"Just can't kill 'em ourselves, right?" North muses appreciatively, unhooking the segment of cable as directed, working to patch it in while Theta hums along in the background.

It's a learning process, feeling out what Cortana needs to do her job (less than he would have thought for basic operations, more than he would have thought for optimal functioning) and what he can let her hitch onto (a whole, whole lot more than he had ever realized), and fast as he picks up on it in human time, on AI time he's obviously still very much learning. But he's focused, multitasking between opening the incursion-locked elements to Cortana and watching the ground around them for any sign of a hostile stirring.