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"Y’know, I don’t think the Forerunners had any sense of theater," Devereaux said "They could at least have painted it an interesting color Or stuck navigation lights on it or so"

Osman put on her hel in hard vacuuy was infal ible "Okay, people, let’s get in there You’re navigating, BB"

As they piled into the dropship, Mal’s adrenaline was pu as hard as if he was about to do a drop behind ene in to arrest a sixty-year-old wo the display in his HUD more often than he needed to

Just one little old lady Okay, she hijacks ships and experiments on kids But come on How hard can it be to drop her? On the other hand, she kidnapped a Spartan … Vaz sat opposite him, co the heel of his right boot on the deck; nothing obvious, not even enough to real y move his knee ODSTs were trained for police actions but that was al theory Mal had only ever subdued Covenant aliens, and the general idea wasn’t to take the up to now" Devereaux’s voice caht to the sphere’s surface, just enough tione quiet, hasn’t it?"

"Wel , I’ve not forgotten about them" Osman said it in that saosky did "They’re stil onwith extre how seriously pissed off she was There was so for a ruthless bastard He was certain she was Letting the Muir guy live when it would have been easier to shoot him hadn’t fooled Mal one bit

So … what do I say to Halsey? "You’re nicked"?

He did a fewRasputin "How are we doing this, ma’am?" he asked "Do you caution her while I put the cuffs on?" He fidgeted with a couple of h to hold a Brute "If she’s capable of abducting a bloody Spartan, then we better not take any chances"

"We do this by the book," Osman said "If she doesn’t cooperate, you have ful authorization to use whatever force you see fit Just reosky wants her in one piece and capable of answering questions"

"Sha a ful -face hel as you didn’t lanced in Naomi’s direction The feed froht ahead There was no way of tel ing where she was actual y looking

"Anyone interested in the hul ca in five minutes"

One of the icon positions in Mal’s HUD lit up and he could now see some of the surface details of the sphere There were no seams visible, no solid shipyard workmanship that showed its construction, just an incredibly smooth and almost velvety surface that now looked chocolate brown He stil couldn’t get the scale of it yet

"You know, it would real y help if someone inside could talk me down," Devereaux said irritably "Just some damn numbers, people Okay, I’l do it the old-fashioned way frohts"

Mal picked it up in his HUD at the same time Devereaux saw it Beneath the dropship, the sphere had suddenly cohts zipped out below the into blue, yel ow, and coral stripes along its length Then it started pulsing

"I think I’, it’s been a blast serving with you al , and Vaz stil owes le, the dropship was now aligned right over the light strip Every tihts at the ned with the central yel ow strip again Then cobalt blue discs began popping up at increasingly closer intervals If that wasn’t a universal language, Mal didn’t knoas If he’d been the pilot he’d have assuet Eventual y pulsing coral bars appeared across the width of the strip before resolving into concentric rings They kept pulsing until Devereaux brought the dropship to a hover vertical y above them, and then they locked

"Coordinates acquired," she said "I think I’ies for the sloppy RT procedure, but I don’t knohat to cal this"

"On the nail That’s what you cal it" BB’s voice interrupted "Stand by for a novel experience, boys and girls"

The landing strip lights disappeared and the world outside went pitch-black Mal assu into the blackness of space again, but his gut did a soly white in his HUD icon and throwing long shafts into the crew bay through the cockpit bulkhead hatch

"We’re inside now" Devereaux sounded very matter-of-fact Mal alondered if pilots squealed with delight when they opened birthday presents, or if they just grunted "We’ve coh the shel of the sphere This is the base this way"

The dropship’s drive whined down the scale and stopped Os her hair one-handed Mal couldn’t read her expression at al

"Okay, let’s do it," she said "She’s expecting an ONI tech teanize me"

"I did," Naomi said "And she wil , too"

Mal stepped down frostones It looked like the place had never been used Vaz sidled up to higering the red light in Mal’s HUD

"I hope the other Spartans are as understanding about this as Naoe, Mal was sure he could see shafts of daylight "We’re arresting their mother in front of the to miss my head"

FORERUNNER DYSON SPHERE: FEBRUARY 2553

Halsey looked at her watch, then at her datapad, and then at Prone to Drift

"Is that it? Have we-- ohhh…"

Her stomach flipped and her ears buzzed, a moment of flulike faintness It lasted only a second Scientist or not, she was expecting such aof space and time to be a little more momentous She looked around to see where the Spartans were, but she was the only one left in the workshop now