Blade, page 31
part #4 of Inverted Frontier Series
This did not seem likely to Urban, and the Scholar too looked doubtful. He added, “Or possibly a stealth virus spread from library to library, corrupting the original data.”
“Wouldn’t we know if that had happened?” Urban asked. “Wouldn’t there be some trace? Some sign?”
“The trace is the inconsistency.”
As subminds traded back and forth between his living avatar and this ghost in the library, he felt his heartbeat quicken. He looked at the Engineer. “Easier to change a fact in a library—the name of a star—than it would be to change the spectrum of light used in tens of thousands of ships and habitats and celestial cities.”
The Engineer nodded. “I agree.”
Urban then uttered what felt to him like a daring conclusion. “So that star we call the Sun, with its dead system . . . it’s not the Sun—because its spectrum is wrong.”
He looked to the Astronomer for an objection. None came, though the Apparatchik looked even angrier now, his gaze distant and his brow furrowed in a deep scowl.
“What star does generate this known spectrum of light?” Urban asked him.
The Astronomer’s eyes shifted, fixing Urban with a chilly glare. “I should have noted this inconsistency long ago. It’s just . . . I never thought to measure the spectrum of your artificial light!”
“What star?” Urban insisted, desperate for some better option than the lifeless system where they were bound.
The Astronomer’s scowl lightened just a little as he said, “The spectrum we utilize on the gee deck is an exact match, when filtered through atmosphere, to the light emitted by the veiled star within the Halo.”
The Halo?
On the gee deck, Urban caught his breath, his gaze rising to take in the sight of the deck’s artificial sky—the beautiful blue cloud-laced sky of Earth. In the library, he proffered a tentative conclusion. “So that star, mostly hidden at the center of the Halo, that’s the Sun. Right? The true Sun. Not that empty system where we are bound.”
“Yes,” the Astronomer affirmed, with no hint of doubt. “We have been deliberately misled. That false Sun is a near twin of the Halo—the same type, the same age. It is likely both stars emerged from the same stellar nebula. But it is not the source of the spectrum that lights our artificial skies.”
Urban smiled, eager now to hasten their departure from Hupo Sei. On the high bridge, he shared his excitement with the philosopher cells, encouraging them to ponder and evaluate the strange technologies evident at the Halo—its veil of orbiting objects, its encircling ring of lights blazing like tiny stars.
At the same time, his avatar’s worried frown transformed to an eager smile as he announced to Tio and Clemantine, “We have a new destination.”
◇ ◇ ◇
Looking Ahead
Will there be another book in the Inverted Frontier series?
That's the plan. My goal is to write one more volume and complete the series with five books. No publication date has been set yet, though my hope is to have book 5 ready for publication in 2025. You can visit my website or blog for updates. Or better—sign up for my monthly newsletter. You’ll hear about all my new work and any special deals, as well as my reading recommendations. All it takes is an email address, and of course you can unsubscribe at any time.
— Linda Nagata
March 2024
Before the Inverted Frontier, there was
The Nanotech Succession
Explore more of this story world in a sequence of stand-alone novels:
Tech-Heaven (prequel)
A political thriller that imagines the rise of nanotechnology in our world through the eyes of Katie Kishida, a mother and business woman whose life takes an extraordinary turn when she is widowed, and her husband's body is cryonically frozen against a time when advancing technology will allow his resurrection.
The Bohr Maker (book 1)
Society has expanded into the great orbital habitats known as the “Celestial Cities” and nanotechnology saturates every aspect of life—but the rules regulating its use are still being written. A brilliantly original, fast-paced thriller, The Bohr Maker won the Locus Award for Best First Novel.
Deception Well (book 2)
Advancing technology has allowed human civilization to expand across star systems, establishing settlements divided from one another by vast gulfs of space and time. But all along the frontier, human settlements are under attack by the ancient and deadly robotic warships of a mysterious alien race known as the Chenzeme.
Vast (book 3)
Four people are aboard the great ship, Null Boundary. They are bound for the lightless clouds of dust and gas in the galaxy's Orion Arm, determined to find the source of the alien Chenzeme warships that have ravaged human civilization. Vast is an extraordinary adventure embracing the limitless nature of both space and time.
For more on The Nanotech Succession, visit Linda Nagata's website, MythicIsland.com.
More Books by Linda Nagata
Near-Future Science Fiction
Pacific Storm
The Last Good Man
Limit of Vision
Tech-Heaven
The Red Trilogy:
The Red: First Light
The Trials
Going Dark
Far-Future Science Fiction
Inverted Frontier Series:
Edges
Silver
Needle
Blade
Memory (related)
The Nanotech Succession:
Tech-Heaven (prequel)
The Bohr Maker
Deception Well
Vast
Skye-Object 3270a (young adult/middle grade)
Fantasy Novels
The Wild Trilogy:
The Snow Chanter
The Long War
Days of Storm
Stories of the Puzzle Lands Duology:
The Dread Hammer
Hepen the Watcher
Short Fiction Collections
Attitude and Other Stories
Light and Shadow
Goddesses & Other Stories
Additional information on all of Linda Nagata’s books, including sample chapters and links to print, ebook, and audio versions, can be found at the author's website: MythicIsland.com.
Acknowledgments
As always, thanks are owed to my long-time freelance editor, Judith Tarr, who has worked with me throughout this entire series. I don't know where I'd be without her.
Thanks also to Wil McCarthy for reading an early version of the manuscript, and to Tim McGregor, Ken Malphurs, and Glen Kilpatrick for serving as proofreaders. I'm grateful to all of you. Any remaining errors and deficiencies are my own.
And last but never least, a huge thank you to all those readers who've traveled with me on this voyage through the Inverted Frontier. The fifth and final book lies ahead. I hope you'll come along.
About the Author
Linda Nagata’s work has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial awards. She has won the Nebula and is a two-time winner of the Locus award.
Linda is best known for her high-tech science fiction, including the near-future thriller, The Last Good Man.
She has lived most of her life in Hawaii, where she’s been a writer, a mom, a programmer of database-driven websites, and an independent publisher. She lives with her husband in their long-time home on the island of Maui.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or are used fictitiously.
Blade
Copyright © 2024 by Linda Nagata.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
ISBN 978-1-937197-45-2
Cover Art Copyright © 2024 by Sarah Anne Langton
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Linda Nagata, Blade
