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"Dev says not, ive us a tow"

"Understood"

Phil ips wandered out to watch and stood gazing up at Devereaux, who gave hirin He fiddled with his radio caot fiveoodness’ sake shut hio into standby mode"

"But he’s you, " Phil ips said "Wouldn’t it be easier to just … I don’t know, reabsorb hiet back" BB sounded pissed off "I need to assess the dae first"

"Okay Sorry"

The weirdly distant conversation between the two versions of BB left Mal feeling disturbed He was starting to feel sorry for the dumb bit But if it didn’t have al of BB’s personality now, perhaps it wasn’t offended

Listen tonormal This time last year, I’d never even spoken to a sony aunt to one

"Okay, let’s do it" Devereaux climbed down from the hul and put on her helmet "I think this must be the slowest extraction on record We could have walked out of here faster Al aboard Come on, move it"

Everybody piled in, the hatch seals hissed, and the status lights went to green They didn’t real y need lights, but it wasto be able to see that the hatches were shut Mal tightened his safety restraint until it ht he’d put on in the last feeeks, courtesy of ONI’s lavish victual ing and a lot less running around in heavy arut

"Porker," Vaz ym in Stanley yet? You want me to show you where it is?"

"Yeah, and you’re not exactly built like a racing snake yourself these days, are you?" Mal leaned across and poked Phil ips’s knee It was tiain, how sure are you about the Halo locations?"

"Not a hundred percent," he said "It’s al that identifies them, but we haven’t worked out the Forerunner coordinates syste a capital Positions ht be relative to other Halos rather than to a central reference point"

"But how did you ie like an arum"

"See, I knew you’d come in handy"

"And noe knohere the portal exited, we ht be able to use that to decipher the system"

"Ah, that’s what I like to hear Clouds with silver linings"

"Okay, fingers crossed" Devereaux throttled up and the drive started its usual song, starting at a low-pitched huh the scale to a soprano whine and then a sensation of nothingness that only a dog ht hear The airfra to worry about, nothing at al"On a wing and a prayer By guess and by god Held together with string and gu this to me, Dev," Mal said

Naomi twisted in her seat and checked the neck seal on Phil ips’s helmet He looked total y lost in ODST ar on his dad’s jacket "Don’t want you deco, do we?"

"But it’s instant, isn’t it?"

"No It’s not"

"Oh Lovely"

Mal was reassured Things were fine again Everyone was indulging in the usual chu, and joking about things that definitely weren’t funny at alHe stil wasn’t sure if Naomi had a sly sense of humor or meant every literal word, but for a wo over her, she see to starboard as she rose above the scrubland, and a piece of plastic tube rol ed across the deck Mal could see Dev through the open cockpit hatch Her head was turned toward the drive readouts, even though she could have seen that data in her HUD, but everything felt and sounded normal

How many times have I done this? A hundred? Five hundred? I’d know if there was so out of the ordinary, you can hear it Smell it Feel it

Mal watched the sky in his hul ca it to darken faster Every second that they didn’t explode in a bal of flaht blue shaded to violet and then navy, and suddenly he could see stars without the filter of the at had fal en off, cracked up, or burst Tart-Cart moved out into the black velvet safety of space They’d done it

"Dev?"

"Yes, Staff?"

"Is the radiator boiling over yet? Or whatever the coolant does"

"Of course it is You should see the readouts"

"Oh"

"But we’ve passed the point of greatest de up"

"I’m ever so impressed," Phil ips said

Nao Mal joined in

"Yeah, wel done, Dev," he said There were two bored Huragok waiting in Stanley who’d pounce on Tart-Cart as soon as she docked to make repairs They’d love it The dropship would be better than new by the time they’d finished with it