Free Zima Blue and Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds

were pulsars, flashing on and off like navigation beacons, their differing rhythms seeming to set a stately tempo for the entire scene, like a deathly slow waltz. There seemed too much detail for one view, an overwhelming abundance of richness, and yet no matter which direction I looked, there was yet more to see, as if the dome sensed my attention and concentrated its efforts on the spot where my gaze was directed. For a moment I felt a lurching sense of dizziness, and - though I tried to stop it before I made a fool of myself - I found myself grasping the side of the table, as if to prevent myself from falling into the infinite depths of the view.

    'Yes, it has that effect on people,' Greta said.

    'It's beautiful,' I said.

    'Do you mean beautiful, or terrifying?'

    I realised I wasn't sure. 'It's big,' was all I could offer.

    'Of course, it's faked,' Greta said, her voice soft now that she was leaning closer. 'The glass in the dome is smart. It exaggerates the brightness of the stars, so that the human eye registers the differences between them. Otherwise the colours aren't unrealistic. Everything else you see is also pretty accurate, if you accept that certain frequencies have been shifted into the visible band, and the scale of certain structures has been adjusted.' She pointed out features for my edification. 'That's the edge of the Taurus Dark Cloud, with the Pleiades just poking out. That's a filament of the Local Bubble. You see that open cluster?'

    She waited for me to answer. 'Yes,' I said.

    'That's the Hyades. Over there you've got Betelgeuse and Bellatrix.'

    'I'm impressed.'

    'You should be. It cost a lot of money.' She leaned back a bit, so that the shadows dropped across her face again. 'Are you all right, Thom? You seem a bit distracted.'

    I sighed. 'I just got another prognosis from your friend Kolding. That's enough to put a dent in anyone's day.'

    'I'm sorry about that.'

    'There's something else, too,' I said. 'Something that's been bothering me since I came out of the tank.'

    A mannequin arrived to take our order. I let Greta choose for me.

    'You can talk to me about it, whatever it is,' she said, when the mannequin had gone.

    'It isn't easy.'

    'Something personal, then? Is it about Katerina?' She bit her tongue. 'No, sorry. I shouldn't have said that.'

    'It's not about Katerina. Not exactly, anyway.' But even as I said it, I knew that in a sense it was about Katerina, and how long it was going to be before we saw each other again.

    'Go on, Thom.'

    'This is going to sound silly. But I wonder if everyone's being straight with me. It's not just Kolding. It's you as well. When I came out of that tank I felt the same way I felt when I'd been out to the Rift. Worse, if anything. I felt like I'd been in the tank for a long, long time.'

    'It feels that way sometimes.'

    'I know the difference, Greta. Trust me on this.'

    'So what are you saying?'

    The problem was that I wasn't really sure. It was one thing to feel a vague sense of unease about how long I'd been in the tank. It was another to come out and accuse my host of lying. Especially when she had been so hospitable.

    'Is there any reason you'd lie to me?'

    'Come off it, Thom. What kind of a question is that?'

    As soon as I had said it, it sounded absurd and offensive to me as well. I wished I could reverse time and start again, ignoring my misgivings.

    'I'm sorry,' I said. 'Stupid. Just put it down to messed-up biorhythms, or something.'

    She reached across the table and took my hand, as she had done at breakfast. This time she continued to hold it.

    'You really feel wrong, don't you?'

    'Kolding's games aren't helping, that's for sure.' The waiter brought our wine, setting it down, the bottle chinking against his delicately articulated glass fingers. The mannequin poured two glasses and I sampled mine. 'Maybe if I had someone else from my crew to bitch about it all with, I wouldn't feel so bad. I know you said we shouldn't wake Suzy