She kept the bulk of her plasmantic protocols scanning broader, longer-ranged frequencies and emissions, but turned a small portion of her power to bear on the target world, and specifically the craft orbiting it. Looking at the placement of the enemy ships, she had to conclude they were set to defend the orbital station. Their cordon was ill-placed to prevent the Sun of Endings and the resonator carriers smashing through into orbit, ready for the descent. There was a chain of defensive satellites that had been overrun during the first attack, their systems overloaded and their crews rendered ineffective. If they were active, Simut would have to be less precipitous in his approach, which gave the humans more time to realise that destroying the resonator was their only chance of victory.

With Simut’s protocols still streaming through every circuit, there was nowhere Ah-hotep could function without some scrutiny. She had exploited Simut’s lack of diligence several times but sooner or later he would come across something amiss in her actions. She had one last chance to disrupt the overlord’s plans.

Her discovery of the incoming fleet gave her reason to travel to the vault depths once more – to secure the protocols against aggressive action by Tholotep.

‘My lord, if Tholotep has corrupted his loyalty protocols, it is likely he may do the same to our cohorts,’ she told the overlord.

‘Is that possible?’ Simut pulsed emerald fronds of agitation. ‘Could he take my warriors from me?’

‘Not if we combine our protocols together, my lord. Mine are not Szarekh dynasty in origin.’

‘Dual command?’ Suspicion entered the overlord’s tone.

‘My will shall always be subservient to yours, Lord of the Legion.’

Simut’s eyes gleamed brighter and accompanying tendrils of cortical intrusion pried at Ah-hotep’s connection, seeking any sign of uncertainty. The plasmancer held her ground, fighting the urge to recoil from the shameful invasion of her cortical aura.

Eventually, after a time long enough to convince Ah-hotep that Simut’s rummaging was more about domination than any real attempt to uncover treachery, the overlord withdrew. His eyes dimmed and he turned away, disinterested.

‘Very well, you have my blessing.’

Ah-hotep needed no further excuse and translocated directly to the vaults, barely throwing up her field-doppelganger before slipping into the secret technomandrite chamber. She activated the communications array, thinking to broadcast the latest developments and perhaps somehow direct the humans to the importance of the resonator carriers. To her surprise, she discovered a communication on one of the human frequencies. It seemed very localised, almost as though aimed at the necron ships.

She hesitated. She knew nothing of human carrier waves, but thought it unlikely they possessed the kind of power needed to breach the protocols of a fully operational tomb ship. Her reluctance stemmed from the thought that the human signal might somehow propagate and betray the presence of the technomandrite-shielded room.