‘You’re crazy,’ he said, once she had finished. ‘The research platforms weren’t designed to sustain independent populations. They need constant gate contact with Earth to function, as it is. And even if you could find some way to survive indefinitely, you’d be cut off from everything you’ve ever known.’

‘And, out in the colonies, we wouldn’t be?’

At least on some of the colonies you’d have open air to breathe, he thought.

Saul’s feet were getting numb from all the walking. He came across an army truck, with trampled bodies scattered all around, and pressed both hands over his mouth and nose, to avoid inhaling the dreadful stench of decomposition. He next made towards a maintenance shed, in hopes of finding a car that hadn’t been trashed or burned out.

‘What about Galileo?’ he asked, once he’d left the foul-smelling truck behind. ‘There’s nothing to stop you and Jeff both going there, and Mitchell too.’

‘The new wormhole gate won’t reach orbit around Galileo for months.’

‘Doesn’t matter. There are enough emergency supplies on board that starship carrying the gate to keep several people alive for months, maybe longer.’

‘No,’ her voice was adamant, ‘I’ve talked this over with Jeff. I know you think we’re crazy, but we spent a good chunk of our lives on the Jupiter station, and the people there need us.’

‘I . . . guess I understand.’

‘For you it’s easy. You can just head through to the Lunar Array and make your way to the Galileo gate.’

He laughed bitterly. ‘Not any more. There are people out looking for me here.’

‘What happened?’

‘It’s a long story, but if they find me or if I try and get back inside the Array, I’m a dead man. But if I can reach the Lunar Array some other way, I have a fighting chance of getting through.’

‘Then that’s it. You need to come to Arizona, and ride up with Mitchell.’

‘That’s doable, is it?’

‘Christ, Saul, of course it is.’

‘That’s great,’ he said, feeling enormously relieved. No, more than relieved; it was a real chance at survival. ‘But before we talk about getting those files to you, or anything else, there’s something important we need to talk about – something seriously fucking important. One of Jeff’s video files showed Copernicus City in ruins, sometime in the future. The entire city was devastated, like a meteor had hit it. That must have been caused by whatever it is that’s caused the growths back down here.’

‘I guess,’ said Olivia, hesitantly.

‘But how could it – whatever it is – get there except through the Array? And if it can come through the wormhole gate all the way from Florida, then who’s to say it couldn’t spread through the rest of the gates, to the colonies as well?’