The moment of Simut’s victory was so close he would have been able to smell it, had he not divested himself of such mortal senses in an age long past. Even so, his cortical field crackled visibly with excitement as he felt his troops constricting the humans like a great serpent. The serpent king? That was perhaps a worthy title for one that had crushed the resistance from the system. Simut slid it into the title registry of his subordinates for future use.

Ah-hotep had broadcast that she was in complete control of the human space station and was ready to unleash its power at his command. Zozar’s Destroyers and the Szarekh cohort on the surface were in the process of eradicating the humans and their superior allies. The overlord was not sure whether the fighting would be over before the resonator arrived. If not, its placement upon the surface would seal the overnull and smother any remaining embers of defiance.

‘Lord of the Silver Hosts, one human vessel is attempting to escape,’ warned Phetos. The display magnified to a view of the accursed alien vessel that had assaulted the Barge of the Stormhawk. Hatred welled up within Simut.

‘Destroy it! Turn it to ash on the cosmic winds!’

‘You wish to take the Sun of Endings, Lord of the Starsea?’

‘What? No! Send attack barques after it. Their presence will extend the overnull to prevent its break into the othersea. Three should be sufficient.’

‘As you will it, Sunlord of the Upper Hills.’

Simut felt the fleet shifting when a depleted squadron of attack ships broke away from the flotilla guarding the resonator carriers as they moved closer into orbit. They curved out of the gravity trap and acceler­ated after the departing human cruiser.

The humans had cut through the outer bulkheads and were on the verge of destroying the door to the chamber into which Ah-hotep had withdrawn, surrounded by half a dozen surviving Immortals. Heavy gauss rifles at the ready, they guarded her silently while she let her sense free across the streams of energy that criss-crossed the station and connected it to the universe beyond.

Her plan was unravelling. The resonator was almost in position to begin its final descent. The enhanced humans were fleeing out-system, pursued by a squadron of barques. On the surface the scattered cortical flashes from Zozar betrayed imminent extermination of the defenders. Despite his serial incompetence and Ah-hotep’s subtle influence, Simut was about to achieve his victory.

More drastic action was required.

She weaved together a temporally locked data-packet and set it free through the humans’ calculating systems. With this task complete, Ah-hotep reached out her cortical field to connect with the trans­locator beacons aboard the Sun of Endings. Gaining connection, she locked onto the signal with her bodyguard and remotely activated the beam-transport.