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"That one Tap it three tihts traced the surface as the Chief touched it; they flared red and orange and finally cooled to brilliant blue

"It worked," Cortana said "NAV controls co on"

The ship spun to port On the displays that still functioned, four ship accelerated, but the plasood," Cortana said "I can't overco to hit usunless I can get us into Slipspace"

A rhythmic warble pulsed from one of the displays It flashed red

"Oh no," Cortana said

The leading plasma torpedo impacted Dull red fire smeared across the viewscreens

"Oh no, what?" Haverson demanded

"This ship's Slipspace generator is inert," Cortana replied

"The disabled NAV controls were a trick It must have been the Covenant AI; it lured me here while the drive was physically de- coupled froive orders to the Slipspace generator--but without the syste anywhere"

"There's a Covenant AI?" Haverson muttered, and raised an eyebrow

"Upload the coordinates to power coupling," the Master Chief said "I'll take care of it"

Two more plasy shields collapsing," Cortana said "Brace!"

The last shot collided with the flagship The hull heated, and plas away The ship rolled as pluassed

"Another hit like that will breach the hull," Cortana said

"Moving this tub at flank speed"

"The power coupling coordinates, Cortana," the Master Chief insisted

A route appeared on his heads-up display The engineering rooe

"Those won't do you any good," Cortana told hi for you And even if you ed to re in time We don't have the tools or the expertise"

The Master Chief looked around the bridge There had to be a way There was always a way-- He leaned over the edge of the central platforineers that cowered below He dragged it up by its float-sack The creature squirmed and squealed

"Maybe we don't have the expertise," he said and shook the Engineer "But this thing does Can you communicate with it?

Tell it e need?"

There was a pause Then Cortana replied, "There is an exten- sive communications suite in the Covenant lexic--"

"Just tell it I'ht, Chief," Cortana said

A streae speakers, and the Engineer's six eyes dilated It stopped squirrabbed hold of the Master Chief with its tentacles

"It says 'good' and 'hurry,' " Cortana told him

"Everyone else stay here," the Chief said

"If you insist," Haverson muttered, his face pale Blood trickled from the wound in his chest

The Master Chief looked at Johnson and Locklear "Don't let the Covenant retake the bridge"

"Not a probleeant Johnson said He stopped to kick the dead Elite once in the teeth, then slapped a fresh clip into his MA5B He yanked the weapon's charge handle, fed a round into the cha to have to tango with me before they set one foot in this rooain

The Chief watched as the plasma raced toward them, fire that spread across the black of space "Cortana, buy me some time,"

"I'll do what I can, Chief," Cortana told hi out of options"

Cortana was annoyed She had let the Covenant AI--for that's what this other presence in the systeht for the simple lockdown of the NAV systeh syste that there had only been one point of sabo- tage It was aat full capacity

She checked every systeship She then locked them out with her own security uilt and concen- trated on keeping the ship in one piece, and the Master Chief alive Noshe reconsidered and kept her emotions active The "intuition" provided by this aspect of her intelligence template was too valuable to deactivate in a battle

She iant, Threshold

The inco- netic field--if she dared get close enough

Cortana diverted power fro the protective bubble around the flagship She turned all seven plasma turrets aft and fired a pair of plas salvo

The plasma turrets warmed and belched superheated flame-- but it dispersed into a dull red cloud only a few meters from the point of fire, thinned, and then dissolved

She saw a subsystenetic field uided their charges of plas wasn't right, however-- so had already been in this directory and had erased the software

Cortana swore that when she caught this guerrilla Covenant AI, she'd erase it line by line

Without understanding how the guiding netic fields worked, the plasma turrets were no more useful than a fireworks display

The eneht and burned like ship and splashed over its reinforced aft shields They boiled against the silver energy until the shields dulled and winked out

The plasma etched a portion of the aft hull away like hot water dissolving salt Cortana sensed the dull thumps of atnal was still on board, and his biomonitor indicated that he was still alive

"Chief, are you there yet? I'm down to one last option"