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152
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
sient sensor contacts that Cortana keeps picking up are anything,
they'll have to cut through to get to us.
"Locklear's grabbing some sack time. He needed it." The
Sergeant shrugged. "He'll be fine, though; ODSTs are tough as
nails. Lieutenant Haverson slept some then got up, had a long
conversation with Cortana, and started reading through some of
the Covenant database. Everyone seems to be fine, considering
what we've been through."
"Understood," the Chief said. "Cortana? Ship status?"
"ETA to Reach in twenty minutes," she said.
The Chief checked his mission clock. "You said thirteen hours'
total travel time. By my count, we have approximately two hours
to go."
"I had determined it would be thirteen hours based on the spec-
ifications of the Covenant Slipspace drive, but there's ..." Her
voice trailed off and faded.
"Cortana?"
"Sorry. There's a curious time-dilation effect at these
Slip-space velocities. Although, technically, velocity,
acceleration, and for that matter even time have no meaning in
the folds of Slipspace. I thought I told you all this," she said.
Irritation crept into her voice.
The Chief looked to the Sergeant, who shook his head and
shrugged.
Cortana sounded more than distracted—and she didn't just
"forget" things. It was a bad sign. They depended on her to fly
this ship, and if she started falling apart they were in real trouble.
The Master Chief opened a COM channel. "Change of plans,
team. Reach ETA is nineteen minutes. I'll explain later—just
grab your gear and meet on the bridge ASAP."
There was a pause, then Lieutenant Haverson replied, "Roger,
Master Chief. Locklear and I are already up here."
The hatch of the Covenant dropship opened, and Polaski
jogged out. The three of them proceeded at a brisk pace to the
bridge.
The Master Chief opened a private COM channel to Cortana.
"Anything else I should know?"
The channel was silent for a full ten seconds. "I have the
Covenant magnetic plasma-shaping system figured out," she