“You stay here,” Wolff instructed Rh’Arrol as he stepped into the pipe connecting the Shamrock’s airlock to the Satigenaria circumfercirc. “I had no intention of accompanying you,” came the morran’s pious mutter. When the morran had gone, Wolff addressed the door. “Jed, open the door.” The corridor lay dim and silent. Could she hear him? If she did not open the door, would he have to use his computer skills once more to force his entry? “Jed, open the door, please.” The airlock door slid back, and he stepped into the corridor behind it and headed toward the bridge. Taggart’s computer had gone. Its electrodes had been removed from the Shamrock’s bus conduit and the frontal panel replaced. The Archer was nowhere to be seen. Wolff sidled over to the seating and chanced a surreptitious glance behind it, lest she be hiding there with intent to ambush him, but no, the bridge was empty. Its viewports looked out into the closed shield, the docking pipes retracted into the body of the station like the tendrils of a sea anemone sitting out a tsunami.
