The Temporal Void

TWO

By midday the Ellezelin paramilitary capsules streaking across Colwyn City had all taken to using their sirens, producing a constant doppler-mangled cacophony as they rushed between burgeoning trouble spots. Scarlet and azure laser fans would often sweep through the open balcony doors of Araminta's apartment as another one flew across the park outside, accompanying the discordant sound. Araminta scowled as the dazzling light flared across the kitchen area of the living room once more. She'd been making herself a cup of tea from a kettle, while the old culinary unit strove to fabricate the components of a simple chicken sandwich. She cursed, and kicked the base of the stupid unit as another set of thermal error symbols flashed up on its screen. Perhaps the laser light was disturbing its internal systems?

She sighed and shook her head, annoyed with herself for thinking something so silly. The worst thing was just sitting Around doing nothing. Actually no, it's not knowing what to do.

Another capsule screeched overhead. Araminta slammed down the kettle, and stomped over to the open balcony doorway. The capsule had vanished behind the apartment building by the lime she got there, presumably harassing the people in the park, which seemed to have developed into quite a centre for disobedience against the invaders. She would have liked to slam the doorway shut as well, but the glass wall sheet was formflow, so she had to settle for the glass slowly curtaining together. At least when it had become a single sheet again the sound of the sirens did reduce considerably — as it should with the expensive sound-deadening layer she'd added. The doorway had been open all day to give her some sense of connection to the city. It was kind of stupid, yet comforting at the same time. In fact, all she'd been doing was avoiding thinking about the real events. She'd certainly not done any work on the apartment.

Her u-shadow had pulled a steady stream of news out of the Unisphere, all relating to the Void expansion. There were very few hard facts, and far too much speculation and accusation. But her u-shadow was running an adequate filter, supplying her with the basics. Nothing much had changed. The observation team had evacuated Centurion Station. All the shows were playing the images of the base itself collapsing. Of more interest were the enigmatic DF spheres flying into orbit around the star. Commentators in the news studios were busy speculating on exactly what they were capable of; apparently they'd been copied by the Anomine who used them to imprison the Dyson Pair. Now everyone was hoping that they had more aggressive functions than simple force fields, no matter the gigantic scale.

Despite the loss of Centurion Station, a large number of sensor systems out amid the Wall stars were still operational and feeding their data back to the Commonwealth via the tenuous Navy relay. The Void boundary continued to expand, its surface rippling and distending to engulf the star clusters already falling in towards it. That voraciousness was cited by many as having purpose. Which came back squarely to the Second Dreamer and the Skylord.

After the balcony doors clicked shut she sank to her knees on the bare concrete floor. The tears she'd managed to contain all morning threatened to finally emerge. It's too much. No one person can expect to deal with all of this. I can't have put the entire galaxy in peril. I can't.

Her u-shadow reported a new file shotgunning into the Unisphere, passed between each node without restriction by the management routines and given unlimited access to everybody's interface address. It was a live feed to an address code she didn't recognize, but had Earth as its node host.

'Only ANA can achieve this level of coverage, the u-shadow told her.

'Access it, she ordered. If ANA wanted to talk to everybody it must have some words of comfort.

Gore Burnelli was standing on some rocky cliffs, his back to the clear tropical sea beyond. He wore a simple white shirt, his lair hair tousled by the breeze. Grey eyes stared out of a handsome twenty-year-old face, with skin tanned to a dusky gold. He looked directly at Araminta, making her feel incredibly guilty for no reason she could define.

'I doubt anyone out there in the Greater Commonwealth will remember me, he said. 'But I used to be one of the wealthy people who helped form the original Commonwealth. If you check my record you'll see I had a brief moment of fame in the Starflyer War. I hope that what I've done in the past will qualify me for a moment of your time here now; however, this is not about me. I'm speaking to one person alone: the Second Dreamer. I understand that you didn't realize the Skylord would kick off a devourment phase when you spoke to it. I don't blame you. I don't condemn you. And unlike everyone else I'm certainly not hunting you down. On which front, please be warned it's not just Living Dream that's coming for you, a number of other agents are searching, who represent various political factions both here in ANA and other Greater Commonwealth groups.

'Oh great Ozzie, Araminta wailed. Now the tears really were flowing free.

'Everyone is making a lot of demands of you, Gore said. 'I expect you're frightened and uncertain. I also expect you want lo stay out of sight, certainly everything you've done so far Indicates this. I appreciate that. You're coming to terms with what you are, and nobody can help with that. You have a lot of decisions to make, and I don't envy you any of them. If you want to get in touch with me, I'll help in any way I can, that goes without saying. Again, that's not why I am making this appeal. There is one thing that does not require a decision: the Void devourment phase must be stopped. As far as we are aware you are the only one who can currently do this. I say that because someone else is trying to help. Gore took a breath and squared his shoulders, trying to be brave. 'My daughter, Justine, was at Centurion Station when the devourment kicked off. Unlike everyone else there, she didn't head back home. Against all my wishes, my pleas, my hopes, she's aimed her ship directly for the Void. It's one of the secret ultradrive ships you may have heard rumours of. Very fast. Which means that in another day or so she'll arrive at the boundary. Justine's not like me, she's sweet and kind, very much an optimist, all the things to be proud of in our species. She's been involved in diplomatic work for centuries. She's flying alone to the Void in the hope she can talk to the Skylord; she believes that reason will prevail. But first she has to get inside. Humans have done that once before. Inigo and the Waterwalker showed us that. I appeal to you, Second Dreamer, to contact the Skylord one last time, and ask it to let Justine in. That's all, just ask it that one thing, nothing else. You don't have to talk about the devourment phase, or the Pilgrimage. Just give my daughter a chance to try and negotiate with whatever passes for authority in there. Justine is going to fly into the boundary come what may, despite everything I've said to try and stop her, she believes in humanity, that our nature should be placed upon this alien altar and given a chance. She believes in us. I hope, I beg, you will do what you can to give her that chance. Don't let my girl die in vain, I beseech you. If there's anything you need or want, then contact me in complete safety at the code on this file. Please. One last time, help put a stop to what's happening out there. There's not much time left. Help her. Only you can.

Araminta put her hands over her head as the message finished, wanting nothing more than to curl up in a ball and leave the universe altogether. 'Thanks for fucking nothing, she told the haunting memory of Gore. At the same time she felt a tiny lifting of doubt. Maybe this Justine woman can do something. Maybe it's not all down to me after all.

That just left getting in touch with the Skylord without Living Dream and all the others tracking her down. Yeah, that should be dead easy for someone who can't even get a culinary unit to make a sandwich.

In the middle of a desert of dry mud was a house, an igloo of baked sand. It had a wooden door that years ago had been painted dark green. Harsh sunlight and dusty winds had abraded it down to the bare wood, though some flecks of green still persevered in the cracks between the oak boards.

He knew that door. Knew it well. Knew what lay behind.

The sun hung at the apex of the world's sapphire sky, bleaching all colour out of the desert. It was always thus.

He dismounted from the huge Charlemagne just short of the igloo, his plain white robes flowing around him. The deep hood protected his face from the sun's penetrating rays. Somehow, those few steps to the door took for ever. His limbs were fighting an unknown force that resisted every movement. He kept asking himself if he wanted to do this because he eventually realized that the force fighting him was fear. Fear of what waited for him on the other side of the door. He carried on anyway, because in this, as always, he had no choice, no will, no independence. The effort left him trembling from exertion, but eventually the door was in front of him. He raised his hand, placing it palm down on the warm wood, feeling the familiar sand-smoothed grain. Pushed.

The door opened, and darkness spilled out, contaminating the sunlight. It built round him like a fog, and his dread spiked upwards. But the door was open. There was nothing now between him and the person living in the house. Something moved in the shadows, a presence that was reaching out.

'You and your father both had the courage to make the right choice in the end, a voice told him. 'Not that my opinion counts for anything. But I'm glad. I figure I owe you this second chance.

'My father? He lurched forwards—

— the ground crawler lurched again as the front tracks cleared another ice ridge, and the wedge nose tipped down sharply. Aaron shook himself as the real world claimed him back from bedlam, gripping the chair arms, staring out of the slit windscreen. It was profoundly dark outside, midnight beneath clouds that towered five kilometres into the screaming hurricane sky. Headlight beams were clotted by driving snow. The small glimpse of the ground they did allow revealed ice boulders half the size of the ground crawler. Regular bursts of lightning showed the wicked, sharp-edged boulders scattered across the frozen land in all directions without end. Narrow gaps between them were becoming fewer, and had been for the last hour. It was a nightmare geography out there. Their progress was pitiful, and getting worse.

He checked the vehicle's inertial navigation system. In the last two hours they'd travelled a grand total of seven and a quarter kilometres, and very little of that was in a nice straight line forwards. Eleven hours now since the unknown starship fired a Hawking m-sink into Hanko. He was beginning to wish he had the math to work out an accurate timetable for how long it would take the weapon to digest the planet from within. But knowing the exact moment when the continents would implode wasn't going to make the ground crawler go any faster. His early rough estimate of three days was realistic enough.

The crawler's net slowed the tracks, which Aaron perceived first as a change in the constant vibration afflicting the cabin. When he asked it why he was shown a radar sweep. There was a rift in the ground ahead, a vertical drop of over ten metres.

'Lady! Inigo exclaimed as he studied the radar profile; his face was gently shaded by the weak violet light emitted by the two polyphoto strips on the cabin roof. 'It's going to take half an hour to cut our way down that.

'You're the expert, Aaron muttered sourly.

Inigo gave him a tight smile. 'I certainly am. He gripped the manual control stick, and backed up, then activated the forward power blades. They extended out of the nose and began rotating. The ground crawler edged forwards again, and the spinning blades touched the ice. A wide plume of dirty ice granules shot up into the snowstorm. The screech from the blades resonated round the cabin, and the whole vehicle began to shake as they started to dig themselves a track. Inigo steered them carefully, curving round to run parallel to the rift, always descending. The plume reduced visibility to zero. He was relying on the vehicle's sensors and his own field effect scan. The lost messiah must have had some sophisticated filter programs, Aaron decided; his own scan revealed little beyond the crawler's bodywork. The ice they were traversing showed up as a thick unified substance laced with rock and soil, like a haze of interference; yet Inigo was able to discern the structure, knowing when to back off and when to apply pressure.

The noise of the power blades set Aaron's teeth on edge. Its lone was constantly changing as they hit soil, then back into ice. Then the blades hit some kind of rock, and the rasping was so bad he wanted to hit something. When he glanced back at Corrie-Lyn she was pressing her hands over her ears, her teeth bared in a wild grimace of dismay. Inigo adjusted the stick fractionally, curving them away from the dense strata. Rock and lie gravel spewed out sideways, falling in a long arc down the side of the rift. Inigo drove them into the ice again, gouging a wider cut.

So they descended in a series of howling bumps and jolts, treating their own ramp. In the end it took over forty-five minutes to reach the base of the rift. The power blades retracted. Aaron gazed out in dismay at the field of ice boulders which the lightning flares revealed. They were larger than the ones at the lop of the rift, and closer together.

'Crap, he grunted. 'We're never going to get through this.

How far does it extend? If they didn't clear the boulder field in the next couple of hours, they would never make it to the ship before the implosion.

'I don't know, Inigo replied unperturbed. 'We don't exactly have survey maps. He steered the crawler along the base of the rift, looking for an opening.

'You must do!

'Not recent ones. They're all a thousand years out of date; and the surface ice does shift. Slowly, admittedly, but the movement throws up a fresh topography every century or so.

'Shit! Aaron finally did hit something, his fist thudding into the cabin wall. 'We have got to make better time than this.

'I know.

Corrie-Lyn came forward from her seat and slipped her arms around Inigo's neck. The low cabin lighting made her beautiful features deeply sensual. 'You're doing your best, ignore him.

Aaron growled in frustration, and hit the wall again. Back at the Olhava camp, Inigo had finally admitted he did have a private starship hidden away, for emergencies. Aaron's elation at the escape route had quickly cooled as the ground crawler got underway. According to Inigo his ship was safe in a tunnelled out cavern seven hundred kilometres south east of the camp. Aaron had assumed they would make it with almost a couple of days to spare. Then they drove straight into the ice boulder field.

'We always trailblaze through this kind of thing, Inigo told him as Corrie-Lyn rubbed her cheek adoringly against his. 'That's how I got to be so good with the power blades.

'Get better or we die, Aaron said bluntly.

Inigo flashed him a grin, then turned the ground crawler into a small gap. Razor-sharp shards of ice creaked and snapped against the bodywork as they scraped their way through. Aaron winced, convinced they'd wedge themselves in again. They'd done that once before a few hours back. He and Inigo had to go outside and use their biononic field effect to cut the vehicle free. It had felt good using his weapon functions, even on a minimum setting. He was accomplishing something.

The only benefit of the journey was that Corrie-Lyn hadn't touched a drop of alcohol since they started.

'So have you any idea who was in that starship? Inigo asked.

'No. I didn't even realize we were being followed, which is disturbing enough. To track the Artful Dodger you'd need something as good if not better. That kind of hardware is mighty difficult to come by, so it was either ANA or a Faction. But ANA wouldn't use an m-sink like that, and I'm kind of surprised a Faction did.

'No honour among thieves, eh?

'None, Aaron agreed. 'Using an m-sink has the sure taste of desperation to it.

'Hold a mirror up, Corrie-Lyn said. 'It was a ruthless despicable act, slaughtering all those people without warning or reason. The pilot must have been just like you.

'There are people in this universe a lot worse than me.

'That I don't believe.

But it's true. He smiled privately.

'So where were you going to coerce me into going? Inigo asked.

'I'll know when we're safe on the ship.

'Really? That's… interesting.

'It's depraved, Corrie-Lyn said.

'Actually, it's a simple and safe security measure, Aaron told them. 'If I don't know, I can't be forced to reveal it.

'But you do know, she said. 'It's buried somewhere in your subconscious.

'Yes, but I can't get to it unless the circumstances are coming up straight aces.

'You've damaged your own psyche with so much meddling.

'I've told you often before, and I'll enjoy telling you many limes again: I like what I am.

'Oh Lady, now what! Inigo exclaimed as the crawler's net hulled them again. He glanced at the radar screen with its concentric orange bands swirling round like a accelerated orrery. 'That's weird. His grey eyes narrrowed as he squinted through the windscreen. The headlights revealed a white blur of snow, but no boulders. Lightning flashes turned the black night to a leaden smog. There were no discernible shapes ahead of them.

Aaron's field scan revealed the ice had flattened out in front of the crawler's tracks. Then it ended in another sharp-edged rift. He couldn't pick up anything beyond. 'There's nothing out there.

'I think that's the problem.

They both suited up to take a look. Inigo said he didn't want to get the crawler too close to the rift until they knew what they were dealing with. Aaron shrugged and went with it. He didn't like wearing the surface suit — his biononics could produce a good defence against Hanko's foul environment — but it added an extra layer of protection, which his instinct insisted was tin-right thing in a situation with so many unknowns.

The two of them kept close to the headlight beams, leaning into the wind. As they shuffled closer to the edge, Aaron's field scan still couldn't detect anything beyond.

'Where the hell's the ground gone? he demanded. His field scan probed the ice beneath his feet. There were a few centimetres of crisp snow, then clear ice down as far as the scan could reach. It was as though they were on the top of some giant frozen wave.

'Must be a gully of some description, Inigo replied. 'If the pressure is right the ice can fissure instead of throwing up a ridge.

'Great.

'It should close up soon. I've never seen an ice fissure over five hundred metres long. You check that way. And don't go too near the edge.

'Right. Aaron started to walk parallel to the edge, keeping a good three or four metres between him and the drop. He soon came to a flat triangular prominence jabbing out from the verge, which he shuffled along cautiously, feeling the slight stirrings of vertigo. If anywhere would allow him a decent look into the gulf below, it would be here.

He extended his field scan to its maximum, sweeping it through the heavy swirl of snow. Even at full resolution he couldn't detect the other side of the rough fissure. Nor was there any sign of a bottom. He was standing on the brink of some massive abyss. Instinct kicked in, firing up his misgivings. Something Nerina said back at the camp registered. 'Hey, are we— His scan showed him Inigo's field function was switching, reformatting energy currents. His own biononics responded instantaneously, strengthening his integral force field, shielding him from any damage Inigo's outdated systems could possibly inflict. Accelerants rode his nerve paths ready to implement his response. Tactical routines rose out of macrocellular clusters, fusing effortlessly with his thoughts, analysing his situation. That was when he realized just how badly he'd screwed up by trusting Inigo. 'Shiiiit,

Inigo fired the biggest disruptor pulse his biononics could produce. It slammed into the ice a couple of metres short of Aaron's feet. For a moment, the whole prominence fluoresced an elegant jade. As the light faded, a single giant crack appeared with incredible speed, splitting the prominence off the edge of the Asiatic glacier.

Aaron stared in shock at the ruptured ice. Tactics programs rushed to find a counter—

'Sorry, Inigo said simply. The thoughts leaking out of his pa ill motes even proved he meant it. 'But sometimes to do what's right…

The entire prominence split away cleanly. To Aaron's accelerated nervous system it appeared to hang there for some terrible eternity. Then gravity pulled the colossal chunk of ice straight down with Aaron standing at the centre. It began to twist as the edges screeched down the cliff. His force field reconfigured, extending into a twin swept-petal shape—wings that could glide him away. Not good in the midst of this snowstorm, but better than anything else. That was when the vast cataract of avalanching snow triggered by Inigo's shot thundered into him, engulfing the tumbling prominence and him with it.

The whole mass continued to plummet down the mile-high cliff, taking a long time to reach the bottom.

Silverbird arrowed through the Gulf, the immense expanse of ruined stars and tattered ion storms which lay between the dense halo of ancient globular clusters that comprised the Wall stars, and the boundary of the Void itself. Justine was receiving the hysradar and quantum scanner images direct, surrounding herself with the mass structure of the real universe translated into scarlet and turquoise mists. Tiny points of emerald light shone within the shifting cosmic oceans, showing her the supermassive stars which had so far retained their integrity during their long spiral into oblivion. Less than a hundred lightyears ahead of her was the frosty glow of the loop, an orbiting band of supercharged matter ten lightyears across which emitted a galaxy-spanning blaze of X-rays. Beyond that was the awesome black surface of the Void boundary. She watched its topology fluctuate, marvel ling at how ocean-like the waves were, with peaks and troughs ripping about chaotically, stirred by incomprehensible internal storm-forces. Quite often she would see an undulation swell out to reach the elongated plume of a disintegrating star that was still lightmonths away. Phenomenal gravity sucked the matter down into the event horizon with a last devastating flare of ultra-hard radiation, the kind which had powered the loop for a billion years. Even that siren call would end soon. At its current expansion rate the Void would engulf the loop in another week. Then it would just be the Wall and the Raiel DF defences that stood between the boundary and the rest of the galaxy.

Justine felt her body shiver again. It was hard to comprehend the scale of the forces outside. She was feeling very small and alone.

'Dad?

'Still here, darling. The relay is holding. Big Bronx cheer for the old Navy techs who put it together.

'We left the last known sensor systems behind five minute's ago. The link might not last much longer.

'Course it will, angel. This was meant to be.

'Yeah, right.

'I'm looking at the access figures for the Unisphere. You've got over half of humanity looking over your shoulder right now.

'Hi there, half of humanity, she said brittley.

'You're doing fine. And I'm in deep shit with ANA for publically admitting there's such a thing as ultradrive.

'Ha! You're always in trouble.

'True. Without me, lawyers would just wither away and die. They think of me as their messiah. Remember when we got caught planting the Florida estate with alien vines?

'Hell yes. The UFN Environmental Commissioners went apeshit with us.

'There are banks we own on the External worlds still paying off that fine.

Justine barked a laugh. Drew down a juddering breath. She desperately wanted out of her ancient body with all its silly biochemical-derived fright. Anyone would think her personality was genuinely scared. 'Any sign the Second Dreamer accessed your appeal?

'Not yet. I expect he'll be talking to the Skylord quite soon now. After all, he'll have to face me if he doesn't start getting his ass in gear. Isn't that right, Second Dreamer?

'Now Dad, she chided.

'Yeah yeah.

'I think I'm going to skim round the loop. That radiation is strong enough to slice through the Silverbird's force fields as if they were tissue paper. Can you believe the figures I'm getting.

'You'll be quite safe in hyperspace.

'I know, but…

'Whatever makes you comfortable, angel.

Justine instructed the smartcore to fly to galactic south of the loop. 'That's odd. The sensors were picking up an artificial signature over forty lightyears behind her. She focused on the origin, which the smartcore displayed as two amber circles. 'Uh, Dad, are you getting this?

Gore took a moment to answer. 'Yes.

'Whatever they are, they're travelling ftl.

'See that.

'I didn't know there was anyone else flying round this part of the galaxy. Tabulated data flowed up into her exovision. 'Christ, they're massive. A wild thought surfaced. 'Do you think they're Skylords? she asked eagerly.

'No, darling, I don't. They're bigger than that. And that's an interception course.

'Oh. Her mood dropped fast. 'The Raiel. And they're fast, too. Faster than Silverbird. Just. It would be touch and go if she reached the boundary ahead of them. 'I don't suppose they're here to escort me in safely.

'I'm calling Qatux right now. He'll sort this out.

'Okay, Dad.

The external sensor visualization flashed white for a microsecond, as if a lightning bolt had zipped through it. Once it cleared, there was an ominous translucent lavender shell emerging where the Raiel ships were, expanding rapidly. Secondary data streams showed her the anomaly was centred on a mass point the size of Earth's moon that had been curving in towards the Void on a ten million year journey to its death. Had been. It had vanished, converted directly to exotic energy which was now flowing through hyperspace.

'Oh FUCK, Justine yelled. Silverbird strengthened every defensive system it had.

The hyperspace shockwave struck the little ultradrive ship with the force of a wayward dinosaur. Justine screamed as she was flung out of the couch, crashing into the forward bulkhead. Alarms shrieked back at her. A multitude of exovision schematics turned amber and red.

The crowd of anti-invasion protesters down in the park gasped in unison as the Silverbird juddered, then let out a long 'Ohooo, of wonder and relief. Araminta couldn't help but join in, thankful Justine had survived the third shockwave propagated by the pursuing Raiel warships and was now picking herself up off the cabin floor again. It was a sound which was replicated right across Colwyn City and beyond. A long way beyond.

She slipped in through the apartment block's underground garage entrance. The door was still open a couple of metres, not wide enough to admit a capsule, but sufficient for her to take her trike out. She'd deactivated the mechanism as she left, opening up the little control box and physically disconnecting the wiring. Now she plugged the coloured cables back into their blocks. The door slid shut behind her, and she hurried through the near-deserted concrete cave to the lifts.

'You okay? Gore asked.

'Bastards! Justine replied shakily. 'What, this isn't hard enough already?

Araminta sank back against the cool metal wall of the lift, feeling the way Justine looked. She'd driven round for an hour on the trike before parking it in a public bay at the Tala mall. Now there was nothing to prove she was at the apartment block — it was the best cover she could think of. The walk back to the Bodant district had taken forty minutes, during which the Raiel warships had started blowing up small moons to try and stop Justine. Everyone accessed that. It made her kind of conspicuous; she was just about the only person moving on Colwyn's streets.

'You're doing fine, Gore assured his daughter. 'Just fine.

Araminta used her old override code to unlock the door to Danal's apartment. Neither he nor Mareble were in. Presumably I hey were out partying with the occupying army, she thought resentfully. The bare structure of the place had just been finished when Araminta handed it over. Since then, Mareble had moved in a few basic furnishings. Araminta gave the cooker a critical glare, the big metal thing looked ridiculously primitive. It had taken Mr Bovey a long time to find it for her, and installing it had been a nightmare.

In Araminta's exovision, Justine was climbing back into her chair, which folded protectively around her. 'Main systems are functional. Drive units have reduced capacity. These energy bursts are stressing a lot of components. I guess they're trying to wear me down.

Araminta crept over to the balcony windows, and peered out across the park. There were several Ellezelin capsules hanging above the encircling road. They were all stationary; like everyone else their occupants were captivated by the chase thirty thousand lightyears away. Below them, the crowd stared up into the heavens whose stars were smeared by the weather dome. She nodded in satisfaction.

'They're firing again, Justine yelped. 'Oh Christ.

The Silverbird shuddered violently. Araminta gritted her teeth, feeling the huge tremor of anticipation in the gaiafield. More sections of the ship reported overloads. The speed fell off as the drive reconfigured its energy manipulation functions around degraded components. Justine changed course, streaking into the loop, the shortest distance to the barrier. Both Raiel warships followed unerringly. Closing the gap.

Araminta pulled a big sky-blue cushion out of a nest pile and into the middle of the living room. She was annoyed to see the ebony-wood parquet had been stripped back to the bare wood. Didn't Mareble understand how difficult it was to get the varnish application correct? The work that had gone into cleaning the little wooden blocks!

She sat down on the cushion and crossed her legs, banishing such negative thoughts.

'Good strategy, darling, Gore said. 'There aren't many planets inside the loop.

Araminta retrieved Likan's program from her storage lacuna, feeling her mind finally settle. It was a risk using this apartment, but she wasn't sure how good Living Dream was at tracking people through the gaiafield. The day Danal had moved in he'd confided to her that he was helping with the search for the Second Dreamer, and how the confluence nests were being altered somehow to facilitate that. So she certainly didn't want to be in her own place when she did this, just in case they were accurate enough to fix the exact location. And they might just think Danal's apartment was some kind of false reading. She didn't know anywhere else she could go. Other than to Mr Bovey's house, but that would expose him to the paramilitaries, which she could never do.

The shadowy spectres of sensation that lurked within her subconscious expanded outwards. She let her attention swim across the myriad thoughts it contained. Drifting. Content in a way the program alone could never kindle.

Most of the thoughts she could ignore. Some were intriguing. One had a mental signature she knew, associated with a dark tone that almost made her shy away. Instead, she concentrated.

'My Lord, Ethan was pleading. 'Hear us please.

He was calling with all his mental strength, amplified by countless confluence nests, directing his appeal outwards into the infinite. Wrong., she mused from her lofty Olympian distance. The Skylord is not beyond us, it is within.

She drifted further, devoid of urgency.

'If you don't call them off I will personally rip your fucking arkship apart molecule by molecule with all of you in it, Gore was yelling. 'You think the Void is a Bad Thing? Do you, huh? You believe that? Because let me tell you: it is your mommy with her titty out for you to suck on compared to me.

Araminta couldn't help grinning. Now that's the kind of father I would have liked. Out in the park, people were cheering. A cry taken up across hundreds of planets. The gaiafield filled with determination and support, the raw emotion of billions, swelling the sense of unification to near ecstasy. Go Gore, humanity whooped. Araminta added her blessing, a whisper lost in the multitude.

'I can do nothing, Qatux protested. 'They are warrior Raiel. Not our kind, not any longer.

'Find a fucking way!

Araminta lifted herself away from the turmoil, drifting towards a strand of familiar quiet thought. Opening herself in greeting. The nebulas of the Void emerged from darkness to glimmer spectacularly around her. Half of space was a gauzy splash of aquamarine with a few distant stars shining though. She recognized it as Odin's Sea where a Skylord coasted between two of the scarlet promontories, spikes of whorled gases lightyears long, swelling to buds big enough to contain a globular cluster. And here, the thoughts of what once was mingled with more purposeful notions. An awareness wove through this space, not conscious, but knowing purpose.

Silverbird burst out of the loop and streaked towards the final implacable barrier. All around it, broken stars sleeted inwards, shedding the glowing husks of the planets they had once birthed as if they were an encumbrance during the final tumultuous plunge to extinction.

'Oh God, here we go again, Justine whimpered. Ten lightyears behind her a gas-giant imploded. Hyperluminal quantum distortions burst out from its vanishing point.

The Silverbird dropped out of hyperspace, flying free in spacetime that no human would recognize. It was a dark universe inside the Wall stars. Thick braids of dust and gas shielded the light of the galactic core behind the starship. Ahead, few photons escaped the macrogravity cloak of the Void as suns sank through the event horizon. A lurid vermilion band shimmered across space, the swirl of ion clouds enraged by the loop's fatal discharge, illuminating the fuselage like the devil's own gaze. Radiation alarms howled in fright as the force field started to collapse. The fuselage blistered.

'One of us comes, Araminta said. 'See?

The distortion shockwave was almost unnoticeable in real space as it flashed past. Dead streamers of atoms were stirred briefly by the unquiet force leaking back out of the quantum interstices. Silverbird powered back into hyperspace, smouldering from radiation burns.

'You, Ethan exclaimed.

The Skylord resonated with interest. 'I still search for you. The nucleus aches with longing.

'I know. You must stop that. Please welcome our emissary. She approaches you.

'Where? I sense you are so far away.

'I am. She is close to you now. Feel for her. She bleeds emotion as do we all. Guide her as you should. Open your boundary.

'The Heart will welcome you.

The two Raiel warships were closing on the Silverbird. Justine's sensor display showed her another gas giant sized mass barely five lightyears away. If they targeted that it would be the end. The Silverbird's ultradrive was struggling to maintain acceleration now.

'Hurry. Please, Araminta implored.

The Skylord radiated satisfaction as it receded.

'I thank you, Gore said. 'Whoever you are.

Justine sank back into the couch, her mind fully open to the gaiafield, letting every emotion pour fourth. Hopes. Fears. Everything she was.

Ahead of the Silverbird, the Void boundary changed. A vast circular wave rippled out, creating a crater ten lightyears across. From its centre a smooth cone of pure blackness rose up towards the starship.

Justine regarded the exovision images in surprise. She was gripping the couch arms tight, her skin slick with sweat. 'I'm not to sure—

Behind her, the Raiel warships slowed, allowing the Silverbird 'to race onwards. - this is such —

Al fifteen lightyears high the cone stopped expanding.

' — a good —

Its apex opened like a flower, petals of infinite night pealing back. Exquisite nebula-light shone out into the Gulf.

Silverbird passed across the threshold, into the Void.

' — after all.

The cone closed up. It sank back into the now quiescent boundary. Silverbird's communication link to the Navy relay ended. Both Raiel warships executed tight curves and headed back towards the Wall.

'Please, talk to us, Ethan appealed. 'The Skylord has anointed you as our' Second Dreamer. We await you. We need you. He was given no reply.

Araminta slipped out of Danal's apartment, and tiptoed across the vestibule to her own. Outside, a brash dawn light was lapping against the weather dome. The crowd was cheering ecstatically. That felt good.

'Well whadda you know, I saved the universe. Araminta grinned wildly at the ridiculous knowledge, then yawned. Being a hero was actually quite exhausting. She sank down into the big old armchair with its strangely lumpy cushions. Just five minutes' rest.

Cheriton McOnna didn't like the 'in character' clothes Beckia had produced for him out of the replicator on board Elvin's Payback. Really didn't. Nothing wrong with the touch of them, a cotton shirt, wool-lined waistcoat with brass buttons, and trousers that were like suede but a great deal softer. No, it was the colours and style, the shirt's lace-up front, its grey-green colour which was more like a stain than a dye, and the odd tight cut of the black trousers. He plain refused to wear the felt ha I with its flamboyant green and blue feathers; although he reluctantly agreed to carry it after Beckia got all stroppy. It wasn't good to get Beckia stroppy.

She'd been right, of course. As soon as he walked into the Confluence nest building on Daryad Avenue in the centre of town, he fitted in with the Ellezelin workforce. Security was strong around the building, an old brick cube with dark arching windows. Colwyn's three confluence nests were the first priority for the occupying forces. But Liatris McPeierl had done his job well, infiltrating a complete legend for Cheriton, including DNA. When he walked into the airy marble-floored lobby he was told to put his hand on a sensor pedestal while three armed and armoured guards watched him cautiously. The building's new net cleared him, and they waved him on. He gave them a cheery smile, backed up with a contented emanation into the gaiafield.

The nest itself was housed on the fourth floor in a sterile chamber which took up half of the available floorspace. He reported for duty to Dream Master Yenrol in the overseer's office, which looked out into the nest chamber through a glass partition. Normally, the office was only occupied a few hours each day when the overseer or their assistant ran a six hourly assessment to ensure the nest was operating smoothly. Now there were seven technicians all struggling for elbow space as they installed banks of new hardware, while on the other side of the glass more technicians were blending fresh bioneural clusters with the original nest.

'What's your field? Yenrol asked. He was both agitated and puzzled. Cheriton's late assignment coupled with the pressure to get the job done was making him very twitchy.

'Pattern definition, Cheriton replied equitably. 'The routines I've developed will help isolate the Second Dreamer's thoughts within the gaiafield. It should give us a stronger source to trace.

'Good, Yenrol said. 'Okay, great. Start installing the routines. He'd turned back to a half-completed hardware unit before Cheriton got a chance to reply.

'Okay then, Cheriton mumbled, keeping his gaiafield emission a level flow of eagerness and enthusiasm. He found a free console seat, and nodded to the man in the next seat.

'Welcome to the eye, his new colleague said. 'I'm Danal.

'Glad to be here, Cheriton said. 'What do you mean: eye?

'Of the storm.

Cheriton grinned. 'This is the quiet part?

'Exactly!

Danal, it turned out, had been on Viotia for some time now. He and Mareble had come in anticipation of being close to the Second Dreamer. 'We wanted to be here when he revealed himself, Danal admitted. 'I've been upgrading nest sensitivity since we arrived in the hope our Dream Masters can locate him. He gave Yenrol a guilty glance, stifling his gaiafield emissions for a moment. 'I wasn't expecting this, he confided.

'I know what you mean, Cheriton said, all sympathy. 'I was praying to the Lady that Ethan would be elected Cleric Conservator, but I didn't think anything like our presence here would be necessary.

Danal gave an awkward shrug, and got back to work. Cheriton continued loading in the routines he'd concocted. They did perform the recognition function, but in reverse, so that the nest would develop a mild blind spot should it receive any thoughts originating from the Second Dreamer. It would inform Cheriton first before reverting to the advertised function.

The modification team's frantic work stalled as Justine's madcap flight swamped the Unisphere.

'She's so close, Danal said in awe as the Silverbird's sensors revealed the undulating surface of the Void. Then everyone winced as the Raiel transformed the second moon into a hyperluminal quake.

'How are they doing that? Cheriton murmured, fascinated by the level of extraordinary sophisticated violence involved.

'Who cares? Danal said. 'The Void can resist their devilry. It has for a million years. That's all that matters.

Cheriton raised an eyebrow. It took a lot of self-control not to leak his dismay at the man's bigotry into the gaiafield. 'Let's hope Justine's ship can withstand it, too.

'She's not a believer. She's an ANA creature.

'She's human, Cheriton said. 'That means she should be able to get inside. Somehow.

'Ah. I hadn't thought of that.

'Please, Yenrol entreated the modification team. 'Keep working. If the Second Dreamer is going to show himself, it will be tonight.

Danal flashed Cheriton a shamefaced smile.

Oscar hadn't expected things to happen quite this fast. He should have known better. If the Starflyer War had taught him nothing else, it was that events ruled people, not the other way round.

So here he was encased in a stiff paramilitary armour suit, sitting halfway down the passenger section of an Ellezelin police capsule, floating over the Cairns. Beckia was sitting on the bench next to him, while Tomansio was forward in the command seat. The capsules were designed to hold fifteen paramilitaries. However, its original occupants were now resting in a drug-induced coma back in the Bootel & Leicester warehouse, so at least he had plenty of room to stretch out.

Like the rest of the Commonwealth, they were accessing Justine's mad dash through the Gulf.

'The welcome team has just stepped up to active status, Liatris reported; he had stayed behind in the Elvin's Payback to monitor the occupying forces and provide Unisphere support. 'Everyone thinks that the Second Dreamer will intervene for Justine.

'He didn't after Gore's appeal, Oscar said.

'The Raiel should give things a degree of urgency, Beckia said. 'I agree with Living Dream, if it's going to happen it'll happen tonight.

Oscar shrugged, which didn't come off well in his armour.

'Did you know Gore and Justine? Tomansio asked.

'I think I met her once, some senior officer function on High Angel. Everyone was trying to chat her up.

'Including you? Beckia teased.

'No, I was aiming for the ones she turned down. Rejection always leaves you vulnerable to a quick bout of cheap meaningless sex.

'Ozzie, but you're dreadful.

'Anything from Cheriton? Tomansio asked.

'Nothing since his last check in, Liatris reported. 'Nobody questioned his appointment to Yenrol's staff. He's installed his routines in the nest.

'Is he wearing his hat? Beckia asked innocently.

Oscar couldn't help the smile creeping on to his mouth. That had been quite an argument.

'I'll find out next time, Liatris promised.

'What have you got for us on the welcome team? Tomansio asked.

'All deeply loyal Living Dream followers; it doesn't look like Phelim fancied contracting out for this job. They're on secondment from the Makkathran2 cabinet security office.

'Ethan's private bodyguards, Tomansio declared. 'What.m-their enrichments?

'Very heavy duty weapons, and they're accelerated up to at least our standard. But I don't think they have biononics; there's no record in any file I can find.

'Okay, thank you. Keep deep mining, I want everything you've got on them.

'Will do. Files coming over.

Oscar's u-shadow told him it had received the heavily encrypted files. When he scrutinized them he couldn't help a sharp intake of breath. The welcome team that Councillor Phelim had put together to interdict the Second Dreamer were carrying the kind of firepower he'd thought exclusive to members of the Knights Guardian. They were also extremely devout. Phelim hail given them complete authority over all the invading forces to accomplish their goal. 'We need to be quick, he murmured.

'That we do, Tomansio agreed. 'I wouldn't want to be caught in the act by this lot.

'I bet they have got biononics, Beckia said. 'They'll justify it by saying it will help bring about the Dream. Their kind always does.

'I didn't know Living Dream disapproved of biononics, Oscar said.

'Oh yes. Nothing like the Protectorate, though; biononics aren't quite a sacrilege, they simply don't have any place in the Void. Most people believe they won't work in there anyway.

'Why?

'Because there was never any functioning technology on Querencia. The most sophisticated thing the Waterwalker ever encountered was the machine gun. And that's purely mechanical. There was no electricity, no genetics, no biononics. Given the humans who landed, their ship would have had access to the most advanced technology and information base the Commonwealth could provide, it is inconceivable that their new society couldn't even make a battery. They certainly know their chemistry and medicine, even astronomy. Something stopped them from following the electromechanical route.

'The internal structure of the Void, Oscar mused.

'Quite. Whatever the quantum structure is that permits true mental powers, it must also block electricity.

'That's ridiculous. You can't stop current flowing, that implies a whole level of atomic reactions would cease to exist. There wouldn't be any stars.

'The Silfen paths mess with human hardware-based technology, Tomansio said.

'That's direct interference generated by their paths.

'All I'm saying is that it appears there's something inimical to rift ironies in the Void.

'The original colony ship survived to land on Querencia.

'And the Living Dream is still arguing if it landed or crashed, Beckia said. 'The interference with electronics could come directly from the Heart itself, like some kind of overlord making sure civilization doesn't rise above a certain level.

'What the hell would anyone go to so much trouble making the Void in the first place just so they can use it to keep sentient species as pets?

'No idea, she said merrily. The firstlife are alien, remember, they think differently.

Oscar gave up with an irritable wave of his hand. 'All right, so thanks to the whole firstlife zookeeper theory, the welcome team are unlikely to have biononics.

'That's about it, yeah, Tomansio said.

'Either way, Beckia said. 'We don't want to go head to head if we can help it.

'Right.

'Liatris, can you get us assigned to the welcome team back up, please, Tomansio asked.

'Way ahead of you. Your assignment should be coming through in a couple of minutes.

'Thank you.

Oscar drew a sharp breath as the Raiel warships obliterated a gas-giant. 'Jesus H Christ, give the poor girl a break. The Silverbird dropped back into real space. Oscar grimaced at the radiation battering its force fields, his memory flipping back to the fight for Hanko when he'd captained the Dublin. There were a lot of parallels. MorningLightMountain's ships had used exotic energy blasts to smack the Dublin about. And at half a million kilometres above the surface, their force field had only just withstood the star's radiation. All that was nothing compared to the hell Silverbird was now enduring. Oscar couldn't help the burst of encouragement pouring out of his mind and into the gaiafield, as if prayer alone could make a difference.

Justine powered back into hyperspace.

'Good tactic, Oscar said approvingly. Another part of his mind was dwelling on the fact that the Elvin's Payback was the same type of ship as Silverbird. We could be out there doing that.

'Stand by, Cheriton said on the ultrasecure link. 'The Second Dreamer is making contact with the Skylord.

'Where is he? Tomansio growled out. 'Armour active, please. Oscar, do exactly as we tell you, clear?

'Yes. He just managed not to add 'sir'.

'Haven't got his position yet, Cheriton said. 'My routines are still fudging the nest for us.

Oscar opened his mind wide to the gaiafield.

'—close to you now. Feel for her, the Second Dreamer was imploring.

'Here we go, Cheriton said. 'First fix is the Bodant district.

'En route, Tomansio said, and pushed the capsule round in a hundred and eighty degree curve above the dark river. Viotia's dawn sun shone into the capsule through the forward section of the transparent fuselage.

'Ah crap, the rest of the nests are focusing on the origin, Cheriton said. 'I thought they'd take longer.

Tomansio pushed their speed up. 'Ozzie! How long have we got?

Thirty thousand lightyears away, the Void began to extend out towards the Silverbird.

'If it screws with technology is she going to be all right when she's inside? Oscar asked.

'Let's just concentrate on the job you've given us, shall we? Beckia chided. She was activating her armour. The helmet visor rippled shut.

'He's near the edge of the park, Cheriton told them. 'The Dream Masters are pulling out some very precise coordinates. Damn, they're good. Sorry guys, you're not going to make it. The welcome team is being given his location.

'Shit, Tomansio reducing their speed. 'It'll look suspicious if we arrive a couple of seconds before them, and that's all the time we've got.

'What's plan B? Oscar asked.

'Snatch him away from the welcome team, but that's going to be difficult. This is all happening too fast. I wanted to be properly embedded in the occupation forces here before we moved to this phase.

'Kill the wormhole, Beckia said. 'We can use Elvin's Payback to intercept the welcome team in interstellar space when they ship the Second Dreamer back to Ellezelin.

'That would give us a better chance, Oscar said. 'That ship's a damn sight better than anything Living Dream will have.

'We don't know that, Tomansio said. 'And it would take a lot of aggression to take out the wormhole.

'I could go through and do it, Liatris insisted.

'They'd know exactly what happened, and why, Tomansio said. 'This is looking like we'll have to switch operations to Ellezelin itself. Oh, here we go, deployment orders from the welcome team. It's an apartment building.

'Something wrong here, Cheriton said. 'One of my new colleagues Danal is having a fit. That apartment block is where he lives. As best we can determine the Second Dreamer is actually in his own apartment.

'Ah hah, everybody might just be underestimating the Second Dreamer, after all, Tomansio said. 'Good for him.

'And for us, Beckia agreed.

'He's going to have to get out of there quick, Oscar said. He was viewing an exoimage map of Colwyn. Nine cruisers were converging on Bodant Park. Five had orders to establish a secure ground perimeter. Two were assigned to provide air cover. The rest, including theirs, were to back up the welcome team inside.

He glanced down as they passed over the bright illuminum buildings of a marina, then on across the park. There were thousands of people spread across the grass, still cheering and jumping up and down with glee as their all-night vigil was rewarded. A real party atmosphere had developed and the pull it exerted through the gaiafield was intoxicating.

The capsule carrying the welcome team roared overhead, barely subsonic and decelerating hard. Up ahead, the glass pillar corners of the target apartment block gleamed with a purple and blue iridescence, naively signalling its position. The welcome team capsule circled it possessively, trailing a thin vapour trail. Happy people down in the park frowned upwards at the boorish intrusion. Dismay and resentment appeared in the gaiafield like necrotic sunspots in an otherwise healthy corona.

'Oh great, Oscar grunted as more and more celebrating citizens became indignant and aggrieved. 'That'll help.

'They don't care, Tomansio said. 'This whole planet doesn't matter to them. All they're interested in is finding the Second Dreamer.

'I wonder what he's like, Oscar said they slowed to hover above the strip of well maintained gardens in front of the block.

'Neurotic, Beckia said. 'Got to be.

'Smart and scared, Tomansio said. 'Which makes him dangerous to Living Dream.

The rest of the capsules assigned to support the welcome team arrived. 'This is Major Honilar, the welcome team commander announced. 'Perimeter squad, establish yourselves immediately. No one in or out. Janglepulse anyone who attempts to cross your line. Custody support squad, seal off the ground floor and shut down the lifts. Use the stairwell to isolate each floor. Now listen up: I want to make very sure you all understand this: there is to be no lethal weapons usage at all. The Second Dreamer is in there, and he must not be harmed. If you encounter any problem, for example if he is using a force field and tries to break through, call us. We will deal with him. I don't want your dirty hands on him.

'Yes sir, Tomansio replied as he directed their capsule down mi to the garden. The welcome team's capsule was planting itself nil the roof next to the golden crystal dome containing the spa.

'What do we do? Oscar asked as the door expanded and he stepped out on to a border of fuchsia bushes, his boots crushing I he white and scarlet flowers into the loam.

'Exactly as we were told, Tomansio said. 'And remember, don't use your biononic field function. I know it's superior to anything in these armour suits, but the welcome team will detect it'.

'Okay. They joined the rest of the custody support troops as they marched into the ground floor lobby. Behind them, the perimeter squad started to push back the first batch of angry citizens who'd arrived from the park.

'Danal has just been arrested, Cheriton told them. 'Two officers from cabinet security are hauling him off right now. He's not a happy man.

'That must be a deliberate distraction, Tomansio said.

'Yeah, but by who? Beckia said. 'The Second Dreamer or another bunch like us?

The lobby was filled with contractors' equipment and caskets piled high with rubbish. Bright temporary lighting on a metal frame cast strong shadows.

'The welcome team have taken command of the apartment block's net, Cheriton said. 'Hang on, I'm assessing the results from their scrutineers.

Tomansio led Beckia and Oscar into the concrete stairwell. More rubbish had been casually tipped off the floors above forming a heap of dusty debris at the bottom of the stairs in tin-basement. A couple of paramilitaries went down to investigate the garage.

'According to the net there are about thirty people currently in residence, Cheriton said. 'The whole damn place is being redeveloped. The fourth floor only has four people registered I'm two apartments. Danal and Mareble, and a married couple Someone called Araminta is refurbishing the remaining three on that level. Mining her now.

Oscar hurried up the concrete stairs. The long line of suited paramilitaries were making a lot of noise as they trooped up with him. Instructions relayed from Honilar assigned six of them to each floor. Oscar was seriously impressed with Liatris when he, Tomansio and Beckia were given the fourth floor.

They emerged into the vestibule to find all the apartment doors broken open and two of the welcome team standing guard in full military armour suits. Oscar could just see through the doorway into apartment three, where the terrified occupants were in the middle of the big living room. A man and woman: him in a pair of shorts, her in a long nightshirt. Standing side side, their arms raised as another of the welcome team covet them with a large gun. She was shaking and crying, while her partner was trying to be resolute. The way his leg muscles were trembling betrayed him more than any gaiafield emission.

Major Honilar came out of Danal's apartment. 'No sign him. He couldn't have got out of the building, he didn't have time. I want every resident on every floor in custody and taken to our headquarters. Search and scan each apartment, make sure you have everyone. He turned and went back into Danal's apartment.

'Pair up, Tomansio said. 'Take an apartment each.

Oscar accompanied Tomansio as they went into apartment number four. He scanned round with his suit's sensors, resenting how slow and restricted they were compared to a biononic field scan. You're spoilt, he told himself. The suit didn't detect any body-size thermal signatures. The apartment was half-way through refurbishment. Several inactive bots were lined up in the living room. New cables and pipes were laid out along one wall. Junked utility fittings were stacked up by the door. Crates and boxes with BOVEY'S BUILDING SUPPLY MACROSTORE printed a round them were waiting to be unpacked. Some furniture had been left, a coffee table that was now badly scuffed, with several mugs on top, waiting to be washed. An ancient couch with a matching armchair that had odd lumps in its cushioning.

His u-shadow was displaying the reports from the other squads, who were busy rounding up the residents on other floors. So far, their identities matched their files.

'In here, Tomansio said, using their secure link. He was standing in the doorway to a bedroom. The bed itself was a bare mattress with a big sleeping bag crumpled on top. Four suitcases were lined up along a wall; one was open revealing a collection of woman's clothes. The small dresser was swamped by hair styling tools and membrane scale cases.

'Not listed as lived in, Oscar said.

'Depends what lists you check. Liatris, run another search on Araminta. Has she sold this apartment?

'I'm on it.

While Tomansio checked the other two bedrooms Oscar went into the main bathroom. The floor had been stripped back to I ho bare concrete, as had the walls. A brand new carved stone bath cuboid was sitting in the middle. Halfway up the wall behind it, the stub of the original cold water feed pipe jutted out of the concrete, its valve dripping into a plastic bucket beneath. The old toilet bowl was still plumbed in. A big hot water tank stood in one corner, already boxed in by the struts of a false wall, just awaiting the cover boards which were stacked in front of it. A maze of pipe work was strewn round its base. Components for a spore shower were lying ready for assembly.

'Nothing, he told Tomansio.

'The other bedrooms are empty.

Oscar found him behind the living room's kitchen bar. The old culinary unit had been removed to stand on the ground, though the nutrient feed pipes were still plumbed in. A kettle and a microwave were sitting on the scratched marble work surface. His thermal scan showed him the kettle's temperature was above ambient. 'This place has been used recently, he muttered.

'We need to talk to her, Tomansio said. 'If anyone can tell us who's been in and out of these apartments, it's her.

'That shouldn't be too difficult, Oscar said. 'We know who she is. Finding her will be easy for Liatris.

'Yeah. Tomansio's sensors swept round one last time. 'Grab something from her bedroom, just so we can run a DNA verification that she's the one living here. Then we'd better get back and help with rounding up the rest of the suspects.

'Poor bastards, Oscar said as he picked up a small scale applicator brush. 'What do you think Honilar will do with them?

'Good question. How do you prove you're not the Second Dreamer? It's not as if there's physical evidence. I guess if he doesn't get a confession they'll use a memory read.

Oscar shuddered. 'That isn't exactly going to endear them to the Second Dreamer. They need him to help them get into the Void.

'Oscar, face it, with today's medical techniques you can make someone do just about anything you want.

'Medical techniques?

'That's what they started out as.

'I suppose you know how to do that?

'We all had training in that area, yes.

Despite the heavy armour suit with its perfect insulation, Oscar suddenly felt cold.

Paula had rarely experienced a pang of deja vu as strong as the one that hit her when the stained glass door opened and she walked into the entrance hall. And she hadn't even been to the old building before. She walked past the empty concierge desk and stared at the glass cage lift. It was the age of everything around her that was generating that weird sensation tickling the back of her mind. According to the Daroca City Council files the interior was perfectly authentic, exactly as it had been during the Starflyer War. She wasn't going to disagree, as someone who had lived through those times she could feel the decor was right.

The lift took her up to the fifth floor, and she walked into Troblum's penthouse apartment. On the trip over from the spaceport she'd accessed Lieutenant Renne Kampasa's ancient Directorate files on the one time she'd visited — ANA had to deep access the memory. With the file came a note that Troblum had requested access to that same file a hundred years ago, along with associated forensic reports.

His restoration work was excellent, Paula acknowledged as she walked into the huge open plan lounge. The balcony had a magnificent view out over the Caspe River, with the rest of Daroca filling in the background.

It didn't take her long to establish there wasn't anything useful in the apartment, and all Troblum's personal files had boon wiped from the building net. The only mild exception was in the bedrooms, each of which inexplicably had their closets full of girls' clothes. Troblum's own clothes, comprising three ageing toga suits and his unpleasant underwear, were stuffed into a chest of drawers in the master bedroom. For a moment Paula wondered if the dresses belonged to Troblum's girlfriend. She raised an eyebrow when she took out a leather designer miniskirt. It might be slightly prejudiced of her to think it, but what would a girl with a figure to wear such an item see in Troblum? Then she recognized the label, one she hadn't seen for over seven hundred years, and realized that the skirt was also Starflyer War vintage style. She let out a whistle of admiration; he'd even reproduced the girls' wardrobe as best he could.

Now that is true obsession.

Paula started going through the other apartments in the ancient converted factory while her u-shadow accessed the building's net to analyse the remaining files. It was the largest apartment on the third floor which drew her attention. The others were all relatively authentic reproductions, but this one had been modified again. All the internal walls had been removed, and the resulting chamber sealed against the outside atmosphere with a sustainer membrane and clinical-grade air filters. Rows of heavy benches ran the entire length; each one equipped with a series of data nodes and high voltage power sockets. She could see the outlines where objects had once rested. They must have been there for decades to make any kind of impression on the stainless steel surface. The net subsection for the apartment had also been thoroughly wiped.

'Three courier capsules were requisitioned to collect items from the building around the time Troblum disappeared, her u-shadow reported.

'What items?

'Unknown. They were stored in stabilized cases.

'Ah, Paula said. 'I bet it was a collection. Most likely Starflyer War memorabilia. Stubsy Florae often procured historic relics for clients. Where were the cases taken?

'The capsules made three separate trips made to the city spaceport, they were collected by different commercial ships registered in the External worlds. No record of their ultimate destination.

'It was to Florae' She knew it. That's why Troblum was then; to pick it up. And it would have meant a great deal to him. That can only mean he was planning to leave the Commonwealth entirely. She opened a link to ANA. 'Troblum was more scared than I realized.

'Marius does that to people.

'Yes. But there was something else. Remember what he told us when he first made contact. He had something that I would understand, and his mania is the Starflyer War. A time I am familiar with.

'That hardly narrows it down.

'Something else does, Paula said. All she could see was that figure ascending into its ship amid the ruins of Florae's villa. A slight person. That wiggle of the hips, a taunt, a couldn't-care-less contempt. None of today's agents and representatives had that kind of attitude, not even the Knights Guardian. They all prided themselves on their steely professionalism. 'I have a bad feeling about this.

'What feeling?

'I have one last trip to make. I'll tell you after that.

'Can't you tell me now?

'No. Believe it or not, I'd be embarrassed if I'm wrong. You'll think I'm obsessive. I have to know for myself.

'How intriguing. As you wish.

'Are you making any progress on mining Troblum's life for me?

'Yes. In many ways he is an odd person, especially for a Higher. I have a reasonably complete timeline for you. It has some suspicious gaps, and he even served on a scientific mission for the Navy.

'Really. Paula's u-shadow received the file. She scanned the contents list in her exovision; one of the more recent items attracted her. 'A presentation to the Navy about the Anomine and the Dyson Pair barrier generators? And Kazimir himself was there. I'd like a summary of that, please.

'Of course.

'Thanks, I'll review it on my way back to Earth.

'You're coming here?

'Yes, this little problem of mine will only take a moment to confirm. I'll be there in an hour.

Major Honilar rounded up thirty three people from the apartment block, and shipped them back to the security headquarters that were set up in Colwyn's docks. The cordon around the building was maintained, even in the face of growing hostility from the crowd in the park. Five paramilitaries from the support squad made one final sensor sweep after the transport capsules carted off the unfortunate residents, but they found nothing. Once they'd finished they left, reassigned to other more urgent duties. The occupying forces were having a hard time of it;is more and more of Viotia's inhabitants joined the physical pro tests against their presence.

An hour and a half after the last of the suited figures clomped out of apartment four on the fourth floor, the muffled sound of a power tool resonated round the bathroom. One after the other three fixing bolts around the top of the hot water tank spun round then dropped on to the floor. The hemispherical top of the tank tipped up a fraction. Fingers appeared in the gap, and pushed against the thick thermal insulation foam, shoving the top aside. It too fell on to the floor with a loud clang.

'Sweet Ozzie! Araminta groaned.

She took a long time just to lever herself up to a standing position. The cylinder was only just big enough to hold her in terrible crouch position. Every limb throbbed as she finaly stretched them free. Cramp attacked her joint muscles, bringing tears to her eyes. She was close to sobbing when she eventually straightened her spine. It was another five minutes of simple standing and letting the pain subside before she attempted to climb out, using the false wall boxing as a ladder.

The only noise was the crowd outside jeering and taunting the paramilitaries on the cordon. Araminta peered cautiously into the living room. Nobody about. Her macrocellular clusters couldn't detect any individual data signals. She'd isolated herself from the Unisphere, and knew she couldn't reconnect without being detected. She crossed the living room, feeling unnervingly exposed. The main door was ajar, its expensive brass lock broken, which drew a scowl. As far as she could determine, the whole fourth floor was deserted. She shut the door, and jammed a crate of kitchen fittings behind it.

'Okay then, she said, and sat down in the ancient armchair. Got up again and went over to the kettle. She was just about to switch it on when she wondered if some tricky little monitor program would notice the power usage. Five minutes later she'd extracted the power cell from a bot, and wired it up to the kettle.

She sat back down in the armchair with a cup of wonderfully hot tea and some of the classy chocolate biscuits she always kept around.

So now what?