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He left and the door sheathed closed.
Kurt approached the black sphere. There were no obvious controls or displays. Light shed off its surface like water beading off oil.
He touched it and it warmed.
Ice appeared in snowflake patterns and crackled over the Vice Admiral's desk.
Holographic snow drifted through the office and coalesced into a white cloak, chiseled features, glacier eyes, and a cane of crystalline ice: Deep Winter.
"My god," the AI breathed. "And I thought rear admirals were long-winded. I thought old Jeromi would never leave."
Deep Winter smoothed his near-skeletal hands over nothing, and a blue sheen permeated the air. "Counterelectronics package online."
"How did you get here?" Kurt asked.
His mind struggled to grasp the ramifications. AIs had large footprints; they needed installations, and massive power sources to fuel their minds. Deep Winter couldn't be here. And how could the AI manage to alter the approach vector from Earth's or Reach's COM launchers?
Deep Winter held up a hand. "Stop. I see your mind in logic lock. Lieutenant. It would, perhaps, help to explain."
"Please," Kurt whispered.
"First," Deep Winter said, "we may only communicate in a limited fashion. I have imprinted a faction of my intellect into the memory matrix of this probe. The process has irreversibly destroyed a portion of the home base processing powers, so please do not waste the precious minutes we have. There is also insufficient remaining power in this probe for a prolonged debate."
Kurt nodded. This had cost the AI a high price, so he would do his best to listen.
"Also, let us not waste time debating the nuances of this Slipstream-space COM probe. That is classified, and you don't have clearance."
"Then what are we talking about?" Kurt asked.
"I have found three anomalies to the current bioaugmentation protocols." Deep Winter clapped his handed together and two gyrating collections of steel spheres appeared. "These represent the protein complexes miso-olanzapine and cyclodexione-4," Deep Winter explained, "which were secreted into the alteration regime."
Kurt leaned closer to the spinning molecules.
"They are antipsychotic and bipolar integration drugs," Deep Winter said.
He clapped his hands and a third molecule appeared: twisting silver and gold blobs. "And this," the AI said, "is a mutagen that alters key regions in a subject's frontal lobe."
Deep Winter faded to semitranslucency. "It enhances aggression, making the animal part of the mind more accessible in times of stress. Someone so mutated has reserves of strength and endurance no normal human could call upon. Such a person could also continue to fight under the influence of wide systemic shock that would instantly kill a normal human.
"The mutagen, however, depresses the higher reason centers of the brain over time," the AI continued. "The antipsychotic drugs and bipolar integration medicines counter this effect. As
long as the SPARTAN-IIIs have these agents in their system, they compensate."