'I believe I did just say that,' said Cawl. 'But I do know what I am doing. More or less.'

'Cog and hammer, we're going to die.'

Cawl glanced back. 'Find something to strap yourself into, if that makes you feel better.'

Friedisch threw himself into the co-pilot's seat and scrabbled at the straps until he had struggled the fastenings closed.

'Now, this, this and this,' said Cawl. His eyes shut. Machines hummed around them.

'You're not praying. Why aren't you praying?'

'Shut up, Friedisch,' said Cawl. 'Do you really think I've time for prayers? I've got a lot of machinery to speak to here.'

The ship rumbled as the engines came online. Instruments activated with a series of whistles and chimes, projecting displays on pict and hololith no one was present to view. The oculus shutter opened with an oily rasping, revealing a circular docking aperture ahead. The void beyond flashed with cannon discharge.

'By Mars! That's barely wider than the ship!'

A direct hit to the hangar side blasted a cone of debris in front of the ship's nose.

'We have to move now!' said Friedisch.

'What do you think I'm doing? Make yourself useful, retract the docking clamps!'

The engines rumbled. The ship remained stuck fast.

'How?' said Friedisch, staring at the bewildering banks of buttons in front of him.

'Direct communion! Plug yourself in! I can't do this alone!' Friedisch fumbled his mechadendrites into a data input socket. Unfamiliar machines demanded to know who he was. He bullied them into submission. A blast of fire erupted under the ship, swathing the oculus in flame.

'Now, Friedisch!' shouted Cawl.

'I've got it! I've got it!' he cried triumphantly. The docking clamp's idiot machine-spirit swam through the manifold into his grasp, and Friedisch commanded it to perform its one, simple task.

Open.

Three, closely spaced clunks vibrated the hull. The Silencia drifted slightly, until Cawl engaged the docking thrusters, and under his direction, the ship slipped free of its moorings. It veered uncertainly, and Friedisch held his breath.

'Now,' said Cawl. 'To space.'

A tangle of burning girders fell slowly past the voidward exit, accelerating as Momus' weak gravity dragged at it. The structure wobbled, and began to tilt.

'The tether is falling. We're too late!'

'Hang on!' said Cawl. His fingers danced with preternatural swiftness over the desk instruments. 'Not all that different to flying an aerodrone.' The ship grumbled. The narrow docking aperture rushed towards them. 'Liar,' said Friedisch.

Something banged hard on the ship, knocking the prow off course. The ship swerved dangerously downwards.

Friedisch screamed.

Cawl shouted inchoate words of panic as his intelligence core accelerated his reactions to superhuman levels.

Thrusters burned under the prow.