Exhaustion. Paul was not only the youngest of the crew, he was the fittest too. Twice a day he jogged around the perimeter fence, a haul of two and a half miles. He was the only one of them who used the multigym. He had the stamina of an athlete. Hepton sat at the console, his mind whirling. The nearest hospital was twenty miles away. He had to go there.

Fagin had walked away now and was examining another monitor. Hepton looked across to where Paul Vincent’s monitor sat untended, the chair pushed in beneath the desk with the finality of a coffin lid being nailed down. He shivered. There was something very odd about this whole thing. A curious mind had brought him into the world of astronomy and astronautics, and that same mind was now needling him to look a little further into things. And yes, he would.

2

He tasted smoke in his nostrils and felt blood gouge its way along the creases in his spacesuit. The vibration in the shuttle intensified still further, becoming more than a roller coaster. A roller coaster had once terrified him as a child, and he had determined never to be afraid of anything again in his whole life, a decision that was ending here and now with the most complete terror he had ever felt.

Through the glass he caught a quick glimpse of the ground crew; already the fire engines were racing forwards, but too late. Sparks flew from the seared undercarriage, and a final all-encompassing ball of flame sent him veering towards pale darkness.

But then suddenly Adams was at his side, his head bloodied, and Adams’ hands slid around his throat, growing tight, and all the time he was shouting:

‘You sonofabitch! You sonofabitch! I won’t forget! Not ever! The burial’s what matters! Coffin’s got to be buried!’

It was all so unnecessary, Dreyfuss thought. We’re dying anyway; why don’t you let me die in peace? The tarmac below was churning like the sea, as unsteady as a fairground ride. Adams’ hands were still there. Blood pounded in Dreyfuss’ ears, tortured metal, the whine of the uncontrollable engines. How could it have happened? Total malfunction. Absolute and total, just as they were starting the descent. How could it have happened? It was typical of his life that he should die with a question unanswered in his mind.

And then, finally, he blacked out.