The transport landed softly in one of the docking bays and the hatch opened on the left side. Garrett walked out, the gauss rifle slung over his shoulder and a data cube strapped to his right leg. Maya followed, taking in the look of the place as they walked to the bridge. Ilana was there to greet him, smiling as always it seemed. She stopped smiling when she saw who was behind him. "Hello Ilana. How have you been?" Maya asked with smile. "M-mother?" Ilana asked. "Yes, it's me. I read the reports on you in the past. The scientists weren't too happy with your progress in acting as the control AI here. I for one thought you were doing quite well." Ilana eyes started to tear. "Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that you didn't make her?" Garrett asked. "I did make her, in a sense, as I am her mother, biologically as well as through the cortex scanning systems and thought translation programs I designed. Those bastards on Gorraha complex were the ones who put the designs in motion. Fara gota zhima to…" She seemed to curse at the end.
"I get the feeling you didn't like those guys who put her here? And hang on a sec. I thought she was an organoid? Auron told me she was the computer on this ship." Maya sighed. "You humans obviously don't have them yet. An organoid can mean anything that is organic and can run objects similar to an AI, and the programs I made allowed people to do this, such as a pilot interfaced with the ships controls for better flight, or a gunner to hit its target as if he was the gun itself. It her case, Ilana is the Nexus's AI, even though she is a forerunner. What you humans refer to as organoids are walking talking machines that are organic but were made by you. Not exactly enlightened." Garrett scratched his head for a sec. "Uh huh. Auron, next time I ask you a question about stuff you think I won't understand without details, give them to me please. I don't think I can take much more human bashing from her." Auron acknowledged. "So… that is kinda cool, being able to interface as the ship's AI I mean." Ilana smiled. "The reason that I hated those men for making this ship is that they abused her." Garrett became shocked. "Huh?! Those bastards!" Ilana looked depressed, averting her eyes from him. "If she didn't do something the way one of the scientists wanted, she was punished. I didn't mean sexually." Garrett sighed in relief, which Ilana seemed to notice and feel a little better. "Ilana, now that I'm on board, I need the science sector brought online and a room opened for me. I want secondary sensors and tertiary sensors offline in those areas. Furthermore, I need Sec bots placed at the entrances and key override codes for those areas as well" Maya told her.
Ilana acknowledged, and Garrett just stood there. "All the data that was downloaded is there mother. All production prints have been interfaced for the launch bays, all except one."
Maya cocked an eyebrow. "Which blue print didn't make it?" She asked. "The prints for the Battle Frame." Both women stared at Garrett. "Uh, Auron, can you give the blue prints to them to make them stop doing that look?" Auron denied the request. "Azraha technology was a top level experimentation base. The doctor, and for that matter anyone who is not from that complex, excluding you, is not allowed to have data from that area." Maya began to abject. "I have the highest clearance for all military installations. You can't keep it from me. Now hand it over. I need to see what our situation is, and if I have all the blueprints, it can broaden any plans we might have for stopping the humans and covenant from finding any other complexes." Auron again denied the request. "You do not have clearance from the shadow council." Maya frowned. "Fara togen tasho!" Garrett put his hands on his hips and cocked his head. "What do you mean 'we'? I'm the only human on board this ship remember?" Maya rolled her eyes. "Don't you understand? The fact that your trying to keep the evolution directive functional means that both of us are trying to do the same thing." Garrett crossed his arms over his chest. "Hang on. I'm trying to stop FACTIONS from getting this technology, not the entire human race. If I can give it to the right people, it would probably be used for the right things." Maya started to get annoyed. "Don't even think about it. If I even think your going to give my people's advancements to your inferior race, then…"
Garrett cut her off. "Inferior?! YOUR race was the one that got wiped out! We were the ones that found YOUR bases under rock and dust! WE didn't go extinct, you did! And anything that can keep us that way from the covenant is something that I intend to use!" Maya snorted. "Ugh, you barbarian! Your people couldn't understand one thing about our race's advancements, and you don't understand anything about why my people are gone!" She was yelling now, and so was Garrett. Ilana stood a little out of the way, watching both. "Now please, can we calm down? T-there is no need to yell. Please, please calm down." Ilana stepped between both. "Well we'll just see whose inferior!" Garrett still yelled, around Ilana no doubt. "Fine!" "Fine!" And Maya stormed from the bridge to some random place, probably the science sector. "Hmmph! That woman thinks she's so high and mighty! It was my 'inferior' ass that got her out of that crumbling library in the first place!" And with that, he stomped off the bridge, leaving Ilana alone, glancing at both doors they had walked through, sighing.
After one hour, Ilana decided that sensor scans where they were hiding the ship was starting to get boring. She decided to go and find her mother and see if she couldn't make her calm down and apologize for her actions. Garrett did, after all, save her from an abandoned base. Ilana walked out of the bridge and used a transporter to gain access to the science sector, where her mother's life signs were showing. She found her at a work station, reading through data on a portable pad, holographic screens floating in the air with other information. She was sitting down, with crossed legs and a cup of something greenish that had steam coming out. "Um… m-mother?" She asked. Maya looked up. "If your trying to make me forgive that brute, you have another thing coming" she said in a language that only Ilana and whoever else survived their race's destruction understood. "B-but they aren't that inferior. In, in fact they exceed us in some ways. Garrett is a psionic." Maya perked up at that. "What? How? That isn't possible! Our people could never achieve using our minds to manipulate the universe, why can his?" Ilana averted her gaze, a holographic screen springing to life. The screen showed Garrett's body structure, similar to that of Maya's and Ilana's, but since he was male, there were obvious differences, along with no extra muscles and cartilage in the ears. He also didn't have certain extra organs that they had, like and extra kidney near the stomach, or a third very small lung near the heart. What he did have was a far stronger bone structure, without the enhancements he was given, and two extra ribs, plus more muscles in the legs and arms, and a far stronger spinal column. "Here. His brain produces double the amounts of neurons and has 34% more nerve clusters. H-his frontal lobes allow for the abilities."
Maya studied the screen for a few seconds, silence hanging. "Our brains don't use that area for outside manipulation. We use that part of the brain for faster pattern differentiation and eye coordination. No wonder we are more advanced than the humans. They use that part for control of the outside, along with study and analysis of the world. No wonder they are so capable of modifying and refitting stolen technology. They aren't so inferior after all, just tenacious and war like." Ilana cleared her throat. "M-mother, isn't the war like part of them the reason they are standing a chance against the covenant? Our people… we…" Maya put her hand to Ilana's lips. "Shh. Don't say it. I know. We weren't that good in the military department… (sigh) fine. I'll will try to make up with him." Ilana smiled. "Thank you. I-I appreciate it." Maya started to walk to the door, then stopped. "You know, if you are that interested in him, you should just tell him how you feel." Ilana blushed heavily. "What?! Me? W-why? I don't know what you're talking about!" She stuttered out. "I know our people never liked interracial relationships, but our people aren't exactly around anymore are they? So whose to stop you?" Maya said quietly, a little bit of sadness in her voice. She started to walk out the door again, but was stopped by Ilana. "The (name not pronounceable in any human language) aren't all dead are they? Our race hasn't died off except for just me and you? There have to be more that survived." Maya pushed back some of her raven long hair, her pointed ears showing. "I don't know. Hopefully we can find out. That is another reason why I want to study this information. There might be some designs for some escape vessels, or secret colonies hidden away somewhere. Only time and study can tell." Maya walked away, on toward the beacon that showed where Garrett was. Ilana followed.
Garrett layed on his bed, fallen asleep to some very loud death metal. The signal from the door didn't reach him, and he kept slumbering. Ilana force coded the door opened, and Maya walked in. She saw him flopped on the bed, his arms and legs placed in a way that made him look like an Egyptian symbol. The headphones were blaring away, and Maya looked at Ilana. Ilana shrugged and stood there, and Maya turned back to take the headphones off. As she reached for the headphones, a hand shot out like lightning, grabbing her wrist. Garrett's eyes opened and stared angrily at her. He took the headphones off and got up. "What the hell are you doing in here?! Come to throw some more 'inferior' jokes at me? And how did you get in in the first… oh…" He saw Ilana standing at the door, slightly blushing. "Hehe… uh… m-my mother came to apologize." He rubbed his eyes glancing back and forth between them.
"Oookay…" He waited. "I… wish to apologize for my outburst a little while ago. Your people are not inferior to mine. In fact, they have many distinct advantages over us, though we still are more advanced in terms of a civilization. I did not mean to call you a barbarian. Please forgive me." She bowed her head a bit. Garrett sat there. "Apology… accepted?" He said. "Thank you." Garrett got up and stood somewhat at attention. "Ma'am, I also apologize for yelling and the improper course of slandering your people." Stand there like a good soldier and do this. If she was able to, you sure as hell can. "Apology accepted." He nodded. "Um… you find anything interesting in the files we got?" He asked. "Yes, actually. I found the creator of the frame you use, but nothing involving what he was working on. As for the frame itself, sensors on board this ship can't penetrate the armor, the jamming systems built in can actually override that of this ship, and Auron seems to be capable of ignoring any hacking that happens to try and get in." Garrett looked at the ceiling for a moment, before coming to his senses. "Wait a fucking minute! Did you try and hack into the armor?" He angrily said. "Sorry, I was trying to get those files from Auron, since he wouldn't give them to me. I don't like not knowing as much as possible. I didn't mean to do anything bad, just get those files." Garrett grumbled something incoherent. "Hey, I said I was sorry!" She yelled. "Yah yah yah. I heard ya the first time."
He rubbed his back a bit, wincing. "Problems?" Ilana asked. "Yah. My back hurts. Probably from the falls I seem to keep having every time I do something involving forerunners. Ouchie…" he yelped as he hit a tender spot. "Hey, Auron, can I take this thing off at all? It kinda scratches when I reach for my back." Auron was silent for a few seconds, and a few clamps undid on his arm cybernetics. The things suddenly started to absorb into his arm, like a liquid. "I will stay in the secondary storage systems of the ship until the cybernetics is registered as active again." Garrett acknowledged that, and Auron's voice disappeared. He cracked his back, hearing multiple cracking sounds down his spine. "Oh that felt good…" He sighed.
"I'm going to get back to the science lab. Oh, one more thing. Are your people born with psionic abilities?" Maya asked. "Hoy hoy hoy hoy?" he said, seemingly along the lines of "huh?" Maya got up. "I asked if your people were born with the psionic abilities or if you're trained in them." He stared at a wall for a second before looking back. "Both. And very few of us are born with psionics. Hasn't exactly worked it's away into the genetics of us humans fully. We have to train ourselves before we can actually use them. Why? Your people have them all over the place?" He asked. "No. Forerunners can't have them. Our brains don't seem to be structured the same way." Garrett's eyebrows raised for a second, then he ruffled his crew cut. "Well, now my people do have an edge don't they? What about the covenant?" He asked. "I believe the beings they call 'prophets' are the only ones that have them, and they are quite skilled as well. I was wondering if I could run some tests on a few skin samples and blood from you?" Maya asked. "uh… I… don't like needles. Please tell me you aren't going to use needles…" She smiled and walked over to the replicator. "Empty hypo please." An empty hypo spray materialized and she took it and placed it on his arm. It felt funny to him, like something sucked on his arm for a second before she pulled it away. She had samples of his skin in it, and a small vial of a red liquid inside. His arm itched where she placed the hypo and he scratched. "Alright. I think I'm going to run the tests with the autodocs and take a small nap myself after finishing in the science lab. I'm not up to my normal energy level after being in that stasis pod for so long." She nodded to Garrett, still scratching his arm, then left.
"D-does your back still hurt?" Ilana asked. "yah, but it felt good to crack it. That thing over there able to create any anti-ache cream?" He asked, still scratching his arm, while his other hand rubbed his back, looking somewhat like an ape at a zoo doing a dance. "Y-you can always inject a pain-killer into…" And he stopped her. "No. No injections. No needles. No hypos that itch like hell." He lied down on the bed on his stomach, rubbing his back and trying to stay straight. "T-then, um, I might assist you with pressure points, or maybe, what your people use… what was it… a message?" He twisted his head to look at her. "This doesn't involve me feeling extra pain does it? Cause I've had some really bad experiences with massuses and they always think it's a good thing to use their elbows." She shook her head. "What do I have to do?" He asked, still rubbing his back, slight strain in his voice. "Um, well, take off your shirt and lie still." He did as he was told, and she blushed behind him as he did so. He wasn't exactly built and muscular, but he did have a fair muscle tone to his body, being a marine and all. On his right shoulder blade, a blackish tattoo with red and gold etching in it for the words "Guardians" and a medieval footman in blue plate mail, sword shining, face plate for his helmet down. She placed her hands gently on his back, pressing at muscles and determining where the pain was. He winced as she moved her left hand to the small of his back, toward the right of his spine. She rubbed her thumb carefully in a circular motion, accessing the data stored in the ship for what to do. "Ouch, Ah… oooohhh, that feels kinda good…" He winced a bit then sighed. He heard another crack come from his spine, and his eyes widened. "Oh shit, did my back just give out?" He wiggled around a bit, testing his theory. No pain hit, and he could move around. "Perhaps one of your spinal discs did the same thing it did before?" Ilana asked. "Maybe. Hopefully it won't happen again, or I'm going to be afraid." She gently placed her hands back on him again, messaging muscles and tense areas. He started to almost melt under her hands, and started to get drowsy. "My back is on vacation…" He said groggily.
Ilana smiled, wondering about what Maya had told her. "Um… Garrett?" She said softly. She heard a small "humph?" come from him as his eyes were closed and his face lay facing the opposite side of where she was sitting. "Um… I was wondering about what we talked about a while ago, about the novels with elves and humans having a relationship." No answer came from him. "It seems that it was always the elves that kept the relationship from happening, and well, I, I was wondering, would it be possible if…" She stopped for a second, gathering her courage. "I wonder if you might feel anything for me? I, I think I might have feelings for you." again no answer. "Garrett?" She whispered, and moved closer to see if he was thinking or something else. His eyes were closed, his face somewhat pressed into the bed, and soft breathing was being heard. He was asleep. He didn't snore, though he did seem to be dreaming, his eyes moving around under his eyelids. Her smile widened a bit, Ilana looking somewhat content. She brushed the back of her hand against his face, his five o' clock shadow feeling ruff against her skin. He snapped awake almost immediately, Ilana jumping back as he sprang to life. "Just five more minutes Major! Five more minutes and I'll be at the drop bay! I haven't slept in 72..." He looked around the room. "Oh… I thought I was being thrown on a mission… just a nightmare…" He laid back down and was asleep as fast as his head hit the pillow again. She stared, surprised, at the soldier. Sleep walking? Or maybe he really did wake up at my touch? She thought. "Sleep well, Garrett. I'll tell you another time." Ilana got up and walked to the door, a small smile on her face. "You don't have to worry about people making you go on those missions anymore. No one is going to use you again. I'll make sure of that." She left the room, the lights dimming out as dreams of battle and whatnot flowed through Garrett's head, and mischief and planning happening in Ilana's.