The Good, the Bad, and the Didact

Bonding

Now that the Didact's Cryptum had become Mantle's Approach, everything had changed. The halls and rooms had expanded, containing large pillars or platforms in the center. The halls and doors were trapezoid shaped, with glass or metal walls and floors. The orange lines of light ran along the walls, and up the ceilings. In one of the rooms we passed through, I looked up to see two rings aligned and lit up orange. The architecture of the ship was almost like what the Covenant had. Mantle's Approach definitely fit my list of cool spaceships.

The Didact led me through portals and gravity lifts to reach the map room. The gravity lifts were fun to ride, but portals, they almost hurt my eyes from being in one place, and then another in a blink. The Didact had his back turned to me the whole time, but as we rode the gravity lifts, I was beginning to wonder if he was trying to hide a smile from me if I cried "Wheeee!!" during it. He was probably thinking: This human is more cheerful and friendly, but at the same time she is unusual.

After taking one last portal we came to our destination. The map room was large and open. A path led to a single platform that stood over the open horizon of a bottomless pit, and the rest of the area was completely dark gray. White lights hung on the ceiling above from hung from metal cylinders. It was definitely a sight to behold.

The Didact walked up to the round platform at the end of the path, and a small console popped out in the center. I stood beside him, and watched as he used two fingers to press what looked like an invisible button.

"You have quite the enthusiasm, don't you human?" He said, and I didn't know if he was judging me or not.

"Yeah, I do, I try to make things more fun to me. Even a job," I told him.

The Didact pressed another button, and a holographic map of the galaxy appeared, expanding in the entire room.

"Are you looking for Earth?" I asked.

The Didact shook his head, "First I must locate the Composer. It is the weapon I need to raise my new Promethean army, and then we head for Erde-Tyrene,"

"Erde-Tyrene?"

"It is what you humans refer to as Earth. But for the Composer, I have yet to learn its location." He said, and with a wave of his left arm he touched the holo map, and it moved to one side of the galaxy, zooming in on the east side.

"How will you know where it is?" I asked as the Didact continued to wave his hand to scroll through the galaxy map.

"The Librarian hid it somewhere far from me, after leaving me in Requiem's core. I must find its signal. I believe it is buried on one of the Halos, I just do not know which one,"

I crossed my arms. "I don't see how this requires my help,"

The Didact turned to me, "In order to defeat humans; I must know their weaknesses. Having you here is a valuable asset to learn how humans think and behave. Humans have evolved; they will in no doubt resist me. I need to know how to hit them the hardest. For an enemy gets tougher every day."

I looked at the map. "If it's on a Halo, it's bound to be on any of the remaining ones," I said, and then I reached for the map in hopes of moving it more to the west. But as I did so, the Didact's large armored hand moved the map the other way, and our hands touched one another. I looked at him, my cheeks were red, and then he looked at me.

We were both silent. The look on his face was not serious, nor was it threatening. This time he looked like he was blushing. I had never seen him do that before, and my heart started to race.

"I'm sorry; you wanted me to help didn't you?" I asked. The Didact's cheeks were still red, and I could spot a very small smile trying to emerge on his mouth.