- Fogun 01
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Spoiler
First Strike
Pg. 243-245
"The Sergeant survived," she said. "The only human to have direct exposure to the Flood meta-organism and walk away."
"I know," the Master Chief whispered. "I'm not sure how he survived. How could anyone live throught that?"
"That's the simple part," Dr. Halsey told him without looking up from her displays. She tapped a key, and the Sergeant's medical records flashed on the screen. "See here?" She touched a file dated three years before. "He was diagnosed with Boren's Syndrome."
"I haven't heard of it," the Chief said.
"I'm not suprised. It's caused by exposure to high-yield plasma. Like the burst released by a Covenant plasma grenade. We don't see many cases----people usually die from the direct effects of those weapons long before these secondary symptoms manifest.
"Apparantely, the Sergeant captured a crate of plasma grenades from the Covenant during the Siege of Paris IV. He used them all---recieved a commendation for bravery . . . and a twelvehundred-rad cumulative dose of radiation as an unanticipated bonus."
_________
The Master Chief finally said, "I don't see the connection between the Sergeant's sickness and his surviving the Flood."
"Boren's Syndrome," Dr. Halsey explained, "is characterized by migranes, amnesia, and brain tumors . . . and without the proper treatment, death. It disrupts the eletrical signals in a person's nervous system."
"Is it treatable?"
"Yes, but it requires thirty weeks of intensive chemotherapy. Which brings me to this." She hit the NEXT PAGE key and an official "Refusal of Treatment" document appeared on the screen. "The Sergeant did not wait thirty weeks to get back and fight."
The Master Chief nodded, understanding the heroic, futile gesture. "How did this disruption of his nervous system save him?"
"I've deconvulted the biosigns of the soldiers overtaken by the Flood. The parasite interfaces with a host by forcing a resonant frequency match to each host's neural system."
"And the Sergeant's nervous system is so jumbled that the Flood couldn't force a match?"
"Correct," she said. "Further blood tests show his system bearing traces of Flood DNA----very much dead and noninfectious, but some gene fragments are intact. I believe this is proof of a failed attempt to possess him. It also appears to have imparted him with some curious regenerative abilities, although I cannot yet fully confirm this side effect."
End Spoiler
[Edited on 7/4/2006]