The Mjollnir’s primary stacks alerted Dakota to new data, squirted over from the Shoal-member’s yacht. She tested the data for traps, and, on finding none, dropped it behind a firewall within the terminal’s memory. It turned out to be a set of coordinates for a system located a few thousand light-years further along their projected trajectory, close to the edge of the spiral arm and not far from the region of the Long War.

‘The system in question requires a slight detour, but that shouldn’t add more than a few days to our journey time,’ Trader explained. ‘And Dakota . . . please reconsider allowing me on board, as I would very much like to see the Mos Hadroch. I have waited a long time for that, and I want to demonstrate that I can be trusted.’

It was surely just her imagination that she detected a strain of wistfulness behind the machine-tones of his translation system.

‘Not a chance in hell,’ she replied. ‘I had enough trouble persuading Lucas to let you even get this near.’

‘No one enters the arena of battle without making sure their weapons are fully operational, Dakota. If the Mos Hadroch is a gun, only I have the trigger. We need to test it before we can implement it.’

The damn fish had a point, she realized. ‘I’ll talk to him,’ she replied. ‘That’s all I can do. But he’s still not going to go for it.’ She shifted in her seat and waited for Trader’s reply.

Corso had ramped the security systems up to full alert in preparation for the Shoal-member’s arrival, and put Nancy Schiller to work at rejigging the primary command systems to make them even more hack-proof than they already were.

‘Then it appears I am trapped between the crushing depths and the deadly air,’ Trader finally conceded. ‘You should be aware that when we reach our final destination, I won’t be able to control the Mos Hadroch at a distance. Will you keep it from me even then, Dakota?’

‘No,’ she replied. ‘Not when that time comes. Of course,’ she added, ‘you could just tell us how to activate it ourselves. Then you wouldn’t need to come along at all.’

Dakota smiled to herself as a long pause followed.

‘I believe we understand each other,’ Trader finally replied. ‘Goodbye for now, Dakota.’

‘Wait.’ She put out a hand, forgetting Trader couldn’t see her. ‘There’s something I want to ask you.’

‘Yes?’

‘On my way to the swarm I came across hundreds of destroyed Atn clade-worlds. But most of them were destroyed long before the Mos Hadroch was supposedly created.’

‘Your point?’