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86
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
such accuracy. They could literally plot a course with an error no
larger than an atom's diameter.
"Status, Cortana?" the Master Chief asked.
"Stand by," she said, annoyed at the distraction.
At this resolution Cortana could discern every ripple in space
caused by Threshold's gravity, the other planets in this solar sys-
tem, the sun, and even the warping of space caused by the mass
of this ship. Could she compensate for those distortions?
Pressure sensors detected hull breaches on seventeen outer
decks. Cortana ignored them. She shut down all peripheral sys-
tems and concentrated on the task at hand. It was their only way
out of this mess: They'd get out by going through.
She concentrated on interpolating the fluctuating space. She
generated mathematical algorithms to anticipate and smooth the
gravitational distortions.
Energy surged from the reactors into the Slipspace generator
matrices. A path parted directly before them—a pinhole that be-
came a gyrating wormhole, fluxing and spinning.
Threshold's atmosphere throbbed and jumped through the
hole—sucked into the vacuum of the alternate dimension.
Cortana dedicated all her runtime to monitoring the space
around the ship, and risked making microscopic course correc-
tions to maneuver them into the fluctuating path. Sparks danced
along the length of the hull as the nose of the flagship departed
normal space.
She eased the rest of the ship through, surrounded by whirling
storms and jagged spears of lightning.
She pinged her sensors: The hull temperature dropped rapidly
and she registered a series of explosive decompressions on the
breached decks.
Cortana emerged from her cocoon of concentration and im-
mediately sensed the electronic presence of the other near her,
monitoring her Slipspace calculations. It was practically on top
ofher.
"Heresy!" it hissed and then withdrew... and vanished.
Cortana pulsed a systems check along every circuit in the
ship, hoping to track the Covenant AI. No luck.
"Sneaky little bastard," she broadcast throughout the system.
"Come back here."