Aster Cobra: A planet on the rim of the galaxy.

Maria had been waiting for him at the two-kilometre boundary. She was panicked, out of her depth.

'The whole city… Monitor…'

Cormac silenced her and took her place in the driving seat of the AGC. Halfway back to Cartis she had calmed enough to be coherent.

'Pseudopods broke through all round the city. I was outside when it happened… No one can escape and Monitor is heading in that direction. It has never done that before.'

'Dragon controls Monitor.'

'Why…?'

'Either it tests us or Darson is right.'

'Thanks for the comfort.'

Cartis was indeed ringed by pseudopods, but they parted to allow the AGC through. At the metrotel, Cormac used Maria's intentions and fear to get her to bed. He felt no remorse. She had been quite prepared to use him in any way she could for the Separatist movement. Lying on his bed he listened as the rumble of Monitor's arrival ceased, then he inspected the naked form lying beside him. An affirmation of humanity? he wondered. The question was irrelevant. All waited on him. Careful not to wake Maria, Cormac got off the bed and went to the bathroom. Ritualistically he shaved, cleaned his teeth and dressed. He then sat down and accessed the runcible grid.

Earth Central.

Dragon intergalactic.

Proven?

To my satisfaction.

With that he sent all he had learnt and surmised to the AI. It took less than a second. A test. Morality base evident, came the terse reply. Threat/warning?

Also.

Obliterate? Not feasible. Obviously has knowledge of device. ?

Part of the test.

It is disposable then? As me.

'Yes,' said Cormac out loud.

Go back, react, returned the silent thought of the AI. Cormac closed his eyes and closed access. Then, abrupdy, he departed the metrotel.

The honour guard remained and Cormac was soon back before Dragon. The dracoman was gone, the cave gone, the head a black silhouette against the red sky.

'Have you seen?' it asked.

'You can destroy Cards.'

The head turned. 'I mean - have you seen?'

Cormac squatted down next to the rucksack he had left. 'Yes,' he said, 'if we are judged and found wanting, what happens?'

'You have been judged.'

Cormac waited.

'I have been watching for twenty million of your years. I have seen every sparrow fall.'

'Yes… that is enough time to come to a conclusion,' said Cormac dryly. He entertained doubts, then, about Dragon's sanity.

'You will live,' Dragon said.

Cormac allowed the rigidity to leave him. 'Cartis… the Monitor… they were the final push, just to see…' he said, fully understanding now.

'Your AIs are extensions of your own minds, as I am an extension of other minds. Had you destroyed me for the few petty threats of this day, without regard or understanding of what I truly am, every one of your runcibles would have been turned inside out: converted into black holes.'

Cormac reached across and opened his rucksack. From it he took an innocuous blue-grey cylinder of metal. With a thought he deactivated it, then he put it away again. A similar, if somewhat larger device, had been used in the system of Cassius to demolish a gas giant.

'Now?' he asked.

'Now you must leave and I must leave. Your kind will meet mine. My task is done.'

'How will you leave?'

'I will not leave this planet.'

And Cormac knew. He left Dragon, and on his way saw Monitor come and lie down at its side like a faithful dog. Once in the AGC he did not look back.

Lest I be turned into a pillar of salt.

A white sun rose over Aster Colora, and hard black shadows were cast, like dice. Cormac later learnt it had been a contra-terrene explosion beyond mere human abilities to generate and contain, as it had been contained, in a two-kilometre radius.

It was Dragon's last message.

Not a trace of Dragon remained.

(Solstan 2434)

When he had finished telling Chaline, Cormac felt lightness in his chest. He leant back. It was a story he had told no human, though most runcible AIs knew it.

'What was the real purpose of calling you there? It all seems a little… unlikely,' Chaline wondered.

'Theatrics? Who knows? Debate about Dragon's purpose has raged since it was discovered, even amongst AIs. There are some who say it was too wise for us to understand. And, of course, the likes of Darson, who thinks it was insane… or is.'

'What do you think?'

Cormac turned and looked at her. 'First and foremost I think it was a liar and a fraud. I don't think it came here twenty million years ago, nor do I think it came to test humanity. The two statements don't tie up. And I certainly don't think it was capable of destroying us.'

'Is that all?'

'No. I don't think it self-destructed after it had served its ostensible purpose. There was not a trace of its body left, even under ground. I think it's out there somewhere, and it's laughing at us.'

Chaline smiled at that, then stood. 'Another drink?' She held out her hand for his glass. For a moment he considered refusing and heading for bed. He handed her his glass.

Damn it, I'm human.

As Chaline returned with the two drinks, he studied her closely. Her overall was wrinkled and sweat-stained, but did not detract from her allure in the slightest. Her face had an imperious beauty, her figure was worthy of note and she had something remarkable between her ears; anyone in her position had to have. Cormac felt something he had not felt with Angelina. That mechanical action had not been in response to any need in him. He had felt wholly cynical about it. When was the last time he had really made love to a woman? Maria Convala was the last, he was reluctant to admit.

'What's the matter?' Chaline asked him, a tilt to her head and a knowing smile.

'You're very attractive,' he said.

She sat down. 'I'm also very tired.'

Her mein was coy, and it surprised him. He glanced up as a group of technicians walked in after their shift, and he silently thanked them.

'We could finish our drinks in my cabin,' he suggested.

Her coyness disappeared and she inspected him esti-matingly. Abruptly she stood again, and he thought he had maybe pushed too hard. She was going to chop him down.

'I really need a shower,' she said.

Cormac waited now for the kind rejection.

'I can't get in your cabin by myself,' she said impatiendy.

Cormac was out of his seat and exiting the canteen before he even had a chance to be surprised. At the door to his cabin he slapped the palm-lock and entered in a teenage terror at how to initiate things. Chaline dispelled that worry in an instant: halfway across the room she turned, ran her thumb down the centre of her overall and parted it, kicked off her deck slippers and shrugged her overall to the floor. Cormac remembered to close his moudi as she smiled at him, men headed for his shower. We forgot our drinks, he thought, and then grinned. He left his clothes beside hers and followed.

'You are slow,' she said, as he moved up behind her and placed his hand on the lighter skin at the soapy curve of her hip.

'Too long listening to AIs,' he said, pulling her to him and sliding his hands round her waist, then up to her breasts. She pushed her bottom back against his erection and slowly moved it from side to side.

'I hope you haven't lost all your manual skills,' she said, then turned and reached down.

Cormac pulled her close again and started kissing her neck, and then he found himself on top of her on the floor of the shower room, inside her. From there, to the bed and the night - not one thought about gridlinks.