"It's giving me a reading off that big cloud in front, right the way along and about half a K up." Kraiklyn laughed. "It isn't the Edgewall, that's for sure, and I can see that's a cloud, and it's closer than the needle says it is."

"Where are you now?" Dorolow broke in. "Did you find any lasers? What about that door?"

"No, just a sort of sun lounge or something," Kraiklyn said. "Kraiklyn!" Horza shouted. "Are you sure about that reading?"

"I'm sure. The needle says-"

"Sure isn't much fucking sun to lounge-" somebody broke in, though it sounded as if it was accidental and they didn't know their transmit was on. Horza felt sweat start out on his brow. Something was wrong.

"Lamm!" he shouted. Lamm, thirty metres away down the corridor, turned as he walked and looked back. "Come back!" Horza shouted. Lamm stopped.

"Horza, there can't be anything-"

"Kraiklyn!" This time it was Mipp's voice, calling from the shuttle. "There was somebody else here. I just saw another craft take off somewhere behind where we landed; they've gone now."

"OK, thanks Mipp," Kraiklyn said, his voice calm. "Listen, Horza, from what I can see from here, the bows where you are have just gone into the cloud, so it is a cloud… Shit, we can all see it's a goddamn cloud. Don't-"

The ship shuddered under Horza's feet. He rocked. Lamm looked at him, puzzled. "Did you feel that?" Horza shouted.

"Feel what?" Kraiklyn said.

"Kraiklyn?" It was Mipp again. "I can see something…"

"Lamm, get back here!" Horza shouted, through the air and into his helmet mike together. Lamm looked around him. Horza thought he could feel a continuing tremor in the deck below.

"What did you feel?" Kraiklyn said. He was starting to get annoyed.

Yalson chipped in, "I thought I felt something. Nothing much. But listen, these things aren't supposed to… they aren't supposed to-"

"Kraiklyn," Mipp said more urgently, "I think I can see-"

"Lamm!" Horza was backing off now, back down the long tunnel of corridor. Lamm stayed where he was, looking hesitant.

Horza could hear something, a curious growling noise; it reminded him of a jet engine or a fusion motor heard from a very long distance away, but it wasn't either. He could feel something under his feet, too — that tremor, and there was some sort of pull, a tug that seemed to be dragging him forward, towards Lamm, towards the bows, as though he was in a weak field, or-

"Kraiklyn!" Mipp yelled. "I can! There is! I — you — I'm-" he spluttered.

"Look, will you all just calm down?"

"I can feel something…" Yalson began.

Horza started running, pounding back down the corridor. Lamm, who had started to walk back, stopped and put his hands on his hips when he saw the other man running, away from him. There was a distant roaring noise in the air, like a big waterfall heard from far down a gorge.

"I can feel something too, it's as if-"

"What was Mipp yelling about?"

"We're crashing!" Horza shouted as he ran. The roaring was coming closer, growing stronger all the time.

"Ice!" It was Mipp. "I'm bringing the shuttle! Run! It's a wall of ice! Neisin! Where are you? Neisin! I've got-"

"What!"

"ICE?"

The roaring noise grew; the corridor around Horza started to groan. Several of the opaque roof panels fractured and fell to the floor in front of him. A section of wall suddenly sprang out like an opening door and he just avoided running into it. The noise filled his ears.

Lamm looked round, and saw the end of the corridor coming towards him; the whole end section was closing off steadily with a grinding roar, advancing towards him at about running speed. He fired at it but it didn't stop; smoke poured into the corridor. He swore, turned and ran, following Horza.

People were yelling and shouting from all over now. There was a babble of tiny voices in both Horza's ears, but all he could really hear was the thundering noise behind him. The deck beneath his feet bucked and trembled, as though the whole gigantic ship was a building caught in an earthquake. The plates and panels which made up the corridor walls were buckling; the floor rose up in places; more roof panels shattered and fell. All the time the same sapping force was pulling him back, slowing him down as though he was in a dream. He ran out into daylight, heard Lamm not far behind.

"Kraiklyn, you stupid motherfucking son of a bitch's bastard!" Lamm screamed.

The voices yammered in his ear; his heart pounded. He threw each foot forward with all his might, but the roaring was coming closer, growing stronger. He ran past the empty state rooms where the soft materials blew, the roof was starting to fold in on the apartments and the deck was tilting; the holosphere they had seen earlier came rolling and bouncing out of the collapsing windows. A hatch near Horza blew out in a gust of pressured air and flying debris; he ducked as he ran, felt splinters strike his suit. He skidded as the deck under him banged and leapt. Lamm's steps came pounding behind him. Lamm continued to scream abuse at Kraiklyn over the intercom.

The noise behind him was like a gigantic waterfall, a big rock-slide, like a continuous explosion, a volcano. His ears ached and his mind reeled, stunned by the volume of the racket. A line of windows set in the wall ahead of him went white, then exploded towards him, throwing particles at his suit in a series of small hard clouds. He put his head down again, he headed for the doorway.

"Bastard bastard bastard!" Lamm bellowed.

"— not stopping!"

"— over here!"

"Shut up, Lamm."

"Horzaaa…!"

Voices screamed in his ear. He was running on carpet now, inside a broad corridor; open doors were flapping, light fittings on the ceiling were vibrating. Suddenly a deluge of water swept across the corridor in front of him, twenty metres away, and for a second he thought he was at sea level, but knew he couldn't be; when he ran over the place where the water had been he could see and hear it frothing and gurgling down a broad spiral stairwell, and only a few dribbles were falling from overhead. The tugging of the slowly decelerating ship seemed less now, but the roar of noise was still all around him. He was weakening, running in a daze, trying to keep his balance as the long corridor vibrated and twisted around him. Now a rush of air was flowing past him; some sheets of paper and plastic flapped past him like coloured birds.

"— bastard bastard bastard-"

"Lamm-"

There was daylight ahead, through a glassed-over sun deck of broad windows. He jumped through some big-leaved plants growing in large pots and landed in a group of flimsy chairs set round a small table, demolishing them.

"— fucking stupid bast-"

"Lamm, shut up!" Kraiklyn's voice broke in. "We can't hear-"

The line of windows ahead went white, cracking like ice then bursting out; he dived through the space, to skid over the fragments scattered on the deck beyond. Behind him, the top and bottom of the shattered windows started to close slowly, like a huge mouth.

"You bastard! You motherfu-"

"Dammit, change channels! Go to-"

He slipped on the shards of glass, almost falling.

Only Lamm's voice sounded through his helmet now, filling his ears with oaths which were mostly drowned in the smothering roar of the endless wreck behind. He looked back, just for a second, to see Lamm throwing himself between the jaws of the crumpling windows; he careened over the deck, falling and rolling, then rising again, still holding his gun, as Horza looked away. It was only at that point he realised he no longer had his own gun; he must have dropped it, but he couldn't remember where or when.

Horza was slowing down. He was fit and strong, but the above-standard pull of Vavatch's false gravity and the badly fitting suit were taking their toll.