The rest of the conference hall hung on Vreta’s words, including Freyr, who blew softly on her second coffee of the day. When he mentioned the Institute, she glanced through the steam at the black-clad observers standing to one side of the room. She thought they were regarding the Rothian with a silent intensity, hands folded behind their backs.

There was more stunned silence when Vreta had finished, so Freyr bit her lip and jumped in. “Did the Navigator have any more information about where we can find its other colleagues? They may hold more information about the Hegemon, unless they’re in even worse condition.”

“Well hold on, my dear. Isn’t Vreta’Sori suggesting one of them is on Earth? Are you?” Dr Wetherall peered over his AR specs at Vreta. “What you say implies that Humans have somehow come to live in proximity of two alien beings from another galaxy. The odds of that seem rather far fetched, don’t you think?”