The lines of light turned blue.

He quickly datavised the deactivation code, and the lines reverted to yellow. This time when he emerged out into the portal chamber there was no signal at all.

• • •

«That was ten hours ago,» Marcus told his crew. «I climbed out and walked back to the ship. I passed you on the way, Karl.»

«Holy shit,» Roman muttered. «A time machine.»

«How long was the wormhole active for?» Katherine asked.

«A couple of seconds, that's all.»

«Ten hours in two seconds.» She paused, loading sums into her neural nanonics. «That's a year in thirty minutes. Actually, that's not so fast. Not if they were intending to travel a couple of thousand years into the future.»

«You're complaining about it?» Roman asked.

«Maybe it speeds up the further you go through it,» Schutz suggested. «Or more likely we need the correct access codes to vary its speed.»

«Whatever,» Marcus said. He datavised the flight computer and blew the tether bolts which were holding Lady Mac to the wreckage. «I want flight-readiness status, people, please.»

«What about Jorge and the others?» Karl asked.

«They only come back on board under our terms,» Marcus said. «No weapons, and they go straight into zero-tau. We can hand them over to Tranquillity's serjeants as soon as we get home.» Purple course vectors were rising into his mind. He fired the manoeuvring thrusters, easing Lady Mac clear of the xenoc shell.

• • •

Jorge saw the sparkle of bright dust as the explosive bolts fired. He scanned his sensor collar round until he found the tethers, narrow grey serpents flexing against the speckled backdrop of drab orange particles. It didn't bother him unduly. Then the small thrusters ringing the starship's equator fired, pouring out translucent amber plumes of gas.

«Katherine, what do you think you're doing?» he datavised.

«Following my orders,» Marcus replied. «She's helping to prep the ship for a jump. Is that a problem for you?»

Jorge watched the starship receding, an absurdly stately movement for an artifact that big. His respirator tube seemed to have stopped supplying fresh oxygen, paralysing every muscle. «Calvert. How?» he managed to datavise.

«I might tell you some time. Right now, there are a lot of conditions you have to agree to before I allow you back on board.»

Pure fury at being so completely outmanoeuvred by Calvert made him reach automatically for his weapon. «You will come back now,» he datavised.

«You're not in any position to dictate terms.»

Lady Macbeth was a good two hundred metres away. Jorge lined the stubby barrel up on the rear of the starship. A green targeting grid flipped up over the image, and he zeroed on the nozzle of a fusion-drive tube. He datavised the X-ray laser to fire. Pale white vapour spewed out of the nozzle.

• • •

«Depressurization in fusion drive three,» Roman shouted. «The lower deflector coil casing is breeched. He shot us, Marcus, Jesus Christ, he shot us with an X-ray.»