They turned their heads to stare at the two noncoms, who were suppressing their shock to see actual ghosts, eight of them. They peered inquisitively at the Spartans. Although they were unable to speak, disembodied voices filled the air, but they spoke a foreign language.
Interesting, they must know the Hatchling.
Yes, they must know her. Perhaps she brought them here.
What happened to the Great Poison?
Where are we? This is not Igu'nami.
Indeed, quite interesting. This looks like where our cousins settled, Ulj'koji.
Ulj'koji. What an interesting proposition. I wonder how our cousins are doing.
I believe we are shocking them.
That assumption seems correct. Perhaps we should talk to them, and find out where we are.
When the two solid beings noticed that the ghosts had quieted and were staring intently at them, they felt vaguely nervous at the appearance of the beings. Although, the apprehension was squashed down into the inner recesses of their minds in a matter of moments.
Latisha got the distinct feeling that these ghosts wanted them to say something. "Hi," was the most she could manage. Military training had trained her for almost everything that could happen on a mission: being stranded anywhere, separated from your team, surrounded with five hundred to one odds, combat in general, EVA, having to go without a higher up, and practically everything except this. Ghosts happened to be a bit beyond what she knew how to handle.
This seemed to please the beings, a voice spoke in slightly accented English.
It is good to see. What planet's surface are we on? The see-through being that the disembodied voice seemed to belong to gestured to the space surrounding the group with both arms.
Anton could make out what the voice was trying to ask, "Someone mentioned something about being at Ulj'koji before. But we really don't know ourselves."
Ah, Idama, you were punctilious. We do bother Ulj'koji. The notion is intriguing. One of the ghosts, who the voice presumably belonged to, seemed to go into deep contemplation.
I know veracity is in your words, but how did you come to be here, not being acquainted with your destination?
"Someone they call Newborn...Samus Aran."
So you are cognizant of the Great Defender! Could you take us in her presence?
"I guess so. We don't know where she is really, but maybe we can bring you to someone who does."
Anton and Latisha led the Choujinese ghosts back to the rural Aztec looking town. Eventually they were able to spot the Master Chief, and a stranger. The ghosts moved quickly over to the two.
Hatchling, it is good to see. One of them said, bowing to her.
"Good to have seen, Idama." She bowed as well. She stared at the ghosts, recognizing each one. But hadn't they all died out on Talon IV years ago? Anton and Latisha came up to the Master Chief.
"Chief, who is that?"
"Samus. Are those ghosts?" He didn't quite believe in ghosts, not being exactly superstitious, none of them were.
"We don't know, sir, but they seem like it, don't they?"
Samus sighed, "The Honored Elders wish to speak with me."
Ah, it is clear. This is a strange occurrence indeed. That happened to be the clearest and most understandable statement any of the Spartans had ever heard from a Choujin, and would ever hear, except from the elders.
Samus beckoned the Master Chief to follow her, he nodded to the two Spartans and followed two meters behind Samus. She led the noncom through a series of tunnels and rooms, eventually they came to another dome like the medical lab. The walls were rather plain, covered in holographic black with stars displayed on it, the same treatment on the floor too, the room was near pitch black. The Master Chief felt a brief moment of vertigo before reorientating himself. He spotted the two Choujin elders. And something in the shadows, his night vision allowed him to see that it was one of his Spartans.
"The young one is fully healed." Linda walked out of the shadows. She was wearing a jumpsuit like the rest of the Spartans; her colors were black and red. Her dark green eyes examined the newcomer warily, then she turned her attention to John. She saluted, he returned the salute and they both almost instantly relaxed, the Chief more so then Linda.
"What's going on, sir?"
"I'll explain later, Linda." He was just grateful that she had recovered from that alive.
Linda nodded, accepted this answer, assuming that he would also explain who Samus was. Samus was waiting expectantly for the Choujin elders to explain what they had called her and John here for. She doubted that it was just Linda, for they wouldn't have requested them to come to the science dome if that was the case. They certainly could have given Cortana the location and not requested her to be here as well.
Then, as if it was an answer to her question a holographic display of Earth's solar system appeared. It zoomed in on Earth itself.
"Samus, we have recently discovered something quite...troubling. From several calculations and measurements we have gathered from this solar system, and several others, our scientists believe that two universes have combined."
Samus crossed her arms, a little dubious of such a strong statement even for the Choujin, "Okay, why?"
"This was Earth over four hours ago, since then it has changed, watch its gravity well." An aura appeared around the planet and then quickly quadrupled in size before shrinking to double its original size, something else changed on the planet, the amount of clouds doubled as well, and for some reason the surface didn't look exactly the same as before, like there were a few more trees, "This has occurred with several, no most, of the planets in this galaxy. Also, two different governments have appeared for the humans, many solar systems have randomly gained more planets, and several others have sporadically appeared throughout this galaxy, and doubtlessly others, we are waiting for readings of this phenomenon from our other colonies in other parts of the universe."
"And you're telling me this, why?"
The holographic display changed to a solar system appeared and then zoomed in on a large gas giant of the system. It was the biggest planet.
"If we are accurate with our assumption, it will have much the same affect as two bubbles combining and becoming unstable and bursting. From what we can tell, there's a disturbance in space-time emanating from eight points in this galaxy that would cause the destruction of this universe instantly. From what we can tell, if one of them is destroyed, the destruction would not occur." The display turned around the planet to view the opposite side and zoomed in again, displaying a gigantic ring orbiting the planet. It was comparatively small, but that didn't mean it probably wasn't huge, "This is the closest point. You must destroy it."
Samus nodded, finally believing what they were saying from long experience with Choujin knowledge. She also understood everything they said and it seemed logical, even if a little far-fetched. She narrowed her eyes, "I'll take care of it after this mission."
"That won't be soon enough, we believe."
Samus stared at the display, willing it to become less monotone so she could pick out individual details, although it didn't. She walked up to the display and touched the side of the planet to her right. The display turned in that direction. She waved a hand in front of part of the planet, the forms of twelve ships popped out of the display, in Samus. She took a step back and looked at them. She looked back at the Master Chief, "Well, even if they're wrong, this might be another reason to take a look over in that area. Those aren't pirates."
He agreed, he didn't believe what the Choujin were saying about the universe and all, even though it made some sense. However that was a small armada of Covenant ships that Samus had just picked out of the display.
"Those are Covenant ships."
"Think one of those prophet types might be on one of them?"
He shrugged, he didn't know, but it would be a good idea to take a look. The holographic display disappeared, "Newborn, the ship you requested will be here in eighteen hours, the ones bringing it here had to stop, planet in distress."
Samus nodded, and left. The Master Chief followed her, and Linda followed him.
When they were above ground, Samus spoke more to herself then the two soldiers following her, "If what they say is true, then the others showing up makes sense." She rubbed her forehead, she had understood it as the honored elders had said it, but, if just these two universes had collided, how had they been brought back to life? She remembered destroying a few of their ghosts.
"By others do you mean those...ghosts?"
"Ghosts, sir?" Linda looked up curiously at John.
Samus turned to look at the Master Chief, then at Linda, who had spoken. Samus nodded her head, "You've been out most of the time since we got here." Then she looked at the Master Chief before turning her back to them both, "Yes, those were the ghosts. The Choujin of Talon IV left their physical bodies and became spirits on that planet. When the Space Pirates brought Phazon to the planet, they never really stood a chance against it. They had given up fighting." Her shoulders slumped, fractionally, as if what she was going to say was hard to say, "When I got there, all I could do was get rid of their ghosts. They weren't as peaceful as the Choujin here, I remember killing most of those ghosts that met us earlier. I don't see how they're here, and aren't affected by Phazon contamination."
John nodded and walked away, Linda watched Samus for a moment with her dark green eyes but then quickly followed her commander. She wanted a briefing on just what had happened since they had gone down to the space station near Reach to secure the NAV disk.
Samus shook herself out of her mood and walked on. True, that while the only more emotionally trying missions she had ever had were on Zebes and another planet, it had still been hard on her, she recognized most of the Choujin ghosts that had been infected by Phazon, most of them were ones that she had grown up knowing. Zebes had only been more difficult because she had grown up there, and had to visit places she knew well, and look on in despair as they had fallen into ruin. And then there was the one...she didn't want to think about that.
All three had been hard on her. Probably the hardest mentally on her then any of the others. But sorrow for fallen friends was normally wasted. Sorrow and depression for fallen souls only held them to this world. Or at least, so said the Choujin. In any case, it was distracting. She moved on, to find Latisha and Anton, and find out more about where, when, how and why those ghosts had appeared.