Chapters (50)
- Cover
- MARAUDER
- HISTORICAL ARCHIVES SUBSECTION C/5 category ALPHA
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- EPILOGUE
- TIME LINE
- SHOAL TRILOGY
- EVENTS FOLLOWING EMPIRE OF LIGHT AND PRECEDING MARAUDER
- Acknowledgements
- Also by Gary Gibson
Yes, Stiles managed to reply, her voice still sounding ragged and hoarse. She swayed a little, her gaze slightly unfocused.
Gabrielle, give her the baby, instructed Tarrant.
No. Youre going to
No, Gaby, Im not going to kill either of them.
But
Martha, right? he turned to Stiles.
She nodded.
Can you take care of the child if we leave her here with you? he asked.
Martha looked as if she wasnt sure shed heard him correctly. I . . . yes. She nodded. Yes, I can.
Good. Tarrant nodded as well. Now, Gabrielle, before Sifra comes back to find out why all this is taking so long . . .
There must be
Theres no other way, he said sharply. Now give her the goddamn baby before Sifra realizes what Ive done. He took a deep breath, forcing a smile. Thisll be our secret, understand?
Gabrielle nodded automatically. Moving like an automaton, she handed Evie over to Stiles, who accepted the baby with disbelief clearly written across her face.
Gabrielle no longer resisted when Tarrant took hold of her arm once more. He paused at the entrance to fire two shots into the refectory floor, in quick succession.
The last Gabrielle saw of Martha, she was still standing amidst the bodies of her friends and colleagues, Evie clasped tightly in her arms.
THIRTY-TWO
Megan
Megan had no memory of anything that might have taken place after boarding the Ship of the Covenant. Instead, without the memory of transitioning from one place to another, she found herself on another world.
Or rather, she found herself on the virtual representation of a world that had existed aeons before, in another galaxy; a dream, spun by an ancient machine intelligence specially in order for it to communicate with her. Back in her previous life, when her name had been Dakota Merrick, she had wandered through countless such worlds, preserved within the matrices of this ship and others, interacting with the shades of creatures that had passed away long ago.
Such as the one standing before her now.
She stood near the middle of a vaulted hall, and a Librarian an anthropomorphic representation of the collective intelligences within the Magi ship stood before her, with its face lost in shadows.
When it spoke, the creatures voice sounded strangely flat, despite the expanse of space around them. You asked us, it said, whether we would take you to the Wanderer.
And you said you would.
That decision is contingent on our first having full possession of the facts. May we ask how much you yourself know about the Wanderer?
I know its all thats left of a civilization called the Core Transcendence that was wiped out by the Makers. Its been wandering the galaxy ever since, looking for something that can help it destroy them. Sometimes it runs into other spacefaring species, and trades information with them if its feeling peaceable. I know its been searching for a Maker cache, so that it can get hold of a nova drive.