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Panic began to overtake Mira’s purpose. Will Cass wait for us? What if Innis has taken the barge? What if the Saqr are already at the parking bay? Her fear mounted. Marchella Pellegrini had asked her to do the impossible—save these women from the Saqr. I cannot save anyone.

A TerV passed them, blaring its horn, and she felt an impulse to throw herself under it. She stepped towards it.

Josefia called after her. The korm screeched. Sheets of dust sprayed from the TerV as it braked to avoid her. None of it meant anything until Mesquite’s voice pierced the confusion. ‘Vito!’ she roared as she led another group of women in from a side road, carrying a rifle.

Vito! Vito! The ‘bino was on her back. Panic had made her forget him. Instantly Mira threw herself sideways to avoid the grinding metal tracks. Vito bawled as she landed heavily on her side, trapping one of his legs.

Marchella ran to her and dragged her to her feet, gripping her arm with strong, unforgiving fingers. ‘Think of the women,’ she whispered fiercely ‘Think of Vito.’

Mira reached behind, cupping Vito’s leg, feeling for breaks. He gave little grunts of discomfort but no hurt-animal cry. ‘I-I…’

But Marchella pushed her back towards the women.

They huddled around her and Marchella, drawn back together.

They would think she had not seen the TerV. They would not know what she had intended. Only Marchella knew . . .

Marchella raised her voice and her fist. ‘The barge is close. We will survive! We will survive!’

In a moment they joined with her, chanting the words as she led all of them around the final corner.

Ahead, between them and the parking bay, ten or more Saqr clustered around a TerV. Some crawled, others wavered awkwardly in an upright stance as if they had just hatched from their globes.

Ilke, Jancz’s pilot, stood among them, puncturing their chitin with hypodarts from a large pistol. She wore no protecsuit and her stocky Balol shape and long spines were unmistakable.

‘What is it? What is the Balol injecting them with?’ asked a woman behind her.

Marchella shook her head, then turned to Mira. Pulling her velum aside, she stared into Mira’s velum. Her eyes were bloodshot and ferocious. ‘There is a name you must remember. It is Tekton.’

Mira nodded, confused.

‘Say it. Say the name.’

‘Tekton,’ said Mira.

‘He owes me a debt. He owes this world a debt. Go to him and free our women. Now lead them around the Saqr and DO NOT STOP.’

‘Marchella—’

But she had already lifted her rifle and turned towards the Saqr.

Mira felt another intense surge of desperation. A mesur away she saw Cass standing on the back of the barge’s doorbridge. ‘There!’ She pointed to the women.

Several of the Saqr changed direction away from Marchella towards Mira and the women. Kristo fired on them from the top of the barge as the women raced over the last stretch.

Cass and Thomaas helped them inside. The barge was already crowded with women and ‘bini from another dorm.

Mira was the last to get there. She grasped Cass with blood-slick hands. ‘We have to wait for Marchella.’

‘Who?’

Mira struggled to recall her other name. ‘M-Mesquite.’

Cass pointed across the dust of the parking bay. Several ‘esque bodies lay sprawled in the awkward angles of death. The Saqr were bent over them, mouth-needles prodding their flesh. ‘She fired on them. I didn’t see what happened but we have to go now. Medic is strapped to the inside of the hatch.’ She slapped the doorbridge mechanism and it began to close.

Mira scrambled to get down. ‘No—’

But Cass shoved her hard off balance into the mass of bodies. Before Mira could recover the door had clicked into place.

* * * *

Mira’s flight to Ipo paled beside the flight out. The suffocating dark, the smell of bodies crushed together so tightly that breathing was difficult. And the noise: the agonised cries of the injured women and ‘bini, the faint whine of the barge’s motor, the squealing Saqr rage as their prey escaped.

Bodies thumped against the barge’s canopy, climbing the outside. The barge began to slew back and forth. Then the external noises