A Night Without Stars Read online

  Peter F. Hamilton

  NIGHT WITHOUT STARS

  CHRONICLE OF THE FALLERS

  MACMILLAN

  To Marcus and Rebecca Lewis

  For all their friendship and laughter

  during an amazingly long summer

  Music as background for reading Night Without Stars has been created by film and TV composer Steve Buick. His long, evocative soundscapes work as the perfect atmospheric accompaniment to any part of the book. Search ‘Peter F. Hamilton’s Night Without Stars: Atmospheres and Soundscapes’ on Amazon, iTunes or any digital music store worldwide. You can find out more at www.evokescape.com.

  Contents

  Commonwealth Timeline

  List of Characters

  Prologue

  BOOK ONE: Another Death For Laura Brandt

  BOOK TWO: Defence of the State

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  BOOK THREE: Running From a Fall

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  BOOK FOUR: A Long Fast Week

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  BOOK FIVE: Safe Haven

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  BOOK SIX: Going Nuclear

  1

  2

  3

  4

  BOOK SEVEN: The Faller Apocalypse

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  BOOK EIGHT: Commonwealth

  Commonwealth Timeline

  1,000,000 BC (approx.)

  Raiel armada invades the Void. Never returns.

  AD

  1200

  Prime species’ home star system and renegade Prime colony star (Dyson pair) quarantined behind force fields by the Anomine.

  1900

  Starflyer crash-lands on Far Away, 400 light years from Earth.

  2037

  First attempted human rejuvenation, Jeff Baker

  2050

  Nigel Sheldon and Ozzie Isaacs open a wormhole to surface of Mars.

  2057

  Wormhole opened to Proxima Centuri. Start of interstellar colonization.

  2100

  Eight new worlds settled. Official formation of Intersolar Commonwealth Council, the ‘Parliament of Worlds’.

  2100 onward

  Massive expansion of human settlements across H-congruous planets. Rise of the Big15 industrial worlds.

  2102

  Huxley’s Haven founded, genetic conformist constitution.

  2150

  Prime star disappears from Earth’s sky – unnoticed.

  2163

  High Angel discovered orbiting Icalanise.

  2222

  Paula Myo born on Huxley’s Haven.

  2270

  Prime star pair identified as Dyson Emission Spectrum twins.

  2380

  Dudley Bose observes Dyson Alpha vanish.

  2381

  Starship Second Chance flies to Dyson Alpha.

  2381–2383

  Starflyer War.

  2384

  First colony fleet (Brandt Dynasty) leaves to found human colony outside Commonwealth.

  2545 onward

  Use of large starships to establish Commonwealth ‘External’ worlds.

  2550

  Commonwealth Navy Exploration fleet founded to explore the galaxy beyond the External worlds.

  2560

  Commonwealth Navy ship Endeavour circumnavigates galaxy, captained by Wilson Kime; discovery of the Void.

  2603

  Navy discovers seventh High Angel-type ship.

  2620

  Raiel confirm their status as ancient galactic race who lost a war against the Void.

  2833

  Completion of ANA (Advanced Neural Activity) first stage on Earth. Grand Family members begin memory download into ANA.

  2867

  Sheldon Dynasty gigalife project partially successful, first human body biononic supplements for regeneration and general iatrics.

  2872

  Start of Higher human culture, biononic enrichment allowing a society of slow-paced long life, rejection of commercial economics and old political ideologies.

  2913

  Earth begins absorption of ‘mature’ humans into ANA; the inward migration begins.

  2984

  Formation of radical Highers who wish to convert the human race to Higher culture.

  3000

  Sheldon Dynasty colony fleet (thirty starships) leaves Commonwealth, believed to possess long-range trans-galactic flight capability.

  3001

  Ozzie produces uniform neural entanglement effect, known as the gaiafield.

  3040

  Commonwealth invited to join Centurion Station, the Void observation project supervised by Raiel, a joint enterprise between alien species.

  3120

  ANA officially becomes Earth’s government; total planetary population fifty million (activated bodies) and falling.

  3126

  Brandt Dynasty trans-galactic colony fleet launched.

  3150

  External world Ellezelin settled.

  3255

  Kerry, a radical Higher Angel, arrives on Anagaska, Inigo’s conception.

  This Era (time uncertain)

  Edeard born in the Void.

  3320

  Inigo begins duty tour at Centurion star system, his first dream.

  3324

  Inigo settles on Ellezelin, founds Living Dream movement, begins construction of Makkathran2.

  3326

  Nigel Sheldon’s mission into the Void.

  3328

  The Void expels Bienvenido into intergalactic space.

  3331

  Sheldon Dynasty leaves the Commonwealth.

  3336

  Laura Brandt opens exploratory wormhole to Ursell.

  3407

  Ozzie departs Commonwealth for the Spike to build a ‘galactic dream’.

  3589

  Ethan elected as Cleric Conservator of Living Dream; announces Pilgrimage into the Void.

  3590

  The Void transcends.

  3593

  Ry Evine’s Liberty mission.

  List of Characters

  Bienvenido

  Laura Brandt Molecular physicist

  Joey Stein Hyperspace theorist

  Kysandra The Warrior Angel

  Demitri ANAdroid

  Marek ANAdroid

  Valeri ANAdroid

  Fergus ANAdroid

  Florian Forest warden

  Ry Evine Pilot Major, People’s Astronaut Regiment

  Anala Em Yulei Pilot Major Astronaut Regiment

  Chaing Captain, People’s Security Regiment

  Jenifa Corporal, Peoples Security Regiment

  Lurvri Lieutenant, People’s Security Regiment

  Corilla Student, Chaings informant

  Stonal Director, Section Seven

  Yaki Director, PSR Opole office

  Ashya Kukaida Colonel, PSR Opole office, records division

  Castillito Florian’s mother, civil rights lawyer

  Terannia Florian’s aunt, music club manager

  Matthieu Terannia’s partner, musician

  Joffler Drug dealer

  Rohanna Joffler’s girlfriend

  Hokianga Colonel, Opole Regiment

  Lukan Underworld driver

  Roxwolf Opole’s top underworld boss

  Billop Opole underworld boss

  Fausti
na Chief Scientist, Section Seven

  Adolphus Prime Minister

  Terese Deputy Prime Minister

  Commonwealth

  Paula Myo Senior Investigator, Serious Crimes Bureau

  Andromeda Galaxy Settlement

  Nigel Sheldon Inventor of Wormhole Technology

  Prologue

  The star was classified as an A7 on the Morgan-Keenan system, hotter and brighter than the G2-class star which humans had evolved under. At two and a half AUs out, where Zoreia orbited, Nigel Sheldon had to wear sunglasses; not even his modified green eyes could cope with the sharper light of his new world’s sun.

  He reached the top of a gentle rise, where he could see the lush green of terrestrial grass sweeping out across the landscape in all directions. Grass was always the easy part of terraforming a new world. After Zoreia’s land had been seed-bombed, the colonists had waited thirty years for the roots and microbes and insects and worms and dead leaves to generate a deep enough layer of soil before starting on larger plants. Nigel stared at the forests that had spread out across the rumpled ground. Birds flocked among the higher branches, their nests safe from the predatory animals that stalked between the trunks. Now that the biosphere was complete, they were slowly introducing more sophisticated animals.

  Zoreia was a modest triumph, given that only two hundred and fifty years ago, when the fleet of colony starships had come thundering into the star system, it had been an airless, barren rock. They had achieved so much, and not just on the planet. Oran and Bourke, two of the huge city habitats, were visible in the clear topaz sky, orbiting a hundred and fifty thousand kilometres out, far above the two small moons they’d manoeuvred into orbit to create some spectacular tides. And beyond that . . . Nigel smiled as his retinal filters activated. The surface of the blue-white star had three even brighter blemishes along the equator, like intense flowers of energy. The petals were vast streamers of plasma, pouring up into space at near-relativistic velocity, then twisting away into the J-nodes. Somewhere on the other side of the sun, the matter was streaming out of corresponding J-nodes, but changed, modified into the grid of their first Dyson shell, which would be over a million and a half kilometres across when it was finished in a couple of years.

  An awareness seeped into the lowest level of his consciousness – knowledge coming from Central. There was a disturbance in hyperspace outside the star system, but approaching fast. The knowledge expanded up to full awareness, and he witnessed a line being drawn through the quantum fields that underpinned reality, driving straight for Zoreia. Its signature was familiar enough: a Commonwealth ultradrive. But this was a small ship, nothing like the behemoths of the colony fleet that had brought the Sheldon Dynasty to this place. Nigel sighed wryly as he drew up a list of who it might be carrying. It was a short list: just two names.

  The ultradrive ship flashed through the star system and dropped out of hyperspace beside Oran.

  ‘You have a visit request,’ Central informed him.

  ‘So I sense,’ he replied drily. ‘Well, it looks like my diary is clear for today. Let her in.’ His biononic field function detected the planetary T-sphere engage and enact.

  Paula Myo was teleported onto the ground barely four metres away.

  Nigel almost laughed. It took just over five years for an ultradrive ship to fly from the Commonwealth to Zoreia. You had to really want to get here to attempt such a flight. And Paula had done it alone, in suspension. Yet here she stood wearing a grey business suit, her jet-black hair neatly styled. The amazing thing was, he knew that she’d consider this to be just another working day.

  ‘Paula!’ He gave her a hug and a platonic kiss on the cheek. ‘Welcome to the Andromeda galaxy.’

  ‘Stars are still stars. Only the distance is greater.’

  ‘Oh, very profound.’ He waited until she’d turned full circle to take in the vista. Then she tipped her head back and squinted at the dazzling sun.

  ‘Coronal matter transference, now that is impressive,’ she admitted.

  ‘Why thank you.’

  ‘You built yourself an ANA?’

  ‘Central. It has the same technology base, yes, but we don’t just download ourselves into it when we become jaded with life. The point of life is to avoid becoming jaded.’

  ‘Profound,’ she shot back.

  Nigel chuckled. ‘It’s good to see you.’

  ‘And you. This seems to be an interesting civilization you’re building here. What would you call it?’

  ‘I dunno. High-end pastoral?’

  ‘Hmm. Slifen-lite, then?’

  ‘Ouch.’

  ‘Sorry.’ She glanced about the wide empty landscape again. ‘Do you have homes?’

  ‘Those that want them have them.’

  ‘Do you want one, Nigel?’

  ‘Right now I’m happy just travelling around by myself. You realize no one has ever set foot on this ground before? I like that.’

  ‘Doesn’t sound like you. You were always so busy.’

  ‘I help out with Central and our major projects. I don’t have to be in the office. Not that we have one.’

  ‘And what about people? Do you need to be with them?’

  ‘You travelled between galaxies to ask me that?’

  ‘No. The Void has gone.’

  ‘What?’ He’d thought he was of an age when nothing could surprise him, but that news was extraordinary. ‘What do you mean, gone?’

  ‘It transcended.’

  ‘How the fuck did that happen?’

  Paula’s lips twitched. ‘There was a small conflict.’

  ‘Oh for—’ He threw his hands up in dismay. ‘The Living Dream morons, they finally went on their pilgrimage.’

  ‘Yes. But they were being manipulated by the Advancers—’

  ‘Son of a bitch. Ilanthe! I knew the Advancers were trouble. I told you all before I left.’

  ‘Very prescient of you. Oh, and Gore played a big part, too. I have a summary of critical events on file if you’d like to access. It’s quite large.’

  ‘Of course it is. You were always thorough, Paula.’

  ‘Thank you.’ She turned and stared out across the sweeping grasslands. ‘Our galaxy is safe now. The Raiel are considering what to do now their great vigil is over. The Commonwealth is changing, slowly as always. It’s a new age of exploration and contact.’

  ‘And yet here you are,’ Nigel said wearily. ‘Why is that, Paula? What could possibly be so important that you’d spend five years flying here – and five flying back.’

  ‘You know why,’ she said softly. ‘My file isn’t complete.’

  ‘Our secret mission.’

  ‘Your mission. You went into the Void, Nigel. Over two hundred and fifty years ago, you actually got inside. You’re unique.’

  ‘My clone went in.’

  ‘And you dreamed his life.’

  Nigel closed his eyes. Today was truly a day of emotional surprises. After so long, the pain of her loss was still as strong as it had been the day his clone had detonated the modified quantumbuster. ‘Paula, it was a long time ago. Let it rest. She’s gone now.’

  ‘She?’

  ‘It’s personal.’

  ‘You left us, Nigel. When the Raiel brought you home, you flew to another bloody galaxy to escape whatever happened to you in the Void. You didn’t tell me what it was. The Raiel won’t tell me either. I have stood in the real Makkathran, and confronted Torux, who was with you while you dreamed your clone’s life – and he Would Not tell me.’ Her voice rose. ‘Torux said they were honouring your wishes.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said meekly. ‘They are.’

  ‘You owe me, Nigel. I helped you put that mission together. And more than that. It’s personal for me, too; I have an investment in this. I don’t just want to know about your mission. I want to know about the fallback. I have a right to know if you ever activated it. So now you tell me: what happened, Nigel? What happened to your clone in the Void?’

  ‘I
became a monster,’ he said as tears began to leak down his cheeks.

  ‘How?’

  ‘I didn’t land on Querencia.’

  ‘But . . . then where?’

  ‘There used to be another human world in the Void. It was called Bienvenido.’

  ‘Oh crap. Used to be?’

  ‘We never knew it existed. How could we? But it was where the rest of the lost Brandt colony fleet wound up. And me.’

  ‘So you never made contact with Makkathran?’

  ‘No. Once I landed on Bienvenido I had to stay; they were under attack from another alien species. The Fallers. Psychotic expansionists who would even frighten the Prime. I couldn’t abandon Bienvenido – those people needed help. I thought I’d found a way. I was so fucking arrogant I just went right ahead. One of the Brandt colony ships survived – or rather, its armoury did.’

  ‘Armoury?’ Paula asked cautiously.

  ‘Yes. I rebuilt a quantumbuster.’

  ‘Oh no.’

  ‘Oh yeah. Because I was right. I was always right. I thought I’d found a weakness in the Void’s quantum structure. I believed, I really believed, I could blow it apart from the inside. I promised her I’d save them all. And she put all her trust in me.’