‘What ship is still out there?’ she asked. ‘The ship that the assault was launched from?’

Chi-32-Beta nodded. A fresh wash of dark liquid oozed from beneath the enginseer’s robes. Behind Mersadie, a growing crowd of refugees from the ship’s holds were filling the helm platform.

‘They… they have been attempting to establish vox contact with their assault party, but…’ Chi-32-Beta’s voice became a burble of static and the lights on the consoles across the bridge flickered. ‘But there has been no… no reply…’

‘They are dead,’ said Mersadie.

‘H-How…’

‘It does not matter. Can you get the ship under control?’

Chi-32-Beta trembled, and a second later the motion spread through the lights.

‘No… not control. It is wounded, but it will run true. Crew…’

‘We have crew,’ said Mersadie, looking around at the ragged figures on the platform. A few were moving between the consoles. There were still spatters of blood on some of the equipment, though the bodies of the dead had been removed and unsuccessful attempts made to clean the stains and scorches from deck and helm. Most of the refugee crew were looking at her and the tech-priest. Terror and uncertainty blended in their eyes. She looked at Gade. The former dock pilot was glancing at the screens and levers next to the main helm control banks.

‘Gade,’ she called, using the man’s name and putting every scrap of the confidence she was not feeling into her words. He looked around at her. ‘Get someone on every position. Do it now.’

Gade nodded and turned. She heard him begin to shout.

‘Mil…’ began Chi-32-Beta. ‘It is a military ship… I have been trying to make… interference… so that… so that our enemy won’t realise…’ The enginseer coughed a mouthful of half-binary.

‘The engines,’ asked Mersadie. ‘Are they working?’

‘Yes, but if we change course they will see, they will realise… Weapons, they will have weapons…’

The words sank cold into Mersadie. They could have blown the Antius to dust. They still could now. But they had come to make sure that she was dead. That was what was holding them back now: the need to be certain that she was no more. Somewhere out there, eyes were watching auspex and signal screens, kill orders held on tongues.

‘Can you see it?’ she asked. ‘Can the ship’s sensors see this enemy?’

‘A ghost on the edge of sight…’ Chi-32-Beta hissed. ‘And there are… other things, too… further away and getting closer… I… I don’t know what… who they are…’

‘How close are we to Jupiter?’

‘We are approaching the Caul. I can… feel sensors looking deep into the void. They may offer no sanctuary. They may end us.’

Mersadie paused. Around her she could hear the calls of the people crowding the command deck.

‘We have to reach Jupiter. Can we outrun them?’