[h2][b]Dr. Fiona O'Connell and Narak 'Chorna[/b][/h2]

[hr]


Narak looked briefly away from his datapad and down at McKay. "The Huragok bear the knowledge of the Forerunners' technology, and were the reason for the San'Shyuum's ability to create vessels such as this. They are who maintain this ship, and the Shipmaster is right to be protective of them."

The conversation was briefly interrupted by the arrival of the Chief Engineer from the [i]Resurgence[/i]. They exchanged their greetings, and O'Connell gave him his copy of the schematics as well. She knew that the Shipmaster had extended an open invitation for scientists and engineers from other universes to assist them, so she supposed she was not sure how many times she was going to have to repeat herself today. At the very least, she would not be wanting for assistance. 

"Okay, so, as we were saying, and as Narak alluded to, the Huragok is very precious to this ship." O'Connell explained. "They are not normal lifeforms. They are artificial beings, basically organic supercomputers originally created by the Forerunners to maintain their technology. Oh, um, the Forerunners were an [i]immensely[/i] advanced species that controlled most of our galaxy long before any of our species' recorded history. And yes, Dr. Mckay, most of the Covenant's technology, including the slipspace borer, was reverse-engineered from Forerunner technology, largely due to the Huragok." 

Dr. O'Connell wanted to get to work as quickly as they could. When she had met with Falul, he had made the importance of these upgrades [i]very[/i] clear to her, so she felt like she was under a fair amount of pressure. However, if she wanted these others to actually be of any help, she would have to be patient enough to get them up to speed. "So for this project...I think there is some important context to understand. The Covenant, as it was during the war in our universe, was a sort of religious, caste-based society. The San'Shyuum that Narak mentioned, what we call the Prophets, were the leaders, the 'holy Hierarchs'. The Sangheili were part of the warrior caste. They did not have scientists, and only few engineers like Narak, as that was the role of the Prophets. Or so they claimed. The reality is that the Prophets relied heavily on the Huragok to create and maintain their technology, so the Covenant, as a whole, did not greatly understand their own technology. It is highly advanced, yes, but also not entirely efficient."

Dr. O'Connell turned briefly to her laptop and brought up a specific file for reference. "Luckily, I have some relevant files from the war that my position gave me access to. This is all highly classified, but you all are not from my universe, so...I am choosing to disclose this on the basis that word of it will never get back to my boss. During the war, one of our AI onboard a Covenant ship was able to make improvements to its slipspace borer to allow it to make a slipspace jump within the gravity well of a planet, without any changes to the hardware, without any [i]physical[/i] upgrades. Just by modifying the logic the borer was using to operate. Indeed, that AI was able to upgrade Covenant technology on several occasions, basically with just software updates. I believe it may be possible for us to do the same here. I know that slipspace travel [i]can[/i] be much quicker. The Forerunners were able to create portals to cross distances greater than our entire galaxy almost instantly, and some of our own ships have been given slipspace upgrades to make them even faster than the [i]Aegis[/i]. Slipspace travel isn't...specifically my field of expertise, though, so I will definitely appreciate all of your assistance."