S. Andrew Swann - Messiah

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Table of Contents

A NEAR-INVISIBLE CLOUD OF UNIFORM DENSITY SPREAD OUT IN AN ARC.

That cloud was, in effect, Adam. It was dormant, a body waiting for the arrival of its consciousnessa cloud of nanomachines vast enough to saturate the surface of Bakunin.

They were going to destroy it.

Data scrolled by, showing Mallorys ghost fleet of empty, near-derelict tach-ships signaling back their status. Their computers were all synced, their drives hot, the damping coils on their drives disabled. Toni II shuddered just thinking of so many ships taching simultaneously. She glanced at the status of the Daedalus drives. They were still cold, inert to the surge these ships would generate...

The meters monitoring tachyon radiation spiked.

The ships were underway. She looked back up at the holo of the cloud. Right now, nearly seven hundred ships were taching into a dangerously small volume in the center of it. Unfortunately, the light from their arrival would take nearly an hour to reach them.

Fourteen seconds, her sister said from the captains chair. She leaned back and said, Its over now, one way or the other.

Do you think it worked? Karl asked.

Toni II could see the comm channels all lit up by chatter, and she could see why. The tachyon radiation meters had slammed the upper limits of their resolution across the board. If the Daedalus hadnt shut down their tach-drive completely, a good part of their engine would have burned out even with the damping coils.

Mallorys voice came over the general comm channel, telling the fleet to render what aid was possible to the damaged ships in range.

Please, after all this, let us have destroyed it.

DAW science fiction and fantasy from S. ANDREW SWANN

Science Fiction:
THE APOTHEOSIS TRILOGY:
PROPHETS (#1)
HERETICS (#2)
MESSIAH (#3)

THE HOSTILE TAKEOVER TRILOGY:
PROFITEER (#1)
PARTISAN (#2)
REVOLUTIONARY (#3)

THE MOREAU NOVELS:
MOREAU OMNIBUS (#1-3)
FEARFUL SYMMETRIES (#4)

Fantasy:
DRAGONS AND DWARVES OMNIBUS
(Novels of the Cleveland Portal)

BROKEN CRESCENT

GODS DICE

Copyright 2011 by Steven Swiniarski.

All Rights Reserved.

DAW Book Collectors No. 1538.

DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

Nearly all the designs and trade names in this book are registered trademarks. All that are still in commercial use are protected by United States and international trademark law.

First Printing February 2011

eISBN : 978-1-101-47709-0

DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED
U.S. PAT. AND TM. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES
MARCA REGISTRADA
HECHO EN U.S.A.

S.A.

http://us.penguingroup.com

To John and Adam
in the morning.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Wisconsin

Father James Mallory Roman Catholic Priest and veteran of the Occisis Marines.

Alexander Shane Former leader of the Salmagundi government.

Toni Valentine Former lieutenant in the Styx Security Forces under Styx System Security Command (3SEC)

Toni II Valentine Ghost of Toni Valentine.

Karl Stavros Former captain of the Centauri trading vessel Daedalus.

Stefan Stavros Karl Stavros son.

Bakunin

Nickolai Rajasthan Exiled scion of the House of Rajasthan. Descendant of genetically engineered tigers.

Vijayanagara Parvi Mercenary pilot from Rubai

Julia Kugara Mercenary from Dakota. Descendant of genetically engineered humans. Former member of Dakota Planetary Security (DPS)

Dr. Sharon Drner Xenobiologist from Acheron.

Dr. Samson Brody Cultural anthropologist from Bulawayo.

Flynn Jorgenson Former forestry surveyor from Salmagundi.

Brother Lazarus Leader of the Dolbrian cult on Bakunin. Descendant of genetically engineered canines.

General Alexi Lubikov Commander of the Western Division of the Proudhon Security Corporation.

The Prophets Voice

Rebecca Tsoravitch Former data analyst from Jokul, in the service of Adam.

Jonah Dacham Agent of Proteus.

Tjaele Mosasa Recorded personality of the pirate who recovered the AI that became Adam.

LAST PROLOGUE

The Sacred and the Profane

Know what is evil, no matter how worshiped it may be.

BALTASAR GRACIN (1601-1658)

CHAPTER ONE

Heretics

The establishments greatest disgust is reserved for those who love the wrong person.

The Cynics Book of Wisdom

Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.

ANATOLE FRANCE
(1844-1924)

The first time Nickolai Rajasthan came to the planet Bakunin, he had come in disgrace. The priests of his homeland had ruled he had sinned too gravely, or perhaps more important, too publicly, for him to continue life as a scion of House Rajasthan.

The royal family on Grimalkin was powerful enough to do as they would in most cases, and should a tiger of Rajasthan have a dalliance with the lesser-borneven if it was in violation of the scripturesthere were rarely any consequences. Nickolais peers had all dallied with servants before the family had chosen a mate for them.

But his peers indiscretions had never lasted long, and had been discreet.

Nickolai had the bad sense to care for the female he bedded.

Worse, he had the arrogance to believe his position protected him. His affair with his panther lover had extended into months, and his family had become alarmed enough to finally put an end to his foolishness. They rushed him into an arranged marriage and sold the lowly object of his obsessions to a family far from the seat of House Rajasthans power.

But his family could not save him. His lover was already pregnant by the time she left the halls of House Rajasthan. His miscegenation was a mortal sin in the eyes of the Church, but having his unnatural lusts produce issue was an abomination that could not be tolerated; the birth of his half-breed children too public a mark of his wickedness.

His lover, complicit in the evil, bore witness as her and Nickolais unclean offspring were drowned in a river and their bodies left to float out to the ocean. Then she was taken to the temple and flayed alive.

Nickolais family wasnt powerful enough to spare him punishment, but they were powerful enough to prevent him suffering the fate of his lover. Though, after her death, he did not wish to be spared.

Despite the pretense of mercy, in many senses, Nickolais punishment at the hands of the priests of St. Rajasthan was worse than what was done to his lover. Her pain had an end.

The priests brought him to the temple and cut off his right arm with the same ritual knives they used to skin his lover. Along with his arm, the priests were amputating his role as a sacred warrior. The pain of the operation was secondary to maiming him in a way that permanently removed him from the chosen. His kind had been designed as warriors by their Fallen creators, and though their creation was in disobedience to God, the path of the warrior was a form of worship to the most high.

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