Well here it is, the thrilling conclusion to Perchance to Dream. Since we are at the end I thought I'd give you parts 12 and 13 together. Note, I have edited part 11 slightly, adding a couple significant coughs and a gag to Ann's speech.
Part 12James 417 saw the pressure seals on her joints mist as tentacles broke out of them, spraying her oxygen reserves into the vacuum left by the Crawford generator's collapse.
James 417 froze. His options were to run, and leave behind the sane Striata in Ann 137's helmet, or stand and fight the woman he had come to care about more than anyone else. But while James the man froze on his dilemma, Spartan 417 acted for him. Spartans were built for one thing, and if running was involved, it was toward the enemy.
His low kick dislodged one of her gripper boots and sent her overbalancing backward. As she fell a tentacle whipped out of her left palm and snaked around James 417's helmet, blocking his sight. She jerked his head forward and both his gripper boots lost traction as he sailed over her.
He grabbed the tentacle before it could release him into the void and swung around like Tarzan, landing on the asteroid behind her. She released her remaining gripper and pulled on the tentacle, crashing into him in a flying kick that knocked them both off the surface of the asteroid. He climbed up her body until he was looking into her faceplate. The thing in there had her eyes, but little else, and even those were beginning to change.
"Ann. If you're still in there...." his voice choked off.
"YOU KILLED THE GRAVEMIND, THERE CAN BE NO REASONING!" she said.
"If any part of you is aware, know that to me, knowing you was the best part of being a Spartan.â"
The pupils of her eyes broke like yolks into her irises and her jaw unhinged as a beak pressed out of her open mouth. It opened and he swore he heard her voice.
"Release me."
The tentacle whipped his back hard and when it pointed at him he saw a spine of bone protrude from the tip, sharpened to the molecule. It was now or never. He held his stump above her heart and activated the elite sword. The beak opened and shrieked a duet with his heart as he destroyed Ann 137.
He saw a red glow and realized that she still had a grenade. He put his feet on her shoulders and shoved off just as it detonated. His sword had overpowered her shields and she shattered into pieces, his shields held as he rode the wave away from her body, the overmax alarm beeping in his ears.
Faintly he heard Cerebello's voice.
"He's clear, opening barrage.
Red and yellow fire bathed the cosmos as the Defiant Answer obliterated the asteroid, and floating amidst the chaos one blue dot, sobbing into the silence.
"James 417, you will be retrieved shortly." Cerebello said.
"Leave me," he said, "I failed. Striata, the sane one, just got destroyed." He reached across himself with his good hand to touch his belt pack, thinking of the infected mind it contained. The stars were blotted out by the Pelican slowly jetting over him. The analog tactile pistons in his glove told him there were two disks in the pack.
He looked at the red starburst that had been Ann 137, like a firework frozen at its apex.
"You beautiful klepto. You planted it when I carried you. I'm sorry all I could give you was rest. I hope it's enough."
The gangway opened and a Recon-helmeted trooper floated out on a tether to embrace him.
Part 13The tech held up the two disks, eyeing one, then the other.
"How do we know which one's infected and which one's sane?"
James 417 pointed to the one on the right.
"That one with the goop on it is the bad one."
"Which should we study first?" the tech asked, clearly more interested in the insane AI.
"You are not plugging an insane AI into my ship, get a quarantined box if you want to play psychiatrist." Captain Noble said.
The tech pushed the clean disk into Cerebello's pedestal. Striata materialized next to him. They hugged, delighted to see one another, his electric green clashing with her pink.
"I don't know as much about it all as the rampant Striata, but from my position in Ann 137's head I gathered a loose timeline." Her voice was high and clear like a silver bell. "The Cost of Dereliction came upon a damaged yacht with an SOS beacon. The civilian we brought onboard was reluctant to speak, but eventually it came out that he had discovered an artifact. He described a giant ring. He didn't want to talk because he wanted the salvage rights to it; thought he'd make a fortune.
"He unleashed something on the ring and it followed him back to his ship. When we found him, he was living on an oxygen tank in the ship's privy. It got onboard the Cost of Dereliction and killed, then resurrected our shipmates one by one. Ann 137 was able to start the self-destruct, but not before she got infected. She tried to pull me and went back into cryo to slow the metamorphoses and hopefully get cured before she changed. Unfortunately she didn't get the full dump. The infected crew cut the lines to a few of the scuttle charges and so preserved the ship's engines and me. They ghosted me aboard the ruined husk and that other version was pressed into service, designing their asteroid ship and salvaging what she could from the decimated warship. By that time they had enough biomass to start amalgamating a bio-AI calling itself a Gravemind. It turned the other me toward its purpose. They were off toward the nearest habitable planet to infect it. They don't care, Covenant or Human, they want it all."
"They were destroyed. Everything but the rogue Striata," James 417 said.
"She should be destroyed too. She would try to bring him back."
Noble turned and looked at James 417.
"Thank you James. Thanks for going in when we fell back."
"You are welcome, Captain."
"It seems our enemies are not alone in the universe. This is bad news. We need to jump near command and pass the word along." She cleared her throat.
"Yes Ma'am. I'm going back to my pod."
"You know, our last command was to thaw you. There's nothing official that says you have to go back into freeze." That's all she said in front of the men on the bridge, but with her eyes reminded him of an unfinished game of chess in her quarters.
"Yeah, Popsicle!" said Judson, "You may have a horrible sense of humor but you saved us all in there. You're nice to have around, man."
"You don't want to go back in the pod just when you're starting to fit in." Riddle said with a smile.
“There are not many Spartans left. The clone facility was on Reach. Each minute we stand here talking about it is a minute I get older and closer to my expiration date. It is a waste of UNSC resources, training and materiel. I was made to do one thing, and this ain’t it.â€
"James, don't be like that. What about our time? Our time together?" she said, shocking him with her openness in front of the troops. She was sacrificing her leadership credibility to ask him to stay.
He froze again. Wanting it so badly. To open up to them, to lay down his fight and have fun with his friends. To let them become his family. And he could sense that they needed him too. Needed a hero to help them deal with the grief of losing so many. And while James the man froze, Spartan 417 acted. Spartans were built for one thing. It spun him on his heel and said:
"Wake me when you need me."
As he stalked off the bridge he heard Amelia Noble cough loudly. Riddle asked if she was okay. She told him it was just a tickle in her throat.
The lid closed and the cryonic fluid filled his veins, slowing his heart, goose pimpling his skin and making him gasp. He shivered. His new hand itched and tingled. He shuddered and then hypothermia set in. As he lost consciousness he started to dream true dreams that would soon be replaced with subroutines and battle simulations.
He dreamed of a woman. She was Ann and Amelia Noble at the same time. She ran to him across an enormous checkerboard. When she reached him he embraced her, running his gloved hand up her back, and watching her lips smash on his faceplate as he kissed her.
James 417 "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."
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