Read Betrayer of Worlds Online
Authors: Larry Niven,Edward M. Lerner
Tags: #Science Fiction - Space Opera, #Fiction - Science Fiction, #American Science Fiction And Fantasy, #Space warfare, #Space Opera, #Fiction, #Niven; Larry - Prose & Criticism, #Science Fiction, #Science Fiction - General, #General
Betrayer of Worlds
BETRAYER OF WORLDS
TOR BOOKS BY LARRY NIVEN
AND EDWARD M. LERNER
Fleet of Worlds
Juggler of Worlds
Destroyer of Worlds
Betrayer of Worlds
TOR BOOKS BY LARRY NIVEN
N-Space
Playgrounds of the Mind
Destiny’s Road
Rainbow Mars
Scatterbrain
The Draco Tavern
Ringworld’s Children
WITH STEVEN BARNES
Achilles’ Choice
The Descent of Anansi
Saturn’s Race
WITH JERRY POURNELLE AND STEVEN BARNES
The Legacy of Heorot
Beowulf’s Children
WITH BRENDA COOPER
Building Harlequin’s Moon
TOR BOOKS BY EDWARD M. LERNER
Fools’ Experiments
Small Miracles
Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
New York
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
BETRAYER OF WORLDS
Copyright © 2010 by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
All rights reserved.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN 978-0-7653-2608-9
First Edition: October 2010
Printed in the United States of America
0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
HUMANS
Roland Allen-Cartwright
New Terran mercenary captain (Pak campaign)
Sigmund Ausfaller
Defense Minister of New Terra (and head of the secret intelligence service); Earth expatriate
Alice Jordan
Sigmund Ausfaller’s deputy; Sol system expatriate
Beowulf (Bey) Shaeffer
Starship pilot and adventurer; stepfather of Louis Wu; location unknown but presumed in Human Space
Enzio Walker-Wong
New Terran mercenary captain (Gw’oth campaign)
Carlos Wu
Physicist and all-around genius; Louis Wu’s biological father; location unknown but presumed in Human Space
Louis Wu (aka Nathan Graynor)
Earthborn adventurer, recruited by Nessus into the Citizens’ cold war with the Gw’oth
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES
Jeeves
Shipboard AI on early human interstellar colony ship
Long Pass;
also, various New Terran clones and derivatives
Voice
Illegal Citizen AI derived from a Jeeves; AIde to Nessus
CITIZENS/PUPPETEERS
Achilles
Minister of Science; aspires to head the Experimentalist Party—and thereby become Hindmost
Baedeker
Hindmost; head of the Experimentalist Party
Clotho
Radical supporter of Achilles; captain of stolen starship
Remembrance
Nessus
Senior agent/scout of Clandestine Directorate
Nike
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, hence Director of Clandestine Directorate; Experimentalist; former Hindmost
Thalia
Scout; General Products Corporation representative to Jm’ho (effectively the Concordance Ambassador to the Gw’oth)
Vesta
Nike’s senior aide and longtime protégé
GW’OTH
Bm’o
Tn’Tn’ho (dynast) of Tn’ho, the preeminent city-state on the Gw’oth home world of Jm’ho
Ng’t’mo
An 8-plex group mind (i.e., a Gw’otesht-8 ensemble), in service to Bm’o
Ol’t’ro
A 16-plex group mind (i.e., a Gw’otesht-16 ensemble); leader of the breakaway colony world of Kl’mo
Rt’o
Counselor to Bm’o
Sr’o
Lead mind within Ol’t’roWUNDERLAND
1
The jungle was eerily quiet.
Hugging the uneven ground behind a thin screen of greenery, Nathan Graynor peered over the precipice to where a dirt road followed the narrow, undulating floor of a steep-walled canyon. The suns, one yellow and one orange, were high overhead. Anyone glancing up from the road toward either ridge would only see glare.
The perfect time and place for an ambush.
The day was cool and a breeze blew steadily. Still, sweat trickled down Nathan’s face. Nerves, he told himself, knowing that was at best a half truth.
With the barrel of his laser rifle, he nudged aside a frond for a clearer look. (The fern was green, clearly terrestrial. Across the rugged gorge where the second group of rebels hid, the red-gold vegetation was as plainly native.) Ruts and potholes scarred the primitive road: no obstacle for antigrav vehicles, but scarcely navigable for anything with wheels.
He wasn’t afraid, not exactly. Fear would have required truly believing that this was happening, that he was here.
Life had been that way, surreal, since the missile punched through
Clementine
. The emergency restraints in the pilot’s couch had saved him. Everyone else aboard died when the ship broke apart. Resistance fighters reached the wreckage first. Deep in shock, unquestioningly, he had gone with them.
He took small, measured sips from his canteen. He took deep, cleansing breaths. When neither calmed him, he looked skyward for serenity, at the birds and their native equivalents soaring effortlessly in the thermals that rose from the plain. That didn’t work, either.
In the Resistance camp he had drawn plenty of sideways glances. The rebels didn’t fully trust him—yet here he was. Maybe they had chosen not
to leave him behind unguarded. Maybe, finally, they felt comfortable with him. Or maybe they wanted to see if he would bolt into the jungle given the chance. (Would they have let him go? He didn’t think so.)
One way or another, his presence here was a test.
