The Orphaned Worlds Read online

  By Michael Cobley

  Humanity’s Fire

  Seeds of Earth

  The Orphaned Worldsch

  Copyright

  Published by Hachette Digital

  ISBN: 978-0-748-12564-7

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2010 by Michael Cobley

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

  Hachette Digital

  Little, Brown Book Group

  100 Victoria Embankment

  London, EC4Y 0DY

  www.hachette.co.uk

  Contents

  By Michael Cobley

  Copyright

  MAIN CHARACTERS

  MAIN SENTIENT SPECIES IN HUMANITY’S FIRE

  PROLOGUE

  PART ONE

  1: GREG

  2: LEGION

  3: ROBERT

  4: CHELUVAHAR

  5: KUROS

  6: CATRIONA

  7: ROBERT

  8: LEGION

  9: KAO CHIH

  10: ROBERT

  11: CATRIONA

  PART TWO

  12: LEGION

  13: JULIA

  14: THEO

  15: ROBERT

  16: KAO CHIH

  17: GREG

  18: KUROS

  19: LEGION

  20: ROBERT

  21: THEO

  22: CATRIONA

  23: KAO CHIH

  24: JULIA

  25: GREG

  PART THREE

  26: KAO CHIH

  27: LEGION

  28: CATRIONA

  29: THEO

  30: KAO CHIH

  31: THEO

  32: ROBERT

  33: CHEL

  34: GREG

  35: KUROS

  36: GREG

  37: LEGION

  EPILOGUE

  THE CONSTRUCT

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  At last, this one is for

  David Wingrove,

  Steadfast friend,

  Ace writer

  MAIN CHARACTERS

  Greg Cameron – archaeologist stationed at the Giant’s Shoulder site. After the Hegemony takeover of Darien, Greg becomes one of the resistance leaders.

  Catriona Macreadie – a former Enhanced, Catriona was chosen by the biomass sentience Segrana as its Keeper, a focus for its purpose.

  Theo Karlsson – Greg’s uncle, and former major in the Darien Volunteer Forces, Theo helped an important Enhanced team escape the Hegemony’s clutches.

  Kao Chih – a messenger sent to Darien by Human Sept, a splinter group of the lost Human colony on Pyre; his quest inadvertently helped an agent of the Legion of Avatars reach Darien.

  Julia Bryce – leader of a team of Enhanced scientists who have discovered how to use dark anti-matter.

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

  Utavess Kuros – the Sendrukan Hegemony’s ambassador to Darien, sent to take control of the ancient Forerunner warpwell hidden inside Giant’s Shoulder.

  Robert Horst – Earthsphere’s ambassador to Darien, falsely accused of terrorist acts, and sent down into hyperspace by the Sentinel of the warpwell.

  The Construct – a machine intelligence created by the Forerunners more than a hundred millennia ago to help fight the Legion of Avatars. It maintains a vigilant watch over the depths of hyperspace, where Robert Horst is being sent.

  A Knight of the Legion of Avatars – armoured, cyborg creature, a survivor from the war against the Forerunners. One of its mech offshoots almost took control of the Darien warpwell, but now it has to consider alternative strategies.

  MAIN SENTIENT SPECIES IN HUMANITY’S FIRE

  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, multiple 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, average 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 hyper-space, 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.

  PROLOGUE

  DARIEN INSTITUTE: HYPERION DATA RECOVERY PROJECT

  Cluster Location – Main Hardmem Substrate (Tertiary Backups) Tranche – 31

  Decryption Status – 24th pass, 3 video files recovered

  File 3 – Implant Variant 6 (mute) Combat Proving [Subject identified as Andrei Vychkov]

  Veracity – Unmodified Live Recording

  Original Time Log – 18:23:14, 30 October 2127

  Introduction – Dr Yelena Dobrunov

  Afterword – Dr James Kelvin

  >>>>>> <<<<<<

  Commentary I: The events that took place after the emergency landing of the Hyperion 150 years ago have had a profound effect on the development of our colony. The drastic technical shortfall endured by the founders in the subsequent decades meant that only written accounts and a few printed images were passed down as a record of that grim struggle. Oral storytelling traditions amongst the First Families also helped to keep the names of Captain Olsson, Keri McAllister, and Andrei Vychkov alive down the generations. Everyone knows the story of Vychkov’s Map.

  Recent innovations in data decryption, however, have allowed Institute researchers to at last extract coherent records from the Hyperion’s memory nodes. Among them were three videofiles made by the ship’s AI and showing progressively more effective methods of coercing its captives into obedience. The colonists it awoke from cryosleep were implanted with neural devices designed to deliver jolts of pain, thus forcing them to carry out attacks on the ship’s crew who had established an encampment several
miles away.

  The first videofile is entitled ‘Biounit Tolerance Test’ and shows one of the woken male colonists strapped to a couch and being subjected to increasing amounts of pain until death ensued. The second, ‘Implant Variant 3 Field Test’, shows a female colonist being directed to venture outside the Hyperion to recover an unconscious crew member, injured during an attempt by some of the crew to gain entry to the ship. Pain, or more accurately the memory of pain, is enough to make the colonist obey, even when the crewman regains consciousness and unsuccessfully tries to escape. Those two recordings depict horrific and distressing scenes of, in effect, torture and coercion and the Institute’s management board has decided to accord them a ‘restricted access’ status.

  However, the third videofile involves Andrei Vychkov, whose tragi-heroic tale is known to all, and shows actual events as they unfolded. The Institute’s board believes that the historical value outweighs Vychkov’s personal suffering and has, with the Vychkov family’s consent, released it for public viewing by an adult audience.

  In time, we hope to be able to unlock the machine mind’s OS hub, the most heavily encrypted file area, and thus lay bare whatever imperatives or directives that turned it against the very people it was supposed to safeguard. In the meantime, students and other viewers should closely watch the following recording and never forget the kind of servitude that was planned for us all – Y.D.

  By night, moving through foliage, dark shapes barely visible in darkness. There is the hissing of rain, patter of droplets falling on undergrowth, the rush of wind high in the sky, and the sound of someone breathing. From the unsteady viewpoint it seems that the camera is positioned on someone’s upper body, at the chest or shoulder. Then abruptly the picture switches to somewhere high and looking down, only now the trees and bushes are quite visible in the bleached blue-grey of image enhancement while the body-heat-bright figure of a man advances through the forest. The airborne cam tracks him for a moment then pulls back and swings up to point across the treetops to where a rocky outcrop shoulders up out of the pale, leafy expanse, a dark blue mass fringed with spectral bushes. The cam zooms in on the heat signatures of two sentries on the outcrop, restless bright silhouettes.

  ‘Approach location A and anchor the first charge,’ says the AI. ‘Confirm.’

  The picture switches to show the man’s face, seen from his right shoulder. It is Andrei Vychkov, eyes covered by nightvision goggles. He opens his mouth as if to respond but utters no sound, instead grimacing, an expression of frustration. The picture changes, a left side view. He nods and resumes moving through the trees. In the imaging scope, the rain is like fine black threads, falling. Minutes later, Vychkov reaches the guarded outcrop, keeping to cover as he bears left. The lens of the hovering camera stalks him as he finds an unseen way to a point at the base of the outcrop’s sheer rock face where he affixes a fist-sized device. Silently, he retreats to leafy cover.

  ‘Approach location B and anchor the second charge.’

  Nod.

  The second charge goes round to the left of the rocky shoulder, beneath a large overhang. The third is positioned very near to where a rough path from the lookout descends a series of natural steps in the rock. The path leads along an irregular ridge to a bushy hillside where three armed men guard the entrance to a cave. The fourth and final charge has to go in the slope above the cave and is the most difficult to achieve, even with the rainfall there to mask small sounds. Once it is bedded firmly in the soil, Vychkov begins to retrace his steps, creeping down through darkness.

  ‘You have performed well,’ the AI says. ‘You will be rewarded.’

  Vychkov shows no reaction as he moves behind dripping greenery, descending quietly to dense tree cover downslope from the cave.

  ‘I have activated the charge timers,’ the AI says as he squats down in the shelter of a spreading bush, looking uphill. ‘In thirty seconds charge one will detonate followed by charge two three seconds later. After another five seconds, the three guards will have moved towards the lookout point while others will have emerged from the cave. Charges three and four will then detonate and if hostile elements have been disabled or eliminated, you will then advance to secure the cave . . .’

  A loud thud comes from not far away. Vychkov looks to his left and the picture cuts to the left shoulder view. A bleak smile crosses his features and as he rises the second charge goes off.

  ‘Return to the lower profile. You will reveal yourself to hostile elements.’

  Vychkov tugs off the goggles and gives a sidelong glance at the shoulder camera, his eyes dark and piercing, shakes his head and raises his left hand which is holding one of the hemispherical shaped charges. A swift overarm movement and it is arcing away into the dark, rain-wet forest.

  ‘You have disrupted the mission plan. You will be punished. Return to the ship . . .’

  Another explosion, a flash from the rocky ridge coupled with a simultaneous one from the forest that sends burning foliage flying. But nothing from the cave mouth where figures holding torches are emerging. Vychkov sees them and starts climbing the hill. He takes three strides then doubles over in agony, sinking to his knees, slumping over on one side. The shoulder camera shows his face contorted in a rictus of pain, mouth gaping as if to cry out but no sound comes, just long gasps and shuddering breaths.

  ‘Comply. Return to the ship or you will be severed.’

  Silently snarling against the pain, Vychkov shakes his head and begins to crawl slowly up the grassy slope. The picture switches to the camera on the airborne remote, now hovering over the edge of the forest with its lens angled down at the glowing figure sprawled on the hillside. Heat from the explosions blooms bright blue at the edge of the frame and the voices of people are audible, along with someone screaming for help. As the hovering camera zooms in on Vychkov, a target-acquisition overlay appears and a red triangle settles over the back of his head where it locks. A second later the camera jerks to the side as if from recoil. When it returns, Vychkov’s form is still, unmoving.

  End of videofile.

  Commentary II: We know from the written accounts of Olsson and the others that shortly after the Hyperion’s emergency landing the ship AI began flooding some decks with sleep gas. And in the weeks prior to the landing, certain low-level systems began behaving erratically or failed altogether. Then, as the videofile shows, the AI used neural implants to control wakened colonists in its strategy against those who escaped into the forest.

  Taken together, this does not strike me as the meticulous master plan of a machine intellect hell-bent on enslaving everyone on board the Hyperion. Why tip its hand during the preceding weeks? Why gas only parts of the ship, not all – in fact, why not gas everyone even before making orbit about Darien? And why undertake a programme of forced cyborgisation when it would have made more sense to use the Hyperion’s workshops to turn out legions of anti-personnel drones for deployment by air or ground? Also, why was its shipboard security so poor that Vychkov was able to take a dummy charge on the mission? And above all, how was Vychkov able to get away with inking a map of the ship’s weak points into the skin of his chest?

  The truth is that this behaviour looks more like a disjointed series of responses and blind spots created by dysfunctional programming, not some malign plan introduced by an unknown agency. The AIs placed in charge of the Hyperion and her sister ships came from the cutting edge of research at that time. During those dark days of the Swarm War, resources were short, procedures were rushed and corners were cut. It is very likely that flaws in the care-and-protection heuristics were not caught, resulting in the terrible consequences that blighted the early decades of the colony with malnutrition, illness and despair.

  They have also blighted our scientific development. The collective memory of the fight against the ship AI, and its unwilling thralls, has come down to us embroidered with an anthropomorphism and demonisation so strong that AI research was and remains forbidden. Therefore it is my recomme
ndation that any viewer should look upon this recording not as an illustration of the purposeful strategy of a demonic entity, but as an exposure of the consequences of flawed programming, nothing more. – J.K.

  >>>>>> <<<<<<

  PART ONE

  GREG

  The lohig that tirelessly hauled their hide cart was an odd insectoid creature some seven feet long, its coppery carapace patterned with blue diamonds and stars. At first, he and Kao Chih had been worried that the creature might suffer from their untutored care but the lohig breeder’s instructions had proved invaluable, keeping them from starving or mistreating it. In fact, Kao Chih had taken a liking to the beast, feeding it sprigs of leaves while talking to it in soft Mandarin Chinese, and had even gone to the point of giving it a name, T’ien Kou, which meant Heavenly Dog. Greg was tempted to call the lohig ‘Rover’ but held back.

  They had been three days on the trail to Belskirnir, a trapper camp deep in the Forest of Arawn, a vast and dense expanse of greenery that spread north and east of the Kentigerns, covering over a thousand square miles of hinterland. For the last day and a half they had been passing through lush glades and humid dales beneath an endless interwoven canopy, home to the innumerable flying, leaping and crawling creatures of Darien. But now evening was drawing in as they steered the lohig along a dale strewn with mossy boulders, and thoughts of making camp were surfacing.