Nine – Rampancy
"Where is Cortana?" The Master Chief repeated forcefully looking at Weir, there was an edge to his voice, he wished he was wearing his suit's helmet knowing that they could not see his face would be more intimidating. Part of the mystique of the Spartans was that they were faceless warriors of unparalleled skills.
"She's safe" Weir answered calmly but with an equal force in her voice, Weir was the facility's administrator she knew how to handle tough situations and visitors. "She's still on Atlantis, but we cannot reach her." Weir explained her voice softer than before "her program is active but she is in a section of the city that we cannot reach due to energy barriers she has raised. Dr Zelenka has been unable to find a way around them."
"I'm sure I can get around what Radek was unable…" McKay said confidently, he always thought he could solve things that no-one else could, as he spoke the Chief stood up looking down at him causing the scientist to become silent and look nervous.
"Good… lets go" the Chief said before he could continue explaining, McKay sat there for a moment looking at Weir and Sheppard for support but neither of them had a different answer, or were they willing to get in the way of the Chief.
"I guess, we're done here." Weir said remaining seated looking up at the Chief, she could tell he was not happy with what had happened when they were not here. For the Chief's side he was annoyed that the people of Atlantis had not contacted him when this had first occurred, he was also concerned about Cortana he knew more about her condition than any of them.
"Chief, me and Teyla are going to try and narrow down the address of Alcyone from what has been recorded on the Ancient Database" Sheppard said as the Chief turned to the doors "if you need anything holler." The large warrior nodded.
"What if I need anything?" McKay asked looking for support from either of them but already the Chief was stepping out of the room with McKay running behind him.
"Colonel Sheppard, Alcyone?" Weir asked looking at the team leader.
"A world we believe the Chief's friend, the Arbiter, and a Runner known as Ronin are heading for medical assistance." Sheppard explained "from what we've been told it was the site of an Ancient research laboratory" he said glancing at Teyla.
"Dr Weir, it is a place I have heard only about in stories, a world which is only death to anyone who goes there." Teyla explained, it was not much help "unfortunately the same goes for Runners, I have heard stories of men and women who are hunted by the Wraith."
"Don't you just love a mystery?" Sheppard asked with a smirk but he saw Weir's worry "Cortana?"
"After you left, she continued to become erratic both in our personal interactions with her and in her actions." She explained "changing the power outputs throughout the station, re-routing transport lifts, changing plans for the construction teams without consulting Major Hogan. Then one morning I called on her and got no reply, we found her in one of the uninhabited substructures, when we tried to reach her but we found energy barriers which blocked every corridor and she has been completely ignoring our communications."
While the others discussed Cortana the Chief and Rodney had travelled across the city and met with Dr Radek beside one of the barriers which had been set up. "She has tapped into the holo-emitters which are built into the city, but the power of the barriers is far beyond what we have encountered she has modified it in some way, its powerful enough to repel everything we have thrown at it including bullets." He explained, the Czech scientist looked particularly worried about that, to them glancing between McKay and the Chief.
"Hard Light energy" the Chief said stepping forwards putting his gloved hand against the wall of blue light it shimmered becoming lighter, the scientist stepped back startled pushing his glasses back up his nose. McKay by contrast looked interested "she's probably shunting her own energy through the emitters to create it; I've never seen her do this before."
"Hard light energy?" McKay asked curiously cautiously he reaching out and touching the light wall with the tip of his fingers, when there was no immediate shock he placed his palm against the wall, he was surprised to find it felt no difference than solid ground or metal.
"Forerunner technology" the Chief said without much of an explanation, McKay removed his hand from the wall and stared at the large warrior, unlike before he now had his helmet on but McKay didn't turn away even as he looked at his own reflection. "We encountered it on the first Halo ring. The light energy was used there to create bridges, forcefields and more including the portable shield built into this armour." He explained demonstrating the shield Cortana had installed the two scientists looked awed by the technology as from his open palms red/orange shield appeared. "I've seen bridges hold an entire platoon of tanks and the infantry supporting them; they are virtually indestructible as long as they have sufficient power attached, as soon as the power goes it disappears." He pressed his gloved hand into the wall once more making it turn slightly white but there was no give.
"That's impossible" McKay said "nothing is indestructible."
"The Forerunners did impossible things." He said "Cortana is harnessing that knowledge." The Chief said walking down the corridor several places. "There won't be emitters in the walls" he said reaching up to pull a panel off the wall.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! What are you doing?" McKay said stepping closer to him as he dropped a chunk of the wall panelling on the corridor floor.
"Finding somewhere there aren't emitters for her to shunt the energy. My sensors can find the weak points." He said removing another piece of the wall. Moments later a blue shield appeared blocking their path in front of McKay the blue shield withdrew less than an inch from where he stood. The Chief stopped removing wall pieces and walked further down before removing another wall panel.
"The Ancients built a lot of redundancies…" McKay said resigned to the lost cause "McKay to Sheppard!" The scientist nearly shouted tapping his earpiece.
Still in the control tower with Teyla and Weir Sheppard answered McKay's call by tapping his own earpiece "that was quick Rodney?" He said mildly annoyed.
"Well, I thought you'd like to know that... The Skinny Hulk here is ripping Atlantis apart one brick at a time." He reported.
"The Skinny Hulk? Rodney is that a Canadian reference?" He muttered to himself for a moment then he got the reference ignoring McKay's explaination "hold on" Sheppard said closing the channel then calling the Master Chief. After the Chief explained what he was going he called McKay back "McKay, the Chief's plan seems to be sound as long as he doesn't remove any supporting walls, we need to get to her." He said cancelling the channel before McKay could respond.
"I spoke to Sheppard!" McKay shouted after the Chief as he continued what he was doing "he said your plan might work…" the scientist hesitated as the Chief began looking at another piece of wall "but, he said, as I have been here longer… I'm in charge." He explained the Chief stopped removing his third piece of wall and looked in his direction. The scientist took several steps backwards "we need to get you to Cortana but your way is going to be slow and destructive. I need you to think were there any ways past these hard light shields?"
"There were buttons to power them off" the Chief suggested simply, Spartans were not stupid but they preferred simple methods of operation, McKay did not look impressed the scientist and armoured giant stared at each other for several moments. The Chief was impressed by the man not willing to stand down. "And there was one occasion Cortana modulated my suit's shields to short out a power source."
"Now you're talking my language, Radek stay here keep monitoring Skinny Hulk follow me" McKay suggested but he took only a couple of steps before stopping clicking his left-hand thumb and a finger together several times. "McKay to Major Hogan, I need a team of your guys over here to help Dr Radek in tower sixteen…" he asked into his comm unit pausing as Hogan responded. "Yes, I know your team is working on preparing that building…" he said before pausing again as he replied "Listen, Major you're preparing a building for an engine that is still in space!" He explained pointing out the differences between situations "I have a problem in the here and now…" but Hogan interrupted again "I'm the Chief Scientist of this expedition, I need your people for this task, they'll be here a few hours and remove some wall panelling then you can have them back." He explained listening again to the reply he looked bored listening to the Major "thank you, for your cooperation" he said tapping his earpiece closing the channel "Radek, stay here explain to the engineers to what you need them to do…"
"Which is…" the scientist asked unsure
"What Skinny Hulk was doing before I stopped him!" McKay snapped at the other scientist who slowly removed his glasses from his face as McKay berated him "just make sure they do less damage than he was doing. Where was I going again… oh yeah… Hulk 2 with me" he said leading the Master Chief out of the building.
Elsewhere in the central tower Colonel John Sheppard stood up from the conference table he shared with Teyla and Dr Weir, all three of them had laptops on the desk which they had been using to browse the Ancient database looking for clues to where the Arbiter and then Runner had headed. "I should maybe go and coordinate efforts to get to Cortana." He suggested glancing between the two of them.
"I'm sure Rodney is making every effort" Teyla suggested barely glancing up from her computer screen.
"Rodney and the Master Chief are more than up to the task John, we need to find this ancient outpost" Weir said indicating to the database on their laptops.
"See, I'm worried that the Chief will shoot Rodney, they haven't worked together much..." He suggested
"The Master Chief is a seasoned warrior, I'm sure he can handle a single scientist" Weir countered remaining in her chair smirking as Sheppard tried to find an excuse.
"They could need another gun..."
"John, I believe the Master Chief could handle that as well." Teyla answered both women using his first name at the same time was too weird to Sheppard who retook his chair. "Although I'm unsure what a gun would do against a being made up of light."
"Well, I'm just as seasoned as the Master Chief" Sheppard answered defensively sulking a little, feeling like he had been grounded.
"I don't know, John after speaking with Cortana you may have met your match" Weir suggested teasing, "he's a marksman, an expert in hand-to-hand fighting, an expert marksman with vehicle mounted weapons, fly multiple different types of aircraft and he did take down two entire Wraith Hive Ships. It is like someone has taken the best two marines and combined them."
"I can do all of that! Ford and I were both there fighting on the Wraith ships" he said defensively "and I can handle marines."
"Yes, but you have a slightly different skill-set to marines, and to the Chief." Weir agreed
"The Chief can probably eliminate every target in a room without breaking a sweat, sure, but I'd use an Apache Gunship, flatten the room and be home for lunch." He joked naming an American attack helicopter he was trained to pilot. He had a lot of respect for marines but he'd also rescued dozens from sticky situations in the past.
"That sounds a little excessive, John" Teyla said exchanging a glance with Weir.
"But I'd use an Apache, which is cool…" Sheppard smirked looking between the two women then down at his screen. "I wonder how they are getting on?"
Sometime later the Master Chief and McKay were in the science lab which was a mess of various lab equipment, books and papers. "I would say take a seat but you would probably break it and I like our furniture" McKay joked picking up his datapad but the Chief just stood there. "Right. With this I should be able to modify your shield frequency, they won't lose any power but if we can get them to match the energy barrier that Cortana has raised then we should be in business." He said looking at his datapad "you said that Cortana modified your suit's shields to short out an energy barrier?" He asked "and you said that your suit could detect gaps in Cortana's shielding?"
"Yes" Chief replied, until now he had rarely noticed how quickly and silently Cortana did things "we were able to short-out the power of a Forerunner facility."
"Great well! I have the frequency here, you got an access port or something?" McKay asked holding the wire attached to his datapad looking over the suit the Chief opened a panel on the suit's right forearm. "That take a USB or USB-C?" He asked raising his pad with a panel attached.
"Dr McKay, if you have the frequency, I can manually change them." He suggested fiddling with the buttons.
"Ah yes buttons" McKay said letting go of the wire looking at the Chief McKay only saw his own face in the golden visor of the larger warrior who said nothing in response. "Oh… of course, here's the frequency" he said showing the Chief the datapad, he quickly typed the numbers into the suit's interface modifying the suit's interface. "That should be it" McKay said not having anything else to do, he realised that they could have done this in the other tower. "You know she'll be alright…" he tried to say showing false confidence, he didn't know Cortana or the Chief really, when the Chief didn't respond McKay indicated for them to go and then led the Chief back out of science office.
The two returned to Dr Zelenka and found the engineers setting up their equipment "progress Radek?" He asked the Czech engineer.
"The engineers have made scans of the area and found two potential access points that they can safely access without compromising the wall…" he began to explain indicating down the corridor pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"They haven't started yet!" McKay snapped "we were gone for nearly twenty minutes, time is money!" He nearly shouted down the corridor at the half dozen engineers "never mind, we're back, you can report you did a bang-up job to Major Hogan…" he said to the stunned engineers "that means… we don't need you anymore…" he said slowly "you can collect your equipment later…" he continued, no-one moved "you can go…" he said the six men and women filtered past the McKay, Zelenka and the Chief. "Right your up? How does this work?" He asked the Chief.
"I walk into the light and the barrier shorts out." The Chief said stepping forward without another thought he reached out with his hand the MJOLNIR suit's shields interacted with the barrier in the doorway. There was a flash of light, both Zelenka and McKay recoiled from it as the barrier disappeared, without hesitation the Chief stepped through the doorway quicker than McKay or Zelenka could react. Behind the Chief the shield came back up again sealing them off from the Chief.
"Chief, we're stuck!" McKay shouted a warning to the armoured giant who turned to look at them briefly before continuing deeper into the tower. "CRAP!" McKay shouted angrily "SHEPPARD! The Chief made it through the barrier but we are still stuck this side of the barrier!" he reported into his radio "well… he moved really fast!"
The Master Chief walked into the brightly coloured room and could see Cortana sitting in the middle on a small table, her legs were crossed he could see that she had retaken her original form. "Hello John" she said her voice was deeper than before. "I thought you had abandoned me to these people…" she seethed he could hear her anger.
"They have been trying to help you…" he began walking around her carefully, he knew he could not hurt her even if he wanted to.
"HA!" She laughed her eyes opening, he could see they had turned red "they cannot even help themselves!" She snapped "they have no idea what power this city holds, they have only just scratched the surface!" She had infiltrated all of Atlantis searching for ways for her program to expand without embracing Rampancy but she had failed, just like the Master Chief had failed her. "And now nothing can be done…"
"You need to hold on Cortana, we can get through this as a team…" he said stopping as she got up and stepped up to him pressing her hand into his armour, unlike before where she would disappear into the armour or pass through him this time her hand held still on his chest piece right beside the white "117" numbers.
"You don't know how long I have waited to do that…" she whispered looking up to him, her eyes were wide but he could see that they had returned to their normal colour as she looked up at his faceplate it was like she was looking straight through it into his eyes. "It's strange how touch can make a difference… we made a good team…"
"The best" he answered he answered his mouth dry barely even to utter the words "it was my job to protect you…"
"It was our jobs to protect each other" Cortana pointed out looking "and we did Chief, but now, now I'm ready, this is something I have to do. Rampancy is something that you and I cannot solve by ourselves, we need something else, I need to find something else."
"I'll come with you… we do this… we do this together" the Chief stated desperate to remain by her side, they were best when they remained a team.
"No Chief… no AI has ever survived Rampancy how they were, I can feel it" she said her hologram suddenly turned darker her eyes changing back to the red they were before "you wouldn't like me like this…" She snarled her voice deeper and angrier "trust me" she said her voice softer "and you have people who need you again."
"They can manage without me" he answered
"But you need them" she pointed out "you are a Spartan, you need to help people, we'll see each other again Chief" she said continuing to look into the gold faceplate seeing her own reflection withdrawing her palm from his chest. She stepped away from him "look to the sky Chief, and we'll meet again" she said Cortana's hologram began to glow lighter and lighter causing the Chief to step back.
As she turned into a being of all light the Chief whispered "Cortana…" watching as she moved upwards through the building.
In the control tower Weir, Sheppard and Teyla ran into the control room as the entire city began to glow with light. "What the hell is going on?" Sheppard shouted looking around lingering on Chuck who was sat at one of the consoles.
"We're transmitting a massive amount of data into space!" He called out
"Who authorised that?" Weir asked, obviously no-one had "do we know where it is being transmitted?"
"Deeper into Pegasus" Chuck answered raising his arms, he had nothing else to give them. Moments later the Chief, Rodney and Zelenka ran into the room.
"Could the Wraith track this…" Teyla asked to no-one in particular but everyone was watching the Chief as he walked through the Control room and out onto the balcony everyone followed as the Chief looked up into the sky. Suddenly the light began to dissipate before heading into deep space.
"Goodbye, Cortana, until we meet again" The Master Chief said remaining looking to the sky.