Chapter Nine

Breathing in the air of the atrium felt so refreshing. It was crisp and clean and fresh. Made by trees, not stored in tanks.

John and I walked lazily down the path, our hands linked.

I glanced up at John. "What do you want to do?"

He shrugged.

"Okay." I glanced around with a hum. "We could just walk."

But I was eyeing the field to our right. The grass looked so lush and thick and green.

John felt my emotions and followed my gaze. He dropped his hand on my head with a grin.

"Go on." He nodded towards the field.

I returned the grin and walked out into the grass. Of course my undersuit had feet, so I couldn't actually feel the grass. But it was close enough. I would let it be close enough.

I sat down and ran my hands over the greenery. It had been so long since I'd just sat and enjoyed nature.

John sat down on a bench nearby. His attention moved from me, to the nearby people, to the wildlife in a continuous cycle.

"You're so vigilant," I teased.

"I'd rather be vigilant than unaware."

I sprawled out on the grass with my arms out on either side. "Is that your way of telling me to pay more attention?"

Our amusement mixed together in the bond, enriching and amplifying it.

John shifted. "Maybe it is."

I giggled a bit. "You could have just said so."

He just shrugged.

My eyes closed. I could feel the artificial sun glowing down on my face, strange and yellow but warm.

It was so peaceful. And being angry made me so tired. I'd been so angry recently. Since a few days after John got hurt.

But I wasn't angry in the moment. I was peaceful, and relieved, and tired.

I felt myself falling asleep.

John poked at my mind to keep me awake.

I groaned and sent him my fatigue.

He responded by offering his alertness. I accepted it with a bit of a mental shrug; what could it hurt?

John's perception was faster than mine. It was a physical thing; his neurons had been fine-tuned to communicate three hundred percent faster than mine. So his thoughts were three hundred percent faster than my own.

From his perception, sometimes, everything was moving in slow motion.

Sometimes his perception was too overwhelming for me. He jumped from thought to thought to thought in the time it took me to process one.

But his alertness was a state of being. Almost like an emotion. That didn't have a speed, it just was.

And now I wanted to move.

I pushed myself to my feet and walked past John, across the paved pathway, and into the edge of the small forest along the wall.

John brushed against me. "Where are you going?"

"I don't know," I admitted.

I could feel something in the trees. Something innocent and skittish.

It knew I was there, and it was a bit intimidated.

So I sent out some calming emotions. And I stepped forward, slowly, with my hands out in front of me.

It was a dog. She was staring at me with big brown eyes.

They had a dog on Infinity?!

I cooed, "Hi, there. I didn't know there were dogs here."

She just cocked her head up at me.

"You're so cute." I walked a little closer. "What's your name?"

Her tongue lolled as she grinned at me. She sat back on her haunches and held a paw up.

"Aww." I sat on my knees in front of her. "You're such a sweety."

My hand ran over her head, scratching behind her ears. There was a thick black collar around her neck.

I held the heart-shaped tag between my fingers. "'Ash'? Well, Ash, it's nice to meet you."

She was on the smaller side of medium, with grey fur and black splotches. She looked like some kind of terrier.

John was headed my way. He could feel that I found something, and he knew I wasn't scared, but he also believed I was unafraid of a lot of things I should have been afraid of.

I liked to think I gave people the benefit of the doubt, but he'd been trained to never give the benefit of the doubt.

He walked up behind me.

I grinned up at him. "I found a dog!"

He eyed the smallish terrier. "Is it safe?"

"I'm pretty sure." I started scratching behind Ash's ear. "She's so cute."

He just watched.

The dog rolled over onto her back and looked up at me with beseeching eyes.

"Aw." I crossed my legs and started rubbing her stomach.

She whined happily and started kicking her leg.

"I see you found Ashy."

Both John and I turned to face Lasky. Ash rolled onto her stomach with an inquisitive whine.

"She's so sweet." I looked up at the Commander. "Is she yours?"

Lasky knelt beside me and patted Ash on the head. "She's Infinity's mascot."

"I love her," I cooed.

Lasky grinned. "Yeah, she's a good dog."

I poked Ash's nose. "Are you a good dog?"

She batted at my hand with a whuff.

A laugh bubbled in my chest. "Yeah, I think you are."

John was standing behind us, looking down at the dog. His arms were crossed; he was uncertain about the entire situation.

I turned to him and held a hand out. "Come on. She won't bite."

He knelt on my left, on the other side from Lasky, and stared at the dog.

"Hold your hand out so she can smell you," I guided.

John held his hand out, knuckles up.

Ash stretched her neck out and sniffed at him. She ran her nose over his scarred hand. Then she licked his knuckles.

I smiled. "And now you can pet her, if you want."

John reached forward and rested his hand on the top of her head. He ran his thumb down her head.

Ash leaned into the touch, her right ear twitched up.

John glanced at me uncertainly.

I ran a hand down his arm. "That's good, it means she likes it."

He returned his attention to Ash.

Ash, for her part, was in heaven. Between John, Lasky, and me, she was being petted so much more than usual.

"Why haven't I seen her around the ship?" I asked Lasky.

He shrugged. "Well, she doesn't leave the atrium much. There are a few squirrels, and the birds, so she's got plenty of entertainment. And we leave her food and water beside a few benches."

"Makes sense." I nodded. "I'd stay here forever, too, if I could."

"Wouldn't we all." Lasky looked tired.

oOOOo

The medics had cleared John for active duty again; his concussion was completely gone. It had probably been gone a while ago, but they hadn't checked in a few days.

But since he was good to go, ONI and Commander Palmer had sent us down with a group of researchers to investigate a Forerunner structure in the mountains of Hévíz. I was excited to get back out. I was nervous, too.

What if I messed up and got someone hurt again?

John calmly insisted that I would listen, and my fear was proof. He was probably right.

"It's just ahead," Dr. Morgan Rivera said.

Dr. Rivera had two interns with her, and the other doctor, Dr. Dennis Russell, had one. The interns were mainly there to carry equipment but at least Dr. Rivera was coaching her interns on things to look for once we entered the structure.

We - the civilian personnel - were surrounded by Blue Team on all sides. John was behind us, Fred was on our left, Linda was on the right, and Kelly was leading the way beside Dr. Rivera.

I wanted to be out there with them but John insisted I was part of the research team today. Even though I was fully armored up.

"Clark," Dr. Russell called from a few paces ahead of me, "is there anything we need to know before we dive in?"

I blinked. "Well...well I won't know until we get there."

He nodded and refocused on the terrain.

We crested a small rise and were met with an intricate metal spire that rose at least a hundred feet into the air. It looked like one of the entryways into the catacombs of a Halo Installation.

John came over the comms, which the scientists couldn't hear. "Kelly, Fred, scout the entryway."

They responded in twin affirmations and moved ahead. Linda took up the front of our group and stopped, so that the scientists didn't follow Fred and Kelly towards the structure.

The two SPARTANs wove through the spires with their guns up and their posture alert. I felt Linda tense every time one of them disappeared from view behind a flat metal fin.

"It's clear, Chief," Fred reported.

John nodded. "We're advancing. Tawny, take point."

I nodded and joined Dr. Rivera at the front. Linda fell back, and John moved to the left flank.

This place felt old, and tired. But it was deep. Not physically, although we did have to go underground, but spiritually. Historically.

I led the way down the ramp and Kelly and Fred took up the rear of our group. Kelly turned backwards to guard us as we descended.

There was a moderately large room in front of us, round and lit by the blue light lining the walls. The only thing in the room was a round elevator platform.

I paused. "John?"

"Is it safe?" he asked.

"Probably?" I walked up and placed my hand on the elevator control console. "I-I don't feel like it's… I don't think it's dangerous down there."

He nodded, and we filed onto the platform.

When we were all on board he said, "Take us down."

I closed my eyes, my hand still on the console, and instructed it to lower the platform.

I heard one of the interns let out a surprised sound as we descended. The descent was too quick to be comfortable for the scientists; Blue Team had magnetized our boots to the floor.

When the descent stabilized I pulled my helmet off and watched floors rush past. None of them were calling to me, so we were going deeper.

"Clark, shouldn't we stop on every floor? This is a research mission," Dr. Russell said.

I shook my head, my eyes still on the shaft above us. "There's nothing in these floors."

"But for the sake of thoroughness, I must insist we check every floor."

"There's nothing to check," I said.

He stepped closer. "But how do you know that? We're neglecting our duty by skipping them!"

Neglecting our... Christ, he sounded like a fucking Monitor or something. Like 343 Guilty Spark, all self-righteous and unbending.

I met his eyes, and my gaze was fierce. "ONI said what happens on this mission is at my discretion, and I say we go deeper. There's nothing in those floors, and I'm not stopping this platform until I think there's something to find."

Dammit, why was I so angry?

I composed myself. "I'll feel it if there's something here."

Dr. Russell didn't respond.

The platform began to slow without my consent. I reached out and discovered that we were nearing the very bottom of the shaft.

John felt my confusion. "What is it?"

"We're at the bottom, and I haven't felt anything." I pulled my helmet on to hide my puzzled expression.

John was as confused as I was. He had a few theories to offer, like maybe there was nothing of use in this structure.

"Why have we stopped?" Dr. Rivera asked.

I cleared my throat. "We're at the bottom of the shaft. I-I didn't feel anything, at all."

Dr. Russell couldn't decide if he was amused by my folly or pissed at my failure. I couldn't decide if he was worth keeping alive.

But...unfortunately, he was right.

I held in a sigh. "I guess we'll have to search every floor."

"Might as well start with this one," Dr. Rivera said with a decidedly chipper attitude.

She started off with a determined but upbeat mood, and the rest of the group was close behind.

We all walked through a massive arched doorway and into an empty, dark room. The only light came from the shaft behind us. It was enough to illuminate the far wall; the entire room was very narrow and circled around the elevator shaft like a gear on a manual transmission's drive shaft.

There was nothing in the room. I couldn't feel anything other than the essence of Forerunner presence.

Dr. Russell was looking around in a sour mood.

"I'll check the rest of the room," he announced.

Dr. Rivera stood up from her spot beside a large scanner. "Dennis, we'll have this entire room mapped in ten seconds as soon as the CHASMS is set up."

"I don't trust the Imaging Systems to catch everything, Dr. Rivera." Dr. Russell walked off.

I leaned against the door frame. "I really don't feel anything in this entire place. Is it just me?"

"It's not just you," John assured me. "The structure feels empty."

"I think this is a waste of time," I admitted softly.

He offered me comfort through the bond. "There will be others. We'll find a terminal, don't worry."

I didn't respond.

The second highest floor was the first place we found something, so many hours later. There were carvings on the wall, neatly-scrawled notes in a Forerunner language that I had never seen before. I could read it all the same.

"We have to get this translated," Dr. Rivera gushed as she scanned the partially-scribed wall. "I can't imagine what this could say."

"It's a message of doom," I said.

One of the interns, a wide-eyed young man with black skin, glanced up at me from the scanner. "Wh-what's that supposed to mean?"

"The Forerunners aren't here right now, are they? They went extinct. The group that made this place wanted to prevent the extinction but they lost to their political enemies and Halo was activated." I walked up to a line of text. "This is the most recent message here."

"What does it say?" the intern asked.

"'The Master Builder wields far more power than anticipated. Our resistance to a futile end may come to a close before we can achieve our goals and protect the sanctity of life. Let this message be a warning to any who reads it; if this is the final message, the Council seeks to eradicate life within our galaxy for the chance to put an end to the Flood. This heresy seems inevitable. Prepare.'"

There was a pause.

Dr. Rivera asked, "What does the rest of it say?"

I looked up at the massive block of text that covered most of the wall in front of us.

"It's chronicling this group's fight against the activation of Halo. It's wordy, and most of it's generic. They were documenting everything." I looked up at John. "They were desperate."

oOOOOo

Author's Note: Hi guys! So I didn't get much response to last week's options so I decided Yes on the lemon scene and No on revealing John's last name. Have any of y'all gone back to college or school or work yet? I have! I hate it!