Roger MacBride Allen - The Ocean of YearsTHE OCEAN OF YEARS by Roger MacBride Allen A Bantam Spectra Book / July 2002 SPECTRA and the portrayal of a boxed “s” are trademarks of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Copyright © 2002 by Roger MacBride Allen. Cover art copyright © 2002 by Gregory Bridges. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address: Bantam Books. If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.” ISBN 0-553-58364-6 Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OPM 10 987654321 To Matthew’s Aunts and Uncles— Edie and Connie, Carl, Jim, and Chris for all the good times, past and future ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to offer my thanks to all those who had a hand in making this book better than I could have made it on my own. Thanks first and foremost to my wife, Eleanore Fox, who made it possible to do the work, and to our son, Matthew, who did his exuberant best to make it most entertainingly impossible to get anything done at all. Thanks again on another score to Eleanore, for per- forming much-needed surgery on the manuscript. Thanks also to my father, Thomas B. Allen, for reading the book and making many valuable suggestions. Charles Sheffield made sure that a certain semi-mathematical puzzle didn’t stretch the rules too far. Thanks to Michael Shohl for his patience, courtesy, and poise in difficult times, as well as for his clear and direct editorial notes. And thanks to Juliet Ulman of Bantam Books, who took the ball and ran with it, just as the clock was running down toward the deadline. —Roger MacBride Allen Takoma Park, Maryland December 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS Dramatis Personae Prelude / Diamond Redux Chapter One / The Realms of Thor Chapter Two / Bodyguards Chapter Three / All Their Sins Remembered Chapter Four / Recalled to Life Interlude: DeSilvo Chapter Five Eighty Years at a Cocktail Party Chapter Six Always Halfway There Interlude : Report in Transit Chapter Seven / Playing It Close Chapter Eight / Schools of Thought Interlude: Kalani Temblar Chapter Nine The Drunk Under the Streetlight Chapter Ten Lost at Home Chapter Eleven / Adventures in Serendip Interlude : Kalani Temblar Chapter Twelve / Lost and Found Chapter Thirteen Phoebe, Lunchtime, and Swift Chapter Fourteen Falling Down Chapter Fifteen / The Ruined World Chapter Sixteen / Truth Underlying Chapter Seventeen / Calling Card Chapter Eighteen / Rockets and Rocks Chapter Nineteen Dust and Clouds, Smoke and Fire Chapter Twenty Clean Burn Chapter Twenty-one / Aftermath Interlude: Olar Sotales Chapter Twenty-two / All That Is Not Gold Interlude: Kalani Temblar Chapter Twenty-three A Pack of Silent Dogs Chapter Twenty-four Last Man Standing Chapter Twenty-five / The Shores of Tomorrow Glossary Chronology of Key Events Puzzle Solutions He hath set eternity in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end. —Ecclesiastes 3:12 That which is hath been long ago; and that which is to be hath long ago been: and God seeketh again that which is passed away. —Ecclesiastes 3:15 Wherefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him back to see what shall be after him? —Ecclesiastes 3:22 DRAMATIS PERSONAE Note: A Glossary of Terms and Gazetteer of Places and Ship Names, along with a Chronology of Key Events, appears after the main text of the book. Wandella Ashdin—historian and expert on Oskar DeSilvo. Ulan Baskaw—Scientist who lived approximately five centuries before the main action of the story. Little is known about her—it is not even certain whether or not Baskaw was a woman or in fact a man. Baskaw invented many terraforming techniques that were later appropriated by DeSilvo. Baskaw also discovered certain mathematical principles underlying the science of terraforming. Jerand Bolt—Starship crew member stranded aboard Asgard Five, later recruited to serve aboard the disguised Dom Pedro IV, AKA “Merchanter’s Dream.” Alber Caltrip—Alias used by Anton Koffield aboard the disguised Dom Pedro IV. Lieutenant Commander Burl Chalmers—Head of section in Kalani Temblar’s office at Chronologic Patrol Intelligence Command Headquarters. Norla Chandray—Second Officer aboard the Dom Pedro IV. Sindra Chon—Starship crew member stranded on Asgard Five by equipment malfunctions aboard her ship. Later, recruited along with Jerand Bolt to serve aboard the disguised Dom Pedro IV. Oskar DeSilvo—Architect and terraformist of the previous centuries, and director of the project to colonize Solace. He managed the centuries-long project by using cryosleep and temporal confinement, arranging to have himself revived from time to time in order to oversee critical points in the process. Neshobe Kalzant—Planetary Executive, Solace. Anthon Kolfeldt—Variant spelling of Anton Koffield name used in Glistern rhymes and stories for children. The Glistern convention in writing is that Kolfeldt is the evil monster, while Koffield is the historical figure. Admiral Anton Koffield (ret)—A retired officer in the Intelligence Command of the Chronologic Patrol, and former commander of the Chronologic Patrol Ship Upholder. First Officer Hari Leptin—Alias used by Captain Felipe Henrique Marquez aboard the disguised Dom Pedro IV. Captain Felipe Henrique Marquez—Captain of the Dom Pedro IV. Dixon Phelby—Cargo officer aboard the Dom Pedro IV. Commander Karlin Raenau—Station commander of SCO Station, orbiting Solace. Hues Renblant—Disaffected officer aboard the Dom Pedro IV who seeks to resign from the ship’s company. Second Officer Leona Sendler—Alias used by Norla Chandray aboard the disguised Dom Pedro IV. Captain Olar Sotales—Director of the Station Security Force aboard SCO Station. Yuri Sparten—The former assistant to Karlin Raenau, commander of SCO Station. Now assigned to serve aboard the “Merchanter’s Dream,” the name under which Dom Pedro IV is traveling. Although he has no interstellar experience, he is posing as the “Dream’s” captain. His parents, as children, were refugees from the fall of Glister. Lieutenant Kalani Temblar—An investigator working for the Chronologic Patrol’s Intelligence Command. Clemson Wahl—Starship crew member stranded on Asgard Five by equipment malfunctions aboard his ship. Later, recruited along with Jerand Bolt to serve aboard the disguised Dom Pedro IV. Lira Wu—Very junior crew member serving aboard the Dom Pedro IV. THE TIMESHAFT WORM HOLE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM 1. Spacecraft departs home star system, bound for target system, ten light-years away. Crew enters cryosleep hibernation and/or temporal confinement for duration of voyage. 2. Spacecraft travels for fifty years at one-tenth light-speed, thus traveling fifty years uptime and a distance of five light-years. 3. Spacecraft reaches timeshaft wormhole, midway between home and target systems. Captain is revived briefly to pilot ship through timeshaft. 4. Both uptime and downtime ends of wormhole are guarded by Chronologic Patrol ships. 5. Spacecraft drops through timeshaft and is propelled one hundred years downtime, into the past. 6. Spacecraft emerges from wormhole, fifty years before its departure from its home system and one hundred years before it enters the wormhole. Captain returns to temporal confinement. 7. Spacecraft onces again travels fifty years at one-tenth light-speed, again traveling fifty years uptime and five more light-years. 8. After traveling for one hundred years shipboard time, spacecraft arrives at target system a few days or weeks after departure in objective time. Crew is revived from one-hundred-year hibernation to find less than a month has passed. THE OCEAN OF YEARS by Roger MacBride Allen PRELUDE DIAMOND REDUX Office of the Planetary Executive, Solace City, Solace. 5340 A.D., Terrestrial Common Era Neshobe Kalzant, Planetary Executive of Solace, leaned back in her office chair. She read, once again, the letter found in the tomb of a man who had not died. The man who had brought her the letter, the man to whom the letter had been written, stood before her desk, his posture rigid, his expression utterly unreadable. But for all of that, Neshobe knew what he wanted. It was a long letter. She skimmed through it, letting phrases jump out at her. … my tomb was not my tomb… It is no one’s tomb. The ashes are as false as the reports of my recent death. “Recent” indeed. The letter had been discovered over a hundred years after it had been written. But there were strong reasons to believe the writer was still alive, in some form of suspended animation. … I have failed. Failed utterly and ignobly, failed because I ignored facts I did not find convenient, failed because I believed I could make the world, the universe, fit the mold I decreed. But I have… learned far more secrets than those that Ulan Bashaw taught me. There is much to be found in the most secret places of the Grand Library, and in other archives. You need only look to the events of the Circum Central incident to know that is true. The ships you called the Intruders did indeed exceed light- speed. “This exceeding light-speed business,” Neshobe said to the man standing in front of her desk. “They gave up even trying to do that thousands of years ago. But you believe him.” “I was at Circum Central,” he said quietly. “I saw it.” Neshobe hummed tunelessly for a moment, staring at a patch of nothing just over her visitor’s left shoulder, and then went on reading. She skimmed down, past the writer’s boasts, and into his confession. She had to read the words again. The collapse of Solace is coming. I believe that now. But I also believe that it will serve as a wake-up call, a warning to all the worlds… She blinked, lost her place, and tried to settle herself. She had known for a long time, down in her bones, that the planet she governed was too far gone to recover. But the writer was the man who had quite literally made her world, who had directed the terraforming project. To have him admit it, from a hundred years in the past— that cut deep. If he had known, back then, it would fail—why hadn’t he stopped it? But failure is not mine alone. Humanity itself is failing. The enterprise of our interstellar civilization is subject to the same physical and mathematical laws as Solace. All our worlds are doomed… Well, yes, that was the news her visitor had tried to bring to Solace. It was the letter writer who had prevented him from delivering the warning. She skipped back and forth through the letter. The writer’s defense of himself was a mishmash of tortured logic and special pleading. No need to go through it again. She skipped to the end. Where the Great Man offered up a deal. I have great good to offer, prizes of knowledge and technology that I alone can give… but much of what I can offer will not be accepted willingly. Drastic ideas will not be possible until the situation is desperate.… Seek me out. I live, but slumber. I am hidden, but hidden where you can find me. Find me, and together, we can do great things. … Hate me, forgive me. Feel what you will toward me, and I will accept it. There are larger matters at stake, and my own guilt and shame do not matter. Only one thing does matter. Seek me out. With heartfelt respect, I remain Your sincere admirer Dr. Oskar DeSilvo Neshobe Kalzant set the pages of the letter down on her desk. She looked at the man who stood before her, at Admiral Anton Koffield. “Who knows about this letter?” she asked. “You. Me. Wandella Ashdin, Norla Chandray, and Captain Marquez. No one else. The various support people know we found something, of course. They just don’t know what.” Neshobe swiveled her chair about to stare out at the endless rain. Oskar DeSilvo, the man who had written the letter, had designed the Diamond Office they were in, the mansion of which it was a part, and the city that formed the view seen from it. That is to say, the view she would be seeing right now, if not for the endless rain. In a sense, DeSilvo had made the rain as well. DeSilvo had directed the terraforming of Solace—and, according to the letter, had not had the courage to admit that fundamental flaws in the process had made it a predictable, mathematical certainty that the planet’s climate and ecology would collapse. Always rain where you don’t need it, and never where you do. That was the Solacian proverb meaning nothing ever went right. The weather problems were bad enough, and persistent enough, to shape the words people lived by. Here it was rain. Sure as rain in Solace City. That was another proverb. Elsewhere it was killing droughts, or coastal inundation, or massive algae blooms. Everywhere, the climate was unraveling. “You believe him,” she said to her visitor. It was not a question. She spoke without turning around, and kept staring out the window. “Yes,” said Anton Koffield.