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He stood and said nothing
"Very well I suppose you know your limitations better than anyone else" She turned the display back around "I wanted to speak about your report on the alien construct--Halo I've pieced together a bit of the story based on Ad of your adventures, Cortana's debriefing, and the s of Locklear, Johnson and the curious partialof one PFC Wallace Jenkins"
The Master Chief shifted uneasily
"There are inconsistencies that I lasses higher onto the bridge of her nose "One of theeant Johnson" She tapped in commands on her keyboard "Please step closer, John I want you to see this with side her chair HisTwo meters tall and half a ton ofof him occasionally as the same little boy she had stolen froed She hadn't She was the one who still carried the three-decade-old festering guilt
She took a deep breath and refocused her attention on the video records before her On screen played hts, the odd Forerunner architec- ture in the interior of the Halo construct, and the terrifying omni-parasitic life-form known as the Flood
She replayed the mission record of Private Jenkins and the first Flood attack
John stiffened as Captain Keyes appeared on screen and as the Flood consueant Johnson was there, too, fighting and cursinguntil the hordes of tiny, podlike Infection Forms swarmed over him
"The Sergeant survived," she said "The only huanism and walk away"
"I know," the Master Chief whispered "I'h that?"
"That's the si up froeant's medical records flashed on 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'h-yield plasrenade
We don't see many cases--people usually die fro before these secondary syeant captured a crate of plase of Paris IV He used them all--received a commendation for braveryand a twelve-hundred-rad cumulative dose of radiation as an unanticipated bonus"
John was silent for severalthe co to confirm all this on a private COM channel with Cor-tana His impenetrable armor made discussions with normal social conventions nearly impossible It irritated her, yet without that armor with its constant hydrostatic pressure and automated biofoam injectors, John would have literally fallen apart by now
For a fleeting moment she remembered when she had first read Alexander Dumas's Man in the Iron Mask She had felt terror when the noble prisoner had been encased within thatenclosure?
The Master Chief finally said, "I don't see the connection be- tween the Sergeant's sickness and his surviving the Flood"
"Boren's Syndroraines, amnesia, and brain tumorsand without the proper treatnals in a person's nervous system"
"Is it treatable?"
"Yes, but it requires thirty weeks of intensive ches me to this" She hit the NEXT PAGE key and an official "Refusal of Treateant 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 systens of the soldiers overtaken by the Flood The parasite interfaces with a host by forcing a reso- nant frequency eant's nervous system is so jumbled that the Flood couldn't force a match?"
"Correct," she said "Further blood tests show his syste traces of Flood DNA--very ments are intact I believe this is proof of a failed attempt to possess hienerative abilities, although I cannot yet fully confirm this side effect"
The Master Chief seemed to relax a notch from his usual ram- rod stiff at-attention stature This new information seemed to put him at ease "I think I see"
"No," Dr Halsey told hilasses "You don't"
"Doctor?"
"Discovering how he survived is not what I wanted to discuss
It's what happens next to Sergeant Avery Johnson"
She shut off her monitors and eased back into the chair "I've prepared two separate reports on this for ONI Section Three
The first has all relevant data on y to counter an initial Flood infestation The second includes the source s and the Sergeant's medical files"
She downloaded the reports onto two data crystals and ejected them from the port on the chair's arestured for John to take them "I leave it up to you which to deliver to Lieutenant Haverson"
"Why would I withhold any data, Doctor?" the Master Chief asked and glanced at the crystals
Her eyes focused past hi eht that we had to sacrifice a few for the good of the entire huo with a heavy sigh "I have killed andto many people--all in the naaze found him "But now I'm not sure that philosophy has worked out too well I should have been trying to save every single human life--nothe data crystals toward the Master Chief "If you give ONI the first report, they may be able to find a counterhtly better chance, however, if you give theive them the second report" He picked up the crystal
"Which will eant Johnson," she said with a chill in her voice "ONI will not be satisfied to take a sample of blood
They will dissect him to find out how he resisted the Flood It will be a billion-to-one shot that they'll ever replicate his unique medical conditions--but they'll do it anyway They will kill him because the trade-off is worth it to them"
The Master Chief picked up the other crystal and then stared at theauntleted hand
"Is it worth it to you, John?" she asked
He curled his hand in a fist and held it close to his chest "Why do you wantto teach you so it's taken me all my life to realize" She cleared her throat of the lu you the chance to lanced at the clock on her display "I'ery, and I have several things I o"
The Master Chief obediently turned and strode toward the exit, but halted in the doorway "Doctor, don't let her die again"