Ian Douglas - Semper Human: Book Three of the Inheritance Trilogy

S EMPER H UMAN

B OOK T HREE OF THE I NHERITANCE T RILOGY

Ian Douglas

v1.0 (2011.05)

C ONTENTS

Some three hundred fifty light years from the exact center

Marine General Trevor Garroway felt the familiar jolt and retch

Trevor Garroway leaned back in a reclining seat grown by

According to this, Garroway said aloud, the Xul have been

The Xul, Garroway said, startled, are acting in a coherent

Garroway tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

Gentlebeings, we have a problem. A big problem.

Now reveille, reveille, reveille! All hands on deck! Marine Master

The bastards! Lieutenant Bollan said, quietly, but with deep and

Too bad Misek didnt want to come down here, Maria

The Marine OM-27 Eavesdropper Captain Ana McMillan, code-name Zephyr, forced

Master Sergeant Nal il-En Shru-dech completed a final run-through, checking

General Garroway watched the unfolding battle as a fast-flashing series

Hugin and Munin were figures out of ancient Norse mythology,

For an instant, the sky burned a dazzling, searing whiteand

It was a long, long drop.

Gentlemen, ladies, electronics, Garroway said to the group assembled in

Time flows at different rates in different circumstances. It crawls

Lieutenant Garwe applied full lateral thrust to his Starwraith as

Lieutenant Garwe emerged from the fog of the illusion, shaking

Its not just some kind of projected illusion, Janis Fremantle

Its a kind of an attack, Garroway told Ranser and

You want us to what? Nal was thunderstruck. The bastards

Translation into the Quantum Sea in one minute, thirty seconds,

Within the throat of the funnel-shaped pit beneath the Xul

The Marine Corps would continue.

T IMELINE OF THE I NHERITANCE U NIVERSE

Years before present

50,000,000-30,000,000: Galaxy dominated by the One Mind, sentient organic superconductors with hive mentality. They create the network of stargates across the Galaxy, and build the Encyclopedia Galactica Node at the Galactic Core.

30,000,000-10,000,000: Dominance of Children of the Night, nocturnal psychovores. They replace the One Mind, which may have transcended material instrumentality.

10,000,000 to present: Dominance of the Xul, also known as the Hunters of the Dawn. Originally polyspecific pantovores, they eventually exist solely as downloaded mentalities within artificial cybernetic complexes.

Circa 500,000 b.c.e.: Advanced polyspecific machine intelligence later called variously the Ancients or the Builders extends a high-technology empire across a volume of space several thousand light years in extent. Extensive planoforming of Chiron, at Alpha Centauri A, of Mars in the nearby Sol System, and of numerous other worlds. QCC networks provide instantaneous communications across the entire empire. Ultimately, the Builder civilization is destroyed by the Xul. Asteroid impacts strip away the newly generated Martian atmosphere and seas, but Earth, with no technological presence, is ignored. A Xul huntership is badly damaged in the battle over Mars; it later crashes into the Europan worldsea and is frozen beneath the ice. Survivors of the Martian holocaust migrate to Earth and upload themselves into genetailored primates that later will be known as Homo sapiens.

10,000 b.c.e.-7500 b.c.e.: Earth and Earths Moon colonized by the Ahannu, or An, who are later remembered as the gods of ancient Sumeria. Around 7500 b.c.e., asteroid strikes by the Xul destroy An colonies across their empire. Earth is devastated by asteroid strikes. One colony, at Lalande 21185, survives.

Circa 6000 b.c.e.: Amphibious Nmah visit Earth and help human survivors of Xul attack develop civilization. They are later remembered as the Nommo of the Dogon tribe of Africa, and as civilizing/agricultural gods by other cultures in the Mideast and the Americas.

Circa 6000-5000 b.c.e.: Nmah starfaring culture destroyed by the Xul. Survivors exist in low-technology communities within the Sirius Stargate and, possibly, elsewhere.

1200 b.c.e. [Speculative]: The Xul revisit Earth and discover an advanced Bronze Age culture. Asteroid impacts cause devastating floods worldwide, and may be the root of the Atlantis myth.

700 c.e.: The deep abyssal intelligence later named the Eulers fight the Xul to a standstill by detonating their own stars. This astronomical conflagration of artificial novae is seen in the skies of Earth, in the constellation Aquila, some one thousand two hundred years later.

The Heritage Trilogy

2039-2042:Semper Mars

2040: 1st UN War. March by Sands of Mars Garroway. Battle of Cydonia. Discovery of the Cydonian Cave of Wonders.

2040-2042:Luna Marine

2042: Battle of Tsiolkovsky. Discovery of An base on the Moon.

2067:Europa Strike

2067: Sino-American War. Discovery of the Singer under the Europan ice.

The Legacy Trilogy

2138-2148:Star Corps

2148: Battle of Ishtar. Treaty with An of Lalande 21185.

Earth survey vessel Wings of Isis destroyed while approaching the Sirius Stargate.

2148-2170:Battlespace

2170: Battle of Sirius Gate. Contact with the Nmah, an amphibious species living inside the gate structure. Data collected electronically fills in some information about the Xul, and leads to a Xul node in Cluster Space, thirty thousand light years from Sol. A Marine assault force uses the gate to enter Cluster Space and destroy this gate.

2314-2333:Star Marines

2314: Armageddonfall

2323: Battle of Nights Edge. Destruction of Xul Fleet and world in Nights Edge Space.

The Inheritance Trilogy

2877:Star Strike

2877 [1102 m.e..]: 1MIEF departs for Puller 695. Battle of Puller 695 against Pan-Europeans. Contact with Eulers in Cygni Space. Battle of Cygni Space. Destruction of star in Starwall Space, eliminating local Xul node.

2886:Galactic Corps

2886 [1111 m.e.]: Raid on Cluster Space by 1MIEF. Discovery of stargate path to major Xul node at Galactic Core.

2887 [1112 m.e.]: Operation Heartfire. Assault on the Galactic Core.

4004:Semper Human

3152: Volunteer elements of the Marine third Division enter extended cybernetic hibernation.

3214: Formation of the Galactic Associative.

4004 [2229 a.m.]: Dahl Incursion. Contact with the Tarantulae. Attack on Xul presence within the Quantum Sea. Xenophobe Collapse.

4005 [2230 a.m.]: Re-establishment of the United States Marine Corps.

P ROLOGUE

Some three hundred fifty light years from the exact center of the Milky Way Galaxy, the Marine OM-27 Eavesdropper Major Dion Williams forced its way through the howling storm.

The howl, in this case, was purely electronic in the vacuum of space, a shrill screech caused by the flux of dust particles interacting with the Williams magnetic shields. But since the tiny vessels crew consisted of uploaded t-Human minds and a powerful Artificial Intelligence named Luther, all of them resident within the Williams electronic circuitry, they heard the interference as a shrieking roar. The tiny vessel shuddered as it plowed through the deadly wavefront of charged particles.

Sir! There it is again! Lieutenant (u/l) Miek Vrellit indicated a pulse of coherent energy coming through the primary scanner. Do you see it?