As the six dinosaurs filed out of the room, the engineer stopped on the threshold and repeated what the lieutenant had asked earlier. ‘Is the world really going to end in the next few minutes?’

The supreme consul of the Ant Federation looked at him with the shadow of a smile on her face. ‘Nothing lasts forever, sir.’

The engineer cocked his head in surprise. ‘That’s the first time I’ve ever heard an ant say something philosophical,’ he said. Then he swung round and left.

Kachika made her way back to the edge of the central console and addressed the ant troops massed on the floor beneath her.

‘I need you to relay my instructions to all units with extreme urgency. All troops in the vicinity of the signal station should immediately take shelter in the basement. Troops further afield should seek out crevices and holes in which to hide. The government of the Ant Federation issues the following final statement to the citizenry: the end of the world is upon us. Every ant for herself.’

Professor Joya was quivering from her feelers to her feet, impatient to get going. ‘Supreme Consul, Field Marshal, let’s make our way to the basement,’ she said.

‘You go, Professor,’ Kachika replied. ‘Field Marshal Jolie and I will not be accompanying you. We have committed the gravest error in the history of civilisation. We have forfeited our right to life.’

‘The supreme consul is correct, Professor.’ Field Marshal Jolie dipped her antennae solemnly. ‘Though the odds are against you, I sincerely hope that you will somehow manage to keep the embers of civilisation glowing.’

Joya touched her antennae to those of Kachika and Jolie, the most heartfelt gesture of respect in the ant world. Then she scuttled down off the console and joined the tide of ants streaming out of the control room.

*

After the troops had evacuated, a hush descended on the control room. Kachika pattered over to the nearest window and Jolie followed her. From the sill, they witnessed an extraordinary sight.

Dawn was about to break, but the night’s crescent moon still hung in the sky. Suddenly, the angle of the moon shifted and the moon began to brighten rapidly until its silvery light became a blinding arc of electricity. The world below, including the scattering throng of ants, was illuminated in stark detail.

‘What was that? Did the sun just get brighter?’ Jolie asked.

‘No, Field Marshal, that was the arrival of a new sun. The moon is reflecting its light. A sun has appeared over Laurasia and is frying the continent as we speak.’

‘Gondwana’s sun should appear any moment now.’

‘Isn’t that it there?’

Intense light flared in the west, inundating everything around it.

The two ants watched agog as a dazzling sun began rising swiftly over the western horizon. It swelled until it occupied half the sky, and incinerated everything on Earth in an instant.