Lamoureaux met his eyes. ‘I’ve got to tell you, Senator, that interstellar piracy was pretty high on my list of career options when I was twelve years old, but I’m balking at it now.’

Corso grinned. ‘Did I even say you were coming along?’

Lamoureaux laughed, the sound strangely muffled by his breather mask. ‘I’m not sure what else you expect me to do. My Magi ship is still back at Ocean’s Deep, otherwise maybe I’d be able to grab control of the Mjollnir.’ He shrugged. ‘Dakota could do the same.’

‘No, she couldn’t – and neither could you. The Mjollnir’s had manual circuit breakers installed in case of exactly that eventuality.’

‘Huh?’ Lamoureaux shook his head. ‘But surely that’s crazy. Don’t the Freehold have their own machine-heads now?’

‘Yes, out of necessity, but they don’t really trust them either.’

Ships all throughout the Consortium had been hastily modified to prevent them from being taken over by hostile machine-heads linked to Magi ships. A lot of damage could be effected in the brief seconds it took an unaugmented human pilot to react to a hostile takeover, but once he had thrown the switch, the attack could be stopped immediately.

‘Well, that makes it a little more complicated, doesn’t it? If Dakota’s also going on this expedition of yours, you won’t need me, will you?’

‘On the contrary,’ Corso replied. ‘I’d need you along to help me keep an eye on her, and because I need people with me I can trust. So what do you say?’

Lamoureaux scuffed one booted foot against the concrete before letting his shoulders sag as if in defeat. ‘What else am I going to do, Senator? Sit around along with everyone else and wait for the Emissaries to arrive? It’s not much of a choice.’

Corso grinned and put a hand on the machine-head’s shoulder. ‘I don’t even know if it’s going to come to an armed assault, but it might.’

‘You have the resources to do that?’

Corso nodded. ‘The Mjollnir’s going to have only a skeleton crew when we board, so it’s extremely unlikely we’ll face any serious opposition. Not that you’d be expected to carry a gun or anything like that; you’d be following us in only once we feel sure it’s safe.’

‘So who else is going?’