The Ascendant Stars (2 page)

Theo Karlsson
was with Catriona on Nivyesta, looking after Malachi Ash, the captured ‘Ezgara’ mercenary who was found to be human, from a world called Tygra. And Tygra turns out to be the third lost Human colonyworld. Both Theo and Ash are snatched by a stealth team from Tygra, but are then freed by renegade Tygrans led by a Captain Gideon. Theo accompanies them to a rendezvous with a retired veteran Tygran officer who lives long enough to pass on information about a long-past conspiracy before tragically expiring. This knowledge further alienates the renegades from the leadership on Tygra, whose pro-Hegemony policies had already angered them.

When Kao Chih and the agent Silveira arrive back in the Roug system they find that several senior commanders and leaders of
Kao Chih’s own people have been abducted by a mercenary assault ship. This is commanded by Marshall Becker, the Tygran’s overall military leader. The abduction was intended as a warning to Kao Chih’s human enclave to avoid involvement in wider affairs. The Roug, affronted by such a gross violation against their people, send one of their own vessels off in pursuit with Kao Chih aboard to assist. After a cunning and stealthy rescue carried out in hyperspace, the Roug ship continues to follow the Ezgara vessel to its destination, an Tygran base, to see who is behind it all.

Meanwhile, Theo accompanies Captain Gideon on an operation to liberate the rest of the captain’s men from a Tygran base. The raid is a success but, as they’re leaving, a hostile Tygran warship arrives, closely followed by the Roug craft bearing Kao Chih. After an exchange of weapons fire (and attempted data subversion of Gideon’s vessel) the Roug ship neutralises the aggressive Tygran craft, destroying its weapons and engines. Theo, Gideon and Kao Chih, representatives from the three lost Human colonies, briefly meet aboard the Roug vessel before they go their separate ways.

Julia
Bryce and her fellow-Enhanced are on their way to Earth aboard a passenger liner when it is boarded by brigands led by the terrorist Corazon Talavera. Talavera takes them to a refugee planet, then coerces them into upgrading two thermonuclear missiles for one of the refugee leaders. Julia then finds out that the Covenant Order of the Spiral Prophecy, a fundamentalist religious faction, claims that the lost tomb of one of their ancient Father-Sages lies on Darien. A Spiralist armada is therefore gathering, and the missiles are part of a planned invasion of Darien to secure the supposedly sacred site. Julia and the Enhanced try to escape before the armada reaches Darien, but fail in the attempt. They are then forced to watch as the weapons they upgraded are used by the fanatics to destroy a Brolturan battleship and severely damage the Earthsphere vessel. Afterwards, Talavera puts the Enhanced into separate virtual reality tanks to coerce them into working on detailed course and hyperspace jump data for a large number of other missiles.

Down on Darien, Greg and Rory are engaged in delaying the
advance of Brolturan forces towards the resistance’s stronghold. Greg is heading back there, when the Brolturan battleship
Purifier
launches a massive particle beam attack on Tusk Mountain from orbit. Greg and Rory are in the target zone of a second strike – then the
Purifier
is destroyed in orbit by the Spiral armada’s thermonuclear missile.

Down in hyperspace, Robert is rescued from the pocket-universe trap by the Construct, who then sends him and another Rosa-sim on their next mission. They must go to an Achorga nestworld to retrieve the Zyradin, an ancient Forerunner entity designed to bond with the Uvovo’s Segrana, thus augmenting its powers at this crucial juncture. They descend into the insectoid Achorga-dominated world, find and recover the Zyradin, and have to flee the pursuing Achorga via ancient Forerunner transfer platforms. The Rosa-sim stays back to fight off a horde of deadly silver creatures while Robert heads over to the Forerunner platform to escape. But they get to him just as the platform activates. When he arrives at the transfer platform in Tusk Mountain on Darien, still carrying the Zyradin canister, he is on the point of death.

Greg Cameron is at Tusk Mountain when a dying Robert Horst arrives with the Zyradin’s canister. The warpwell Sentinel and the Zyradin tell Greg that the Zyradin must be taken to the forest moon and given to Catriona. She is now Keeper of Segrana and through her the Zyradin can merge with the forest-wide sentience. Only the warpwell chamber inside Giant’s Shoulder can transport them to Nivyesta so, after evading an ambush during their zeplin journey, Greg and his team arrive there only to find that the Brolturans have pulled out. However, the humans now have to fight an advance squad of hostile Legion war droids, during which Greg finds himself betrayed by one of his companions. Without warning, the warpwell Sentinel transports him directly to the inner chamber and from there up to the forest moon. Greg gives the canister containing the Zyradin to Catriona and it permeates her, transforming her into a cloud of glowing motes that spread outwards and across the vast forest.

The book ends with the cyborg Legion Knight taking possession of Giant’s Shoulder and using two of its scion offshoots to unlock the Warpwell.

Chel and Rory are trapped inside the Legion Knight’s droid manufactory, under its pitiless control while the factory implants enslaving biotech within them both. They will soon be set against their own people.

Julia is trapped on a virtual beach controlled by Talavera, made to work on course data for lethal missiles, Talavera’s plans as yet unknown.

Theo Karlsson and the renegade Tygrans finally arrive at Darien and make contact with the anti-Brolturan resistance movement.

Back at the Garden of the Machines, the Construct is examining the dead body of Robert Horst. But when the real Robert comes to join him, we discover the expired corpse is that of a semiorganic simulacrum. The Construct now knows that the warpwell on Darien has been unlocked, and that the Godhead is behind most of the attacks coming from the depths of hyperspace. Once it has learned what Robert Horst has to say, direct action will have to be taken. For Darien, however, only hope and the uncertain power of fate can help the colonists now. The fleets and the stormclouds are gathering for the final showdown.

Greg Cameron
– led the resistance against the Brolturan occupiers until the vital Zyradin mission took him to the forest moon, Nivyesta.

Catriona Macreadie
– chosen by the biomass sentience Segrana as its Keeper, she received the Zyradin from Greg and was transformed by it.

Theo Karlsson
– Greg’s uncle, former major in the Darien Volunteer Forces, became involved with renegade soldiers from another lost Human colony world, Tygra.

Cheluvahar, or Chel
– a seer of the Uvovo and close friend of Greg Cameron.

Julia Bryce
– she and her Enhanced team were coerced by Corazon Talavera into upgrading nuclear missiles for the Spiralist invasion. Now they are imprisoned in virtual prisons.

Kao Chih
– after his time on Darien, he secretly went to Pyre then partnered a Roug in a rescue mission to retrieve the Human Sept elders captured by the Tygran’s pro-Hegemony military leader.

Franklyn Gideon
– captain of the Stormlions commandery and protégé of veteran Tygran officer, Sam Rawlins. He and his men were persuaded by Theo Karlsson to throw in their lot with Darien.

Robert Horst
– Earthsphere’s ambassador to Darien, he was sent down into hyperspace to meet the Construct, who sent him on a mission to track down the Godhead.

The Construct
– a machine intelligence created by the Forerunners more than a hundred millennia ago to help fight the Legion of Avatars. It uses the mind-state patterns of Robert
Horst and his daughter Rosa to create new kinds of sentient simulacra.

Reen
– Mandator of the High Index of the Roug, commander of the warvaunt vessel, the
Vyrk-Zoshel
.

A Knight of the Legion of Avatars
– an armoured, cyborg creature, a survivor from the war against the Forerunners. It has come to Darien and through guile and subterfuge has finally attained its long-desired goal, the unlocking of the warpwell.

Utavess Kuros
– the Sendrukan Hegemony’s ambassador to Darien. The Spiralist invasion destroyed the Brolturan battleship while Kuros was taken over by his AI companion.

The Clarified Teshak
– a senior Sendrukan official whose AI is in sole control. Although he was sent to Darien to oversee Kuros’ performance, he also has the agenda of the Clarified to promote.

The Godhead
– ancient sentience of unknown origin. Rumours abound about its nature, some suggesting that it was once a machine intelligence.

Humans
– biped mammals, binocular vision, vestigial hair, restricted range in audio/visual senses, average height 1.7m

Sendruka
– biped humanoid, binocular vision, minimal body hair, average height 2.8m

Bargalil
– hexapedal, 20% body hair, average height 2m

Henkaya
– biped with four arms, muscular upper body, average height 2.1m

Kiskashin
– tailed, ornitho-reptilian biped, rough, pebbled skin, average height 1.8m

Makhori
– amphibious octoped, mutiple tentacles, large eyes, average body length 1.5m

Achorga
– insectoid, hiver, aggressively territorial, only Queens and specialised drones display intelligence, average height 1.2m

Uvovo
– small bipedal humanoid, 70% body hair, binocular vision, excellent hearing, average height 1.3m

Gomedra
– upright biped, furred, vaguely dog/wolf-like, average height 1.4m

Vusark
– pseudo-insectoid, decapedal, compound eyes, average height 1m when walking on majority of legs, 2.1m when raised up on back legs

Voth
– biped mammal, long forearms, 75% body hair, cyborg implants common, fond of concealing garments, average height 1.4m

Piraseri
– tripedal sophonts of aquatic descent, main body a tapering torso with a backswept head fringed by small tentacles, average height 1.6m

Roug
– slender bipeds with thin limbs, possibly hairless, usually garbed head-to-toe in tightly-wound strips of dense material, averge height 1.9m

Naszbur
– heavily armoured bipedal reptiloid, a chitin shell forms a hood over the head, aggressive traders, average height 1.5m

Hodralog
– birdlike sophonts common in certain levels of hyperspace, frail physique, average height 0.8m

Keklir
– short, muscular bipeds found in most of the upper tiers of hyperspace, have wide, tapering snouts with two mouthlike openings, average height 1m

Pozu
– squat, brown-skinned species originating from high-gravity world, gloomy disposition, skilled plant technologists, average height 0.7m

The Clarified
– former Sendrukans whose personal AI has gained full control of their body due to erasure of the original persona, usually by judicial sentence, occasionally by voluntary mind dissolution

Vor
– a species of endosymbiotic parasite that rides inside a host’s brain, once upper intellect/persona functions have been removed. A very ancient race once thought extinct, it has reappeared, rejuvenated and aggressive

Shyntanil
– also known as the Twiceborn, a race that employs drastic life-extension technologies requiring re-engineering of the respiratory and nervous systems, and a temporary cessation of brain functions. An ancient bipedal species that has returned from obscurity, working alongside former adversaries, the Vor

Earthsphere
(157 star systems; 873 inhabited worlds and orbitals; population 5.3 trillion) – most numerous species are Henkayans, Vusark and Humans, although Humans have been politically dominant. Despite Sendrukan brutalities, Earthsphere has remained a committed if junior partner to the Hegemony.

Sendrukan Hegemony
(112,000 star systems; 347,000 inhabited worlds and orbitals; population 815 trillion) – a vast and far-flung empire, the Hegemony maintains its cohesion through rigorous control of consensus, via doctrine and the omnipresent personal AIs. Many species come under its sway but the Sendruka are dominant.

Aranja Tesh
(23,000 star systems; 88,000 inhabited worlds and orbitals; population 107 trillion) – a loose confederation of seventeen nations, including Buranj, Korjash, Gizeka and the Yamanon Domain, which was recently invaded by the Hegemony–Earthsphere coalition, thus toppling the tyrannical Dol-Das regime.

Indroma Solidarity
(92,000 star systems, 482,000 inhabited worlds and orbitals; population 1,173 trillion) – six-limbed Bargalil are the Indroma’s most numerous sentient species. Their egalitarianism results in a suspicion of neighbouring civilisations, especially the Hegemony. They are reluctant to become involved in regional conflicts, but are perfectly capable of defending their territory.