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‘I am not Sophos!’ Thales cried. He grabbed her arm to emphasise his point, but the looseness of her clothing caused him to misjudge her shape. His hand grazed accidentally against the softness of her breast.

He withdrew his hand as if stung. ‘I a-apologise—’ he said.

The Mae ji froze but her companion gave an affronted cry.

The circle of Skeptics watched. Behind the bar the klatsch owners began whispering to each other. One of them disappeared.

‘I-I meant nothing. That is, I did not mean to touch you in that way .. .’ whispered Thales.

But the weight of the judgemental stares told him that his apology was wasted. The patrons were hungry for agitation. He edged towards an exit as a commotion of voices drew everyone’s attention to the rear of the klatsch. Four robed guards entered with their batons loose in their hands. Their appearance sent a ripple of comment from one table to the next. Thales did not wait for the whispers to reach him.

He ran.

MIRA

Res-shift from Dowl had been shadowed by guilt and relief: relief to be clear of Araldis and its heartbreak, guilt for the fate of the ship that had crossed their wake, and for having left Vito and the korm and Cass and her children behind.

Res-shift from Intel was a thing beyond horror. Quanta streamed by Mira’s virtual vision at shocking speeds, signals flared and flashed compelling her to make instant decisions. They backlogged so quickly that the virtual display became an aurora from which she had trouble distinguishing command prompts.

Assign default positions. Switch to audio only, she instructed.

Instantly her mind became invaded by noise.

Vibration calibration only.

Mira listened to the whispering of resonator readouts. The tuition modules at the Studium on Araldis had said that most virtual-run craft could res-shift on Autonomy as long as the pilot primed the correct vibration, and allowed the V-I to operate a background safety default.

With the biozoon Mira was not sure how enmeshed the installed V-I was with the creature. Her tutor modules had not been able to be precise. The degree of Autonomy varied, dependent on what augmentations the individual biozoon allowed. Then there were those who had been hobbled and had had full V-I forced on them.

Like Sal.

An uneven hum started up as Mira began to prime the biozoon for shift.

That’s not right. It should be steady.

She switched back to virtual vision and hunted for the anomalies in the shift field. The display showed nothing abnormal but the vibration still ran in shuddering bursts.

The biozoon’s surface temperature fluctuated wildly and Mira heard a terrifying roar like the onset of a ferocious gale. She lost consciousness of everything save the shiftspace. What was causing the vibration irregularity? What had she forgotten? What had she overlooked?

Diagnostic reports crashed in waves of data. Normal. . . normal... normal. . .

It’s not normal! she shrieked at no one.

Then she saw it. The biozoon’s cephalic fins weren’t at optimum span.

The roar geared to a higher pitch. Audio told her that she had 6.2 counts to even out vibration or . . . they would go into shift ripping apart.

Too late now. Is there pain with annihilation? Mira wondered.

6.1 counts: visual sweep. Station security gathered around the edge of shiftspace—ticks sucking a warm body. Their weapons primed. Waiting for her to abandon her course.

5.3 counts: terminate shift—how much damage? -face Landhurst.

3.8 counts: or shift and die — certain.

2.2 counts: nothing

1.4 counts: nothing

1.1 counts: untie me

Insignia?

In a rush of adrenalin Mira found herself straining out of her seat as she frantically relinquished control of the vibration sets.

The hum steadied.

0.3: shift imminent

Mira clung to the add-ons as the Autonomy sink wrapped around her, supporting fragile flesh. After the suffocation it came. . . the exquisite, stabbing, devouring, mind-inverting pain of shift and then the release ...

‘Fedor.’

The voice was a welcome intrusion into Mira’s dark,