Cassy and Herissmon sat off to the side and watched a Huragok upgrade Sam's armor. She had never seen the jellyfish looking alien before, and seeing one work it's magic on the MJOLNIR was cool to witeness. It had repaired the other Spartans' armor earlier and Sam was the last one as his need a little bit more work done.
"Wow! You're fast," she said as the alien put the plating back on and sealed it back up. It glanced over in her direction and tilted it's armadillo like head, six eyes blinking simultaneously. It raised it's tentacles and began to bend and wave them in a series of patterns she somehow understood.
"I have only done my duty, little Tamer," it said and then drifted out of the maintenance bay. Dead silence filled the room as everyone processed what just happened.
"It signed!"
"And we understood it!" Herissmon and she exchanged looks, and then noticed the stares they were getting. "What?"
"What was that language?" Kelly asked.
"We were speaking English?" Cassy gave her aunt a confused look and Fred shook his head.
"You weren't speaking English, Cassy," said Will. "It sounded...alien?"
"That was a Covenant dialect," Cortana chimed over the COM speakers. "Cassandra, has something like this happened before? You suddenly speaking a different language?"
She had to wrack her brain a bit, but nothing came to mind of anything like this happening before.
"No, nothing like this has happened before," she said, "but I think I have the beginnings of a theory of how this happened."
"Let's hear it."
"Okay, first, you all remember how I said John and I may have exchanged data while I was unconscious?" The only negative came from Sam and he was quickly informed of the incident that led her to get stuck in John's armor system for hours. "So, in a similar process, since I can read code and the Covenant has a similar code language to ours, I may have copied the knowledge of one of their dialects. I could probably read the data we got from the Halo without diving into a computer since I interacted with Forerunner code too."
"Test run time?" Herissmon asked with a big smile.
"Not the fun kind of test, buddy," Cortana informed him. "Come over to the COM station; I'll have something for you to read out loud."
Cassy did as she was told and walked over to the station. A paragraph of text popped up on the screen.
"Here's the translation we've constructed from the data you retrieved from Halo," the AI explained. "Read this out loud first and then we'll switch to the original text."
She read the words out loud, stumbling over a few big words she'd never seen before, but she got through it. Then she waited for Cortana to change the text.
"Uh, Cortana? Is it still supposed to be in English?" she asked after a moment.
"What do you mean?" now it was Cortana's turn to sound confused. "This is the original format."
Fred came over and looked at the screen. "That's not English, Cassy."
"It looks English to me." She looked back and forth between her dad and the screen. "What is going on here? Why is it coming up in English for me?"
"We need an extra head for this. Sierra-104, could you escort Cassy to Dr. Halsey's temporary lab? I've informed her of this development and I'm sure she'll want to run her own tests once she's done with Sierra-058."
"Oh, was the operation a success?" he asked with a hint of hope in his voice. "Is Linda okay?"
"Yes, Linda-058 is stable and in recovery now."
Cassy was sure her eyes were the size of dinner plates when she heard that. How did she not know this?! How many Spartans were on board? And why was Dr. Halsey here?! Fred gave her a look that said he would explain later before he put his helmet back on and motioned her out of the room.
Dr. Catherin Halsey sat back in the chair after hours of working on Linda-058. She was able to stabilize Linda and the woman was firmly back in the land of the living now.
Cortana had informed her of a recent development with Cassandra and she was preparing the needed equipment to run scans on the girl's brain now. Halsey wasn't easily shocked, but hearing that Cassandra had somehow gotten thrown into the Pillar of Autumn and survive all of the events that occurred on Halo had nearly gave the old woman a heart attack. She had many questions for the child, even after Jacob and Cortana debriefed her on everything including the girl's hacking abilities.
She activated her mini-computer and pulled up Cassandra's medical files, remembering every interaction she'd had with the daughter of Frederic-104. She had been the one to deliver the child, and she watched her grow over the years. Halsey saw much of Fred in the child and she wouldn't be surprised if the girl grew up to be a Spartan herself. The girl even had some of her father's augmentations; namely her reaction time and nigh vision were more enhanced compared to a normal child. Now, it looked as though the girl had gained her own special abilities by becoming something called a Digimon Tamer. She had an encounter with one of her partners earlier as well.
"Datamon?" Halsey called out and the creature appeared after a few seconds. "Can you explain to me what being a Tamer entails in Cassandra's case?"
"I can try to explain, but after the event on Halo and the retrieval of a Crest her situation is continuously evolving," Datamon started. "Before, a Tamer would be an individual that has a nearly unbreakable bond with their Digimon partner and is called upon by a Digital World for help. Once a Tamer has completed their mission in the Digital World, they gain the ability to dive through digital networks to get back to the Digital World they were called to or travel along data lines as Cassandra did to escape Reach, although there were so many slip space ruptures opening up that affected the COM lines she used and she got ejected out and into the Pillar of Autumn.
"After Cassandra connected with the Crest of Courage...well, I do not believe she is just a Tamer now. She is displaying additional abilities Tamers before her have never performed before; translating alien text after a brief jaunt in an alien network being a prime example of this. There is also the fact that she was able to merge with her partner Digimon, which has not occurred before in recorded history."
"That's an interesting use of words there, Datamon." Halsey pointed out. "Expand on your use of 'recorded history', please."
"In the data that was recovered from Halo and the existence of bypasses specifically meant for Tamers, there is evidence that these Forerunners have had Tamers among their ranks, possibly even in important positions. There is also the fact that they have recorded data on Crests like the one Cassandra holds, but it is sparse as it appears that it was a closely guarded secret."
"So we're going to possibly get more surprises from Cassandra in the near future."
"Cassandra and Herissmon," the Digimon corrected her. "The Crest affects both partners."
"Won't you also be affected as well?"
"I am not her primary partner, that position is held by Herissmon. Myself and her other partners bonded with her during her mission in the Digital World or later after she acquired their Dim cards. Herissmon is permanently bonded to Cassandra and will appear in any device she uses to interact with Digimon."
"Hmm." This was a lot to process, but now Halsey had a better understanding of Cassandra's situation. It would help to have her expertise in what Catherin planned to do.
A chime sounded and the person of conversation entered with Frederic-104 and a hedgehog creature in tow. She took note of Cassandra's healthier appearance compared to their last meeting three months ago. The girl had put on some much needed weight and Halsey didn't see any signs of her previous melancholy. Internally, she was glad the child was finally away from the Gideon family despite the circumstances that separated them.
"Cassandra," she greeted the child with a gentle smile and motioned her to sit in an empty chair.
"Hi, Dr. Halsey," the girl said wearily and dragged a chair forward to sit close to the desk Catherin was using. The Digimon accompanying her likewise got a chair and Frederic chose to remain standing close to his child. "So, you're not really a physician?"
"Pediatrician," Fred corrected the girl.
"No, Cassandra, I'm not that kind of doctor," Halsey got up and got out the sensors needed for the tests she was about to perform. "I'm a scientist contracted to the Office of Naval Intelligence. Do you know what that is?" She nodded as Halsey fixed the sensor pads onto the girl's temples. "Then you can guess that I'm the kind of scientist that does things no one else wants to."
"So why did you pretend to be a pediatrician?" Halsey stopped what she was doing and gave the girl her full undivided attention. She considered giving her a runaround answer, but decided to speak as much truth as she could without revealing details that were not appropriate for the girl to know.
"Because you are a Spartan's daughter, and there hasn't been another Spartan in record that has had children. No one knew what you would inherit from your father and no one else knows a Spartan's physiology better than I do.
"However, you're here for a different reason. Your brain is automatically translating alien text into English without warning and we're going to find out why."
Almost two hours later and Halsey could firmly say that Cassandra had completely surprised her.
"There's no change in brain activity!" she informed them, her eyes glued to the readouts and comparing them to a normal brain's readouts. "Fascinating. It's as though you are just reading another language as easily as English. Perhaps your position as a Tamer has something to do with this?"
Cassandra tilted her head and thought on it before saying, "No, I don't think that's the case, doctor. I've been a Tamer for roughly two years now and I've never had any other languages get translated automatically like this."
"Yeah," Herissmon added, "we had to rely on translation programs when we were in the COMs network or vocal translators."
"Then maybe your Crest has something to do with this? Herissmon, can you take the Digi-Bracelet and step outside with it?" The Digimon did as she asked and stepped out of the room with the device. The results remained the same after they ran the tests again, only now the Crest appeared glowing on the girl's left hand. "I thought your Crest was kept in the device?"
"I thought so too," Cassandra concurred. Fred brought Herissmon back in once the tests concluded. "This is so weird!"
"Well, despite our lack of answers and gaining more questions, we can conclude that this Crest of Courage is the reason why you can suddenly read alien script as though it were written in English." Halsey concluded out loud just her data pad dinged with a notification. "Let me know if anything else happens, Cassandra, Herissmon. For now, I need to check on Linda."
She waited for the three of them to leave before she checked up on Linda. Once she was satisfied by what she saw, she brought up the reports regarding the Halo construct and Cassandra's involvement in a data extraction mission. She scrolled through the information, and then realized something. There were no reports regarding the extraction of the Halo's Activation Index and the girl's involvement in the data extraction mission had been left out.
"Cortana, is there a reason why there is no report regarding the Activation Index?"
"Captain Keyes has not submitted that report yet," the AI she created answered almost immediately. "I do have data pertaining to the incident, however there will be gaps as those involved have not had the chance to report their parts in this."
Jacob had not compiled a report on this... Halsey found she couldn't blame him for withholding this information. ONI would want to exploit Cassandra's abilities and would try to replicate her version of hacking. She knew what ONI was capable of as they had green lighted the Spartan-II program to begin with and how traitors to the branch were dealt with.
Halsey's mind was firmly made up now, and she'd be damned if she failed to protect both the Spartans and Cassandra.