‘First we need to know how thick the false wall is. Too thick and we’ll need a lot of explosives, except that could collapse the passageway on top of us and maybe destroy whatever they hid beyond. No,’ he shook his head, ‘first we image the passageway to get some idea what’s back there. We can even drill a hole through if necessary. But we need to get started on this now, Nancy. Right now.’

She stared at him for another moment, then set her mouth in a firm line and opened a comms link to the Mjollnir ’s bridge.

Ty felt a weight lift off his shoulders; it seemed they were finally getting somewhere.

Less than an hour later, Curtis Randall and Anton Swedberg – technical specialists – were manoeuvring new equipment down the shaft and into the suspect passageway, with the help of nearly a dozen spider-mechs. A large drill mechanism, mounted on a tripod and assembled from a kit, had been set up next to the false wall, its three legs firmly secured to the floor. The drill bit itself was hidden from view behind a flat plastic shield.

‘Got word from Perez,’ Ty heard Randall say over their shared comms. ‘Martinez is coming online in a couple of seconds. Something’s up.’

Ty glanced behind himself and saw two spider-mechs delicately directing a package down the passageway towards the false wall, casting deep shifting shadows as they passed under a string of lights positioned along the ceiling. ‘What is it?’

‘Anton says he spoke to Tibbs on the bridge, and Mjollnir ’s picking up a local increase in background tach-net noise as well as gravity flux waves in the tach-net continuum. Looks like the swarm just arrived.’

Ty felt a sudden panic flood him. They were running out of time.

Get a grip, he thought angrily. He glanced over at Nancy, unpacking gear beside him, and caught the look of alarm on her face, even through her visor.

‘If we’re lucky, it’s only a few advance scouts,’ Randall added, as the two spiders came to a halt. Ty turned to them and began unstrapping the packages they carried. ‘I’m sorry to be, you know, the bearer of bad news.’

Ty nodded, feeling numb. ‘Then we have to—’

‘Forgive me for eavesdropping, Mr Driscoll,’ said Martinez, ‘but I couldn’t help overhearing.’ Ty glanced down and noticed that the small, gold-coloured bar representing the Mjollnir’s commander had manifested in one corner of his visor. ‘The situation’s starting to look pretty desperate from where I’m standing.’

Ty could hear murmured conversations and background noises on the bridge. ‘How far away are they?’ Ty asked immediately. ‘A star system’s a big place, Commander, so we might have as much as a couple of days before they figure out exactly where the asteroid is.’