DIDACT: It saw what I saw. It found its courage. It became a true Forerunner once more.

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UR-DIDACT

GRAVITATION ON THE control deck had been turned off to save energy and avoid accidents. As we drifted within the flickering displays, I began to feel confined. The direct view was no less oppressive, but I preferred using my eyes to relying on the ship.

All hulks sent into the Burn, including ours, according to Sharp, had been decommissioned and listed as salvaged or destroyed. None of them officially existed. We were abandoned, thrown aside … But it turned out I had been afforded quite a clever crew. Clever, and deeply motivated.

Even more motivated as the Precursor snarl loomed.

Yet as fast as Maker worked, she was not fast enough; the ship’s systems were still balky and the revived ancilla showed alarming signs of autonome dementia.

“Ships are taking up formation around the tangle,” Sharp observed.

How could we have ever presumed to understand such ancient technology? Even to the extent of believing it to be inactive. It was not dead; it had simply bided its time, waiting for the proper moment. The same thing might be happening throughout the galaxy.

I replayed in memory what we had seen at Charum Hakkor, the aftermath of the Master Builder’s insidious Halo test: the disintegration of all Precursor structures, including the star roads. Halo radiation disrupts neural physics, and the theoretically analogous process of neural physics is often invoked to explain Precursor technology.… Space-time as a kind of organism within itself, apparently subject to the destructive radiation of the Halo.

“Whatever that thing is, it may not be invulnerable,” I said.

Maker gave me a skeptical look. “It’s bigger than any space-faring construct we’ve made,” she observed.

“If it is space-faring,” Sharp said, doubt and hope mixed.

“It’s faring well enough toward us,” Maker said, backing away from her labors.

Catalog pushed up its many eyes and wands. “I have transferred my report and received a response. The Juridicals would very much like for all of you to survive to testify. To that end, they are extending communication privilege to this ship. We may be able to arrange a direct link to the Capital and the Council, or to anybody you think is better equipped to advise us on how to return to the Orion complex.”

“How kind,” I said. “Are you certain the Juridicals aren’t still in league with the Master Builder? Certain we weren’t sent here just to die or be absorbed by the Flood?”

Catalog grew sleek, like an animal dropping its ridge fur.

Sharp watched me closely. “You have that look,” he said. “I’m curious as to your reasoning, Didact. If I may be allowed a glimpse.”

“Not yet,” I said. The others regarded me with concern. “We need to learn who’s in charge of those ships.”