After half an hour of sneaking through the eerie quiet hallways of the vessel, Amber's group had reached an outer section, where only the ship's hull separated them from the nothingness of space. And at last they found a window – a small portal into the unknown.

With Hekket alongside her she moved up to the window and looked out. Amber felt a strange hollowness settle in her stomach at what she saw. It appeared the ship had arrived at some kind of space-dock, surrounded by an enormous skeletal structure and bracketed with locking arms. She could see a rectangular block in the middle of the arrangement with glittering window lights and the tiny dark shapes of people moving.

Beyond that she could just make out an identical dock among the sea of stars, but it didn't look like the base of operations was in an actual system. She craned her neck to get as wide a view left and right as she could but saw no planet and no nearby star – they were in the wilderness, with no help and no back up until they could disable the ship.

She looked away from the window to Hekket standing beside her. He stared out into space, his expression an unreadable mask. After a moment he stepped back, his hands tightening around the Compac.

"Where do you think we are?" he asked.

Amber shook her head. "Couldn't say. I don't recognise any of the star positions from where we are. I don't think we're in any colonial system."

"Makes sense," Uther put in from further down the passage. "With a ship that can be anywhere instantly they don't need to be on the grid. Supply chains, transit routes, colonial protocols; all that stuff goes out the window."

Amber cast a glance back the way they'd come then nudged Hekket. "Come on, let's keep moving."

With Uther leading they the three operatives wound their way up three decks of identical metal-walled corridors. Amber kept her mapper in one hand, wresting the barrel of the Compac across her wrist as she moved. Slowly they were building up a floor plan, but she knew it could take them hours to fully map a ship of this size. The silence filled her with a kind of inexplicable dread. Her sharp ears locked automatically onto the faint rasp of boots against the deck plates; as soft as they moved there was nothing else to listen to.

After ascending another level they emerged out into a well lit section of the ship, its corridors painted a soft alabaster in contrast to the charcoal dimness of the lower decks. They started working their way towards the bow of the ship, but a couple of turns later her ears picked up another sound: the unmistakable echoing clack of heeled footsteps.

Ahead of her Uther suddenly held up a clenched fist.

Amber stopped dead, breath catching in her throat. In a slow motion she flicked the mapper off and placed it back into her combat vest so she could hold her Compac properly. With Hekket close on her heels she moved up to the bend in the corridor where their companion had halted. He looked back and jerked a thumb around the corner.

Peering around him, she saw the flash of a white lab coat as a woman strode away from them at a ferocious speed, her eyes locked onto the data slate in her left hand. She was a tall individual and had her blonde hair tied up into a tight, efficient bun. A few seconds later she turned left and vanished around a corner.

"That lady was moving with a purpose," Hekket whispered after a moment.

Amber motioned with her head toward the passage the woman had taken. "Then why don't we follow her? She must know her way around this ship. The place is a maze; we could spend hours creeping around until we find something."

Uther nodded, raising his Compac. "You're right. Follow me. Hekket, keep an eye on our six."

Obediently Amber slipped into position behind their lanky comrade. Although technically the trio were of equal rank, Uther was by far the most senior operative, and he had passed his advanced weapon training. She had no problems following his lead now that they were assaulting an enemy ship.

They scuttled up to the end of the hall where the woman had turned off and looked out. Sure enough, the white lab coat swished a few dozen yards ahead. Quickly and quietly they moved along in her wake, sticking to the shadows and edging closer, metre by metre. Every step they took Amber thought the woman would surely hear something, surely look back over her shoulder, but it never happened. She barely glanced up from the data slate she carried, totally engrossed in whatever information it held.

After trailing the woman for several minutes they reached their destination. The final turn opened out into a long, broad corridor, well lit by a series of oblong windows built into one wall. A hefty rectangular airlock – the first they'd encountered so far, barred entrance to the room beyond.

Amber let her Compac hang from its strap and whipped a mag-scope from her combat vest, crouching down at the corner and learning around to watch as their unwitting guide stopped by the door. Placing the mag-scope to her eye, she focused on the woman's hand as she punched a code into the locking mechanism. Amber instantly committed the sequence to memory and returned the mag-scope to her pocket. The woman disappeared inside and the airlock slid shut behind her.

"Looks like a lab," Hekket said quietly. "Finally we're on to something."

"Doesn't look like there are any guards about," Uther replied, glancing left and right. "Amber, you got that code right?"

"Yeah."

"Then maybe we can get in there and deal with her before she can sound the alarm."

She gave him a dubious look. "That's quite a risk to take. If she gets a message off we could blow this whole operation."

"I don't see that we have much choice."

"Well, how about we take a peek inside before we go charging in after her, eh?" Hekket suggested, and before either of them could reply he slipped out from cover and over to the closest window. Glancing at Uther, Amber shrugged and followed him. The older operative stayed in position, covering the corridor junction as she slid into place behind Hekket. Together they poked their heads up just far enough to see through the glass.

From this angle she couldn't see much, and the material the window was made of had a more opaque quality than ordinary glass, distorting the images. She could see big, shapeless grey consoles build into the far wall and dark, circular space in between the main blocks. The blurred silhouette of the woman they'd followed moved back and forth between them.

"What do you think?" she murmured.

"Hard to say without getting in there," Hekket replied. "But that dark circle...it looks like it could be a body scanner."

"Like a hospital?"

"Could be." He looked at her gravely. "But I don't think this place was built to save lives."

Amber nodded her agreement. If there was medical equipment on this vessel she had an uneasy suspicion as to its purpose. She peered closer, trying to get a better look at the equipment, but before she could discern anything more clearly the shape of the woman inside turned.

And stopped dead, the blurred outline of the head staring in their direction.

Instantly she dropped back below the window and motioned Hekket furiously to back off down the corridor, heart hammering in her chest. She flailed a hand toward Uther, gesturing for him to stay out of sight, and then she shuffled backwards until she and Hekket reached the junction, taking up a position opposite him. Seconds later she heard the hiss of the airlock door opening. There was a brief pause, then the clack of footsteps on metal plates sounded; slow deliberate steps that grew louder and louder.

The woman was coming straight towards them.

Hekket slipped past her, taking up a position at the corner of the corridor, poised to spring. She saw her fellow operatives exchange a nod of understanding. Amber tensed, bracing herself to fire if she had to. With the lance carbines it had been easy to fire disabling shots, to cripple rather than kill. The heavy ordinance of the Compac left very little room for error in such an attempt.

She needn't have worried.

As the woman reached the junction to investigate Uther swung into action with eye-blurring speed, slamming the butt of his Compac hard into her stomach. She doubled over, spluttering and gasping, trying to draw in enough breath to cry out. Before she could, Hekket leapt forward and clubbed her over the back of the head. She dropped like a log.

Amber let her body relax with a sigh of relief, then saw Hekket pull a hypo from his combat vest and inject something into their captive's arm. When he caught her questioning look he smiled mischievously.

"Just a little something to keep her under while we do some digging," he explained. "She'll be fine. She'll wake up with a hell of a headache and a few hours of amnesia."

"Well now's our chance," Uther grunted. "Hekket, gimme a hand with this. Amber, get that door open!"

As they picked up the woman she darted down the passage and halted in front of the door. After take a second to think back, making sure she'd memorised the code correctly, she keyed in the sequence and stepped back, raising her Compac reflexively. The thick metal structure slid to one side with a barely audible hiss, revealing the white glare of the laboratory beyond.

Squaring her shoulders, Amber stepped through scanning swiftly left and right with her cannon. She saw no other signs of life and after a moment she let the barrel drop, turning and beckoning her companions.

"We're clear."

The two operatives lugged their unconscious burden over the threshold and bundled her into the corner out of sight.

"We can't hang around here for long," Uther said, straightening up. "So let's work fast."

And together they all turned to examine the interior of the lab.

The room was large and crisp, white walls and bright, colourless lights giving the whole place a sterile, anaesthetized feel. The main chamber housed huge, intimidating consoles that Amber didn't recognise, all of them whirring faintly with power. Without the barrier of the semi-transparent glass the machines took on rigid geometric structures. Screens shone with information, graphs and diagrams. Even from this distance Amber could see humanoid shapes on some of the displays and a shudder of unease went up her spine.

At the far end of the room stood a dividing wall with another rectangular doorway, and two opaque windows positioned symmetrically on either side. Amber could only guess at what lay beyond it.

She followed Hekket as the medic shuffled over to the consoles. He stood staring at them for a long moment, his face crumpling in concentration as his eyes darted from screen to screen. Amber tried to make some sense of it, but her medical knowledge was threadbare at best.

"What do you think?" she asked.

Hekket shook his head slowly. "I'm not sure. It looks like some kind of experiment, but there are terms I don't recognise." He looked at her apologetically. "I'm a medic, not a scientist."

"Then just work with what you know," she told him.

"Look here," Uther said, beckoning them over to another of the flat in-built screens. "These are power calculations – stress loads, resistance, conductivity."

They moved over to join him and Amber quickly realised he was right. Now she did recognise the terms – the mathematical algorithms that spilled down the screen in rows of cold blue typography. It reminded her of her days studying for the fleet academy, working through navigational computations and hull stress calculations, except the numbers were smaller. Everything about the formulae was a little bit different, as though they were attempting to work out the power load that some foreign substance could withstand before breaking down.

She frowned. Something didn't add up.

A flash of movement from her left made her turn to see Hekket scrolling through a series entries on the console displaying the human shapes. On closer inspection they were anatomical diagrams with dozens of annotations spidering off from them. She could see Hekket's expression darkening as he scrolled through each screen.

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

"It's some kind of theoretical layout for a nerve-wide interface." When she gave him a blank look he bit his lip. "It's like...those high tech VR sims, but way more invasive. It's a blueprint of how to plug into the whole nervous system; hijack the normal neural load somehow and replace it with...something."

"Those calculations," she murmured, looking back to the screen of formulae with a brick of dread settling in the base of her stomach. "They're trying to work out the power load a human body can withstand!"

Uther looked at them aghast. "What in the hell for?"

"I don't know," Hekket replied, still scrolling through entries. "But there are real tests in here, dossiers on live subjects!"

"What?"

"There are variances; male, female, tall, short, a whole cross section of human subjects. All of them...oh, hell." He turned to look at them, his face white. "The kids they took...they've been experimenting on them!"

Then as one their gazes drifted to the other room, the dark-windowed chamber. Amber swallowed down the lump in her throat and she saw Uther instinctively raising his Compac. Wordlessly they crossed the room, weapons ready as they approached.

The opaque glass prevented any glimpse of what lay beyond, but she knew what she was looking at.

"It's an observation room," Amber murmured. "Like the holding cells back on Blink. If we just..."

Without finishing the thought she instead keyed a command into the door's control panel. Her hunch was proved correct with the opaque film melted away from the oblong windows to reveal the room beyond. She shivered at what she saw.

Two rows of six beds lined either side of the room, lit by the same pale, sterile lighting as the main chamber. All of them were occupied, and she could see the unmistakable shape of human bodies concealed underneath dark sheets. She felt sick as the pieces started to fall into place. Hekket took in a sharp breath of surprise, stepping closer to the window.

"Can you open that door?" he said hoarsely.

"Give me a minute." Trying to control her shaking fingers, Amber crouched down at the door's key panel and pulled out her knife. Given time she could probably have cracked the code, but she didn't want to linger longer than they had to with the unconscious doctor tucked away in the corner of the room. Not only that, but she could feel Hekket's urgency as he stood over her.

So she broke open the panel with her knife and shorted out the door's main locking mechanism with a single deft flick. A whine and a hiss sounded and the fail-safe kicked in, shoving the thick metal slab aside. A rush of cold air washed over her and she straightened up, raising her Compac by instinct. She smelt a sickly antiseptic tang and grimaced.

Before she could say anything, Hekket was over the threshold and circling the nearest bed, his eyes blazing as he stared down at the lumpy tarpaulin. She followed, with Uther close behind, approaching slowly. She'd never seen Hekket so pent up, so filled with blazing energy that he seemed like he might explode. With tentative steps she moved up alongside him. He looked at her, blue eyes glinting viciously. She gave him a nod, feeling her heart begin to speed up as she braced herself for what was to come.

Hekket reached forward pulled back the sheet.

Somehow, Amber had known what they would find and she stood her ground, beating down the horror and revulsion that threatened to bubble up into her mind. She clenched her jaw tight and let the barrel of the Compac drop.

On the table before them lay the corpse of a boy, no older than fourteen, skin pale and lifeless. His eyes were closed and he would have almost looked peaceful were it not for the thin but clearly visible surgical scars around the top of his skull and running down the centre of his torso. She could see the marks running down his arms and legs where injections and incisions had been made.

Amber could only pray that the boy had already been dead before this ship's ghouls got their hands on him. She looked at her companions. Uther averted his gaze, closing his eyes. Hekket, however, didn't seem capable of tearing himself away from the sight. His hands strangled the Compac, knuckles white.

"Hekket?" she whispered.

He didn't reply. Amber moved closer and laid a hand on his arm. He flinched away and his head snapped to look at her.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Am I okay?" A bitter smile crossed his normally soft features. "No, no I'm not." He shook his head and she could see him trembling with barely suppressed anger. Without waiting for her to speak he replaced the sheet and moved on to the next bed. He swept it back revealing another corpse, this one a girl, her head shaved and body marred with the same surgical scars. He peered closer.

"They were running currents through them," he forced out, fighting to keep the rage out of his voice as he indicated the faint circular burn marks that pockmarked the skin at regular intervals. "I don't know why, but they were testing just how much the nervous system of each subject could handle."

"Until they died?" Uther shook his head in disbelief. "This doesn't make sense!"

"There's a connection," Amber said, trying not to look too closely at the bodies. "We're just not seeing it. They kidnapped and experimented on a bunch of potential Blink candidates and we're standing on a ship that can Blink. Whatever they were doing to these people, whatever they were looking for, they must have found it."

"But if that's true, why are they still taking people?" Uther argued. "If they've already cracked how to make a whole ship Blink then what do they need these kids for?"

Amber pressed her lips together tightly. "I...I don't know."

"Well, I know one thing," Hekket grated, turning his glare on the unconscious doctor still lying in a somnambulant heap in the other room. "This is no lab. It's a slaughterhouse."