Cortana listened to the hum of coded traffic along the surface of ONI’s secure network. There was an unusual amount of packets today: queries and encrypted messages from ONI operatives. She peered into them and unraveled their secrets as they passed her. There were orders for ship movements and operatives outbound from Reach. This must be the new directive to send scouts into the periphery systems and find the Covenant. She saw several ships docked in Reach’s space docks—ONI stealth jobs made to look like private yachts. They had cute, innocuous names: the Applebee, Circumference, and the Lark.

She spotted something she could use: Dr. Halsey had just entered her laboratory. She was at checkpoint three. The doctor waited as her voice and retina patterns were being scanned.

Cortana intercepted and killed the signal. The verification system reset.

“Please rescan retina, Dr. Halsey,” the system requested, “and repeat today’s code phrase in a normal voice.”

Before Dr. Halsey could do this, Cortana sent her own files of Dr. Halsey’s retina and voice scans. She had long ago copied them and occasionally they came in handy.

Section Three verification opened for Cortana. She had only a second before the doctor spoke and overrode the previous entry access.

Cortana, however, was a lightning strike in the system. She entered, searched, and found what she wanted. Every piece of data on SPARTAN 117 was copied to her personal directory within seventy milliseconds.

She withdrew from the ONI database, routing all traces of her queries back to her Ackerson “ghost.”

She closed all connections and returned to the Pillar of Autumn. One quick check of the reactor—yes, operating within normal parameters—and she sent a complete report to Lieutenant Hall on the bridge.

Cortana examined the Master Chief’s complete CSV. She scanned backward through time: his performance data on the obstacle course, and the debriefing he had given at ONI headquarters.

She paused and pondered the signal the Covenant had sent from Sigma Octanus IV. Intrigued, she tried to translate the sequence. The symbols looked tantalizingly familiar. Every algorithm and variation of the standard translation software she attempted, however, failed. Puzzled, she set it aside to examine later.

She continued, absorbing the data from the Master Chief’s files. She learned of the augmentations he and the other Spartans were made to endure; the brutal indoctrination and training they had received; and how he had been abducted at the age of six, and a flash clone used to replace him in an ONI black op.

All of it had been authorized by Dr. Halsey.

Cortana paused for a full three processor cycles churning this new data through her ethics subroutines... not comprehending. How could Dr. Halsey, who was so concerned for her Spartans, have done this to them?

Of course—because it was necessary. There was no other way to preserve the UNSC against rebellion and Covenant forces.

Was Dr. Halsey a monster? Or just doing what had to be done to protect humanity? Perhaps a little of both.

Cortana erased her stolen files. No matter. Whatever the Master Chief had been through in the past... it was done. He was in Cortana’s care now. She would do everything in her power—short of compromising their mission—to make sure nothing ever happened to him again.

0400 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)

UNSC Pillar of Autumn, in orbit around Epsilon Eridani System, Reach Military Complex

Captain Keyes tapped the thrusters of the shuttle pod Coda. The tiny craft rolled and the Pillar of Autumn came into view.

Normally, Captains did not ferry themselves around the space docks of Reach, but Keyes had insisted. All unauthorized personnel were restricted to a narrow flight path around the Pillar of Autumn, and he wanted to take a careful look around the outside of this ship before he took command.

From this distance, the Pillar of Autumn could have been mistaken for an elongated frigate. As the shuttle pod moved closer, however, details appeared that betrayed the ship’s age. The Pillar of Autumn’s hull had several larger dents and scratches. Her engine baffles were blackened. The portside emergency thrusters were missing.

What had he gotten himself into by signing up for Dr. Halsey’s mission?

He moved within a hundred meters and circled to the starboard. The shuttle bay on this side was sealed off. Red-and-yellow hazard warnings had been painted on metal plates that had been hastily welded over her entrance.

He closed to ten meters and saw the plate was not a solid sheet of metal—he could see armored ports, heavily reinforced... almost solid titanium A. Honeycombed throughout this section were the round covers of Archer missile pods. Captain Keyes counted: thirty pods across, ten down. Each pod held dozens of missiles. The Pillar of Autumn had a secret arsenal to rival any real cruiser in the fleet.

Captain Keyes drifted toward the stern and noticed concealed and recessed 50mm autocannons for defense against single ships.

Underneath were bumps—part of the linear accelerator system for the ship’s lone MAC gun. It looked too small to be truly effective. But he would reserve judgment. Perhaps, like the rest of the Pillar of Autumn, the weapon was more than it appeared to be.

He certainly hoped so.

Captain Keyes returned to the port side and drifted gently into the shuttle bay. He took note of three Longsword single ships and three Pelican dropships in the bay. One of the Pelicans had double the normal armor plating and what looked like grappling attachments. A serrated titanium ram decorated the dropship’s prow.

He touched down on an automated landing platform and locked the controls down. A moment later the shuttle descended belowdecks and was cycled through the airlock. Captain Keyes gathered his duffel bag and stepped onto the flight deck.

Lieutenant Hikowa was there to meet him. She saluted. “Welcome aboard, Captain Keyes.”

He saluted. “What do you think of her, Lieutenant?”

Lieutenant Hikowa’s dark eyes widened. “You’re not going to believe this ship, sir.” Her normally serious face broke with a smile. “They’ve turned it into something... special.”

“I saw what they did to my starboard shuttle bay,” Captain Keyes remarked sourly.

“That’s just the start,” she said. “I can give you a full tour.”

“Please,” Captain Keyes said. He paused at an intercom. “Just one thing first, Lieutenant.” He keyed the intercom. “Ensign Lovell, plot a course to the system’s edge and move the Pillar of Autumn on an accelerating vector. We will jump to Slipstream space as soon as we get there.”

“Sir,” Lovell replied. “Our engines are still in shakedown mode.”

“Cortana?” Captain Keyes asked. “Can we have power to move the ship? I’d like to get under way.”

“The engines’ final shakedown is in theta cycle,” Cortana replied. “Operating well within normal parameters. Diverting thirty percent power to engines; aye, sir.”

“And the other systems’ status?” Captain Keyes asked.

“Weapons-system check initiated. Navigational nodes functioning. Continuing systemwide shakedown and triple checks, Captain.”

“Very good,” he said. “Apprise me if there are any anomalies.”

“Aye, Captain,” she replied.

“We finally have an AI,” he remarked to Hikowa.

“We’ve got more than that, sir,” Hikowa replied. “Cortana is running the shakedown and supervising Dr. Halsey’s modifications to the ship. We have a backup AI to handle point defense.”

“Really?” Keyes was surprised; getting a single AI was tough enough these days. Getting two was unprecedented.