The voice was Bashs but the words were nonsensical, the rush of accompanying sensory data so vast and deep that she felt in danger of being swamped by it.

The leaf that floats on the river of light, she thought. That falls through the sky.

Somehow, she knew this river of light was the Milky Way. And the leaf was their own ship, the Beauregard.

Something else came flooding across the link. She found herself assailed with yet more sensory information she could hardly begin to comprehend. She felt pain in her lungs, as if she were drowning in this flood of data.

It was too much.

The Beauregard disappeared from around her, as she found herself adrift in a timeless void full of chaos and noise, her every sense under assault.

And all of this was coming through Bashs implants, yet further filtered through the inhibitor Tarrant had put into her. What the hell must it be like for Bash, then? How could he possibly live through something like this and stay sane?

She slowly began to understand, to thread some meaning through the sheer noise. There was a message there, coming from the Wanderer.

Once she understood that, she began to laugh.

She opened her eyes to find Tarrant leaning over her, with his hands on her shoulders. She lay on the floor next to the couch, her wrists still secured behind her back.

You had a fit, said Tarrant. How are you feeling?

Water . . . Her voice was hoarse and brittle. For Gods sake, please give me some.

To her surprise, Sifra obeyed instantly, darting towards the kitchenette in the far corner of the lounge and returning moments later with a bulb of water. He knelt by her as Tarrant helped her into a sitting position, and held the bulb towards her so she could take a sip. She sucked at it greedily, then fell back against the side of the couch, coughing violently.

Well? asked Sifra.

Youre in so fucking deep, she said, you have no idea.

Sifras expression turned angry. What the hell are you talking about?

She cleared her throat and remembered the message the Wanderer had conveyed to her. You came all this way to get something from it, she said. But were only here at all because of what it wants from you.

So what does it want? demanded Tarrant.

Our nova drive, she said. It doesnt care about anything else.

Both men stared at her in blank surprise.

It knows all about the Magi ships, and about how they came to our galaxy. The Shoal Hegemony, before it wound up ruling much of the galaxy, had stolen the secret of faster-than-light travel from the Magi ships, before destroying most of them. It knows the nova drives come from caches like the one at Tierra.

And it told all this to you? asked Tarrant.