Yuri looked across at the Klein camp, and he glanced around at Dorothy, Delga, the others; he didn’t know what kind of accommodation this group had come to with Klein. ‘Just this once,’ he murmured to Mardina. ‘Let him get his own way just this once. Hear what he has to say. Then we’ll figure out our own policy. All right?’

She shrugged, and got to her feet.

Anna said, ‘You can leave Beth here. She’s fine.’

And so she was, Yuri could see; she was running around with the other kids in some complicated tag game as if she’d grown up with it.

But Mardina picked up Beth’s bag and slung it over her shoulder. ‘Maybe Beth left some old toys we can give to Klein and his henchmen.’

The others laughed, but Yuri could see Mardina’s smile was forced. He glared at her. What are you up to? She looked away, making no reply, wordless or otherwise.

It was just a short walk downstream to Klein’s camp, with the way led by Liu Tao. Dorothy and Delga walked with them too. The ColU rolled alongside Yuri and Mardina, saying it wanted to inspect the machines in the Klein camp, as it had Delga’s.

The camp was superficially like Delga’s, with tents and lean-tos of the local timber evidently designed for breaking down and rebuilding. A number of fires burned. At first glance Yuri counted twenty adults here, more than one shuttle-load. There were men, women, and children, but gathered in little family groups, Yuri thought, rather than in the split-sex communal arrangements of Delga’s group.

People stared as they came through. They seemed to flinch away, fearfully, and parents kept their kids out of the way. Some of the men wore arm ribbons, like Liu’s – none of the women. And Yuri noticed injuries, burns or scars, on arms and faces. Even some of the children had been injured.

The biggest difference of all was at the heart of the camp. There was one substantial house, like a cabin with vertical walls and a pitched roof, that must have taken a lot of effort to rebuild when it was moved. And alongside the house was another ColU, or the remains of one, its dome detached, its manipulator arms lost. On top of this was set a chair, of carved wood and cushions.

And on the chair sat Gustave Klein, appearing as corpulent as ever. He wore what looked like an astronaut uniform, let out to fit his frame, black and sleek, with six of those arm ribbons wrapped around his fat biceps. He smiled down at Yuri. His head shaved, his face round, multiple chins tucked down on his chest; it was like looking up at the moon of Earth. ‘I don’t even remember you,’ Klein said.

‘Thanks.’

‘But I remember you. The delectable Lieutenant Mardina Jones.’ He leaned forward and sniffed. ‘Oh, we all had the hots for you, back in the day.’

‘And I remember you, Klein, and you’re as disgusting now as you were then.’

He roared laughter. ‘Feisty, isn’t she? Well, you’re not in command any more, for all your arrogance.’ He glared at the ColU. ‘You. What are you looking at?’

‘At the autonomous colonisation unit on which you sit.’ The ColU’s cameras pivoted to look at the group’s second unit, which stood at the edge of another potato field. That too had had its dome removed, all its sensors, though its manipulator arms remained. ‘You acquired a second machine.’

‘ “Acquired”. Yeah. Good word, that. When we came across another group and we “acquired” them and all their gear. Mostly we acquired the women, of course,’ and he cackled laughter, leering at Mardina.

‘And what of the units’ AI modules?’ the ColU asked.

‘Well, we cut them out and dumped them,’ Klein said. ‘When they wouldn’t do what we wanted.’

‘We did the same,’ Dorothy admitted. ‘Didn’t you ever think of that?’

‘Evidently not,’ said Mardina evenly.

‘You dumped them,’ the ColU said. ‘Fully sentient, rendered as if limbless and sightless, dumped them in the sand and abandoned them. Unable even to die—’

Mardina said, ‘I think there have been greater cruelties committed on this planet than that, ColU.’

The ColU rolled away. ‘I will inspect that machine. And I will make it a personal goal,’ it said, receding, ‘to recover all my lost and wounded brothers. Some day, somehow . . .’

Klein ignored it. He stared at Yuri, curiously. ‘Just the two of you, right? We all got dropped in the middle of nowhere. How did you get out?’

‘Tell us how you got out.’

Liu answered for him. ‘It was kind of brutal,’ he admitted. ‘Turns out we were left even further from any other water sources than most of the shuttle groups we’ve heard about.’

‘I wonder why,’ Mardina said, staring up at Klein.

‘China boy’s too squeamish to tell you how it was,’ Klein said. ‘We didn’t have enough water from the start. Then the lake we were stuck by started drying out. Even the little reedy natives cleared off. Some astronaut screwed up, we should never have been dropped there. So we walked out. And you know how we survived?’ He licked his lips, staring back at her. ‘You want to know what your precious ISF astronauts, your marvellous Major McGregor, made us do? We drank the blood of those who weren’t going to make it. That’s how we survived. Quite a story, huh? A story that will be told as long as there are people on Kleinworld. And don’t pretend you’re somehow above all that, China boy. You stained your mouth too.’

Liu looked away.

Mardina said, ‘Kleinworld? You’ve got to be kidding.’

Delga grinned. ‘We just call it the Bowl. Because that’s how it feels, doesn’t it? When you look up at that big sun in the sky, never moving. Like you’re stuck at the bottom of a great big bowl, with slippery sides that you can never climb out of.’

‘We call it Per Ardua,’ Yuri said, and he explained why.

Dorothy Wynn nodded. ‘I rather like that.’

‘ “I rather like that”,’ Klein snapped mockingly. ‘Oh, do you? Well, I fucking don’t. Typical smartass stuff from you astronauts – right, Lieutenant Jones? Let me tell you something. You’re a long way from the officers’ lounge now. You’re in my world, whether you call it that or not. I’m the power here. Look around. And I’ll tell you what you’re going to do before—’

With a single smooth movement Mardina pulled a crossbow out of Beth’s bag, raised it, and shot him in the eye. He fell back on his big chair, limbs splayed, mouth open, and was still.

For a moment there was silence, save for the gurgling of Klein’s gut as it shut down. Nobody moved. Then Mardina held up the crossbow, loaded it again, and showed it to Klein’s ‘officers’.

Delga was the first to react. She laughed. ‘Wow. How did you—’

‘Practice,’ Yuri said grimly.

‘Practice, yes,’ Mardina said. ‘I’ve had a lot of time for that the last ten years. But I haven’t got time for an asshole like Klein. And I’ve got a daughter to protect. So, that’s that dealt with. Anybody got any objections? No? Good. Let’s get out of here; we’ve got a lot to talk about. By the way—’ she looked contemptuously at Liu’s arms, the ribbons, ‘—you won’t be needing those any more.’

Flanked by Dorothy and Delga, she walked out of the camp, heading upstream.

Yuri and Liu fell in behind her. Yuri was ready for trouble, but Klein’s people seemed stunned. None of them had even gone to the body yet.

‘You’ve got a tiger by the tail there, my friend,’ Liu murmured to Yuri.

‘Tell me about it.’

As they walked back to Delga’s camp, a few flakes of snow started falling from the sky. By the time they got back Beth and the other children were dancing and shouting, excited by the thickening fall.

CHAPTER 46

The walls, the carpet melted back, to reveal a washed-out blue sky, well-watered grass underfoot. Only their three chairs remained, and Stef wondered how much else of Earthshine’s fancy chamber had been a simulation.