| Kalmiya | |
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| Biographical information | |
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Began service: |
Before May 25, 2537[1] |
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Ended service: |
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| Political and military information | |
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Affiliation: |
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Kalmiya was a "smart" artificial intelligence construct created by Dr. Catherine Halsey. Although she was initially created as a platform for experimental software, Halsey kept Kalmiya around as her personal assistant for many years past the safe operational lifespan of a smart AI.
Background
Kalmiya served as a host for prototype routines to test the software intrusion routines and software that would later be integrated into the specialized AI, Cortana. In a sense, Kalmiya was Cortana's older "sister."[2]
UNSC protocol demands that prototypes such as Kalmiya must be destroyed promptly after their material goes into general use. Dr. Halsey intentionally disobeyed this order, however. She kept Kalmiya around, likely because her previous AIs, Déjà and Cortana, had been reassigned (to an unknown position in Déjà's case; and as John-117's attaché and the shipboard AI of the Pillar of Autumn in Cortana's).[3]
Kalmiya resided in Halsey's office in ONI's CASTLE Base. She was left there with Dr. Halsey during the Fall of Reach and proved very useful in helping Halsey and her Spartans escape the facility. Kalmiya was a potential alternative vessel for the Forerunner data found at the Babd Catha Forerunner complex. However, Halsey wasn't confident trusting humanity's only hope for salvation to an obsolete AI, and instead opted to split Cortana for the task.[1]
Kalmiya was somewhat disturbed when Dr. Halsey used a hidden fail-safe to destroy Colonel Ackerson's personal AI, Araqiel, and asked if such a fail-safe was included in her own code. Dr. Halsey carefully told her (Kalmiya would possibly stress-analyze her voice to verify that she wasn't lying) that not every AI had the fail-safe, which was the truth, just not the whole truth. Kalmiya had to be destroyed as part of Operation: WHITE GLOVE to prevent the Covenant from collecting any information in the base. Dr. Halsey activated the fail-safe in her Riemann matrix, revealing to her that not every AI has such a fail-safe: It is a protocol implemented only in the ones that matter. Before ending service, she told Halsey it was an honor to work with her.[4]
Trivia
"Whateverittakes" (Whatever it takes) was the nullification code for Kalmiya's ethics subroutines.[5]
List of appearances
- Halo: First Strike (First appearance)
- Halo: Reach
- Dr. Halsey's personal journal (Mentioned only)
- Halo: Shadows of Reach
Notes
Sources
- ^ a b Dr. Halsey's personal journal
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 126 ("Kalmiya was Cortana's "older sister." Dr. Halsey had designed and tested the software intrusion routines on her. Once the process had been debugged and streamlined, she'd incorporated the routines into Cortana")
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 126 ("The brass at ONI Section Three had been quite explicit in their instructions to destroy any prototype routines--an order that Dr. Halsey had promptly disobeyed.")
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 135
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 126 ("Entering those files without proper clearance is a treasonable offense, Doctor." "They can come and arrest me, then. Do as I have instructed, Kalmiya," Dr. Halsey said. "Override your ethics center subroutine four-alpha. Nullification code: 'Whateverittakes.' ")