Outer
Darkness
The novel opens with Abrams approaching the area controlled
by the natives. He realizes that
its revenge that motivates Baron Cobalt, nothing else.
Kane and Grant have been working for a couple of days getting
the war wag up and running again. Domi is with them and is busy getting the
weapons that the natives had in hiding cleaned and working again. This work goes
a long way to building trust between the two groups.
Auerbach meets with Brigid to voice his opinion about the
engineer and Beth li, and wants to bring it to Lakesh’s attention.
Brigid at this time is hunting for information on Thrush, some sort of
connection.
Lakesh comes in and Brigid voices her and Auerbachs opinion
on wegman and Rouch. He dismisses it but she pushes it by asking what would have
happened to them if there was a power failure while they were caught in the
jump. Lakesh tells her they would
die at the best, be caught as energy forever in the worst case.
Brigid also finds a connection she was looking for.
Auerbach returns to his quarters and meets Rouch.
She wants to know if the bug was placed. Turns out that she is playing
them all and plans on doing Kane in for scorning her.
Kane and Skydog discuss the impending arrival of the
Magistrates after a group of warriors arrive and report a brief encounter with
tem. He plans to show a great deal of bluff and theatrics in dealing with Abrams
and the others.
The Magistrates, led by Abrams arrive and are stopped by a
group natives, led by Skydog. He
tells Abrams that they are not allowed to cross their land and to turn around
and go back the way they came. It
is clear that Abrams is not going to listen. Skydog gives the signal and Kane
drives the War Wag out from hiding, shocking the hell out of the mags.
As Kane figured, Abrams opens the battle. Skydog is wounded
and several of the warriors are killed outright.
Kane pushes the War Wag ahead and smashes into the Sandcats. Domi fires a
LAW rocket on one of the Cats and damages it.
The armored Magistrates get out and end up killing more of the natives
before they are finally taken down. But
in the end Abrams has no choice but to give up or be killed.
They allow the surviving Magistrates to leave unmolested, but
are forced to leave their weapons behind, taking only food and knives with them.
Abrams and the survivors leave. After the battle, they change Kane’s
name to Unktomi Shunkaha, trickster wolf.
After a night of celebration and mourning over the loss of
the warriors Kane, Grant and Domi return to the redoubt. At this point it has
been six days since the last jump into the second casement.
Kane and Brigid meet and she informs him that the repairs are
complete. They talk about Rouch and go to his quarters. Here the discussion
continues and they delve into the other casements.
They wonder if they are real or just figments of Kane’s imagination,
and the fact that in every casement their doppelgangers are all connected.
Lakesh contacts them and requests a meeting. Reluctantly they
go to see him. During the meeting a lot of interesting points and theories are
discussed regarding Thrush and the casements.
A great deal of it based on what Brigid discovered.
When the meeting is finished Kane goes outside and
contemplates the ideas they talked about. Beth Li approaches him and apologizes
for shooting him. Kane acknowledges her and they talk for a few minutes before
she leaves.
Brigid is swimming to relax when Auerbach comes to see her.
His attraction is painfully obvious and he tells her honestly that he is worried
about her safety when it comes to the next jump.
She kindly shrugs it off.
Dafore is giving Grant’s healing wounds a check up. Despite
his ignoring her orders he is healing quite well. To defuse the situation he
asks her what her first name is. She tells him its Reba. This surprises him
because it was the name of his doppelgangers lover in the second casement.
They prepare for the next day’s jump.
Kane is in the new casement. This one the holocaust was
averted at the last second, and not only that but President Kennedy wasn’t
assassinated in sixty three. Kane
is the commander of a Ranger Starship and they are on a patrol. They were sent
to investigate an intruder. They
catch up with it and are taken by surprise at its speed and maneuverability, as
well as the fact that it seems to be using gateway jumps to travel. After the
encounter they head to Parallax red.
At the space station Admiral Salvo meets with the Rangers and
the governors of the four colonies. It is to discuss the pact with the Archons
that has obviously been broken. They
then view a message from Thrush. He demands the unconditional surrender of Earth
to the Archons. After the message it is clear that several of the governors are
willing just to let the Archons have earth figuring that they will be safe in
their colonies.
During the meeting they also see an attack by the Archon
directorate that destroys one of their newest ships right in the shipyard.
Again it is clear that the Archon ships are using gateways to travel.
Salvo wants Kane to go out and find the origin of the Archons and see if it is
possible to put an end to them.
Fand and Brigid arrive to discuss the situation and to go on
the mission as well. Fand is there to help them find the natural jump points
that the Archons are using to travel from one point in space to another.
Kane informs the crew that their usual leave time has been
cancelled and that they are to take off the next morning on an important
mission. Domi and grant get into a
heated argument over this turn of events. She
wants him to have his own life, his own command and she feels his loyalty to
Kane is destroying his future. During the fight, it allows the other Grant to
gain control of this casements body.
Fand is suspicious of Kane, knowing he isn’t this Casements
Kane. She attacks him in his quarters. They
get into a fight and it allows the other Kane to gain control of the body. Fand isn’t surprised at all. In fact she understands
completely. They discuss it and give into their passions.
She is determined to help the other Kane succeed in his mission.
At 3 AM the next day the ship pulls out of Parallax red, all
hands on board and head out to find the natural jump points with Fand’s help.
Kane takes Brigid aside in an attempt to help the Brigid from
his casement to take control. But no mater what he does nothing works other than
to take make it appear as if he’s lost it.
On the way the ship encounters a Gaka Deki class ship called
the Okami Maru. Captained by Jozure, the Asian captain insists on going with
them on the mission Kane has no real choice but to allow them to come along.
Fand locates the jump point and both ships enter it using
technology developed by this casements Lakesh.
They jump out and find themselves in another solar system. The Okami Maru
is still with them when they re-emerge.
On the other side they come face to face with Thrush’s
dreadnaught. They try to fight but
the ship quickly disables both ships. Thrush
contacts them and gives them no choice but to surrender or be destroyed.
The memories of this particular casements memory come rushing
back in and he realizes why the fusion took so well.
This casement is tired of making life or death decisions and wants
someone else to run his life for a short time. He retires to his quarters and
Brigid comes to see him. She refuses to accept what happened but the fusion
eventually happen. They both go back to the bridge.
Thrush orders Fand, Brigid, Kane, Grant, And Jozure to come
over to his ship. They arm
themselves and do as they were told. After
a quick demonstration of his superior technology on Jozure, he demands that they
all head to the ships Bridge.
When they arrive they see the Thrush’s from the other
Casements, all beaten, decaying and barely functioning. Thrush forces them to
take a Mat Trans and they find themselves on a special ship, a nexus of the
Archon technology and a neutral point from which all realities can be reached.
Back on the Saber Domi gets word from the Maru to counter
attack. She and the others will end up dead firing the Shrikes (the ships missiles)
in an attempt to destroy the ship.
Brigid realizes that it’s a trap. Thrust revived the old
fears of the Archon directive in this casement and plans to use it to start a
devastating war between the colonies. In this particular casement the plans were
all discovered and defeated. Here Thrush failed.
While they talk they learn that the stones hold all the knowledge of the
Archons. Thrush intends on scaring them by showing them his un-adorned robotic
body. At the same time the station shakes from an attack.
Domi is in the launcher on the saber and sets the shirkes to
manually launch. They fire at the sphere and the damage causes the tractor beam
that is holding the two ships to weaken and they regain communications.
The Japanese Captain fires on Thrush and is instantly killed
by the robots defenses in the ship. Thrush disappears.
Grant wants to start destroying all his bodies that are waiting to be
activated but they don’t have the time. At this time they are contacted by
Cotta. Kane tells him to get in contact with the tiger ship and to inform them
that their captain is dead.
When the tiger ship hears the news the fire on the hub and do
enough damage to shut off the tractor beam. While this is happening Brigid fires
into the room they are in and damages the wall, discovering that it is a
holographic projector. Kane and Grant leave the room, making Brigid and Fand
stay behind and watch the stone. They have to defeat him or they will be stuck
here for ever.
As the attack causes more damage on the hub, cotta orders a
full volley to be fired at the location they hit before. They unload all the
weapons.
Kane and Grant hunt for Thrush. Due to the size of the ship
they could hunt for decades. But Thrush brings the fight to them.
The tiger ship fires a full load on the dreadnaught and in
the end rams it. The ship is destroyed but the dreadnaught is badly damaged. The
ship is dead in space and no longer a threat.
During the fight Kane learns from Thrush that the Archons
began to fear their creation and in the end they tried to destroy him. But
before Thrush can continue, he feels the onslaught of the saber. Thrush demands
that Kane order his crewmen to break off the attack. He is actually afraid
because he didn’t take into consideration. Kane, of course, refuses. Thrush
projects a pair of probes from his fingers and drills them into Kane’s mind.
The pain in unreal. Kane can’t separate himself from the
pain. Fand, with Brigids help, allow him to regain control of his body and Kane
forces Thrush’s hand back and causes the probes to drill into his own skull.
The attack causes Thrush’s head to explode and a black wave
of energy seeps from it. Kane and Grant race back towards the room where Brigid
and Fand are waiting, the energy wave following closely after them. When they
reach the two women they jump into the mat trans and arrive on the dreadnaught.
During the jump Kane, Grant and Brigid leave their
doppelgangers and return to their own casement. Kane however doesn’t want to
go he wants to stay. He doesn’t want to go to the slagheap. He is even willing
to stay lost between the casements forever but Brigid brings him back with her.
Back in the other casement the other Kane and his crew
discover that the hub disappeared entirely and decide to take a leisurely trip
back to the natural jump point so they can explore before going back to earth.
Beth Li finally makes her move. She tries to get Auerbach to
cause a power surge that will kill the three of them. Wigman intervenes and with
Domi’s help prevents her from doing what she wanted to do. Domi is so enraged;
she beats the other woman senseless and then drowns her.
After Kane and the others have recovered they talk to Lakesh.
He is excited over the possibilities the stones present. Kane however knows the
danger they present. He takes the stones to the edge of the redoubt and tosses
them much to Lakesh’s horror over into the abyss.
End of Outer Darkness