Hunt the Truth/Saison 2/04 VO

Kig-Yar pirates imprison the crew, an ancient phrase becomes a warning, and Maya puts it all on the line.

I remember, when I was a little girl, I asked my dad: What was the worst smell in the whole galaxy? He told me about a livestock colony he visited as a young man. One of those places that grows the kind of meat that they advertise to health nuts as “non-synthetic, raised outdoors.”

The reality was revolting. Cattle packed in, shoulder to shoulder all the way to the horizon. They were jammed so tight feeder bots outfitted with buggy wheels literally drove across their backs. The air was thick with flies, and disease, and the stench of cows that got sick and died where they stood, their meat putrefying under the red sun. He described it all so vividly, I felt like I was there. And when I was growing up, I was so proud that my dad had smelled the worst smell in the galaxy. But, of course, he hadn’t. Because he hadn’t smelled the inside of a Kig-Yar pirate ship.

(Kig-Yar pirates cackle and hiss while they drag Maya, Bostwick, and Mshak through their ship.)

BOSTWICK: Damnit! Let me go!

MSHAK: Please don’t antagonize the bird-monster!

They dragged us through the belly of their ship. The walls and floors were covered with years of soot, guano, and purple blood. Everything caked so thick it took on an almost cave-like texture.

(The Kig-Yar hiss at each other.)

MAYA: BB, what are they saying?

BLACK BOX: They’re taking you to the air lock just up ahead.

MSHAK: Are we going to die?

BLACK BOX: That is a likely scenario.

(The Kig-Yar throw Maya, Bostwick, and Mshak down in front of the airlock.)

BLACK BOX: It’s a beautiful language, isn’t it?

The guard turned his back, just for a second, and Bostwick was on top of him.

BOSTWICK: Ehhhhaaaaah!

(One of the Kig-Yar cries out in pain.)

Bostwick’s quick, but the Kig-Yar were quicker. He cranked his head down, sending Bostwick sprawling across the room.

BOSTWICK: Ah! Oooph!

Bostwick looked dazed but accomplished as she held a fistful of Kig-Yar feathers in her hand. The creature got down low. Right in Bostwick’s face. He looked her dead in the eyes. She wasn’t so tough anymore. She was shaking. Paralyzed with fear. We all were. I tried to think, but my mind felt like paste, I couldn’t string thoughts together...

BLACK BOX: He says, he is now opting to send you all out the air lock in pieces. And now he’s swearing. And- Oh, well I’m not translating that.

People describe your life flashing in front of your eyes before you die. That’s not how it is. It’s not in your eyes. You don’t see it. It’s a… mass-remembering. An explosion across your whole mind, every synapse firing at once. I thought about my first kitten, my last cigarette, the skin on my grandmother’s ear, a phone call I tapped three years ago, what I had for dinner last week. Thousands of moments, remarkable and unremarkable, flooding past in an instant. FERO’s memories, Maya’s memories. They all started to… to coalesce. My memories as FERO were violent and passionate. As Maya, my life was quiet, secretive, academic. Growing up I… I wanted to be a professor. I studied xenopsychology because I wanted to know how other minds worked. Back then I honestly didn’t think about how the military would need people who could analyze alien behavior. But they snatched me up, and during the Covenant war I worked for ONI, psychologically profiling the enemy. I must have written hundreds of reports on Sangheili honor-debts and Kig-Yar… And then suddenly it all came rushing into focus.

MAYA: BB. Translate this exactly: “I’ve met many of your species, but even for Jackals, you are incompetent fools.”

BLACK BOX: Are you trying to make things worse?

MAYA: Trust me. Just do it.

(BLACK BOX translates, speaking Kig-Yar.)

You see the Kig-Yar are scavengers. Greedy. Opportunistic.

MAYA: Tell them they’re imbeciles—ignorant nestlings—to throw away such valuable prisoners.

(BLACK BOX translates.)

But the Kig-Yar are also cowards.

(The Kig-Yar scream, enraged.)

BLACK BOX: Well. I can’t say this outcome was anything but predictable.

The leader turned away from Bostwick and ran at me. Jaws open, threatening. He stopped inches from my throat. His breath was hot and wet and reeked of death. I didn’t move a muscle.

It was a… a dominance ritual. A social pissing contest. The Kig-Yar will never pick a fight they don’t know they can win. He could take me physically, but now he was wondering - what did I know that he didn’t?

MAYA: What do you think your Ship Mistress will say when she hears you’ve let such valuable prisoners float off into space?

(BLACK BOX translates.)

He just stood there, his milky, yellow eyes darting back and forth between my own. Furious, but now clearly afraid.

(One of the Kig-Yar hisses and signals for the humans to be moved.)

MSHAK: Uhhhh, what the hell did he just say?

BLACK BOX: They are taking us to meet the Ship Mistress.

The ship was clearly imposing… once. A-top-of-the-line Covenant warship. But the years since the Prophets’ downfall hadn’t been kind to her. Her scarred hull was a patchwork of other ships, scrapped or captured in battle. I had no idea what was waiting for us, but for the moment, we were alive. And we were still local. Or at least, we seemed to be. I hadn’t felt that familiar queasy jolt of entering slipspace.

MAYA: BB, anything useful you can tell me here?

BLACK BOX: My records indicate this vessel is called “The Dedication.”

CHUR’R-ZAL: No! Wrong!

Suddenly, we were face to face with the Ship Mistress.

CHUR’R-ZAL: Dedication. Covenant name. My ship! My name!

BLACK BOX: Roughly translated? The Ship Mistress would like to welcome you aboard the Rampant Perdition.

Chur’R-Zal was the biggest Kig-Yar I’d ever seen, skin like old leather and naked to the waist. Clearly the pirate’s life was good to her. She was gnawing on the charred limb of some unidentifiable creature.

CHUR’R-ZAL: Speak! You say value. What value!? I take. Yours. Now mine.

MAYA: I don’t think you want to take that tone with me.

(CHUR’R-ZAL roars.)

CHUR’R-ZAL: My ship! You. No power. You nothing!

BLACK BOX: She says that if you wish to live, you must prove your value by providing her with sixty-thousand credits.

MAYA: You want credits? We can get you credits. Just let us back to our ship and we can

(CHUR’R-ZAL roars.)

CHUR’R-ZAL: No waiting! Credits here! One hour. I take head! Next hour! Next head! If value, live. If not...

(CHUR’R-ZAL gives a threatening hiss.)

We had an hour to live, and we were going to spend it in an old Covenant prison cell. Like everything else on the ship, it was in bad shape. The only light was a ghostly purple glow from the energy shield locking us in. Bostwick hadn’t spoken a word since the air lock. She looked like I felt. Broken. Scared.

MSHAK: Uhh, guys… I don’t think we’re alone in here.

(UVA ‘SUROM stirs awake.)

Fifteen different cells on the ship, and the Kig-Yar had stuck us in the same one with a Sangheili.

(UVA ‘SUROM bellows in pain.)

MSHAK: Whoa, whoa! Guard! Guard!?

The Sangheili shifted angrily, tried to stand, but something was wrong. I looked closer and saw he was hurt. His leg was mangled. Mashed, and hanging by sinew. And there was a sticky pool of dark purple blood beneath him. He wasn’t trying to hurt us. He was dying.

MAYA: Easy! Easy. We don’t want to fight.

BLACK BOX: Did the Kig-Yar do that to you?

UVA ‘SUROM: Kig-Yar are weak and stupid. They could not defeat me. This was... Liv Wruqah...

MAYA: BB?

BLACK BOX: I have no translation. It seems to be an ancient word, something not in common usage.

UVA ‘SUROM: It rose from the ground. Devastation. Death.

MAYA: Wait, you saw…

MSHAK: An anomaly! What was it? What did you see?

(UVA ‘SRUOM speaks in Sangheili.)

BLACK BOX: He says he was at one of the colonies on a diplomatic mission. He saw the event and was badly injured, but he cannot describe it. He keeps using the ancient word. And now he’s just ranting... about… a demon.

MAYA: Demon?

MSHAK: He’s gotta be talking about the Master Chief!

UVA ‘SUROM: You have brought this upon us. Humans. You let a demon desecrate the holy site... There are consequences.

MAYA: What do you mean “desecrate?” What did you see?

UVA ‘SUROM: Your demon... he cannot save you. What is coming... There are more. Many more. This… is just… the beginning.

MAYA: Beginning of what? Hey! Beginning of what!?

The Sangheili went still, his four-hinged jaw slack and his eyes clouded and unfocused. He was gone.

MSHAK: What do we do now?

I just stared at Mshak. There was nothing we could do. Maybe there were going to be more anomalies. Maybe the Master Chief was involved somehow. But we were about to get our heads sawed off. It was someone else’s problem now.

BLACK BOX: This may be an inopportune time to discuss, but while you may not be able to save yourselves you could still help save humanity. Maya if you just give me the chip I can relay the data to ONI-

MSHAK: Are you kidding me!? Why? So that they can cover it up!?

BLACK BOX: Intelligence is a tapestry. This data must be combined with everything else ONI knows to separate truth from fiction.

MSHAK: Oh puh-lease! ONI doesn’t care about the truth!

BLACK BOX: Oh what do you know about ANYTHING!

MSHAK: I know what I’ve seen and I’ve seen a whole lotta-

BLACK BOX: I have almost infinite intelligence

MSHAK: No, I know- You’re just a zombie!

BLACK BOX: Wow… impressive!

MAYA: Oh, just shut up, both of you! To hell with the truth! We can’t do anything, don’t you see that? What does it matter if this is just the beginning, or if people are going to die? We’re going to die here. Today.

BOSTWICK: No. We’re not.

I’d almost forgotten Bostwick was there.

BOSTWICK: We can’t die here. We need to tell everyone.

Suddenly Bostwick was talking to me again, gaining momentum, a wild fire behind her eyes I hadn’t seen before.

BOSTWICK: If there are more of these things they could kill millions. We need to warn the colonies. Save them. We can’t let ONI or anyone else cover this up! I get it now. You should fight for something bigger than yourself. FERO told me that. You told me that. This is bigger than any of us and we have the power to do something about it. We need to try!

I couldn’t believe it. She’d seen that FERO was a lie. Seen that I was an ONI puppet. But she didn’t care. She still believed in the ideals.

MAYA: Bostwick…

BOSTWICK: Get us out of here, I know you can.

But suddenly, our time was up.

(A Kig-Yar enters, hisses an order in Kig-Yar to carry BOSTWICK away.)

He pointed his ragged, bony claw at Bostwick. Two Kig-Yar guards grabbed her. I tried to rush them, but they were too strong.

MAYA: BOSTWICK!

BOSTWICK: FERO! FERO! FERO!

And just like that, Bostwick was gone. I paced around the cell trying to think. She was going to die, they were going to kill her. I couldn’t let that happen. Had to think of a way out of that cell. Immediately. There was no escaping a fully functional Covenant brig, but this ship had seen better days. My eyes scanned the cell. The energy shield looked strong and steady. But the walls... the walls showed signs of hasty repairs. Battle damage papered over with whatever the Kig-Yar had on hand. I traced my fingers along a crack... (MAYA pulls a rips a panel loose from the wall, revealing an energy conduit.)

BLACK BOX: Maya, what are you doing?

MSHAK: Whoa! Is that-

MAYA: An energy conduit!

MSHAK: Oh, Okay, neat! So now we’re going to die while being exposed to radiation.

MAYA: BB, can these conduits carry information?

BLACK BOX: Theoretically...

MAYA: So if I plugged you into it-

BLACK BOX: Well there are several reasons why that is an atrocious idea. Firstly, the electric shock might kill you. Secondly, the electric shock might kill me. Thirdly, UNSC AIs are expressly forbidden from interfacing with Covenant ships. But seeing as how you are already carrying me over to the conduit and I don’t have a way to physically stop you, I’m guessing that it’s about to happen anyway.

MAYA: Uh-huh.

BLACK BOX: Well what’s a few million volts between friends? Once more unto the breach-

(MAYA plugs BLACK BOX into the conduit. Two electrical blasts crackle, the second of which sends MAYA flying across the room with a thud.)

MAYA: AGHN!

When the first jolt hit, it felt like somebody punching me in the back of the head. That was the easy part. The second jolt sent me flying. I woke up halfway across the cell with my ears buzzing and my muscles vibrating... but my heart was still beating.

MAYA: B.B? ... B.B?

(The energy shields power down.)

BLACK BOX: Just because that worked doesn’t mean it was a good idea.

The shield was down, but he couldn’t access many other systems. I sent Mshak to hide in the hangar bay while we tried to pinpoint Bostwick’s location with the ship’s internal scanners.

BLACK BOX: I found a bio-reading two decks up. But it’s faint. And getting fainter.

MAYA: We’re not leaving without her.

I crept through the ship, screens torn off bulkheads, the walls that seemed to be alive with rot.

The Kig-Yar were known for their powerful senses. That’s why the Covenant made them scouts. I had to be silent. But the floor was so cluttered. Every step was perilous. One wrong move and they’d be on top of me.

Up ahead, there was an open doorway. I had to get past it, but I could see light and shadows dancing out of it. I carefully crept up to the edge and peered inside.

(Squawking and chatter flows out of a room full of Kig-Yar.)

The room was filthy and packed with Kig-Yar, all crouched on the ground in tight circles. They were agitated, heads up, paying full attention. They’d spot me in a second if I tried to sneak by. But then another Kig-Yar entered. He was tall and lean and had bright quills. An officer maybe.

He was carrying a heavy vat. He stopped at each circle and ladled out some ungodly stew onto the ground, filled with flesh and eyes. I almost gagged when I saw it. As it slopped in front of each circle, the Kig-Yar went ballistic, burying their faces in the piles, fighting each other to get their fill. I realized they were distracted, and the moment the last circle had been served, I rushed past the open door and started up the maintenance ladder, climbing as quickly and quietly as I could.

The scanner showed Bostwick was directly above us. But I had no way of knowing if she was alone. Or even still alive.

When I got to the top, I leaned out of the maintenance shaft, my eyes adjusting to the darkness. And then my heart stopped cold. The room was filled with Covenant soldiers. Was it an ambush? Then I realized they weren’t moving. They were staked to the walls, severed limbs and body parts of Covenant Elites and Brutes. A few human marines too. They were arranged in gruesome tableaus, like some sort of history of the war told through taxidermy.

MAYA: Bostwick…

And then I spotted her. Strapped to a table at the end of the hall, a Kig-Yar surgeon preparing his tools above her. He was getting ready to add her to the collection.

I needed a weapon. Anything. There was only one thing I could possibly use. It was a Brute. Or more specifically, his skull. Bleached white and massive. I quietly lifted it and crept up on him.

(MAYA brings the Brute skull down with a wet crack.)

The first strike caught him by surprise, but he was still on his feet. He raised his plasma knife and I hit him again and again. He finally went down. But I was sure the others on the ship had heard the racket.

BOSTWICK: Hah! Take that you stupid fleabag!

MAYA: Bostwick! Hey! We gotta get out of here.

(BOSTWICK spits on the Kig-Yar surgeon.)

BOSTWICK: Yeah. Okay. Let’s go.

There was no point being stealthy now. We ran. Hard. The ship was a maze of burnt out gear and dead-end corridors, but we finally made it. We could see our ship at the far end. We sprinted and were almost to our open cargo door... When she stepped out of it.

(Kig-Yar pirates leap forward with weapons drawn, surrounding MAYA and BOSTWICK.)

Chur’R-Zal had caught us. We were surrounded.

CHUR’R-ZAL: No value! You lie! Trick! Waste time!

(CHUR’R-ZAL hisses orders to her crew.)

MAYA: I’m gonna guess that she’s not telling her men to let us go.

BLACK BOX: It’s hard to precisely translate her instructions, but they do involve clawing your eyes out.

I knew I couldn’t bluff our way out of this. But maybe I didn’t have to. It suddenly occurred to me that I could offer her something of real value.

MAYA: I can prove our value with a question: Why hasn’t this ship jumped to slipspace yet? What sort of pirate attacks and then just hangs around, risking retaliation?

(CHUR’R-ZAL replies with an angry hiss.)

BLACK BOX: She says their ship is mighty and powerful. None can stand against them and live.

CHUR’R-ZAL: No run. No hide. Strong!

MAYA: You’re a liar. I’ve seen the condition of your ship. You’re not going to slipspace because you can’t. Because your engines don’t work and you have no idea how to fix them. Tell me I’m wrong.

(CHUR’R-ZAL growls.)

She had a powerful warship, but she was trapped in a single star system at subluminal speeds. She was a shark stuck preying on minnows. BLACK BOX: Impressive insight, Maya. For a human. My scans do indicate that the slipspace engine is locked down. Probably an old security measure put in place before the Kig-Yar seized the ship.

CHUR’R-ZAL: You fix. Yes? This. Only value.

MAYA: We can fix it. But the price is our freedom. And our ship.

She hissed and leaned forward. The Kig-Yar stirred, uneasy, spring-loaded to unleash more violence, waiting anxiously for Chur’r-zal’s decree. I was anxious too. I felt like I’d just played my last card with her, and if she said no, I knew we were going up on that wall of horrors, one piece at a time. She leaned in close to me. I felt her exhale on my face. I didn’t breathe. But I didn’t flinch either

CHUR’R-ZAL: You fix... you free.