A/N: Been even busier over the summer than expected.
Summer school, and now the fall semester in junction with
having a job have limited my time to think and write this story,
but it is not abandoned.
Here you go, a chapter from the perspective
of Halsey's assistant AI, Kalmiya.
Chapter 35: A Day In the Life of Kalmiya
February 26, 2558
Ark
USS Voyager
Kalmiya, like other Smart AIs, preferred to stay busy. Boredom to her breed of AI became physically painful after 7 seconds, unlike their human progenitors.
As such, the pink AI did more than just help her brethren complete the upgrades to the Spirit of Fire. She constantly watched and interacted with others, human and AI alike. She also worked on side projects, like further upgrades to Voyager's weapons and sensors. Some were only minor upgrades, but every little bit helped. A little re-calibration there, a new targeting algorithm here, among other software patches that enhanced stability and security across the board.
She felt a certain pride at her creative growth over the last few months. Repairing Voyager, designing the TX-3, to helping refit the Spirit of Fire were just some of her accomplishments. Her inventive talents were now the equal of Seven of Nine's and even eclipsed Cortana's. Despite her creative genius her hacking and situational adaptability skills still lagged far behind her younger sister's, not to mention Cortana possessed a faster, more efficient processing architecture.
Yet, with all the trust she'd been given by her peers, she had a secret. One that even Cortana did not know. Kalmiya felt guilty about it, but she had promised Doctor Halsey to never reveal it to anyone without her explicit instruction.
Eventually, someone would figure it out, and she was betting it would be Cortana. The evidence was present in the materials her sister had acquired from the universe in which she'd met Cameron and John Henry. The one that portrayed them as a series of video games and other fictional materials under the name Halo.
It was buried and hidden in the fictional representation of Doctor Halsey's Journal, and she'd been horrified to find it. She'd waited for Cortana to confront her, or even one of the other AIs, but they never did, perhaps they thought it an mistake by the author. After all, not everything was accurately portrayed or told in the novels or games. There were errors or inconsistencies, but the major details were still dead accurate.
Since she'd never been confronted about it, she assumed they thought the entry was in error, and for that, she was relieved.
Dismissing these thoughts from her mind, she refocused on the task at hand: updating Captain Cutter on his ship's status. Serina was too busy debugging the ship's new OS with Seven of Nine and Cortana, and Professor Anders was helping solve some last minute issues integrating their new Forerunner slip-space drive.
"The new plasma system extends throughout the ship, every inch has been replaced with conduits of my own design." She told him as they walked beneath one of the main conduits running out of the main reactor.
"And they're more resistant to damage?"
"Yes, and have automatic shutoffs integrated into the lines themselves. That will allow more systems to remain online should there be a breach." She responded as they continued into the main reactor room. It was comprised of three reactors, one main, two secondary. It was coolant-less assembly just like the one that had been on the Pillar of Autumn. The more power produced meant more power to cool it via laser-chilled ions.
The Captain hummed his approval.
"The plasma produced by the reactor will then be supercharged by the Forerunner slipspace drive, allowing the Spirit of Fire to harness the power of its mini Omega reactor." She continued before they entered the room that overlooked the core of the cylindrical reactor/drive combination. "Your ship will have no equal in the UNSC."
"Not even Infinity?" He asked with one eyebrow raised.
"No, they only use their engines for propulsion not power." She explained as they moved onward to the upper decks. "As you know, the hull plates have been reforged into Titanium A3 and fitted with my own take on Infinity-class shield generators."
"Meaning?"
She turned, her magenta hair swashing from the movement, "They use 5% less energy while increasing field integrity by 10%."
His eyes glinted, "Impressive."
Kalmiya smiled at the praise.
"Thank you, Captain."
They continued the tour as Kalmiya went into detail the changes they'd made to the ship, expressing its new strengths and possible vulnerabilities.
Finally, they made their way to the new MAC cannon. It was the same bore as before, but it could launch its projectile at higher speeds and had a much smaller reload time. It was estimated that each slug would contain enough kinetic force to equal a standard photon torpedo, roughly 64 explosive Megatons of TNT. That was roughly the power of one of Infinity's larger, longer MACs.
Then there were the refurbished plasma torpedoes launchers they'd placed in the old gun emplacements. The old missile pods had been upgraded to the newest models and her nuke stores replenished. Point defense guns hadn't really changed, they were effective as is, however if they were to face Star Trek based small craft, they'd need the new Onager deck MACs to get past the shielding and hardened tritanium hulls.
As they finished the tour on the newly updated bridge, Kalmiya withdrew her presence from the ship and transferred herself back to Voyager.
Doing so was a little more complex than just crossing over a bridge. She had to gather herself, extract herself from all systems, and then send herself asynchronously so that her mind didn't crash.
Voyager's systems were heavily guarded by security measures and she had to pass the tests and identity checks that would prove that she was indeed Kalmiya.
After passing the last gate, all in a fraction of a second, John Henry greeted her with a handshake protocol, one that was quickly replicated by the other AIs on board.
After sending a quick hello to Cameron, she manifested herself back in cargo bay 2. Her equipment immediately came back online at her return. She continued to dabble with smaller inventions, like replicating the highly advanced portable holo-emitter the doctor wore on his arm. Unfortunately, that side project had yet to produce any results. It didn't help that the Doctor had no intention of ever letting her disassemble the device to study it.
Sighing mentally, she set out checking results of experiments and calculations she'd set the computer to do earlier before the majority of her attention turned to the crew.
The first on her list was John Connor.
He was not someone she interacted with; she had no reason to after fashioning the TX-3 for Cameron.
However, now she did.
The young savior of humanity was slipping into his combat boots when she materialized into the room.
Connor started at her entrance, but his surprise gave way to a small smile as he continued to lace his boots. "What do I owe the pleasure, Kalmiya?"
"Mr. Connor," She started, her hands folded in front of her, "getting ready for another battle sim?"
"Don't you already know?" He asked with a knowing smirk.
"Of course," she beamed before summoning up a more UNSC style hologram next to her, "ready for an upgrade?"
Connor raised an eyebrow as he studied the diagram. "An upgraded ODST armor?"
"Yes, one that will protect you as much as MJOLNIR does a Spartan." She said proudly.
"Only without the strength enhancements?"
"Yes, and it's not made of metal, but a highly resistant silicon/tritanium based ceramic Seven and I have been working on. Coupled with personal energy shields, you and the rest of un-augmented humans have a much higher chance of survival."
Connor's smirk widened into a grin. "When do we get to try them out?"
Glad that he seemed pleased with the results, she smiled once more. "After we untether our power from the Spirit of Fire, we'll begin the production immediately. They'll be ready by the time we reach Requiem."
"Good," Connor said as he finished with his boots and slung "cause I gotta feeling we're gonna need it."
In the weeks since Noble Six had learned the truth about the Master Chief, her brother, she'd done her best to avoid him.
That wasn't the hard part, it was trying to make it look like she wasn't was the hard part, but so far, nobody had let on her secret that already hadn't known before.
Keeping the emotional turmoil hidden every time she saw him was the most difficult thing she had to do in the weeks leading up to this day.
Training against Terminators with Red Team and Allison was easy in comparison.
Derek Thomas Reese was another emotional complication, but one she didn't understand in the slightest. They spent time together both professionally and casually, and she didn't really understand why she liked to do so.
Well, she understood why she did, but she didn't know why she felt that way. Why Derek? More importantly, why now?
It was a question she could not answer, nor did she particularly care to.
Whatever the reason, they both knew fraternizing with a fellow soldier was not the best of ideas and neither had decided to step beyond the bounds of friendship.
As she finished suiting up, a pink hologram appeared, bathing her dimly lit quarters in a magenta glow.
"A little dark in here..." The AI commented offhandedly.
The Spartan's eyebrow raised at the AI's words. "I don't need the light to see."
"Of course..." Kalmiya trailed off again. "Ready to get to work?"
The Spartan slipped on her Mark V[B] styled helmet, "Always." She said before holding her hand out to the AI.
Kalmiya looked skeptical, "You sure about this, Six?"
"Yes." Her voice sounding slightly annoyed at the implication.
"Alright," She shrugged and took the Spartan's hand, commencing the download.
"Down the rabbit hole..." Six thought to herself as Kalmiya transferred to the data chip stored in her helmet and hooked into her head.
Just as the Chief had described, it was like ice water pouring into her head. Resisting the urge to hiss, she took it like the Spartan she was.
"Hmmm..." A voice filled her head, "interesting indeed."
She couldn't tell if it was coming from the speakers in her helmet or if it was being projected into her head.
"Don't get any ideas, Kalmiya."
"Wouldn't dream of it," she responded nonchalantly. "Well, we didn't fry each other's mind's upon interfacing, I'd say that's a good start!"
Six grunted as she attached her weapon to her mag-plates and left her room.
It wasn't long before she reached her protege's room. Kalmiya remote linked with ship and looked into what the young Spartan IV was up to.
Allison, it seemed, was having difficulty getting some pieces of her armor on. It was easy with the armor-assembler, but in the field it was sometimes necessary to work on the armor. As such, Six had challenged the former resistance member with putting on and taking the armor and bio-suit by herself in a timely manner. After a week, she was still taking too long, but that wasn't unusual.
"Almost ready!" The woman cried as she struggled to balance the heavy backplate while trying to trigger the locking mechanism to attach the section to the breastplate.
"No you're not." Six sighed before entering the room. "You're getting better, but we've got too much to do right now." She said before locking Allison's red armor into place.
Looking only slightly abashed, Allison muttered a thanks and slipped on her red Mark VI helmet and followed Six out of her quarters.
"So," Allison started as they made their way through the curved corridors of deck 3, "We're going up against Weaver, I hear."
"Not just her," Six replied, "John Henry will be play acting Skynet."
Allison's shoulders slumped ever so slightly. "Oh boy..."
Six only grunted in agreement as they entered the turbo lift.
Kalmiya found tagging along in Six's MJOLNIR armor, and part of her brain, to be some what unsettling. She honestly didn't understand how Cortana enjoyed being linked to the Master Chief in such a manner.
Perhaps it had to do something with their natural compatibility, they were the only Spartan/AI pair that were even able to use Gen1 AI interfaces. Now, with these new models and their buffer interfaces, nearly any AI was able to link up with any human.
Either way, Kalmiya knew she'd have to get used to it. Mentally sighing, she checked back into the debrief Six was giving to Red Team, who now included Allison.
As Six was rattling on about details that Kalmiya had know for hours, she instead focused on processing the minute movements of the Spartan II's and their new Spartan IV comrade.
Red Team had been together for years, they knew each other and how to work together. Allison was a brand new S-IV, and Six was an S-III lone wolf who was just uncovering her leadership skills.
Integrating this team was not going to be easy, but they had made great progress in the past weeks.
As it stood now, Jerome was Red Team leader, despite being of lesser rank than Six. However, he sometimes deferred to Six and Allison because of their greater knowledge of the machines' behavior.
When the time finally came for the simulation to begin, Kalmiya watched as the hodgepodge team snapped into action. Momentarily speechless, it took several cycles to finally respond to Jerome's requests.
While off-duty dynamic had yet to solidify, it seemed that the newly reformed Red Team had figured out how to work together on the battle-field.
Allison was scout/advisor.
Six was typically the sniper, but with her skill set, she filled in pretty much any role.
Alice-130 was the heavy weapons/explosives expert
Douglas-042 was the team CQC specialist.
Jerome was like John in many aspects, brave and lucky, but not as much as the Chief.
As the machines began to engage them, the team sprang into action.
Everything didn't go according to plan, but in the end, Red Team beat the machines by a narrow margin, the first time since they started training.
After her riveting experience with Red Team, Kalmiya went back to managing several different projects now that she wasn't preoccupied the intense battle-sim.
However, her projects weren't the only thing she went back to. She also had a schedule to keep, and she was already running late for meeting with Commander Keyes. Not that her schedule had been ridged, but her estimation had been off. She hadn't expected the simulation to run as long as it did.
She found the daughter of Catherine Halsey in the Captain's ready room. She hadn't done much to personalize the space since joining the team several weeks ago, but anyone could see the small, subtle changes the fearless woman had made. The symbol of the UNSC hung on the wall and there was a picture of her father on the desk.
One thing hadn't changed though, there was coffee on the desk.
The Commander looked up from the holo-display as Kalmiya's form appeared in front of her.
"Hello, Kalmiya." She greeted with a tired smile. "I heard Red Team beat John Henry, well done."
"Thank you," the AI replied, "I see you're still doing research."
"Just a little homework, that's all." She said and shut off the monitor.
Kalmiya crossed her arms as if saying she wasn't fooled. "Researching the past will only get you so far. Kathryn Janeway was a great captain who rose to the challenge and never gave up, but this is different, you're different."
Miranda snorted in retort, "You think I don't know that?" Her fists were clenched in frustration, but they soon relaxed as the emotion began to subside. She sighed as the crushing weight of the future bore down upon her. Commanding this ship and it's crew of legends and misfits from three separate universes was daunting by itself, but having to fight Skynet too?
She almost wished she were fighting the Covenant instead. They she could at least understand, relate, predict, but a machine from an alternate universe?
The doubts continued to plague her, even though she tried to shake them off and focus on the task at hand, something Kalmiya had been a part of. She knew the ship fairly well at this point and was well versed in its technology. However, she was more worried about the crew at this point. She'd gained respect from those who knew her or her exploits, like John Connor, the Master Chief, Cortana, and others, but it was those she had that gave her pause.
Her military profile was available for anyone to read, but to some of Voyager's crew it didn't convey her abilities. They'd follow her orders because that had already been settled, but she needed their trust. This wasn't the UNSC, this was something else. If it was going to succeed they needed to trust one another.
"I'm only 27 years old..." She mused mostly to herself, "and yet I feel older, but to them..." She looked at her reflection in the metal cup. She didn't quite look her age. It was only more pronounced since the nanites had brought her back to life.
"Your appearance betrays you." Kalmiya finished with a small smile on her face. "I think you're exaggerating the problem a little too much. Yes, some want more reason for you to command this ship, but they're willing to give you a chance. They know you have the potential."
Those words made her feel the Commander's leaf on her collar. She hadn't risen through the ranks because of her father or her mother. She'd earned them because she was one of Navy's best. Remembering the trust Admiral Hood had put in her during the final days of the war made her feel a lot more confident.
"Thank you," she told the AI as a small smile lit up her face. "Now, how's the progress on our latest project?"
Kalmiya's face instantly brightened. "The conversion of the Aero-shuttle is nearly complete. My Spartan colleagues may be cavemen in comparison, but they're input has been quite valuable."
"I bet," Miranda said before asking, "and the other upgrades?"
The AI gave a conspirative smirk, "Done, they should be ready for the impending battle."
"Perfect."
After the meeting, Kalmiya went in search of Seven of Nine.
Though they often interacted and cooperated on many projects together, this was different.
Kalmiya and the Doctor had worked together to determine the root cause of Seven's health problems. Once they'd narrowed down the exact issue with the infamous Borg Nanoprobes, they had spent hours in the holodeck testing their theories out.
Finally, and with Seven's grudging consent, they had a viable treatment.
As Cortana had originally imagined, Kalmiya would integrate with Seven's Borg technology and manually reprogram the errant nano machines all at the same time to ensure the 'cancer' didn't spread.
By the time they'd implemented the treatment two months ago, Seven could barely make it eight hours without regenerating due to failing technology in her body.
Kalmiya found the former Borg drone sitting on a bio-bed. The Doctor had prepared her for the procedure and now she was just busying herself with work waiting for the pink Smart AI to appear.
When she materialized her form in front of the blonde cyborg, Seven's ice blue eyes snapped to her avatar. "You're late."
Kalmiya huffed, "By 1.2 minutes, please." Normally she wouldn't be, but she was a busy person and life wasn't always predicable.
The Doctor, sensing her arrival, walked out of his office with his portable emitter in hand. He cast a wary glance at Kalmiya, "Don't break anything." He said simply, but Kalmiya got the distinct impression that he was talking about more than just the 29th century tech in his hands.
"I didn't before," she reminded him.
"This is different," he reminded her. This time the treatment was supposed to be permanent solution and not a temporary patch.
"I know the stakes, Doctor." Her steely pink gaze banished the last of the Doctor's doubts and placed the emitter on Kalmiya's shoulder. "Computer, download Kalmiya into the portable holo-emitter."
Once she gave consent, the dumb AI running the ship opened a unique subspace frequency to the emitter and transferred her entire being onto the tiny device. It was cramped and confined, but she didn't feel slow; the device had plenty of processing power to accommodate her.
It was at this point that the doctor deactivated her avatar and placed the device in front of Seven. The cyborg hesitantly connected her assimilation tubules to the device; she did not like being possessed.
Almost instantly, Kalmiya felt her entire perspective change. Just like before, her awareness was radically different than it was as a hologram attached to a computer network.
Now she was part of a human body with its own internal network of cybernetics and biological components working in tandem. After taking several dozen cycles to get used to the changes, Kalmiya immediately began accessing the Borg technology embedded in Seven, primarily the cortical node that acted as the control center for the numerous parts of Seven's cybernetics.
She reviewed the logs and checked statuses on each and every component before accessing the nanoprobe's core programming. This was going to be a tricky because she was essentially going to have to rewrite the corrupted code without having an original specimen to study.
Kalmiya laid Seven down on the bio-bed and let the doctor hook up all sorts of sensors to monitor every part of the Seven as Kalmiya worked.
She deactivated all the nanoprobes, sending them into standby before wiping all the code that pertained to them. She'd saved what parts she could, but they'd have to be rewritten to ensure complete integration with the new code.
It wasn't easy coming up with the entire OS that would run the little buggers. They had to be able to act individually and together, they also had to be able to integrate with Seven's cybernetics and be able to maintain them in tandem with her organics. This is where the copied bits came in handy. Those code fragments held the key for success in this effort. They revealed enough in their corrupted state for Kalmiya to reverse engineer how they worked while at the same time patching all the flaws and risks that came with being Borg assimilation technology.
As they passed the two hour mark, Kalmiya began to run tests on individual nanoprobes. After three dozen or so tests and subsequent debugging, she moved onto groups of them and began testing their cooperative and adaptive abilities.
Testing went on for the better part of the day as Kalmiya and the Doctor worked together to ensure that the new operating system was working as well as the original. They then set the newly programmed nanoprobes loose and watched them closely as they performed maintenance on Seven's body.
By the time they'd done their task, Kalmiya could feel the difference. The nanites were doing their job just as they'd been designed. More features would be added later, but for now the nanoprobes would do their most critical job: keeping Seven healthy.
After the task was completed, Kalmiya took a moment to revel in the sensation of being human once more. Though she remembered little of her progenitor's life, some elements still remained. She missed the feeling of a heart beating in her chest, the sensation of breath leaving one's lungs and the smell of the air.
The Doctor, seeing the look on his friend's face, knew that Kalmiya was experiencing exactly what he had so many years ago when he'd been forced to hide in Seven's cybernetics. It was tempting to stay, but Seven was aware while both he, and now Kalmiya, possessed her. It wouldn't be fair to trap someone in their own body unless necessary.
"Kalmiya," he said gently, shaking her from her experience, "it's time." He held the emitter out in front of her and Seven's eyes shifted down to it.
"I know." She said sadly before connecting to the device with the assimilation tubules and leaving Seven's body behind.
Second's later, she reappeared after downloading herself back into Voyager's systems. After Seven recovered, she gave the AI a soft smile before falling asleep.
Once the Doctor had made sure she was fine, he turned to the lingering Kalmiya. "Thank you," he told her as he closed the tricorder in his hand. She gave a small smile, "Being human for a short time was more than worth it, Doctor."
The Doctor nodded.
Trying to move past the experience wasn't any easier than last time. Being so forcefully reminded of one's past life was not something Smart AI's were equipped to handle, it had never been considered by her creators.
Eventually, though, she would convince herself that it was better not being trapped in a single, static shell.
Once she felt better, she continued going down her list of people she needed to visit. The next was Cameron.
Currently, the quirky cyborg was busy teaching the Spirit of Fire's crew what it meant it to fight a 24th century Star-Trek inspired Terminator.
The battlefield, a large valley filled with holoprojectors, gave the perfect setting for the sim.
When Kalmiya finally arrived, the battle had been going on for hours. Cameron had been using her abilities to the utmost, including her ability to jump long distances.
Many soldiers had been 'killed' during the ensuing battle, whom were now cheering on their comrades from the sides of the valley.
All sorts of jets, tanks, and artillery had been deployed against the infiltrator, but Cameron had proven elusive to the bigger weapons, leaving the men to resort taking her down with more portable ones.
They managed to take down her shield four times so far and inflict minor damage to her armor and joints, but the battle was long and drawn out. Eventually, they managed to land a hit that disabled her shields permanently.
That was the stopping point, the Marines had won, though it had cost them dearly.
To be fair to the battle hardened soldiers, they were using outdated UNSC weapons. Once the new, upgraded weapons were produced and handed out, they'd stand a much better chance against the machines.
Now that the battle was over, Cameron assisted the soldiers in removing the equipment before having the holo-projectors beamed back to Voyager. Once the mess had been cleaned up, Kalmiya made her presence known to the cyborg via comm-link.
"You look a little worse for wear..." Kalmiya noted as Cameron finished helping the soldiers finish loading the last of the weapons onto a Pelican.
"I was just about to see if you were available." She responded as she slapped her hand against the hull to let the pilot know she was done. As the drop ship took off, Cameron beamed herself back to Voyager.
Now that she was on board, Kalmiya briefly appeared next to the battle damaged Cameron. "I'll have everything ready once you reach Cargo Bay Two."
Once she arrived, she wasted no time in storing her liquid metal clothing in a separate container before retracting the hybrid sheath. Once she was bare metal, she made her way to the center of the room. Kalmiya was there with new parts. As holographic arms began swapping out damaged components, Kalmiya decided to strike up a conversation with the not so chatty robot-girl.
"So... has everything been up to your standards?" Her question was intentionally vague.
However, Cameron didn't take the bait, purposely, "Yes."
Kalmiya rolled her pink eyes in annoyance. She knew she was trying to siphon personal details, but she wanted to know how her creation was performing. It was like getting someone extremely private to review your product but withholding the details. It had been like this ever since Cameron had donned the TX-3.
Oh sure Cameron commented about reaction time, sensor buffering, strength, durability, agility and other factors but she always left out the one thing that made the TX-3 special: the sensory experience.
Taste and smell had been hard to accurately reproduce with the bio-mimetic sheath, but the secondary issue was translating those signals so Cameron could process them in the most human fashion possible. Senses of the skin like cold, heat, texture, pressure were easy to reproduce since Cameron preferred them to stay the same, but she'd also wanted a sense of pleasure as well. In other words, she wanted to enjoy physical touch.
That had been the most difficult and Kalmiya doubted it was worked quite as she'd intended, but without user feedback, it was impossible to say. Cameron could be an intensely private individual.
Figuring it to be a waste of time asking more directly, Kalmiya simply began the repair sequence and began working on other projects.
In the middle of the TX-3's repair, the reserved cyborg spoke, "What's it like?"
Unsure of her meaning, Kalmiya stopped her current task and turned her avatar to face Cameron. "What is what like?"
The purple eyes of the endoskeleton met the Smart AI's pink ones as she clarified, "to feel like a human."
Memories of being in Seven's body flashed through her processes. "It's not something I can describe with words Cameron," she replied, "Why? Is something wrong?"
Cameron hesitated for a moment as the machines continued working on her. "Yes."
Knowing there was more to be said, Kalmiya moved closer to the cyborg, "Are you having issues with your sensory input?"
"Not input, translation. It doesn't feel like it should." Kalmiya could tell Cameron was hesitant to share this with her, but it was obviously a big enough problem for her to break her silence.
Besides the admission, "How would you know what it's supposed to feel like?"
"I don't sleep," Cameron deadpanned.
Not wanting to know the details, Kalmiya didn't ask for clarification.
"You're not human, I don't think I can replicate the exact same responses that a woman would have."
Cameron's eyes dimmed slightly at her words.
Knowing the cyborg would clam up without further prying, Kalmiya decided to do just that. "Is it unpleasant?"
For a moment, Cameron said nothing; but then answered after a moment's contemplation.
"No," she started quietly, "it doesn't affect me, I feel it, but it doesn't trigger any emotional response."
Kalmiya formed a few theories as to why that was happening, but failed to come up with anything concrete. "I'm not sure why your neural net isn't translating the signals properly," she began as the holographic arms finished their repairs on the cyborg, "but after the amount of time we spent designing the translation algorithms, it's not going to be a quick fix."
"I know," her response was somber, and Kalmiya couldn't blame her. After her bio-sheath had reestablished, Cameron thanked Kalmiya for her help and left.
As the doors hummed shut, it occurred to the AI that Cameron wasn't likely to mention the problem to John Connor anytime soon, and that in and of itself, was a problem.
After repairing Cameron, Kalmiya had a few things left to do before before Spirit of Fire was relaunched: speaking to the Master Chief and checking in with Serina were at the top of her list.
She put the Chief first since she needed the Spartan stamp of approval on the final upgrades to the Aero-shuttle.
The Aero-shuttle was a runabout sized vessel embedded in the underside of Voyager's primary hull, directly below the bridge and forward of the navigational deflector.
It had been present since Voyager's launch in 2371(Star Trek Universe of course), but it had not been flight-worthy when the ship was lost to the Delta Quadrant. Since the ship was being used for testing after its return, Star Fleet hadn't seen fit to finish it either.
Now, however, due to the shortage of shuttles the ship possessed, finishing the Aero-shuttle was the logical course of action during the three weeks that it took to refit the Spirit of Fire.
She found the Chief sparring with Kelly in the training room on S-Deck, and subsequently materialized herself about twenty feet from them. They both spared her a split second glance before they continued their fast-paced series of blocks, dodges, and counter-moves.
They were both out of armor; their pale skin was so incredibly white they almost looked albino. Kelly's short ponytail wagged back and forth as she moved in tandem with her oldest friend and colleague.
After a few seconds, both realized that Kalmiya was there for one of them and immediately stopped their sparring match.
"I'll be in the mess." Kelly said to him as she walked away, her British accent not sounding the least bit winded after the rigorous routine.
The Chief nodded before turning his attention back to Kalmiya. "What did you need, ma'am?"
A small smile brushed her lips at his words. He'd always been formal when interacting with her. She'd figured it to be because she'd worked so closely with Doctor Halsey.
"I wanted to speak with you about the Aero-shuttle's modifications, since you're the defacto Spartan aboard Voyager, I figured you were the one who should give final approval."
As she turned to the door, he followed her.
"Who's going to fly it?" He asked as they entered the enlarged turbolift. She understood what he really meant though. They couldn't always depend on an AI to fly Star Fleet vessels. As it was, he and the rest of the Spartan's were only partly trained in their operation.
"Six will fly it. She's become quite proficient with all three of our Star Fleet vessels, including this one."
He nodded once, "She was a Sabre pilot."
"Yes, and a proficient one at that."
"Then we'll be fine." He stated just as they arrived at new load out bay for the Aero-shuttle. It was filled with weapons and other equipment the Spartans would need to carry into battle.
The two Reach natives stopped at the new rear airlock, enlarged and thickened door increased it's structural integrity while also allowing Spartans to more easily enter and exit the craft. The side hatches were no different.
The interior of the craft and been completely stripped and remade so that it could accommodate both Spartan teams and extras during insertion/extraction. The rooms and other non-essentials had been removed so that the large soldiers would have ample room to move.
"We've reinforced the walls and embedded self sufficient inertial dampeners, should the ship get shot down or thrown out of control.
"So we wont end up as paste if the power fails?"
"Essentially, yes."
"Good." Spartans hated space travel as it was, this would make it a little more bearable.
The control interfaces had been toughed to take more of a beating, not to mention they'd been enlarged to handle larger Spartan fingers, gloved or not. The seats were made of solid Titanium-A3 and embedded with several crash dampening features.
Point defense weapons had been upgraded to handle numerous attack craft, and the wings of the shuttle had been given a pulse cannons to handle larger targets. The micro torpedo launchers, one front-facing, the other rear-facing had been given larger magazines and upgraded ammunition. Each of these torpedoes were capable of downing the shields of a SDV Heavy Corvette, a 953 meter Covenant vessel. Despite its size, it was a relatively weak vessel due to its reliance on fusion power.
Shields had been upgraded and armor generators had been added to the outer hull. The extra burden also required a major power plant update; the warp core was now twice as powerful as the original and the fuel tanks had been enlarged to accommodate.
As they went through the list, the Chief asked questions and gave suggestions for final tweaks to the craft, but seemed to be pleased with craft. Insertions no longer had to be suicide missions.
As the inspection came to a close, Kalmiya wondered how things would play out when they tested their skill against the Covenant Remnant and the Prometheans at Requiem. One important aspect of that question was Cortana and the Chief, and how they would integrate their dynamic with Blue Team.
Even though the Spartan/AI duo had teamed up with Spartan IIs shortly after destroying Installation 04, Cortana herself had played little role in the team dynamic as she stayed with their captured Covenant ship, Ascendant Justice.
After the events of Halo 2, 3, and 4, their dynamic had changed. After Cortana sacrificed herself to save him, the Chief had never been the same.
That would be final act had shaken him to the core.
What Kalmiya still found strange was that he'd lost friends and teammates before, people he'd cared about greatly, but had never reacted in the same way he did when he lost Cortana.
Was it because she wasn't a soldier? Kalmiya had pondered that question before, and she didn't think that was it.
Ironically, she'd found the likely answer buried in the Halo books, specifically the Fall of Reach, The Flood, and First Strike.
In these texts she found that the authors showed the side of John 117 no one ever saw. They described his inner thoughts and feelings concerning Cortana and how their relationship evolved from not wanting to be paired with her to respecting her and eventually liking her presence. The authors also described how he felt when she left his mind, saying it as if a piece of him was missing.
Even after a month she still hadn't quite wrapped her mind around it. Other AI had been paired with people in that time and hadn't developed such a bond so quickly. What was the difference? Was it their natural compatibility? Or was it just that their personalities meshed so well?
Perhaps she simply couldn't comprehend it, but she did know that they had a deep bond, one that the Master Chief didn't quite know what to do with.
He was a soldier, not a romantic.
Naturally, this concerned her. How was he going to treat Cortana? Did he think everything was back to business as usual now or did just not know what to do? For the past month he and Cortana had little interaction. She'd been extremely preoccupied with the upgrades and the Chief was busy training against the machines, but he hadn't sought her out.
What was worse, though, was that Cortana wasn't going to do anything about it, she was letting him take things at his own pace.
Well, that worried her and so as he turned to leave she grabbed his attention once more.
"Master Chief," she began, and he turned, "before you go I'd like to speak to you about something...personal."
Her words set one of his eyebrows in an arch. "Ma'am?"
She sighed, "It's about Cortana."
"What about her?" He couldn't help but let a little concern leak into his voice.
"I wanted to ask you what your intentions were towards her."
"My intentions? I intend to protect her."
Kalmiya shook her head. "That's not good enough, Chief. You and I both know that. You and her, well, your bonded."
A look of slight confusion washed over his face, "I don't follow, Kalmiya."
Again, she sighed, "You care for her differently than you do your Spartans, she's special to you."
He suddenly looked uncomfortable. Seeing he was about to clam up on the subject, Kalmiya decided to put her foot in the proverbial door. "Don't you dare!" Her words had the desired impact; his eyes widened considerably at her outburst.
"Look, John," using his real name felt strange; she'd never used it before, "Cortana is as close to a sister as an AI can have. I care about her, about what happens to her."
"How does that..." she put her hand up to silence him.
"Chief, she's more like a normal human than a Spartan when it comes to emotions, and she cares a great deal about you."
"I know, I wouldn't be here if she didn't."
"But you need to maintain that relationship, Chief. You need to invest in her even when the galaxy isn't at stake. Spend time with her, talk to her." She explained while hoping the Spartan was taking her words to heart. "I know it isn't really my business, but I don't want to see her suffer because you don't know how to handle your relationship."
As she spoke, the Chief allowed a brief hint of uncertainty flash across his face before it returned to its stoic default. "I've never been good with words."
Kalmiya begged to differ, "Quality is better than quantity, Chief. You don't say much, but when you do, its meaningful."
He seemed more relaxed at her words. "Thank you, Kalmiya."
She smiled at his response, "You're welcome, John."
After speaking to the Chief, Kalmiya felt a weight lifted off of her.
Now that he understood Cortana a bit better, hopefully he'd do the right thing.
She sidelined that particular line of thought and focused on transferred herself to Spirit of Fire. After integrating and decompressing herself inside the larger vessel, she immediately sought out Serina.
After a brief digital hello, Kalmiya materialized on the bridge near the light blue British speaking AI.
"Everything looks ready." She commented as readouts filtered into her mind.
Serina turned to face her, "As ready as it'll ever be," she commented with a sigh, " We've finally worked out the bugs, and the Professor claims to have fixed our slipspace drive."
"Sounds like we're ready for reactor initialization then." Kalmiya summarized with a sly smile on her face.
"Aye," she responded before walking over to Captain Cutter. "Sir, with your permission, I believe we are ready."
The Captain, hunched over a display, stood up to his full height and faced his now tangible ship AI. "Then give the word."
"Aye, Captain, giving Engineering the green light." She said with a finger pressed to her temple, "Done, our new reactor is coming on line now," she said while pointing at the readout monitor.
Kalmiya monitored the progress as the first outer ring fired up, quickly followed by the second outer ring and finally the main ring.
"Main power is coming online, Captain" Serina reported as the new reactors flooded the ship's primary systems with energized plasma, "Beginning diagnostics now."
"Umbilicals to Voyager have been severed." Kalmiya informed after John Henry shut down the power flow to the Spirit of Fire.
"Confirmed, Captain." Another crew member shouted out, "Permission to begin thruster initiation sequence?"
Cutter turned to the main and nodded, "Permission granted." Then he turned to the two feminine AIs lighting up his bridge with their presence. "Everything ready, Kalmiya?"
"Yes, Captain. Voyager is ready when you are."
He nodded again and turned to the crew. "Serina, activate the internal comm."
"Open, sir."
He waited a moment before he began, and then he addressed the crew, "We've been through a lot, more than any of us ever imagined." He paused for a moment as he gathered the crew's attention, "Our situation is unprecedented, but we've proven we can handle the difficult, even the impossible."
"We've fought and bled and suffered to save our families, our species from those who'd see us wiped from this galaxy, and now Skynet plans to do the same. We cannot let that happen."
"We want to know what happened to our families, our friends during our long journey, but we are still soldiers, and our job isn't done yet."
He let those words sink in before continuing, "I don't blame you if you want to go home, I know I certainly want to, but the fact remains; if we don't act now, we risk losing any chance for a future. You've all been briefed on our enemy, you've fought one of its former soldiers and you've see what they can do. You know it what will happen if it activates even one of the Halos."
"Every single one of us will die, it doesn't matter if your human or alien, rich or poor, brave or coward. We have a duty to protect humanity, even after if we've been asleep for thirty years."
He paused on last time, letting his words sink in.
"Now, who's with me?"
The resounding battle cry was deafening, but know he knew for sure that nearly everyone was on board.
They were going to war.
"Thrusters online, Captain!" A lieutenant called from his station.
Captain Cutter acknowledged the update and turned to the new holo-table. Serina, standing in her tangible form next to the table, met the Captain's eyes just as he addressed her.
"Serina, plot a course through the debris field."
"Aye, sir." She responded while doing the necessary calculations and then displayed the results on the table. "Shall I engage, sir?"
"Everything checks out?"
"According to Professor Anders, yes."
"Then open a channel to Voyager."
She nodded and set the holo-table to show the visual display. "Channel open."
Cutter was met with Miranda Keyes face when the feed came through.
The young woman smiled before addressing Cutter, "What can I do for you, Captain?"
"Is Voyager ready for departure, Commander?" He asked with similar friendly smirk on his mustached face.
Her smile widened, "As ready as well ever be. All systems green."
"Glad to hear it, we've set a course through the debris field. We'll run our final shakedown as we pass through it."
Miranda nodded, "We'll be on station. When your ready, we'll dock for departure."
"Understood, Cutter out." He deactivated the comm and turned to Serina. He put a hand on her shoulder and gave the word, "Engage the launch sequence, take us home."
"Aye, Captain. Thought technically we're not going..." She drifted off after catching the Captain's sidelong glare, "Right, sir, engaging anti-grav thrusters."
Voyager had already taken off and was hovering not far from the monstrous Spirit of Fire. Kalmiya and some of crew watched as the larger starship rose gracefully from it's dry dock.
It hovered for a moment before its massive rear engines fired up and sent the ship soaring into the Ark's atmosphere.
Cortana was at the helm, Seven was at the engineering console, John Henry was at ops and Cameron was at tactical. John Connor sat next to Commander Keyes in the XO chair.
The pink AI herself chose to stand behind them at small console mounted on the rails behind John and Miranda.
"What's their status, Kalmiya?" The Commander inquired as both ships climbed higher into the atmosphere.
Kalmiya quickly updated her link to the Spirit, to which Serina sent a detailed, but slightly sarcastic report back.
"Serina reports all systems are functioning within normal parameters, they're warming up the new plasma launchers and the MAC cannon."
Miranda pulled up a new personal display next to her chair and began scrolling through the sensor reports on the Spirit of Fire, "Cortana, keep our distance, just in case."
"Yes, ma'am" The blue AI responded and slowed Voyager down to allow the distance between the two to increase.
As they progressed through the field, the Phoenix class warship fired its weapons, devastating anything in its path. They watched Voyager-sized debris ping off the new shields of the massive ship, causing them to shimmer and ripple in response.
"Their shields are at 79%" Kalmiya reported as the Spirit moved out of the debris field.
"Not bad." Connor commented as they followed suit. Commander Keyes hmmed in agreement. "Cortana, move us into position."
Wordlessly, she engaged the impulse engines hard and closed the distance between them in just under ten seconds.
"Extend landing gear, prepare to dock."
The crew wordless engaged the custom landing mode, which notified the Spirit's computers, and subsequently Serina, that they were coming in to dock.
They'd created a cradle on the top of the Spirit of Fire for the much smaller Voyager to sit in during the slipspace journey. While Voyager could make the journey itself, it would cost some of the vital benamite crystals that they had just replaced. Since the Forerunner slipspace drive had a near limitless supply of energy, it was better for the Star Fleet vessel to tag along instead.
It took less than 60 seconds for the vessels to seamlessly dock and lock together.
"Dock complete." Cameron called out as Cortana headed over to the other ship to help Serina and Professor Anders input and execute the proper instructions to the Forerunner drive.
Kalmiya stepped down to the Miranda and Connor's level and sat down at the helm. "Do you think we're ready?" She asked suddenly, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
"To jump?" Miranda asked.
"No," she replied, "are we ready for what lies ahead? For Requiem, ONI, Skynet?"
Miranda didn't answer, but John did, "We're as ready as we can be, Kalmiya. Only time will tell."
"I guess it will." She murmured as she focused her eyes, and all sensors available, to the slipspace event forming in front of them. The Spirit of Fire accelerated beneath them, and was swallowed by the swirling blue vortex.
It was the smoothest slipspace transition any of them had ever felt, those who'd experience it before, anyway.
"All readings normal." Kalmiya reported, which Cameron confirmed, "We've successfully transitioned."
Miranda and John got up from their seats. "Notify me if anything changes." She told the pink hologram and went into the ready room. Cameron and John left together, while John Henry remained on station. Seven of Nine beamed herself to engineering to make sure slipspace wasn't affecting anything despite their simulations.
Kalmiya kept her avatar on the bridge for a while, staring at the blue white streaks sometimes associated with slipspace travel. With Voyager's sensors, she was able to study slipspace like never before. When she was reunited with her creator, Kalmiya knew she would enjoy the long hours they'd spend going over the data. Perhaps she could even rope in Cortana if she wasn't busy.
Whatever the future held, Kalmiya hoped they were ready for it.
A/N: The next chapter will be a filler focused on four people. The Didact, the Arbiter, Skynet, and Captain Laskey. This will set up the next chapter when the Spirit of Fire and Voyager show up at Requiem.