‘I tapped into the swarm’s collective mind when I went out to investigate it,’ she explained. ‘It’s how I found out about the Mos Hadroch.’

‘Wait a minute,’ said Ty. ‘You said they communicated by tach-comms, but if they’re spread all across the universe, how could they power the signals to reach that far? You’d need power on an astronomical level to pull off something like that.’

‘I watched them use the energy of a nova,’ she explained, ‘just to power a signal to a swarm located in another galaxy.’

Both men stared at her in silence for several moments.

‘I should be used to having you completely fuck with my head by now,’ the Senator finally grumbled, then turned to look at Ty. ‘Mr Driscoll, I think it’s time we cut that thing open and looked inside, don’t you?’

Ty nodded and set to work. Tiny precision plasma jets began to cut into the Atn’s carapace with smooth efficiency. Multi-jointed manipulators reached down, securing pieces of metal shell as the jets sliced through them.

The internal biological components of the Atn had long since turned to dust, though Ty made a mental note to analyse the remains of the brain when he had the time and opportunity. There was a chance that useful data might have survived.

‘I can’t tell you,’ he muttered, ‘how much I’ve been looking forward to this.’

Once a large enough hole had been cut, Ty stepped away from the terminal, and the entrance to the isolation chamber slid open. ‘Let’s take a look,’ he said, stepping through.

The three of them crowded inside the small space, which smelled of burned dust and hot metal. The Senator’s earlier antipathy towards him appeared to have shifted into something like a grudging respect. It was Merrick that Ty could not make his mind up about: the news archives had carried accusations of murder and thievery. She struck Ty as someone who worked hard to keep her emotions under control, but certainly not the cold-blooded killer she had sometimes been made out to be.

‘They’re amazing creatures, the Atn,’ said Ty, pulling on a pair of insulated gloves. The edges of the hole cut in the carapace still glowed faintly with trapped heat. ‘There’s strong evidence they’ve been around for longer than any other species we’ve come into contact with. Perhaps longer than even your Magi, Miss Merrick,’ he added. ‘And when we’ve shuffled off the galactic stage, they’ll come wandering back through the empty ruins of our cities.’

‘I wondered if maybe that was why they were entrusted with the Mos Hadroch in the first place,’ said Dakota, watching as Ty squatted by the carapace. ‘They operate on a timescale that pretty much beggars the imagination.’

‘I think maybe we’d better get on with this, don’t you?’ said Corso with faint annoyance.