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ERIC NYLUND
85
She recomputed the numbers, thrust and velocity and gravita-
tional attractions. Even if she overloaded the reactors to
critical-meltdown levels, they were still stuck in an
ever-descending spiral. The numbers didn't lie.
The Master Chief's Engineer must have repaired the power
coupling, because the Slipspace generator was functional again—
for all the good it did them.
To enter Slipspace a ship had to be well away from strong
gravitational fields. Gravity distorted the superfine pattern of
quantum filaments through which Cortana had to compute a
path. Covenant Slipspace technology was demonstrably superior,
but she doubted that the enemy had ever attempted a Slipspace
entry this close to a planet.
Cortana toyed with the idea of trying anyway—pulse the
Slip-space generators and maybe she'd get a lucky
quadrillion-to-one shot and locate the correct vector through the
tangle of gravity-warped filaments. She rejected the possibility;
at their current velocity, any attempt to maneuver the ship
would send it into a chaotic tumble from which they'd never
recover.
"Try something," the Chief said to her with amazing calm.
"Try anything."
Cortana sighed. "Roger, Chief."
She booted the Covenant Slipspace generators; the software
streamed through her consciousness.
The UNSC Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace generators ripped a
hole in normal space by brute force. But the Covenant tech-
nology used a different approach. Sensors came online, and Cor-
tana could actually "see" the interlacing webs of quantum
filaments surround the flagship.
"Amazing," she whispered.
The Covenant could pick a path through the subatomic di-
mensions; a gentle push from their generators enlarged the fields
just enough to allow their ships to pass seamlessly into the alter-
nate space with minimal energy. Their resolution of the reality of
space-time was infinitely more powerful than human tech-
nology. It was as if she had been blind before, had never seen the
universe around her. It was beautiful.
This explained how the Covenant could make jumps with