‘Hells, yes,’ murmured Zidarov. ‘We want you to stay here. You could do anything you want to, here. You could be running the city in ten years. Why join up?’

‘Because it’s important,’ Alessinaxa blurted, looking from one of them to the other, as if trying to find the weaker one to hammer at. ‘Do you know what’s going on out there? It’s the biggest recruitment drive the sector’s ever had. It’s the biggest push there’s ever been. This is about conquest, about destiny. I want to be a part of it.’

Zidarov shook his head. ‘That’s what they tell you. But Brecht – you remember Uncle Gyorgu? – Brecht knows people up at the Navy anchorage. He knows people at the Charter offices. They tell him there’s big problems with the void-lanes. Big problems everywhere. He told me he thinks there’s been some kind of disaster, something that’s making them call anyone up as fast as they can.’

Alessinaxa rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, right. So Uncle Gyorgu is the authority now, is he?’

‘He knows what he’s talking about.’

‘And think, for a moment,’ said Milija. ‘Of course they’ll tell you it’s all glorious. That you’ll be back after a few years. You wouldn’t go, otherwise. I know parents of recruits. One has been waiting for news for thirteen years. You step on those transports, girl, and that’s the last we’ll see of you.’

Alessinaxa shot her mother the kind of look then that only a teenager could do perfectly – the kind of look that channelled both contempt and pity in equal measure. ‘And faith means nothing, then?’ She pushed her plate away. ‘Throne of Terra, does duty mean nothing, either? It’s not just about staying comfortable, getting fat, having a nice life. So what if it’s hard out there? So what? If you die, at least you’ll have lived. I want to see it! I want to be a part of it. You sent me to the temple every saviour-day, you made me take those lessons from those dried-up bitches up at the missionaria hall. Now I want to do something with it all. I can do it.’

‘Of course you can,’ said Zidarov. ‘They’d be desperate for you. But you’re not some poor dreg who’ll get pressed or a convict who needs a death-or-duty pass. You’ve got choices. We’ve worked damned hard to get you them.’

‘I want to do it.’

‘Wait,’ said Milija. ‘Think harder.’

‘It doesn’t have to be forever,’ said Zidarov.

‘My intake will go up to full training next season,’ Alessinaxa insisted.

‘There are hundreds of intakes,’ said Zidarov. ‘There’ll be another chance.’

‘You’ll say the same things then.’

‘You might have changed your mind.’