A grim shake of her head. ‘I can’t imagine they’re still alive – not after whatever the hell happened here.’ She looked up at the Dionysius. Dark portholes stared back like empty eye sockets. ‘If anyone’s here, alive or dead, they must be in . . . the other thing.’

‘It’s never a good sign when even you don’t know what something is. Usually means we’re going to find trouble inside,’ he said, before quickly changing the subject as Imka neared them. ‘Okay, I’ll put ropes and pitons around the other side of this pillar, then go across the cliff. I’ll shout as soon as I’ve got all the lines in place.’

‘Don’t go inside that thing without the rest of us,’ Nina warned.

‘Are you kidding? I’ve seen way too many movies about people who wander off on their own inside alien spaceships!’

‘It’s not— Oh just get going,’ she said with amused exasperation.

Eddie laughed and continued around the outcrop.

At some point the bulging pillar of ice had been underwater, the sea washing it as smooth as glass. Fortunately, it was dense enough to take his weight, though the surface layers creaked and whitened with stress. He drilled in more ice screws and attached carabiners before securing the rope through them, soon stepping with relief onto the long ledge. It was narrow, ranging in width from roughly a foot to just a few inches, but would provide adequate footing for the group to traverse the cliff once he placed guidelines along its length.

He looked ahead. If the object trapped in the ice wasn’t an alien spaceship, it was doing a damn good impression of one. He could see more detail on its glistening metal surface, including—

‘It’s got a door!’ he shouted, seeing an oval void in its flank. ‘It’s open.’

‘Can we reach it?’ Nina called back.

‘Should be able to, yeah.’ The opening was higher up than the crack, but a few more screws would make it accessible. ‘Okay, I’ll climb over and set up the rope.’

He started across the ledge, drilling in more screws and attaching carabiners as he went. What had begun as a relatively straightforward journey became complicated by unexpected obstacles: debris from the Dionysius embedded in the icy wall. Barrels, tools, chains and pieces of broken crates were frozen into the cliff like flies in amber. Halfway along, a hunk of metal that he guessed was a ratchet from the ship’s crane jutted out across his path like a claw. It was buried too deeply for him to dislodge, so he put an extra screw above it to serve as a handhold while he swung past the obstruction.

A glance at the source of the debris. The hanging anchor was now below him. From here, he saw that the Dionysius was pinned between two heavy sheets of ice, trapping it in its gravity-defying prison.