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Satisfaction and joy filled Mira’s mind, pushing aside everything else. For now.

JO-JO

Randall was waiting for him in the doorway. In the moonlight he could see her excitement. Catchut was on his feet too, standing close behind her.

‘Crux, Rasterovich!’ she said. ‘You bin on a holiday?’

He pulled a face and slung the cord holding the com-sole off his shoulder. ‘I found somethin’.’

‘Me too! Bet mine’s bigger.’ It was a dumb thing to say, and she burst into laughter. ‘Whatcha got there?’

‘Portable com-sole. Least it will be, when we can get it working.’

‘You mean we can hear what’s going on up there?’

‘Hope so.’

She took it from him and headed back inside.

Jo-Jo followed her, bemused by her quick change of focus. Catchut slapped a tube of something liquid in his hand as he walked past.

‘Salut.’ Jo-Jo nodded gratefully and put it to his lips. It was sweet and creamy, and tasted like jam.

By the time he’d followed Randall to the windowless room they’d taken to using during the day, he’d finished the tube and felt revived from his climb to and from the studium. Coming back had been easier, but slower; the moons were up, and he’d had to use even greater caution. Just the weight of the com-sole had exhausted his still-weak muscles. They’d spent only a few weeks in Medium’s stasis goo, and yet their bodies had withered in it.

‘What did you find?’ Jo-Jo prompted Randall.

Her head was already bent over the com-sole as she fingered the device. ‘Should work. Seems intact.’ She stuck her tongue in the corner of her mouth as she concentrated, fitting the device to the room’s power adapter and pressing the frequency seek. ‘Should be power enough in the solar storage unit for this.’

Jo-Jo watched the icons blinking as the com-sole calibrated and tried again. ‘You said you found something too.’

‘Mebbe.’

‘Don’t play games,’ he said, not in the mood for it. She grinned at him again, in a loose unhinged kind of way. Their imprisonment on Medium had fucked up her head, he thought. She’d changed in a way that he couldn’t quite pinpoint.

‘I found us an AiV,’ she said finally. ‘Looks to be working. Won’t really know till we power up. Powering up means the Saqr will know we’re here. Best we go at next nightfall.’

‘Capo?’ said Catchut. ‘You sure?’

‘No.’ She pressed the seek function again. ‘But it’s better than starvin’ to death sittin’ around here.’

‘But where’ll we go?’ Catchut sounded uneasy.

‘The islands. Where the refugees went.’

‘Where we think they went. They might all be dead. Or still down a mine shaft somewhere. I mean, we could starve out there as well.’ Catchut glanced at Jo-Jo.

It was the first time the man had looked for his support.

‘We might only get one chance in the air. Let’s listen to the com-sole for a day or two. See if we can pick up anythin’,’ said Jo-Jo.

‘What if the Saqr come and trash the flyer? What if it’s the only one left on the mountain?’ she countered.

‘If it’s intact now, chances are it will be in a few days too.’

Rast began to tap hard on the com-sole, impatient to get something from it.

Jo-Jo pushed her hand away, slowly but deliberately. ‘You break it, we won’t hear nothin’.’

Randall’s fists clenched and her shoulders bunched, as though she might launch herself at him. He tensed for the assault, but her expression changed again.

‘I’m going to catch some shut-eye. Wake me if you hear anythin’.’

She got up and left the room.

Catchut stared down at his hands.

‘Sleep’s a good thing,’ said Jo-Jo eventually, and went out.

Jo-Jo woke some time later, stiff from lying on the floor. He was in the room next to the galley – anywhere else had seemed too far to go. Easing up into a crouch, he stretched his back before attempting to stand. He’d been dreaming of Mira Fedor, he realised. A vivid, intense dream in which they were talking; she was so close that he could smell the biozoon secretions on her skin and see the hunted look in her eyes.

He scrubbed at his face, waking himself up more,