Halo: Primordium (41 page)

DEVICE STATUS INACTIVE—NONRECOVERABLE.

DEVICE ORDERED JETTISONED BY ONI COMMANDER.

REQUEST FOR STANDARD BURIAL CEREMONY DENIED BY

SAME.

RESUME DATA LOG
(ibid ref.)

SCIENCE TEAM LEADER:
“What’s up with the tech team?”
ONI COMMANDER:
“They’re running around on C deck like a bunch of scared marmots, carrying AI cores. Won’t let anybody in.”

SCIENCE TEAM LEADER:
“Cores? They need to flush and replace ship’s AI?”

ONI COMMANDER:
“Don’t know!”

STRATEGY TEAM LEADER:
“Look at this. . . . Ship’s veering from main task force. We’re moving away from all the action! Who in hell ordered that?”

SCIENCE TEAM SECOND OFFICER:
“Environment is cooling.

Oxygen is dropping.”

ONI COMMANDER:
“We can’t get to the bridge or to any other deck. Hatches are in battle damage lockdown.”

SCIENCE TEAM LEADER:
“But we’re not in battle!”
ONI COMMANDER:
“I’m not at all sure of that. The damned 343

dupe—”

STRATEGY TEAM LEADER:
“It’s out in space with the other garbage.”

ONI COMMANDER:
“But its data stream is still with us!”
STRATEGY TEAM EXEC OFFICER:
“Three of us climbed down through the maintenance shell. Other decks appear to be conking out one by one. We can’t raise anyone on E and F, and the engine room is a madhouse. Whole ship is—”
TECH CHIEF:
“Listen to what just came through bridge comm! The skipper’s talking to something in the AI root system.

STRATEGY TEAM LEADER:
“Something that’s not the ship’s AI?”
TECH CHIEF:
“Just listen!”

(playback)

(Voice ID’d as 343 Guilty Spark):
“Your ship’s AI is defective.”
CAPTAIN:
“In what way?”

(Voice):
“Compound Information Corruption. Ship will experience complete systems collapse and drive implosion within five minutes. But there is a cure for that ailment.”
CAPTAIN:
“What kind of cure?”

(Voice):
“Much worse than the disease, you might think. I shall have to replace all original AI functions with my own. I’ve long wanted a chance to resume my quest. Your ship is an excellent vehicle for that purpose. Apologies, Captain.” (end playback)

ONI COMMANDER:
“We invited that thing right into our living room, plumped up the cushions, brought it a pipe and slippers! We should have known better! We should have—”

SHIP’S AI:
All ship functions are now under control of 343 Guilty Spark. Root and System AI signing off.

STRATEGY TEAM LEADER:
“Damn thing hacked the entire ship!

We are so screwed.”

ONI COMMANDER:
“Four or five minutes of oxygen . . .”
GUILTY SPARK:
“You will not die. You will sleep for a time. I have need of all of you.”

STRATEGY TEAM LEADER:
“What need?”

GUILTY SPARK:
“Know that all that lingered in me, the memories and emotions of old humanity, when I was still flesh, is also hidden deep within you. It slumbers, but it shapes, and it haunts your dreams and your hopes.

“You and I are brothers in many ways . . . not least in that we faced the Didact before, and face him now, and perhaps ever after. This is combat eternal, enmity unslaked, unified by only one thing: our love for the elusive Lifeshaper. Without her, humans would have been extinguished many times over. Both I and the Didact love her to this day.

“Some say she is dead, that she died on Earth. But that is demonstrably untrue.

“One of you almost certainly carries Vinnevra and Riser’s old spirits within. Only the Lifeshaper can find them and coax my friends back to life. And after a hundred thousand years of exploration and study . . .

“I know where to find her.”

Novels in the
New York Times
bestselling Halo® series
Halo®: The Fall of Reach
by Eric Nylund
Halo®: The Flood
by William C. Dietz

Halo®: First Strike
by Eric Nylund

Halo®: Ghosts of Onyx
by Eric Nylund

Halo®: Contact Harvest
by Joseph Staten
Halo®: The Cole Protocol
by Tobias S. Buckell
Halo®: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
by various authors/artists

Halo®: Cryptum: Book One of the Forerunner Saga
by Greg Bear
Halo®: Glasslands
by Karen Traviss

Halo®: Primordium: Book Two of the Forerunner Saga
by Greg Bear

343 Industries would like to thank Greg Bear, Alicia Brattin, Scott Del’Osso, Nick Dimitrov, David Figatner, James Frenkel, Stacy Hague-Hil, Josh Holmes, Josh Kerwin, Bryan Koski, Matt McCloskey, Paul Patinios, Whitney Ross, Bonnie Ross-Ziegler, Christopher Schlerf, Matt Skelton, Phil Spencer, and Carla Woo.

None of this would have been possible without the amazing efforts of the 343 staffers, including: Nicolas “Sparth” Bouvier, Christine Finch, Kevin Grace, Tyler Jeffers, Tiffany O’Brien, Frank O’Connor, Jeremy Patenaude, Corrinne Robinson, Kenneth Scott, and Kiki Wolfkil.

Greg Bear would again like to thank the 343 team and Erik Bear for their continuing help and creativity, and take this opportunity as wel to extend his thanks to Halo fans and readers for their support and input—which have been nothing short of extraordinary!

Greg Bear is the author of more than thirty books of science fiction and fantasy, including
Hull Zero Three, City at the End of Time,
Eon, Moving Mars, Mariposa,
and
Quantico
. He is married to Astrid Anderson Bear and is the father of Erik and Alexandra.

Awarded two Hugos and five Nebulas for his fiction, one of two authors to win a Nebula in every category, Bear has been caled the

“best working writer of hard science fiction” by
The Ultimate
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
. His short fiction is available in
The Collected Stories of Greg Bear,
published by Tor Books.

Bear has served on political and scientific action committees and has advised both government agencies and corporations on issues ranging from national security to private aerospace ventures to new media and video-game development. His most recent endeavor is a colaboration with Neal Stephenson and a crack team of writers,
The Mongoliad
, an epic novel available as a multiplatform app and soon to be published in three volumes by 47North.

First published 2012 by Tor, Tom Doherty Associates, New York This edition first published 2012 by Tor

an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

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www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-230-75829-2 EPUB

Copyright © 2011 by the Microsoft Corporation

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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