The Empress

Начало книги

At the outer rim of the galaxy floated an arrangement of stars known collectively as the Faustian Chain. Colonized by Old Earth separatists during the Second Expansion, these stars were rich with human-habitable worlds in relative proximity. This span of sparkling suns occupied an ovoid volume of space some twenty lightyears in diameter. To the envious eyes of distant worlds, the Faustian Chain resembled a jellyfish-shaped constellation interlaced with plasma-streams, glowing nebulae and glimmering pinpoints of light.

In the region of the Chain known as the Northern Arm, the local Nexus government officials from Neu Schweitz still held sway, while the majority of the southern colonies such as Mendelia and Tranquility existed in relative isolation-and in some cases anarchy.

The most infamous of the worlds in the Northern Arm was Ignis Glace, a small planet that circled a miniscule, dim red dwarf. The ancient Latin word for fire is: ignis, and the word for ice is: glace. The world possessed a very odd climate that lived up to its name. It orbited tightly within the red star’s narrow band of habitable space and would normally have enjoyed a mean surface temperature slightly warmer than that of Old Earth. But the climate was much harsher on Ignis Glace. The pitiful planet was tidally-locked with its star, meaning that one side permanently faced its sun, while the other side endured everlasting darkness.

Читать дальше →