UNSC Alabaster - Officer's quarters

He had watched.

When it was all over, once the ship was secured, once everything was taken care of, once he had found out that it was, indeed, this Spartan Cyrus Merrick and his AI that had retrieved the remains of his poor Broadsword, he had requested that the Alabaster be moved back to Star's End. Not just to get the ship repaired, not just to have his Broadsword fighter pieced back together.

He needed to be in a place that was, at least in part, somewhat familiar. Somewhere more technologically advanced than that little backwater town.

He hadn't seen what Merrick saw in the rustic city of Rhy'din, which he thought of as little more than a large village than an actual city. To him a city had spires, had buildings taller than three stories and streets upon which vehicles moved at a regular pace that seemed at times unceasing, save for in the deepest, deadest watches of the night, if then.

He wanted that noise...no. He needed it.

And that aside, he wanted someone who knew the Riemann AI matrices to look at Ariana - or Layla, whatever she was calling herself now that she had merged with that other rampant AI - and ensure that she would be a reliable, functional unit, to ensure that neither he, nor Cyrus, or anyone else that boarded or needed to make use of the ship, would be endangered by her - or it, or whatever - again.

He'd taken the trouble of looking up Lyra's record after they had met. He knew AIs pretty well, but he wasn't what he would call proficient in them. And he was not afraid to admit that he was lost here, and needed someone with more expertise and experience than he possessed.

And on this world, as far as he could see, there was only one option to turn to. That was the female Spartan.

But before that, he had watched. Had watched as the Spartan he had rescued had gone to seek out the woman he had been kept from. Had watched as the man returned, looking more broken than any man he had ever seen. Had watched, as the Spartan refused any aid, had refused to even discuss the situation, had started pushing himself, forgoing sleep, food, the only sustenance he had seen fit to take into himself being water and stim pills.

He had watched as Merrick had entered the War Games simulator suite time and again, disengaging safety protocols and running simulation after simulation, pitting himself against wave after wave of hard-light generated foes, fighting with a fierce, reckless determination that he had never seen out of any man, Spartan or otherwise.

As if he were seeking an ending to the pain he suffered. All for a woman. All for this lunacy, this mad distemper referred to as 'love'.

Love. The word itself, he thought, should be made into a curse word, one of those four-letter words only used in times of distress when none other would do to properly express the amount of frustration or anger or pain or...whatever other emotion was befitting of such things.

He was sure the Spartan was determined to kill himself. Whether by death in the War Games, or simply from neglecting himself, he had seemed to be slowly destroying himself, and he could only stand by and watch.

He'd tried reasoning with the Spartan, then attempting to order the man to resume his duties and stop this foolishness.

It hadn't done any good. Cyrus had simply refused, stating that it simply didn't matter to him anymore. When he had tried to ask the other Spartan what didn't matter, Merrick's response had been simple: "Anything."

Fortunately, something seemed to have snapped him out of it. Which was a good thing, because he was on the verge of forcibly restraining the Spartan and stuffing him back into a cryo tube, and that wasn't an option he wanted to go with. Whatever happened from here - whether they lived out their days here, or if they could find a way home - he knew he would need Cyrus' help.

Now that everything was back in order, now that Merrick had found himself something to do that wasn't wholly self-destructive, he could focus on other matters.

Such as finding out if this new AI would be something useful, or detrimental.

"Layla?"

The chipper, oddly-modulated female voice came back to him right away. "Yes, Lieutenant?"

"I need you to pull up the comm code for Lyra Kyle, please."

There was a pause for a moment, before the female voice came back, sounding more...subdued than usual. Still chipper, but with a more somber note to it. "You want to have her come and examine me, don't you?"

He almost lied and told the AI it was simply because he wanted every available man and woman friendly to the UNSC under the same roof, so to speak. But then, he knew the AI wasn't stupid. And besides, lying wasn't really in his nature. Layla, or at least the part of her that might still be Ariana, would be able to pick up on that in a heartbeat.

"That's right. I hope that's not a problem for you."

There was another pause, briefer this time than the last, before the AI responded. "Of course not, Lieutenant. If it will assure you that I am fully functional and not about to start trying to blow up the planet, or at least this part of it, I'll be glad to submit to it."

He nodded, stifling the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. He had wondered if she would resist, and was glad she didn't. One rampant AI in a lifetime was more than enough. "Thank you, Layla. If you could, please send her a message to come to meet me at the entrance to the ship's berthing bay. Include the pertinent details of what I am asking her to come here for, and include instructions that she will be fully briefed once she arrives." He paused a moment, then added: "Make sure it's clear that this is a request, rather than an order. Okay?"

"Okay!" The AI's response reminded him of a little blonde girl with an irrepressibly bright and vibrant mood, one that could be annoying at times but still never failed to make you smirk, at least a little.

"Thanks, Layla."

The Second Battle of Requiem - February, UNSC Year 2558

He felt the F-41 Broadsword jerk as the docking clamps released, and without hesitation he shoved the throttle forward through the stops with his right hand. Instantly the fighter responded, leaping forward like a racehorse at the starting gun, out of the docking bay of the Charon-class frigate he and his squadron were assigned to and into space.

"Falcons, form up, echelon left. Bring it around to two-niner-three mark twelve, got a squadron of Phantoms with a Seraph escort heading for Infinity."

The chorus of acknowledgements from his squadron faded into the background as he pulled on his own stick, the view of the stars and space debris whirling dizzyingly outside the cockpit's transparisteel canopy until he had come around to bear on the targets. Checking the fighter's sensor screen, he verified that his squadron had fallen into formation.

"Heads up, people. We got five Phantoms dead ahead and their escort. Falcons Four, SIx, and Eight, you're with me. We're taking care of the fighters. Everyone else, concentrate on the Phantoms. Split up into pairs, concentrate your fire on one gunboat at a time and take 'em down."

This time the reply was a series of mike clicks as the squadron acknowledged the orders, and he reached out to tap the panels that enabled the fighter's shielding and weapons systems. "Ariana, paint the targets. Light 'em up for the rest of the squadron."

Her voice came back right away in his ear, cool and calm and businesslike. "Already done, lieutenant. Falcons are weapons free, clear to engage."

He nodded at the voice with a grim smile on his lips as he keyed his mike again. "All right, Falcons. Break formation and fire at will. Let's take 'em out!"

Star's End, aboard the UNSC Alabaster

The sound of Layla's voice cut into his sleep, calling his name - well, his rank, anyway - and he grumbled as he reached for the light at his bedside. "Yeah, Layla."

"I have recieved a message from UNSC AI Endless Summer, relaying a response from Lyra Sierra-242. He says they will be here sometime this afternoon, per your request."

He sighed and nodded, wanting nothing more than to close his eyes and go back to sleep. "All right. What time is it, anyway?"

"It is currently five-thirty-seven in the morning, local time, Lieutenant." Her voice was entirely too chipper for it to be that early, he thought. It made him wish he could swat her to get her to at least change it a little.

Well, he was already awake, he might as well get up. Sitting up, he swung his legs off the bed and stood with a grunt. "All right. You gave her the berth number?"

Despite her usually sunny tone, he thought he could detect an injured note in her voice. "Of course, lieutenant."

Nodding, he went to the room's closet and opened it, pulling out a battle dress uniform and starting for the attached bathroom to get a shower and a shave before Lyra arrived. "All right. I'll meet them at the entrance to the berth. Let me know when they get here."

He only needed a single look at that note, and his face hardened. He'd reviewed her service records a few times, just to be sure that he asked the right person. All indicators pointed to yes, so when she showed him that note, he knew it was pointless to ask if she was sure. He would anyway - rather redundantly, he knew - but he would have to ask.

"I got a better idea. Let's go get a drink so you can give me all the details." Without pausing to see if she was coming, he headed out of the room and down the passageways for the exit of the ship. Along the way, he stopped in the armory, removing his IFF tag and taking out the datapad, leaving both on a shelf, and grabbing a utility belt with a sidearm and strapping it around his waist.

He'd been out and around in Star's End enough to know it wasn't usually the best idea to go around without one.

A short time later, he stepped in through the sliding door to the Star's End Bar and Grill, clad in his battle dress uniform rather than armor, an M6D Magnum sidearm strapped to his waist that he'd grabbed before heading towards the bar. As he came in he looked at the piece of paper he'd torn from the pad that Lyra had shown him again, shaking his head and cursing under his breath. Not good at all. Turning for the counter, he motioned to a serving droid. "Get whatever you want. I'm buying."

Rubbing at her temples, she follows in behind him. "No point in drinkin', it doesn't do me any good." All the same, bourbon would have to do. From one of her pockets, she drew a roll of what looked like a cross between electrical tape and aluminum foil, using her teeth to tear off a long piece that was wrapped around her left forearm. "Got any links to the ship on ya? You don't want her gettin' any audio off of us, or it'll be trouble."

He shook his head. "Left my IFF tag and datapad on the ship. Figured we might want some privacy, just in case." He ordered himself a bourbon as well from the serving droid, looking at the slip of paper as if he'd hoped the writing on it would change, then dropped it on the counter as he reached up and massaged his temples. After a moment he looked over at Lyra. "How sure are you about this? I mean, she hasn't exhibited any rampant behavior...unless you count being really annoyingly chipper all time..."

Once the tape was secured around her arm, she settled into a tense lean against the bar. "Yeah. Be bad news if she caught wind. Thankfully in the armored matrix casing she only gets audio and no video." She looked toward the door for a moment before shaking her head. "Pretty close to positive, Lieutenant. Ariana's side o' things is tryin' it's damnedest to keep it all under control, but first off...shovin' two AI's into a single matrix causes enough problems on its own. When one of em's damaged that's even worse. I mean...there's things ya can do to prolong it, keep her busy enough that she doesn't slip too badly. But best case, you're lookin' at a couple of months...six tops. I'd almost put money on it."

He swore as he picked up his bourbon. Six months, maximum. That was bad news - without the AI and only him and Merrick, the other Spartan, working on the ship, things would fall apart in almost no time flat. He took a swallow of his bourbon, not even noticing the burn as it went down. "I don't guess there's any way to fix that, is there." It wasn't really a question - he pretty much knew the answer.

"There is." She started. Wait for it, there's always a 'but'. "But...none o' that technology is anywhere close to here." Eying the bourbon, it was dumped back and swallowed and the glass set on the bar, empty. "I can get ya a failsafe to decommission her without her knowing it, if ya think it's necessary." She went quiet, contemplative before shaking her head. Endless Summer still had years left, hypothetically. "There's other options too, I suppose."

He grimaced at the mention of the failsafe. He hated to admit it, but that sounded like something to consider. "A failsafe wouldn't be a bad idea, I guess." It was said quietly as he frowned and shook his head. Ariana had been his partner for the past two years - he hated the thought of destroying her outright. "Well, let's start with what we'd need, hypothetically speaking, if the tech was available to us."

Rubbing a hand over her face, she nods. "Failsafe is simple enough as far as installin' goes. That I can do just with the stuff I've got around." She shrugged, hooking the toe of her boot through the bottom rung of a nearby stool to pull it over and sit. "Restoration...is quite a bit trickier and even if I had the stuff to do it, I dunno how confident I'd be in my ability to get er done, ya know?" A sheepish admission, she didn't like not knowing how to accomplish what she wanted to. "We'd need someone...to map from. Somethin' I'm not wholly comfortable with, not around here at least. Otherwise...with enough time, I might be able to...I don't know. I could try separating them myself. But there we'd run the risk of damaging Ariana's matrix, plus I'm bettin' Miss Layla wouldn't take too kindly to that either. I just...I don't know, Lieutenant. I'm at a loss here."

He knew enough about the Riemann matrices to understand what she was talking about. Even if they could get a fresh cadaver to pull the brain out of, she was right about the lack of technology. It took some very specialized equipment to complete the process, but they didn't have any of that around here. With a sigh he shook his head, lifting the bourbon for another swallow. It wouldn't get him drunk, but the burning in his throat was worth a few second's worth of a distraction. "No, I don't want to try that. Even if you could separate them successfully without damaging them, we'd still be stuck with at least one rampant AI and one good one."

He fell silent a long moment while he thought. "There must be someone around here that knows about artificial intelligences. I don't guess the Riemann matrix would be compatible with any other system?" He vaguely remembered Merrick mentioning something about that, but he was a bit leery of letting anyone alter their systems. Now, though, there might not be another choice.

She chewed on her thumbnail while she thought, running through the various options and possibilities, tabulating probabilities of the prospective outcomes. The notepad was flipped through, running through the notes she had taken throughout her examination of Layla and it had her shaking her head in frustration. "It's not so much an issue of compatibility because they're pretty versatile." She had, after all, managed to cohesively mesh Endless Summer's matrix with the Covenant ship. "More so...if you're found out, ya run the risk o' a treason charge. Mixin' technology and all o' that, the possibility of givin' away UNSC secrets. Like me...for what I've done with Endsy, I'd be in deep sh** if I had someone look into it. And hell, I probably shouldn't o' told ya that, seeing as you're still an officer and all that jazz."

She shrugs, not particularly concerned by it. At this point, whatever happened happened. "Otherwise. If ya need someone to keep an eye on Layla...I can offer ya Endless Summer..." She didn't want to, but really, what did she really need him for other than to keep her company? Some piece of home, she supposed, a reminder that Spartans never die and even if her government had given up on her, she was still alive. With a sigh, she tilted hazel eyes toward Andreas. "Otherwise I hear there might be options in the city. Not a big fan of the place, myself, but ya do what ya gotta."

His jaw clenched as she said the part about treason, though he was relieved to hear there was a chance of salvaging the AI after all. Even if she was annoying sometimes, she was still partly his Ariana, and that was reason enough. He knew about the possibility of charges being brought against him if the work was discovered, but it didn't make much of a difference here. There was no one to charge him, after all, and he waved her statement about Endless Summer away. "Technically, you're listed as MIA, and Endless Summer was listed as destroyed when Onyx went down. So I couldn't punish you even if I wanted to. Which I don't."

He sighed, draining his glass of bourbon. "Besides, getting brought up on treason charges is the least of my worries right now. I still haven't been able to find a way back to the UNSC, and without Layla, I'm not liable to be able to." He thought for a moment as he looked at his empty glass. It wasn't worth trying to fill it - it was almost a waste, given that he wouldn't get anything out of it but the taste. "You know she's going to ask about the results of your diagnostic."

"Even if ya wanted to punish me for it, I'd hafta punch ya in the mouth...which would be a shame, hittin' an officer and all. Just saying." She might have been serious, she might have been teasing. It could go either way. She had simply done what she had to in order to further her own survival and she would be damned if she would let herself be punished for living.

"Tell her she's on the mend. Then...what ya gotta do is keep her busy. She's probably still back there calculatin' pi for me. Mundane things like that slow the process. It's sitting idle that does 'em in. Endless...I make him give me book reports. I've 'read' more books in the past two months than I did in years on Onyx." Flashing a grin at the thought. "Let her know that she's gotta take it easy and that I wanna take a look at her in a couple of weeks to see how she's holdin' up. Just with it bein' such an abrupt change and all. How's that sound?"

He let out a chuckle as she said that first bit, looking over at her and grinning. "Yeah, that would be a shame. I wouldn't want to have to hit you back." He nodded to her suggestion, his features mostly neutral again as he thought about it. It would work, and it wouldn't be a lie. Ariana had been freakishly good at picking out voice-stress indicators, and Layla would probably have the same ability. "Sounds good to me. In the meantime, I'll go have a look around the city, see what I can come up with." He didn't sound happy about it - the city didn't appeal to him at all, let alone the idea of letting someone poke around the ship's systems. He still didn't see what Merrick saw in the place.

Standing, he set his glass on the counter for the server droids to pick up. "Well, let's get back to the Alabaster so you can pick up Endless Summer. I'm pretty sure he and Layla are getting antsy and wondering what we could be talking about for so long."

"Alas, ya wouldn't get the chance." She lamented mock-mournfully. "If ya'd prefer I tell her, I'm pretty good at lyin' to computers. Which sounds sorta funny, but it's true." Pushing off from her lean, she smoothed her hands over her shirt and nodded. "Lemme know what ya figure out, I'd be curious to see how it goes." With a few quick motions, she pulled the black tape off of her forearm, running her index finger over a raised plateau underneath her skin before drawing her finger up in a Shh motion to her lips. "So anyways, it's all lookin' pretty good. Only a matter of time before she's a hundred percent. Clear sailin' after that."

As she said the first part, he nodded, speaking before she got the tape off her arm. "I'll do that. If I do find something, I'll probably want you there to keep an eye on the work. I'd trust you before I'd trust anyone else, I don't care how smart they turn out to be." His eyes cut to the point on her arm that she indicated as she got the tape off, nodding once to indicate he understood as he went to the door and it slid open, keeping his voice casual. "Good, 'cause without an AI on that ship, we'll be screwed."

"Got it. You've got my comm code, just get in touch anytime. We're down in the repair bay most the time." The pad of paper disappeared into one of the many pockets in her pants as she stepped out. "Yeah, ya know, can't live with em, but ya definitely can't live without em. Turned out rather well, I'm thinkin'. Definitely gonna be one for the books once you all make it back to UNSC space."

He followed her out of the bar, chuckling as he nodded agreement. "Too true. And that's if we make it back to UNSC space. Either way, though, I bet it's a unique situation."

((Done in live RP with many thanks to Lyra Kyle's player!))