Elysium Fire (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency, #2)

by Alastair Reynolds

“You’ve grasped the essentials,” Aumonier said. “Based on the present pattern, we lose the entire population of the Glitter Band in less than four years. Half the population would have succumbed only seventy days prior to that point. There’d be nothing resembling civilisation left by then. Critical services, from security to life-support management, would have long since collapsed. By some projections the end-point would be crossed when we lose one tenth of the population, in less than three years. Personally I think that’s optimistic. Panic would have set in long before that, and far beyond our means to control. We’re a tiny dose of order in a body politic on the constant edge of chaos.”

It raced towards them across the mudflat, furred with a heavy coating of debris, a mindless stampede of water.

No.

“He’s just trying to get at your plans for us,” Del