He walked around the circular bridge examining the monitors and displays of engine status. He pausedat the screens showing the stars fore2 and aft; he couldn’t quite get used to the view of deep space again.
The stars were so vivid . . . and here, so different from the stars near Earth.
TheIroquois had rolled out of space dock at Reach—one of the UNSC’s primary naval3 yards—just threemonths ago. They hadn’t even installed her AI yet; like good officers, the elaborate artificially intelligentcomputer systems were also in dangerously short supply. Still,Iroquois was fast, well armored, andarmed to the teeth. He couldn’t ask for a finer vessel4.
Unlike the frigates5 that Commander Keyes had toured on before, theMeriwether Lewis andMidsummerNight , this ship was a destroyer. She was almost as heavy as both those vessels6 combined, but she wasonly seven meters longer. Some in the fleet thought the massive ships were unwieldy in combat—tooslow and cumbersome7. What those critics forgot was that a UNSC destroyer sported two MAC guns,twenty-six oversized Archer8 missile pods, and three nuclear warheads. Unlike other fleet ships, shecarried no single-ship fighters—instead her extra mass came from the nearly two meters of titanium-Abattleplate armor that covered her from stem to stern. TheIroquois could dish out and take a tremendousamount of punishment.
Someone at the shipyard had appreciated theIroquois for what she was, too—two long streaks9 ofcrimson war paint had been applied10 to her port and starboard flanks. Strictly11 nonregulation and it wouldhave to go . . . but secretly, Commander Keyes liked the ornamentation.
He sat in the Commander’s chair and watched his junior officers at their stations.
“Incoming transmissions,” Lieutenant12 Dominique reported. “Status reports from Sigma Octanus Fourand also theArchimedes Sensor13 Outpost.”
“Pipe them through to my monitor,” Commander Keyes said.
Dominique had been one of his students at the Academy—he had transferred to Luna from theUniversité del’ Astrophysique in Paris after his sister was killed in action. He was short, nimbly athletic,and he rarely cracked a smile—he was always business. Keyes appreciated that.
Commander Keyes was less impressed, however, with the rest of his bridge officers.
Lieutenant Hikowa manned the weapons console. Her long fingers and slender arms slowly checked thestatus of the ordnance15 with all the deliberation of a sleepwalker. Her dark hair was always falling intoher eyes, too. Oddly, her record showed that she had survived several battles with the Covenant16 . . . soperhaps her lack of enthusiasm was merely battle fatigue17.
Lieutenant Hall stood post at ops. She seemed competent enough. Her uniform was always freshlypressed, her blond hair trimmed exactly at the regulation sixteen centimeters. She had authored sevenphysics papers on Slipspace communications. The only problem was that she was always smiling, andtrying to impress him . . . occasionally by showing up her fellow officers. Keyes disapproved18 of suchdisplays of ambition.
Manning navigation, however, was his most problematic officer: Lieutenant Jaggers. It might have beenthat navigation was the Commander’s strong suit, so anyone else in that position never seemed to be upto par14. On the other hand, Lieutenant Jaggers was moody19, and when Keyes had come aboard, the man’ssmall hazel eyes seemed glazed20. He could have sworn he had caught the man on duty with liquor on hisbreath, too. He had ordered a blood test—the results were negative.
“Orders, sir?” Jagger asked.
“Continue on this heading, Lieutenant. We’ll finish our patrol around Sigma Octanus and then accelerateand enter Slipspace.”
“Aye, sir.”
Commander Keyes eased into his seat and detached the tiny monitor from the armrest. He read thehourly report from theArchimedes Sensor Outpost. The log of the large mass was curious. It was too bigto be even the largest Covenant carrier . . . yet something was oddly familiar about its shape.
He retrieved21 his pipe from his jacket, lit it, inhaled22 a puff23, and exhaled24 the fragrant25 smoke through hisnose. Keyes would never even have thought about smoking on the other vessels he had served on, buthere . . . well, command had its privileges.
He pulled up his files transferred from the Academy—several theoretical papers that had recently caughthis interest. One, he thought, might apply to the outpost’s unusual reading.
That paper had initially26 sparked his interest because of its author. He had never forgotten his firstassignment with Dr. Catherine Halsey . . . nor the names of any of the children they had observed.
He opened the file and read:
United Nations Space Command Astrophysics Journal 034-23-01Date:May 097, 2540 (Military Calendar)Encryption Code:NonePublic Key:NAAuthor(s):Lieutenant Commander Fhajad 034 (service number [CLASSIFIED]), UNSC Office of NavalIntelligenceSubject:Dimensional-Mass Space Compressions in Shaw-Fujikawa (a.k.a. “Slipstream”) Space.
Classification:NA/start file/Abstract:The space-bending properties of mass in normal space are well described by Einstein’s generalrelativity. Such distortions however, are complicated by the anomalous27 quantum gravitational effects inShaw-Fujikawa (SF) spaces. Using loop-string analysis, it can be shown that a large mass bends space inSF space more than general relativity predicts by an order of magnitude. This bending may explain howseveral small objects clustered closely together in SF space have been reported erroneously as a singlelarger mass.
PressENTER to continue.
Commander Keyes switched back to the silhouette28 from theArchimedes report. The leading edge almostlooked like the bulbous head of a whale. That realization29 chilled him to the core.
He quickly opened the UNSC database of all known Covenant ships. He scanned them until he foundthe three-dimensional representation of one of their medium-sized warships30. He rotated it into threequartersprofile. He overlaid the image on the silhouette, scaled it back a little.
It was a perfect match.
“Lieutenant Dominique, get FLEETCOM ASAP. Priority Alpha.”
The Lieutenant snapped straight in his chair. “Yes, sir!”
The bridge officers looked at the Commander then exchanged glances with one another.
Commander Keyes brought up a map of the system on his data pad. The silhouette monitored by theoutpost was on a direct course for Sigma Octanus IV. That confirmed his theory.
“Bring us about to course zero four seven, Lieutenant Jaggers. Lieutenant Hall, push the reactors31 to onehundred ten percent.”
“Aye, Commander,” Lieutenant Jaggers replied.
“Reactor32 running hot, sir,” Hall reported. “Now exceeding recommended operational parameters33.”
“ETA?”
Jaggers calculated, then looked up. “Forty-three minutes,” he replied.
“Too slow,” Commander Keyes muttered. “Reactor to one hundred thirty percent, Lieutenant Hall.”
She hesitated. “Sir?”
“Do it!”
“Yes, sir!” She moved as if someone had electrically shocked her.
“FLEETCOM online, sir,” Lieutenant Dominique said.
The weathered face of Admiral Michael Stanforth appeared on the main view screen.
Commander Keyes breathed a sigh of relief. Admiral Stanforth had a reputation for being reasonableand intelligent. He’d understand the logic34 of the situation.
“Commander Keyes,” the Admiral said. “The old ‘Schoolmaster’ himself, huh? This is the prioritychannel, son. This better be an emergency.”
Commander Keyes ignored the obvious condescension35. He knew many at FLEETCOM thought hedeserved to command nothing but a classroom—and some probably thought he didn’t deserve that.
“The Sigma Octanus System is about to come under attack, sir.”
Admiral Stanforth cocked an eyebrow36 and leaned closer to the screen.
“I’m requesting that all ships in-system rendezvous37 with theIroquois at Sigma Octanus Four. And anyships in neighboring systems make best speed here.”
“Show me what you’ve got, Keyes,” the Admiral said.
Commander Keyes displayed the silhouette from the sensor outpost first. “Covenant ships, sir. Theirsilhouettes are overlapped38. Our probes resolve them as one mass because Slipspace is bent39 by gravitymore easily than normal space.”
The Admiral listened to his analysis, frowning.
“You’ve fought the Covenant, sir. You known how precisely40 they can maneuver41 their ships through theSlipstream. I’ve seen a dozen alien craft appear in normal space, in perfect formation, not a kilometerapart.”
“Yeah,” the Admiral muttered. “I’ve seen that, too. All right, Keyes, good work. You’ll get everythingwe can send.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“You just hang in there, son. Good luck. FLEETCOM out.”
The view screen snapped off.
“Sir?” Lieutenant Hall turned around. “How many Covenant ships?”
“I’d estimate four medium-tonnage vessels,” he said. “The equivalent of our frigates.”
“FourCovenant ships?” Lieutenant Jaggers muttered. “What canwe do?”
“Do?” Commander Keyes said. “Our duty.”
“Begging the Commander’s pardon, but there arefour Cov—” Jaggers began to protest.
Keyes cut him off with a glare. “Stow that, mister.” He paused, weighing his words. “Sigma OctanusFour has seventeen million citizens, Lieutenant. Are you suggesting that we just stand by and watch theCovenant glass the planet?”
“No, sir.” His gaze dropped to the deck.
“We will do the best we can,” Commander Keyes said. “In the meantime, remove all weapons systemlocks, order missile crews to readiness, warm up the MAC guns, and remove the safeties from one of ournukes.”
“Yes, sir!” Lieutenant Hikowa said.
An alarm sounded at ops. “Reactor hysteresis approaching failure levels,” Lieutenant Hall reported.
“Superconducting magnets overloading42. Coolant breakdown43 imminent44.”
“Vent primary coolant and pump in the reserve tanks,” Commander Keyes ordered. “That will buy usanother five minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
Commander Keyes fumbled45 with his pipe. He didn’t bother to light the thing, just chewed on the end.
Then he put it away. The nervous habit wasn’t setting the right example for his bridge officers. He didn’thave the luxury of showing his apprehension46.
The truth was, he was terrified. Four Covenant ships would be an even match forseven destroyers. Thebest he could hope for was to get their attention and outrun them—hopefully distract them until the fleetgot here.
Of course . . . those Covenant ships could outrun theIroquois as well.
“Lieutenant Jaggers,” he said, “initiate the Cole Protocol47. Purge48 our navigation databases, and thengenerate an appropriate randomized exit vector from the Sigma Octanus System.”
“Yes, sir.” He fumbled with his controls. He hung his head, steadied his hands, and slowly typed in thecommands.
“Lieutenant Hall: make preparations to override49 reactor safeties.”
His junior officers all paused for a second. “Aye, sir,” Lieutenant Hall whispered.
“We’re receiving a transmission from the system’s edge,” Lieutenant Dominique announced.
“FrigatesAlliance andGettysburg are on an inbound vector at maximum speed. ETA . . . one hour.”
“Good,” Commander Keyes said.
That hour might as well be a month. This battle would be over in minutes.
He could not fight the enemy—he was severely50 outgunned. He couldn’t outrun them, either. There hadto be another option.
Hadn’t he always told his students that when you were out of options, then you were using the wrongtactics? You had to bend the rules. Shift perspective—anything to find a way out of a hopeless situation.
The black space near Sigma Octanus IV boiled and frothed with motes51 of green light.
“Ships entering normal space,” Lieutenant Jaggers announced, panic tingeing52 his voice.
Commander Keyes got to his feet.
He had been wrong. There weren’t four Covenant frigates. A pair of enemy frigates emerged fromSlipspace . . . escorting a destroyer and a carrier.
His blood ran cold. He had seen battles in which a Covenant destroyer had made Swiss cheese of UNSCships. Its plasma53 torpedoes54 could boil through theIroquois ’ two meters of titanium-A battleplate inseconds. Their weapons were light-years ahead of the UNSC’s.
“Their weapons,” Commander Keyes muttered under his breath. Yes . . . hedid have a third option.
“Continue at emergency speed,” he ordered, “and come about to heading zero three two.”
Lieutenant Jaggers swiveled in his seat. “That will put us on collision course with their destroyer, sir.”
“I know,” Commander Keyes replied. “In fact, I’m counting on doing just that.”
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1
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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4
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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frigates
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| n.快速军舰( frigate的名词复数 ) | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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cumbersome
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| adj.笨重的，不便携带的 | |
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archer
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| n.射手，弓箭手 | |
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streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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10
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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sensor
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| n.传感器，探测设备，感觉器（官） | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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ordnance
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| n.大炮，军械 | |
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covenant
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| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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disapproved
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| v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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21
retrieved
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| v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息） | |
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inhaled
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| v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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initially
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| adv.最初，开始 | |
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anomalous
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| adj.反常的；不规则的 | |
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silhouette
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| n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓 | |
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realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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warships
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| 军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只 | |
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reactors
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| 起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆 | |
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reactor
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| n.反应器；反应堆 | |
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parameters
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| 因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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condescension
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| n.自以为高人一等，贬低(别人) | |
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eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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38
overlapped
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| _adj.重叠的v.部分重叠( overlap的过去式和过去分词 )；（物体）部份重叠；交叠；（时间上）部份重叠 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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maneuver
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| n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略 | |
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overloading
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| 过载，超载，过负载 | |
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breakdown
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| n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌 | |
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imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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45
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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46
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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47
protocol
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| n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节 | |
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48
purge
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| n.整肃，清除，泻药，净化；vt.净化，清除，摆脱；vi.清除，通便，腹泻，变得清洁 | |
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49
override
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| vt.不顾，不理睬，否决；压倒，优先于 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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51
motes
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| n.尘埃( mote的名词复数 )；斑点 | |
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52
tingeing
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| vt.着色，使…带上色彩（tinge的现在分词形式） | |
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53
plasma
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| n.血浆，细胞质，乳清 | |
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54
torpedoes
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| 鱼雷( torpedo的名词复数 )； 油井爆破筒； 刺客； 掼炮 | |
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