When they were halfway to the gatehouse of Tor Tartarus the Imperial Navy bombardment began. Lance strikes exploded into kaleidoscopic flares that spread out over the void’s domed surface. It was like being caught in the air in the middle of an electrical storm. Someone cried out as a lance strike hissed through the air not fifty feet away from them. Its glare was blinding. Minka had to wait for her night vision to return, then she started forward again.

After an hour and a half the last support tower loomed up all of a sudden and when Minka looked down she saw not sea, but the ruined steps of Tor Tartarus.

Dido lay in bed and watched the clock roll slowly through the night. At two hours the man opposite started to wake. ‘Nurse!’ she called out.

No one came.

After a few minutes the man’s moans grew louder.

She added her voice to the call. This time footsteps came down the ward’s permacrete floor. A small man in whites appeared.

‘He needs you!’ Dido said.

The medic bent over the wounded warrior. He administered the injection, and in a few seconds the moans had reduced to the low whistle of breath in the tube.

‘Why not put him out of his misery?’ Dido said.

‘The Emperor Protects,’ the medic said. He came over and checked Dido’s clipboard at the end of the bed.

‘There’s nothing there,’ she said. ‘You’re just looking officious.’

He smiled and came round the bed to check her bedding. She had no control of her lower half, and sometimes she needed cleaning. He pulled the pad out from under her, put it into a bin and pulled a fresh one out, then lifted her lower half to slide it under her.

‘My regiment are going into battle tonight,’ she said.

He frowned. ‘You shouldn’t tell me things like that.’

Dido gave him a sideways glance. He didn’t look like a spy.

He settled her back down again.

‘My chest hurts,’ she said.

He nodded as he finished arranging her bed sheets. He checked her records again. ‘Give me a minute.’

The medic walked along the lines, checking on each patient, and then a few minutes later he returned with her pills. Two pink lozenges.

‘Here,’ he said, and tipped them into her hand. She motioned towards the plain presswood table at the side of the bed. ‘Please,’ she said.

He handed her the half cup of water. She took it and smiled. ‘Thank you.’

There were two Cadian engineers waiting for Minka as she moved along the walkway. One of them was a slight, pretty trooper. She spoke in a low voice. ‘This is as far as we go.’ She gestured around the tower towards the gatehouse. ‘You’ll have to pull yourselves along from here. The wires are sturdy. When you get to the far tower the ladders appear still intact.’