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officers. They all had nightsticks at the ready – no guns, though, Yuri noticed in those first
moments.
    ‘You,’ Tollemache said. ‘Ice boy. I should have known. Out of the med bay for five minutes and trouble already.’ He flexed his nightstick.
    Yuri tensed, preparing to rush him.
    Mardina Jones stood between them. ‘Stop this! That’s an order, Peacekeeper.’
    ‘You don’t outrank me.’
    ‘Oh, yes I do,’ she said coldly. ‘You know the policy. Take it up with the captain if you like. I wanted you down here to keep order, not break more heads. And you –
whatever else you are, Yuri Eden, you’re good at making enemies.’
    Tollemache glowered at Yuri, but backed off. ‘You’re the reason I’m in this toilet, you little prick.’
    Yuri grinned. ‘Good to hear it, Peacekeeper.’
    Tollemache held his gaze for one more second. In the background Gustave Klein leered, drinking up the conflict.
    Mardina Jones turned on Lemmy. ‘You. What do you mean, he thinks this is home?’
    ‘Think about it. The Peacekeeper there knocked him out while he was still on Mars! He never saw a thing, the sweep, the loading, he didn’t get any of the briefings we got. Such as
they were. Also, he’s out of his time. You must know that. He hasn’t got the background to understand.’
    Mardina frowned, and glanced down at her slate; maybe she hadn’t known that, Yuri thought.
    ‘We all supposed he’d know what was going on. I guess. That he’d be able to figure it. But—’
    ‘But maybe not.’ Major McGregor came up to the little group now, and studied Yuri with amused interest. ‘I heard about you. I knew we had one of you lot aboard, a corpsicle. A
survivor of the Heroic Generation, eh? And now, here you are, and so confused. How funny.’ Apparently on impulse he said, ‘Follow me, Mr Eden. Bring your little bedwarmer if you like.
You’d better come too, Lieutenant. And you, Peacekeeper, if you can control yourself. Just in case it all kicks off.’
    Mardina asked, ‘Where are you taking him?’
    McGregor grinned and pointed upwards. ‘Where do you think? It will be a fascinating experiment. Come along.’

 
     
     
     
CHAPTER 3
     
     
     
     
    M cGregor led a procession out of the lecture space to the spiral stair that wound its way up the wall of the tower. McGregor glanced over his
shoulder at Yuri, who followed directly behind him. ‘We have two of these habitat modules, strapped together side by side, for redundancy, you see . . . You’ll have to tell me what you
think of the design. For size, it was modelled on the first stage of the old Saturn V moon booster, for nostalgic reasons, I suppose. Of course much of what we are doing is of symbolic as well as
practical value.’
    At the top of the tower was a domed roof. They climbed up through that into what was evidently some kind of control room, with a central command chair, vacant just now, arrays of bright screens,
and another dome, midnight dark, over their heads. Operatives in astronaut uniforms sat at terminals around the periphery. One or two looked back at McGregor and his party, frowning, disapproving
of an incursion into this sanctum of control.
    McGregor was studying Yuri, amused. ‘Where do you think you are now?’
    Yuri shrugged carelessly, though a kind of deep anxiety was gnawing in his stomach.
    Mardina murmured, ‘Lex, go easy—’
    ‘No, really. Tell me. Come on, man, speak up.’
    ‘Top of the tower.’
    McGregor thought that over. ‘Well, yes. That’s correct, sort of. Perceptually speaking anyhow, given the vector of the thrust-induced gravity. But there’s rather more to it
than that.’ He clapped his hands. ‘Lights off.’ The wall lamps died, fading quickly. ‘Just look up. Give your eyes a minute to adjust.’
    Yuri obeyed. Slowly, the stars came out across the dome, a brilliant field, like night in the Martian desert. There was a particularly prominent cluster directly overhead.
    ‘What do you