Corso activated the shuttle’s interface, and saw they were only a few minutes away from docking with the frigate. He tapped on a screen before twisting around to face Martinez. ‘I’m updating the other shuttle on a course change. But not the one the Mjollnir’s expecting.’

‘Senator?’

‘If they’re already on to us groundside, they could be diverting us into a trap. The last thing we need is to find ourselves facing an armed welcoming committee. Am I right in thinking each docking bay has an emergency override that can be triggered by an outside signal?’

‘If you have the right signature code, yes,’ Martinez allowed, ‘but it’s bound to tip them off that we’re up to something.’

‘It might be too late for that already. Give me the code anyway.’

Martinez sent him the code through their linked suit comms, while Corso glanced at the screen in front of him to watch the frigate growing larger by the second.

He punched in the course correction. ‘Bay Five it is.’

Sunlight broke over the rim of the planet below, filtered down to a soft glow by the shuttle’s external sensor arrays. A screen showed clouds drifting over the Mount Mor peninsula, while the broad curve of coast along which Port Gabriel was located could be seen to the west. Approach warnings began to blink as the two shuttles neared a row of bay entrances close to Mjollnir’s bow.

‘Mjollnir to lead shuttle,’ declared the voice from the frigate’s bridge. ‘You’re heading the wrong way. Please get back on your original course.’

‘We’re having problems with our automatic guidance systems,’ Corso improvised, ‘and it can’t lock on to your docking signal. We’re trying to compensate for that, but it’s tricky.’

He heard the officer at the other end of the link move away from the microphone to speak to someone else, but he couldn’t make out any of their mumbled words before the first voice came back online. ‘We’ve just queried your shuttle’s on-board systems and they seem to be working fine. This is your final warning, Captain Herera. Now head for Bay Three.’

Corso put the link on hold and twisted around to look at his fellow passengers. ‘Any ideas?’

Martinez shrugged. ‘Fuck it, we’re just thirty seconds from docking. Use the override to get the bay doors open and don’t even bother replying. If they don’t know who we are yet, they’re sure as hell going to realize pretty damn soon that we’re not the engineers they were expecting.’

Corso nodded, and punched in the override. A moment later the bridge of the Mjollnir came back online.

‘Bridge to shuttle, rendezvous without boarding. Repeat, rendezvous without boarding, Captain Herera. Is that clear? Dock with the external maintenance bays, but not with the Mjollnir itself. If you board, we’ll consider it a hostile action.’