Twenty people waited in the control room. These included Langstrom, Peach and Mustafa, escorting a thin man with cropped grey hair standing hunched over in his prison overalls. There were also thirteen frightened-looking staff Saul had summoned, all of them clad in the same sort of technician’s garb worn by Chang and the twins, who were also present. Saul glanced at Hannah and nodded to the console they had used earlier. Understanding at once, she moved over to it, then turned and stood with her arms folded. Saul moved past this small crowd to gaze out across Argus Station, leaving them hovering and unsure about what they should do. He didn’t need to look round to know that the spidergun now loomed in the doorway. Even without the multiple views he could summon the sudden terrified stillness would have told him enough.

‘You are Robert Le Roque,’ he began, still without turning.

‘I am,’ the thin ex-prisoner agreed, straightening up and stepping away from Langstrom to move to the fore.

‘Formerly technical director of this entire station?’ Saul now turned to focus on the man.

‘Until Political Director Smith decided otherwise.’ Le Roque smiled nastily and glanced towards Langstrom. ‘But Director Smith is currently being processed into fertilizer for the Arboretum, so he has turned out to be unexpectedly useful in the end.’

‘Yes, the station digesters are going to be busy for some time yet.’

Le Roque folded his arms, as if feeling cold, and continued, ‘So what are your intentions now, and what do you want with me?’

Saul studied the man a moment longer. Certainly, to have reached the rank of Technical Director of this station, Le Roque must have had some less than savoury aspects to his past. But, having studied the extensive data fled in the Political Office, Saul knew political manoeuvring was not the main reason for this man’s promotion. Le Roque was highly intelligent and capable; in fact if he had been less so, he would have ended up in a cell long ago, for he had been far too much of a free thinker

‘I want you to resume the position you held here previously,’ said Saul. ‘I want you, and your staff here’ – he gestured to the others present – ‘to prepare everyone aboard Argus Station for the moment when, in twenty-three hours’ time, it swings about the Moon and I again fire up the Traveller engine to put us on a course for Mars.’

Shock registered on the man’s face, amid gasps from others in the room. Le Roque, however, recovered quickly. ‘And if I’m not willing?’

Saul shrugged. ‘I’ll find someone else, then. But you and everyone here must understand,’ he surveyed the group before him, ‘that there’s no going back. So food, water and air cannot be wasted on those who will not work for the survival of all aboard.’