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ERIC NYLUND
275
getting it back to ONI Section Three—even if he had to gamble
that the Covenant might get it."
Locklear snorted. "Well, as much as I don't like El-Tee
White-bread, I'd hand it over if ordered, too. What's the big deal,
anyway? We're almost home."
"Almost," Dr. Halsey repeated, and she gave him a slight
smile. "But the moment you jump, this crystal emits radiation
like a signal flare. The Covenant will find this ship ... and
maybe this time they'll win the battle in Slipspace."
Locklear grimaced.
She held his steely gaze a moment and then finally let go of
his hand. "So I know you'll do whatever it takes to prevent this
object from falling into enemy hands."
He nodded grimly. "I read you, Doc. Loud and clear." There
was a hint of respect in his voice. "I know what I have to do . . .
count on it."
"Good," she said.
The elevator doors parted. Locklear stuffed the crystal into
his ammunition vest, and Locklear wheeled the table into the
Gettysburg's launch bay. "Where do you want her?"
The bay was a beehive of activity: A hundred of Governor
Jiles's crew jogged to and from passages carrying data pad
schematics and field multiscanners; robotic dollies carried fat
Archer missiles, spiderlike Antilon mines, and slender pods of
deuterium fuel for the Gettysburg's auxiliary reactors; three
Longsword fighter craft were being repaired; exoskeletons thud-
ded along the deck, carrying plates of titanium and welding
them in place.
"There," Dr. Halsey told Locklear. "Take her to that ship." She
pointed to Governor Jiles's Chiroptera-class vessel. It sat on the
deck looking like a sleeping bat. Its oddly angled stealth sur-
faces blended into the shadows.
Locklear shrugged and pushed the loaded gurney.
Dr. Halsey halted by the ship's port hatch. It was sealed so
tightly that no seam could be discerned.
She retrieved the thermal printout from her coat and rechecked
its contents. She then touched a recessed button on the hull, and a
tiny plate slid aside revealing an alphanumeric keyboard. Dr.
Halsey typed in a long string and pressed ENTER.