Things had been cordial in the safe-house, but it was best, he felt sure, to nip this in the bud. Corso had warned him to stay away from the rest of the crew, and he had little doubt how the Senator might react if he discovered Ty had once been sleeping with the Mjollnir’s head of security.

‘Good enough,’ Nancy replied. ‘Kind of crazy how we both wound up here, yeah?’

‘I guess so,’ he replied, finding himself suddenly stuck for words.

A silence followed, seeming deeper and wider than the void around them. Ty felt an urgent need to fill it. ‘I think it was a surprise for both of us,’ he said, and then laughed.

Nancy’s own laugh sounded more than a little forced. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘About that.’

‘About what?’ Were they ever going to get these repairs done?

‘About us. Back on the . . . back on that last trip. That whole thing.’

‘It’s all right, Nancy,’ he said. ‘I don’t think either of us was looking for much more than—’

‘No, it’s not that. I mean, that’s what I was going to say, right? There’s no expectations, since I don’t think we thought we’d ever see each other again.’

‘No,’ he replied, ‘I guess not.’

‘But . . . we are here, and maybe we won’t make it back. Yet I don’t know if there’s any of us wouldn’t rather be somewhere else.’

But you still have a choice, Ty almost said. Every step he had taken was either due to a gift from providence or through a desperate clutching at life. The alternatives had been stark: stay in Unity and risk execution, or board the Mjollnir and take his chances with the Emissaries. So here he was.

‘I guess not,’ he replied. ‘I won’t bother you, Nancy, if that’s what you’re afraid of

She came closer. ‘That’s not what I meant.’

Something in the tone of her voice made it clear she was struggling to find the right words. Nancy was, Ty had found, not the type to reveal her feelings except in the most intimate of circumstances.

‘I don’t know what we’re going to face out there,’ – she waved one gloved hand towards the stars, – ‘and … when I think about it, I don’t want to be alone.’

Something made him reach out and touch one gloved hand to the arm of her suit. He stared at his spread fingers, contemplating this unexpected betrayal by one of his own limbs.

‘You won’t be,’ he said finally.

‘I’m glad, Nathan.’ She then moved away, sounding more subdued now. ‘I . . . you know where I am. Just drop by sometime.’

‘I’ll do that,’ he heard himself reply.

Ty watched her go, suddenly back to her brisk efficient self.