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‘Josef,’ Bethany wailed.

Mau grabbed her hand—the one that held the anti-spas—and twisted it. She opened her mouth to protest but he forced her palm to her lips and made her swallow the caps.

‘Loker,’ said Jo-Jo sharply. ‘We go in on their tail and we’ll pixelate.’

‘Not if we stay close enough.’

‘Close enough? We’d have to be fucking ‘em!’ Jo-Jo roared.

Loker was staring over the edge of his own indecision: shaking; eyes blank.

Calmer, thought Jo-Jo. Be calmer. ‘Loker, pull out and we’ll go again.’

‘He’s right, Captain,’ said the H-M. The kid was shaking worse than Loker but he was still thinking.

‘No, too much damage,’ insisted Loker. ‘We tuck in tight. Don’t argue, Len.’

The Savvy started to groan as though the long-married seams were planning a separation. Jo-Jo felt the start of a tooth-rattling, bone-deep vibration where there should be none.

‘Cans are malfunctioning, Captain.’

‘Why?’ demanded Loker.

‘Slipstream’s causing a vacuum. Can program’s getting the wrong data.’

‘Change the parameters.’

‘Take too long,’ said the kid.

Mau looked at Jo-Jo.

Jo-Jo nodded at him, then slung his arm through one of the grips that hung from the ceiling. ‘Don’t damage the sleeve,’ he said softly.

Mau made a deep-throated noise and pushed Bethany down into a wall cavity. Then he launched at Loker with his undamaged shoulder, knocking the Savvy captain out of his crib onto the floor.

‘H-M, peel out,’ shouted Jo-Jo. ‘NOW!’

The kid looked at Loker. The Captain was unconscious.

He punched his fist into his palm and nodded.

For as long as Jo-Jo could stay upright and keep watching the schematic he didn’t think they would make it. Then he lost his handgrip and flew across the cabin to crash into Mau and Loker.

Sound replaced sight: Mau’s swearing, the H-M grunting as though lifting something heavy, and the distant but persistent screams.

Jo-Jo lost his grip on Mau’s leg and juddered across the floor, whacking the side of his face against the bulkhead. The pain was nothing compared to the agony that had overtaken his body: cramps in every conceivable muscle—legs, arms, stomach and, worse, his lips and cheeks sucking inward as though he was trying to swallow his own mouth.

Then the Savvy broke out of the slipstream with an unforgettable jolt.

The vibration stilled.

The H-M stopped grunting and took in dry gulps of air. So did Bethany.

‘H-M?’ Jo-Jo rasped when he could speak. ‘Report?’

Young Len gave a lunatic’s high-pitched laugh. ‘I think we’re good to go again.’

They re-entered scrapshift thirty minutes later. Jo-Jo felt the relief of comparative stillness as they reached the optimum speed and the vibration buffers kicked in.

Even so, his bones felt as though they’d been compressed and mixed into a paste. Mau lay atop Loker, swearing still, and Beth was curled into a ball. Only Len seemed to be functioning.

Tough kid.

‘We’re calm,’ Len pronounced wearily a few-moments later. ‘Jandowae.’

None of them moved or spoke for a long while.

Loker surfaced from unconsciousness. Pressing the back of his head with one hand, he kicked free of Mau and checked his sleeve.

‘Jandowae,’ he said, and smiled. ‘We slipstreamed it.’

Jo-Jo waited. It was the H-M’s call; the kid had to work with Loker.

But Len stayed silent.

The Savvy captain bestowed a sneer upon all of them, then climbed to his feet and stumbled from the bridge.

Jo-Jo helped Beth to her feet. She was trembling but composed enough. He couldn’t see any signs of bruising on her.

He touched his own cheekbone and winced. Better than me.

‘I want to go back to Araldis,’ said Beth.

Jo-Jo stared, not sure if he had heard her right.

‘I want to get help and go back.’ Her expression had a weird kind of intensity about it that he’d only seen once before. ‘My daughter is there,’ she whispered.

‘Help? You go to OLOSS for help and they’ll tie you up for years asking questions. And mercenaries cost lucre that you haven’t got.’

Beth nodded dismissively and turned to Len the H-M. ‘When do you