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Nova, I forbid—

But the encompassing warmth of Nova’s love and affection silenced Mira, choking her words and dissolving her protest, softening and comforting her fear.

And before she could further protest, she found herself propelled away from the vast spaces, back into the whirlpool, spinning slower and slower until, eventually, she opened her eyes.

‘Mira!’ Josef’s voice was hoarse and brimming with emotion. He sat on the edge of Secondo, rocking back and forth, holding Nova’s body in his arms. ‘Something’s wrong. I can feel it. Her energy is …’

You cannot let her die. Insignia’s words crushed Mira.

She climbed from Primo, leaving Vito in cushioned sleep. ‘The Entity is here, Josef, close to us. It believes our extinction will offer proof of its origins. Nova has convinced it to consider another way. She’s bargained her companionship – her life – for ours. For all of Orion. I must get back to them.’

‘Sole promised Nova?’

Mira nodded, distraught.

Josef’s face hardened. ‘Take her.’

With surprising tenderness he kissed Nova’s forehead and handed her over, then he lay back down in Secondo.

‘What are you doing?’ Mira started forward.

He took her hand and buried his face in it the way he had on Araldis. His lips burned against her palm in a devoted and passionate kiss that told her the depth of his feelings for her. Then slowly his grip faded and the pressure of his lips slackened.

JO-JO RASTEROVICH

Jo-Jo had never tried to reach out to the Entity before; it had always sought him. He wasn’t sure how to draw its attention, other than to demand.

Sole! Fuck you, Sole!

But Sole did not respond.

Desperate, he cast back to the occasions that Sole had spoken directly to him and tried to re-create the same division in his mind. He’d thought of it like sliced fruit, a kind of soft and slightly messy process. But this time he tried something different; this time he forcibly shrank his emotional centre into a tight and unreachable orb, leaving only the logic side of his brain functioning.

Sole entered the accessible side like a thrown spear.

You cannot take this child.

The reason came to Jo-Jo with startlingly simplistic clarity. Nova has been altered by the Post-Species. They oppose your existence. Their changes to her will damage you. It was always their intent to use her against you. And her mother.

The Entity withdrew a little while it considered his declaration. Perhaps it was running its own type of bifurcation analysis – performing a prognosis of its own future.

Jo-Jo’s dislocation from time and place was so complete he wasn’t sure how long he waited, nor did he care. What mattered was that Sole knew the veracity of his statement and left Nova and Mira alone.

Probable, he countered.

I am the one you should take.

My life is yours anyway. You resurrected me. And you’ve altered my mind for your expediency. Perhaps I was the always the one you would take. Perhaps you knew that at the beginning.

Amusement and mimicry.

Jo-Jo kept the ball of his emotions fiercely contracted not letting anything escape that might shake his resolve.

Agreed then?

MIRA

‘Crux!’ exclaimed Tekton from Autonomy, where Lasper Farr’s device rested on his legs like an innocent seemingly benign object. ‘There are ’casts coming in from Scolar. Oh … my …’

‘Insignia,’ said Mira. ‘Show us.’

A projection appeared above Primo filled with a vision of the Scolar shift sphere, where a Geni-carrier hung at the centre.

‘They’ve tried to close the sphere but it hasn’t completed its shutdown sequence. The Geni-carrier will destroy the whole system,’ said Tekton.

‘Thales!’ cried Mira.

But as they watched the rings of the sphere brightened and began to shrink. The closing sequence appeared to accelerate and the Geni-carrier was caught in the vibration well. In the space of several heartbeats, it disintegrated under the pressure.

Tekton quivered in his seat as the image faded out, his hands fluttering. ‘The Scolar ’cast is gone but other feeds are coming