Judas Unchained
Table of Contents
PREVIOUS WORKS BY PETER F. HAMILTON
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
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
PROLOGUE
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.”