Halo_ Ghosts of Onyx - Eric S. Nylund [16]
was a risky op. Those things aren't meant to be taken apart once they go active."
Shaw-Fujikawa engines allowed UNSC ships to leave normal space and plow through a dimensional subdomain colloquially known as "Slipstream space." Kurt had received rudimentary training in how it worked. The drive used particle accelerators to rip apart normal space-time by generating micro black holes. Those holes evaporated via Hawking radiation in a nanosecond. The real quantum mechanical "magic" of the drive was how it manipulated those holes in space-time, squeezing a hundred-thousand-ton cruiser into Slipspace. The mathematics of how this worked and how a ship reentered normal space was well beyond him. It was, actually, beyond most human geniuses.
Kurt, however, did know this about Shaw-Fujikawa drives: they were dangerous. There was radiation and anecdotal evidence that the normal laws of nature "bent" in close proximity to an active unit.
"Update your mission logs and beam them back to the Circumference," Kurt said. 'We're going to take a closer look at that thing and confirm it's what Fred thinks it is before we call in HAZMAT."
There was a slight delay before Kelly's and Fred's acknowledgment lights blinked green.
Kurt activated his T-PACK, puffed the thrusters, and angled toward Station Delphi. He tapped the attitude controls, adjusting pitch, roll, and yaw to avoid colliding with the bolts, beams, and tools spinning in the debris field.
As they closed to within one hundred meters of the sputtering, partially disassembled drive coils, his rear-angle camera fuzzed with static.
"Getting interference here," Kurt said. "You two hold position. I'll scout it out."
"Roger," Kelly said. There was an edge of concern in her voice, "Grapple lines ready."
Kurt crept closer and got a glimpse into the heart of the drive: a near-ultraviolet glow that didn't match the thermal output. It wasn't possible for a hole into Slipspace to exist for more than a fraction of an instant, but he couldn't help feeling that's exactly what this was… and the closer he drifted the more likely he'd get pulled in and forever lost.
But that was just a feeling. He hesitated. Kurt altered his direct trajectory and drifted toward a beam thirty meters over the Shaw-
Fujikawa engine. The space near the drive rippled like heat waves rising… impossible in a hard vacuum.
His heads-up display flickered.
Kelly spoke over the COM, her transmission filled with noise. "Your IFF tag is breaking up. It shows your position in multiple regions. Abort the recon. If your electronics malfunction—"
The COM broke into a hiss of static.
"I've seen enough," Kurt said.
Static answered him.
"I'm heading back."
He tapped his altitude thrusters to spin around. The switch worked, but there was no
action from the T-PACK nozzles.
Kurt released the controls. Triple redundancy in the processors or not—if his T-PACK was affected by the nearby radiation, the last thing he wanted to do was give it a command to fire.
He grasped the steel beam, and bracing, he waved back to his team. He couldn't see them out there, but he knew they were watching him. He knew they wouldn't let him down. With Kelly and Fred at his back, he could have been at the edge of hell, and they would have
gotten him out.
Of course, with a malfunctioning, partially deconstructed
Shaw-Fujikawa drive within spitting distance… that might be exactly where he stood.
He spotted motion in the dark, a snaking orange-and-white striped rope and gyrating
blob on one end: Kelly's rescue line. Perfect. No worries now.
The steel beam sparked. Kurt reflexively let go, and arcs played across the alloy— radiation inducing a charge.
Every display in his helmet exploded into static. Rows of status lights blinked amber, then all red. Life support, hydraulics, power all fluctuated… and failed.
He had to get out of here before that Shaw-Fujikawa trans-light drive completely shut down his suit.
The basic laws