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Fred reported to Kurt, "For what it's worth, sir, the Elites looked surprised. I don't think they knew we were here."
"Well, they probably do now," Kurt replied. "Doctor?"
"I'm unsure how the Covenant learned so quickly," Dr. Halsey said, glistening symbols reflecting in her glasses, "but I'm logging repeated attempts to gain access to this platform. Nearby systems have activated. They are trying to find alternate routes to our location."
"Then we move," Kurt said.
"If the pods block the translocation." Ash said, "will they go though the system?"
Dr. Halsey considered this. "I believe so. They are designed to be transported. Once their Slipspace fields are caught in the wake of a locally generated spatial distortion they should be carried along."
"Set mission timers in countdown mode." Kurt told them, and he looked to Dr. Halsey.
She consulted her watch. "Thirty-two minutes until the doorway to the core room closes," she said.
"On my mark." Kurt said. "Mark."
"52:00" appeared in the lower right corner of his heads-up display
"Defense formation beta," he ordered, and motioned everyone onto the platforms. "Use the pods for cover."
Will carried Dante's wrapped body and set him gently onto the platform. Kurt quickly looked away; every time he saw the corpse, it reminded him that Dante's death was his responsibility, and that he had failed the young Spartan.
The SPARTAN-IIs made a ring inside the pods protecting Mendez. The SPARTAN-IIIs lay flat and aimed under the floating pods, giving them a 360-degree field of fire.
Dr. Halsey joined them on the platform, crowding next to Chief Mendez. She opened her laptop and linked to the Forerunner controls. "Are you certain?" she asked Kurt. "The Covenant
may be able to track us to the core room. We might lead them directly to it." The look on her face was unreadable.
Kurt recognized the question as strategic: continue to the core room or escape while there were UNSC forces in the space over Onyx?
Dr. Halsey had also hinted there was a way to save the Spartans' lives—something linked to the Forerunners' original plan for these "Reclaimers." But he didn't have the luxury of making plans based on Dr. Halsey's half-explained theories. He'd stick with his plan: get to the core room, grab whatever technology or weapons were there, and get off this world. He had a mission to accomplish, and failing that—his gaze moved to Ash and his pack with two FENRIS warheads—he could still deny the enemy their prize.
"Core room," Kurt said.
Dr. Halsey sighed and nodded. Was it resignation he detected on her face? Or relief? She was the most difficult person to read he had ever encountered.
Rings of golden light enveloped them, the walls of the corridor melted, and Kurt felt his insides pulled out and around and then stuffed back into his armor.
The light, however, didn't fade as it had before. It intensified to a brighter magnesium-burning white.
Mendez dug into his vest pocket and donned an antique pair of mirrored wraparounds.