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Chapter VI
March 3rd, 2553
Sol System
Earth
Hillside Memorial, near the Excession of Voi
"For us, the storm has passed... the war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark and did not return. For their decision required courage beyond measure; sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight... our fight, was elsewhere. As we start to rebuild, this hillside will remain barren, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennobled all of us, and they shall not be forgotten."
Those were the words of Admiral Terrance Hood presiding over the dedication of the UNSC Hillside Memorial. Shortly after a line of Marines fired a three-volley salute with their BR55 rifles. Eva stood silent as she gazed at the names on the monolithic piece of metal that served as the monument. She then reflected on the days leading up to the memorial service, the days of fruitless effort. While Colonel Maxwell feverishly attempted to get help on the Forerunner lock, none of the scientists or AIs managed to make any progress. Shaka did his best to translate the Forerunner glyphs, but no series of combinations seemed to work. They were facing another dead end.
Suddenly she felt a presence standing behind her and as she turned she stood face to face with Maxwell.
Eva turned with playful smile, "Colonel if I didn't know any better I would say you were spying on me."
He returned a smirk of his own, "ONI itself does enough of that for me Dr. Alvarez. I'm simply surprised you came up here, every other egghead and poindexter at the Excession is still busily working on the lock."
She turned back towards the memorial and folded her arms, "I just felt inclined to pay my respects, maybe find someone I knew."
"Anyone in particular? Friends? Family?"
Eva shook her head, "No, my mother and father both served in the war and I know they are still alive. My mother, however, has seen better days. I got a message from a Chicago hospital three weeks ago and she's come down with a respiratory infection. Sadly with medical rations being what they are, it's not looking good. Here I am half a world away and nobody has given me clearance to leave yet."
"I sincerely apologize Dr. Alvarez. I know sympathy coming from someone working for the Office of Naval Intelligence sounds meaningless, but with the discovery of the lock, nobody is allowed to leave. I haven't seen my wife and daughter since December."
"I'm sorry too Colonel. Still, there is work to be done and it looks as though the service is over."
"I will see you back at camp then doctor, have a pleasant evening."
Eva walked back to the camp along the scarred hillside overlooking the Excession. It felt odd to be standing where New Mombasa once stood, for all she knew one of it's iconic skyscrapers or a road could've been where she was. Adding to surrealism was the fact the Sangheili vessel, Shadow of Intent, rested in the sky above. While the Arbiter, the Sangheili's de-facto ambassador, had come to pay his respects it still felt almost insulting to see a Covenant ship near a still all to fresh scar. It would have to be tolerated.
When she finally made it back to the camp, the orange African sunset had faded to a starry night. As she approached her trailer, a small parcel was resting on her steps. It had been tampered with, it's original tape had been finely cut, obviously ONI's handiwork. However, it was from her father back in Chicago.
He must've given it to the UNSC recruiting office which then passed it along to ONI," she thought.
Obviously it was harmless enough if ONI let it through. She got inside, opened the parcel and watched a thin box slide out. Eva lifted the top to find a necklace, her mother's. It was a typical gold necklace, but with a red jewel in the center. As far back as she could remember, Eva's mother had said it had been passed down in her family from generation to generation. She clipped it around her neck and pulled up a mirror to see how it looked. After modeling for a good minute or so, she noticed a piece of paper picking out of the parcel. It read:
Dear Eva,
I don't know where you are, but I'm sorry to say that Paulina, your mother and my wife, has passed away. I know your a busy scientist dear and I don't hold that against you. Everyone has been though a lot lately. But your mother was insistent that I send off her necklace to you, wherever you may be. If you ever turn up, she will be buried at the St. Anthony of Padua Church's cemetery here in Chicago.
Love,
Dad
She sat there rereading the note over and over again, unable, no unwilling to accept the news. Anger flowed through her veins, anger at ONI for keeping her locked to the site as if it were a prison. Anger at the fact that news of her mother's death came in the form of a note. Anger at not being able to say good-bye. Now all she had left was this necklace. Tears slowly streamed out of her eyes as the note crumbled in her hand. A blue hue flooded the trailer and Eva turned to face Shaka.
"Dr. Alvarez is everything alright?" the miniscule AI asked.
"It's nothing you need to be concerned with Shaka," Eva replied wiping away the tears, "It's just that I just received word that my mother died, probably mere days ago."
"Accept my condolences ma'am. Although I may not be programmed to feel the affects of grief, I do recognize your biological nature to shed tears."
"Thank you Shaka, I understand you intent."
Shaka gave her a warm toothy smile, "While it may not alleviate your woes, I do have something interesting to report. That necklace of yours, I'm getting the most peculiar readings from it."
"What kind of readings? Did ONI tamper with it?"
"Nothing of that sort. When you asked me to scan the Forerunner lock, you know I had considerable difficulty deciphering the glyphs. A scan of your necklace, or I should say the jewel, shows that there are Forerunner symbols encoded in it. More extraordinarily I have a translation, the jewel is a key. A key for what though I do not know."
With the necklace now grasped in her hand, a wild idea swirled in her head. She should really report this find to the colonel, but after forbidding her from saying good-bye to her own mother and tampering with her package, she had had enough of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
"Shaka, I need you to accompany me for an experiment," Eva stated.
"I believe you must clear this request with..." Shaka began to say before Eva typed in a string of commands on her datapad, "Request granted."
Eva sighed, "I'm sorry Shaka, but ONI has such obvious flaws in it's security system, especially with AIs created solely for research and not espionage."
She popped out the data crystal that was essentially Shaka's being and slid it into her datapad. Silently, Eva slipped out of her trailer into the cool night. The site was surprisingly quiet and empty, usually a few groups worked well into the night. The tent housing the lock, however, was still guarded by two Marines.
"Shaka, can you generate an alert to those Marines?" Eva asked the AI.
"Working on it...done," Shaka finished, "they should be getting an alert that someone is breaking into medical tent. It helps that there have been reports of someone stealing supplies. Rather unfortunate."
One of the Marines signaled the other and the two left the area. Eva ran to the tent and slipped inside. Before turning on the lock, which would surely lead to her discovery, she checked for anyone else who could stop her. Once the blue hue illuminated the tent, she placed the jewel in front of the lock. Suddenly, the lock began to turn and symbols started to light up. The first layer fell away after a flurry of symbols rapidly lit up. Then the second layer. Then the third. What seemed like thousands of layers fell away until finally, the last layer fell away. A rainbow-hued line etched the outline of a rectangle, a door.
The door opened and caused the tent to fall apart. Eva stared into the darkness of the maw that was before her, then her moved closer. She was five steps into the Excession when voices broke her form her trance.
"Hey stop, what are you doing?!?!"
The Marines were back and running towards her. They never got close. The door shut in front of them and effectively locking them out, but also locking her in.
"What have I done?" Eva whispered to herself in the darkness.
[Edited on 11.25.2011 3:11 AM PST]