I understood immediately what he meant. We were about to put the Xeelee in the dock - us, right here on this beaten-up planet, while the mud rose up around us. And the recommendation we made today might reach all the way back to the great decision-making councils on Earth itself. I felt a deep thrill. Even the locals stirred, apparently aware that something historically momentous was about to happen, even in the midst of their own misfortunes, stuck as we were on that battered wooden roof.

So it began.

At first Tilo wasn’t helpful.

‘It simply isn’t proven that this volcanism is the result of Xeelee action - and certainly not that it’s deliberately directed against humans,’ Despite Kard’s glare, he persisted, ‘I’m sorry, Admiral, but it isn’t clear.

‘Look at the context.’ He pulled up historical material - images, text that scrolled briefly in the murky air. ‘This is not a new story. There is evidence that human scientists were aware of dark-matter contamination in the stars before the beginning of the Third Expansion. They called the dark-matter life forms they found “photino birds”. It seems an engineered human being was once sent into Sol itself to study them . . . An audacious project. But this learning was largely lost in the Qax Extirpation, and after that - well, we had a Galaxy to conquer. There was a later incident, a project run by the Silver Ghosts concerning a “soliton star”, but—’

Kard snapped, ‘What do the Xeelee care about dark matter?’

Tilo rubbed tired eyes with grubby fists. ‘However exotic they are, the Xeelee are baryonic life forms, like us. It isn’t in their interests for the suns to die young, any more than for us.’ He shrugged. ‘Perhaps they are trying to stop it. Perhaps that’s why they have come here, to the halo. Nothing to do with us.’

Kard waved a Virtual hand at Mount Perfect’s oozing wounds. ‘Then why all this, just as the Xeelee show up? Coincidence?’

Xera protested, ‘Admiral—’

‘This isn’t a Commission trial, Tilo,’ Kard said. ‘We don’t need absolute proof. The imagery - human refugees, Xeelee nightfighters swooping overhead - will be all we need to implicate the Xeelee in this destruction.’

Xera said dryly, ‘Yes. All we need to sell a war to the Coalition, the governing councils, and the people of the Expansion.’ They seemed to forget the rest of us as they engaged in an argument they had clearly been pursuing before. ‘This is wonderful for you, isn’t it, Admiral? It’s what the Navy has been waiting for, along with its Academy cronies. An excuse to attack.’

Kard’s face was stony. ‘The cold arrogance of you cosseted intellectuals is sometimes insufferable. It’s true that the Navy is ready to fight, Commissary. That’s our job. And we are ready. We have the plans in place—’