Red In Tooth And Claw
Chapter 14: Shades Of Grey
Roslin wished she hadn't worn heels, but there had been no time to change; the short message from Adama had simply stated that he needed to see her on-board the Galactica about a matter of the up most importance. In truth, she was kind of thankful; the Quorum meeting had been going on a little too long, and she had been at the point of loosing her patience with Tom Zarek. Any excuse to simply walk out of the room and not have it look like she was running away would have been welcome at that point. And so it was that she marched through the seemingly never ending corridors of the Battlestar, her shoes clip-clapping as she went, Billy and her security detail close behind. The fact that Starbuck had been sent to great them, and was unusually tight-lipped about what the Admiral wanted to see her about had piqued her interest, but there were other things she could have been getting on with, and she swore bloody revenge if this was anything short of impending doom.
"Through here, Madam President." Starbuck stopped in front of a hatch, the full squad of marines standing guard coming sharply to attention, "I'm afraid that the others will have to wait here."
"This had better be important." Roslin eyed the pilot coolly, "Okay, I'll continue to play the Admirals game, for now."
Starbuck opened the hatch and stood to the side, allowing the President in first before following and re securing it.
"I apologise for the rather strange measures, but..." Starbuck hesitated, "you'd best see for yourself."
Two more hatches later, they came to what had once been the squadron briefing room when the Galactica's starboard flight pod had been in use. The chairs had long since been removed, leaving just a large room with a door at either end. Adama stood at the near end, Major Shaw at his side, while the Master Chief stood fully armoured at the other end, arms folded across his chest. To his side was a strange round deceive the size of a small coffee table, but only a few inches high. Wires ran from it to a power socket in the wall, but there was no indication just what it was for.
"Madam President." Adama acknowledged the late arrives, "I apologise for the secrecy and security, but right now, with the exception of yourself, the only people who know what we about to discus are in this room, and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible."
"And what are we about to discus?" Roslin asked dryly, trying to hid her growing curiosity.
"That would be me." A strange voice came out of the device at the Master Chief's feet, and light exploded out of it, swirling around until it condensed into a life-size representation of a woman with purplish/bluish skin, short hair and blue to green symbols scrolling down her body. At first glance she appeared to be naked, but on closer examination it became clear that she was dressed in a skin-tight full body suit. Age wise, she looked to be in her late teens or early twenties, but there was something in her eyes that spoke of a much older wisdom. She looked at the Master Chief and smiled slightly, then turned to face the four Colonials, "Hello; my name is Cortana, and I am an A.I."
Roslin stood still her jaw agape as she looked at the apparition before her; aside from the odd colours, Cortana looked almost human. But then again, so did the new Cylons, and she quickly looked around for a weapon, only to find that on one was armed.
"Where...where did that THING come from?" She managed to ask after a moments confusion.
"I was on the Forward Unto Dawn with the caveman here." Cortana cocked her head towards the Master Chief, "We decided that it would be best to keep my resistance secret, especially after we discovered your almost xenophobic hatred of A.I.'s."
"Trust me; if it hadn't been necessary for Cortana to make her presence felt, we wouldn't be having this conversation." The Chief added, "And as I have already made clear to the others, any attempt to harm Cortana in any way will be met with deadly force."
"United Nations Space Command considers me to be a strategic asset, given how much I know about Covenant and Forerunner technology." The A.I. Smirked, "But as soon as we get our ship fixed, we'll be leaving."
"Do you think you cam get it fixed?" Adama asked, "You already told me that its FTL drive was inoperable."
"Yes, and that's the main reason why the Chiroptera-class was withdrawn from service in the first place; without a controlling A.I,. their slipstream drives have a tendency to be come unreliable." The Chief nodded, "We think that's probably what happened in this case; the core became misaligned and the crew didn't realise until it was too late, and by then they could have been hundreds if not thousands of light years off course. We can't tell for sure, as the Cylons removed the black-box."
"On the plus side, if the ship was so drastically off course, then any navigational data they recovered would have been useless." Cortana shrugged, "And all of the evidence seems to point towards the Guardians finding it after they fractioned off , so there's very little risk that the Cylons will be developing their own reverse engineered slipstream drive."
"How much of an advance would it give them if they did?" Starbuck asked.
"Hard to tell; slipstream drives operate on very different principles to your jump-drives." Cortana mused, comparing what little information she had on Colonial/Cylon FTL systems with slipstream theory, "For shorter ranged, tactical purposes, your jump-drives had an unmistakable advantage, especially if you find a way to improve the accuracy. Over longer, strategic distances, slipstream is a lot faster, even with the unavoidable drift factor."
"Excuse me, am I the only one here who's not lost their fracking mind?" Roslin asked, rage building up inside her like a volcano about to erupt, "There is a Gods-damn A.I. on this ship!"
"Why thank you for noticing." Cortana replied dryly, "Yes, I am a third generation 'smart' A.I. created by flash-cloning the brain of Dr Catherine Halsey, the UNSC's foremost expert on cybernetics and the driving force behind the SPARTAN-II program. I have some of her memories and personality, but I am a separate and distinct individual."
"If it wasn't for Cortana, Major Shaw, Captain Thrace and myself would never have gotten off of the Guardians Baseship alive, and they probably would have found and deactivated the bomb we left." The Master Chief added, "I have been through a lot with Cortana; I consider her one of my closest friends and allies. She is also a member of the UNSC, and should be treated as such."
"Friends, with an A.I.?" Shaw snorted, "Frack, I guess Lieutenant Agathon's not the only one then..."
The Master Chiefs body tensed noticeable, like a coiled spring straining for release. He took a deep breath, calming himself back down, "Cortana, do you have the video my helmet-cam took on High Charity? The second time I went there, that is."
"When you rescued me from Gravemind?" The A.I. asked with a sparkle in her eye, "How a girl going to forget a thing like that. You want me to show them?"
The Chief nodded, and Cortana flashed out of existence. The light dimmed noticeably as the holo-projector drew more power from the Battlestar's systems, then there was a flash of light. When it died down, the grey gunmetal walls were gone, replaced by a strange brown material that looked almost alive. Odd, half-seen forms lurked in the shadows surrounding the four Colonials and the Spartan.
"This is a recreation, based on the visual record the Chief's suit picked up." Cortana's voice came out of nowhere, "It's not perfect, but it should give you a rough idea of what he went through to get me back..."
A life-size replica of the Master Chief stepped through a startled Starbuck and moved quickly across the room, from cover to cover, holding an odd looking rifle in both hands. It raised the weapon to its shoulder and fired, a bright green beam of light emanating from the end and striking at one of the shadows. A creature born of nightmares dropped into sight; a grotesquely misshapen humanoid, one arm ending in a trio of tentacles, while the other held a Battle Rifle. It lashed out with the tentacles, but the Chief jumped back just in time, putting away the rifle and drawing a second, shorter weapon with twin blades attached to the under side. He opened fire, peppering the creature with a dozen white-hot shards, then slashed it across the face with the two blades, knocking it down. Despite this viscous attack, the creature tried to stand again, but the Chief pulled and armed a plasma grenade: it flew through the air leaving a blazing train in its wake before hitting the monster square in the chest and sticking fast. It detonated in a blaze of white light, ripping the creature apart and sending parts of its body flying about the room.
"Let me show you something else while we're here." The hologram faded, the room returning to normal. A blue/green sphere appeared in the air above the holo-projector, spinning slowly. Several hair-fine strands could be seen rising up from the planet to a shining arc of light in high orbit, "This is, or rather, was, the colony world of Harvest, a centre for agriculture. Population, 3-million." the image changed to show a black and broken world, glowing an angry red in places, the orbital tethers gone, "And this is it after the Covenant finished their orbital bombardment. It's only by luck and quick thinking that most of the population was able to escape." The image changed to show one dead planet after another, "Eridanus II, Jericho VII, New Harmony, New Constantinople, Atlas Moons, Miridem, Paris IV, Draco III and Reach, all glassed. And that's not counting the damage they did to Earth and any attacks after we left." The image died and Cortana reappeared, "The total human casualties for the war are unknown, but they are believed to exceed 20-billion. Covenant losses were only a fraction of that. I could go on if you want; I've got dozens more images and video files like that in my memory."
"I don't think that will be necessary." Roslin shook her head, looking quite pale.
"Yeah, it's a real kick in the head, isn't it? Finding out you're not the only ones who had their asses handed to them?" The A.I. smirked slightly, "I've been threatened by things you can't even imagine, and trust me, you don't want to try. So lady, you don't even come close to frightening me."
"I don't trust you: you're an A.I. and our history has taught us that A.I.'s can't be trusted, no matter where they claim to come from." Roslin walked over to the holo-projector, standing just a few inches away from Cortana, "But I'm sure that in about ten seconds the Admiral will remind me that both yourself and the Master Chief fall under his jurisdiction as military commander of the fleet, and the fact that we're here having this discussion means that he's already made up his mind. But know this: we will be watching every move you make, and if we see anything that threatens the safety of this fleet, with Zeus as my whitens I will find a way to make you pay."
"Trust me, I want to be here about as much as you want me." Cortana crossed her arms, staring the President down, "And the sooner we fix our ship, the sooner we can go our separate ways."
"Um, Chief?" Starbuck raised a hand, "Is she always like this?"
"No; this is a good day." The Spartan glared at hologram at his side, "Are we done now?"
"I think we understand each other." Cortana nodded, "Although I must confess, I'm beginning to miss The Arbiter: at least we could have a civil conversation with him."
To Be Continued...