‘Take a look around you,’ Jane Aumonier said. ‘A good, long look. This is my world. It’s all I’ve known for eleven years of uninterrupted consciousness. None of you can even begin to imagine what that means.’
‘It means you could use a good rest,’ Gaffney said. Then he raised his arm and spoke into his cuff. ‘Commence shutdown, please.’
One by one, habitat by habitat, the displays blanked out, leaving only the black interior surface of Aumonier’s office sphere. The blackness was soon absolute, with the entry door the only source of illumination in the space.
Jane Aumonier made a small clicking noise, as if she’d touched her tongue against the roof of her mouth. ‘This is an outrage,’ she said, her voice hardly raised above a whisper.
‘It’s necessary and you’ll thank us for it later,’ Gaffney replied. ‘As of now, your authority is suspended on medical grounds. As we’ve stressed, this action isn’t being taken on disciplinary grounds. You may not like us right now, but you still have our utmost respect and loyalty.’
‘Like hell I do.’
‘Get it out of your system now, Jane. We understand your rage. We’d be surprised if you weren’t angry with us.’
‘You didn’t have to take the habitats away from me.’ She was speaking slowly, with a kind of iron calm. ‘If you wanted to take me out of the command loop, all you had to do was remove my ability to give orders or offer guidance. You didn’t have to take the habitats away from me.’
‘But we did,’ Gaffney said. ‘You’re too much of a professional, Jane. Do you honestly think you’d stop worrying about the crisis just because we took away your authority? Do you honestly think you’d stop fretting, stop obsessing, every time a new piece of data comes in? Do you honestly think your stress levels wouldn’t actually get worse if we let you see but not act? I’m sorry, I know this is hard, but this is the way it has to be.’
‘We’ve discussed the matter with Demikhov,’ Baudry said. ‘He agrees that the present crisis poses an unacceptable risk to your mental well-being. He consented to this action.’
‘You’d have found a way to twist his advice to suit your purpose no matter what he said.’
‘That isn’t fair,’ Crissel said indignantly. ‘And we’re not going to leave you in the dark, so to speak. We can assign other inputs to the sphere. Historical feeds. Fictions. Puzzles. Enough to keep you occupied.’
‘Don’t even think of lecturing me about keeping occupied,’ Aumonier said to him, with genuine menace.
‘We’re just trying to help,’ Baudry said. ‘That’s all we’ve ever wanted to do.’
‘I wish you’d acknowledge the reasonableness of our actions,’ Gaffney said, ‘but your refusal to do so in no way alters what must be done. We’ll leave you now. Your usual medical care regime will of course continue unaffected. You may request any data feed, within reason. Access to the usual habitat-monitoring channels will of course be embargoed… and for the time being, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be able to tap into any of the news networks. Contact with Panoply personnel will also have to restricted—’
‘When Tom gets back—’ she began.
‘He’ll bow to our authority,’ Gaffney said.
Dreyfus and the Conjoiner woman exited the sleeping chamber and made their way out of the sinuous labyrinth of her ship. Dreyfus kept looking over his shoulder, wary that some restless and vengeful spirit might be following them from that house of abominations.
‘My trust in you is provisional,’ Clepsydra said, before reminding him that she still had control over the musculature of his suit. ‘If you can help me reach other Conjoiners, and bring help to save the rest, you shall have my gratitude. If I suspect that you are like the other man, the one who wears the same kind of suit, you shall discover the consequences of betraying me.’
Dreyfus decided not to dwell on her threat. He was simply glad to be out of the butcher’s theatre of the dismembered dreamers. ‘Can I call my deputy?’
‘You may, but I am detecting no incoming carrier signal.’
Dreyfus tried. Clepsydra was right. ‘He must still be attempting to contact Panoply for help.’
‘You’d better hope it comes quickly, in that case. Aurora almost certainly knows you’re here.’
‘Will she harm the sleepers?’
‘She may, if only to stop anyone else obtaining access to Exordium. ’ Clepsydra moved with panther-like speed and grace as they ascended the long thread of the docking connector. ‘But that would be the only reason. Lately she has bored of us. We’re a toy that won’t do what she wants.’
Dreyfus recalled something Clepsydra had told him earlier. ‘You said she punished you if you dreamed something she didn’t like. What did you mean by that?’
‘Aurora expected to glean certain truths from the future. When our prognostications conflicted with her expectations, she grew resentful, as if we were lying to her out of spite.’
‘Were you?’
‘No. What we told her was what we saw. She just didn’t like the message she was being given.’
‘Which was?’
‘That something bad is going to happen. Not today, not tomorrow. Not for years to come. But not so far in the future that it isn’t of concern to her. If I have learned one thing from the glimpses of her mind, it is that she is a cold and cunning strategist, profoundly concerned with her own long-term survival.’
‘And your message gave her something to be scared about?’
‘So it would appear,’ Clepsydra said.
‘Care to elaborate?’
‘Only to say that everything you cherish, everything you work for, everything you hold precious will have its end. You are very proud of this intricate little community of yours, with its ten thousand habitats, its ticking clockwork mechanisms of absolute democracy. And perhaps in your own small way you are entitled to some of that pride. But it won’t last for ever. One day, Prefect, there will be no Glitter Band. There will be no Panoply. There will be no prefects.’
They reached the viewing station where Dreyfus had first glimpsed the imprisoned ship. When they had both cleared the docking connector, he used the control panel to dim the lights and seal the silver door.
‘What disaster did you foresee?’
‘A time of plague,’ Clepsydra said.
Dreyfus shivered, as if someone had just walked over his grave. ‘What does Aurora think about that?’
‘It concerns her. In the thoughts that she lets slip, I’ve sensed a great plan being pushed towards reality. She fears the future we have shown her. She will fear it less if she controls it.’
‘In what way?’
‘For now she hides, flitting furtively from shadow to shadow, surviving by her wits. She lives in your world, but her influence over it is limited. I believe she means to change that. She means to become more powerful. She will rip control of human affairs from your fumbling hands.’
‘You’re talking about a takeover,’ Dreyfus said.
‘Call it what you will. You must be ready for her when she shows herself. She will move quickly, and you will not have much time to react.’
It did not take long to return to the sealed door, the one that had cut him off from Sparver and the corvette. It stood as intact and impervious as when he had left it.
‘This shaft goes all the way around the rock, doesn’t it?’
Clepsydra’s expression was blank. ‘Yes. Why?’
‘Because we’ll have to work our way around if we’re going to reach the shaft that leads to my ship. Assuming we don’t encounter any more obstructions on the way…’
Clepsydra closed her eyes, jamming them tight as if she was trying to remember the name of an old acquaintance. She raised her palm to the door, tensing the fingers slightly as if holding some fierce, slavering creature at bay.