‘Since we’re sharing, I’ve been analysing fresh information pulled from the derelict. One of the big questions we need to answer is, what was the relationship between the Shoal and the Magi? Was it a meeting between two species that had separately developed a transluminal drive?

‘In fact,’ he said with a grin, ‘the evidence makes it more likely the Shoal stole the transluminal technology from the Magi.’

‘You’ve got to be joking.’

‘It’s all in here,’ he continued, still with a faint smile, tapping further at the workscreen. ‘I think I’ve even stumbled across a potted history of the Magi. Trust me, though, when I say I’m making some wild leaps of interpretation.’

Dakota remembered that sense of witnessing the passing of entire civilizations while she’d been in the interface chair on board the derelict.

‘Interpret away,’ she said.

‘I managed to narrow down the time the derelict was built by a little more,’ he continued. ‘And it was created at least a few millennia before the Shoal claim they developed the transluminal drive.’

‘So that nails it pretty conclusively. Some other species possessed the transluminal drive-’

‘And then they encountered the Shoal, who now claim to be the only species in the entire Milky Way to have the technology,’ Corso confirmed.

‘And you’re sure about that?’

Corso shrugged. ‘Hard to say without getting a lot more time to go over the data. There’s decades of work still in there.’

An overwhelming sense of weariness came over Dakota. She was still badly rattled from Kieran’s assault, and there were times when she felt overwhelmed by the constant flow of recent events.

‘Fuck it,’ she said, her voice small and quiet, and pushed herself over to where Corso sat. She laid her head against his chest. After his initial surprise, he let one hand fall down to rest on her shoulder.

‘You know,’ she murmured at length, ‘I hate Freeholders. I mean, I really, really hate the fucking lot of you. You realize that, don’t you?’

‘I could tell,’ came Corso’s dry response, ‘from the way you seem to have your hand on my dick.’

It started with an awkward fumbling during which Corso managed to bash his elbow hard on the corner of the seat. Then they both slid further down, both laughing, and Dakota pressed her face against his. That was how she remembered it: a classic first-kiss scenario after a stumbling beginning, so different from the artificial attentions of the Piri’s faux-human effigy. From the enthusiasm with which Corso responded to her advances, it was clear it had been some time for him too.

In fact, over the next several minutes, her suspicion grew that it had been a very long time indeed for Corso. His technique didn’t exactly match his enthusiasm, but Dakota couldn’t care less. She shouldered her way out of her clothes in record time while Corso still fumbled with his belt, a hilariously embarrassed look on his face.

In the end, once he’d finally got out of his clothes, she climbed on top of him, despite the look of clear puzzlement on his face. She guessed he wasn’t very likely to be familiar with sex in zero gravity.

He grunted with surprise when she twisted her hips in a practised way (some things, she mused, you never really forgot) and found himself deep inside her.

Corso cleared his throat in between deep, shuddering breaths. ‘Back home, you know, usually the man-’

‘Where I come from, usually the man shuts the fuck up,’ Dakota gasped.

Completely nonplussed, Corso looked so ridiculous she giggled, as if the air in the cabin had suddenly been flooded with nitrous oxide.

Shame, she thought, to have forgotten how good sheer, wild abandonment feels. Revelations of the senses: a cool flush presented itself deep between her thighs and she realized he’d come already. Yet she didn’t feel disappointed: she stayed where she was, balanced on top of him, leaning forward to put her hands on his chest for traction while he gripped onto a furry bulkhead (having almost floated off him a couple of times to begin with), and after several more seconds she came herself.

The orgasm rattled through her, peaking in an explosion somewhere behind her eyes and deep within her brain. Her skin was now flushed and beaded with perspiration. She held onto him for a few more moments, despite the pained expression on his face as her fingernails dug in.

When she finally let go, he emitted a small, almost silent sigh of relief.

‘Sorry, didn’t mean to hurt you,’ she breathed.

Corso cleared his throat. When he finally spoke, his voice sounded thick and broken. ‘I… no problem. I didn’t even notice.’

‘Liar.’

The beginnings of a grin tweaked the edge of his mouth. ‘Harlot.’

She grinned back. ‘Yes?’

A while later they floated together in the deep cocoon darkness of Dakota’s sleeping quarters.

‘What’s the problem?’ she asked, sensing his restlessness.

‘Can’t sleep easily in zero gee,’ he explained. They floated against one fur-lined wall. ‘And to be honest, this fur stuff creeps me out a little.’

‘That’s all?’

‘Well, no,’ he admitted. ‘Haven’t really been able to sleep ever since I got on board the Hyperion. I keep waking up and thinking I’ve fallen out of bed back home-but I’m still falling…’

‘Yeah. That’s a familiar one.’ By now, sleeping in zero gee felt like the most natural thing in the world to Dakota. The only possible improvement on it was having a warm naked body next to hers, so all her bases were pretty much now covered.

‘You know, I’ve been thinking,’ he mumbled.

‘Yeah?’

‘If the Hyperion is compromised the way you say it is, any data I’ve recovered from the derelict is probably accessible to your alien friend by now.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘Perhaps it was the Shoal-member that somehow caused the derelict to attack us, by using what it found in the Hyperion’s stacks. But that’s all conjecture: there’s no way of being sure.’

‘Remember what I told you, Lucas. The Piri Reis is stealthed to the eyeballs. There’s no reason you couldn’t read the same data into the Piri’s stacks, and bypass the Hyperion altogether.

‘Think about it.’ She really had his attention now. ‘You could query the Hyperion’s stacks from here, even send low-level commands from here direct to the derelict. Everything would be disguised as routine subsystem comms and, frankly, your people don’t have the means to spot the deception.’