Disclaimer: I don't own the properties, just the story, please don't sue an empty pocket!

AN: Okay, you guys have been waiting long enough already. It's short, and it's only part of what I planned on putting out, but you guys need to be fed something, and I need to get something out or I'll feel like I'm dragging my heels. I should have the other half of this done within a week, but don't hold your breath, I don't want to be responsible for dead readers!

Bold: Emphasis
Italics: Thoughts, radio, other languages

Leviathan sighed as she put down yet another of the books at the desk, adding it to the pile of 'read' ones along with the little paper pamphlets. Rather than sleep, the cruiser had spent the night going over all of the given info with a fine toothed comb, only to be disappointed in terms of its details. Not only were they apparently geared towards those coming from the era of 1930 and forward, whoever had written them was obviously trying not to veer into any personal bias or single-nation ideology. Something which, while a definite plus in Levi's book, meant that she was getting something of a mixed bag in terms of cold hard facts. On the one hand, what the books and pamphlets stated as being 'current' did seem to match up with what she'd been seeing and hearing, but it also meant that they were expecting the reader to have an already established baseline of culture to work off of that was most DEFINITELY not UNSC standard. In truth, going over those had pretty much only taken her half of the night. The rest had been spent going over the outline for what Levi herself was calling the 'Gift Basket'.

Looking down at the dataslate in her lap, not the one that Umbra had given her but apparently one from her own internal stocks (and wasn't that a weird way of finding out that you COULD in fact upsize what she had on board? Oh, the possibilities!), Levi frowned again at the list that she'd made. Several articles had been typed in and discarded, but a few were listed right up near the top of it that the displaced Marathon had felt were absolute necessities.

First and foremost were the basis for room temperature superconductors. If it hadn't been for the horror show she'd found 'online', the fact that no one on this planet had anything like it would have given her a near heart attack. Considering how it was the basis for nearly every single computational advancement in human history as far as the last 500 years had gone in her knowledge, it was safe to say that that particular tidbit was going to be a priority if humanity here on 'Earth' were going to be able to use anything she could give them.

This tied into number two: Fusion reactors. The massive amount of power that these could give could NOT be understated, no matter what level one was talking about. In all honesty, if she weren't skeptical of what the 'faeries' were, she'd have literally just handed over one of her marines' backpack reactors and told them to go to town on it. ...Okay, that and the fact that she'd be the WORST kind of irresponsible to not give these guys at least the hard info and background on fusion development and research BEFORE she got into that, but it was tempting…

And then there was number three, Artificial Gravity. While the first two were huge game changers in and of themselves, it was surprisingly this third one that allowed the first two to REALLY become usable on a large scale. A-grav meant that producing specialized materials for construction and development was a cake-walk compared to some of the other methods, and without it, humanity here would likely take another century or more to build up their means and production in any meaningful amount of time..

Then there was the medical knowledge. This was a given because of all the 'carrots' she could give, this was probably the sweetest in terms of its usefulness not just to the military, but the civilian sector as well. She had no idea what this world had in terms of pathogens or diseases, but Levi was willing to bet her left hangar bay that there was going to be a use for even just the medical database in her core, to say nothing of the specialized tools and medicines themselves…

The rest however… There was a gamut of knowledge that she could pass off to the locals, but what to prioritize? And with that same question, was there anything that she SHOULD hold back? That particular one was nagging at the fore of her mind, as on the one hand, it could mean the difference between life and death for this world… But on the other, the fact that they seemed to still be split into factions and divisions made her hesitant as to whether she could trust them not to turn those technologies against one another. Automation, material sciences, terraforming… All would be useful OFF planet, but if used in the wrong way, it could spell doom for this world too without some kind of fallback plan.

And then there was the biggest conundrum in the whole mess… Slipspace. Pros and cons could be weighed all day long again and again, but in the end, it was a huge risk. Slipspace was the closest thing Humanity had to a Holy Grail in terms of interstellar travel, and for more reasons than just its use in getting around. On the other hand… The Covenant COULD track things going through slipspace itself, and the LAST thing Levi wanted was for this planet to essentially put a giant neon sign above itself saying 'HUMANS HERE! COME AND GET US!'

Sighing, Levi let her head fall back until the rough ponytail holding her bluish hair back tapped against the molded back of her chair. "God, what I wouldn't give for an analysis team in full…"

'You know, we COULD speed this up if you got me access to their datanet again. I mean, we do have the means of accessing it remotely, but there's still a lot of format issues that I want to try and fix…'

"Nope, not happening Heph," Levi said back to her electronic companion, keeping her voice down just in case there were any listening devices that she and her crew hadn't found while switching to Hungarian.

"Levi, you can't go avoiding it forever,' the AI said in response, before giving the electronic version of a smirk. 'Heh, this has to be someone's idea of a joke.'

"What do you mean?"

"You're probably this world's most advanced computer-equipped vessel, with processing power out your stern, and yet you're afraid of a little server skimming.'

"I am NOT afraid!"

'Could have fooled me.'

"Heph, there's a difference between being afraid and being prudent."

"I think you mean just 'prudish'."

"What was that?!"

'I'm just saying, you're acting like it'd be the end of the world if you so much as looked at it. I CAN handle any bit of malware that a network of this nature can throw at you, and you CAN just ignore or scroll past any of the dirty stuff, so is it REALLY that worrisome?'

"When you find yourself the target of others' unashamed lusts, THEN you can talk! Until then, let me have this..."

Leviathan would have said more, but the sound of footsteps coming down the hall interrupted her. And sure enough, within moments there was a knock at the door as Levi saved the document she was working on before putting in in a thigh-pocket. "Come in…"

The door slid open to reveal Nagato standing there once more, looking over Levi and her room with wine-red eyes with a serene expression on her face. "Good morning. I hope that your sleep was uneventful?"

Levi gave a small smile in response. "Actually, I've spent most of it going over your 'welcome back' book collection here. You must have had some interesting times to come up with some of them..."

The battleship nodded in turn. "Indeed. Some of our girls are quite… lively, on their return. Still, if you would like, I've gained permission for you to visit the mess hall to see about getting you restocked. If you'd like?"

Levi had a fleeting thought to say 'thank you but no thank you', when her quartermasters loudly exclaimed that they still needed a hell of a lot of material to restock on, and thus she gave a nod of her own. "I think that would be quite lovely actually. By all means, lead the way…"