Paula put her lips together and whistled a long single note. The combatbots hovering above the villa showed her Stubsy Florae writhing in agony on his decimated wooden flooring. She hurried over in time to see strange grey growths blooming from his mouth and nose.

Her u-shadow opened a link directly to his microcellular clusters. 'Florae? Can you receive this?

The furry grey substance was emerging from his eyes.

'Who was it, Florae? Do you know who did this?

The only reply that came down the link was a burst of white noise.

'Okay, I'm getting you into a medical chamber. My ship has the best in the Commonwealth. You'll be fine. She picked him up and flew straight into the airlock, ordering the smartcore to initiate level one decontamination procedures. She really didn't like the look of the grey fungal stuff.

'Hang on in there, Florae, you'll be okay. You stay with me, understand?

It only took her a few seconds to get to the cabin, but he was convulsing by the time she lowered him into the coffin-sized medical chamber. The steel-sheen malmetal top closed fluidly over him.

A scan revealed that the grey substance had invaded his entire body, consuming and corrupting every organ. It had twined itself round his nerves, not damaging them, but embracing them. Paula watched the read outs in disgust and dismay as the intruder fed a continuous stream of impulses into every nerve fibre in Florae's body. Fronds inside his brain stimulated selected neural pathways to ensure his consciousness remained intact.

There wasn't enough of his original flesh left for the medical chamber to sustain. As Paula watched, Florae died in as much agony as it was possible for a human nervous system to conduct.

'Extract his memorycell, she ordered the medical chamber. But even that wasn't possible, the grey fronds had gnawed away at the memorycell, breaking it apart. She reviewed the read outs with growing alarm. The grey stuff seemed to be some kind of biononic viral, capable of breaking down both organic and inorganic compounds. It was already seeping into the instruments and manipulators interfaced with Florae's body, transforming them into more of itself, an effect inching into the casing of the medical chamber.

'Hell! she grunted. The Alexis Denken shot out of the atmosphere to an altitude of five thousand kilometres, then ejected the entire medical chamber. It tumbled away from the starship, sunlight glinting off its bright metal and plastic surfaces. Paula swept a powerful gamma-ray laser through it several times, making sure every molecule of the viral was disassociated; then finished it off with a single disruptor pulse. The now white-hot slag of the medical chamber burst apart in a sparkling swam of effervescence.

Several ground-based sensor systems locked on to the Alexis Denken. The smartcore received identification demands from every city on the planet. Paula simply ignored them, and flew back down to the villa gain.

The combatbots were circling overhead as the monsoon continued to soak the rubble. Long rivulets gurgled along the cracked paving, thick with scum and powdery mud. Paula's armour boots splashed through them as she made her way cautiously to the crater. The torn earth walls were mildly radioactive. Spybots swooped down to scan the remnants of the underground chamber. The first thing they detected amidst all the charred plastic and warped metal was the burned body. It appeared to be another of Florae's bodyguards. Then they picked up the signature of the grey substance. There was a patch clinging to a chunk of fractured rock. Its edges rippled as it sought to grow.

'Damnit, Paula swore. There was nothing for it. She called two of the combatbots down, and began a systematic sterilization of the site using gamma-lasers. That was when she called ANA. 'Things are getting a little crazy out here, she confessed.

'The Accelerators must be desperate to keep Troblum silenced.

'No. That's not what happened here. Paula was standing in the remnants of the lounge, using her field scan on the broken fragments of the exotic matter generator. There wasn't much left, and she was fairly certain her own firepower hadn't been wholly responsible. It had self-destructed at some point during the fight. 'Whoever was here could have eliminated him the second he turned up. They didn't. They wanted to use him as bait for me. This exotic matter system was intended to capture me. It's an extremely elaborate trap. Someone went to a lot of trouble. I got lucky Troblum's ship arrived when it did, another second and I'd would have been engulfed.

'You have acquired a great many enemies over the years.

'Yes, but this one has the backing of a Faction. They had an ultradrive ship effectively equal to the Alexis Denken, they had this revolting viral, and they knew I was coming to meet with Troblum. Logically, they must be allied with the Accelerators, yet they didn't eliminate Troblum. Who would the Accelerators possibly turn to at this point, who then wouldn't do what they needed most and silence Troblum? It's not logical. This person certainly doesn't seem to have any moral qualms about killing anyone. And I was obviously intended for the torture chamber, or some variant. Even as she said it, a really bad feeling was growing in her mind. She remembered that ridiculous wiggle which the glowing white figure had performed as it ascended into the starship. There was certainly one person who would fit the bill — but that wasn't possible. She was very definitely in suspension, and had been for over nine hundred years. Of course, if anyone had the ability to break her out, it would be a Faction… 'They wouldn't dare, she whispered. But the Accelerators were becoming increasingly arrogant. And they had been planning their moves for decades.

'What do you intend next? ANA asked.

Paula stared round at the rain-sodden area as the lightning flickered again. 'I need a full forensic examination here. It's a long shot, but if there's anything that will tell us where the exotic matter cage was built and by whom, I need to know.

'I will dispatch a team immediately.

'Thank you. I'm going to investigate Troblum a little closer. I need to work out where he's gone. There's nothing else I can do until Oscar snags the Second Dreamer for us.

'As you wish.

Paula looked up into the wild clouds, wishing she could see the stars. 'Any change on the devourment phase?

'Not yet.

'Will you be able to survive it?

'I don't know. What will you do?

'Ultimately? If it can't be stopped. I'm not sure. The High Angel will take me to another galaxy if I want. But right now we need to prevent our dear species from making things any worse.

Araminta didn't sleep the whole night long. How could she?

No, she'd said.

No to the Skylord. No to the entity that was offering to guide a goodly portion of humanity to what they regarded as their nirvana.

No. Said because: I'm the Second Dreamer.

It's me. Mel

Oh, Ozzie, please help me. This simply cannot be.

Me, she kept turning that over and over. How could it be me? Because of some distant ancestor she'd never even heard of until the other day, this Mellanie and her friendship with the Silfen. All that, all those unknowns from centuries ago had come pressing down on her, had taken away her destiny, her self-determination. Fate had chosen her.

Me!

And now the million, the billions, of Living Dream followers would look to her to help them join with the Skylord. And she'd said no.

The Skylord had been surprised. Shocked, even. She'd felt that wounded astonishment linger as she withdrew her mind from contact. That wasn't an answer which fitted its reality. She might just have well said no to gravity for all the sense it made.