Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [6]
“With all due respect, Dr. Halsey, this sector of space is dangerous.”
With a sudden deceleration, they entered normal space. The main view screen flickered and a million stars snapped into focus. TheHan dove toward a cloud-swirled gas giant dead ahead. “Stand by for burn,” Dr. Halsey announced. “On my mark, Toran.” Lieutenant Keyes tightened his harness. “Three . . . two . . . one.Mark. ” The ship rumbled and sped faster toward the gas giant. The pull of the harness increased around the
Lieutenant’s chest, making breathing difficult. They accelerated for sixty-seven seconds . . . the storms
of the gas giant grew larger on the view screen—then theHan arced up and away from its surface.
Eridanus drifted into the center of the screen and filled the bridge with warm orange light.
“Gravity boost complete,” Toran chimed. “ETA to Eridanus is forty-two minutes, three seconds.”
“Well done,” Dr. Halsey said. She unlocked her harness and floated free, stretching. “I hate cryo sleep,” she said. “It leaves one so cramped.”
“As I was saying before, Doctor, this system is dangerous—”
She gracefully spun to face him, halting her momentum with a hand on the bulkhead. “Oh yes, I know how dangerous this system is. It has a colorful history: rebel insurrection in 2494, beaten down by the UNSC two years later at the cost of four destroyers.” She thought a moment, then added, “I don’t believe the Office of Naval Intelligence ever found their base in the asteroid field. And since there have been organized raids and scattered pirate activity nearby, one might conclude—as ONI clearly has—that the remnants of the original rebel faction are still active. Is that that what you were worried about?”
“Yes,” the Lieutenant replied. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry, but he refused to be cowed by the doctor—by acivilian . “I need hardly remind you that it’s my job to worry about our security.”
She knew more than he did, much more, about the Eridanus System—and she obviously had contacts in the intelligence community. Keyes had never seen an ONI spook—to the best of his knowledge anyway. Mainline Navy personnel had elevated such agents to near-mythological status.
Whatever else he thought of Dr. Halsey, he would assume from now on that she knew what she was doing.
Dr. Halsey stretched once more and then strapped herself back onto the navigation couch. “Speaking of pirates,” she said with her back now to him, “weren’t you supposed to be monitoring communication channels for illegal signals? Just in case someone takes undue interest in a lone, unescorted, diplomatic shuttle?”
Lieutenant Keyes cursed himself for his momentary lapse and snapped to. He scanned all frequencies and had Toran cross-check their authentication codes.
“All signals verified,” he reported. “No pirate transmissions detected.”
“Continue to monitor them, please.”
An awkward thirty minutes passed. Dr. Halsey was content to read reports on the navigational screens,
and kept her back to him. Lieutenant Keyes finally cleared his throat. “May I speak candidly, Doctor?” “You don’t need my permission,” she said. “By all means, speak candidly, Lieutenant. You’ve been
doing a fine job so far.” Under normal circumstances, among normal officers, that last remark would have been insubordination
—or worse, a rebuke. But he let it pass. Normal military protocols seemed to have been jettisoned on this flight. “You said we were here to observe a child.” He shook his head dubiously. “If this is a cover for real
military intelligence work, then, to tell the truth, there are better-qualified officers for this mission. I graduated from UNSC OCS only seven weeks ago. My orders had me rotated to theMagellan . Those orders were rescinded, ma’am.”
She turned and scrutinized him with icy blue eyes. “Go on, Lieutenant.” He reached for his pipe, but then checked the motion. She would probably think it a silly habit. “If this is an intel op,” he said, “then . . . then I don’t understand why I’m here at all.