Interlude: Voyage of Reminiscence

The Spartans couldn't deny that they were intrigued by the absolute insanity that their brother-from-another-mother-in-another-universe had endured, even just up to what they had seen so far. And there was still a hundred thousand years of history to go.

Doctor Halsey was even more intrigued, especially with the mechanics of what Forerunner technology they had seen, as well as the genetic imprint they all had received. They knew it was possible; humankind had even done it themselves in the past, though never on such a scale. But even so, it was one thing to know it was possible; it was another thing entirely to experience it for yourself, to live out the memories of a one-hundred-thousand-year-old Spartan-Gravemind and his band of merry men.

Even though he was doing exactly that, Lord Hood still wanted a full report of everything they learned through the imprint-dreams, just to have a record. As a result, all of the Spartans were temporarily on "light duty" (cleaning up the surviving Covenant on Earth, rather than striking out into the stars to handle problems in deeper space), writing up their reports alongside Sergeants Johnson, the two Keyes', Doctor Halsey, and CPO Mendez.

They had all divvied up the work amongst themselves to make it easier: Halsey was handling any and all Forerunner tech specs and other "sciencey shit", while Keyes, Keyes, and Mendez reviewed military action and strategy (of which there was a lot; essentially three hundred years straight of military engagements against the Flood). John had actually used the "Keyes Loop" a few times in unpredictable combinations against the Flood, and to great effect, causing the Fleet and a number of Forerunners to nearly declare Captain (now Rear Admiral) Keyes a saint.

(Didn't stop almost everyone dying, though.)

The Spartans themselves were handling everything else, just pure history and interactions and people and politics (which they hated as much as John did). They did it in sections, each team working on a particular segment of time, and Johnson reviewed it all as the closest someone could get to being a Spartan while still being an outsider. He gave them input on thought processes needed to be clarified for non-Spartans and helped the Spartans themselves understand other things non-Spartans did.

"This is probably the most 'relaxing' assignment we've ever had," Kurt said, standing up to stretch. There were murmurs of assent from the others with him. They were rotating who was fighting and who was writing, and those fighting reviewed the work of those writing before they handed it over to Johnson.

"No, Emerald Cove was the most relaxing."

"That wasn't an assignment, Daze. We ditched our training for a week of what was basically vacation."

Daisy snorted. "Maybe. But now Mendez knows exactly what we were doing during that time. You think he'll try to get us back for it?"

"It's been thirty-five years, but I wouldn't put it past him."

"Still, it's been thirty-five years," Rene interjected.

"Still wouldn't put it past him," Kurt returned, "But also… I feel bad for John. In his world, there were, what, fifteen of us left? If that? And here… we're all here. We all made it. I kind of wonder if he feels like it's his fault his Spartans died. Like, Cortana picked him for his luck. Did he somehow take ours, and it got them all killed? Did probability skew against us in favor of him?"

"I hope not," said Nick, "He's got enough to worry about without worrying about that too."

Johnson knocked, then entered the conference room they had commandeered to do their work. "I brought food. How's it goin', team?"

"Faster now that Doctor Halsey finished and installed that translator," Aolani answered from where she was hunched over her PAD, "and the modified keyboard. It might not actually be our native tongue, but it's a lot easier to do this in Digon than in Standard." Even as she spoke, her fingers flew over the Forerunner-alphabet keyboard, the words flowing easily in the ancient tongue. Once she completed a sentence, the translator ran, and changed it to UEG Standard. It was good enough that only rarely did any of them have to go back and modify the translation.

The Sergeant raised an eyebrow at her. "Gonna do all your reports in Forerunner gibberish now, huh?"

"Maybe."

Nick accepted his MRE stack and chewed morosely on what might have been a Salisbury steak. "John's spoiled us with his memories, too. I miss real food. And I wanna try those worms for myself."

"Halgengei," said Johnson with perfect inflection and accent, "and I wouldn't mind eatin' some myself. 'Course the Corps taught me to eat anythin' as long as it's stopped moving."

"Same with our training."

-------------------------------------------

"This man."

"We're aware, Doctor."

"This man."

"We're aware, Catherine."

"I can't type fast enough!" the scientist nearly shouted, practically hammering at her keyboard, characters whizzing across the screen, "There's just so much! This will advance the UNSC's understanding of science and the universe by thousands of years once we manage to make sense of it all, but I can't get it down fast enough!"

Halsey was effectively pulling double duty, because she had to translate both the words and the concepts into something that made sense to humans. She was effectively writing thousands of years' worth of scientific advancements in the space of a few days.

The others had comparatively lighter work; tactics, strategy, force numbers, troop deployments - it all was pretty much the same no matter what culture it was. It was the naming that was giving them the most trouble; the Forerunners didn't really name their maneuvers, like the "Keyes Loop", so they were having to give them designations beyond Attack Form Delta, Defense Form Beta, et cetera, because all of those meant something completely different to UNSC personnel. And they couldn't just name it after the person who invented the maneuver or the tactic, because there were several gifted Warrior-Servant commanders like the Didact who had hundreds, even thousands of those maneuvers to their names.

They were also having to describe the battles that John and the Fleet fought in or heard about or witnessed.

There were a lot. Even just what came from the Domain was still an enormous amount of information about the Human-Forerunner War and the associated battles with the Flood.

Rear Admiral Keyes pushed himself back from the table, then moved over to spin Halsey around and clasp her hands. "Catherine, take a moment to breathe. Of us all, you're the only one who really, truly understands the science and physics of it all and knows how to translate it to something we can explain, something we can use. If you give yourself an aneurysm or put yourself in the hospital, we'll all be that much further behind. Breathe, Catherine."

Halsey forced herself to slow down and take a deep breath, then entwined her fingers with Jacob's. "I know that. I know. It's just… I feel like if I don't get everything down now, it's going to slip through my fingers and be lost forever."

"You know that's not true. I hardly think the Fleet's abandoned us, not now. They just have work to do, and they're probably waiting for the imprint to play itself out before they come back."

Catherine sighed. "You're probably right. I would rather just get it all down right the first time, and start our own work as quickly as possible."

"I know, Catherine."