The Dracaenae’s optical sensors were trained on Kelowan. They provided a very clear image of the pristine white-and-blue globe with its golden georing halo glinting. Thyra watched it with her mouth lifted in a faint urbane smile, waiting…

  Her father and the chief archon were at her side. None of them had spoken in what seemed like an age.

  Then a tiny starbright spark appeared on Kelowan’s equator. It crawled slowly and silently across the planet as it reached for the heavens. Thyra inhaled sharply as it vanished. A second later there was a dazzling flash as twenty grams of antimatter breached the confinement chamber wall.

  “Ooops,” she murmured in deadly commiseration. “One bitch down, three to go.” Her hands were proffered to her companions with regal magnanimity.

  “We need to wait for official confirmation that Carolien-Amaia is dead,” her father said through the connection. “I imagine it will take a while for her court to acknowledge it.”

  “Irrelevant,” Iuntin said. “We did it. I have waited so long for this moment, I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.”

  “Just rejoice,” Bekket said. “I do.”

  “I thank both of you, and all those who stand behind us, for your efforts,” Thyra told them demurely. “Father, as soon as confirmation arrives from Kelowan, I will be messaging Luus-Marcela and reminding her that I am the queen who succeeds as empress after Carolien. I will issue a formal notification that I have assumed all Imperial powers. Then we embark on the noble quest to save a planet’s population. My fleet will oversee the effort.”

  “And then we start phase two.”

  “We do indeed,” Thyra said. “I’m really looking forward to finally meeting grandmother Khepri. The whole Crown Dominion will rejoice that the true queen of Kelowan returns from exile.”

  “And that she will take her rightful place as empress,” Iuntin said.

  Thyra’s head tilted with avian deftness to regard him contentedly, then some errant voice from deep inside her head said: You stupid girl.

  * * *

  —

  It wasn’t like emerging from a normal Gate’s frame jump. This was too fast, yet it took way too long. Finn let out a wild yelp. He could’ve sworn a static spark was snapping through his brain. His hands certainly tingled from the discharge.

  Several other startled cries emerged across the Diligent’s command and control center. Otylia was giving him the strangest look. He grinned an apology at her. “It’s okay, we’re out.”

  “So we’re flying relativistic now?”

  “Er, no. The ZPZ kept us in the frame the whole trip.”

  “Finn, just tell me where the hell we are.”

  He started searching the screens. “I sincerely hope…” His arm shot out, pointing. “There. The Capo Frois ingress Gate of Heaven.”

  Otylia regarded the huge Elohim machine cautiously. “Capo Frois?”

  “Yeah.” He shrugged. “It’s got five other Gates, so once we arrive there, we have some good options.”

  “To run?” Ellie said dubiously.

  “A long, long way, yes.”

  “Finn,” Zelinda said. “Whatever this fake Gyvoy’s done, we’ve been set up to take the fall. We have to expose him as a Celestial archon. It’s the only way out for humans.”

  “I know, but we only just got away from those navy frigates and whatever those other two ships were. That’ll never happen again, okay? We go through the Gate and regroup. If we stay here, the navy will take us out. There are a lot of innocents on board, starting with my nephews and nieces.”

  “He’s right,” Ellie said. “And we need time to try and find out how badly Gyvoy messed with our minds and memories.”

  “Otylia?” Finn asked.

  “Yeah,” she sighed. “Through the Gate. Zelinda?”

  “Yes. But I have to come back at some point.”

  “You’re not the marchioness. You don’t owe Gondiar anything.”

  “But I am the marchioness, Otylia. It’s not just a title, you know.”

  “It’s a duty,” Finn said.

  “That’s right.”

  “I’ll help if I can,” he promised her. “Mother would expect nothing less.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Captain,” Finn said, “please take us to the ingress Gate.”

  “As you wish. Are we dumping the anchor craft first?”

  “Hell no, that stays with us. It’s got plenty of weird tech inside, not to mention there’s a few grams of antimatter left. It’s worth a fortune to the right buyer.”

  “You mean the wrong buyer,” Otylia corrected him.

  He rolled his eyes. “Oh, Goddess; I’ve got two big sisters now.”

  * * *

  —

  The Arcadia’s Moon was using its neutral exhaust to accelerate away from Dolod and the Wynid queen’s fleet. Josias reckoned it was producing about a tenth of a gee. He would have preferred more, given what had happened with Dolod and Boksrock. He wanted to put a lot of distance between himself and any navy ship. There was going to be hell to pay when Kelowan was destroyed.

  He looked across the lounge to where Gyvoy was sitting, talking in a low voice to Liliana.

  “I’m not going to make any more speeches,” he announced.

  They both looked at him.

  “Why is that?” Gyvoy asked.

  “People need to calm the hell down. I’m all for standing together and campaigning for politicians to make changes; that’s a good thing. Even a bit of civil disobedience has its place. But Goddess, Gyvoy, taking out a whole planet? That’s too rich for my blood. So I’ll just sit this one out, thanks.”

  “That’s too bad. We were relying on you to spread the word when we reach the next system.”

  “We’re going outsystem?”

  “Yes. To Capo Frois. I happen to know something is going to happen there. The demon queens are going to use it to throw their weight around again. I’m going to show them they can’t. I’m going to show everyone. People deserve to know their oppressors can be beaten.”

  “You haven’t beaten the Imperial Celestials, son. You took it too far is all.”

  “I’m sad you think that, man.”

  “So what are you going to do, throw me out of the airlock? Should be easy. I’m old. I won’t be able to put up a fight.”

  “No, nobody’s doing that. But I think we can convince you to stick with us. You see, what we’re carrying now makes humans as powerful as Celestials. Once we’ve demonstrated that power, they’ll have to leave us alone.”

  “Power? You mean more violence.”

  “I consider it to be a balance of violence. You saw what the Celestials did on Gondiar. Well, now they know we can match that—and then some. So I’m going to ask you to do the honorable thing and negotiate a settlement for us. That is what you do best, isn’t it? Your whole thing? The man who walked on Old Earth knows how to make a deal.”

  “I’ve agreed a few, yeah.”

  “Boksrock was excessive, I admit that. But you have to go excessive if you want their attention—and sweet Asteria, do we have it! All we have to do is show them it wasn’t a one-off. That we are their equals. Well…that’s where you come in. We still want to trade with them; we still want to live on Gondiar and Anoosha. You are someone humans know and respect. They’ll accept a deal you make, because they know they can trust you. So, please consider staying around, yes?”

  Josias frowned. “You didn’t bring an Archimedes Engine on board, I know that much. So what did you bring? What can you use to threaten a dominion whose navy can wipe out entire worlds?”

  “Something else that can wipe out worlds. Equality, I told you; that’s the only way to get what we want. It’s funny, but for all the sophistication of Celestial military tech, one of the oldest weapons is still the one everyone fears.” He clapped his hands together in front of his face, then quickly splayed them wide. “Boom.”

  “A bomb. Holy crap, you have a bomb! Of course you do. I’m forty thousand years in my own future and I’m sitting in a starship with a revolutionary who has a bomb. You’re right, I do know how to make this deal.”

  “It’s not just a bomb. I have The Bomb. Many bombs.”

  Josias had known as soon as Gyvoy said bomb. But he played dumb, because even forty thousand years in the future, fanatics were still stupid little fuckers. “What sort? It’s a nuke, isn’t it?”

  “Better. I pulled all the fuel out of the station: antimatter.”

  “Ah. Right. I think I can remember the equation. If a gram of antimatter and a gram of matter annihilate each other, they produce about a forty-kiloton blast. That’s city-killer size. It’s impressive, but I’m not sure the Celestials will believe you can achieve threat parity with that.”

  Gyvoy leaned forward in his chair and gave Josias a savage grin. “The Archimedes Engine stations use degenerate antimatter for fuel. It’s super-compressed, so you can pack a lot of mass into one of their confinement chambers.”

  “Okay, so how much did you bring up?”

  “Three thousand tons.”

  Acknowledgments

  There are several people whose behind-the-scenes efforts made this book possible. My agents, Antony Harwood and Anthony Gardner. Del Rey and Random House Worlds’ editors, Anne Groell and Tom Hoeler. And James Ohlen, who started it all off by inviting me to join him in this universe.

  Thanks guys, it was a long road but we got there in the end.

  Peter F. Hamilton

  About the Author

  Peter F. Hamilton is the author of numerous novels, including Salvation, Salvation Lost, The Saints of Salvation, A Night Without Stars, The Abyss Beyond Dreams, Great North Road, The Evolutionary Void, The Temporal Void, The Dreaming Void, Judas Unchained, Pandora’s Star, Misspent Youth, Fallen Dragon, and the acclaimed epic Night’s Dawn trilogy: The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God. He lives with his family in England.

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  Peter F. Hamilton, Exodus

 

 

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