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not all of them. We may be able to equip future generations with far greater resistance by studying how these ones infect and propagate.’
    She managed a half-hearted laugh. ‘It’s just a shame I have to listen to a bunch of clinical sociopaths to do it.’
    ‘Scientists, Ella,’ Nayland replied. ‘They were scientists. Perhaps their methods left something to be desired, but they believed what they were doing was important, much as we do here.’
    Ella kept the frown off her face as best she could; hiding her emotions had never been one of her strong suits. ‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘I guess.’
    Nayland gave her another smile and walked away, and Ella watched him go, glad to be rid of him.
    FNf Delta Brigantia.
    Captain William Goddard was not someone Aneka was anxious to see again, but there he was, standing just inside the aft airlock, waiting to be escorted up to the mess so that he could be briefed on the situation in the Negral system. Her one consolation was that he seemed to be displeased about the arrangement too.
    Goddard was the officer in charge of the naval station on Sapphira, a relatively short man, but imposing. Aneka suspected that he made up for his lack of stature by beefing up on the muscle. Unfortunately he was a weak soldier, and a weaker politician, which was likely why he had ended up commanding a station on a planet almost eighty parsecs out from New Earth, well out on the Rim. It seemed likely that the one thing he had liked about it was that he never had to actually do anything, and now he had been stuck in the middle of a huge political incident. To some extent she could forgive him the sour expression he shot at her, but then again, it was not actually her fault he was having to get off his butt.
    ‘Captain Goddard,’ Anderson said as they approached.
    ‘Commander,’ Goddard replied, ignoring protocol, ‘and Miss Jansen again.’
    Aneka looked at him, took in the irritation, but also the worry and distraction. ‘Don’t worry, Goddard, you won’t have to deal with me much. Captain Anderson will handle the briefing.’
    For a second, Goddard looked confused. ‘Apologies, Captain. I’ve got New Earth sending messages every day. I mean, what are they hoping will happen? It takes eight days for my reply to get to them! I’ve got a Vice-admiral Crofton arriving in the system tomorrow and some sort of military advisor from the Herosians coming in the day after…’
    ‘Come on,’ Anderson said. ‘We’ll go up to the mess, get you and your team some coffee, and then I think we’ll make you happy.’
    Goddard raised an eyebrow, but clearly decided that the coffee was a good idea and started in the direction Anderson and Aneka had come from. ‘We have a ship matching orbits with you now to handle the repairs,’ he said as they went. ‘We don’t have any genius mechanics floating around Sapphira spaceport, but they’ll get you patched up enough to get you back to New Earth safely.’
    ‘Good,’ Anderson said. ‘We jury-rigged a lot of stuff to get us back here.’
    ‘We can supply the parts you need and people to fit them.’ He glanced back over his shoulder. ‘Miss Jansen, I’ve a request from the Administration that you go down to Sapphira Vista. There are some people down there who want to talk to you.’
    ‘Oh really?’
    ‘Yeah, I can take you down when we leave, if that’s okay?’
    ‘I guess I can manage a visit to the surface.’
    ‘Good, saves me a headache.’
    ‘Because we’re all about saving him from headaches,’ Al commented.
    ‘Sure we are,’ Aneka replied.
    Hayward Alpha Research Facility.
    Alec Nayland sat at his desk watching a display on his computer screen. It was showing Ella at work in the lab she had been given.
    ‘We’ve confirmed the presence of nanomachines in her system?’ he asked.
    ‘Full confirmation would require extracting blood.’ The voice came from the woman standing on the other side of his desk. Lisa Corazon was a pretty