"How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks." - Dorothy L. Sayers
It was… certainly persistent.
Persistent enough to pose a hindrance to the legendary Master Chief on his way to Captain Lasky's office.
The Spartan stared at the white duck in the surprisingly empty hallway.
Silently daring it to move.
It took a step forward.
"No," the Spartan said.
The duck took another undaunted step.
The Chief took a step back.
The duck followed.
The Chief had never been stuck in a situation like this, and, for once, wasn't exactly sure what he should do.
Improvise.
The duck took another step, and John backed away with a raised hand. "Stop."
This time the duck seemed to understand as it stayed where it was and only looked at him.
Trying for this more workable angle, John took another step backwards, hand still raised. "Stop."
The duck did not follow.
He took another step, this time without repeating the word.
The duck stayed where it was.
He lowered his hand, his gaze steady and piercing on the unmoving duck. To any human marine, a stare was usually a sufficient message sent. The effect went a little lost on animals.
The Chief turned around slowly and began walking down the hallway.
Really, he only managed two steps before he stopped to turn around again. The little tip-taps of webbed feet on the steel floor hadn't gone unheard by the Spartan's enhanced hearing.
Chief wasn't surprised to see the duck closer to him than it should have been. Mildly disappointed was he, however; he thought they had actually gained some sort of understanding.
Chief's expression was neutral behind the visor. Captain Lasky had summoned him for a meeting, and Chief was one to make it good on time. However, he was certain it wasn't appropriate to allow a duck following him there.
The Spartan was aware of the presence of animals on the ship. He'd heard the yapping of a dog just yesterday, and he assumed it was the typical accompanying pets like dogs, and possibly cats.
Not a duck, though.
He thought it was a duck, at least. It'd been quite some time since he last saw one. Back on Reach, during boot camp, probably.
Nonetheless, animals onboard Infinity are supposed to be kept under supervision, are they not? Or didn't it apply to the duck? It shouldn't have proper clearance to be here. Perhaps it didn't care.
Probably, that was the case.
Quack
The sound chased away all thoughts. The animal hadn't emitted a purposeful sound until now.
It quacked again.
The armored Spartan briefly wondered if the duck was actually attempting to have a conversation with him.
If it was, then perhaps...
"Stop following me."
Quack quack
It seemed the duck was actually attempting to have a conversation with him. It was just as strange that the Chief had apparently decided to take part in it.
Chief didn't understand. He had more urgent matters to attend to than attempting a conversation with an animal.
He was going to be late. The Spartan made one last desperate attempt.
Crouched on one leg, helmet bowing towards it to transfer a more direct conversation, of sorts.
A little too close.
"Stop following me, and return to where you came from," his deep voice commanded the duck. The Spartan even made the barest shooing gesture with his fingers towards the end of the hall.
The duck took the opposite meaning of the Spartan's message and stayed where it was, swaying its big body from side to side, as if in a little dance of playful ignorance. Then it stepped forward, raising itself upwards on its little feet, stretching its body and neck as high as it could, and tapped its orange beak against the helmet's likewise-colored visor. It let out what sounded like a joyous quack accompanied by a flapping of wings.
The Chief didn't react to the gesture, frozen in the position. His prolonged absence from the meeting was well over the average time it took to get to the Captain's office from the hangar he'd previously been in.
He… He had an objective to complete. Distractions were not encouraged.
In a swift movement, the Spartan stood back up and turned around without a glance, his gait noticeably speeded up. The Chief didn't reach out with any of his enhanced senses for the duck. If he was lucky, the Spartan's gait was too fast for it to keep up, or the duck would grow tired of being ignored and leave.
John put the strange interaction out of his mind; he had a meeting to attend to.
"Master Chief," Lasky stood up from his office chair and the sandy holomatter avatar of Roland emitted from the holotable in salute. "Took your time, but I don't mind."
"Sir," was all the Master Chief said from the doorway.
Lasky waved the Spartan forward. "The reason for this meeting is to be only a short sort-of 'check-in' before you're on your way down to Earth to meet with the Security Council, so it's nothing to worry about," Lasky said as he picked up his datapad.
Master Chief only gave a nod.
Lasky looked down and tapped lightly at the datapad's screen, "Well, if you're all set and ready, I think we'll begin with tackling-"
Quack
Lasky looked up at the armored Spartan, a puzzled expression on his face. The Chief only stood there like a statue.
There was a chuckle from Roland. "Someone followed you in here, Master Chief?"
Switching to look at Roland, Lasky followed the direction in which the AI himself was looking, noting in his peripheral vision the slightest tilt of the Chief's helmet downwards, and there, by the feet of the Spartan, Lasky saw it.
A duck.
No, the duck.
Benson's duck, Marlowe, the little adventurer.
Lasky couldn't hold back a smile and Roland chuckled again. The image of Marlowe standing perched beside the giant super-soldier was endearing and one he would never forget. Marlowe's height was barely past the Spartan's ankles.
The duck had no sense of self-preservation.
Lasky swallowed, mainly to hold back a chuckle to not further embarrass the Spartan. "Chief?" he questioned.
The Spartan immediately met Lasky's gaze unwavered. "Sir."
"Someone did follow you here?" he repeated Roland's not-so-serious and very-obvious question.
There was the barest hint of hesitation before the Chief spoke, "I was on course to the meeting when it began to follow me halfway."
Marlowe let out a quack as if to confirm it, with no remorse. Lasky wasn't surprised.
"My attempts at redirecting it away proved unsuccessful. Further requests for it to stop its pursuit appeared promising at first, but were ultimately ignored."
Further requests? The image of the legendary Master Chief staring at a duck and ordering it to leave-
Quack quack! Quack!
Marlowe quacked in either protest, or proud declaration, flapping his wings briefly. It was pure luck that Lasky caught the swift glare Master Chief sent him.
Tom Lasky was the recently appointed Captain of UNSC Infinity, the largest and most effective starship humanity had ever constructed. Harboring that position came the expectations that he'd keep things professional and in order, especially after Del Rio's removal from the position following the events on Requiem.
He'd be lying if he said this current predicament wasn't testing him. He was dangerously close to cracking up a bit inside.
"Meeting with an officer is in many instances, of a higher priority. I opted to not let the animal hamper me from my required presence any longer and resumed my way. I theorized that if its behavior was met with ignorance, it would perhaps cease to follow."
And that theory was quickly proved wrong.
In the corner of his eye, Lasky saw Roland smile knowingly and shake his head. Lasky couldn't help but copy the action. "Marlowe doesn't know when to stop, whether you're ignoring him or not."
"He's a stubborn one," Roland said in agreement.
Master Chief shifted his gaze back to the duck again. "Yes. It-He exhibited a very... persistent demeanor."
Quack quack! Marlowe said. He must've grown tired of standing around and doing nothing as he began zooming across the room, his webbed feet slapping on the hard floor.
This day's events were indeed testing the Captain's professional abilities.
Lasky turned sideways to hide his face from the Chief's view, breathing in and out quietly to keep himself within the lines of professionalism. Inherently, he was losing the battle.
Turning back to face the Chief, he resigned to allow himself a light chuckle to ease the pressure, before clearing his throat. "It's nothing to worry about, Chief. You're not the first one to get stuck with Marlowe on your tail and accidentally lead him to enter uninvited places."
He shook his head in Marlowe's, silently scolding him. He looked at Roland, "Best to give a call to Benson about Marlowe," Roland nodded and proceeded to do so. Lasky eyed Chief with an easy smile, "It'll be easier to focus on the meeting at hand without further interruption, don't you think?"
If the Spartan had meant to say something, it was completely squashed by the sudden loud and repetitive quacking from Marlowe as the duck slowed his zooming in favor of circling around the Spartan where he stood, demanding the supersoldier's attention and didn't seem very keen to quit any time soon.
On the topic of interruption, Lasky was definitely going to have to step out for a bit before they continued.
Master Chief didn't bat a glance at the yapping animal at his feet and only gave a decisive nod.
Hours later, out of his armor, in bed and chasing sleep, John had put the duck-related part of the meeting out of his mind.
There was a very low thud on the door from outside.
He noted it, but didn't think much of it at first. Bumping, tapping, thudding sounds in general weren't unusual to hear in any UNSC frigate, especially one in the size of Infinity. The current marathon of War Games could also have something to do with it.
Roland's announcement of the marathon was heard throughout the ship, and John caught it just before he took refuge in his temporary quarters.
He figured he'd catch some sleep before his trip to Earth to meet the Security Council. Sleep was the most difficult task of all to complete as of recently.
Even as the low thudding sound continued and switched between more tap-like ones, John didn't worry about it. In fact, he almost welcomed it. It was too silent after Cortana.
Instinctively, he squeezed his eyes shut more tightly. Although the thudding sounds soothed him in a familiar way the breathing of his sleeping teammates used to, the absence of Cortana in his thoughts kept him awake.
The low thudding and tapping sounds continued without pause until, eventually, the Spartan had enough and got out of bed. He keyed open the door and was about to step out in search of the source when he saw it-or rather, him.
There, down on the floor. Looking up at him.
The duck. Marlowe.
Quack! he said, his whole face a big smile.
I found you! Marlowe quacked happily upon seeing the very large hooman he'd followed after earlier.
He trotted inside before the hooman could stop him.