Convergence Infinites: Halo

Chapter Sixty Six

Location: Cell of Disgraced Fleet Admiral Aleksei Levitsky, Midnight Facility 05, unknown Asteroid Belt, Unknown Star System.

Levitsky looked up, as the lights in the room suddenly went out. This was a lot earlier than normal, so immediately he grew concerned. While the people here where known to change things up to keep the prisoners on their toes (going by a steady schedule, then suddenly making everything change up to disorient the prisoners, to name a few), this was far earlier than normal. In fact, they had changed the schedule only days ago. So what-

"Greetings, Admiral." Someone greeted him from the PA system in his cell. Judging by the lack of unusual movement from the other cells, he assumed he was the only one hearing the voice. "I have a few questions for you that I'd like you to answer."

Levitsky looked up to the camera in his cell. The recording light was still on, so he was still being recorded. If he answered, ONI would be able to hear everything.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"Answers." voice replied. It was heavily modulated, so Levitsky couldn't discern whether it was a man, woman or even human. "Will you cooperate, Admiral?"

Judging by the lack of a response from the facility's security by now, he assumed they weren't even aware he was being talked to. That meant they had either bought off the facility's personnel, or hacked into the camera's feed and replaced the footage. That meant he was all alone with whoever he was talking to.

"I admit you're intriguing me." Levitsky answered. "But what's in it for me?"

"Simple." The man, as Levitsky assumed at least, answered. "If you agree, Prison personnel will ask you to deliver a few DNA samples of tissue, blood and such things due to an error in administration that erased your current files. Using these, we'll create a clone of you, and as soon as it's done, replace you with that clone, and you'll get a prominent position in our organization as compensation for your troubles. After all, you've suffered too much already for doing the right thing, haven't you?"
That sounded quite good to Levitsky. This was the first true conversation he'd had with a human since being transferred to his cell. And here, this man was offering not only to get him out, but to give him back some of the power he'd lost when he was sentenced here. And given he had managed to infiltrate this facility and keep this conversation from being discovered, that was quite a bit of power the man had.

Still, it depended on what the man wanted to know. No way would Levitsky give up Nuclear access codes, even if they were outdated. Old ones could be used to decipher the decryption of the new ones.

"It depends on what you want to know." Levitsky finally said. "As you've likely learned, I'm a patriot, even if I'm a bit extreme about it. And if what you want to know endangers the people of the UNSC, I won't tell you about it."

"Oh, it's nothing dangerous." The man answered. "I merely have a few questions about a Forerunner crystal recovered a few years ago. The one Blue Team found in a Forerunner cave on Reach during the fall of the planet. I'm certain a mere crystal can't harm the people can it?"

Oh, Boy. While Levitsky was skeptical of many things at ONI, he never doubted their research division. And Dr. Halsey's notes, before her disappearance and death at Onyx, had made mentions of its capabilities in Slipspace travel. Vastly decreasing time spent in Slipspace yet allowing much greater traveling distances... the crystal had many promises. And while the man was right it wouldn't directly harm the people, that kind of slipspace power could very easily be abused in the wrong hands.