Corso glanced over his shoulder at Perez before replying. ‘Eight of us came on board, but one got wounded when we tried to take control of the bridge. He’s currently in the med-bay. We also brought an Atn specialist who seems to know something about the Mos Hadroch. He went with some others to make sure it was still on board. It is.’

‘I spoke to Ted on the way in, but what happened to him? He was there one second, then gone. Is he all right?’

‘He’s in the med-bay too. Whatever it is that’s been happening to other machine-heads, it finally got him, too.’

As Corso started to step down from the dais, Dakota reached out and touched his elbow. He paused, looking back at her.

‘I wouldn’t have been able to do anything with the Magi ship, even if I wanted to, Lucas. It’s not like it was before, when I had real control over it. That’s all gone for me now, and it will be for Ted, too. The ship was more like a prison at the end, and destroying it was the only way I could get free of it.’

Corso shook his head as if in disbelief, and headed over to the bridge entrance.

‘I think it’s about time,’ he said, turning back to her, ‘to head down to the labs and see just what it is we went through all this for. But first we’re going to the med-bay.’

Chapter Eighteen

Once they had exited through the hub, they stopped frequently so that Corso could consult the map-projections that hovered over major intersections. Localized micro-relay systems, tied into the frigate’s central stacks, showed Dakota exactly where they were at every step, yet one look at Corso’s grim expression made her reluctant to point this out.

He pushed ahead of her without looking back once, and she wondered if he had experienced the same powerful sense of déjà vu she herself had felt from the moment she had boarded the frigate. It seemed very much like being back on board the Hyperion, except this time they were the ones in charge. It was a strange feeling because so very much had changed since then, but perhaps nothing quite so much as Corso and herself.

They boarded a car at a transport station, and sat in uncomfortable silence for several minutes until Corso finally broke his silence. He leaned towards her, his face red and angry.

‘Why did you wait this long, before just appearing out of nowhere?’ he demanded. ‘Did you have all this planned before you turned up on Redstone?’

She cleared her throat before replying. ‘Some of it,’ she admitted.

‘But you just couldn’t be bothered letting me in on it.’

‘Of course not,’ she replied.

‘Why the hell not?’

‘Because . . . I was afraid you might try to stop me.’