I pressed my ear to a smooth patch of hull. I heard music, a bass harmonization that rumbled through the skin of the pod.

"Of course. The Ghosts. They're right on time."

"No." There was a bray in his voice. "They're too late. Our Susy-drive took the Xeelee by surprise, but if the Ghosts try to get any closer to the quagma you can bet they'll be stopped."

"But--" I stopped to suck oxygen out of the thick air. "The Ghosts don't need to get any closer. The quagma data is stored in the scarred fabric of the pod itself. So if they take the pod they've won..."

Then, incredibly, I felt a glimmer of hope. It was like a thread of blue oxygen.

I tried to think it through. Could I actually live through this?

To Lethe's waters with it. I'd been a passive observer through this whole thing; now, if I was going to die, at least I could choose how. I began stripping off my scorched coverall. "sWyman, listen to me. Is there a way you can destroy the pod?"

He was silent for a moment. "Why should I want to?"

"Just tell me." I was naked. I wadded my clothes behind an equipment box.

"I could destabilize the fusion torus," he said slowly. "Oh. I get it."

"I presume the Ghosts have been monitoring us," I said breathlessly. "So they'll know that my flesh, my clothes, the fabric of the pod, contain the information they want.

"But if the pod's destroyed... if everything except me -- even my clothes -- has gone... then the Ghosts will have to preserve me. Right? My body will be the only record."

"It's a massive gamble, Luce. You have to rely on the Ghosts knowing enough about human physiology to keep you alive... but not enough to take you apart for the quagma secrets. So they'd have to return you to Earth, to human care--"

"I don't perceive too many alternatives." I grabbed the frame of the pod window. "Will you do it?" More scrapes; a judder sideways.

"It means destroying myself." He sounded scared.

I wanted to scream. "sWyman, your original is waiting for word of us, safe on Earth. If I get through this I'll tell him what you did."

He hesitated for five heartbeats.

Then: "Okay. Keep your mouth open when you jump. Godspeed, Michael--"

Grasping the frame with both hands I swung my feet at the window. The blistered stuff smashed easily and the fragments rushed away. Escaping air sparkled into ice. Sound sucked away and my ears popped with a wincing pain.

Snowflakes of air billowed from my open mouth, and gas tore from my bowels.

I closed my freezing eyes and felt my way around the hull. Then I kicked away as hard as I could.