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ready for this? Guess who’s coming to Theta Base on the next transport from Eureka Station? I’m just going to tell you, because you’ll never guess. Magnus Kristiansen!!”
    The name of her old flame went through Colden like a rod of solid titanium. The surge of emotion she felt surprised her. Kristiansen had broken her heart long ago, when he chose his ideals over her. She didn’t feel anything for him anymore. Did she?
    “Well, thank God they aren’t sending him here,” she said. “Because I would have had to tie his balls around his neck and push him out the airlock for the nanites to devour. Say hi to him from me.”
    Gilchrist giggled. “Will do. And regarding your ambush theory, I’ll pass it on to the grunts from Theta. Maybe I can even get Captain Saroyan to take it seriously. He quite likes me.”
    The screen darkened as Gilchrist signed off, twirling her hair. Colden smiled tolerantly to herself. Same old Gilchrist, convinced she was God’s gift to men. It was funny how much people could change, and yet stay the same …
    She hurried back to the telepresence center. Her practiced eye surveyed the couches. All quiet. Her operators lay peacefully in their polyfoam cradles, only their right—or left—hands twitching slightly, depending on whether they were right- or left-handed. They were digging. If there’d been a flap, they would be jerking around. Involuntary reflexes, you couldn’t control ‘em.
    She squeezed between the couches and crouched down by the one that held Drudge’s skinny body. She tapped his shoulder. You weren’t supposed to do this, but if Drudge couldn’t cope with an off-schedule break from immersion, he wouldn’t last long in the Corps.
    His limbs flew out straight—one arm narrowly missing Colden’s head. He sat upright and ripped off his mask. “What the fuck? What’s happening? Oh whoops. Ma’am!”
    “Drudge, where are you right now?”
    “Right here! Oh. OK. I get what you mean. I’m digging,” he said virtuously.
    “No, you’re not,” Colden said. At this point in her acquaintance with Drudge, she didn’t even need to make it a question. “You’ve bunked off again.”
    “I’m right over there,” he insisted, pointing at the wall of the telepresence center, meaning the same direction relative to his phavatar’s location in Conurbation 243.
    “Good. No, I’m not taking the piss, Drudge. That’s good, that’s what I wanted to hear. You went to look for souvenirs, right? So go a bit further away. Like a couple of streets. And then …” She lowered her voice and told him what she wanted him to do. He leaned towards her, shoulders sharp-pointed under his shapeless uniform. He reeked of cheap cologne. Like he thought he was going to get some romantic action, on freaking Alpha Base.
    “Got it, ma’am!”
    ★
    Colden hopped back onto her couch and waited for the fun to start.
    The rest of her platoon were busy digging. They’d persuaded an earthmover to come over and help. It was a smart six-legged bulldozer that scooped up pieces of rubble too big for the phavatars. The PLAN had built its silos, farms, and city walls out of regocrete—a concrete-analog made from pulverized Martian regolith—reinforced with steel rebar. These tall, skinny structures looked deceptively fragile to Earth-adapted eyes. They were actually very strong. The PLAN’s regocrete used molten sulphur, which was abundant on Mars, as a bonding agent. Even in the quakes following the Phobos impacts, which exceeded the greatest earthquakes in Earth’s history, structures located further from the equator had swayed and cracked but not fallen. Took a direct impact to bring these suckers down …
    Colden glanced up at the haze. She was twitchy, fearing that any moment the next KKV might split the overcast sky. Come on, Drudge.
    Turned out he’d just been obeying her instructions to move further away. “Hey, guys!” He broadcast his shout to everyone at the site. “You gotta come