Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine
chapter 21: values and beliefs
November 7, 2552
location: rogue covenant cruiser the light of truth en route to Sol system
"Is this ok?" Kelly asked.
"Perfect" Kyle whispered as he felt Kelly's hands rub into his skin.
"Lower" he said as he reached behind his back and guided her hand with his. Kyle had pulled a muscle back on Onyx during the fight to protect the portal entrance, and over the past few days the pain had been getting worse. Kelly finally noticed his discomfort a half hour ago and after getting him to admit it, she offered to relax his tensed muscles. They were in their room that Shane had assigned them, Kyle had removed his armor on his torso and Kelly was trying to find his pulled muscle.
"Your muscles are too thick" she said.
"Speak for yourself, miss universe" Kyle replied.
Kelly eventually found his pulled muscle and began to press her thumbs harder into his back.
"That feels better" Kyle said softly.
"Hey, Kyle, can I ask you something?"
"You know you can ask me anything" Kyle said.
"Its kinda personal" Kelly said.
"Well we were kinda personal last night" Kyle whispered with a smirk.
"I wanted to talk about the girl you were with back on your Earth" Kelly said. "Her name is Catlin."
Kelly still had her hands on his back and she was able to feel him tense up when she said Catlin's name. Kyle rotated his body to face her, her hands returned to her sides as she sat cross legged on the bed. Kyle couldn't fathom why Kelly would be asking of all things his ex-girlfriend, let alone how she even knew about her in the first place.
"Why?" Kyle asked.
"I need to know if you still have feelings for her?" Kelly asked.
"That's an awful thing to ask" Kyle said.
"I just need to know if this is actually happening" Kelly stammered. "You were practically my best friend for years, then I fall in love with you and I find out you love be back, it just seems too good to be true. I keep expecting something to come crashing down on us, I don't want find out you still have feelings for someone else, that's what held me back from telling you how I felt years ago."
She knew Kyle was mad, and Kelly feared her one question had caused what she feared might happen. Kyle reached over and gently cuffed her cheek.
"Don't you think I'm having the same reservations about us? On whether this is gonna fail?" He asked. "I can see why you'd want to ask me that, but would I have made love to you if I wasn't sure about how I felt?"
Kyle reached over with his other hand and cuffed her other cheek, then pressed his forehead to hers.
"I did care about her, a long time ago" Kyle said to her. "But I got over her, and met you. No one will ever be more special to me than you, Kelly. Without you I think I'd fall apart, you've been there for me when I needed someone, and I'm always going to be there for you."
--
Kyle awoke the next morning and activated his helmet's HUD. After his talk with Kelly he put his armor back on and both of them decided it was time for some shut eye, considering it was the last they were liable to get due to the Covenant presence on Earth, it was expected to be one hell of a fight. Kyle immediately noticed Kelly was gone and he assumed she had left to meet up with Fred. Kyle got off the bed which was able to successfully support the weight of two Spartans throughout the night. He left their room and began to traverse the halls of the Covenant cruiser, which made him uneasy. The section the Spartans had been assigned was cordoned off by the separatists so the Spartans could be alone, and so the children on the ship couldn't satisfy their curiosity. Kyle went down to the feasting hall that had been included in the restricted section and found it empty except for Tom and Lucy. The benches and tables in the hall had been designed to accommodate all of the Covenant species, and apparently could seat humans. Tom and Lucy both had their helmets off and were poking their utensils though a tray of Covenant food.
"Shane said this was eatable to humans" Tom said to Kyle when he noticed his presence. "I'm not thinking about tempting it."
Kyle wasn't particularly interested in eating any of the Covenant food either, even though Shane had vouched for it. Lucy began to sign something to Kyle who happened to be trained in sign language.
"We have the same number" she signed.
"I know" Kyle signed back
Lucy's eyes widened and she quickly replied, "you sign?!"
Kyle nodded, "only a little" he said aloud.
Lucy gave another one of her rare smiles as she brushed one of her bangs away from her forehead.
"I think she has a crush on you" Tom said.
Lucy's face immediately turned red, and then soured as she glared at Tom and nearly pushed him out of his seat.
"Well I'm flattered, and taken" Kyle said to Lucy.
"I know" Lucy replied. "The lieutenant says you're with -87, she's very nice. You two are nice together."
"Thank you" Kyle replied.
Suddenly, Dr Halsey poked her head inside the hall and immediately called out to Kyle.
"You might be interested in this" she said.
Kyle, Tom and Lucy felt the hall and followed Halsey to a medium sized, half-sphere shaped room. In the center was a console of Forerunner design, manning it was Shane.
"Though you'd like a history lesson, courtesy of the Forerunner database we have aboard."
Shane activated the console and the room was suddenly filled with stars, each with a miniature solar system revolving around them. Shane zoomed out and they all found themselves standing in a holographic representation of the Milky Way.
"This was basically our galaxy one-hundred-thousand years ago, during the Forerunner-Flood war. Taloar and his people have only been able to decrypt a small portion of their knowledge base, but things went a lot quicker once I arrived."
"Why's that?" Tom asked.
"Humans are descendants of the Forerunners" Kyle said.
"And apparently Spartans are closer to what the Forerunners were, but nowhere near" Shane said. "This ship has been upgraded with Forerunner tech that I've been able to help them activate, like this console."
"So you were talking abut the war?" Kyle said.
"The Flood are some kind of extra-galactic parasite that was found on a planet near the edge of the galaxy. It wasn't long before a war erupted. The Forerunners and a few other space fairing races they encountered fought back for over 300 years. The Flood's only advantage was sheer numbers, they commandeered any type of Forerunner ship from battlecrusiers to shuttles."
The holographic map zoomed in again and focused on a large sphere surrounded by many blue dots. Suddenly, they were surrounded by an even greater number of red dots.
"This was the final battle of the war, the area of space inside the spherical region was where the vast majority of the surviving Forerunners fled to" Shane continued. "That's when they developed the halos, as a last ditch measure to kill the Flood, and their plan might have succeeded if it wasn't for this battle. They attacked too soon and too fast, the Forerunners couldn't evacuate anyone outside their protected space and to the shield worlds they seeded without the Flood detecting them."
Suddenly, a wave of energy washed over all the ships and many of them ceased to function. The battle continued to wage though.
"After the Forerunners died, their military AI assumed control and finished the battle. The remaining Flood parasites died out from starvation."
"They committed mass suicide" Halsey muttered.
"Wait, you said this happened one hundred-thousand years ago, human life would have been extinguished in its infancy then" Tom pointed out.
"We're pretty sure that the Forerunners were able to move a significant portion of the human race to the Ark, along with other species like the Sangheili and the San 'Shyuum."
"The what?" Tom said.
"Sorry, but when you've been here as long as I have you take the time to learn their species' proper names" Shane said.
"Shane, I'm curious as to how your ship was even able to enter the Onyx shield world?" Halsey asked.
Shane activated several more controls and to Halsey's surprise a schematic of a shield world appeared.
"With Forerunner tech built into the slipspace drive of the light of truth it was only a matter of aligning it to enter the compressed slipspace field. Once we were inside all we had to do was find one of these."
A section of the shield world was magnified and enhanced, what looked like a tunnel extended from the surface to the interior.
"There are a series of airlocks spread throughout the sphere that allows a ship to enter" Shane explained.
"But considering the fact they built planets like Onyx that had portals to the actual shield world, its safe to assume that the actual Dyson spheres themselves were re purposed to serve as bomb shelters" Halsey cut in. "Otherwise it would make no sense for the Forerunners to place easily accessible airlocks on the spheres."
"Well the team that designed the slipspace field didn't have a lot of time, they were able to put this whole thing together inside of a year" Shane said.
"You have records on the actual team that put this together?" Halsey asked.
"The records are rather incomplete and encrypted, all I know was that it was a five person team that designed the slipspace field" Shane said.
"I'm curious, do you have records on something like this?" Halsey asked as she produced her laptop and called up an image of the Forerunner crystal found under Reach.
Kyle saw that Tom and Lucy had left, obviously fed up with the science lesson Halsey turned it into. Kyle left the room too and was halfway down the hall when Halsey came after him.
"Look, doctor, I really don't give a damn about that crystal anymore" Kyle said.
"That's not what I wanted to talk to you about" Halsey said. "I wanted to speak to you about my daughter."
"Your daughter?!" Kyle asked.
"Surely you remember that day back on Reach when you found out I was pregnant with Miranda?"
"Its starting to come back" Kyle said.
"I remember you saying that you knew who she was, was she in one of your videogames about our universe?"
"She was" Kyle replied.
"Does something happen to her?" Halsey asked.
"Doctor, I don't think this is a...."
"I don't want to hear it!" Halsy barked. "She is the only family I have left. Surely you of all people can understand my position."
"Doctor, you were the one who told me about not giving up any information on the future" Kyle retorted.
"I don't care. I'm begging you, please tell me what happens to her."
"She's killed" Kyle replied bitterly. "On the ark when the Master Chief stops the halos from firing."
Halsey looked down as tears began to sting her eyes. She removed her glasses, wiped her eyes clean and put them back on.
"Kyle, you have to promise me you'll save her" Halsey demanded.
"Doctor, you of all people should know that..."
"Kyle, please!" Halsey barked. "I have never asked you for anything, and quite frankly you owe me a great deal. I know its not right of me to have to use that against you, or that its for my own selfish task. You're not a parent, so I don't expect you to understand what its like to love a child like I love Miranda. I had to distance myself during most of her life, with Jacob dead, I'm all she has left too."
"Ok, doctor" Kyle replied.
Kyle was surprised when Halsey suddenly hugged him, burying her face in his armor plates. Kyle gently set one of his hands on her back.
"Thank you, Kyle" Halsey said.
"I'd better get going, Fred wants me to give a briefing on the ark in ten minutes."
"I'll walk with you" Halsey said as she looped her arm around Kyle's and they proceeded down the hall.
"Kyle, I think you'll make a fine parent someday" Halsey said.
"I'm not so sure" Kyle said. "Besides, what makes you so sure I want kids?"
"You and Kelly are romantically involved, surely you plan on having kids someday?"
"It wasn't really on the table" Kyle said. "Besides, what kind of father could I possibly be, me, a career soldier?"
"You're a very strong individual Kyle, I have no doubt you'll make an excellent father. But I can tell something else is troubling you."
"It's just... my father wasn't always there for me" Kyle said. He stopped walking and shook his head, "besides, Kelly probably couldn't even get pregnant if we tried."
"Kelly most certainly get pregnant" Halsey said.
Kyle looked down at the elder scientist as she raised an eyebrow
"Did you assume the Spartans were sterile?" Halsey asked.
"Sort of" Kyle replied.
"Well you don't have anything to worry about, Kelly's reproductive system still works as does every other female Spartan's, all one of them anyway."
"Uh, doctor... we've had sex" Kyle said.
"I see" Halsey said. "Kyle, the odds of her getting pregnant from one night of unprotected sex is quite low, especially since she isn't in her menstrual cycle. But first chance I get I'll check her for you."
"Thanks, doctor" Kyle replied.
Halsey and Kyle started walking down the hall only to be met by Linda as she headed in the opposite direction.
"You two haven't seen Kelly?" She asked.
"No, I thought she was with you already" Kyle said.
"Fred's been trying to Reach her, tell her about your briefing."
"She's probably just dozed off back in the room" Kyle said. "She won't miss the briefing."
--
Kelly was actually inside what she assumed was the bathroom, having been pointed there by Shane. She was hunched over a sink that had been designed for Shane, in her hands was her helmet and she splashed the in interior with a small amount of water, then cleaned it with a cloth she'd found on a rack nearby. Kelly had thrown up in the helmet five minutes earlier and quickly searched for the bathroom, finding Shane who pointed her in the right direction. She managed to clean the inside of the helmet and dry it off, but just as she finished, another wave of nausea came over her and she promptly threw up in the sink. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she sat down against the wall and willed the nausea to go away. She had been feeling sick all morning, first it was cramps, then the vomiting.
What's happening to me? Kelly thought. She knew it was some kind of virus, possibly something carried by one of the Covenant species, and she knew she had to tell Fred. However they would need every Spartan when they got to Earth, and so she kept her mystery illness a secret, even to Kyle.