The Golden Transcendence Read online

  THE

  GOLDEN

  TRANSCENDENCE

  TOR BOOKS by John C. Wright

  The Golden Age

  The Phoenix Exultant

  The Golden Transcendence

  THE

  GOLDEN

  TRANSCENDENCE

  OR,

  THE LAST OF

  THE MASQUERADE

  JOHN C. WRIGHT

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  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.

  THE GOLDEN TRANSCENDENCE, OR THE LAST OF THE MASQUERADE

  Copyright © 2003 by John C. Wright

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

  This book is printed on acid-free paper.

  Edited by David G. Hartwell

  A Tor Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor.com

  Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Wright, John C. (John Charles), 1961–

  The golden transcendence / John C. Wright.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  “A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

  ISBN 0-765-30756-1

  1. Space ships—Fiction. 2. Manned space flight—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3623.R54G655 2003

  813'.6—dc21

  2003053352

  First Edition: November 2003

  Printed in the United States of America

  0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  To my beloved wife,

  dearer than my soul,

  mother of my children

  in whom my whole delight is summed

  Orville, Wilbur, Justinian

  CONTENTS

  Dramatis Personae

  1 The Ship

  2 The Silent One

  3 The Silent Oecumene

  4 The Duel

  5 The Defeat

  6 The Falsehoods

  7 The Earthmind

  8 The Truth

  9 Reality

  10 Nothing

  11 Beyond the Reach of Time

  12 The Revolt Against Reason

  13 The Transcendence

  14 The Golden Age

  15 The Age Is Done

  16 And Ages Yet Unguessed Come

  17 The Young Woman

  Appendix: Naming Conventions and Historic Aeons

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  MAJOR CHARACTERS, grouped by nervous system formation (neuroform)

  Biochemical Self-Aware Entities

  Immortals

  Base neuroform

  PHAETHON PRIME of RHADAMANTH, Silver-Gray Manorial School

  HELION RELIC of RHADAMANTH, Phaethon’s sire, founder of the Silver-Gray Manorial School, and a Peer

  DAPHNE TERCIUS SEMI-RHADAMANTH, Phaethon’s wife

  TEMER SIXTH LACEDAIMON, Dark-Gray Manorial School, an Advocate

  GANNIS HUNDRED-MIND GANNIS, Synergistic-Synnoint School, a Peer

  ATKINS VINGT-ET-UN GENERAL-ISSUE, a soldier

  UNGANNIS, daughter of GANNIS, also called UNMOIQHOTEP QUATRO

  NEOMORPH of the Cthonnic School, of the Nevernext Movement, whom Helion calls the Cacophiles

  Alternate Organization neuroform, commonly called Warlocks

  AO AOEN, the Master-Dreamer, a Peer

  AO VARMATYR, one of the Lords-Paramount of the Silence, commonly called Swans

  NEO-ORPHEUS the Apostate, Prothonotary and chair of the College of Hortators

  ORPHEUS MYRIAD AVERNUS, founder of the Second Immortality, a Peer

  Cortial-Thalamically Integrated neuroform, commonly called Invariants

  KES SENNEC the Logician, a Peer

  Cerebelline neuroform

  WHEEL-OF-LIFE, an Ecological Mathematician, a Peer

  GREEN-MOTHER, the artiste who organizes the ecological performance at Destiny Lake

  OLD-WOMAN-OF-THE-SEA, of the Oceanic Environmental Protectorate

  DAUGHTER-OF-THE-SEA, a terraformer of Early Venus

  Mass-mind Compositions

  The ELEEMOSYNARY COMPOSITION, a Peer

  The HARMONIOUS COMPOSITION, of the College of Hortators

  The BELLIPOTENT COMPOSITION (disbanded)

  Nonstandard neuroform

  VAFNIR of MERCURY EQUILATERAL STATION, a Peer

  XENOPHON of FARAWAY, Tritonic Neuroform Composure School, called the Neptunians

  XINGIS of NEREID, also called DIOMEDES, Silver-Gray School

  NEOPTOLEMUS, a combination of Diomedes and Xenophon

  Mortals

  VULPINE FIRST IRONJOY HULLSMITH, an Afloat

  OSHENKYO, an Afloat

  LESTER NOUGHT HAAKEN, an Afloat

  DRUSILLET ZERO SELF-SOUL, an Afloat

  SEMRIS of IO, an Ashore

  ANTISEMRIS, an Ashore

  NOTOR-KOTOK UNIQUE AMALGAMATED, an Ashore

  An OLD MAN, gardener of a grove of Saturn trees, who claims to be of the Antiamaranthine Purist School, not otherwise identified

  Electrophotonic Self-Aware Entities

  Sophotechs

  RHADAMANTHUS, a manor house of the Silver-Gray School, million-cycle capacity

  EVENINGSTAR, a manor house of the Red School, million-cycle capacity

  NEBUCHADNEZZAR, advisor to the College of Hortators, 10-million-cycle capacity

  HARRIER, consulting detective, one-hundred-thousand-cycle capacity

  MONOMARCHOS, a barrister, one-hundred-thousand-cycle capacity

  AURELIAN, host of the Celebration, fifty-thousand-million-cycle capacity

  The ENNEAD, nine Sophotech groups, each of over a billion-cycle capacity, including WAR-MIND, WESTMIND, ORIENT, AUSTRAL, BOREAL, NORTHWEST, SOUTHEAST, and others

  EARTHMIND, the unified consciousness in which all terrestrial machines, and machines in Near-Earth-Orbit, from time to time participate: trillion-cycle capacity

  Simulacra, Fictional Persons, Constructs

  COMUS, an avatar of AURELIAN

  SOCRATES and EMPHYRIO, constructs of NEBUCHADNEZZAR

  The Justices of the CURIA

  SCARAMOUCHE, an extract of Xenophon the Neptunian

  The Envoy of DIOMEDES of NEREID

  MINOR CHARACTERS, including historical or fictional persons mentioned in the tale

  AO ANDAPHANTIE, Daphne’s name when she was a Warlockess

  AYESHA, a cottage mind used by Daphne, ten-thousand-cycle capacity

  CURTIS MAESTRICT, the Parliamentary Prothonotary, and a friend and client of Daphne’s

  JASON SVEN TEN SHOPWORTHY, whose odd behavior has piqued the curiosity of the Sophotechs

  KSHATRIMANYU HAN, the First Speaker of the Parliament

  UTE NONE STARK, Daphne’s mother

  YEWEN NONE STARK, Daphne’s father

  COLLEGE OF HORTATORS

  Agamemnon XIV of Minos House, Silver-Gray Manorial School

  Ao Prospero Circe of the Zooanthropic Incarnation Coven of the Seasonal Mind School, a Warlockess

/>   Ao Sinistro, a Warlock, an intuitionist

  Asmodius Bohost Clamour of Clamour House, Black Manorial School

  Benvolio Malachi, the Mnemonicist

  Casper Halfhuman Tinkersmith of the Parliament of Ghosts

  Epiraes Septarch Fulvous of Fulvous House, Gold Manorial School

  Gan-Seven Far-Gannis of Jupiter, a partial demi-Gannis of Gannis Hundredmind

  Guttrick Seventh Glaine of Fulvous House, Gold Manorial School

  Harmonious Composition, the earliest mass-mind, from the dawn of the Era of the Fourth Mental Structure

  Hasantrian Hecaton Heo of Pallid House of the White Manorial School, an ascetic

  Iron-Ghost Composition, a Warlock mass-mind

  Kes Satrick Kes, founder of the Invariant nervous system structure

  Messilina Secondus Eveningstar of Eveningstar House, Red Manorial School

  Nausicaa Burner-of-Ships from House Aeceus, Silver-Gray Manorial School

  Quentem-Quinteneur of Yellow House, Gold Manorial School

  Tau Continuous Nimvala of Albion House of the White Manorial School

  Tsychandri-Manyu Tawne of Tawne House, Golden Manorial School, an influential political philosopher

  Ullr Selfson-First Lifrathsir of the Nordic Pagan School, a parahistorian, and a Hortator

  Viridimagus Solitarie of the (defunct) Green Manorial School

  Viviance Thrice Dozen Phosphoros of the Red Manorial School

  Ynought Subwon of New Centurion House, Dark-Gray Manorial School

  HISTORICAL AND FICTIONAL PERSONS

  Ao Enwir the Delusionist, famous for his treatise “On the Sovereignty of Machines”

  Ao Ormgorgon Darkwormhole Noreturn of the Black Swan Coven, captain-monarch of the multigeneration starship Naglfar, and culture hero who founded the Silent Oecumene at Cygnus X-1

  Ao Solomon Oversoul, marshal of the jihad in service to the Witch-King of Corea, credited with orchestrating the defeat of the Bellipotent Composition during the Era of the Fifth Mental Structure

  Buckland-Boyd Cyrano-D’Atano, the first man to survive a Mars landing

  Chan Noonyan Sfih of Io, explorer who accidentally set fire to Pluto

  Demontdelune, an unfortunate who came to grief on the dark side of the moon

  Enghathrathrion, a celebrated poet of the late-period Fourth Mental Structure

  Hamlet, a character from a linear experience simulacrum, William Shakespeare, Era of the Second Mental Structure

  Hanno, son of Hasrubal, of Carthage; sailed down the coast of Africa; the first explorer whose name is recorded by history

  Harlequin, a pantomime clown from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, Era of the Second Mental Structure

  Jason, master of the Argo, who sailed to Golden Cheronese and returned with the Fleece

  Mancuriosco the Neuropathist

  Mother-of-Numbers, a Cerebelline mathematician, whose disquisition on Noetic mathematics formed a foundation for Noumenal technology

  Neil Armstrong, first man to set foot on Luna

  Oe Sephr al-Midr the Descender-into-Clouds, early Jupiter explorer

  Scaramouche, a pantomime clown from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, Era of the Second Mental Structure

  Sir Francis Drake, Master of the Golden Hind, discovered the Northwest Passage

  Sloppy Rufus, the first dog to survive a Mars landing (Bucky-Boy Cyrano’s dog)

  The Porphyrogen Composition, a noted sect of astronomers

  Ulysses, King of Ithaca, who sailed far to know the minds of men and their ways, returning from the underworld

  Vandonnar, according to pre-Ignition Jovian poetry, a cloud-diver so entirely lost in the storms surrounding the Great Red Spot that even death found him unable to locate the course to the afterlife, and therefore Vandonnar circles eternally in the storm, forever seeking, forever lost

  Vanguard Single Exharmony, survived the first manned mission into the solar photosphere

  THE

  GOLDEN

  TRANSCENDENCE

  1

  THE SHIP

  1.

  Personality and memory download in progress. Please hold all thoughts in abeyance until mental overwrite is complete, or unexpected results may obtain.

  Where was he? Who was he?

  Information unavailable—all neural pathways occupied by emergency noetic adjustment. Please stand by. Normal thinking will resume presently.

  What the hell was going on? What was wrong with his memory? He had been dreaming about burning children as he slept, and the shadow of aircraft spreading clouds of nano-bacteriological agent across a blasted landscape. . . .

  This unit has not been instructed to respond to commands until the noumenal redaction palimpsest process is complete. Please hold all questions until the end; your new persona may be equipped with proper emotional responses to soothe uncertainties, or memory-information to answer questions of fact. Are you dissatisfied with your present personality? Select the Abort option to commit suicide memory-wipe and start again.

  He groped his way toward memory, to awareness. Whatever the hell was happening to him, no, he did not want to start all over again. It had been something terrible, something stolen from him. Who was he?

  He had the impression he was someone terrible, someone all mankind had gathered to ostracize. A hated exile. Who was he? Was he someone worth being?

  If you elect to commit suicide, the new personality version will be equipped with any interim memory chains you form during this process, so he will think he is you, and the illusion of continuity will be maintained. . . .

  “Stop that! Who am I?”

  Primary memories written into cortex now. Establishing parasympathic paths to midbrain and hindbrain for emotional reflex and habitpattern behavior. Please wait.

  He remembered: he was Phaethon. He had been exiled from Earth, from the whole of the Golden Oecumene, because there was something he loved more than Earth, more than the Oecumene.

  What had it been? Something inexpressibly lovely, a dream that had burned his soul like lightning—a woman? His wife? No. Something else. What?

  Thought cycle complete. Initiating physical process.

  “Why was I unconscious?”

  You were dead.

  “An error in the counteracceleration field?”

  Marshal-General Atkins killed you.

  The last soldier of Earth. The only member of the armed forces of a peaceful utopia, Atkins commanded godlike powers, weapons as deadly as the superhuman machine intelligences could devise. Strangely enough, the machines refused to use the weapons, refused to kill, even in self-defense, even in a spotless cause. Only humans (so said the machines), only living beings, should be allowed to end life.

  There was a plan. Atkins’s plan. Some sort of plan to outmaneuver the enemy. Phaethon’s exile was part of that plan, something done to bring the agents of the Silent One out of hiding. But there were no details. Phaethon did not know the plan.

  “Why did he kill me?”

  You agreed.

  “I don’t remember agreeing!”

  You agreed not to remember agreeing.

  “How do I know that?”

  The question is based on a false-to-facts supposition. Mind records indicate that you do not know that; therefore the question of how is counterfactual. Would you care to review the thought index for line errors?

  “No! How do I know you are not the enemy? How do I know I have not already been captured?”

  Please review the previous answer; the same result obtains.

  “How do I know I am not going to be tortured, or my nervous system is not being manipulated?”

  Your nervous system is being manipulated. Damaged nerves are about to be brought back to life temperature and revitalized. Would you like a neutralizer? There will be some pain.

  “How much pain?”

  You are going to be tortured. Would you like a discontinuity?

  “What kind of discontinuity? An anaesth
etic?”

  Pain signals must be traced to confirm that the pain center of your brain is healthy. Naturally, it would be counterproductive to numb the pain under these circumstances, but the memory of the pain can be redacted from your final memory sequence, so that the version of you who suffers will not be part of the personal continuity of the version of you that wakes up.

  “No more versions! I am I, Phaethon! I will not have my self tampered with again!”

  You will regret this decision.

  Odd, how matter-of-fact that sounded. The machine was merely reporting that he would, indeed, regret the decision.

  And, just as he blacked out again, he did.

  2.

  Phaethon woke in dull confusion, numb, heavy, paralyzed, blind. He could not open his eyes, could not move.

  For one suffocating moment, he wondered if he had been captured by the enemy, and was even now a helpless and disembodied brain, floating in a sea of nutrient muck.

  He was glad Atkins had not told him the plan. He remembered that he had agreed to it; but this was all he remembered.

  Where was he? A short-term memory file opened: He was aboard the ship. His ship.

  His ship.

  A long-term memory file opened, and he saw the schematics of the mighty vessel. A hundred kilometers from prow to stern, sleek and streamlined as a spear blade, a hull of golden adamantium, an artificially stable element of unimaginable weight: immeasurably strong, inductile, refractory. The supermetal had an impossibly high melting point: plasma could not make the adamantium run; it could dive into a medium-sized yellow star and emerge unscathed.

  The core of the ship was all fuel, hundreds of cubic acres of frozen antihydrogen. Like its positive-matter cousin, antihydrogen took on metallic properties when condensed to near-absolute-zero temperatures, and could be magnetized. Millions upon millions of metric tonnes of this fuel were held inside endless web-works of magnetic cells throughout the hollow volume of the great ship. Less than 1 percent of her interior was taken up with living quarters and control minds; everything else was fuel and drive.

  It was the ship mind he was interlinked with now. Somehow, he sensed his wounded half-finished thoughts were being played out by the near-Sophotech superintelligence of the ship. But what a mind it was! A perfect map of the galaxy was in its memory, or, at least, the segment of the galaxy visible from Sol. The massive core, a hell of dust and radiation hiding a black hole thousands of light-years in radius, blotted out light or radio or any signal from the far side of the galaxy. Even with such a ship as this, those places were thousands or millions of years’ travel away, a mystery that even immortals would have to live a long time to solve.