‘There,’ Ty said excitedly, pointing one gloved finger at a shape like a fat grey worm. ‘That’s our passageway, right there.’

Nancy stepped up beside him and peered at the shifting image. ‘There really is something behind that wall, isn’t there?’ she murmured, clearly fascinated.

Curtis leaned in beside them and touched the screen with one gloved finger. ‘There are some dark shapes on the other side. Can you see them?’

Ty felt a burst of elation and fought to stay calm. ‘I see them, yes, and I don’t think this is going to be as difficult as I thought.’ Glancing at Curtis, he said, ‘Martinez is expecting you and Anton back at the Mjollnir. You’d better get going.’

Curtis nodded, and Ty could see the other’s desire to remain there warring with his fear of the approaching alien threat. Assuming they got out of this alive, they’d all of them have stories to tell for the rest of their lives.

Curtis nodded with resignation and stepped back. ‘Nathan, Nancy – good luck to both of you. I’ll see you back on the ship.’

Ty nodded and watched for a moment as Curtis retreated back down the passageway, before turning his attention to the drill rig. He touched a button, and the drill’s bit began to cut into the wall in total silence. All he really had to do now was set the parameters, step back, and let the machine perform.

It did not take long before the passageway around them began to fill with clouds of grey-black dust as the device did its work. Ty watched the drill’s readout, indicating how deep it was penetrating; it had cut through nearly fifty centimetres of rock before it signalled that it was no longer encountering resistance. Nancy watched as he pulled the drill free, and together they stepped up to the narrow opening left behind.

Nancy withdrew a long, narrow silver tube from a suit pocket and carefully slid it inside the freshly drilled hole. After a couple of seconds she pulled it back again.

The tube had contained a mobile security device modelled on a terrestrial insect, complete with a minuscule propulsion system optimized for zero-gee. After she’d repocketed the now empty tube, Nancy pushed a couple of high-intensity glow-sticks through the hole until they slid through into the other side, falling slowly under the asteroid’s minimal gravity.

‘Okay,’ Nancy said breezily, stepping over to the screen. ‘Let’s see what we’ll see.’

She now reset the screen to show whatever the insect-machine’s lenses were picking up on the other side of the wall. After a few moments they saw a huddled shape about fifteen metres from the false partition. Other than that, the other side looked deserted.

‘That’s it?’ murmured Nancy, unable to mask her dismay.