Trader twisted his manipulators in the Shoal equivalent of a laugh. 'With all respect, Commander, you are a soldier, good for taking and giving orders. There was no need for you to know. We spent the better part of fourteen centuries roaming what had once been the most densely populated regions of the Cloud.'

'Do not keep me waiting, Trader. What did you find?'

'I found the proof that the Mos Hadroch exists, or did once exist, but found no trace or clue to its whereabouts that is, until recently. The Maker is still searching for it.'

He declined to mention that this new knowledge originated in intercepted transmissions originating from Ocean's Deep.

'Then it is is in our galaxy? And it's real?' Commander-of-Shoals swam closer. 'What exactly in our galaxy? And it's real?' Commander-of-Shoals swam closer. 'What exactly can can it do?' it do?'

'You will find the details in the data package I just gave you.'

Commander of Shoals tapped two steel-tipped manipulators together and a small ball of light appeared between them. Shoal glyphs flickered rapidly before finally freezing in place. The Commander read what was there, before dismissing the projection after several moments.

'Remarkable,' said Commander-of-Shoals, the twist of his manipulators indicating he was impressed. 'A solution of quite stunning elegance.'

'Based on my own findings, the Mos Hadroch takes advantage of certain flaws in the design of the caches seeded by the Maker swarm. If anything, the existence of such flaws tells us that whatever beings created the swarm were rather less G.o.dlike than the Magi believed them to be.'

'This is a tremendous achievement, Trader. Yet I can't help feeling that recent events have failed to bring you the humility you claim to value.'

'I'm not interested in your petty character judgements,' Trader snapped. 'Do you accept my terms? I will find the Mos Hadroch, rid us of the Emissaries, and bring this war to an end.'

'Have you considered that it might be easier for me to simply hand you over to my interrogators and have them extract the information from you?'

'I have considered it, Commander, and you do indeed have that option, if you wish to see the finer details of your own illegal subterfuge become immediate public knowledge throughout the length and breadth of the Hegemony. If I were not to have taken such precautions, I would not deserve the reputation I have.'

'Then on behalf of the Hegemony, I see that I have no choice but to accept your terms.'

'And . . . ?'

Commander-of-Shoals's manipulators signalled defeat. 'And if you succeed, we will reinstate you to your former position within the Hegemony, with full resumption of special rights and privileges. But let me be clear that there are many within the upper ranks of the Hegemony who would be more than happy to see you die in this attempt.'

'Then I shall take added pleasure in my triumphant return. Now, there were certain other matters contained within my terms . . .'

'Ah, yes, a fleet of your own, and the capture of the monster you created out of Learner-of-Secrets. Neither, I fear, will be possible.'

'These are fundamental requirements,' Trader responded angrily. 'That. . . creature creature has chased me across the entire face of this galaxy. Wherever I flee, he manages to find me. And without a fleet of my own, my chances of success are severely reduced. Surely you can-?' has chased me across the entire face of this galaxy. Wherever I flee, he manages to find me. And without a fleet of my own, my chances of success are severely reduced. Surely you can-?'

'No, Trader, I cannot,' Commander-of-Shoals replied coolly. 'I will, however, supply you with his current location. That may give you some small advantage, whether you choose to confront or escape him. He calls himself by a human name these days, doesn't he? Hugh Moss?'

Beyond the vaulting walls of the tower chamber, thousands of lenses showed to Trader the waters around the Commander's vessel beginning to boil. 'We have no fleets to spare, certainly not on the scale you've requested. If I were to provide them to you, it would lead to certain questions being asked questions I would not care to answer. And if such a scandal were to be exposed at a time such as this, it would shatter the Hegemony so thoroughly that no weapon, no matter how legendary or powerful, could possibly save us.'

'If you refuse to help me, you condemn us all to death!' The Commander paused in the act of turning to leave. 'I am offering you the slim chance of returning a victorious hero, rather than as a fugitive. Which is more than some might think you deserve. Find your own fleet, if you can, Trader. Then return triumphant, or do not return at all.'

Chapter Eight.

A holographic simulation of the Milky Way filled the shallow dome of the debriefing room as Corso entered, angled so that the wispy trail of a spiral arm hovered just a few metres above the floor. The air inside the room felt pleasantly chilly, the atmosphere in the rest of the Bandati orbital station being too warm and humid for his comfort. He had only just arrived back at Ocean's Deep aboard a transport called the Kilminster, Kilminster, along with more than a hundred newly recruited technical specialists who would continue on to the research base at Tierra. along with more than a hundred newly recruited technical specialists who would continue on to the research base at Tierra.

Lamoureaux stepped towards him from out of the gloom. 'Senator.'

Corso nodded and dropped into one of twenty chairs arranged around the circ.u.mference of the room and facing towards its centre. 'I literally just came down the spoke. I got your report about White-cloud. Where is he now?'

'Still up at the hub, on board a ship. Ray and Leo both felt it was safer keeping him there.'

Corso nodded tiredly and glanced towards the glistening star-simulation. 'Fair enough. How about we get started?'

Lamoureaux nodded and stepped back towards the centre of the room. 'This is where we are,' he said, turning slightly to regard the simulation.

A minuscule ball of light representing the Consortium blinked into life deep inside the Orion spiral arm. It was easy to miss amongst the surrounding starscape.

'I can never get over how tiny it looks,' Corso muttered.

'It is is tiny,' Lamoureaux agreed, 'on the galactic scale of things. Now, remember some of what I'll be showing you consists of best guesses and conjecture.' tiny,' Lamoureaux agreed, 'on the galactic scale of things. Now, remember some of what I'll be showing you consists of best guesses and conjecture.'

'That's fine.'

Half a dozen yellow pinp.r.i.c.ks, their brightness oscillating rapidly to make them stand out from the surrounding starscape, appeared at various points scattered through the Orion Arm and beyond. Lines representing trajectories connected each pinp.r.i.c.k to the ball of light representing the Consortium.

'The yellow dots represent the furthest points reached by our experimental probes,' Lamoureaux explained.

'I thought we sent out more than this,' said Corso with a frown.

'We did. We lost contact with some, particularly the ones we sent in the direction of the Emissaries. They might have been captured or destroyed, but they managed to return useful data before they disappeared.'

Corso grunted. 'What about the Magi ships we sent out to reconnoitre?'

'We suffered some losses, but there are others out there trying to trace the progress of the war. The probes are a lot more disposable, and even with just this many we've managed to identify the location of quite a few of the Shoal's tach-net transceiver relays. The relays boost transmissions around the Shoal's territory, and their signal strength is uniform. As a result we were able to work out the rough shape and size of the territory covered by the relays.'

As Corso watched, a roughly ovoid section of the Milky Way, encompa.s.sing a large chunk of the Orion Arm and reaching in towards the core, changed in colour to a uniform magenta.

'And that's the Hegemony?' he asked, not quite able to keep his voice under control. An empire made of light, An empire made of light, he thought to himself. he thought to himself.

'So we think.' Lamoureaux glanced over at Corso and smiled on seeing his expression. 'There's some guesswork involved, like I said, but we're still looking at a region several thousand light-years across at its widest point.'

'It's incredible, but it's still not quite the galaxy-spanning empire they sold themselves as.'

Lamoureaux nodded. 'Not quite, no. But huge enough.'

'And the Emissaries?'

Lamoureaux nodded. 'Coming up next.'

Another region of s.p.a.ce, immediately adjacent to that representing the Hegemony, now changed colour. It reached towards the rim of the galaxy, and encompa.s.sed an area roughly half that of the Hegemony itself.

'You can see the galaxy's outer rim puts a clear boundary on their expansion,' said Lamoureaux. 'So, unless they want to stick to the halo stars, they have to pa.s.s through Shoal territory in order to access the rest of the Milky Way.'

A translucent blue panel appeared in the simulation, placed between the two empires and brushing against the outer rim of the Orion Arm. Corso recognized it as the region of the Long War.

'We think their conflict with the Shoal has forced the Emissaries to expand sideways, up and down the outer arms,' Lamoureaux continued. 'But with the escalation to using nova-cla.s.s weapons, they're clearly pushing the Shoal's fleets back towards us and deeper into the Orion Arm.'

'And how long before the fighting actually reaches us?'

'Based on the latest a.n.a.lyses, not long. We may have less than six months before they arrive here in force. Most of the strategic a.n.a.lysts I've spoken to think the Shoal are preparing for a major retreat in order to bolster older, better-defended systems closer to the heart of their territory. That way they sacrifice us as well as a lot of their other client species, but stand a much better chance of either surviving the war with their culture intact, or more likely judging by how it's playing out so far reaching some kind of detente.'

Corso shook his head and quietly swore under his breath. A tightness in his scalp heralded an oncoming migraine. 'So exactly where was Dakota last time we heard from her?' Her garbled warning had been forwarded to him on board the Kilminster Kilminster less than twenty-four hours before. less than twenty-four hours before.

'Over here,' came the answer. Another brightly coloured pinp.r.i.c.k appeared far around the curve of the galaxy, between three and three and a half kilopa.r.s.ecs distant a little more than seventeen thousand light-years from Ocean's Deep. The simulation of the galaxy rotated rapidly until the icon representing her last-known location was directly overhead, while the Consortium now hovered just underneath the ceiling.

'As you can see,' said Lamoureaux, 'she's gone a long, long way.'

'Show me the coordinates Whitecloud dug up. Draw a line from here to there.'

Lamoureaux nodded, and a single pale line reached out from the Consortium towards a spa.r.s.e stellar region not much more than a thousand light-years away.

Corso let out a sigh and stood, before walking around under the simulation and peering up. 'All right,' he said, reaching up with both hands and wiping them across his face as if he could scrub the fatigue away. 'What do we have that's ready to travel to Whitecloud's coordinates and see what's actually there?'

'There are five Magi starships here in Ocean's Deep, but the only currently available navigators were all supplied by the Legislate. That means I can't guarantee any of them aren't supplying information back to the Legislate security services.'

'That's all?' Corso snapped, sounding scandalized. 'What the h.e.l.l about our own people?'

'They're all either out on relief missions or they've been hit by neural burnout. The way things are going, we're going to need more of our own ships to be equipped with superluminal drives than we thought. But in terms of our present situation . . .' Lamoureaux hesitated.

'What?'

'Even if a Magi ship was available, it's going to have to tow a ship with enough room for an expeditionary crew. There aren't any big enough, apart from the Mjollnir, Mjollnir, and she already has her own superluminal drive. But, as you know, she's being prepped for a relief expedition to Ascension.' and she already has her own superluminal drive. But, as you know, she's being prepped for a relief expedition to Ascension.'

'Really?' Corso thought hard for a moment. 'Put her up there, Ted.'

Lamoureaux complied, the galaxy fading to be replaced by an image of the Mjollnir, Mjollnir, a colony-cla.s.s frigate belonging to the Freehold. She was similar in appearance and construction to her sister-ships a colony-cla.s.s frigate belonging to the Freehold. She was similar in appearance and construction to her sister-ships Agartha Agartha and and Hyperion, Hyperion, both long since destroyed within the Nova Arctis system. She was also one of the few vessels in existence with the capacity to carry a significant proportion of Ascension's trapped population to safety, a task for which she was currently being readied at Ocean's Deep. Her maiden faster-than-light voyage had brought her here from Redstone to be refitted just for that purpose. both long since destroyed within the Nova Arctis system. She was also one of the few vessels in existence with the capacity to carry a significant proportion of Ascension's trapped population to safety, a task for which she was currently being readied at Ocean's Deep. Her maiden faster-than-light voyage had brought her here from Redstone to be refitted just for that purpose.

'The Mjollnir Mjollnir could do it, then?' said Corso, staring up at the floating image. 'How long before she's ready?' could do it, then?' said Corso, staring up at the floating image. 'How long before she's ready?'

'She's ready now,' Lamoureaux replied. 'Senator . . . at the very least, you'd need to get the authority of the Consortium's Central Trade Council as well as the Freehold Senate. And the fact is, they're not going to give it to us. If you think things are looking shaky for us now, I don't even want to think about what's going to happen if we commandeered the Mjollnir. Mjollnir.'

'Screw the CTC,' Corso replied. 'And the Senate. I don't need to ask anyone's permission to commandeer her.'

Lamoureaux looked doubtful. 'How does that come about?'

'There are specific clauses relating to overriding emergencies. Just look them up. I think that beating Dakota's swarm to the Mos Hadroch, a.s.suming that's really where it's headed, fits anyone's definition of an emergency.'

'It's going to break the Fleet Authority's back, if you do this,' Lamoureaux warned.

'Let me worry about that. How soon could we reach those coordinates with the Mjollnir? Mjollnir?

Lamoureaux made a resigned sound. 'Two weeks there, more or less. And the same again to get back home.'

Corso stared back at him, thunderstruck. 'That fast? It's taken Dakota, what, two years to get seventeen thousand light-years?'

Lamoureaux shrugged. 'She didn't go in a straight line, Senator, because she had to hunt far and wide to find the Maker's trail. We've been sourcing data from the Magi ships that's helped us greatly increase the efficiency and reach of the drives coming out of the Tierra cache.'

'Then there's no other recourse. Who's in charge of the Mjollnir Mjollnir?'

'Eduard Martinez.'

Corso nodded, recognizing the name. 'I've met him,' he replied. 'Good, that might make things easier.' Martinez was very much a progressive in Freehold politics, which meant Corso might not have to replace him in command.

'But the Ascension relief operation?' Lamoureaux reminded him. 'The Mjollnir Mjollnir ' 's scheduled to be going there in the next couple of days. How are you going to square that with the Legislate?' scheduled to be going there in the next couple of days. How are you going to square that with the Legislate?'

'It's a short-term loss for a long-term gain,' Corso replied.

Lamoureaux gave him a strange look, and Corso realized just how cold-hearted he'd sounded. 'If we save some people at Ascension instead of heading straight out to those coordinates, we might lose something that could save us all us all from the Emissaries,' he explained. 'If the Legislate doesn't want to think ahead, then I'm going to have to do it for them. Get hold of Martinez for me, and set up a secure, one-on-one tach-net link to Akiyama at the Office of Representatives while you're at it, and route it to my quarters. Flag it urgent and top-priority.' from the Emissaries,' he explained. 'If the Legislate doesn't want to think ahead, then I'm going to have to do it for them. Get hold of Martinez for me, and set up a secure, one-on-one tach-net link to Akiyama at the Office of Representatives while you're at it, and route it to my quarters. Flag it urgent and top-priority.'

'Senator, with the very greatest of respect, do you really think we can pull this off?'

Corso glanced back at Lamoureaux, as he headed for the door. 'You'd better hope we can, Ted. Because if we can't, we're screwed.'

Chapter Nine.

The sun was low on the horizon. Cool wind teased her dark hair, while salt.w.a.ter foamed and splashed over her bare toes where she sat at the water's edge, her baggy cotton trousers rolled up above her ankles. She knew, without looking, that further up the beach behind her stood a single-storey cabin on stilts, with tatami mats scattered welcomingly on its floor and a futon rolled up in one corner.

None of it was real, of course, but she didn't know who she was, so it hardly mattered. She knew something had been threatening her because, when she tried to remember where she'd been before the beach, all that came to her was a sense of unease and foreboding.

In the meantime, she knew she could happily wait here on the beach for ever.

Sometimes she glanced down at her arms and legs and didn't recognize them. The knowledge that something was missing that some essential part of her had been lost for ever slowly formed in the back of her mind, but somehow she didn't seem to feel anything about it: no anger, remorse or bitterness. Only the awareness that something that should have been there, now wasn't.

After a long while she remembered a star, angry and red, reaching out to swallow her. She remembered there had been machines like dark metal locusts filling the universe like a plague.

A little while later, she remembered dying.

What might have been hours or days or years later, her name came back to her: Dakota. Dakota. She formed the sound with her lips, working her jaws around it in ways that felt unfamiliar, as if trying the vowels out for size. She formed the sound with her lips, working her jaws around it in ways that felt unfamiliar, as if trying the vowels out for size.

She turned, seeing that a bamboo table laden with fresh fruit stood near the cabin, and in that instant it was as if a switch was thrown inside her. Sudden hunger overwhelmed her, and she stood and walked over. Once she'd eaten her fill, she crawled inside the cabin, unrolled the futon and went to sleep.

She dreamed she was a little girl again. The cabin's open doorway and the strip of beach it framed became a tall window looking out on cobbled streets lined with buildings made of brick and steel. She lay with her head in her mother's lap, listening to the gentle rhythms of her parent's voice, while flakes of snow drifted down from out of a sky so pale it was almost white.

The next time Dakota opened her eyes, she was somewhere else.