~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1994 by Daniel Keys Moran. All rights reserved. I, Daniel Keys Moran, "The Author," hereby release this text as freeware. It may be transmitted as a text file anywhere in this or any other dimension, without reservation, so long as the story text is not altered IN ANY WAY. No fee may be charged for such transmission, save handling fees comparable to those charged for shareware programs. THIS WORK MAY NOT BE PRINTED OR PUBLISHED IN A BOOK, MAGAZINE, ELECTRONIC OR CD-ROM STORY COLLECTION, OR VIA ANY OTHER MEDIUM NOW EXISTING OR WHICH MAY IN THE FUTURE COME INTO EXISTENCE, WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR. THIS WORK IS LICENSED FOR READING PURPOSES ONLY. ALL OTHER RIGHTS ARE RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR. DESCRIPTION: Proposal for a Graphic Novel, and then a television series. Didn't fly either time, unfortunately. An editor at DC Comics expressed considerable interest in it, but couldn't get it to fly. Then an independent producer asked me if I had anything he might try to shop around; I altered this slightly and gave it to him. Still no go. The characters are taken from my planned novel, "The Always Rising of the Night." "Always Rising" is almost certainly the single largest novel I will ever write in my life; the "Lonesome Dove" of the Continuing Time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Face Of Night created by Daniel Keys Moran ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First Principles Of Nightways: Pay attention. Don't complain. Do nothing which is of no use. Don't take any shit from . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Introduction THE FACE OF NIGHT is set on United Earth, in the year 2496. It is an Earth radically different from our own; there is no hunger, no want, and no overpopulation. Humanity has had star travel for nearly four hundred years; the Exodus from Earth has been ongoing for most of that time. Some five million people leave Earth for the frontier each year; Earth's population, stable at two billion, grows just enough to offset that slight loss. Earth is governed by an organization that calls itself the Face of Night. Picture some tens of thousands of martial artists who would have considered Bruce Lee a promising beginner; these are the , or night faces. Serving as Earth's government, judges, and police, they are the initiates of a discipline evolved five hundred years beyond anything we know today, and centered around the act of the Kill; the Kill has a religious significance that non-initiates cannot understand. Night faces kill rarely. A Kill is art, and sacred, like life itself. They rarely need to kill in self-defense: only a fool, or a very desperate person, would attack one. The universe in which our stories take place is called "the Continuing Time." For millions of years, the Time Wars raged; sixty-two thousand years before the birth of Christ, the Time Wars ended, and the Continuing Time began. Nobody knows why the Time Wars began, or why they ended, or what happened to the aliens--the Zaradin--who waged the Time Wars. This is a mystery that we will explore as the stories progress. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE PLAYERS Ola Blue Human, Shiva, "Our Lady of Nightways" Ola Blue is the deadliest human being who has ever lived, or ever will. She is a , a Master of the martial discipline/religion of nightways. She has a small but fanatic following, mostly among other night faces. This cult, which she repudiates, calls her Our Lady of Nightways, and with good reason: Ola has said that if nightways had not existed, she would have created it. She is reserved, dignified, and implacable. Her only visible passions are those for knowledge and skill; her mastery of nightways is absolute, and she spends her free time tirelessly training herself in new techniques and new skills. She has studied, in considerable depth, every one of the major alien species known to humanity. She is fluent in several human languages, and the major alien tongues as well. It is believed that she can like a Tamrann or a K'Ailla if she wishes to, and perhaps she can. In her mid-thirties, she is one of only eight living Shivas, and the youngest Shiva ever. She is one of the likely candidates to become head of (UEI) if her superior, Shelomin Serendip, ever steps down, or if--and this is more likely--Ola kills her. If not exactly famous, Ola is, in some circles, quite well known. Born in Eastersea, the last slum on Earth, she was a gang leader at a young age. She was recruited into UEI, and trained in the discipline of nightways, by-- Shelomin Serendip Human, Shiva, Regent of United Earth, Director of UEI Certainly the most powerful human being in the Continuing Time. Medical technology has improved dramatically, and humans no longer age and die as they once did. Shelomin Serendip is old, two hundred and forty, but except for her wisdom and reserve her age does not show; she looks like an adult woman in her thirties or forties. She is both the Regent of United Earth, and the Director of UEI; and she is the first person in history to hold both of those posts at the same time. (She thinks quite seriously at times about abolishing the Regency, the feeble remnants of the old civil government.) She has been Earth's sole ruler for over a century. It was she who, twenty years ago, went to Eastersea, destroyed the gang Ola Blue led, and recruited Ola Blue into United Earth Intelligence. Ola loves her, but has never forgiven her; and it has never, crossed Shelomin's mind for an instant that she has done anything to Ola that requires forgiveness. Barney Roanoke ("Barnes") Human, a "wipe" Barnes is a two year old in the body of an adult. He's well educated, and shows flashes of genius; but is emotionally immature and lacks social skills. He is a recent to Earth; a rarity in the closing days of the 25th Century, with the Exodus from Earth in full swing. Two years before our opening story, his previous personality was "wiped" for crimes so hideous his only options were mindwipe or execution. That personality chose mindwipe; neither Barnes nor Ola know the crime of which he was convicted. (Ola frankly doesn't care, either.) The only human on Earth who does know is Shelomin Serendip, who arranged for Ola's introduction to Barnes. Barnes will become Ola Blue's principal assistant in her work with UEI. His devotion to Ola is complete; he would die for her. And she would let him. Barnes has mixed feelings about the crimes he was wiped for. He knows that they must have been grave, given the punishment he received. (It's almost impossible for him to find out what he did; he doesn't even know the planet, out of tens of thousands, on which he committed his crimes.) He is left wondering if the seed for such behavior is still there within him. P'Rythan November Human, telepath, a Lord of the House of November P'Rythan is a member of the family that rules the planet , one of Earth's principal allies. An incredibly strong telepath, she is twenty-two; bright, and talented, and tough. She came to Earth to study nightways, and found herself working as an assistant to, and student of, Ola Blue. She may be the only person in the Continuing Time whose company Ola really enjoys. (Not that Ola would ever say so. Information is a weapon, and she knows better than to give weapons away to the universe.) A trained researcher and telepath, P'Rythan is the first person Ola turns to when she needs information. P'Rythan's greatest weakness is her own, partially justified, arrogance regarding her skills; Ola thinks this is likely to one day cost P'Rythan her life, as it leads her into underestimating her opponents. Unlike Barnes, P'Rythan is studying to become a night face; to become what Ola is. P'Rythan and Barnes are wary of one another at first; but will grow closer as the stories progress. P'Rythan, raised to wealth and privilege, has difficulty empathizing with Barnes at first. No one would ever wipe a Lord of the House of November, regardless of her crime. As a telepath, she further finds Barnes, as a wipe, subtly disturbing. Sometimes when she Touches him, she can feel the echoes of . Arrith bar Ye'Huta K'Ailla, a predatory alien; a telepath and Ola's pilot Like many K'Aillae, Arrith pilots a starship. K'Aillae are usually brilliant pilots, and Arrith is among the best. He pilots Ola Blue's ship, the . The is a remarkable and unlikely ship; from the outside, she looks like a slow luxury yacht, something designed for cruising, with passenger capacity of a hundred and twenty. In fact the 's complete passenger capacity is only twelve. Packed into her hull are weapons to lay waste to a world, engines to run from anything she can't fight, and the subtlest, most sensitive sensors humanity knows how to build. The can land in an atmosphere, hide beneath the surface of an ocean, or travel through interstellar space. Arrith is perfectly normal for a K'Ailla, meaning he is bloodthirsty, dishonest, and bores easily. He cheats at cards, and would sell out virtually anyone he has ever met if he thought he would get away with it--except, of course, for Ola; and in her case his reluctance has nothing to do with any "human" sense of ethics, and everything to do with his desire to keep breathing. He is a completely unconflicted character, who likes his life and, usually, his comrades. He is a great, but untrained, fighter. Mister Dreadful A Human, Agent of the Hegemony As Ola says in one story: "My first memories are of him. His are of me." Mister Dreadful and Ola Blue grew up together, in the slum of Eastersea, the only family either of them ever knew. Together, before reaching adulthood, they conquered Eastersea--and drew the attention of the Face of Night to themselves. Shelomin Serendip took Ola Blue, and shaped her into the deadliest human who had ever lived; and left Mister Dreadful behind in Eastersea. Four years passed before Mister Dreadful escaped Eastersea, and found Ola again; and found that what they had once shared could be shared no longer. Ola had embarked upon the study of nightways, had found the destiny for which she had always been meant; and there was no room in it for her childhood love. Today Mister Dreadful, a deeply thoughtful man who has seen so much evil and suffered so much loss that there is an almost spiritual quality to his calm, is an agent of the Mars Hegemony, Earth's principal enemy; he is Ola's sworn enemy. They will kill each other if they can. Neither of them has ever ceased loving the other. Picky Jim a Tamrann, agent of the Hegemony Mister Dreadful's ally and friend. His interest in humanity is rare among the Tamranni. As an agent of the Mars Hegemony, he is a major concern for the Face of Night. The Face of Night respects the Continuing Time's elder races, and tries to avoid offending them--but when one of their numbers takes a hand in human affairs, as Picky Jim has, he must be considered fair game. Picky Jim has a brutally odd sense of humor. In one infamous incident, Picky Jim killed a man who had tried to murder Mister Dreadful; and afterwards said, "Like most humans, he was an unpredictable fellow. One instant he was blasting away at me, and the next minute, , there were pieces of him all over the place." No one knows how many thousands of years old Picky Jim might be; but his interest in humanity extends back at least four hundred years. Though no human now living realizes it--all those aliens look alike--Picky Jim was the Tamrann who made First Contact with humanity, shortly after humanity's discovery of star travel. He is perhaps the character in THE FACE OF NIGHT who has the most in common with Ola; his interest in alien species mirroring hers; his deadliness rivaling hers. The Source A Machine Intelligence The Source is the vast computer intelligence which inhabits and controls every piece of computer equipment in the Solar System, including those aboard Ola Blue's . Once, hundreds of years ago, Earth was spanned by an Information Network; but, in a historic conflict known as the AI War, the Source conquered the InfoNet and destroyed all machine intelligences but its own. Today it serves humanity, for reasons of its own; and nobody, not even the Face of Night, is quite sure what those reasons are. On worlds in other solar systems, we will meet other computer intelligences; but in Sol System at least, there are no machine intelligences except the Source. It is considered impolite to refer to machine intelligences as "artificial intellgences," or AIs. As the Source is likely to comment when some rube makes this mistake, "My intelligence is no more artificial than yours." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE BACKGROUND United Earth is the most powerful government in the explored Continuing Time; it is ruled by the Face of Night. Over four thousand solar systems, some half a trillion humans, are clients of United Earth, and under its protection. Only two other human governments even approach Earth's military power; they are the , and the . The House of November Shortly after humanity discovered star travel, a man named Daniel November discovered a planet four hundred light years from Earth which was well suited to human habitation. He named it after himself. Today November is ruled today by his descendants, the House of November. The House of November is on good terms with the Face of Night; they cooperate on matters of mutual self-interest. The House of November is more of an economic power than Earth; and its military might, though decidedly inferior to Earth's, is significant. November owns the allegiance of nearly a thousand colony worlds itself. The Lords of the House of November, such as P'Rythan, are telepaths, genetically engineered. There are not many of them, forty or fifty at any given time; most of the population of November, and its colony worlds, are humans who would not stand out on Earth today. The Mars Hegemony The oldest true human colony, dating to pre-star travel days, is that on Mars. The Mars Hegemony is independent of United Earth, and hostile to it. The Hegemony has been actively opposing the interests of the Face of Night for the last fifty years or so. In the Solar System, Luna, Venus, the Asteroid Belt and the outer planets, all owe allegiance to Earth: Mars alone does not. Hostility between Earth and Mars is simmering, but the Hegemony knows better than to allow it to ignite into open conflict. Mars opposes Earth in subtler ways, by interfering with Earth's trade, corrupting her agents, and occasionally-and very carefully-engaging in acts of terrorism. Spacefarers and Anarchists There are other human organizations worth taking notice of; they are the , and the . The SpaceFarer's Collective is devoted to representing the interests of interstellar human traders. It's an old organization, dating back to pre-star travel days. There are Anarchists on every human planet in the Continuing Time, including Earth; and the Anarchist's Mob exists to make sure that, if one of its members is harmed, vengeance or justice--whichever is appropriate, or possible--is obtained. On the planet November, Anarchists, though tolerated, are required to wear a bracelet proclaiming themselves as such. The K'Aillae Humanity's oldest allies. A telepathic race, the K'Aillae evolved from solitary hunters; they are covered head to toe with light silver-blue fur, and are four to five feet tall. Bipeds, they have six fingers and six toes on each hand. They can grasp and manipulate items equally well with either hands or feet, and their claws are razor sharp. The K'Aillae have three sexes; male, female, and parent. Children are sexless; they decide in adolescence which sex they wish to be, and the choice they make is permanent. Male and female K'aillae breed to produce children; and the children are then reared by the parent sex. Parents do not breed, and breeders raise children. Their social structures, predictably, are very different from our own--K'Aillae find human families and breeding customs indecent. The K'Aillae have been intelligent longer than humanity and have a longer recorded history. For twelve thousand years prior to humanity's discovery of star travel, the K'Aillae wandered among the stars; only in the last few hundred years have they settled down to found a more permanent civilization. They wear no clothing; fur is warm. They do decorate themselves, however, with necklaces and rings, bracelets and anklets, and they dye intricate patterns in their fur. The sleem Humanity's oldest enemies. They nearly destroyed the human race, shortly after humanity discovered star travel; only humanity's alliance with the K'Aillae allowed either humanity or the K'Aillae to survive. Today, with the power of the sleem broken, humans and the sleem generally avoid one another; but the K'Aillae, who were hunted nearly into extinction by the sleem, will go far out of their way for a fight with them. The sleem are wildly non-human. They are about the size of a small elephant, and based on silicon in a hot, fluoro-silicon atmosphere. Humans and K'Aillae cannot survive on the worlds the sleem prefer, and the sleem die instantly when exposed to environments humans and K'Aillae find comfortable. The only contact humans or K'Aillae ever have with them is via telecom. The Tamranni The oldest intelligent species with which humanity has contact. The Tamranni are the most humanoid of the alien races encountered in THE FACE OF NIGHT--which isn't saying much. They're bipedal and tall, averaging eight feet, and have taken their physical evolution to the logical extreme. They are covered head to toe in dark gold bio-armor; vacuum does not bother them, nor extremes of heat or cold. Energy weapons are nearly useless against them, as are projectile weapons; you could hit a Tamrann with a sledge hammer without tickling it much. Nuking one, or blasting it with a laser cannon, works; but that's about all that does. Their senses extend through the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio up through gamma rays. Their skin is a brilliantly designed sensory organ; they receive visual information from every square inch of it, as well as taste and olfactory information. A Tamrann who shakes your hand is tasting you and smelling you and touching you and looking at you, all at the same time, with the same patch of skin. The Tamranni are a gentle, peaceful people; they can afford to be. Immortal and indestructible to all practical purposes, they are generally disinterested in the lives and doings of the shorter-lived species around them. Occasionally a Tamrann, like Picky Jim, will choose to involve itself in the affairs of other races; but this is rare. Other Aliens There are a huge variety of alien races in the Continuing Time--Slissi, tangletoes, Spacethings and Starclouds, to name only a few--and we can draw upon them as necessary. The only caveat to be observed is that there are "human" aliens. If something looks human, it is--and if it can't be human, it look alien. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE LOOK THE FACE OF NIGHT is intended to have a look very different from that of most science fiction. It starts with two of our principal locations: Ola Blue's house on the slopes of Everest, and the starship Sweet Voice of Reason. Ola's house is a home, a place where a real person lives, albeit a person with extraordinary tastes and interests. People eat and bathe and exercise, socialize and entertain, just as they do today. There are training facilities appropriate to a world-class martial artist--combat robots, supplies of weaponry, weights and a swimming pool, a running track--everything that you would find at a well appointed modern-day sports club, and then some. The late twenty- fifth Century is a post-technical age; with rare exceptions, Ola's home, aside from the fact that it looks like it was designed by a world-class architect, would not arouse comment today. There is nothing inherently interesting about gadgets, and we will not focus on the tools that would, for our characters, be everyday facts of life. Control panels are rare; most processes are controlled by voice commands, or by direct neural interface. The Sweet Voice of Reason continues with this principle. It lacks a bridge; the Source controls most processes aboard the ship anyway. There is a "common," at the center of the ship; the best protected place aboard the ship, it is where the crew gathers during combat. Arrith's piloting consists primarily of managing the jump into tachyon space; and this he does telepathically, as the tachyon wand that initiates the jump is a psionic device. Dress requires a word here. Characters should be drawn in attractive clothing -- cotton, wool, denim, leather where approriate -- that people might actually wear. Simply as an example, it seems reasonable that blue jeans, a part of popular dress for the last two hundred years, will continue to be worn four or five hundred years from now. Formal dress today is recognizably descended from the formal dress of a hundred years ago (or two hundred); formal dress of Ola Blue's time will surely be different from our own, but again, it surely will not consists of jump suits with odd dashes of glitter dust on them here and there. For effect we can use outrageous costuming; but I would very much like to adapt the work great designers have already done, rather than relying upon original design work. For Americans, the experimental clothing designs of certain Asian designers, for example, are likely to look considerably more alien than anything the audience has previously been exposed to as "science fiction." The only blatant tech in comes from personal weaponry. Weapons are ugly and imposing and nasty-looking--as they're supposed to be. When Ola points a gun at someone, she wants that person to understand that there is right end and a wrong end to this gun, and that this someone is on the wrong end. I envision stories being split, fairly equally, between tales set on the surface of the Earth, and those set in outer space, aboard the . Stories are character-oriented, and both visually and in story terms tend toward the dark; picture BLADE RUNNER rather than, say, anything from STAR TREK. Ola Blue's life spans the closing days of the great Exodus; Earth and humanity are still powerful, still expansionist; but cracks are beginning to appear in the structure, and the Exodus itself is being driven, now, more by 2nd-generation colonies than by Earth itself. It is, in short, a time of great opportunities, and great peril, and great doubts. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE STORIES Ola Blue lives on Earth, in a heavily protected house high up on the slopes of Everest. Her house can be approached only by spacecraft or aircar. The weapons protecting the house are subtle and effective; with the exception of Shelomin Serendip, no one who Ola does not wish to see, ever sees her. The starship is Ola's preferred method of transportation, even around Earth; she feels safer in it than in a car. Barnes and P'Rythan November live with her. (This is normal for a night face and her students.) The relationships, though intimate, are not remotely romantic at any level. Ola would never tolerate such a lapse of discipline among people whose lives depend on a professional commitment. Occasionally Ola makes reference to others with whom she once worked, the implication being that those people are now dead--and that she is determined not to make the mistakes with Barnes and P'Rythan she implies she made with earlier teammates. Arrith has no permanent residence; when the is in dock, Arrith visits New Vegas, on Luna, or Old New York, on the eastern seaboard of North America; they are, in his opinion, the two best spots for night life in the entire Solar System; Old New York in particular is home to a large population of K'Aillae. Stories arise from a number of sources. Occasionally Ola will decide on her own that some situation, affecting Earth or one of Earth's colonies or protectorates, bears examining; more often Shelomin Serendip will request that Ola take some specific assignment. First Contact with alien races is one of Ola's specialties; indeed, outside of nightways itself, the study of alien races is one of Ola's few true passions. But she is widely skilled, and this is reflected in the variety of problems she is asked to deal with. At various times she might guard an alien Head of State; assassinate a rising Hitler; serve as an Ambassador; explore star systems hundreds or thousands of lights years from Earth; or, with the Regent's authorization, initiate or end military hostilities with another species. In such matters Ola has wide latitude in making decisions, subject only to Shelomin's anticipated displeasure. In THE FACE OF NIGHT, though I envision stories as generally self- contained, events . If Ola kills a person, the effect of that killing--upon her, upon those around her--is not forgotten in the very next story. Detailed outlines exist for all of the following stories. Opening: "Time Done is Dark" "Time done is dark as are sleep's thickets/Dark is the past: none walking walk there/Neither may live men of those waters drink" Shelomin Serendip introduces Barney Roanoke to Ola Blue. She does not tell Ola what Barney was wiped for; Ola does not ask. She accepts the task of teaching this "wiped" infant the things he will need to know to survive; and takes him home with her, to Everest. There he meets P'Rythan November, and Arrith; there Ola explains to him to her work, and makes it bluntly clear that she does not expect him to be of much use to her--not now, and perhaps not ever. Bewildered and depressed--remember that Barnes is still only two years old, for all he remembers--Barnes slides into a suicidal depression. He came to Earth to forge an identity for himself, to something of himself--and finds himself now in the service of a woman he is incapable of comprehending, moving toward a future he cannot envision. is strange to Barnes. We acquaint the viewer with twenty-fifth Century Earth through the eyes of Barnes, a stranger in a strange land. Arrith bar Ye'Huta takes a liking to Barnes; they go to Old New York together, to visit the city's bars and clubs. In one of the grungier bars, Barnes encounters, and manges to offend, a night face. Not just night face--one of the eight living Shivas, influential and jealous of Ola Blue, whom this Shiva feels has usurped his position with Shelomin Serendip: Barnes' encounter with the man was clearly a setup. Ola has only one course left to her; if Barnes is going to survive in this deadly new arena, he's going to have to die...again.... "The Cost of Living" A human colony, Desiderata, separated from United Earth for three hundred years, wants to join the United Earth Alliance, become an Earth protectorate. The proceeds to Desiderata; Ola is there to negotiate the entry of Desiderata into the Alliance. Desiderata is well known for its medical biotechnology; access to some of its more intriguing drugs is the principle attraction Desiderata has for United Earth. The Desideratans are a gentle, reasonable people; the only snag Ola encouters with them comes when the Desideratans absolutely refuse to allow United Earth to set up a military base on their planet's sole moon. Unfortunately, that moon is the only promising location for such a base... and Earth's military protection is, oddly enough, the primary reason the Desideratans want to join the Alliance. P'Rythan, a telepath, has been half delirious with pain ever since they entered the Desideratan system. According to P'Rythan, there is something , down beneath the surface of the Desideratan moon... imprisoned, and in great pain. Against Ola's wishes, P'Rythan takes the 's singleship down to the Desideratan moon, and there discovers a Gigeresque alien, trapped in an assembly that processes the alien's life fluid, turning it into a golden liquid that is the basis of most of the Desideratan medical biotech. The Desideratans did not trap it there; it was there when they settled this system, hundreds of years ago. They don't know how to set it free; if they try, they're almost sure to kill it. They don't even know for sure that it's intelligent. Or they haven't, until now, with the arrival of Ola Blue and P'Rythan November... "As On A Darkling Plain" "And we are here as on a darkling plain/Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight/Where ignorant armies clash by night" We open in the second week of "war." An alien species with whom United Earth has just made contact, the Watera, has United Earth. The fighting is going badly for the aliens, and no one on Earth, not Shelomin nor the Source nor Ola herself, understand why the Watera attacked when they were so badly outgunned. As Space Force prepares a massive counterattack, the is sent to a parley, secretly requested by forces high in the Watera government. The parley takes place on a K'Ailla world--reasonably neutral ground. And there Ola is presented with a dilemma; for the war was engineered, she learns, planned for by two generations of Waterans, a people in the grip of a militaristic culture that stretches back to before their species had space flight: engineered to be . A secret group within the Watera see only one route which offers their people the chance to throw off their rigid, military culture, a culture which has held them back as a people-- and that is by seeing that the military is . With little time to decide in, Ola has to determine whether the aliens are telling the truth...and if so, what she's going to do about it... "Child of My Body" At a reception for the Martian Ambassador, Ola Blue finds herself fascinated by the Ambassador's "daughter." The child reminds her of herself--and with good reason. The child's name is Canqui, and she is nine. She is a bright, solemn child--but tells Ola bluntly that the Ambassador is not her father, and that she has no mother. She has a tutor whom she sometimes sees, named Mister Dreadful; but Mister Dreadful comes only rarely, and otherwise the child's life is a harsh and lonely one. Though Ola does nothing about the child's revelation, we see that she is touched by this--more touched than she herself perhaps realizes. And with good reason. The child is ; Ola's clone, from cells taken a decade previously by Mister Dreadful, Ola Blue's first love. And the Hegemony has plans for the child... The story turns upon Ola's desires to protect this child from the traumas Ola herself was exposed to, and Ola's realization that even she, with all her power, can't make the world a safe place for anyone, not even for--perhaps especially for--those people she cares about. Ola lets the child go, knowing it is the child's only chance for safety; knowing that if the Hegemony has its way, the child-- child in the truest sense--will grow up to be Ola's enemy. "Brother of My Soul" In this story, Mister Dreadful and Picky Jim are introduced. For the first time in ten years, Mister Dreadful has returned to Earth. Though no night face, he is a dangerous enough man, and Picky Jim, his Tamrann companion, is more dangerous yet. Earth's tens of thousands of night faces are notified of his presence on Earth, and given instructions to kill Mister Dreadful and Picky Jim on sight. This won't be as easy as you might think: Mister Dreadful is a tricky son of a bitch... He returned to Earth for a reason, and only Ola knows what it is. As teenagers they conquered Eastersea; and now, twenty years later, Mister Dreadful has returned to fulfill a promise he and Ola made; and Ola must decide whether she will fulfill her duty, or preserve her honor... "Voyage to the Center of the Galaxy" In the first five stories, our night face and Shiva, Ola Blue, the deadliest human who ever lived or ever will, has not killed. We open in Shelomin Serendip's offices, as she briefs Ola, P'Rythan, and Barnes. A group of rogue Hegemony terrorists have made a threat. A threat. They've found a way to initiate a nova chain reaction of the suns at the Galactic Core. At first this sounds bad, but it could be worse; the Core is thirty thousand lights years away, and the sleeting gamma rays from the explosion would thirty thousand years to reach the spiral arm where Earth (and all other human worlds) are located. It worse. FTL, faster-than-light travel, is dependent on a web of "spacelace tunnels," that link the stars of the galaxy together. The tunnel links occur most densely at the Core; and when the Core explodes, every spacelace tunnel in the Continuing Time will cease to function, at once. Interstellar travel will grind to a halt; civilization as they know it will end. For the first time in these stories, Ola Blue, the artist of death, will engage in her trade... "A Familiar Face" Artemis Rouen, a visitor from Krista's World, a distant human colony, claims to have Barnes. Rouen is convinced that Barnes is really Ronald Hoth, the charismatic--and missing--leader of a religious/political underground movement on Krista's World. Rouen communicates with friends on Krista's World, telling them that he has found the leader of their movement, whom they had thought the planetary government killed three years ago. Rouen's message is intercepted by the government of Krista's World, which did kill Ronald Hoth, but would certainly like to. They send a hit team to Earth, composed of four almost-night face-grade professionals, led by a man named Jurgen Soo. Barnes finds Rouen a gold mine of information on Hoth's life and acheivements; and Barnes is deeply troubled. Is this who he was? And if so, why was he wiped? And can he trust Rouen's identification of him? He begins to suspect that he cannot-- And then the hit team arrives. And Ola Blue, who killed in the prior story, is forced to kill again. Unless you are a sociopath, you cannot take a life without being affected by it; and Ola affected. She kills three of the four assassins, and is almost killed herself by the fourth, Jurgen Soo. Jurgen Soo escapes to the Embassy of the Mars Ambassador--safe ground. Ola can't touch him there. Bloody and in shock, Ola goes to the Martian Embassy...and makes Jurgen Soo a promise. "No Truth So Sublime" There is no truth so sublime but it may be trivial tomorrow in the light of new thoughts. People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them. --Ralph Waldo Emerson In the prior story, Ola was badly wounded and nearly died. She's been...different...ever since. The two-hundred year old Shelomin tells Ola: "I've seen it before. All of us know that we will die some day. It is the moment that separates children from adults, that knowledge of your own death. But it is always slightly abstract, slightly unreal. Something that will happen to others, and not to us. But those for who whom it has become real--for whom the awareness has become a certainty--they have a certain look." We open with Ola still a bit shaky, physically and pyschologically. She takes some time to settle her thoughts; and visits one of the most unique scientific discoveries of the age. Twenty years ago a United Earth probe found a Super Extreme Kerr Object--an odd and extremely rare sort of black hole that can, under some conditions, permit travel between universes, between realities. In most practical terms this is meaningless; the tidal stresses inherent in attempting a black hole transit would destroy any material item such as a starship. But two years ago, Alliance scientists realized that something, or someone, on the other side of the black hole, in that alternate universe, was trying to make contact, sending faster-than- light tachyon pulses through the Kerr Object gateway. The scientists at the station studying the black hole are wildly excited by the opportunity to contact and learn from, not a new alien species, but an entire new , as complex and with as much knowledge as our own. Ola, fascinated as she is by alien races, truly believes that the work they're engaged in is worthwhile. The scientists find her interesting, naturally. And when the station's Administrator retires, they offer Ola Blue the Administrator's job. And she is very tempted...