'I think you can slow up now,' said Cormac, and closed his watering eyes.
It was difficult getting their coldsuits on in the confinement of the AGC, so they had only managed to get fully clothed by the time Aiden was bringing them in to land. With his body temperature rising, Cormac began to feel the coldburn on his face and the backs of his hands. When the temperature reached its optimum, he felt in some pain, and did not relish the prospect of pulling off his gloves.
Aiden set them down at the edge of the complex and, as they left the car, three suited figures came out to meet them. The dracoman began shivering, but this was the only effect the extreme cold had on it. It otherwise walked along as if taking a stroll on a mildly wintry day. Aiden walked likewise.
'Y' made it then,' came Blegg's voice over the com.
'Yes, and the Maker has paid for its crimes,' replied Cormac.
'And a perfectly good stage-one runcible obliterated,' muttered Chaline.
Cormac did not reply to that. 'Let's get inside,' he said, 'I want to see how much skin I've lost.'
The building they entered was a recent addition to the complex. They passed dirough a cold lock to get inside, and had to wait for a few minutes while their suits and the air around them was heated. Beyond this was an unsuiting room, with its lockers for the suits, showers and blow dryers, a machine for dispensing hot drinks, and lockers containing fresh clothing. Mika and Thorn were quickly out of their suits and soon drinking cups of hot soup. The other three - Blegg, Chaline and surprisingly, Cam - got unsuited just as quickly. Cormac took his time, leaving his gloves for last.
'Ow! Shit!'
Patches of skin lifted off the backs of his hands and his fingers. His face was not a lot better. Chaline reached into a nearby locker, took out an aerosol and approached him.
'Synthskin - it will seal the burns and kill the pain. It's good that it hurts. If mere had been no pain, you'd then have had cause to worry.'
He held out his hands, and as she sprayed them they went gloriously numb. She did the same for his face, holding her finger over each of his eyelids in turn to prevent them becoming sealed shut.
'Thorn? Mika?' She turned to them next.
Bodi of them had a redness to face and hands, but neither had caught the brunt of it like Cormac.
'I'm fine, just a litde coldburn,' said Thorn.
Mika held up her hand when Chaline turned to her queryingly, and continued sipping at her soup.
During all this, Blegg had stood silently to one side.
Cormac eventually addressed him: 'I want to get back to Hubris.'
'More?' wondered Blegg.
'More,' Cormac confirmed.
Chaline looked from one of them to the other. 'What's—'
Cormac interrupted. 'You can stay here and get on with setting up the stage-two runcible. Ten hours, didn't you say?'
'Less now, we've already been working on it,' she said.
'Good… Good.' He turned back to Blegg. 'Any communication from Dragon while we were on Viridian?'
'Nothing of any consequence…'
Cormac shot a question at Chaline. 'What condition is Hubris in now?'
'Pretty good,' said Chaline, eyeing him warily.
'Is there a shuttle ready to leave now}'
Blegg said, 'One hour. You can wait that long.'
Cormac looked about to argue, then said, 'Yes, I'll take a shower, I think.'
It was the heavy-lifter they boarded after that tense one hour. Cormac had been unable to relax. He toyed with his food and drank lots of coffee. He even wished he had picked up the smoking habit from Gant. Now would have been a good time to use it. Halfway through that same hour, Mika came with some instruments to run tests on the dracoman.
'I would like to find out what—'
'No,' said Cormac.
Mika looked at him in surprise.
'No tests, none at all.'
He stared at her levelly. She met his gaze, then packed away her instruments. They continued waiting.
The lifter was empty of cargo, and on its last trip before being re-stored. It had been used to bring down the old engine casings for transmission to Minostra; even damaged, they were too valuable to scrap. This had now been done, and the lifter was ready to return.
As Cormac settled in his seat, he said, 'When we board I want all communication channels to Dragon closed down. Should it try to contact us, we ignore it.'
'Why?' asked Thorn. 'Surely you can—'
'I'm giving orders, not making suggestions. Just listen - and shut up,' said Cormac.
Thorn went suddenly still, icy. Blegg leant across and caught hold of his arm. Thorn turned in cold irritation to look straight into those flecked eyes. No words were spoken out loud, but Thorn jerked away as if he had been snarled at. He stared at Blegg in amazement, then relaxed back in his seat with a nod. Blegg released his arm.
Mika stared at Blegg in perplexity for a moment, then turned her attention to Cormac. 'There's something else as well,' she said.
'Yes, the dracoman goes straight into Isolation. Total isolation. That means no probes, no testing, no scanning.'
Mika nodded.
Cormac checked the viewing screens nervously. One of them revealed the distant mote of Dragon on a far horizon. When he spotted it, Cormac's face hardened and he then watched it constantly.
Hubris opened for the lifter and accepted it back into its bright-lit guts. Before they stepped out into the bay, there was a delay as clamps took hold of the vehicle and pulled it into place against banks of shock absorbers. They exited across a long ramp that crossed the chasm in which the lifter nestled. As they stepped from this ramp, huge floors and walls began to turn and shift like the wheels in some giant clock as Hubris locked the huge vehicle away.
'Hubris,' said Cormac, as he stepped from the drop-shaft that had wafted him up to the living quarters, 'I want you to secure for impact, and clear the area around Isolation once Mika has delivered the dracoman. All communication channels with Dragon are to be closed.
The dracoman is to be sealed in; weld the unit shut if you have to.'
'Proceeding as directed.' Lights began to flash in the corridors as Cormac headed for Downlink Com.
Hubris announced, 'Proton guns charging.'
Cormac came to an abrupt halt, his hands clenched into fists. He looked at Blegg and then Thorn. After a moment he said, 'There will be no need for those. Charge them down.'
'Ship's safety is my first priority. Dragon is trying all channels. The indications are that there will be another attack. I cannot charge down proton guns without a direct order from agent Prime.'
Cormac looked at Blegg. 'You have the authority now. I want you to order Hubris to charge down the proton guns. They were damaged in the previous attack so are unsafe to use,' he said carefully.
'Y'heard that. Close 'em down,' said Blegg.
'Proton guns charging down.'
Cormac continued walking. 'I also want all information systems closed off. All access is to be denied. If it looks like unauthorized access can get through at any time, I want those information banks dumped or destroyed.'
'I cannot initiate this without a direct order from agent Prime,' said Hubris stubbornly.
'Y'got my order,' said Blegg.
'Initiated.'
'You want Dragon to—' began Thorn.
'Yes, yes,' said Cormac irritably. 'But everything we say or do is recorded somewhere, and therefore possible to access. So keep it to yourself.'
This time there was no one in Downlink Com. Cormac dropped in a chair before the communications console, and called up a view of Dragon.
'At least this time we won't be shutting down Chal-ine's operation. Samarkand II will be operating everything down there. I think she's had about as much as she can take of my interference.'