‘At first I assumed the swarm attacked those clade-worlds because it suspected the Mos Hadroch could be hidden on one of them, but clearly the Atn and the swarm have been at war for much, much longer than that. Why is that? Or is the Mos Hadroch older than I thought?’

‘We all live amongst the ruins of our predecessors, Dakota. There are wars that began when the first stars were young, and will not end even with the death of the last star. Both the swarms and the Atn began their own existence as weapons on either side of a long-forgotten war – but the Atn forgot their original purpose. Does this satisfy your curiosity?’

‘Yes.’ Dakota pushed herself out of her chair and took one last look out into the bay. ‘Goodbye, Trader.’

‘I have been monitoring communications traffic from Redstone, Dakota. I know that you destroyed your own ship.’

Dakota gripped the back of the seat she had just vacated. ‘Yes, I had no choice. You already know why.’

‘It is always better to be the master of your own destiny, is it not? And yet I imagine it must have been a painful decision. I imagine it must make you feel very lonely.’

She let go of the chair and drifted over to the window, suddenly breathing hard. She could just make out her reflection, floating like a ghost over the interior of the bay, and she fought an urge to activate the drones again, to burn Trader’s ship in its cradle.

‘More than you can imagine,’ she replied, and left.

Chapter Twenty-one

Not long after Trader rendezvoused with the frigate, Corso paid a visit to the labs.

‘Figure out how the hell the thing works, Whitecloud. Or at least how it might work. That’s your job as long as you’re on board the Mjollnir. You’ll eat here and sleep here in the lab, as well. Is that understood?’

It was the first private conversation they had had, and Corso clearly had not been in the mood for making friends or wasting time with pseudonyms when no one else was around. There were dark rings under the Senator’s eyes, and Ty had been aware of the frenetic level of activity following their departure from Redstone, while he himself had been safely ensconced in what had now become the familiar confines of the frigate’s laboratory complex.

Ty gazed around the low-lit lab as if he might find the right answer there. ‘But won’t people ask questions if I don’t take quarters with the rest of them? I mean, there’s plenty of room in the centrifuge—’

‘No.’ Corso stabbed a finger at Ty’s chest. ‘I don’t want you mixing with the rest of my people.’