"So. Now what?" The chief engineer said as a pair of Marines tended to Zaeed's unconscious form. The man had picked up a long metal pole and was shoving the remains of the slipspace entity's puppet into a corner. "The reactor is gonna go off in a few minutes. I can stop it, but we're never firing the old girl up again. Fast vaporization might be better than starvation. How do you want to go, Kirrahe?"

Kirrahe approached the pile of ruined components, firing his pistol into the wrecked chest cage of the infiltrator until it overheated. He then knelt and poked it with the tip of an extended omni-blade. "Shut down the self destruct. We need to tell the Coalition of this thing. Even a beacon is better than nothing. We should drop a black box."

The engineer barked a few commands to some surviving marines and engineers, and they began working on the reactor. The man seemed undeterred by the situation or had to be shell shocked to some extent. "Name's Adams, by the way." The chief engineer said, eyes still locked upon the construct. "This thing is fascinating and horrifying. And this was hiding inside of the Elite? Damn thing fooled every scan we performed. Just when you thought the Covenant couldn't get wor-"

"It wasn't the Covenant," Kirrahe stated confidently. "This thing was growing inside of that Trader. Or it had been hiding inside. But I have no clue what could replace someone's entire skeletal system and replace it with cybernetics, and not have them notice. But the actions of this thing go contrary to the Trader." Kirrahe turned a component over and gave it a look. "I think that the Trader was converted, but repressed the knowledge of it. When he did, the infiltrator took full control."

"Well. Fuck. That's horrifying. How do you even test for something like that?"

"Cut someone to the bone and check if there's anything blue."

Adams chuckled. "Crude but effective. The best kind of effective if you ask me. I was hesitant about ONI letting STG officers aboard Prowlers to help get the Eezo cores to work, but you've been a real asset."

"How's the Eezo core?" Kirrahe asked, his mind racing as he tried to think his way out of their situation.

"Intact. We focused our demolitions efforts on the reactor. But without a reactor. That core is pretty much useless."

"Not exactly. We might not have a reactor, but the Covenant ship does." Kirrahe grinned at Adams. "Even at low capacity, the drive core can get us back into UNSC space. It might take some work, but we should be able to connect the two."

"You want to go to a ship where an abomination like this came from!?"

"This Prowler is just as compromised, and the reactor is pretty much dead. Unless you want to slowly starve to death, die from thirst, or choke to death, I don't have any other suggestions on what we can do."

Adams looked lost in thought for a moment. He began walking towards the room containing the Eezo core, taking Kirrahe along with him. "I mean. It should be possible. I think. If we move the Prowler close enough, we might be able to rig up a crude airlock of some kind. Make it easier to move back and forth. It wouldn't be a pleasant trip, though. We'd have to run the Covenant reactor on absolute minimal to power the drive core. While using backup power cells from the Prowler to power life support and such. All else fails, we could see about salvaging the Covenant ship for components. Just a reactor housing could do miracles for getting the ship back to work. But the NAV data is wiped. I saw you crus- oh you, son of a bitch, you kept a copy." Adams muttered as he realized what Kirrahe had done.

Kirrahe flash fabricated a UNSC compatible data chip and copied the Nav data he'd made a copy of onto it. "Never trust a Salarian with your files."

"You're going to be in so much trouble if ONI finds out." Adams muttered.

"Are they, Chief Engineer Adams?"

Adams was silent for a moment, then glanced at Kirrahe's Omni-tool. "Give me your omni-tool hand keep all the apps on it, when this is over, and I'll cover for you."

900 hours, September 20th, 2542
Aboard Covenant Smuggling ship

Zaeed woke up in a startle, glaring around at his surroundings. His heart sank in his chest when he saw the familiar colors of Covenant construction all around him. He immediately rolled out of bed and looked for a weapon. He glared around, only to notice his equipment was laid out on what had to be a chair. The Covenant wouldn't have given him his stuff. The memories of the fight with the infiltrator came back to him. He'd killed probably the closest thing to a mythical demon in the universe, and everything felt like hell. He felt something itch on his face and felt the familiar feeling of bandages. He got up, started putting on his gear, when the door opened, revealing Kirrahe standing there.

"I see you woke up early," Kirrahe said. "Not many people can fight for an hour with their skull broken open. Are you feeling any good?"

Zaeed groaned at Kirrahe. "I feel like I took a harder pounding than a pretty boy recruit with long hair in an Army base."

Kirrahe burst out laughing, then quickly composed himself. "You're probably wondering why we're back aboard the Covenant shi-"

"Hell yeah, I am!" Zaeed yelled. "Did the Prowler explode or something. How long was I out? Did you take shrapnel to the head to make you think this was a good idea? Or is my head so fucked I'm confusing purple and grey?"

Kirrahe continued like Zaeed had not interrupted him. "-Ship. It's because the self-destruction the Engineers set in motion on the Prowler destroyed much of the power grid, and rendered most of the ship unusable. They got it to stop after you killed that abominable infiltrator, but the Circumference was as dead as Tuchanka. So we're using the Covenant ship for habitation while working on the Circumference. It isn't much, but its better than choking from lack of life support. Covenant build to last. It didnt take long to change the atmospherics for long term habitation."

"Doesn't most Covenant technology explode if you try to play with it? I don't fancy being on another exploding ship. Lord knows I've done that too many times to count. Then again, a Covenant ship is a new one." Zaeed had gotten his armor back in and began doing some stretches. It was unbelievably painful, and he enjoyed every moment it reminded him he still had his limbs.

Kirrahe was silent, then continued. "This ship is definitely a smuggler's ship. The technology is all kludged together from what had to be a dozen different sources, and without any real safeties in place. But it's also incredibly simple when you get the hang of things. The engineering crew is convinced they'll be able to repair it using parts from the Circumference. Come."

Kirrahe led Zaeed out of the room he'd been sleeping in. Zaeed noticed immediately the mismatching panels, jury-rigged UNSC computer equipment plugged in around the place, and boxes of food and other supplies stored wherever there was room. Marines, engineers, and other crew that had apparently holed up somewhere during the slaughter were moving around, trying to convert the Covenant ship into one they could pilot. Kirrrahe explained the situation as the two walked through the ship. "We managed to determine that the reactor of this ship was sabotaged as well as the Slipspace drive, but we believe we can repair the former. We're trying to couple the Prowler to this ship, and extend the drive core's field to cover everything."

"Sounds like a recipe for an explosion," Zaeed muttered as he saw an engineer trying to adapt a Covenant power socket for a fridge. Zaeed guessed that nobody was eager to stay aboard a ransacked ship which had been ripped apart by fighting, covered in blood, and with the electronics fried to hell and back.

"Probably. But it's that or wait for death. Marines are ripping apart all non-essential data storage devices and equipment from the Circumference, as well as this ship, to avoid any data contamination, as well as restoring all operating systems on our equipment from hard copies, just in case. We're cludging together a more permanent airlock between our two ships."

"Who's in charge? Heck. Who is left of the old crew?" Zaeed asked.

"Chief Engineer Adams is in charge of trying to couple the ships. The bridge crew is dead. All that's left is twenty marines, eight or so engineers, and an assortment of cooks, clerks, cargo technicians, medical personnel, and whoever managed to hide from the creature." Kirrahe whispered to Zaeed. "I saw some of them installing a still. Is it normal for your sailors to illegally brew alcohol?"

"It's tradition. Every UNSC warship has its own secret supply of gut-rotting brews, Kirrahe. "Zaeed said proudly. "ONI Moonshine is actually a drink instead of an industrial cleaner because they're not a bunch of crayon-chewing marines who think aftershave mixed with pineapple juice makes for a good replacement for beer."

The Salarian raised an eyebrow. "That's a very specific example. Were you the crayon-chewer, or the pineapple aftershave drinker?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Zaeed guffawed. "I drank the aftershave directly from the bottle."

"...You drink a disinfectant that is specifically made to taste horrible?" Kirrahe asked warily, eyeing Zaeed like the deranged old man he was.

"After a few bottles, it scorches your taste buds, and you lose the urge to vomit. You get used to it." Zaeed shrugged. His head hurt. He tried to remember something about the day that his mind got assaulted by the slipspace entity "Kirrahe. There was something aboard this ship. When I touched it, I-"

"Your marines told me, Zaeed. I had a drone pick it up and store it in a lead-lined box inside a mesh cage, inside an airlock. We'll find a way to destroy it permanently."

"Toss it into a star," Zaeed said. "Or a black hole."

"Not with this ship, we're not. We are barely sure we can get it started once. But we'll dispose of it all safely as soon as we can."

"If you say so," Zaeed grumbled. "Still feels fucking wrong. Something crawling out of Slipspace and rampaging through our ship. Or the way that Trader didn't even know he'd been taken over. Fucking hell, Slipspace is creepy enough with people disappearing, I didn't need to know there was something inside of it."

Kirrahe's gaze darkened. "Indeed. It is the most sobering discovery to be sure. In any case, I'm planning to see Adams before we head off. Want to join me?"

"Don't see why not." Zaeed shrugged

They passed through a large door, which led to what looked like the bridge of a spaceship. Zaeed looked around at what had to be a pair of Engineers setting up a holographic overlay over the original controls to translate what they said. Chief Engineer Adams was working with an omni-tool, taking pictures of everything he saw and typing in instructions. He was installing a UNSC command chair where the Covenant leader would presumably have stood. Adams glanced around at the sound of the door opening, nodded, then got back to work.

"Ah. Zaeed. I see you really are too stubborn to stay dead. How's the face?"

"Sure hurts like it, Adams." Zaeed grinned. "How is your new toy?"

"Confusion personified. But I'm starting to think we'll be able to get it to work. It's at least got working life support. The Circumference has had nearly all its computer systems and functions scrambled and destroyed by two AI fighting in its systems, and then by our attempts to force a reactor overload. We're trying to get the reactor of the Covenant ship to power the Eezo core. Our tests are promising so far."

" How long until we get home?" Zaeed asked.

"A week to properly connect the ships, and a month to get back to UNSC space at minimal Eezo field and thrusters, we dare not risk more. That isn't counting technical difficulties."

"Well, shit. I'll get the playing cards." Zaeed muttered. "If we're resorting to cannibalism, we're eating the lizard first. I have a recipe for soup that dates back to the rainforest war. You'll love it."

Kirrahe chuckled with growing concern. "We're amphibians"

"Watch it, Kirrahe." Zaeed laughed. "Alligator is just as tasty. Now where are the medical supplies? I deserve some morphine."