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‘I rendezvoused with the Victoria twenty minutes ago,’ she said. The patch on her chest said FORRESTER. Vincenzi had an awful feeling that meant as in the Forrester, as in the Lady herself, as in the Boss.

‘I’m your new commanding officer,’ she said.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Vincenzi.

Up on the bridge, Captain Sokolovsky was frozen in his chair, pink eyes fixed on the monitors. ‘As you were,’ Colonel Forrester told the bridge as she led Vincenzi in.

The colonel displaced a TechOp from their console and sat down, bringing up a schematic of their objective. The Emperor’s personal palace on Callisto.

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‘You’re going to have to talk me through this, Lieutenant,’ she said. ‘I’ll be coming with you.’

Vincenzi found a spare chair and sat down next to her. He could see the resemblance to their glorious leader, although this woman looked older – not so much older, just more worn, he thought. A good kind of worn, like she’d done a hell of a lot of work. ‘Can I ask what military experience the colonel has had?’

he asked, without a trace of irony.

‘I was an Adjudicator for twenty-three years,’ she said. ‘Mostly hand-to-hand stuff, some small-scale engagements. I’ve been in a few battles since then.’

‘Merc?’

‘Freelance. Under all sorts of circumstances. I can handle small arms as well as any grunt.’

‘That might not be so bad,’ said Vincenzi. ‘That’s pretty much what’s required. No heroic tendencies?’

‘None whatsoever,’ said the colonel, with another smile. ‘OK, what’re we going to do about Walid?’

‘His last known location was inside the palace on Callisto,’

said Vincenzi. ‘There was an official message to the Empire at oh eight hundred IST today, although it might have been recorded.’

His fingers moved over the touchscreen, bringing up graphics of the surface. ‘The entire crater of Valhalla is under a huge dome, six hundred klicks wide. Most of the defences will be just outside the dome, on the crater rim.’

‘So we have to get through them,’ she said. ‘If we want to take the palace, and not simply destroy it.’

‘There’s a civilian population.’ Vincenzi nodded. ‘Twenty thousand. A lot of skilled people. Any serious damage to the dome, and they’re all dead.’

‘So there’s no way around it,’ said the colonel. ‘We have to fight our way up there.’

‘And without the benefit of covering mortar fire,’ said Vincenzi. ‘One badly aimed shell, and we’ll puncture the dome.’

Colonel Forrester sat back in her seat, thinking. ‘Our advantage is going to be numbers,’ she said.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Vincenzi. ‘They can’t kill all of us.’

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‘I don’t want you or anyone else thinking of this as a suicide mission,’ she said firmly. ‘It’s a particularly difficult job that needs doing.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Vincenzi, and he meant it.

‘Sokolovsky,’ said the colonel. ‘Report.’

The captain looked over to them. ‘Trouble,' he said. 'Walid’s panicking, I think. He’s pulled the T’ai Tsung out of the action at Phobos, and they’re heading back to Callisto.’

‘That’s crazy,’ said Vincenzi. ‘He doesn’t need two ships to defend that little moon.’

Sokolovsky shook his head. ‘He’s panicking,’ he said again.

‘He’s abandoned Mars altogether.’

‘This is it, then,’ said Forrester. The last objective.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Vincenzi.

She blew out a breath. ‘Nearly missed the damn war,’ she said.

Mimas

The Nexus flared. The light filled the room for a moment, leaving a searing afterimage on Chris’s eyeballs..

‘Look,’ he told the Doctor.

Something was trying to get out of the Nexus. The shimmering light stretched and grew as whatever it was fought to get loose.

As one, the Grandmaster turned to look at it.

The Doctor pulled loose from Chris and ran forward, through them.

A hand reached out of the tear in the air. Another hand appeared, battling loose of the light.

The Doctor reached out and caught them and pulled. It was him, emerging head and shoulders from the Nexus. The Doctor on the outside roared and pulled the other one free.

The Nexus burst open like an overripe melon.