“At least we can help the population,” Elyria said, firmly. It was early days yet, but most of the planet’s population seemed overwhelmed by the Confederation’s largesse. The only real objections had come from the former Pillars and Scions, who had to adjust to a world where they couldn’t click their fingers and turn their enemies into toads. “And there is the genetic legacy of Darius to consider.”
She patted her belly meaningfully. The CSC had already debated her child, she knew, even though she hadn’t been invited to join that discussion. Indeed, she suspected that some of the Conservatives and Isolationists had argued that her daughter should be aborted, just in case she would pose a later danger to the Confederation. Eventually, she’d been asked to have her child on an isolated platform, well away from the rest of humanity. She’d agreed, after some haggling. And Joshua had insisted on accompanying her.
“Yes, there is,” the AIs added. “Overall, this mission was a success. We learned a great deal more about the quantum foam than we knew before we started. And we have ensured that the Darius Machine will not fall into unfriendly hands.”
“And yet we still don’t know who built it,” the Admiral mused.
“It may remain a mystery,” the AIs agreed. “We have managed to recover some memory chips from Clarke. The colony ship was heading for a star much closer to Earth when they found themselves transported across half the galaxy. Quite how that happened is uncertain; they don’t seem to have realised that they travelled forward in time as well as in space. There are some similarities between the crystal lattices and the Jewelled Boxes on Essence, but nothing to suggest a link between the two worlds.”
“Let’s hope not,” Elyria said. “Although it may lend support to the theory that the improved children were meant to serve as hosts.”
“We may never know,” the AIs said. “Overall, the mission was a success.”
“Sure it was,” Elyria muttered. “And yet the patient died.”
***
“This is fantastic!”
Joshua allowed himself a smile. Julius and Rose had been among the first to be brought up to the cityship when the Confederation had openly revealed itself and they loved it. Their parents still thought it was a trap, or a way to deprive them of their hard-earned cash, but their children were delighted at the possibilities. And they would never have to do what anyone else wanted ever again. The old biddies who cast a long shadow over young lives would have no power in the Confederation.
“Yes, it is,” he said, quietly. He had no magic any longer – apart from the niggling sense that the magic field was still there – but it hardly mattered. “You can be whatever you like out here.”
Master Faye had betrayed him. Joshua wasn’t sure what to make of that, or of Dacron, who had killed him. And yet Master Faye clearly hadn’t been acting of his own free will. Joshua had been controlled by the Darius Machine, forced to do its bidding, and he knew how hard it had been to fight. Master Faye hadn’t meant to betray the Confederation and try to kill his apprentice.
And Joshua was going to be a father. He wasn’t sure what to make of that either.
He shook his head as he looked down at Darius, turning slowly below the vast starship. The planet would never be the same again, not when half of the population had already departed, boarding the giant starships. His mother and father had come when he’d urged them to join him, but they’d been stunned at what they’d seen and retreated to their cabins. The younger ones seemed to find it easier to adapt to the ships, while the elders complained about losing their world. It didn’t seem to occur to them that there was a better way to live.
And besides, they would never be at the mercy of the Pillars ever again.
He watched Julius and Rose walking off and smiled inwardly. There were all sorts of possibilities opening up now. He would learn to fly an aircraft, and then a spacecraft; he would find a place in the Confederation... he would have a better life than he would have as either a Scion or a Pillar. And even if they couldn’t fix the damage he’d inflicted on his brain, at least the absence of magic should stop any further damage. The future looked bright and full of promise.
And who knew where their child would lead the Confederation, in the future?
EPILOGUE
Nine months after Darius, Elyria lay on the bed and relaxed, feeling her enhanced body slowly repairing itself after giving birth. The whole procedure had been uncomfortable even with the enhancements, explaining why so many women preferred to use external wombs rather than gestate their children naturally. A strange sense of pleasure suffused her as she recovered, just before the midwife held the child up in front of her. The baby looked... like a baby.
“Thank you,” she breathed, as she took her daughter into her arms. The baby felt delicate to her, despite the enhancements that had been a core part of her genetic inheritance. “Were... were there any complications?”
“None,” the AI drone reported. “The birth was textbook perfect.”
Elyria allowed herself a moment of relief. The child she had been carrying – the child in her arms – was perhaps the most famous person in the entire Confederation, even though she’d done nothing. Ever since the news about Darius had spread across the datanet, the entire universe had been speculating on what her child might become – and some of their speculations had been nightmarish. One group had suggested that her child would become a minor god, a being with the power of an Elder and the body of a human; another had suggested that she would be an eldritch abomination and Elyria herself would die in childbirth. It hadn’t been very reassuring.
“Good,” she said, finally. Despite her enhancements, she still felt tired. “Have you registered the birth with the Confederation’s datanet?”
“You have yet to select a name,” the AIs reminded her. The child would carry her birth-name until she reached maturity, whereupon she would be able to change her name if she wanted to be called something different. “And there is a more important matter.”
Elyria looked up, alarmed. “We have been unable to send nanites inside her body,” the AIs added. “They just die the moment they enter her skin.”
“Just like the snoops on Darius,” Elyria said. She looked down at her daughter’s bright green eyes. “Is she generating a portable Dead Zone, instinctively?”
“We are uncertain,” the AIs admitted. “It is possible that her abilities are defending her body from intrusion, even though we mean no harm. In the long run, she may be unable to accept rejuvenation if we cannot use nanotech inside her.”
Elyria shook her head in disbelief. None of the former magicians from Darius had ever been able to do more than sense the quantum foam, even on an Ancient world. There was no longer any magic, until now. Her daughter was minutes old and she was already stunning the AIs with powers that she simply shouldn’t be able to have. The entire Confederation would be astonished when they found out.
But she was still Elyria’s child.
She pulled her daughter to her breast protectively and looked up, at the drone. “But what can cause this?” she asked, plaintively. Might her child never be anything more than an experimental subject? “What did the machine do to her? How did it even happen?”
“Sufficiently advanced technology,” the AIs said. “Magic.”
The End
Elsewhen Press
a small independent publisher specialising in Speculative Fiction
Visit the Elsewhen Press website at elsewhen.co.uk for the latest information on all of our titles, authors and events; to read our blog; to find out where to buy our books and ebooks; or to place an order.
Elsewhen Press
The Royal Sorceress
The first book of the Royal Sorceress series
Christopher Nuttall
1830, in an alternate Britain where the ‘scientific’ principles of magic, discovered 60 years previously, allowed the British to prevent American Independence. The ageing Royal Sorcerer, Master Thomas, must find a successor
: a Master of all the known magical powers. There’s only 1 candidate, who has displayed such a talent from an early age. A candidate perfect in all ways but one: the Royal College of Sorcerers has never admitted a girl before.
ebook, paperback (400pp)
visit bit.ly/TheRoyalSorceress
Elsewhen Press
The Great Game
The second book of the Royal Sorceress series
Christopher Nuttall
After the uprising in London, Lady Gwendolyn Crichton is settling into her new position as Royal Sorceress and fighting the prejudice against her gender and age that seeks to prevent her from fulfilling her responsibilities. But when a senior magician is murdered in a locked room and Gwen is charged with finding the culprit, her inquiries lead her into a web of intrigue that combines international politics, widespread aristocratic blackmail, gambling dens and personal vendettas... and some of her discoveries hit dangerously close to home.
ebook, paperback (400pp)
visit bit.ly/TheGreatGame
Elsewhen Press
Bookworm
Christopher Nuttall
Elaine, an inexperienced witch in Golden City, has her life turned upside down when she triggers a magical trap and ends up with all the knowledge in the Great Library stuffed inside her head. Avoiding the Inquisition she tries to understand what has happened to her. But she is a pawn in the dark plans of one who wants the Grand Sorcerer’s power.
ebook, paperback (384pp)
visit bit.ly/Bookworm-Nuttall
Elsewhen Press
A Life Less Ordinary
Christopher Nuttall
There is magic in the world, hiding in plain sight. If you search for it, you will find it, or it will find you. Welcome to the magical world.
Dizzy expected nothing from life, until she stumbled from the mundane world into the magical world, an alternate reality where dragons flew through the sky and the Great Powers watched over the world. Forgetting her old life, Dizzy became apprenticed to one of the most powerful magicians in all of reality and a bright future beckoned. But powerful dark forces had their eye on the young and inexperienced magician, intending to use her for the ultimate act of evil – the apocalyptic destruction of all reality. Now, Dizzy must beat them. If she cannot, both the magical and mundane worlds will be consumed in fire.
ebook, paperback (336pp)
visit bit.ly/ALLO-Nuttall
Elsewhen Press
ARTEESS: CONFLICT
JAMES STARLING
Arteess, a game but not child’s play. A private virtual reality experience, players invited to an international warzone of nomadic factions. The Shard squad, friends specialising in conflict arenas, surrounded by sociopathic technicians, facetious pilots and an insane commander, must survive the onslaught of rivals and the antics of their own faction.
ebook, paperback (256pp)
visit bit.ly/Arteess-Conflict
Elsewhen Press
Entanglement
Douglas Thompson
Best described as philosophical science fiction, Entanglement explores our assumptions about such constants as death, birth, sex and conflict, as the characters in the story explore distant worlds and the intelligent life that lives there.
Entanglement is simultaneously a novel and a series of short stories: 24 worlds, 24 chapters, 24 stories; each one another step on mankind’s journey outwards to the stars and inwards to man’s own psyche. Yet the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts; the synergy of the episodes results in an overarching story arc that tells us more about ourselves than about the rest of the universe.
ebook, paperback (336pp)
visit bit.ly/EntanglementBook
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Nuttall has been planning sci-fi books since he learned to read. Born and raised in Edinburgh, Chris created an alternate history website and eventually graduated to writing full-sized novels. Studying history independently allowed him to develop worlds that hung together and provided a base for storytelling. After graduating from university, Chris started writing full-time. As an indie author, he has self-published a number of novels. Sufficiently Advanced Technology is his fourth novel to be published by Elsewhen Press, and the first in the Inverse Shadows universe. Chris is currently living in Borneo with his wife, muse, and critic Aisha.
Sufficiently Advanced Technology (Inverse Shadows) Page 34
