Heartbeats


Awakening


CTN 0452-9


Ba-dum

Heartbeat normal, within previous parameters. Current heart rate: 10.0593 beats per minute. Heartbeats since entering cryosleep: 5,259,638.

Status of Master Chief petty officer John-117: Normal.


Cortana performed the checkup almost without thinking. Then again, she supposed what classed as 'thinking' was up for debate, wasn't it? As a smart Artificial Intelligence, she was designed as both a computer, and a self-aware agent capable of thought. Crunching numbers like that was something her systems could just do, no need for any involvement on her part.

But the urge to check up on every single heartbeat? The impulse to reevaluate her charge's vitals with each new pulse of blood, to regularly go over the charts she'd accrued of his status this entire trip, to worry, frantically, over every hundredth-of-a-percentile deviation from the previous norm? That was entirely Cortana's conscious (if sometimes involuntary) thought.


Ba-dum

Heartbeat normal, within previous parameters. Current heart rate: 10.0594 beats per minute. Heartbeats since entering cryosleep: 5,259,639.

Status of Master Chief petty officer John-117: Normal.


There was very little else for her to do, in truth. She'd had her hands full at first; Plotting the projected path of the Forward Unto Dawn, analysing the status of the ship, performing what repairs could be done without human intervention, taking stock of their equipment and supplies, etcetera.

But she had done most of that in the first twenty four hours. The rest, within the first week. A.I thought fast, and despite the bleakness of their situation, there was really very little to do on a ship floating aimlessly through space. Cortana was bored. Painfully, awfully, mind-numbingly, indescribably bored.

As she mused to try and distract herself, Cortana's perfect internal clock passed over a very specific moment. Her tick-rate was accurate down to a few tera-hertz, but still she forced herself to wait the agonising second or so until the next…


Ba-dum

Heartbeat normal, within previous parameters. Current heart rate: 10.0593 beats per minute. Heartbeats since entering cryosleep: 5,259,640.

Status of Master Chief petty officer John-117: Normal.


She manifested her avatar above the terminal, and let out a shaky breath with it.

There it was. With that heartbeat, it had now been twelve months since the Chief had first entered cryosleep. One standard Earth year since the arrival on the Ark, since the death of Truth and the defeat of the covenant, since the Forward Unto Dawn had split in two as it travelled through the slipspace portal, leaving Cortana and the Chief stuck in space with no slipspace, no engines, and very little power. One year.

She raised her avatar's arms and (on a whim) conjured up a flurry of confetti to fall around herself, along with a classic 'pf-thoo' party horn sound.

She almost immediately regretted it, wincing.

Are you out of your mind? She chastised herself. Do you want to be? Five years since you were put into service, and who knows what effects might have come from raiding all those forerunner archives and your time with…with that Thing. Now is not the time to be giving into flights of whimsy.

Still…she glanced across at the cryo-pods.

She'd thought that reaching this milestone might bring her some relief. Use the classic human strategy of splitting the time into chunks to make it more bearable; prove that she was strong enough tolerate that first hurdle, and then move onto the next one, and the next. But looking back at the last year, looking forwards at how long she had left to go…

Her avatar shivered.

She couldn't do it. She knew she couldn't. She needed something, anything, to alleviate the monotony, even if it was only for a few minutes.

There was the obvious solution. The option that was so tantalisingly easy, that she'd been desperately trying not to take for the entire journey so far. She knew it was wrong, and foolish, and a bad, bad, bad idea, but…

She bit her lip, and again looked furtively at the pods.

…A few minutes wouldn't hurt, right?


Sierra-117

John awoke to the familiar prickling sensation of his body feeling both hot and cold all over. Cryosleep was never pleasant, no matter how many times he went through it. At least this time he wasn't awakening to the blaring alarms that indicated a covenant boarding. But the eerie silence (combined with the memories of his situation before cryo) quickly reminded him that things might not be as relaxed as they look.

"Chief! Easy, you've been out for a while."

Cortana. Her words and tone suggested any danger wasn't immediate, so he took the time to shake his head clear. "Where are we?" He asked.

"Still adrift on the Dawn." Cortana answered. A hologram of her was stood above the nearby terminal, looking just as she had before he'd gone under.

"Why did you wake me?" He asked.

"No emergency, I'll explain in a moment. Bringing your systems online now…"

There was some more minutia to sort. His HUD activated with a high pitched whir, and he had to pull the manual release to free himself. But it wasn't long before he was floating in front of Cortana's terminal, using it to anchor himself in the zero-G.

"So?" He asked. "What's the problem?"

"Well…" Cortana glanced away and trailed off. That wasn't good. As far as he knew, she'd never regretted a thing in her life. Bashfulness usually meant she'd done something reckless (or just plain illegal) and was trying to avoid a reprimanding. He still remembered when she'd told him about what she'd done to Colonel Ackerson, the officer that had almost had them killed in their first joint exercise. The man had been out of line, yes. But using his money to hire prostitutes in his name was ignoring the line entirely.

"There's no problem," Cortana admitted, "But as of about five minutes ago, you've been napping for a year on this ship. Thought I'd check how you were holding up."

John frowned under his helmet. "That wasn't the plan."

"No. But we thought up that plan in fifteen minutes, and since then I've been at it for over five hundred thousand." Cortana pulled up a set of screens around her, words and images flashing by too fast for John to identify. "A year in cryo's a long time, even for you. I wanted to make sure that if you wake up two years from now, you'll still be able to walk when the brutes come after you."

She had a point. He didn't think he'd ever spent a year in cryosleep before, never mind longer. He knew it could be done in theory, but wasn't sure of the side effects.

Also, while the point about the brutes was clearly just a smarmy example, something else about what she said stood out to him. "Two years?" He asked. "Do you think it will take that long?"

Cortana's mouth opened, then closed. She coughed. "Are you…sure you want to know?"

He thought about it.

"No. What checkups do you have in mind?"

She looked surprised for a split second, before shrugging and bringing up some diagrams, flicking them onto his HUD. "Just some basic physical and mental evaluations, shouldn't take long. Well, unless you start failing them, in which case this could take a while. Hold onto this terminal with one hand…"

Most standard warmups (for obvious reasons) weren't feasible in zero gravity. Cortana led him through a series of exercises that made the best of the situation, including stretches for just about every joint in his body, and a few more athletic tests. He recognised that, out of context, a man in full MJOLNIR armour kicking his legs in the air for a solid ten minutes to raise his heart rate probably looked very silly. But aside from a sly smile here and there, Cortana didn't comment on it.

After pronouncing his condition normal (or, at least, whatever normal was for an experimental super soldier) Cortana moved on to mental exercises.

"Okay, so first I'm going to be doing some basic word association. I give you a word, you respond with the first word that comes to mind."

A standard psych eval, then. "Haven't done one of these since Reach. Looking to make me trip up?"

"I believe I was with you for most of your traumas (and have videos of the rest), so no, nothing so devious." Cortana shot him a smile. "Relax, I won't be looking too closely at your answers. Just need to make sure you don't respond to 'Scorpion' with 'pineapple'."

"Alright then. Go ahead." He stabilised himself against the terminal, while her avatar sat cross-legged in front of him and conjured up a clipboard, presumably just for dramatic effect.

"MJOLNIR." She began.

"Armour." He responded, without much thought.

"Assault?"

"Rifle."

"Pillar?"

"Autumn."

She flicked a page over.

"Reach?"

"Home."

"Earth?"

"Protect."

"Covenant?"

"Enemy."

"Halo?"

"Threat."

Another page flip.

"Guilty?"

"Spark."

"Arbiter?"

"Honour."

"Flood?"

John's fists tightened. "Threat."

Cortana glanced up, but didn't comment.

"Truth?"

"Liar."

"Keyes?"

"Good man."

"That's two words, chief."

He stared at her, and gave a monotone "Oops."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll allow it. Kelly?"

"Oh-Eight-Seven."

"Frederic?"

"One-Oh-Four."

"Samuel?"

John's fists tightened again. "Friend."

"Johnson?"

"Friend."

"Halsey?"

Moth— "…Spartan."

Cortana raised an eyebrow. "You hesitated."

"Oops." He replied, still monotone.

"It's meant to be your first thought, chief."

"I thought you weren't looking too closely at my answers?"

"Hmph. Alright, have it your way." She flicked another page. "Scorpion?"

The corner of his lip quirked upwards. "Pineapple."

"Asshole. I knew you were gonna do that…" She sighed. "Just a couple more. John?"

"Yes?"

"No, I mean. John?"

Oh. "One-One-Seven."

"Imaginative. Cortana?"

"Trust."

He wasn't sure if it was the answer that made her blink, or the speed and certainty he'd delivered it with. Still, after a moment she nodded, and the clipboard vanished. "Alright. Thank you. Next up…"

The rest of the tests were simpler. She threw some mental arithmetic at him, a few questions from university papers. Then asked him to describe to the best of his memory certain events in his past, such as his escape from the Ark, his first meeting with her, his most recent landing on Earth. None of it was much of a challenge for him, a fact he attributed mostly to the Spartan augmentations affecting his brain. He'd never learned the specifics of what had been done to him, but knew it had drastically improved his thinking speed and memory, not to mention his scores on the project's regular IQ tests had shots up after the procedure.

What started out as simple questions to check his cognitive functions soon blossomed out into a full-blown interrogation, however, as Cortana grilled him on everything that had happened after he'd left her on High Charity. He understood why she wanted to know about the short period where she hadn't been in his head, but didn't she have his helmet cam's footage of the events? When he asked, she just replied "I don't want to know what you saw, chief. I want to know what you experienced."

All said and done, it was over an hour before Cortana declared him sound of mind and body, and it was time to return to the cryo-pod. A wasted hour, yes. Time he should have spent sleeping. He'd had it drilled into him during training that his body was on a ticking clock until it was too old to serve, and he had a responsibility to keep himself in the freezer to prolong that time if he wasn't doing something useful. But he was also aware that this was the first time he'd been able to actually relax since...well, since In Amber Clad had dropped him onto Delta Halo.

It was nice.


CTN 0452-9

"Aaaalright, you are good for re-freezing." Cortana reported, looking up as Chief put himself back in the pod. She made sure to keep her focus exclusively on what she was doing, and not allow her mind to stray to analysing all the new data she'd obtained over the 'checkup'.

You can spend a minute doing ten things at once or ten minutes doing them one at a time, don't rush yourself.

"Get comfortable." She reported. "I'm going to…" she blinked at what the systems were telling her. "Uh-oh."

"What's wrong?" Chief asked, jolting forwards, immediately alert.

"Nothing!" She reassured. "Well, something, but nothing serious."

At his tilted head, she sent some of the files to his HUD. "Just remembered we're in a literal wreck. A lot of the systems are down; remember how you had to manually release the cryo-chamber? I can't get its systems to re-cycle."

The Chief clambered back out of the pod with a spiking heart rate. "You're saying I can't get back to sleep-"

"Relax." She re-emphasised, gesturing placatingly with her arms. "Yes, if it was the only pod, this would be a problem."

She looked pointedly along the long row of cryo-pods. "The pods may only be one-use, but there's a ship full of them. Or, half a ship. I'll just spin up the next one along."

She did so, remotely opening the pod beside him.

Chief moved towards it, but paused before getting in. "How many cryo-pods are left?"

"Twenty seven functional, including the one I just opened." Cortana replied, immediately. She'd memorised just about everything on the ship at this point. "Three more might be reparable with some pointers, and I've got plenty of time to try and bully your last into operating."

Chief took a few seconds, but seemed to accept her words, nodding and settling into his new pod. "Alright. Put me under."

"On it." Cortana started the process.

And hesitated.

"Though, while I've got you here..." She said, watching him look up. "I was wondering if you'd want me to wake you up at other non-emergencies in the future."

"More tests?" He asked.

It would have been so easy to tell him that yes, more tests would be necessary to ensure his safety. But…

"No." She shook her head. "Extrapolating out from this, you should be fine for more extended freezes." She looked away, embarrassed. "I, just, thought you might like to be updated at key milestones. Keep you abreast of the situation—"

"Negative." Chief shook his head. "We've got a long time to wait, and a limited number of pods. We need to minimise risk."

Crap. Crap, crap-

"Yes, but aren't you worried about waking up and not being sure what's happening?" She tried. "I mean, if this takes long enough, then—"

"I trust you to keep an eye on the situation." Chief replied, as impassively as ever. "I told you before. Wake me when you need me."

"And what if I did need you?" She asked, before she could stop herself.

She immediately regretted saying it, as the Chief turned and looked at her very intently. She could almost feel his eyes through his visor.

She rubbed her neck with one hand, looking away.

"I've been alone on this ship for 365 days, Chief." She reminded him, chuckling weakly. "Is that any way to treat a girl?"

There was a long silence. Especially long for her, which gave her plenty of time to review her entire life up to that point and wonder when exactly she'd turned into a total moron.

"You're right, I'm sorry." She eventually said, getting back to work. "Configuring your pod now, please lie-"

"Alright."

His voice made her freeze, and look back at him. "What?"

"Set five of the pods as reserves." Chief instructed. "Plan the uses of the rest based on how long you expect this to take. Pull me out to keep me updated whenever you see fit."

Cortana had to take conscious control over her avatar to stop her relief being too obvious. She nodded and smiled, sealing him inside the pod with a thought. "Already on it. And…thank you."

"It's my job to protect you." Chief responded, his voice muffled by the glass but coming through just fine in his suit's speakers.

She shook her head, and began the process. His job. As though that's enough to explain everything…

"Good night, John." Cortana said, quietly.

He didn't respond. And the slight jolt of his heartbeat as it dropped to cryosleep levels could have been anything.

She set about performing the final checks to ensure the procedure had been a success, busying herself with the actually important task before she'd have to go back to waiting. But she wasn't as worried, now. At least she had something to look forwards to.


Well, that was that.

I hope you enjoyed this little concept piece. As a die-hard Halo 4 fan, hyped by the incoming Infinite and heartbroken by all the crap Cortana goes through, I created this!

Turns out, I am extending it. Chapters are short and deadlines motivate me, so you should expect to see updates every week from now. Let's see if I can't tell a self-contained story in ten chapters or so. Enjoy!