Halo_ Ghosts of Onyx - Eric S. Nylund [123]
because that's when it told me I was not a Reclaimer, and reclassified me as an 'aboriginal subspecies.'"
Dr. Halsey stared off into space, thinking. "Yes…" she murmured. "This all makes sense."
"It was about to flash me with its energy beam when the rest of Saber came along and dropped a few rocks on it." Ash shrugged. "That's it, sir,"
Kurt had heard enough… more important, he had seen Dr. Halsey's reaction. She knew much more than she was telling them. And it was time he found out what.
"Okay," Kurt said, "everyone grab the pods and move them to the translocation platform."
He stepped closer to Dr. Halsey. "I'd like a word with you, ma'am."
The Spartans maneuvered the pods back into the corridor. Mendez spared a look at Kurt and Dr. Halsey, and then left.
"We don't have much time," Kurt said to her.
She glanced at her watch. "Forty minutes, to be precise, until the core-room entrance shuts."
"You know what's inside."
There was the slightest hesitation, and then she replied, "How could I, Lieutenant Commander?"
"But you haven't told me everything."
Dr. Halsey's eyes hardened and her mouth set in what Mendez would have called a poker face.
"Doctor, I'm not going to risk my Spartans" lives without knowing everything. Even what you might consider an insignificant detail could have grave tactical repercussions."
"Indeed," she whispered, and her expression softened a bit. "If they mean that much to you, then tell me first about their neural augmentations."
Kurt tensed, unsure how to proceed. Dr. Halsey was a civilian outside his chain of command. There were rules and protocols dictating how the military interacted with the civilians under its
protection—all too slow, for his purposes. If he were not reliant upon her scientific expertise, Kurt would have considered more direct action; instead he tried again.
"I am not bartering. Doctor. You do not have the proper clearance for that information. Now please tell me about the core. You could save lives."
"'Save lives' is exactly what I am attempting to do," she replied, and crossed her arms. The gesture was identical to the one Kelly made when she set her mind to be resolutely stubborn.
Kurt was cornered. If he threatened Dr. Halsey, he could lose her cooperation. If he didn't get the information, he might lose the lives. With time running out, he only had one option, and she knew it.
He took a deep breath and said, "Very well. The neural mutation for the SPARTAN-IIIs alters their frontal lobe to enhance aggression response. In times of extreme stress it makes them nearly immune to shock, able to endure damage not even a SPARTAN-II could."
"Like Dante?" Dr. Halsey said. "Still moving when he should have been in a coma?"
Kurt relived that moment, holding Dante who had just a second earlier saluted him and told him that he thought he had been nicked.
"Side effects?" she asked.
"Yes," Kurt whispered. "Over time, higher brain functions are suppressed and the Spartans lose their strategic judgment. A counteragent blocks this, but it must be regularly administered."
"I'm not sure I agree that trade-off is worth it," she said. "Unless, their needs were, even by Spartan standards… extraordinary." She carefully examined Kurt, and then whispered, "What happened to Alpha Company?"
"They were deployed to shut down a Covenant shipyard on the edge of UNSC space." Kurt stopped, straining to hold back
the blackness that rose within him. Shane, Robert, every one of them dead, and the fault his.
"I never heard of the operation," Dr. Halsey said.
"Because it was a success," Kurt replied, regaining some control. "If it hadn't been, the Covenant would have destroyed every Orion-side colony… But the entire company, three hundred Spartans, was lost."
Dr. Halsey started to reach out toward him, and then stopped, thinking better of it. "Tom and Lucy… ?"
"The only survivors of Beta Company from the Pegasi Delta Op,"