and the door hissed open to reveal the chamber beyond.
Fully forty meters in diameter, the massive room was filled by a photo-realistic hologram of the milky way galaxy. Beneath the hologram, a deep shaft sank away into darkness, with a single bridge forged of pure light reaching from the edge of the room towards an ominous holographic control beneath the galactic center. Among the simulated stars and noble gasses, alien runes highlighted seven locations; one of them accompanied by flashing red text. Pausing only briefly to take in the spectacle, the colonel quickly made way to the other side of the room, passing several more labs and checkpoints before coming to a stop before the metal door of his own office. Sliding his card through the scanner, the colonel entered the room, visibly flinching upon recognizing the man who was seated behind his desk.
"Sir," he said.
"Ah, hello James." The Admiral typed a command, and the tire-shaped object projected by the holoframe monitor on the desk shrunk to a point and vanished. Ackerson dusted the front of his uniform in a quick sweep and cleared his throat before speaking.
"You came in person, sir?" the colonel asked.
"I thought I would take this opportunity to observe your operation for myself," the Admiral replied. "I must say, I like what you've done with the place."
"Then my operation is meeting your expectations?"
"Of course, colonel. Your reputation was no mistake."
"And from what I know of yours, sir," Ackerson said, "I know that you do not travel lightly."
At that, the admiral's smile quickly dropped. Setting down his coffee, he retrieved a brown folder stamped 'Classified' from his portfolio and placed it on the desk before the colonel. Ackerson made no move for it.
The admiral folded his hands. "Sit," he ordered.
# # # # # # #
October 10, 2552
0500 hours, recalibrated military time
With the audible snap of a breaker, the lights turned on full. Cortez opened her eyes to find herself alone in her cabin. She could not remember how or when she got there. Sitting up in the bunk, she glanced through bleary eyes at a collection of gauges and indicators mounted on the opposite wall. Some of the amber lights had turned green since last she saw them. It took her a moment to remember that, with the limited space on the Soberg, she had been quartered in Grisham's cabin. The engineer must have been hard at work while the rest of them slept.
Standing barefoot on the cold metal deck, Cortez pressed a button and the cabin door hissed into the wall. The familiar hum of the slipspace drive had cut out, and as she approached the bridge, Cortez could see welcome stars through the glassteel canopy of the bridge-slash-cockpit. Lieutenant Commander Keyes sat in the pilot's chair, with Joshua looking over her shoulder at the controls. He turned as she approached and nodded curtly, but said nothing.
"Hey," Cortez said, stepping through the door. Looking at the canvas of stars outside, it was immediately clear that they were not in the Sol system. Beyond the glassteel canopy, a red giant star the size of a grapefruit held at arm's length painted the console before Keyes a dull red. "Where are we?"
"Neutral territory. Outside UNSC space." Keyes glanced at the private over her shoulder. "Lieutenant Murdock and I agreed that it would be best to lose the Covenant dropship in our hold before returning home."
"There was speculation that the Covenant may have found Reach by tagging one of our ships at Sigma Octanus and letting us lead them to it," Murdock said. "There's no telling what kind of tracking technology they might have built into one of their own craft."
Cortez nodded, still gazing through the canopy. The red giant's corona hung around it like a cloud, staining the surrounding space into a muddy haze. "Barbecue?"
"Maybe, if we knew how to operate the dropship's autopilot," Murdock said, his face bathed in an unsettling shade of red. "We'll have to settle for something more thorough. Once Wally is done repairing the primary capacitor for the slipspace drive, we'll jump back in and dump the dropship there, then jump back into normal space. Once our slipspace envelope collapses and the dropship passes out it, the mass of the dropship - and everything on it - will be converted to energy. In realspace, we won't feel a thing. It will make a detectable pulse in slipspace, but we'll be long gone before the Covenant can nail down a location."
"Have we been set back much?"
"No more than two days," Murdock finished. He turned to Keyes. "Are we done here, ma'am?"
"Yes, Lieutenant. Dismissed."
Murdock stepped past Cortez on his way out of the cockpit. "Private," he said.
Watching him leave, Cortez was unsettled. After what they had gone through, and after he had confided in her last night, she would have thought he would address her by name and not as a subordinate. It was then that she realized he had given her a veiled command. Turning once more, the private excused herself from the bridge as well and followed the lieutenant down the empty corridor to the galley.
# # # # # # #
It did not take long to prepare the dropship for its final voyage. Manipulating the small, holographic cube in her hand, Cortez started the ship into a lazy drift backwards through the open hangar bay. Through the viewport in front of her, bands of unknowable energy could be seen passing between the two troop bays. A massive pair of dents marred the wall of the hangar bay where she had not-so-gently brought the dropship in for a landing a few days earlier. Though embarrassing, Wally had assured them that the wall was still spaceworthy, and it needed to be - the bay was depressurized.
Clad in his ODST armor, Esko stood calmly by the massive ship, not four feet from the edge of the open bay door. Beyond it was the black nothingness of slipspace, from which no rescue would be possible. Watching the ship slip by, he waved as it crossed the threshold. Cortez quickly touched a holographic rune to her left, and the wall gave way as the cockpit opened. Pushing herself out, she reached out and took hold Esko's gloved hand, gently lifting him off the deck in the null gravity as the dropship slid past them into the inky void. The tether clipped to Esko's suit went taut and pulled them gently back into the bay, while the dropship faded from view as quickly as it passed out of the ship's exterior lights. With shocking speed, the hangar doors slammed shut, and the lights flashed from red to yellow. The artificial gravity reactivated, tugging them to the deck in a jarring impact.
"It's done, folks," came Wally's voice over their radios. "Nice work."
Wordlessly, Maria reached behind Esko and unclipped the safety tether from him.
"Thanks," he said, his voice marred by static.
"No, thank you," she replied, glancing back at the sealed bay doors. Wrapping the tether into a coil around her arm, Cortez walked towards the storage locker it had come from as the doctor turned his attention to the pressure indicator.
"Private," he said, "I have been meaning to ask. How did you ever learn to fly a Covenant dropship?"
Not facing him, Maria raised her head. "There's not so much to it as you'd think. There was a man back on Coral who told us the basics. An ONI man, back at the dig site. Travis Schnaidt." The loops of the tether fit neatly on the hook in the locker. "He wasn't the only spook there, mind you, but he grew closest to the guard detail. He associated with us more than the others. Shared stories. Not a bad poker player, either. He was with us when 'Yerumee's party landed; he fought alongside us when we captured them. And when the Covenant arrived, he was the one who sent me away. He died there, after making sure that nothing the science team had learned would fall into enemy hands."
At last, she turned. "It's funny, now that I think of it. You know that out of all the people in that camp... you were the only one Schnaidt told me to retrieve."
His attention fixed on the pressure indicator, Esko began to say something, but stopped himself short. His mouth hung open for a moment as realization hit; searching for an answer, searching for an excuse, but he knew it was too late. It was already written in her tone that the jig was up. Sighing and shaking his head, Esko turned to face her again, surprised to find the hint of a smile on her face.
"When did you know?" he asked.
"For certain? When you knew the code to get yourself into that lockdown lab."
"There was that." A smile briefly crossed Esko's face. Such knowledge was not exactly privy to an outsider. A stupid move on his part. The humor of it was quickly lost on Maria, and Esko's own quickly gave way to somber realization.
"I'll take it as a courtesy that you didn't tell him?" he said.
"I couldn't do that to Joshua after what's happened," Cortez replied.
"I understand," Esko said.
"You really don't. And neither do I."
"Fair to say."
"Two days ago, we destroyed an entire enemy flotilla," she continued. "Nine Covenant warships. Nine of them. We could have easily lost thirty ships in a conventional exchange, but we did it bloodlessly with a single pulse from that crystal."
"That's right."
Turning her back, she quickly retrieved something from the locker. Esko stared deeply into the strange light the crystal emitted, and the curious tesseract it contained. The deck shifted slightly underfoot as the Soberg exited slipspace, and Esko glanced at the closed hangar bay doors with new understanding.
"Why the change of heart?" Esko asked. "He was the one who wanted us to go back for it in the first place."
"He thinks now that the Covenant will track the crystal to Earth, the same way they found Coral," Maria said. "Joshua wanted me to destroy it, and after what's happened, I can't fault him for that. He blames you now for what happened. He blames Section Zero. But he's is too close to Coral to look at this objectively. As I see it, it's almost certain at this stage in the game that the Covenant is going to find Earth, no matter what we do. Earth is all we've got left, and this may be our only real chance to protect it." Her eyes narrowed. "I know what's in store for me upon our return, given what I've seen. Given what I know. But I've made my decision. There is nothing more important right now than that crystal. Even us."
She placed the crystal in his hands. After a moment's thought, Esko nodded and turned towards the corridor leading to the cockpit, where Murdock was. "Neither of you need to worry about that, from my agency at least. We know our own," he turned to her, "and we need all of the good soldiers we can get."
The private nodded. Though she was visibly relieved, Esko still saw wariness in her, and for good reason. "Colonel Ackerson may be another story," he continued.
"I might have ventured a guess," Cortez said immediately. "Why were you working with him?"
"You do not need to know the full history behind the work our agency does," Esko said.
"I don't expect it."
"But, suffice to say, certain Section III weapons programs have developmental steps which cannot be conducted within the bounds of UNSC law. Special exemptions can be made to let their work go forward. These exempt programs still require oversight, though, and we sometimes act as moles to make sure they do not overstep the bounds we created for them. It's a dirty business, but when faced with extinction, we're left with little choice. It's a fine line we walk."
"So you're 'Coalminer?'"
"I was a part of the chain. The Applebee was ultimately meant to deliver the sample. But having learned what the Flood is capable of, I think, once my superiors learn of this, the colonel will find himself in some difficulty."
"And what about us?"
"That depends on you. So long as you keep quiet about what you have seen, my agency will do what it can to protect you," Esko said. "I would guess by now that you and... Joshua, have realized the need to conceal your identities. Whoever you decide to become, we have the means to make it happen. Birth certificates, tax records... we can dust your trail in places you thought it never existed. Neither of you will even know it's happening, but we'll be there. It's all a matter of what you choose to do."
"I'm staying with the corps," Maria said.
"I'm happy to hear it."
"But I'll want a promotion. After all this, I figure I at least deserve a pay raise."
"You certainly do," Esko grinned. "I'll see what we can do about that."
# # # # # # #
Colonel James Ackerson read the first three pages of the report impassively while the admiral waited. He read them faster than he let on, trying to give himself time to think. The cover sheet had said that the report was written by the interrogator that Section Zero had openly dispatched to the Hall of the Mountain King, but Ackerson knew better. Station Director Miyagi would have reported it if the interrogator had discovered the Flood. This report described the parasite in full, grisly detail, confirming something the colonel had already expected - there had been a mole in the Hall of the Mountain King. What Ackerson did not know was if the Admiral knew that he knew it.
At last, the colonel closed the report and wordlessly slid it back across the desk.
"When we entered into this arrangement, you said that certain biological samples would play a key role in advancing your program," the Admiral said. "You shared information with us about the nature of these samples. This account paints a far darker picture of this organism than your report did. James, what the hell have you dug up?"
"I said I needed samples, sir," the colonel replied. "That is all. I'm fully aware of the risks. My science team does not need a living specimen to complete our research, and I did not intend to retrieve one. This report your agent submitted presents an absolute worst-case scenario - frankly, sir, it's irresponsible, and I would have expected better from one of your own."
"The point, James, is that we entered this arrangement on the condition that you would keep every facet of your operation open to my scrutiny."
"Yes sir, Admiral," Ackerson said. "But surely this single breach of protocol would not warrant-"
"No, of course. Your program has value, James. That is the only reason I permitted it in the first place. It is another question entirely if you should be permitted to continue to run it, however."
Every muscle in the colonel's face tightened, as if he had been punched in the gut. "Sir?"
"Calm down, James," the Admiral said. "I'm not taking King Under the Mountain away from you. But in the future, I will still expect you to abide by the terms of our agreement, and maintain transparency. You have full operational knowledge of the proceedings here, and I know for a fact that there is not enough time to train a replacement. The Navy needs results now, and you will have to be the one to give them to us. Now, I understand that the Hall of the Mountain King was a total loss. These samples were lost with the facility. So the question is, can your program survive this?"
"I have already located an alternative source for the samples I need," Ackerson quickly answered, "and arrangements have been made to retrieve them. General Strauss is in charge of the specifics. As for the original sample, its loss set us back by several weeks, but we have progressed as scheduled in all other areas. I don't plan to let this slow us down. We will be ready for deployment in two months."
"Good," the Admiral said. "I will be staying in this facility for the time being. I expect to see these samples firsthand when you retrieve them."
A set-up, then, Ackerson thought with disgust. That was the purpose of the entire meeting. Now there would be moles in his operation here, as well. Against his better judgment, the colonel spoke once more.
"You mean you did not receive a sufficient description of this organism from your source?"
"Lieutenant Murdock is not available for questioning, colonel. He died with the rest of the facility's staff when the Covenant glassed the planet."
"Pardon my saying so, sir, but come off it already! You know, and I know, and you know that I know that a radio beacon deployment vessel made an unscheduled return from deep space six days ago, carrying survivors from the Coral facility. We have a leak. Two of them, as I understand it."
The admiral folded his hands, seemingly unfazed by the revelation that Ackerson had known. "The man you speak of is a valuable asset, Colonel. These days, such men are rare."
"Yes, yes," the colonel interrupted. "Versed in self-defense, stands up to questioning both casual and coerced, muddled genetic background, working knowledge of half a dozen different languages... this really isn't all that surprising for having grown up in a hellhole like Coral, Admiral. Refuse from every corner of the galaxy is shuttled through there."
The admiral smirked quizzically. The colonel sniffed.
"Well, was," he continued. "You have your sources, Admiral, and I have mine. I will concede that it took a good deal of effort to track him down, what with the way your people bandy identities about. But he has gone under again, and I can't help but be a little suspicious that he may have received... outside help."
Ackerson leaned in and placed his hands on the admiral's desk.
"I'll try to be as straightforward as I can, sir. This man has gone rogue, and poses a threat both to my program and Section III as a whole. I understand your department's aim for neutrality, sir, and I will not force your hand. But if you are unwilling to take action in this matter, then you will have forced mine."
"I believe this discussion is over, James."
Ackerson crossed his arms in frustration. "Well, then, what of the woman? She is no less a threat to this program. She has no security clearance, and has never been under your employ. What do you gain by protecting her?"
Admiral John Clark's expression darkened. "Colonel... you are dismissed."
Author's Note: Though very, very, very overdue, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and this story. Tomb of Glass is meant to serve as a prequel to Halo 3: Collapse - which I will now be returning my focus to - but the events of this chapter in particular will be very important to the rest of Collapse. More on this in chapters to come. Until then, a big thank you to all my readers for your continued feedback and support.
