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Chapters (50)
  1. Cover
  2. MARAUDER
  3. HISTORICAL ARCHIVES SUBSECTION C/5 category ALPHA
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. EPILOGUE
  46. TIME LINE
  47. SHOAL TRILOGY
  48. EVENTS FOLLOWING EMPIRE OF LIGHT AND PRECEDING MARAUDER
  49. Acknowledgements
  50. Also by Gary Gibson

Bash stared at the entity, momentarily speechless, then shook his head. You know, he groused, one day Id like to see you actually walk through the door instead of just materializing out of thin air like that. Gives me the damn creeps.

This is really how the Wanderer destroyed a Swarm? asked Dakota. By altering one of its own components?

The Librarian nodded. Not so difficult, perhaps, since the Wanderer and the Swarm are so similar in many ways. A case of parallel technological evolution, each finding the same optimal solution to a particular set of problems. The Atn were clearly the perfect delivery system for the exploit discovered by the Wanderer. Another few hours, and only ashes and wreckage will remain.

So why didnt the Wanderer just grab one of that earlier Swarms nova drives back when it had the chance? asked Bash.

Current observations show each Swarm component destroys its drive before becoming fully compromised. Presumably that earlier Swarm did the same when the Wanderer attacked it.

So if not for that, said Dakota, chilled at the thought, the Wanderer might have got what it wanted long ago.

It doesnt matter, said Bash, his expression jubilant. We can go home now.

She shared his joy, despite a bone-deep tiredness. The threat of the Swarm had been hanging over her for so long she barely knew how to adjust to its absence. With it destroyed, she could go home to a people who might never know how close they had come to extinction.

But home to what? she couldnt help wondering, even as Bash reached out to pull her into a rib-crushing hug.

EPILOGUE

One year later

The air was much warmer here on the floor of the chasm, a full kilometre beneath Jars surface. Dakota took off her heavy long-coat and glanced upwards, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sky, but saw only a narrow strip of azure streaked with red and obscured by whirling vortexes of dust from the desert far above their heads.

Her gaze dropped lower, following the dark framework of a funicular railway that reached all the way from the upper rim of the chasm to its floor. She and Bash had travelled aboard one of those cars, accompanied by such a cacophony of juddering gears and creaking metalwork that she had wondered if perhaps the whole thing might not simply fall apart around them before it sent them plummeting to the ground.