Location: Undying Salvation: Covenant Space
Date: Nov. 6, 2552
"How's the ship doing Agent?" Tom asked returning to the bridge wearily.
"Quite well. You seem tired, why are you even here?" Agent asked after getting readings from the sensors in the room that were designed to monitor the crews bio signs in case of a medical emergency.
"I've got some researching I want to do" he replied and jumped into the grav-lift to the captain's chair.
"I don't suppose you could translate all of this for me? Or maybe give me an idea where to find a translator program for this helmet of mine?" questioned Tom.
Agent began pulsing and seemed to disappear for several moments before reappearing. When Agent reappeared the displays throughout the room began to change and the lettering had begun to resemble the English Alphabet.
"That's much better!" Tom declared.
"Now, you said you wanted a translator in your helmet correct?"
"Aye" replied Tom wondering what was coming.
"Place your helmet on the pedestal in front of you" Agent said as a large pedestal with a flat top about five feet in diameter rose from the floor.
Placing his battered Mjolnir I helmet on the pedestal top, Tom stepped back as a small circle opened in the center of the pedestal top and a pearl white helmet was lifted in a stream of pulsing blue-purple light and came to rest upon the pedestal top."This", Agent spoke, "is a shipmaster's helmet. It is a Captain's helmet in your military's rank system. This particular helmet though, has many more features than your little outdated tinfoil contraption that you call a safety device."
"Alright, I'm listening, so what's so great about this helmet?" Tom asked somewhat annoyed by the fact that Agent had decided to become a pain in the ass again.
"It is not only capable of rivaling this very ship's processing powers, but it is also capable of human and covenant data chip insertion and many other devices as well as a wireless control and networking system that allows the wearer to control any function of the ship remotely as long as they are on this ship." Agent explained.
"Well, that really is a nifty little thing" Tom said with a smile.
"Quite, now watch your head" Agent said.
Wondering what Agent meant by that last comment Tom decided it would be best to step back a few feet. Suddenly out of a small tube in the ceiling of the Bridge, Tom saw two small orb shaped objects descend and hover a foot or so above the table top. Still staring, he noticed that the orbs were pulsing with the same color as the grav-lifts. As if by an unspoken command, the two orbs split and a small sensor array appeared in the splits and several metal tentacles expanded from the sides of the splits.
"Um, what are those?" Tom asked staring at the foreign objects.
"Those are repair drones. This ship is equipped with several hundred as well as a drone manufacturing center in the main area of the ship. They are designed to repair, modify and maintain all of this ship's systems as well as maintain armor and weaponry as necessary."
"Oh" Tom said in amazement.
"At the moment they are redesigning and merging the two helmets to accommodate you as well as protect you. Though the helmet will be strong and durable, I suggest you not try using your head to block any bullets." Agent smirked as he made this comment.
"Har de har har…" Tom muttered. "Can they do anything about my armor next? Because this thing is a bit snug."
"Just lay it out on the pedestal top near the helmet" Agent said.
Tom took of the armor and began laying it out along the pedestal top and stood there in his PT uniform that he wore under the armor. "I'm going to go find some new clothes and take a shower. Page me when you're done I guess…" and with that he walked out of the bridge.
Tom walked through the ship marveling at how expansive it seemed to be. He had decided that he would use the gym's showers and get a new training outfit from the equipment lockers there. Walking into the gyms single shower area. There were at least twenty different shower heads lining the walls of the room and small raised edges to each station that prevented the water from reaching the walk area of the showers. The place seemed strange to him as he looked around. The nozzles were several feet higher than your ordinary human's shower. Most likely due to the height of the Sangheli he thought.
Walking to the lockers Tom looked inside and started pulling aside clothing looking to find something that was hopefully close to his size. After nearly five minutes of searching through lockers he managed to find a PT outfit that looked like it would be small enough to fit him and wouldn't trip him while he walked.
"I was called a hideously tall freak at on Earth." He muttered to himself "Now I feel short…"
After laying the clothing out on a bench near the first station he went searching for a towel and soap which only took a few moments, though the towel was longer than he was tall.
"Yep, definitely feeling short" he mumbled.
Finally undressing he turned on the water and wet his shaggy hair. After a few moments the room was filled with steam and had begun to feel like a sauna.
It sure has been a while since I've had a shower he thought to himself. Watching the grunge and grime that had coated him flow down into the drain. He finally began to feel relaxed thinking that the stress of battle was over.
A small whoosh was the only sign that the doors to the showers had opened. Nico'l walked in and stopped as she noticed the clothes lain out on the bench in front of her and the steam cloud that was now enveloping the forward half of the showers. She was about to walk back out the doors when she heard someone humming from inside the steam cloud. The tune was odd to her, but sounded happy. Deciding to see who was humming, she moved closer and peered over the short station wall to see a tall yet skinny figure scrubbing himself down. The figure had shaggy hair that fell just short of being in his eyes, and he had pale white skin.
"Tom?" she said a little too loudly.
Turning around Tom looked around the room puzzled. He could have sworn he'd heard someone say his name.
"Hello?" he called. "Is anyone there?"
After several long seconds he decided he must have been mistaken. "I could have sworn I heard someone." He mumbled to himself.
When Nico'l saw him turn back around, she crept out the doors and down the hall towards the mess hall in the main area of the ship.
He was better looking without all his bulky armor, she thought to herself as she rummaged through the many cabinets in the mess hall kitchen trying to find some cooking utensils.
About ten minutes later Tom was coming down the hall in the new PT outfit he'd found and was approaching the mess hall when he was assaulted by the most marvelous smell. Unsure of what the smell was, Tom walked into the mess hall and looked around trying to find its source. Snooping further into the large cafeteria, he began to realize the smell was wafting from the kitchen concealed behind two large swinging doors. Poking his head through, he saw Nico'l with her back to him. In front of her was a large range and layed out on the counter were small bottles that had been marked in what he assumed was Sangheli.
"I didn't know Elites could cook…" he said as if reassuring himself of what he was seeing. But then again, he also hadn't known that they could speak English.
Finally deciding to sneak in the rest of the way he walked over behind Nico'l to see what she was cooking. Poking his head over her shoulders he saw something that looked like bacon and eggs, but he wasn't quite sure.
"Whatcha cooking?" He said.
"WHAA?!" Nico'l screamed surprised and spun around hitting him in the face with a frying pan she had been about to use.
Tom dropped to the floor unconscious from the blow to the head. His nose was bleeding and bent at an awkward angle. Nico'l was still screaming, but not out of surprise, it was out of fear that she'd killed him.
"HOLY PROPHETS!" She yelled when she saw the blood coming from his nose. She immediately noticed Tom's lack of a helmet and body armor and was afraid that she might have actually hit him hard enough to kill him.
Running to the wall on the right hand side of the counter she had been working on, she slammed her fist into a small comm system controller, and yelled into it. "AGENT! I NEED CAL IN THE KITCHEN! I THINK I KILLED TOM!"
A few moments later, a reply came back. "He's on his way now. May I ask what just happened?"
"I was cooking in the kitchen, a-a-and he snuck up behind me and surprised me. I spun around and smashed him across the face with a frying pan…"
"Well, I told him not to try using his head to stop bullets but I never thought he'd go for frying pans instead." Agent snickered.
Cal felt winded when he finally arrived outside the large mess hall doors. He slammed the doors open, flying inside with a medical kit he'd grabbed in the ships infirmary where he'd been playing around figuring out what tools he knew how to use and what ones he'd research later.
"What's happened" he asked when he saw Tom lying on the floor with a small pool of blood under his head and two faint red streams leading from the base of his nose to the side of his head.
"I hit him with a frying pan because he surprised me while I was cooking..." Nico'l mumbled.
"WHAT!?" Was all Cal could think to say. "I'll have to remember not to sneak up on you then…" he said wondering what the hell Tom had done to get hit with the frying pan.
Several minutes went by as Cal examined Tom's injuries and reset his nose in place.
"Alright, I'm gonna need you to help me move him to the showers so we can clean all the blood up." Cal told Nico'l.
Together they lifted the unconscious SPARTAN and dragged him towards the gym and the showers. As they entered the room, Cal told Nico'l to help take his PT uniform off.
"What?" She said in surprise.
"Well, I can't do this myself, and since I don't have any nurses around here you're going to have to help me."
Nico'l didn't feel comfortable with this but she knew she had to help since she had caused all this to begin with. After they had finished, Cal and Nico'l carried Tom to the infirmary and laid him out on one of the large beds which in the case of even the tall SPARTAN was still a foot and half longer than he was tall.
"Paging anyone still conscious to the bridge!" Agent called across the ship via the comm. System.
Cal and Nico'l looked at Tom. "Well, someone has to stay here to watch him in case he gets up. He can't be allowed to go wandering around alone until he regains consciousness and we know exactly how badly he was hurt."
"I'll stay with him" Nico'l told Cal.
"Alright, well in that case you'll need these" he said handing her a bottle of pain pills. "When he wakes up, have him take two of those. They'll help with the pain, and hopefully stop any swelling."
Cal took one quick look back as he was walking out the infirmary doors. He saw Nico'l push some of Tom's hair away from his eyes, and he could have sworn she was crying.
No time to worry about that, he thought to himself as he ran down the hall and met up with Yuz at the grav-lift to the bridge.
"Ready to find out what shit has happened now?" Cal asked Yuz.
"Ready as I'll ever be" Yuz replied, his voice still being translated by Cal's helmet.
Sorry for the long delay. Had to go Christmas shopping and the mall and me don't mix very well. I'll have another chapter up shortly though.
Thanks for the reviews as always, and I hope you'll all keep reading as I'm preparing another story to go up shortly.
Dragon
PS: Just an FYI, Spartan I series was shortlived, and in the games Sgt. Johnson is a Spartan 1.