The restraints holding the drive-spine in place slid back into the hull, and the spiders arranged around it began emitting tiny jets of gas. Slowly, ponderously, the spine rose away from the hull, tilting to one side as the spiders coordinated with each other. The new drive-spine began to move forward as its own retinue of spiders pushed it towards the slot.

The work was so tedious that it was easy to fall into lengthy conversations. Nancy and Leo had spent most of this shift talking politics, and they quickly picked up the same thread again as the spider-mechs dragged the two drive-spines in different directions.

‘Am I right in thinking,’ asked Olivarri, ‘that the only people who’re allowed to vote or hold political office in the Freehold are those who’ve seen military service?’

‘Well, mostly,’ Nancy replied. ‘Senator Corso’s one of the exceptions, but for most of the Senate members, yeah. It’s a sane principle.’

‘Sane how?’ asked Olivarri.

‘Well, think about it,’ Nancy replied. ‘Why should someone who isn’t prepared to pick up a gun to actively defend his or her society get to have a say in how that society is run?’

‘Well . . . I’m not sure that the kind of people who are prepared to pick up a gun, based on an argument like that, are the ones I’d want running things for me.’

‘Why?’

‘Because they usually turn out to be exactly the kind of people I need protecting from in the first place.’ Olivarri guffawed.

Nancy made a sound of disgust. ‘You just don’t understand.’

‘What’s not to understand?’ Olivarri shot back. ‘That’s exactly why the Freehold were booted from world to world.’

‘Leo, seriously. You have no understanding of the historical context. Our ending up on Redstone had nothing to do with our relations with the Consortium. The Freehold is about self-determination. It’s about the right of the individual to defend herself and not to have to answer to any authority that wants to take away her basic human right to self-determination.’

Ty sighed quietly. Leo appeared bent on needling Nancy, and she appeared unable to resist rising to the bait every time.

‘Okay,’ said Olivarri, ‘so what happened to all those ideals? That’s – what – two coups you’ve had in a little over two years?’

‘Because . . .’ Nancy sighed. ‘The wrong people are in charge, that’s all.’

‘Those people with the guns, you mean.’

Ty was deeply grateful when they all received an automated alert that the new drive-spine was ready to be locked into place. Nancy moved in close, obsessively rechecking the hull clamps and running a final systems scan. After a few minutes she stepped back, and they watched as the spiders slowly lowered the new drive-spine into its slot, the clamps snicking smoothly into place.

‘Nice,’ said Leo approvingly. ‘Everything went right, just for once.’