Pila came hurrying along the walkway. She whispered to the Commissary, something about results concerning the nature of Chandra. Nilis looked shocked, and immediately followed her off the walkway and out of the ops room.

Enduring Hope was simply baffled. What in the universe could be more important than to be here, in these next few crucial minutes? But he felt relieved Nilis and his emotional turmoil were gone.

Luru Parz watched suspiciously.

The Marshal himself tapped Hope on the shoulder. “Engineer. Look. Your friend is going back in—Pirius.”

Hope was a bit overwhelmed to be prompted by a Marshal. But he asked: “Which one? Sir.”

“Both of them.”

“This time we send two ships in,” Pirius Red said. “Not just one at a time. I’ll go first.”

Torec said, “You’ve used up your weapon.”

“I know. I’ll go in to guide. Bilson, you’ve been there. We know we’ve breached that netting; maybe Jees managed to make the hole bigger. What if we could pass the starbreakers through that breach? We’d have a short time of free flight, not blocked by the net. We might see enough to hit the event horizon. What do you think?”

Bilson was very subdued. “It’s possible. It would be a very short time. Less than a second—”

“All right. Which is why whoever is going in will need a spotter.”

Torec said, “So who makes the bomb run?”

Pirius took a breath. He wondered how long he could keep making these decisions; he felt as if he was sentencing another crew to death. But he had to make a choice. “Burden—are you ready?”

There was no reply. And as the seconds ticked by, Pirius suddenly understood that there would be none. He brought up a Virtual image of Burden’s face. Behind his skinsuit visor Burden’s face was ghost pale, as if drained of blood.

Burden’s navigator whispered, “He’s been like this since we passed SO-2. I didn’t want to say—”

Pirius Blue said, “Burden. Burden. Quero!”

Burden’s eyes flickered. He licked his lips, and forced a smile. “I’m sorry.” His voice was a hoarse croak, his throat evidently closed up.

Red said, “He’s frozen. Lethe. Blue, did you know about this?”

Blue sighed. “No. But I wondered . . . It happened before, didn’t it, Burden?”

Burden seemed to be loosening a little. “Yes. It happened before.”

“And that’s why you got busted down to the penal divisions on Quin. Cohl was right to be suspicious of you.”

“I never lied to you—”

“But you never told me the full truth, did you? It was nothing to do with your unorthodoxy.”

“That didn’t help. But, yes. I froze up. Just like this. People died, you know. Because of me, because I froze. I don’t understand it. I can fight on a Rock. I can fight my way out of those blood-soaked trenches. I can save lives. But up here, in a greenship—”

“And that’s why you kept busting your balls in combat missions? You were punishing yourself.”