‘Those are the mountains the runcible energy-surplus used to heat. There was a line of big microwave dishes transmitting the surplus energy,’ said Chaline. ‘On a busy day the rock used to melt. The heat-sink stations at New Sea were intended for the next stage of terraforming. They had recently come into operation and were melting the seas.’

‘It wasn’t just algae they introduced. There were moulds, lichens and planktons round the station, and even adapted angel shrimp. Whoever did this wrecked much more than a runcible,’ said Mika.

Yes, Cormac realized, what had happened here must seem doubly painful to someone trained on Circe. Not only had there been a huge loss of human life, but also the loss of a nascent ecology. There had probably been many from the Life-coven working here on Samarkand.

Soon the station came into sight. It had the appearance of an iron cathedral on the shore of the frozen sea. It had spires and arches in its makeup, but none of them were for decoration. The arching structures that clawed into the ground and the sea carried heavy-gauge superconductors and the spires and turrets were microwave receivers that employed field technology rather than the bulky dishes used heretofore. Jane guided the shuttle close over the structure itself, then down into the cleared area that ringed it. Here were parked private AGCs, and to one side was the wreck of a carrier. Perhaps it had just been landing or taking off when the blastwave hit. They all saw it, and made no comment. Without a doubt it contained bodies; but a fraction of the total dead.

The shuttle settled a hundred metres from the doors of the station. As the rest of them unstrapped from their seats, Cormac remained where he was and stared thoughtfully at the carrier. It occurred to him then that the cold would not have returned here immediately. When Jane came up beside him he caught hold of her arm. Through his gloves it felt like any other arm.

‘How long would it have taken?’ he asked.

She looked at him with a quizzical expression.

‘The cold. How long to get down to say . . . minus fifty?’

‘Three solstan days.’

‘That quick?’

‘Yes, the installation here, all of it, might be equated to a very small speck of warm sand on an ice cube.’

‘I see,’ said Cormac, and then studied her closely. ‘I realize I’ve been a prat.’

‘It is something we all realize at one time or another.’

Yeah, like you’d ever do anything foolish.

‘Let me put it another way then,’ he continued. ‘I miscalculated. Unless you feel you might be needed out here you can stay with the shuttle.’

Jane smiled at him. ‘I think I might as well come along. I might be of use.’