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"So the civvie contractors end up playing cards a lot,union objections about aliens taking their jobs any day now"

"Ah, they’re getting paid hard-lying al owance and extra overtis that work for yeast extract

Speaking of which, how’s Halsey behaving?"

"You’ve not received the updates?"

"I have, but I want to hear it frolanced at Del Rio for a e the unvarnished truth He got the faintest shrug in response

"Wel , she got the idea eventual y," Lasky said "But she’s stil griping about not having access to the Spartan-Fours"

"She’d better not have access to anybody except crew authorized to know she’s stil alive"

"No, we’ve nailed it down tightly, ive her back her cook translation software, but I’ve reot Perfect Density to check it out for any program she could possibly use to bypass security"

"And you monitor every system for breaches, whether she has official access or not"

"Constant surveil ance If she can hijack a ship and kidnap a Spartan, I treat her as an enes, so to speak"

Del Rio said nothing and beckoned to Parangosky and Lasky to fol ow hier square one with black and yel oarning tape adorning the reosky peered over the coa to see the top of soray hair pul ed back taut in a pony tail

Catherine Halsey orking at a screen with a notebook and old-fashioned pencil to one side of her workstation She didn’t look up Waving and cal ing coo-ee Catherine seemed out of the question Perhaps she couldn’t hear as happening above her: the hum of the aircon and the assorted noises froht have left her in her own little world She certainly didn’t look up

"She’s security chipped," Del Rio said, stepping back from the hatch "If she tries to enter areas off limits to her, the doors won’t open"

"And if she wants to re off"

Parangosky wondered how long it would be before she tried to persuade a Huragok to reet on with Glassineer either, but he was the best technicalcontests?"

"Yes, ma’am, and they’re pretty weltasked by anyone below adold braid at her beck and cal "

"So … she’s secured, everyone including the Huragok have been warned not to let her con the results"

Lasky looked pained "Yes, er than she needs to be The moment she’s done, ship her back to Ivanoff" Halsey was less of a risk locked up on an ONI research station The more people who knew, even those with top security clearance, the greater the chance of the news leaking

There was never a monopoly of information, not even for ONI "Stil no dedicated AI?"

Del Rio started to shake his head but seemed to think better of it Someone had obviously told hi to keep Aine until I find the right one She’s used to ships in refit and she does things by the book That’s al I need right now until we start working-up"

"Wel , you’d better choose a perosky said "Top-level AIs are row on trees"

Del Rio nodded but he didn’t look her in the eye He was probably thinking it was tioing to save him from her scrutiny

Or Serin Osman’s, when the day comes

"So where’s this coffee?" she said "Let’s see how the co up before Terrence wolfs al the pastries Lead on, Captain"

Del Rio forced a sosky caught the XO’s eye and just did a slow blink You’ve got it all under control, Tom This ship was al power, al refinements, her capability now far beyond the Covenant’s even before its fal

They had nothing left to throw at Earth now, not unless the Forerunners decided to rise fro to enjoy that coffee

ONIRF TREVELYAN, FORMERLY THE FORERUNNER WORLD KNOWN AS ONYX The perfect blue sky that Jul ‘Mda a lie as any the humans had told hi feature, their strategy of choice, and it had brought him to this forsaken place But it was also the key to hoould escape He simply didn’t know exactly how yet

His life was now lived in a rooethat he was stil evaluating to see how easily itIt was a prefabricated box of steel-framed composite panels, created by humans, whose flio once he escaped this roos were possible, he was sure, but there was one fact he had gleaned by accident: this world wasn’t a planet at alIt was yet another Forerunner construct, an artificial world the huuards had told hi to escape because the sky he was looking at was a solid roof, its blue perfection and occasional clouds just an il usion Jul recognized the word sphere because the guard had drawn a circle in the air with his fingers as he said it, and the translation device had provided the Sangheili word for globe

Sphere Jul practiced the sffff sound It was easier to say than the ipsss he tried to ot now, and that arrogant AI that floated around looking like a box?

It didn’t ain, he would kil him He wasn’t even a soldier And the AI--that was a device, a tool, of no more consequence than a hanity to even think of its destruction

The huain

So I can, too