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Jerrod had one other feature uniquely suited for Dr. Halsey's purposes: portability. Other AIs required an institute, a starship, or at the very least a full set of MJOLNIR armor to function.
"Diagnostics on the Beatrice's systems, please," Dr. Halsey said. "Then correlate the data slice downloaded from Cortana's memory core and prepare for analysis. Execute a database search on stellar coordinates input into the NAV system; expand search parameters within five light-years of origin."
"Stand by, ma'am. Just have to dust off the old circuits. Working…"
"And a little Debussy, please," she said. "Les Sons et les par-fums tournent dans l'air du soir."
Jerrod's mote of light shrank to a pinpoint of brilliance as he pushed his processing abilities.
After five seconds, moody piano notes tickled through the bridge's speakers.
"Done," Jerrod replied, sounding almost out of breath.
"Display Cortana's time-sliced correlated log."
Dr. Halsey had appropriated Cortana's truncated mission log when she had been on the Gettysburg. She had accessed and erased a portion of the AI's memory involving Sergeant Johnson. At the time, it also seemed logical to download a thumbnail sketch of everything she and John had been through.
Cortana's voice narrated a slideshow of images. Dr. Halsey saw John and the crew of the Pillar of Autumn fight the Covenant on the alien ring artifact, and then witnessed the horrific Flood as it
infested human and alien bodies. She closed her eyes as the assimilated Captain Keyes was destroyed.
"Rest easy, old friend," she whispered.
"Limit references to Forerunner entries alone," she told Jerrod.
Dr. Halsey listened to Cortana and the Forerunner artificial intelligence, Guilty Spark, spar… until they revealed the true purpose of the Halo construct: the extermination of all life in the galaxy
"No wonder the Covenant are so interested in these artifacts," she said.
"Ma'am?"
"Nothing, Jerrod."
She now also understood Colonel Ackerson's interest.
Dr. Halsey had taken the liberty of rifling Colonel Ackerson's top-secret files on Reach before the Covenant destroyed the facility. In a file labeled "King Under the Mountain" there were pieced-together data from the hieroglyphics stone found on Cote d'Azure in the Sigma Octanus System, and discovered coordinates that had pointed to the alien ruins on Reach under Castle Base.
Was this an arms race for Forerunner technology?
The last bread crumb in this long trail was an encrypted folder in Ackerson's secret files, the one labeled "S-III."
In it were extensive medical records on her SPARTAN-IIs. As if Ackerson were studying them. There was one other reference: "CPOMZ" and the 512-long alphanumerical string that represented old celestial coordinates.
She typed in the string.
"Display all data on stellar objects at these coordinates."
"This coordinate system is antiquated, Doctor," Jerrod said. "Not used since extrasolar manned space exploration." He paused. "It falls outside UNSC-controlled space."