The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F. Hamilton

of recovery plan.’
    ‘You heard Rojas,’ Laura said heatedly. ‘The exopods have powerblades that can cut the globes open.’
    ‘Then why didn’t he do that? Laura, just stop and think. Please! We’re in Voidspace, which is weird enough; the tree is an alien mechanism operating at a molecular and quantum
level we cannot comprehend, and two of our people have vanished and we don’t know how or where. Charging over there all angry isn’t going to resolve anything, and it certainly
won’t help Ibu and Rojas. We need information, a
lot
more information.’
    ‘She’s right,’ Joey said. ‘Rojas is smart and experienced, and he knows exploration mission protocol better than we do. And now he’s just as gone as Ibu.’
    Laura knew they were right, but . . . ‘Ah, bollocks,’ she said. Admitting she was wrong, behaving like some hothead young first life, was painful. She hadn’t acted on wild
impulse for centuries. ‘I’m not thinking straight. Sorry. Must be the tank yank.’
    ‘No,’ Joey said. ‘The Void is getting to all of us. It’s not natural.’
    ‘We’re going to get them back,’ Ayanna said earnestly. ‘We just have to figure out how.’
    ‘I don’t think this is entirely a physical problem,’ Joey said. ‘Remember, Ibu said they were amazing. Where did that come from? He’d just finished telling us he
couldn’t use his ESP to see inside the globes. What else, what new piece of information, could make him say that? He’s as smart and as rational as the rest of us. He’s not going
to blurt that out without a reason. Same goes for Rojas.’
    ‘That’s really awesome,’ Laura said, pensively. ‘That’s what Rojas said. And you’re right; it’s a complete disconnect from everything that was
happening. A colleague stuck to an alien artefact – all he’d be thinking about was what to do, what procedure to follow.’
    ‘Something got inside their heads,’ Ayanna said. And once more the terror was leaking out of her own mind. ‘It pulled them in.’
    ‘Bee to pollen,’ Joey said. ‘Shark to blood.’
    ‘The distortion tree is sentient,’ Laura said. There was no reason to doubt the notion of mental compulsion; she could remember when narcomemes emerged into the gaiafield back in
3025. The first ones were simple product placements, amplifying the pleasure effect of various beers and aerosols. Modifying the memories available in the gaiafield to produce enhanced enjoyment
was a trend that lasted for several years, almost wrecking the fledgling gaiafield concept entirely, until counter-routine filters were developed for the confluence nests. Having experienced those,
Laura could well believe in more forceful variants of telepathy working in the Void.
    ‘Yes,’ Joey agreed.
    As one, they looked through the windscreen at the massive bulk of glowing crystal.
    ‘So how do we get it to let them go?’ Laura asked.
    ‘First, we need to work out why it wants them,’ Joey said.
    ‘But we don’t even know what it is. What other drones have we got? There must be some kind of sensor we can use.’
    ‘The sample modules would be best,’ she said cautiously. ‘They were giving a good picture of the interior where Ibu placed them.’
    ‘But they have to be applied by hand,’ Joey retorted. ‘It has to be a drone.’
    ‘Half of them are designed for planetary exploration,’ Ayanna said. ‘Surface landers, atmospheric researchers. There’s not much more we can send out there.’
    Laura thought for a moment. ‘Do any of the surface landers have drills? Something that cuts through rock to lift core samples?’
    ‘Yes. The Viking Mk353. It was designed for regolith coring down to a hundred metres.’
    ‘Send it.’
    Half of Fourteen’s backup power systems failed while the Viking Mk353 flew over to the distortion tree. Ayanna and Laura turned off all the systems in the main passenger cabin to cut power
consumption. Six of the fans in the forward cabin’s environmental