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"87556-UD61" was the improved colloidal neural disunifica-tion solution to decrease reaction tiesics, antiinflaulants, and pH buffers

But Kurt was looking for three vials in particular, ones with different serial numbers-- 009927-DG, 009127-PX, and 009762-00--that didn't istics code

They were there, bubbling as their contents were drained and mixed with picoliter precision

He heard footsteps approaching

Kurt lowered the panel of the infuser and stepped back to Holly's side

There was rustling of plastic curtains and a medical technical in blue lab coat entered

"Is there anything you need help with, sir?" theis fine," Kurt lied He brushed past the "

CHAPTER ELEVEN

0210 HOURS, FEBRUARY 20, 2551 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ABOARD UNSC HOPEFUL, INTERSTELLAR SPACE, SECTOR K-009

Kurt sat alone in the atriuress on his tablet He'd spent the last twenty-four hours awake, by their sides, and then caught four hours of sleep He'd go back to theratulate the candidates

Correction: congratulate the Spartans

Every last one of them had made it Kurt wished he could feel relief, but there were too many unknowns

"Lieutenant Ambrose" A fee iot up and marched to the elevator The doors closed and the elevator rushed through sections of nor

Kurt and his Project CHRYSANTHEMUM team were supposed to be left alone--orders directly froe?

The doors opened A lieutenant co for hiray 's peak

"Ma'a as ordered Pere"

"Granted," she said "Coe low-lit rooation, weapon, co structural-stress compensators, tram traffic, water, power-load distributions, and ecoreclamation subsystems

The Hopeful was more city space station than ship of the line

The Lieutenant Commander pressed her palm to the biomet-ric by a side door It parted, and they both entered

The roolobes of Earth and a dozen other worlds had been tastefully set about a koa-wood desk that gleale brass lamp

An old man sat in the shadows "That will be all Lieutenant Commander," the man said

He stood and Kurt saw three stars flash on his collar Kurt re-flexively saluted "Sir!"

The Lieutenant Co behind her

The Vice Admiral walked around Kurt once

Vice Adend He'd taken the Hopeful, a ship with virtually no weapons or armor, into battle three times to save the crews of critically wounded ships

He had saved tens of thousands of lives, and almost been court-h The then Adained stars frohest wartime decoration: the Colonial Cross

Twice

"I'm not sure who you are," the Vice Adether "Someone a lot more important than 'Lieutenant Ambrose,' or whatever your na unless asked a direct question He stood at attention The code-word classification of the SPARTAN-III project prevented hi, even to a vice admiral, without clearance

He walked back to his desk, reached into a drawer, and retrieved a black sphere the size of a grapefruit "Do you knohat this is, Lieutenant?"

"No, sir," Kurt said

"Slipspace COM probe," he said "A stationary Shaw-Fujikawa driver launches one of these black 'bullets' into Slipstreah the laws of known human physics, and drops back into normal space at some very distant coordinates Like your own personal carrier pigeon Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Kurt said "Like a Slipspace science probe I've seen them launched from Station Archimedes Or the new ODST drop pod that can be fired fro like that at all Lieutenant Those are just dropped into, and then out of

Slipstrea around in an old-fashioned gravity toilet than precision engineering"

He patted the black sphere "This beauty actually navigates through Slipspace

Traverses as far and as fast as any UNSC ship Daical if you appreciate the mathematics You understand now?"

Kurt wasn't sure what the Ad for He had been asked a direct question, however, so he answered "If what you have said is accurate, sir, it would revolutionize longdistance communications Every ship would be fitted with such a device"

"Except for what it costs to a build an ultraprecise Shaw-Fujika-mass launcher,"

the Vice Admiral replied, "you could build a fleet of ships And for the cost to make one of these little black balls"--he rolled the probe perilously close to the edge of his desk--"you could buy the capital city of some backwater colony There are only two such launchers One on Reach and one on Earth"

The Vice Admiral returned to Kurt and his pale blue eyes stared into Kurt's "This probe arrived fifteen o," the Vice Admiral told him, "forty million kilometers from the Hopeful Entry vector in And it's for you"

Kurt had a dozen questions, but dared not raise any of thee of secrecy

The Vice Admiral snorted and moved to the door "There's protocol for top secrecy on this, so use my office Lieutenant Take as much time as you need" He palmed the door and it opened He paused and added, "If there is any danger to my ship or my patients, I expect to be informed, son Orders or no"

He left and the door sheathed closed

Kurt approached the black sphere There were no obvious controls or displays Light shed off its surface like water beading off oil

He touched it and it warmed

Ice appeared in snowflake patterns and crackled over the Vice Adh the office and coalesced into a white cloak, chiseled features, glacier eyes, and a cane of crystalline ice: Deep Winter