‘No,’ said Khalybus. ‘We came hoping to find my brother-captain, Atticus. We know his strike cruiser, the Veritas Ferrum, reached this system and made for the world of Pythos. We know he left at least once, and carried out a raid that destroyed the Third Legion’s battle-barge Callidora. That is the last evidence we have of him.’

‘Why do you think he would have returned here?’

‘In our last communication with him, he was tracking an anomaly, one that made transmission impossible, but provided the mistress of his astropathic choir with unsurpassed awareness of the sector.’ Khalybus was clearly dissatisfied with his description. ‘He knew little when we spoke. The effect seemed to be the reverse of the Astronomican.’

The Lion nodded. After the Pharos, he found the concept easier to accept than Khalybus did. ‘You think he was successful.’

‘He was able to ambush the Callidora and its escorts,’ Levannas said. ‘A single ship destroyed them.’

‘And you have heard nothing since then?’

‘Nothing,’ Khalybus confirmed. ‘We expected that, as long as he was on Pythos, he would be impossible to contact. But there has been only silence since the Callidora. That was years ago. We can no longer be effective against the enemy, not with a single frigate. We have been unable to find any of our other brothers. So we came here.’

‘Our choices have been reduced to desperate ones,’ Levannas added.

‘That is true for us all,’ the Lion said. ‘Have you found any sign of him?’

‘No,’ said Khalybus. ‘Though that is hardly surprising, given that we cannot enter the system. The presence of wreckage outside the warp storm is curious, though. Atticus sent us the Veritas Ferrum’s auspex scans of Pandorax before communications ended. He did not encounter these ships.’

‘Do you know where they came from?’

‘That is what we’ve been trying to determine. They are all civilian, antiquated, and appear to have been in poor condition long before they met with disaster here. Much of the wreckage we have examined shows signs of having been patched up repeatedly and badly.’

‘Have you boarded any of the hulks?’

‘We had only just identified a few promising targets when your fleet translated.’

‘I see.’ The Lion thought about Tuchulcha’s words. I have taken you where you must go. There was a confluence of too many events at Pandorax to be ignored. He did not trust Tuchulcha, but it had never lied to him yet, at least not in any way he had been able to detect. He would act, for now, as if what it said was true. ‘I cannot say if your captain is to be found here,’ he said. ‘I believe, however, that there is a secret here, one we must uncover.’ Somehow, Pandorax is the gateway to Terra. ‘We will examine your target vessels with you, captain.’

Khalybus nodded once, his acknowledgment curt but respectful. ‘I did not think the task worthy of such resources.’