A/N: Who's ready for Chapter 11?
I can hear you say "Me!", so let's go!
In orbit above the Ark
USS George Hammond
1917 hrs. August 7, 2013
Cam woke up for the third time in the last two days. He had dreamt of being back at Odyssey's chair, in the middle of a battle with the Lucian Alliance. He had succeeded in defeating them, again. But when he opened his eyes, he found himself still in the 302 bay where he and the rest of Hammond's crew were being held as prisoners.
If someone would've told him five years ago that he would be in command of one of Earth's BC-304s, he would have laughed in his face. If anyone would've told him that he would come to love the chair…
He was a fighter pilot, after all. And that had been before stepping through the Stargate for the first time. Even if he had been able to keep SG-1 together for only two years, those years had been the best in his life. There was no way he would have let that rush go for a permanent command position in a ship—especially after what had happened with James Marrick.
And yet, after the first month, he had already grown fond of his position, of the ship, and most importantly, of the crew. His crew. His new family.
To think all of them had been complete strangers the first day he'd aboard! But he had earned their respect ever since, and they had all bonded together after fighting many battles against the Lucian Alliance, defending outposts, striking critical blows and whatnot. Now, he couldn't help but hope they were all fine. Nick, Alice, Jim… just a few names in a long list of names he couldn't bring himself to recall now for fear of getting too emotional. It was neither the right time nor the right place.
He rose from the cold floor and scanned the room, making a quick head count. Every single member of Sam's crew was there. Teal'c was standing guard at the door, paying attention to everything around him, just making sure there were no Sangheili inside. Palmer and the other UNSC fella—a guy by the name of Sullivan—were sitting atop a pair of crates not far away from him.
McKay and Daniel we're still nowhere to be seen. And Sam…
She was sitting on the floor at the far end of the room, resting her back against a stack of missiles, staring at the wall directly in front of her. Cam knew the last few days had been harder for her than for anyone else in that bay, knowing that she had unknowingly harbored a galactic criminal who had seized the opportunity to claim the Hammond, and who had taken Rodney and Daniel away from the rest for reasons no one could comprehend. For all they knew, she had already killed them. That had to weigh heavily on anyone.
Cam walked past several crew members until he was at her side. "Hey, Sam," he said. "You OK?"
Sam raised his eyes to see him; she looked like she'd been crying a lot recently. "Yeah. All things considered."
"Sam…"
"I was… I was just thinking, trying to keep my mind busy. You know, after this, the Apollo and the Sun Tzu will be the only ships in our fleet that haven't been hijacked." She tried to say something else, but she couldn't. Tears started to fall from her eyes, although she tried to contain them.
"Sam, don't feel bad," Cam said, sitting next to her. "She tricked you"
"It's not that!" she replied, already sobbing. "It's just… I've made this same mistake before, several times, and I still can't learn the lesson!"
"Hey, it's not your fault," Cam said, putting his left arm around her, trying to comfort her. "From what I've read, Linea did look like a good person the first time you met her at Hadante, and being tricked by RepliCarter doesn't count. She was you… in a twisted, megalomaniac way, but she was you."
Despite the tears, Sam grinned at this comment. "'RepliCarter'?"
"You didn't know that's what everyone calls her?" Cam asked, and Sam shook her head. "You should! I mean, she appears in official records as 'Replicator Carter', but that name's just too long when someone is trying to relate that story." She raised her eyebrow slightly, and the tears stopped flowing.
"Sam," Cam continued, "people don't talk about your mistakes. They talk about your achievements, your genius—like what you did when you blew up that sun, or when you were able to modify Merlin's device to save an entire town from the Ori, or when you lead the battle against the Pegasus Replicators." Sam began shaking her head, but Cam wouldn't stop. "People would follow you anywhere because of who you are, even if you screw up sometimes. You know why? Because they know you'll find a way to fix it. You always do."
Cam stood slowly. He knew he sometimes sucked at his bedside manners, but he truly hoped his words would encourage Sam just enough. He stood and offered his hand to help Sam rise, and he added, "If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one deceived by Halsey."
"I thought you didn't trust her at all," she replied, accepting his hand to stand.
"Well, I must admit I also wanted to believe she was telling the truth. I almost did by the time she showed her true colors. You see, this team needs someone wary enough to warn the rest about potential dangers, someone to be the voice of common sense from time to time. But we tend to believe in the good will of people because that's just who we are. We're always trying to find the best in them 'cause we don't want to see the evil in our own kind… even when we know we humans have a capacity for such evil. And we can't—we must not—forsake that, or we risk becoming something close to what Halsey is now." Cam noticed Palmer was listening from afar, even if she pretended she wasn't.
And suddenly, a light above one of the panels in the back of the room blinked, accompanied by a SOS beeping originating from inside the wall. Sam and Cam looked at each other; that was a sign that someone had detected their signal and was trying to contact them. They walked to the wall, Sam pushed a small section of it, and it revealed a small touchscreen behind it. It was showing a text message. "Hammond, this is Odyssey. We've picked up your distress beacon, and in compliance with Code HJ-19, we've opened a secure radio channel linked directly with your emergency comm systems. Please, respond."
Sam touched the device a few times, giving the small computer a series of instructions to verify the channel, and once she was satisfied with the result, she inputted a command to activate the nano-camera installed at the top border of the screen so that whoever was at the bridge of Hammond's sister ship would be able to see her. "Odyssey, this is Carter."
Much to Cam's surprise, when the video feed from Odyssey came in, John Sheppard was standing there. "Sam," he said, "it's good to hear you again. You alright?"
"We're good, so far," she replied. "How are things back on Earth?"
"You know, same as usual."
"Sheppard, you sitting on my chair?" Cam asked.
"Relax, Cam Solo. I'm just keeping it warm for ya."
"Thanks. I suppose. You alone, or did you bring more backup?"
"Daedalus is here as well. Now, anyone care to explain me what are we looking at?"
"You mean the giant ship, or the massive artificial world?" Cam said.
"Both, I guess."
"Well, the big, metal starfish is a Furling installation called the Ark. The ship is called Infinity, it is manned by humans from Earth, and long story short, we need you to get help from them."
"What have I missed?" Sheppard said, clearly confused.
"Did Colonel O'Neill brief you on our situation?" Sam asked.
"He told me about your first contact with a rather unnerving woman and her alien minions, but he said nothing about you being in trouble."
"Things have gone sideways," Cam said. "Apparently, we came in contact with the wrong people. Now we need to contact the right people to fix this. And they are aboard that ship."
"Fair enough. What should I tell them?"
"Stand by." Cam walked away from the screen towards Palmer. Swallowing his pride and without a trace of sarcasm, he said, "Alright, Commander Palmer, listen. We obviously had a rough start, and we obviously haven't exactly looked eye to eye since then. But we still need each other to get out of this, so I'll ask nicely. Would you help us?"
Palmer stared at him for a full fifteen seconds before replying, "How can I be of assistance?"
In orbit above the Ark
UNSC Infinity
0233 hrs. October 11, 2558 (Military Calendar)
"How's it going, Roland?"
"Pelican is ready, Captain Lasky," the AI's hologram replied. "The Huragok have made a magnificent job with it. Sensors, on the other hand, are still down, and without those, we still can't carry out our plan."
Not good, Lasky thought, but there was nothing he could do about it. As long as they managed to pull this off in time… "Keep working on it."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Roland answered, and vanished from the bridge. But as Lasky began walking away from the holotable, he reappeared. "Uh, Captain. We're being hailed… on a standard ONI encrypted channel. Audio only."
ONI? Was it possible Earth had sent someone to check in on Infinity's mission progress? Could they provide any kind of assistance? He had to know. "Let's hear it," he told Roland. He didn't expect what he heard when the audio sounded through the speakers.
"This is Infinity Commander Spartan Sarah Palmer, authentication code Sierra-Foxtrot-Alpha-Oh-Seven-Six-Two-Nine-One. Major Sullivan and I are been held prisoners by Catherine Halsey aboard the USS George Hammond, a ship of human origin which has come from a different version of our Earth located in another galaxy. I'm sure you'll find this difficult to understand for the moment, but what really matters is that Halsey and a number of Sangheili have taken this ship and imprisoned its crew along with us. The ship's commander, however, has managed to access its comm systems from our holding area to ask for help. Now, two more ships have arrived to assist them and us, but they need your support and expertise if we are to retake this ship. As soon as this transmission is over, they will contact you. Captain Lasky, I ask of you: trust them in everything they say. Our survival depends on it."
It was just a recording. That sounded as Palmer, alright. And that last phrase carried a slight tone of desperation. But the timing…
"Roland, can you tell if this message is real or a fake?"
"I can, Captain," Roland replied, "and it's quite real. What I can't tell is whether she was being held at gunpoint when she recorded this or not."
"So, you think this could be a trap?"
"I don't know what to think, Captain Lasky. But I don't think we have anything to lose at this point by just listening to these people, have we?"
Lasky thought otherwise, but he was unable to say so, as in that moment a different voice came through the radio channel. "UNSC Infinity, this is Colonel John Sheppard, acting commander of the USS Odyssey. Do you read?"
That was not a recorded message this time. Someone was trying to contact them—someone from the United States, apparently. Was Roland's theory correct? What was he supposed to say?
"UNSC Infinity, this is Colonel John Sheppard of the USS Odyssey. If you can hear us, please respond."
Understanding Roland's idea and accepting it were two different things. Lasky was having a hard time believing some people from another universe had traveled from their Earth to here. This could all be an elaborate ruse from Halsey, something to keep him occupied, or worse. He had to be cautious, no matter how much Roland thought they were not involved in all this. "USS Odyssey," he finally answered, "this is Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC Infinity. May I see the face of the person I'm speaking to?"
He looked at Roland, who nodded when he received the mixed transmission. A nearby screen came alive, and the face of a young man about his age and with a messy hairstyle, standing in the middle of what looked like a ship's bridge teeming with people, appeared before his eyes. "There you go," he said. "Is there any chance we can see you?"
Lasky nodded to Roland. The expression on Colonel Sheppard's face told him the video link had been successful. "You know, I have seen a lot of weird things," Lasky said with just a tiny bit of irony in his voice, "but I had never met people from an alternate version of Earth."
"Trust me. That's not the weirdest thing to see out there," Sheppard replied.
"I don't know. I've seen some pretty crazy stuff in my life. But a bunch of people coming from another universe? That sounds really preposterous."
"Hey, you know it's true, don't you?"
"The fact that Commander Palmer said so doesn't make it real, not under her current condition. I'm leaning more towards the idea of you being insurrectionists allied with Dr. Halsey and the Covenant to destroy us by using some sort of prototype ship stolen from ONI." Lasky looked at Roland out of the corner of his eye; he had frowned at this statement. Obviously, he was wondering what his good Captain was trying to achieve with all this talk.
"OK, you don't trust us. I get that. And if I were in the same position as you, I would have my doubts, too. But right now, you have no choice. Your people and my people are both trapped inside one of our own ships, and the only way to get them back is by working together. So, like it or not, we're both on the same side."
"Are we?" Lasky said. "Tell me something. If your people are trapped inside one of your ships, as you say, wouldn't they know of a way out?"
"They do know of a way out. What they don't know is how to face their captors," Sheppard replied. "But you do."
"True enough. And that is why we will deal with this situation ourselves. We don't need your help."
"I'm not so sure about that," Sheppard said, looking to his right side—possibly out the window. "The way your ship looks from here, I find it hard to believe you have the ability to deal with anything right now."
They could see his ship in detail. They had to be close. "You know nothing about Infinity," Lasky stated.
"I know enough of spaceships to determine whether or not one is damaged," Sheppard replied confidently. "Have you taken a look out your window recently? You should see the amount of debris floating around you, not to mention the large chunk that seems to be missing from the back of your ship."
Roland made a 'they're-right-you-know' face; Lasky didn't acknowledge him. "That doesn't mean we can't board another ship," he said.
"And how exactly will you do that? Do you have a way to find Hammond while it is cloaked? Do you have a way to beam inside it?"
Beam inside…? Lasky was unable to hide the curiosity from his face, but he had to keep talking. "We don't need to explain ourselves to you."
"I'll take that as a 'no'."
"And you do?"
Sheppard shrugged. "As a matter of fact…"
"What are you proposing?" Lasky queried.
"I don't suppose you have some sort of space-capable transport in which to come to our ship for a face-to-face meeting?"
There, he thought. That's her plan—to capture us. "Why would we do that?"
"Because, from what your Commander Palmer told us, you have the people for the job, and we have a way to get them aboard. But it can only be done from one of our ships."
"Care to elaborate?"
"You'll understand once you're here."
Yeah, right. "See, that's the kind of stuff that makes me wary of you. You say you want to help us, but you give no details on whatever it is you're supposedly planning, and now you ask us to fly over to your ship just because? That sounds a lot like you're trying to lure us into a trap." He had just spoken his mind, letting these people know he didn't trust them farther than he could throw them.
"Look, if we wanted to capture you, we would have done so already, and you wouldn't have noticed until after the fact." Sheppard's eyes became fixed on Lasky's after saying this. Lasky held his gaze, trying to show determination, but Sheppard was displaying something else. His was the expression of a truthful man, a man who did not have anything to hide, to such a degree that Lasky was almost swept away by this man's words. But he wouldn't, not yet.
"Fine," Lasky finally said. "We'll go to your ship. But we'll do it our way—with an armed escort. First sign of something going off, they'll start shooting to kill."
"Make sure to bring the best you have," Sheppard said. "We're sending you our coordinates. I'll see you soon." And the video feed died.
Lasky had not noticed he had been holding his breath until now. At last, he turned to see Roland. "I don't like this," he said. "The confidence in that man's voice…"
"Shouldn't that put your mind at ease, Captain?" Roland replied. "Convince you that they're telling the truth?"
"You already seem to trust them," Lasky said, more a question than a statement.
"I wouldn't go that far, yet. There are still many unanswered questions about this people, but I can tell for sure that they're not with Halsey or the Covenant."
Lasky sighed. "I hope you're right. Have Blue Team meet me at Hangar Bay 3, combat-ready, in five. And prep that stealth Pelican. I don't want them or Halsey knowing where we are once we leave Infinity."
"They'll both be ready by the time you get there, Captain Lasky." He began walking out of the bridge when the AI called out behind him, "And, Captain? Good luck."
Lasky stopped and took a moment to reply, "Thanks, Roland. I hope we don't need it."
Holding position near the Ark
USS Odyssey
1950 hrs. August 7, 2013
Sheppard straightened his uniform as much as he could. This wasn't the first time he made first contact with another civilization, human or otherwise, but it was the first time he did so under such circumstances—as commander of a ship—and he wanted to make a good impression. He knew this was only temporary, but still, his comrades' lives were depending on it. And so, as he stood inside Odyssey's port 302 Bay, he did everything he could to ease himself and keep his mind focused on the mission.
His earpiece was linked to the ship's comm systems, so he heard when their guests contacted them. "USS Odyssey, this is Pelican Whiskey-One-Eight carrying Captain Thomas Lasky and his escorts. We've reached the coordinates you provided us. Over."
Someone at the bridge replied, "Heads up, Pelican. We're de-cloaking our ship momentarily. Pay attention to our port hangar bay and correct your course to land accordingly."
"Roger that, Odyssey."
Moments later, the bay doors opened and revealed the vastness of the Furling installation—the Ark. He had imagined the Furlings just at the same level as the Ancients, but this exceeded every expectation he'd had about the long lost species. It was beautiful, and so real. Landmasses, oceans, greenery in several sections of the world suggesting the presence of photosynthesis, and thus a breathable atmosphere. Any race capable of doing this surely had to have been more than worthy of the title of Great Race.
From inside the ship, it was impossible to know when the cloak was dropped or raised, so his only indication that it had already been done was when a considerably large plane suddenly appeared out of thin air near the front end of Odyssey's neck, which in turn told him that its pilot had seen the de-cloaked ship before becoming invisible again. The craft was extremely maneuverable, as demonstrated when it arrived at the middle of the bay and made a 180-degrees turn on its own axis, so to speak. Two landing gears located one at each side of the rear hatch separated from the transport and extended down to the ground, along with a front gear at the front, allowing it to land smoothly.
The hatch opened and lowered, and four gigantic armored figures emerged from the inside. They were quite spectacular; their presence terrifying, their movements fluid, the faceplates in their helmeted heads reflecting the awe in the looks of everyone present, including Sheppard and his team. He calculated the weight of their armors at about a half ton, if they were made of anything other than a Trinium-like material, which meant these people had to have more than enough strength to crush his skull with their bare hands, let alone wear all that metal on their bodies.
The giants made a half-circle at the front of the ramp as another man walked down; then, as the two at the lead walked forward, the other two at the rear closed the circle. Sheppard considered this overprotection, but he knew deep inside he would have done the same had the roles been reverted. He walked towards him, and his team followed.
"Welcome aboard, Captain Lasky," he said, bowing his head slightly but knowing enough not to extend his hand for the moment, not with these gorillas surrounding him. "I'm Colonel Sheppard; these are Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex. Pleased to meet you." Teyla made a head bow much in the same was as him; Ronon just stood there.
"Thank you," Captain Lasky replied. He took a couple of seconds to take in the sight of the fighter bay before saying, "So, what's your plan?"
Straight to business. I can do that, Sheppard thought. "Follow me to the bridge, Captain. I'll let our expert explain."
Captain Lasky frowned but followed him and his companions out of the bay. Sheppard lead them through the scenic route—several flights of stairs—, knowing the elevators would not be able to support the weight of the four armored soldiers. No one said a word on the way there, but once Sheppard stepped inside the bridge and the screen at the left wall was turned on, the captain rushed to it. "Sarah! Sully! Are you OK?" he said to the two people being displayed there.
"We're fine, so far," the woman Mitchell had introduced as Commander Palmer replied, looking past Captain Lasky. "I see you did have Spartan-IIs on board, just as Sullivan told me."
"Long story. I thought I'd never see you two again," the captain said, also looking past Palmer. "Where's Fireteam Hammer?" Palmer shook her head, and Lasky lowered his head. Sheppard knew the feeling of loss all too well to understand what the captain would be going through.
"Captain," he said after several seconds, "I'm sorry about your losses, but we're on the clock here, so let's get in business here to avoid losing anyone else." He extended his palm to the screen, pointing at Sam who was behind Palmer. "This is Colonel Samantha Carter, commander of the USS Hammond, currently imprisoned with her crew and your people."
Lasky seemed confused. "How is she doing this?"
"This is not the first time someone hijacks one of our ships," Sheppard replied. "The last time was over four years ago. After that occasion, Colonel Carter here devised a failsafe to prevent the same situation in the future. Of course, we had no way of knowing they'd be facing a bunch of aliens capable of becoming invisible the next time, so even when they could free themselves…"
"I see," Lasky said in a low voice. "You said there was a way to get someone else inside. How?"
"Our ships are equipped with a transporter system that disintegrates matter and converts it into energy," Sam said. "This energy is then targeted at another point, either in space, in a planet's surface, or inside another ship, where it is again turned into matter and reintegrated. We call it 'beaming'."
"And that is how you intend to take someone to your ship?" Lasky asked.
"Ideally, yes. Unfortunately, for ship-to-ship transportation, the beaming system requires the target destination to have its shields lowered—and in our case, to be de-cloaked."
"But your ship is not de-cloaked. So, how are you planning to get around that?"
"We're not." Sam said, and Laky frowned again.
"This Halsey woman is already aware of our beaming technology," Sheppard broke in. "If she already knows we're here, she will keep that cloak activated to prevent us from boarding the ship. We're counting on that."
And suddenly, the captain seemed to understand. "You have another way in, don't you?"
"A secondary system relying on a fixed device, which is why we don't use it as often. The good news is, all our Daedalus-class ships have it."
"And this system is not affected by the same issues as the other one?"
"It uses a subspace frequency to locate nearby ships possessing the same device, regardless of shields or cloaking," Sam said. "And as far as we know, Halsey hasn't found it yet."
"That's why we asked you to come here," Sheppard explained. "We had to contact you using your comm channels, which Halsey and her… crew may already know how to hack. If we had told you our plan, she would've been made aware of it, and either the Ring Room is crawling with aliens when we send in the cavalry or she disables the rings completely. But now, if she's aware of our presence, she will be expecting us to beam inside, not to ring inside."
Lasky considered it for a moment, and his expression finally softened. "That makes sense."
"Now, what is your plan?" Sheppard asked. "Are you capturing this Dr. Halsey and her people, or killing them?"
Lasky turned to see Palmer at the screen. "As much as I hate to say this," she said, "she's been part of 'Mdama's inner circle. She may know a lot of things."
"What about her Elites?" Lasky asked.
"Usually, I wouldn't care. But from what we can tell, she does seem to have created a close bond with her hinge-head freaks. We could use them as bargaining chips."
"So, you're capturing them," Sheppard concluded. "You got anything to help you knock them out?"
"Not without getting close," one of the armored giants said—a girl, apparently. Sheppard could have sworn she was a man, judging from her appearance.
"Well, we do," he said, and he removed a long-barreled black handgun with red crystals at the front from his right holster. He held it up so that everyone could see it.
"Wait a second," Sam said. "Ronon agreed to lend his gun?"
"Who said this was Ronon's gun?" Sheppard replied with a smile, and he opened a large crate he'd left next to the wall. "Particle magnums, courtesy of our Traveler friends. One for each of your bodyguards. Hell, we have enough in stock to give you one, Captain." He began tossing guns as he kept talking. "You haven't used a real weapon until you've fired one of these suckers. Three different settings: stun, kill, incinerate." He targeted a large block of steel Ronon had helped him place to the left of the bridge entrance, and fired using all three settings in sequence. The third shot left a gaping hole in the block. "Power cell has a limited amount of shots which varies depending on the setting you've selected, but it can be removed and replaced with another fresh, fully charged one—and we've got plenty of those. Hopefully, using the stun setting, you will be able to bring your enemies' shields down in one or two shots and incapacitate them in a third."
"Nice!" Captain Lasky exclaimed as Sheppard handed him one of the guns, almost like a teenager with a new videogame.
"I know. If you boys want to test them further at the armory, get a feel for it, Ronon will take you there. You have about ten minutes before a full mission briefing." The Satedan then moved outside the bridge without saying anther word, and Lasky's soldiers followed.
"See you in ten, Tom," Palmer said, and the screen switched to ship schematics, leaving the captain with a slightly worried expression.
"Don't worry, Captain Lasky," Sheppard said and began walking away. "We'll see them again in a while. Come with me; conference room is this way."
"Wait, Colonel Sheppard?" Lasky said. Sheppard turned to see one Captain Thomas Lasky smiling at him. "Thanks."
"You can thank me once we get your people back," Sheppard replied. "We have a plan, but we still need to carry it out. Let's go."
In orbit above the Ark
USS George Hammond
0500 hrs. October 11, 2558 (Military Calendar)
Soon…
Halsey woke up with this thought in her mind. If her calculations were correct, Luminous Truth would arrive today, at any time.
She rose from the bed and left the commander's quarters. The last couple hours of sleep had helped her clear her thoughts and replenish her strength, but it was hardly enough to compensate for the last few months of hard works and sleep deprivation. The results, however, would be more than worth the sacrifice. She walked until she reached the corridor that led to the Core Room. She had become fairly acquainted with this ship and would hate when the time came to part ways with it. Perhaps she could find a way to take some of it with her, once Dr. McKay was finished with his task.
The humming sound of the Asgard Computer Core was music to Halsey's ears. As she walked into the room where Nal stood guard over the small man, she asked, "Dr. McKay, any progress?"
"Third time you ask, third time I tell you the same thing," McKay replied. "Slow-going, and I cannot make it go any faster."
"You realize I'm on a tight schedule, Doctor?"
"Yes, you've also told me that, thank you. My answer remains the same: this takes time. There is a huge difference between using our Asgard matter converter to create subcutaneous locator chips and chip injectors for you and your crew and using it to create what you're asking for. You have any idea how much power and processing time the Core requires to create each neutronium nanite cell, let alone millions of them? And then, it still has to put them together—"
"Want me to tell you something else, Mr. McKay?" Halsey interrupted and looked at Nal, who grabbed McKay while she ignited her Energy Dagger and put it close to his throat. "I think you're stalling, waiting for Infinity's crew to find a way aboard this ship so they can capture me and rescue you. But I hope you're keeping our agreement in mind."
"Trust me, I don't want the deaths of my friends in my conscience!" he exclaimed with a shaky voice.
"Then maybe I'll enlist Colonel Carter's help after I kill you, to make an example of you."
"I swear I've done all I can to make the Core go faster!"
"Have you, Doctor?" Halsey said, closing the gap between McKay's neck and her blade.
"Believe me, I'm not that brave! You think I don't want to go back home, to my fiancée?! We still have a lot of planning to do for our wedding! The invitation, our honeymoon…" His voice trailed off, carried away by the tears running down his face. The poor guy was quite sincere, but he was also a genius, and Halsey needed that genius to surface now.
"You want to see her again? Make. It. Go. Faster. I know you'll find a way." She deactivated her dagger and walked away, leaving a fearful Dr. Rodney McKay to work on a solution to the time issue. She hoped this threat would be an incentive enough to do so.
As she headed for the brig—the actual brig, not the fighter bay where the rest of the crew was being kept—, she thought of her Elites. Those chips McKay had made two days ago transmitted a signal slightly different than the one transmitted by Hammond's crew's locator beacons and would allow her and her people to leave using the very same transport system that had brought them aboard, no matter where in the ship they were, without taking anyone else with them. Sam and her friends would then be able to reclaim Hammond, and whatever happened afterwards between them and Infinity's crew would be up to them. She found herself tempted every now and then to reconsider taking the ship with her, not just some of its data, but she would immediately discard that option. The last thing she needed right now was more enemies.
Every single Sangheili aboard had submitted to the chip injection without a question, without a doubt. They would do anything she ever asked of them. And she would do whatever it took to keep them safe. She already had done something when she gave the order to attack Infinity, which surely had cost the lives of many UNSC personnel. But deep inside, she hoped it all wouldn't come to a point where she would have to start killing Hammond's crew members to make a point.
Halsey finally reached the brig. Two Sangheili were standing guard outside; even when the one prisoner inside would never have the chance to break out on his own—apparently—, she wouldn't take any chances. One of the guards opened the door, and when Halsey walked inside, she was surprised to see Daniel on the floor, sitting next to his bunk with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. He was already expecting her. "Shall we continue now, Daniel?" she asked.
"Do I have a choice?" Daniel replied without opening his eyes.
"Come on, Daniel. If I wanted to force this on you, I would've."
"I saw you threaten McKay two days ago. Maybe it wasn't meant for me, but I got the message." Despite this statement, his voice was quite calm, serene. He was not afraid at all of her, even after all she had said and done.
"Alright. Then you know what's at stake for you," she replied. The Elites outside closed the door, and she sat down in front of Daniel. "What will you teach me today?" she asked.
"Well, I've already tried to teach you how to meditate, and you've just ignored me," he said, his eyelids still closed.
"I'm a scientist. Surely you understand how difficult it is for me to believe in 'releasing my burden' and all that kind of nonsense."
"It's not nonsense," Daniel said, a tone of annoyance in his voice. "It's a way to free your mind to allow it to reach beyond what it can see and feel and process."
"That sounds like nonsense," Halsey replied, making Daniel exhale hopelessly. "There has to be another way, something a little more objective."
"Ascension is not about objectiveness. It's about having an open mind."
"Everything can be seen from an objective point of view."
"No. Sometimes you just need to take a step of faith."
"Cut the crap!" Halsey exclaimed, standing up and grabbing Daniel by the collar to make him stand as well. She ignited her smaller plasma blade and raised it close to his neck, just like she had done with McKay.
Daniel's reaction, however, was tremendously different. He finally opened his eyes without even budging, and said, "You'd better kill me now. I don't think you can ascend, anyway, so we're just wasting time." Halsey drew the dagger closer to his skin, but she couldn't bring herself to slice it open. "Go ahead, kill me," he insisted. Her hand shook for a moment before turning off the device and releasing him, and she turned her back on him.
What was happening to her? Had it been Sullivan or Palmer, she would have dissected their heads clean from their bodies without hesitation. This man, however… It was as if he had an effect on her. Even back at the Temple, he had made her doubt her most recent actions. Hell, he had made her regret them, something she'd thought she was no longer capable of. She'd been silencing her conscience for a long time now, but being here with him made it resurface every single time.
"Why do you want to reach Ascension?" Daniel asked behind her.
"I've already told you—"
"Yes, you want to know and learn everything. That's quite ambiguous. You must have another reason for this. What is it?"
That is the only reason, Halsey thought for a moment. But no… There was something else. The words left her mouth before she could retain them. "To escape."
"Escape from what?" Daniel insisted.
"All this—this war, this conflict," she replied earnestly as she turned to see him again.
"You want to stop running for good, don't you?" he said. She wouldn't nod or shake her head, but it was quite obvious his question was his answer. "Then why are you holding back?"
"I'm not holding back," she said sharply.
"Yes, you are. Why?"
Damn it. How can you know so much?, she thought. "I don't want to leave my people behind. They are counting on me."
"They trust you," He said matter-of-factly. "You want to learn about Ascension so you can teach them as well, to share with them that knowledge as payment for their giving you the one thing our kind has denied you since you were branded a traitor."
"Since I became a traitor," she stated.
"No, I don't believe that. You may have lied to us in certain things, but I will never believe you willingly became a traitor."
"How can you be so sure?" she said, again turning her back on him. "You know nothing about me."
"I think I've learned enough about you in the last three days. You may be pretending to be a cold-blooded mass murderer, but that's just a façade, just like that armor you're wearing."
"That's not—"
"Why didn't you kill me?" he interrupted her. "Why did you allow me—why did you allow all of us to live? Why did you allow Palmer and the other guy to live, even though she had every intention of killing you before?"
"I needed them," she answered. "And I needed you."
"That's exactly what Palmer said, and I'm still not buying a single word of it."
"I gave the order to attack Infinity. I gave the order to destroy its engines. I killed many people by doing so."
"Why didn't you destroy it? You had the firepower, and don't I know what kind of damage our beam weapons can do. You could have easily obliterated your enemies, yet you allowed them to live—most of them, anyway."
"I allowed them to live so they could know who they're deal—"
"Why do you feel the need to keep lying to me?!" he finally exploded, losing all sense of calmness and serenity. "I'm trying to help you here! I'm-I'm trying to offer you a chance to leave all this behind!"
"Like you said, it's not by choice," she replied without emotion.
"I know what I said, and I know what you said! You think I'm not capable of testing you?"
That made her turn again. "Testing me?"
"If I really believed you are everything Palmer said you are—everything you claim to be—, there would've been no way I'd teach you anything about Ascension! You think I'd like to help a morally corrupted person acquire such a level of understanding and power, allowing it to take the place of the Ori?"
A morally corrupted person… She had been called many things, but those words pierced her soul more than anything else, even when Daniel had not actually called her that.
"Look," Daniel continued, "I know what you may be thinking because I had some of the same thoughts the first time I tried to ascend, but the one who helped me taught me that in order to do it, you have to be honest. You, and only you, are the only one qualified to judge yourself. Not Palmer, not my friends, not even I can do that. If you keep denying what you really are, you'll never achieve the enlightenment you're so desperately searching for. You must believe yourself to be worthy of Ascension."
"Oh, I think I'm more than worthy of it," she replied. "After all I have done and all I've received in return, that is the least I deserve."
"See? This is why you need to be honest! You've grown so used to the lies you even try to lie to yourself, to convince you of things. But you can't bring yourself to, because deep down, you still regret most of what you've done."
"I did what was best for mankind. I did what was best to survive!"
"But you hate having done all of it. And you're still trying to compensate for it." She tried to reply, but she couldn't. "One other thing I learned," Daniel continued, "is that the success or failure of your deeds doesn't add up to the sum of your life—that your spirit can't be weighed. You must judge yourself by the intention of your actions, and by the strength with which you faced the challenges that have stood in your way. Only then will your mind be free."
Before she could say anything else, her HUD displayed an incoming radio link warning. "What is it?" she spoke directly into her mike.
The sound of Zat fire in the background sounder clear through her helmet's comms. "Shipmistress, we've been boarded!"
"What? How?"
"We don't know! They came out of nowhere! They're Spa—!" The link was severed, but she'd heard enough to know who had just boarded the ship.
Spartans.
In orbit above the Ark
USS George Hammond
0530 hrs. October 11, 2558 (Military Calendar)
He had expected a sickening sensation, just like the one caused by Forerunner transit systems. But he felt nothing. There was just a flash when the rings rose around him and his team, and when they moved back inside their platform, he was on board the Hammond. He could tell because the room he had just left was full of people, and the room he was on now was completely empty.
Blue-Two, Blue-Three, and Blue-Four immediately raised their weapons, but seeing no contacts in the vicinity, they lowered them again. He, on the other hand, took advantage of the few seconds of the lull to go over the details of their mission in his head. Odyssey, the ship they had just left, had moved as far away from their other ship, the Daedalus, to avoid locking on their rings instead of these. Now that they were here, both ships would move in close to Infinity to provide cover in case Halsey decided to use her cruiser to attack—in which case, she would get a nasty surprise in the form of two cloaked ships suddenly appearing to counterattack.
He'd found it difficult to accept that her 'mother', the woman who had raised him and prepared him to become the greatest weapon in the war against the Covenant, was now sided with the enemy. But he trusted Captain Lasky enough to believe his report that she had defected to Jul 'Mdama's faction while on Requiem. He knew that their mission to capture her, if successful, would shed more light into the reasons that had led her to do so, and that was why he and his team had volunteered to find her and bring her back.
"Fan out," he said on their private COM. "Secure the room and the hallway. And remember, we're taking prisoners, so keep your guns set to stun."
Three status lights winked on his HUD, and they all stepped away from the platform. Blue-Two and Blue-Three took positions at each side of the door while he and Blue Four raised their particle magnums. He nodded, and Blue-Two pressed the button to open the door.
The hallway was seemingly empty.
"No contacts, Chief. We're clear." Blue-Two reported.
The last time he'd seen him—right before the Covenant's invasion on Earth—, he was still a regular Spartan. But when he had been reunited with them, he learned that he had been promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade. His first reaction had been to salute, but his teammates—his family—did so well before he had any time to react… and for the first time, they broke protocol and hugged him, all at the same time.
That had been a year ago, and John still didn't know how to feel around Fred.
While he knew he was supposed to follow his command, it was Fred who kept telling him that he was still their leader and that they would follow his orders anytime. He had expressed his concern about this to Lord Hood, and the man had presented him with a simple solution: to promote him to a rank above Fred. John refused.
Their lives—his and those of his Fred, Kelly, and Linda—had changed soon afterwards, when Infinity returned from Requiem after their second campaign there. They had suffered several Spartan-IV casualties, and Lasky had requested that any and all remaining Spartan-IIs and IIIs trained the next generation of IVs before they sent them into the field. And up to this day, they had done a superb job with the most recent batch of Spartan-IVs. For that reason, John had no longer cared about who had a greater rank; after all, they had finished their fight, and he had finished his. While the threat remained, they were no longer needed on the front lines. All they had to do now was to pass their legacy to the new generation of protectors of Earth and her colonies.
Until now.
Being back to the Ark had brought up some painful memories, memories of people who had given their lives to prevent the extermination of all life in the galaxy. Commander Keyes… Sergeant Johnson… many others who fought to their dying breath so that billions of sentient beings—human and Covenant alike—would be able to preserve theirs.
Now, their mission was somewhat the same, except for the fact that the enemy was no longer the Prophet of Truth, but Dr. Catherine Halsey.
A blue beam of light passing mere inches away from his head snatched him out of his thoughts. His Spartan senses immediately kicked in, and he turned at a near-lightspeed velocity to the source of the shot to find nothing—not at first sight, anyway. He detected the faint outline of active camo on the far side of the hallway, and before the stealth Elite could discharge his weapon again, he fired his. The red bolt of energy crossed the space between him and the alien in mere fractions of a second, and the Elite's camo, along with his shields, failed. He fired again, and the alien fell unconscious to the ground… only to be replaced by other three.
Blue-Three and Blue-Four moved forward with absolute grace, firing their weapons on the go, and soon enough the new contacts were also down. Then, Blue-Two edged closer to one of the fallen Elites with a handheld bio-signal scanner. "Life signs read stable," he announced. "These guns work perfectly on them."
"Wish we'd had them years ago," Blue-Three—Kelly—said. "Imagine the amount of intel we could have obtained by capturing live Elites!"
"Let's split up," John said, not willing to lose any more time thinking about the past. "Blue-Two and Blue-Three, clear the bridge. Blue-Four, you're with me. We're heading to the 302 Bay. Radio contact every five minutes. Keep your eyes and ears open and your camo engaged."
Their status lights winked. Fred and Kelly then disappeared, and only the faint sound of their steps told him they had left. John and Blue-Four—Linda—also activated their camo modules, obtained from Infinity's S-Deck armories before they had left with Captain Lasky to the Odyssey. They both began walking, barely making noise.
It felt good to be back on the action. It helped him keep his mind busy, away from the pain he kept feeling after his last encounter with the Didact—not a physical pain, but rather an emotional one. The pain of failure.
He had made a promise, and he had been unable to keep it.
He had tried everything to fulfill the other promise he'd made with her—about finding out which one of them was the machine. He was still trying to understand what it was like to be human, not just a killer machine like he had been the last decades. He even thought at some point in the last year to quit everything in order to dedicate himself to that understanding. But he wasn't one to quit, and he wouldn't begin just now. If he was to find out the meaning of Cortana's words, he'd do so while still serving the UNSC.
He kept walking through the maze-like narrow corridors. They'd had some practice back aboard the Odyssey before boarding this ship. The outline was exactly the same, so the short training—and the schematics they had been provided with—gave him an excellent idea as of where to move next. Surprisingly enough, after ten minutes, he and Linda had found not a single Elite, stealth or otherwise.
"Chief, we're on the bridge," Fred reported on their secure COM channel. "We've barely encountered resistance on our way here. How's it going on your end?"
"Nothing yet."
"I don't like it," Kelly commented. "This smells like trap."
John and Linda had just reached a large hallway leading to the 302 bay, and just as he was about to reply, another beam flew towards him, this time grazing his shield and almost causing it to collapse. Several shots followed the first.
"Found 'em!" Linda exclaimed, firing her own weapon.
John made a quick assessment based on the multiple source of the shots. "I'm counting at least two dozen Elites down the hallway!"
The perfect sharpshooter, Linda took the first five down in less than three seconds and overloaded the shields of other ten in five, giving the Chief a chance to finish them off.
Several more beams flew all around them, almost covering every inch of atmosphere all over the corridor. Reinforcements. Then, he noticed on his motion tracker a small cluster of erratic signals behind him. Like lightening, he spun around, detected the slight distortion of light in front of him, and fired his magnum a dozen times, taking down the six Elites who had tried to sneak up behind them.
"Mag change!" Linda exclaimed. John moved back to her and provided cover fire while she replaced her gun's power cell, knocking down another four Elites and depleting his own power cell in the process. He took cover behind a wall just as Linda opened up again. He recharged his weapon, began firing again, and in less than two minutes, they took down the remaining Elites.
"Clear!" Linda announced when the last alien fell and after making sure there were no more contacts on her motion sensor.
They both walked past the unconscious Elites, putting a few more round into some of those who seemed to have a higher-ranking armor to make sure they remained down, and got next to the door. John waited a moment, and he pressed the button at the side of the door, opening it. He moved inside first, weapon at the ready, and Linda followed.
"Oh, thank God!" exclaimed one of the prisoners—a short-sized man with slight overweight and the looks of a scientist. The rest of the crew looked at him and Linda with wonder, except for Commander Palmer and Major Sullivan who simply smiled in relief and nodded at them.
"Where's Dr. Halsey?" John asked.
"She's hiding in the Core Room!" the science guy shrieked.
"Fred, Kelly, hold position on the bridge," John ordered. "Linda, keep these people safe. I'll go get her."
Linda nodded. "Good luck, Chief."
He stepped back into the corridor, turned around, and began running. Soon, he was on a full sprint towards the Core Room. He was halfway there when Linda came in on the COM channel. "Chief, one of the crew members just ran away—a man with glasses. Shall I go after him."
What? Why would one of them leave the safety of the fighter bay? John thought. "Negative. Hold your position," he replied. Whatever that man's idea was, he couldn't risk the mission just to go back for him. He just hoped there were no more Elites around to take him hostage.
When he was two meters from the entrance, he stopped and drew his gun. He fired twice, and another Elite who was standing guard at the door fell to the ground. He found it curious that this one looked somewhat different from the others—slightly shorter and with a sleeker build up than the others—but he pushed this thought aside. He raised the gun again and stepped into the room.
The next few milliseconds seemed to run hundreds of times slower.
Halsey was there, standing in front of the massive device found also on board the Odyssey. To her left, what seemed like a Forerunner device floating above a tray, and beyond that, a woman contained inside some sort of force field and with her eyes closed. She was wearing a white skinsuit with black details that looked quite familiar, but her appearance…
No… it couldn't be…
She suddenly opened her eyes, revealing deep-blue irises—a look he knew all too well.
How could it be?
And before he could do anything else, a bright light engulfed her and Halsey.
A/N: How many likes for this chapter? Oh, wait, that's another site…
Anyway, just so you know, I've finished writing down the whole plot line for this fic. I'm warning you beforehand so you can expect the gran finale with fireworks ready. 'The Fifth Race's Reclaimers' will have 23 chapters total, and since we've just finished reading Chapter 11, you could say we're almost halfway there!
On a secondary note, I realice many of you are kinda pissed off by what I did on the last chapter, so let me explain: while it would seem Forerunners were a whole lot more advanced than the Ancients or the Asgard, the truth (IMHO) is quite the opposite. The Forerunners may have done bigger things (i.e. the Ark, the Halos, the Shield Worlds), but that doesn't necessarily mean they were better—and that includes shields. Covenant shields, which are based on Forerunner tech, are quite powerful against most human weapons; however, they can only hold so long against plasma weaponry (which can be demonstrated by reading 'Halo: First Strike'). Human shields are basically an improved version of Covenant shields, but they're still somewhat weak against plasma fire. Infinity's power doesn't rely so much upon its shields as it does upon its sheer amount of firepower (thousands of nukes, a few MAC cannons, and a couple of Energy Projectors).
On the other hand, Hammond, just like every other ship of its class, possesses one of the most powerful (if not the most powerful) plasma weapons ever found in both universes. The Asgard beam weapon was capable of penetrating both Ori (when powered by a ZPM, as is the case here) and Lantean shields with relative ease, so it seemed quite logical it wouldn't have a hard time bringing down Infinity's shields.
And for those of you asking, "Then why did it take so much to destroy a Wraith cruiser just a few chapters ago?", there is an actual reason for this. If I told you now, though, I would be revealing spoilers for the next dozen chapters, so I'll just have to ask you to wait patiently for the answer.
I intended to update on Friday, but since I didn't pay the bills in time, I had no Internet the last couple of days. Plus, I caught a cold, and I have been unable to leave my house for a while. Fortunately, the spare time I got with all this allowed me to keep writing some more, and I'm already halfway through Chapter 12. I should have it ready by Saturday or Sunday.
See you all then!
P.S.: Don't forget! Poll's still open.