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240
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
noticed deep circles of fatigue ringing the younger man's eyes.
"To complicate matters, we can barely navigate. 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 emits radiation in Slipspace. Enough to kill everyone
after only a few more hours of exposure.
"But we're hanging on to the alien device. It changes the prop-
erties of Slipspace, as you already saw—but with one more
twist. In the few minutes we were in that tangled 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 attempted to briefly jump again," Haverson added, "but
nothing extraordinary occurred. This unusually long jump may
have been caused by the energy added to Slipspace by our battle
with the Covenant."
"In any case," Admiral Whitcomb said, "if we learn what
makes this crystal tick, it'd give 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 symbols within their range, and statistics scrolled along-
side the object. He sighed. "This system was glassed 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," Admiral Whitcomb said and tugged on his mustache,
"we pulled out of this region of space almost as soon as the war
started. The Covenant came in, burned Eridanus and the other
Outer Colonies, and then moved on without batting an 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 anymore. If I had to guess, I'd bet