‘The Void is hostile to Raiel,’ Vallar replied. ‘Humans appear to thrive there.’

Nigel looked at Paula again.

She pulled a face. ‘So who do we get to go in?’ she asked.

‘Someone who’s been prewarned about the Void’s nature. Someone who’s smart enough to ask the right questions. You would be perfect.’

‘As would you. But I’m not going to flip you for it. In the Starflyer War, we took criminals out of suspension and offered them the opportunity to serve the Commonwealth in return for a reduced sentence.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ Nigel said, surprised she’d even mentioned that. ‘Psychopaths and loons are just the kind of people we should be sending into that environment.’

‘Ask Living Dream followers. Every one of them would happily volunteer.’

‘Again, a great choice to represent us. We both know I’m the one that’s going to have to go in.’

‘I thought you were leaving the Commonwealth.’

‘I am. But dear old Vincent Hal Acraman has shown us how we get round that little problem, hasn’t he?’

July 9th 3326

The chrome-blue capsule descended out of the glaring Augusta sky to touch down on the lake house’s lawn. Nigel Sheldon walked out and immediately put on a pair of sunglasses. In this new body, everything seemed brighter and louder. That or his old thought routines were simply jaded and faded, unused to perceiving the universe through sharp eyes. It was a better theory; those old routines were having trouble controlling this body with its increased strength and reaction times. He had to concentrate hard just to walk. This body’s muscles were strong enough to lift him off the ground at each step, as if he was in lunar gravity, not Augusta’s point-nine-three Earth standard.

He stood on the lawn and took a long deep breath. The El Iopi wind was blowing strongly today, bringing the continent’s heat with it. Inside his grey-green onepiece coverall, he started sweating. His original came out of the capsule behind him, wearing a purple silk suit. He slipped a pair of mirrorshades on with exactly the same gesture Nigel had just used.

Paula Myo was standing on the lake house’s veranda, along with Vallar. She gave him and the original Nigel a sardonic grin. Nigel licked his lips and walked over.

‘Welcome to the world,’ Paula said directly to him.

Nigel guessed it was the hair which separated them. His original still needed a haircut, while his had barely grown more than a short frizz. ‘Did he tattoo the number two on my forehead?’ he asked.

Her mouth twitched. ‘Do you remember me?’

Nigel took both her hands in his, and gave her a fulsome grin. ‘Nothing could banish you from my mind.’

‘That’s very sweet.’

‘So I was thinking, as the chances of me coming back are about a million below zero, how about you and I spend the last few days I have in this universe together? Condemned man, and all that.’

She opened her eyes wide with mock adoration. ‘The night you come back,’ she breathed huskily, ‘I’ll fling myself at you like Ranalee on Edeard.’

‘Ah, dammit. They used to say it was impossible for you to lie,’ he said, remembering the young Paula who had caused such a stir when she started working for the Commonwealth Serious Crime Directorate all those centuries ago.

‘Come back and find out,’ she told him.

‘Thank you, but I remember what fate Ranalee had in mind for Edeard.’

‘Yeah, but what a way to go.’

The original Nigel cleared his throat, his expression mildly disapproving. ‘If you two have quite finished . . .’

They all went into the lounge, and the window wall glass swept shut behind them. Nigel sat next to Paula on one of the wide grey couches, while his original sat opposite them – like some kind of nineteenth-century chaperone. Vallar stood in the middle of the room.

‘How do you feel?’ Paula asked.

Nigel gave his original a smug look. ‘Better, stronger, faster than before. I should have downloaded into a re-life clone centuries ago.’

‘And how fortunate: you managed to keep your ego intact, too,’ she said drily. ‘What could possibly go wrong?’

Nigel laughed. ‘So how have you three done while I was being grown?’ he asked. ‘My memory stops five weeks ago, just after we’d gone through Inigo’s dreams and decided on this – me.’ He cocked his head to glance at his original. ‘And the Dynasty’s network is sealed against me.’

‘You wouldn’t find what we’re doing on the Dynasty’s network anyway,’ his original replied. ‘This is a very private operation.’

‘The ship is ready,’ Paula told him.

‘How biological is it?’ Nigel asked.

‘About seventy per cent,’ his original said. ‘We’ve even managed to construct some ultradrive systems out of semiorganics.’ A slight pause. ‘Mark Vernon is in charge of construction.’

Nigel smiled in delight. ‘Wow, we’re really reverting to the good old days. What did Mark have to say about being brought in?’

‘He’s loving it, of course,’ his original said. ‘Between moaning like hell. But there really is no one better for integrating odd systems like this.’

‘Excellent.’ Before Nigel’s new body had been fast-grown in a vat at the Dynasty’s private clinic, his original had agreed with Paula and Vallar that organic systems were the most likely to retain functionality in the Void. Something in that weird continuum seemed innately hostile to most technology. ‘Anything new come up?’

He watched his original and Paula exchange a glance.

‘Not really,’ Paula said.

‘But . . .’ he prompted.

‘We’ve been trying to understand the Skylords. They seem to be independent; they’re certainly sentient in a savant fashion. But at the same time they only exist to guide souls, or fulfilled minds, to the Heart. That’s a little puzzling.’

‘Paradoxical,’ his original said.

‘So?’ Nigel asked.

‘We’re uncertain if you can rely on them,’ Paula told him. ‘They don’t seem to be antagonistic, more like aloof, which again is contrary, given the function they perform.’

‘I’m not sure something like that can evolve naturally,’ the original Nigel said. ‘They were probably created by the Void Heart or its controlling mechanism, whatever that is. But they do seem a little odd.’

‘Unlike the rest of the Void,’ Nigel observed.

‘The Void is odd, granted, but it’s all integral, and even has a kind of internal logic.’

‘You said it,’ Nigel said. ‘They serve a function, guiding fulfilled souls to the Heart.’

‘It just doesn’t quite seem right,’ Paula said.

‘You can’t seriously think the Skylords evolved outside and then fell into the Void like other species,’ Nigel countered. ‘That’s even more illogical.’

‘Our neural bioware is artificial,’ Paula said. ‘It is technically machinery, yet it can hold sentience. And we’ve seen AIs become sentient.’

‘Don’t remind me,’ Nigel muttered.

‘So they might be external artificial organisms, AI starships or an alien variant of ANA, which have adapted to the Void,’ the original Nigel said.

Nigel looked over at Vallar. ‘Is that what Makkathran has become?’

‘Makkathran sleeps. That is all we have seen. It seems to respond to Edeard at some autonomic level. We have composed a stimulant that you may download into it. We hope this will trigger its awakening.’

‘That has got to be one giant needle.’

‘It is a thought routine that you should be able to deliver through the “longtalk” telepathy which Querencia’s human citizens use. In a worst-case scenario, your ship could make a physical connection to Makkathran’s network. The conduits would be relatively easy to identify.’

‘Okay, and after it awakes?’

‘If there is a way out, it will use it.’

‘And if not?’

‘The information it has gathered simply by being in there for such a period of time will be invaluable.’