She turned the next corner, and found herself confronted by a monster from the very depths of her nightmares. Directly between her and the escape-pod bay, she registered a churning mass of blades and struts, surrounded by blackness.

Her lungs were hurting more than she thought possible. Meanwhile, the machine-monster was busily tearing through the walls and bulkheads all around it, like a buzzsaw through soggy paper.

It suddenly turned and reached out for her. Instinct made her kick her way out of its reach, but this motion carried her up and out through the great rent it had already torn in the hull. She was now outside the Ingersoll, where the icy cold of deep space began infiltrating through her skin and burrowing its way into her bones.

She then caught sight of a corpse drifting close by a drive-spine. It looked as if it might be Kathryn, the woman who had once attended to her.

She tried to call out Megans name, in the last moments before her lungs froze solid.

FORTY

Megan

<Gabrielle?>

<Gabrielle!>

Megan watched helplessly as the Ingersoll was torn to shreds. She also saw the nova drive being dragged out of the hull.

As its components started to drift away from what was left of the Ingersoll, the Wanderer began reverting to its former appearance. There was something hypnotic about the sight, like watching a sponge reform inside a tank of water after it had been segmented in a blender.

For the moment, it seemed to be ignoring her and the Magi ship. It now had what it wanted what it had always wanted.

When she spotted an escape pod tumbling out of control, she instantly gave chase. It took her half an hour to retrieve it.

The Magi ship formed an airlock bay, and drew the drifting pod inside it. When she activated the pods door mechanism, it hissed open to reveal Bash inside. He, of course, betrayed no awareness that Megan was even there.

Perhaps, she speculated, Gabrielle might still be alive, trapped somewhere inside the wreck of the Ingersoll . . .

No, declared the Librarian. We managed to reactivate part of the Ingersolls external array, and we sighted her body drifting outside, but still near the ship.

Megan closed her eyes for a moment, resting her forehead against the side of the escape pod.

What about the nova mine? she asked, lifting her head back up. Do we know if she . . . ?

We detected an anomalous neutrino burst from this systems sun within the last few minutes. This indicates that the mine has been triggered, which means we have perhaps half a day before the sun turns nova.

And Bellhaven?

We detected no sign of a tach-net transmission being sent towards the Accord. If there genuinely is a mine around Bellhavens star, it has not been activated.