It rested on the floor of the chamber like a gigantic droplet of mercury. In the light of the flares it glinted as if covered with frost. A closer inspection showed there was no frost on its surface. Cormac pushed his hand against it, and his hand slid to one side. It was frictionless, yet on inspection its surface revealed a fine crystalline structure and seemed it should have some roughness.

Carn cautiously lowered himself into the chamber and slid to the floor down by the surface of the artefact, before detaching his line. He stared at the creature for a long while, shifted his gaze to Gant’s remains, and then quickly turned his attention to the unknown object. He removed a device like a copper limpet from his belt and placed it against the thing’s surface.

‘This is a metallurgical tester—or M-tester if you don’t like long words. We use them for spot analysis of hull metals and the like. Measures stresses, density changes, alloy configurations . . .’ He paused, glanced at Thorn who still held his friend’s head, then looked at a small display on the M-tester. He continued hurriedly. ‘Incredibly dense . . .’ He crouched down and examined where the curve of the object met the floor. ‘It must be hollow.’

‘What makes you say that?’ asked Cormac.

‘If it was solid it would weigh a few thousand tonnes. It would have sunk into this floor a lot deeper than it has, and—’ he inspected an instrument strapped to his arm ‘—I detect no AG emanations.’

He placed the M-tester against the surface again, then took his shaking hand away. He caught the tester before it hit the floor.

‘Frictionless, but with only microgravity readings. Definitely hollow.’

He removed a miniconsole from his belt and placed the M-tester into a hollow incorporated in it. He punched out a program, then removed the M-tester.

‘Aiden . . .’ Aiden stepped smartly forwards. ‘Hold this against the surface for thirty seconds. Do not let it move any more than one millimetre. It can’t correct for any more than that.’

Aiden obliged, pushing the M-tester against the surface, then freezing into a stillness no man could match. Carn turned to Cormac. Cormac noted he was shivering, but not from the cold.

‘Hopefully we’ll be able to get a surface reading. This stuff’s too dense for us to scrape away a sample.’ He walked round the object, stopping every now and then to push his hand against it. Cormac glanced round and saw that Thorn had stood up. The soldier dropped his companion’s head to the ground and walked over. He had lapsed for a while, but to a Sparkind a dead man was just so much meat. They only buried the dead if there was a risk of infection.

‘I’m sorry, Thorn,’ said Cormac.