Cormac interrupted. ‘You can stay here and get on with setting up the stage-two runcible. Ten hours, didn’t you say?’

‘Less now, we’ve already been working on it,’ she said.

‘Good . . . Good.’ He turned back to Blegg. ‘Any communication from Dragon while we were on Viridian?’

‘Nothing of any consequence . . .’

Cormac shot a question at Chaline. ‘What condition is Hubris in now?’

‘Pretty good,’ said Chaline, eyeing him warily.

‘Is there a shuttle ready to leave now?’

Blegg said, ‘One hour. You can wait that long.’

Cormac looked about to argue, then said, ‘Yes, I’ll take a shower, I think.’

* * *

It was the heavy-lifter they boarded after that tense one hour. Cormac had been unable to relax. He toyed with his food and drank lots of coffee. He even wished he had picked up the smoking habit from Gant. Now would have been a good time to use it. Halfway through that same hour, Mika came with some instruments to run tests on the dracoman.

‘I would like to find out what—’

‘No,’ said Cormac.

Mika looked at him in surprise.

‘No tests, none at all.’

He stared at her levelly. She met his gaze, then packed away her instruments. They continued waiting.

The lifter was empty of cargo, and on its last trip before being restored. It had been used to bring down the old engine casings for transmission to Minostra; even damaged, they were too valuable to scrap. This had now been done, and the lifter was ready to return.

As Cormac settled in his seat, he said, ‘When we board I want all communication channels to Dragon closed down. Should it try to contact us, we ignore it.’

‘Why?’ asked Thorn. ‘Surely you can—’

‘I’m giving orders, not making suggestions. Just listen—and shut up,’ said Cormac.

Thorn went suddenly still, icy. Blegg leant across and caught hold of his arm. Thorn turned in cold irritation to look straight into those flecked eyes. No words were spoken out loud, but Thorn jerked away as if he had been snarled at. He stared at Blegg in amazement, then relaxed back in his seat with a nod. Blegg released his arm.

Mika stared at Blegg in perplexity for a moment, then turned her attention to Cormac. ‘There’s something else as well,’ she said.

‘Yes, the dracoman goes straight into Isolation. Total isolation. That means no probes, no testing, no scanning.’

Mika nodded.

Cormac checked the viewing screens nervously. One of them revealed the distant mote of Dragon on a far horizon. When he spotted it, Cormac’s face hardened and he then watched it constantly.