Edges (Inverted Frontier Book 1) by Linda Nagata

Author:Linda Nagata [Nagata, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: slower than light, far future, robotic alien warship, The Nanotech Succession, aliens, human expansion, space opera, starfaring, science fiction, frontier worlds, virtual existence, starship, emerging from dystopia, nanotechnology, sense of wonder
ISBN: 9781937197278
Publisher: Mythic Island Press LLC
Published: 2019-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

She gave the newly captured courser a name: Griffin.

*Dragon’s partner, she explained to Urban through an open channel in the data gate. *A second hybrid monster, a kind of chimera, a mix of different organisms.

She invited him to send a ghost to visit the new high bridge but he refused, reminding her, *Never again.

Instead, he sent her copies of the Apparatchiks, all six of them, to haunt the cardinal nanosites.

She welcomed them, knowing that centuries had gone into their development and that each carried centuries of experience. They were a ready-made crew and she was grateful that their presence relieved her of any need to create her own ensemble of assistants. As far back as the Null Boundary Expedition, Urban had toyed with experimental personas, but Clemantine never had. Her sense of identity was too fixed for that. The idea that when her ghost split, she, this point of view, might become the one to be pruned and rewritten—it repulsed her.

And anyway, she knew how to handle the quirks of the Apparatchiks’ personalities.

When the Bio-mechanic returned from an inspection of the bridge, he concluded, *My assault was flawless.

Clemantine immediately disagreed. *The high bridge had insufficient connections to the cell field. I nearly lost the argument.

The arrival of a submind from that version of her on Dragon’s high bridge made it clear how close she’d come to annihilation. When Griffin had fired its steerage jets, seeking an angle that would let it target Dragon, Urban had been prepared to fire first. A few more seconds and he would have had no choice.

But the Bio-mechanic refused any responsibility for this close call, informing her, *The number of connections available to you was a matter of chance, dependent on the quantity of needles that got through. The number was sufficient, or we would not be here now.

*We’re here now only because I refused to lose the argument.

She wasn’t sure victory was something to celebrate. The violent, hateful contempt of the cell field would be with her always now, her will constantly engaged to guide and dominate the argument. A foot forever on the throat of a murderer. Urban’s words. Despite the time she’d spent on Dragon’s bridge, she felt the truth of them only now.

The malice that circulated among Griffin’s philosopher cells far surpassed what she’d known aboard Dragon—whether because Urban’s presence had filtered the intensity or because Dragon had mellowed after centuries locked under his influence, she didn’t know.

She had brought Griffin under control, but she felt changed by the effort. Colder. More stern and unforgiving. Not entirely herself anymore. Tainted by the merciless contempt of the Chenzeme.

A second submind arrived from across the expanding gulf that separated her from Dragon. It brought her memories from all three of the aspects she’d left behind. From her ghost in the library, a vision of the two coursers: Griffin bright with its luminous hull and Dragon still dark. That ghost had rejoined her core self in the forest room. Kona, Riffan, and Vytet were

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