‘Another day, maybe.’ Lamoureaux turned and gestured at the newly installed field-generator. ‘They’re powerful, mind you. Whole orders of magnitude stronger than anything the Shoal let us get our hands on.’

Corso nodded. ‘Ted, I need to check some diagnostics with you. So Nathan, if you don’t mind—’ Corso tapped the side of his helmet, then pointed at Lamoureaux, signalling they were going to talk over a private channel.

‘By all means,’ said Ty, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice. ‘Don’t let me stop you.’

Ty simmered in silence while the other two men got to talking about whatever it was they didn’t want him to hear. Paranoia made him sure that he was the subject of their conversation, and he wondered if they had finally picked up on his long-range tach-net communication with the avatar.

The two men’s comms icons changed back to public mode a few minutes later.

‘I’m going to take a look at the rest of the field-generators we planted,’ Lamoureaux announced. ‘Might be able to speed up the calibration if I double-check them.’

Ty frowned behind his visor. ‘You could do that just as well from the bridge.’

‘Well, since I’m out here, I might as well grab the opportunity,’ Lamoureaux replied, trying so hard to sound casual that it aroused Ty’s suspicions further.

Lamoureaux moved away from them, carried along the hull by the thin silver wires of his spacesuit’s lanyard, and followed by a small retinue of spider-mechs.

‘Ty,’ Corso tapped the side of his helmet, ‘switch to a private channel, please.’

With some reluctance, Ty switched to a one-on-one channel with Corso.

‘I wanted to talk to you about Nancy, Ty. Word gets around.’

Ty opened his mouth and closed it. He almost blurted out a denial, then relented. ‘It started long before we even got to Redstone. I—’

‘Forget it,’ said Corso. ‘That doesn’t matter. When I told you to stay away from the rest of the crew, I didn’t know you were already involved with her.’

‘Is she . . . ?’

‘She didn’t make it, Ty. I’m sorry.’

Ty nodded inside his helmet, his throat suddenly tight. ‘I see. There was never really any hope of recovery, was there?’

‘No,’ Corso admitted. ‘But you have to make the attempt, anyway.’

Ty listened to the sound of his own breathing, close and loud within his helmet. Corso moved as if to turn away.

‘Then there’ll have to be a funeral service?’ Ty asked.

Corso stopped and looked back at him. ‘No, not yet, anyway.’

‘Why not?’ Ty demanded, scandalized.

‘This isn’t the time to be burying any more of our dead. Not when we’re this close to our goal. The last thing the others need is to be reminded just how dangerous this job is. There’s a real chance none of us is going to come back alive.’