Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian: Difference between revisions

==Plot summary==

The story starts aboard the UNSC ''The Heart of Midlothian'' with ODST Sergeant Michael Baird being told he has [[cancer]]. The ship's [[Unidentified medical technician|medical technician]] tells Michael that his disease is easily treatable and that the procedure will take about an hour. The operation begins with the ship's AI Mo Ye watching over him. While Baird is asleep, the ship is ambushed by a small [[Covenant fleet]] just after it drops out of [[Slipstream space|slipspace]], and the surprised crew are overwhelmed by the [[Boarding (attack)|boarding parties]]. As Mo Ye tells Baird about the events that occurred while he was unconscious, he asks why she cannot just wipe the NAV database, as per the [[United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1|Cole Protocol]]. She tells Baird that this boarding party was unlike any other, as they systematically separated Mo Ye from these essential systems to prevent her from doing so. She also reveals that they had brought aboard a never before encountered Covenant [[Huragok|species]]. In order for Mo Ye to start the self-destruct sequence, Baird needs to travel to the [[bridge]] and manually boot her systems. She is able to tell him this because she had left a small piece of her coding behind to watch over Baird's procedure. In addition, while she is limited to this piece of coding, she is physically incapable of doing anything that will harm a human due to [[Three Laws of Robotics|Asimov's First Law of Robotics]]; as a result, she can not self-destruct the ship either, as this would lead to the death of Baird.