The monorail terminus was close to the river, the south bank of the Seine, and as the elevated train pulled in, Penny could see across the river to the Île de la Cité, no doubt blessed with a Latin name in this timeline, where a magnificent domed cathedral towered over a crowd of lesser buildings.

As the train drew to a halt, Jiang helped Penny out of her seat. It was only a short walk, Kerys promised, to the office of the provincial administration, where the passengers of the Malleus Jesu had been lodged since their passage to Terra. Penny braced herself for the walk, and an encounter she could barely imagine, with her sister, Stef Kalinski.

CHAPTER 25

They were guided into a very Roman reception room, all couches and tapestries and a mosaic floor, and servants scuttling around under the direction of a provincial official, a short, pompous-looking man in a crisp white toga.

And here were the strangers, standing together in an uncomfortable huddle, Penny thought. The group was dominated by a big man wearing breast armour and a thick military buckle. At his side were a couple more Roman military types, looking out of place in this rather fussy formal room, along with a middle-aged woman in the costume of a Brikanti, and an older man in a rather more practical-looking toga.

And there stood a boy, maybe eighteen, nineteen years old, with Asiatic features, a little plump, with some kind of well-padded pack on his back. He wore a drab tunic, and what looked like an ISF-issue slate rested on his chest, suspended from a chain around his neck. He was barefoot. Penny immediately guessed he was a slave. Jiang seemed drawn to the boy, who was perhaps a fellow Xin.

To Penny, all this was background. To her there was only one presence in the room. She stepped forward.

Their eyes locked, Penny and Stef Kalinski faced each other.

‘My God,’ Penny said at last, speaking English. ‘I never thought—’

‘Nor I, believe me,’ Stef said fervently. ‘I went through a Hatch to Proxima Centauri to get away from you. And then even further, to a star that turned out to be nine light years away. Only to be picked up by these alternate Romans and brought back home, to this.’

‘And in Paris again.’ Penny tried to smile, and failed. ‘Do you remember, all those years ago?’

‘Our mother’s grave. How could I forget? But I’m kind of surprised you can still remember.’ Stef walked around Penny, eyeing her. ‘So this is my future. I feel like Dorian Grey.’

‘I’m not that old. I’m eighty-nine now, Stef. Whereas you—’

‘Am a youthful seventy, thanks to a lot of Hatch-hopping and relativistic time dilation.’

‘Whatever we are, we are no longer twins, at least.’

Stef grinned malevolently. ‘Good. And, seeing you standing there with that damn stick, I feel like I somehow won.’

‘And I,’ said Penny tiredly, ‘feel like I’m too old to care. I wish you no harm, Stef. I never did.’

‘No. It was your sudden eruption into existence when I opened that damn Hatch on Mercury that did the harm.’

‘When we opened it … Oh, it’s all so long ago.’

The big Roman approached them, walking slowly, non-threatening. He said gently, in gruff Latin, ‘Colonel Stef Kalinski. Druidh Penny Kalinski. Though you are twins it pleases me it is so easy to tell you apart.’

Stef said softly, ‘I hope your Latin’s up to scratch, sis. The Romans don’t speak anything else.’

Penny nodded. ‘Quite right too – umm, Centurion?’

‘Indeed. I am Centurion Quintus Fabius, commander of the mission of the Malleus Jesu. These others you see here are members of my crew – my optio, Gnaeus Junius, my trierarchus the Brikanti Movena, Michael, our medicus. Oh, and the slave bears the remnant of Collius, your speaking machine.’

Penny stared at the boy.

‘Ordinarily at the end of a mission our crew would be dispersed, returned to our legion’s collegia for induction, leave and reassignment. Instead we have been given the unusual task of caring for the strangers we found on a planet of the distant star Romulus, at least until more formal arrangements can be made.’

Penny barked laughter. ‘I’m becoming used to the bureaucracies of empires. You mean, until your government and the Brikanti can come up with some category to file us away in.’

He grinned. ‘Well, I’m no clerk, lady, but I see the truth in what you say. But we welcome the task. You see the big man over there, with one hand? He is a legionary, a veteran; he is called Titus Valerius. For five years he has been the protector of the slave who carries Collius. It is a task he fulfils with joy. Of course the alternative for him would have been to remain with the permanent colonia under that distant star …’

‘Collius? ColU?’ Beth pushed her way between them and made her way to the slave boy, who stood passively, head lowered, eyes downcast – a gesture Penny had learned to recognise, and hate. Beth cupped his chin and raised his head. ‘Why, you’re not much older than my Mardina, are you? What is your name?’

The boy glanced at Titus Valerius, who growled, ‘Answer the lady. You’re not in any trouble.’

‘My name is Chu Yuen, lady.’

‘Collius? You mean the ColU? You’re really carrying around the ColU in your backpack?’

‘What’s left of me,’ came a mournful voice from the backpack.

Beth’s face lit up. ‘ColU – it is you! Oh, I could hug you. But—’

‘Yuri Eden saved my processor unit and memory store. My interfacing is provided by slate technology. I am afraid I am not very huggable.’

‘Maybe I should hug this slave of yours.’

‘Please, Beth Eden Jones. Not in front of the Romans. Did I hear you mention a Mardina?’

‘Yes. My daughter, named after my mother. Mardina – come here.’

Mardina came up, but with every expression of reluctance, and Penny, still feeling bruised from her own encounter with the complicated past, could only sympathise.

The ColU said, ‘Chu Yuen. Please turn a little to the right.’

The boy obeyed, and Penny observed how he stuck his chest out as he did so, tilting the slate. That was evidently how the ColU ‘saw’ the world.

‘Mardina,’ the ColU said gravely. ‘I’m pleased to meet you. You have your grandmother’s name, and something of her looks.’

‘I never knew her.’ Mardina looked wildly at her mother. ‘I feel like I’m talking into thin air, talking to a ghost!’

‘Lieutenant Mardina Jones was a brave and strong human being, and I would be honoured to talk to you about her.’

‘Don’t bother,’ Mardina snarled back.

Beth said hurriedly, ‘It’s all right, ColU, it’s difficult for her.’

‘I understand,’ the ColU said gently. ‘Beth, as for your father, Yuri Eden …’

Stef walked up to Beth and took her hand. ‘You know that we went through the Hatch to Romulus together. Yuri and I. Just the two of us, and the ColU – the surviving bit of it. But—’

‘He hasn’t made it home, has he?’

‘His illness seemed to have been caused by his century in cryo suspension. “Freezer burn” he called it. I’m sorry, Beth.’

The ColU said, ‘I was with him in his last hours. I can tell you as much about that as you wish. Beth Eden Jones, he made me promise to find you. And so I have. And he instructed me to make sure you understand that, under his will as drawn up under Roman law, I am now your property, Beth.’

Penny could see that Beth was holding back tears. She hobbled forward on her stick. ‘Well, I for one have done enough standing for one day. And my throat’s as dry as the dust of Luna.’

With a glance at the provincial official, Quintus Fabius stepped forward, hands held wide, generously. ‘Let me be your host.’

The Romans showed remarkable sensitivity towards the gathered survivors of the UN-China Culture, Penny thought. They were allowed space and time to talk, to get over the shock of meeting.