The Rendezvous

=The next morning, I walked onto the bridge and sat in the navigation's chair. Argo promptly appeared=

Good morning Shepard. We are approximately twelve hours from the coordinates where you wished to meet your new friends.

=I nodded, and brought up my special list=

Okay Argo, I'll take your word for it. Now, if you'll excuse me. =I made a selection, and I put on my shades= It's time for my break.

@ Jason- Funny, I didn't think you had need for an official break time. =And with that, he vanished=

=I started to walk around the deck, mouthing along to "Jukebox Hero."=

"Standing in the rain, with his head hung low........"

(Miranda)

=I woke up in Jason's room, beneath the sheets of his bed, and I was nude=

Oh right....... that was quite a night. =I thought with a wicked little smile=

=I looked around the room, trying to find my clothes, and found them more or less everywhere. I laughed a little=

Once we get into it, we become our own natural disaster.

=I got dressed, and made my way to the mess hall for some coffee=

(Jason)

"That one guitar, felt good in his hands......."

=I started strumming an imaginary guitar, and kept on walking around the bridge=

(Miranda)

=I made myself a cup of coffee, and stood at the counter=

Hmm, where's Jason?

=I walked to the elevators, and dialed the bridge=

(Jason)

=I had finished with "Jukebox Hero," and began playing "Highway to Hell."=

"I'm on Highway to Hell, on the Highway to Hell!!!"

(Miranda)

=The elevator doors opened, and I found myself blasted by loud music. I looked around, and saw Jason, wearing nothing but a shirt, socks, and boxers, walking around the bridge, singing along to an old AC/DC piece. He clearly didn't notice me, and I had to struggle not to laugh. Instead, I settled for something simple=

heh hem?

(Jason)

=I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat, and I basically died right there. I turned my head, and saw Miri leaning on the door frame for the elevator, and she was trying so hard not to laugh, that her entire body was shaking=

Ummm, how long were you standing there?

(Miranda)

=I grinned a little=

Oh, long enough.

=we burst out laughing, and I spilled my coffee=

(Jason)

=We managed to stop laughing, and got settled into the seats on the bridge. We talked for a bit, mostly about nonessential things, when Argo flashed on the holo tank=

@ Jason- Jason, =I marked this moment on my calender. Argo had never called me by my first name= We are five minutes away from the rendezvous point you had arranged to meet your new friends at. =He noticed Miri sitting at one of the stations= Ah, Miranda. Good morning.

=She smiled at Argo=

Good Morning Argo.

(Jason)

=four minutes later, and we exited the slip-stream to find....... nothing. No massive hybrid carrier, not even a trace of a shuttle. We just ended up in a nebula, and while it was an impressive sight, it wasn't why we were here=

Argo, I hate to ask, but are these the right coordinates?

=He flashed a light shade of red, showing his annoyance, but he didn't speak. I gave an apologetic smile=

Of course, my mistake. Yeesh, no need to be a jerk about it.

(Miranda)

=I watched the brief exchange between Jason and Argo, and began typing commands into the communications console I sat at. I sent out a brief pulse, but found no one=

Are we early?

(Jason)

=I considered the question=

No, we are here exactly when I said we'd be. Plus, that ship of their's is probably faster in slip-space than mine.

=I scanned the are, but got nothing but rock, ice, and dust=

Dammit, where are they?

=We sat there in silence for a bit, until Argo decided to add some music, and he had some weird tastes: some song called "Rock the Casbah."=

Okay, I'm going to try something else.

=I started typing commands into the navigation's console, and forwarded the slip-space coordinates to Argo=

We'll have to try and retrace their steps. That means going back to where I left them.

=We entered slip-space again, but not before I left a tiny beacon lying around, with a message about where we had gone. Argo took the helm, and Miri and I went to the crew deck. According to Argo, it would take us at least two days to get to the Trophaeum's last known position=

And to be honest, I don't know what to do for two days.

=Miri and I grabbed some food, and sat at the table to perform a time honored tradition: Watch T.V. We sat there, with food on the table, and the hologram projectors turned on. For the next few hours, we sat there and watched some movies in holographic 3-D. Then that got dull, so we decided to tell stories. Mostly they were mine, and concerned the missions my squad took that had a more....... humor filled ending=

Okay, this one mission we had to do that involved a major pirate base of operations. Apparently, the pirates managed to procure an experimental mini-fusion pack for next generation armor. Our job was to go in and get it back, and kill any pirates we faced. So, the morning that we were going to hit the base, Leo, my goddamn second in command, eats a freakin breakfast burrito he sneaked onto the mission.

=Miri groaned as she realized what would follow=

So, we get there, we blow down the doors, and start shooting, when Leo practically screams over the comms, 'I gotta take a shit!' I look over to where he's standing, and sure enough, he's bowled over, one hand firing his rifle, the other trying to clutch his stomach. I say trying because the idiot was still wearing his fucking armor!

=My voice started shaking with suppressed giggles=

So, the rest of the team keeps on firing, both to kill the guys shooting at us, and to cover Leo as he scrambled to find a goddamn bathroom. He's running around, clutching his ass as if it could help him, and all the while, tracer rounds filled the air. He managed to find one, after he ran down a hallway, and somehow he managed to get the seat of his armor off. Then he.... well....... he let loose. That would have been fine, except his comms were still open, and we heard everything, and I mean everything.

=She started laughing, and I couldn't help but join in. We laughed until our stomachs hurt, and we nearly died of asphyxiation=

Okay, =I said once we stopped laughing= Your turn.

=no sooner had the words passed my lips, then something strange happened: we dropped out of slip-space, at least twelve hours early. Miri and I rushed to the bridge, and found Argo working hard at something=

Argo! =I said as I sat down at navigation's= What the hell is going on? Why did we drop out early?

=It took Argo three seconds to stop what he was doing=

Sorry about the sudden exit Jason, but I detected an anomaly in the slip-stream.

=his image was replaced with a series of screens showing slip-space readings, but they looked like gibberish to me=

Apparently, these are the remnants of a massive slip-space wake, and judging by the size of the wake, could only be caused by a Covenant Super-Carrier. I can't tell exactly how old the wake is, maybe a week old at the most. But I can determine the point of origin, and most importantly, determine where they went.

=I thought about it for a moment. The wake may have been caused by the Trophaeum. If so, then my response was obvious=

Argo, find out where they went, and plot a course. If the wake is still strong, we should be able to make the journey in good time.

=Argo didn't say a word. He just analyzed the data, and plotted a course. We entered slip-space a few minutes later=

(Miranda)

You realize that if your wrong, we could be heading straight for a Covenant fleet, right?

(Jason)

=I tried not to think about that=

If that's where we end up, we at least have the Blacklight. She's the fastest ship humans have built, and her stealth and cloaking package will save our lives.

=Argo appeared=

Jason, we should be at our destination within four hours. Three and a half at the least.

=I nodded, got up, and made my way to the elevator. Miri joined me=

I'm going to head down to the weapons room. See if there I can't work on some modifications. You?

=She just smiled=

@ Jason- I'll just get off at the crew deck.

=The elevator stopped at the crew deck. Before she got off, she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek=

Don't blow yourself up while I'm gone.

=I smirked a little=

Hey, you should know me better.

=I rode the elevator down to the third deck, and went into the weapons room. I grabbed an assault rifle, and went to work. By the time I was done, (about an hour later) the rifle had an extended magazine, a recoil dampner, an elongated barrel, and a partridge in pear tree=

Okay, maybe just a little bit overkill.

(Miranda)

=I went to the fridge and got myself a bottle of water and a cellophane wrapped sandwich. I sat at the table, and munched on it for a bit=

=I called Argo up on the table's holo projector, and he appeared instantly=

We finally get a chance to chat alone again, eh Miranda?

=I ignored the jibe. He always felt left out of the conversation whenever Jason was around, and I couldn't help but feel guilty. For an A.I. he was remarkably human=

Yeah, we haven't had much time to talk. =I took another bite of the sandwich= What was the name of the planet that the assassin was supposed to meet Harper on?

=A projection of the planet appeared. It had blue oceans, clouds, and landmasses, but the land was mostly brown=

@ Miranda- Therum, a planet in the Knossos system of the Artemis Tau cluster. The planet was discovered--

=I cut him off=

I don't need a history lesson Argo. Just give me the highlights.

=And he did. For the next few minutes, I learned that Therum was rich in uranium and titanium, and how massive refineries were built for extraction and refinement. I learned that there was a massive UNSC presence around the planet, which made sense, considering what the planet was a source of=

So, this is where Harper is holed up?

=The planet's image was replaced with Argo=

Either that, or it's where one of his agents is waiting. Jason is also under the impression that Harper may have laid a trap for him on the planet, which, considering who we're talking about, is more than likely.

(Jason)

=With the modifications on the rifle finished, I headed back up to the crew deck. There was still another two hours before we arrived, and I figured I may as well take a nap. I got off the elevator and saw that Miri was talking with Argo, which didn't really bother me. After-all, they were partners, friends. I felt there attention shift to me, but I simply headed for my room. Miri joined me a few minutes later, but all I really wanted was to sleep. So did she=

(Jason)

=An hour and fifty minutes later, Argo woke the Miri and I the only way he knew how: he turned up the volume on the radio, and 'Rock the Casbah' played at a volume reserved for air raid sirens. Like I said, Argo was strange for an A.I. We both woke with a jolt, and curses were said as the volume was lowered, and we put on fresh clothes. We headed for the bridge, and Argo was there to greet us=

Good morning. We will be exiting slip-space in about ten minutes.

=I strapped into the navigation's seat=

@ Argo- Got it. Oh and by the way, next time you want to wake us up, just use the alarm clock.

=I couldn't prove it, but I could tell that Miri was grinning=