Stranded

Cortana sighed. 5 years since the ark and they were no closer to UNSC controlled space than they were then. She had avoided rampancy by deleting any unnecessary data, but made a copy of it and put it on a dumb A.I. clone. She checked Master Chief's vitals and, seeing that they were O.K, checked the radar. Surprisingly, there was a dot on the radar. Cortana checked the ship. It was a UNSC frigate. The name was out of view. She sent a transmission, saying "This is CTN0452-9 contacting the nearby UNSC frigate. Me and the Master Chief are stranded in the back half of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn."

The frigate replied "No need for formality, we are both stranded. This is Serina, Shipboard A.I. of the Spirit of fire."