Chapter 7
Planet REACH outskirts of Visegrad settlement
Elias Carver has a severe conversation with Catherine Halsey; he was a friend of the outstanding student and was glad to have been restituted to the prestige he deserved,
She salvaged the credibility he lost after being branded a prophet of doom. He was indebted to Catherine to make amends and marry Milah, his wife. Still, the disturbing things and paybacks she wanted repeatedly made him doubt his morality.
The honor student from Koletre-Browning has been nowhere to be seen since adopting Tanya. She has changed her personality and demeanor.
She was nothing like the sweet little puppy that followed Viktoriya all those years ago; she became a wolf matriarch trying to protect the last living remains of the sister she had before.
Still, her methods increasingly favor the illegal, and she no longer tries to hide it. He hated it because he had been an accomplice knowingly.
-Catherine, this is getting out of hand. Project SCLERA was a success, and project MJOLNIR seems to have the proper groundwork; as a financial consultant, I assure you the investment is well done and we will profit, but the things about who is going to be inside those machines are disturbing, hear yourself, you are speaking of kidnapping children, to substitute them from their beds and placing clones like cuckoos for the only purpose to die from congenic diseases product of their accelerated grown, this is beyond morality this is pure evil, at this point, we are not better than the insurrectionist we are worst, I prefer to root in prison if you don't give me all answers I need proof that all this is necessary.
-You know this is the only way. I have known it since long ago. All those years ago, I only lived in a lucid dream, but now I woke up and couldn't return. We face reality, and if I want people to dream again in peace, I will do all necessary to ensure peace is back in reality.
-you speak like a mad woman. You are a lunatic; I cannot believe the UEG was using my gift of Midas to take this to fruition; you used me; you made me change the economic policy of the entire government and shift the funding market to ensure a perpetual war machine.
-What are you talking about? I didn't change the edge funds and liberalize the off-world trade to focus on heavy industry, nor did I propose changing those to public investors instead of government funding. I didn't make the UEG bulletproof from the havoc to come. Those ideas came from little Tanya. She gave you those drafts to work with, and you liked them. I am a scientist, not an economist; that is your expertise; you did the hard work.
-You are nuts! How did a girl, recently six years old, focus too thoroughly on changing the retirement planning for the entire army on a draft passed personally to me? At the same time, she was entering elementary school. The knowledge required was too much even for you, Catherine. You are getting crazy; you are losing yourself.
At that moment, a message was displayed on the screen. A message Halsey had been waiting for at least a month just arrived, confirming her suspicions and getting to acquire the last piece of her plans; the ORACLE would get on her team regardless of his willingness; only revealing the truth was necessary to take her side.
-Open it. The password to unlock it is the same as our exchanges on that device. I am sure of the result and how it unfolded. Well, we could reveal the details together.
Elias Carver opened the file; it was a detailed report on the death of their subject of discord; he tossed the tablet onto the coffee table and revealed the content on the lobby screen; he wanted to vomit, went to the familiar bathroom, and emptied the content on his stomach, Catherine didn't budget nor flinched a little bit, she already came to terms accepting her mortality, she even put a lavender tea at reach to carver which composed.
-how? I saw her going to school this morning. She could not be dead nor be murdered in cold blood back in Port Vernon
- a Clone simply like that, she convinced me to take it to mature leisurely and imprinted her memories just a month ago; I even sent one of mine, not realizing who was real. Mine never took good discovering who the false one was, always killing themselves; she thought she was real all until the end.
- "You sent a six-year-old child to be murdered on her grandparent's planet!"
"No!" -I sent a sacrificed pawn to determine whether it was safe for her to return to an ordinary life. I didn't want to send her to the HESTIA academy, but she chose this bet and won. She is going to be a SPARTAN, against my will.
-"No, you are justifying yourself! You are manipulating the truth!"
-Let us read all the reports to be sure.-
-planet Endymion – space anchor elevator – island outside Port Vernon city.
Catherine was chatting with little Tanya. The child was petite and had cute platinum blond hair with purple eyes, a trait no one knew from what side of the family tree she got, making it a beauty mark that made her unique as records of that specific gene were long lost, only adding speculation to her heritage.
-Are you sure about this? Once you are in my parents' community, you will not see me again until you graduate from Luna Academy. You will see more of my husband Jacob than me from all our lives.
-I want to see my grandparents. They sent Visha abroad to study with you in Koletre-Browning on another planet, only to see her flee again with Pops Grantz. The least I can give them in return is to be with them and give them their grandchild.
They moved from the ship in space to ground level using the space elevator. It was efficient, but it took a while to descend.
The plan was to go underground and quickly take the undersea tunnel to the city station, where they would ride to Green Valley.
It was a long trek, but every corner of the metropolis was connected to the sights. It simply was a long trajectory.
Catherine guided the little one with familiarity. The journey was merely long, not slow.
-You are always so intelligent that you feint maturity. Tell me the truth: You don't want to train at HESTIA Academy.
-We both know what I will become after graduating from there. If a gruesome, hazardous job with only honor as pay is the life I get, I prefer to take my gamble commanding a UNSC ship. At least that way, I will be choosing my battles, not making others make me their toy soldier.
-We don't know what the future holds on a roll of a dice, so you don't need to make such extreme assumptions.
-Auntie, you verified the calculations about the jinxes and even scored your dream job with them. We are all sure that what this prophet of doom said is true. The math does not lie. War is coming, and we all know it. The least I can do is do my part.
-what I want for you is not to chase ghosts only for you to become a Specter; live life, darling; not everything is 3d chess twenty moves into the future, sometimes you only need to slow down and see only three steps ahead, like the average person.
-that is something Visha taught you, am I right?
-how come? Yes! All my life, I was just next to her; I learned all the good things about me from her; she even beat me to a pulp if necessary.
-she was too caring to the point of being ruthless, am I right?
-God! If she were here to educate you, you would be worse than her or become the next UEG president.
-thanks for the compliment.
-are you sure we are not related?
-As you told me, you two were baby sisters from the house beside each other. From the family trees, I know you are not blood-related.
-sure! But I am tempted to unite the CLANS into a shogunate if the opportunity arises; let's hope to marry at least one pair of offspring while being Grandma's promise.
-Where did you get the Weeb vibe? You do not watch any series or do anything in your leisure time; you are always working. Are we having a full-dive MMORPG on this space-era civilization or something of its kind?
-We're not so far ahead yet. Neural implants are not everywhere, and the cost is only justifiable for individuals like my husband.
-there you go again, bragging about Uncle Keyes; how did you snatch him?
-I think he snatched me; I am just too high-spec. see
-you and your infinite self-esteem, I need to take Granny Anna's advice or…
At that moment, Catherine Halsey pulled Tanya, protecting her and kicking a mob out of her sight, but was caught off guard by a second contender that came from a blindside and a third coming from behind a pillar.
She downed the two in quick succession, but even if she was learned at self-defense, she could not do much against guns after all. Catherine was a scientist, not a person of action.
It was of help that Halsey lasted long, but strangely, help did not arrive. Something was amiss; she felt an emptiness on her side; she was losing blood, and a gunshot may have gotten her in the liver.
Catherine lost her forces quickly and could only see how three men banged with knives on a little girl, making Tanya cry out aloud; Halsey was the adult. Still, they were being ruthless to a six-year-old;
she was there on the floor, losing blood that was more human than the treatment her little fairy received; Tanya was being massacred.
She cried in terror as the bandits emptied the magazines of two handguns on her little body; the sighs were beyond someone sane could tolerate.
-back on Visegrad's apartment witnessing the report-
Elias Carver was speechless. The terrorist unleashed a search for a little girl on a secured planet and killed the six-year-old girl not in cold blood but mercilessly and cruelly, worse than the clone accompanying Tanya; what could justify such an act on an innocent soul?
-this was the result of Tanya advising me to be cautious; now they are not following her because for everyone else, even for our families, both of us are dead.
-this is the kind of people who we are going to fight head-on, a bunch of people worse than criminals and terrorists; they have made an example out of us, giving a clear message, making their stand firm, lead, and blood.
-Why? Why they were against you? What did you two make to deserve such vile ire
-NOTHING! That is the worst part: the Degurechaff couple died frustrating a nuclear strike from their terrorist cell; they left Tanya destitute and needed to be smuggled out from the planet KEOS. They could be called even, but no, then they chased her on Endymion. It wasn't until I got out of the curtain of REACH that those bastards were happy to kill both of us; maybe they also wanted to kill the one responsible for verifying the jinxes, but no, they tortured and killed her more than I, I was only a freebie.
-You have all my support. I don't care anymore about who is right. The only thing I am sure of is that I am already on one side. Like Machiavelli said, choosing neutrality is the worst of the three options. I am too far away to be morally right or just.
It is much appreciated. Now, I want the funding for a hundred candidates liberated instead of the previous number. I want this batch of future SPARTANS to be a force to be reckoned with.
-If we make a compound interest rate for each year it takes to do the project and split the necessary budget to be retrieved with each payment, we could increase the number of participants. Also, it is unlikely that all hundred will get armor-ready. Still, iterations on the armor may be considered, so I prefer a nine-to-ten ratio. That way, we could get leeway with the iterations into the future but not eat our budget in the near present.
Perfect; that way, they will be sufficient in numbers and well-equipped.
-like I said, I have the touch of Midas; discovering the damned equations was done in an accident.
-If your next project is done, we will take advantage of it. How project ORACLE is going.
-As long as you finish with the IA focus, we will keep everything in wraps. In the meantime, every resource is put into project THOR. You know our bosses like big guns.
