The whole mass continued to plummet down the mile-high cliff, taking a long time to reach the bottom.

Silverbird arrowed through the Gulf, the immense expanse of ruined stars and tattered ion storms which lay between the dense halo of ancient globular clusters that comprised the Wall stars, and the boundary of the Void itself. Justine was receiving the hysradar and quantum scanner images direct, surrounding herself with the mass structure of the real universe translated into scarlet and turquoise mists. Tiny points of emerald light shone within the shifting cosmic oceans, showing her the supermassive stars which had so far retained their integrity during their long spiral into oblivion. Less than a hundred lightyears ahead of her was the frosty glow of the loop, an orbiting band of supercharged matter ten lightyears across which emitted a galaxy-spanning blaze of X-rays. Beyond that was the awesome black surface of the Void boundary. She watched its topology fluctuate, marvel ling at how ocean-like the waves were, with peaks and troughs ripping about chaotically, stirred by incomprehensible internal storm-forces. Quite often she would see an undulation swell out to reach the elongated plume of a disintegrating star that was still lightmonths away. Phenomenal gravity sucked the matter down into the event horizon with a last devastating flare of ultra-hard radiation, the kind which had powered the loop for a billion years. Even that siren call would end soon. At its current expansion rate the Void would engulf the loop in another week. Then it would just be the Wall and the Raiel DF defences that stood between the boundary and the rest of the galaxy.

Justine felt her body shiver again. It was hard to comprehend the scale of the forces outside. She was feeling very small and alone.

'Dad?

'Still here, darling. The relay is holding. Big Bronx cheer for the old Navy techs who put it together.

'We left the last known sensor systems behind five minute's ago. The link might not last much longer.

'Course it will, angel. This was meant to be.

'Yeah, right.

'I'm looking at the access figures for the Unisphere. You've got over half of humanity looking over your shoulder right now.

'Hi there, half of humanity, she said brittley.

'You're doing fine. And I'm in deep shit with ANA for publically admitting there's such a thing as ultradrive.

'Ha! You're always in trouble.

'True. Without me, lawyers would just wither away and die. They think of me as their messiah. Remember when we got caught planting the Florida estate with alien vines?

'Hell yes. The UFN Environmental Commissioners went apeshit with us.

'There are banks we own on the External worlds still paying off that fine.

Justine barked a laugh. Drew down a juddering breath. She desperately wanted out of her ancient body with all its silly biochemical-derived fright. Anyone would think her personality was genuinely scared. 'Any sign the Second Dreamer accessed your appeal?

'Not yet. I expect he'll be talking to the Skylord quite soon now. After all, he'll have to face me if he doesn't start getting his ass in gear. Isn't that right, Second Dreamer?

'Now Dad, she chided.

'Yeah yeah.

'I think I'm going to skim round the loop. That radiation is strong enough to slice through the Silverbird's force fields as if they were tissue paper. Can you believe the figures I'm getting.

'You'll be quite safe in hyperspace.

'I know, but…

'Whatever makes you comfortable, angel.

Justine instructed the smartcore to fly to galactic south of the loop. 'That's odd. The sensors were picking up an artificial signature over forty lightyears behind her. She focused on the origin, which the smartcore displayed as two amber circles. 'Uh, Dad, are you getting this?

Gore took a moment to answer. 'Yes.

'Whatever they are, they're travelling ftl.

'See that.

'I didn't know there was anyone else flying round this part of the galaxy. Tabulated data flowed up into her exovision. 'Christ, they're massive. A wild thought surfaced. 'Do you think they're Skylords? she asked eagerly.

'No, darling, I don't. They're bigger than that. And that's an interception course.

'Oh. Her mood dropped fast. 'The Raiel. And they're fast, too. Faster than Silverbird. Just. It would be touch and go if she reached the boundary ahead of them. 'I don't suppose they're here to escort me in safely.

'I'm calling Qatux right now. He'll sort this out.

'Okay, Dad.

The external sensor visualization flashed white for a microsecond, as if a lightning bolt had zipped through it. Once it cleared, there was an ominous translucent lavender shell emerging where the Raiel ships were, expanding rapidly. Secondary data streams showed her the anomaly was centred on a mass point the size of Earth's moon that had been curving in towards the Void on a ten million year journey to its death. Had been. It had vanished, converted directly to exotic energy which was now flowing through hyperspace.

'Oh FUCK, Justine yelled. Silverbird strengthened every defensive system it had.

The hyperspace shockwave struck the little ultradrive ship with the force of a wayward dinosaur. Justine screamed as she was flung out of the couch, crashing into the forward bulkhead. Alarms shrieked back at her. A multitude of exovision schematics turned amber and red.

The crowd of anti-invasion protesters down in the park gasped in unison as the Silverbird juddered, then let out a long 'Ohooo, of wonder and relief. Araminta couldn't help but join in, thankful Justine had survived the third shockwave propagated by the pursuing Raiel warships and was now picking herself up off the cabin floor again. It was a sound which was replicated right across Colwyn City and beyond. A long way beyond.

She slipped in through the apartment block's underground garage entrance. The door was still open a couple of metres, not wide enough to admit a capsule, but sufficient for her to take her trike out. She'd deactivated the mechanism as she left, opening up the little control box and physically disconnecting the wiring. Now she plugged the coloured cables back into their blocks. The door slid shut behind her, and she hurried through the near-deserted concrete cave to the lifts.

'You okay? Gore asked.

'Bastards! Justine replied shakily. 'What, this isn't hard enough already?

Araminta sank back against the cool metal wall of the lift, feeling the way Justine looked. She'd driven round for an hour on the trike before parking it in a public bay at the Tala mall. Now there was nothing to prove she was at the apartment block — it was the best cover she could think of. The walk back to the Bodant district had taken forty minutes, during which the Raiel warships had started blowing up small moons to try and stop Justine. Everyone accessed that. It made her kind of conspicuous; she was just about the only person moving on Colwyn's streets.

'You're doing fine, Gore assured his daughter. 'Just fine.

Araminta used her old override code to unlock the door to Danal's apartment. Neither he nor Mareble were in. Presumably I hey were out partying with the occupying army, she thought resentfully. The bare structure of the place had just been finished when Araminta handed it over. Since then, Mareble had moved in a few basic furnishings. Araminta gave the cooker a critical glare, the big metal thing looked ridiculously primitive. It had taken Mr Bovey a long time to find it for her, and installing it had been a nightmare.

In Araminta's exovision, Justine was climbing back into her chair, which folded protectively around her. 'Main systems are functional. Drive units have reduced capacity. These energy bursts are stressing a lot of components. I guess they're trying to wear me down.