Sometimes, when depression threatened to overwhelm her, she would lose her temper and start yelling and shouting into his unresponsive face, until self-pity or melancholia or simple exhaustion forced her to stop.

Every few days they were both led to the same room as before. Bash would be hooked up to Sifras machine, while Gabrielle would attempt once again to establish a bridge to the Wanderer.

It proved to be a long, laborious, painful and ultimately fruitless process; despite her early success, actually engaging in anything like a meaningful dialogue with the alien entity proved to be excessively difficult. Sifra and the man who called himself General Schelling had developed a rough syntax for communication, based on previous experiments with Megan and others and, over the weeks and then months, Gabrielle first learned this syntax and then attempted to teach it to the Wanderer.

Each session left her feeling exhausted and increasingly weak. Then she would sit in silence and watch as Tarrant, Sifra and Schelling argued with increasing bitterness over their lack of progress. It was clear that the General blamed Tarrant for having allowed Megan to escape in the first place.

Gabrielles hair had grown back quickly, till its tips now brushed against her shoulders. She no longer required restraints to keep from injuring herself during the bridging sessions with Bash. More than that, she now wanted to succeed to give Tarrant and the others what they so greatly desired. Success, after all, meant a chance however slim that she might see Evie again. Whatever crimes Tarrant had committed, he had at least spared the life of his own child, and that had to count for something.

At other times, when her thoughts grew much darker, she thought of all the things she had heard said in that room, and of how it would be far more convenient for them to kill her than risk her ever repeating their remarks to anyone else.

And then, one day, months into their voyage, she had finally started to get somewhere.

Before long she was managing to establish something like real communication with the Wanderer, whereupon the three men started to argue about what they should or shouldnt say to it. Sifra kept a display running on one of his virtual consoles, showing their progress across the galaxy. One day it came as a shock to her to realize that they had reached their destination.

It knows weve arrived, she announced, following their next bridging session. But it also knows were not the only ones here.

We should launch our nova mine now, said Sifra, then put it into a tight solar orbit in case Jacinths already negotiated with the Wanderer. We cant take the risk that

Tarrant put up a hand to stop him. Anil, weve already talked about this. Thats Ottos decision, not yours.