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"You know," Cortana said, her voice now coraded since we started this mission--even before the battle for Reach"
"Noted," he replied
The dies was a welcoe from the blue illulad to have his feet once more firmly planted on the raw steel decks of a hue were soot-stained
He entered the Coentle acceleration aritted his teeth and banished the pain from his awareness
When the doors parted, the Master Chief paused, taking in the sad state of the Gettysburg's bridge The front viewports had been blown out and recently replaced elded plates of hull armor A trio of monitors had been hastily bolted in place over theation and ops consoles Only three control stations were lit: engineer- ing, co was that only Ade that usually needed a staff of thirty officers The room was as still and ehtly surprised
"Sir" He stood at attention and snapped off a crisp salute
"Pere"
"Granted, son," the Admiral said
"What's your status, Chief?" Haverson asked "Doctor Halsey told us it would be days before you recovered"
"I'm one hundred percent, sir," he said
As if she had heard this statement, Dr Halsey opened a COM channel, and a tiny video feed popped onto his heads-up display
Her glasses reflected an aht from wherever she was, and he could not see her eyes
"John, I need to speak with you"
"I'm with Admiral Whitcomb and Lieutenant Haverson, ma'am
When I'm done I can speak with you"
She was silent a moment, then said, "Very well" The COM winked off
The Master Chief felt a pang of regret for being so terse with her
"Get over here, son," the Admiral said He returned his attention to the clear plastic wall dotted with stars and the diamond syion of space "We're in soh spot"
He marched to the Admiral and Haverson and studied the chart with them "Cortana's briefed me, sir The Covenant know Earth's location and are on the ist of it, I'm afraid," Haverson said, and the Chief noticed deep circles of fatigue ringing the younger ate We've been working around the clock to restore our ships, but we'd need an engineering crew of a hundred and a space dock to get these wrecks into fighting shape"
Admiral Whitcomb frowned at the Lieutenant's dour assess- ment and added, "Another trick is that the crystal we picked up on Reach eh to kill everyone after only a fewon to the alien device It changes the prop- erties of Slipspace, as you already saw--but with one led version of Slip-space, we traveled here"--he drew a tiny circle on the map, centered on their position--"which under normal circumstances should have taken us days"
"We atte extraordinary occurred This unusually long juy added to Slipspace by our battle with the Covenant"
"In any case," Admiral Whitcoive us a hell of an edge on the Covenant"
"I see, sir"
The Chief scrutinized their location--not quite the definition of the middle of nowhere, but close He noted that there were three star systems within the circle
Haverson also peered at the chart He touched one of the star sy- side the object He sighed "This systelassed in 2530, so there's no chance there would be anyone to help us there And the other two systems " He shook his head "Uninhabited"
"Hell," Aded on his ion of space almost as soon as the war started The Covenant came in, burned Eridanus and the other Outer Colonies, and thenan eye"
"Eridanus?" The Chief stepped closer and touched the data scrolling next to the tiny star "I know this place" He turned to the Admiral "And there is a human colony there, sir--just not one that the UNSC cares about anyuess, I'd bet that the Covenant never found it, either We ht be able to ex- pedite repairs there"
The Adh to bet our lives and Earth on that hunch, Chief?"
The Master Chief looked again at the tiny dot on theof It was the surrounding asteroid beltand a o
"Yes, sir I'm sure"
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
TIME:DATE STAMP [[ERROR]] ANOMALY\Revised date
estiship Ascendant Justice, in Slipspace en route to Eridanus system
Dr Halsey buzzed the door open, and the Master Chief en- tered the clean room
"You wanted to seein the adjoining surgical suites, and the strange orange sterile-field lamps set every meter into reflective recessions in the tiled walls
Dr Halsey had clamped five displays onto the arm of one of the contoured exaed in the chair and balanced a large alphanumeric-symbolic keyboard on her lap Perched precariously on the side tray were Styrofoam cups of half-drunk coffee
She waved the Chief forward "I see you are ignoring soundbefore you have fully healed"
"I'm fine, ma'am," he replied
She snorted in disbelief "John--I've never known you to tell an outright lie I'ht now" She swiveled one of theon the screen "What with the burns, contusions, fractures, and internal bleeding, you should be in shock The only sleep you've gotten in a as unconscious- ness brought on by your wounds And you say you're 'fine'?"