This one’s for Lizzie, Tim, Judith, and Alan.
For all that quiet support down the years.
Timeline
2003
Kane North injured by IED in Iraq.
2004
Kane receives honourable discharge from US Army. Moves to Edinburgh. Uses family trust money to recruit geneticists. Cloning programme begins.
2007
Brant North born, first clone of Kane North successfully carried to term. Large number of mental and physical defects; lives three years.
2009
Cicero North born. Severe learning difficulties, serious metabolic deficiency; lives to 2022.
2010
Forrest North born. High-spectrum autistic, lives to 2065.
2012
Augustine, Bartram, and Constantine North born.
2027
Wan Hi Chan presents his theory of trans-spacial connection.
2029
First ‘connection’ made at Princetown, 800m across campus. USA forms National Interstellar Agency (NIA).
2030
Europe forms European Trans-Space Bureau (ET-SB). China forms National Interstellar Transport Corporation (NITC). Russia, India, Israel, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Pacific Alliance, North African Coalition, and the Asian Federation all create agencies to begin interstellar exploration programs.
2031
NIA opens connection to Earth’s moon.
2032– 2038
Various national test programs produce 12 trans-spacial connections across solar system. Gateway technology perfected.
2034
Augustine, Bartram, and Constantine found Northumberland Interstellar Corp, using family corporate resources to fund gateway systems manufacture.
2039
NITC opens gateway to Proxima Centauri. Age of interstellar exploration begins.
2041
NIA opens New Washington for settlement.
2044
NIA opens gateway to Orleans.
2044
ET-SB opens New Brussels for settlement to EU citizens.
2045
India opens gateway to Kolhapur.
2045
NITC opens gateways to Taiyuan and Wuchow.
2047
Russia opens gateway to Nova Petersburg.
2047
Israel opens gateway to Ramla.
2047
US Senate expanded to take in ten new states from new worlds. Passes Federal Independent Landowner Act. Enforced off-Earth settlement of all long-term welfare recipients.
2048
Japan opens gateway to New Tokyo.
2048
France opens gateway to Rouen, for French citizens only.
2048
Earth economy stalling due to investment shift to new planets.
2049
Germany opens gateway to Odessa, for German citizens only.
2049
USA passes Illegals Dispersal Bill. All illegal immigrants in original states on Earth deported to the territories on new US planets.
2049
Saudi Arabia opens Riyadh for settlement, for Muslims only.
2050
ET-SB opens Minisa for ‘all’ Grande Europe citizens. Subsidized immigration begins for unemployed, later developing to ‘opportunity immigration’ policy, transporting millions of poor and jobless out of GE states on Earth.
2051
Northumberland Interstellar opens gateway to Sirius star system, discovers earth-giant planet, named St Libra. Cleared for human immigration.
2052
Brazil opens gateway to Sao Jeroni.
2052
North African gateway to Accra.
2053
First bioil algaepaddies established on St Libra. Start of bioil export to Earth. Massive investment into St Libra algaepaddies begins, establishment of Eight Great bioil companies in addition to NI.
2055
The Independencies founded on St Libra, constant mid-level immigration by GE dissidents, and other political refugees from across Earth.
2055– 2070
Establishment of seven more human settled worlds. Earth’s population in decline; its economy contracts. Enforced exodus of jobless instituted by most nations.
2063
Kane North dies, age 83.
2083
Rumour of True Jerusalem, a planet linked by a secret gateway from Ramla.
2087
Constantine North and Bartram North resign their directorships of Northumberland Interstellar. Company resources redistributed. The bulk remains with Augustine.
2088
Constantine North launches Jupiter habitat; 8,000 tonnes of cybernetic manufacturing equipment, and a 3,000-tonne mineral/chemical refinery all delivered to asteroid in Jupiter orbit via Newcastle gateway + 25,000-tonne life-support hostel. Several hundred supporters and all C Norths follow him there.
2089
Town of Abellia established on St Libra by Bartram. Bartram founds North Biogenetic Institute, begins serious research into human regeneration/rejuvenation.
2092
Zanthswarm on Accra.
2093
Accra evacuated, gateway closed. Estimated human deaths: 8.2 million.
2093
Formation of Human Defence Alliance (HDA) to defend human race from the Zanth.
2094
Brinkelle North born.
2095
Large-scale trans-stellar financial instability as HDA budget approved. Bioil price increasing, reducing consumption. Markets falling.
2096– 2111
Trans-stellar recession, affecting all worlds.
2111
Northumberland Interstellar-led cartel releases glut of low-price bioil, bankrupting many futures market speculators. Stability returns to bioil market. Trans-stellar share prices start to rise again.
2119
Zanthswarm on New Florida. Evacuation declared successful, deaths estimated at 108,000.
2119
Trans-stellar market downturn, lasts until 2123 – officially not a recession.
2121
Bartram North and his household slaughtered. Angela Tramelo convicted of mass murder, receives life sentence.
Principal Characters
The 2143 St Libra Northern Geogenetic Expedition
Charmonique Passam Commissioner for the Grande Europe Bureau of alien evaluation
Griffin Toyne Major, HDA, head of expedition security
CAMP WUKANG
Vance Elston Colonel, Alien Intelligence Agency (AIA), Camp Commander
Antrinell Viana Captain, AIA, executive officer
Administration
Jaysukhlal (Jay) Chomik
Norman Sliwinska
Forster Wardele
Bastian North observer
GE Legion squad
Pablo Botin Lieutenant
Raddon Sergeant
Paresh Evitts Corporal
Hiron Corporal
Privates
Mohammed Anwar
Atyeo
Ramon Beaken
DiRito
Leora Fawkes
Dave Guzman
Hanrahan
Gillian Kowalski
Omar Mihambo
Marty O’Riley
Peace-Davis
Audrie Sleath
Josh Justic
Xenobiology team
Angela Tramelo civilian adviser
Marvin Trambi
Roarke Kulwinder
Tamisha Smith
Miya
Smara Jacka
Iyel
Esther Coombes
Camm Montoto
Zhao
Helicopter pilots
Lorelei
&nbs
p; Garrick
Juan-Fernando
Ravi Hendrik ex-Thunderthorn SF-100 pilot
AAV flight team
Ken Schmitt chief
Davinia Beirne technician
Chris Fiadeiro technician
Mackay technician
Medical
Dr Tamika Coniff
Mark Chitty paramedic
Juanitar Sakur paramedic
Engineering teams
Helicopters
Tork Ericson
Erius
Camp systems
Olrg Dorchev
Dean Creshaun
Lance
Ground vehicles
Leif Davdia
Darwin Sworowski
Microfacture
Karizma Wadhai
Ophelia Troy
General support personnel
Luther Katzen supervisor
Madeleine Hoque
Fuller Owusu
Lulu MacNamara
Winn Melia
Newcastle police
Sidney Hurst Detective
Royce O’Rouke Chief Constable
Ian Lanagin Detective, surveillance specialist
Eva Sealand Visual interpretation constable
Ralph Stevens Special investigator, AIA
Abner North Detective, forensics specialist
Ari North Constable, data management specialist
Aldred North Northumberland Interstellar security director, legal liaison
Hayfa Fullerton Detective, Gang Task Force
Kaneesha Saeed Detective, retired, Chief of Gang Crime Office
Tilly Lewis Northern Forensics Corp, Grade-A team manager
Chloe Healy O’Rouke’s media officer
Saul Howard Surfer and store-owner, St Libra
Contents
Sunday 13th January 2143
Monday 14th January 2143
Tuesday 15th January 2143
Wednesday 16th January 2143
Thursday 17th January 2143
Friday 18th January 2143
Saturday 19th January 2143
Sunday 20th January 2143
Monday 21st January 2143
Monday 28th January 2143
Thursday 31st January 2143
Friday 1st February 2143
Sunday 3rd February 2143
Wednesday 6th February 2143
Thursday 7th February 2143
Friday 8th February 2143
Monday 11th February 2143
Monday 18th February 2143
Friday 22nd February 2143
Saturday 23rd February 2143
Sunday 24th February 2143
Monday 25th February 2143
Thursday 28th February 2143
Friday 1st March 2143
Tuesday 5th March 2143
Thursday 7th March 2143
Sunday 10th March 2143
Monday 11th March 2143
Tuesday 12th March 2143
Wednesday 13th March 2143
Thursday 14th March 2143
Saturday 16th March 2143
Sunday 17th March 2143
Monday 18th March 2143
Tuesday 19th March 2143
Wednesday 20th March 2143
Thursday 21st March 2143
Friday 22nd March 2143
Saturday 23rd March 2143
Monday 25th March 2143
Tuesday 26th March 2143
Wednesday 27th March 2143
Tuesday 2nd April 2143
Wednesday 3rd April 2143
Thursday 4th April 2143
Monday 8th April 2143
Tuesday 9th April 2143
Wednesday 10th April 2143
Thursday 11th April 2143
Monday 15th April 2143
Thursday 18th April 2143
Sunday 21st April 2143
Tuesday 23rd April 2143
Sunday 28th April 2143
Tuesday 30th April 2143
Thursday 2nd May 2143
Friday 3rd May 2143
Saturday 4th May 2143
Sunday 5th May 2143
Monday 6th May 2143
Tuesday 7th May 2143
Wednesday 8th May 2143
Thursday 9th May 2143
June 2152
2377
Sunday 13th January 2143
As midnight approached, the wild neon colours of the borealis storm came shimmering through the soft snow falling gently across Newcastle upon Tyne. It was as if nature was partying along with the rest of the city, providing a jade and carmine lightshow far more elegant than any of the fireworks which had been bursting sporadically above the rooftops since Friday.
Detective, third grade, Sidney Hurst watched batches of late-night revellers staggering along the frozen pavement, calling out greetings or challenges depending on how toxed up they were. Ice, snow, and slush played havoc with the smart dust embedded in the tarmac, blacking out whole sections of the metamesh which governed the city’s roads and therefore making driving with the vehicle’s smartauto a dangerous gamble. Sid was steering the unmarked police car manually, but with the auto managing wheel torque on the slippery road. Their snow tyres provided reasonable traction, adding to stability and allowing him to make a decent thirty-five kilometres per hour along Collingwood Street past the cathedral. Radar kept throwing proximity symbols across the windscreen, designating a warning for the long filthy dunes of snow which the civic snowploughs had thrown off the centre of the road.
It had been snowing for two days now, and with the midday temperature spike sticking stubbornly below ten degrees there had been no thaw, allowing the elegant stone Georgian buildings of the city centre to become cloaked in Dickensian Yuletide splendour. Another proximity warning flashed scarlet, outlining a man running across the road directly in front of the car, laughing and jeering as Sid veered sharply round him. One last obscene gesture, and he was claimed by the swirling snow.
‘He’ll never last till dawn,’ Ian Lanagin claimed from the front passenger seat.
Sid glanced over at his partner. ‘Just another two-oh-one file,’ he agreed. ‘Welcome back, me.’
‘Aye man, some Sunday night reunion this is.’
It was crazy so many people being out in this weather; though for once Newcastle’s traditional nightclub dress code of T-shirt for the boys and short skirt with glitter heels for the girls had vanished under thick ankle-length coats. It was that cold. He’d even glimpsed a few sensible hats, which was almost a first in the fifteen years he’d been with the Newcastle police. Even now – married with two kids, a career that wasn’t quite as dynamic as he’d originally envisaged – he was slightly surprised he was still in Newcastle. He’d followed a girl up here from London, where – like every twenty-something law graduate – he’d been arrowing down the smart and fast career path, alternating jobs between police and private security as if he were an electron bouncing between junction gates. To consummate the grand romantic gesture he applied for a transfer to the local city police, where the career track was equally valid for a couple of years, and the nights could still be spent in bed with Jacinta. Now, fifteen years’ worth of Siberian winters and Saharan summers later, he was still here, married to Jacinta (which at least showed good judgement), with two kids and a career that had taken the kind of direction he’d always sneered at during those long-distant university years when he had passion and conviction and contempt for the way of a world screwed up by the current generation in power and the omnipresent lurking evil of the Zanth. Now, experience and its associate wisdom had flicked him onto the more rational track of time-serving and networking to make the final career switch which would see him through the last twenty years before retirement. Fifteen years of hard labour had taught him real life had a habit of doing that.
‘They’ll all sober up by tomorrow,’ Sid said, switching his gaze back to the road.
‘In this town?’ Ian challenged.
‘We’ve all got jobs now.’
Sid had been as surprised as anyone on Friday morning when Northumberland Interstellar had finally announced they were awarding contracts for five new fusion stations to be built at the Ellington energy complex north of the city. They should have been built years ago, but such was the way with all big projects that decade-long delays were built into corporate decisions as standard. And that was before regulators and politicians started to intervene to prove their worth. It meant the ageing tokamaks at Ellington that currently powered the Newcastle gateway to St Libra would have to be coaxed along way past their original design lifetime. Nobody cared about that, though, and euphoric Geordies had spent the weekend rejoicing at the announcement. It meant a new surge in the monumental tide of money which already coursed along the city streets, money which was channelled at every corner into St Libra, to be rewarded by the return flow of indispensable bioil back to the old motherworld. Bioil which kept cars and lorries moving across Grande Europe’s still powerful trade arteries; valuable derivations allowing planes to fly and ships to voyage. This contract was nothing more than a ripple on that tide, to be sure, but even so it promised additional revenue for the ancient coal town’s manufacturing and service industries, which would devour the digital cash with clever greed to fuel runaway expansion curves on the corporate market graphs. That meant there would be job opportunities at every level. Happy times were officially on their way.