Time had passed, and the fear that war would come to the Solar System had become a promise that would never be fulfilled. There had been incidents – the Ariel mining operation shutting down, the alert and lockdown, a wave of detentions – but the lies put out to explain them had been enough to return people to the comforting sense that the conflict was a long way away. That state, like the warships passing through orbit, the checks on movement and the ever-watching eye of authority, had just become the way things were. Life had gone on.

When Aksinya had woken him a few hours ago and said that he and his family needed to get to a ship now, he had wanted it to be a lie.

‘And how many… how many were in the dock when we cast off?’ he said.

Aksinya shook her head. ‘I don’t… Sir…’ She paused. ‘That is not a wise question to ask.’

He looked at her and was about to reply.

The ship pitched.

Lights flashed across consoles on the bridge. Warning chimes sounded.

Vek looked around.

‘Blast wave,’ said Koln, without looking around. ‘Calis Station just detonated.’ Her voice was cold, shuttered with control. ‘There are a lot of big energy and mass signatures out there. A lot…’

‘Warships?’ Vek asked.

Koln shrugged but still did not turn to him. ‘We only have basic navigation sensors – how am I supposed to know?’

‘Signal incoming!’ shouted one of the deck officers.

‘Source?’ called Koln.

‘Small craft. It’s close. Maybe a shuttle. The message is in clear,’ said the signal officer. ‘It’s a distress call using Solar void-cant.’

‘Cut it,’ said Koln. ‘We can’t–’

‘No,’ said Vek. The sound of his own voice surprising him. Koln looked at him, and he could see the anger rising up her neck, flushing colour into her face.

‘They could be anyone,’ said Koln. ‘It’s a military craft. Picking it up makes us a target.’

‘Everything out here is a target,’ snapped Vek.

‘You order us to leave thousands of people behind and now you want us to–’

‘We would have died with them,’ shouted Vek, his own anger rising. ‘This is someone we can save.’ He shook his head, exhaustion quenching the rage as quickly as it had ignited. Koln was looking at him, confusion plain on her face. ‘This is someone we can save…’ he repeated, turning and dropping into an empty seat beside a console.

Koln looked at him for a long moment and nodded.

‘Answer the distress call,’ she said.

The shuttle’s rear hatch released with a hiss. Mersadie unfastened her harness, and then paused. Nilus was already up out of his seat and moving towards the opening hatch. He looked back at her.

‘Come on,’ he said. She did not move. ‘What in the name of the stars could be keeping you there?’