‘The success rate was only ever some forty per cent,’ Andres said. She inspected her hand, pulling at slack skin. ‘Oh, I would dearly love to live through this mission, all fifty millennia of it, and see it through to its conclusion. But I fear that’s unlikely to happen.’ She gazed around at them. ‘I can’t do this alone; that’s the bottom line. I will need help.’

Diluc suddenly saw it, and his mouth dropped open. ‘You aren’t serious.’

‘I’m afraid so. It is necessary for the good of the mission that some of the people in this room do not die.’

Ruul the geneticist unfolded his tall frame from his chair. ‘We believe it’s possible. We have the Qax technology.’ Without drama, he held up a yellow pill.

There was a long silence.

Andres smiled coldly. ‘This is no privilege. We can’t afford to die. We must remember, while everybody else forgets.

‘And we must manage. We must achieve total social control - control over every significant aspect of our crew’s lives - and we must govern their children’s lives just as tightly, as far as we can see ahead. Society has to be as rigid as the bulkheads which contain it. Oh, we can give the crew freedom within limits! But we need to enforce social arrangements in which conflict is reduced to negligible, appropriate skill levels kept up - and, most importantly, a duty of maintenance of the Ship is hammered home into every individual at birth. That is why a long-lived elite must ensure perfect continuity and complete control.’

Rusel said, ‘Elite? And what about the rights of those you call the transients? We pharaohs would be taking away all meaningful choice from them - and their children, and their children’s children.’

‘Rights? Rights?’ She loomed over him. ‘Rusel, a transient’s only purpose is to live, reproduce and die in an orderly fashion, thus preserving her genes to the far future. There is no room on this Ship for democracy, no space for love! A transient is just a conduit for her genes. She has no rights, any more than a bit of pipe that carries water from source to sink. Surely you thought this through. When we get to Canis Major, when we find a world to live on, when again we have an environment of surplus - then we can talk about rights. But in the meantime we will control.’ Her expression was complex. ‘But you must see that we will control through love.’

Diluc gaped. ‘Love?’