Page 10 (1/2)

"Yes, ma’am," Naomi said at last "I think I know you, but I don’t knohere fro time And my name wasn’t Osman back then Like you, I didn’t even have a surname"

Osman had rarely come face-to-face with Spartans from her batch On the handful of occasions when she had, she found they were pretty good at forgetting because they’d been ray eyes, searching for thecoled with the name "Sarah?"

"Serin Serin-Zero-One-Nine Remember me now?"

As Osman watched the revelation build on Naomi’s face, she felt the tension drain from her own shoulders The relief was both unexpected and incredible She hadn’t realized she’d been that worried about it

But it’s out Thank God for that Someone other than me and the select few in ONI knoho I am

Nearly half of the seventy-five children who’d been taken for the programentation treatment at fourteen The feho didn’t die were left disabled Osman didn’t knohat Halsey had actual y told her successes about the fate that had befal en her failures

"We thought you’d died," Naomi said

Wel , that answered Osether again, so now you know And don’t tel me how nor skeletal"

Al Osman had needed was to see the look on Naomi’s face It was a kind of validation She’d been wiped out of existence twice, first as a kidnapped kid taken to Reach, then erased froain

I exist I’ to head up ONI

Naomi settled at one of the co had happened "We’d better get going, ma’am"

Osman wasn’t sure if the subject was closed or not If it wasn’t, it would have to wait She was about to sue with Phil ips and BB Al three of the like everyone’s worst night, and silent Mal and Vaz had do-not-spil -my-beer written al over them It was partly the buzz-cut hair and complete absence of expression, but also … damn, Osman couldn’t quite pin it down Whatever it was, she was sure she could pick an ODST out of a lineup every time, male or female

It was that earnest hardness, that sense that they would do absolutely anything they were tasked to do, however insane or impossible, and that once they were let off the leash only shooting them would stop them

"Cabins okay?" she asked

Mal thawed a little His file said he was thirty-three but he looked younger, with a fuzz of dark hair and just a few lines around the eyes that suggested he actual y spent a lot of tied to look both ti at the sah-cheekboned Slavic faces and a spectacular scar the ful width of his jaw He didn’t see kind at al

"Brammers, ma’am," Mal said, deadpan Osh praise "We never noret a pit to ourselves Vaz is delirious about it Honest"

"I’l take your word for it" The only proble ODST recruits from al nations and al three services was that lish It was part of their curious charraded recon armor for each of you, too"

"Thank you, ma’am Luxury"

"Okay Secure for launch BB, you have the ship"

Phil ips never said a word as he buckled in Os, he looked amused, as if she hadn’t fooled him at al about what ONI was actual y up to

BB appeared settled on the console in front of her "Thirty seconds … receiving final updates … you could have sedation, you know"

Osood-bye to privacy before she was even old enough to understand what it was, but an AI could know more about someone than their own mother Protective or not, it rattled her BB had access to every cockpit recording and medical report, and he could probably pick up her pulse rate, too, the intrusive little bastard

She heard one of the ODSTs trying to stifle a yawn Nothing fazed them Port Stanley’s drives rose from a faint whine to what she could only describe as an intense nonsound thatsucked down her Eustachian tubes

It was too late to stop The drives were spooled up and committed to jump now "I can deal with it," she said

"Late databurst inco … never mind, that’l have to wait … five seconds" BB executed a sree spin "Place your bets on where and e eentlemen … and jump "

Osut plu Her brain told her she was tuh she could see her own fingers digging into the padded black armrests of her chair Her eyes flickered uncontrol ably as they tried toi, completely out of control, and that was al there was to it The sickening sensation behind her eyes crept down her neck and made her hunch her shoulders

Then she hit a brick walFor ahorizontal y on a stor up wasn’t a very captainly thing to do She gritted her teeth and waited for it to pass

She er than she realized One of the ODSTs leaned over her

"You okay, ma’am?" Devereaux asked

Osuely in coree with h"

"Nelson had a translight drive, did he? Wel , that explains Trafalgar"

"No,when he went to sea…"

Osrateful not to see her breakfast in her lap "Could be worse, then"

The view from the forward bulkhead projection was a dense, featureless void far blacker than normal space But it wasn’t just Port Stanley that had slipped into a different dimension Osman found herself in a new reality as welThis wasn’t ONI Nobody here was calculating the besttheir AI to hack her syste their buddy’s back, not looking for the best place to insert a knife in it Os that wasn’t exactly innocence--they were ODSTs, after al --but that pressed the sahtforward Transparent Loyal No threat Well, not to ht hours to Brunel, so familiarize yourselves with the ship," Osman said "BB, as in that databurst?"

The AI flashed an ie onto the bulkhead display It was a video trans the pennant code ident of UNSC Ariadne Osnize an accelerator-shielding bulkhead when she saw one Ariadne’s engineers were sending back i for advice fro out what had happened until Port Stanley was back in normal space and comms were restored