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“Login complete,” the computer announced.
Ensign Lovell’s identity record was displayed on the monitor. In his Academy picture, he looked tenyears younger: neatly trimmed jet-black hair, toothy grin, and sparkling green eyes. Today his hair wasunkempt and the spark was long gone from his eyes.
“Please read General Order 098831A-1 before proceeding.”
The Ensign had memorized this stupid thing. But the computer would track his eye motions—make surehe read it anyway. He opened the file and it popped on-screen:
United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1
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Encryption Code:Red
Public Key:file /first light/
From:UNSC/NAVCOM Fleet H. T. Ward
To:ALL UNSC PERSONNEL
Subject:General Order 098831A-1 (“The Cole Protocol”)
Classification:RESTRICTED (BGX Directive)
The Cole Protocol
To safeguard the Inner Colonies and Earth, all UNSC vessels or stations must not be captured with intactnavigation databases that may lead Covenant forces to human civilian population centers.
Ifany Covenant forces are detected:
1. Activate selective purge of databases on all ship-based and planetary data networks.
2. Initiate triple-screen check to ensure all data has been erased and all backups neutralized.
3. Execute viral data scavengers. (Download from UNSCTTP://EPWW:COLEPROTOCOL/Virtualscav/fbr.091)
4. If retreating from Covenant forces, all ships must enter Slipstream space with randomized vectorsNOT directed toward Earth, the Inner Colonies, or any other human population center.
5. In case of imminent capture by Covenant forces, all UNSC ships MUST self-destruct.
Violation of this directive will be considered an act of TREASON, and pursuant to USNC Military LawArticles JAG 845-P and JAG 7556-L, such violations are punishable by life imprisonment or execution.
/end file/
PressENTER if you understand these orders.
Ensign Lovell pressed ENTER.
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The UNSC wasn’t taking any chances. And after everything he had seen, he didn’t blame them.
His scanning windows appeared on the view screen, full of spectroscopic tracers and radar—and lots ofnoise.
Archimedesstation cycled three probes into and out of Slipstream space. Each probe sent out radar pingsand analyzed the spectrum from radio to X rays, then reentered normal space and broadcast the databack to the station.
The problem with Slipstream space was that the laws of physics never worked the way they weresupposed to. Exact positions, times, velocities, even masses were impossible to measure with any realaccuracy. Ships never knew exactly where they were, or exactly where there were going.
Every time the probes returned from their two-second journey, they could appear exactly where they hadleft . . . or three million kilometers distant. Sometimes they never returned at all. Drones had to be sentafter the probes before the process could be repeated.