The walls around him had a half-melted look, with more ruined machinery lying abandoned. It didn’t require a great deal of conjecture to realize it had been a very long time since any new drive-cores had been manufactured here.

The Emissaries, despite the advance warning, had clearly not expected the cache itself to be targeted. That they had then chosen to destroy the entire system made it clear they had finally recognized their error, even if much too late.

Trader swivelled in his field-bubble, then guided it deeper into the gently curving passageway, dodging past the blackened hulks of dead technology.

‘I don’t give a damn what she said!’ Corso screamed. ‘We have to go after her!’

‘You want to go after her, fine,’ said Lamoureaux, ‘but I’m not willing to call her bluff. She looked crazy enough to do it.’

‘It’s too late anyway,’ said Martinez, from across the bridge. ‘She’s already boarded the lander and taken it out. She must have sneaked right past you and Dan while you were on your way here.’

‘We got a distress call,’ explained Perez. ‘That’s why we came back here as fast as we could.’

‘Ship-wide or direct to your helmets?’ asked Lamoureaux.

‘Direct,’ Perez replied. ‘Not. . .’ He fell silent mid-sentence.

Lamoureaux nodded. ‘She faked that alert.’

Perez rubbed his face with both hands and dropped into a nearby seat. ‘I knew we should have stayed with the lander.’

‘Here’s the thing I don’t understand,’ Corso growled, moving closer to Lamoureaux. ‘You could have warned us – and you didn’t even try to stop her. Why?’

Lamoureaux’s nostrils flared angrily. ‘I already told you. She threatened to shut the drones down, and leave us defenceless. What did you expect me to do?’

Corso shook his head vehemently. ‘I refuse to believe she’d make a threat like that, let alone follow through on it.’

‘She did make a threat like that,’ Lamoureaux yelled. ‘Maybe, Lucas, you don’t know her nearly as goddamn well as you think you do.’

Corso punched him in the nose.

Lamoureaux staggered back, then stumbled, collapsing to the deck. Corso loomed over him, his expression furious.

Strong hands pulled Corso away. A moment later he was pushed into a chair and found himself face to face with Martinez, the Commander’s hand planted firmly against his chest.

‘I was on the bridge when all of this happened,’ said Martinez. ‘Now, I didn’t hear what Dakota and Ted were saying to each other, but the responsibility is still with me. So if you want to take a swing at anyone, try me.’

Lamoureaux wiped blood away from his nose and glared at Corso. ‘Want to know what else she told me, Lucas? She’s the reason the Emissaries knew where to find us.’

Corso stared at him. ‘What?’