Corso stared at her in mute shock, as she continued. ‘I can feel there’s a lot missing. Sometimes I try to remember something, and there’s only a little fragment, a picture or a face or something I can’t even make out properly, and that’s all.’ Her expression became hopeless. ‘It’s like there’s now this yawning hole where a lot of my life used to be.’

Corso struggled to find an adequate response. ‘But you’re here, you’re alive, aren’t you? At least—’

‘No,’ she cut him off abruptly. ‘I remember dying, Lucas. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel about that.’

‘Dakota, if one of those Magi ships did what you say it did, then that’s . . . that’s incredible. That makes you just about one of the luckiest people alive.’

She shook her head. ‘But I’m not me. The real me died.’

‘You know, some people would say that’s just semantics.’

She looked at him sharply. ‘So if someone made an exact copy of you and it tried to murder you, that would be okay because it’s got all your thoughts and emotions and memories, even your sense of self-identity? Would you – the real you, that is – be any less dead?’

Corso opened his mouth, then hesitated. ‘No,’ he said, a little reluctantly. ‘No, I guess I wouldn’t be. But if I knew I was going to die, I think I’d feel a lot better knowing I’d still be carrying on in some way.’

Dakota’s voice took on a harder edge. ‘But you’d still be dead, either way. And the copy would still only be a copy . . . I’ve been thinking about this a lot.’

I can tell, thought Corso, but kept silent.

‘There’s a part of me,’ Dakota continued, ‘that thought it meant I was free of my former responsibilities. That I could just fly away and not give a damn about the Long War or the Emissaries or anything like that. This version of me wasn’t in Nova Arctis or Night’s End, no matter what my memories may say. So I don’t have to care about any of this.’

‘All right,’ he replied. ‘So why even bother coming here?’

‘I wasn’t given a choice.’

He took a moment to process this statement. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘The Magi ships are all hardwired to stop the Maker. Even if I wanted to disappear, the one that brought me back from the dead would never let me.’

‘But you’re its navigator, of course you can—’

‘No, I can’t,’ she interrupted. ‘Not any more.’

‘Why?’

She sighed. ‘Let’s just say there’s been a fundamental change in my relationship with the Magi ships, since I was brought back. I’d tell you more, but this really isn’t the right time.’

‘Why not?’