The reply came slowly. ‘We are at the four corners of your galaxy, Ian Cormac.’

Cormac thought how apposite this was. He visualized star maps with little arrows pointing to the darkness at the edge of the galaxy, and there written the words: ‘Here be dragons.’

‘An object has been launched from Dragon towards us.’

‘Scan it. If it looks suspicious, destroy it.’

‘It contains the two dracomen.’

‘OK, bring them in,’ said Cormac. There seemed little else to do. He was not about to start becoming argumentative with Dragon just as he was beginning to get some answers, truth or not. He closed the channel with the alien, and turned to Chaline.

‘You can get on with it now,’ he said.

She smiled happily and left the room.

‘How much of that did you believe?’ Cormac asked Mika, Thorn and Aiden.

‘I think it will let us set up the runcible, and I believe it is genuinely after whatever was in that artefact. Beyond that its motivations are debatable,’ said Mika.

‘All of it is plausible,’ said Aiden. ‘One must question one’s own motives for distrust.’

Cormac answered him. ‘Dragon has little regard for human life; we know this. Why would it be concerned about the possible deaths of a few million people?’

Aiden looked thoughtful for a moment, and then said, ‘You are correct. It has motivated us because it requires our assistance. This makes a number of its claims invalid. I concur with Mika.’

‘Thorn?’ asked Cormac.

‘Tapestry of fucking lies, old man,’ said Thorn, smiling bleakly.

* * *

Cormac was sitting on his bed, wondering about the possibility of sleep, when there came a knock at his door.

‘Come in,’ he said.

In came Jane, apparently no less a goddess because she wore baggy overalls.

‘Jane, please, sit down.’

Jane swished into the single chair with an economy of movement and an elegance that was enviable. She had a grace that Aiden lacked. But Aiden had a brute power she lacked. Both of them could have squashed the likes of Thorn without needing their artificial sweat glands.

‘What do you require of me?’ she asked, crossing her legs.

Cormac rubbed at his forehead. ‘Chaline told me that your speciality was secondary installation. You deal with AIs normally, which was why she could release you to me last time. You hadn’t a lot to do then.’

Jane smiled. ‘Yes, that is correct.’

‘That submind we brought back—Hubris can’t get through to it. It’s completely internalized. Do you have any suggestions as to how we might get through?’

‘It would be kinder to shut it down. It was part of the Samarkand AI, and as such more of a fragment of a mind. The destruction of the rest of it has driven it insane.’

‘No, I can’t allow it to be shut down.’

‘Might I ask why?’

‘Dragon.’

‘You think it contains vital information?’