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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

0300 Hours, July 17, 2552 (Military Calendar)

UNSC destroyer Iroquois on routine patrol in the Sigma Octanus Star Systee of the IroquoisHe leaned against the brass railing and surveyed the stars in the distance He wished the circumstances of his first command were more auspicious, but experienced officers were in short supply these days And he had his orders

He walked around the circular bridge exaine status He paused at the screens showing the stars fore and aft; he couldn’t quite get used to the view of deep space again

The stars were so vividand here, so different from the stars near Earth

The Iroquois had rolled out of space dock at Reach--one of the UNSC’s prio They hadn’t even installed her AI yet; like good officers, the elaborate artificially intelligent coerously short supply Still, Iroquois was fast, well armored, and armed to the teeth He couldn’t ask for a finer vessel

Unlike the frigates that Commander Keyes had toured on before, the Meriwether Lewis and Midsuht , this ship was a destroyer She was almost as heavy as both those vessels coer Soht the massive ships were unwieldy in coot was that a UNSC destroyer sported two MAC guns, twenty-six oversized Archer missile pods, and three nuclear warheads Unlike other fleet ships, she carried no single-ship fighters--instead her extra mass came from the nearly two meters of titanium-A battleplate armor that covered her from stem to stern The Iroquois could dish out and take a tremendous amount of punishment

Someone at the shipyard had appreciated the Iroquois for what she was, too--two long streaks of crimson war paint had been applied to her port and starboard flanks Strictly nonregulation and it would have to gobut secretly, Commander Keyes liked the ornamentation

He sat in the Commander’s chair and watched his junior officers at their stations

"Inco transmissions," Lieutenant Doma Octanus Four and also the Archih to my monitor," Commander Keyes said

Dominique had been one of his students at the Academy--he had transferred to Luna from the Université del’ Astrophysique in Paris after his sister was killed in action He was short, nimbly athletic, and he rarely cracked a smile--he was always business Keyes appreciated that

Commander Keyes was less ie officers

Lieutenant Hikowa ers and slender arms slowly checked the status of the ordnance with all the deliberation of a sleepwalker Her dark hair was always falling into her eyes, too Oddly, her record showed that she had survived several battles with the Covenantso perhaps her lack of enthusiasue

Lieutenant Hall stood post at ops She seeh Her uniform was always freshly pressed, her blond hair triulation sixteen centimeters She had authored seven physics papers on Slipspace co, and trying to i up her fellow officers Keyes disapproved of such displays of aation, however, was his ht have been that navigation was the Co suit, so anyone else in that position never seeers was moody, and when Keyes had colazed He could have sworn he had caught the man on duty with liquor on his breath, too He had ordered a blood test--the results were negative

"Orders, sir?" Jagger asked

"Continue on this heading, Lieutenant We’ll finish our patrol around Sigma Octanus and then accelerate and enter Slipspace"

"Aye, sir"

Commander Keyes eased into his seat and detached the tiny monitor from the armrest He read the hourly report froe est Covenant carrieryet so was oddly familiar about its shape

He retrieved his pipe frorant sht about s on the other vessels he had served on, but herewell, coes

He pulled up his files transferred from the Acadeht his interest One, he thought,

That paper had initially sparked his interest because of its author He had never forgotten his first assignment with Dr Catherine Halseynor the names of any of the children they had observed

He opened the file and read:

United Nations Space Command Astrophysics Journal 034-23-01

Date:May 097, 2540 (Military Calendar)

Encryption Code:None

Public Key:NA

Author(s):Lieutenant Commander Fhajad 034 (service nuence

Subject:Dimensional-Mass Space Compressions in Shaw-Fujikawa (aka "Slipstream") Space

Classification:NA

/start file

Abstract:The space-bending properties of eneral relativity Such distortions however, are coravitational effects in Shaw-Fujikawa (SF) spaces Using loop-string analysis, it can be shown that a large eneral relativity predicts by an order ofether in SF space have been reported erroneously as a single larger mass

PressENTER to continue

Commander Keyes switched back to the silhouette froe almost looked like the bulbous head of a whale That realization chilled him to the core

He quickly opened the UNSC database of all known Covenant ships He scanned them until he found the three-dimensional representation of one of their medium-sized warships He rotated it into three-quarters profile He overlaid the ie on the silhouette, scaled it back a little

It was a perfect et FLEETCOM ASAP Priority Alpha"

The Lieutenant snapped straight in his chair "Yes, sir!"

The bridge officers looked at the Colances with one another

Coht up a map of the system on his data pad The silhouetteus about to course zero four seven, Lieutenant Jaggers Lieutenant Hall, push the reactors to one hundred ten percent"

"Aye, Co hot, sir," Hall reported "Now exceeding recoers calculated, then looked up "Forty-three minutes," he replied

"Too slow," Commander Keyes muttered "Reactor to one hundred thirty percent, Lieutenant Hall"

She hesitated "Sir?"

"Do it!"

"Yes, sir!" She moved as if someone had electrically shocked her