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He looked over Lucy’s re alone

"And next time, Petty Officer, you will listen to the lieutenant’s orders and you will fol ow theer "Because I don’t want Dr Halsey lecturing ot poor ih under normal circu Lucy back in one piece seeh For an hour, Mendez al owed hirass with the Spartans, picking over the leftover barbecued fish and conte when he’d be able to replenish his supply of Sweet Wil iams The brief break came to an abrupt end when his radio crackled in his ear

"Chief, you real y need to co a tranquil izer dart to cal heaven

Just walk down the corridor and you’l find us"

"On ot to his feet and jerked his head at Lucy She was now the Engineer wrangler, after al"Coood doctor’s found"

Fredabout the tranquil izer dart, but if Mendez had had one, he would have been sorely te and led Mendez into the darkness He felt soh curtains, and then he was suddenly in an enor else in this world It was busy with at least a dozen Huragok drifting around an assortnize at al

He could hear Halsey cal ing hiot here"

"I can see it, Doctor" He ducked under the fuselage of a large satin-gray ship about the size of a Pelican, but he couldn’t tel if it was brand-new or if it had seen a thousand years’ service He fol owed the sound of Halsey’s voice and stuck his head inside the first hatch he found open "Is it just fantastical y interesting, or is it actual y going to be any use to us?"

Halsey’s indignant face popped up right in front of hi him flinch

"Yes, just a little," she said "You want to transforation? You want to knohen you slip exactly where and when you’re going to drop back into realspace, and not end up hours and et? Wel , it comes as standard on every da to have it"

Mendez thought of Kurt and the others with a strange kind of regretful relief, a realization that their lives had brought soht crack a new cigar after al

"Thanks, Kurt," he murmured "Thanks"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

WE CAN’T FORGIVE, AND WE CAN’T FORGET BUT THERE’S A THIRD OPTION WHICH ISN’T RELATED TO EITHER IT DOESN’T REQUIRE US TO BE FRIENDS WE CAN SIMPLY BOTH AGREE TO STOP KILLING EACH OTHER

(ADMIRAL LORD HOOD TO THEL ‘VADAM, STILL KNOWN AS THE ARBITER)

MAINTENANCE AREA, FORERUNNER DYSON SPHERE, ONYX: LOCAL DATE NOVEMBER 2552

Halsey communicated with Prone to Drift with an ease that Lucy envied

The Engineer seelish with typical speed, and al Halsey had to do was keep her datapad focused on his tentacles while it relayed the conversation back to her in a neutral orith like the painful, prih to communicate with Prone

Halsey looked excited even though she was putting on her I’m-a-detached-professional voice Lucy noted the way she kept licking her lips like she was desperate to interrupt with new questions

"But can that slipspace navigation be adapted to fit huot some scheree of insertion accuracy?"

"If your drives are sufficiently responsive," said the flat, dise from her datapad "We need to examine one"

"We can fetch a whole fleet here for you to play with," Halsey said Lucy watched Mendez rol his eyes very slowly and then look away The rest of the Spartans andering around the hangar, exaet a e out to my people"

"We are not in your ti out there"

"What do youout there? You told me there was no evidence of the Flood and the Halo hadn’t fired"

"There is so out there that is both there and not there It may be a threat Are you not interested in the condition of the Reclaimers in stasis?"

He meant the Katana personnel and the unidentified civilians Lucy felt ashamed that she’d been too tied up in her own problems to ask Prone to open their slipspace pods

"We’re interested in them," Mendez said "Why are they in there? What happened?"

Prone paused for a , but they were definitely sensitive to agitation and see humans

"We went to the portal when the first shield procedures activated," the proxy voice said "They are too daed for us to repair We placed thee to attend to the, and the Engineers had done the only thing they knew; they put them on life support and waited for the medical experts to show up But the Forerunnerto coenius was al it was cracked up to be and that she could do soh she seemed to think of them al as substandard merchandise

"Explain what you mean by not in our time, " Halsey said "I realize this is a slipspace bubble, but exactly how far out of sync are ith the galaxy?"

"Varies," the virtual voice answered "And can be varied If the other space talks to you, it hears your reply fifteen or twenty ti to pin Prone down to terms she understood She tried another tack

"Can you tel me the date in the huain Extrapolate from the calendar we use"

Prone reached out and fluttered his cilia over the datapad "The year division is two-five-five-three The lesser division is two"

Lucy was now used to Prone’s turn of phrase, and understood that as February 2553 They’d been here days, yet months had elapsed outside

But as out there waiting for them?

Mendez took a couple of steps forward and eased hirateful that you brought Lucy back to us," he said "But is there any way you can let us signal one of our own ships so we can take her home?"

"Until we know if the object is a threat, weju more intense

Lucy wanted to step in and defend hi so much of him "We cannot repair Lucy-Bravo-Zero-Nine-One Somebody must"