‘Jerusalem,’ he asked abruptly, ‘what is the AI assessment of Erebus’s method of attack?’

The AI replied instantly, probably turning only a fraction of a per cent of its attention towards this conversation.

‘We are puzzled,’ it admitted.

‘Why are you puzzled?’

‘For precisely the same reasons as you yourself. Erebus seems to have displayed all its cards before the game has even begun.’

‘See?’ said Cormac to Mika. He then gazed up at the ceiling, as most people did when addressing an AI whose precise location they did not know. ‘What about those objects in the asteroid field?’ Though Erebus’s entire mass of biomech ships had not appeared, something else had arrived out there not so long ago.

‘We have yet to find them. I suspect that they are merely devices to keep watch on us, since anything else would cause disturbances we would detect.’

‘Perhaps I should go out and take a look?’ suggested Cormac.

‘That will not be necessary,’ the AI replied firmly.

‘Cormac,’ agreed Mika, ‘there’s nothing for you to do at the moment.’

Yes, he thought, even entities with artificial intelligences a couple of orders of magnitude greater than mine don’t know what to do. He nodded, but just then he spotted Arach, the spider drone, slowly opening out his long metal legs and lifting his ruby-eyed head to survey his surroundings. The drone seemed to test the air briefly with his pincers before springing into a fully upright position: a chromed spider some five feet across. Arach now possessed a new abdomen — the original, equipped with automated weapons, having been left behind on a world near where the Polity fleet had been ambushed to help fend off Erebus’s pursuing ground-based bio-mechanisms. This new abdomen apparently contained a similar array of armament.

‘Something has occurred,’ Jerusalem observed.

Cormac realized that, for Arach would only have bothered waking up if there was a chance he would get to use all that new armament. Cormac resisted the urge to key into the local AI nets to find out what was going on. It all struck him as rather too convenient.

‘Tell me,’ he said, noting Mika’s expression becoming resigned and almost sad.

‘One of Erebus’s wormships has attacked a Polity world,’ Jerusalem replied.

‘Which one?’ Cormac asked, imagining one of the big ones, with a population in billions, now reduced to a smouldering ruin.

‘The choice of target is, again, puzzling.’

Arach was now doing his familiar tappity little dance on the carpet, obviously unable to contain his glee. Jerusalem was specifically informing Cormac about this and the spider drone was suddenly active… which must mean there was a situation that needed investigating without requiring an investment of battleships, major AIs or weaponry. Cormac was needed.

‘You know, I thought AI minds could work a hundred times faster than those of humans, but you’re going slow enough now to try my patience.’

‘Very well,’ said Jerusalem. ‘The wormship attacked a very minor world, of no tactical importance, called Klurhammon. As we understand it, the same ship has now departed, after wiping out a large proportion of the population and causing much destruction.’

‘Makes no sense.’

‘Precisely.’

‘And it needs looking into.’ Cormac found himself moving towards the door of the lounge, while Arach scuttled across to fall in behind him. Abruptly he halted, not liking his own unthinking reaction, then turned and strode back over to Mika.

‘You nearly forgot me,’ she said.

‘Will you come?’

Before Mika could reply, Jerusalem interrupted: ‘I cannot allow that.’

‘Why not?’ asked Cormac, gazing into Mika’s face and seeing she already knew the reason.

‘There are two Dragon spheres stationary nearby and, besides the AIs insystem, Mika is the nearest thing we have to a Dragon expert. Also… her presence would constrain you.’

It was true — he had already made that assessment — but he felt there was something else involved here. ‘And?’

‘Mika has a concord with Dragon — it communicates better with her than with anyone else here. She is therefore a valuable resource when it comes to communicating with that particular entity.’

Cormac accepted that, feeling rather ashamed at his relief.

‘Then I’ll see you when I return,’ he said to her.

They kissed, perhaps with a bit less passion than previously, but certainly with the same sincerity.

‘Goodbye, Cormac,’ she whispered. ‘Try to stay alive.’

He headed away, trying not to notice the tears glistening in her eyes. The door opened for him automatically, and soon he was striding through the Jerusalem’s numerous corridors, heading for the room he had been sharing with Mika.

‘Do you think there’s going to be violence? the spider drone asked eagerly as it scuttled along behind.

‘Shut up, Arach,’ Cormac replied.

Arriving at the room he went straight to a particular cabinet and from there removed only the two things he really required: a thin-gun he had grown accustomed to practising with and the wrist-sheath containing his Tenkian throwing star — a device long proved to have an erratic mind of its own. He headed straight out again without even looking at the other belongings gathered there.

‘I’d like to select my own team,’ he said as he strode along.

‘Those currently available have been notified,’ Jerusalem replied.

Annoying that the AI had probably already worked out exactly who he wanted to select.

‘And my own ship?’

‘The Jack Ketch III is unavailable, since it has yet to acquire any engines.’

Cormac halted, somehow getting an intimation of what was coming next. ‘Then what ship is available?’

‘The King of Hearts has been refitted, and is now prepped and ready for you.’

Great, the same AI attack ship that once went rogue and then had… a change of heart. Following this transformation it had rescued Cormac himself and those few surviving the debacle on the world where he had lost his comrade Thorn, his mentor Horace Blegg and many others. He didn’t at all trust the AI running that ship, but he guessed Jerusalem now intended for King to prove itself trustworthy.

‘Fine,’ Cormac replied. ‘Fine.’

He reached a drop-shaft and, programming it ahead of him through his gridlink, stepped into it and allowed the irised gravity field to waft him upward. Stepping out into another corridor, Arach clattering quickly behind, he found only one person awaiting him. The ersatz man was tough-looking with cropped black hair, brown skin and unreasonably green eyes. All emulation, for this was Hubbert Smith, a Golem android in the thirtieth production series.

‘Time to load up and ship out,’ announced Smith.

‘So it would seem,’ said Cormac. ‘Where’s your companion, Ursach Candy Kline?’

‘It would seem that our personal experience of warfare with Erebus must be fairly distributed, so she shipped out of here about four days ago.’

Cormac grimaced and moved on.

‘How y’ doin’, Arach?’ said Smith.

‘Lock and load,’ the spider drone replied.

Cormac fought to stop his grimace turning into a grin.

‘What about Andrew Hailex?’ he enquired.

Hailex, like Smith and Kline, was another of those rescued by the King of Hearts. He was human and, when Cormac first saw him, the man had looked to be in his twenties, as most people chose to look since that option had become available in centuries past. Cormac knew him to be actually in his sixties and an experienced Sparkind combat veteran. The man had been utterly hairless and bulky. Grinned a lot.

Trying to find a replacement for Thorn?

No, Hailex had looked more like Gant, who had once been in Thorn’s Sparkind unit — another who had died during one of Cormac’s missions.

‘Hailex will not be joining us either,’ Smith replied. ‘He applied for a transference to agent training.’