She climbed through the hatch and found herself inside what she guessed must be the cockpit or bridge. She noticed more instrument banks angled over and around a number of acceleration couches, and a Tabernacle projection floating just below what she took to be the ceiling.

Karl was seated in one of the couches, which had been adjusted so that he could look straight up at the projection. There was no sign anywhere of Briggs. She saw Karl make subtle gestures with his fingers, to which the projection responded by first rotating one way and then the other, before suddenly fading to be replaced by some new set of data.

Gabrielle looked more closely at the images, and saw great floods of water flowing around the roots of a canopy tree. She saw whole buildings and enormous vehicles bouncing and spinning in the tempest.

Karl glanced briefly towards her, then continued flicking through more images.

What is that? asked Gabrielle, now afraid to get too close to him.

I tapped into an Accord news feed, Karl replied, twitching his hand towards the projection as he spoke. Take a look at this.

The images changed, the projection expanding until it filled nearly the whole of the cramped cockpit.

This time, instead of a canopy tree, she saw floodwaters surging around towers and the shattered ruins of buildings. It was clearly a drowned city, but Gabrielle didnt recognize it as Dios until the camera view panned around to show the Ship of the Covenant. The buildings, walls and bridges that had once surrounded it had all now been swept away.

She put her hand to her mouth, the breath stilled in her throat.

The camera view then shifted to take in more of the surrounding landscape. The docks were entirely submerged. Gone were the grand towers, capped by silver and gold minarets, that had stood at the Gates of Dios to greet pilgrims as they arrived. Further inland was yet more devastation, a flattened wasteland of debris where once had been homes and places of work, of worship and of entertainment. In their place were surging black waters filled with the bodies, she realized with a deep and absolute certainty, of countless pilgrims.

She felt her gorge rise and swallowed hard. Dios had almost literally ceased to exist.

She stared at Karl. How . . . ?

An impact, replied Karl, just like Abramovic said. The news feeds are speculating over an unidentified asteroid.

Gabrielle shook her head. Thats not possible not in this day and age. The Accord would have seen it coming. Wed have seen it coming. We have orbital defences.

Unless, said Karl, you have friends in the outer system who can make sure no one sees it coming. Or at least not until its much, much too late.