Where it All Begins - Part 2

(AN/: This is not my work. It took it from the book Halo The Fall of Reach. To give the readers the story that is necessary I will often paraphrase or copy sections of text and speech from Halo books and games.)

"A child?" I ask Doctor Halsey.

"A six-year-old male, to be precise." she waved her hand. "It may help if you think of this purely as a UNSC-funded physiological study." Every trace of her smile evaporated from her lips. "Which is precisely what you are to tell anyone who asks. Is that understood, Lieutenant?"

"Yes Doctor"

I frowned, retrieved my grandfather's pipe from my pocket, and turned it end over end. I couldn't smoke the thing - igniting a combustible on the flight deck was against every major regulation on a UNSC space vehicle - but sometimes I just fiddled with it or chewed on the tip, it helped me think. I stuck it back into my pocket and decided to push the issue and find out more.

"With all due respect, Dr. Halsey, this sector of space is dangerous." I started to say, before we suddenly decelerated, entering normal space. The main screen flickered and a million stars snapped into focus. The Han dove toward a cloud-swirling gas giant dead ahead.

"Stand by for burn," Dr. Halsey announced. "On my mark, Toran." I started to tighten my harness.

"Three . . . two . . . one. Mark."

The ship rumbled and sped after toward the gas giant. The pull of the harness increased around my chest, making breathing difficult. We accelerated for sixty-seven seconds . . . the storms of the gas giant grew larger on the view screen - then the Han arced up and away from its surface. Eridanus drifted into the center of the screen and filled the bridge with its warm orange light.

[Gravity boost complete. ETA to Eridanus is forty-two minutes, three seconds]

"well done," Dr. Halsey said. She unlocked her harness and floated free, stretching. "I hate cryo sleep," she said. " It leaves one so cramped."

"As I was saying before, Doctor, this system is dangerous - "

Doctor Halsey gracefully spun to face him, halting her momentum with a hand on the bulkhead. "Oh yes, I know how dangerous this system is. It has quite the colorful history; rebel insurrection in 2494, beaten down by the UNSC two years later at the cost of four destroyers." she paused for a moment to think, before adding, "I don't believe the Office of Naval Intelligence ever found their base in the asteroid field. And since there have been organized raids and scattered pirate activity nearby, one might conclude - as ONI clearly has - that the remnants of the original rebel faction are still active. Is that what you were worried about?"

"Yes," I reply. I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry, but I refused to be cowed by the doctor - by a civilian. "I hardly need to remind you that it is my job to worry about our security." Halsey knew more than he did, much more, about the Eridanus System - and she obviously had contacts in the intelligence community. Keyes had never seen an ONI spoke - to the best of his knowledge anyway. Mainline Navy personnel had elevated such agents to near-mythological status.

'I should just assume that she knows whats she's doing. She obviously knows more than I do.' I thought, a little bitterly.

Halsey stretched once more and then strapped herself back onto the navigation couch. "Speaking of pirates, " she said with her back now facing me, "Weren't you supposed to be monitoring communication channels for illegal signals? Just in case someone takes an undue interest in a lone, unescorted, diplomatic shuttle?" I cursed at myself for the momentary lapse in focus and snapped to. I scanned all frequencies and had Toran cross-check their authentication codes.

"All signals verified," I reported. "No pirate transactions detected."

"Continue to monitor them, please." An awkward thirty minutes passed. Dr. Halsey was content to read reports on the navigational screens and kept her back toward me.

I cleared my throat. "May I speak candidly, Doctor?"

"You don't need my permission," she said. "By all means, speak candidly, Lieutenant. You've been doing a fine job so far." Under normal circumstances, among normal officers, that last remark would have been insubordination - or worse, a rebuke. But I let it pass. Normal military protocols seemed to have been jettisoned on this flight.

"You said we were here to observe a child." I shook my head dubiously. "If this is a cover for real military intelligence work, then, to tell the truth, there are better-qualified officers for this mission. I graduated from UNSC OCS only seven weeks ago. My orders had me rotated to the Magellan. Those orders were rescinded, ma'am.

She turned and scrutinized me with her icy blue eyes. "Go on, Lieutenant." I reached for my pipe, but then checked the motion. She would probably think of it as a silly habit.

"If this is an intel op," I say, "then . . . then I don't understand why I'm here at all."

She leaned forward. "Then, Lieutenant, I shall be equally candid." Something deep within my gut told me I would regret hearing whatever Dr. Halsey had to say. I ignored the feeling, I wanted to know the truth.

"Go ahead, Doctor."

Her slight smile returned. "You are here, because Vice Admiral Stanforth, head of Section Three of UNSC Military Intelligence Division, refused to lend me this shuttle without at least one UNSC officer aboard - even though he knows damn well that I can pilot this bucket by myself. So I picked one UNSC officer. You" She tapped her lower lip in thought then added, "You see, I've read your file, Lieutenant. All of it."

"I don't know - "

"You do know what I'm talking about." She rolled her eyes. "You don't lie well. Don't insult me by trying again."

I swallowed the mucus that began to pool in my mouth. "Then why me? Especially if you've seen my record?"