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Vaz had never actual y heard Elites just talking before He’d only heard the what he assu out their last curses or pleas as he finished the a chat "You understand al that?"

Phil ips tapped his jaith his index fingers "I understand it, and I can read it, but I don’t have enough jaws to speak it like a native There’s a whole tonal layer I can’t reproduce"

He cocked his head at the sound There were two distinct voices, then a third cut in The ru to Vaz but he was suddenly aware of a lot of clicks and gulps within the words

He stil didn’t knohat to o and now they had to trust each other with their lives Phil ips was about Mal’s age, with reddish brown scrubby hair and a e civvie in a set of unbadged UNSC fatigues Vaz suspected he’d probably wanted a bit of adventure in his life but hadn’t had the bal s to enlist He wondered how Phil ips was going to shape up when an Elite took a potshot at him

"Do you like them?" Vaz asked

"I’ve had direct contact with the"

Vaz had had pretty direct contact with the tothe"

"Co research" Phil ipsa man could do "I’d rather stay alive than die acadeheili They despise us There’s no forgive and forget, not after nearly thirty years of kil ing each other

The only reason they split from the Covenant and al ied with us was because the Prophets were trying to extere, is it?"

"We’re not good at forgetting either," Vaz said "Glad to know you haven’t grown fond of them"

The conversation ended abruptly when BB appeared and hovered in the gap next to Vaz ONIby the way he juentleo, mayhem to cause" He rotated and headed for the ladder, not that he even needed to "Final briefing at eighteen hundred Captain on deck"

Phil ips swung his feet off the console and stood up as BB vanished through the bulkhead Port Stanley was so crammed with systems and holoprojectors that an AI could cover almost every centi a few chains for his own ay," Phil ips whispered, as if he thought BB wouldn’t hear him "He isn’t actual y in any one place, is he?

Omnipresent That real y messes with uy "He’s spread throughout the whole ship," Vaz said "He’s in every systeht now, he is the ship"

"That occurred to ht"

Phil ips didn’t see like service personnel Vaz stifled a smile "Don’t you have AIs at the university?"

"Not like that They’re either dumb or they’re terminal-restricted And they’re not that human "

"I think that’s why UNSC ones have avatars, so we don’t get too paranoid I don’t think the AIs actual y need them"

"But he’s not where his avatar is That’s what I’ with"

"No" Vaz had learned the art of not fretting about unsettling things that he couldn’t control He just worked on the basis that BB, like the Corps, saw every h and spit he made "Assume the worst It makes life siantry As he picked his way between the crates around the dropship, Devereaux looked busy in the cockpit, head down and shouldersher hands across the instrument panel When he stepped up into the crew bay it was instantly clear that it wasn’t a regular security vessel The ONI engineers had gutted it Now every centimeter of bulkhead was lined with surveil ance equip smal crates "Luxury, eh?" he said "Can’t re into the ground"

Devereaux’s voice came over the bulkhead speaker "Can’t recal the last ti hter Devereaux squeezed through the hatch into the crew bay and gave Vaz a friendly thuot a plan, don’t you?"

"We never do" Vaz checked over his shoulder to see where Phil ips was He’d vanished "They just drop us into the sewer and ork out how to clear it"

"Have you been char"

"Keep at it, Vaz," Mal said, winking "Older birds areOsman the hairy eyebal ?"

"No I didn’t ask"

"Truston there"

Vaz put his finger to his lips They real y weren’t used to having ful y sentient AIs around Then it occurred to hi of cables and surveil ance feeds accessible to BB, so even a shut-it gesture wasn’t private

Devereaux gave Vaz a very discreet wink She nudged Mal with her elbow to get hiain "Come on, Mal Put your back into it"

She stuck her head out of the crew bay "Phil ips? You too Co for proof that BB saw al and heard alOsman appeared at the bay door with Phil ips at her heels He looked as if she’d s?" she asked

Mal straightened up "Fine, ma’am What’s the plan?"

"I do have one"