The Rim whirred below him.

Dru steadied himself and counted the seconds. The Crossover could be deadly. He needed to time it perfectly.

He was fairly confident The Spokes had been rotating and connected to The Rim during his earlier ascent to The Hub. There would have been a brief pause otherwise, as it crossed-over. Plus the change in the centrifugal gravity would have been immediately apparent, instead of the gradual lessening he had felt as he drew nearer The Hub. However the Hoist was enclosed, and so he couldn't be certain.

Now The Rim span freely. The opening between his Spoke and The Rim kept disappearing as it rushed by.

He wondered who had stopped The Spokes: The Marines? Perhaps it made the assault easier, or the inhabitants less likely to escape. Or had the mechanism been damaged during the fight?

Regardless, he'd been able to boost all the way up from The Hub. In fact he only just stopped in time. If he'd been more courageous and skilled, he would have just shot on through.

And likely mistimed The Leap, and gotten crushed, he reminded himself. Or he might have slipped off a rung and plummeted to his death at the bottom of the tube.

Passing from microgravity into gravity was perilous, especially given the narrow gap that kept disappearing.

It was made really egregious because as he boosted down The Spoke, he noticed tiny beads of water forming on the walls as the ice melted. A result of the warm air being pumped through the ventilation.

The melting ice wouldn't drop free like under gravity. It would spread out to coat the entire surface, making the already slick rungs (and everything else) even more slippery. It was worse than what he had experienced in The Hub.

A slow count of ten. That's how long the opening into The Rim was available. Plenty of time, yet The Leap terrified him.

Gar had told him about The Leap. However that had been from The Spokes into the Hub and back again. At that point, The Hub had been disconnected with the Spokes and Rim rotating around it.

Gravity at The Rim was stronger. He'd have almost no time to grab a handhold.

Dru tried to picture the manoeuver in his head: boost, fast but not too fast, just as the opening appeared; curl into a ball; rotate, just once, then grab one of the rungs on the rimward side. He had it.

He set himself. Waited. The opening appeared. He leapt.

He realised instantly he had mistimed it, and grabbed for the nearest rung. His outstretched hand slipped off the melting ice.

He clutched again and this time he held on tight, but his feet swung around under the momentum. He had to jerk up his legs quickly to stop them from being jammed as the opening threatened to close up around them.

That was close, he thought. But it had given him an idea.

He didn't wait to catch his breath or calm his nerves. As the next opening appeared, he leapt again. This time he thought he'd timed it to perfection. He grabbed a rung on the coreward side, and used his momentum to swing his legs around before flinging himself through the hole.

However, he overcooked his swing. He smacked his head against the side of the tube, not hard but it was enough to daze him. He reached out instinctively and grabbed at one of the rungs as he began to fall. He missed it with his hand, but caught hold with the inside of his elbow. It jarred his entire arm and the motion swung him around to slam him against the tube wall.

Centrifugal gravity was a pain in the butt - literally. It also left him weak. He may have only spent a short time in microgravity, but the strain of a normal gravitational load left him exhausted. He hung by his arm for a time, panting heavily and covered with sweat as he tried to regain his senses.

He felt The Rat scratching at the seams of his pocket. Dru steadied himself, placing his feet securely on the rungs and peeked inside.

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The Rat screamed silently at him. Dru could see it straining to breathe.

"You'll get used to it", he said softly to the rat, as he realised the baby probably had been born under zero-G.

The Rat didn't listen. It tried to crawl out of the pocket, but Dru closed the opening before it could escape. In desperation, The Rat tried tunnelling out, but its efforts quickly grew weaker as its energy ebbed.

After a moment, they stopped altogether. Dru opened the pocket to check.

The Rat glared up at him, but it didn't move. It was battling to breathe.

"Go back to sleep," he said to the rat before closing the pocket.

Dru carefully climbed down until he found another vent. After detaching it, he allowed the mesh grill to fall. It made a racket as it bounced off the walls and rungs, then clattered as it came to rest at the bottom.

Dru didn't care about the noise now. He levered himself into the vent and lay upon the bottom of it for a long moment.

He could hear the sound of the ventilaltion system and the usual humming and gurgling sounds, but otherwise it was silent. He wondered about that.

Had the Marines made it to The Rim yet? They must have, they had a decent headstart. What were they doing on The Star? Had they come to arrest Commander Goul? He hoped not. They might arrest his parents as well.

Eventually Dru had recovered enough that he was able to crawl again. He turned on his headlamp, then slowly climbed through the ducts until he found an opening. It led to a narrow unlit service tunnel.

After scrabbling his way out of the vent, he tried to stand and almost collapsed. He suddenly grew dizzy, and had to lean against the wall to stop himself from falling.

Using his lamp, he saw that the tunnel turned in the same direction along both lengths. There were no portals or signs, but there was some piping that ran the entire way. He could heard fluid gurgling through it every now and again.

Gradually his inner ear regained its composure, and he was able to move normally. However, he kept his hand close to the wall just in case he became dizzy again.

The tunnel proved to be a maze. He found ladders leading down and branches veering off from the main route. They branched and branched again. None of them marked. He had no idea where he was.

Eventually he stumbled onto a row of doors along either side of the tunnel. Opening one he discovered it led to an empty storage closet. The rest all led to small abandoned rooms filled with stale air, and nothing else.

Later, after descending several sets of narrow stairs he reached a cramped corridor with rows of tiny doors on either side. The doors might have been just large enough for a Grownup to squeeze through. However, they were just perfect for someone Dru's size.

As he walked past, he noticed that several of them had hastily scrawled words on the walls beside them. Were they names? He didn't recognise any of them. He listened at one of the doors, but could hear nothing beyond the natural hum of the Rim. Working out the unlatching mechanism, he opened it a crack.

The room beyond was unlit, the narrow beam of light leaking from the doorway showed him it was empty. There was an acrid smell of mould hanging in the air.

He examined the tiny door from the apartment side. Was it possible to access the tunnel from within? It took him only a moment to find the latch. He tested it and it worked fine.

Were all the apartments throughout the Rim like this one? He checked several doors and discovered that all the apartments were empty like the first.

There were rumours that The Star had once been full to overflowing with people. Now there were only about a hundred families aboard. Dru wondered what had happened to all the others.

Further along the tunnel, he found more doors to other apartments. His light showed damp patches on the ceiling and tiny trails of water leaking down the walls. Where did all the water come from? Water was a precious resource on the Star. To see so much wasted was disconcerting. Was that why the Marines were aboard? Had Commander Goul failed to maintain The Star to safe levels?

On the next level down, Dru noticed tiny holes bored through the walls. They were at the height of grownup's eye line. There were more names scrawled beside them. One of the names was Marz, the name of Milly's mum.

Dru opened the tiny door and peered through the crack. The room beyond was vacant.

Carefully, he crept inside. The apartment had been cleaned out. There was basic bedding on the floor – just big enough for Milly and Marz – but there was nothing else. There was no furniture; no entertainment system; none of Milly's toys. Even the Replicator was gone.

It made Dru think: was his apartment also empty? What about all his stuff? It had taken him so long to collect his small selection of toy ships. He understood the Grownups were reprocessing the interior, but surely his parents wouldn't destroy those. They couldn't!

He opened the apartment's front door and peeked out. The corridor beyond was empty. The plaque on the door opposite told him that he was in Green Sector as he expected.

It was only two levels above where his home was located. He set off at a run.

The door to his home opened with a familiar hiss.

Dru remained rooted in the doorway. The apartment was almost unrecognisable. The place was empty. He didn't realise how much work his mother had done to make their quarters look so...homely: the mirrors; the artificial plants; the small array of furniture. It was all gone.

After the initial shock passed he searched the other rooms. All his toys. The spare clothes. His father's boots. Everything. They were all gone too. The place had been picked bare. Unlike Milly's home there wasn't even any bedding.

That's when it hit him. The only home he had ever known was gone.