Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [117]
“Aye, sir!” Streeter turned to the COM and began issuing frantic orders.
“Safety interlocks red on the board,” Lieutenant Brightling reported. His lips pressed into a single white line, concentrating. “Beta probe returning, sir, in four . . . three . . . two . . . one. There. Off target one hundred twenty thousand kilometers. Signal is weak. The probe appears to be malfunctioning. Trying to scrub the signal now.”
“It’s too much of a coincidence that it’s malfunctioning, Streeter,” the Chief said. “Get FLEETCOM on Alpha channel on the double! Compress and send the duty log.”
“Aye, sir.” Lieutenant Streeter’s fingers fumbled with the keypad as he typed—then had to retype the command. “Logs sent.”
“Beta probe signal on the board,” Lieutenant Brightling reported. “Calculating the object’s trajectory . . . ”
The planetoid was closer. Its edges, however, had abnormalities—bumps and spikes and protrusions.
Chief McRobb shifted and clenched his hands into fists.
“It will pass though Reach System,” Lieutenant Brightling said. “Intersecting the solar plane in seventeen seconds at the system’s outer edge at zero four one.” He inhaled sharply. “Sir, that’s only a light-second away from us.”
Lieutenant Streeter stood and knocked over his chair, almost backing into the Chief.
McRobb righted the chair. “Sit down, Lieutenant. We’ve got a job to do. Target the telescope array to monitor that region of space.”
Lieutenant Streeter turned and gazed into the rock-solid features of the Chief. He took a deep breath.
“Yes, sir.” He sat back down. “Aye, sir, moving the array.”
“Gamma probe returning in three . . . two . . . one.” Lieutenant Brightling paused. “There’s no signal, sir. Scanning. Time plus four seconds and counting. Probe may have translated on a temporal axis.” “I don’t think so,” the Chief murmured. Lieutenant Streeter said, “Telescope array now on target, sir. On the main view screen.” Pinpoints of green light appeared at the edge of the Reach solar system. They collected and swarmed as
if they were caught in a boiling liquid. Space stretched, smeared, and distorted. Half the stars in that
region were blotted out. “Radar contact,” Lieutenant Brightling said. “Contact with . . . more than three hundred large objects.” His hands started to shake. “Sir, silhouettes match known Covenant profiles.”
“They’re accelerating,” Lieutenant Streeter whispered. “On an intercept course for the station.”
“FLEETCOM network connections are being infiltrated,” Lieutenant Brightling said. His trembling hands could barely type in commands. “Cutting our connection.” Chief McRobb stood as straight as he could. “What about the astrophysics data?” “Sir, they’re still trying to end the diagnostic cycle, but that takes a few minutes.” “Then we don’t have a lot of options,” McRobb muttered. He set his hand on Lieutenant Brightling’s shoulder to steady the young officer. “It’s all right,
Lieutenant. We’ve done the best we could. We’ve done our duty. There’s nothing more to worry about.” He set his palmprint on the control station. The Chief locked out the reactor safeties and saturated the fusion chamber with their deuterium reserve tanks. Chief McRobb said, “Just one last order to carry out.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
0519 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar) / UNSCPillar of Autumn , Epsilon Eridani System’s edge
Something was wrong.
John felt it in his stomach first: a slight lateral acceleration—that became a spin strong enough that he had to brace his legs. ThePillar of Autumn was turning. Every other Spartan in the storage bay felt it as well; they paused as they unloaded equipment from
crates and readied the cryo tubes for their journey.
The lateral motion slowed and stopped. ThePillar of Autumn ’s engines rumbled like thunder through the hull of the ship. Kelly approached him. “Sir? I thought we were accelerating to enter Slipspace?” “So did I. Have Fred and Joshua continue to prep the