Where It All Begins - Part 1

(AN/: There will be times where I copy the Halo story to fill in the gaps for people who have yet to read it. For the first Arc, the story will mainly come from the book "Halo the Fall of Reach" and the game Halo Reach with some twists that I implement. Thank you for understanding.)

{0430 Hours, August 17, 2517 / Slipstream Space -unknown coordinates near Eridanus Star system}

I awoke to dull the pulsing of dark red lights. They filled my blurry vision as I choked on the slime that filled my lungs and throat.

[Sit up, Lieutenant Keyes]

The voice startled me, before I remembered that it was from the shipboard AI.

[Sit sir. take a deep breath and cough. You need to clear the bronchial surfactant]

I pushed myself up, peeling my back off the sticky form-fitting gel bed. Wisps of fog flowed out from the cryogenic tube I was in as I climbed out, clumsily. I sat on a nearby bench, tried to inhale, and doubled over, coughing until a long string of clear fluid flowed from my open mouth.

I sat up and drew in my first full breath in two weeks. I tasted my lips and almost gagged. The cryo inhalant was designed to be regurgitated and swallowed. It was meant to replace the nutrients that were lost in deep sleep. No matter how they changed the formula, it always tasted like lime-flavored mucus to me.

"Status, Toran?" I ask. "Are we under attack?'

[Negative, sir] replied the shipboard AI.

[Status is normal. We will enter normal space near the Eridanus System in forty-five minutes]

I coughed again before replying, "Good. Thank you, Toran."

[You're welcome, Lieutenant]

Eridanus was on the border of the Outer Colonies. It was just far enough off from patrols for pirates to be lurking... waiting to capture ships like the diplomatic shuttle Han. This ship wouldn't last long in a space battle. There was no escort. They should have sent an escort, but they didn't. I didn't understand why they have been sent alone, but I knew not to question orders. Especially when those orders came directly from FLEETCOM HQ on planet Reach.

Wake-up protocols dedicated that I should inspect the rest of the crew to make sure that no one had run into problems reviving from cryosleep. I looked around the sleep chamber; rows of stainless steel lockers and showers, a medical pod for emergency resuscitations, and forty cryogenic tubes which were all empty except for the one on my left.

The only other person on the Han was the civilian specialist, Dr. Halsey. I had been ordered to protect her at all costs, pilot this ship, and generally stay the hell out of her way. They might as well have asked me to hold her had. This wasn't a military mission; it was baby-sitting. I must be on someone's blacklist back at Fleet Command.

The cover of Dr. Halsey's tube hummed open. Mist rippled as she sat up, coughing. her pale skin made her look like a ghost in the fog. Matted locks of dark hair clung to her neck. She didn't look much older than him, and she was lovely - not beautiful, but definitely a striking woman. For a civilian, anyway.

Her eyes fixed upon me and she looked me over. "We must be near Eridanus," she said.

Her tone almost caused me to salute on reflex, but I kept the motion in check. I replied "Yes Doctor" as my face slightly reddened as I turned away from her stark and slender body.

I had drilled in cryogenic recovery a doze times at the Academy. I'd seen plenty of my fellow officers naked before - me and women. But Dr. Halsey was a civilian. I didn't know what protocols to apply.

I got up and went closer to her before asking, "Can I help you-"

She swung her legs out of the tube and climbed out. "I'm fine, Lieutenant. Get cleaned up and dressed." She brushed past me and strode to the showers. "Hurry. We have important work to do."

Her words caused me to stand straighter as I replied, "Aye, aye, Ma'am."

That brief encounter made me realize that our roles had changed. Civilian or not - like it or not - I understood that Dr. Halsey was in charge.

The bridge of the Han had an abundance of space for a vessel of its size. That is, it had all the maneuvering room of a walk-in closet. Freshly showered, shaved and in uniform, I pulled myself into the room and sealed the pressure door behind me. Every surface of the bridge was covered with monitors and screens. The wall on my left was a single large semi-curved view screen, dark for the moment because there was nothing in the visible spectrum to see in Slipspace.

Behind me was the Han's spinning center section. It contained the mss, the rec room, and the sleep chambers. There was no gravity on the bridge, however. The diplomatic shuttle had been designed for the comfort of its passengers no the crew.

It didn't seem to bother Dr. Halsey. Strapped into the navigator's couch, she wore a white jumpsuit that matched her pale skin and had tied her dark hair into a simple, elegant knot. Her fingers danced across four keypads, tapping in commands.

"Welcome Lieutenant," she said without looking up. "Please have a seat at the communication station and monitor the channels when we enter normal space. If there's so much as a squeak on the nonstandard frequencies, I want to know instantly."

I drifted to the communication station and strapped myself down.

"Toran?" she asked.

[Awaiting your order, Dr. Halsey]

"Give me astrogation maps of the system"

[Uploading map to the monitor]

"Are there any planets currently aligned with our entry trajectory and Eridanus Two? I want to pick up a gravitational boost so we can move in-system ASAP."

[Calculating now, Doctor Hal-]

"and can we have some music? Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto Number Three, I think."

[Understood Doctor-]

"And start a pre-burn warm-up cycle for the fusion engines"

[Yes Doc-]

"And stop spinning the Han's central carousel section. We may need the extra power."

[Working...]

She eased back. The music started and she sighed. "Thank you, Toran."

[You're welcome, Dr. Halsey. Entering normal space in five minutes, plus or minus three minutes]

I sent the doctor an admiring glance. I was impressed - few people could put a shipboard AI through its paces so rigorously as to cause a detectable pause in its speech.

She turned to face me. "Yes, Lieutenant? You have a question?"

I composed myself and pulled my uniform taunt. "I was curious about my mission, ma'am. I assume we are to reconnoiter something in this system, but why send a shuttle, rather than a prowler or a corvette? And why just the two of us?"

She blinked and smiled. "A fairly accurate assumption and analysis, Lieutenant. This is a reconnaissance mission ... of sorts. We are here to observe a child, The first of many, I hope."

"A child?"