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This topic has moved here: Subject: [Short Story] The Doctor and the DI (part II)
  • Subject: [Short Story] The Doctor and the DI (part II)
Subject: [Short Story] The Doctor and the DI (part II)

Dr. Catherine Halsey sipped down the dark, steaming liquid and leaned against the wall, relishing the flow of hot coffee down her throat. It was crap coffee, ONI coffee, but right now it tasted like the most exotic brew in the universe. Mendez drank no coffee, instead standing a few feet away like a watchdog. As if there was anything to watch for in this heavily-guarded, ultra-secure facility, but still... it amused her that a man could become so steeped in his traditions that it almost seemed ridiculous.

"You called them children instead of trainees, you know," Mendez harrumphed, turning to look at her sideways. His profile was craggy, as harsh as his voice.

"I know." Halsey lowered her cup and stared at the remaining coffee inside, swishing it around gently by moving the cup. "Now and then I slip up and allow my emotions to override my logic." The swishing stopped and she took another sip, closing her eyes. "I must seem a silly woman to you, I suppose?"

"Never." Mendez was almost offended that she would assume that of him. "Never silly. Maybe distracted. Maybe overworked. But never silly."

The sincerity in his voice, coated though it was with grit and the DI's growl, was almost reassuring. Halsey drained her cup and paused to toss it into the tidy little metallic trash bin that sat beside the coffee table. "You may not believe it, but that's comforting. Lately I've been pulling all-nighters, alone with Déjà and my demons, and it chafes at me so. Especially with the upcoming phase in the Spartans' training. It's eating what bits of soul I haven't sold to ONI yet." She smiled humorlessly. "The procedures will be difficult, to say the least. For the Spartans... and possibly for us, as well."

They walked side-by-side up the deserted hallway. Mendez didn't like it. But Halsey's work was of the utmost importance, so ONI had stuck her in the most isolated wing the facility had to offer so as to eliminate distractions. His brisk military stride contrasted with Halsey's measured pace, so he had to slow himself considerably for her to keep up.

When they reached the door to her office, Halsey turned to him and pushed her glasses farther up on her nose, then put her hands on her hips. "I'll be sure to stop by and personally interview the trainees on their experiences so I can compile a detailed report of their actions. I'll have Déjà retrieve all security footage relative to the incident and also the debriefings of the Tango personnel involved. Thank you for keeping me up to date; sometimes I don't know what I'd do without you, Chief." She smiled again, a weak attempt. "Having a mind like a machine can be such a bother at times. I almost forget I'm human."

Mendez straightened even more. For a moment he reminded her of Lieutenant Jacob Keyes, always stiff, always proper.

"Forgetting you're human," he said. His voice was almost soft, almost thoughtful, almost something other than his customary military bark. "That easy to do in this business, isn't it?" Suddenly the lines and scars on his chiseled face didn't make him seem fierce or proud, they made him look like a man who's seen too much and lived through too much for too long, and his black alien eyes looked less like an alien's and more like those of a haunted man. Then the moment passed and he scowled and the invisible shield came up again, masking whatever he felt beneath a layer of discipline and iron resolve. She admired him for it. That was what made him a great trainer, the only man fit for the demanding job she'd assigned him. He could live with himself no matter what happened.

If only she could be so strong.

Halsey reached out and hesitantly brushed Mendez's clenched fist with her fingertips, feeling the veins and muscles there. Then she took a step back, retreating into the recesses of her lair, and crossed her arms. "It's what we have to do," she replied, answering his question. "We've come too far to have any thoughts of turning back now. Now all we can do is see this thing through to the end... no matter the cost."

The short distance between them seemed like a yawning abyss.
The word "cost" rang like a stroke of judgment in Mendez's sharp ears. Embedded in that word were several meanings. This project had already cost them both their souls. What more would be taken from them before the end?

Irrelevant. Personal satisfaction and morality paled in comparison to duty. He swept whatever qualms he had under a mental rug to join the many other hidden secrets that lay dormant there. "Yes ma'am," he answered, his tone gruff and hard.

"Anything else you'd like to say?"

"That is all, ma'am."

It was an outright lie and they both knew it, but what else was there to say? Nothing could be changed now, no deeds undone, no sins repealed. The only way out was forward. He had to go back out there and train the Spartans while she huddled in her cave and crafted the blueprints of their futures. Perhaps someday forgiveness and pardon could be sought after, but not now. Not when there was so much at stake.

So Halsey watched as Mendez marched down the hallway, his stride loping and quick, then the door of her lab cycled shut and sealed. She trudged toward her desk, having memorized where to put her feet as she walked. She reached her chair and sat down, sighing. She entered her password and her laptop displayed classified information, information on an experimental procedure called "carbide ceramic ossification."

"Doctor," a disembodied voice queried, then motes of light swirled beside her computer and formed the shape of a woman in a toga holding a clay tablet, "I do not presume that you have been harboring second thoughts, but perhaps the conversation you just had with Chief Petty Officer Mendez suggests such?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Déjà," Halsey claimed, scrolling down the list of risks and results for the augmentation. "It matters not what we might think or feel at this point. The hammer's about to come down hard, on all of us... especially the children."

"The trainees ," Déjà corrected, her tone that of an admonishing schoolteacher.

Doctor Halsey gritted her teeth and resisted an impulse to send her fist smashing through Déjà's hologram, knowing it wouldn't do any good.

-The End-

  • 12.05.2010 10:50 AM PDT
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make your parts in the same thread.

  • 12.05.2010 10:56 AM PDT

Oh... sorry. I seem to be screwing up a lot in my attempts to post anything :P Thanks for the help.

  • 12.05.2010 11:33 AM PDT