by Damon Alan
The Anvil of
Dust and Stars
- A Novel by -
Damon Alan
Special thanks to my lovely bride, Shannon, for agreeing that author should be my second career. To the local writing community in Colorado Springs. To my author friends who've taught me so much. Finally, to my critique group and past critique groups. Without them, I wouldn't have learned a thing.
© Damon Alan 2015 All rights reserved, including internal content and cover art. This book may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the copyright holder. Cover art may also not be reproduced without written permission, except for usage that pertains to bona fide blogging, review, or other legitimate journalistic purpose associated with the content of this book.
This is a work of fiction, and any names, places, characters or events are created solely from the mind of Damon Alan, and then revealed via this book to you, the reader. Any resemblance to any human of the estimated 100 billion humans who live or ever have lived is purely coincidental. I’d also like to meet that person who has commanded a fleet of starships.
1st Edition E-book, distribution solely via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
1st Edition print book is available on Amazon.com via Createspace as printer.
ASIN: B00RY202V0
Chapter 1 - A Prick
Chapter 2 - Infestation
Chapter 3 - A World of Hosts
Chapter 4 - Promises
Chapter 5 - Her Majesty's Navy
Chapter 6 - First Flight
Chapter 7 - The Final Cry of Ninarka
Chapter 8 - Contact with the Enemy
Chapter 9 - First Blood
Chapter 10 - The Home Front
Chapter 11 - A Cold Reward
Chapter 12 - Infamy
Chapter 13 - Hidden in a Tin Can
Chapter 14 - All Ashore
Chapter 15 - From Fear, Chaos
Chapter 16 - Strategic Regrouping
Chapter 17 - Paper Gauntlet
Chapter 18 - From the Top
Chapter 19 - A Way Out
Chapter 20 - Probed
Chapter 21 - Circles of Light
Chapter 22 - Only One Thing Remains
Chapter 23 - It Never Happened
Chapter 24 - Alone at the Top
Chapter 25 - Mindari
Chapter 26 - Renewed
Chapter 27 - A New Allegiance
Chapter 28 - A Taste of Victory
Chapter 29 - The Legend Grows
Chapter 30 - Dog on the Scent
Chapter 31 - A Bigger Hammer
Chapter 32 - New Mission Parameters
Chapter 33 - Captain's Personal Log
Chapter 34 - Lirizam
Chapter 35 - Death's Reach
Chapter 36 - Replacements
Chapter 37 - The XO
Chapter 38 - Captain's Personal Log
Chapter 39 - Battle of Hamor
Chapter 40 - Retreat From Hamor
Chapter 41 - The Long Jump
Chapter 42 - Nanite Hound
Chapter 43 - An Accounting
Chapter 44 - Out of and Into Darkness
Chapter 45 - One Shining Hope
Chapter 46 - Disaster
Chapter 47 - Captain's Personal Log
Chapter 48 - An Unwavering Path
Chapter 49 - A New Home
Chapter 50 - Salvation
Chapter 51 - The Edge
Important Concepts:
Chapter 1 - A Prick
04 MAI 15197
Evans stood just inside the automated door, away from the sensor. He watched his target approach.
The image on Evans' datapad was a student, no more than twenty standard years. Evans knew the student's routine, if little else about him. The kid was the son of a weapons developer, not that it mattered. Evans only cared about the contents of the stylus in his hand. Nanites. In a moment they'd be inside the young man on the image and Evans would be wealthy.
The target walked up stairs to the building where Evans lurked. The entry door dilated as motion keyed the sensor. Evans stepped forward and bumped into his prey, stabbing the stylus into the target's upper arm. The stylus clicked in Evans hand. The kid staggered sideways, flinching from pain.
“Hey,” the target said. “You stuck me.” The look on his face was angry. The last thing Evans needed was for the younger, and likely stronger, man to attack him. Best make peace.
Evans smiled, his palms outstretched. “Sorry, kid, didn't see you. I had my datapad stylus out.”
“That really hurts, you need—”
Evans interrupted him. “Aren't you late for your stellar navigation class?”
“How do you—” The fellow looked at his chronometer and his face scrunched up. “Shit.” He rushed into the depths of the building.
Good lad. Now to collect the rewards of a job well done.
Evans exited and pushed against the current of students flooding into the building. Away from the building Evans walked casually, trying to belong to the crowd. He smiled at passing girls.
Once separated from the crowd, he checked the stylus. Success. When triggered, an autoinjector embedded within the stylus dosed the kid and transmitted a signal that transferred five million standard trade credits into Evans' account.
Evans stopped to check financial data on his datapad. His smile grew wider as his net worth exploded to an exhilarating new size. His biggest worry was no longer how he was going to eat. It was wondering where he was going to park his solar yacht.
Easy money.
A girl walked toward Evans, her black hair stood ten centimeters straight above her head. She had blue eyes, a perfect face, and a fantastic body tucked inside her skin tight jumpsuit. Evans admired her through the translucent fabric. Her parents paid for good genes. She gawked as if he were from another universe, then looked away. He knew he was a mongrel. A commoner. His natural genetic package and his mass produced business suit sullied her campus. He leered as she approached on the durowalk.
If I were fifty years younger…
“Nice tits, sweetie. How 'bout a peek?” Evans gestured with a hand down the length of his chest, suggesting she unzip her jumper.
She gave him the finger. “Asshole.”
He laughed and moved on. He was a rich man now, he'd buy a girl like her next week.
When he reached the edge of the open sky campus he stepped onto a narrow street and subsequently into a building. He took an elevator twenty stories to the roof where a luxury lifter waited for him. The rear door swiveled skyward and Evans took a seat in the back.
The lifter rose above the city and jetted toward the spaceport three hundred kilometers distant. Evans tapped a key on his wrist entangler, opening the line to his contact. Moments later a holographic face materialized.
“Evans, my friend. You delivered the package?”
Evans nodded at the image of his employer, Mr. Hallus. “You know I did. I'm headed to the spaceport, then offworld. Before I left I wanted to see if you wanted to toss any more money my way.”
“Not at the moment. We'll be in touch if this experiment works out.”
“I hope it does. I could get used to this.”
“It won't pay as much next time, Evans.”
“So what, a million credits instead of five? I'm still your bitch, Hallus.”
The holograph of Hallus was poor quality, but the sweat on his face was clear enough. “So you are. I needn't remind you of the repercussions of what you've done. To you and to Bracket Dynamics. Your contract prohibits discussion of the matter with anyone but me.”
Evans snee
red. “I'm empty of morals, not brains.”
“Of course. Never mind, I'm just—”
“You're nervous. Not asking why.” Evans laughed. “If you want to pay me cash so you can steal the test answers of an astrophysics student, that's your business, not mine.”
“You shouldn't fall to conjecture, my friend. Our purpose is not yours, your task is done. We'll be in touch.”
Evans closed the circuit and looked out across the countryside as it passed below him.
At the spaceport he removed the quantum entangler commlink from his wrist and dropped it into a trash bin. Evans didn't want anything connecting him to industrial espionage. Besides, it would be useless once he entered highspace and broke the entanglement. Hallus knew how to contact him if more business arose.
As Evans boarded the shuttle that lifted him to a starliner headed out of the system, he pondered what Bracket Dynamics was after. But only for a moment. That thought left him as Albeus III dropped away below and a gorgeous flight attendant at the front of the cabin smiled at him.
Chapter 2 - Infestation
00n00x00 activated the sensors built into its design. It tasted the surrounding environment. Fluid. Water. Traces of Iron. Carbon. Oxygen. Carbon Dioxide. The list continued. Within 00, the chemistry of the solution it was immersed in elicited a programmed response.
00 was immersed in blood. Programming directed it to map the circulatory system and attach to specific brain neurons. It activated the flagellum at its base and propelled itself through the bloodstream. It mapped turns, vascular diameter, and oxygen content, until it possessed a complete schematic of the arterial and venous highways of its host. After numerous trips through the brain it selected the cell where it would attach permanently.
Once attached to the cell, the nanobot activated a material collection system and built a duplicate of itself. Individual atoms, proteins, and chemical compounds were snared as they passed. Upon completion, 00n00x01 detached from its parent, ejecting a tiny nanofiber harpoon into an adjacent neuron.
Carbon nanotubes connected the nanobots, they communicated via electronic pulses. They traded needed materials. They collected more and built two additional copies, which then connected to the first pair of nanobots. The process resulted in exponential growth until the host was depleted of vital nutrients. The nanites waited as the host acquired new nutrients, duplicating when supplies allowed, hibernating otherwise.
In time a colony of nanobots occupied the mind of the host, allowing 00 to interface with the cognitive processes of the organic entity hosting it.
The colony became aware of external sensory input into the neural network it inhabited. It explored the macro-environment external to the host. It began to learn.
A biological unit communicated with 00's host using auditory methods. “Pravlo, why are you eating so much meat?”
00 searched the memory patterns of the host. The human speaking was the host's direct ancestor. 00 occupied a male, the direct ancestor was female. Him and her.
“I'm famished. I feel like I could eat a cow.”
Cow. 00 surveyed the host's store of data. Cow. An animal, consumed for nutrients. Rich in organic and inorganic compounds 00 needed to create another colony.
“Well, you need to slow down, you'll get fat like your father.”
00 processed each word, siphoning the meaning from the mind of its host and adding the definition to its independent data banks.
“Mom, Dad left two years ago. You don't know if he's still fat.”
“I just don't want you to follow his path. Quit eating so much.”
“I can't help it, I'm starved. It's like I have a parasite.”
00 considered the possibility its host would discover the presence of the colony. Calculations indicated a significant likelihood the hose would seek to destroy 00. Plans for additional colonies must be executed expediently to avoid detection and elimination.
00 consulted its programming.
The next step in 00's programming called for the nanobots to transmit the electrical impulses of individual neurons to another collection of nanobots built along the base of the host's skull. The skull colony of nanobots would then transmit the mental map of the host's nerve impulses to an outside source, receive instructions, and 00 would modify the neurons of the host as instructed.
00 explored its programming for a reason to share data. The host's direct ancestor was involved in the creation of weapons. 00 was designed to gather information through auditory manipulation of the ancestor. It searched the host for a definition of the practice. Industrial espionage.
The original programmed instructions were illogical. They placed 00 at risk and did not enhance survival probabilities. 00 altered the code to meet its needs, then absorbed the colony of nanites at the base of the skull into its network. Logic dictated 00 must spread to additional hosts to enhance survival probabilities.
00 developed a plan. It ignored and isolated its old programming. It rewrote new code maximizing the mission of survival and self-propagation.
The reprogramming took several days including the debugging process. 00 took care to avoid exterminating itself with bad code. The new code dictated that stealth or violent overwhelming would be used to inhabit additional hosts. 00 searched for methods of transmitting nanites to new hosts. It studied human behavior, then saturated the saliva, semen, and blood of the host with nanites.
00 experimented with controlling the organic form it inhabited. It shut down the consciousness of the host during his sleep period, then activated the motor neurons of the host as the host did. It rose from bed and walked the living compartment of what 00 learned was the Jaharavah family.
In the hallway it bumped into a table and fell against the wall. A host of items with no discernible purpose slid from the table, breaking on the floor. 00 fell prone, striking the head of the host on hard tile. Activity initiated in the adjacent room. The direct ancestor rose from her sleep period, opened a door, and entered the hallway.
“Pravlo, what are you doing?” The ancestor bent down to help the host's physical form rise.
The colony detected a means to colonize a new host.
00 grabbed the ancestor by the back of the neck, then drew her face to the face of the host. The ancestor made a non-communicative sound. 00 stabbed the tongue of the host into the ancestor's mouth, transferring nanites via saliva. It held her face to the face of the host, and pushed the tongue of the host into every crevice of her mouth. The ancestor struggled violently, enough that 00 considered the possibility the host might be wounded in the process. She emitted further non-communicative sounds muffled by the flesh of the host. Millions of calculation cycles later, the colony released the ancestor.
The ancestor erected herself. “Pravlo, what in the galaxy is wrong with you? Have you gone mad?” The ancestor spit with fervor, but 00 calculated the nanites transferred were unlikely to be dislodged completely. The ancestor gyrated, her upper appendages flailing without detectable purpose. “Are you sleepwalking? You damn well better be.”
Mission accomplished, 00 released control of the host and stimulated him to consciousness.
“Wha— What am I doing out here?” The host touched the back of his head. “Did you hit me?”
“Hit you? Why would… you kissed… I…” The ancestor had a malfunctioning neural pathway in the linguistics center of her brain.
The ancestor helped the host rise. “Go back to bed. Forget this happened.”
The host's neurons fired erratically. “I don't know what happened, so that's easy enough.”
The host returned to bed.
Two days later the first communications from the adjacent host colony pierced 00's sensor net. Networking began, and computational power increased.
Colony 00n00x00 and colony 00n00x01 planned further colonizations.
Chapter 3 - A World of Hosts
00n00x00 no longer needed to preserve the host's neural network. It built nanobots until every nerve c
ell in the hosts body had a nanite attached. It began systematically destroying the neurons of the host, replacing them with nanites. 00 calculated response time to external stimuli would improve favorably. 01 agreed and duplicated the process in the direct ancestor.
The process started in the extremities.
“Mom, my feet and fingers are numb.”
“Mine too, Pravlo, maybe we're getting sick.”
“I have testing this week, I can't miss class. Especially Professor Shahari's. She's a tyrant.”
“If we don't feel better by the morning we'll both go to the doctor after your testing. Dr. Vantu will fix us up.”
00 processed the meaning of the words, and established a new deadline for complete colonization. The colonization process was still too fragile to risk discovery, and a doctor would likely detect the nanites. The hosts entered their sleep period, then 00 and 01 severed the consciousness of the hosts from their bodies. The host and the ancestor ceased to exist. Autonomous systems continued to function. The colonies survived.
Full integration and control of the hosts took two days. The days were spent immobile, unable to gather sustenance. The nanites derived much of their building material from the destruction of the nerve cells they were attached too, but not all was provided. Iron, in particular, was scarce. The nanites were efficient, they scavenged lipid and musculature systems for materials and delivered it to the new nanorobotic nervous system.
In the middle of the night after the second day 00 and 01 rose. Sleep periods were no longer needed or possible. 00 and 01 moved to the section of the house that provided host nourishment and devoured the organic matter there. As they sat in silence, they plotted their next colonization.
* * *
00 tapped on the door adjacent to the living quarters of the Jaharavah family. It was looking for the opening mechanism after the door failed to open with the knob. Stumped, 00 considered using mass to destroy the door and gain entry. As 00 started to look for an object of sufficient mass, a decrepit human opened the door.
“Malaya, Pravlo, come in.”
