Horza gave a kind of snort through his nose, like a laugh. "The drone saved us," he repeated to himself, and shook his head.

… ah my soul my soul, all is darkness now. now i die, now i slip away and nothing will be left. i am frightened. great one, pity me, but i am frightened. no sleep of victory; i heard. merely my death. darkness and death. moment for all to become one, instance of annihilation. i have failed; i heard and now i know. failed. death too good for me. oblivion like release. more than i deserve, much more. i cannot let go, i must hold on because i do not deserve a quick, willed end. my comrades wait, but they do not know how much i have failed. i am not worthy to join them. my clan must weep.

ah this pain… darkness and pain…

They came to the station.

The Command System train towered over the platform, its dark length glistening in the lights of the small band of people entering the station.

"Well, here we are at last," Unaha-Closp said. It stopped and let Balveda slide off the pallet, then put the slab with its supplies and material down on the dusty floor.

Horza ordered the Idiran to stand against the nearest access gantry, and tied him against it.

"Well," Xoxarle said as Horza strapped him to the metal, "what of your Mind, little one?" He looked down like a reproachful adult at the human wrapping the wire round his body. "Where is it? I don't see it."

"Patience, Section Leader," Horza said.

He secured the wire and tested it, then stepped back. "Comfortable?" he asked.

"My guts ache, my chin is broken and my hand has pieces of your mass sensor embedded in it," Xoxarle said. "Also my mouth is a little sore inside, where I bit it earlier, to produce all that convincing blood. Otherwise I am well, thank you, ally." Xoxarle bowed his head as much as he was able.

"Don't go away, now." Horza smiled thinly. He left Yalson to guard Xoxarle and Balveda while he and Wubslin went to the power-switching room.

"I'm hungry," Aviger said. He sat on the pallet and opened a ration bar.

Inside the switching room, Horza studied the meters, switches and levers for a few moments, then started to adjust the controls.

"I, uh…" Wubslin began, scratching his brow through the open visor of his helmet, "I was wondering… about the mass sensor in your suit… Is it working?"

Lights came on in one control group, a bank of twenty dials glowing faintly. Horza studied the dials and then said, "No. I already checked. It's getting a low reading from the train, but nothing else. It's been that way since about two kilometres back up the tunnel. Either the Mind's gone since the ship sensor was smashed, or this one in my suit isn't working properly."

"Oh shit," Wubslin sighed.

"What the hell," Horza said, flicking some switches and watching more meters light up. "Let's get the power on. Maybe we'll think of something."

"Yes." Wubslin nodded. He glanced back out through the open doors of the room, as if to see whether the lights were coming on yet. All he saw was the dark shape of Yalson's back, out on the dim platform. A section of shadowy train, three storeys high, showed beyond.

Horza went to another wall and repositioned some levers. He tapped a couple of dials, peered into a bright screen, then rubbed his hands together and put his thumb over a button on the central console. "Well, this is it," he said.

He brought his thumb down on the button.

"Yes!"

"Hey-hey!"

"We did it!"

"About time, too, if you ask me."

"Hmm, little one, so that's how it's done…"

"… Shit! If I'd known it was this colour I wouldn't have started it…"

Horza heard the others. He took a deep breath and turned to look at Wubslin. The stocky engineer stood, blinking slightly, in the bright lights of the power control room. He smiled. "Great," he said. He looked round the room, still nodding. "Great. At last."

"Well done, Horza," Yalson said.

Horza could hear other switches, bigger ones, automatics linked to the master switch he had closed, moving in the space beneath his feet. Humming noises filled the room, and the smell of burning dust rose like the warm scent of an awakening animal all around him. Light flooded in from the station outside. Horza and Wubslin checked a few meters and monitors, then went outside.

The station was bright. It sparkled; the grey-black walls reflected the strip lights and glow panels which covered the roof. The Command System train, now seen properly for the first time, filled the station from end to end: a shining metal monster, like a vast android version of a segmented insect.

Yalson took off her helmet, ran her fingers through her short-cropped hair and looked up and around, squinting in the bright yellow-white light falling from the station roof high above.

"Now, then," Unaha-Closp said, floating over towards Horza. The machine's casing glittered in the harsh new light. "Where exactly is this device we're looking for?" It came close to Horza's face. "Does your suit sensor register it? Is it here? Have we found it?"

Horza pushed the machine away with one hand. "Give me time, drone. We only just got here. I got the power on, didn't I?" He walked past it, followed by Yalson, still looking about her, and Wubslin, also staring, though mostly at the gleaming train. Lights shone inside it. The station filled with the hum of idling motors, the hiss of air circulators and fans. Unaha-Closp floated round to face Horza, reversing through the air while keeping level with the man's face.

"What do you mean? Surely all you have to do is look at the screen; can you see the Mind on there or not?" The drone came closer, dipping down to look at the controls and the small screen on Horza's suit cuff. He swatted it away.

"I'm getting some interference from the reactor." Horza glanced at Wubslin. "We'll cope with it."

"Take a look round the repair area, check the place out," Yalson said to the machine. "Make yourself useful."

"It isn't working, is it?" Unaha-Closp said. It kept pace with Horza, still facing him and backing through the air in front of him. "That three-legged lunatic smashed the mass sensor on the pallet, and now we're blind; we're back to square one, aren't we?"

"No," Horza said impatiently, "we are not. We'll repair it. Now, how about doing something useful for a change?"

"For a change?" Unaha-Closp said with what sounded like feeling. "For a change? You're forgetting who it was saved all your skins back in the tunnels when our cute little Idiran liaison officer over there started running amuck."

"All right, drone," Horza said through clenched teeth. "I've said thank you. Now, why don't you take a look around the station, just in case there's anything to be seen."

"Like Minds you can't spot on wasted suit mass sensors, for example? And what are you lot going to be doing while I'm doing that?"

"Resting," Horza said. "And thinking." He stopped at Xoxarle and inspected the Idiran's bonds.

"Oh, great," Unaha-Closp sneered. "And a lot of good all your thinking has done-"

"For fuck's sake, Unaha-Closp," Yalson said, sighing heavily, "either go or stay, but shut up."

"I see! Right!" Unaha-Closp drew away from them and rose in the air. "I'll just go and lose myself, then! I should have-"

It was floating away as it spoke. Horza shouted over the drone's voice, "Before you go, can you hear any alarms?"

"What?" Unaha-Closp came to a halt. Wubslin put a pained, studious expression on his face and looked around the station's bright walls, as though making an effort to hear above the frequencies his ears could sense.

Unaha-Closp was silent for a moment, then said, "No. No alarms. I'm going now. I'll check out the other train. When I think you might be in a more amenable mood I'll come back." It turned and sped off.