Walter Jon Williams - Dread Empire's Fall 02 - The Sundering

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Williams, Walter Jon - [Dead Empire's Fall 02] - The Sundering
THE SUNDERING
DREAD EMPIRE’S FALL 02
WALTER JON WILLIAMS
For Kathy Hedges
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Williams, Walter Jon - [Dead Empire's Fall 02] - The Sundering
With thanks to Dr. Michael Wester, for his tour along the hull of a dynamical system, and to Critical
Mass for their massive critiques.
Contents
PROLOGUE
Warrant Officer Severin avoided the glances of his crew. He…
ONE
The defeated squadron was locked in its deceleration burn, the…
TWO
Maurice Chen stepped onto the terrace outside the Hall of…
THREE
Perfect porcelain glazes floated through Sula’s mind, the blue-green celadon…
FOUR
After Corona had finished a pair of high-gee turns around…
FIVE
Martinez welcomed Corona’s new captain with all the grace he…
SIX
Sula walked to Martinez amid the throng in the Shelley…
SEVEN
Martinez was amused that Sula kept getting up during the…
EIGHT
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Williams, Walter Jon - [Dead Empire's Fall 02] - The Sundering
Sula watched as the juggler spun and danced in the…
NINE
Martinez wandered through the Yoshitoshi Palace in a kind of…
TEN
That the Convocation was to take Wormhole 2 to Zarafan…
ELEVEN
Steadied by the arm of the rigger who helped him…
TWELVE
Lady Michi’s dining room was large enough for the formal…
THIRTEEN
As Goddess of the Records Office, Sula worked to cover…
FOURTEEN
The day after the ring was destroyed Sula took the…
FIFTEEN
Warrant Officer Shushanik Severin thought of the cooking oil in…
SIXTEEN
Ten days after the fall of the ring, the first…
SEVENTEEN
Cousin Marcia gave birth to a boy two days after…
EIGHTEEN
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Williams, Walter Jon - [Dead Empire's Fall 02] - The Sundering
By the time they arrived in their own home area…
PROLOGUE
Warrant Officer Severin avoided the glances of his crew. He had led them into this misery, and now he
was unable to lead them out.
The cockpit window of the lifeboat was covered in frost, delicate white clusters of frozen spears that
reflected the red light of the Maw, the supernova ejecta that formed a giant scarlet ring which dominated
the Protipanu system. The lifeboat was grappled to the nickel-iron asteroid 302948745AF, which was
receding from the Protipanu 2 wormhole gate, and from the enemy fleet that guarded it.
The problem was that 302948745AF wasn’t receding nearly fast enough. If Severin ordered the lifeboat
away from the asteroid, he’d be detected by the ten enemy warships in the system and either captured or
destroyed. But if he did nothing, he and his crew would run out of food, or possibly even die of cold.
At the time, his plan had seemed the height of cleverness and high strategic thought. He had been in
command of the Protipanu 2 wormhole relay station when Captain Martinez of theCorona, fleeing a
Naxid squadron, reported that the rebels would enter the system within a matter of hours. Severin had
first of all used a trick of physics to physically move Wormhole 2, which caused the pursuing Naxids to
miss their target and to spend months of frenzied deceleration trying to claw their way back into the
system. Perhaps Severin had been rendered overconfident by this success, because he’d then talked his
crew of six into remaining in the system as observers, grappling their lifeboat to the asteroid in order to
keep watch on the enemy forces and report their location to any loyalist fleet that might jump through
the wormhole to do battle.
Only no loyalist fleet had arrived. That therewere loyalist fleets was proven by the fact that the Naxid
enemy remained in the barren system, barring the most direct route from the capital, Zanshaa, to Third
Fleet headquarters at Felarus. If the rebels had won the war, they surely would have left by now, gone to
somewhere more useful…instead they made a lazy orbit around the Protipanu brown dwarf, and had
filled the system with a bewildering array of decoys designed to mislead any force coming to engage
them.
And so Severin remained grappled to his rock, and his crew with him. The lifeboat’s systems were
powered down to avoid enemy sensors spotting a heat signature, and the crew wore several layers of
clothing and draped around themselves silvery thermal blankets that made them look like walking tents.
Their breath blossomed out before their faces in a white mist, and frost coated the walls and cockpit
windows. Frozen white rimed the beards of the men and the eyelashes of the women.
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Williams, Walter Jon - [Dead Empire's Fall 02] - The Sundering
Thus far Severin’s crew hadn’t complained, and they had offered him no reproaches. Sometimes they
were even cheerful, which was remarkable under the circumstances. They had exercise equipment to
keep them fit and a full library of entertainments. But Severin reproachedhimself —reproached himself
for coming up with the scheme in the first place, and then for failing to provision the lifeboat for as
many months as he could. Six months’ rations had seemed plenty at the time, but now he was beginning
to wonder if he should reduce the number of calories the crew were consuming. And if he did that, the
reproaches, both from himself and from his crew, would begin in earnest.
And so Severin avoided the glances of his crew, and counted the days.
No loyalist fleet came.
A pity, because if they ever arrived, Severin could teach them a great deal.
ONE
The defeated squadron was locked in its deceleration burn, the blazing fury of its torches directed
toward the capital at Zanshaa.Bombardment of Delhi groaned and shuddered under the strain of over
three gravities. At times the shaking and shivering was so violent that the woman called Caroline Sula
wondered if the damaged cruiser would hold together.
After so many brutal days of deceleration, she didn’t much care if it did or not.
Sula was no stranger to the hardships of pulling hard gee. She had been aboard theDauntless under
Captain Lord Richard Li when, a little over two months ago, it had joined the Home Fleet on a furious
series of accelerations that eventually flung it through a course of wormhole gates toward the enemy
lying in wait at Magaria.
The enemy had been ready for them, and Sula was now the sole survivor of the crew of theDauntless.
Delhi, the heavy cruiser that had pulled Sula’s pinnace out of the wreckage of defeat, had been so badly
damaged that it was a minor miracle it survived the battle at all.
All six survivors of the squadron were low on ammunition, and would be useless in the event of a fight.
They had to decelerate, dock with the ring station at Zanshaa, take on fresh supplies of missiles and
antimatter fuel, then commence yet another series of accelerations to give them the velocity necessary to
avoid destruction should an enemy arrive.
That meant evenmore months of standing up under three or four or more gravities, months in which
Sula would experience the equivalent of a large, full-grown man sitting on her chest.
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