-1Castaways 26

The Master Chief fell back to sleep while in transit. There was nothing he could do to help his situation short of regain what strength he could as the Phantom gained altitude and left the surface of HK-154 far behind. Cortana kept a lookout, watching his vitals and captured the view through the sleeping man's visor.

The alien spacecraft wasn't small, but the crew had elected to keep the SPARTAN close, storing him in the back of the command post under heavy guard. Cortana pulled a tight focus on the observation screens where the landmasses were swiftly losing definition. It was strange to see it from above. She could identify their small island refuge directly below; a speck of green surrounded by slate gray ocean. There were several other landmasses hugging the sides of the globe, including one of size that would have occupied the wandering Chief for years had they landed there. Their actual crash site was still covered in rain clouds, not a scrap of the continent visible from orbit.

She was sorry she could not observe it for him. She ran a quick search to make sure the records she'd taken of the crash, Cant, the view from the top of their mountain and chronicles of their time were still safe in memory. They were. It was hard to tell now a days what was being unconsciously deleted from her files. It scared her deeply, but mostly made her sad.

The Sangheili soldiers talked quietly among themselves in their own gutteral language, casting the Chief sidelong looks. Not one of them had spoken directly to him or given him an explanation of any kind. This behavior made no sense to her. Their quasi-UNSC technology and marked armor betrayed them as Separatists. Therefore they were supposed to be allies. Something must have happened between the Sangheili and the UNSC during the three years she and the Master Chief were stranded. She wished her partner was awake to talk the possibilities out.

Perhaps the war was still going even after the destruction of the Ark. The death of Truth effectively broke the Covenant, but not necessarily the warrior spirit of their opponents. She could easily see the Brutes carrying on with the fight, but that didn't explain the Elites' behavior now.

Maybe the Arbiter died in the portal. This seemed plausible. If the Arbiter died when the Dawn broke apart, then the Sangheili could have blamed the Master Chief for his death and taken their outrage out on the human race. That would make the Chief a wanted man, which matched the situation they were in now to a 't'.

Flew on, distance revealing the curved horizon of the planet as the Phantom turned toward a single bulb-headed Assault Carrier. It flew through the open hatch in the orbiting ship and docked smoothly between two other identical crafts in the tightly packed garage. The engines powered down Cortana nudged her partner awake before their captors could.

The Master Chief was immediately alert, trained for years to be ready for action at a moment's notice. He eased his head slowly up, taking in the space and the view through the screens. "Where are we?"

"I can't access their records. An Assualt-class Carrier."

"Suggestions?"

"Don't make any sudden moves."

The six waiting Sangheili guards ushered him up from his seat with the barrels of their carbines and walked him down the gangplank with his hands on his head. At the bottom, waiting for him, were nearly a hundred other nine-foot aliens dressed in everything from full body armor to simple jumpsuit-looking crew uniforms. All of them were wearing scowls.

Cortana whispered inaudibly in his helmet. "I don't think they're happy to see you."

The Chief was marched down the corridor between the walls of aliens, their eyes staring down on him from above. He felt physically small and the weakness of his illness nagged the back of his mind. None of the onlookers raised weapons but they all stared as he past as if he were the embodiment of all their anger and frustration. The door at the back of the hangar bleeped familiarly and slid apart, releasing the Chief and his team of six wardens from the crowded room of judgment into a clean, slightly inclined hall with arching plasma lights and purple plating. They moved ahead through branching hallways that summoned images of flood forms and splattered blood. Along the way, they passed other Sangheili workers who shot similar glares at him as they went about their scheduled tasks. It was all a bit overwhelming for the man who had grown used to living alone for years.

Cortana pulled up what files she could find on Covenant Assualt Carriers from her fragmented memory to determine their location, but they were already too deep into the heart of the vessel for her recovered schematics to help. At most they weren't moving toward the brig. Instead they were headed forward toward the bow and steadily upward, whether this was good or bad she had no idea. The caravan finally stopped at a set of decorated double sliding doors and waited. The hallway was wider and grander than any other they'd passed through on their way through the ship and the Chief didn't need Cortana to tell him this wasn't the prison level.

He shut off his external speakers and whispered to the woman in his head. "Do you know what this is?"

"I'm not sure, and I'm avoiding contact with the onboard computer... I don't think they know I'm in here," Cortana said, "and I don't particularly want them to find out."

"You were the one calling for help." He said. "They know you're here."

"Pretend I'm back on the planet, Chief, I don't want to be confiscated from you."

"Alright if you say so." He agreed. "I'll fly blind for now.'

Finally the doors folded upward revealing an armor-clad battle worn Elite standing solemnly with his hands behind his back. He focused hard on the captive's gold visor, searching it for signs of the man inside. He spoke with a deep voice and a nod to his armed guard. "Stand by."

The guard lowered their carbines and stepped back, letting the doors slide closed between them and leaving the man and the alien alone in a dimly lit foyer space. The Chief slowly lowered his hands from his head and the Sangheili fixed him with a scrutinizing look. "SPARTAN 117?"

The Chief nodded slowly.

The other drew back his head and paused as if he were still skeptical. They shared another moment in silence before he spoke again, his wounded jaw clenching with the words. "I am the Master of this ship. The Captain has requested audience with you. Follow me." He turned and headed for another, more elaborate set of sliding doors just behind.

The Chief saw no reason not to, so he followed.

The room beyond was an observation deck of massive proportions. Above them the stars of the universe unfolded in layers of brightness. The ship was nestled in the outermost reaches of the Milky Way galaxy. The center of the formation spun majestically above reaching with its diamond arm to cradle them and carry them through the majesty of space. On the horizon was HK-154, a glassy silver marble of shifting clouds and water. There was nothing familiar about it at this distance. He felt he'd ascended to another plane, as if he'd died on that island and left the world of mortality behind.

Standing beneath the dome of glass and stars was the ship's captain, light reflecting in pinpoints off his archaic silver armor. The Master Chief saw him and stopped in his tracks. The Ship Master hailed this new figure. "The SPARTAN is here, Captain."

The soldier in the starlight turned, his familiar voice answered briefly over his shoulder. "Leave us."

The ship master saluted and left, shooting the Chief another skeptical glare as he passed. The Master Chief waited. The Captain turned and finally fixed his eyes on the castaway. "Spartan."

"Arbiter."

The alien rushed forward arm outstretched. "I knew it. A warrior of such caliber does not leave this coil easily." The Chief met him, took his hand and was unexpectedly pulled into the Sangheili equivalent of a man-hug. Their armors thunked off of each other. The Arbiter released him and stepped back to give him a closer study. "Are you yourself?"

The Chief cocked his head. "What?"

The Arbiter's eyes smiled. "I can see you are. It seems hardly possible to kill you, Spartan, I am beginning to believe you are immortal."

"I assure you that is definitely not the case." He said.

The Arbiter nodded. "Officially, you have been pronounced dead. I attended your funeral."

The Chief smirked. "Did you cry?"

The Arbiter smirked back. "It was very touching. They fired weapons. It was what you would have wanted."

"That's protocol." The Chief answered. "It wasn't in my will."

The Arbiter's gaze turned thoughtful. "Standing at the monument, with the photographs of other fallen soldiers set all around, I was troubled to find no sign of you there. In my experience, the fight we waged together was the turning point of the war. You won that battle for your species and I won it for mine. Together we brought closure to a sin that had existed for thousands of years. Yet you were not represented at all, no photographs, no medals, nothing." He bowed his head briefly, then looked up again. "I scratched your service number into the side of that monument."

The Chief could feel the sense of pride and honor radiating from him even now.

The Arbiter broke eye contact and moved to the windows. "Yet even as I did I had doubts. I was always of the belief that great warriors occupied a space in the heart of every soldier, and I felt that your loss would leave a greater void. I left your planet soon after, and picked up your distress beacon after many months of travel. That was when I knew you were alive, and I would not see you easily abandoned as your countrymen were content to do."

He turned to the Chief again. "I have already corrected their error."

"Thanks." The Chief nodded. "For everything."

The Arbiter tilted his head. "There is something different about you. About the way you carry yourself. What happened on that planet for all those years?"

"Nothing." He answered with a bit of exasperation. "Absolutely nothing. Nothing happened from the minute we crash landed to five minutes before you picked me up, it was pure torture."

"You wear it well." The Arbiter said. "What of Cortana?"

"Right here!" She piped up.

The Arbiter smiled in a uniquely Sangheilian way. "Have you been listening this whole time?"

"Of course." She chuckled. "I was touched. I recorded it for posterity."

"You disgrace me." The Arbiter said. "I have already lost the support of my crew. I have taken them nearly a year off course to rescue you. That is no petty sacrifice."

Her voice was smiling. "I'll keep it to myself."

The Chief moved to stand beside him, staring out at the galaxy, his HUD immediately pinpointing the sector that held the planet Earth. "So what now?"

"Consider yourself my personal guest." The Arbiter said. "You will be given quarters and privileges and granted any wish you may have aboard my ship."

The Chief was unsatisfied with his evasiveness. "And then?"

The Arbiter took a deep breath. "Understand, Master Chief, my crew has been at war for much of their lives. We have not seen our home world in many years and I will not ask any more from them." He looked to the Chief. "We are headed for Sangheilios. You can accompany us as an ambassador of peace if you wish, but I cannot return you to your own planet."

Cortana waited for the Master Chief's response. To his surprise, he wasn't the least bit disappointed. All he wanted right now was companionship and a shower, and to have his only living friend promise him both made up for any drawback. He could feel a warm feeling growing in him, and realized for the first time that his exile was finally over. "An ambassador of peace huh? Don't your people consider me some kind of demon?"

The Arbiter grinned. "I can think of no finer candidate. It will give you a chance to clear your name."

"Good luck." Cortana scoffed. "Talking is most definitely not his strong suit."

"I'll just follow your instructions." He said. "They haven't failed me yet."

She glowed and flooded his head with warmth. "I'll keep you safe."

"Then welcome aboard the Shadow of Intent, Master Chief." The Arbiter said, gladly. "You are among friends, and I cannot express how good it is to see you again."

"Thank you, Arbiter." Cortana said, cordially. "The Chief feels quite the same way."

~
Fin