by Tony Daniel
Met Navy Defense: The Limits of Isotropic Coating: Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint and who is shooting at you, the isotropic coating loses effectiveness for masses that are much over one hundred kilograms, and the effects of gravity are never mitigated, so that when a particle passes through, it will leave on a new vector. The coating also loses effectiveness in the complexities of a planetary atmosphere and is only partially successful in protecting a planetary attack craft or a soldier on the ground. Nevertheless, space-adapted soldiers have, as part of their adaptation kit, an isotropic coating which generally prevents rapid depressurization in space due to micrometeors, and limits the possibilities of any shrapnel attack upon incoming paratroopers until they enter the atmosphere.
Met Navy Defense: The Grist Pellicle: The final line of defense possessed by Met ships is the grist pellicle, located just underneath the isotropic coating. This matrix responds instantaneously to any penetration and immediately sets to work containing the damage. Ships can “heal” themselves at an astonishing rate, and any effective attack must take account of this ability.
Met Navy: Conclusion
Taking attack and defense capabilities together, the DIED ship represents a formidable opponent. What it lacks in generalized function it makes up for with specialization and maneuverability. If a cloudship is thought of as a sort of giant living cell, a DIED vessel might be thought of as a virus — not alive in the same way, but just a dangerous and, in some ways, more effective.
Montserrat
DIED flagship of Admiral Carmen San Filieu in the initial Met attack on Triton.
Rip Tether
An undulating space tether deployed over a planetary surface as a gigantic military weapon that tears through population centers like a merciless tornado.
Vinculum
Special “channel” of the merci reserved for Department of Immunity.
Schwarzes Floß
DIED carrier that fell into the atmosphere of Jupiter during the war.
Sweeper
Department of Immunity anti-personnel unit, a Met policing and attack robot.
METAPLANETARY CHARACTERS & SPEAR CARRIERS
Principal Dramatis Personae
Roger Sherman
Federal Army commander of the Third Sky and Light Brigade of Triton, which, before the war, was principally a meteorological outpost assigned to study and develop the enormous power-generating Mill within the atmosphere of Neptune. Sherman was a former manifold who had reduced himself to individual human proportions after a series of professional setbacks and personal disappointments. Sherman started the war as a colonel.
Thaddeus Kaye
The first LAP manifold encoded using nanotechnology based on time-traveling graviton manipulation. Attempting to see the future, the process succeeded too well, and Kaye became both a reflection of, and a direct causative agent upon, our local timescape. This proved to be a problem when Ben Kaye, the personality upon whom Thaddeus was based, sabotaged the encoding process as part of a lover’s quarrel. The resulting LAP was a combination of Thaddeus and Ben who called himself TB. Kaye’s fate was directly connected to the outcome of the war.
TB
Name that the Thaddeus-Ben Kaye combination man goes by.
Father Andre Sud
A shaman-priest of the Greentree Way, friend to Thaddeus Kaye and to Roger Sherman. Sud was the Way’s time expert until he decided to retired from research and become a local priest and rock-balancing sculptor on Triton.
Molly Index
Friend to Thaddeus Kaye and Andre Sud. Index is a restorationist, specializing in the paintings of Jackson Pollock. Index was a LAP manifold before the war.
Jill
A scrap of security code which escaped its controlling algorithm and migrated to the Carbuncle, where it entered a ferret which Thaddeus-Ben Kaye used for hunting rats. Later “ferret Jill” was combined with an accidental recreation of Alethea Nightshade in some modified military grist. The resulting young woman became the principal leader of the partisan forces during the war.
Leo Sherman
Youngest son of Roger Sherman. A journalist, essayist, and accomplished explorer of the Met Integument. Estranged from his father at the start of the war.
Major Theory
Free convert in the Federal Army, and Roger Sherman’s principal aide. Theory is a very logical fellow who finds that he is developing intuition in fits and starts.
Sergeant Kwame Neiderer
Orphan from beyond Pluto who joins the Federal Army and eventually becomes a soldier in the Third Sky and Light Brigade on Triton. Has a fully space-adapted body.
C
Chief of special operational intelligence and cryptology for the Met. His real name is Clare Runic. Probably.
Amés
Chairman of the Interlocking Directorate of the Met. Formerly a musical composer trained by the famous free convert composer, Despacio. Obscure origins. Amés is a fully-integrated, multiply-differentiated LAP, amanifold .
The Graytor Family
Kelly Graytor: Junior partner in the E-Street firm of Teleman Milt. An accomplished trader in “quantum futures” before the war. Husband to Danis and father of Aubry and Sint.
Danis Graytor: Free convert portfolio management software and wife of Kelly Graytor.
Aubry Graytor: Eleven-year-old daughter of Kelly and Danis Graytor.
Sint Graytor: Youngest child of Kelly and Danis Graytor.
Carbuncle Folk
Bob the Fiddler
Half-crazed musician in the Carbuncle.
Makepeace Century
Former FUSE terrorist on Mars, and captain of the spaceshipMrs. Widow during the war.
Gladys
Fortune-telling dweller in the Carbuncle. Makepeace Century’s sister.
Chen
Bartender at Ru June’s in the Carbuncle.
John Goodnite
Patron of Ru June’s bar in the Carbuncle.
Tinny Him
Patron of Ru June’s bar in the Carbuncle whose mother’s grist pellicle refuses to die.
Nolan
Patron of Ru June’s bar in the Carbuncle whose Broca grist is breaking down.
Big Greg
Patron of Ru June’s bar in the Carbuncle.
Sister Mary
Prostitute at Ru June’s bar in the Carbuncle.
Other TB-, Andre- & Molly-Related People
Cardinal Morton Filmbuff
Andre Sud’s boss in the Greentree Way. A LAP manifold “quantum event detector” designed to see the entire human present so clearly that the future becomes manifest as a vision. Filmbuff first has a vision of the coming war as the burning Greentree. He then has a vision of a new Tree, of which the old Tree is just a shadow.
Alethea Nightshade
The woman whom both Thaddeus Kaye and his regular human personality, Ben, loved. When Ben Kaye interfered in the creation of his own Thaddeus Kaye manifold, Alethea’s personality was blown apart and dispersed somewhere in the Met. Both men believed they lost her, and her love, at that time.
Triton
Captain John Quench
Commander of Company A in the Third Sky and Light Brigade. Friend to Major Theory. Quench is currently a man, but originally a woman. His fiancé (a man), who will not join him on Triton, lives on Europa.
Jennifer Fieldguide
A woman on Triton who falls in love with Theory’s personality and Captain Quench’s body.
Constants
Free convert working for the Department of Immunity. Extremely fast and deadly. Major Theory’s former lover in Officer Candidate School.
Dahlia Sherman
Roger Sherman’s ex-wife and Leo Sherman’s mother. A LAP, one portion of which is an emergency room doctor on Triton.
Private Dragon
Free convert code-key soldier serving with Kwame Neiderer in the Third Sky and Light Brigade. She has a crush on Kwame Neiderer.
Corporal Anometer
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br /> Free convert soldier in the Third Sky and Light Brigade.
Lieutenant Ki
Soldier in the Third Sky and Light Brigade.
Hilly St. Johns
Free convert bar tender at the Officer’s Club of the Third Sky and Light Brigade.
New Miranda Politicians & Such
Thoreau Delgado
AKA the “Thin Man.” Leader of the Free Integrationists on Triton. A LAP. Aspect is entirely Triton-adapted.
Mallarmé de Ronsanard
Neo-Flare poet, and Free Integrationist on Triton.
Shellet Den
Old-guard member of the Motoserra Club on Triton.
Janry Craig
First engineer of the Neptunian Mill.
Frank Chan
Chairman of the New Miranda Town Meet. A LAP.
Kali Mfud
Member of the Trade Economists faction on Neptune’s moon Triton.
Petra 96
Free convert on Neptune’s moon Triton. Ran a daycare center. Victim of a grist-based attack.
Titan
Gerardo Funk
Mondo grist engineer and leader of the doomed partisan resistance on Titan, Saturn’s moon.
Captain Thomas Ogawa
Captain of the spaceshipMary Kate who brought 500 refuges to Neptune from Saturn’s Titan after that moon fell to DIED forces.
Corporal Dory Folsom
DIED soldier who took part in the conquest of Titan.
Vincenze Fleur and Pazachoff
Titan residents, part of the initial partisan resistance.
Ins and Del
Free converts, the former cipher keys to the Titan Rocketry Shield. Del was the complementary key to Ins.
Amés’s Theater Commanders
General C.C. Haysay
Commander of the DIED forces conquering Titan and the Saturn system. Haysay is a LAP.
General Blanket
DIED conqueror of Pluto and commander of the force which included the DIED ship Streichhöltzer. Asian, with jet black hair worn severely cropped.
Zebra 333
Leader of the DIED forces attacking Jupiter. A LAP who exists entirely in the virtuality. Frequently appears with an animal head of some sort. Zebra 333’s headquarters is on the carrierSchwarzes Floß .
Admiral Carmen San Filieu
LAP commander of the Met forces attempting to conquer Triton. Her flagship is theMontserrat . Also a society dame in the New Catalonia Bolsa on the Diaphany. Also Amés’s lover on Mercury. A LAP can do all these things, and more.
MontserratCrew Under San Filieu
Captain Meré Philately
Non-Catalán senior officer on the DIED ship,Montserrat .
Captain Bruc
Catalán senior officer on the DIED ship,Montserrat .
Cloudships & Cloudship-Related People
Tacitus
The first LAP cloudships, along with his friend, Cloudship Lebedev. Historian of the War for Republic and engineer of the Metaplanetary Constitution of the First Solarian Republic. One of the oldest living human beings.
Cloudship Lebedev
One of the original cloudships, along with Tacitus. Born 2375 C.E. in Russia. Co-founder of Bradbury University.
Cloudship Tolstoy
The curmudgeonly keeper of the cloudship graveyard far out on the Dark Matter Road toward Alpha Centaurus. He has thirteen sons.
Cloudship Mark Twain
First person to visit Alpha Centauri system. Pro-Republic.
Cloudship Austen
Economist. Pro-Republic.
Cloudship Mencken
Chair of the Congress of the Cloudships.
Cloudship Beatrice
Alarmist. Anti-republic.
Cloudship Markham
Pro-Republic.
Cloudship Kafka
Pro-Republic.
Cloudship Berhhardt
Pro-Republic.
Cloudship al-Farghani
Elitist. Anti-Republic.
Cloudship Huxley
Argumentative. Anti-Republic.
Cloudship Ahab
Elitist. Anti-Republic.
Cloudship Grieg
Anti-Republic.
Cloudship Cezanne
Anti-Republic.
Elgar Triptych
Amés’s slippery ambassador to the cloudships.
Major Clarabelle Antinomian
Federal Army officer. Announces the fall of Ganymede at the cloudship Constitutional Congress.
New Catalonia
Josep Busquets
Wicked youthful male lover to the aspect of Carmen San Filieu, who lives in New Catalonia.
Noñells
A banking family in New Catalonia.
Jill-, Aubry- & Leo-Related People
Bin 128A
One of the “protocol vermin.” He discovered the trick to taking out a Department of Immunity Anti-Personnel Sweeper, a Met policing and attack unit.
Tod
Gnostic time tower. Object of devotion of the Friends of Tod.
Otis and Game
Leaders of the Friends of Tod on Nirvana.
Taylor
Friend of Tod who operates an old-fashioned Ham radio on Nirvana.
Mrs. Lately
LAP teacher on Mercury who saw promise in Aubry Graytor, and thought she might be a good LAP candidate.
Kwame Niederer-Related People
Private Rastin
Soldier in the Third Sky and Light Brigade who helped destroy the rip tether.
Sergeant Peal
Soldier in the Third Sky and Light Brigade who had a nervous breakdown trying to destroy the rip tether on Triton and killed his lieutenant.
Lieutenant Flashpoint
Soldier in the Third Sky and Light Brigade who was killed by her crazed sergeant while trying to destroy the rip tether on Triton.
Lieutenant Boxset
Short-lived soldier in the Third Sky and Light Brigade who took part in the attack on theMontserrat .
Privates Tiempos and Cue
Short-lived soldiers in the Third Sky and Light Brigade who took part in the attack on theMontserrat .
Lieutenant Chalk
Soldier in the Third Sky and Light Brigade who took part in the attack on theMontserrat . Kwame Neiderer’s eventual commander. Chalk put the antimatter bomb down the bore shaft that destroyed theMontserrat .
Rules
The Rules was the not-quite-sentient algorithmic director of the orphanage where Kwame Neiderer grew up.
Claude Schlencker-Related People
Despacio
First free convert music composer. His most famous works are the celebratedA-4 Variations .
Delmore Schlencker
Claude Schlencker’s alcoholic, disappointed father.
Getty
Principal of Claude Schlencker’s school in Polbo Armature.
Janey Beth Schlencker
Claude Schlencker’s mother.
Eynor Jensen
A music teacher at Asap Gymnasium who recommended Claude Schlencker to Despacio.
Mrs. Ridgeway
A teacher in Polbo Armature who saw promise in young Claude Schlencker.
Kelly Graytor-Related People
Hazen Huntley
A junior partner in Teleman Milt.
Hed Ash
A junior partner in Teleman Milt.
The Old Man
LAP head of Teleman Milt.
Danis Graytor-Related People
Sarah 2
Free convert who chose to be Danis Graytor’s mother.
Sarah 1
Free convert who chose not to be Danis Graytor’s mother.
Dr. Ting
Mengele-like psychologist in Silicon Valley.
Lyre Wing
Free convert, looked upon as something of a floozy by Danis’s mother’s friends.
Readymark
Free convert friend of Danis’s mother.
Vida
Free convert frie
nd of Danis’s mother.
About the Author
TONY DANIEL is the author of two previous sf novels,Earthling andWarpath . He is a writer and producer of audio drama atSCIFI.COM for the “Seeing Ear Theatre,” an internet site which brings cutting-edge digital technology to the wonder of the Golden Age of Radio. Daniel also heads up the New York City theatre troupe “Automatic Vaudeville,” which produces independent films, as well as a monthly live radio show on WBAI 99.5 in New York. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Credits
Jacket illustration by Gregory Bridges
Jacket design by Amy Halperin
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