'I just wanted to say it has been a pleasure working with you… John, I said look at the screen.'

Stanton started to get a very bad feeling. He moved his hand towards the release on his safety harness. The cold nose of Corlackis's little stun gun pressed into the side of his neck.

'Look at the screen, John, and keep your hands where I can see them. Oh, and if anything knife-shaped should, by any strange chance, happen to leap into your right hand, you won't get a chance to use it.'

Stanton drew his thumb away from the ring. The Tenkian knife might get to his hand quickly, but getting it into Corlackis before the mercenary pulled the trigger was another matter.

'What's going on in there?' said Jarvellis.

Stanton could hear the edge of panic in her voice.

'Just listen and you will learn,' said Pelter, before returning his attention to Stanton. 'The Lyric, John.'

Stanton turned his head so he was looking at the screen behind. The magnification had been upped so he had a clear view of the ship.

'Now,' said Pelter, 'you remember I got all that lovely planar explosive from friend Grendel.'

Stanton stared at the ship. No, this can't be happening.

'Answer me, John.'

'Yes, I know,' said John.

Pelter went on. 'Well damn me if I've gone and forgotten to bring it with us.'

Mennecken gave a little chuckle at this, and every- thing clicked into place. Stanton hit his belt release and turned his head. Corlackis's gun cracked, and Stanton felt a horrible deadness invade his right shoulder. As the Tenkian tore through his trousers and slapped against his hand, he couldn't even close his fingers. Next thing, he was down on his knees on the floor.

'Jarv, get out,' he managed at barely a whisper.

Pelter reached up and touched his fingers to his aug. It was a habit he retained. 'Bye-bye, Captain Jarvellis.'

Stanton went over on his side. He wished he had fallen the ouier way. His view of the screen was now utterly and uncompromisingly clear. The Lyric blew. A disc of white fire flashed out from the B hold, cutting into the other two spheres of the ship. Multiple explosions followed, and turned the ship into a sphere of fragments that expanded and swallowed the now fading disc. The view clicked back to show the sphere at a distance. As it faded, there were flashes as bits of wreckage re-entered atmosphere behind the dropbird.

'Jarv…'

As his consciousness faded, Stanton heard Pelter speaking to the rest of them.

'That has the added benefit that now we can go in a lot faster. Any heat signatures the AI detects, it will assume to come from the debris.'

Blackness swamped Stanton, to the sound of Men-necken chuckling.

19

Aiden eased the joystick forwards and the shuttle slid towards the wall of cloud. He tilted the stick and thumbed a side control. The turbines droned and the shuttle climbed for the top of the wall. Cormac gazed down at mountain chains like puckered yellow scars and at frozen seas of reflected gold. Samarkand was a beautiful planet, but it was the beauty of arctic waste that could be best appreciated up here, rather than down on the ground where it might kill you. Fingers of cloud slid across and hid the view. Soon the shuttle was high above what seemed a second land, one of roiling white over guts of brass. This land seemed to have its own red but lightless sun: an oblate object a kilometre across, which seemed to be rolling above the cloud. There was other movement actually on it as well, a slow rippling of its surface, but that motion was so huge it fooled the eye.

'It's almost an insult that something like that should exist,' said Carn.

'It's one of four at the last count,' Cormac pointed out.

'Oh, right, I'd forgotten.'

Carn leaned further forwards, perhaps scanning with his yellow eye. He said, 'No way its orbital velocity is keeping it up.' He inspected the miniconsole he was holding in his silvered hand. 'As I thought,' it's using antigravity.'

'The least of its abilities, one would suspect,' said Aiden. 'I know of no runcible gates a kilometre wide.' He paused for a moment, listening, then he said, 'Hubris informs me that when it arrived there were underspace distortions similar to the kind left by a ship. Dragon probably has a drive system much the same as Hubris's.'

They watched the great sphere drift along a thousand metres below and some distance ahead of them. It was an eerie sight and a perplexing one. What was Dragon? A living creature or a machine of flesh? There would never be agreement on that point. Aiden slowly increased their speed and drew them closer.

'Not too close. I don't think it would like us to land on it,' said Cormac.

Aiden eased back and matched speeds. 'Hubris reports no response on any channel, even underspace, but it's been picking up a backwash of some powerful scanning of the planet,' he said.

'It can't not know we're here,' said Thorn doubtfully.

'Do we want it to know?' asked Carn, and returned his attention to his instruments.

Cormac stared at Dragon. Where was the rest of it? Why was only this one quarter here? Had it come for the dracomen? Had it simply sent its agents here to destroy the Samarkand runcible, and was now here to pick them up? What did it have to do with that other thing under the ground? He realized he desperately wanted to talk to it, no matter how convoluted its answers might be. No matter what ridiculous games it might play.

'Prepare to transmit this to it on all channels,' he said.

Aiden set the instruments and leant back. 'All channels open, except underspace. We don't have the capability on this shuttle. Do you wish me to link with HubrisT

Cormac shook his head and concentrated on what he was going to say. The transmitter hissed and made strange whining sounds. He stooped towards it. Hubris had received no reply; might he?

'Dragon, this is Ian Cormac. Why are you here?'

The whining increased in volume. Cormac continued, dredging his memory of their last encounter.

'To be human is to be mortal. Do you play chess? I know you like games, Dragon, though you do have a tendency to cheat.'

The whining ceased.

Aiden said, 'Hubris reports the scanning of the surface has ceased.'

'I think you attracted its attention,' said Cam, without relish. 'Its surface is moving.'

Cormac looked and saw ripples spreading. A curved line cut the surface, and the ripples concentrated around it. The line thickened, dark as old blood. It was a split.

'Get us out of here, now!'

Aiden jerked up on the joystick, just as pseudopods exploded from Dragon in a giant grey fumarole. Acceleration knocked Thorn and Cam to the floor. Cormac caught a glimpse of a giant cobralike head swerving towards the shuttle. There was a thump. The shuttle slewed sideways. Then they were away, and the fountain of pseudopods was falling back to the surface of Dragon.