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Back Marauder Save as PDF
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

She saw him doing the calculations in his head. Shed give birth in another two months, shorter gestation periods being another benefit of long-ago DNA tweaking by her colonist ancestors.

I suppose this changes all your plans, doesnt it? she said, enjoying what felt like a fleeting moment of triumph.

His eyes were bright and hard as he stared at her. No, not really, Gabrielle, he said. It doesnt change a damn thing.

FOURTEEN

Megan

2751 (twelve years before)

When they were no more than a half-dozen jumps from the target system and the Wanderer, Megan called an emergency meeting.

She waited for them on the command deck. Sifra was the first to arrive, red-eyed and yawning, closely followed by Bash, who studied her curiously but said nothing. Tarrant was the last to appear, a bulb of hot coffee in one hand. Megan had made an excuse not to spend the previous night with him.

Whatever this is about, Sifra grouched, it had better be really damned important.

Megan stalked around the base of the astrogation chair, rubbing her hands together as the others took seats by various consoles, swivelling the chairs to face towards her.

It has to do with the Wanderer, she said, finally stopping her pacing, her body turned rigid with suppressed anger. But mostly it has to do with certain details, Gregor, that you omitted to mention before we left Kjregrnnested.

Tarrant gazed back at her coolly. What details?

Details that were deliberately redacted from the research material you passed on to me and Bash.

<What exactly are you up to, girl?> Bash fired at her.

<Never you mind.>

Tarrant, unaware of this private communication, nodded expressionlessly. Go on.

I didnt say anything at first, because I thought maybe there was a reason why some of that material had been redacted. I thought perhaps the missing details werent that important. But then I took a look at the source texts the original Meridian data, from which Schellings researchers first extracted the details regarding the Wanderer and fortunately all the source material was provided as well.

Her muscles felt sore and achy after a long and mostly sleepless night relieved only by intermittent and angry dreams. She glanced briefly at Tarrant, who gazed back with an innocent expression that brought her anger flooding back. I decided to have a go at translating those source texts myself, she continued, after downloading the expert knowledge necessary to manage it. I had to do a lot of backwards engineering to try and figure out how your researchers built their translation algorithms but, once I had, I realized the missing details were still there, in those source texts.