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He resisted breaking into a run He was sure that would attract the attention of the surveil ance drones But he speeded up as much as he could and stood at the threshold of a hal whose ceiling was so high that it vanished into darkness There was a wal to his right When he took a step inside and his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see that the as covered with il u

"Air conditioning," said a voice behind hi"

He spun around to find hiuards He hadn’t even heard the uard held his rifle one-handed, not exactly ai it, but he had a smal device in one hand and tilted it so Jul could see it

"If you ever see oing to press this We’ve al got one And then the jel yfish guys wil have to repair everything"

So it was a reht work on acquiring, but this wasn’t the right tiaheili

"This is the work of the gods," Jul said, playing his role with gusto Blaspheinary crime now There was nobody up there to offend "Show respect"

"Whatever you say" The guard stabbed a finger toward Prone "You’re supposed to keep hi areas Do you understand?"

< He can do no har back as if he expected Jul to fol ow hiuard, because that would alain Jul walked off

It was a tactical withdrawal, nothingareas, " he said "Where can I go?"

< Go where you wish If it isn’t per blown up"

< I don’t know But there is nothing you can dae here > Prone had said that a few ti a better idea of the layout of the area would be time wel spent Hefor the deserted town soe, he could see Warthog vehiclestheir way slowly in the same direction, with a soldier on the back of one of theed on a point and drew up side by side but facing opposite directions while their drivers talked Perhaps the hu where he went and what he did

< Nobody ever came back to live in the cities, > Prone said suddenly It was the first time he’d opened a conversation < It was all ot, the s looked The structures were silver-gray and s exploration He could hear the Warthogs in the far distance He expected one to co down the road that led into the city to head him off and tel him he couldn’t enter, but nobody intercepted hie square The first thing that struck hihts, some human-sized and some two or three times tal er than him

The silence was extraordinary Jul wondered whether the not-quite-gods had been kil ed or had found somewhere even better to hide

"So the Forerunners planned to shelter here until the galaxy was cleansed of the Flood," he said "They must have intended to re-create their society here Their entire civilization The Halo would have destroyed everything sentient outside when it was activated"

< Yes,> Prone said < This would have been their capital and their refuge > "There weren’t that many of them, then" If there had been bil ions upon bil ions, there would have been many more cities visible, unless the Forerunners had construction techniques he couldn’t even ih, this was a shelter for the chosen few, and the less fortunate Forerunners would have perished "Only enough to populate this planet Was this al they had?"

Prone drifted fro they had could be re-created here and reached fro mix of rational explanation and cryptic coer what?"

< We did our duty We still do our duty It’s not our fault > "What isn’t?"

There was no point getting angry with a Huragok because it didn’t achieve anything Sometimes they’d even flee to avoid confrontation, and Jul wanted this one to trust and obey him He waited for the answer

< The portals, > Prone said Heto a low note that faded into a breath < The terer work properly They were not ok there > That seemed perfectly clear Prone and his brothers had maintained this world and the portals built here, but there was nothing they could do about the other end of the slipspace route, the destination portals There was nobody left totold Jul that the Forerunners were al gone, it was that He understood Prone’s depressed little sigh There was soh space that ultialaxy froency plan for the end of the world

Even the gods had eency procedures "Or they could reach this shelter from many other places"

< Once,> Prone said He floated over to a wal covered in elegant carvings and held a tentacle out to caress the stone < Once > "How long ago was this?"

< Lucy-B-zero-nine-one asked and I told her one hundred thousand years > Jul felt a slow heaviness in his chest He could have left this place for perhaps countless destinations and reached them in an instant, but he was a hundred mil ennia too late The humans had found a locked room the size of a star system in which to carry out their research No wonder they weren’t worried about letting him here he pleased He stood beside Prone and put his hand on the stone, too

"That," he said, "is too long ago to be of any help to me"

UNSC TART-CART, SANGHELIOS: FOURTEEN HOURS INTO REPAIRS Devereaux balanced precariously on the dropship’s tail and knelt to run the ultrasound scanner over the repaired section of hul

"Looks solid enough to me, Staff" She rapped the e "I’h"

"It’s your cal , Dev," he said "Do we take off or not?"

"Put it this e’l be vacuuht, but I can’t pro about drifting? We’ve got plenty of help out there to reel us in"

"No, weto reach escape velocity Which ht end in a very involuntary reentry As in barbecue"

Mal wasn’t seriously worried yet By ODST standards, this was a minor inconvenience There wasn’t an enemy for fifty kilometers, and he hadn’t lost anyone But Oss kicked off, and they were cutting it fine He cal ed Port Stanley again and waited

"She knows your status," BB said "I’ it"

"I stil need to talk to her No offense It’s aif they’d actual y be able to see Infinity froht position He tried to iine how much of Sydney she’d cover if they could berth her at Bravo-6,her stern would be on the far side of the harbor The crew could run ot?"

"We’re waiting on the Arbiter, Staff Is ti to maketo be"

"Do you need a recovery tea evenShe looked like she was considering it, then shook her head