AND another chapter into the life of Courage/ Allison and her adventures on Earth. Let's see what's happening in Texas. Enjoy!
Year: 2517; Location: City of Dallas, Texas, United States of America, Earth
Allison rubbed her brow to wipe away the sweat as she bent over her desk, staring intently at the report before her eyes. The single room of her apartment was illuminated by one measly lamp in the corner that did little to help or hurt her advanced vision. It wasn't much in the way of utilities, but it suited her needs.
Life in Galveston had been fine for the first few years that she had lived there, but the prospects of expanding her view of what humanity had to offer was extremely limited on the island. She had managed to move to the mainland with her friend Leonard and his little sister after Leonard had been accepted into a university in the much larger city of Dallas. She sold her home in the fixed-up apartment complex, brought a single apartment in the middle of the city, and made her way through a job as a bouncer at a local nightclub. She worked hard and got paid little, but it was a system that worked well in building a reputation for her in the run-down part of town where she lived. Nobody bothered the "out of sorts" Churches when Allison was a close friend.
However, as Allison reflected over the report that she was revising and editing for Leonard, there were several concerns in Dallas that had not been so in Galveston. The most prominent one was the recent string of kidnappings that had been happening throughout some of the larger cities and were targeting pre-teen and teenage girls. Rosie fit the bill perfectly as a target, and the youngest Church had to walk a few miles to get to and from the nearest school every day, with neither Leonard nor Allison to accompany her.
Allison's train of thought was interrupted by frantic knocking on her door, and shouts of "Allison!" coming through the rather flimsy wood. Setting down her pen, she stood up and opened the door to admit a panicking Leonard, who was looking around frantically for something that was not his essay. Allison caught him by the arms and held him still.
"Leonard," she said firmly, looking straight into the man's eyes. "Tell me what's wrong."
"Rosie!" he gasped, trying to pull himself together. "She hasn't called me yet, and school got out about 2 hours ago!"
Allison's heart sank. This was what she had been afraid of. "Leonard, you need to calm down-"
"How can you say I should be calm?!" the 18-year-old shouted in panic. "You haven't lost a little sister like this! You can't know how I feel-"
Allison slapped Leonard across the face, and he stopped babbling immediately, holding his smarting cheek. "Leonard, you need to calm down because panicking isn't going to tell us what happened to Rosie," she said angrily, gripping his arms harder more out of anger than insistence. "Give a call to the police, and see if there's anything that they can tell us."
Shakily, Leonard nodded and pulled out his cellphone to call the local police station. On a whim, Allison moved to the other side of the room and switched on the TV to the local news station. Bright neon letters flashed across the screen and immediately caught her eye:
ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING FOILED BY MYSTERIOUS HERO
The news anchor was giving a report about how a wrecked van had been the vehicle used by the kidnappers confirmed to have been behind the string of disappearances across the state. An attempted kidnapping of a 16-year-old girl had been foiled, apparently by an unknown passerby wielding a knife.
Allison turned off the TV as Leonard finished his conversation with the police. "They've got Rosie down at the station," he responded with relief. "She was almost kidnapped today, but they've got her and just finished interrogating her. I can go pick her up now."
"I think that you should go alone," Allison suggested, "because she'll want her big brother right now. I'll drop off your report later."
"Thanks, Alli," Leonard called a hurried farewell as he ran out the door to get to his car.
"I guess I need to talk to someone," Allison said to herself, giving a shiver and lighting a green candle on the windowsill by her desk. She got back to reading the report, getting up periodically to blow out the candle and relight it three times.
It was a good few hours after she had finished the report, and the sun had long-since gone, when Allison called out, "I know you're there. Come on in."
With a silent flutter, a small figure in dark clothing landed neatly on the windowsill, careful not to knock over the flame. "I was wondering if this was the right place," the teenage girl at the window said, entering the apartment and letting her white hair loose. "How did you know it was me?"
"I'm your mother," Allison pointed out. "I know everything. Now, why are you here exactly?"
"I thought you knew everything."
"Don't get cheeky," Allison gently scolded Song of Rising Skies. "I know what you did today."
"If you're going to yell at me for going against the Mantle and harming another being, please don't. I get that enough from Fate," Song argued. "Besides, they were willing to harm one of their own. The way that I see it, they deserved it."
"I'm not arguing with you on that one," Allison assured her rebellious daughter. "You did me a favor, actually." In a more conversational tone, Allison asked, "How are you? I haven't seen you for a few years now."
Song relaxed for a moment. "I have been trying to do well. Uncle Fate has been teaching me how to fight the Flood."
Allison went rigid with shock. "He took you to combat Flood? Where?" she asked sharply.
"On Beta and Theta Halo. There was a small outbreak there that could be handled, and I came here to take a small break."
"Song of Rising Skies, how can you put yourself in danger in that manner?!" Allison nearly yelled at her daughter, who shrank back at her mother's explosive concern. "Don't you care if you live or die?"
"What does it matter?" Song snapped back, her white hair flaring slightly. "I was made to be a weapon against the Flood. I'm fulfilling my purpose, making myself useful."
"But not until I feel that you're absolutely ready!"
"Mother, if you haven't noticed, you have not been in my life the past four years," Song hissed so as not to disturb the other humans. Her anger was causing her long white hair to rise and fall in some unknown wind, twisting and unfurling subconsciously. "I have had to depend on Uncle Fate to teach me what I needed to know, and you haven't offered me any guidance for what I'm supposed to do!"
"Were we sure that the Flood would even return?" Now Allison was becoming enraged at her daughter's rebelliousness. Her blonde hair was rising in the same invisible wind, and the papers on her desk fluttered wildly. "How could you take such rash actions?"
"Courage through Eternal Night, you need to know something." It was very offensive for a child to address their Forerunner parent by their full name before they had reached their second mutation phase. "I am a weapon first, and your daughter second. I can't forsake the future of all life in the galaxy just so that I can maintain my familial duties. The Mantle MUST be upheld."
"You can't just throw your whole life away for a destiny that you're not even sure of!" Allison almost screamed, and she was glad that the other inhabitants of the apartment block were out on the town at this time of the night. Objects were flying across the room in the heat of the Forerunner females' fury towards each other. "You have a life to live, and I will not see you forsake it. You are more than a weapon!"
"ENOUGH!" An unseen force slammed into Allison unexpectedly, and she slammed into the desk behind her, smashing it and forcing her into the stone wall behind her. As the weak lamp flickered out from the shock, the only light in the room came from the glowing eyes of the Forerunners: Allison's intense green, and Song's vibrant silver.
The silver extinguished, and the light returned to the room. Song looked horrified at the destruction her rebellion had wrought. Furniture had tipped, her mother's desk was broken, and she had almost injured her mother in the heat of their argument. Ashamed, Song of Rising Skies leapt back to the windowsill.
"I can't be your daughter anymore, mother," Song addressed the shaking Allison, who sat hunched on the ground and stared at her daughter neutrally. "I have to think of life first, and the Mantle. If I give up myself by killing the new Gravemind, then so be it. Please, forget about me. Or accept me as the weapon I am." With one last tortured look, Song was gone, and Allison could only give short gasps of pain and sorrow.
Year: 2518; Location: CLASSIFIED UNSC MILITARY LOCATION
Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey hummed a little ditty to herself as she looked through her clipboard of new reports from her primary project. Everything seemed to be going according to her plan in terms of the new Spartan- II project. All the subjects had been carefully selected and integrated into the program without incident… minus the numerous attempts by a select few of the children to escape and express their rebelliousness. However, she couldn't complain. They were children, after all. She was meant to look in on the project after completing her reports for the day and making some changes to her journal about the interesting technology found on UNSC colonies.
However, as Dr. Halsey keyed in the entrance code to enter her private office, the hairs on the back of her neck tingled. She was not alone. Someone had snuck into her office.
The door shut behind her, and the automatic lights showed a person in black clothing leaning against one of the filing cabinets, rifling through her reports! This person, what appeared to be a 19-year-old girl with plaited blonde hair, was brazenly standing in the middle of her office as if she had a right to be there!
"Hey!" Dr. Halsey exclaimed, and the girl looked up with those intense green eyes of hers. "Who are you? How did you get in here?" Dr. Halsey hastily made for the large red button on the wall to sound the alarm for an intruder, but she found that she couldn't move. Some force was holding her tightly, and moved her arms to her sides like a gigantic hand was holding her in its grip. The girl with tan skin, blonde hair, and green eyes silently finished reading the last of the report and looked back up at the scientist.
"Dr. Halsey, I presume?" the girl asked in a smooth, unconcerned voice.
"Who are you?" the older woman was panicking, trying to break the grip holding her tight but with little success.
"Someone who can help you," the stranger answered, closing the folder and putting it back in its correct place in the file cabinet. "Let's just say that I'm somebody that has a lot of information that you want, and someone you don't want to cross."
"You do realize that-"
"I'm trespassing on classified military property and talking to a scientist that technically doesn't exist about projects and information that don't exist either?" The blonde smirked. "Tell me something I don't know."
"Why are you even here?" Dr. Halsey demanded as the invisible "hand" that was gripping her loosened slightly.
"I told you, I'm here to help you," the stranger answered impatiently. "And your security system stinks. You might want to have that checked. Anyways, I've been going over your reports and files on your little "pet" project…"
"We are treating those children with the utmost care that we can in their training-"
"I don't want to hear your excuses or explanations," the blonde-haired girl cut across Dr. Halsey sharply. "What's done is done. I have no qualms with what you've done. However, you should know some stuff about your proposed armor design."
"What about it?" Dr. Halsey asked warily.
"With the proposed augmentations that you want to have these kids undergo in order to be able to support these exoskeletons, your armor design will be about 300 pounds more than they can handle."
"We have taken necessary precautions with the chemicals that are going to be used in the augmentation process," Dr. Halsey said, rather lamely.
"Even with those chemicals and the training. That's where my calculations are coming from," the blonde snapped.
"Alright, let's say that your calculations ARE correct," Dr. Halsey replied skeptically. "What do you suggest I do to correct it?"
"Change the material of the armor. The design is nice, I'll give you that much," the blonde conceded, "but you don't need to use such a heavy and expensive metal to make it. This particular titanium alloy that I put into your notes should be light enough for your Spartans to use quickly and efficiently, while not weighing them down in battle."
"Alright, so my armor is slightly faulty," Catherine sniffed at this knowledgeable stranger. "Is there anything else that I should know about?"
"Yes. The chemicals you are using for your augmentations are the wrong combination," the girl responded. "With what you have now, you'll be lucky to have one tenth of your subjects survive the surgery."
"How do you figure that?"
"You forgot to carry the one."
Dr. Halsey paused. "It's the best combination that we can figure with the formulas we have available for the surgery," she pressed.
"I went over that too. I made the necessary revisions into the file on your desk. You'll find that it works out much better for what you're trying to accomplish."
The pressure around Dr. Halsey dissipated, and she stood up straight again. "I must ask you, though; you seem so young. How do you know all of these things, and why are you helping?"
"How I know them doesn't matter, and I'm helping you because I think that what you're trying to accomplish, overall, is very noble. Twisted in its means, but noble in the end," the girl answered sagely.
"Are you with the Insurrection?"
The blonde's tan face twisted into a snarl. "Don't associate me with those low-lives," she growled in response. "I work for the benefit of humanity, not for some measly rebel group who can't tell a bullet from a trigger."
"Well, thank you for your…insight," Dr. Halsey managed to spit out, though she was still bewildered with this plethora of new information. "Is there a name that I can call you, should you call on me again?"
"Hopefully, I won't have to," the blonde responded. "But you may call me Allison."
"I won't tell anyone about this meeting that we had, should they ask where I got the information," Halsey assured Allison. "What would you want in return?"
"For now, my motives are altruistic," Allison responded, making for the door. "Let's hope that I won't have to call in that favor."Allison paused before she left. "Those kids have potential. You recognize that, don't you?"
"I have a few…favorites," Dr. Halsey admitted after a moment. "I really shouldn't, but some of those children have grown near and dear to my heart with how they've adapted."
"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Allison offered, ready to leave. "Keep those feelings close to you, because you never know when those kids will leave you. Take care, Dr. Halsey."
The girl called Allison left without a word, and Dr. Halsey collapsed into her chair, putting her face in her hands. For a moment, she was convinced that the blonde, tan-skinned girl was an apparition, a mirage that had come up because she was tired and stressed. Still, she couldn't bring herself to accept the fact that it HAD been an illusion giving her advice on how to proceed with her project, especially when she looked to the three electronic pads on her desk that certainly hadn't been there when she left the night before. Also, there was a book tucked inconspicuously in the right-hand corner of her desk; an honest to goodness, leather-bound book, much like the ones Dr. Halsey still wrote in and for which she nursed a soft spot. She picked up the book that had no title and examined the first few pages. Numerous symbol decryptions and diagrams shone in multi-colored ink through the pages, written in a neat hand and showing wisdom into some unknown human exploration. Those symbols were much like the ones…on the alien artifacts recovered from the colonies.
Curious as to Allison's insight, Dr. Halsey began perusing through the electronic files that had been left for her, and left the leather book for sometime later…maybe some nighttime reading, to nurse her imagination and allow her to think properly.
Yes, Allison helped out with the SPARTAN project. I think it answered the question as to HOW Dr. Halsey gained so much knowledge about the Forerunners. I always wondered that.
Anyways, read and review please. I'll get the next few chapters up soon.
Sincerely,
anna1795