Halo Lighting System First Strike Games - Manual (Page 200)

196 HALO: FIRST STRIKE
the origin of the copied pathways of the alien AI, and found its
replication routine. This copying code was extremely convo-
luted; in fact, it took up more than two thirds of the Covenant
AI's processor-memory space. It was dark with functions that
ran deep to the core. It spread dendritic fingers through the sys-
tem, like a cancer that had metastasized throughout the AI's en-
tire body.
She did not understand any of it.
But she didn't have to understand the code to use it.
Was it worth the risk of using? Perhaps. If she could mitigate
the risk, she'd copy a portion of herself onto an isolated system
in Ascendant Justice. She could always erase this subsystem if
anything went wrong.
The potential rewards of this operation were great. She might
be able to restore herself to full operational capacity—even car-
rying the Halo data.
Cortana double- and triple-checked the system she would
overwrite: the Covenant software that managed the life support
on the lower decks. Since the lower decks were now evacuated
and cold, life support was moot. She carefully severed the con-
nections from that subsystem to the rest of the ship.
She also rechecked her thinking. This copying software was
likely responsible for the Covenant AI's fractured thinking. Her
thinking, however, was being squeezed to nothing. There had to
be a balance between these two deleterious states.
Cortana initialized the Covenant file-duplication software. It
moved, and the entire thing pulsed and reached for her; she im-
mediately shut down all contact with her translation suite.
The dark functions touched her code, wrapped around them,
pushed against the barriers she had erected.
It happened too fast, but she didn't stop the process. It was far
too interesting to stop.
She distantly felt that portion of her mind blur and replicate,
assembled line by line into its new location within Ascendant
Justice. It felt strange. Not that it was strange she could think in
more than one place about more than one thing at the same
time—she was used to multiprocessing.
This was different strange—as if she had a glimpse into some-
thing wonderful... and infinite.