by Drew Wagar
ENERVATION
Book Three of the Shadeward Saga
by Drew Wagar
ENERVATION
Book Three of the Shadeward Saga
by Drew Wagar
FIRST EDITION
First published by Fantastic Books Publishing 2019
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-912053-18-6
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-912053-17-9
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-912053-16-2
Drew Wagar ©2019
All Rights Reserved
The right of Drew Wagar to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher or unless such copying is done under a current Copyright Licensing Agency license. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Table of Contents
Thanks To
Author’s Note
Lacaille
Prologue
Chapter One: Viresia, Capital of Scallia
Chapter Two: Straithian Sea, Shaderight of Amar
Chapter Three: Daine, Capital of Drayden
Chapter Four: Straithian Sea, Shaderight of Amar
Chapter Five: Daine, Capital of Drayden
Chapter Six: Amaris, Capital of Amar
Chapter Seven: Daine, Capital of Drayden
Chapter Eight: Amaris, Capital of Amar
Chapter Nine: Airea, Capital of Taloon
Chapter Ten: Shadeward of Dynesia, Scallia
Chapter Eleven: Airea, Capital of Taloon
Chapter Twelve: The Deserts of Taloon
Chapter Thirteen: Airea, Capital of Taloon
Chapter Fourteen: Shadeward of Dynesia, Scallia and Amaris, Capital of Amar
Chapter Fifteen: Airea, Capital of Taloon
Chapter Sixteen: Amaris, Capital of Amar
Chapter Seventeen: The Seas and Skies of Esurio
Chapter Eighteen: Amaris, Capital of Amar
Epilogue
Appendix
About The Author
Thanks To:
As ever, a huge vote of thanks to my lovely family. This time it’s even bigger as they’ve supported me in a rather drastic change of career – yes the writing is going full-time! I couldn’t do this without the support of my wonderful wife, Anita, sons Mark and Joshua and Abbey too. The fact that these books exist and I get time to write them is down to their generosity in allowing me to spend huge amounts of time staring at a blank laptop screen! Anita also gets to read the first ‘released’ version of the book, so many corrections and adjustments are already done before it is checked further.
To Emma Thompson, Jason Hall and Steph Wyeth – my crack team of proof-readers and commentators. These folks question my spelling, my grammar, my meanings and my intentions during the telling of the story. If it makes it past them you can be very confident that it is cohesive and works. Quite a few changes (in fact an entire new scene) were incorporated as a result of their oversight.
To David Stevenson, who is my ‘informal’ science advisor on all things Red Dwarf and exoplanet related. He’s very generously mentioned my fiction in his proper scientific books.
To my editor Mae, who continues to ask the ‘are you sure this is what you mean?’ type of questions. The answer isn’t always yes.
To Dan at Fantastic Books Publishing who continues to believe in this rather curious cross-genre story which is something of an anathema to more conventional publishers.
And to all of my readers. You folks are ultimately the reason I write these stories. I’ve always enjoyed writing, but there really isn’t a great deal of point in doing so if nobody actually reads what you’ve written. It’s very heartening to know that there is a growing contingent of folks across the world that are waiting for the next ‘Drew Wagar’ book. I fully intend to keep on writing as a long as I can.
Author’s Note
It’s fair to say that this third book in the Shadeward Saga has been more than a little delayed. I can only offer my humble apologies for this. I am in control of my schedule, but I’m not in control of the opportunities that occasionally show up and entice me off in new directions. As any creative person knows, doors that pop open in front of you don’t always do so at convenient times, nor do they necessarily stay open for long. You have to step through them quickly if you’re to take advantage of the opportunity.
My first Shadeward book was set aside for the worlds of Elite, and the second was also pushed back when I had a premonition, ahem, about writing an Elite sequel. Then came another blast from the past with the Lords of Midnight.
Those are completed now and, at last, I can return to Shadeward, to the ruddy starlight of my recalcitrant red dwarf star and the troubled world below it, picking up once again the stories of Kiri, Zoella and Meru. This remains my favourite story of all those I’ve written. These are my characters, my backstory, my situations. Ultimately I do prefer to be in complete control over everything, it makes the story telling easier.
But writing a book takes time. All of the books I’ve written have been over 100,000 words, which is a fair bit of text to get down, tweak, edit and sort for publishing. These books are not easy to write and it takes a lot of energy and craft to put them all together.
What I can say is I intend to work on Shadeward as much as I can, I really want to get it finished. Right now I don’t think another Elite book is at all likely, but Lords of Midnight very much shows the promise of sequels, so I may need to interweave things. All the dates I have tried to commit to have proved elusive, thus I will simply say – I am writing! – and as fast as I can. There will be a Shadeward 4 to complete this saga before too long.
Beyond that I have big plans. If writing for Elite showed me one thing, it was that folks like my particular brand of political thriller mixed with space opera. Shadeward isn’t quite the same, but the universe in which it exists can play host to many different stories.
In the myth and background of Shadeward is some kind of exodus from Earth. There’s definitely a prequel there. As you know, Esurio was only one of the worlds to be selected as a colonisation target, so – what happened to the others? We know that technology regressed on Esurio, but what if other settlements had different outcomes; some might be considerably more advanced …
It may not surprise you to find that I’ve already worked out some of this detail and I’ll be doing more work on it in the coming year. My plan is to embrace space opera, themes of exploration and conquest and the detail of what happened before Shadeward. This will, I think, be a set of sixteen books, of which the Shadeward set of four will be a quarter. The entire thing has the rather grand working title of the “Diaspora Saga”. All that should keep me going for many years, and give you something to look forward to for a decade to come!
In the meantime though, enjoy this next adventure on Esurio. Thanks to all of you for coming on this journey with me. The reaction to my stories has been heart-warming and inspiring. That people talk about the characters I’ve created, discussing their motivations and behaviour, loving or hating them (or both!) is a great comfort and reward to me. Writers write because they have to, but every writer wants to know their work is appreciated and enjoyed. Thanks for all the feedback; the emails, the messages, the letters, the reviews, those who have chatted to me at the conventions and the expos. You are what makes it all worthwhile.
Drew Wag
ar,
April, 2019.
“She remembered who she was
and the game changed.”
- Lalah Delia
Lacaille
The most significant terraforming work concerned dealing with the lack of a strong planetary magnetic field. Despite being tidally locked, Esurio was close enough to Lacaille that it experienced sufficient tidal forces to knead its core and keep it molten. Volcanic activity remained present, allowing the raw materials for the atmospheric processors to function. Yet the native magnetic field wasn’t strong enough to deflect the extreme forces the planet experienced from its close proximity to Lacaille, the solar wind being hundreds of times stronger than that experienced back on the homeworld. Over millennia, the enhanced atmosphere would be stripped away again by the fierce assault of Lacaille. In order to counter this effect, a magnetic field booster was set to operate, supplementing the planet’s own magnetic field, resulting in a potent magnetic flux.
This booster provided a further benefit in the form of widely available power distribution across the planet due to strong interaction with the solar wind. Magnetic induction technology could harness this and provide electrical power at ground level as a result.
With the atmosphere protected and terraforming raising the pressure by a few percentage points, the focus turned to the colonists themselves to close the remainder of the gap. Genetic modification provided adapted eyesight to allow vision into the near infrared and give greater low-light visibility. Increased lung capacity and further adaptions to the low pressure environment resulted in a breed of humans that could have quite happily lived in the highest mountains on the homeworld without much discomfort. Those children became the first to live upon the surface, a generation after the arrival of the colony ship. The lower gravity of the planet provided other benefits, too.
The indigenous life was also carbon-based, with a DNA/RNA complex very similar to that of the colonists, prompting many questions as to the origin of life on Esurio. Evolutionary pressures had produced many unique creatures, though they filled similar niches to those on the homeworld. Few of the animals that came with the colonists adapted well to the new environment and so the colonists turned to domesticating the native species for various uses. The small increase in air pressure had caused a few behavioural issues, but the creatures responded well, with most of them thriving as a result.
With the knowledge that even the most sophisticated equipment would eventually break down and become unmaintainable, it was decided that some of the colonists would be given additional technological capabilities within their biological makeup, aimed at providing the means to administer the fledgling civilisation.
Various criteria determined that female colonists with the appropriate temperament were selected and enhanced, providing them with various abilities. The primary purpose was to allow communication between colonists via the augmented booster, without any other equipment being necessary. The planet’s magnetic field was used as a medium for the transmission, with individuals themselves acting as a relay mesh, rendering more traditional radio technologies, which were subject to major interference over long ranges, obsolete. The technology was designed to align itself with reproductive processes, ensuring that subsequent generations would benefit from the enhancement, even if the knowledge of how it worked were to be lost.
The original administrators of the colony worked under strict guidelines to ensure their abilities were governed and used effectively. The settlements prospered for many generations, the necessary knowledge being embedded in song, tradition and writings.
The booster itself was designed to be self-regulating, but it could provide status reports and updates to the administrators in case of any variance outside of its ability to manage. When such events occurred, the administrators would be automatically summoned via their in-built communications mechanism.
It was whilst such an adjustment was taking place that the first flare hit Esurio. It was not anticipated, either by the automated systems that had been set to guard the colony or by the colonists themselves. Lacaille 9352 was not catalogued as a flare star and no flare had ever been observed from the time of its discovery until the present time. Thus the calamity that overtook the colony was as unexpected as it was devastating.
Over nine tenths of the colonists were killed in a devastating holocaust. Most were outside when the flare hit and died as a result of exposure to lethal levels of ultraviolet radiation. Still more were caught by deadly firestorms caused by the pulse of infrared that emanated from Lacaille during the flare.
In the immediate struggle to survive the aftermath, the intentions of the original colonists were lost and the nascent civilisation on Esurio collapsed. Through many generations those who survived began to spread once more across the planet. History became mixed with legend, the origins of the population only dimly remembered. A barely recognisable culture staggered back. It was far different from what had gone before, surrounded by the broken remnants of the past.
What little technology remained was perceived as magic or religious power, its origin misunderstood. Thus wars were fought, empires rose and fell. Thousands of rounds passed. Civilisation emerged from a dark age longer than those known on the forgotten homeworld, but, as always, those who understood even a little of the past grew to be great and powerful.
The powers of the original colonists were still present, yet they had also adapted in the long rounds since they had first been gifted to the people. The booster still operated, unattended, forgotten by all, and yet still its automated systems continued to discharge the task its long vanished makers had designed it to perform. But it wasn’t immune to the vagaries of time, it could not operate forever unattended.
If it were to fail …
Prologue
Round 2293, Eighth Pass
The smoke was rising high into the sky, mingling with the thick clouds above. Across the pastoral landscape the scene repeated itself, time and again. Dwellings ablaze; their ramshackle shadewood construction being consumed by flames.
Bodies were being piled in one place amidst the destruction, a heap of twisted and darkened figures, their clothing dirty and soiled, their skin pale and marked with blisters and boils. With a thump of ignition flames began to consume them too.
Black smoke. The burning pyres of the dead.
Plague.
It had swept in without warning, striking down the old and the infirm first, before moving on to the fit and the young. Indiscriminate, it had spread across Scallia, shadeward into Drem and sunward into Drayden, even as far as Taloon. No lands had been untouched by its curse. Untold thousands had died, leaving the land bereft of its people. Some estimates recorded that up to two thirds of the population had succumbed to the blight.
Soldiers stood, surveying their handiwork before stepping back as the flames leapt higher. Behind them stood a group of children, standing meek and scared, clutching to them the few possessions they had. All had lost their families and friends, seeing them fall to the illness throughout the hamlets and villages of Scallia.
The young captain in charge of the detachment looked back at them, counting the few that remained. His face twisted in a grimace.
‘Check them,’ he said to the two guards beside him. ‘You know what to look for.’
Both men moved toward the children, who shrank against the wall of a derelict building. There were eight of them, grubby and thin, the only survivors from this particular village. They were a mix of ages, but none more than seven or eight rounds old.
One by one each child was inspected, the guards looking for the tell-tale marks of pox or rashes. Each was examined, starting with the face and then the arms and legs. The first few offered no resistance, but there was one, a girl with dark hair and bright blue eyes, who objected, snarling and trying to stop the guards touching her. She was subdued and subjected to the check, she seemed healthy enough. The guards moved on.
The last girl was not so fortunate.
The guards looked at each other.
‘It’s a burn, it’s not the plague!’ the black-haired girl snapped. ‘She caught it on a brand just a few stretches ago …’
One guard pulled the last girl out of the line and took her towards the captain. The other guard remained behind, holding on to the black-haired girl, who was struggling to get free.
‘It’s not the plague! It’s not the plague!’ she screeched.
The captain took a look at the girl as she was brought close. She was a tiny thing, perhaps only five rounds or so, with a matt of straw-coloured hair upon her head. She didn’t look up, her eyes staring forward past the guard. He’d seen that stare before; it spoke of grief so intense and shocking that there was no way back from it. Doubtless this child had seen her parents die before her eyes, and no help would have come.
Behind them a squeal from the black-haired girl rose above the crackling of the fires. She was struggling to get loose, kicking her legs and flailing her arms as the guard struggled to keep hold of her. A hand was clamped across her mouth.
The captain looked at the guard.
He nodded.
The girl before them saw nothing. It was quick and clean through long practice. The knife was drawn and the stab precise and surgical. The girl gave a short gasp and then collapsed in the dirt.
There was a yell from the guard behind them. The black-haired girl had broken free.
‘She bit me!’ the guard exclaimed, cursing.
The black-haired girl skidded to a halt in the dust before the captain, looking up at him in fury. The captain almost recoiled; he’d never seen such a fierce expression on a child’s face. Utter contempt, utter hatred. The blue eyes were fierce and bright.