Peter Hamilton - Judas Unchained

Table of Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PREVIOUS WORKS BY PETER F. HAMILTON

NAVY

Captain Wilson Kime—Ex-NASA pilot. Admiral, navy chief

Rafael Columbia—Vice Admiral, planetary defense

Tarlo—Lieutenant, Navy Intelligence

Renne Kampasa—Lieutenant, Navy Intelligence

Morton—Convict, navy trooper

Oscar Monroe—Navy captain, Defender

McClain Gilbert—Navy captain

Anna Kime—Wilson’s wife, and Navy chief of staff

Tunde Sutton—Navy physicist

Alic Hogan—Lieutenant Commander, Navy Intelligence

Natasha Kersley—Seattle project chief

Rob Tanne—Convict, navy trooper

Catherine Stewart—aka the Cat, convict, navy trooper

Matthew Oldfield—Second Lieutenant, Paris office

Vic Russell—Second Lieutenant, Paris office

Gwyneth Russell—Second Lieutenant, Paris office

Jim Nwan—Second Lieutenant, Paris office

John King—Lieutenant, Paris office

DYNASTIES

Nigel Sheldon—Co-inventor of wormhole technology. Co-owner of Compression Space Transport

Ozzie Fernandez Isaac—Co-inventor of wormhole technology. Co-owner of CST

Daniel Alster—Chief executive aide to Nigel Sheldon

Campbell Sheldon—Direct great-grandson, high position in Sheldon Dynasty

Gerard Utreth—Braunt family rep, Democratic Republic New Germany

Isabella Halgarth—Starflyer agent

Victor Halgarth—Isabella’s father, Starflyer agent

Bernadette Halgarth—Isabella’s mother, Starflyer agent

Giselle Swinsol—Sheldon Dynasty starship project manager

Otis Sheldon—Pilot, Sheldon Dynasty starship

Nelson Sheldon—Sheldon Dynasty security chief

SENATE

Paula Myo—Investigator, Senate Security

Justine Burnelli—Earth Socialite–now Senator

Thompson Burnelli—Commonwealth Senator–undergoing re-life

Elaine Doi—President, Intersolar Commonwealth

Patricia Kantil—Chief aide to Elaine Doi

Ramon DB—Senator for Buta, leader of African caucus

Crispin Goldreich—Senator; Chair, budget commission

Toniea Gall—Chairwoman, Resident’s Association High Angel

GUARDIANS OF SELFHOOD

Bradley Johansson—Founder of Guardians of Selfhood

Kazimir McFoster—Clan member in the Guardians of Selfhood

Bruce McFoster—Ex-Guardian, Starflyer assassin

Stig McSobel—Guardian, leader of Armstrong City team

Samantha McFoster—Guardian, technician for planet’s revenge

Olwen McOnna—Guardian

Adam Elvin—Ex-radical, quartermaster for Guardians

ALIENS

Tochee—Alien of unknown origin

The High Angel—A sentient alien starship

MorningLightMountain—Prime alien from Dyson Alpha

Starflyer—Hostile alien of unknown origin

Qatux—A Raiel, living on the High Angel

The SI—Sentient intelligence, machine based, of human origin

OTHERS

Mellanie Rescorai—Unisphere personality, SI agent

Orion—Parentless teenage boy from Silvergalde

Dudley Bose—Astronomer at Gralmond University, re-lifed

Hoshe Finn—Detective, Darklake city police

Gore Burnelli—Head of the Burnelli Grand Family

Mark Vernon—Engineer

Liz Vernon—Biogenetic technician, Mark’s wife

Simon Rand—Founder of Randtown, leader of resistance

Alessandra Baron—News show presenter, Starflyer agent

Tiger Pansy—Actress in “adult” TSI dramas

Paul Cramley—Professional hacker

Kaspar Murdo—Head janitor at Saffron Clinic

The Agent—Underworld security personnel manager on Illuminatus

Niall Swalt—Junior employee, Grand Triad Adventures tour company

Edmund Li—Officer in Far Away freight inspectorate division, Boongate Station

Michelangelo—TSI news anchor

Right from the start, there was something about the investigation that made Lieutenant Renne Kampasa uneasy. The first little qualm came sliding up out of her subconscious when she saw the victim’s loft apartment. She’d been inside loft apartments just like it a hundred times before. It was the kind of plush metropolitan pad that a group of funky TSI soap characters usually lived in: beautiful single people with well-paying jobs that gave them most of the day off so they could enjoy a floor space of around five hundred square meters as they lounged around in an extravagant décor provided by overpriced interior designers. The kind of scenario completely divorced from real life but full of dramatic or comic potential for the scriptwriters.

Yet here she was, a day after the Guardians’ shotgun message that denounced President Elaine Doi as a Starflyer agent, being shown into just such an apartment on the top floor of a refurbished factory block in Daroca, the capital city of Arevalo. The massive open-plan living room had a wide sunny balcony that looked out over the Caspe River, which flowed through the heart of the city. Like all the capitals of successful phase one space planets, Daroca was a rich montage of parks, elegant buildings, and broad streets stretching away to the horizon. Under the planet’s bronze-shaded morning sunlight it glimmered with a sharp coronal hue, adding to the panorama’s graceful appeal.

Renne shook her head in mild disbelief at the fabulous view. Even with the decent salary the navy paid her, she could never afford the rent on this. And it was currently being paid by three first-life girls, all under twenty-five.

One of them was showing Renne and Tarlo in: Catriona Saleeb, a small twenty-two-year-old, with long curly black hair, wearing a simple green dress with strong geometric lilac stripes—except Renne knew the dress was a Fon, which put its price tag over a thousand Earth dollars, and the girl was using it as a casual housedress. Renne’s e-butler printed up Saleeb’s file in her virtual vision; she was a junior member of the Morishi Grand Family, working at a bank in Daroca’s large financial district.

Her two friends were Trisha Marina Halgarth, who had a product placement job at Veccdale, a Halgarth subsidiary that designed chic domestic systems, and Isabella Halgarth, who’d taken a job at a contemporary art gallery in town. They fitted the whole profile: three bachelorettes sharing a place in the city, having fun together while they waited for their true careers to launch, or husbands of equal wealth and status to materialize and carry them off to a merged trust fund mansion to produce their contracted quota of children.

“This is one great place you’ve got here,” Tarlo said as they made their way into the lounge.

Catriona turned and gave him a smile that was a lot more than simple politeness. “Thanks, it’s a family place so we get it cheap.”

“Plenty of wild parties, huh.”

Her smile became teasing. “Maybe.”

Renne shot him an exasperated look; they were supposed to be on duty, not hitting on potential witnesses. He just grinned back, perfect white teeth gleaming out of his handsome tanned face. She’d seen for herself just how successful that grin could be in the clubs and bars around Paris.