They followed the beacon to an egg-shaped chamber about eight metres in length. The wall surfaces were shiny with moisture, and tiny beads of liquid still spun through the air around them. They found Trader waiting there inside a field-induced bubble of water. Nancy stared at the alien with a shocked expression, making Dakota remember the first time she herself had set eyes on a Shoal-member, when she had probably looked just as flustered.

Several holographic projections of varying size floated close to the walls, rippling whenever Dakota and Nancy or the spiders passed through them. Most consisted of indecipherable Shoal iconography rendered in three dimensions, but one showed a real time image of the interior of the hold.

Unlike human-designed ships, there was nothing there that could be called furniture, nor were there any convenient handholds to grip on to. Similarly there was nothing that might be designated a ceiling or a floor; indeed, there were very few right angles, and most of the bulkheads simply curved into each other.

Dakota ordered the spiders to go into sleep mode, whereupon they powered down, folding themselves into multifaceted polygons that took up far less room.

Dakota moved closer to Trader. ‘Did you get my briefing?’

‘Received with delight,’ the alien replied, manoeuvring within his ball of water until he directly faced Nancy.

His manipulators, suspended beneath the wide curvature of his lower body, twisted with what Dakota chose to interpret as distaste. ‘I see we have company.’

Nancy glanced questioningly at Dakota. ‘Briefing? What briefing?’

‘I gave Trader a summary of what he’s been missing while he’s been stuck away here in the hold,’ Dakota explained. ‘Murder, sabotage, intrigue. The usual.’

‘Life aboard the frigate is filled with much excitement, yes?’ said Trader.

‘Call me crazy,’ Dakota replied, staring fixedly at the alien, ‘but I had an idea you just might be able to throw some light on it all.’

‘Most distasteful dis-corporation upon us all grants few hopes for the future.’ Trader’s artificially generated voice took on a harsher quality inside the metal-walled chamber. ‘One assumes you are already hard upon the scent-path of those responsible?’

‘What?’ Nancy stared back and forth between them, her expression incredulous. ‘What the hell did he say?’

‘He said he hopes we catch whoever did it really soon,’ Dakota replied, without taking her eyes off the alien.

Trader moved closer to them both. Though Nancy didn’t move from where she still floated close to a wall, Dakota looked over in time to see a muscle in one of her cheeks begin to twitch spasmodically.

‘We swim towards the world below,’ explained Trader, ‘where we will find the defensive systems we need. I have probes already performing reconnaissance, so perhaps we should take a look at what they’ve found.’