‘Gaiafield. The confluence nest is one system that hasn’t been affected by the Void.’

And the confluence nest which generated the local gaiafield was hardwired into the ship’s network, Laura realized. Funny what worked and what didn’t in the Void.

*

Laura thought the Vermillion’s excursion-prep facility looked identical to the bridge; the only difference was the blue-grey carpet, which was noticeably lighter – a difference due to six years of coffee stains, she assumed. Amazingly for a project to build trans-galactic colony ships there must have been some kind of budgetary issue, either with time or design aesthetics. When it came to compartments in the Vermillion’s command section, someone just pressed the duplicate button.

Including Laura, there were five people in Shuttle Fourteen’s crew. As a gathering, they resembled a bunch of sheepish friends getting together the morning after a particularly wild party, with everyone looking like crap, staring doubtfully into their mugs of herbal tea and nibbling plain biscuits.

Laura sat next to Ibu – a professor of gravatonics who was nearly twice her size, with most of his bulk made of muscle. Suspension hadn’t done him any favours. Flesh sagged, making it look as if he’d deflated somehow, and his normally bronzed skin was a paler grey than Laura’s. He regarded his body’s condition mournfully. ‘Biononics failure has got to be the worst part of this,’ he confided. ‘It’s going to take an age to get back in shape.’

‘I wonder how the Void continuum can tell the difference between natural organelles and biononics,’ Laura said. ‘They’re both fundamentally the same.’

‘Biononics are not sequenced into our DNA,’ Ayanna, the quantum field physicist mused. ‘Not natural. Somehow it must be able to distinguish between them.’

‘Discriminate, more like,’ Joey Stein, their hyperspace theorist, said. His inflated cheeks were constantly twitching, which Laura suspected came from complications with the tank yank. ‘Our microcellular clusters are all functioning away merrily. Yet they’re not a natural part of the human genome.’

‘They’re part of us now,’ Ayanna said. She was combing out her long chestnut hair, wincing as she tugged at various tangles.

‘The Void responds to thoughts,’ Laura said. ‘Has anyone simply thought that the biononics work?’

‘That’s not thinking, that’s praying,’ Ibu said.

Rojas, the shuttle pilot, sat down next to Joey. Captain Cornelius had brought him out of suspension a month ago to help plan the Vermillion’s landing. With his healthy Nordic-white skin and firm jaw showing five o’clock stubble, Laura thought he was the only one of them that didn’t look like a third-rate zombie right now.

‘Thinking systems into functionality has been tried,’ Rojas said sympathetically. ‘The awake crew have spent years attempting to mentally affect onboard equipment. Complete waste of time: the Void doesn’t work like that. Turns out, you can’t wish our machinery to activate.’

‘The Void has an agenda?’ Ayanna asked incredulously. ‘You’re talking as if it was alive, or at least aware.’

‘Who knows?’ Rojas said dismissively. He nodded at one of the big wall panels, which was showing an image of the Forest. ‘This is our assignment, so let’s focus on that, please.’

Ibu shook his head bullishly. ‘All right, then. What do we know?’

‘The Forest is a slightly ovoid cluster of individual objects we’re calling distortion trees, measuring approximately seventeen thousand kilometres down its axis, with a maximum diameter of fifteen thousand. Given the average tree size of nine kilometres and the distribution we’ve mapped, we’re estimating between twenty-five to thirty thousand of them in total.’

‘Are they all identical?’ Laura asked.

‘So far, yes,’ Rojas said. ‘We’ll be able to perform more detailed analysis on our approach.’

Another pane started, showing the elongated shape of a distortion tree. All Laura could think of was a streamlined icicle with a bulbous base, its profile a moiré shimmer. Despite the curious shifting surface pattern, it seemed smooth.

‘They’re like crystal rocket ships,’ Ayanna said in a reverential tone.

‘Hold that thought,’ Ibu said. ‘Does anyone know what the Raiel warships looked like?’

Joey gave him a sharp glance. ‘You think this is their old invasion fleet?’

‘Just asking. The Raiel arkships we’ve encountered are some kind of artificial organism.’

‘Their arkships are bigger than these distortion trees,’ Laura said. ‘A lot bigger.’

‘We’ve no records of any Commonwealth starship encountering a Raiel warship,’ Rojas said. ‘Wilson Kime reported that the Endeavour was approached by a ship smaller than an arkship, but with the same layout. It looked like an asteroid which had sprouted domed cities.’ He pointed to the shimmering spire. ‘Nothing like that.’

‘What’s their albedo?’ Ayanna asked.

Rojas grinned. ‘One point two. They’re radiating more light than the local star shines on them. Just like the Skylords.’

‘This can’t be coincidence,’ Joey said. ‘That would be ridiculous. They’re related; they have to be. Same technology, or parents. Whatever. But their origin is shared.’

‘I agree,’ Laura said. ‘The Skylords can manipulate the local continuum to enable them to fly. These are changing the quantum structure around themselves. The basic mechanism has to be the same.’

‘Those are the conclusions of the captain’s review board,’ Rojas said. ‘What we need to find out is how and why.’

Joey attempted a laugh, but his twitching cheek muscles made it difficult. He drooled from the corner of his mouth. ‘Why are they changing the quantum signature? How do we find that out?’

‘Ask them,’ Ibu said. ‘If they’re sentient like the Skylords.’

‘Good luck with that,’ Rojas grunted. ‘Our mission target is to understand the new quantum composition of the continuum inside the Forest. If we can define it, we might be able to derive its purpose.’

‘Quantum measurement is fairly standard,’ Laura said, then caught herself. ‘Assuming our instruments work.’

‘Ayanna, that’s your field,’ Rojas said. ‘I’ll need a list of equipment you want. If there’s anything we’re not carrying, we’ll see if the ship’s fabrication systems can manufacture it. Don’t be too ambitious; the extruders are suffering along with all the other systems.’

Ayanna gave him a sly smile. ‘I’ll try and remember that.’

‘Laura,’ Rojas said, ‘you’re tasked with determining how the disturbance is created. Other than their size, which varies by a few hundred metres, the distortion trees seem uniform, so we’re assuming the ability is integral to their structure.’

‘Got it,’ she said. ‘Do I get to take samples?’

‘If the Forest zone isn’t instantly lethal to us. If the shuttle can manoeuvre and rendezvous. If the trees themselves aren’t sentient, or self aware. If they don’t have defences. If our spacesuits work. If their structure can be sampled. Then, possibly, yes. We’d prefer an in situ analysis, obviously. Commonwealth encounter regulations do still apply. Please remember that, everybody.’

Laura pressed her lips together in bemusement. ‘Okay, then. I’ll draw up my wish list of gadgets.’

Rojas stood up. ‘We launch in four hours. As well as your equipment, you might want to transfer some of your personal packs onto Fourteen. Once the mission’s over, I can’t guarantee we’ll land anywhere close to the Vermillion.’

After Rojas left the excursion-prep facility, Laura turned to Ibu. ‘Was that a guarantee he will land us on the planet?’ she asked, trying to make it light hearted.

The huge gravatonics professor rubbed a shaking hand along his temple. ‘You think we’ll make it all the way to the planet? I wish I had your optimism. I’m going to check that my memory secure store is current.’

‘I’m more confident about Fourteen getting down than I am about Vermillion,’ Laura said. ‘Actually, I’m surprised Cornelius didn’t assign more specialists to our mission. Fourteen can hold – what, sixty people?’