Onyx stats

The Spartans gathered as well to listen. In truth, while they understood the scientific principles that led Dr. Halsey to her conclusions, they still didn't quite believe them.
"We start with this so-called sun." She pointed straight up and then gestured to the data on her screen. "Spectra and energy output are consistent with a G2-type dwarf, one of slightly smaller dimensions than Sol.
"Next, you will note the curvature of this world, concave, as seen through Linda's sniper scope." She tabbed to a new screen and it sketched the star and a curve that arced to complete a full circle.
"Extrapolating, I calculate a diameter of three hundred million kilometers, two astronomical units, or a radius equivalent to the distance of the Earth orbiting its sun. "Conclusion?" She paused for dramatic effect. "We are inside a Micro Dyson sphere."
Ash pulled off his helmet and vigorously scratched his head with both hands. "That can't be right," he protested. "We stepped through the rift and showed up here instantaneously. Even in Slipstream space it would have taken some time to travel to another star"
"Entirely true," Dr. Halsey said, "but we have not left Onyx."
"This is the part I don't get," Kelly muttered.
"The Forerunners' grasp of Slipspace technology was far more advanced than ours or the Covenant's," Dr. Halsey explained. "I believe this sphere resides in the center of the planet, encapsulated and protected by a Slipspace bubble of compressed dimensionality."
(Halo:Ghosts of Onyx; Ch.41)

"MESSAGE PRIORITY: FLASH
FROM: CO UNSC GLAMORGAN
TO: CINCONI
CYCLICALLY FLUCTUATING ANOMALY LOCATED 5,000 KM FROM ONYX COORDINATES. READINGS AT PEAK CONSISTENT WITH 1.37 SOLAR MASSES. SPHERICAL FORM, 23 CM (TWENTY THREE CENTIMETER) DIAMETER. SEE REPORT FOR FULL EMR/ GRAVITATIONAL ANALYSIS. POSSIBLY DIMENSIONAL PORTAL."
(Halo:Glasslands; Ch.10)

"The results were slow in coming, but they were fascinating. This sanctuary wasn’t a single, self-sustaining ecosphere but a customizable range of environments. Halsey noted the symbols for temperature, humidity, ratios of gases in the atmosphere, and even gravity. Some other symbols didn’t make sense on first examination because they appeared to be names rather than common elements of language, and names were notoriously hard to pin down in translation. But an intuitive leap told her the names were not those of individuals, but of species."
(Halo:Glasslands; Ch.11)


Fred went on ahead, calling out to the others. “Hey, we found her. It’s okay, Lucy’s back. Panic over.”
Mendez wasn’t entirely convinced that Lucy was okay. He couldn’t see any injuries, but he knew that look in her eyes. Something had shaken her.
“Halsey’s going to check you over, if you’re okay with that,” he said. “Then we better get you something to eat and drink. You’ve been away for days.”
Lucy shook her head and pulled her water canteen from her belt to shake it. Mendez could hear the water slopping around inside: no, she had plenty left, so she wasn’t dehydrated. When they got to the entrance, Halsey bore down on them like a missile. She was walking at a breakneck pace, swinging her arms, and then she broke into a jog.

---

Halsey raked her fingers through her hair, all impatience. “Well, it looks like we’ve got another slipspace bubble within this one. It’s almost as if it’s made up of concentric bubbles. Like a Russian doll.”

---

“Explain what you mean by not in our time,” Halsey said. “I realize this is a slipspace bubble, but exactly how far out of sync are we with the galaxy?”
“Varies,” the virtual voice answered. “And can be varied. If the other space talks to you, it hears your reply fifteen or twenty times later.”
Halsey seemed to be struggling to pin Prone down to terms she understood. She tried another tack.
“Can you tell me the date in the human calendar on the outside? Access my datapad again. Extrapolate from the calendar we use.”
Prone reached out and fluttered his cilia over the datapad. “The year division is two-five-five-three. The lesser division is two.”
Lucy was now used to Prone’s turn of phrase, and understood that as February 2553. They’d been here days, yet months had elapsed outside. But what was out there waiting for them?

---

It was only one minute since she’d heard the Admiral’s voice for the first time, but nearly twenty minutes had elapsed at the other end of the conversation. She tried to take account of that, wondering what the woman was doing in the meantime. She doubted that Parangosky was hanging out bunting to celebrate her safe return. Halsey had crossed her once too often. But she was irreplaceable, and so she knew she’d get away with it every time. It was the only thing that had saved her from being posted to a planet directly in the path of the Covenant onslaught or disappearing without trace like others who’d transgressed.

---

“That’s a stroke of luck.” Halsey didn’t trust Parangosky as far as she could spit against a gale. She knew the feeling was mutual. “I’d recommend your ships stand off by two point five AUs before the mechanism’s activated. And I don’t know how we factor Zeta Doradus into this. Onyx’s old sun is in an awkward place, so to speak.”
“Exactly who do you have with you at the moment?” Parangosky asked. “Are you certain the sphere’s uninhabited?”
“It looks that way, but bear in mind that the land area is the inner surface of a sphere, which gives us perhaps five hundred million times the surface area of Earth to recon. You’ll forgive us if we haven’t quite covered that yet. But I only have Chief Mendez, Spartans Frederic, Kelly, and Linda, and five of the Spartan-Threes here. Plus eight casualties in cryo. We lost a lot of people.”
(Halo:Glasslands; Ch.12,13 and 15)

“Here we go,” BB said. “Stand by.”
Mal was still trying not to blink and miss it when the stars suddenly vanished and he felt a weird tugging at his boots as if the deck beneath him was sprung. The trampoline sensation stopped as quickly as it started, but the stars didn’t reappear.
“Oh my, that was spectacular,” BB said. “No, seriously. It was. You should see what that looked like in the microwave spectrum. And the magnetic field. Extraordinary. But it’s not really a Dyson sphere, not as Dyson hypothesized, because a solid shell wouldn’t—”
“Go on, rub it in.” Mal felt cheated. “So why can’t we see it? Or any stars?”
And then it dawned on him. He was looking at the sphere. It was pretty well all he could see. His view of space was completely obscured by a vast, matte black sphere, and he could only tell what he was looking at because there was a dim arc like a crescent moon, the curve of the sphere picked out by the distant light of Onyx’s sun. That sphere was as big as Earth’s orbit. The expansion was both a massive anticlimax and the most amazing thing he’d ever—never—seen.
(Halo:Glasslands; Ch.15)