Broken Circle Read Online Free PDF Page B

thoughtfully at his scarred eye socket. “Many cycles ago, I was the last survivor of a vessel brought down by hostiles—we never knew what race it was. They did not speak a civilized tongue. All this was on the far side of the galaxy from here, in the System of Miasmic Giants. I managed to escape, piloting the ship through slipspace to another system—one chosen almost at random. It was the farthest I could reach. There I saw something most peculiar . . . a world made out of an alloy I’ve never seen.”
    â€œYou mean a space station of some kind.”
    â€œNo. A small planet. But encased entirely in metal. I had never seen the like. An artifact so large—it was beyond belief.”
    â€œIt is difficult for me to believe as well.”
    â€œNo doubt,” said ‘Crecka. “I had to see for myself. I landed on the outer hull, in a place that looked like it might have an entry point—and found a portal. I descended into the metal skin—and on a lower deck, a machine came floating out to greet me. It was a machine intelligence, built by the ancients! It had already sorted through my ship’s computer, with some kind of scanning device. I believe that’s how it was able to speak our language. It told me a few things; but it refused to divulge its origin. It had a name—Enduring Bias, it called itself. It had been left to oversee the planet—the ‘shield world,’ in truth is what it called this place—until its creators should return. It ordered that I should provide it with information about the Sangheili and make myself available for study. But I escaped. It was . . . confused; many of its systems no longer worked and it was not so difficult to get away. I managed to get into slipspace . . . and ended up here, near what is now called Creck. A scan told me there were valuable minerals here. I reported this world—but not the other. The other wasfull of relics, of things from the ancients. The Forerunners. I was afraid that Enduring Bias would kill anyone I sent. For so it had threatened, should I depart . . .”
    â€œAnd you kept the secret of that place until now . . . with all those relics there?”
    â€œI did. I was a warrior, not a scientist. I fought and was maimed in sixteen of the great Clan Battles on Sanghelios. The eye I lost fighting beside your uncle under the stone trees!”
    Ussa nodded. “He mentioned someone called ‘Quillick—because he would scout out the enemy for them, the way a ‘Quillick would slink silently through the shadows.”
    â€œIt was I! But it is not my friendship for your uncle that brings me here. I know your cause. It is my cause, too. This world can be a refuge and a resource for your people—for our people. Away from the Covenant.”
    Ussa pondered this. If the elderly warrior—who had fought beside Ussa’s own uncle—could be trusted, then he might be offering a key to something that could truly empower the rebellion against the Covenant. Again he wondered if this could be some kind of trick or trap—but then why go to these lengths? Old ‘Crecka was right: they could simply have arrested him. And few could know the tale of ‘Quillick and the stone trees.
    Ussa’s hearts thudded with excitement as the possibilities glimmered in his imagination. But it could all be a trap—without ‘Crecka knowing. If the Covenant knew of the planetoid.
    â€œThink back: you must have told someone about this metal planet. Someone—somewhere.”
    â€œNo! I was afraid I would be executed if I spoke of what I had seen. What I learned on the shield world—ah, I might well have been put to death for having entered the planetoid and communicating with the machine, which was heresy back then. Thatis no honorable way to die. But then . . . when you were in the mines, I was conversing with my son.