The Eternity Artifact
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Copyright © 2005 by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
A Tor Book
ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-5345-0
ISBN-10: 0-7653-5345-8
First Edition: October 2005
First Mass Market Edition: August 2006
For Robert and Nesby, in memoriam,
in proof that dreams are carried unto the generations.
“Love of knowledge is the basis of all scholarship and lies eternally at the root of the tree of civilization.”
“The eternal love of God surpasses all other loves, and is to be valued above all worldly and other transient affections.”
“Love is a delusion, an eternal romanticization of lust perpetuated by oversexed males.”
“A true artist’s love of life, of the endless and eternal, and all that it encompasses, is expressed in every brushstroke.”
“What separates artifices and artifacts from mere assemblages of components, what defines them and their use, is the love with which they are constructed and applied.”
Preface
The last—and most unusual—discovery of the ill-fated and underfunded Deep Space Exploration program of the League of Worlds was Chmnos [see “B2,” “DSE, Section 4-1,” “Galactic Anomalies”]…
Chronos is a perfect sphere of compressed matter in a state that appears as neither regular matter, nor that which would be classified as neutronium. Its diameter is 15,020 kilometers [1.178 T-norm], with an approximate mass of 1.9714X1015 kilograms [density is wughty 280 T-norm]. Remote tests and probes indicate no atmosphere, and a surface that is perfectly polished [variation less than .0001 mm.] under a thin layer of galactic dust and detritus. Chronos rotates on its own axis with a period of eleven standard hours…
Based on the accumulation and composition of surface matter, the trajectory of the body, the images and sensor readings, the DSE team estimated that Chronos had been formed between 4 and 10 billion years ago. This preliminary finding ignited controversies in all major systems, and two other brief expeditions [see “Covenant Rim Expedition” and “CW Chronos Probe”] were mounted. Their instrumentation was less elaborate, but essentially confirmed the findings of the DSE expedition…
Equally remarkable is the body’s location and velocity. Chronos was detected beyond the outer edge of the trailing arm of the Galaxy moving at a thirty-degree inclination to the galactic ecliptic and tangent to the arm at a constant velocity of 66 km/sec. Because of its speed and gravitational characteristics, confirmation of its properties was both difficult and costly, and those expenses were a major factor in the termination of the DSE program… After the initial furor over the findings of all three expeditions, all the systems of the Galaxy abandoned the enigma that was Chronos to its lonely journey, citing the difficulties and costs involved in further explorations…
—UNIVERSE OF WONDER
J. Joshua Moorty,
D.Sci. Pan-Media
Delhi, O.E., 4323
Prologue
Goodman
Tyang Ku Wong stepped onto the dais and crossed to the podium. Podiums haven’t been necessary in millennia, except for symbolic reasons, but symbols are critical to humanity, whatever the culture. From where I stood on the west side of the dais with the half squad of White Guards, Ku Wong would be less than ten meters away.
The Hall of Deliberation was hushed as the recently elected people’s advocates of the Middle Kingdom waited to hear him. I already knew the basis of his address and the policies he intended to follow as First Advocate. That was why I was there.
My hands felt like they were sweating under the pseudohand full-gloves that ran from fingernails to elbow. So did my face, under the real-flesh that wasn’t my own. The sweating was an illusion, not from nervousness, but from a systemic reaction to the nanothin layer between my flesh and the foreign DNA of the arm-gloves and head-flesh.
With the other White Guards, I remained perfectly motionless.
Ku Wong stepped behind the podium. The front was carved in the likeness of a spray of bamboo stalks behind the seal of the Middle Kingdom. He let the silence draw out before he spoke. The instantlinguistic made what he said intelligible, but that was only because I’d had practice. Years of it. Speaking was still easier than comprehending.
“… the people of the Middle Kingdom have made their wishes known, and you are here on Tiananmen to enact the laws and policies necessary. The election has made it clear that the Middle Kingdom must be run on principles of enlightened humanism and secularism, and not by the dead hands of ancient prophets and barbaric gods. In an age of enlightenment—and we of the Middle Kingdom are indeed blessed to live in such an age—there is no place for religious and cultural paternalism. There is no place for unbridled feministic anarchy. There is no place for unfettered capitalism, nor for dictatorial government command-and-control. Most important, there is no place for the worship of power for the sake of power. We will continue to oppose all the ancient evils, whether based on superstition and blind belief or upon unchecked power and greed. We will oppose such policies and beliefs both within our worlds—and without—and we will stand firm against those who would force such upon us, or who would endeavor to seduce us with poetic polemics of the past…”
A roar of applause filled the Hall.
I had no doubt that Ku Wong’s words sounded better in their original Mandarin, but the instalinguistics were accurate enough. I waited for the next round of applause.
“… in the course of human events, each people has the choice of whether the day ahead will be a bright tomorrow or a faded yesterday chained by memories of a despotic past. The worlds of the Middle Kingdom have chosen tomorrow, unlike those of Covenanters, who have proved that they will drag all around them, such as the ill-fated Libracracy, into a despotic religious tyranny, or those of the Alliance. Tomorrow will be ours…”
Just before the applause rose to the highest point, I twisted my hand slightly. The miniature nanodarts flashed unseen across the space that separated me from the First Advocate.
He paused, looking surprised. “… will be ours… for we have… prepared…”
A few in the front row—the new ministers—leaned forward. Ku Wong never stuttered.
Abruptly, a pillar of flame flared where he had stood. It was so hot the podium turned black even before the pyrotic darts finished their reactive consumption. The darts had been so small and so comparatively slow that the kinetic energy screens had not been triggered. The multiple microlaunchers in my uniform had disintegrated, and the residue would show nothing.
For less than a second, the Hall of Deliberation was still. Then, chaos erupted.
“Covenanters! Murder!”
With the other guards, I dashed forward. We formed a barrier around the ashes that had been the First Advocate of the Middle Kingdom. Nanette barriers dropped into place, separating the dais from the Hall proper.
“White Guards! Re-fcrm on the wings!” The commands came from nowhere, but the voice was that of General Tse-Sung, the Advocate of Security.
We re-formed. Energy fields flashed over and around us. I waited as hard-faced men and women in brilliant white appeared, with the shoulder braids of Security on their singlesuits.