Cormac was directly in front of Pelter, the barrel of his thin-gun connected by an invisible rod to the Separatist’s forehead. The expression on the agent’s face said all that needed to be said, and all that would be said. Pelter was a hindrance the agent must remove so he might continue his work. Easier to just kill him and move on. It was that he had begged in the face of this lack of regard, that he was irrelevant to the central issue, just something to be killed and discarded, that brought to Pelter an almost rabid anger. Of course, in this instance the killing pulse never came. It was as Sylac had said: visual hallucinations through the link. He tensed himself—it always seemed to take such an effort of will—and used his aug to switch through to Crane. Immediately the link became an icicle through his left eye, and through glassy light the rectangular barrel of the thin-gun closed against his forehead.

No, go away.

Pelter tried to shake the image away and found he was paralysed. The image slid then, like a mote in his eye, and fell to a position somewhere on the edge of his vision. Now he had a view of a piece of crystal, a plastic dog, and an ancient pair of binoculars. Using the command program in the module, he took control of Crane. There was nothing to feel, only things to see and hear, and an emulation of movement that sat in his skull like something theorized. He lifted Mr. Crane’s head and looked around.

The hold looked very different, simply because there was a light hoar of frost on every surface. He turned Crane’s head to the sound of swearing. Stanton was sitting up in his cold coffin and rubbing at his arms. His skin was covered with the fine dots of needle penetration. There were smears of blood on the sides of his neck. Pelter relaxed his control and inevitably Crane’s attention returned to his toys. Pelter maintained a tenuous link.

‘You’d think the price would have included fucking heating!’ Stanton shouted.

The intercom crackled, and Jarvellis spoke. She sounded slightly dopey. ‘Sorry, John. I used a timed drop from underspace here. No asteroids to hit and not much else that the automatics couldn’t handle. I’ve only just thawed up myself,’ she said.

‘Yeah, and I bet it’s nice and warm where you are.’

‘Give me a chance. I’m not up to speed yet.’

‘Well, get up to speed. It’s warmer in these coffins than in the hold.’

Immediately there came the drone of fans. Pelter turned Crane’s head to watch the frost disappearing in waves across the walls.

‘We’re insystem, then?’

‘Insystem and coming up on Huma.’