"Like I give a shit," she said, stretching her neck to ease it.

"I think that perhaps you should," said the AI. "I did not want to distract you while you were engaged in such risky flying, but now you have to know." The screen showing the vegetation now flicked over to another view that Jarvellis recognized as computer-enhanced.

"What is this?" she asked.

"The view of the sky above us, magnified, from two hours ago. You are seeing three grabships from the dreadnought."

"Shit, what kind of scan did you use?"

"Passive scan — the Skellor will not be able to trace us."

"Good… good. Why grabships?"

"Observe the masses of objects they are dropping," said the AI.

Jarvellis squinted at the screen. Even computer-enhanced, the picture was not very clear. She could now make out the shapes of three grabships, but would never have recognized them as such without the AI telling her. She only saw the 'masses' to which the AI referred when they moved from line of sight to the ships, for they were blurred into that original image, and then only saw them for a few seconds as they glowed before breaking apart. She felt something tightening in her abdomen when she thought of John Stanton being out there somewhere, and not knowing about this. As far as she judged, to say this Skellor's intent would be hostile was an understatement, so anything that did not slam down on them from orbit — like the laser blast that had taken out Polas — was probably even worse.

"Bioweapon?" she managed, her mouth dry.

"Possibly — but a strange one. Each of the objects in the initial masses was an ovoid approximately two metres long. This in itself is not unusual, because bioweapons dropped from orbit are usually inserted in larger packages for heat-shielded re-entry and then dispersal. However, these are not dispersing. After losing some sort of shielding after re-entry, the objects have remained in a loose cluster."

"Where is it now?"

"Directly above the mountains — and above us."

"Can you get a picture?" Jarvellis asked, puzzled.

"Oh yes. Now that they are settling lower, I do not need to use so much enhancement either," the AI replied with annoying smugness.

"Well, show it to me then."

The AI showed her, and Jarvellis could only gape at this newest insanity.

Calypse was attached to the horizon by only the smallest arc of its disc, as if reluctant to release its hold for its journey across the sky. Its swirls and bands of colour gleamed bright only for as long as it took until the sun, rising to one side of it, could throw it into silhouette. Perhaps reflection from the surface of Masada, or some luminous quality of the giant itself, cast it meanwhile in a light that gave it true depth. More than at any other time he had seen it, Cormac felt aware that this orb was truly a vast gas giant rather than some two-dimensional disc imprinted over a large proportion of sky.

"Where is it now?" Cormac asked them tiredly.

Gant did not display any tiredness, and Cormac wondered if Fethan had enough that was human remaining in him to feel any weariness. It seemed not, however, for since the cyborg had returned to requisition Gant's aid in the task of leading away the hooder, the both of them had been charging back and forth at high speed all night. This was evident from their clothing — torn from their running through the abrasive grass stalks and smeared with streaks of yellow and red juice from the crop of coloured buds the grasses had suddenly produced.

"It's moved on ahead," said Fethan. "But if that relieves you, best you know that it's not alone."

"More hooders?" asked Thorn.

"More of everything," said Fethan. "Seems the whole fauna of the planet is on the move. Must be the fighting attracting 'em, as I can't think what else it might be."

Cormac rubbed his eyes then turned to Gant. "How far do you estimate we are from those Theocracy landers?" He tried to keep bitterness out of his voice.

"Not far now," the Golem replied, looking ahead. "I can see the heat haze from here."

Cormac glanced at Fethan and noticed a hardening of the cyborg's expression. That same hardness had appeared in him when Mika reported that the signal from the exoskeleton had ceased. That event had occurred at the same time as the laser hit, so it seemed unlikely that Apis or the girl Eldene were still alive.

"We never really thought about it, but why did Skellor hit them?" Thorn asked.

"We're not totally sure he did," said Cormac pedantically. The massive communication over com — before it had gone dead — gave that impression, or rather what Thorn and Gant had described of it did. "But if he did, then the reason is obvious: he's knocking out all forms of space transportation prior to burning this planet down to ash."

"There you go: always the optimist," said Gant, but his effort at humour was wasted.

"You're that certain this is Skellor's aim?" asked Fethan.

"Call that scenario one," said Cormac. He glanced at Gant, and added, "The least optimistic one." He went on, "I know for certain this man will go to any lengths not to let the Polity become aware of his existence. Whatever way he sets about it, he'll want us dead." He looked now at Mika, who had been very much silent since informing them about the loss of signal. "What's your estimation?"

Mika winced at this assumption of her specialized knowledge. "He will not want to lose what he has acquired. The Polity would only take it away from him," she said, discomfited by her own reasoning and how it might apply to her.

"An assumption we have to work with," said Cormac. "Now, changing the subject, perhaps one of you can tell me what the fuck that is over there."

Gant spun, and aimed his APW. Thorn did likewise with his.

"Where?" they asked simultaneously.

"There!" Cormac gestured with the barrel of his thin-gun.

The half-seen bulky shape, crouching in trampled and pummelled flute grass that resembled a flash-frozen stormy sea, seemed to shrug with resignation at being spotted. Then it rose up on its hind legs.

"Scabble-dobble-log?" it wondered, unfolding its sets of forearms like some nightmare melding of the goddess Kali and a tarantula.

"Keep moving," said Fethan. "We're safe while it's talking. It's when you can't hear 'em you gotta worry."

"Who told you that?" Gant asked.

"Well… everyone knows that," Fethan replied, looking unsure.

Cormac observed the curving row of slightly luminous green eyes set into the white dome of the creature's head, as it watched them move on past it. When it was upright like this, those eyes were perhaps three metres above the ground. The claws terminating its multiple forearms were the size and shape of bunches of bananas, only bananas made of obsidian and sharpened to points glinting in the morning light. He had no doubt that Gant and Thorn could take this creature down with the weaponry they had, so maybe there wasn't a great deal to worry about. Then he suddenly felt very stupid, for there was something else he had forgotten about.

"Gant, Thorn, power down those APWs right now," he said. As they looked at him queryingly, he pulled Shuriken and held it ready to throw. "Something I neglected to remember is that Skellor would easily pick up the UV and radiation flash, so we might just as well be sending him an invitation to come and get us."

Reluctantly the two of them lowered their weapons and flicked certain controls on them.

"Dooble-ooble-caro-flock," the gabbleduck told them, obviously approving.

"Keep moving," said Cormac.

Soon the gabbleduck lost interest, and ducked back out of sight. As they headed on, Gant placed the two APWs in his pack, and armed himself and Thorn with two pulse-rifles instead. Almost as if something had been waiting for this, they heard huge movement in the flute grasses behind and over to one side.