‘They did a cruel thing to us, Fura,’ she said, touching a finger to her bandaged scalp. ‘A cruel old thing. When they knew it wasn’t going their way, what was left of her crew made a knotty mess of her control gear. Tearing this out, tearing that out. I know we didn’t give them much time, what with all the murdering, but Bosa must have drilled her orders into ’em pretty deeply. If there was a chance of the Nightjammer being taken, they was to rip her living guts out, and they knew exactly where and what needed to be done. Yards and yards of wiring ripped out or severed, and I ain’t the foggiest how we’ll go about knitting it back together.’

I nodded, refusing to be too cowed by this news. After all we’d been through, not having the odd setback would have been the queer thing. Funny it had come to me to be the level-headed one, I thought, seeing the way past our immediate difficulties when everyone else was losing their nerve.

‘It’s just control gear, Surt. I know it looks bad now, but we don’t need to move anywhere in a hurry and once you’ve had some rest I think you’ll see it more as a challenge than an impediment.’

‘I hope you’re right about that, Fura.’

‘I’ve faith in your abilities. I’ve faith in all our abilities.’

‘You don’t sound the way you did,’ Surt mused. ‘Not how you were before we got to the Fang, anyway. I always knew you was educated, with those thousand books of yours, but now you ain’t afraid to sound like it either.’

She was right, I realised. But it hadn’t been anything intentional on my part. Just a mask that had begun to slip a little. I suppose some part of me knew that, however we went on from here, this crew – if it ever was a crew – was going to need a captain again. I suppose it was presumptuous to think of myself stepping into that vacancy, but then again, I’d all but taken the decisions for Trusko when he was alive, whether the cove knew it or not.

‘Surt . . .’ I began. Then stopped, before I put a thought out there that made me look foolish.

‘What is it, Fura?’

‘Oh, nothing – just a silly idea that crossed my mind for a moment.’

‘You might as well spit it out, I always says.’

‘You mentioned that the control gear was damaged. That’s mainly wiring, isn’t it? I was thinking . . . well, I know this will sound ridiculous. But a robot’s body’s mainly wiring as well, isn’t it? I know there are arms and legs and wheels and so on, but if a robot could operate those, couldn’t it operate sail-control gear, ions and so on?’