Read Halo for Free Online Page A

situation.” They were in Teklan space on their final approach when he confronted her.
    “It is unusual for me to have another body in my space.”
    “How long have you been out on your own?”
    “Four years. I finished my training in the Citadel and they ejected me on one assignment after another. After a while, it just became simpler for me to fly my own shuttle.”
    He nodded, but there was an amused twist to his face.
    She communicated with ground control and booked in with Sector Guard medical. Reset was going to go over her with a fine-tooth comb, and Avina could only guess at what she was going to do with Utolian.
    The ship rocked, twisted and shook slightly as she brought it down. The Citadel outpost was coming along nicely. She could see the windows of her quarters as she lowered the ship to the surface of the only home she could still claim.
    “This is exciting. I have not set foot on a world that was not my own since I destroyed my last body.”
    Avina snorted. “That sounds very wrong.”
    “Nevertheless, it is what happened.”
    She brought them in for a landing in the appropriate zone and settled back with a slow breath. “That always makes me nervous.”
    “What does?”
    “Landing.” She released her harness and got to her feet.
    She shrugged into her Citadel robes that marked her as an Aura Speaker and headed to the back of the ship where she and Utolian had to wait for the landing crews to verify that they weren’t contaminated on the exterior.
    Avina wrinkled her nose when she heard the ticking against the hull. “Damn. We have to walk the tunnel. I hate the tunnel.”
    “What is the tunnel?”
    “We have to go to decontamination before we get to medical. Decontamination is not my favourite process.”
    “Why not?”
    The door thudded as they opened it from the exterior.
    “You will see.”
    The heavy, clear material formed a tube that led to an open chamber. Reset was standing with a smile on her face. “Welcome back, Avina.”
    “Glad to be home. Where do you want me?”
    “You on the right, your companion on the left. Remove it all, we have clothing waiting.”
    It was not the most pleasant of procedures, but the members of Teklan-base medical made it as easy as possible. Avina removed her clothing and put it in the bag that was held out, then she stepped into the shower that would remove all traces of the station’s dubious chemistry from her.
    She didn’t want to think about what was going on in the other side of the decontamination area. She could hear conversation and the occasional deep laugh.
    Once she was scrubbed clean, Reset handed her a thigh-length wrap and sat her down at a station with a breather. “Your companion explained that you had some respiratory difficulties on the station. Exhale and inhale. I am checking you for spores.”
    Avina complied. Reset could heal any injury that Avina had, but it pulled on her personal energy. If she could be healed with standard medication and treatments, Avina would sit for her treatments with good cheer.
    Reset checked the readouts and nodded. “Spores. Your companion was correct. Don’t worry, we can flush them.”
    “Oh, good. Do you know where they started their life cycle?”
    Reset was prepping a hypo spray. “Not yet, but I will. I have the samples and they look like something I saw once when I was younger.”
    The spray jetted into Avina’s shoulder.
    “Let me know. I have to confess to my curiosity. Wait, am I contagious?”
    “Two days in quarantine should see you cleared.”
    Avina grimaced. “Wonderful.”
    “Mist will be here in a moment to enclose you for the trip to medical.”
    There was nothing left to say, so Avina simply waited for Reset’s mate to come in in a tumbling fog and surround her, lifting her off the chair and carrying her into the station.
    She could see through the Guardsman carrying her but kept her mouth shut. If she was spewing spores, she wanted to keep as many as she could to