‘—plinking rain hell dark spaces think something abyss gestation outcome—’

‘No,’ said Cormac. ‘I veto that. We take the core brain and main memory with us.’ Chaline turned her masked face to him. He was glad he could not see her expression.

Mika said, ‘There was something . . .’

Chaline turned to her. ‘What? This submind’s crazy.’

‘Stream of consciousness. It may reveal something.’

‘OK . . . OK, no problem.’

Chaline moved to the centre of the room and lifted a circular cover. Ice-blue light glared out as she inserted another instrument from her belt. There was a number of strange clunks. She lifted the instrument out and attached to it was something metallic and lens-shaped. She detached it and tossed it to Cormac. He caught it.

‘There’s your core brain and main memory. It’s only a submind, so they’re all in one. Don’t worry about dropping it. Nothing short of an atomic explosion will destroy it,’ said Chaline. Then she realized what she had said. ‘But, then, we are all well aware of that. It was the destruction of the main runcible mind that . . . internalized it.’

Cormac was glad to hear a little humour in her voice, even though it was somewhat acid. He did not need any enemies right now.

‘Let’s go. There’s nothing more for us here,’ she finished. As soon as they stepped beyond the shielding of the room, Jane halted and tilted her head. They all watched her, knowing she was receiving some message, and knowing that the tilt of her head was for their benefit. Abruptly she turned.

‘That was from the Hubris. It’s picked up some kind of heat source to the south of here.’

‘People?’ asked Cormac.

‘Not determined.’

8

8

Huma: That they named this rather hot and arid planet after a fabulous bird that equates with the phoenix is rather ironic, in that it has been impossible to establish even adapted bird species here. The reason for this is that ninety per cent of the surface of Huma lies outside the green belt in which Earth species are able to live. In this area even the native plant species are prone to combustion, and huge swathes of the planet are ‘burn zones’. Ash carried from these zones is the reason for the distinctive filthy rain that falls on the remaining ten per cent of the planet, at the poles, which are habitable. These storms, though rare, are of such severity that during them no Earth species can survive outside of the accommodation built for humans.

From Quince Guide, compiled by humans