David Brin - Heaven's Reach

To

Terren Jacob Brin, our unlimited explorer

and crowning work in our trilogy

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

CAST OF CHARACTERS

HEAVEN’S REACH

AFTERWORD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A “LAGNIAPPE”

GLOSSARY OF SPECIES AND TERMS

About the Author

Akeakemai — a dolphin member of Streaker’s bridge crew.

Alvin — the humicker (human-mimicking) nickname of Hph-wayuo, an adolescent hoon from Jijo.

Asx — a member of the Jijo Council of High Sages, representing the traeki race. See Ewasx.

Baskin, Gillian — a Terragens Agent assigned as physician to the dolphin survey vessel Streaker. In command since the debacle at Kithrup.

Creideiki — a male dolphin, former captain of the dolphin-crewed Earth vessel Streaker. Left behind on Kithrup, along with several other members of the crew, with just a space “skiff” to make their way across the Five Galaxies.

D’Anite, Emerson — a human engineer, once assigned to the Terragens spacecraft Streaker.

Dor-hinuf — a young female hoon. Twaphu-anuph’s daughter.

Dwer — the son of the papermaker Nelo Koolhan, brother of Sara and Lark, chief tracker of the Commons of Six Races of Jijo.

Ewasx — a Jophur ring-stack entity made mostly from components of the Jijoan sage Asx, plus a master ring.

Gillian — see Baskin, Gillian.

Harms, Harry — a neo-chimpanzee scout for the Institute of Navigation.

Huck — the humicker (human-mimicking) nickname of a g’Kek orphan raised by a hoonish family on Jijo. Alvin’s closest friend.

Huphu — Alvin’s pet noor beast.

Kaa — second pilot of Streaker. Formerly “Lucky Kaa.”

Karkaett — a male dolphin and engineering mate on Streaker.

Keepiru — former chief pilot of Streaker. Left behind on Kithrup.

Kiwei Ha’aoulin — a Synthian trader.

Lark — brother of Sara and Dwer, a lesser sage of the Commons of Jijo.

Ling — a Danik (human heretic) biologist.

Makanee — a female dolphin, the ship’s surgeon on Streaker. Left on Jijo to tend mentally reverted members of Streaker’s crew.

Mudfoot — a wild noor beast, named by Dwer Koolhan.

Niss — pseudosapient computer lent to Streaker by a Tymbrimi spy.

Old Ones — a term given to the “retired” races of the Fractal World.

Orley, Thomas — a genetically engineered Terragens Agent assigned to Streaker. Married to Gillian, left on Kithrup with Creideiki’s group.

Peepoe — a geneticist and nurse on Streaker. Kidnapped on Jijo.

Pincer-Tip — a red qheuen friend of Alvin’s who carved the hull for the bathyscaphe Wuphon’s Dream out of the trunk of a garu tree.

Prity — a female neo-chimpanzee; Sara’s servant, skilled at certain aspects of mathematical imagery.

Rann — leader of the Danik humans.

Rety — a human sooner, she fled her savage band’s hidden offshoot colony in the Gray Hills of Jijo.

Ro-kenn — a Rothen overlord.

Sara — daughter of the papermaker Nelo Koolhan, sister of Dwer and Lark, mathematician and language scholar.

Suessi, Hannes — a human engineer on Streaker, converted into a cyborg by the Old Ones.

Twaphu-anuph — a hoonish customs official at Kazzkark Base.

Tsh’t — a female dolphin, originally Streaker’s fourth in command. Later shared command with Gillian.

Tyug — the traeki alchemist of Mount Guenn Forge. A new crew member on Streaker.

Uriel — urrish Master Smith of the Mount Guenn Forge on Jijo.

Ur-ronn — Alvin’s urrish friend and member of the Wuphon’s Dream expedition. Uriel’s niece.

Wer’Q’quinn — Harry’s boss at the Institute of Navigation.

yee — an urrish male ejected from his pouch-home by his former mate. Later “married” the sooner girl Rety.

WHAT EMBLEMS grace the fine prows of our fast ships?

How many spirals swirl on the bow of each great vessel, turning round and round, symbolizing our connections? How many are the links that form our union?

ONE spiral represents the fallow worlds, slowly brewing, steeping, stewing — where life starts its long, hard climb.

Struggling out of that fecundity, new races emerge, ripe for Uplift.

TWO is for starfaring culture, streaking madly in our fast ships, first as clients, then as patrons, vigorously chasing our young interests — trading, fighting, and debating—

Straining upward, till we hear the call of beckoning tides.

THREE portrays the Old Ones, graceful and serene, who forsake starships to embrace a life of contemplation. Tired of manic rushing. Cloistering for self-improvement.

They prepare to face the Great Harrower.

FOUR depicts the High Transcendents, too majestic for us to perceive. But they exist!

Making plans that encompass all levels of space, and all times.

FIVE is for the galaxies — great whirls of shining light — our islands in a sterile cosmos, surrounded by enigmatic silence. On and on they spin, nurturing all life’s many orders, linked perpetually, everlasting.

Or so we are assured.…

ALARMS SING A VARIETY OF MELODIES.

Some shriek for attention, yanking you awake from deathlike repose. Others send your veins throbbing with adrenaline. Aboard any space vessel there are sirens and wails that portend collision, vacuum leaks, or myriad other kinds of impending death.

But the alarm tugging at Harry Harms wasn’t like that. Its creepy ratchet scraped lightly along the nerves.

“No rush,” the soft buzzer seemed to murmur. “I can wait.

“But don’t even think about going back to sleep.”

Harry rolled over to squint blearily at the console next to his pillow. Glowing symbols beckoned meaningfully. But the parts of his brain that handled reading weren’t perfectly designed. They took a while to warm up.

“Guh …,” he commented. “Wuh?”

Drowsiness clung to his body, still exhausted after another long, solitary watch. How many duras had passed since he had tumbled into the bunk, vowing to quit his commission when this tour of duty ended?

Sleep had come swiftly, but not restfully. Dreams always filled Harry’s slumber, here in E Space.

In fact, dreaming was part of the job.

In REM state, Harry often revisited the steppes of Horst, where a dusty horizon had been his constant background in childhood. A forlorn world, where ponderous dark clouds loomed and flickered, yet held tightly to their moisture, sharing little with the parched ground. He usually woke from such visions with a desiccated mouth, desperate for water.

Other dreams featured Earth — jangling city-planet, brimming with tall humans — its skyscrapers and lush greenery stamped in memory by one brief visit, ages ago, in another life.

Then there were nightmares about ships — great battlecraft and moonlike invasion arks — glistening by starlight or cloaked in the dark glow of their terrible fields. Wraithlike frigates, looming more eerie and terrifying than real life.

Those were the more normal dream images to come creeping in, whenever his mind had room between far stranger apparitions. For the most part, Harry’s night thoughts were filled with spinning, dizzying allaphors, which billowed and muttered in the queer half-logic of E Space. Even his shielded quarters weren’t impervious to tendrils of counterreality, penetrating the bulkheads, groping through his sleep. No wonder he woke disoriented, shaken by the grating alarm.

Harry stared at the glowing letters — each twisting like some manic, living hieroglyph, gesticulating in the ideogrammatic syntax of Galactic Language Number Seven. Concentrating, he translated the message into the Anglic of his inner thoughts.