Ramiro removed his helmet and strapped himself to Agata’s bed, still wearing his cooling bag. He managed to doze off, but then he woke after half a bell, aware that the pressure was back in the cabin. He shut off the air to his bag and tried to sleep again, but then he realised how uncomfortable he was. He peeled the thing off and nestled into the sand, trying to erase the image of papers flying out of Azelio’s cabin.

He was woken by Tarquinia’s voice and her hand on his shoulder. ‘Your turn for the watch,’ she said.

Ramiro looked up at her in the dim light. ‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he said.

‘But you didn’t.’

He unstrapped himself and reached out to embrace her. She was still wearing her own cooling bag; he opened the fastening behind her neck and pulled it down over her shoulders and arms. When she was bare he pressed himself against her chest; an urgent pleasure affirmed the rightness of it, and then he felt their skin adhering.

He looked down and saw the light passing between them. He tried to pull free, but Tarquinia stopped him.

‘You can’t hurt me,’ she said. ‘After shedding two children, I can’t fission.’

Ramiro wanted to believe her, but he was afraid that they’d reached the point where they could talk each other into anything. ‘How do you know?’

‘We’re not the first people to put it to the test.’

Tarquinia eased them together onto the bed, then she brought the straps around them and pulled them tight. The sense of being confined in this state made Ramiro dizzy with joy; he closed his eyes and sank into the warmth suffusing their bodies.

He didn’t care any more what the truth was: if the woman he loved had made him her co-stead, that was her choice. And if she went the way of women, he’d happily raise her children. He couldn’t understand how he’d ever feared that. It was what he was meant for.

Tarquinia shook him awake a second time.

‘Ramiro? It’s been half a bell. Someone should be on watch.’

He shifted against the cool sand. She’d loosened the straps, but their bodies were still touching.

‘What happened?’

She said, ‘We exchanged light. And I’m still here.’

‘It could have gone wrong.’ Ramiro felt himself shivering. ‘I could have killed you.’ Leaving the Surveyor with no pilot, and four newborn children to care for. ‘I must have been insane.’

Tarquinia said, ‘I’ve known a dozen women who’ve survived this. Believe me, if I hadn’t been sure I would have fought you off.’

Ramiro didn’t doubt her, but it didn’t change the fact that he hadn’t been sure himself.