Castaways Log23 HaloSpoilers

“Chief... Wow!”  

The sky was the richest copper orange, the white sun of HK-154 glanced off the steel gray ocean making it look like glass reflecting the darker parts of the evening clouds.  The gray sand beneath them was perfectly undisturbed and sparkled like a blanket of sugar  beneath the SPARTAN seated at the water’s edge.  The slow tide barely licked the heels of his well-worn MJOLNIR boots.

He was more at peace than he had been in memory.  “I told you, didn’t I?”

“You sure did.”  She agreed, giving him a verbal pat on the back.  “Almost makes abandoning the beacon worth the time.”

He frowned.  “Are you being sardonic?”

“Hmph,” she considered the sunset again.  “Maybe a little.”

He sat up and leaned forward.  “You’d rather be sitting back at HQ repeating the same phrase over and over than be out here with me?”

“I didn’t say that!”  She protested.

“Yes you did.” He said, gruffly.  

“No I didn’t!”  She insisted.  “Chief, believe me when I say, honestly, that there is no other place I’d rather be right now than here on this beach with you.”

He became suddenly sober.  “How about home?  Would you rather be there?”

She didn’t hesitate.  “No Chief.  I’d rather be here than home.  I’d rather be with you.”  She softened her voice to a low whisper.  “You’re my home.”

He felt a smile grow hidden behind his faceplate.  “Am I?”

“I don’t lie.”

“I know you don’t.”

He found himself struggling with a way to answer this very emotional confession.  It would have been nice to reply ‘you’re home to me too, Cortana’ but he didn’t quite feel that way.  He enjoyed her company and missed her when she was gone, but he also knew that she was an AI, and that he’d outlive her by decades.   He felt his stomach knot thinking of the day her time would come.   He would get through it, though, he was strong.  Contrarily, she seemed lost and almost broken without him. Every time they were separated for any length of time, her voice would break into a shaky kind of static reflected in her posture and holographic form.  He wondered if there was something about the bond they shared that superseded corrupted data or fatal errors received back on High Charity.  Hers was a truly unique existence resulting from a irreproducible sequence of events.  This train of thought didn’t help the churn in his gut, but helped him realize what it was he wanted to say.

“I’m here for you, Cortana.”

She smiled in his head.  “Thank you, Chief.”

“You’re welcome.”  He leaned back again.  He was starting to suspect that the gross feeling in his stomach was not an emotional response.  “Maybe we should go back.”

“The sun’s not down yet,” Cortana noted.  “Did I ruin it for you?”

“No, I’m just tired.”  He said.  “There will be other sunsets.”

“Okay.”  She agreed.

He forked himself up from the turf and suddenly found himself reeling in a bout of lightheadedness.  He reevaluated his footing and gave his inner ear a chance to sort itself out.  Cortana noted his pause.  “What’s wrong.”

“I don’t know.”  He admitted.  He shifted weight and chanced a step forward.  Impact made his head hurt.  “I’m having some kind of symptoms.”

She grew instantly concerned.  “Symptoms?  What kind of symptoms?”

“Flu-like symptoms.”  He answered.  He took another step and felt the world spin.  “Whoa.”

“I’ll run a check on you.”  She said, reaching out to his neural interface.  Her presence sent icey fingers down his back.  The chill didn’t help his stomach any.  “Have you broken the seal on the suit today?”

“Only to eat.”

“Are you drinking enough?”

“I don’t know.”  He admitted.  

“You could be dehydrated.  That’s probably the case.  You cooked the food, there shouldn’t have been anything left alive in it.”

“That’s all very logical.”  He said, focusing hard on the end of the beach.  “Forgive me if I don’t care right now, I’m more interested in getting back to HQ and passing out.”

“Take a deep breath, Chief, pace yourself.”  Cortana coached.  “It’s no big deal, just a little exhaustion.  I’m sure all you need is a glass of water and a good night’s rest.  You’ve been running on fumes since we left Cant...”

“I was built for worse.”  He made it to the woods and leaned heavily against the nearest tree.  His head did another loop-the-loop and he was grateful for the support.  

Cortana knew he was right.  His immune system and endurance were top-notch by design.  She also knew it was utterly impossible or him to have caught something, and didn’t like her other options.  She waited anxiously for her read-outs to provide a decent conclusion as to whether this was an immuno-response to a foreign substance or the untimely shut-down of the body itself, the figures she was seeing in the meantime were more and more distressing.  “Your temperature is rising.  It’s gone up two degrees and isn’t stopping.  You need to take it slow, Chief, don’t over-exert yourself.”

“Slow I can do.”  He reached out and transferred to another tree.  “Although its kind of a pain.”

“You can do it Chief.”

“Don’t worry.”  He stumbled into another tree.

“Don‘t worry?”  She asked.  “You were fine two seconds ago!  I think this is a perfect time to worry!”

“Not helping, Cortana.”  He wondered if he could get his helmet off fast enough to puke should the need arise.  Holding his breath and vomiting at the same time might take a little preparation.  Breathing methane probably wasn’t good for him right now.

“I’m sorry, I just don‘t know what‘s going on... If its not a simple solution and something‘s actually going wrong...”  She was starting to shake up again.  He had to do something to calm her down.

“Hey.”  He paused against his current tree to catch his breath.  “Don’t freak out, its gonna be alright.”

“But how-”

“It’s just exhaustion, like you said.”  He assured her.  “It’s nothing that won’t fix itself.  I’m not going to die on you.”

“But...”  She sounded racked with fear.  “You promise?”

“Yes.”  He exhaled.  “Again.  Yes.  I promise not to die on you.”

“You can’t control this kind of promise, Chief.”  She said, gravely.  “You can’t just decide how this condition is going to affect you.  You’re getting worse by the second and neither of us know for certain why.  I should have seen it coming, I should have been attentive when something became abnormal.”

“And now you’re blaming yourself...”  He heaved himself off and began his tree transferring again.  “You said before it was impossible to get sick.  Why would you waste your time monitoring my immune system?”

“You put something foreign in your body.”  She said.  “That’s cause enough to pay attention.  I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.  I’m getting so scattershot.... Maybe I’m more broken than I thought.”

“You’re fine.”  He insisted, a little louder than he meant.  Thinking of her problems had started this mess as far as he was concerned.  

She noted his response and quieted her fears.  “Yes, I’m fine.  Don’t worry about me.”

“Of course you are.”  He said pointedly.  “There’s nothing wrong with either of us.  We just need to get back to Why and sleep this off.  We’ll be fine in the morning.”

“You’re absolutely right.”  She was not convinced, but felt further discussion would only bring his determination down.  She decided on a slightly ironic change of subject.  “You know what’s funny?”

He changed trees.  “What?”

“Back when we first landed... All those months ago... I was really excited to watch your food go down.”

He paused, remembered, and managed a half smile.  “That is kind of funny.”