Opening Moves Read online

  The Tears of Orion

  Phase 1: Opening Moves

  by James Traynor

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  TEARS OF ORION 1:

  OPENING MOVES

  By James Traynor

  Published by James Traynor

  © Copyright 2013 James Traynor

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

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  ORION, [əˈraɪən]

  The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. At its greatest extent it stretches for some 3,500 light years across and approximately 10,000 light years in length. The Sol System (and therefore Earth) is located within the Orion Arm. It is also referred to as the Orion-Cygnus Arm, the Local Arm, the Local Spur or the Orion Spur.

  The Orion Arm is named for its proximity to the stars in the Orion constellation. It is located between the Carina - Sagittarius Arm and the Perseus Arm, the latter being one of the two major arms of the Milky Way galaxy. Within the Orion, the Sol System and Earth are located close to the inner rim in the Local Bubble, about halfway along the arm's length, approximately 26,000 light years from the Galactic Center.

  The current state of exploration by known spacefaring species and human nations encompasses a sphere of <2,500 light years. There are seventeen known sentient species, eleven of which have mastered faster-than-light travel.

  – Encyclopaedia Galactica, 2792 C.E.

  “It takes an angel to make a devil.”

   Old Rasenni proverb.

  P R O L O G U E

  Karashan, Home World of the Ashani Dominion.

  2786 C.E.

  Amber light touched the round, squat towers of the capital drawing long shadows from their light earthen colored forms. Between them cut off pyramids and housing blocks rose in various shades of terracotta, brown and deep red, their peaks a hundred meters and more above the ground crested by transparent domes glittering like crystal in the light orange sun's rays above. The city extended in all directions farther than the eye could see, an infinite ocean of arcologies and towers, parks and lakes, factories and ports, all illuminated by the life-giving star above.

  For many early cultures the sun had been a religious symbol, a deity, but for modern man it was something on the same level as oxygen: it just was there.

  “Shade,” the man's pleasant voice commanded and the laboratory's windows changed from transparent to a muddy black, blocking most of the natural light from outside.

  Corr'tane's eyes blinked, quickly adapting to the sudden twilight before he turned his attention to the experimental setup in front of him. A series of spotlights above sprang into action, focusing their light on the pieces below, dividing the room into a round illuminated sphere of white and a near black darkness that hid Corr'tane's slightly feline features.

  Bipedal, pointy-eared mammals the Ashani had little in common with the small furry creatures as they scurried around in his test set-up, his green eyes fixed on the four-limbed animals with their dirty brown fur and their bare naked tails. Corr'tane's own thin layer of fur was a bright gray almost as white as the sterile lab overcoat and reinforced gloves he wore during his experiments.

  The Inxxa trader he had acquired the animals from claimed they were among the most resilient and adaptive creatures in known space, but they looked most unremarkable to him. He sniffed derisively, his rough tongue licking across the longer canines in his mouth, the evolutionary remnants and reminders of a past when his people had roamed Karashan's forests and steppes as pack hunters. But that had been hundreds of thousands of years ago. Paws had turned into four-fingered hands with opposable thumbs, carnivores into omnivores, and if one in ten thousand children was born with the superfluous appendix of a tail it was a source of shame for its parents and their whole family, an oddity.

  Just like the animals in his set up. He regarded them running around the sealed transparent case and was decidedly unimpressed with these 'rats' as the trader called them. He switched on the monitoring equipment. Karashan's National Academy of Sciences was as well provided for as the name suggested. It was the most prestigious center of learning of Ashani society, lavishly funded by both the state and the private sector. And as the academy's best student of xeno-biology Corr'tane had free reign to use whatever resources he needed.

  Ashani biology below the cellular level was incredibly complex, more so even than that of many of the other known sentient species. Their fast metabolism and extremely potent adaptability to pathogens and even increased levels of background radiation meant that few plagues had ever left a lasting impact on Corr'tane's people. Unfortunately the same adaptive qualities and resilience made efforts of genetically manipulating Ashani physiology almost an exercise in futility. Not only was it scientifically frustrating, the state saw it as a national liability.

  It was this fact that gave young talents like him access to almost infinite resources – relatively speaking, of course. As the screens blinked to life he went to the cryo freezer and removed his latest creation. It was a genetically engineered colony of bio-mechanical nanomachines, designed to reduce the effects of aging on his people. It was something he had always desired, ever since he had been a small boy forced to watch his mother slip away to a genetic disease which rapidly sped up the aging process. What took his mother away had been a rare enough affliction to have not warranted a resistance spread through the Ashani gene pool. And it had been and still was a reminder of the fact that, no matter how much knowledge and power the children of Karashan accumulated, nature always had a deadly ace up its sleeve.

  For five years the young Corr'tane had watched this ghastly spectacle, had stood by helplessly as a woman in her prime was rapidly reduced to a withered husk. The best doctors money could buy dithered and complained but ultimately proved powerless to halt the inevitable. It was by his mother's tomb that he had resolved to find the formula to prevent old age claiming any more of his family, and from that day on he and his sister had dedicated themselves to the study of science and the need to serve the Ashani race. It had been a child's vow, and age and experience had mellowed it, but still it was the foundation of his efforts.

  He observed the viscous yellowish liquid in the tube for a moment. Compiling it, creating the nanomachines from scratch and programming them with his experimental routines had taken him the better part of a year. It was in moments like this that he couldn't help but wonder if maybe one day it would be his responsibility to elevate the Ashani race, if not to virtual immortality, then at least to lives measured in centuries. Was it maybe his destiny to defeat death?

  It was a line of thought millions of scientists, alchemists, shamans and sorcerers had followed for the better part of their lives, all across the universe, regardless of whether those lives had been spent on a space station or in a cave. It was the hubris of youth, the purely analytical part of Corr'tane's brain told him.

  A brief smile flickered across his lips. Well, he certainly would never find out if all he did was stand there and daydream, would he? So, with precise movements he placed the tube into a dispensing mechanism atop the translucent dome that covered the experimental set-up. The delivery receptacle pumped her solution into hair-thin needles no longer than a millimeter, tracked the individual lab animals, then used pressurized air to fire one small needle into each of the 'rats'.

  The animals stopped in their tracks, sniffing the cool, fresh air that had transported the needles. Some tried to scratch themselves where the extremely thin projectiles had pierced their skin. Corr'tane didn't mind. Th
e needles had delivered his nanomachine solution into the rodents' bloodstreams upon impact. If one or two actually managed to get rid of the paper-thin things it wouldn't make any difference. But nothing happened. The creatures merely wrinkled their noses at the new smell and continued scuffling.

  He broke a smile and exhaled in deep relief. If the product showed no adverse effects on the lab animals, in time he'd be able to begin with the work on a version dedicated for clinical tests on his own people. He would have to publish a paper first, of course, and present his findings to the department and the scientific community. Well, before that he'd have to celebrate the new success with his sister and his...

  Then it all went wrong. The small creatures began squeaking loudly and running frantically around their transparent prison, faster and faster until they fell to the floor, breathing erratically. Corr'tane's festive mood evaporated as fast as it had come. Blood trickled from the orifices of some of the creatures. The fur of others had taken on a sickly coloration as if the tissue holding it had suffered a toxic reaction. The eyes and oral cavity of one of the animals had liquefied. He frowned in distaste and picked up the biosensor's readings. The graphs and columns on the tablet revealed the serum had caused a massive brain aneurysm in the tiny rodents. One by one they expired.

  Corr'tane threw the tablet onto a nearby table and grunted. So much for that one. He silently cursed to himself, then took a deep breath. Failure is an integral part of science, he remembered the professor's words from the first lecture he had ever visited half a decade ago. The failure of one experiment does not call all your scientific work into question. It merely eliminates one path, telling you to concentrate on others.

  He would have to write a full report on his progress – or the lack thereof - ending with the acknowledgment that he needed more time to refine his thesis. He picked the tablet up again and typed a message to the bio-hazard team to come and remove the experiment at their earliest opportunity. And like so many scientists before him who had believed they had found the Philosopher's Stone he left the lab and went back to his own quarters, studying what had gone wrong.

  However, Corr'tane didn't have long to deliberate. With a sharp bang the door to his room flew open to reveal Pyshana, his sister and fellow scientist stumbling into the room, scanning around for him.

  “Corr'tane?!” she shouted. “Brother?”

  “Over here.” He leaned to the side and waved his four-fingered hand, appearing from behind a shelf filled with memorabilia and books printed on actual paper, or rather, synthetic materials that made it look and feel like paper. “I've just finished something that didn't go quite as planned,” he grimaced and glanced at the watch on his desk. “Our dinner meeting isn't due for another half hour. You know, I could use that time to...”

  “Brother, you must look at this!” she waved a thin tablet computer over her head. It was the same sort he used, the sort the academy provided its senior students and researchers with. “Gods, please tell me I am losing my wits, Corr'tane!”

  He raised a brow and took the offered mobile computer from his twin. Pyshana was as slender as he was, leaning more towards the wiry frame of their mother rather than the athletic built of their father. As wasn't unusual for twins, they were the closest of siblings and had been since their day of birth. Through childhood they had been inseparable, both the bane of their teachers with their trouble making and the schools prize pupils after excelling in the sciences. For Corr'tane it was biology. Pyshana, her shoulder-long black mane having a slight metallic-green touch, had dug into astronomy.

  “Always with her head in the stars,” he remembered their mother saying with a smile.

  He reviewed the presented information, recognizing it as astronomical data relating to their home world's star. Some of the figures seemed... unusual, to say the least. “What is this?”

  “An analysis I was conducting of our sun. You know, the newsfeeds have carried reports of oddly colored sunsets for some weeks now. Well, you know how I am: I was wondering why that was the case,” she shrugged sheepishly. “So I took a look at the most likely suspects. I thought it might be solar flare activity, or perhaps magnetic disturbances. Maybe the beginning of a solar cool-down phase. They are rare, but we know from ice-core analysis that they've occurred in the past.”

  “That'd be just like you, being the one to find out about the next global ice age to hit Karashan,” Corr'tane grumbled.

  “Why, thank you, brother, for your great confidence in my ability to herald disaster,” Pyshana retorted snappishly, but her smile waned quickly. Her voice was solemn when she continued. “And herald disaster I do. It's not an ice age. Those figures show something very different. Something a lot worse, if I'm right.”

  “The magnetic field.” He spotted the particular source of the problem. “It's unbalanced.”

  “That doesn't even begin to describe it. Solar magnetic fields are usually rather volatile things. Our sun shouldn't be any different. In fact, last year's data, hells, the stellar survey the university itself did three months ago shows the normal activity of a normal magnetic field. And now this!” she pointed at the data in Corr'tane's hands. “It's become static, brother. Far as I can tell, that's what's causing the spectral anomalies.” Pyshana pointed to some figures.

  “How can these be?” He shook his head, a deep frown set on his face. “This is completely unheard of!”

  “No need to tell me that. I know, but because I tend to be thorough and have a reputation to lose, I checked the figures eight times. Hells, I bounced them off the university's AI system, literally a thousand times. And I wish I was wrong, but it doesn't look like it,” she sighed, and for the first time since Corr'tane could remember he thought he could hear fear in his sister's voice. “Somehow our sun is undergoing a change. That's strange, but it isn't worst of it.” She produced a data drive and jammed it into a wall monitor. “This is a solid projection based on the figures. It shows how this change in the magnetic field affects the sun in the long term. Unfortunately, it's not the static phase we've got to be worried about,” she commented very quietly.

  Corr'tane intently studied the simulation on the large screen. The magnetic field, stable at first, began to recede. It started slowly, at a pace hardly noticeable even at the high resolution on his screen. As time passed, the process accelerated, and suddenly he watched the bluish bubble vanish around Karashan as it collapsed inwards, shrinking towards the inner planets, lifeless rocks visited only by automated mining operations.

  “At this point, life on Karashan would have been eradicated,” Pyshana remarked calmly, pausing the presentation. “Without the magnetic field we'd be exposed to the full brunt of cosmic radiation. Even our higher tolerance wouldn't help us against the amounts we'd be exposed to, to say nothing of the rest of the biosphere. It'd be deadly, but it's sadly not the end of the projections.”

  The presentation continued.

  “There are only two ways this will end, brother. Once the field strength has decreased to a certain point its likely our sun will collapse,” she stared at the image on the screen, showing the bright yellow star the way it should be, warming Karashan, protecting her people. “It'll either shed much of its mass in a supernova-like explosion, turning into a white dwarf star, or it'll collapse into a black hole, which shouldn't be possible with that type of sun! And that's the second kicker: the sun is gaining mass. Whether it's from dark matter or from the ghosts of our ancestors I don't know, but it's definitively the case,” she threw up her hands in frustration.

  “By the gods' mercy,” Corr'tane breathed. “How long until this happens?”

  Pyshana looked away. “About twenty years. Twenty-five, if we're lucky.”

  “Twenty years!” he jumped up from his chair. “Twenty centuries would be too short a time! But, twenty years? Gods!”

  “I know, but that's what it is!” she sounded as desperate as Corr'tane felt that moment. “We have fifteen years before all life in this entire system is
eradicated!”

  He collapsed back into the chair, totally aghast and yet painfully aware of the repercussions of what his twin had discovered. It was a cruel irony. All his work at trying to save lives and prolong life itself now didn't mean a damn. In a twist of galactic fate his people were going to be snuffed out like a candle in the wind within the absurdly short time of less than a generation. It was too much to accept or believe.

  “We must take this to the National Science Council at once,” he whispered, unable to speak louder, through shock.

  “I've sent a message demanding an emergency meeting,” Pyshana explained, sounding less than thrilled. “Please, brother: come with me. You know I am hopeless at presentations. And this is the highest scientific panel in all the Dominion!”

  “Yes, of course I will be there!” he grabbed her arm firmly. “You're absolutely certain you took the right measurements?”

  “Of course I'm sure!” she responded with a slight wail.

  Sometimes he forgot how young they both still were. But the news had seemingly aged him decades in an instant.

  “I know you did,” he calmed her down as best as his own torn state of mind allowed. “But if this is true it's the greatest and most life changing discovery ever. Our entire race's future depends on how we react to this news. It must be accurate, sister. It must be right!”

  “It is, Corr'tane. Gods help us, it truly is.”

  “Then summon your courage, Pyshana. We must make them see what the future holds for us all. Hells,” he ran a harried hand across his face, no noticing the thin, almost white fur.” We are the last generation of Ashani to live here on Karashan. Just consider that for a moment! All our history and ancestry, all the millennia of life and civilization, all of it will disappear!” He took a deep breath. “But it does not mean our people also will. A lot can happen in fifteen years if we prepare. Whatever is causing this: perhaps we can reverse it. Or at least move away to our colonies. There must be something!”