‘Prepare to transmit this to it on all channels,’ he said.

Aiden set the instruments and leant back. ‘All channels open, except underspace. We don’t have the capability on this shuttle. Do you wish me to link with Hubris?’

Cormac shook his head and concentrated on what he was going to say. The transmitter hissed and made strange whining sounds. He stooped towards it. Hubris had received no reply; might he?

‘Dragon, this is Ian Cormac. Why are you here?’

The whining increased in volume. Cormac continued, dredging his memory of their last encounter.

‘To be human is to be mortal. Do you play chess? I know you like games, Dragon, though you do have a tendency to cheat.’

The whining ceased.

Aiden said, ‘Hubris reports the scanning of the surface has ceased.’

‘I think you attracted its attention,’ said Carn, without relish. ‘Its surface is moving.’

Cormac looked and saw ripples spreading. A curved line cut the surface, and the ripples concentrated around it. The line thickened, dark as old blood. It was a split.

‘Get us out of here, now!’

Aiden jerked up on the joystick, just as pseudopods exploded from Dragon in a giant grey fumarole. Acceleration knocked Thorn and Carn to the floor. Cormac caught a glimpse of a giant cobralike head swerving towards the shuttle. There was a thump. The shuttle slewed sideways. Then they were away, and the fountain of pseudopods was falling back to the surface of Dragon.

Cormac looked round and saw Carn and Thorn dragging themselves over to their seats. He, too, strapped himself in.

‘It’s coming,’ said Aiden. He looked at the readings on the instrument panel. Then he looked again. ‘Accelerating at eight Gs.’

‘Jesus!’ said Carn.

‘Everybody strapped in?’ asked Aiden.

‘Give me one fucking second!’ Carn shouted.

With his hand poised over a lever to one side of the joystick, Aiden glanced back. After a moment he nodded and turned back to the screen.

‘Acceleration,’ he said, and then he hit the boosters.

Cormac thumped back in his seat so hard he was sure he contacted its framework. Something not tied down went crashing into the back of the shuttle. He heard Carn swearing monotonously before running out of breath. It was as if something was trying to drag the flesh off his bones. He could just see the instrument panel, greying out as he watched it.

‘Ten . . . Gs . . .’ he managed, then blacked out.

* * *

‘You broke my fucking arm,’ was Carn’s protest—and the first thing Cormac heard as he came to. He felt as if someone had gone over him with a lawn roller while he was lying on a cobbled street. It took him a moment to pull himself together. He tried to blink away the lights that were fizzing at the edge of his vision. Ahead of the shuttle he saw the doors to the Hubris’s shuttle bay opening.