Catherine Halsey/Quotes

Halo: The Fall of Reach

• "We must be near Eridanus." Halsey's first words to Keyes after exiting her cryotube.
• "I’m fine, Lieutenant. Get cleaned up and dressed. Hurry. We have important work to do.” - After Keyes her help in getting dressed and to work.
• “Welcome, Lieutenant. Please have a seat at the communication station and monitor the channels when we enter normal space. If there’s so much as a squeak on nonstandard frequencies, I want to know instantly.”
• “Toran? Give me astrogation maps of the system. Are there any planets currently aligned with our entry trajectory and Eridanus Two? I want to pick up a gravitational boost so we can move in-system ASAP. And can we have some music? Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto Number Three, I think. And start a preburn warm-up cycle for the fusion engines. And stop spinning theHan ’s central carousel section. We may need the power.” - To the Han's AI Toran.
• “Yes, Lieutenant? You have a question?”
• “A fairly accurate assumption and analysis, Lieutenant. Thisis a reconnaissance mission . . . of sorts. We are here to observe a child. The first of many, I hope.” - When Keyes asks why they've been sent to survey this system.
• “A six-year-old male, to be precise. It may help if you think of this purely as a UNSC-funded physiological study. Which is precisely what you are to tell anyone who asks. Is that understood, Lieutenant?”
• "I hate cryo sleep. It leaves one so cramped.”"
• “Oh yes, I know how dangerous this system is. It has a colorful history: rebel insurrection in 2494, beaten down by the UNSC two years later at the cost of four destroyers. I don’t believe the Office of Naval Intelligence ever found their base in the asteroid field. And since there have been organized raids and scattered pirate activity nearby, one might conclude—as ONI clearly has—that the remnants of the original rebel faction are still active. Is that that what you were worried about?” - When Keyes protests that this system is dangerous for just the two of them.
• “Speaking of pirates, weren’t you supposed to be monitoring communication channels for illegal signals? Just in case someone takes undue interest in a lone, unescorted, diplomatic shuttle?”
• "Continue to monitor them, please."
• “You don’t need my permission. By all means, speak candidly, Lieutenant. You’ve been doing a fine job so far.” - When Keyes asks to voice his opinion.
• “Then, Lieutenant, I shall be equally candid. You are here because Vice Admiral Stanforth, head of Section Three of UNSC Military Intelligence Division, refused to lend me this shuttle without at least one UNSC officer aboard—even though he knows damn well that I can pilot this bucket by myself. So I picked one UNSC officer. You. You see, I’ve read your file, Lieutenant. All of it.” - When Keyes expresses that he feels he's less qualified for this mission.
• “You do know what I’m talking about. You don’t lie well. Don’t insult me by trying again.” - When Keyes denies knowing what she's referring to.
• “I chose you precisely because of your record—because of the incident in your second year at OCS. Fourteen ensigns killed. You were wounded and spent two months in rehabilitation. Plasma burns are particularly painful, I understand. The Lieutenant responsible was your CO on that training mission. You refused to testify against him despite overwhelming evidence and the testimony of his fellow officers . . . and friends. They told the board of review the secret the Lieutenant had entrusted to you all—that he was going to test his new theory to make Slipspace jumps more accurate. He was wrong, and you all paid for his eagerness and poor mathematics. Despite continuing pressure, you never testified. They threatened to demote you, charge you with insubordination and refusing a direct order—even discharge you from the Navy. Your fellow officer candidates testified, though. The review board had all the evidence they needed to court-martial your CO. They put you on report and dropped all further disciplinary actions. That is why you are here, Lieutenant—because you have an ability that is exceedingly rare in the military. You can keep a secret. You may have to keep many secrets after this mission is over.”
• “I think that you would rather be on the Magellan . Fighting and dying on the frontier.”
• “Indeed, Lieutenant, ever since we left Earth’s gravity, well, we’ve been fighting one another for every cubic centimeter of vacuum—from Mars to the Jovian Moons to the Hydra System Massacres and on to the hundred brushfire wars in the Outer Colonies. It has always been on the brink of falling apart. That’s why we’re here.”
• “This child could be more useful to the UNSC than a fleet of destroyers, a thousand Junior Grade Lieutenants—or even me . In the end, the child may be the only thing that makes any difference.” - When Keyes asks what difference could the one child make.
• “It’s nice here. This colony doesn’t know how good they’ve got it. Rural lifestyle. No pollution. No crowding. Climate-controlled weather.” - Halsey regarding Eridanus II.
• "Relax. We’re supposed to be parents inspecting the school for our little girl." - To Keyes, who is uncomfortable in a civilian suit.
• Number 117 had all the genetic markers she had flagged in her original study—he was as close to a perfect subject for her purposes as science could determine. But Dr. Halsey knew it would take more than theoretical perfection to make this project work. People were more than the sum of their genes. There were environmental factors, mutations, learned ethics, and a hundred other factors that could make this candidate unacceptable. - Halsey's thoughts in John as a subject.
• “You like games. So do I.” - Halsey to John when meeting him after his King of the Hill winning streak.
• “I have a different game I want you to try. Look. People used coins like this for currency a long time ago, when Earth was the only planet we lived on.” Each side is

different. Do you see? One has the face of a man with long hair. The other side has a bird, called an eagle, and it’s holding—”

• “We’ll use this coin in our game. If you win you can keep it.”
• “It’s very simple. I toss the coin like this. Next time, though, before it lands, I want you to tell me if it will fall with the face of the man showing or with the eagle holding the arrows.”
• Was it possible that he saw which side was up when he grabbed it . . . or more improbably, could have picked which side he wanted? - Halsey's thoughts on John correctly guessing the right side.
• She shouldn’t have used his name. That was a bad sign. She couldn’t afford the luxury of liking her test subjects. She mentally stepped away from her feelings. She had to maintain a professional distance. She had to... because in a few months Number 117 might not be alive.
• “We screen these subjects for certain genetic markers. Strength, agility, even predispositions for aggression and intellect. But we couldn’t remote test for everything. We don’t test for luck.” - When Keyes asked why she tested John with a coin.
• “Of course not. But we have one hundred and fifty test subjects to consider, and facilities and funding for only half that number. It’s a simple mathematical elimination, Lieutenant. That child was one of the lucky ones—either that or he is extraordinarily fast. Either way, he’s in.” - When Keyes asks if she believes in luck
• “I hope that continues, Lieutenant. For your sake, I hope you never understand what we’re doing.”