As Eldene manoeuvred the ATV around the edge of the crater and into a clear bright day, Fethan tersely detailed all that had occurred over the last few days.

"So nice to encounter old friends," muttered Cormac, when Fethan told him about John Stanton — though Eldene could hear no pleasure in his voice. Finally, some time after Eldene had stopped the ATV and powered it down, Cormac observed, "So it seems Lellan is caught. She cannot stay hidden in the cave systems because of the approach of this Ragnorak device; she cannot destroy all the Theocracy forces on the surface because that would result in a nuclear strike being used against her; she cannot lose against said forces because there would be no taking of prisoners; and in the end all she can do is drag the battle out and hope for Polity intervention here."

"But that's on its way, apparently," said Thorn. He gestured to a coms helmet lying on the floor at the rear of the ATV. "Polas earlier sent out a message of encouragement to the troops, informing them that Lellan's U-space plea for help has been picked up and relayed by an ECS dreadnought — and that same ship is now on its way here."

Cormac went very still for a moment, then asked calmly, "And the name of this dreadnought? Was a name ever given?"

"Yes, a line Patrol ship, name of the Occam Razor," Thorn replied.

The euphemistic description might be tactical withdrawal, but it was called defeat in any other language, and no less than Lellan had expected. Hit and withdraw, hit and withdraw — all the way back to the mountains, where she knew she could extend the conflict almost indefinitely. To stand, out here against a force three times their number would be plain suicide. Perhaps it would have been a different matter with a few more of those war drones, or if the two she did possess had not depleted their power supplies to the point where they could just about keep up with her army's retreat, and manage an occasional counter-attack whenever Dorth's forces pushed to break the line. In the end, she desperately needed Polity intervention, because without it they would do nothing but lose.

I've destroyed us, I've completely destroyed us…

"Tell me again, what did he say?" asked her brother.

"He said that the Occam Razor is now in the hands of Separatists who are unlikely to pass on our shout for help." She remembered that cold voice speaking in her ear, then the confirmation from Fethan and the man Thorn.

"No, what exactly did he call it?" Stanton asked.

"He called it a subverted AI dreadnought, and our signal to the Polity has been updated to include that news."

"That should bring them running," said her brother.

Lellan gritted her teeth and, feigning tiredness, rubbed at her eyes to smear away the tears that were gathering there. Jarvellis had yet to contact Stanton and give him the wonderful news that the moment they had started sending the updated signal, something had begun blocking it.

"I need to wear it to prevent the gravity here killing me," explained Apis.

"Why? How would it kill you?" Eldene asked him, glad of those long talks with Fethan which had given her some understanding of 'gravity' and how it was absent in space.

Mika, seated on a rolled-up sleeping bag opposite them, intervened, "His people… they adapted to living in space. Amongst other things, his bones would never have supported him in this gravity since, as he was then, he would have collapsed and died almost immediately."

Apis, who had been showing little inclination to sit down and continued to prowl around inside the ATV, snapped his attention towards Mika. "You say 'would' and 'was'? How different am I now?"

Mika inspected the laptop, via which she monitored the Outlinker's body through his exoskeleton. "You are improving, though I would not yet advise the removal of your suit. It is possible that you would survive it, and that the nanomycelium reconfiguring your body would be thereby stimulated to work harder, but such a move is still not recommended."

Leaning back in the driver's chair, Eldene studied the boy further. She had no idea what Mika was talking about, but it added to the mystery. This boy had previously lived on a giant space station and now had to wear the strange bulky suit to support his weight in Masada's gravity. Eldene could not conceive of anyone more unlike herself.

"Tell me about Miranda," she asked him suddenly.

Apis froze in mid-stride, and Eldene noted how Mika was now studying him analytically. Obviously there was a great deal more to learn here, more than she had overheard in previous conversations before the others had left the ATV — Fethan to check where the hooder had gone, and the other three to find out about this 'dracoman'.

Apis turned to her and replied doggedly, "What's to tell? Miranda was an Outlink station that was the home for millions of people, and now it is just so much floating wreckage."

Before he could turn away Eldene persisted, "But how was it destroyed?"

"A nanomycelium," said Apis, perhaps hoping her lack of knowledge might silence her.

"You have fungi here." Mika made it a statement, in her accustomed fashion. Then, with a flash of self-annoyance, "Do you have fungi here?"

"Orepores," Eldene replied, not quite sure of what relevance that was.

"Describe them," said Mika.

"Round things." Eldene's hands shaped something spherical in the air. "Up in the north, they feed them to the pigs."

"What you are seeing in these orepores is the fruit of a plant — the plant itself is a spread of thin fibres, some of which are too small to be seen. These fibres are called mycelia — that's the plural of mycelium."

"A fungus destroyed a place with millions of people in it?" Eldene asked, disbelievingly. Then she pointed at Apis. "And he's got one inside him?"

"It's a little more complicated than that," replied Mika, glancing towards the door of the ATV as the warning light came on beside it, then hinging her mask back into place.

Eldene raised her mask too, and noted how Apis did not even have to — apparently devices in his clothing detected any drop in the oxygen content of the air and raised his visor when necessary.

"That was quick," said Mika, standing up and turning towards the door. Eldene had been aware that the woman was very annoyed earlier, when ordered by Cormac to stay with the ATV — so they did not later have a struggle again to drag her away from the remnants of Dragon. She wondered if they had found this dracoman they had been talking about. What she did not expect was for the door to slam back, and to hear a thud like a cleaver chopping into a cabbage.

For a moment she could not fathom what was going on. Mika suddenly bent over, something smacking into the wall above and behind her. Only when blood welled through the torn fabric of Mika's suit did it become evident that someone standing outside had put a shot through her. With a bubbling groan Mika collapsed to her knees. She turned to say something, but only blood came out of her mouth.

The Theocracy soldier who now stepped through the door seized Mika by the shoulder and hurled her outside behind him, even as he turned and fired at the Outlinker. Apis grunted as the single shot slammed him back against the wall. It was only as he began sliding down it, his eyes turning up in his head to show only the white, that Eldene thought to reach for her weapon. In a second the soldier had knocked it away, shoving the snout of his weapon up under her chin. Eldene froze, recognizing the gun — it was the very same type as the one Fethan had given her when they first left the crop lands and she knew exactly what it was capable of.

"What about this one?" asked a voice from outside.