Kay Amal Khan took a deep breath and stepped back from the damning display. Elsewhere aboard the living ship were other people waiting to hear that their own sacrifices had been worth it. That the plan that had doomed them—denying them any last chances to say goodbye to friends or family or their lives—had worked. She couldn’t face them. She couldn’t tell them the truth.

“Cam,” she said hoarsely, “would you open me a hatch to outside, please? I feel the need to go for a walk up top. I may be some time.”

I

Several new trilobites had made the jump across, as far as Alison understood it. And there was practically a shuttle service between here and the Cousins’ timeline to bring materiel and experts over. Daniel Rove had even been back to the rat world, and now the rats seemed to be contributing to the universal repair effort.

When Kay finally approached her and Julian, Alison knew what she would say. Julian wouldn’t like it, true. But it would only be one more thing for him to explain, amongst so much else.

“I’ve made a bit of a decision,” Kay said.

“You’re staying with the Cousins when this is done,” Alison concluded for her.

Kay blinked, put out. “Talk about stealing a girl’s thunder, Matchell,” she said peevishly. “But yes. I mean, they offered. It’s tempting because they’re way ahead of us, scientifically. And what’s more, there’s no guarantee that this fix of ours will be permanent. They’re going to set up a whole institution dedicated to interdimensional theory, watching for cracks. That’s something I can contribute to. And…”

“And…?” Julian prompted testily.

“You knew Murther was a man, right? Biologically a man?”

Alison hadn’t known that, although with the Cousins’ heavy physiology it was harder to read these things.