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Johnson squinted his dark eyes at her performance and nod?ded approvingly. "She says that she's figured out the weapon controls, too. No way to test them in here, of course."
"Understood," the Master Chief replied. "And the rest of the team's progress?"
"I've got the doors from here to the bridge and to the engine room welded shut," Sergeant Johnson told him. "If those tran-
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sient sensor contacts that Cortana keeps picking up are anything, they'll have to cut through to get to us.
"Locklear's grabbing some sack time. He needed it." The Sergeant shrugged. "He'll be fine, though; ODSTs are tough as nails. Lieutenant Haverson slept some then got up, had a long conversation with Cortana, and started reading through some of the Covenant database. Everyone seems to be fine, considering what we've been through."
"Understood," the Chief said. "Cortana? Ship status?"
"ETA to Reach in twenty minutes," she said.
The Chief checked his mission clock. "You said thirteen hours' total travel time. By my count, we have approximately two hours to go."
"I had determined it would be thirteen hours based on the spec?ifications of the Covenant Slipspace drive, but there's ..." Her voice trailed off and faded.
"Cortana?"
"Sorry. There's a curious time-dilation effect at these Slip-space velocities. Although, technically, velocity, acceleration, and for that matter even time have no meaning in the folds of Slipspace. I thought I told you all this," she said. Irritation crept into her voice.
The Chief looked to the Sergeant, who shook his head and shrugged.
Cortana sounded more than distracted—and she didn't just "forget" things. It was a bad sign. They depended on her to fly this ship, and if she started falling apart they were in real trouble.
The Master Chief opened a COM channel. "Change of plans, team. Reach ETA is nineteen minutes. I'll explain later—just grab your gear and meet on the bridge ASAP."
There was a pause, then Lieutenant Haverson replied, "Roger, Master Chief. Locklear and I are already up here."
The hatch of the Covenant dropship opened, and Polaski jogged out. The three of them proceeded at a brisk pace to the bridge.
The Master Chief opened a private COM channel to Cortana. "Anything else I should know?"
The channel was silent for a full ten seconds. "I have the Covenant magnetic plasma-shaping system figured out," she
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replied. "We'll have a limited offensive capacity when we get to Reach, if we need it. I think."
"And the rest of this ship is still functional?"
"Yes," she replied. "I'm sorry, Chief ... these calculations are... tricky."
The COM went dead.
Cortana's behavior worried the Chief, but he resigned himself to trust her. What other option was there?
He, the Sergeant, and Polaski halted outside the bridge; the thick blast doors were sealed.
"Lieutenant?" he said. "We're outside."
The doors pulled apart. Locklear and the Lieutenant stood with their assault rifles aimed down the hall. They relaxed their stance when they identified them as friendlies.