‘You three can take apartments in the Political Office.’ He paused, checking the assignment of living accommodation and beginning to make alterations. ‘I have just reassigned you to Inspectorate Executive quarters. Once building recommences in Arcoplex Two, and the living accommodation is completed there, you’ll be reassigned to apartments near the robot assembly plant and the research laboratory.’ Saul waited a moment for a response, and when none came, he turned to Chang. ‘And you?’

‘I’ll stay here,’ Chang replied, nodding towards the nearby consoles. ‘But one of those PO apartments would be nice.’

‘It’s done,’ said Saul, then turned to the others and gestured to the consoles lining the back of the control room. ‘Okay, grab your chairs and take your positions.’ He beckoned to Le Roque, now returned clad in a padded overall. ‘Get them ready.’

As Chang, the twins and the thirteen remaining moved quickly to their various consoles, Le Roque headed over beside Hannah and gazed for a moment at the bullet-damaged console, then stepped away to select another one. They began powering up, and Saul watched them for a moment. Meanwhile he called up separate views on the three wall screens: the middle screen displaying a distant view of Earth, and those on either side relaying orbital views transmitted from the laser satellites.

‘You seem to have everything well under control,’ Hannah commented as he approached her.

Saul went on studying the screens. ‘I see no purpose in wasting resources on regimenting every detail of people’s lives, nor on trying to control how they think.’

‘There’ll be problems later.’

As Saul accessed the control systems for the entire array of laser satellites spaced around the Earth, he acknowledged to himself that, yes, there would be problems. But the niggling, annoying problems of administration, of government, would perhaps be the least of them. For a start, it was by no means certain that the station could be made utterly self-sufficient, or that they could ultimately survive out here.

‘The people here are used to being told what to do, and when they begin to realize that I am not instructing them all the time, that’s when the problems will start. It’s also going to be difficult for those currently redundant,’ he said. ‘I’ll need to decide what to do with all those bureaucrats who’ve spent most of their working lives driving a desk and enforcing misery on others.’

‘Do the digesters often need cleaning?’

‘Generally not, though those in Arcoplex One might develop faults.’ He glanced at her. ‘Have you made a decision yet?’

Hannah winced.