Exodus, page 1
By Peter F. Hamilton
Exodus
The Archimedes Engine
The Commonwealth Saga
Pandora’s Star
Judas Unchained
The Void Trilogy
The Dreaming Void
The Temporal Void
The Evolutionary Void
Chronicle of the Fallers
The Abyss Beyond Dreams
A Night Without Stars
The Night’s Dawn Trilogy
The Reality Dysfunction
The Neutronium Alchemist
The Naked God
Night’s Dawn Universe
The Confederation Handbook
A Second Chance at Eden
The Greg Mandel Trilogy
Mindstar Rising
A Quantum Murder
The Nano Flower
The Queen of Dreams Trilogy
The Secret Throne
The Hunting of the Princes
A Voyage Through Air
The Salvation Sequence
Salvation
Salvation Lost
The Saints of Salvation
Great North Road
Manhattan in Reverse and Other Stories
Fallen Dragon
Misspent Youth
Exodus: The Archimedes Engine is a work of fiction.
Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2024 by Wizards of the Coast LLC
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Worlds, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
Exodus is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast LLC and is used by permission. Random House is a registered trademark, and Random House Worlds and colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Title-page, Timeline, & Dramatis Personae art: © АртёмКовязин-stock.adobe.com (Texture)
Hardback ISBN 9780593357668
Ebook ISBN 9780593357675
International ISBN 9780593975084
randomhousebooks.com
Book design by Edwin A. Vazquez, adapted for ebook
Cover design and illustration: Paul Lycett
ep_prh_7.0a_148165253_c0_r0
Contents
Dedication
Timeline of the Centauri Cluster
Dramatis Personae
Epigraph
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Acknowledgments
About the Author
_148165253_
This one is for my wife, Kate,
who tolerates my mind roaming so very far away.
Timeline of
the Centauri Cluster
2170 AD
Entropy drive tested. Experimental spacecraft Maxula travels out to the Oort cloud, 2,000 AUs from the sun. (1 AU = about 150 million km)
2200 AD
Sixty-seven asteroid settlements established. Interplanetary economy’s golden age.
2200 AD
EXODUS ERA
Earth’s habitability in severe decline. Over the next two hundred years humans from the asteroid settlements construct arkships powered by entropy drives. These fleets depart the Sol system to search for a new home among the stars.
2251 AD
Josias Matthew Aponi born, Eunomia asteroid settlement.
2280 AD
Arkship Diligent leaves Sol system, its flight vector taking it directly away from the Centauri Cluster.
18,000 AD
DAWN ERA
Several fleets of arkships reach the Centauri Cluster, 16,000 light-years from Earth. They discover hundreds of densely packed star systems with thousands of potentially habitable planets and send out the “Green Worlds” signal to summon the rest of the arkships.
24,000 AD
REMNANT ERA
The Centauri Cluster’s early history is marked by the violent rise and fall of interstellar empires. With the aid of genetic engineering, the citizens of these constantly warring cultures rapidly change and evolve into dozens of divergent transhuman species collectively known as Celestials.
30,000 AD
CRUCIBLE ERA
A powerful Celestial species called the Elohim rise to prominence. The Elohim construct the Gates of Heaven, an interstellar starship transit network linking all the systems of Centauri, heralding a new age of exploration and trade.
31,080 AD
Pioneer starships dispatched by six family houses of the newly formed Imperial Celestials travel out from the densely populated core of the Centauri Cluster along the Elohim pathways, searching for new stars where they can expand their species and its mindline culture. They settle adjacent star systems on the edge of the Poseidon Nebula: Kelowan, Verak, Wynid, Bassa, Nizinsk, and Cheluli. Each of the major houses claims their own planetary system, and together they sign an economic and political treaty that establishes the Crown Dominion. The rulers of the six houses rise to become queens.
31,430 AD
A helium macroplanet in a distant orbit around Tinaja goes nova, creating the Helium Sea.
35,118 AD
War breaks out in the Crown Dominion as Zuberi, the Now and Forever Queen of Kelowan, launches a subversive campaign to evolve Imperial Celestials further. The other five queens form an alliance and invade the Kelowan system. Zuberi is killed, and her entire family slaughtered. There are rumors that one of Zuberi’s princesses survived and fled into exile.
35,127 AD
The five victorious queens sign the Imperial Accord, tightening their governance over the Crown Dominion by formally establishing the position of empress. Henceforth, each of the queens will take her turn serving as empress for sixty years, managing the overall economic and political policy of the dominion, as well as being responsible for its defense. The throne itself is situated on Kelowan; and the system’s habitable planets, their wealth and resources, are distributed among the five queens and their Grand Houses. The Kelowan Grand Families most loyal to Zuberi flee.
The Accord begins a long period of stability within the Crown Dominion, which establishes itself as the dominant power in this sector of the Centauri Cluster.
35,280 AD
The Crown Dominion annexes Tinaja, a star system 1.2 light-years from Kelowan. This immediately becomes a valuable economic asset to the Crown Dominion. Scoopships flying through it can collect large quantities of helium-3 for fusion fuel, and are considerably cheaper to build and operate than the sky mining stations pulling helium-3 out of a gas giant’s atmosphere.
41,500 AD
PRESENT ERA
Celestial dominions have expanded to encompass the entire Centauri Cluster, creating countless new cultures. However, their civilizations have started to stagnate alongside their technological advancement. Coincidental with this slow decline, other fleets of human arkships from the Exodus Era that picked up the Dawn Era’s “Green Worlds” signal begin to arrive. These ships expect to find uninhabited planets to settle. Instead, they encounter Celestial dominions of immense power and wealth occupying the entire Centauri Cluster. It leaves the newcomers struggling to find their place in the universe where their species is little more than a fading memory to the biologically and technologically advanced Celestials. Refused settlement on any dominion worlds, they seek refuge on the war-damaged Remnant planets.
41,550 AD
A human arkship arrives in the Kelowan system. Uniquely in the Centauri Cluster, the empress grants them right of settlement on the planets Gondiar and Anoosha. Although they have the protection of the empress, they are second-class citizens granted only a limited local democracy. The Imperial Celestials see them as nothing more than an economic asset.
Over the next five hundred years, more than fifty more arkships arrive in the Crown Dominion. They are all directed to the Kelowan system, where they settle among the existing two human popula
42,250 AD
Lidon in the Malakbel system establishes itself as the most powerful human-controlled world in the Cluster.
42,326 AD
Twins Finbar and Otylia Jalgori-Tobu are born on Gondiar.
42,350 AD
Arkship Diligent arrives at the Kelowan system, more than forty thousand years after leaving the Sol system.
Dramatis Personae
JALGORI-TOBU FAMILY – Uranic Humans, Kelowan system
Finbar (Finn) Charles Louis Griffin Jalgori-Tobu, 25, third son, Minsterialis of Hafnir.
Mary Kathleen Jalgori-Tobu, 43rd Marchioness of Santa Rosa. Finbar’s mother.
Lamik Louis Kandaol Jalgori-Tobu, Marquis of Russodan. Finbar’s father.
Zelinda Maryann Richelle Jalgori-Tobu, first daughter, heir to the Marchioness. Finbar’s sister.
Everett Callan Mathias Jalgori-Tobu, Marchioness’s son. Finbar’s brother.
Otylia Roasmund Silkie Jalgori-Tobu, 25, second daughter, Minsterialis of Serki. Finbar’s twin.
Arkship Diligent Crew
Josias Matthew Aponi, 51, owner, arkship Diligent.
Eleanor (Ellie) Faith Aponi, 23, Granddaughter of Josias Aponi (3 generations removed). Lieutenant, arkship Diligent.
Dejean, 59, Captain, Diligent.
Imperial Celestials
Helena-Chione, the Now and Forever Queen of Wynid. (Current Empress of Crown Dominion)
Lord Gahiji, Chief Archon of Helena-Chione.
Makaio, Archon of Helena-Chione.
Thyra, Congregant daughter of Queen Helena-Chione.
Bekket, Thyra’s father (mockery nickname: Oneshot).
Clavissa, Congregant daughter of Helena-Chione.
Lord Jolav, Consort to Helena-Chione. Clavissa’s father.
Lord Ualana, Consort to Helena-Chione.
Carolien-Amaia, Now and Forever Queen of Verak.
Acelynn, Chief Archon of Empress Carolien-Amaia.
Inessa-Pierina, Now and Forever Queen of Cheluli.
Luus-Marcela, Now and Forever Queen of Bassa.
Ramona-Ursule, Now and Forever Queen of Nizinsk.
Zuberi-Dulcina, Now and Forever Queen of Kelowan. [DECEASED]
Olomo, Archon of the Heresy Dominion.
Sahdiah, Archon of the Talloch-Te Dominion.
Siskala, Major of the Royal Tiger Guard–Wynid Royal company.
Humans of the Crown Dominion
Terence Wilson-Fletcher, 24, Detective in Santa Rosa. Makaio’s agent.
Jimena, 23, Forensic technician/realtor. Terence’s wife.
Liliana, Mercenary.
Toše, Freelance security specialist.
Marcellu, Freelance security specialist. Sahdiah’s agent.
Medusa, Assassin. Sahdiah’s agent.
Elsbeth McQuillan, Owner/commander, tank: Hell Welcomes Careful Drivers.
Travelers
Andino, Captain, Arcadia’s Moon.
Uzoma Enfoe, Captain, Lestari.
We sail on the edge of lightspeed, where time moves differently.
As each day goes by, years pass for those we leave behind.
Our service—our sacrifice—discovers worlds, seeds hope,
breaks empires.
WE ARE THE TRAVELERS.
—The Traveler’s Creed
Forty thousand years ago, humanity constructed a fleet of arkships and fled a dying Earth in a mass exodus. Traveling near lightspeed, these ships were capable of crossing vast distances within the span of just a few generations. Humanity sought only one thing: to find a new home among the stars.
Many of these ships were lost in the void of space, but the fortunate few discovered habitable worlds in the Centauri Cluster. Over the course of the next 25,000 years, these human settlers flourished and evolved into thousands of cultures and advanced civilizations. They are known as the Celestials.
But previously lost arkships carrying humans from the twenty-third century continue to arrive in the Cluster even now. Upon arrival, the passengers of these ships are assigned protected worlds, where they take shelter from a universe that has long since left them behind. To Celestials, these humans are seen as primitive, relics of a bygone age, living in the shadow of their own legacy. They have no future.
Chapter One
The one thing Finbar Charles Louis Griffin Jalgori-Tobu (Finn to his friends) promised himself was that under no circumstances would he ever scream. He wasn’t going to give his captors the satisfaction. So he remained silent as their sharp knife sliced through his soiled one-piece thermal regulator undersuit, gritting his teeth every time the blade nicked his skin. Nor did he flinch as his now-naked body was shoved to the ground and his wrists and ankles were bound. He refused to grunt in pain as they dragged him up to the rooftop landing pad, deliberately knocking his shins on the metal stairs as they went. His jaw remained resolutely shut as they dumped him on the utilitarian floor of the sleek squad-deployment plane waiting on the pad.
Finn didn’t know if it was the fury he felt at his betrayal or the stubbornness that his family always chided him for, but he managed to keep his mouth closed throughout the whole flight as he endured the humiliation of being used as a footstool for their boots—a footstool they had fun kicking.
A couple of hours after takeoff, when they were in Anoosha’s southern hemisphere and cruising eight kilometers above the Camurdy Mountains, the plane’s rear ramp hinged down, letting in a blast of freezing wind. His captors pulled on their oxygen masks and laughed as he sucked down the perilously thin air. He even managed not to scream as they hauled him onto the ramp. One last kick sent him tumbling off the end into the clear night sky.
He saw the delta shape of the plane silhouetted against the vibrant clouds of the Poseidon Nebula, which filled the skies above Anoosha. A bright orange strobe flared underneath the fuselage as it dwindled away. Then he was hurtling down at terminal velocity toward the jagged snow-capped mountains below.
Finn started screaming.
* * *
—
The starship Alumata was an elegant sculpture of polished silver-white metal, consisting of a cylindrical engineering section two hundred meters long that sprouted sinuous copper-shaded spokes to connect it to a broad life support ring. Its fuselage was inset by the shallow contours of photothermal radiators, glowing an outlandish grenadine as they disposed of excess heat from the internal machinery.
Sitting on a couch in the lounge at the forward end of the ring, where the bulkhead was a curving window of ultrabonded diamond, Makaio-Yalbo, Archon of the Now and Forever Queen of Wynid, stared out at the dramatic vista provided by the Pillar of Zeus nebula in which the starship was immersed. The nearby star, Tinaja, was the only visible light source, and behind it the extravagant blues and greens and purples of the cloud strands swirled in complex ragged patterns that took millennia to dance around each other as they slowly expanded outward from their ancient explosion core.
