It contained fresh fruit, probably from the station’s hydroponics, film-wrapped sandwiches with some sort of meat filling, even a small bottle of a wine that bore the name ‘Passion’ on its label. As Jarvellis looked up from the bag, it occurred to her that she would not remember the Outlinkers’ generosity. After ECS tried her for arms smuggling, and then mind-wiped her, she would remember nothing. She’d be a pregnant mother operating on instinct: a mere animal until they downloaded a personality into her, and—whether construct or real—that personality would never be her own. She closed the bag, stood up, and began walking. In the cabin she could just hear Tull’s voice speaking over the intercom. No cameras, then. She knew that the Outlinkers would have some sort of AG shuttle at the centre of the station for their own use. What she now wondered was if any of the station’s original shuttles remained in this outer ring.

* * *

Dawn flung greenhouse light across the land. It seemed, with this coloration to the light, that the temperature should be high. But the day began wintry and showed no sign of changing as it advanced. Viewed from above, the ruins had the appearance of an impact site in the forest of blue oaks and chequer trees, and perhaps at one time that was precisely what this had been. The two bikes skimmed over crumbling buildings towards the central ring of the broken dome. They came in to land at the edge of the dome, where there was just enough room to fit the sky-bikes close together on apparently firm ground.

Donning their helmets, the four advanced through the wreckage, their boots crunching on broken glass and heat-splintered plascrete. All around, old wiring and the remnants of computer systems were sinking into decay. Most surfaces were covered with grey and yellow lichens. This ruin could have been thousands of years old, rather than the few hundred it actually was. Soon all four stood at the rim of the dark shaft of one of the underground silos.

Cormac gazed into that dark and contemplated what these ruins meant. This is what happened when worlds seceded from the Polity. This is what happened when base humanity tried to govern itself.

‘Cormac,’ came Mika’s voice over his comunit. ‘The dracomen just grabbed the AGC. They’re coming your way.’

‘Shit!’

Cormac looked up at the sky, but could see no craft. What was Dragon up to? What were the dracomen up to? He was tempted to put a hold on the mission until he found out, but, after thinking about the chances of getting some answers out of the dracomen, he decided to go on.

‘Thorn, put a shot down there and see what stirs.’