「We don’t know if our weaponscan destroy them,」 Dr. Halsey said. 「But at least we know we can slowthem down.」 The Captain stood straighter. 「Best speed to the Damascus testing facility. We will execute a flyby orbit,and then proceed to a point twenty million kilometers distant to make repairs.」 「Captain?」 Dr. Halsey said. 「A flyby?」 「I have orders to get you to the facility and retrieve whatever Section Three has stowed there, ma』am. As we fly by, a dropship will take you and your—」 He glanced at John. 「—crew planet side. If theCovenant ship returns, we will be the bait to lure them away.」 「I understand, Captain.」 「We』ll rendezvous in orbit no later than 1900 hours.」 Dr. Halsey turned to John. 「We need to hurry. We don’t have much time—and there is a great deal Ineed to show the Spartans.」 「Yes, ma』am,」 John said. He took a long look at the bridge, and hoped he never had to return. Chapter 13 1845 Hours, November 27, 2525 (Military Calendar) / UNSC Damascus Materials Testing Facility,planetChi Ceti 4How far down was the testing facility? John and the other Spartans had been confined to a freightelevator for fifteen minutes, and the entire time it had been rapidly descending into the depths of ChiCeti 4. The last place John wanted to be was in another confined space. The doors finally slid open, and they emerged in what appeared to be a well-lit hangar. The far end hadan obstacle course set up with walls, trenches, dummy targets, and barbed wire. Three technicians and at least a dozen AI figures were busy in the center of the room. John had seen AIsbefore—one at a time. Déjà had once told the Spartans that there were technical reasons why AIscouldn’t be in the same place at the same time, but here were many ghostly figures: a mermaid, asamurai warrior, and one made entirely of bright light with comets trailing in her wake. Dr. Halsey cleared her throat. The technicians turned—the AIs vanished. John had been so focused on the holograms that he hadn’t noticed the forty Plexiglas mannequins set upin rows. On each was a suit of armor. The armor reminded John of the exoskeletons he had seen during training, but much less bulky, morecompact. He stepped closer to one and saw that the suit actually had many layers; the outer layerreflected the overhead lights with a faint green-gold iridescence. It covered the groin, outer thighs,knees, shins, chest, shoulders, and forearms. There was a helmet and an integrated power pack—muchsmaller than standard Marine 「battery sacks.」 Underneath were intermeshed layers of matte-black metal. 「Project MJOLNIR,」 Dr. Halsey said. She snapped her fingers and an exploded holographic schematicof the armor appeared next to her. 「The armor’s shell is a multilayer alloy of remarkable strength. We recently added a refractive coating todisperse incoming energy weapon attacks—to counter our new enemies.」 She pointed inside theschematic. 「Each battlesuit also has a gel-filled layer to regulate temperature; this layer can reactivelychange in density. Against the skin of the operator, there is a moisture-absorbing cloth suit, andbiomonitors that constantly adjust the suit’s temperature and fit. There’s also an onboard computer thatinterfaces with your standard-issue neural implant.」 She gestured and the schematic collapsed so that it only displayed the outer layers. As the imagechanged, John glimpsed veinlike microcapillaries, a dense sandwich of optical crystal, a circulatingpump, even what looked like a miniature fusion cell in the backpack. 「Most importantly,」 Dr. Halsey said, 「the armor’s inner structure is composed of a new reactive metalliquid crystal. It is amorphous, yet fractally scales and amplifies force. In simplified terms, the armordoubles the wearer’s strength, and enhances the reaction speed of a normal human by a factor of five.」 「我們不知道我們的武器是否能摧毀他們,」哈爾西博士說。「但至少我們知道我們可以慢慢來。」 船長站得更直了。「去大馬士革測試設施的最佳速度。我們將執行飛越軌道,然後前往兩千萬公裡以外的地點進行維修。」 「船長?哈爾西博士說。「飛過?」 「我奉命把你帶到那裡去,把第三組藏在那裡的東西取回,夫人。 當我們飛過的時候,一艘運輸機會載著你和你的孩子——」他瞥了約翰一眼。「-機組行星側。如果客輪返回,我們將成為誘餌,誘使他們離開。」 「我明白,船長。」 「我們將不遲於19時在軌道上會合。」 哈爾西醫生轉向約翰。「我們得快點。我們的時間不多,我們需要向斯巴達人展示很多東西。」 「是的,夫人,」約翰說。他看了很久橋,希望再也不用回來了。 第十三章 1845小時,11月27日,2525(軍事日曆)/UNSC大馬士革材料測試設施,planetChi Ceti 4測試設施到底有多遠?約翰和其他斯巴達人被關在一架貨運電梯裡15分鐘,整個時間裡電梯都在迅速下降,進入奇切蒂4號的深處。 約翰最不想去的地方是另一個狹小的空間。 門終於滑開了,它們出現在一個看起來光線很好的機庫裡。最遠端的哈丹障礙物球場用牆、壕溝、假目標和帶刺鐵絲網搭建起來。 三名技術人員和至少十幾名人工智慧人員在房間中央忙碌。約翰一次只見過一個人。Déjá曾經告訴斯巴達人,艾絲不能同時出現在同一個地方有技術上的原因,但這裡有許多幽靈般的人物:美人魚asamurai warrior,還有一個完全由明亮的光線構成,彗星尾隨在她身後。 哈爾西醫生清了清嗓子。技術人員把自動識別系統關掉了。 約翰全神貫注於全息圖,以至於他沒有注意到40個成排排列的有機玻璃人體模型。每件衣服上都有一套盔甲。 這件盔甲讓約翰想起了他在訓練中看到的外骨骼,但體積更小,更緊湊。他走近一層,看到這套衣服實際上有很多層,外層用一種淡淡的綠金色的虹彩反射著頭頂的燈光。它覆蓋了腹股溝、大腿外側、膝蓋、小腿、胸部、肩膀和前臂。裡面有一個頭盔和一個集成的電源組,比標準的海軍「電池袋」小得多,下面是相互嚙合的亞光黑色金屬層。 「MJOLNIR項目,」哈爾西博士說。她啪的一聲手指折斷,旁邊出現了一塊爆炸的盔甲。 「裝甲的外殼是一種具有非凡強度的多層合金。我們最近添加了一層折射塗層,以防止來襲的能量武器攻擊,以對抗我們的新敵人。每件作戰服都有一層凝膠填充層來調節溫度;這一層的密度會發生反應性變化。在操作人員的皮膚上,有一套吸溼的布衣,生物監測器可以不斷調整衣服的溫度和適合度。還有一臺機載電腦可以與你的標準型號的神經植入物連接。」 她做了個手勢,示意圖摺疊起來,只顯示了外層。隨著畫面的變化,約翰瞥見了細脈狀的微柱、光學晶體的密集夾層、循環泵,甚至背包裡看起來像一個微型融合細胞。 「最重要的是,」哈爾西博士說,「裝甲的內部結構是由一種新的活性金屬液晶組成。它是無定形的,但分形縮放和放大力量。簡而言之,這件盔甲使穿戴者的力量加倍,使正常人的反應速度提高了五倍。」中文(簡體) 通用 Dr. Halsey smiled at him. 「Correctly surmised, Spartan.」 「That’s not possible,」 Captain Wallace remarked. 「Slipstream space can’t be navigated that accurately.」 「You meanwe cannot navigate with that kind of accuracy,」 she said. The Captain clenched and unclenched his jaw. He clicked the intercom. 「General quarters: all hands tobattle stations. Seal bulkheads. I repeat: all hands, battle stations. This is not a drill. Reactors to ninetypercent. Come about to course one two five.」 The bridge lights darkened to a red hue. The deck rumbled beneath John’s boots and the entire ship tiltedas it changed heading. Pressure doors slammed shut and sealed John on the bridge. TheCommonwealth stabilized on her new heading, and Dr. Halsey crossed her arms. She leaned overand whispered to John, 「We』ll be using theCommonwealth ’s dropship to go to the testing facility on ChiCeti Four. We have to get to Project MJOLNIR.」 She turned back and watched the radar screen. 「Beforethey do. So get the others ready.」 「Yes, ma』am.」 John keyed the intercom. 「Sam, muster the squad in Bay Alpha. I want that Pelicanloaded and ready for drop in fifteen minutes.」 「We』ll have it done in ten,」Sam replied.「Faster if those Longsword interceptor pilots get out of ourway.」 John would have given anything to be belowdecks with the others. He felt as if he were being left behind. The radar screen flashed with blobs of eerie green light . . . almost as if the space aroundtheCommonwealth were boiling. The collision alarm sounded. 「Brace for impact!」 Captain Wallace said. He laced his arm around the brass railing. John grabbed an emergency handhold on the wall. Something appeared three thousand kilometers off theCommonwealth ’s prow. It was a sleek oval with asingle seam running along its lateral edge from stem to stern. Tiny lights winked on and off along itshull. A faint purple-tinged glow emitted from the tail. The ship was only a third the size oftheCommonwealth . 「A Covenant ship,」 Dr. Halsey said, and she involuntarily backed away from the view screens. Captain Wallace scowled. 「COM officer: send a signal to Chi Ceti—see if they can send us somereinforcements.」 「Aye, sir.」 Blue flashes flickered along the hull of the alien ship—so bright that even filtered through the externalcamera, they still made John’s eyes water. The outer hull of theCommonwealth sizzled and popped. Three screens filled with static. 「Pulse lasers!」 the lieutenant at the ops station screamed. 「Communication dish destroyed. Armor insections three and four at twenty-five percent. Hull breach in section three. Sealing now.」 TheLieutenant swiveled in his seat, sweat beaded on his forehead. 「Ship AI core memory overloaded,」 hesaid. With the AI offline, the ship could still fire weapons and navigate through Slipstream space, but Johnknew it would take more time to make jump calculations. 哈爾西醫生對他微笑。「猜對了,斯巴達人。」 「那不可能,」華萊士上尉說。「滑流空間無法精確導航。」 她說:「你的意思是我們不能以這種精度導航。 船長咬緊牙關。他按了一下對講機。「將軍區:所有人都到了炮臺。密封艙壁。我重複一遍:所有人,戰鬥站。這不是演習。百分之九十的反應堆。來上一二五課吧。」 橋上的燈光變暗成了紅色。約翰靴子下的甲板隆隆作響,整艘船改變航向時傾斜了。壓力門砰地關上,把約翰封在橋上。 公共財富穩定在她的新方向上,哈爾西博士交叉雙臂。她俯下身,低聲對約翰說:「我們要用CommonWealth的運輸機去ChiCeti四號的測試設施。我們得去MJOLNIR項目了。」她轉過身,看著雷達屏幕。 「在他們之前。所以讓其他人準備好。」 「是的,夫人。」約翰按了按對講機的鍵。「山姆,在阿爾法灣集合小隊。我要那隻鵜鶘在15分鐘內裝好並準備好投放。」 「我們會在十分鐘內完成的,」薩姆回答。「如果那些長字截擊機飛行員離開我們的路,速度會更快。」 約翰會不惜一切代價和別人在一起。他覺得自己好像被落在後面了。 雷達屏幕上閃爍著一團團詭異的綠光。好像公共財富周圍的空間沸騰了。 碰撞警報響了。 「準備好衝撞!華萊士上尉說。他把胳膊系在黃銅欄杆上。 約翰抓住牆上的緊急把手。 在CommonWealth的船頭三千公裡外出現了什麼東西。它是一個光滑的橢圓形,有一條從船首到船尾的單縫。小小的燈光在船體上忽明忽暗。尾巴發出淡淡的紫色光芒。這艘船的體積只有普通船隻的三分之一。 「一艘聖約船,」哈爾西博士說,她不由自主地從觀景屏上退了回去。 華萊士上尉皺著眉頭。「通信官:給奇切蒂發個信號,看看他們能不能給我們增援。」 「是的,先生。」 藍色的閃光在外星飛船的船身上閃爍著,如此明亮,即使透過外部攝像頭,它們仍然使約翰的眼睛溼潤。 「共同財富」號的外殼發出噝噝聲,砰砰作響。三個充滿靜電的屏幕。 「脈衝雷射!警察局的中尉尖叫道。「通訊盤壞了。盔甲昆蟲3和4的百分之二十五。第三節船體破裂。「現在封住了。」中尉在座位上轉了轉,額頭上沾著汗珠。「飛船AI核心內存過載,」他說。 在人工智慧離線的情況下,飛船仍然可以發射武器並在滑流空間中導航,但約翰紐爾說,進行跳躍計算需要更多的時間。「謝謝!」神甫說道,他好象血管裡滿是冰那樣的四肢直哆嗦。「我得的是癲癇病,當它發作很厲害的時候,我或許會一動不動地躺著,象死了一樣,並發出一 種既不象嘆息又不象呻吟那樣的喊聲。但是,說不定病症會比這劇烈得多,我也許會出現可怕地痙攣,口吐白沫,而且不由自主地發出最尖厲的叫聲。這一點至關重 要,因為我的喊聲要是被人聽到了,他們就會把我轉移到別處去那樣我們就會永遠分離的。當我變得一動不動,冷冰冰,硬磞磞的,象一具死屍那樣的時候,你要記 住,要及時地,但千萬不要過早地,用鑿子撬開我的牙齒,把瓶子裡的藥水滴八滴至十滴到我的喉嚨裡,也許我還會恢復過來。」