Hidden Empire
From the New York Times bestselling author of X-Files: Antibodies and The Jedi Academy trilogy comes a spectacular new series set in an incredible new universe…
THE SAGA OF SEVEN SUNS
HIDDEN EMPIRE
BY KEVIN J. ANDERSON
“Wondrously imagined.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A realm of wondrous possibilities….The characters are well-drawn and the plotting is fast-paced.”
—Brian Herbert, coauthor of Dune: House Corrino and Dune: Butlerian Jihad
“SF on a grand scale…richly detailed characters and planets.”
—Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine
“A setting so rich and detailed that the reader will suspend disbelief and actually be there.”
—R. A. Salvatore, author of Transcendence
“Galactic fantasy at its adventurous and romantic best….Intriguing characters love and battle among the stars. A great read!”
—Margaret Weis, author of Dragons of a Vanished Star
“Tightly plotted, fast-moving adventure with all the right ingredients: cool aliens, clever technology, intrigue, and secrets, a little romance, a lot of action.”
—Kate Elliott, author of Jaran and the Crown of Stars series
“Impressive…with the rich texture and complex plotting that marked [Dune author Frank] Herbert at his best.”
—Katherine Kurtz, author of the Deryni series
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
WARNER BOOKS EDITION
Copyright © 2002 by WordFire, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
Aspect® name and logo are registered trademarks of Warner Books, Inc.
Warner Books, Inc.
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New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.
Originally published in hardcover by Warner Books
ISBN: 978-0-7595-2721-8
First eBook Edition: July 2002
Contents
COPYRIGHT
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1: MARGARET COLICOS
2: BASIL WENCESLAS
3: ADAR KORI’ NH
4: OLD KING FREDERICK
5: BENTO
6: ARCUS
7: MARGARET COLICOS
8: RAYMOND AGUERRA
9: ESTARRA
10: PRIME DESIGNATE JORA’H
11: ADAR KORI NH
12: RLINDA KETT
13: JESS TAMBLYN
14: CESCA PERONI
15: NIRA KHALI
16: RLINDA KETT
17: BASIL WENCESLAS
18: RAYMOND AGUERRA
19: JESS TAMBLYN
20: CESCA PERONI
21: ESTARRA
22: MARGARET COLICOS
23: ADAR KORI’NH
24: BASIL WENCESLAS
25: RAYMOND AGUERRA
26: CESCA PERONL
27: BERNDT OKIAH
28: RLINDA KETT
29: ARCAS
30: SAREIN
31: AMBASSADOR OTEMA
32: NIRA
33: GENERAL KURT LANYAN
34: ROSS TAMBLYN
35: ESTARRA
36: RAYMOND AGUERRA
37: JESS TAMBLYN
38: REMEMBERER VAO’SH
39: DAVLIN LOTZE
40: MARGARET COLICOS
41: SAREIN
42: DR. GERALD SERIZAWA
43: KING FREDERICK
44: ESTARRA
45: NIRA
46: JESS TAMBLYN
47: GENERAL KURT LANYAN
48: CESCA PERONI
49: TASIA TAMBLYN
50: MARGARET COLICOS
51: NIRA
52: REMEMBERER DIO’SH
53: PRIME DESIGNATE JORA’H
54: JESS TAMBLYN
55: KING FREDERICK
56: RAYMOND AGUERRA
57: TALBUN
58: BENETO
59: NIRA
60: REMEMBERER DIO’SH
61: DAVLIN LOTZE
62: DD
63: BASIL WENCESLAS
64: TASIA TAMBLYN
65: JORAX
66: BERNDT OKIAH
67: NIRA
68: PRIME DESIGNATE JORA’H
69: OX
70: MARGARED COLICOS
71: NIRA
72: ESTARRA
73: RLINDA KETT
74: TASIA TAMBLYN
75: BASIL WENCESLAS
76: JESS TAMBLYN
77: NIRA
78: MAGE-IMPERATOR
79: ADAR KORI’NH
80: TASIA TAMBLYN
81: BENETO
82: PRIME DESIGNATE JORA’H
83: BASIL WENCESLAS
84: MARGARET COLICOS
85: OTEMA
86: NIRA
87: ADAR KORI’NH
88: GENERAL KURT LANYAN
89: JESS TAMBLYN
90: BRANSON ROBERTS
91: ADAR KORI’NH
92: MAGE-IMPERATOR
93: RAYMOND AGUERRA
94: TASIA TAMBLYN
95: MARGARET COLICOS
96: BASIL WENCESLAS
97: KING FREDERICK
98: OTEMA
99: KING FREDERICK
100: MARGARET COLICOS
101: JESS TAMBLYN
102: CESCA PERONI
103: BENETO
104: NIRA
105: MAGE-IMPERATOR
106: BASIL WENCESLAS
107: TASIA TAMBLYN
108: MARGARET COLICOS
109: NIRA
110: CESCA PERONI
111: TASIA TAMBLYN
112: KING PETER
113: MARGARET COLICOS
114: BASIL WENCESLAS
115: LOUIS COLICOS
TIMELINE
GLOSSARY OF CHARACTERS AND TERMINOLOGY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Preview of "A FOREST OF STARS"
1 JESS TAMBLYN
2 KING PETER
To IGOR KORDEY,
an imaginative, hardworking, and extremely talented
artist. In the early conceptual stages of The Saga of Seven
Suns, he helped me to visualize and design many of the
key elements of this universe. His questions and ideas
have fleshed out the series to a greater extent than
anything I could have done alone.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
During the creation, writing, and editing of this series, many people have offered their advice and their enthusiasm. In particular, I would like to thank Betsy Mitchell and Jaime Levine at Warner Aspect and John Jarrold at Simon & Schuster UK; Matt Bialer, Robert Gottlieb, Maya Perez, and Cheryl Capitani at the Trident Media Group; Larry Shapiro at Creative Artists Agency; Jeff Mariotte and John Nee at Wildstorm/DC Comics; and artists Stephen Youll and Igor Kordey.
At WordFire, Inc., Catherine Sidor gave her usual 150 percent effort in transcribing all my tapes of the chapters (and keeping up with me), as well as proofreading and offering general comments; Diane Jones also helped out with insightful questions, suggestions, and brainstorming. Gregory Benford helped me design the Klikiss Torch technology. Brian Herbert gave his support and help with the series from its very beginning.
1
MARGARET COLICOS
Safe in orbit high above the gas giant, Margaret looked through the observation port at continent-sized hurricanes and clouds far below. She wondered how long it would take for the entire planet to catch fire, once the experiment began.
Oncier was a pastel globe of hydrogen and mixed gases five times the size of Jupiter. Moons surrounded the gas giant like a litter of pups jostling against their mother. The four of greatest interest were large bodies of ice and rock named Jack, Ben, George, and Christopher, after the first four Great Kings of the Terran Hanseatic League. If today’s test proved a success, those moons could eventually be terraformed into Earthlike colonies.
If the Klikiss Torch failed, the respected career of Margaret Colicos would fizzle along with it. But she would survive. As xeno-archaeologists, she and her husband Louis were accustomed to working in blissful obscurity.
In preparation for the experiment, the technical observation platform bustled with scientists, engineers, and political observers. Though Margaret had nothing to do with the actual test, her presence was still required here. A celebrity. She had to make a good show of it. After all, she had discovered the alien device among the ruins.
Tucking gray-streaked brown hair behind her ear, she looked across the deck and saw Louis grinning like a boy. They had been married for decades and had never worked without each other. It had been years since she’d seen him in a dashing, formal suit. Margaret could tell how much he reveled in the excitement, and she smiled for his sake.
She preferred to watch people rather than interact with them. Louis once joked that his wife had become fascinated with archaeology on alien planets because there was no chance she might have to strike up a conversation with one of her subjects.
With plenty of dirt under their fingernails and groundbreaking discoveries on their résumés, Margaret and Louis Colicos had already sifted through numerous worlds abandoned by the insectlike Klikiss race, searching for clues to explain what had happened to their vanished civilization. The alien empire had left only ghost cities and occasional tall beetlelike robots that bore no helpful memories of their progenitors. In the eerie ruins on Corribus, the Colicos team had discovered and deciphered the remarkable planet-igniting technology they had called the “Klikiss Torch.”
Now excitement thrummed in the filtered air of the observation platform. Invited functionaries crowded around the observation windows, talking with each other. Never before had humans attempted to create their own sun. The consequences and the commercial possibilities were far-reaching.
Chairman Basil Wenceslas noticed Margaret standing alone. When a small-statured server compy came by bearing a tray filled with expensive champagne, the powerful Chairman of the Terran Hanseatic League snagged two extruded-polymer glasses and walked over to her, proud and beaming. “Less than an hour to go.”
She dutifully accepted the glass and indulged him by taking a drink. Since the reprocessed air of the observation platform affected the senses of smell and taste, a cheaper champagne would probably have tasted as good. “I’ll be glad when it’s over, Mr. Chairman. I prefer to spend my time on empty worlds, listening for the whispers of a long-dead civilization. Here, there are too many people for me.”
Across the deck she saw a green priest sitting silent and alone. The emerald-skinned man was there to provide instantaneous telepathic communication in case of emergency. Outside the observation platform hung a ceremonial fleet of alien warliners, seven spectacular ships from the Solar Navy of the Ildirans, the benevolent humanoid race that had helped mankind spread across the stars. The beautifully decorated Ildiran ships had taken up positions where they could observe the spectacular test.
“I understand perfectly,” the Chairman said. “I try to stay out of the limelight myself.” Wenceslas was a distinguished man, one of those people who grew more attractive and sophisticated with each passing year, as if he learned how to be suave rather than forgot how to be physically fit. He sipped his champagne, but so slightly that it barely seemed to wet his lips. “Waiting is always so hard, isn’t it? You are not accustomed to working with such a rigid time clock.”
She answered him with a polite laugh. “Archaeology is not meant to be rushed—unlike business.” Margaret just wished she could get back to work.
The Chairman touched his champagne glass against Margaret’s like a kiss of crystal. “You and your husband are an investment that has certainly paid off for the Hanseatic League.” The xeno-archaeologists had long been sponsored by the Hansa, but the star-igniting technology she and Louis had discovered would be worth more than all the archaeology budgets combined.
Working in the cool emptiness of Corribus, sifting through the ideographs painted on the walls of Klikiss ruins, Margaret had been able to match up the precise coordinates of neutron stars and pulsars scattered around the Spiral Arm, comparing them with maps developed by the Hansa.
This single correlation caused an avalanche of subsequent breakthroughs: By comparing the coordinates of neutron stars from the Klikiss drawings with known stellar drift, she had been able to back-calculate how old the maps were. Thus, she determined that the Klikiss race had disappeared five thousand years ago. Using the coordinates and diagrams as a key, as well as all the other information compiled on numerous digs, Louis, with his engineering bent, had deciphered Klikiss mathematical notations, thereby allowing him to figure out the basic functioning of the Torch.
The Chairman’s gray eyes became harder, all business now. “I promise you this, Margaret: If the Klikiss Torch does function as expected, choose any site you wish, any planet you’ve wanted to explore, and I will personally see that you have all the funding you require.”
Margaret clinked her glass against his in a return toast. “I’ll take advantage of that offer, Mr. Chairman. In fact, Louis and I have a likely site already picked out.”
The previously untouched ghost world of Rheindic Co, full of mysteries, pristine territory, uncataloged ruins … But first they had to do their duty dance here and endure the public accolades after they ignited the gas world below.
Margaret went to stand beside Louis. She slipped her arm through his as he struck up a conversation with the patient green priest who waited beside his potted worldtree sapling. She could hardly wait for the experiment to be finished. To her, an empty ancient city was far more exciting than setting a whole planet ablaze.
2BASIL WENCESLAS
Quiet and unassuming, Basil Wenceslas moved through social circles. He smiled when he was supposed to, bantered when expected, and filed the details in his mind. To an outsider, he never showed more than a fraction of his deepest thoughts and intricate plans. The Terran Hanseatic League depended on it.
A well-preserved older man whose age was difficult to determine even with close study, he had access to vigorous antiaging treatments and availed himself of cellular chelation techniques that kept him limber and healthy. Dapper and distinguished, he wore impeccable suits that cost more than some families earned in a year, but Basil was not a vain man. Though everyone on the observation platform knew he was in charge, he maintained a low profile.
When an overeager mahogany-skinned media charmer asked him for an interview about the Klikiss Torch, he diverted the woman and her recording crew to the chief scientist of the project, then melted into the small crowd. Watching. Observing. Thinking.
He looked out at the great ball of ochre clouds that made Oncier look like a poorly stirred confection. This system had no habitable planets, and Oncier’s gas mix was not particularly appropriate for harvesting ekti, the exotic allotrope of hydrogen used in Ildiran stardrives. This out-of-the-way gas giant was an excellent test subject for the unproven Klikiss Torch.
Chief scientist Gerald Serizawa talked smoothly and passionately about the upcoming test, and the media crew pressed forward. Beside him, technicians manned banks of equipment. Basil scanned the control panels, assessing the readings for himself. Everything was on schedule.
Dr. Serizawa was completely hairless, though whether because of a cosmetic choice, a genetic predisposition, or an exotic disease, Basil did not know. Lean and energetic, Serizawa spoke with his hands as much as his voice, gesturing broadly. Every few minutes, like clockwork, he grew self-conscious and clasped his hands to keep them motionless in front of him.
“Gas giants, such as Jupiter in our own home solar system, are on the edge of a gravitational slope that could send them into stellar collapse. Any planetary body between thirteen and a hundred times Jupiter’s mass will burn deuterium at its core and begin to shine.”
Serizawa jabbed an insistent finger at the media charmer who had approached Basil earlier. “With this rediscovered technology, we can push a gas giant such as Oncier over the mass limit so that its core will ignite nuclear fires and turn this big ball of fuel into a brand-new sun—”
The woman broke in. “Please tell our audience where the increase in mass comes from.”
Serizawa smiled, delighted to explain further. Basil crooked his mouth in a faint expression of amusement. He thanked his luck that the bald doctor was such an enthusiastic spokesman.
“You see, the Klikiss Torch anchors two ends of a worm-hole, a tunnel ten kilometers wide.” It was clear his listeners knew little about wormhole mechanics and the difficulty of creating such a huge space-time gap. “We open one terminus near a superdense neutron star, then target the other end at the core of Oncier. In the blink of an eye, the neutron star is transported into the planetary heart. With so much added mass, the gas giant will collapse, ignite, and begin to shine. This light and heat, you see, will make the largest moons habitable.”