A Ko-fi for @chloranthy-ring. Featuring the Rookie, Vergil, and Sadie post-ODST
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Round after round of ONI spooks, labcoats, and even some of the troopers had entered the secure backroom of the ship, and then tried and failed to get any information about the Prophets' goals and the Covenant from the newest addition to the UNSC.
The weird glowing gasbag of an alien was somehow a living supercomputer that had absorbed the Superintendent AI of New Mombasa before the whole city had been glassed and was so far above an ODST's paygrade that it was a wonder that Buck and "Ms. Naval Intelligence" had approached (cornered) Rookie while he was trying to sleep and persuaded (coerced) them into taking a crack at it. Buck had made some comment about being the strong silent type and maybe having something in common with the floating gasbag, and Captain Dare had cut him off with a look and all but shoved the still drowsy Rookie into the room. She probably remembered that he was the one who whistled and coaxed the poor thing out of the Data Hive.
It wasn't like they weren't going to get along, Rookie had grown fond of the Superintendent since it had helped him through the burning wreckage of New Mombasa. Limping along 6 hours after the drop went wrong was greatly improved by having the city's AI looking out for him and calling out health kits after he went toe to toe with the Covenant patrols. The little green face spurred him on as he navigated the dark streets and near empty buildings stained with neon blood and graffiti.
Rookie wasn't unsympathetic to the floating engineers before Dare had told him they were basically slaves or prisoners. He'd witnessed what the Brutes did to the other floating squid guys, wrestling them out of the air and strapping them with bombs, and he had done his best to avoid them.
The thing was-- has parts of a human AI assimilated into it. During their journey through the city, they'd picked up the snippets of data it shared via the public tech and learned about the girl, Sadie. How the Superintendent, Vergil, had a subroutine to look out for her, and the events before the fall of New Mombasa. She got out of the city alright, as far as they knew, and ONI was looking for her now because of her connection to it.
Still being shoved into a room with the thing wasn't high up on his list of things Rookie wanted to do today. That being said they were here now and would have to try something before the rest of the humans on the ship attempted another round of interrogations while they searched for the girl.
So he waved at the thing as it floated near the ceiling, humming and trilling as its tentacles danced along the welded seams of the ship and the camera in the corner.
It turned its beady-eyed head towards him and waved back.
Maybe this wouldn't be so hard.
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So it was a bit harder than he thought. Vergil, the engineer, whatever they were calling it, liked him, but even that didn't make things any easier. It bobbed its head and wiggled and gestured with its tentacles when he tried communicating, but that was no basis for understanding. The glowing creature seemed curious and approached Rookie and even copied some of the hand signs he showed it, but it couldn't explain its own language or the strange marking he'd seen on the walls of the city. And to top it all off, the higher ups did not want to give it any tech to tinker with yet because they weren't sure of its abilities.
A commpad would have helped but apparently the thing was smart enough to hack both human and Covenant networks remotely so for now they had to deal with what they had. Rookie tilted his helmet at Vergil and showed it the sign he made for it. A "V" followed by the sign for "float", since the engineer didn't approve of the sign for "balloon". It chirped, bobbing and trilling as it copied the sign and waggled its tendrils.
Then it moved its tentacles in a strange approximation of familiar enough motions; a tendril flattening out and pushing towards him followed by one tapping another in a perpendicular fashion and then two tendrils moving back and forth from left to right as the alien tilted its head questioningly.
The damn thing just asked him his name.
Rookie rocked back on his heels for a moment, helmet lifted in surprise, and then he signed his initials. "JD"
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"It's been a few days of those two staring at each other in total silence and you're telling me they've learned how much from the squid?
"Well, if you knew who was on your squad you might know about their background with nonverbal communication.”
"Well yeah, the kid's real quiet, helluva a trooper though. Don't see how that got the gasbag to open up."
"Sign language, Buck. He used sign language because Vergil could understand it and the engineer is Vergil."
"Oh. How was I supposed to know?"
"Read your team's files. Or read the reports I send you."
"Ow! Hey, Veronica--"
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Vergil misses Sadie. The engineer- huragok -explains once they let it have a datapad. It hacks into a secure covenant facility, downloads a huge amount of data even human AI couldn't hope to access, and gets the UNSC the information they wanted about the artifact Truth uncovered.
Once communication is a bit easier, Quick to Adjust introduces itself and asks after Sadie, even offering to help find her if it meant she was protected. Vergil is there, amalgamated into the being that is Quick to Adjust, seemingly making the alien biocomputer a bit more friendly to humans and willing to cooperate. It doesn't hurt that the trooper that helped bring it in was the one it was watching over after the attack on the city began and that same trooper has been teaching it sign.
It missed having companions. Later that day, JD teaches it another sign; one tentacle on top of another clasping it once before flipping the limbs over and repeating the action once. Friend.
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The UNSC finds Sadie nearly a week later, and Rookie can't help but feel for her when sees her escorted in after a series of briefings. The familiar sting of sympathetic grief pangs in his chest. This time it's different from the nameless dead and missing since he heard her story, followed her path around the darkened streets of Mombasa, and looking into her eyes, bloodshot from lack of sleep or grief he doesn't know.
She's only a few years younger than him and it shows, but so does her courage when she squares her shoulders and marches up to where Rookie is leaning against the wall with arms crossed as they try to doze outside Vergil's room.
"I've been told in no uncertain terms I'm supposed to work with an alien that's also the Superintendent. I've been talked at and talked over for hours so just open the door and let me see what I have to work with."
Rookie stands and uncrosses his arms with a nod, and turns, knocking on the door three times. It slides open near silently and a curious trill sounds from inside as a soft pink glow nears.
Sadie lifts her head and enters with almost no hesitation and Rookie follows in time to see Quick To Adjust stop fiddling with its specialized harness and nearly drop a datapad.
It recovers and brightens, bioluminescence glowing as it taps out a message and a familiar robotic voice chimes, "Hello Sadie."
