‘Yes, your definition is right. But the existence of antimatter is not merely theoretical,’ Joya said. ‘As a result of their extensive cosmological studies, the dinosaurs have proved that antimatter does exist.’ She tapped an impatient foot. ‘Surely someone else here has heard more about it?’

Field Marshal Jolie now chipped in. ‘I heard that as soon as antimatter comes into contact with the matter in our world, the combined mass of the two materials is converted into energy.’

‘Correct!’ said Joya, dipping her antennae. ‘That process is called annihilation.’ She was in full pedagogic mode now. ‘When your all-powerful nuclear warheads detonate, only a fraction of 1 per cent of their mass is converted into energy, but the mass–energy conversion rate in matter–antimatter collisions is 100 per cent! It should therefore be evident to you all’ – she glared meaningfully at Kachika – ‘that there are things even more terrible than nuclear weapons. Per unit mass, the energy released by matter–antimatter annihilation is two to three orders of magnitude greater than that released by a nuclear bomb.’

‘But what does this have to do with Luna and Leviathan?’

‘Bear with me and I will tell you.’ Jolie began striding up and down, confident now that she had the undivided attention of every ant in the room. ‘Recently some of us were talking about the new sun that suddenly appeared in the night sky of the Southern Hemisphere three years ago. An event that few of us will ever forget, am I right?’

A shiver of acknowledgement rippled through her audience.

‘Dinosaur astronomers observed that the flash we experienced here on Earth originated from a small celestial body that had entered the solar system with a comet’s trajectory. The object was less than thirty kilometres in diameter, seemingly a mere sliver of rock floating in space. But when they launched probes to observe it close up, they discovered that the celestial body was made of antimatter! While passing through the asteroid belt, it had collided with a meteoroid. The meteoroid and the antimatter were mutually annihilated, releasing a tremendous amount of energy and producing the flash we saw. The Gondwanans and the Laurasians arrived at this conclusion simultaneously, but it’s what they discovered next that’s of most significance to all of us here on Earth…’

This was turning into a long and tortuous explanation, but the ants were nothing if not well versed in obedient attentiveness. They didn’t even fidget.

‘The annihilation had blasted a large hole in the antimatter body, scattering many antimatter fragments of varying sizes through space. Dinosaur astronomers quickly located several of these fragments, which apparently were not difficult to spot. In the asteroid belt, particles of solar wind were annihilated by the antimatter particles, giving the surfaces of the fragments a peculiar glow, and this intensified as they approached the sun.’